First time at the Ranch*!

*Not a TR about the bunny ranch!

My girl and I have spent plenty of Vegas time on the strip and on Fremont, so we decided to do something new for this three day trip. We booked into Green Valley Ranch and rented a car for our entire stay. Before our trip we had some things we wanted to do:

Play 100%+ VP
Check out the casinos on the Boulder Highway
Have a meal at the new Pizza Rock at GVR
Have a meal at Lotus of Siam
Have a meal at a good dim sum place
Drive around the Riviera and possibly stop in
Don't set one foot on the strip, or downtown
Gamble a ton! (ok that's every trip)

Friday

Our flight was late Friday night and it was delayed slightly so we arrived in Vegas shortly after 10:30. We try not to check bags on the flight in so we can just run out and get playing. After taking the tram to terminal 1 we headed to the rental car shuttle line which was huge! Luckily they have a large fleet of shuttles and load five at a time so it moved very quickly. The rental car center itself is pretty much the biggest one I've ever seen. I was amazed at the number of cars they must process in a day.

We rented from Avis and picked up our sweet ride for the weekend, a little KIA Forte! We're not big on spending $$$ on things like rental cars, we'd rather be gambling with it [emoji6] The whole process was great and took very little time. Keys were in the car we gave it a look over and off we went!

The drive to GVR took about 15 minutes. It took me a little longer since I missed the turn the first time I got off the interstate and had to circle around. Luckily I quickly got used to crossing 5 lanes of traffic when I had to. We dropped the car off at the hotel valet, and entered the elegant but understated lobby. The property is really well done and we were constantly impressed by little details that made for a rich but not opulent experience. I know it's fairly old by Vegas standards but it has held up well and doesn't look it's age at all. Check in was seamless and we were offered two free bottles of water along with a complimentary upgrade to an Executive Suite. The resort fee (sigh) also included a free shuttle for the Airport and the strip, but we decided a car fit us better than adhering to a shuttle schedule.

We dropped our bags off at room 4015 and our initial impressions were good. The room is a nice size, King bed, lovely wardrobe and writing desk, a couch and a lounge chair and coffee table, a big walk-in closet, and a size able bathroom with a big shower, a tub, two sinks and a large make-up table. We also had a very nice view of the pool and the strip off in the distance.

That picture was taken the next morning. Other than the room itself the location was also excellent. GVR is quite the sprawling property and we were close to the elevators so it was easy to get from our room to the pool or casino.

Our first stop was Pizza Rock since we were hungry. We really love the restaurant off Fremont and so we were excited that this one had just opened. Pretty much everything is identical to the downtown loc, except the GVR version is a bit smaller. The bar was actually full so we grabbed a table. We ordered some happy hour specials and some nice draft beers and charged it to the room of course. Everything did not disappoint, if you like the downtown location you will like this one!

After the great meal we went to play some Ultimate Texas Hold 'Em. I introduced the game to my girl a couple months ago, and she's hooked! Luckily I like it too. GVR has an excellent Trips pay table that pays 8/6/5 (1.9%) instead of 8/7/4 (3.5%). As a result I bet 25/25/25. The session was swingy but only ended down $100 after 2 hours of play. It's about 3am now but we have to play some full pay Double Bonus before bed. We've been practicing for months just so we could play VP for over 100% return! We find the machines right between Pizza Rock and Sip bar and play for dollars. After 30mins I'm down 260 and getting tired, so we retire.

Saturday

Saturday morning we decide to hit the BJ tables while we wait to get hungry for breakfast. They have a mix of games on the floor including 6 deck shoe (no surrender) , 2 deck pitch, and single deck 6:5. They had two $5 6D tables open, two $10 2D, and one $25 2D. The high limit room doesn't open until 11, they offer surrender on their 6D game but for a $100 minimum. We sat at the $25 game and I managed to go down $1300 in a little under an hour. Welp time for breakfast!

We ate at the Grand Cafe I had a smoked salmon Eggs Benedict which was very nice. My girl ordered the bananas Foster French toast, which came looking like this:

It was very good, and very large. We couldn't finish it even with the both of us going at it! Maybe it was the side of bacon that she ordered too, but hey you gotta have Bacon.

After breakfast we found some multi line 9/6 DB machines we played at for fun. Up $300 there, and then another couple hours at UTH where I was up $400 again. Nice to make a little comeback once in a while. We both decided it was a good time for a pool nap.

The GVR pool is beautiful and intimate, but finding chairs on a nice Saturday afternoon is a challenge. Luckily we snagged two as I saw some people leaving. We spent a couple hours dozing and tanning, then it was time to get ready for dinner.

For dinner we drove to Lotus of Siam and made it there around six. There was a small line but we were seated immediately when we reached the front. Dinner was amazing as usual. We feasted on Garlic prawns, raw prawns with tamarind and garlic and Chili, Drunken Noodle with sea bass, and a northern Curry dish, as well as a couple of glasses of gruner veltliner. All was wonderful and accompanied by very friendly service. Every trip there is fantastic.

After dinner we drove down the Boulder highway and stopped at Sam's Town. I had just finished reading The Professor, The Banker, and The Suicide King and I was eager to check out the poker room. Well, it's very unassuming and not the kind of place you'd expect the biggest side games of the WSOP to be played! Still, glad I saw it. The casino is definitely old school, right down to the choking smoke that permeated the entire building. They have 20x odds on craps though, so we bought in for $500 and decided to shoot a bit. Immediately a girl to our left says "you must not be from around here!" I guess even our small action is strange for this place! Unfortunately the table was ice cold and we got paid exactly 0 times, and dropped 500 in 10 mins. We did make the Mystic Park show just in time because of that though. It was a pretty cute show, and I'm glad I could cross it off my list. Nothing to go out of your way for though. But hey its free.

I had planned on stopping by Eastside cannery and maybe Sunset Station but after getting hammered at Sam's we decided to head home and play there. At least if we're losing money we'll get something from it. Had a nice craps run and ended up 595 so that helped take the edge off. We decide we want some nice Bourbon so we sit at the high limit bar and check the options there. They have 9/7/5 DB at the bar good for 99.1%, not bad, plus Woodford Reserve, sold! We played the rest of our VP at the bar in the high limit room for the trip.

The rest of the night I dropped 550 at VP and another 720 at UTH. Ouch!

Sunday

Morning Bj was kinder today, ended up 850. After we got hungry enough we drove over to Chang's Hong Kong Cuisine for dim sum. They have cart service and the food is not bad, and it sure beats paying strip prices. It was busy but they really turn the tables over fast there, so we were in and out in under an hour.

When we returned to GVR we wanted to play more BJ but there were too many players on the floor, so we headed to the high limit room where they had a $50 2D game. After 2 hours of play, I had $4000 in front of me and the casino manager stopped by to talk about my play with the pit supervisor! I'm not one to push my streaks too much, I hit some more 300-400 bets and then lost a couple hands so decided to color up. I had realized a $4125 profit, so not bad!

We played a little craps and had another decent roll, then hit the HL Bar where we had befriended the cute blond bartender from last night. My girl was on quite the 4oak streak, and then she hit the big 4 A's! She cashed out a $1000 ticket and started again with $100, and then hit 4 A's again! Another $900 ticket. Soon after that, I hit 4 A's of my own! Now I'm glad I learned DB!




The rest of the night we bounced between the UTH table and VP, and generally had a blast. The casino was hopping but not as nutty as some places get, and the vibe was very good. We found all the dealers be very friendly, and the pit critters nice too unless you asked for a rating, then they'd get all defensive.

 

Monday

We're taking a red eye out tonight so plenty of time left for gambling. Before we hit the tables we go to the front desk to see what charges we can have comped. The girl at the front tells us she can only give us what's on my girlfriend's card since my card wasn't added to the reservation at time of booking. Well, my girl is about to explode, so I step in and ask to speak to a host. The front desk girl calls VIP services, and talks on the phone a bit, and then comes back with the same answer. I say "Not acceptable, I'd like to speak to a host". She then hands me the phone and I talk to a woman at VIP services who still tells me the same thing. I tell her I am used to staying at properties where this isn't an issue and two people staying in the same room and playing independently can clearly be taken care of together. The woman on the phone then asks if I would like to speak to a host. I say "Yes, please". After a couple of minutes on hold a host comes on the line and offers to comp the entire stay, plus the hotel deposit which we paid up front, and also gave us late check out and another meal at Pizza Rock, which is what we had planned to do for lunch. We really did enjoy our stay and it would have been a shame for this to have ruined it. Luckily the host stepped in to take care of the problem, and we will follow their rules in the future, although it would have been nice to have been warned at check in about this.

Lots more gambling was done but UTH wasn't any kinder, took a $1400 hit at the game. It just wasn't the weekend to be playing that game I guess. Luckily I made it up at BJ and VP, which were both very kind to us. All told I finished up 3800, my first plus trip in a while! There's a good chance we'd stay at GVR again next time we want something a bit different.

 

Nice job, thanks for sharing!

 

Nice job! My last trip there, the CTW brought me Glenmorangie on the floor...clearly not as good as WR however.

 

Nice report!

 

Nice report. Glad you were able to get your billing straight at the end.

 

Thanks for the great TR! It's nice to get the viewpoint from someone else at a different property. Never considered GVR, but now will keep it on the radar for the next trip. Only been there once for a quick gambling binge, but didn't get to eat or look around much. Did you do any shopping in the complex surrounding the casino?
Thanks again for the trip report!

 

We didn't do any shopping in the District area, but we did have some dinner at Lucy's BBQ the last night, forgot about that until now. Food was good, especially the ribs. I'd go back there. The District is not huge but it has some cute stores, and a ton of restaurants and bars. Seems like they outnumbered the retail stores.

- - - Updated - - -

I'm also sad I didn't get to play Bingo. Next time I guess!

 

I've never been to GVR; the pool area looks lovely. Do they have a shuttle to the strip?

 

They have a shuttle that drops off and picks up from Mandalay Bay. If you're a hotel guest it is included in your resort fee. Same with the airport shuttle.

 

great TR... and nice to hear good things about GVR! I'll be living down GV Pkwy when I move there June 1st...can't wait!

 

Nice report! Congrats on the win! What is the minimum bet at the high limit bar tops at GVR?

 

I was playing $1 there 5 coins at the HL bar.

 

It is funny how those casino people get together and talk about your play when you are winning but not so much when you are losing...

Congrats on a good trip!!

 

Thanks.