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Drunkards, Degenerates, and DIAMOND (in a day), Oh My!

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by wikemang, Sep 15, 2012.

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  1. wikemang

    wikemang Tourist

    Joined:
    Sep 16, 2009
    Messages:
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    Trips to Las Vegas:
    5

    My Trip Report

    Background
    This trip was originally going to be my birthday trip in July. I was planning on heading out with a group of my fraternity brothers, but we ended up pushing it back to August in order to allow more people to go. Unfortunately, once August rolled around I couldn't get those clowns to commit, so I cancelled the trip.

    As luck would have it, another more gamble-oriented group was going in September (7-9) for my good friend's birthday and a basketball tournament. Since I hadn't been to Vegas since the beginning of January, 2012 (and I still don't remember over half of that trip..), I was itching to go. Two weeks out from the trip and my friend has to cancel the trip on account of work. So what the hell, after about five minutes of pondering, I decided to go with my friend who would be playing in the basketball tournament.

    The Players
    British Petroleum (BP)--Also known as "The Cambodian", BP is known for spilling drinks and sitting idly by while other people clean up his mess. He's a Japanese fellow who enjoys eating, drinking, and playing craps. We call him "The Cambodian" as a result of several waitresses thinking he was Cambodian.

    Boo-Boo--A short Japanese fellow who had the unfortunate luck of working closely with our 300+ pound Director of Logistics, otherwise known as Yogi. They shared a cubicle for a while..

    The Story
    I ended up calling my CET host for the first time in over a year to see if he could work some magic for me. We ended up getting a heavily discounted rate at Bally's for September 7-9, and I told my host I'd like to review my play at the end of the trip. He seemed a bit skeptical because I hadn't really put much play in for more than a year. Anyways, fast forward a bit...

    After several weeks of frustration and anger regarding several projects I was managing (and people I was working with), I decided to take all of Labor Day week off to "go off the grid" and recharge my patience. The Vegas trip would happen at the end of that week from September 7-9, and BP was going to drive us out there. Boo-Boo and I were planning to gamble and drink the whole trip, and BP was planning on splitting time between playing basketball (sometimes drunk) and gambling and drinking with us.

    As we all climbed into the car I remarked that if I left Vegas without at least Platinum, I would consider the trip to be a complete and utter failure. These guys know I am a gambler, and since I'd been talking about this trip for weeks they knew the spiel by heart at this point.

    During the drive I looked up horoscopes and began to get all my mojo lined up. All of my horoscopes were about doing chores and keeping my house clean, so we interpreted that to mean gambling might take a while, but I'd clean the house of all their money. A bit of a stretch, but hey, I'll take it! Their horoscopes on the other hand were much more conducive to positive gambling omens, and I was definitely a bit jealous.

    Four and a half hours later, we arrived in Vegas at around 2:15PM. Check-in was uneventful, and our room was much bigger and cleaner than I expected. Our room was quiet as we got a good location away from all the hoopla over at Carnival Court. This ultimately didn't matter because we spent very little time in the room.

    By 3PM we were down on the casino floor looking to make our first wagers. My initial plan was to play through $500 at a $1 or $2 DDB machine and see how long it lasted. With any luck I'd hit a nice run and be able to move to a $5 JOB machine and try to grind out diamond in a day (DIAD).

    I sat down at a DDB machine in the Bally's High Limit Slots and promptly (<20 minutes) blew through $500 without so much as a full house. BP and I got two drinks a piece, and Boo-Boo managed to get three. I'm not sure how this happened, but kudos to him. I mostly played $2 but eventually moved down to dollars when it was clear I was getting murdered. That didn't help, and I only ended up earning 142 tier credits (TC's). Ouch. Not good when you're trying to maximize your TC's per dollar spent.

    At this point we moved on to Paris through the tunnel to try our luck over there. I wasn't feeling too great about gambling, but I decided to give a $1 DDB machine a try at the progressive bank by the Paris Champagne Slots. BP and I each through $200 in a machine while Boo-Boo trolled for drinks. After about 15 minutes I hit my first quads of the trip: 4's with a 2 kicker for $800.

    I played the machine for a bit longer to see if it had anything else in store for me, but after peaking at around +$800 on the machine, I cashed out up $700 at the machine. This brought my net on the trip to +$200, which gave me a nice boost of confidence. Well, that and the drinks..:rolleyes2: BP ended up hitting quad aces no kicker for $800 about 10 minutes after I hit my quads and he cashed out a happy man. Boo-Boo was kicking himself for not playing with us!

    From here, we went over to a roulette table I always seem to end up playing at. We each bought in for $200. I continued my run of good luck by hitting some small numbers to stay afloat while I was betting $100/spin across 13 numbers. Meanwhile, my buddies were getting murdered playing around $20/spin but we were getting plenty of drinks and feeling good. After about our 7th or 8th spin at the table, I binked a black 17 with $20 straight up on it for a $700 score. I tipped the dealer enough to bring my total chip count to $700 (tipped about $20) and I colored up. Netted +$500 here, which is great for me since I usually end up dumping a ton of money at roulette.

    During our time at the table we met a girl from Boston who brought $10 to the table and played $5 each on two numbers. Well, she ended up hitting 27 for $175, colored up, and left the table without tipping the dealer. Lame.

    We also met a random guy who claimed he was a pit boss at Caesar's and he was at Paris to bet on the horses for his boss. We chatted him up and ended up following him over to the sports book to bet on horses because BP and I were up on the trip. Boo-Boo just didn't care and wanted to gamble. In our drunken stupor, we ended up giving money to the guy to place bets with ($50 a person per race for two races). I was convinced the guy was going to leave with our cash, but he didn't and he brought us the tickets. We lost the two races we bet on, and he won the other two races that we didn't bet on, go figure. We decided to peace out after that as BP had a (drunken) basketball game to attend, and Boo-Boo and I had more drinking and gambling to do.

    I'm pretty hazy at this point, but I believe we ended up in the Paris Champagne Slots. I scouted out a $5 JOB machine that paid 9/6 but was only 239 for a straight flush. What the *(#%?! I hate CET. But drunk me decided to throw $500 in the machine and see what happened...

    Well, wouldn't you know it, I couldn't freakin' lose! I was hitting flushes and full houses every 3-5 minutes. I got my buyin up to $2,000 and decided to bump it up to $10 JOB. I peaked at $2,500 and played it down to $1,500 at $10 JOB, then moved back down to $5 JOB. After earning around 1,200-1,400 TC's, I cashed out dead even and called it a win since I lost nothing, earned a ton of TC's, and got a ton of drinks.

    This is where it gets really hazy. Next thing I know I'm sitting at a blackjack table, splitting AA, and getting two blackjacks. I'm happy because I have a big bet on the hand. I get paid 1:1 and flip a bitch, color up, and leave the table. The next table we go to is also 1:1 on blackjack. What in the hell is going on at CET? This is an absolute joke.

    Fast forward again and I'm at another blackjack table. BP has returned and cuts Boo-Boo and me off. By the way, it's only about 8PM. Boo-Boo is literally sleeping sitting up in his chair, and I'm out of my mind hammered, playing two hands at a time for $100+ a hand at a table with completely horrible rules. I'm an idiot. BP drags us away to get food because he "didn't want to babysit us clowns."

    We ended up at Le Burger Brasserie, which is a solid spot. Our server was awesome and left a bunch of stuff off our bill. We tipped him ~50%.

    I think I must have checked my tier score around here because I thought I was only 1200TC's or so from DIAD. I know more gambling happened, but I ended up heading back to the room at midnight or so because I was drunk as hell and super tired. I told BP and Boo-Boo to wake me up in an hour or so so I could finish getting DIAD.

    An hour and a half later, I was rudely awakened, and still completely hammered. I decided if I kept my eyes closed and mumbled incoherently they would leave me alone. Sadly, I was mistaken. These degenerates held me to my word and quite literally dragged me back to the Paris Champagne slots to play at the $5 JOB machine that I had used earlier in the day.

    Upon sitting down, I mumbled to them, "Dude, guys, I'm going to be perfectly honest. I'm hung over as F#%^ and don't know what I'm doing." Their response was to make sure I didn't make any stupid mistakes. Next thing I know, I'm looking down at how much money I have in the machine and I'm at $1,500. At this point I'm super pumped and start to snap out of the hangover. By 2:30AM I have another 1,200-1,400TC's and I have DIAD! On top of that, my only losses are from my drunken blackjack binge. All told I was probably down <$800.

    We are all happy and we head to the cage to get my new card, but they say the system hasn't updated, so try again in the morning...

    My eyes open. For some reason I have a bad feeling. BP goes off to play basketball again. Boo-Boo and I go to get my diamond card before we head out for lunch over at Planet Hollywood...I just can't shake this bad feeling though. What's up with that?

    At the Total Rewards desk I am informed that I did not achieve DIAD. I have only made 2,400TC's at Paris, the rest were at Bally's. Good job drunk dumbass (that would be me). I end up getting a Platinum card and we head to PHo. I'm pissed, mostly at myself, but after some food I'm feeling good again and I make the decision to go for DIAD...again.

    After food, it's back to Paris, where I sit down at my $5 JOB machine. Once again, I CANNOT LOSE. I'm up to $1,500 or so and Boo-Boo decides to smoke a cigarette. During this one cigarette, I hit 4 full houses and a couple flushes and quads. Unbelievable. I've never had a run of luck like this. I end up earning well over 1,000TC's. I decide to cash out and take a break.

    We then hop around to different VP machines and I earn a hundred credits here, a hundred there. Ultimately, we head back to the $5 machine and I wind up hitting DIAD there for real at about 3PM. All told I may have lost $200 going for DIAD on this day. I ran SUPER hot, and I am very grateful.

    Boo-Boo and I celebrated with Glenlivet 18-year in the diamond lounge. We also played some more [STRIKE]blackjack [/STRIKE] wackjack (any blackjack with cruddy rules is wackjack to me) and some roulette. We got slaughtered at both, and I started calling BP to see when he would be getting back to Paris/Bally's.

    BP finally made it back and met up with us at Bally's, where we decided to play some craps. Unfortunately, the table was super full, so I wandered off to play more crapjack. I was sufficiently lubed up to the point that I almost enjoyed getting ravaged. Drunkass me decided it would be a great idea to play three hands across at $100+/hand. Amazingly, I only lost a couple hundred dollars at the end of the session. I passed out shortly after this at around 2:30AM...

    **DISCLAIMER**
    Please don't judge my weakass showing in Vegas, I'm blaming it on 10+ hours of gambling and drinking a day! That, and I suck...

    Later that morning, at around 4:30AM, Boo-Boo and BP stumbled into the room. BP had just went on a heater at the table and won back everything he had lost up to that point, which was around $700. At one point he was down to $70 or so. Not too bad! I was definitely pissed that I decided to nap!

    The next day we hung out and watched some football and drank a few before we drove back to sunny SoCal.

    All told, I somehow miraculously only spent ~$800 the entire trip INCLUDING gambling. I believe I lost around $2,000 playing blackjack. I was up around $300 playing roulette. I won the balance playing VP, mostly at the $5 limit with a very small amount of $1 and $2 thrown in. All of my play netted me in excess of 6,200TC's. All told my tier status is 6,800TC's. My bankroll for the trip was $3,000/day + $1,000 in reserve. I was prepared to lose it all, but not particularly excited about the prospect of doing that..

    My host ended up comping the room, which saved $168 dollars. He was happy with my play and I'm looking forward to my next trip out which will most likely be in December. I need this trip to hit 11,000TC's and secure diamond through March, 2014. I'll probably look to avoid playing blackjack and VP outside of the HL room. I enjoy the peace and quiet in HL as well as what I think is better cocktail service. Staying in HL should be easy to accomplish since I won't be going to Vegas in December with people who bet a lot smaller than I do.

    Hope you enjoyed my recap of the trip! I apologize if it bounces around, I'm very hazy about a lot of the details. I'll try to upload the (one or two) pictures I took during the trip. Drunk me doesn't like taking pictures or gambling responsibly.

    Please let me know if you have any questions! This is actually my second time doing DIAD. Also, I hate CET but I don't have a host at the MGM hotels, so I've been sticking around CET. I'm a stupid, loyal player because my host has taken decent care of me. Any comments on how best to make the move to MGM and get connected with a host over there would be awesome!
     
  2. Tubbs

    Tubbs High-Roller

    Joined:
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    Location:
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    Trips to Las Vegas:
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    Nice report. Congrats on (eventually) getting DIAD. I prefer the 'sit at a machine and stay there until I have 3000 TCs' approach, rather than jumping between machines and games.

    Not sure I understand that part. If you split aces and got face cards on each hand, you have 2 21s, not 2 BJs. All casinos will pay 1:1 on those hands. Have I misunderstood something?
     
  3. wikemang

    wikemang Tourist

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    No that's drunk me being a retard and thinking I have 2 BJ's haha
     
  4. nsideirish

    nsideirish Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Jul 26, 2010
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    Location:
    Chicago
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    Great read! Sounds like we had very similar trips. Congrats on the DIAD and the drunken degeneracy. I too cannot seem to avoid the wackjack when drunk.
     
  5. Motorhead

    Motorhead Low-Roller

    Joined:
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    Thanks for the TR! Easy and fun reading.
     
  6. Dpin300

    Dpin300 Low-Roller

    Joined:
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    Thanks for sharing a great trip report. Surprised to read you lost more than you won. Didn't expect that after reading all your VP hits. Note to myself: stay away from BJ tables (I'm a horrible BJ player)
     
  7. kel3420

    kel3420 VIP Whale

    Joined:
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    Great report! I can't even imagine how you remembered anything, especially the little details, lol. Very entertaining!

    "Our room was quiet as we got a good location away from all the hoopla over at Carnival Court."

    I have stayed at Bally's for many years and have never heard anything from the CC. It is just way too far away. Even if the windows are open as far as they can, I just can't imagine you would hear anything over the traffic, construction, sirens and general hub bub of Vegas, in any of the rooms.

    But anyway, doing the countdown dance to my upcoming trip and I love reading reports like this one. Thanks!

    :beer::beer::beer:
     
  8. wikemang

    wikemang Tourist

    Joined:
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    Trips to Las Vegas:
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    I've had issues with noise at Bally's before. I thought it was on the side facing towards CC, which I know is far away. I could be mistaken! Might have just been typical cars and loud people.
     
  9. VegasGarden

    VegasGarden Low-Roller

    Joined:
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    Great TR. You sound like a fun guy to hang with. I have a similar vegas approach. Thanks again for a great read.
     
  10. gongoman

    gongoman MIA

    Joined:
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    Thanks for trip report:beer:
     
  11. bubbamsu

    bubbamsu Low-Roller

    Joined:
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    Great trip report, sounds like a lot of my trips!!
     
  12. ButterflyMtn

    ButterflyMtn High-Roller

    Joined:
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    great trip report! Sounds like a lot of fun and has me itching to go back...now to convince the Mr. that I need another Vegas trip (had one the beginning of August):beer:
     
  13. Reed

    Reed High-Roller

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    That is definitely some good luck on hitting DIAD with minimal losses!
     
  14. flabola

    flabola Tourist

    Joined:
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    Enjoyed reading your reporting and laughing! Sounds like you had a great drunken time, as you should!
     
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