This, part 7, is a continuation of @Snickers99Poker’s massive trip report. Read parts 1 – 6 to get caught up if you haven’t yet!
I head down to the Sky lounge to fill up on snacks and soda. While I’m near the food, filling up my plate, some asshole tries to pick up one of those little cheesecakes they have (which are awesome!) with the tongs but he drops the cheesecake on the floor. So he gets another one and walks away, leaving the cheesecake on the floor. As he’s leaving, I say “really?!” loud enough for him to hear me. No response. I walk to a table and put my food down. He’s walking away, pushing a baby in a stroller and I say, again, loud enough for him to hear me “That’s OK. I’ll clean up your mess so nobody slips on it”. No reaction.
I go clean up the asshole’s mess with a napkin and throw it away. My main concern was that the Sky lounge has marble flooring and the cheesecake matched the color of the marble almost perfectly. When I went back to clean it up, I didn’t even see it right away since it matched so well. I’m positive someone would have slipped and god forbid hit their head on the counter or the floor. Asshole.
I’m out the door and over to Paris. I still haven’t played at Paris…ever. So I’m happy that there’s an empty seat at a UTH table and it’s the first seat so I get to be on the end. I’m still betting $10 which is surprising because at one point I was down nearly $300. I probably would have gone back to $5 bets at some time during this if this wasn’t my Las Vegas blow-out trip where I’m gambling more. And trust the math, right?
The math does turn around and I end up with what I thought was a small win. But I somehow miscounted and actually won $75, which is a lot more than I thought I won. Cool! I know I’m not going to rebound every time I’m down, but I’m glad I didn’t give up or switch back to $5.
While I was playing I had three beers and am drunk again. At one point, it’s just me and the dealer but then another gentleman joins us. Nice guy. He couldn’t believe I was betting 4x a lot of the time. He even said that I must be getting a lot better cards than him. Maybe. But probably you’re not using proper strategy. I told him I could tell him how to play ‘right’, but he wouldn’t like it. I usually don’t try to tell people how to play but I was drunk and he was talking to me. He did not take me up on the offer. He eventually leaves to make dinner reservations so it’s me and the dealer again. This time I decide to stop. The dealer said it’s about that time when the tourist start getting dinner so that’s probably why there isn’t anybody else coming up to the table.
For some reason I stop at the Paris sport book. Maybe it was to cash in my ticket from yesterday. I still have a bottle of beer…maybe it was to sit and finish off my beer. At any rate, I tweet “I’m in the Paris sports book. I have no money on the game but if the Braves lose I’m gonna yell ‘Fuck!!’, throw my beer bottle & storm out.” I wish I had the guts to do have the stuff I think of. I do not curse and throw my beer. Instead, I walk over to Bally’s after using the men’s room and noticing I did get a little sunburn on my forehead. Not a lot and not painful, even if I rub it. So that’s good.
The dealer at Paris must have been telling the truth when she said the tourists are all heading to dinner. At Bally’s, there’s nobody playing UTH at all. And I think one table was even closed. I thought about playing 3-card poker, one reason being I didn’t want to lose my beer buzz so I thought I could sit there and keep drinking. But I really like UTH.
I left Bally’s and walked through the Grand Bazaar Shops (which sounds better than it looks) to get out to the Strip. Caesars has a poker tournament at 9 and it’s 7:30 now. I’ll walk over there and play UTH and then maybe the tournament at 9. But when I get there, the table minimum was $15. I just got used to $10…$15 is too rich for my blood and I’m not going to hang around doing nothing until the 9:00 poker tournament so I walk to Linq. I go inside but didn’t play anything.
I think my age is catching up to me again as now I feel sick. I’m not drunk anymore and I’m thinking the beer, lack of water, and walking down the Strip in the heat (although it was getting dark and wasn’t the midday heat) is what did it. I end up at Flamingo and am feeling better…enough to sit at a UTH table. I won most of my hands in the beginning and am up $130 in a couple minutes. Good enough for me. I cash out and some from the table ask me if I’m done already. Yep…I won and I’m getting out while ahead.
I’m up $205 for the day and now officially up for the trip. Just gamble-wise though. Not including hotel, food, etc. I’d have to win a lot to cover all that. That’s always the plan and I’ve yet to do it, even when picking a cheap hotel.
I’m walking back towards Aria and feeling much better. I get up to the Cromwell which I’ve never been in since they changed from Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall and Saloon. Seems nice. I was sorta planning on just doing a lap around the casino but there’s the good ol’ Ultimate Texas Hold’em table. And the first seat is open. OK, what the hell. I’m on a streak!
I sit down and pull out $300. There are three younger guys there and while waiting for my chips, I notice they’re betting $100!! Sometimes $50, but two of the guys were betting $100 most of the time. They were not playing Trips so if they bet 4x preflop, they have $600 out there! And here I come in…’uh, yes, can I please have some red chips?’
From listening to them talk with the pit boss, I find out they’re professional poker players and they’re here for the WSOP. When asked which events are they playing, they answer ‘all of them’. They’re not American (not sure where they were from) and had this been a few years ago, I might have recognized them. But I’m extremely rusty on my poker pros. And when they said pros, I’m sure they’re online players since they’re not from America (so they can actually play online poker…don’t get me started) but I still might have recognize a screen name or two.
Things are going horribly for me and I’m down a lot, quickly. But I thought I was on a streak! Dealer change and this new guy says we all must be poker players since none of us were playing Trips. He said no poker player plays Trips. Interesting. He was mildly entertaining, meaning he actually had a personality and didn’t just stand there and deal, but my bad slide continues. It’s so bad, the dealer even apologized a couple times when he beat me. By this time, one of the three poker pros had left…I think he lost a lot. The two that were betting $100 most of the time were still there and buying in for more. The dealer was kicking our butt.
One person told me that if the dealer gets hot, it’s best to just get up and walk away. I know…there really isn’t any streaks. One hand is independent from another. But it does seem that the dealer does get on rolls as I remember one time in Atlantic City and another time here in Las Vegas where you just couldn’t beat the dealer. Of course this could be selective memory and a bunch of hooey. But I might start to pay attention to see if it happens more time than not. At least in Las Vegas you can get up and walk to another casino for a table change. I can’t do that in Pittsburgh since it’s just the one casino.
OK, that does it. I’ve been beaten up enough here. I stop and am down $385. And I’m so pissed at myself. Why the hell did I go in there? I was up $205 for the day and should have been happy with that. But oh no…I had to keep playing. And then when I was losing, losing, losing, I just had to keep going. Again, chasing losses is trouble for me. And now I’m not up for the trip anymore. ARGH!!!!
Of course had I gone in there and won $400, my attitude would have been the exact opposite. Look at me! I can’t lose! I’m going to move here! I allow some more self-pity for a few moments and then have to man up. It happens. You’re going to lose since the odds are against you. It’s money set aside for gambling so just move on and act like it didn’t happen.
Walking back towards Aria, I pass Bally’s. I’m probably still tilting but won’t admit it so I walk through the Grand Bazaar Shops and go into Bally’s. I’ll show them!
I sit down at a UTH table and things actually are going well. Except there’s an obnoxious guy playing there with a couple of his friends who are standing behind him. It’s his first time playing and of course he’s hitting every hand. Which makes him more obnoxious. “Whoa! Look at that! I won again!” He’s not playing proper strategy (“Suited connectors…I’m going to bet 4x on these babies!” as he has to announce everything he’s doing) and I’m trying my best to ignore him. After Cromwell, I wasn’t in the best of moods.
Eventually he leaves and the table settles down. The dealer keeps putting out good flops for the table, especially if you play Trips (which I don’t). If she deals out three of a kind, you automatically win your Trips bet since you get paid for three of a kind or better no matter if you beat the dealer or not. And, obviously, it gives you a better chance of hitting something big like a full house or quads. I’m the only one at the table not playing Trips so I missing out right now.
And it happens. I overhear two people on the other side of the table talking those magical words of ‘you have to play Trips to make any money at this game’, referring to me not playing Trips. It might have happened earlier in the week but this time I hear it. Well, it’s a bunch of bologna. In the long run, you’ll lose more money unless you do something stupid like hit a royal flush. The house edge on the Trips bet depends on what pay table the casino is using. But it’s either 3.5% or 6%. Most casinos use the table that has the 3.5% edge. The house edge on the game itself is around 2%. So yeah, keep playing those Trips.
The real way to make money at the game is to play proper strategy. Of course, I say ‘make money at the game’ but really mean lose more slowly. A lot of people play this game horribly. “Hmm…an ace and a seven. I’m going to check (wrong…bet 4x) so I can see three cards and hopefully I’ll improve. Hmm…nothing on the flop, I’m going to check again and hope for something. Oh! A seven on the river! I’ll bet my 1x. Cool! I won!” Yeah, you won 1x when you should have won 4x. But you keep playing Trips and tell me I’m playing wrong.
I’m up $140 and decide to stop. Down $40 for the day. I’m trying to piece things together but I think I’m down $136 for the trip. Which is like nothing so I’m pretty glad about that. Of course, if I could throw out the Cromwell, that would be better! And I think the Cromwell has now joined the Excalibur as containing nothing but bad memories.
Walking back to Aria now and I’m hungry. I didn’t eat much today. I pass a man walking the other direction shouting F YOU at everybody he passes and I believe he was throwing in the n word too. He looked homeless and nobody was coming back at him. I don’t know why people bring their little kids to Las Vegas. This stuff happens all the time, along with the homeless, etc., begging for money on the pedestrian bridges. I wouldn’t want to expose my kid to that if I could help it.
I thought I might hit Holstein’s again for dinner and asked on Twitter for suggestions. @ismebsb mentioned Bobby’s Burger Palace. I know I heard of it (turns out it’s on my spreadsheet of places to eat…which I forgot to bring with me) but couldn’t remember where it was. It’s kinda in between Aria and Monte Carlo, on the Strip.
@blackchipdiary suggested Burger Lounge inside Aria. I’ve passed by it a couple times when I’ve walked over to Monte Carlo over the connector. Since I know where it is and I can take the food up to my room and it still be warm, I head over there.
I get there around 11:30 and it’s closed. Hmm. Seems early to close a burger place inside a casino in Las Vegas. But it was roped off and it looked like a couple workers were cleaning up. Found out later that it closes at 11pm Sunday through Wednesday, 3am the other days. It looks like Five50 pizza again…not that I’m complaining. (They’re open until 1am Sun-Wed, 3am the other days.)
So another pizza dinner in my room. I relax a bit…really tired. Long day with the walk to the Las Vegas sign and walking down the Strip a bit. If I want to go downtown to the Golden Nugget poker tournaments, it has to be tomorrow…my last full day. Seriously, is there some vortex you go through on your way to Las Vegas that speeds up the time while you’re there?
Thursday, June 30th:
I wake up at some point, roll over, and go back to sleep. It’s not looking good for downtown.
Finally at 2:15 I wake up. I turn on the TV and they are reporting on these nasty storms that are causing flooding all around. Apparently, this was a pretty bad storm where multiple places got a lot of rain in a short period. News says usually it’s one or two places but this was widespread. They are showing a traffic cam and I’m watching these idiots drive through an intersection with the flood waters spilling over their hoods.
Another camera shows the water rushing down a manmade flood channel made to handle storms (the channels eventually empty out into Lake Mead…I think) and it looks like rapids. Some news person said it was traveling at 30mph. And we watched two people get rescued. They were on this tiny patch or mound of dirt that was slowly disappearing from the water rushing by. It wasn’t like the rapids on the other screen. This was a much wider channel and while the water wasn’t traveling as fast, you still don’t want to fall in and get carried away. They were able to get to them before their little island disappeared. I think even the airport closed briefly.
A lady did get washed away and ended up at a golf course where some golfers were able to fish her out. The news didn’t know the whole story but apparently two guys and this lady fell in. The guys were able to get out or were rescued, the woman wasn’t as lucky. She was alive but in critical condition. I never did find out what happened to her.
It didn’t rain that much here in Las Vegas but you could see all the storm clouds around in the mountains. The temperature dropped to a chilly 99 degrees! I’m kinda mesmerized by the pictures on the TV as my last full day in Las Vegas ticks away.
I finally get going with a shower and decide to drink my alcohol in my room since it’s my last full day and they’re just sitting in the fridge. I try the Redd’s Strawberry Ale and didn’t like it. So I know not to bother picking up any Redd’s stuff since I didn’t like the apple very much either. The Kinky Cocktails Blue was pretty good. I figured it would taste like a wine cooler and it did. I’d get that again. The hard lemonade will have to wait.
Out the door and down to the lounge to get something in my stomach. I haven’t gone outside yet but I’m already hot and sweating because I drank alcohol. I’m a wreck.
Know what I need to do? Find out what time check-out is. Nobody ever mentioned it. My transportation to the airport leaves at 4:20 tomorrow. So do I have the room until then because it’s a fancy Sky Suite and all that? I know you can have them store your bags…I’m just wondering if I have to be out of the room at a certain time. Argh…last night in Las Vegas!
I go over to the front desk and ask about check-out. It’s 11. Oh…how much is late check-out? She said she’ll have to check to see if the room is available for a late check-out but the latest would be 1pm. She could have someone call me in the morning. I’m trying to avoid killing time before my flight because it seems like I lose a lot of money killing time on that last day. Pushing check-out to 1 doesn’t really do much. I never did ask how much…I just thanked her and walked away. If I did get it, I would want to know right now, not in the morning. I might want to sleep in a little but not if I didn’t know what time I was checking out.
I decide I’m going to go to some casinos and get some dollar chips for my chip collection. I pass the Aria poker room and am glad I’m not planning on playing poker…61 people on the list for 1/3. Over to Monte Carlo and to the cashier who I ask for a dollar chip. She knows what’s going on and makes sure I get a nice clean one. Then out the doors that I should have walked out yesterday on my trip to the sign, and I walk down to New York-New York. Plop down my dollar and get a dollar chip.
Out of New York-New York and over the bridge to MGM. I’ll cross over the other bridge to get to the Trop now and circle back to MGM. Into the Trop, over to the cashier, and I ask for a dollar chip. Sorry…we don’t sell dollar chips. What? She said you have to go to a table game. I wasn’t sure if she meant I’d have to sit down at a table game and get one that way or I could just go up to a dealer at a table game and ask for one. I don’t bother to find out…I just walk out. Why wouldn’t you sell me a $1 chip? It’s free money for you as I’ll never cash it in. Trop isn’t on my bad list like Excalibur and Cromwell (how DARE you take my money!), but due to other factors on earlier trips plus this one, it’s getting close (how DARE you not take my money!).
Over to MGM and they have no problem ‘selling’ me a chip. I’m knocking off chips for my collection but have to remember to get a Bally’s one. I did pocket one earlier in the week…a nice clean one…but I either lost it, packed it (and forgot I packed it), or I accidentally cashed it in.
Out of MGM and I’m walking down the Strip, the weather is awesome. The storms really cooled things down. When I left my room, it was down to 86. This is another reason I think this is my last summer trip. It’s so nice walking down the Strip and not sweating all over.
I am getting thirsty and I stop in my favorite store…the ABC store. This is another one of their locations, right on the Strip. I want to get a Mountain Dew but all I see are Coke products. I ask and they don’t sell Pepsi products. That seems weird. The other two stores do and why wouldn’t you sell both?
I end up going into Walgreens and they have Mountain Dew. I walk to the cashier area and unfortunately everybody in front of me looks like they are buying groceries for the month. And I just have this one bottle of soda. Finally, they open another lane (I think it was the manager), I pay for my Dew and I’m out the door. FYI, sodas are cheaper at ABC than they are at Walgreens.
As I’m walking down the Strip, I’m tweeting haikus to @VegasHaiku and he’s retweeting them. I’m having a grand old time. Some of them were:
“In all of this life
Could there be a worse phrase than
Last night in Vegas?”
“Taking a mascot
From the Strip back to my room
No, leave the head on”
“For the next person
Who tries to hand me something
I’m gonna punch you”
I already have a Bellagio chip, although I don’t know if it’s a current one. I decide not to go check but as I’m walking past, the fountain show was about to start. It’s not too crowded so I stick around for the show. It was still light out, but getting darker. The show was neat but it loses something when it isn’t at night. This is the first fountain show I’ve seen since the girlfriend and I came out in the early 2000’s.
On to Caesars. Across the street I notice a big advertisement plastered over the Flamingo that the Donny & Marie show was voted #1 three years in a row! Nowhere on this multi-story advertisement does it tell you at what they were number one.
Into Caesars and I got my dollar chip. I come out and walk down to the Strip. I already have Linq, Harrah’s, Flamingo chips. I think I have a Mirage chip but again it might be old. I know I don’t have a TI chip. Ugh, but it’s a long walk and it’s been drizzling off and on. Ah, screw it. Maybe next trip I’ll take the monorail down that way and hit those casinos.
Walking back and another Bellagio fountain show is about to start. Now it’s dark and I’m surprised I can actually get a good spot to watch. I liked the other show better (the music) but it is better to see the show when it’s night.
I’m walking back to the Aria…getting hungry and it’s raining a little more steady now, but it’s a light rain. The temperature is still awesome. No way I would have walked that far and back if it hadn’t cool down as much as it did. The thought is to get a burger from Burger Lounge, eat it in my room, and head out again for some gambling. On the way to the Burger Lounge, I stop at the cashier and get an Aria chip.
I get The Classic (no onions) and an order of fries. And I steal two 8.5 ounce cans of Coke from the Sky lounge on the way back to my room as I’m out of Mountain Dew. Looks like no fine dining again this trip. I really should work on that.
Up to my room and…and I hate this. Housekeeping is in my room, doing the turn down service. I squeeze my way past her cart…she’s in my bedroom. I want to let her know I’m here so I give one of those ‘hello?’ things. She comes out, we exchange pleasantries, and she apologizes but can she see my room key? Well done! Who knows if this is really my room? She takes it over to the door to make sure it works for the room. She asks if it’s OK that she finishes now or she can come back…she’s almost done. No problem…finish away!
Burger Lounge’s big thing is grass-fed beef, organic salads, etc. I take a bite. It’s not bad. The best burger I’ve ever had? Probably not but I enjoyed it more than the burger at Holstein’s the other night. I would certainly get it again. The fries are good too. Don’t ask me how much it was. I charge everything I can when I go to Las Vegas and most of the time have no idea how much stuff is. I ate a pack of my Aria chocolates I get every night as dessert.
Fed, rested, cooled down…time to head back out and gamble some. It’s about 10pm when I head out and I end up back at Bally’s. I wasn’t sure where I would be gambling the most on this trip…I thought maybe Planet Hollywood since it’s the closest Total Rewards casino to Aria. But I think I like Bally’s better. PH is a little loud for me. Because I’m old. I have no complaints on Bally’s. Most dealers are good and it seems the waitress comes by fairly often. Paris was good too, although I only played there once.
Once again I’m playing Ultimate Texas Hold’em and I’m up a little. I said I wasn’t going to drink tonight but then I order a rum and Coke. Well, I think it’s really rum & Pepsi. I drank it rather fast…it was good and maybe a little stronger than I thought it would be. I had rum and Pepsi at the Linq last trip…drank four of them and it had little effect on me. If I get almost fall down drunk on three beers, I should be falling down on four rum & Pepsi. But they were really weak.
I thought about maybe I’ll just drink rum and Pepsi for the rest of the night but before the waitress comes back, I start getting hot and sweating. Ugh. Can’t handle the heat and a little alcohol makes me sweat. But I guess that proves there was enough alcohol in there if it made me sweat. I don’t want to sit here sweating so I stop at the one rum and Pepsi.
I play UTH for maybe three hours or so and win $55. I was up around $200 at one point but then hit a losing streak. It’s after 1:30am as I head back to my room. I’m leaving tomorrow and really don’t want to go.
As I walk through the Las Vegas Shopping at Paris that connects Bally’s to Paris, a fairly attractive woman is walking towards me from the other direction. She was dressed well and certainly caught my eye. As we pass, she gives me a sultry ‘hello’. Ohhhh. OK. She’s one of those kinds of women because I am not the type that would attract a woman that looks like that and who would say hi to me. She was kinda past me when I figured this all out. I’m not usually out this late on these trips and I believe that was the first hooker that I actually noticed to be a hooker. But I’m pretty naive so there might have been others and I just didn’t figure it out.
I’m outside of Paris on the Strip and am walking by Planet Hollywood. It’s a beautiful night as it’s nice and cool from the storms so I don’t have to walk through PH for air conditioning…I just walk down the Strip. As I get closer to the escalator that takes you to the pedestrian bridge, a cute young woman suddenly appears next to me asking why I look so down. (I don’t know if this is a standard line or not but when I’m by myself and walking, I think I do look glum.)
I forget the exact conversation but this time I catch on right away. She certainly didn’t look like a prostitute. She seemed young…early 20’s…but I’m horrible at guessing ages. She’s dressed like a normal person (nothing revealing or slutty) and I thought she was super cute. She gets down to business and I politely decline. She asks if I want her number, maybe put it in my phone for anytime. Maybe tomorrow morning? Thanks, but no. She claims she’s not following me but we end up walking across the bridge together. I tell her I’m from Pittsburgh and she says I probably go to Atlantic City more than Las Vegas…yes, I do. She asked if the Taj closed (no…they were saved for now) and what ever happened to that other one…the one down the end? Revel? Yeah…that’s it. Still closed. Some guy bought it and has all these plans but it seems like it’s going to be one of those things where there ends up being nothing but plans. She surprised me with her knowledge of AC. Maybe she vacations there. Working vacation? Maybe.
We part ways at the entrance to Cosmopolitan and as I’m waking over the bridge to Aria, another woman who was leaning on the railing starts walking my way. Now THIS woman to me looked more like a hooker is supposed to look. Tight, short dress, etc. She didn’t get very close to me before I declined her offer. Apparently I’ve been missing out on all this action because I go to bed too early when in Vegas. Next time I’ll have to stay up late (or take a nap) and see what else I’ve been missing.
Back in my room and I still have the MyVegas free MGM breakfast buffet reward and tomorrow is my last shot. By the time I get settled it’s close to 3:00. I set my alarm for 7. Come on…this is Vegas. Sleep for four hours and get the free buffet. I can always sleep on the plane, right? That’s the plan anyway. I’m guessing I won’t be able to get up but we’ll see.
One more to go. Part 8, the finale, gets released tomorrow!
