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BeeeJay's Winter Blunderland---December Vegas Trip Report

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by BeeeJay, Dec 17, 2008.

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  1. BeeeJay

    BeeeJay President of The Red Lobster Hostess Satisfaction

    Joined:
    Aug 23, 2008
    Messages:
    9,150
    Location:
    Chicago & Scottsdale, AZ
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    100

    My Trip Report

    My initial plan for this December trip had been to use various offers from 6 casino’s over 4 nights as a bankroll building expedition. The goal being minimal risk, predictable reward. This being a 5 day/4 night affair it might be difficult to complete such a task. Therefore I created a detailed itinerary along with a “gambling plan†written into a small notebook I could carry with me and use to record my play and results.



    The itinerary was as follows:



    Dec 9th Bellagio $1,500 promo chips, comp Bellagio suite, NO food and beverage

    Dec 9th-11th Gold Coast $300 promo chips, comp suite, food and beverage

    Dec 9th-13th Palazzo $600 promo chips, comp concierge level luxury suite, NO F&B

    Dec 10th Mirage $1,500 promo chips, comped petite suite, RFB

    Dec 10th-12th Riviera $100 promo chips, comped flat screen suite, $50 food credit

    Dec 11th-13th NYNY $400 promo chips, comped Ziggurat suite, NO F&B



    Also had a $100 freeplay coupon at Stratosphere , no stay required



    So here is how it all went down (see pics at following location):



    http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=bw37hpp3.7w7bw1oj&x=0&y=na41kh&localeid=en_US





    Day One: Tuesday December 9th---

    It was raining hard as I arrived at Midway airport after my midday cross-town drive from the northwest side of Chicago . Daily lots were full and a flashing sign suggested the economy lots. Blah---the last thing I am considering on a Vegas trip is “economyâ€. I’ll pay the $50 a day to park in hourly steps from the baggage claim and play one less hand of blackjack.



    Funny thing about that rain is at my house it was snow and I had already heard on the radio that delays were building at O’Hare. Colder temps were inching their way south and by the time my 1:25pm flight rolled around I could be SOL. So I hopped on the 11:45am flight and figured I’ll let the luggage catch up with me in Vegas.



    Smart move---flights later in the day ended up being delayed 9-10hrs.



    Once I arrived at the Las Vegas Airport I looked around for my driver, but we were over a half hour early. I called Bellagio and stepped into the southwest baggage office to make arrangements for an $18 fee to have my luggage delivered to the Palazzo. Nice easy solution to that problem. Soon found my driver and was off to the Bellagio! VEGAS BABY!!!!!! 5 days and 4 nights of gluttony and shenanigans awaits and I am more than ready to roll.



    So I arrive at Bellagio and quickly see Jason, we shake hands and roll into the VIP check-in where I am assigned a Bellagio suite. We check it out quickly and I grab a quick photo of the 3 airplane bottles of Finlandia Vodka I polished off on the ride it. We are off to the casino cage to grab those promo chips and fire away!



    No issues getting my $1,500 in promo chips (see pics) from the Bellagio cage, although they of course refused to break them down below $500 chips and they got a little quesy when I started taking pictures of them on the cage counter. Whatever casino dudes. For now these three little bandits are my buddies and I’ll take a picture of them if I damn well please!



    So scolding be damned I got the pic and Jason and I head over the one of the $100 tables to fire these babies up. Now I am under no illusion, just hoping to win at least a thousand off this freeplay so the reservation isn’t a waste. I am staying at Palazzo anyway, although Jason and his buddy will be using the room so at least it isn’t totally going to waste.



    So I sit down and buy in for $1,000 in blacks so I can get rated while I play my promos. I play one hand and win and then decide shortly to put the promo chips into action. I could NOT HAVE ASKED for a better situation. I am dealt 6-5 with the $500 promo bet and the dealer shows a 6. I double down. I get the 10 for a 21 with $1,000 on the line. Dealer flips 10, draws 5. MOTHER F&^$%&ER. Maybe I should just go home now. You have got be F’ing Flipping F’ing kidding me. Well this BS scenario is a recurrent theme on the blackjack tables so I’d better get used to it. Regardless I win 3 straight hands after the push and 1 more for a total of $2,000 won off the $1,500 promo chips. Good start, but could have been great.



    Anyway I grab my carryon backpack from the room and we are off to the taxi stand for a cab to our next destination: Gold Coast. Checked in, gave the room a quick once over and headed down to get the promo chips. No one seemed to know how it worked. Ended up getting two pieces of paper, each worth $150 from a host and you just play those like cash at a table. I played each one on a spot on blackjack. Won the first, lost the second, net profit--$150. Ok so we are outta the Gold Coast.



    Grab my backpack from the room and head via taxi over to Palazzo. After drop off we went in and were directed to the 23rd floor for VIP check-in in the concierge lounge. This lounge is enormous and definitely worth visiting if you have the option. Don’t think I would pay $100/night extra for it unless I was with the wife and planned on spending the happy hour there, along with breakfasts, and some computer time. Then it would be worthwhile. It really is furnished in a classy manner and laid out in a spacious and relaxing setting with tons of little coves and seating areas to get comfortable. The business center is handy as well.



    We gave this the once over and headed up to my room on 27, took a couple quick pics, left the backpack and headed for the cage. I also arranged for the bellman to bring my bags up when SWA delivered them and made my first request for the missing welcome basket.



    So on down to the cage. Got the $600 in promo chips in the form of a stack of $25 pinks. Jason and I played those and some of our own money (I do this to make sure I am getting rated time while using the promo chips). Well we had quite a run. I ended up cashing $1,475 by the time I had lost the last promo chips so that was an extremely positive result starting with $600.



    Although Jason had a late lunch I was getting hungry so we decided to move up our 8pm Zine reservation to 6pm . Unfortunately I got a call that my luggage was delayed and it would not be there in time for dinner and would probably get the next morning due to flight delays from Chicago .



    We decided to make the best of it (by the way I forgot about that Zine dinner and never did get the comp coupon!!! Bastards!). Jason wanted to head back to Bellagio to change into night clothes as it was cooling off, I had no such option. We made plans to meet up at the Blush VP at Wynn. When I arrived there it was true the $1 was now 8/5 but $2 was 9/6. So now I just alternated between $2 and $5. I would play $2 until I lost 3 hands in a row and then pop up to $5 for a winner. That worked great until I lost about 20 hands in a row and busted out. By that time the boys were barking for the buffet as we had 5-6 Bombay Tonics in us thanks to the always lovely and efficient Wynn cocktail service.



    Jason wanted to check about using some comps for a golf shirt so I sat and played some roulette. I ended up grabbing two buffet comps and a line pass and Jason returned so we hit the buffet. No line and food wasn’t quite a good as usual, but by this time it was getting late and really without the full volume crowd I can see where it would be hard to keep things as fresh. It was good though and as always for the price----free----it was fantastic!

    After the Wynn dinner buffet we decided to change into some warmer clothes and meet at Orleans at 9pm . Jason headed over the Bellagio for a “steam†while I went back to my room to see if the luggage was there yet and pound some of that gift basket champagne, Of course it was still not there and I had to call again for delivery. Did some general low-level gambling at Palazzo, then headed over to Wynn. Quickly blew through $4,000 marker playing blackjack and roulette. Ended up playing craps for a bit and running into comedian John Pinette:



    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUlf1F05gTA



    he was heading out for a cigar at the same time I was heading towards the tax I stand. I talked to him while I was waiting and couldn’t place him but knew he was familiar. Anyway we talked for a bit and shook his hand. He was a nice guy, a lot smaller and skinnier in person. Very nice and funny guy, he said he is originally from the valley and spends some time at Gold Coast where I was headed.



    So I hop in the cab and head to gold coast----realize as we pull in---oh shoot we were supposed to meet at Orleans . The places are like interchangeable to me. Anyway arrive a little late at Orleans and have good luck on Roulette, then hit a blackjack table. Jason shows up and joins me. We kicked as and took names on this table. I sat down with $300, lost it right off, bought in another $300 and cashed out $3,500 for a $2,900 profit. We decide to head to NYNY for some multi-play video poker in their high limit room at the dollar level with supertimespay.



    NYNY was basically sucking so we decided to hoof it on over to Bellagio. We walked in and found some better video poker options. Jason and I sat at two machines near the cage and started playing. I was trying to keep my credits up with his but my primary system of doing that was to keep putting $100 bills into the machine. We started getting some ridiculously good cocktail service and were getting wasted fast. The cocktail waitress asked if I had big pockets---which I did since my clothes hadn’t arrived yet and I was wearing some athletic gear. She brought us each about 6 bombay tonics in maybe 30 minutes and gave me 4 packs of smokes as she was going off her shift. We took great care of her but still came out way ahead. What a sweetheart. So by now I was drunk enough to go blow $500 on roulette and $1,000 on blackjack without hitting a single winning spin or hand. I had started to blow back in my profits from Orleans .



    Jason and I decided to call it a night and agreed to meet in the morning so I could check them out of Bellagio and catch my limo to Mirage while they caught their limo to the airport. At this point I believe I was pretty damn drunk. I vaguely remember taking the cab to Palazzo, walking over to Wynn and taking out a $4,000 marker which I promptly lost most of. Back to Palazzo and blew $1,500 on roulette. Enough already---time to go to bed. Now to add insult to injury that stupid ass gift basket was not in my room upon my return, however my luggage had finally arrived. Too tired to unpack it I immediately went to bed.



    Day Two: Wednesday December 10th---

    Upon waking up I again called for the included “gift basket†of Champagne , chocolates, and spa items. I used a slightly more terse tone as I could just sense that this jagoff was not going to do anything about it. After that I got the sense I would find the basket upon my return.



    Called Bellagio and set up a late check out for Jason, then called him and let him know. We decided to use his leftover Wynn buffets from the night before so we met at wynn vp around 11:45am where we played for about half an hour, each had about 4 drinks and basically got our buzz on and hit comp wynn lunch buffet compliments of Jason. It was a little sketchy at lunch. Great sides and breads but really nothing spectacular on the entrée side.



    It was starting to get late so we headed back to Bellagio where we had both changed out limos to 2pm. I did the TV checkout where I spied a $14 charge and Jason’s buddy gave me a $20 for whatever that was. The checkout complete, we hopped on the elevator and headed to the limo spot just in front of Bellagio. Of course they had no record of either of us. Jason had arranged an outside limo service which showed up no problem. Bellagio’s house limo, whom I had just called hours earlier to move my time from noon to 2pm had no record of my existence. I gave the “Yeah I’m not surprised my dip$hit host screwed up something, I would be more shocked if he didn’t’†and headed over to the taxi stand to cab it to Mirage. Yeah I could have walked my fat ass over there but time is money, especially in Vegas. Plus during the day I was a little too hot in the sweater and jeans ensemble I had chosen. I sai my goodbye’s to Jason and his buddy and headed out.



    So out of the cab and into the Mirage VIP check-in. Some real hotties in here! They told me I just needed to go to the cage to get my promo chips. I was in room A48 I believe, something they interchangeably call a “peitite suite†or a “mirage suiteâ€. Anyway I stopped at the cage and they said I needed to talk to a host to get my promo chips. So I go around the corner to the hosts office. As she pulls up my info on her screen she mentions that people are usually not allowed to book promo chip deals back-to-back like this. Hmmmmm. But she comes through and escorts me to the cage to get the chips. Here, unlike Bellagio, I was allowed to take them broken down into one $500 and ten $100 chips.



    I decided to give the room a quick glance before playing the chips. I took the elevator up and found the suite entrance spacious if not sparkling and new. There was sort of a bar on one side of the entrance. Once in the room you find separate his and hers bathrooms, hers with the spa tub, his with a shower. There is a sitting area with a coffee table and TV. There is also another large box at the end of the bed out of which pops up an old school box tv set when you hit the power button on the remote. The TV by the bed worked but you could not change the volume. The other TV did not work at all.



    I took a couple quick snapshots of the chips and room with my phone camera and headed down to hit the blackjack tables. Again I bought in for $300 in greens so I could get rated for my play while using the promo chips. The dealers and pit boss in this area were extremely friendly and I really enjoyed playing here. I had extremely good luck with the promo chips winning $2,200 off the $1,500 despite losing the first bet with the large $500 chip. The results with the $100 chips were over double their expected value. Not bad and a really great run on the promo chip side of things.



    There was no time to dally at the Mirage however as I had a $100 free play coupon for the stratosphere. I cabbed over there and was able to pull out a $75 win. Next a nice walk over to the Riviera where I checked in for two nights and got $100 in freeplay. The $5 chips didn’t last long as I lost all 4 $25 bets I made with them and got the hell out of there ASAP.



    I went back to Palazzo and played for a while and then headed back over to the Mirage where I was RFB for dinner. I wasn’t quite hungry yet after the back-to-back Wynn buffets with Jason so I played for a few hours, playing 3 $125 hands of blackjack until I started to hear some gurgling from my stomach. Up to the room where I ordered a Filet, A lobster tail, and an asian appetizer sampler of some sort and laid on the bed to watch a very quiet TV with no way to turn of the volume for about 90 minutes while I waited. I also checked out the washroom and took a look inside the shower, when I popped open the door the shelf with the soap fell off. It looked to be stuck on there with some caulk. I pressed it back in place and it was good as new….until someone opens that door again.



    The food arrives and I realize there is really no good place to eat in here which is odd for a suite. The dude sets me up on the coffee table. The filet, lobster, and appetizer were all excellent and I made it about half way through each.



    Now I was starting to feel a little sleepy and decided to walk back over to Palazzo and get to bed early. Well I tripped over that damn lighting up roulette table again and didn’t quite make it to the bedroom. And thank god I did stop because this was one of three hot streaks that got me through the whole trip unscathed. I was getting no where betting nickels so I switched to quarters with the last couple grand I had on me. That is when things started hitting, first a 32 with a $50 bet on it, then a 00 with a $75 bet and finally a 17 with $130 straight up. At this point I decided to do one more spin, on which I lost $500 and got up to cash out with 7 yellows, 2 blacks, and 3 greens or $7,275.



    I decided discretion was the better part of valor, and although tired I was going to head over to Wynn and pay off my markers. I dropped the $4k at the window and tore those babies up into little pieces which sort of gave me a second wind. I lost $500 at the roulette table. $500 on $50 blackjack and then sat down with $500 at the $5 video poker machines by blush and had a couple grey goose—sugar free red bulls and some cigs. A couple of the home girls gave me the usual “high honey, need some company†deal and I said nah. Then much to my surprise a very hot little blonde sat down and asked if I was winning anything. I was doing ok, but checking her out she was cute but hard to tell what was going on underneath her overcoat. Before I could request a viewing of the merchandise security came over and gave her the boot. Weird, they must be actually taking things seriously since Steve got slapped a while back!



    So I cashed out $850 ticket, headed back to Palazzo feeling REALLY GOOD about things at this point with the great promo chip results and actually having made up my losses with the non-promo gambling money. I was shocked to find the gift basket was actually there (oh I forgot to mention a really nice gift basket was in my room at Mirage with a hosts card). The champagne was not iced and looked like they got it for $3 @ 7-11. Thought about icing that champagne and having it for breakfast but it looked so nasty I just blew it off and went to bed.



    Day Three: Thursday December 11th

    Had planned to sleep in late today but woke up and had lots to do, including some shopping and various check-ins/check-outs so I got right to it. After a quick shower I made the walk to Mirage & checked out in VIP services. I had a blast making fun of the girls forced to wear cowboy clothes for the rodeo being in town. Didn’t need to see a host as everything but tip was comped so I head out and grabbed a cab to gold coast where I had forgotten both my key and which room I was in. After a short wait in line I gave them my id and headed up for a room service breakfast of steak-n-eggs, hash browns, toast, and pancaskes. It was waaaay too much food and the steak was very sketchy with only a couple edible bites towards the center. I had my fill of the free grub, did the TV check-out and grabbed a cab to NYNY.


    The line at regular check-in @ NYNY looked like a bus had just arrived, or maybe a fleet of busses. I have never seen anything like it. There must have been 50-100 people in line. That would have taken hours! Luckily I popped through the glass doors to VIP check-in and was set up in the ziggurat suite, but it would not be ready for a few hours. They took my cell phone with a promise to call when the room was ready. I headed right to the cage and got my $400 promos. I tried to argue them into giving me $25’s but I got 4 $100 chips. I headed to the high limit room and lost all 4 right off the bat along with my regular $500 buy in. To put it mildly that really sucked. Well with things going badly, I had better do the shopping before I blow through too much of my bankroll and consider gambling the gift money.



    I stepped out of NYNY and grabbed a cab to the Caesar Forum Shops. The dude let me out underneath and I headed up the escalator which put me right on a path to my destination: the Coach store. The wife had emailed me exactly what she wanted. When the girl brought out that purse it seemed a little small to me. I know my wife loved the utility of the purple purse I had gotten her last trip but wanted one in black that would match more outfits. Well this purse, although in the same line, was quite a bit smaller and I was thinking it would not be what she wanted. Unfortunately there was no signal on my cell phone deep in the bowels of this beastly shopping center so I made an executive decision to get the same purse in the non-shiny black leather but in the larger size. Thanks to the 25% of coupon that came in the mail the day before I left I saved $100+ and I also decided not to ship it and pay that crap 10.25% Chicago sales tax.



    The next stop was a Nintendo DS for my daughter. Couldn’t find any electronics stores in the shops so headed over to the Gamestop at the Fashion Show Mall where I was able to get my 4 year old daughter a pink DS with a Barbie game and a Mermaid game. Shopping Done! Walked across to Wynn and then to Palazzo and dropped the stuff in my room. My cell phone was cashed out and I had not yet gotten a call from Sunny Gayle from Charlotte , NC . I was planning to meet her and her husband so I sent a text message and waited a while. After a bit I decided I’d leave the phone to charge and go play a bit.



    Hit the Palazzo blackjack tables for a bit but it was dead so headed over to wynn to play video poker and get drunk. Mission accomplished and now starting to get sort of hungry. I head back to palazzo and stop by host desk--ask for limited com room service meal---“NO WAY†says the host lady in the usual condescending “who the F are you to ask†tone of voice. “You have only played 6hrs in 2days @ $277/hand and you are staying 4 days, we look for 4 hours per day of play at $200+ per hand for RFBâ€. Ok so being on PACE for that doesn’t get me a free f’g meal? I completely forgot I was supposed to get a meal for 2 at Zine on this offer or I would have asked about that! Oh well, I’ll plan on eating later at NYNY where I’m more likely to get comped.



    Ok so go up room get phone off charger--messages from Sunny. Call her back and we actually reach each other WOOOOO HOOOOO! She is down playing slots. So I head right down and meet her husband first cause she is at the bar getting us a couple Corona ’s. I shoot the breeze with the hubby/boyfriend guy and he is real cool…..then Sunny shows up and let the fireworks begin! She is one crazy fun lady and she can drink with the best of them. She really knows how to enjoy her vegas. We had a few drinks, a few cigs and I actually played some penny slots! It was a really good time and we talked about all the Trip Advisor board members and family and she told me a lot of stories about how she turned into a crazy vegas partying mama. It was quite a time.



    I got a call finally that my room was ready at NYNY and being hungry decided to head over there as Sunny and her dude had a show to catch. We agreed to meet back here at 10pm. It was about 6:30 so I stopped by the sports book and put $500 to win $1,025 on the Bears minus 3 vs the Saints on the Thursday Night Football game.



    I had worked up quite a sweat what with all of Sunny’s shenanigans and the walk to the sports book up and down and up and down stairs so I decided to enjoy the evening and walk from Palazzo to NYNY. Also needed to sober up and bit and build up a nice appetite for dinner. So I crossed the strip in front of Mirage and headed past Caesars and took the overpass inside Bellagio to hit the washroom. Well I come out of that men’s washroom right near the cage and who do I see sitting at the penny slots all by himself but poker champion Scotty Nyugen!!!!



    I could not remember his name so I sat two machines down. Then it came to me and I said. Hey aren’t you that poker player Johnny Chan? Scotty laughs and says no I am Scotty Nyugen. He is a very nice guy. I ask if he minds if I get a quick picture with him and he’s cool with it. By this time another couple had recognized him so we took each others pics with my camera and I got the dudes card to email the pic to him. Scotty told us “Just don’t let anyone know I play the penny slots. I am just waiting for my tournament to start!†Haha. Sure. So I headed on out the front door of Bellagio.



    As I neared NYNY the porn slappers thickened and I found a couple dudes trying to buy shirts from them to wear for Halloween next year. Those dudes would not sell the shirts for anything. I think I remember reading something on the boards about someone trying to buy those and getting shot down before.



    Anyway I made my way into NYNY and headed up to check out the Ziggurat suite. This is a fairly spacious suite but has kind of a weird design and the crappy TV’s make it a far cry from the NYNY penthouse suites or the Carlyle suite at NYNY. I ordered some chicken nachos and chicken tenders and enjoyed a snack at an actual table, although you can’t see the TV from there and the game was on the damn NFL channel anyway.



    After eating about 1/3 of that food I was stuffed and headed down to the high limit room. Having left my promo chip winnings of $5,900 and my initial non-promo gambling stake in my room and down to only $300 I got a $2,000 marker. I lost it in about 5 seconds of blackjack play. I headed over to a roulette table with the Bears game on a TV right above the table. Bought in $300 to play small and watch football----gone in 6 spins. Stupid a$$ Bears up 4 throw an interception and game goes into OT so I decide I have to buy another $2,000 marker and make up this $1,000 I am clearly not going to get for this Bears bet. Well low and behold if they don’t start rolling my damn numbers just like the other night when I played quarters at Palazzo. Before long I am upping my bets to the $700/spin range and 17 hits. As you can see in the picture I ended up getting paid in some purples for that one and also had a nice stack of greens….looks like about $6,875 actually. Well I used $4,000 of those greens to kill my markers and headed out with nearly $3,000 in cash. I had just enjoyed two straight nights of 2 hrs of sleep so I was getting pretty tired even though it was only about 10pm. I was supposed to meet Sunny at 10 at Palazzo so I headed back to the spot I had seen her before and she was not around.



    That chicken combo was starting to kick me in the gut like a horse so I decided to call it a night and headed up early. Also I was getting some WARNING text messages from my wife that things were not going well on the home front and I had DAMN well better come home rested!


    So I head up to my room at Palazzo and go to sleep…..before midnight……in Vegas….WHAT A FREAKING LOSER!!!!!



    Day 4: Friday December 12th



    Well if I thought I was a big loser in Vegas for going to bed early, now I was going to become an even BIGGER loser for getting up early and doing WORK! Not quite what I had planned but my phone rang early Friday morning (not so early on the east coast) with some client opportunities. I had to get to my email and was able to access everything on the Palazzo concierge level which was great. These calls from clients led to my spending 2 hours in the business center to arrange the work and unfortunately to undo my January 2 ½ week Phoenix/Vegas trip.



    Having planned on taking most of January off vs. working 6 days a week, long hours each day was a shock to the system, but it was just too much of a cash flip between making rather than spending money to turn down. I’ll usually limit things later in the year, but I like to get off to a good start each year in case things slow down. It’s just more relaxing taking the time off AFTER I’ve hit my numbers for the year.



    So anyway I get all these BS wrapped up by about 10am and decide I better take a $10 cab ride to use my $50 meal comp on a $10 breakfast over at Riviera . Maybe its this sort of cost-benefit analysis that is keeping me from becoming CEO of the NYSE…..then again maybe just this sort of thinking is the prerequisite for such a job. Hmmmm.



    Anyway I cab it over there and order the exact same thing---steak-n-eggs, hash browns, toast, and side of pancakes. This time I decide to throw and order of bacon and some cheese on the eggs. In about the amount of time it takes to kill a possum and disguise it as a steak my food arrives. I don’t know what that thing they were calling a NY Strip was but I can promise you this is one NY Stripper even Elliot Spitzer would NOT touch. I stuck with the bacon and the rest and pounded it down in my hurry to hit those 100-play penny machines downstairs. I did the TV check-out on the remodeled Riviera room flatscreen.



    Oddly after having a years worth of cholesterol, cigarettes, red bull, salt and anything else unhealthy in only a few days time I started to feel a bit of chest pain. Now I am well insured so the grabber would be the jackpot for my wife and kids, but wanting them to suffer a little more I decided to cab it back to the Palazzo and take some aspirin just in case.



    I still had the itch for that hundo play and I know right where the machine is over at the Wynn so I headed on over. It was a crowded bank with 3 supertimes pay machines and 2 hundo plays. It was all older dudes. One was playing 25 hands on the hundo play and Wilfred Brimsley was doing some work on the supertimespay. Well he was doing well and upping his bets to quarters and ended up hitting 4OAK with kicker aces on double bonus at the quarter level along with another 4OAK and a full house on the same multiplied hand and winning over $500. Meanwhile I was complaining about the drink service. I told Wilfred to have them bring my drink over to me in the Encore video poker room. He says it doesn’t open til the 22nd and I say will my drink won’t be here until after that at this pace! One time after I had been tipping for a while there must have been a shift change and I say “damn how much do you have to tip these girls to get a drink†and the girl was right behind me. I gave her double due to my embarrassment but it actually turned out to be lucky as I hit a dealt full house on the suppertimespay 10 hands. Therefore I was required to say this line EACH time the girl came by and it got to be a running joke. I ended up getting a picture with her and also an older dude who had a Members Only jacket (original issue).



    Anyway a few $10 tips and the girls are now just bringing me Bombay Tonics each trip without me having to order them. What this unfortunately led to was my desire to play some blackjack after 8 or 10 of them.



    I had only brought about $500 with me as an attempted enforcement of small gambling mechanism, but I bought in for a $2,500 marker at the BJ table and lost that again in about 10 minutes playing 3 $250 hands while the dealer got BJ after BJ after BJ.



    So I headed over to roulette and bought in for a $2,500 marker……got pounded down to my last $500 roll. Then another dude sat down and must have brought some good karma with him. First a 32 hits with $50 bet on it. Then a 5 with $50 bet on it, and finally the 17 with $115 on it. I pay off the marker and have about a $1,500 stake to play around with.



    I headed back to Palazzo and gave the roulette wheel a final try at the quarter level shooting for the moon and blew most of my excess bankroll. Having given it a fair shot I was done gambling for the trip and decided to head back to the room and order dinner. I ended up deciding on the Palazzo room service order of chicken tenders, egg rolls, and onion rings. The phone rep quoted 75-90 minutes but it came in about 60. Everything was great, but again way too much food.



    After eating I decided to do my final money count. I had $5,900 in my “promo chip†envelope won from $4,500 in promo chips for a nice profit and $1,365 in cash out of $3,000 that I had brought initially in my separate “gambling†envelope. So $7,235 in total cash after arriving with $3,000 is a net profit of $4,265. I was extremely happy with this even though I had not stuck with my plan of playing a lot less. My loss was still a level of loss I could have expected playing at a much lower level. Admittedly I had gambled stupidly and chased my losses and could easily have had a $30,000 losing trip were it not for the three big wins playing quarters on roulette (hit at least 3 spins over $100 straight up), the few thousand dollar win on blackjack at Orleans, and actually better than expected luck on the promo chip play. Unfortunately as I was packing late Friday night I got a text from wife that our furnace was out and the 24 hour install guys were at my house right then installing our new furnace for $4,250...FATE IS A BITCH!!!! thanks for leaving me $15 for all my effort!





    Day 5: Saturday December 13th

    Got up and finished packing, go to concierge lounge for 2 diet cokes,2 ham & cheese croissants. Back to Palazzo room for TV check out and bail in cab to NYNY.

    Did VIP checkout at NYNY, Nothing on bill.--tip only. Checked Bags, played some video poker at the bar right there & drink for my last hour. Cash out on a 4oak. Got luggage, limo to airport...checkin security, etc.



    Play double double bonus Vp, quit on 4oak again. Cash out. Grab some Burger king, hop on flight---90 min wait in plane for takeoff., get car @ mdway and head home to meet my new $4,250 furnace---YAY!



    Link to pics:



    http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=bw37hpp3.7w7bw1oj&x=0&y=na41kh&localeid=en_US



    Final Notes:



    I ended doing 6 hotel promos in 4 nights but staying at Palazzo the entire time. All check-in’s were VIP check in so no waiting in line. The most expensive thing about the trip was $222 for parking at Midway (not counting the flight and the purse).



    The individual hotel deals turned out as follows:



    Bellagio---1 night in Bellagio suite, $2,000 won off $1,500 promo chips, bill $14 for minibar.



    Palazzo---4 nights in luxury concierge king, $1,475 won off $600 promo chips, bill for $133 for room service, mini-bar, tips.



    Riviera ----2 nights in updated room, $0 won off $100 in promo chips, $7.66 bill for room service tip.



    Gold Coast---2 nights RFB in a 2 room suite, $150 won off $300 promo coupon, $4.32 bill for room service tip.



    Mirage---1 night RFB in Mirage Suite, $2,200 won off $1,500 promo chips, $30 bill room service tip and mini bar.



    NYNY---2 nights in Ziggurat Suite, $0 won off $400 in promo chips, $15,71 bill for room service tip.



    Total: Won $5,900 off $4,500 in promo chips. Lost $1,665 of own cash from $3,000 brought. Net gambling win $4,265. All limos and meals free except one billed meal not comped at Palazzo. Other expenses included tips, cabs, flight, and shopping. Tips and Cabs are included in the gambling win/loss. Flight was $277. Shopping was around $650.

    Room reviews:



    Bellagio suite and Palazzo concierge luxury king were both outstanding.

    Gold Coast was spacious and clean but dated.

    NYNY Ziggurat was kind of weird layout but big and nice, but the TV’s are old.

    Riviera room was surprisingly nice, not the bathroom which sucked, but nice beds, TV.

    Mirage room totally sucked, it was dated and stuff was broken.



    Conclusion: I should probably only gamble on trips where friends are with me because I end up getting drunk and taking unnecessary risks and taking out markers. I probably wouldn’t do that with friends there as I wouldn’t want to appear a degenerate gambler.



    Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the pics!
     
  2. texas_aggie_girl_93

    texas_aggie_girl_93 VIP Whale

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    Wow! Very nice report & pics. Thanks for posting.

    Very nice turnout on the promo chips. Congrats! Sorry your profits had to go towards a furnace though.
     
  3. Jacko

    Jacko Tourist

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    Great trip Report, Thanks!
     
  4. DonD

    DonD VIP Whale

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    :nworthy: Well done!
     
  5. aggie182

    aggie182 Off Key and Out of Tune

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    Great write-up. Thanks for sharing.
     
  6. pdub

    pdub Tourist

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    Well Done! Great TR.
     
  7. gotavegasjones

    gotavegasjones VIP Whale

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    Very enjoyable read. Thanks for posting. Warm at your house?

    later, GVJ
     
  8. peanutmnm

    peanutmnm Scotchy

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    Always an enjoyable read. Just what I needed to get me excited for my upcoming trip.
     
  9. Viva Las Vegas

    Viva Las Vegas Elvis has left the building

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    Excellent trip report as always BeeeJay & awesome pics!

    Glad you came home a winner.
     
  10. VegasDog

    VegasDog High-Roller

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    Great report. Just adjust your thinking to a break-even Vegas trip and a free furnace!
     
  11. BeeeJay

    BeeeJay President of The Red Lobster Hostess Satisfaction

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    i knew that furnace was about to go because it nearly exploded every time it kicked on and it was really old. It was actually right by my computer desk in the basement and scared the hell out of me. It turned out to have a back draft and could have easily blown me up. This new one is a lot quieter and I'm glad we got it in before this cold spell. The worst thing was losing my 2 1/2 week Phoenix/Vegas trip in January to extra work. Now I will freeze rather than playing golf that whole time. Glad to just have the extra work now that the world is ending according to the media.
     
  12. delo

    delo Low-Roller

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    That was a great read. And the pictures were great, too.
    At least you won enough to pay for the furnace. LOL

    Thanks for taking the time to post.
     
  13. BeeeJay

    BeeeJay President of The Red Lobster Hostess Satisfaction

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    Thanks,

    I am wondering if the good offers will continue once the slow season is over. Hoping to continue trips to vegas every other month or so but I'm guessing the good offers will end as the weather improves in the spring.
     
  14. Bottom9th

    Bottom9th Tourist

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    Great report and pics. Thanks for sharing!
     
  15. alicia

    alicia Low-Roller

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    Nice pics.... and nice naked one of you in the mirror of the palazzo bathroom lol. :ssst:

    I'm on a time limit but I can't wait to read the report!
     
  16. gmoney590

    gmoney590 VIP Whale

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    Great report and pics. I see that not much has changed with the Riv rooms or food.
     
  17. SCRATCH73

    SCRATCH73 Assman

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    :thumbsup: Awesome TR as usual! Thanks for sharing!!
     
  18. BeeeJay

    BeeeJay President of The Red Lobster Hostess Satisfaction

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    its like an accidental benny hill shot......i COULD be wearing a leopard skin male g-string that came free in the Palazzo gift basket!
     
  19. alicia

    alicia Low-Roller

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  20. tjwoody

    tjwoody Tourist

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    yeah i was looking through the pics and came across the one in the shower! lol

    btw, wheres the hooker pics?! :wink2::beer::thumbsup:
     
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