6 Guys..Two Nights...Huge Suite..Gambling...Strippers..Degeneracy! With Pics!

Just to let you guys know where I’m coming from…I grew up in Georgia (Go Dawgs), took my first Vegas trip my senior year in 2008 (Solo!), fell in love with the strip and have never gone on vacation anywhere else since then. I’m 25 now and just a few months ago moved out to Arizona for my career and I whereas before it was hard to go once a year since I lived on the East Coast, Ive gone twice in the last three months with my friends here.

The Trip
Elara (formerly known as PH Towers) has become our home away from home. The two bedroom suite they have is big enough for the 6 guys that usually go on this trip, the location is center strip, and the price is reasonable when you split it 6 ways considering it’s usually a weekend we go on. The suite has two bedrooms, two pull out couches, a Jacuzzi, two bathrooms, a full kitchen, and of course the highlight is the huge projection screen in the living room. (The room pics are from the last trip, but it was the same room)












Day 1
Touched down at the Airport at 9 pm sharp after our long 45 min flight, we were approached by a driver whose client was a no show and offered us $45 for the hour for an SUV. We were gonna cab it and it would have been $20, but we also had to stop at the liquor store to stock up and the meter would have been running. We decided to go with the $45 and got a fifth of Maker’s Mark and two cases of beer to get things started. Room was amazing as usual, after we pre gamed for a bit while watching something on the big projector (UFC fight maybe?) we decided to go down to the PH Casino. Grabbed a bite at Earl of Sandwich (Good food good prices …highly recommend!) and we ventured off on the strip.
The whole gang turned right in front of Planet Hollywood to go towards Bills and degen it up at the blackjack tables and what not there, while I parted ways and headed straight across to the Bellagio for some poker. Walking through the rain at midnight in the desert for a little slice of heaven.



I would consider myself an above average small stakes live poker player, and I usually win on my trips to Vegas, but I have a history with the Bellagio. I have never once won at the Bellagio Poker Room. Not only have I not won once, the times I lose, I lose everything within 30 minutes of sitting down. I can’t explain it. This trip I was determined that even if I grinded out a $50 profit I would leave just to be able to say that I left up at the Bellagio.
The Bellagio Poker room is something special, the atmosphere can’t be replicated, Venetian may have better chairs or Aria may have better dealers and a newer room, but the aura of the being in the Bellagio Poker Room hasn’t been matched by anything I’ve walked into. I sat down at a table right across from Bobby’s Room at my small 1/3 stakes and saw a couple of Pros (Jennifer Harmon and Phil Laak) which was really neat considering I practically grew up watching them.

I won’t get too deep in the hands of my poker session but here’s a picture of my results. (I bought in with $200)



That was a good night.

I called up my buddies who were at Bills still and said to meet them at the Flamingo. Apparently they lost their shirts at Bills and we were rolling dice at the craps table at the Flamingo soon. Craps is strange for me now, I used to love playing it but now I don’t enjoy it as much. Maybe its because I’m a jerk and try to bet the dark side too often and suck the fun out of the table haha. Anyways I think I might have dropped $50 or so nothing too bad…but one of my friends who just learned craps was having a blast so it was a fun table to be at.

We decided to go to Casino Royale (big mistake) because it was cold and windy and raining by now, some of the side walks had flooded. People were freaking out cause the water was like 2-3 inches deep in some areas haha wet shoes and wet socks oh no! and I almost slipped 5-7 different times because I was wearing dress shoes. Two of my friends just got up on the construction rails and climed it all the way across the water to the dry area haha that was a site to see.

Anyways we get to Casino Royale and I have been trying to play more blackjack because I really don’t enjoy craps as much as I used to but I don’t really care too much for BJ either. I guess from a Poker player’s perspective anytime you are giving up house edge whats the point haha I’d rather go stick $100 in slots. But that’s my mentality, everyone seems to love Blackjack. Maybe if I won sometimes I would change my way of thinking. Casino Royale was predictable on Saturday night, a lot of drunk and passed out people in slot chairs haha. I stuck $20 in a wheel of fortune machine and hit $80 playing quarters! We had some subway then decided to head back it was bed time.

We walked through Harrah’s and one of my friends is literally unable to stay away from the blackjack table so we all had to sit down with him. This Asian dealer tore us apart. But the best part was when she introduced us, my friend was trying to make small talk and he goes “What’s you favorite Pokemon”. Hahahah

I have to say it wasn’t in a derogatory tone at all and the dealer didn’t hear him but I could see him getting his ass kicked if someone took it the wrong way (the dealer was a 60 year old asian woman)
We walked out of Harrah’s and tried to go into the Quad. This is where things went wrong. We thought we could cut through the Quad and come out on the other side. Wrong.

Maybe it was because of the flooding but the only entrance/exit we could find in the Quad was the one facing Harrah’s and the walkway to go around the quad in front was flooded. So we were literally in a twilight zone episode circling the Quad inside for 30 mins when we said fuck it and went back out and crossed at the mirage by going backwards then walked all the way up to PH Towers and crashed. We did get approached by a shady fellow at 5 am in a top hat offering to go to the strip club, this spiked my curiosity. I have been to strip clubs in a few other cities, just not Vegas. Hmm I think I’ll leave it at that for a day two preview lol .

Day 2 has A lot more degenerate gambling, strip clubs, and general degeneracy! this was just the beginning since we got in at 9 pm still did a lot of damage!

 

Epic already! Cant wait for day two

I assume you walked in through the Porte Cochere at IP? What a crazy maze currently!

 

Enjoying the report so far, nice win at the Bellagio, glad you got that monkey off your back! Can't wait for the next day report.

 

So far so good!

 

Congrats on finally winning at the B!

Waiting for Day 2

 

Great trip report thus far. Nice poker session!

 

Great Report! Looking forward to more. Pics are alway awesome in a report, much appreciated!!

 

I want pictures of degeneracy!

 

Sounding good so far..Maker's Mark is a great drink to sip with pancakes in the morning after a long night..

 

Wow now that's a hAngover cure I haven't heard of.

Waiting for day 2 and great job at the B

 

Day 2

I’ve always wanted to do a big tournament while in Vegas even though I’m not a great tournament player. But since I had some nice profit from the Bellagio last night I thought I’d give the Caesar’s $235 tournament a shot on Saturday afternoon around 2 pm. We made our way to caesar’s in search of some food, I thought we could grab something and I would enter the tournament late. We were all feeling like complete shit. We walk up to this restaurant in Caesar’s which is beside the sportsbook and poker room, I forget what it’s called but it’s a quick snack place nothing too big. We go to the hostess and say there’s four of us, she said it’s a 20 minute wait. We point to an empty booth right in front of us and she goes “Oh that booth is for six”….get the hell out of here. So we went to the Caesar’s food court instead had some great nachos and a powerade for the hangover.
I go into the Caesar’s poker room and was surprised with all the cameras, I guess the NBC heads up championship was being taped there and some pros were there as well. I decided not to enter the Caesar’s trny and wait for the Aria 7 pm since I was in no shape to think clearly at that point. We decide to go back to planet Hollywood to meet the other 3 guys, but by the time we got there we find out they were at caesar’s haha…in our defense we did try calling them…in their defense they had no service.

My friends played some Video BJ while I went and played some poker for an hour or two again. When it was time to leave they all came to the side of the table and I was in a hand. I ended up winning the hand and my obnoxious friends started clapping really loud and yelling “LETS GO TAKE IT DOWN KGB!” a rounders reference that I’m sure made all the people in the hand and even at the table want to jump up and choke me. I figured it was a good time to leave. I think I still left down $30 or so but I was mainly killing time for the 7 pm trny.

We went back up to the room for a bit to finish off our liquor and beer (I think this is the night we watched the UFC fight probably?) and I headed down at around 6 pm to go to Aria for the 7 pm trny.



The Aria poker room is as good as it gets from the outside. They have a separate tournament area inside which is pretty good and also “Ivey’s Room” where the high stakes pros play.
3rd Hand I busted out QQ vs and old lady’s KK. Did I mention I suck at tournaments?

I went back out to the podium and wrote my name down on the $1/$3 cash game list and waiting by the slot machines. I was just checking out the eye candy at Aria on a Saturday night when I saw Tom Dwan (Poker Pro) walk out of the poker room. I can say this is the first time ever I have been star struck. Didn’t want to bother him for a picture he seemed in a hurry to get somewhere but looking back I probably should have!

I got my seat at the cash games and I could notice that there are a lot more “above average” players like myself on even the smaller stakes tables at Aria. Definitely a lot of locals grinding out some extra cash on the weekends as a second job. I was down probably about $50-$60 after I got my AK draw out by KQ on a KQ3 board. The table had no action, like I said a lot of local grinders. I used that as an excuse to go check out lemon grass and had their chicken curry which I highly recommend.

I decided to leave Aria around 9 pmish when my friends met me there and we headed to the Monte Carlo in search of some cheap craps. Monte Carlo is weird. It’s not great. It’s not bad at all. I just don’t ever have a reason to go there or not to go there. It’s like the treasure island of the south strip. Average.

We shot some craps and this is where things got out of hand. I, being my idiot self, am the guy who bets the dark side and rolls while betting on the dark side. So I’m rolling 7s on the first roll and making my points while other people are making money and I’m losing. But the height of supreme bullshit happened here. I rolled five sevens in a row on the come out roll while I had my money on the don’t pass line. FIVE. That totally killed my bankroll. And no I’m not done. After making a couple of more points, I rolled FOUR more sevens in a ROW on the come out roll less than 3 mins after I rolled the first five in a row. I was broke. The dealer pushed the dice to me and I said I don’t have anymore money. All my friends pretty much tripled up on my “hot streak”. Three younger kids my age did leave the table when I started betting the don’t pass in the beginning and winning saying “I was stupid for betting against myself”…I really wasn’t…just betting on a different outcome
But that had to be the highlight of my trip so far…going on the heater of my life and being too broke to roll the dice. FML

That’s what I get for being too stubborn to change my bets.
Anyways we were getting tired of the Monte Carlo so we decided to head to NY NY. I like NY NY, especially the pleasure pit girls. Yes I know the rules suck and it’s a gimmick but I’m a 25 year old guy with 5 of my friends in Vegas, I’m going to lose money anyways so why not do it while staring at some sexy girls dance?

My buddys were playing BJ again while I bought in for $50 at the roulette table. Just betting the table min on black or red just to keep staring at the girls dancing 5 ft from my face on top of the stage. Oh My Gawd Becky Look At Her Butt…

Somehow I ended up $50 from roulette and that’s when my friends decided to move on to craps cause they couldn’t take the pleasure pit girls anymore hahaha…well I decided to go back to the Aria it was around midnight so I was hoping the poker tables would have more action. I was right
I bought in with $200 again and within 2 hours this is what happened…




Kind of felt baller never had stacks of cash (much less hundos) on the table but Aria lets cash play to save time and energy for chip runners I guess?
Basically 75% of my profit came from a “Drunk Couple” pretending to be belligerent but I could tell the guy was really putting on an act because he was in tune with everything and very perceptive. Other people were calling him down with bad hands and he kept winning their $$ through his act but I just played my regular game.

It was around 2:30 am and I texted my buddies where they were…they were back in the hotel room about to crash and I was like are you insane its our last night…but I really got no support for going out for one last hoorah so I got some contact solution at wallgreens and crawled back up to the room. MY buddies had lost their shirt at BJ and craps and would have no more. (last time my friend had to walk to the airport because he lost his cab money that he borrowed from another friend too haha)

So I go up to the room and we were watching something on the projector and I kept pressing my friends to come back down. One of em finally gave in and grabbed $200 and we went down to play some BJ.
We bought in for $200 and this is where the degeneracy started. The dealer had to call over the pitt boss cause it was black chips?
Table minimum was $25 and we were up down up down like usual until finally we were kind of tired. I had $100 ish and my buddy had $240 ish. My buddy asked to color up and the lady called over the pitt boss again. We got our two black chips and my buddy isn’t getting up…the pit boss is staring at us…he looks over to me and nods…and I know what that means…two blacks on the betting circle.

The pitt boss goes “Are we not men!?” haha
My buddy lost (fourth time this trip he’s lost his $200 all or nothing hand) haha
I ended up winning my hand and going back to even.
We were for sure done now. But instead of cashing in my chips I went to the roulette table and put $50 on black and lost. I had $50 left. MY buddy pulled out a $50 and gave it to me and said lets to go casino War. I said are you fucking kidding me?!
Then I said why the hell not what’s the worse that can happen
I put $100 on Casino war one hand. I get a 5. FML
Dealer gets a 4 hahahhaha
Awesome.

We should have walked away I know yes. But something happened at 4:30 am for some reason we came up to Casino War and the empty table attracted 5-6 more people. The dealer who was probably new got all nervous and stuff cause he isn’t used to 4-5 people playing casino war at 5 am probably hahah. Long story short I bet $100 a hand the next two hands and lost obviously. We go back up to the room.

Well we go back up to the room it’s about 5 am and I said hell no I’m not going to leave Vegas on a losing note. I convince my friend that we should go to a Las Vegas Strip Club…specifically the rhino since I heard that’s the best. He agrees at this point but he said he is flat broke and that I would have to pay for everything. I said no problem I was still up from poker had about $500 profit left and I planned on spending every single cent to have fake boobs in me and my friends’ face that night.

We call up the rhino and they send a free car to Elara, but then we text two of our friends who are missing and they say they are at Sapphires! Doh! So then we call rhino and cancel the car cause it’s the right thing to do and call up Sapphire for their car.

The driver calls us and we go outside, but the huge party bus that they sent for two says Rhino on it. I said you might be here for someone else I called Sapphire. He said no I just talked to you on the phone. I guess the Rhino girl forgot to cancel the pick up so we said hell with it we have a free ride to the strip club lets go. I tipped the guy $10 when we got out and went into the rhino when I get a call from the Sapphires guy. I don’t pick up cause he’ll probably be pissed. So I took my friend’s phone and dialed Sapphires and said we’re at rhino can you pick us up and they gladly picked us up across the street in another huge party bus…for two

Hahah that was the strangest thing ever. Standing on the corner of a shady Las Vegas corner at 5:30 am waiting for a huge party bus to pull up with some coked out driver dancing away to skrillex.
Anyways we get to Sapphires finally (tip the guy $10) and run into our driver from the airport on the way in and we’re like damn we should have just called him! There was no cover but a $5 service fee…whatever…for the free car I guess. No complaints it’s a strip club if you’re worried about $5 you shouldn’t be there.

We find our friends and I immediately start blowing away my poker profits on lap dances for everyone. I soon am thankful that I’m already drunk because beers are $14 here haha

After about getting 6-7 lap dances for me and 3-4 for my buddies one of the strippers is trying to sell me on some VIP stuff which I am firmly against. I enjoy just hanging out with the boys drinking getting some dances or watching on the stage no sense in spending $400 for an hour for “Private dances” but she insists she only wants to show me around and give me a tour. I said whatever ok. I get back after 10 minutes or so and my buddy stares at me cold and says “I think we need to leave” hes not kidding around so I just agree with him and get the hell out and I figure I can get the story later.

Apparently while I Was gone this stripper came up to him and was all over him but he was broke and didn’t have any money so he was trying to tell her that and gently take her hands off of him. She goes “Why do you have to be so PHSYICAL” haha oops. He felt before the bouncers show up we should get out and he was right it was perfect timing since I was all out of my poker profits and was getting ready to dip into my actual money that I bought to Vegas. I left Vegas with exactly with the Exact same amount of $$ I came to Vegas with. That is a Victory. Could I have saved the grand profit and spent it on an ipad, an imac, or a new Iphone? Perhaps…but those are just things…this is Vegas Baby Vegas!

Until Next Time!

 

Too bad they couldn't seta you at Munchbar. Always had good food there.

This story reminds me of some of my interactions with poker pros. I rarely play poker, but hang with guys who do and recognize all the well known TV players. Played bac at Aria once with Sam Farha (a friend had to tell me who he was), saw Jerry Yang showing off his WSOP bracelet to the craps dealers at Hooters (of all places! Come on, Jerry), and almost got run down by Doyle Brunson on his hoveround at the B. He was the only one I recognized of the three!

 

cool report! thanks for sharing!