Vegas Trip V

Vegas trip V is planned for early June and I hope to be able to provide updates from LV each day. Failing that I will write them exactly one year in arrears.

This is my first trip report so bear with me!

I fly from the UK via Philly (hope that brings me the same luck as Jilly! Interestingly the Palazzo was one of the hotels I posted a profit at last time!). I arrive Vegas in the early evening which certainly beats the 2100 arrival last year. Total flight cost was a very reasonable £550 and I'm paying the princely sum of $12.50 for six nights. This does, however, leave me with a room change after two nights. Still, the price was right.

The plan is to get te traditional limo to The STRAT (this is the ONLY extravagant thing I do while there - helps me get into the holiday spirit). Then a quick rinse in the spa tub (comped room for 2 nights).

After that, I'll venture on to a particular slot that has payed out on the first night on my last 3 trips. For a buy in of no more than $20 I have won $150, $250 and $200 within minutes. The $250 is my biggest slot win in the US to date - but I rarely play slots. I also hit the same machine whilst passing through LV one day for another $125. Can history repeat itself?

Then it's time for dinner at Fellini's (great restaurant and it's about the same price as pub food in the UK). This will be followed by a BJ game at the party pit (I know it's 6:5 but the girls are worth it! I play single deck anyway so barely notice the difference). After 15-20 beers, I might drunkenly saunter into the HL slots like last year.

Beyond that, I'm not sure what the week holds in store!

A few things I'm determined to try are: Baccarat, not played before other than on my iPhone.

Also, the match play deal at the Trop, and hopefully the Cosmo if it is extended again. Depending on how these two go, I may also give the palms a try as I'm hoping to be back twice within 12 months.

I also want to extend the number of casinos I visit, despite having spent a total of 26 days in town I have only gambled at 7 strip casinos and 1 downtown. This has to change this time!

 

Have a great trip!!!!!!!!

 

Sounds like a very good time...Good Luck!!

 

Day One - A Lonnnnnng Day

So, I departed from the UK at 11.00 flying in to Philadelphia before connecting on to Vegas. This made for a total of 14 hours of travel, excluding getting to the airport from home (about 1/2 hour). The first flight itself was pleasant and after a 30 minute queue at immigration it was plain sailing. Or so I thought. Another 30 minutes waiting at security and on to the departure gates. I was amazed to see how run down Philly airport was for a major hub, the airport was hugely busy and we were lucky to get seats for the forty minute wait for boarding.

I always hate the connecting flight, very little to do and you can almost hear the slots pinging and chips shuffling. After another five hours, and very severe turbulance when landing at LAS (I never throw up on a plane but was pretty darn close this time!), and we were there. Time to grab a Starbucks before the luggage arrived at the conveyor.

It never ceases to amaze me how people stand right next to the conveyor whilst waiting for their luggage. I feel like screaming at them. Stand back until you see your case and then lift it off for goodness sake. A good percentage of the travellers are British, as we had a long weekend due to the Jubilee this week, which probably explains the stupidity. I can't get close enough to pick up my case the first time - but manage to shove somebody out of the way the second time to pick mine up.

I am approached by a gentleman in a suit enquiring if me and my travel companion required transport. I asked for a quote for a limo to the Stratosphere and recieve a quote of $70, which was equivalent to the quote from Bell Trans. So I take him up on the offer. He didn't actually have a limo, but what we were offered was fairly impressive so we went ahead, saves having to wait in line again. As we enter the vehicle, my alarm bell starts ringing. This guy, whilst he looked fairly official, solicited for business inside the airport and we have not gone through one of the airports official transport partners. For the next few minutes I am convinced we are about to be driven into the desert and robbed so I quickly stash by Benjamins in various places and begin to plot my escape from the vehicle should it become necessary. My mind is set at ease when we come up to the Hard Rock and he begins to head towards the Strat. Still - I made my first stupid decision of the trip here and won't be taking this risk again. I think I was slightly devoid of common sense here after such a long flight.

I tip the driver $20 for his trouble, partially as a reward for not robbing us, and proceed to check in. I am surprised that at 7pm on a Friday there is only a small queue and we are on the way to the rooms inside 10 minutes. The check in agent was extremely friendly and congratulated me on having my ID ready to check in, apparantly I am the first person that day to do so.

I am comped a Star Suite for the first two nights. I stayed in one of these before, just over two years ago, and really enjoyed the experience. I wouldn't pay for one, as I barely use the room unless I am loosing drastically and need to watch a movie to pass the time. What does baffle me though is that the Strat is yet to renovate any of the suites, having done a superb job on the standard rooms. As such, there are three patches of spackle in various places. The room has plenty of space including a seating area and dining area. The room directly looks upon the sky jump, which provides me with an additional source of free entertainment.

I drop off the luggage and head to the slot club to recieve my new player's card and $50 in promo chips. I also drop a Jackson into my lucky slot. No dice this time, the first ever time this machine has failed to pay for me on the first night. Then it's time for a quick shower and we hit Fellini's. I choose my regular dish of New York Sirloin with bell pepper and mushroom demiglaze. My friend orders a plain steak. I enjoy my steak blue but the waiter persuades me to try it black and blue, apparantly this adds an extra dimension to the flavour. We also order a Tuscan Chianti Reserva which I have had before and it really complements the taste of the meat. The service here is always very quick, and is helped by the fact we both eat rare meat. The presentation is outstanding and my entree is absolutely indescribable. The charred outer taste of the steak seeps into the demiglaze to give an almost smokey effect, the meat is tender and bursting with flavour. I, in all seriousness, would walk and swim to Vegas to experience this taste again. We finish up within 45 minutes eager to hit the tables.

My bankroll for the evening is slightly depleated due to the car and dinner so I'm left with $250 plus the $50 in freeplay. We head to the party pit for some single deck. By this point it's about 9 so I end up playing with my friend and a guy who just busted out of the evening poker tournament. I end up going back and forth with the dealer for about an hour whilst my friend is up a couple of hundred. We both bought in for $100 in red, and are tipping quite well. Friend has accumulated a few greens through pressing his bets.

After an hour or so he busts out, despite having been up he inexplicably begins betting green and it doesn't last long. I continue playing and after another while end up buying in for another $100. I am quite inibriated now, having been taking advantage of the cocktail service every 20 minutes or so. I pull out the freeplay chips and win on both, almost pulling back up to $200. I am sitting on about $180 and set myself the target of pulling back up to $200 and colouring up, after all I am getting fairly tired. $100 is put aside as the night's 'win fund'. So I bet $20 and lose. But that's OK because I can still bet $40 on the next hand and I'm bound to win...... You can guess how that one ended up. So I'm now down $200, plus $50 free play.

One point of interest was a hand where I pressed up to $25 and the dealer had 10 showing. We played through our hands and the dealer flips an ace. I think she forgot to check when dealing the cards, but she maintains that the ace wasn't visible in the mirror. One of the other players, quite rightly calls the floor, and (perhaps not as rightly) requests the hand be considered void. I don't think that is unreasonable since we have all been playing for three or more hours and had made donations to the casino. Yes, the blackjack trumps all hands, but it was not dealt properly. It was the hand before the shuffle anyway so I didn't particularly have a problem with the floorman's ruling that the hand would stand but I would be interested to hear other people's opinions on this. Anyway, a couple of hands later, the player who was particularly aggrieved by this had a 16 (face down), he hits for a six and then hits again for an eight. He throws over his hard thirty and again the floorman is called over. This move results in a shuffle and, in fact, a new deck of cards. Interestingly, this time, the hand is declared void because the house busted. Again, interested on anyone else's opinion on this.

The sensible thing to do now, with the time being around 1am would be to go to bed, considering wer had been on the go for 22 hours. But I didn't come to Vegas to be sensible. My friend dropped by the single deck several hours prior to inform me that he was going to bed. I buy into the craps table with what I have left, and somehow end up colouring for $100, having been up to $150 at one point. I bet only the pass line with partial odds and a come bet with partial odds. There was one roller who was on fire and paid off very nicely for everyone over about 20 minutes before crapping out. I like to save black chips for my last night so I go and trade my colour for a pair of Grants and head to the high limit slots.

I play the Double Diamond (only for $1 - I just like to sit in the HL room as I do it) and after a while of playing I end up with a push. I wish I could tell you what happened next but I think I ended up touring the slots for a while before playing max credits on the $1 video poker. On the third hand I end up hitting four aces for about $150.

Looking back on the rest of the first night reminds me of that clip from the Simpsons where Homer is trying to recall the antics of the previous night, I remember everything to colouring up in the craps game and all of a sudden there are slides simply stating 'Scene Missing'.

I do know that the last thing I did was to play $5 roulette (I haven't played roulette since my first trip three years ago), betting quarters on some outside bets, and nickels on inside 2, 7, 11 (x2), 27 and 33. 33 hit and I ended up pushing for my original buy in of $100. Another black chip for the inventory and I head back up to the room. To my astonishment, it is 5.30am and I am asleep for 6, having left for the airport 30 1/2 hours previously.

I need to conduct a count of the contents of the safe the following morning to work out that I end the first day.......


Down $250
*Includes all expenses, such as transport, tips and food.