Trip Notes From My Palazzo Stay (20 July - 25 July)

One of the funnest trips I have had is in the books. I chose to not do a live report because I did have some work functions mixed in and I knew it would be hard to keep up with the live format. I plan on live reporting the VMB Craps Roll Trip in Sept.

I am just going to post random notes, observations, sessions and other info that came about during my July 20th through 25th trip.

I flew out Monday the 20th on United from Houston on flight 1720 (I chose this flight number on purpose, by the way). My plans were to get into town and take it easy the first night. I wanted to stay on a normal sleep schedule because I knew I had the convention to attend Wednesday-Friday and didn't want to look homeless and hungover.

We all know what they say about the best laid plans...

I was already feeling lucky because on Sunday the 19th I cashed for $350 in my Fanduel Baseball contest. If any of you have done this you know how hard it is to cash in the top 10 of a contest where 22,000 people enter. I also found $40 on the ground at the gas station earlier in the day Monday on the way to the airport. So I was up $390 before I even got to Vegas!

MONDAY JULY 20th
The flight was good and I arrived at Palazzo around 10pm and checked in. There was a minor issue with checking in when the desk agent ran my card and she said it didn't go through so I had a brief heart attack thinking something happened but then she realized she was not entering the correct info. Whew!

I was staying on a three night comp and my company was paying for the other two nights.

After getting settled up at the front desk I walked over to Walgreens and bought two four-packs of 16oz Gatorade's and two six-packs of bottled water to keep in my room. I carry a soft-sided cooler with me to keep in my room so I don't have to pay the crazy prices for drinks. Total cost for those items was $15.

I went up to my room and got settled in and waited for my bags. By this time it was after 11pm so I grabbed $500 and headed downstairs to "take it easy" at the Spanish 21 table. I was excited to play this because it had disappeared from V/P and Cosmo over the years. I started off pretty well and ran it up to $800 or so. After a couple hours I moseyed over to take a stab at the craps tables before heading up to bed.

Although craps started off well I hit a cold streak and I walked away about to head upstairs when the Spanish 21 table called. I had $300ish left so I figured I would take a shot at doubling up or losing it all and then get some sleep.

Boy am I glad I did. I played heads up with the dealer for a couple hours (so much for that "normal bedtime", eh?) When I cashed out I had a stack of 29 black chips!! Insane run. I was nailing the match the dealer and the dealer was continuously busting out. So I am energized by this run and I walked back over to craps...and I have to say again...boy am I glad I did!

A fellow VMBer, Taekkun, was at the table as I found out later, and we had a shooter go one one helluva streak. He probably rolled for 35-45 minutes and I was pressing hard. When I finally colored up after his and a couple other guys rolls I had $5k in chips on me. So I started the night $4500 up. Never have I started a trip up like that.

I didn't go to bed because I had an appointment at Art of Shaving at noon to have my straight razor shave. I went upstairs to take a shower and kick back for a couple hours.

TUESDAY JULY 21st

After a couple hours upstairs getting cleaned up I headed downstairs to Grand Lux to eat breakfast. I had the granola and fruit and an egg-white omelet. I assumed the granola and fruit was a parfait type thing with yogurt but it came with milk and in a big cereal bowl. So this filled me up and I could not finish my omelet. The bill was about $35 before tip.

I took a cab down to Mandalay Bay and walked around the casino and it was dead. I was starting to feel the effect of being up all night and didn't feel like playing anything so I sat in the sports book and studied the lines. I ended up doing two $50 four team parlays (neither ended up winning) and then made my way up to Art of Shaving.

I sat around there for about a half hour before I was called in and had my shave. I love having these done and I fell asleep in the chair. The hour went by quickly and I was definitely ready for bed. The cost of the shave is $65 and I tipped $20. By now I felt really lethargic and knew it was time for sleep - so I cabbed it back to Palazzo and crawled into bed around noon. I slept for about four hours and it was not a fitful sleep - a lot of tossing and turning. So I got up and decided I would shower and head down to Aria for dinner at Five50 and to try some craps there.

Prior to leaving Palazzo I tried my luck again at Spanish 21 and this time it killed my $500 buy in quickly. Meh.

At Aria I found a craps table - the property was crowded but the craps pit was pretty empty - and it ate my $500 buy in before I could ever get a beer. WTF? I hate when that happens. So over to Five50, my first time here, and I grabbed a seat at the bar so I could watch the ballgame on TV. I ordered two slices of the Gotham pie and it was pretty damn good. A nice amount of cheese and perfectly fold-able. I normally drink Amstel Lite but they didn't have that so the hot bartender recommended one that was similar to Amstel in taste. I think it was Joseph James Lager? I don't recall...but it was pretty good. I had two of those and then had a black cherry ice cream float to go and I cabbed it back to Palazzo because I was dead tired.

I popped two Advil PMs and was out like a light around 930. I slept like a rock.

WEDNESDAY JULY 22nd

Today was mainly a work day. I didn't eat anything for breakfast and made it to the LVCC around 930am and spent several hours at the show. I left around 3pm and headed back to Palazzo to freshen up and shoot some dice.

My buddy was also in town for the convention (he works on the supply side) so we agreed to meet up for dinner with some of his colleagues and vendors. In the meantime I caught a couple more good craps rolls and cashed out $2200.

He was staying at Paris so it was time for me to head down there. I got there early and decided to play craps while waiting for him...bad idea. In less than 30 minutes they got me for $700. WTF?! Booooooooo!

So he came down at the perfect time and we went to the circular bar there and met up with the group and started drinking more. I was already buzzed from my Palazzo dice session so the drinks we had there hit home hard. I hadn't eaten yet so I was feeling really good. We had a 7:15pm reservation at Mon Ami for the group of 12.

One thing I didn't understand at Paris...I could drink Amstel at the craps table but a couple feet away at the bar they didn't serve it. WTF? Makes no sense. So I switched to Miller Lite and vanilla vodka and cokes. In hindsight I should have left the vodka alone...

We went to MAG and had a fantastic dinner. I had never been there for dinner before, only breakfast, and it was really good. I had the shrimp cocktail, 12oz NY Strip with bordelaise sauce and frites. I also tried my first IPA, a Dogfish Head 60min, and it was pretty strong but good.

After a long dinner and BS session we decided to head to the piano bar in Paris. What a great time that was. Although most of the group trickled back to their rooms, I ended up staying until they closed. A really nice Canadian couple had joined our group at some point in the evening and I ended up chilling and drinking with them. We put away a bunch of Stella's and then stumbled over to Bally's for late night craps.

The table started off awful...I bought in for $500 and was down to my last hundred when some dude went on a SIX heater. He hit other numbers but I had my place bet SIX up to $450. I made $1300 on his roll. In true drunkard Vegas degen fashion I think you guys know what happened...I stayed too long. In my hops-infected brain I thought I was going to hit the fire bet and I was going heavy. Say goodbye to that profit...(cue price is right losing horn).

I cabbed it back to Palazzo around 430am and went to bed.

THURSDAY JULY 23rd

I don't think i can accurately describe how I felt upon waking up. Thankfully I didn't have early meetings or breakfast get together like the other guys. All I needed to do was go over to walk the show. I made it to the LVCC around 11am feeling like I'd been hit by a bus. I walked around for a bit and found my friend and we went to lunch at CPK in the Mirage.

I had about 10 glasses of water and a diet coke and then the BBQ chicken salad, which was pretty good. I told my friend there was no way in hell I was going back to walk around and he left on his own and i went to the Palazzo and crawled into bed. I still had all day Friday to walk the show so I used today to replenish my energy. I slept until early evening and decided to go down to Planet Hollywood to play craps and do some recon for the VMB Craps Roll.

I got there much like at Paris and Aria the craps table ate my $500 buy in before I could finish my beer. It seemed as if this trip I was either going to have prolonged rolls or quick hitters that eat my buy in quickly. So I walked around PHo a bit and decided to head back down to Venetian and ate dinner at Grand Lux. I had the quesadilla and a club sandwich...I didn't realize the quesadilla was not appetizer size so I couldn't finish my club sandwich. But they were both pretty good.

The Venetian was packed. It is always more crowded than the Palazzo side but this was to the extreme. The weekend crowd started rolling in and combined with some sort of pharmacy conference at V/P there were tons of people.

I decided to play Spanish 21 on the Venetian side and that was dumb because my $500 buy in was wiped out with a quickness. After getting my ass kicked at PHo and now Venetian I had no desire to spend more money so I went up to my room to continue my recovery from the previous night. My buddy wanted to hit the piano bar again but I waved the white flag and took my Advil PMs and fell asleep.

Not too long after i fell asleep my buddy texted me a pic of the LVMPD fishing some dude out of the Bellagio fountains. He said it took them 30min to finally get the drunk out of there. "Some people just can't handle Vegas, man".

FRIDAY JULY 24th

Waking up fully refeshed on my last full day felt good. I decided to forgo breakfast again because I knew my buddy and I would be having lunch so I made my way back over to LVCC after putting in my baseball bets for the day.

I haven't mentioned my sports bets much because well...I sucked something awful at them this time around. This day was especially poor. Anyways I walked the show for the final day, schmoozed up vendors and potential new suppliers and we broke away for lunch at Grand Lux. Even though I had already eaten there twice this trip my buddy chose the place and he was payin so who am I to argue? I had a burger and it was good.

My friend went to finish his business and I went off to track my baseball bets. I'd put down a nice bet on the Cubs (even though I am a Phillies fan) RL at -1.5 but hedged it with a Phillies ML bet because they were +245. The Phillies ended up winning so I was able to recoup some of my loss on the Cubs RL bet.

However all of my parlays were killed because Max Scherzer got tuned up by the Pirates. Thanks, Max...you bum. That's what I get for betting on the lousy Nationals. Good luck in your first round playoff exit...again!

The tone was set....I had a sizeable bet down on the Orioles at +130 in Tampa and they held a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the 8th and the wheels came off. I did cash on the White Sox against Kluber to help ease the pain but then proceeded to lose the rest of my bets that night.

By this time I realized that from all the pics and emails at the show and from watching MLB.tv on my phone - it was dead. So my buddy tracked me down at Palazzo and we went on a final night bender. I was bleeding cash - everywhere we went and everything we tried ended up in a loss. Although still up on the trip the profits had dwindled.

My buddy went back to pack for his flight and I think it was around 4am when I sat down at the Spanish 21 table. I sat there for 5 hours and was able to build up my stack to $2k and I cashed out around 9am. I went upstairs to shower and pack. I was going to take a nap until my 1pm checkout but I was scared I would oversleep and miss my checkout so I stayed awake.

I went to the airport early to grab something to eat and relax before my flight. On the way down the strip we saw the Cosmo fire. It looked really bad! At this time we didn't know that it was just the pool area so we assumed it was the actual hotel and were hoping that people weren't trapped. What a surreal and scary sight!

By this time i could feel the effects of a head cold coming on...I'd felt it a little bit the day before but thought it was just from not sleeping much and drinking way too much...nope, it was coming on strong. So I just wanted to get on the damn plane and get home!

My flight home was uneventful except for one thing...and this has never happened to me before...but upon descent into Houston my ears would NOT pop. You want to talk about a miserable feeling? I tried everything and it would not happen. I thought my ear drums were going to rupture. I stayed home from work today to recover from that and my head cold. What a shitty feeling!

Anyways the trip was really fun. My main goal was to have some relaxation time...which I was able to achieve. I also enjoyed going over to the show and hope to make it out again next year for it. The gambling was good for the most part. Thanks to the monster first day I was able to come home with a tidy profit which I deposited into the bank today and that will go towards the September Vegas trip.

I am waiting for my final numbers...before the final day I was at 16 hours of gambling with an average bet of $210...so I am sure I will end up in the same average bet ballpark.

Today I received my e-mail confirmation for Sept 19-22nd...can't wait to go back!

ODDS & ENDS

Why is it so difficult for the hotels in Vegas to have full HD channels? It drives me insane trying to watch something in SD on an HD set. With all the resort fee nickel and diming you'd think these clowns would spring for HD channels!

I had two cool cab drivers the entire time. The rest of them were ranging from awful to flat out ignoring me while they chatted on the phone. Don't bitch at me about your lousy tip if you cannot even muster a small bit of conversation, jerkoffs.

Like everyone else has mentioned before...the people stopping in the walkways and at the top or bottom of escalators is annoying. Come on people...move out of the way.

As I mentioned before the Venetian was hopping (Palazzo to some extent too) because of a convention there. Many people with kids too. Including some who saw fit to let the kids play in the corridor of the casino walkway by the craps tables and little mini-sportsbook area at Palazzo. I mean...seriously? Come on.

I saw DeAndre Jordan (Clippers and sellout to Dallas Mavs fans) and Matt Barnes (played for just about everyone in the NBA) walking around on Thursday night.

Speaking of the little Cantor sportsbook area at Palazzo...I got into it with some little asshole who works there. On Wednesday evening on my way over to Paris I stopped there to put in a $100 three team MLB late game parlay. There was NO ONE in line. I walked up and said "Yeah I want $100 on a three team ML parlay" and started naming the team numbers and this jerkoff said "I am closed...I am going to lunch." I was shocked. So I was like "dude it will take you two minutes to book this bet" and the slacker flat out refused to book the bet! I didn't have time to go over to Venetian so I couldn't get my bet in. Guess which three teams won that night? What a stupid prick that guy is. The next morning I reported his lousy ass to the manager.

The craps crews at Palazzo are great. I enjoyed playing there.

The piano bar at Paris was really fun - first time I have been to one of those in Vegas. Good times.

The weather was hot and sunny but the funny thing is when I landed the heat didn't bother me because it isn't as humid as Houston...it actually felt cool outside to me when I was in the cab line. The ladies next to me found it funny that I said how refreshing it felt compared to this swampy weather.

I did not make it to the pool which is something I really wanted to do...oh well I will hit it in Sept.

There were tons of people in town but the tables weren't really packed until Thursday and Friday nights.

I am sure I am missing some bits and pieces that I will add on over the coming days...time to take medicine and try to kick this head cold.

I cannot wait for September!

 

Sounds like you did pretty well !!

 

Hey Rocky! Glad you had such a great trip- it's a fantastic feeling coming home from one trip already excited for the next one because you enjoyed yourself so much!

Makes me smile to see you still head over to MB for your shave even though there's one at V/P, you must really be happy with your person there!

Hope you are feeling better soon!

 

Great tr rocky and congrats on the win! I think you said before that you work in lumber/wood? Would it be for flooring also? Sorry you came back home sick, i also came home with an ear infection that started in vegas. Just finished my antibiotics today and the dr said it could have been from the plane or pool.

Goodluck in sept and hope we can finally meet up sometime!

 

Rocky sounds like you enjoyed yourself and it is always nice to sneak in a few days when you are in town on biz. Good luck in Sept with the rest of the VMB crew at the tables in PHO. Timing is off this year, otherwise I would come out and toss the dice with the crew. Good Luck and get on a monster roll in September

 

Definitely wish I knew you were a VMBer while we were playing at the same table! Glad to see you came home maintaining a profit and crazy how feast or famine the dice were for you. It's always nice to start off a trip with a profit to work from. It's been a long time since I've been in that situation and I've been having to crawl out of a hole to start the past few years worth of trips.

Hopefully September VMB table will be more like that night in the palazzo!

 

One of the best visuals in the world - the approach into LAS! The butterflies in the stomach knowing your trip is just beginning!



It's go time, baby!



The Spanish 21 stack o' black!



The final cash out after the first night!

 

The fruit and granola bowl at Grand Lux - very filling.



Egg white omelet at Grand Lux - I could only eat half because the granola was so filling.



My first love of Vegas - this is where we first stayed and it will always have a soft spot in my heart. I thought it was a bit run down feeling when I walked through and now with the news that it may be sold it kinda makes sense. I hope the new owners take care of the place.



Good beer at Five50



I'm very picky about my pizza being from the east coast. I like good cheese with a bit of grease (nothing crazy but a good grease ratio is important) and it has to be foldable. Five50 makes a good slice!



Another east coast thing - black cherry soda. Love it!

 

Another profitable craps roll!



Shaky picture taking because of what was in that glass - vanilla vodka and coke. Heavy pour!



First time having this beer and it was pretty stout in my opinion. Three of these combined with many Amstels and the vanilla vodka and cokes and your boy was in trouble the following morning!



The NY Strip at Mon Ami Gabi - very good

 

The view from my room at Palazzo - room 12th floor



BBQ chicken salad at CPK -- very good





I love this view and this end of the strip.



Quesadilla plate at Grand Lux



Club sandwich at Grand Lux



My view from the taxi on the way to the airport Saturday. Very scary looking. All I could think about was the hotel was on fire and people were trapped. Thankfully it wasn't in the guest rooms.



Another view



I'm somewhat of a plane geek and I miss Continental Airlines so it was cool to see this old livery plane!



Until next time, Vegas!

 

Indeed - one of my best trips ever!

Thanks VC! I hope to feel better soon too. I've got a ton of work to get caught up on this week and I'm a useless bum when I'm sick. I'll fight through it though. I thought I took pretty good precautions at keeping the germs away with using hand sanitizer and wiping things down in the room but I guess not!

Yeah I like going to Mandalay because I'm rarely down that way so it gives me a reason to break away from my north side for awhile. Although my normal girl wasn't on this day I had a fella named Wayne do the shave and he did a good job. Originally when I found out my girl wasn't there I did call the Canal Shoppes location and they wanted a credit card to hold the reservation and I didn't have it on me at the time so I didn't book. I kept my Mandalay appt. Well the same day the Canal location calls and asks why I'm not at my appt and I told the guy I'm sorry but I never confirmed it because I didn't have my card with me when I called in but he tells me they still kept me on the books. That information would've been helpful the week before!

I wish I would've had time for another one before I left. But I'll book again for Sept!

Yo buddy! Yes I'm in lumber and plywood sales. We don't do much flooring other than selling rough lumber to custom flooring makers. But if you have any questions let me know!

Sucks that you were sick too. I think when we beat our bodies up with no sleep and tons of booze it breaks the body down! But damn it's so fun to have trips like that lol

I'm sure we will catch up one of these trips!

Thanks man! I hope to have a good roll with the crew in Sept. Hopefully we will meet up during MM!

Me too man - I don't have one of the wristbands but I think I should get one. I really wish the guy could've kept his roll going. That was really fun. I enjoy playing at that time because it's more laid back and quiet and usually there are just knowledgeable players on the rail who get their bets in quick and keep the hands up. The dealers give more personalized service and will know your betting patterns quicker.

I can't believe it's been a week gone by already!


My sleep schedules are still jacked up. I stayed home sick today and slept. I took my sleeping pill at 7pm and now I've been awake since midnight and I have to go in at 6am. Damn this day is going to suck.

I need to hit the lottery so I can retired to Vegas and live it up! Damn all these work responsibilities!

 

Rocky, great TR! Fun time doing it solo. Very nice craps run. Cool that you made your way around the city to check other properties out. Sorry we missed each other again. We will meet up soon. Again, thank you for the great TR!

 

Thanks, Packer! Hopefully we can meet up this fall!

I enjoyed the trip immensely and I didn't make it everywhere I wanted to go but did get out and about enough to break up the monotony of VP.

I talked to every dealer and pit where I played craps (Venetian, Palazzo, PHo, Bally's, Paris) and got feedback on the Wynn odds thing and everyone was shocked. No one agreed with it and the overnight crew at Palazzo said that "the bean counters and suits are trying to kill craps and none of us understand why". They all said this was a direct response to Wynns stock and overseas performance.

I know the front line employees are the last to know but none of them even hinted that the changes would be taking place at VP and one pit boss said that their hosts and marketing dept would do their best to get Wynn dice players into VP.

 

Nice TR Rocky, sounds like you had a great time and booked a very handsome win.. Congrats dude!!!

Did you go to Wynn and buy in at the craps table, ask about their odds and then cash out when they told you it was only 2x? I saw your post about this in another thread and was tempted to do it but I just made a few comments and decided to let the man behind the idea play it out first.

Glad you had a good time and really glad you missed the Cosmo boondoggle.

 

Thanks, Mike - congrats on your nice win as well!

I did not make it over to Wynn. My buddy and I planned to go over after the trade show on Wednesday and then we ended up having a dinner get together with suppliers so that nullified it. However, and I am glad you mentioned it, when I was playing at Palazzo I took my 5x odds and made a joke of "oh you guys don't have just double odds here?"

The dealers and pit laughed and talked smack about Wynn and another player said that he just came from there and he bought in $3k and had no idea of the new odds. The point was 6 and he put down $125 odds and they told him double odds only so he took everything down but his place and walked once the hand was over. He said the dealers understood and the box had no problem coloring him up and made mention to let a host know and to fill out a comment card.

Another thing I forgot to add...I dislike the sports book set up at V/P. The big book at Venetian with the big desks takes up too much room and it is hard to get a seat when it is busy. I also dislike that Palazzo only has that little kiosk or you have to go down to Lagasse's.

On one day I spent time sitting at Venetian and I had $750 in sports bets out...I tipped the writer AND put in a parlay bet for him too...wanna guess how many drink tickets that got me? TWO. Two lousy free drinks for $750 in bets and a dealer parlay bet and straight tip. WTF??

 

Wow that's bad..really bad.I could drink all day on that action at the Rio I swear...F'n A

 

Great way to start the trip with big winnings and playing on their money. As a Craps player myself I enjoyed hearing some winnings sessions! The pics were great ant thanks for sharing.

Tony

 

Great TR rocky! Sounds like a blast!

I had that ear problem after flying back from a business trip in Chicago - took about a week for my right ear to normalize and it was super stressful until it got right.

 

What a great trip and trip report! Fabulous pictures too. Sorry you got sick but glad you made it back okay.

 

Nice report and great win!

And Dogfish Head 60 min. is great IPA! I like 90 min. better...but that's also 1.5X the alcohol!
Joseph James stuff is pretty good too and a Vegas local! I definitely like Citra Rye (IPA) and Hop Box (Double IPA).
I'm also annoyed with the beer changes between the floor and bar. Anything crafty, best of luck getting it on the floor!

HD channels...yeah, that's annoying too. Even Tunica Roadhouse (CET) has HD now. Had to justify the new BS resort fee somehow I guess.

And the head cold sucks too. I started getting one on the tail end of a Disney World trip and yeah, the plane descents were awful.