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Matt Money And Friends Invade Vegas!

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by mgreeley1, Oct 18, 2004.

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  1. mgreeley1

    mgreeley1 Tourist

    Joined:
    May 23, 2004
    Messages:
    28
    Location:
    Jacksonville Florida
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    23

    My Trip Report

    The "characters" that will be mentioned in the following trip report are as follows:

    Me (Matt Money)
    My Brother (Utah)
    Our Friend (The Bomber)


    The alarm wakes me up at around 5:30 AM on the morning of October 13 2004 to the sweet sounds of U2's latest hit "Vertigo." I fly out of bed still tired but, ready to hit Vegas with the boys for yet another classic trip. This will be our first trip to Vegas with an outsider however, having partied with The Bomber himself before, I know he will be an excellent addition to the gang.

    We arrive at the airport right on schedule and all make our way to our respective flights on time. Utah, Bomber, and I are all on a different flight because, Bomber was a last minute addition to the trip and I myself am flying on a buddy pass on Air Tran to try and save some money (big mistake). I arrive at the gate well before the flight takes off and check in with the front gate person who informs me the flight is sold out and that I will have to wait until just before take off until he will be able to confirm if I can make the flight or not. No worries I figure as I have had good luck with these standby flights in the past. I wait for a while as the plain slowly boards until all the listed passengers are on the plane as they begin to call out the standby passengers names. Long story short here is that they have room for all the standby people except me even though I was there and checked in before 2 of them. The little "customer service" lady working the counter responds with "sorry I didn't see you there" and tries to get me booked on a later flight. I try and argue that I checked in with her associate but, he is no where to be found at this point so I am SOL. I try and get on the next flight that leaves in 2 hours but, I am told that they have overbooked that flight even worse then this one. Feeling frustrated with these clowns at this point and wanting to get my trip started before next year, I decide to head over to Delta and purchase a one-way ticket to Vegas that leaves in 45 minutes. Delta comes through in the clutch and soon I am on board leaving for Vegas so all is well. [​IMG]

    Day 1 (Drinks and Poker)

    I arrive in Vegas a few hours later and get a message from Utah saying he and Bomber have picked up my bag and to meet them over at the MGM Grand. Sweet! The boys really took care of me on that one! I arrive at MGM as soon as I sit through the long cab line at the airport and I am soon at MGM meeting up with the boys and ready to start the adventure. We head over to Luxor and sit down to play in the $100 NL Hold Em' poker game. Our table seems pretty cool and has a variety of players including some calling stations and a few average players. One of the guys is obviously pretty new to the game and busts out at least 3-4 times before claiming "man that was tough but I am having so much fun!" I am glad this guy is having fun dropping over $400 especially since we end up winning some big pots off this guy. My best hand comes when my AA holds up against KK and I take down a huge pot over a very cool guy from California who is a spitting image of Christian Slater. We stay at the game for about 3 hours before the table splits up and we jump over to the $2-$4 table for a while before heading out to Mandalay Bay.

    The Island Lounge at MB is our next stop as we review our poker play over a few drinks. This place has always been a favorite place of mine because of the excellent bands that play there and the relaxing atmosphere. Bomber seems to like the place quite a bit and we stay there and pound drinks for about 2 hours before deciding to head over to Rum Jungle for some dinner and some more drinks. At Rum Jungle we are greeted by one of the bartenders (Greg) who we end up seeing every trip. Greg makes some of the best drinks in town and never fails to get us nice and hammered. This time is no exception as we sit there for 2 hours and get completely wasted off of Greg's potent beverages. [​IMG] At around 9:30 we decide that we need to chill on the drinks or we will all be passed out by 11. Utah wants to hit The Mirage and play some more poker so off we go to engage in another marathon poker session. At this point we still really haven't been to our room and our bags are still with the bell hop. No worries though as this is Vegas and our less then stellar attire will fit in perfectly at the Mirage Poker room.

    We show up at The Mirage poker room completely hammered [​IMG] and sit down at the $3-$6 table and get started in a very entertaining game. Bomber and I are so wasted we are playing with our sunglasses on and Utah is just sitting there laughing at us. The game progresses as we end up joking with the rest of the table and commenting on every hand that is played. Bomber gets busted out when he has and ace high flush but looses to a lady next to him who has a 9 high straight flush! Ouch! Bomber gets pissed and leaves the table to play some other table games while Utah and I sit there and continue to grind it out with the rest of the group. The game continues on for another 2 hours before Bomber comes flying into the room and re-buys at the table for another $100. At this point we have continued drinking at a steady pace and are probably growing more annoying with each passing hand. Bomber dubs the lady who busted him out "Straight Flush" and refers to her by that name the rest of the evening. Utah ends up winning some pretty big pots while Bomber and I hold our own before I go on tilt and end up busting out myself around 2:00 AM. The lesson to be learned here is not to play poker drunk because I could have probably made some serious money at the table. We leave to poker room a few minutes later and after being up over 24 hours we decide to head over to MGM Grand and actually check in and go to sleep. However, we are all pretty hungry at this point so we hit the 24 hour diner and get some grub before going to bed around 3:00. Day 1 is in the books and gets an A-because of the Air Tran drama.

    Day 2 (Poker, Miami Game, Tangerine)

    I wake up at around 9:30 AM with quite possibly the biggest case of cotton mouth ever. [​IMG] Lucky for me Utah has been up a while and has gone out and picked up a huge bottle of Gatorade. After a much needed shower and shave we all head over to Excalibur to play in the $100 No-Limit game. The table ends up being another collection of classics. One of the players that sits down is your typical "New Yorker" and likes to tell everybody how he plays each hand. This guy ends up being a bigger donation- station then the joker from yesterday and re-buys at least 5 times during the game. I sucker him in on a huge pot when I flop quad 5's and he ends up raising me all in with his straight. [​IMG] We play for about another hour before Bomber and I decide to go and get some food around 4:00 while Utah tries to stay and recover from some tough earlier beats.

    We end up back at MB at a great little place to eat called "Red White and Blue." This restaurant has a nice selection of food with huge portions and pretty decent prices. I ordered the gumbo which, was very delicious and Bomber had a huge turkey sandwich that he couldn't even finish. Utah joins us in a while and has some gumbo himself before we head over to the sports book to watch the Miami-Louisville football game. The game ends up being a true classic. Miami goes down big in the first half before coming alive in the second half and mounting a huge comeback and ends up winning the game late in the 4th quarter. [​IMG] After this exciting game me and the boys decided to head over to Mirage and do some more gambling. Bomber and I hit the roulette table for a while Utah decides to play some more poker. After a couple of hours of gambling action the group heads over to Tangerine at Treasure Island to check out the party scene. First of all, Vegashost has us taken care of us already so getting in and past the line was a breeze. Once we entered this very cool club we made our way over to the bar and ordered some drinks. Tangerine is a very interesting place because it is kind of a cross between a club and a lounge. It has a small dance floor combined with a small VIP area with couches. The outside is a huge patio area with a nice view of the Venetian. We ended up running into a casino buddy at the bar and hung out with him for a while we observed the social scene going down. This place has a nice guy/girl ratio and the crowd seemed to be mostly middle/late 20's and early 30's people. After about an hour we were approached by 2 cute college girls (their names escape me at this time) from UNLV who seemed very nice and I am sure mom would have loved them;) These girls were very friendly so we basically just stayed and partied with them until they kicked everybody out of the club at 3AM. At this point one of the girls suggested we continue the party at another club up the street. Not having to twist our arms too bad we all piled in her car and headed out for parts unknown. However, this adventure was short lived as one of our UNLV friends turns out to be 19 and got rejected at 2 places we tried to get in to. After driving around for a bit more and getting lost plus the fact that miss 19 year old was 19 and passed out in the front seat, we decided to have our driver drop us off at our hotel and call it a night. Day 2 gets a solid A for the gambling wins, Miami Football win, and the cool UNLV girls we met at Tangerine.

    Day 3 (Gambling, The OG, Margaritaville, Her Name Is Rio)

    For some strange reason I wake up at 9:00 AM Friday wired and ready to go despite only getting around 4 hours of sleep the night before. This seems pretty normal for me in Vegas so, I get up and head over to Luxor to sign my crew up for the 12:00 poker tournament. After returning to fetch Utah and Bomber we head over to Excalibur to get some delicious McDonald's breakfast (double cheese and fries) before hitting the Luxor at noon. None of us fare that well in the tournament and after about 90 minutes we all meet up and decide the next move for the day. Utah and Bomber head over to Mirage to play some more poker while I go back to MGM to hit the pool for a while and relax. The pool area was very cool with 4 or 5 separate pools all in one large area. The drink service was fast and the water temperature was perfect. I took a much needed nap at the pool for about 90 minutes and then headed over to Flamingo to meet the guys at Margaritaville around 5:00. The place was packed since, Jimmy Buffet himself was in town tomorrow night for a concert. I was able to get us seating on the upper deck and we spent the next 2 hours relaxing with some great food and cold drinks. This place has now become a favorite place of mine and Utah and Bomber agreed that it would have to be a staple for future trips. While enjoying our yummy casadillas (the best I have ever had) we notice a gorgeous brunette (we will call her blue skirt since that is what she was wearing) sitting across from us with a guy around her own age. We all figured them for a couple and paid them no attention as we continued with our diner. However, Bomber mentioned that he thought she was staring at us every few minutes so we all glanced over to see if he was right and sure enough he was. She would glance over and smile every few minutes before turning back to the guy she was with and talking with him. This little game went on for quite some time much to our enjoyment. It was almost like the final scene from Swingers in the coffee shop except this lady didn't have any kids with her! Anyway, we all waved goodbye to her as we headed back to the MGM to get ready for our next adventure to Olympic Gardens.

    We arrive at the OG around 8:30 and walked past the line and the cover charge thanks again to my boy Vegashost. The place is already starting to fill up so we head over to the "corner of sin" and grab a couch. Immediately, some of the ladies walk by that figure you for an ATM and try the quick sell. I prefer to talk with someone at first to see what they are like before dropping my hard earned money in their g-strings so, I pass on these early efforts. After a litle while Bomber gets himself a lap dance and the marathon run of dances and conversations with the strippers begins. Bomber is quite taken back by the whole scene here because, in Atlanta the girls have to stand 3 feet away from you while dancing for you. Not so here at the OG where they prefer a more "up close and personal" approach. Anyway, we all end up with our favorite ladies for the evening that gain most of our money and time. These girls were very cool and we have a blast hanging out with them and partying for the next 2-3 hours. At this point Utah notices that Bomber is getting out the ATM card for another run at the cash. We decide to pull the eject handle and bail out of the club before it ends up with all of our money. Outside we get in a cab and Bomber and Utah head over to Mirage to gamble some more and I head over the Rio to keep the party going. [​IMG]

    I head over to Rio around 11:30 and after all is said and done at the Voodoo Lounge I ended up hanging out with a very gorgeous lady named Kelly (think a shorter version of Jennifer Love Hewitt) who, turns out to be friends with a girl I used to go to high school with. Kelly was with a girlfriend of hers (I will call her the river) who was pretty wasted when I got there. I tried to include "the river" in our conversation but, at this point she was so wasted it didn't help. This was the point in the trip that I could have used one of my quality wingmen from back home like Uncle Paulie or Joe to help me out. However, neither were with me on this trip so I had to try and fend for myself. After about 2 hours of chatting with Kelly her friend pulls the ultimate drunk move and passes out cold at the bar. :( I would equate this move to getting busted out on the river at poker. You have the best hand and are the favorite to win going in yet, get busted out by some amazing stroke of bad luck with the last card. I help Kelly get her friend down to a cab and after getting (the river) situated in the cab she asks what I am doing tomorrow night. I interpret this statement as (I really like you but I have to be a friend and take care of "the river" tonight so why don't we hook up tomorrow night?) I decide to cut my losses with "the river" (she could pull this trick again tomorrow night) and give Kelly a hug goodnight thinking what might have been. I get into a cab and head back over to Mirage to meet up with Utah and Bomber as the new hit song by Avril Lavigne plays called "So Much For My Happy Ending"...a very fitting song here indeed.

    I meet up with Bomber at the AvA bar when I arrive at The Mirage. This bar is always a favorite of mine because the music is excellent and the atmosphere is just great. We spend the next several hours dancing with some ladies and enjoying the excellent house band. We close the place down until around 4:00 when we decide to head back to MGM and crash. As we approach the elevator we wait for the door to open and all enter at the same time with some other people. Much to our surprise it is blue skirt girl and the random guy earlier from Margaritaville! They are not alone this time and have several female friends with them. At this point we all just start laughing so hard and start a brief drunken conversation with these people until we depart on the 18th floor. We figure this was a pretty funny way to cap off a great Friday night in Vegas and crash around 4:30 AM . Day 3 gets an A for simply being the best all around day of the trip.

    Day 4 (Time To Go)

    We all wake up around 10:00 and pack up our bags while go over some great highlights of our amazing trip so far. The trip truly has been a great time and we agree that it has been one of the best ever. After checking out and doing some souvenir shopping we head over to Mandalay Bay for some final poker action and sports betting. Bomber hits the sports book while Utah and I give the $4-$8 game a shot one last time. After several hours of play and a positive winning session for the both of us we decide to bail out and go get some dinner around 6:00. We hit RWB again for some dinner and then went to Cold Stone at Excalibur for some dessert. This place makes perhaps the best ice cream ever and at the end of dessert we were all really full. After a try at the 5 Million+ jackpot on the Wheel of Fortune machine we all pile in a cab and left for the airport to head home. I kind of figured in the back of my mind that I was going to get shafted again by Air Tran but, I decided to give it another shot. I went to the Air Tran counter early and enquired about getting a seat on the next flight out. I was told by the counter lady that the flight was again oversold and that they were taking names for a waiting list. She then looks over at me and tells me that I am not dressed appropriately for standby (evidently you have to be dressed business casual to fly standby which, is funny since I have flown standby 3x in the past wearing shorts and a t-shirt and nobody has ever said anything to me before). She then proceeds to hand me a list of things that you can't wear on the plane including sandals, a t-shirt, and shorts. This combined with the fact that my Blunt Brothers t-shirt is considered "offensive" makes it impossible for her to even put me on the waiting list for standby. Not wanting to have to go change and risk being shut out again I go over to America West and get a seat with Bomber and Utah. Our flight home is spoiled by some obnoxious people including those that snore as loud as lions, put their feet up on your arm rest, talk in an "outdoor" voice on a red-eye flight, and those that feel the need to keep the reading light on the entire trip! LOL. We arrive in Atlanta and are home by 7 AM where me and Utah crash pretty hard dreaming of yet another amazing trip to the greatest city in the world.

    Closing Thoughts

    1-Never fly standby or on a buddy pass unless you are dressed in a suit and can afford to wait for 2-3 later flights.
    2-MGM Grand was excellent both food and room wise. I would recommend it to anybody that is thinking of staying there.
    3-Mr. Bill Le is the real deal and was a pleasure to do business with. If you are thinking of hitting Vegas and don't want to wait in line for hours or, pay cover then by all means give him a call.
    4-Don't get worried if some minor things don't go your way on a Vegas trip (airlines, people you meet etc..) because the highlights of the trip wash all the minor negative things when all is said and done at the end of the trip.
    5-Vegas is the only city in the world you can go and beat up your body and wallet for 4 days and after a few recovery days want to go back and do it all over again.
    6-I can't wait to go back in 6 weeks for my 30th birthday party!
    7-Thanks to all on this board who offered suggestions and advice for my trip. This site is truly one of the best on the Internet and a great resource for Vegas information. Now if you all will excuse me I think I am going to pass out and sleep for a month.

    Until Next Time,

    Matt Money

    [ October 18, 2004, 09:41 AM: Message edited by: mgreeley1 ]
     
  2. CamelClutch

    CamelClutch Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2004
    Messages:
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    Location:
    Michigan
    Well done. I enjoyed this report--it really captured the essence of a Vegas trip, and your "closing thoughts" #4 and #5 (and #7) are so true...
     
  3. ChrisMLV1

    ChrisMLV1 Guest

    Matt,

    Great trip report dude! I met you at Rio on Friday night with some of my friends and you told me about this site (we were the big group on the 51st floor to the left of the bar). Sorry to hear that Kelly's friend broke up your party bro..that chick was really hot! LOL. Anyway, it was fun talking with you in Vegas and thanks for the information on this site. I am e-mailing all my friends today and having them register here on T2V!
     
  4. Vegas Tonya

    Vegas Tonya Margarita Connoisseur

    Joined:
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    Great report Matt. I agree that you can't let the little things spoil your trip. Because in the end the fun and drinking is what mattered...Oh Yeah and Winning!

    Thanks for sharing.
     
  5. mgreeley1

    mgreeley1 Tourist

    Joined:
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    Location:
    Jacksonville Florida
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    23
    Thanks for the feedback so far everybody! It was a great trip indeed. Chris I do remember running into you at and your friends at Rio last Friday night. I think we talked about college football and Vegas! Glad I could turn you on to the T2V site.
     
  6. sin

    sin VIP Whale

    Joined:
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    Matt great report! Thanks so much for posting and I'm glad you all know how to roll with the punches and have a great time!
     
  7. mgreeley1

    mgreeley1 Tourist

    Joined:
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    Thanks sin. It was such a great trip and I can't wait to go back and do it all over again in 6 weeks.
     
  8. vegashost

    vegashost Guest

    Awesome detailed report. Looks like you got the most out of vegas while here. Glad you didn't let the minor set backs ruin your trip. Looking forward to your return.
     
  9. JR Swift

    JR Swift VIP Whale

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    Nice report. You all did it right. I'm afraid I'm stuck with this (imaginary) mental image of "blue skirt" for the rest of my coherent days...probably not that many.
     
  10. mgreeley1

    mgreeley1 Tourist

    Joined:
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    LOL.

    Thanks JR. I have had the image of her stuck in my head since I came back on Sunday!
     
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