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Downtown, then Strip, Live!

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by theotherone, Apr 30, 2016.

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  1. theotherone

    theotherone Low-Roller

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    My Trip Report

    Day 1, April 29:

    Lyft. Little hard to find but our driver was awesome. Was $24 minus the $5 coupon / promotion I had.

    Checked in at Golden Nugget and on to the 21st floor. Hallway of Rush Tower reminds me of the red light district. Works for me and it fits, as the wife and I quickly got 'acquainted ' in the room :)

    Seafood lunch at Chart House. Lobster spring rolls, fish tacos, and fries right next to the massive aquarium was a decent meal.

    Walk on Fremont next door to get Pepsi at the liquor store. First brief taste of Fremont. We returned later at night.

    Pool at 130pm. Good music but not near big enough. (Later the Pop2k music from Sirius XM would get old. Made it hard to nap by the pool haha )

    Tub craps! This was right by the pool. I returned to this mini craps table later. Keep reading for my detailed account later in the night. (Side note: parents of little ones will read 'tub craps' and think of something entirely different)

    Real craps. It was around 530 now. Just randomly tossed and managed to get up. Colored up exactly what I bought in with as they gave me one black chip.

    Roulette hit once. Stayed and bet for Lee the dealer and tried for 27 to hit but that wheel lived 32 instead.

    Over to checkout the tub craps. Not as good to me as I thought but that's the dice. However the dealers Jasmine and then Jon were amazing. I switched to the Don't and watched my stack grow and grow. Made several bets for Jon and we had lots of fun. He taught me a bit about Don't as far as payouts and made suggestions. It was very cool. He pointed out that I was making several 4s and 10s so I switched from laying them to placing. My roll was doomed anyway and I decided to head back to the room. Wife was done with her massage and went to get ready.

    We headed to MSS triple 7 brewery at the suggestion of a gent we met at the pool. Sports bar was what we craved and I was ready to 'switch to beer'. Tried the flight which was great and had wings and a terrific cheesy crab dip with tortilla chips and very tasty bread. All while we watched the Preds at the Sharks. Unfortunately game 1 was a loss for the Preds.

    Enroute to Fremont Experience I wanted a chip from MSS and played a $5 blackjack hand but the cards were face down. And I could touch the cards. That was weird for me. I had a 14 against a dealer Jack. I hit to 17 and stopped. He of course did not bust (20 I think) so I lost.

    Stopped in California for a $1 chip i bought from a guy at the cashier. So far only the Nugget has features bet at craps which I absolutely love (All Tall Small)

    Fremont was unlike anything I'd seen and even tops Bourbon st in Nawlins.

    Our room faces Fremont and of course the bands were loud. We may have to switch rooms as wifey is a light sleeper. We made sure to bring our sound machine. I passed out immediately around 1230 midnight. I didn't hear any complaints from her so hopefully she managed to sleep quickly too. She called to front desk and they said the bands don't stop til 2am.

    Weather is looking cool with periods of rain today which was extremely disappointing to the wife as she starts training on Monday and was looking forward to the pool in 85° heat. Forecast showed this until days ago when it dropped 20° as rain moves in :-(

    Maybe we'll check out the Mob Museum today. I gotta find something to win my $ back as I am down and definitely not up "5 hundy by midnight" as Had prophesied on the flight out

    Regardless , we are totally loving EVERYTHING about Downtown!

    *update: as soon as I finished typing this the wife woke up. She was up til 230 with the loud music below. Says I did plenty of sleep talking after I passed out and couldn't figure out how to turn off the light next to my bed. I recall none of this. She admits she is jealous of my drunken stupor last night hahaha
     
  2. theotherone

    theotherone Low-Roller

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    Day 2, Saturday April 30:

    Hash hash a go go. Bought Fantasy tix while waiting to be seated. I had the massive food thing that the Man v Food guy ate. Giant biscuit, mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, chicken, tomato spinach etc smothered in chipotle Benedict sauce. Amazing. Wife had pancake the size of a pizza. All so very good.

    Walked around to find an ATM and walk off food enroute to el Cortez

    Played real craps. Lost $11 and kept a chip.
    Switched to shoot to win craps first time in my life. Ups and downs but pretty fun. I don't see massive swings in wins but it's fairly consistent

    After she played blackjack and I played the bubble dice we stopped in 4 Queens thinking Chicago brewery had a happy hour. They don't so more 21 for her; I head to Shoot to win craps. Wife met some beautiful girls that were all friends and they played BJ together. The dealer was beautiful and friendly as well.

    So the bubble craps at 4 Queens had minimum of $2 pass line bets whereas El Co only required $1. I actually saw someone become a 'hot shooter' as she probably held the dice for 40-50 throws. I had switched to the Don't long before this (yet still placing the 6 because the machine LOVED dishing out sixes.) the machine even started labeling her as a hot shooter. My wife was ready to go so I let this girl finish her roll while the wife checked in our kiddo back home. I had just cashed out and was looking for a redemption machine when:

    *Lights Out. Power outage in 4 queens*

    It was completely dark for almost 10 seconds. Never thought I'd see this as from a disaster recovery/ business continuity standpoint, casinos are never ever ever supposed to go down. Later I asked an employee how they know who had what and he said its all backed up plus the cameras see all.

    We headed to Red sushi and had yellowtail roll, edamame, octopus roll (I think) , and the best fried rice of our lives thus far. Sat next to and conversed with a fellow Army Veteran 11 Bravo Infantryman.

    Lyfted it to Luxor for the Fantasy show. I really enjoyed this. Mariah was my favorite; the girl from San Francisco was my wife's fave (bigger rack. she was my 2nd fave.)

    We played VP while getting drinks at the bar in Luxor. Bartender was a cack but whatever; wife hit 4 deuces on Deuces Wild for a nice payday.

    Headed to Excal while trying to find the road to Lyft back to DT. They actually had Casino War at Excal , my wife's fave of all time. Unfortunately the dealer lady didn't know what she was doing and laid down 6 cards instead of 3. She said 'that's the way I do it'. The whole table walked away. I talked to the pit boss who said he 'would keep an eye in her' (the dealer)'. Wife probably lost at least $50. Bad dealers are the worst.

    Got back to the Nugget in the wee hours. Wife went to bed; I stayed up til 4am something playing Friends and Hangover slots, then ended with craps at $10 table.

    The All-Tall-Small bet is my bread and butter and I'm glad to say I personally Hit small. Only needed a yo for tall. Then dude next to me hit small after that.
    Dealers overall weren't too bad. Early on a surly dealer called a 6-2 eight as a 7. Very next number was a 7, natch.

    Today we will pack it up and head to the airport to get rental car, possibly do Hoover Dam, then check into NYNY

    if anyone wants particular details or has any questions at all, please let me know!
     
  3. jagdan61

    jagdan61 Low-Roller

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    looking forward to the rest of the report. You guys are def keeping busy
     
  4. JCLND

    JCLND Tourist

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    Awesome trip report.....giving me a little Vegas fix!!! Good luck and keep the report coming!!
     
  5. lylesvegas

    lylesvegas Tourist

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    This is getting me pumped for my up coming trip the 12th !!! Keep it up!! I will be staying at the Four Queens so how are the bartenders??
     
  6. theotherone

    theotherone Low-Roller

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    Day 3, Sunday May 1

    Champagne brunch at MSS. the GN buffet was a total strike out, especially at $7 more and less than half of the food options. So glad we made the walk over to MSS. Too, the line to check in/out was outrageous.

    Hit up a few casinos quickly to grabs $1 chip. GoldenGate handed it right over. Binions said they don't do that do I played few hands of $3 blackjack. Could not believe the table was right there and actually open. Wouldve been fun to play with the ladies that were there. At Fremont I asked the cage for a chip and the lady happily obliged, only to be stopped you her co worker vigorously shaking her head "No".
    "We have a shortage of chips, so we can't do it. "
    A gentleman playing Blackjack had no qualms with trading me one though!

    Lyfted to airport to pick up rental car for wife's work (cherry red Fiat!) and drove to NYNY.

    Heads up: soon the M life hotels will all start charging for parking , so sayeth the elderly gent on the elevator. He was not pleased and noted these casinos will take a hit when this happens. I agree.

    I don't remember much about the room in the NYNY 7 years ago but it did seem so much nicer than these. Just feels cramped and small but we were also spoiled at Golden Nugget with a larger room, couch, bathroom, etc. We won't be in the room much anyway.

    Ate at Il Fornaio , the Italian joint in NYNY. Very very good.
    Tables were all full at NYNY so we nixies to Excal to check things out. Better table minimums but we just played some VP together.

    She was tired and starts training in the AM so she headed to bed. I just felt like playing shoot to win craps. Slowly burned through my buy in but had a good 3 hours of fun. Just doesn't stand up to a live dice table though. I noticed people who wait to "push the button" seem to do better and this held true for me. Had 2 rolls of over 30 back to back. I tried to wait until at least one die showed 5, only to see if there's any consistency.

    Here's a useless fact: at the top of the screen is game number. Apparently each roll of the dice adds another. It was around 2600 at El Cortez and near the same at 4Q. Here at NYNY it's up to 49851. Sounds like NYNY has had this quite a while and the scratched glass attests to that. Funny that at el co, the game errored out 3 times within an hour. I'm thinking they're still dialing it in.
    Here's another fact: drinks in Vegas are much better as a double. It sucks when they won't let you order them though.

    Time to people watch a bit and then hit the sack by midnight.....................

    Except I didn't. By midnight that is. After people watching at the circle bar thing I decided to drink more too. Best way to do that? At the bar with video poker. The music has always been great at this Bar and I love that chicks will randomly start dancing.
    100 in to VP; hour and a half later I cashed out $99. Lowest I got was about $88. Highest was $101. Still, only a dollar to sit there for some uh, very "interesting " entertainment? Yes please!

    Now onto Monday. I'm flying solo today so the could be really bad or really boring haha!
     
  7. theotherone

    theotherone Low-Roller

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    We didn't play all that long here and I never sat with bartender.s directly but I'll say I was dissapointed with drink service at first. The waitress was snooty and rarely came around. I was 15 feet away from where the girls leave the bar and they all went the opposite way of the Shoot to win machine. Finally a different prettier waitress began serving and she was fantastic. Plus they let me order double vodka tonics so that was nice.

    My wife had much bretter service at the blackjack table the whole time and was actually a bit tipsy afterwards
     
  8. Check-Raise

    Check-Raise High-Roller

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    I'm enjoying the read and you kept it open ended so I'm not really sure whether I've subscribed to a 5 day trip report or a 44 day one, either way I'll be reading!

    By shoot to win craps are you talking about the video craps with the large foam-like dice in the bubble? I like playing those machines when I want to have a cigar. Usually I can find an empty one and not feel like I'm bothering people with my cigar smoke but I've actually done well on those machines before.
     
  9. theotherone

    theotherone Low-Roller

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    Day 4, Monday May 2

    Finally made it out for a run. Straight up the Vegas strip. Weaving through crowds and navigating stop lights , stairs, and escalators was tricky but it all made for a great run. Starting at NYNY I wanted to go at least to where Sahara used to be and also check the state of The Riviera.
    I brought along a few 1s in case I felt the urge to pop in a casino and grab a chip.

    So when I saw The STRAT so close I made it all the way there. Nice casino; very surprised to see $10 craps minimums (as is the case everywhere on the strip thus far, except Excal and NYNY early in the morning)

    On the way back I hit Circus Circus. Creepy clown sign; creepier clown chips.

    Then down to The Venetian where my Vegas and dice adventure started 10 years ago. Ended up talking with a very friendly craps dealer about the Repeater Bets. Similar to All Tall Small, you get that a number will roll so many times before a 7. 2 times for 12 or 2; 3 times for 11or 3; 5 Or 6 for 6 & 8, etc. Not a very good bet and I'll stick with the slightly less worse ATS.
    By this time it was much more crowded on the streets so I had to really slow it down. All said and done it was 7.5 miles - much further than I intended but worth it.

    On to the NYNY pool. Took my own whiskey drink with me but it went quickly. Later tried the frozen concoction by the pool. Later in the night my wife and I hit one inside. You can get a bigger size for less $. Pool was decent except for the roaring roller coaster ever 5 minutes. I'm gonna try a different pool today.

    When wife was done with training we walked through Monte Carlo looking for a good restaurant. Ended up in The Park and back to Toms Urban to eat in the patio and enjoy the fabulous weather. Mix and match tacos, fried pickles, and some of the best Brussels sprouts I've ever had.

    We then tried blackjack at NYNY. Fun table with a great dealer but after a shoe and a half she headed to Casino War and I to the dice table.

    Ive decided a different betting scheme for the ATS bet. I've hit the tall and small before , and while it's nice , I'd rather put all $5 on the All to get $875.

    The table wasn't too busy. I quickly got nearly every number. With only the 3 needed. Even hit the Yo fairly early. My wife could see me as she was just 3 tables away. I knew it would be kick ass if I hit that bet with her basically watching, but she would have known it for sure with my celebration. With just the Ace-Deuce in need, I actually rolled several more times and then............

    7 out :-(

    Ah well, there's always Tuesday to try it again. She finished at War and actually won a few hundy. I decided to call it a night. Tuesday is my last full day of gambling so I have to seriously make it count.
     
  10. theotherone

    theotherone Low-Roller

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    Correct, it's the giant dice I the middle that pop like the bubble in a board game.

    Today is my last day so I'll be wrapping up soon :thumbsdown:
     
  11. queentata

    queentata VIP Whale

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    Very good TR so far. Can't wait for the rest!
     
  12. theotherone

    theotherone Low-Roller

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    Day 5, Tuesday May 3

    Cosmo pool ls amazing and no roller coaster!
    No kids either!
    I called in the morning to confirm if they accept other guests. I highly recommend doing this as some workers weren't aware there was a private event going on so one pool was closed.

    Had Lunch at hooters 'comped' (haha I had a gift card from like 2 years ago). Grabbed a chip from here as I place hooters as a casino 'most likely to close/be sold' before most others. Having said that,the place was much better than when I stopped in 7 years ago. Changing the God-awful orange felt was a huge plus. I even win a little at blackjack.

    Took Lyft to Harrahs. I'm happy to announce they have the ATS bet and had $5 min at craps to boot. I asked how long they've had it and if other Harrahs do too. She said they got it after New Years and wasn't sure about others.
    If Harrahs Metropolis gets it that will be a game changer. All Illinois casinos are smoke free so this would steer me in that direction over Evansville Tropicana. While there in November my lungs took a beating and though I already had a bad cough the casino didn't help. I typically don't mind smoke at all but I think I'm just more conscious of it now. Even walking by Coyote ugly last night I heard them announce no smoking in the bar. Wow!

    But anyway, I made my way down the strip from Harrahs all the way to Planet Ho where I played and won a bit On the bubble craps. Paris, Cromwell, bally's , P Ho, and linq have the Fire bet. Most of them had $10 dice except Bally's at $5.

    Shoot to win (bubble craps) is min $3 even though it says $1 at Paris. This one was interesting as I've made $2 Lay bets this whole trip at various casinos and P Ho was the first to completely reject anything under $3.

    Tested out the sin city brewing co while walking back to NYNY to meet my better half. decent beer and if you buy a shirt you get a free beer. Shirts were about $25 I think.

    We made the decision to head out to the Hoover Dam. I thought this would be a great way to mix things up and hopefully change the dreadful luck I've been having.

    Lake Mead is super low. You can see the line where it used to be. There's even a placard explaining the water level (down 150 feet) and how the spillway to the side was only used once in 1983. My first time here, I was scratching my head thinking "isn't the water supposed to be up near the top of the dam?" Like in movies and pictures. Drought conditions have lowered it of course. It's quite an amazing bit of engineering and I'm so glad we ventured out.

    She wanted to try a smaller casino outside Vegas, maybe in Boulder City. That place pretty much shuts down at 8 pm. We were steered towards Green Valley Ranch which has Pizza Rock so away we went.

    WOW! Not just Pizza Rock, but GVR is quite a gem. We joked that it felt like walking into a high end outlet mall at the beach in Florida. Such a beautiful property with amazing staff.
    First Pizza Rock was much more gourmet than I thought. The chef is world renowned with several awards and I see why. We had the asparagus app wrapped in prochutto (sp?) and cheese, then the New Yorker pizza. So very good. I wished to save the remainder but my stomach is already jacked with the huge change of diet here.

    We played Blackjack together (double deck, $5) and finally won together (historically we just can't do this haha). She of course raked it in multiplying the buy in by 5. I told her she got more blackjacks at that table than I've got in my life. And that includes iphone games haha. It's amazing to see.

    Drive back to NYNY where she's off to bed and I'm off to find more gambool. I knew I'd end up back at Excal with their cheap minimums but first I took $20 on STW craps to $70 and back down again. 3 'hot shooters' in a row, one being me made me glad I switched to 'do' betting. I love some dice camaraderie.

    All I'll say about Excal is the tall, skinny, surly dealers did not truly want to be there.

    Over to MGM. I Wasn't feeling the $10 min and crowded crap tables so I went with the vp a bit just to drink. 2 vodka tonics and I headed to the roulette with an actual ball but no actual flesh n blood dealer. My luck changed for the better! I hit 25 and 27 til some interference tried to intervene, then this other interference came in with "I install poker machines , wanna see them?"

    Me: "uh, just tell me what they are?"

    Machine installer: " come on and see right over here...."

    Me: "I'm good. Good luck with that"

    I mean, has anyone ever heard of these shady characters doing this stuff ? I'm quite sure an 'installer' of VP machines aren't just going to start offering to show secrets or whatever the hell out if the goodness of their heart. Plus the way this guy totally pissed off at my suggestion showed me he was an unsavory character. After this I just figured it best to head back to NYNY as I was winding down.......

    ....and by winding down I meant play more roulette! And the worst kind-- "slot machine roulette!"

    These were single serve machines that basically brought me back up for the trip, minus about 2 hundy!

    In a drunken stupor I left some extra bets on 19 and well, it helped. Cashed out and went to bed a happy guy!
     
  13. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Good stuff! It it bad I want to go around various Vegas casinos now and see how many "bubble craps" games have been played?
     
  14. theotherone

    theotherone Low-Roller

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    Final day, Day 6, Wednesday May 4

    Joji (Goes by Joe) is a prime example of how a dealer should be at craps. The whole crew actually was amazing. I was able to give the ATS a shot 2 times along with three other shooters but the most I made was about nine of 12 numbers. I seriously am starting to think shooting In the morning is better than at night. Maybe a more refined, sober crowd is best?

    I blame aria for changing Vegas strip. The layout is just weird but the reason I can't stand it is you walk off the strip and instead of going straight to the casino is a giant hotel mall full of overpriced bougie (pronounced boo-zshie), glitzy crap. I'm hearing Vegas makes more now on shopping revenue than gambling, therefore the target is high end items made in countries elsewhere and millennials spending hundreds on bottle service.

    Cosmo on the other hand I'm ok with. Yes still boudoir but better layout and better vibe. Is that weird? Are Cosmo and Aria the same thing with a different dress on?

    I will say I was glad to see their daily minimums have gone down in the last few years. $10 for craps ain't too shabby. Plus there's a cocktail waitress standing by, literally standing by to take orders!

    Observation: I see on the strip written on the ground the word Kush KU SH with a phone number. I've seen it at least for five times in various areas on the ground. This has to be written and set up by cops right?

    To wrap up I basically bought a Coke from cvs, poured lots of whiskey in it and had just enough to get me through security. A hearty Long Island ice tea and tampering with VP and Keno ended my 4th trip to Las Wages. Down a little over 2 hundy sucks but hey, it could be worse!

    Can't wait to do Vegas again :)
     
  15. theotherone

    theotherone Low-Roller

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    Ha, Not at all!
     
  16. rycelover

    rycelover High-Roller

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    Being down only 2hundy for your trip is not bad at all. Sounds kind you had a great time!

    Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk
     
  17. theotherone

    theotherone Low-Roller

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    Trying to upload some pics. May have to do it from home

    Anyone have any pointers for uploading from iphone?
     
    Last edited: May 6, 2016
  18. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Download Tapatalk on your phone and make a post here through that app. They will automatically host the pictures. At least on android it's the mountain looking icon next to the camera to choose/load the pics.

    I'm making this post to you using it right now. Here's the margarita I had for cinco de mayo last night. Lol

    [​IMG]
     
  19. jagdan61

    jagdan61 Low-Roller

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    Very nice!


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  20. theotherone

    theotherone Low-Roller

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    The Fried Chicken Benedict at Hash House a Go Go at The Plaza. Wow! My wife and I should have split it. She had a pancake the size of a pizza. All very good image.jpeg Can't figure out why these are posting sideways. I'm sure you can get the idea though:)
    These 2 wonderful ladies were gone by the time we came back so I couldn't get a pic with them (there's another behind the guy). They were really nice image.jpeg
    took this on my 7.5 mile run. the Riviera is still there... For now. Some deconstruction has taken place
    image.jpeg
    Acquired chips. Never imagined it would be $28 worth! image.jpeg
    From inside the Cosmo. Looks like a damn good burger in a funny named joint
    image.jpeg
    Enjoy the dam picture
    image.jpeg
    "Peed" on the Berlin Wall at MSS
    image.jpeg
     
    Last edited: May 8, 2016
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