Aria LIVE-ish B-Day Trip 7/19-24

Yeah, just a dollar though.

I have a tragic history with the fortune bonus.

 

Yesterday: wake up, walk on down to Luxor for my free spin.

Stop at Excalibur for this:



At Luxor, the wheel stopped on $5 FP. Woo-hoo! The lady gave me $10 cause "no one deserves only $5." Turned it into $12.50 playing video poker.

Headed back down to NYNY to play PGP. Uneventful. Left even.

Back to the Aria to relax.

After that I headed back down to NYNY for another PGP session. Bought in for $100, and I was down about $50 when I decided to use the rest of my buy in to go play some blackjack. I moved to the 3:2 table next to the PGP table. Started out bad, but then I bump it back up to my $100 buy in and called it quits.

Walked over to the MGM. Wasn't planning on playing there, but they had their PGP tables at $10, and one was filled with drunken housewives so I thought it looked fun. And boy was I right! What a great table. That was sure to be the best PGP session of the trip. Dealer had so many crappy hands. And the most of the ladies didn't know how to play so they'd show the dealer their cards and ask how to set them. Which helped me because I was able to see all the cards that were out there. There were times I set my hand differently than usual based on what I knew the dealer wouldn't have. I was at this table for about 3 hours. My best hand was four aces (missing that damn joker). Ended up making $200.

After that I walked over to Gonzalez y Gonzalez at NYNY for dinner. It was yummy.

Back to my room for a bit.

Headed out for another PGP session. Aria's tables were deserted, which I took to be a bad sign. So I walked over to the Bellagio. Played at the $25 Pai Gow Plus table. It was a disaster. Dealer was on fire and I was getting jack high, Queen high, etc. switching spots didn't help. They followed me. Lost my $200 buy in in no time. I won one hand and lost or pushed everything else.

Side note: Bellagio is a clusterf**k. Too many damn people in my way everywhere.

Back to the Aria. Played here for a bit. Lost another $100 before calling it a night.

So the day started out well and ended poorly.

I am up +30 for the trip.

 

Up is up! Thanks for the detailed account of your trip.

Cinnamon roll

 

Good stuff! And nice of her to give you $10. I remember there were a lot of $5 spots on the wheel.

 

Love the report, keep up with the good luck. Karma is on your side...

 

I like how you eat - good healthy approach. Well done

 

Yesterday:

Wake up, hall my ass down to the Mirage for their breakfast buffet. I am enjoying the Aria this trip, but it's kind of a pain in the ass to get anywhere. Most often I stay at the MGM, and I love the convenience of being on the monorail route there. Here I've gotta walk my lazy ass everywhere and it gets old in the desert heat.

Anyway, the buffet was good.



After that, I played a little Pai Gow at the Mirage just for shits and giggles. The dealer, Curt, remembered me from when I was there in May. He's a great dealer. Very talkative and friendly with lots of Vegas stories.

After that I walked down to the Bellagio. Played $10 3:2 blackjack (they do still have low limit 3:2 BJ if you get there early enough!). Left even.

Back to the room to chill. Took a nap.

Woke up. Down to NYNY for more Pai Gow. Another uneventful session. Left even.

Walked around for a bit. Had a pretzel from that annoying crepe place in between Aria and Monte Carlo.

Walked over to the MGM. Played more Pai Gow there. Their tables were still $10. Usually they raise them to $25 pretty early. Minnie, the dealer I played with the day before and had all that luck with, had told me to come back the next day. So I did. It was another uneventful session. Made $20. Left when they switched out the cards. I was the only one at the table and was getting bored.

This trip has had a lack of big hands for me. Only one straight flush and one four of a kind. Thank god I only bet a dollar on the fortune. $5 would have been disastrous on my bankroll.

Wasn't really that hungry for dinner. Just had a sub from Subway.

Back to my room. I didn't realize that Aria did turndown service? I came back to my room and thought the maid was cleaning it again. But I guess it was turndown service. I usually turn the privacy light on all day once they clean it. I forgot to yesterday. I guess that's why this was the first time they did it all week. lol

Went downstairs and played $25 PGP. Table was no good. Or maybe it was just my spot. Anyway, lost $140.

Moved on over to the PGP table at Monte Carlo and played there with some guys I had played with at the Aria earlier in the week. I was still betting $25. It was up and down. I got pretty close to losing it all a couple times but built it back up and left even. They have that iVerify thing at Monte but they never use it, so I had to tell the dealer she was making a mistake a couple times (only because the proper house way helped me).

I really like the random "we keep two pairs below 6 together no matter what rule" that most MGM properties have. That has saved me many times when they have two little pairs and junk on the top.

Anyway, that was it for the night.

Gonna eat at the Aria buffet again this morning and my flight home is at 12:45.

Total for the trip is -99. A totally acceptable loss.

 

Buffet looks great!

How much do they charge for breakfast buffets?

Losing $99 for the trip is a hell of a Vegas Trip. Great job.

 

Nice report and good results but every time I read an update I wanna eat.......

 

Fantastic view from your room. And Aria has one of my favorite buffets. Also now I want breakfast food.

 

Great report. I was there the same days as you and we were at the same places a lot of the time. Bellagio was a total clusterfk. Do you know why the strip was so busy this week?

 

-$99 is a hell of a trip! Love those toilet pics...

Can't believe I just typed that.

Santé,
TL

 

GREAT trip. I too love breakfast buffets. Lotta comfort food, really feels like vacation, feels decadent and a great way to start the day, especially in Vegas, and you can also just skip lunch and take fruit to the room for later.

$99 loss is a major win in my book! You basically brought your bankroll back intact for another trip!

 

Nice report! And sounds like you didn't have neighbor issues this time!

 

No loud neighbors thankfully. If there were I wouldn't have even be able to hear them from where my room was.

I'm supposed to go back Labor Day weekend and stay at the MGM, but I might have to cancel that trip. I'm in the process of purchasing a condo (in Ann Arbor, which is apparently the 3rd hottest real estate market in the country right now). So the associated expenses and PTO I'll need to take in order to move might force me to postpone that trip.

Anyway, some final thoughts:

I loved the Aria this trip. They treated me well. I really enjoyed being on floor 29. The elevators were great:



That bank only services 6 floors so I hardly ever had to wait and there was never anyone on with me. A nice change from most hotels.

The flight home on SW went well. But the check-in was bad. I got a text that the flight was delayed a half hour so I left a little later than I had planned. At the airport, my reservation couldn't be retrieved so I had to wait in the long line and have them look it up. They had to call headquarters or whatever and had them figure out what was wrong. Took about 15 minutes of me standing there at the desk. Then I see that the flight was on time so I was really getting nervous. I literally got to the gate 10 minutes before boarding. Never cut it that close before.

Here is a video I made of my corner suite. I originally made it to post on Facebook for people who weren't reading this trip report so you can ignore my narration. lol

https://vimeo.com/134508762

 

Very nice tr. Aria is now the best property on the strip. Sorry pphold.

 

Loved staying in the corner suite on our last trip! So many different views.

Thanks for the TR.

 

Nice report. I'm planning on playing a little during the day over there in September.

And, have you bought a new toilet for your condo yet?

 

I love the Aria too, my last 3 days of my upcoming trip are going to be there on a comp. +1 on the aplgs pphold
after being offered comps at both the Cosmo and the Wynn / Encore too this trip I'm trying them out for the first time too
Enjoyed the TR, love the Aria breakfast buffet myself
Well done on retaining the BR, still waiting for my winning trip, maybe this time :evillaugh