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Chocolate Chips & A Private Jet

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by Bo333, Jan 29, 2011.

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  1. Bo333

    Bo333 VIP Whale

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    My Trip Report

    This trip took place in December.
    Sorry it took me so long to get this report up. As soon as I got back from Vegas work decided to explode!
    Starts off with lots of prologue to set the stage…
    Anyway, here it is:

    --------------------------

    None of my normal buddies (or the gf) could make this trip. So I thought why not invite some old buddies from Michigan (I live in Texas now). I haven’t seen these two guys in years and was very surprised they both said yes. While I’m friends with both of them, they don’t know each other. Even at my age you hope your friends will get along - if not like each other. While I know they both gamble at casino’s (Windsor & Detroit have had them for a while), neither has been to vegas before.

    So, the players:
    Josh is one of these guys that women throw themselves at. They have his whole life to the point where he doesn’t pay much attention to it anymore. Best described he is the kind of guy that when wearing jeans and a t-shirt still gives the impression that he is in a tux. While he has a good job his bankroll is about half of mine.

    Robbie has never worked a day in his life. Not that he isn’t very driven, he just never had to work a day in his life. I think he spends his time day trading because he likes beating other people at the game. A few times he told me what he lost before breakfast, it’s more then I make in a year.

    After making my plane reservation, Robbie said why doesn’t he just pick me up on his way to vegas? So I said “YOUR DRIVING TO VEGAS?!â€. To which there was a rather strange silence followed by “I have my own planeâ€. And silly me now has in his mind something like a Cessna, which was clarified to be that he has his own private jet. Yes, Robbie and I live in different worlds (his seem like a lot more fun!).

    So Robbie is going to give Josh a lift and as the mutual friend who doesn’t have the opportunity to introduce them to each other or be a buffer I’m slightly worried. But nothing to be done but wait for the day!

    So the day arrives and I’m dropped off at the private hangers here in Austin. I’ve been on 2 private jets in my life and they were both corporate. They were miserable little things, and although the trips were very short I would rather have been on commercial.

    Let’s just say Robbie’s jet is nothing like those. It was huge and had it’s own stewardess!
    And my trepidations about Josh and Robbie getting along were laid to rest. It was pretty obvious that they were getting along. Considering it was noon they both seem fairly looped. Needless to say this was the best flight to vegas ever! We went through a lot of expensive Champaign and way too much good Vodka (note to self, avoid this combination in the future!). The stewardess was trying (very subtly) to flirt with Josh (of course), but he didn’t even notice. Robbie and I were almost hysterical with laughter because of it (ok the bottles of Champaign might have helped).

    Robbie had a very large stretch limo waiting for us, which for an 8 minute ride seemed like a waste, but heaven forbid if we didn’t have a glass of Champaign in our hands at all times!

    We all checked into our rooms at MGM. First time I actually checked for bed bugs in hotel. Didn’t find any that introduced themselves to me.
    Had everyone meet me for some craps before dinner. I took out my standard $500, Josh did $300 and Robbie did $5k. About 30 minutes later we all had zilch, it was a really bad run and a nervous start to the trip. It went so fast we still had plenty of time left before dinner, so Robbie suggested a re-buy. So I took out another $500, Josh another $300 and Robbie asked for a HUGE marker. I was surprised at the amount and Josh had that WTF look on his face. The pit took back his players card and asked for his license, asked him a few check questions, and voila a whole lot of chocolate chips. (Well voila took about 15 mins.) No longer confusing Josh’s or my chips with Robbie’s anymore. Still on our bad streak I’m almost down to zero again when a bunch of ladies showed up to our table. Robbie said our luck is about to change and handed Josh and me a bunch of yellows and said lets make some money. I won’t put you through the whole conversation of ‘what are you doing giving us money’, but after a brief discussion we took his yellows as stake only. Besides the fact that he gave us more then I had brought for the whole trip I was now betting blacks as my smallest chip, which is a bizarre feeling for someone who’s base chips are usually red, sometimes green, and if I have a black one on the table my heart is usually pounding and I’m drunk! While I’m still betting like I always do, except the chips are black and purple, Josh is now very conservative in his betting. Our luck really didn’t improve much and I’m starving, so I say lets go. Robbie says lets do one more bet all in. I still have more money in the rack then is in my safe, so it was a little surrealistic and hugely scary to put that much money out there all on the PASS line. Josh took some convincing and I was pretty sure he was starting to turn green from lack of oxygen – so I yelled over to him to breath. The girl that was now the shooter looked really nervous too, didn’t blame her. She rolled so that I could only see one die which had a 1 on it, I immediately thought oh no, it’s gonna be a craps. The stick man couldn’t see the other die either as it was hiding behind the dealer stack, he said call it and the dealer said 7! I’m sure I did some sort of yelp, Josh was breathing again, and Robbie was whopping it up. As I was reaching for my vast amount of winnings Robbie said we should let it ride. I’m like are you kidding! I convince him to pull back half, well I pull back half and Josh follows, Robbie lets most of his ride, he did pull back some. My heart is pounding with excitement now, at least I can give Robbie most of his money.
    So after about another up and down hour I had made back double my buy in, Josh about 4 times his and Robbie got to tear up his marker and still have chips - we finally got to go to dinner!
    [As an aside: I was curious to see what the staff was going to do when Robbie handed Josh and me a handful of yellows each, so I kept my eyes on them. I’m absolutely sure the box kept track of exactly who’s money was whom as he not only typed a bunch of stuff into the computer as this was going on, but also started writing a bunch of stuff down on some paper. When we went to cage there was a supervisor there, and I’m sure she was waiting for us. It took a while to get the cash this time with a bunch being written down. I assume they are looking for some foul play. But Josh and I had given Robbie back all his chips except for about 2 times our buy in. I think the supervisor looked relieved as this basically went on in front of her.]

    We went over to Craftsteak for a leisurely dinner, during which my host comes over to say hi and introduces another host to Robbie. It was a very bizarre thing as there were now 2 conversations going on and I was trying to eaves drop on the other one! Anyway Josh and I got offered suites and as it turns out Robbie was already in a suite and got offered an even nicer one. It ended up that Josh was going to be in Robbie’s new suite since it has plenty of room while I was happy with my previously asked for room (I won’t go into all the boring details of that).
    As it turns out Robbie gambles quite a bit at MGM Detroit, so getting that marker no doubt triggered a bunch of flags and my host doesn’t handle players that big. This is all guessing on our part, but made for a lot of interesting dinner conjecture. It must have been the big eye in the sky watching us because we didn’t even know where we going for dinner and the hosts managed to find us before the meal was served.
    After dinner we went back to the craps tables until early morning. We were up and down all night but I ended down about $200.

    On the way back to our rooms we met a few nice women that couldn’t wait to keep us company. I being the gentlemen I am decided that I must help the young lady with her college fund. She was a very nice girl and sometimes nothing beats sleeping cuddled up to a warm body.

    I woke up the next morning with the young lady coming back into the room, she went and got us some coffee and muffins! (This was a first and a surprise.) Had a nice breakfast with her before we parted ways.

    I did the long trek to the MGM gym (why did they have to put it so far away from the room?). Worked out for an hour or so, Still can’t believe they charge for it (I charged it to my room, hope it gets comp’d).

    After showering, met the guys for pizza at the food court. Pizza was really good, if somewhat expensive.

    We played some craps for a few hours at MGM, then decided to walk over to NYNY. Played a few hours of blackjack there where I cleaned up. I was playing a modified progressive betting strategy and had some nice streaky runs. Been a long time since I’ve done that well.

    Went to Luxor and played Pai Gow poker for a long time. Josh came out way ahead. Robbie and I lost a bit.
    We ate dinner at Tenders. Had some great steaks. Service was wonderful. There was a large table not far from us that was a wedding party and Robbie bought them a round of drinks which they seem to appreciate.
    Robbie has an interesting etiquette for tipping. If he’s in a good meal he tips a large whole number, I’m sure we made those servers day.

    After dinner we played some craps at Luxor and got on a pretty good run. I turned my $500 into about 4K. Robbie was fluctuating huge amounts as his timing was off. A host came over an introduced himself (I wonder when they are signaled?).

    We walked over to the Mandalay Bay and played a few hours of Pai Gow before heading back for bed. Along the way back to the MGM I was approached time and again by the young working ladies. I must look like I really need to get laid as my buddies weren’t approached. It was becoming a joke to us.

    I of course took one lady up on her offer to contribute to her college fun. We played most of the night, but the girl from yesterday evening still clicked better with me.

    I must stop here as this will get real boring. The next 6 days were pretty much identical to the past day. We ate at different fine steak places but played and stayed on the south strip. Just more craps (majority) with some black jack and Pai Gow thrown in.

    I did play a bunch of holdem while waiting for my buddies to wake up every day. Playing holdem at MGM is an interesting experience. It’s a huge mix of people. A bunch of kids that are very aggressive who think they know how to play, a bunch of tourists, some locals, and what appears to be some pros.
    It was pretty easy to take everyone’s money. With the kids you play tight then aggressive and take all their money. The tourists and locals you have to play carefully because most don’t know what hands they really should be playing, just take advantage of them when you have good hands. Lastly, just try to stay out of the hands with the pros for the most part. So each day I played waiting for my buddies I won between $200-2K each day.

    I did end up contributing to my favorite girl’s college fund almost every night. One night she brought a friend, but I still liked just snuggling with her.

    The trip home was very nice but way more subdued. We were all barely alive. I have to say I’m going to miss the private jet more then just about anything. I think getting a taste of that might be worse then to just know it exists but not experienced.

    After having so much time to reflect on this trip it’s become one of those very pleasant memories. Some of it was really surrealistic, but all in all another great time in Vegas.
     
  2. IWannaBeInVegas

    IWannaBeInVegas VIP Whale

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    Sounds like a great trip. If its true i hope mine is half as good, but it almost sounds too good to be. Enjoyed reading.

    Sent from my EVO via Tapatalk pro.
     
  3. Ice Tray

    Ice Tray Low-Roller

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    wait wait wait - BACK UP HERE, you cant start a trip report THAT over the top with wine, woman, song, gobs of cash, slabs of filet mignon and private jets and then say "the next six days were pretty much the same" !!! :cry:

    I want every gory detail !!

    That must have been a completely epic trip. Your friend the low(er) roller who had never been to vegas is now permanently ruined for life having gotten the velvet rope treatment on his first trip out. How can he go back on his own dime now? What was his final take on the experience?


    .....WOW...just WOW.


    ...also I am still trying to picture going from the MGM/private jet/suite comps to playing Pai Gow at the Luxor - its not that its that bad but there is a perfectly good MANSION at MGM...just saying...;-)
     
  4. acoluzzi

    acoluzzi Low-Roller

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    You guys sure know how to do Vegas! Thanks for the trip report.
     
  5. Bo333

    Bo333 VIP Whale

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    I never know whether I'm boring people with all the gory details.
    It really is a just a repeat:
    - Me getting up and going to the gym (ok - a couple days I didn't make it)
    - Me playing poker.
    - Everyone up and eating lunch - seriously every day same pizza except when I was finally vetoed and we did the Burger Bar at MB)
    - Craps until we are tired of standing
    - Then either BJ or PG for an hour or 2 as a sit down break.
    - Fine dining (I like my steak, they never cared where we ate.)
    - More craps - then PG - then even more craps.
    - Me getting company (and my buddies if they weren't too drunk) [I'm even boring when it comes to the ladies, I kept having the same young lady over ever night/morning] (ok, that might be simplifying - there was at least 2 interesting stories about ladies without college funds - but this is Vegas board, not the bachelor board :nono:)

    Not that each craps session wasn't different and exciting. And it was a lot of fun having one of your buddies as the Chocolate Chip player at the table (although at one point we had 4 of them - the table finally hit $100 limit and we were still grandfathered in at $10).
    I'm just never sure whether people want to hear about the streaks when we're going crazy....or the other depressing ones. If you're not into craps I imagine it can be pretty boring to hear about the proposition bets that hit.

    While I'm sure Robbie will be (or already has been) invited to the Mansion, Josh and myself never will :cry: (at least not until one of gets independently wealthy :ssst:)

    Although Robbie is wealthy you'd never know it. He'd sit at a $5 bj table just to be social. Although he might decide to play blacks at that table, it would never cross his mind to go to a higher limit table.

    And while we did play Pai Gow at the Luxor several times, all the late night/morning sessions were at MB at higher limits.

    We even played at Excalibur for a while, Robbie didn't care, but Josh hated the place because he said it smelled of smoke. We hate the craps at NYNY because they always seem to be jerks, but we did play a lot of BJ & PG there.

    So we basically did a lot of walking/playing at MGM/NYNY/Excal/Lux/MB...there were several late night rides from MGM->MB and back because we were too lazy to walk.
    (I actually had a very cute cab driver kiss me because of the tip we gave her - we felt bad for such a short cab drive that we gave her a HUGE tip, ok it was Robbie's money but I was in the front seat to hand it to her.)

    We did hit the Monty Carlo a few times and had great runs at the craps tables. But it was like a ghost town when we were there.....kept looking for tumble weeds to blow through the place.


    Josh had a great time. He's such a 'take it in stride' kinda guy it's hard to get the wow factor from him. Although I could tell he was impressed with suite (he actually commented on it more then once). And like me, the private jet really is the wow factor.
    And i KNOW he was really excited about the meals all ending up being comped. That seemed to really make his day when we checked out.
    The few times we were playing with Robbie's money was actually more nerve racking then playing with your own.
    I know Josh and I both felt very responsible, so the excitement of having yellow and purple on the table is more nerve racking then my own reds and greens because it is a buddies money. There is just that sense of responsibility - oh my god - i just lost $5K of his money.....really not a good feeling.

    I don't know about Josh, but I'm certainly ruined. I just had to make a commercial plane reservation!
     
  6. TrekTiger

    TrekTiger Tourist

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    For your sake I hope this was a real trip but on a lot of levels I feel that the board is being trolled here
     
  7. KnotGillty

    KnotGillty High-Roller

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    Hell, even if it is fake, I still got sucked into the Fantasy. I was right there with you Bo333.:drunk:

    Thanks for sharing . . .
     
  8. nhcris

    nhcris VIP Whale

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    Although that trip was about as different from mine as is possible, it sure was a fun read!! Goes to show there's lots of ways to have fun in vegas :cheers:
     
  9. jgates8

    jgates8 VIP Whale

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    Real or fake - who cares - it was a great way to spend a Saturday evening!
     
  10. luvnvegas2

    luvnvegas2 Guest

    If Robbie never worked, where does his money come from?
     
  11. RockyBalboa

    RockyBalboa Front Line Winner

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    Holy effin' shit! Loved it.

    I am a craps player so I would like to hear more details of the props and what your strategy is.

    Any sports betting while out there?
     
  12. mark_in_wi

    mark_in_wi Tourist

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    Great report

    I thought it was a great trip report. Thanks for sharing!:beer:
     
  13. resutoran

    resutoran Tourist

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    I think the verdict is WE WANT MORE OF THIS TR!! How much did Robbie win ?! and Josh didn't get ALL the drunk girls? :faint:
     
  14. rayrat

    rayrat Low-Roller

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    Geez I loved this report!!:nworthy:
     
  15. Jersey_Bill

    Jersey_Bill High-Roller

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    Yeah, I thought that day trading was such a 90s thing (well maybe for a few years into this century - but not past the collapse).

    I know several people who have retired at 35 to day trade - but while they have done well and have better bankrolls than me (saying something), none are in the private jet class, not even with Net Jets. I am on one of the private jet rental mailing lists and from the discounts it sounds like this service is really hurting these days.

    But I tend to trust people - but verify when I can - so I will just enjoy the story and wish I were there....

    JZB
     
  16. IWannaBeInVegas

    IWannaBeInVegas VIP Whale

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    So how much was the orginal bank roll, how much was the female company, how much was won and lost?
     
  17. Tuna

    Tuna High-Roller

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    Bo has been on the board for quite some time now, unless there's something in his report that contradicts itself then you give him the benefit of the doubt. IMO it's very disrespectful to call the man a liar on a hunch. It was a great read, it's not necessary to try and be a sleuth...

    Great report Bo, I really enjoyed it.
     
  18. Jersey_Bill

    Jersey_Bill High-Roller

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    Agree Tuna -

    This is just such a different world that I am sure I am not the only one to wonder "how do you trip into that???"

    I never meant to challenge another member's story - but only to note that it's beyond my own experience so I tend to lose my frames of reference.

    I know finance and day trading a lot more than I know the elite set in Vegas - so I was just adding my perspective...

    JZB
     
  19. Big Tip

    Big Tip VIP Whale

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    Agree, ditto, and agree.

    What possible motive do these doubting Thomases have in questioning the validity of this report? The end result will be scaring off people from posting interesting reports. Not real smart.

    "If Robbie never worked, where does his money come from?"
    Seriously? Just because YOU have to work, doesn't mean everyone has to. Some people are born into wealthy families, etc.

    If Robbie ever comes through Austin again, and he needs to balance out the weight on the jet, give me a call! Have gambling stash, will travel.
     
  20. joyglen

    joyglen MIA

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    Give everyone the benefit of the doubt. Most tell the truth, some create ficition and yet others assume you should fit into their world for some strange reason.

    I say, take everyone at face value until you have concrete proof otherwise.

    Then, this is an internet board, who needs who's approval and for what???? (The only real problem is if, you base a decision on someone's false posting about such and such and you were to really rely on what they were posting in the first place).

    On another note, I have gambled with and met people in Vegas and A.C. that play with chip values equal to homes that are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or on occasion, millions! All alongside my peon looking $50k or $100k in chips (or whatever amount I had out there). I don't envy any of them, but sure--at times I would like to have a $100K wager in front of me and not give a damn if I lose it or not.

    My life is my life and I am happy with it. You never know how messed up the next guy's life is sitting next to you or what is health is like.

    The same as when I am playing or socializing with someone that appears to have a hundred times or a thousand times over the chips I do in front of me. I try my best to enjoy the moment and what we are there for. If I don't I move on and do my own thing by myself, the same as on this or any other internet board.

    Why accuse or demean anybody for anything. What is the purpose???

    I like being a part of this community and hate to see 'wrong' statements, by an O.P. or a reply. Enjoy the moment, if not, move on.
     
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