NFL Wild Card Weekend: Jan 2nd - 5th the LINQ

Hello VMB Community!

After more than a year of lurking, I’ve finally decided to speak up! The trip reports on this site have been my bread and butter when getting amped up for a trip to the Promised Land. And the way I see it, its unfair of me to consume and not contribute. So here goes!

10 days from today I will be flying into Vegas for a much anticipated three night trip with three of my friends from high school. About me: I’m 28, and live in the LA area where I work at the local Pig Farm (Police Department). My friends are coming from Seattle (where we all grew up) and Reno. This trip is a Christmas present from all of our wives as we haven’t taken a trip as “just the guys” in over three years. Being the miscreant that I am, I will be taking full advantage of the allotted time and flying out of Burbank at 7:30 AM on Friday January 2nd, and returning at 9:00 PM on Monday January 5th. My friends will be arriving throughout the day on Friday, and we are all leaving later Monday night. We will be staying all three nights at the Linq, where I am comped on a Deluxe 2 Double, and we are paying for a second. My cheap ass friends originally wanted to cram all four of us into a 2 Queen I had at the Flamingo. That was total bullshit. Not only do I want to avoid sharing a shiter with three other dudes, but I the last thing I need is to wake up at 4 am, drunk, as the little spoon. Fuck that. Luckily, I was able to get them to pony up for some extra beds.

At this point, its probably important to introduce my friends. We are an odd bunch, we all grew up outside of Seattle, and were best friends throughout high school. We all went our separate ways during college, but managed to stay in touch. For the last three years we have made a point of getting together, usually in Vegas, and always with the wives. Fortunately for me, my wife is pregnant with our second child, and has no desire to soberly watch me get sloppy and embarrass myself. So she is staying home. As I said, I am 28 and live in LA, where I have the honor of getting paid to “Protect and Serve” a number of the members of the board. My three other friends are as follows: “The Pauper” is a poor/cheap son of a bitch who works for a NPO in Seattle. He has always been the poor one in the group, and its turned into a running joke. He’s the guy who goes to Applebee’s for happy hour, and refuses to pay for a half price appetizer because he knows he will be able to fill up on everyone else’s leftovers for free. The mother fucker won’t even pay for a drink, no joke, he orders water with a bowl of lemons. Luckily for him, he is the wittiest, most shameless guy I know. Despite his annoying lack of financial means, he is the guys who can turn any situation into a party. “Teddy KGB” works as a Safety Inspector for the FAA and currently lives in Reno. He gets his nickname for his tendency to disappear in Vegas, only to be found days later leaving the poker room, broke. Like me, he is low roller, and will probably have a gambling budget of around 1k. Unlike me, he will most likely lose it the first night and spend the rest of the trip angrily pacing around the hotel room cursing that guy who had the nerve to call his seven/duce all-in with pocket aces (God forbid). The fourth and final member of our group we will call “Rafi.” Rafi works as some sort of computer engineer at an oil refinery north of Seattle. He is fuckin crazy. The first time we went to Vegas together it took him all of two days to start puking up blood. Did that stop him from pounding Crown Royal? Hell no. Unfortunately, Rafi isn’t much of a gambler. He might spend a few hundred on black jack, but passing out in the gutter is more his thing

As for myself, my gambling habits have progressed over the last few years. Up until three years ago all I did was play black jack. Then I was introduced to roulette, and I started splitting my time pretty evenly between those two games. Things started to get a little boring, and I always wanted to try playing Craps, but was just too intimidated by the table. So I did my research, and last year during the Super bowl I popped my Craps cherry… and I’m hooked. So for this trip, I plan on focusing mostly on craps, probably play some roulette if I get up, and will most likely play a little black jack here and there. I also want to try VP for the first time. I’ve read through Triglomane’s super helpful VP thread and I’ve been practicing basic strategy for Bonus Deluxe and DDB. Well see how things go though, I don’t have a huge BR, and it doesn’t look like there are that many good pay tables at the quarter level. I’ll also be placing a lot of NFL bets as we will be there during wild card weekend (This trip was originally supposed to happen over Super Bowl weekend but Teddy KGB was being a little bitch and insisted he had to “work”).

I’ll have around 1k gambling money. I know a lot of you get your jollies off reading about people lose ten times that much, so if it helps, just add a 0 (or two) to all of my wins/loses.

I like to go with the flow in Vegas, but since I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this trip for almost a week now, here are my tentative plans:

Friday
Get to the LINQ and Check in around 10:00 am.
Play Craps until Rafi gets in at 1:00. Plan on buying in with $300 (Remember to add the zero). If I can double my money, Im gonna BeeJay the roulette table with the winnings.
Once Rafi gets in, hit the sports bar at Caesars for some VP and drinks, stay there until the Pauper gets in around 3:00.
The Pauper wont pay for drinks, so we’ll probably dick around the strip and pre funk in the room for awhile (Flying SWA with two free checked bags. One for cheap Costco liquor)
Once Teddy KGB comes in, cab it to downtown that night for cheap gambling and shenanigans. (In 15 trips only been to downtown once. Up for suggestions)
Try Pedialite before bed.

Saturday
Wake up. Drink Whiskey.
Bet on the days playoff games (Hopefully the Seahawks will be on a bye)
Head to Hash House a GoGo for breakfast (depending on time).
Watch football for 8 hours without being interrupted by 2 year old daughter or wife (Monitor alcohol intake. Can’t allow 8 hours of day drinking to ruin night)
Assuming I haven’t lost all my money, hit Wicked Spoon or Baachanal for dinner (Probably have to pay for cheap ass Pauper)
Mini Strip Crawl Saturday Night

Sunday
Repeat Saturday
Ellis Island for dinner?
Try to teach cheap friends Craps (if not accomplished yet). Hopefully find a spot at Casino Royale, word is they only have one table open lately, may settle for harrahs.
Try and establish a little play at Cosmo. Feel like the wife would like to stay there and some discounted rooms would help. We'll see
Gamble/drink till early hours.

Monday
Ask for late checkout (probably get denied)
Leave bags at bell desk.
Go big or go home (Gamble rest of money until BR is doubled or gone. If gone, probably, hit atm) NO DESIRE TO GO HOME EVEN!
Leave Vegas 

Sorry that was kind of long. Needless to say, I’m pretty stoked for this trip. I know I started this a little early, but I plan on sharing my top ten favorite trip reports each day until the trip.

Stay tuned!

- - - Updated - - -

Mean to put this in Misc... My bad

 

Downtown: Highly recommend Mermaids for some severe boozing action. Drop $10 in a slot and be awashed in cocktail waitresses. I'm a WI native with an abused liver and I cannot last more than 45 minutes in that joint without feeling I am risking alcohol poisoning. Then IMO the Golden Gate is the best vibe in town. Good music, dancing girls, decent table minimums. If you want to teach your pals craps, the Plaza is usually slow with open tables. I've always had a good time there myself. Worth checking out Sigma Derby at the D, that thing is classic.

Source: Degenerate on Downtown Vegas 12.0

 

Awesome suggestions. What kind of craps minimums do the have at the Plaza?

 

Have fun and don't worry about the bankroll, it's all about what gives you the thrill right? I'm in town Jan 4-9 and its about the same for me, 31, wife and child at home, 1k max, and I usually get all over excited and blow through 2/3's the first night staying up til 8am.

It's always been $5 craps tables when I have been in the Plaza, but hard to say for certain on the weekend if it happened to be busy, I'd be pretty surprised if they didn't have a $5 table open though.

I might also recommend you check out the Stage Door about half a block off the strip past the Flamingo, easily walk-able from the Linq. It's a low end bar, but always friendly bartenders and the drinks are cheap. $2 for a bad whiskey and a PBR, or $1 Michelob, $2 jager, $3 Crown, and $4 Patron. It's usually my go-to when Vegas has ground my bankroll to nothing.

One other option for learning craps is the Azure bubble craps machines, they are all over, usually $1-2 minimums. It's not the same as a roaring good time at a table, but very low pressure, a great way to learn the game, and its a machine so it'll pay right money even with something like $2 odds.

 

Protip: do not get roofied by Russian Strippers at Treasures. You will exceed your bankroll limits

 

Man, sorry to keep posting here, but you have me triple pumped for Vegas now. Looking forward to the Trip Reports, hope you squeeze in some live nuggets so I have something to read at the airport and really get the juices flowing.

 

I'm more worried about table limits for my cheap ass friends. I love them to death but they have a tendency to drain the blood from my gambling hard on.

Good call on the stage door though. Is it just a bar or do they have table games too? I'll definitely have to hit that up. Even the pauper can't say no to dollar beers!

 

I'm gonna try and do some live updates. Gotta see what the mobile capacity of this tapatalk app is.

Glad someone is reading this. Wasn't gonna post it hut coukd stop thinking of that euphoric feeling you get when you first step into that casino. I'm don't usually get a lot of hunches, but I just have a feeling I am going to rape CET at the tables this trip

 

Stage Door is just a bar, there is Video Poker with bad paytables at the bars (which I have been known to plow a few 20s into), and a few slot machines, but I would just recommend the cheap drinks and the interesting crowd. Downtown should definitely treat your lowrolling compatriots well Friday night.

I know how a broke mofo can drain you though, one time a few years ago a group of us went out, and one guy got in in the morning the rest of us got in at night. He was literally bone dry by the time we arrived. Sucked a bit of life out of the weekend but thank god for the Stage Door ha ha.

Casino Royale should also still have $1 michelobs so you should be able to keep The Pauper plyed cheaply. I'll listen for the sound of a CET table getting pillaged Sunday night and deliver a round ;-) Hope you take 'em to the HOUSE.

 

Ya I imagine well either be near the linq or downtown Sunday night. It'll be out last night so I'm going hard for sure. Where are you staying Ron?

 

Downtown: Main Street Station Jan 4-5 and Golden Gate Jan 6-9. I'm solo Sunday night (my buddy who is also coming out is flying in Monday afternoon, I arrive 9:34pm Sunday pending Allegiant being on time).

 

Sounds good. If we are downtown Sunday night I'll pm you.

Or at least I'll try. Right now it's saying I don't have enough posts.

 

Good deal, I need to get tapatalk setup myself I think and I am going to try to do Wordpress from my phone as well. See if I can post something on my currently contentless blog happystardiaz.com

 

Ok note to self: never plan a Vegas trip this close to Christmas. I feel like a total ass because I could care less about Christmas, all I can think about are Scotch neats and hardways!

 

Sounds exactly like my kind of trip. From one brother in blue to another. Kick some ass and take CET for all its worth.

 

Also. Go Hawks!! Seattle area here too

 

Charlie, you live in Seattle? Was just there for the 49ers game! Stay safe brother!

 

Like I said, as a countdown to my trip I plan on sharing one of my favorite trip reports everyday!

Favorite TR #10: Trip Report #13: Trip Report #13: BeeeJay & Gaggles Put the ROYAL in Casino Royale!

Its an oldie, but a goodie. All of Beejays write ups are fantastic, but I especially like some of his older ones because you don't have to spend 6 hrs in the shiter at work scrolling through 45 pages to get to the end!

 

Great preview! Look forward to reading the antics when you get there. And Ron is right, $1 Michelobs at Casino Royale will go far for you and your friends. Bartops at Casino Royale aren't horrid either, if you can get on one. And sigma derby at either the D or MGM Grand is a good play for lots of drinks with little gambling risk.

 

I live north of it about an hour