Four Days in Vegas... September Trip

I was lucky enough to have a conference come up in Las Vegas this month. For the price of my wife's ticket, we were able to get a four night trip. The conference was at the Aria.

The trip started with a sickening downturn--we dropped our luggage and headed downtown from Rio (we stayed the first night there in a comped room as the conference "free" rooms started the next night). The best part of the trip was the limo ride from the airport to Rio and then downtown. Gambling? Holy crap. We bounced from casino to casino and just couldn't get anything going. The second best part of the trip was stopping gambling and going to a show (Veronic Voices, which we enjoyed). Day one was a bomb at both craps and slots...and left me rethinking the bankroll.

Sunday found us making our trip to Casino Royale--it is a dive but we always seem to hold our own there. The change to one craps table is sad; they always seemed to have busy tables on weekends but they were pretty empty a lot of the time. I was able do well enough there to make up for the losses my wife had on the slots. The bonus was that both my wife and I had over $50 in comps there and we used them to eat dinner at Outback. The dinner was great, for Outback, and we had a table with a view of the Mirage volcano.

After dinner, we headed to Mirage to catch a cab...but ended up staying for a few hours. I am a $5 craps players but found myself at a $15 table. Things went up and down until one shooter caught a good roll and I was able to get about $300 ahead. It never got any better or any worse, so we left a little bit up for the day (though still way down overall).

We had moved from Rio to Aria...night and day!! Aria is a beautiful hotel.

Monday was conference day one. Steve Forbes was the guest speaker; he was very good. My wife enjoyed the workout facilities and the pool. After the conference, we headed downtown with friends and ate at the Triple George Grill. Very good meal at a reasonable price--it was our second time there, and it was just as good as we remembered. Downtown was rough on us (again) and we bailed fairly early. Back at the Aria, we did better with some slot wins and some "up" time at craps.

Tuesday was more of the same during the day--me at the conference and my wife relaxing. We decided to go see "Mystere" at TI. What a colossal waste of time for us. It was our first foray into the Cirque genre and may well be our last. We saw a cheaper and better show at the Beau Rivage over the summer--no need to spend $200 on circus acts for us. Others like them a lot; it just isn't our thing.

We walked to the Mirage again and I played craps next to a young man celebrating his 95th birthday. This was a "hold your own" session at best. Back to Aria. My first session ends with a slight profit...and dealers unwilling to count out the total color up...they called it $665 plus one... Before leaving, tossed the three reds on the horn and the single on a dealer yo...Boom...aces...$100 added to the stack.

I noticed that I had hit "Pearl" so I went by the MLife club to get the new cards and the guy at the desk called over to the hosts office and asked if they could do anything for me...they knocked $50 off the bill. New card in hand, I decided to hit another table. It was a grind and I left at about $530, which was a $30 profit. I took that $30 to another table, bet the 6 for $30 ($25 table) and stayed alive until one lady hit a decent roll. She would shoot and tell her man she wanted to leave and stop rolling after every roll. It was kind of funny but it slowed the game down a bit (okay for rating purposes, I guess). I colored up with a yellow chip after this roll--up $500 on the short session.

Off for a second night of room-service pizza and beers...

Leaving day comes way too soon. I play a quick session while my wife sleeps in a bit. Nothing spectacular but we've basically come out a couple hundred dollars ahead Sun-Wed after the mess on Sat. Still a down trip, but not nearly where I thought it was headed!!

Random thoughts--
Rio rooms are in bad shape. Our upgraded room was shabby. I overheard one dealer talking about me to another when I looked at a match play coupon (instead of offering help with the process)--I told him to go screw himself and played elsewhere. I was reading the damn thing to see what I had to do to use it...

Aria was very nice. It wasn't just the facility, which is great, but it was the people who worked there. Everyone was helpful and not snooty (Wynn and Encore are nicer room-wise but they are a little pretentious for me)--it was just plain fun being there, no matter how the play went.

I did get the one night we were going to pay for our room comped by calling the host office. That was a misunderstanding on my part--I thought we had three nights on the conference presenter; we only had two and one we were responsible for. I don't get why non-APs leave money on the table by not getting cards and ASKING for things. They may tell you "No" but they will never say "Yes" at the mid-level of gambling unless you ask. APs, well, there may be cover issues for them...

It was a good trip and planning is in progress for another conference in March...

 

Great TR. I'm glad you liked Aria. I was there last year and thought it was spectacular. I have a conference there myself in April of 2015.

Santé,
TL

 

Love Aria. Stayed there a couple times. had a corner suite once. Very high up. Good vibe in the casino. I got killed playing craps there last month. Love the 3 coin $5 Pinball slot by the craps tables.

 

One thing on the Mystere tickets--I did make it a point to look at GregRio's information on seating which was, as it always was, spot-on. We sat to one side of the recommended area (no seats in that area) and it was perfect...

He's still helping us...thanks, my friend...

 

I also think highly of the Aria.
Thanks for sharing!

 

Casino Royale only has one craps table now? Would have never guessed that...

Thanks for sharing!

 

They used to have three--one on each side and the other one capping the end of the pit. It was a fun place to play and, if anyone was too annoying, you could change tables. The change to one table is weird to see. I am not sure how the rest of the place changed; I ventured no deeper in than the casino cage.

 

i am always so jealous of people that have conferences in vegas