What's Your Most Memorable Vegas Casino Experience?

So many things happen in casinos worth remembering. As I think back to the early 2000's I remembered playing $5 dollar Pai Gow at the El Cortez. My other half and I were had been playing over six hours. The pit boss walked over and asked if we wanted something to eat. We told him we were hungry but there was no way we were getting up to go eat and lose our seats. He said no need to get up and handed us a menu for The Flame restaurant. He said pick out what you want and they will bring it to you. I was in shock at this point but placed our orders. After a while a waiter rolled out a table with table cloths, napkins, utensils and our food and set it behind our chairs. The boss said just turn around and eat and keep playing but don't eat on the Pai Gow table. Needless to say it became quite the show as people passed by and stopped looking at this setup. It was unbelievable and a memory I will never forget.

 

So many to choose from. Perhaps the greatest rush was, after years of playing blackjack I started studying poker. I played in a couple of very cheap turbo tournaments at the Excalibur to get my feet wet, then ventured to the MGM and played in their afternoon $60 tournament with many tables. This was during the poker craze. I got down to heads-up against a much better player than me from Iceland. We had nearly the same amount of chips and I asked if he would like to chop (split) the first and second place money. He was reluctant as he knew that he was better than me, so I offered him a $100 bonus as I had "places I needed to go." He accepted and so I won $1,000. The hours of competition, strategizing, and table banter (B.S.) was fun and exhilarating. I was hooked.

 

So many that it is hard to pick, but I guess that it was my first (and only) hand pay earlier this year after 25 years of trying. Of course, it was what I call the 'kick me in the nuts" handpay....$1,236.40. If it were $40 less it could have been mine and Palace Station's little secret.
Close runner ups were on trips with my wife. We were walking through Treasure Island to see the pirate show and she had to use the restroom, I got bored while waiting and put $5 in a quarter machine and won $500+ on the second pull. Another time we had just gotten into town and checked into the Gold Coast. We started playing and after about 1/2 hour she wanted to take a nap, so I escorted her up to the room. After a few minutes, I told her I was going back downstairs and after about 5 minutes of play I went back up to the room to proudly show her my $600+ tito. It was from the machine she gave up to take a nap. We laughed about those 2 incidents for years, well I laughed.

 

My most memorable Vegas moment was not in a casino. And my most memorable casino moment was not in Vegas. So I guess my most memorable Vegas casino moment is a tie between meeting Charles Barkley in the Mandalay Bay high limit room and the story I have recounted multiple times on VMB of watching a Brazilian High Roller wager well over $100k on one hand of baccarat in the Aria high limit at the paltry hundred dollar table I was playing at

 

I was with a group of coworkers in Vegas about 15 years ago. A couple of us decided to head over to the Orleans so that we could use a free drink coupon. We called the other members of our "troop" to meet us there. At three o'clock in the afternoon six of us sat down at a roulette table and bought in. For the next 6 hours we had an incredible run of luck at the table as lowrollers. The drinks flowed freely, I think my buddy had 16 Stoli's and seven and I must have consumed a dozen Heinekens. One of us had an Alabama state quarter which has a portrait of Helen Keller on one side. Every once in a while my buddy would flip the quarter and if Helen landed up we would all bet on black. I swear we won about 85% of the time. After 6 hours we decided to do one more spin and flip the quarter. Helen landed up so we all shoved most of our chips onto black. We created a crowd around the table and people were throwing $20 bills over our shoulders to bet on black. Two suits came over to watch the last spin, which came up....black. For a couple of seconds there was dead silence and then everyone broke out in a tremendous cheer. It took the dealer several minutes to pay everyone off.

Afterward, we staggered over and sat at the bar at Big Al's Oyster bar. I was so drunk I could hardly sit on my seat without sliding off. One of our group, Brock, who is the biggest bullshitter I know, struck up a conversation with two twin blond strippers (I kid you not). He started telling them that I was a world famous urologist from the Mayo Clinic and I was taking my group of "assistants" and treating them to a trip to Vegas. Needless to say the girls were more than a little skeptical. I asked them where they were from, and they replied, "Seattle". Well, my daughter went to college in Seattle and I had visited her there several times and knew the area fairly well. I then told them that I had recently been out to Seattle to give a lecture on new treatment options for kidney stones at the Swedish Medical Center, a hospital located in the Capital Hill district of Seattle. The look on their faces was priceless... they bought the ruse hook, line and sinker. Most of the group walked out of the casino that night several thousand dollars richer. When we get together now, that evening at the Orleans almost always comes up in conversation.

To this day, I have that Alabama state quarter, which I call "Helen", and take it with me to every Vegas trip since then as my good luck charm. Almost every trip I'll make a bet on black at a roulette table and I win about 85% of the time.

 

1. Hitting a $12k handpay on freeplay on the first morning of a trip at Aria.

2. Getting mispaid $3k when I shoved in chips to pay off a marker at bacc at MB, I got the marker back from the pit, but there was a dealer change occurring simultaneously, the new dealer didn't know I was paying off a marker and colored me up instead of keeping the chips and the pit had already walked away. I was buzzed and didn't quite realize exactly what happened either until I got back to my room, looked at the marker in one hand and the three yellows in the other, and yes the phone rang about 5 mins later.

3. A guy with huge denom chips playing at a $10 craps table on the main floor at Palazzo, he'd turn his back to the table, throw a chip over his shoulder and wherever it landed closest to, that was his bet.

4. Also at Palazzo on the same trip I think, a wicked old-timer in a wheelchair playing the Don't - the kid who was wheeling him around was like the kid who threw firecrackers around in the drug dealer's house in Boogie Nights, I had Sister Christian playing in my head the whole time.

5. Similar to OP - I saw a guy and his wife playing slots in the HL room at Cosmo for at least 24 hours straight and they had room service tables. I think I was there for 6 days and they were at the same machine every time I went by.

 

Another VMBer that shares the same birthday with me sat in the Talon room on our bdays when my host surprised us by having cake sent over on a room service cart. We ate it while I played blackjack! It was definitely a fun time.

And these posts also remind me of a time I was staying at the Wynn. Early Friday evening, I was playing baccarat at a table with a Spanish couple. They were boisterous and often betting the opposite side of me. Annoyed and losing, I left after maybe half a shoe. On Saturday, I walked back in the high limit right before lunch and the couple was still at the same table wearing the same clothes. They were still trying to audibly encourage each hand, but their voices were hoarse and the woman had a small blanket over her shoulders. The pit boss told me they had been there all night (and were down a lot)!

 

The first was long ago at Silverton. Buddy and I were sitting at the bar, wiped out fron a day of golf in the wind. We were playing VP, but paying more attention to the drinks than the screens. At one point my buddy tells me to look down. I said, what? He said to look at my screen. I did and saw a royal in spades. Not only my first royal, but my only royal and I didn't see it happen!

The second was comical. I was playing mini bac, which was a go to after a tiring day. It was a low house edge game and there was really no strategy to follow. Bet player, bet bank, then one of them wins. Repeat cycle. I was filling out one of those cards keeping track of wins, even though I knew it was meaningless. A guy stopped to watch and after a bit asked me why I was filling out the card. I gave him a few reasons that probably sounded logical, but weren't, then said that of course they weren't the most important reason. Obviously, he had to ask what that was. I leaned over and spoke in a low voice as if giving him the true meaning of life and said, "Cause you look cool like James Bond!"

 

Most memorable was casino here in Tucson. Playing three card poker I hit the 6 card bonus royal flush. While I was waiting for them to get the reviewing and the paperwork done, about 10 hands later I hit a 6 card straight flush. That was the second time I hit the royal there, and first time I hit a 6 card straight flush.

 

I was in grad school at UC Santa Barbara. A buddy and I had been partying for most of the weekend and he decided to take a bunch of 'Green Dragon' LSD. Then we decided to drive to Vegas. On the way over I kept having to reassure him that his hands were not in fact turning into claws.

We got to Vegas about 2 AM Monday morning and drove to the Stardust. This was the Stardust of 'Lefty' Rosenthal and Tony 'The Ant' Spilatro. As we walked through the almost empty casino, my buddy told me 'There are pygmies dripping off the ceiling'. I couldn't see them. At that point I had been up for 48 hours and my buddy was about as high as anyone has ever been.

We walked by the Baccarat Room and I stopped and watched the game. I'd never seen it before. The pit boss (wearing a tux) motioned me over. He says 'Give it a try, son'. I responded, 'I don't know how'. "It's easy" he claims. Bet on "Player or Dealer and you either win or lose". That sounded easy enough. The table had a dealer in a tux and 3 beautiful ladies playing. I'm sure they were casino shills. I pulled out my only $200 (My book money) and bet it on Player. Player Wins. In about 5 minutes I had turned my $200 into $1200, but I looked up and my buddy had disappeared.

I told the dealer I had to go. As I got up, the Pit Boss asks, "Where are youse staying?". "Nowhere, Man" was my response. "We want you to be guests of the Stardust" he offered. He set us up with a room and tickets to Lido. I found my buddy just staring at the ceiling. Those were the days. The only time a pit boss ever comped me a room.

 

My wedding trip; (documented in trip report) it was an absolutely legendary run..I think because my cousin was there with me haha; when we get together it’s a riot.

 

I have too many foggy Vegas memories to pick out one, but here is two from my top ten I can share.

I was solo at Rio with a comped room at check in they told me they had no smoking rooms available I was actually double booked so I said just cancel it. The clerk says wait one minute please then talks to someone on the phone. he turned around and said he could put me in the presidential penthouse suite for one night. Two bedrooms, dining room kitchen, sitting room bath bigger than a standard hotel room, jacuzzi etc. Went downstairs comped Grey Goose at the bar hit something on quarters super triple won $1000 on my second spin.--Nice night.

One time at Golden Gate found a dead guy in the bathroom.

 

Well, since the title of this thread is "Most Memorable" Vegas casino experience and not "Best", I think you win. And I especially love how this was an offhanded addition at the end of your post.

I found several dead bodies (a few were suicides unfortunately) while working security on the strip years ago, but you certainly don't expect that as a guest.

 

Probaby meeting up with BeeeJay and his crew on a random Thursday night a few years ago. Legends, the lot of them.

 

At 4Q one night, I had just sat down and bought in at the pai gow table. My first hand I got a Royal Flush, not huge money but a but a nice payout.
I had been waiting for a seat to open up. t was full all night with the same people for hours.
Some of them seemed like they were a little bit piseed about my luck.

 

About ten years ago at the Monte Carlo, 7:00 PM many many people moving down the slot walkways. I was playing a slot machine next to the aisle with my right foot elevated on the small riser/bench the machine sits on, mesmerized, when a young woman stepped out of the throng to ask me if that wallet underneath me, on the floor, was mine. I looked down and was shocked to see, indeed it was! I turned to thank her and she was long gone.
Our eighteenth trip coming up and that moment is still my best win in Las Vegas! The Pain in the A__ that would have caused...

 

Curious how you make the determination of leading with the Rio story vs the Golden Gate story. Unless it is further down in the thread, might I inquire and request a few more details around the deceased guy? That is a heck of a thing. Which is not to say I did not like the Rio story of a Penthouse and a big hit on Super Triple!

 

I still remember the first time I met @BeeeJay at the Palazoo craps table many many years ago. Some of my best nights in Vegas were with that dirt bag.

 

Back in the late 90s, I arranged a guys' trip downtown with 3 friends. At the first craps table on the first night (this was in the Horseshoe when it still had some level of old-school coolness going for it), all four of us had great long rolls right in a row. Created a great vibe at the table and we made some new friends. All of us leaving the table several hundred bucks up right off the bat was a fantastic start to a trip, and it remains a top-tier Vegas memory.

 

Great Topic:

The first one, in May 2021 went to South Point with my sister, she set down next to me while I was playing $1 video poker About ten hands later, Bam! Royal Flush.

Second, One year later, May 2022, playing the the same bank of video poker. Sister come over and sits down, BAM!!!!!

Can't wait until next May