Orleans/MC/Harrahs - 11/6-16

So, here it is. My TR from my 2nd trip to Vegas. This time I promise it is not going to be >10,000 words like the last one!

I flew out from Manchester, UK with two plane changes; firstly at London Heathrow and then at Los Angeles. This may seem a bit weird but it was for two reasons. Firstly, I am a sucker for massive legroom. You can give me a chair where I can't even turn sideways and I won't care. I just need that legroom. So I did my research and ended up booking seat 33G on the 777-300 from London-LA with American (I will post a pic of the legroom but I'm typing this in work and the pic is at home), so the changes were to get me to London and then get from LA to Vegas. Oh, and as an added bonus, these are the only planes I could find that had power ports in Economy and also Wi-Fi.

The second reason was price. I can't fly direct from Manchester any more so to fly direct from the UK, I have to travel to London anyway, whether it be by train/car/bus/plane. It was cheaper for me to fly to London than to take any of the aforementioned ways, and the flight to LA then Vegas was cheaper than flying direct from London to Vegas by at least £100 ($160).

The flight from Manchester to London was chilled, which I needed after being up since 4am UK time. We went up, cruised for literally 10 minutes, then went down. Unfortunately when we came in to land the first time, the runway at Heathrow had to be closed for a 5 minute safety check so we had to pretty much take off again. Nobody reacted badly though so we just circled Heathrow and landed 10 minutes late. Quick change of terminal and we were soon boarding the 12pm from London to Los Angeles.

We took off late because of the earlier runway delays but because of the winds, we made most of that time back up in the air. Sadly for me, I managed to pay for wifi and just get settled in before my laptop went kaput at 36000 feet. Awesome. The hard disk broke so it was terminal. Spent most of the flight just dozing and trying to connect to the wifi on my phone, which barely worked, and this soon turned into the longest flight ever. Eventually landed at LAX and had 2hrs to make my Vegas connection. This seemed very simple and I was at the gate with more than enough time to spare. Had booked an aisle seat and got 2 Mexicans next to me, thankfully the dude in the middle wasn't plus sized and we eventually landed in Vegas at 6.45pm PST.

I'd prebooked a VIP shuttle with Bell Trans and after a slight delay, a limo turned up. Luxury ride to the Orleans and check in went very smoothly. Room miles away from the elevators with a view of the Orleans Arena and Rio/Palms from the window at the end of the corridor. Managed to stay awake until 10pm PST and staggered up to the room having been awake for nearly 27hrs. Was out like a light, hoping that I would sleep 8hrs and get that sleeping pattern sorted straight away...

 

I always have the same hope, never happens though...

 

I woke up at 2.15am on the Thursday morning. FML.

Typical, actually! Finally decided to drag my ass to the shower at 3am after trying my hardest to go back to sleep, but the excitement of Vegas took over and I headed downstairs after a shower to find a surprisingly not as dead as I thought Orleans Casino. Played a few slots and a small amount of VP before grabbing a breakfast sandwich (sans egg, I hate them lol) with breakfast potatoes from Fuddruckers to go. It was good enough for me, plus I had a coupon that I got when I checked in. Ate that in my room and logged onto the wifi on my phone as I wanted to play some Limit Hold'Em (I can't play this game live in the UK, nowhere spreads it) and the only place that had a game was the Flamingo.

I also needed to get a new MLife card so I cabbed it to Monte Carlo but their cashier was less than helpful so I walked to Aria, who sorted it pretty quickly. A nice walk up the Strip to Flamingo soon saw me seated at the only game in there with one crazy guy who couldn't speak English but was drunk and donating and a bunch of rocks playing for the BBJ. Played until about 9am when the donator left and I had made a small profit. Had to take the long way around to the shuttle at Bally's as the sidewalk between Flamingo and the Bally's bridge was closed until 10am for construction. Missed a shuttle so went to Stage Door to check the place out.

I'm gonna be honest here - maybe it's because I don't drink or maybe it is because it was 9.30am, but I don't get why people like Stage Door. It just seemed like a small bar with a bunch of locals in that has some video poker bartops. Grabbed a snack from the Supermarket attached to it and jumped on the shuttle back to Orleans.

I'd decided that I wanted to give some play to Orleans as I was staying there on a comp, so I ran my points balance up to around 700 (I think it was $1=1pt) through their machines, mainly playing video poker and Top Dollar slots. By this time it was 1pm, and I knew the rest of my mates were arriving in at about 4pm, so I headed back to the Strip. Grabbed a hot dog & bacon + cheese fries from Nathan's at Bally's, before walking back up to Flamingo to play more poker. The boys were staying at Harrah's so I cashed out up $20 at half past 3 and went to Harrah's to meet them.

Didn't take long before we were seated at a 3 card poker table. Very quickly dropped $75 before Stu and his brother decided it was time to go and watch the NFL game. Went to the sports bar at The Quad to do this. I recommend this place just for the waitress. She was absolutely stunning. Also pretty good at her job, but to be honest, I wasn't really interested in that bit, just her bits, if you get what I mean

At half time in the football, 4 of us (Ger, Matt B, Joe and I) got bored as it wasn't the best game ever, and hit a Pai Gow table in The Quad. The dealer was a good laugh but I didn't run particularly well and lost another $25. As the game was finished we met up with the others before heading back to Harrah's, where I bade my farewells at about 9pm so I could get back to the Orleans at a decent time. Caught the shuttle and headed back. Played some more VP and slots, including hitting 4 Aces on BP when I was trying out a new game at nickels and played literally 5 hands ffs, before heading up to bed at about 11pm.

 

When you say quad sports bar, do you mean the bar in the sport book area?

That place is one of the saddest places on earth. But if you want to watch a game in solitude that's the place.

Also what game did you try for nickels? Paytable? And of course, pictures?

Goods start!

 

Enjoying the report so far. 3 flights in one day, including 10+ hours from London to LAX! Hats off to you sir! I couldn't do it.

The NFL keeps trying to manufacture an interest in the game in England. Is it working?

 

They seem to get a decent crowd, I know several people that follow 'American Football' who go to the Wembley games each year.

There are also a good number of American service personnel in the UK (and elsewhere in northern Europe).

Not sure if a full-time team NFL would work though.

There's several live games on a Sunday on the Sky Sports channels (the main satellite service that shows the Premier League soccer games) so plenty of armchair coverage as well.

 

The Quad sportsbook is now in the main casino level.

The upstairs sportsbook bar is going away.

 

Oh thank god. Played mix game poker up there in Dec. 2012...it was not good.

 

The bar in the Quad was definitely downstairs - just walk straight forward as you enter from the Harrah's side and it is right in front of you next to the Sports Book.

I could see an NFL franchise in the UK...but I dont think it would be as successful as people think, mainly because the UK fans all support different teams and I dont know how many would convert to a UK team!

 

Friday was moving day one of two. I checked out of the Orleans at about 9.30am after a quick game of poker and some slots. Made a bit but was pleasantly surprised to find out that I had played enough to cover my room charges without having to ask (albeit it was only about $25).

Grabbed a cab to my new home for one night, Monte Carlo. This was a myVegas comp as I didnt fancy paying Friday night rates on SEMA week! Total value was $155 including resort fee so in my eyes it was definitely worth the time and effort put in to accumulate the points. Was able to check in early and dumped the bags in the room before heading up to Harrah's to find the rest of the boys.

We'd planned a trip Downtown to play the Binions 2pm poker tournament so after a few entered (and busted) the regular 10am game we all jumped in a limo and headed Downtown. Limo dropped us outside Binions and we then all had to queue up for half an hour to get players cards as these were needed to enter the tournaments.

We'd registered by 1pm so had some time to kill - naturally we headed to the bar by the Party Pit (or whatever Binions call it). VP + Women + beer = win. A few more friends turned up and asked for directions to get a players card. Unthinkingly, I just replied "straight up there, turn right, past the million dollars and there's a booth there", whilst concentrating on my VP. I was with Paulie_D at the time and he burst out laughing, saying "You'd only ever hear that in Vegas!"

Played the tournament and despite making the final two tables, bust out before the money in a standard spot. Stayed and railed two of the boys as they chopped it for $500 each before we headed over to the D (it was about 8pm) for some SIGMA! Unfortunately for us there were only a few seats. I managed to score one but about 15 mins in, it broke so I headed to the VP progressive behind it. Didn't hit the royal but hit a couple of quads and more than doubled my cash so was happy.

The boys got fed up of SIGMA so some headed back but a few of us headed down to Hogs & Heifers to see what it was like. Definitely going back as I loved it. I do like the film Coyote Ugly and this bar is owned by the team that had the bar in NYC that was the inspiration...plus it is all about first impressions and as we walked in there was a woman on the bar with boobs out, signing her bra for the wall. Can't really beat that.

Most of the boys were flagging by about 10pm so after a couple of rounds in H&H we left (sadly!) and caught cabs back to the Strip. Finished the night off with some 3-card poker (lost, again) before heading back to Monte Carlo for sleep...

 

Saturday was moving day two of two. As a quick review - Monte Carlo is nice and comfortable but not worth the extra cost IMO, Harrah's was okay enough for a lot less $$$.

Today was also the day of the APAT poker tournament. APAT is a UK based poker tour which had planned an event at Caesars. I had agreed to "host" the event so after moving from Monte Carlo to Harrah's,which included a 30 minute wait at checkout as MC couldn't seem to process my myVegas comp, I headed over to Caesars to meet their team. Grabbed some lunch with a few of the boys who were playing the event along with some others who weren't, and made introductions at the start of the event before leaving them to play.

Went back to Harrah's to check in properly, only to find that the air conditioning unit wasnt working properly. Gave no thought to it and left again, yep this came back to haunt me. Tried contacting some of the boys who I knew weren't playing the APAT game to see where everyone was, but all phones were dead (it later transpired that pretty much everyone had succumbed to jetlag today and they were all having unscheduled 8hr sleeps at 3pm. On a Saturday. In Vegas.) Jumped on some slots to kill some time, broke even, and headed back to Caesars as I needed to be there for the final two tables.

Did my hosting duties for 3-4 hrs and the tournament was finished just after 10pm. Was shattered by then so grabbed a quick bite to eat and headed up to the room. Lasted 10 minutes before I got so fed up with the air con that I went downstairs for another room. Unfortunately it was Veterans weekend and they were fully booked, but said that I could switch first thing in the morning. Earplugs in, I eventually got to sleep...