Please ADD your own Las Vegas Trip Report. Date of Trip: April 04, 2009 to April 09, 2009 Hotel Stayed At: TI and MGM Grand Report by: Millertime <> From: hayes, va

Day 1:

My traveling companions for this trip were Ryan and Jon, fellow teachers in Virginia. We booked our flights via southwest about 2 months before our departure. We had been watching flight prices for months from Virginia and really found no real deals. When southwest offered non-stop flights both ways for 300 bucks we jumped at the opportunity. We booked three nights at TI for 70 a night and two at MGM for 49 a night, really difficult to beat those kind of prices on the strip, and really anywhere in the world except for your cheapest days inn.

We departed Saturday the 4th at 1:30. Five and a half uneventful hours brought us to Las Vegas. I love southwest, a lot of people complain about the boarding process, but its great if you get to the internet and print out your boarding pass. If you can get the coveted A assignment you are golden and have free range on the plane. I love that they still let me check bags for free, give me free soda, chips etc and the seats are comfortable with a lot of foot room.

Anyway, beings it was Saturday the airport was pretty dead and we quickly got our bags and didn’t have to wait really at all for a cab. We were, however, tunneled for the first time, although I blame myself with not telling the cabby I wasn’t a fool. Anyway, 24 bucks later we were at TI and checked into our room. We asked for a high floor with a strip view. We were high, 32nd floor, but our view was so so, directly across from the trump tower and if you strained you cuold see the strat, circus circus and others up north.

Our first attack was sports, as we wanted to wager on the second game of the final four, Villanova vs. NC. We all took nova getting points, but wound up losing. We took the tram to Mirage and wandered around looking for food, and wound up going back to TI to Canters deli for a quick patty melt and cheeseburgers. We went upstairs quickly to freshen up and take a couple shots of the patron I had brought with me, and then cabbed it downtown. This is my second trip and Ryans third, but Jon had never been so we really felt the need to show him the old school vegas, the nugget pool and the experience. Unfortunately we found bad luck at every turn. I pulled two bills outta my pocket in about an hour playing blackjack, which was hard to be had. Everyone had 6:5 tables which bites donkey butt. I sat with my friends at a three card table both at the nugget and fitzgeralds, and man, that game can be so cool with a three of a kind or a straight flush, but otherwise, ouch.

I had decided this trip I wanted to begin a chip collection so we wandered through fitz, nugget, Fremont, binions, and four queens. We then cabbed it back to harrahs, played there down another note playing blackjack and then walked back to TI. By this time it was 1:00, another hour or two of playing at TI and we were all pretty drunk, tired (considering our 8 am et wake up) and I was broke enough for one day. We went to bed with visions of money lost dancing in our heads.


Day 2

We all woke earlyish, around 9 and showered and walked down to kahunaville for breakfast around 1030. The boys had some sort of omelet and I had lunch, a cheeseburger. Yum. Turns out ryan was still feeling pretty rough around the edges and went upstairs for a nap. They were going to see love that ngiht so he wanted to be sure he wasn’t feeling of death anymore for that. Jonny and I went for a walk, and wound up at casino royale for some 3 dollar craps and dollar michelobs. Jon didn’t know how to play craps so I taught him the basics and we actually hit a hundred bucks or so each, much better than the previous night for me. We walked around Imperial Palace as well and then back up the strip past palazzo and the venetian and crossed the street at Wynn and headed back into TI to catch some of the pens game. I bet the panthers and the over and wound up winning 75 bucks on the 10 dollar bet which was cool. Ryan met us downstairs at this point and we walked to mirage before their show. We ate at the CPK there which was of course great and when they went to Love, I went to TI to lay down. I didn’t actually sleep at all, but got some rest in before the evenings festivities. We caught the Sirens show and then walked through Wynn, Encore, Palazzo, the Venetian and down to harrahs for some gambling. Here Jon hit a straight flush and Ryan a three of kind both with ten bucks on the pair plus bet. What did I get? Jack shit my friends. I walked to casino royale and helped myself to two Michelob’s and pouted for a bit, I was down nearly 600 bucks in two days and getting pretty agitated about it. We were back in the room and in bed a bit earlier, perhaps around 2 am.


We started day three with a much better night sleep and decided to try the TI Buffet for breakfast. It was surprisingly good with a nice omelet station, standard dishes and some great breads etc. Well worth the price but not to par as some I have had elsewhere. Did the job though for sure. We then hopped in a taxi for the 1200 nl tournament at the Luxor. It is a nice cheap tourny and had three tables. I managed to make it to the final table, ironically with zero cards. I won a couple hands with bluff and one with a low pocket pair that held up and that was it. I outlasted my two buddies though so that was nice. After the tournament we walked around the south strip a bit, into the trop and MGM for giggles but didn’t stay long as we were to be staying there our last two nights. We cabbed it back up to TI and got ready for the evening hours. We decided on Carnegie deli for dinner and I actually hated my meal, but im just not a deli kind of guy, the food was good and huge portions, but to me dry and uninteresting. We then cabbed to the Rio to check that out. It is a neat place but was really dead on this Monday night as to be expected. The greatest thing tho was that I hit two four of a kinds playing DDB, one in 4’s and one with Ace’. Nether came with the kicker but a nice 800 credit win for 200 bucks is never a bad thing. We messed around here for a bit, got our souvenir chips and a beer for the road and cabbed to the Palms for a similar period of time. We played more VP here and no table games. It was dead as well and I enjoyed a lovely McDonalds hot n spicey mcchicken lol. After ryan hit another four of a kind at the Palms we cabbed back to Casino Royale and IP for cheap gambling. Billy Idol dealertainer stole my hat and did some weak rap, but it was a good evening. On the way back we stopped at harrahs where jon got a straight flush for another 400 dollars. He is actually up for the trip. I have managed to stop the bleeding and have been up about 200 dollars for the day, throw a fifty or so back and we wandered back to TI for bed. Tomorrow would be moving day and we needed some rest. By this time it was nearly four am and it was lights out.

We started day four with a late wake up and some packing as we were moving to MGM grand. We chose to stay at two places for two reasons. We had found great rates at TI (69 a night) and MGM (49 a night) for parts of the trip, but neither for all five nights. We also liked the idea of splitting up the trip with the north and south stays.

We cabbed to MGM and had our bags stored at the bell desk as check in was not available yet. We walked around the casino a bit and settled in the sports book. We had yet to eat and weighed options and decided to hit the buffet after getting to our room, not realizing that it closes for a couple hours in the afternoon. We made some sportts bets which wound up to be all losers, watched some of the games and finally checked in around 2:30. Unpacked in the room and screwed around for a bit and headed down to the buffet at around 345 again not realizing that it didn’t open again til 430. Needless to say we were all famished by the time we got around to eating, but we ate our share no doubt. I had the buffet before, it is on par with any 25 dollar buffet you get in the world, decent seafood, prime rib and lots of choices. Nice touch was small plates of food out so they were constantly being replenished with hot fresh stuff. Desserts were also very good. Once we finished eating we went back to our room to change and get some cash to go to Hard Rock. I had never been there and decided I really wanted to see it. We walked around and I found myself a nice blackjack table. 10 limits with an new player sitting to the dealers right. I bought in with fifty and quickly had 90. I decided to try and hit 100 when the strangest thing happened to me. Of course was dealt 11 to the dealers 6. I of course double and grimmace as I see a 2 for the dealers whole card. Dealer drew a nine for 17 (I had pulled a worthless four) and I was thwarted. Except that the dealer miscounted not by one or two or three, but by like five I guess, he said out loud 12, took a hit, pulled a four (for 21) and then hit again for 31. Needless to say I took my winnings and walked away. I peered over the table later and noticed the dealer was switched out two or three hands later. Sure he got a talking to, not a bit loss for the casino but a horrible mistake.

I played craps up about a whole ten bucks but was down 80 at one point so a win there as well. We then cabbed it back to Bellagio to do the whole walking around thing there. Got our souvenir chips and walked back to mgm, but not before stopping at planet Hollywood, which we all loved by the way. The pit with the sexy dealers was to die for. I have no idea what time it was at this point, somewhere around 3 I would guess, and we went to bed.

Wednesday was our last full day in Vegas and we still had some things we really wanted to do. We wandered up to Caesar’s Palace mostly to try Bobby Flay’s place The Mesa Grill. The place is back by the sports book and was delicious. We had lunch, Jon had some sort of shrimp tacos while Ryan and I each had the Cuban burger. The Cuban was delicious and the fries were as well. It was very messy lol. We called ahead to find out about attire and were told business casual which to mean means collared shirt and no jeans, but upon entering people were wearing just about anything. Perhaps for lunch they are more lax on this. We each had a drink, I had a cabo wabo margarita and Ryan had their special mojito. All in all a great lunch, pricey due to the drinks but still around 30 bucks and was very good.

After lunch we wandered around and wound up in the sports book where I quickly hit 65 bucks on an exacta box bet on some ponies (some California track, forget which one). We had planned on the forum shops, so we walked through there where I discovered I was missing my cellular device. Knowing that it was likely lost and gone forever I didn’t stress too much but wanted to go back to the room and double check that it wasn’t there. The boys continued in the forum shops and I walked back to mesa and the sports book looking for cell. No dice. I walked through the shops just to see the staircase lol and exited there. I decided to make the best of it before and get a couple chips I needed for my collection, and got one from o’sheas and flamingo, ironically both at osheas. I was told by the cage lady that the osheas ones are being phased out so im glad I got one.
Cell phone paragraph, skip if uninterested.
I went back to MGM looking for my phone. We had been in the sports book there in the morning and the room obviously so I checked those places and the bell desk where lost and found is. No more luck. I went upstairs and proceeded to call CP lost and found and also called and tezted my phone a bunch of times hoping someone would hear it etc. The other guys came back to the room and we were preparing our plans for he night. I call one more time and my buddy Jon comes up to me and says hey man I found this phone at Caesars palace. Mother fer had it for almost an hour, they called it a bunch of times and eventually someone answered it, which is awesome. It had fallen out of my pocket and when I checked the book at CP I only checked in the chair (as it was inhabited I didn’t want to intrude too much) and it was under it. Long story short, I got my phone back after never expecting to see it again.

Our last night was a bit of a run around. We started off with some craps and video poker at Tropicana, and had planned on playing poker there in a tournament I knew they had at seven. Well low and behold they closed their poker room in the fall so we went back to the room to consult my big book of poker tournaments that I compiled before I left. We fuond a 70 dollar tournament in luxor. Long story short I got no cards again. I didn’t see a face card until I got QK off suit. Flop came 89K rainbow. I went all in short stacked. Two callers. One had a nin, other had 10 J. I was to the rail pretty damn quick. Fortunately my boy jon came in second in the knockout tourny, getting 50 bucks in bounties and 200 more for the place so not bad for him. We wandered over to excal mostly to get a chip there as well, and then to NYNY for our last hurray. I had a decent hour and a half long session of craps while smoking a fine rocky patel. It was a glorious time. We had partaken in a large number of adult beverages through the night, including a half dozen shots of patron before leaving the room in a failed effort to finish it off before we left. Needless to say after the free drinks while playing poker and a number here there and everywhere we were three sheets We got a few slices of pizza from the place in NYNY. I had the Sicilian which was as thick as a brick and delicious. Unfortunately the drinks, heavy food and long hours all week had caught up with us and at the super early time of 1230 I got a text while still playing craps that my compadres were getting beat up physically and in the wallet. We took the walkway over to MGM, took a few last pictures, dropped a few last 20 spots into my favorite slot (lobster mania, go ahead and laugh) and went to bed. Easily our earliest retirement of the week by about 130.

We had to check out of MGM by 11 so we were up by around 10, showered, packed and checked our bags at MGM. We all wanted to place some bets before we left so we sat in the sports book. Our flight wasn’t until 430PT so we had time to catch a bunch of the Masters and check the boards for a variety of things. We all wound up putting some cash on the carolina hurricanes to win the Stanley cup going off at 40-1 (hey they are up in their second round series as I type, come on 820 bucks). We also all chose to make a huge parlay bet for us to hope for as the day went on. I chose like 11 baseball games. 10 bucks paid like 1800. I missed two games so I lost but was cool to think about.

The trip was great all in all. Flights were nearly perfect and I still love southwest. No bullshit charges for anything, luggage, drinks etc. Just great. A lot of people hate the open seating but we just went ahead and got passes the day before each flight and got an A boarding group and a B. both times I was able to procure an aisle seat which is all I care about.

Lots of hits and misses. We didn’t eat a bad meal, everything was great from McDonalds to mesa grill. We really liked both the TI and MGM, but are leaning towards TI next time mostly for the small, accessible sports book with free drinks without any tickets etc. Planet Hollywood was definitely way better than I expected. We got to 25 casinos in five days, and I got to a lot of places I had never been before including both new ones since my last trip (encore and palazzo)

We are hoping to return early December for some football.

Till then

A bientot


Millertime <> - hayes, va    4448

---