Memorial Day LIVE Flamingo Trip Report

This afternoon I headed down to the MGM via monorail. Wanted to grab a quick snack in the food court. Ended up with some McNuggets from McDonalds cause the line for a slice of pizza was too long and I'm impatient.

Went to NYNY and played Pai Gow for a couple of hours. It was mostly rough. No memorable hands or anything. Lost $50.

Went to the Bellagio and played some $15 BJ with my favorite dealer Mabel. She actually remembers me and greeted me warmly. She was just as goofy and entertaining as usual. It started out rough. Got down to my last $20. Had a little run and built it back up to $100. Good enough for me. See yah later Mabel.

Went to the Harrahs buffet for dinner. If you've read my trip reports before you know that I think the Harrahs dinner buffet is very underrated, food quality-wise. Did the 24 hour buffet pass thing cause I have resort credits to burn.

Then I went to TI for some PGP. The magic of last night was gone. Lost $100.

Today I have gotten more Ace high pai gows than I ever have. It is insane. They're like following me. And yet, I seem to push many more of them than I lose. It's been a weird day gambling-wise.

 

Wow. That's actually great. 9 high pai gaw is incredibly hard to make.

 

It's not a push on a 9-high Pai Gow, it's a push if after they set their hand, their two card low hand is a 9 high.

Still pretty rare.

 

That is pretty rare as well. Generally when that happens you were going to push anyways.

 

Agreed I will never play $5 on it. If I happen to get the high hand 2000-1, meh $2000 is a kick in the ass but not the end of the world. I often will play once in a while with my commission whites.

I hate the "point out every time you missed a winner" guy. I usually turn into the "point out every dollar I save" guy. I usually end up talking more than he does.... :evillaugh

 

Woke up and went to the breakfast buffet at PH. I really enjoy their breakfast.





I am a breakfast buffet fiend.

After that I wanted to play Pai Gow at the Bellagio. But their tables were $25 at like 9 am. Grrr. Based on my recent string of bad luck I wasn't about to play $25. Their soft 17 blackjack tables were $15 but I wasn't really in the mood for blackjack. So I kind of wandered around the strip looking for a Pai Gow table.

Monte Carlo - table full.
MGM Grand - $25 min
Monorail down to Harrahs - table full

Finally found a spot at The Linq. Played for about an hour. Lost my $100. Grrr. Feel like it's been a while since I've won anything.

 

TWO cinnabons? Wow, that would put me back to sleep (or diabetically induced coma).

Love the breakfast buffets. Which one do you like the best (cost/value)?

Time for a royal flush!

 

Man I dunno if I can do two cinnabons... well I could probably! No extra frosting for you? I usually always get extra frosting

 

I've actually done 3 Cinnabons before at the airport once. lol

As for breakfast buffets, I like the MGM Grand, PH, and Mirage. All the strip breakfast buffets seem to be within a few dollars of each other. The fancier ones (Bellagio, Aria, etc.) don't really do anything differently than the less fancy ones so I stick with the middle of the road ones for breakfast...

I didn't like the Paris breakfast (don't like that buffet in general) or the newly remodeled Excalibur one (nice remodel, bland food).

 

I agree on paris... not impressed...

 

Well the losing streak continues.

Went to The Cromwell and played Pai Gow for a while. Fun table. Good dealer. My first hand was a beautiful four aces. Almost a royal flush or a straight flush, but not quite... just the four aces. After that it got choppy. Up and down up and down. Eventually left the table down $40.

Went to Harrahs buffet for "lunch" (just a salad and some pizza, gonna go eat a full meal at PH for dinner).

Then I played Pai Gow at Harrahs for about an hour. Lost my $100. Nothing memorable happened. Everyone was getting killed. Yet we all kept playing. Tis the life of a gambler...

 

Love breakfast buffets!,.....Hate dinner buffets. I would rather just grab a slice of pizza or a sandwich or salad. Think I am going to have to you tube how to play Pai Gow. I usually play VP with a few Buffalo slots thrown in here and there.

 

Ugh sorry it's not going well.

 

So last night I ate dinner at the PH buffet. Because I had eaten a bit at Harrahs a few hours earlier I didn't engorge myself as much as usual. I stuck mainly to the Mexican section because that's what I was craving. There was this group of like 12 guys next to me. The waiters brought out these two ENORMOUS trays of crab legs for their party to eat and set them on their table. It was hilarious because it probably would have taken 30 guys to eat that many crab legs. They all looked kind of shell shocked when they set the trays down on their table What a waste.

After that I walked through the Aria. Their table minimums are stupidly high. Didn't see any BJ below $25 and no carny games below $15.

Then I walked down to Excalibur. Played Pai Gow for a little while. I was getting some really strong hands at first. Then it kind of turned and it was up and down. As soon as there were like 3 of us at the table they raised the minimum to $25 for new players. I'm not sure why they do that at the Excalibur.... It's not like they are a fancy hotel. Anyway, I left that table even and walked over to NYNY. Their Pai Gow tables are always packed in the evening. I sat down at the last available spot and played for a couple hours. I really enjoy the vibe in that casino. Much more relaxed and fun. Lost about $50. But for a couple hours of entertainment I'm okay with that.

That was all for last night.

Woke up this morning and went to the Mirage for my last MyVegas reward, a breakfast buffet.

But first I played a little Pai Gow there. A good little session. Made $50. The dealer was really good. Friendly, and had good Vegas stories to tell.

Then I ate at the buffet. It was quite good. They have really good breakfast burritos.

So that's it, basically. About to check out and head home.

 

March Madness two years ago, we stayed at NYNY and would walk down to Luxor for Pai Gow in the morning around 8:15.
The three of us could get on the same $5 table. About 8:45 it would go up to $10 or 15. And at noon $15 to $25.
Grandfathered in... we would play for 5+ hours downing screwdrivers the whole time until finally we are starving and had to stumble somewhere to eat.
Good times.

 

Ok- I'm sitting here at DTW waiting for the bus to take me home to Ann Arbor. I've got an hour to kill.

Some final thoughts:

-I don't think I'll stay at the Flamingo again. It really made me appreciate NYNY. NYNY has been my home base for a lot of my recent trips. I think a lot of people could compare it to the Flamingo, but I think it's better in just about every way.

The room at Flamingo was fine. You get what you pay for. If you need a bed to sleep in and a bathroom to clean up in, it will suit you well. But the customer service wasn't great. The walls are beyond paper thin. And those elevators are a hazard. I'm convinced that one of these days one of them will come crashing down and kill a bunch of tourists.

-Gambling could have been better. Those last two days were rough. But I still have a few hundred of my bankroll left so it wasn't a complete loss.

-Did I run hot in the bonuses for PGP? I got three 4oaks and three straight flushes in four days. Is that about average?

-My next trip is in July for my birthday. Will be staying in a Corner Suite at the Aria. Some of you may remember my Aria nightmare thread from last year where the bell desk lost my bags and the front desk sent me to some other guy's room. But I've decided to let bygones be bygones and give them another chance (the complimentary corner suite upgrade doesn't hurt).

 

ams: I see you are in the D... how long of a flight is it ?

I travel quite a bit to Detroit, and may just fly to vegas one day from there...

I am there probably 12-14 trips a year.. I have 5 logged already this year and at least 6 more installs coming up in the next 3 months

 

It's a 4 to 4.5 hour flight from Detroit to Vegas. 3.5-4 hour flight on the way home.

 

Well thats better for me LOL its a 5.5 so I save an hour

Thanks for the info ams !!!