1. Welcome to VegasMessageBoard
    It appears you are visiting our community as a guest.
    In order to view full-size images, participate in discussions, vote in polls, etc, you will need to Log in or Register.

I stayed one day too long...One week in Vegas TR (over the SB)

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by Dutch34, Feb 7, 2014.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. Dutch34

    Dutch34 High-Roller

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2009
    Messages:
    633
    Location:
    Brookfield, MO
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    100

    My Trip Report

    Background:
    7 night trip, Jan 30 to Feb 6. 3 nights accompanied by my non-gambling GF (pleasure trip) and then 4 nights of business meetings. When trip was booked, even though I'm a huge football fan, I didn't realize it was SB weekend. Bonus for me! The trip was booked using comps at four (yes 4) different casinos, as such:
    Jan 30- free night at Planet Ho.
    Jan 31, Feb 1- 2 free nights, plus $375 in free play at Cosmo
    Feb 2-3- free nights plus $75 in free play at Palazzo
    Feb 4-5- free nights at Palms

    The following will be a detailed, honest report of the trip- mostly good, some cringe-worthy, but all honest...so, here goes:

    Flight out of STL was delayed (weather and high winds in Vegas) and as many have said already, the flight took about 45 minutes longer due to high head winds. No biggie- we grab a car and head to Planet Hollywood for the night (arrived at hotel around 10:30pm). I should back up at this point and say that my GF was deathly ill on Tues and Wed with a nasty flu bug. I truly didn't think she'd make the trip. She recovered enough to do so, and did amazing the entire trip- so glad she could make it.

    Anyway, so we get to the desk and at this point I'm worried about her. I know we're not a big player at Caesar's properties and I'm expecting the standard room, so I actually manned up and asked for a room with a 'nice tub and bathroom' so that she could relax and recover. I then showed the $20 sandwich and he got to work...and he came through with flying colors. Beautiful room overlooking the strip, with a tub right by the window. She enjoyed that and we simply went downstairs to grab an Earl of Sandwich meal, walked around for 10, and went to bed as by this time it was approaching 3am our time. Stick with me though...it gets better...

    053.jpg


    Friday, Jan 31-
    We check out of P Ho and move across the street to the Cosmo. We got an east facing room with a view of the fountains on the 61st floor and a room with a Japanese soaking tub- great stuff. 064.jpg

    Prior to heading to Cosmo, the GF tried to buy some items and was denied. Apparently her bank cancelled her card due to the Target fiasco and didn't tell her. So now she's in Vegas with no money (and even though I brought plenty she still wanted her own, which I get...), so many calls later, we're told we can go to closest Western Union to pick up her money (she wanted $350 and we were told the closest would be at Harrahs)...more on this later. Also prior to leaving, I found a DBL deck BJ table at P Ho and dropped $300 in about 20 minutes, so finally got some gambling in and I'm -300 for the trip. At least this table was 3/2 for BJ's.

    We pick up my free play and decide to walk around, taking it easy since she's still recovering from the flu. We found an interesting protest going on outside the Cosmo- something about the folks that clean rooms wanting benefits and such. One group was calm and simply holding signs in protest, marching in front of the Cosmo. As we walked toward Aria, there was another more vocal group that would chastise people (consumers) as they walked into the Cosmo, saying stuff like 'shame on you' and such. Some folks rightfully got pissed and voiced their displeasure back to the protesters. I know I would have, had we been walking into the property at the time. We made it to Aria, enjoyed the views there 074.jpg and then since she missed NYNY last time, we ducked up there quickly and headed to MGM so that I could get my first look at the Lion's Share Progressive slot machine.

    Sadly the machine was being used (unsuccessfully) but someone and as soon as he got up, three more folks got in line to play it. Rest assured, the jackpot is still there and growing. It was neat to see- wish I could have contributed to the jackpot. At this point we headed to the M&M fleecing to get the kids some candy (1 pound of M&Ms for $12.50...holy crap!) and at this point we decided we needed some food. As we're making our way back toward the Cosmo, it's then we really noticed the peddlars and pushers. Pretty much got approached every 30 feet by someone pushing something. Not so much the porn slappers but everything else. It was obnoxious and a real pain all weekend. We made our way to Twin Peaks...and wow. I like this place! So did the GF! We sat near the bar and behind us were 7 Brits in for the weekend for a stag party. These guys were pure gold. I could barely understand what they were saying (accents and being drunk made for tough translation), but we had fun doing some shots with them and chatting in general about stuff. The guy in the picture was the most animated (obviously- I'm the one that does not have his tongue on the waitress), stating he had 'shagged' the flight attended from his flight earlier, etc. Great guys and a lot of fun.

    085.jpg

    To come....finally, some gambling...and really good food! And, lots more gambling.
     
  2. broncofn

    broncofn VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Mar 16, 2013
    Messages:
    4,134
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    60
    Great start!
     
  3. firstkill

    firstkill High-Roller

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2013
    Messages:
    805
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    30
    great start, I hope the extra day isn't what happens on my "1 day too long" also!

    fk
     
  4. Dutch34

    Dutch34 High-Roller

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2009
    Messages:
    633
    Location:
    Brookfield, MO
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    100
    After eating and drinking at Twin Peaks, we head over to Comso where she decides to nap and I decide to finally play some cards. I took my $375 in freebies and found many dbl deck games, but they all paid 6/5...and limits were $50 or $100 per hand. Even though I hate 6/5, I didn't have a choice ($300 limit in High Roller room- not for me just yet), but I sat down in did well. I made $1,000 over a 2 hour timeframe, betting $175 per hand on average while tipping $200 over that time (plus another $20 for water and drinks at the table). I actually didn't use all my free play here, so I walked over to a roulette table and bought in for $500. I used free play on red and black and bet my usual pattern of numbers ($40 on 23, $20 on 17, 20 and 21, $5 each on 4,5,7,9,26,32,33,35). A few spins in I hit a 23 for $1,400 and left up $750 at the table. So, +1750 for the session and up $1,450 for the trip. We're off to a great start. Note: this was the only time I hit anything substantial at roulette all trip, although in fairness I didn't give this game a lot of action- more of a hit and run mentality that failed.

    I wake her up and we decided to go off strip to a place called the Crab Corner- I believe it's at the corner of Eastern and Flamingo. It's a Maryland style crabhouse and I HIGHLY recommend it if you enjoy blue crab. The crab soup is delish and the crab cakes are just like home (I'm from Baltimore originally). I'd end up going back here on Sunday for lunch since I liked it so much. We then drove to Mandalay to check it out. We got free passes to the Foundation Room (stayed 5 min) and then we walked around looking for dessert. We found Wolfgang's place next to Light and it did the trick! Great cookies and cheesecake (respectively) and being sufficiently full, we retrieved the car and headed back to Cosmo where we had a drink and then bed around 1:30am.

    Saturday, Feb 1:
    I got up before she did and did what any good boyfriend would do...I quietly left the room to go play blackjack. Same shitty 6/5 options and I bought in anyway and made $300 over 45 minutes. I did get some coffee at the table, so breakfast and a quick hit made for a nice morning. Once I got the text from her, I got ready and we decided to walk to Harrah's to get her money. Again, as we walked that way we were just bombarded with people trying to sell us stuff. I've just started ignoring these idiots, as I got tired of nicely saying 'no thank you' and the like. As we get to the cage at Harrah's, we're told, in a pretty rude manner that retrieving money is only available to hotel guests and the closest option for us in over near the Hard Rock. I didn't particularly care for this answer, so I tried someone else, explaining the situation again, only to be told no again. Thankfully we have a car and it's not a huge deal, but it would have been nice to know this before wasting an hour getting there. So we walk down to the Venetian and grab a yummy lunch at Grand Lux and then cab back to Cosmo (got long hauled back around Mirage and back way to Harmon) and paid the guy $10 for a $22 fare without issue (the strip was not busy at all- no clue what this guy was thinking) and we got the car to go finally get her money. With that finally settled, we headed to Luxor to check out the Bodies exhibit. Pretty interesting stuff and something I'd never do on my own. Very glad to have done that.

    We head back to Cosmo and we both sit down to play BJ- her watching and me playing. I bought in for $500 and got on a great roll. I'm winning doubles and splits and I'm starting to stack blacks. I'm giving her the $100's and not paying much attention. When we finally get hungry, I'm up another $1,500 after tipping out $140 and $30 for drinks ($5 per drink for us both). I asked Morris (pit boss, former dealer at Palms) where to eat and he recommended Blue Ribbon, upstairs. Let me just say...HOME RUN. It's not cheap, but damn it's good, and versatile. She got a blue crab roll (OMG...best ever) and one other roll, and I got the fried chicken (asian influenced) and I licked my plate clean. That was $71.00, plus $20 tip...$91 for dinner, but well worth it. We walked over to Bellagio afterwards and ended up in the room around 1am, knowing she has to take off in the morning....boo! Trip to date: +3,250.
     
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2014
  5. Dude beer

    Dude beer Tourist

    Joined:
    Aug 20, 2012
    Messages:
    23
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    5
    Great report so far.
     
  6. Dutch34

    Dutch34 High-Roller

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2009
    Messages:
    633
    Location:
    Brookfield, MO
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    100
    Sunday, February 2nd-
    Weird day with having to drop Sarah off at the airport and then figure out what to do for the big game. We pack up and head out. She's not an experienced traveler at all, so I parked the car and walked her to security basically (once we checked her bag outside and all that). I have to say, traveling all the time, I didn't like dropping her off one bit...anyway....enough of the sappiness....time to really gamble now!
    As I said earlier, I stopped at Crab Corner right as it opened and grabbed a bite and then I checked into Palazzo for 2 nights. I love this property. They just do things the right way here. A first for me, I had a view of the Wynn and the golf course- being a huge golfer, this made me want to get out there badly...
    128.jpg

    By this point, its a few hours from kickoff and I've yet to place a bet. Mind you, I've had days to do so and I wasn't waivering on my pick for Denver to pretty much handle Seattle, so I waiting in the Venetian line for about 30 minutes to lose my money. I won a few prop bets and only lost $110 on the game overall. Of course, all the writing was on the wall to pick Seattle but like most, I went with the happy ending story of Peyton winning #2. Instead he did a #2 down his leg. Oops.

    I couldn't decide where I wanted to go to watch the game. It's not much fun doing so alone, so I just decided to hang at the circular bar in Palazzo. Most folks were with others, so I said f- it and I sat down at a $50 ddl deck game and had a TV pretty much in front of me. It was odd in that the bar behind me was on TV delay. For instance, I saw the safety happen and then 5 seconds later the bar went nuts. Only later did I notice that over near the elevators that bar seemed to be ahead of my TV, so they would yell, I noticed something happened and then the bar behind me went nuts. Interesting dynamic and glad I didn't invest a lot to go to a bar and eat and drink- that was pretty much one of the worst games I've ever witnessed, let alone it being a SB game.

    But back to the good stuff...I played BJ and pretty much had a casino to myself. I finally had a 3/2 table. I bought in for $500 and proceeded to cash out near the end of the game for $2,700, bringing my running total to +$5,550.(I know the math isn't perfect if you're counting along, but that's where I was). I came with $2,000, so my stash of hundreds is adding up quickly and needless to say, I'm feeling invincible. At one point I had some folks join me and we were all doing well and then we had some trust fund babies sit down with us and just ruin the entire vibe of the table. You know these kids- dressed up, betting $1,000 a hand and acting the part, not knowing really what they're doing and especially not understanding holding the cards and what to do at Dbl deck. At this point the casino was just overflowing and with me doing so well and not wanting to deal with drunken idiots, I did a first- I was in the room in bed by 10pm, after having a delicious burger at B&B Burger- very good, reasonable place. I had to save my energy for a day of work and epic gambling....
     

    Attached Files:

    • 130.jpg
      130.jpg
      File size:
      68.8 KB
      Views:
      271
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2014
  7. Dutch34

    Dutch34 High-Roller

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2009
    Messages:
    633
    Location:
    Brookfield, MO
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    100
    Monday, February 3rd-
    The Home Builder show brought me to town. My company prints a bunch of catalogs and publications seen at this show, so we were out with one of our large customers. I also had one of my reps join me and I made some calls with him throughout the area. However, plans didn't develop as I thought they would. I got together with one of my reps for lunch at B&B Burger (yes, again...I repeat things I like I suppose), and afterward, since work wasn't calling, the tables sure did. At this point, you'll notice I've played 6 sessions and lost once, $300 at P Ho. So clearly, that's not going to change...

    But it did. I bought in for $700 at a dbl deck in Venetian and even though I was getting good cards, it just wasn't going my way. I wasn't getting killed but I was constantly down $300 or so...climb back close to even and then lose a decent split or double down. I lost $500 and decided the table wasn't going my way so I went to roulette and tried a quick hit there and lost another $500 pretty quickly (just hate myself when I do stupid stuff like this).
    I tried to regroup and try another BJ table and bought in for $500 and like before over a bit of time, I lost the buy-in. Ok...time for a break, so I decided to freshen up and have a nice dinner at Sushi Samba. Again, eating alone sucks, but I sat at the sushi bar and had some nice rolls and various shrimp products. I waddled back to the Venetian, ready to get my money back (to this point I'm now +$4,000 for the trip).

    I buy in for $700 again and once again, just can't get things moving. The tables weren't terribly exciting and I got down to the last of my buy-in and had to reach further to complete a split of 9's vs. a dealer 5. With $200 on the table, I split the 9's, got a 2 (double), got another 9, (split), etc...I had $800 out there and when the dealer pulled an 18, I won the important hands (double and one other and pushed on the last hand) so now I'm back in the game. Just prior a guy sat down with me and we hit it off, betting very similarly in play and amounts. So now that I'm $1,700 in, I'm back on my way to profitability.

    Me and the guy (Jeff) played until about 1:30 at the V and he cashed out happily up and I had about $3,000 on me (a nice comeback putting me +$1,300 for this session). He then suggested we walk to Palazzo where I bought in for $1,000. He was doing just okay and left the table and when he did I went on a roll. At 3:30 in the morning, I called in a very long day and cashed out 5 yellow chips, meaning +3,300 for the session and putting me +$7,600 for the trip. So with what I brought with me and my various winnings, this is a pic of $9,900 dollars (variation on expenses, etc doesn't allow the math to compute perfectly, but I counted 10 times and just couldn't get the even $10k!). Still a great pic!
     

    Attached Files:

    • 136.jpg
      136.jpg
      File size:
      52.4 KB
      Views:
      455
  8. Dutch34

    Dutch34 High-Roller

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2009
    Messages:
    633
    Location:
    Brookfield, MO
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    100
    Tuesday, February 4th-
    It's the last of my moving days. I really wanted to stay at one of the Sands properties, but they wanted $599 a night for rooms. I checked with a host and even though they stated they wanted me to stay, they said there was nothing they could do on the rate. So I took my $195 per hand average (10 hours of play) and went to the Palms, where I had asked for some advice on here earlier as to a host. I found one and he gave me a free room (Ivory Tower, 5th floor) for free. In fairness the host said my past play at Palms was $150 per hand, but not for long enough, so I set out to try to change his thinking (uh oh.....)

    I worked all day and checked in and played immediately and got down a quick $1,000 playing dbl deck. As is my habit, I went to roulette and bought in for $500, playing down to a final $30. I threw it all on #23 but had a feeling about #21, so I moved $10 over there, and kept $20 on #23. The cute dealer told me to keep it all on 23 and damned if it didn't hit! $700 instead of $1,050, but I'll take it. I played down to $500 and walked even.

    I then went in the high limit room and put down $1000 at the dbl deck table, $200 per hand. That lasted 3 minutes. 11 vs. 6 double and dealer pulls a 20 vs. 19. 10 vs. 6, double dealer pulls a 21. Won a hand, lost a hand, won, lost, lost. Down $1,500 for the night. So, being a fool, I walk back to the regular casino, buy in for $700 more and somehow manage to get on a decent roll, ending that session up $1,300, down $200 for the night. On the way to the room I blew $200 in a video poker machine (I never play and my quick $200 showed why I don't), so down $400 for the night.

    Last day...Feb 5th-
    More business dealings today, but before I left at 9:30 I played about 20 minutes of dbl deck and made a nice $300 profit, putting me back to $9,800 in benji's for the trip and only $100 down at the Palms. Considering how degenerate I was, I'll gladly take it.

    I do my all day business dealings, valet my car and walk in to an empty double deck table. Rather than going upstairs to relax and unwind, I hit the tables in full force trying to get to $12k or higher. Plus, I wanted to earn my keep at the Palms (never a good thing) and I quickly lost $1,000 buy in. At this point, it wasn't even fun- I was playing, not scared, but certainly not with the fun abandonment I was earlier. But I didn't stop...bought in for another $500 and lost it.

    So now I went upstairs and yelled at myself for a bit. I changed and got packed and decided to hit the floor one more time, taking another $1,500 with me. I was treading water all night, never getting going and then I got impatient and lost $1,000 of the $1,500. At this point I'm beyond frustrated (with my behavior) and I dabbled at stupid carnival games and roulette and BJ, walking away with $200- no clue why I decided to stop there, but I did.

    So on the final day I lost $2,800. I know these swings can happen and it certainly sucks that my final impression of a wildly successful trip is a bad one. Instead of coming home with $7,000 profit, I was under $5,000. Great money, certainly, but disappointing...if that makes any sense. Not disappointing in how much, but how I got there. I couldn't just leave well enough alone and I suppose that's how the house wins...you win and win and if you aren't disciplined (I'm not), you bleed it off. I saw a guy at Palazzo on Monday and he had STACKS of purple chips (someone you got the impression wasn't a purple chip player...or even a black chip player)- had to have been $30k to $40k and a gal I played with Monday night during my epic run mentioned the guy. I said I saw him and she went on to tell me he lost it all. Every time I walked by he had more and more- she said he stayed and just bled it all back. Thankfully that wasn't me entirely.

    All in all it WAS a great trip. I won a nice bankroll and didn't pay for a thing. 7 nights is too long out there and I'm paying for it today. I appreciate all the advice of the board and especially have to commend those that can do a live trip report. I thought about it and just laughed and how epic that fail would have been had I tried. This was hard enough and I'm sure not nearly as entertaining as that of Nate and Beejay. 'Dem guys are good...
     
  9. DirtyFrank

    DirtyFrank Tourist

    Joined:
    Jan 5, 2010
    Messages:
    34
    Location:
    Chicago
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    14
    Thanks for posting and congrats on the nice win!
     
  10. jpw711

    jpw711 Is that your cat?

    Joined:
    Mar 10, 2009
    Messages:
    10,966
    Location:
    Southwest Missouri
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    74
    Enjoyed your report!

    Being a fellow Missourian, I have to wonder why you would pass up flying from MCI (assuming your from Brookfield as your post says) to go out of STL?
     
    No reason to go home yet.
  11. Dutch34

    Dutch34 High-Roller

    Joined:
    Sep 27, 2009
    Messages:
    633
    Location:
    Brookfield, MO
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    100
    JPW- thanks much.
    Yes, KC is about an hour closer, but my girlfriend lives much closer to STL than KC, thus the reason for that airport.
     
  12. joshrocker

    joshrocker VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Feb 16, 2003
    Messages:
    1,810
    Location:
    Saint Louis, Mo.
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    10
    Enjoyed the report!
     
  13. dfalk

    dfalk VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Mar 7, 2011
    Messages:
    2,510
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    20
    Awesome report!
    KCCO!
     
  14. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

    Joined:
    Jan 21, 2013
    Messages:
    31,307
    Location:
    Chicagoland
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    28
    Nice report and nice results!

    But did cosmo not even have any 3:2 shoe games at your level? Or even CSM?

    3:2 shoe/CSM >>>>>>>>>> 6:5 anything.
     
  15. firstkill

    firstkill High-Roller

    Joined:
    Mar 22, 2013
    Messages:
    805
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    30
    Still a win! But I know now You feel on those melt downs/tilt/poor discipline. I always have all these ideas but it never works out when I'm in the moment


    Fk
     
  16. uli_1515

    uli_1515 Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Mar 28, 2013
    Messages:
    220
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    2
    Chive On!
     
  17. Tubbs

    Tubbs High-Roller

    Joined:
    Dec 7, 2009
    Messages:
    849
    Location:
    Leicester, UK
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    15
    Nice report. Thanks for all the gambling debauchery. You came away with a good profit and hopefully earned some goodwill at a few places so :thumbsup:
     
  18. CVG2LAS

    CVG2LAS Tourist

    Joined:
    May 8, 2013
    Messages:
    98
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    35
    Solid trip

    You were able to stop after a relatively brief negative turn, and still well into the positive. Thats actually good discipline imo.

    Its very rare that anyone stops at their actual highest peak. Its much more common to stop at the actual lowest though.

    So well done. And thanks for the great read!
     
  19. Royal Flusher

    Royal Flusher Savvy Gambler

    Joined:
    Feb 18, 2008
    Messages:
    6,550
    Location:
    Flusherville, Canada
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    60
    Very entertaining trip report.

    I have yet to crack the blackjack nut, maybe betting $5 a hand isn't going to get me to $9900. :)
     
  20. IowaRyan

    IowaRyan Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Jan 2, 2006
    Messages:
    313
    Location:
    Iowa
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    16
    Nice report, any trip were you finish up is still a success IMHO.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.