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Guys trip, staying at Mirage, October 31-November 3

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by trsopko, Oct 31, 2015.

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  1. trsopko

    trsopko Tourist

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    My Trip Report

    Well, I am at the airport getting ready to tackle my first live trip report on VMB. I have really enjoyed the reports here and love living vicariously through all of you and getting tips on places to go and other things to see in Vegas.

    This is my 13th trip to Las Vegas, nine of which have been with my wife (usually with other couples or sometimes just the two of us), but this trip will be my fourth guys trip. We have had as many as eight of us, but this one will just be three of us, and we have all been on each of the previous three together. For our three previous guys trips, we have stayed at Excalibur, Imperial Palace, and Treasure Island. I got one of our nights free at Mirage through MyVegas, and am looking forward to staying there this time. We go on our guys trip about once every three years.

    My "to do list" for this trip includes seeing SLS and Cromwell for the first time, trying a day of NFL watching and betting at Stratosphere (I have done the theater at Hilton/Westgate my previous three trips), playing a couple of poker tournaments, a few sessions of cash poker (1-2 no limit), a lot of blackjack (including some Free Bet and Switch), playing some low roller 25 cent five credit video poker and hoping for my first Royal, and maybe even some slots or Pai Gow Poker.

    I will try to include plenty of pictures and hope to check in at least twice a day. I am including the gratuitous bankroll and airport pictures in this first post to get used to Tapatalk and posting pictures for the first time using that app.

    I am looking forward to a great (and hopefully profitable) trip.

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  2. LB9

    LB9 PH Blackjack Degen

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    Safe flight, looking forward to updates!
     
  3. Flowers

    Flowers VIP Whale

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    Safe travels and have a great trip!
     
  4. B S

    B S MIA

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    Good luck! Hope you get a ROYAL!
     
  5. sam_marques

    sam_marques Vegas Vlogs Youtube / TeamClareVlogs

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    Have a great trip!!
     
  6. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Good luck!
     
  7. Mirageluvr

    Mirageluvr Let's Ride!

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    I love the Mirage, as if my user name is not a dead giveaway. :thumbsup: if you get a chance, maybe you can provide a renovations update with the addition of the Center Bar. Have a great and winning trip. Looking forward to following along. Thanks.
     
  8. journaljim

    journaljim Low-Roller

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    Looking forward to it. Good luck!
     
  9. Char1

    Char1 VIP Whale

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    Good luck, will be following your TR.
     
  10. Hobofrank

    Hobofrank Prime Minister of Idiocracy

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    Gl, crush it!
     
  11. trsopko

    trsopko Tourist

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    The trip started well with a departure that was on time and a very smooth flight. Arrived to Vegas a little early to an empty can line and was off to The Mirage. Since it is Halloween, they were offering one free cocktail on Southwest, so I saved my drink tickets and enjoyed an early morning Leinie's Octoberfest and watched Jurassic World. We arrived at McCarran before I knew it.

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    I asked my cab driver not to take the tunnel, so she proceeded to complain about every red light we hit and honked at everybody who wouldn't blow through the red light. I arrived at The Mirage and saw they charged $30 for early check in, and it was only 10am. Since I planned on playing a poker tournament anyway while waiting for the other two to arrive, I just checked my luggage in and went to TI to play in their 11am $65 poker tournament.

    I was the first to sign up, but we eventually ended up with a small field of 12 players. I got up early and hit a big hand when my Aces held up against two other players who were all in pre-flop and went to the break as the chip leader. My luck slowed down a bit after the break, but I managed to chop 1st place with another guy for $203. After a $25 tip to the dealers, I ended up with a $108 profit.

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    I am now back at the Mirage getting ready to check in and wait for Aaron and Jeff. For those asking about pictures of the renovation, here they are. Mirage is not one of my most frequented places, so I don't remember how exactly it looked before.

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  12. Mirageluvr

    Mirageluvr Let's Ride!

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    Thanks for the pictures....lots of work still left, but should be a winner/Center Bar when completed.
     
  13. breanna61

    breanna61 Super Moderator

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    Have a great trip!
     
  14. trsopko

    trsopko Tourist

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    It was a great first day in Las Vegas yesterday, but I did not gamble quite as much as I thought I would. Once Aaron and Jeff arrived, we decided to take a walk down to check out a few places we had not gotten to see before, so we walked down to The Cromwell to see what the old Barbary Coast/Bill's looked like now. With as much work as they had done, we could still easily recognize the footprint of the old casino, but it looked pretty nice in there. I still get a bit nostalgic for the old low places we frequented often, and this was one of them.

    Since Jeff and Aaron has not been in town for three years, we decided to check out the changes to the Link and the new O'Sheas next. While most of the casino was relatively dead at 5pm, O'Sheas was packed at their blackjack tables and beer pong tables. It was a great decision to bring this place back, since so many of the new places seem so sterile...there has to be somewhere to go just to drink and have a good time.

    For dinner, we stopped by the new Fulton Street area at Harrahs to grab something quick, and their options definitely beat the cheap chain food court options of some other places that give a grab and go option. They had an Asian noodle and sushi place, pizza, a salad bar, and a comfort food station with good sandwiches.

    After dinner, we headed north and played some Blackjack Switch and Free Bet Blackjack at Casino Royale, but none of us had much luck. We also all lost money in some of their slot machines after finally getting a Casino Royale player's card.

    Our trip north brought us all the way to check out SLS and I really liked their Beer Garden. It was a good chance to sit and watch the World Series and catch up with Aaron and Jeff. We played a little more Blackjack Switch at SLS before starting to walk back home. On the way, we stopped at a gift shop for 99 cent PBRs and Miler High Lifes to accompany us back to the Mirage.

    The gambling could have been better, but it is still early and I have quite a few NFL bets out for today. We are sitting at Strarosphere watching the games, and I will finish that part of the report as the first round of games finish up. Below are pictures of the SLS entrance and that strange statue/sculpture, and a picture of the Beer Garden.

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  15. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Good luck tonight!
     
  16. trsopko

    trsopko Tourist

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    I came to Vegas so ready with my football picks. I had a teaser on the early games that couldn't possibly miss, a few parlays I felt great about, and a plan to hang out at Stratosphere watching my bets come in one after the other. Needless to say, it didn't quite happen that way.

    My $100 teaser had Atlanta, Arizona, and St. Louis having to win. I also had two $40 parlays, one with Chicago and the Giants an the other with the Seahawks and Packers. I made those bets at Mirage the morning of the games, then added a $20 parlay at Stratosphere of the Bears/Vikings over, the Giants, Cardinals, and Bengals. Of course, that afterthought parlay was the one that hit, paying $240 from an original $20 bet, so I luckily netted $40 on all of my football bets.

    The Stratosphere was a great place to watch the games, with a nice comfortable booth, a waitress that came to the table, very good food, and pitchers of beer. We stayed for all the first games and the first quarter of the second round of games.

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    Once we finished up there, we decided to head Downtown, and took a cab to Main Street Station. I had always heard positive reviews of the Triple Seven brewpub, and it did not disappoint. The black and bleu burger was outstanding, as were the beers.

    After Main Street Station, we were itching to start gambling and found a double deck table at El Cortez, with a great dealer and a couple of other players that were very sociable and made the table a lot of fun. It didn't hurt that I also cashed out $100 ahead.

    From there we decided to play a poker tournament at the Plaza, not realizing they had the virtual tables. I had a quick exit, but it was interesting playing on that type of table. While Aaron was still alive in the tournament, I took the chance to play some quarter Video Poker, finding a Super Double Double Bonus that was full pay right around 100%. I was down a bit when I hit this...

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    We walked around Fremont Street, saw The Who show, and ended up in the Fremont Casino at a single deck table. I again cashed out $100 ahead to continue a pretty successful day of gambling.

    We canned it back to Mirage, had a late night meal at Denny's, and called it a night around 2am.
     
  17. trsopko

    trsopko Tourist

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    I am at the airport waiting to fly back to Chicago and back to reality. It was a great trip, and another full day of "Vegasing" yesterday. Even after the late night on Sunday, Aaron and I got up in time to shower, grab coffee, and walk from Mirage to Excalibur for their 9am $40 poker tournament. It was a quick exit for me when the blinds started catching up to my stack, and I went all in with Ace-King against a pair of Jacks. I hit my Ace on the flop, but he hit his Jack and his set held up and knocked me out. Aaron lasted a bit longer than me, but not by much, so we went in search of a table game we wanted to sit at.

    Eventually, after walking through Tropicana and MGM, we found our way to Hooters. I have played craps only once in my life, but it looked like an inviting $5 with three or four other people playing, so I decided to give it a try. I had some luck at the table and doubled my hundred dollar buy in before dropping a bit and cashing out for $160.

    We met back up with Jeff at Luxor where we ha played a few slots, including the new Flinstones slot, which was a lot o fun and we played at a few more casinos later when we would see it. It is one of those games with a lot of different bonuses that was just fun to play.

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    We walked over to Monte Carlo because Aaron had used some of his MyVegas points on a BOGO beer flight from The Pub. We split the first flight with IPAs, most of which we had never tried, then the second with darker beers. It was a good deal and allowed us to try a few beers we had never had. The number of beers on draft is really impressive, and to try them in 5 oz. glasses with the beer flights was great. While we were sitting at The Pub, we made our plans for the evening, which was going to start at The Mirage watching our parlay bet of the Blackhawks -1.5 and the Carolina Panthers -5, then using MyVegas points on a free dinner buffet and a BOGO dinner buffet at Aria, allowing the three of us to split the cost of just one buffet.

    We got to The Mirage and the lack of sleep was catching up to me, so I left the guys in the sports book to grab a quick one hour power nap up in the room, planning on the last night in Vegas being a late one. I got back down just in time to see the Blackhawks score two late goals for the cover. With Carolina also up by 17 on the fourth quarter, I took a picture of my betting slip to post here, but I jinxed myself, as the Colts scored 17 points to tie the game, then lost by three in overtime, killing my parlay bet.

    We headed to Aria for a fantastic buffet. The sushi and split crab legs were incredible, as was everything else, including the bread pudding and peanut butter pretzel ice cream for dessert.

    Since we had such a good time on Fremont Street the night before, we decided to cab it down there again. We played single deck blackjack at El Cortez and all cashed out ahead, me doubling up a $100 buy in again. Then I finally found a More Hearts slot machine, which is my favorite game, at Fremont Casino, put in $10, got the bonus, and got 30 Hearts very quickly to get stacked wilds in the last three wheels for four games at once for the final eight spins, cashing out for $160.

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    We got our pictures with the million dollars at Binions, then played a few more slots, walked through The Golden Gate and Golden Nugget, where I saw The Tank for the first time. It seems like a really nice pool, and I would love to stay downtown some time, possibly there at the Nugget.

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    We went outside just in time to see the Bon Jovi show on The Fremont Street Experience before saying goodbye to downtown.

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    Once back at The Mirage, we walked over to Casino Royale to play a little more Blackjack Switch, where both Aaron and I lost, then met back up with Jeff and headed back over to Harrah's. There was a $5 craps table open, so I decided to play again since I liked it so well at Hooters earlier in the day. After being up and down for a bit, I cashed out $15 ahead, then we headed back to The Mirage.

    I still had not gotten to play any cash game poker, so I was glad to see eight players still playing in The Mirage poker room even though it was after 3am. I sat down to a tired and tight table, where we got down to just five of us after 30 minutes. I was not in the mood to play that short handed when I was tired, so I left the table down $15 and went to play Pai Gow Poker at a $10 table. I had a very personable and friendly dealer and played for over an hour, finally leaving up $20 and heading up to the room at 6am after a long but very fun day.
     
  18. trsopko

    trsopko Tourist

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    After just three hours of sleep, I wanted to play a little more before having to check out. Aaron had already been at it on the slots for more than half and hour when I met him to grab a cup of coffee and play some more Pai Gow with the same friendly dealer from a few hours before. She was not as kind (financially) with Aaron and I both losing money. We checked out and headed to the Airport to have lunch and a beer at Sammy Hagar's Beach Grill, which was pretty good for airport food, and are waiting to board our Southwest flight back to Chicago.

    Highlights and reflections for the trip:

    Loved the Beer Garden at SLS. It is a relaxed atmosphere with a good beer selection.

    I liked watching the football games at Stratosphere better than the Westgate. The booths in the showroom, along with the table service and good food made it a little nicer than our previous experiences at Hilton/Westgate.

    Triple Seven Brewpub was as good as advertised.

    We really enjoyed the gambling at the downtown casinos, especially El Cortez.

    I would like to try playing more at Golden Gate after just walking through there on the last night. Seemed like a good vibe there.

    There is never a shortage of things to do. I could not imagine packing anything more into three nights in Vegas.

    I have a lot of respect for those of you that can keep up with a live report. I updated when I could, but had fewer/longer updates than I wanted because there was just not much down time to write down what we were doing.

    If you made it through this entire report, thanks for reading. It was a great trip, and I look forward to hearing about all of yours.
     
  19. trsopko

    trsopko Tourist

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    They were very busy working on the Center Bar during our stay. Here are the updated pictures before we checked out.

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  20. boxofbirds

    boxofbirds Royally Flushed

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    Thanks for the report!
     
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