Trip Report - 11/16 - 11/21

I was back in Vegas at the Riviera for the semi-annual backgammon tournament. This is always a highlight of my year as the backgammon event is really well run, the stakes are higher and I get to play around in Vegas for 5-6 days. Here are some highlights of my trip.

I was traveling alone this time as my wife couldn’t make the trip due to her schedule at work. I flew in on AirTran on Wednesday morning. The flight was uneventful and I got a good price of $218 from Atlanta. Delta wasn’t competitive on the price so AirTran got the nod. The new Recaro seats on the 737 were pretty comfortable (as airline seats go).

A short wait for the $5 shuttle bus got me to the Riviera cheaply and I was the 2nd stop. The shuttles are clearly the way to go if traveling alone. I paid $10 extra for VIP check-in which probably saved me 20 minutes and I got the room location/format I wanted on the 19th floor of the Monaco tower. The room was very clean and functional and the maids did an excellent job each day, ($25 tip at the end of the trip). This was also the right location because the backgammon action was in the penthouse of the same tower just 5 floors above. This is a great venue for the tournament and the view of all of LV is excellent with windows on all sides of the ballroom.

I won my first scheduled afternoon match in the Super Jackpot. That evening I walked over to the Peppermill and had a decent swordfish dinner. It was a bit dry, but now that I’m on a low-fat diet, it was a good choice, I headed downtown where there are some good 2-deck blackjack games I wanted to play. I took a cab, but later in the week when I used the Duece I realized that the bus is a great option from the North strip to downtown. It’s only $2 and
it didn’t make that many stops. If you were going from Mandalay Bay, however, you might get annoyed as I’m sure it would be stopping 20 or 30 times. The buses are brand new with comfortable seats and a good view from the upstairs. Hopefully they’ll be able to keep them clean.

First I stopped at Fitzgerald’s for the Spanish21 game where you can double-down three times on the same hand. I got to do that once, but lost the hand. I was busting everything and lost $240. This was luckily one of only two really bad sessions the whole week. I might be swearing off of this particular ’stunt’-blackjack game from now on. I tried out the Blackjack-Switch game which is sort of fun. You get two hands, and can switch the top two cards before playing each one out. They only pay 1-1 on blackjacks, and if the dealer draws to 22 you push. It’s still a low edge game and gives you more things to do to make the game a bit more interesting. (more…)