Birthday Trip - Forty Deuce

Not really much of a trip report this go around, but here are the highlights:

Room
Flamingo
I stayed in a King Suite back in September and enjoyed that room a bit over a standard room at the Flamingo. This trip, I originally thought I might have a roomie, so I booked the 2 queen variety. Even though the room was a little worn, I still found it comfortable and may look at staying in one of those again. This one was located in the Habitat Tower and I had a view of the pool. Still, pretty nice.

I did self check-in online and just picked up my keys at the kiosk. In and out in about 5 minutes


This is from the TR website. My room was very similiar.

Eats
Carlos'n Charlies
Service was painfully slow and we got hit up for a raffle for St. Judes. $25 gets you 10 tickets in a drawing for a hotel stay in Cancun for 4 or 5 nights plus 2 shots at the bar. I "missed out" by 3 tickets, but overheard them doing the same giveaway a few more times during the trip. Most likely it was some timeshare bit, but I hope the money was really going toward a good cause and not lining the help's pockets.

Anyway, we both ordered drinks in their Big Mamma cups (supposed to be 32oz) but I'm sure there was only about an ounce of booze in mine. IllMarty got to keep the cups though I'm not sure they made it home. The food was good, but was much better the last time I was there... then again, I was very drunk the last time I was there. Either way, save your money unless you can pick up a Groupon or a Restaurant.com discount for this place.

Put a little more booze in these please...

Mon Ami Gabi
The three of us had breakfast here a couple of times this trip. The first time, I had their Eggs Benedict special which had some sort of pulled pork instead of Canadian bacon and came with fries. It was pretty good, but the bottle of champagne we ordered to make mimosas might have had a bit to do with how well received the meal was. The second time, I got a ham and cheese omelet, which I've had there many times before. This time, the omelet had an odd taste to it and was pretty disappointing. Service, as always, was stellar.


Yeah, 3 guys drinking mimosas out on the patio... gonna make something of it?

Bao Now
Doc Al and I just grabbed some dumplings as this Lucky Dragon restaurant wasn't firing on all cylendars just yet. This made for a good snack, but there weren't many places to sit.

Samba
I can't say I've ever been to a Brazilian steak house before, but I'm pretty sure I'd like to go again. With the rodeo in town, I thought we might wanna get a reservation, so I did one online through Open Table, but really didn't need it since it wasn't that busy for a Friday night. We got the cheaper of the 2 options and it was still a ton of good eating. It was pretty hard to flip that little card over to tell them to stop bringing food, but we eventually did.

Fulton Street
We slipped in here one morning for breakfast after a walk over to Mirage to go to the Pantry wasn't a go due to the long line over there. I'd actually didn't realize they had a sit down cafe anymore (well, really it's not a cafe, but they open it up for breakfast them turn it into a noodle bar at lunch.) Still, it was a good breakfast, not very memorable though.

Binions Steak House
The three of us were able to do a walk in on Saturday night with about a 20 minute wait at the bar. I was still a bit full from the pizza snack I had earlier in the day, but still managed to put away a shrimp cocktail, 10oz NY Strip, and a loaded baked potato. Other than the waiter having no clue on wine selection (I'm in the same boat there) this was a highly enjoyable meal.


Sorry, was too busy eating to take pictures of the food

Battista's Hole In The Wall
After a day of watching the NFL at Ballys, IllMarty and I walked across the street for dinner. Really, we should have kept walking. The place wasn't open for dinner when we got there, but was going to start seating in a few minutes. At that point, it was almost a free-for-all as the hostess basically just said to everyone, "Follow me!" Anyway, we were seated in a small room with 6 other groups. I thought the chicken Alfredo with minestrone soup sounded good and IllMarty went with the veal Parmesan. Dinner also comes with a decanter of house wine which wasn't too bad to my unrefined palette. The minestrone soup was pretty good, but the chicken Alfredo was kinda blah. Actually, I think I've had better at Olive Garden. IllMarty thought his was decent, but it talked to him the rest of the night too. I doubt we'll be back.

Brooklyn Bowl
IllMarty and I slipped in here while waiting for some of his family to swing by and meet up with us. We seem to always make it here for their happy hour and enjoy several Drunken Palmers and a plate of BBQ Pork Sliders.

Guy Fieri
IllMarty and I had lunch here on Monday morning before he headed home. The service was friendly enough, but the food took forever to come out. I got the Mac + Cheese Bacon Burger and enjoyed it.

Gambling
OK, on to what most people want to hear about...

We spent most of our crap playing time at the Cromwell tables. The first night, we found a $5 table with 100X odd in front of the entrance to Drai's. I think the crew was relatively new because they made a few mistakes, but still, we walked away with a win at that table. This was pretty much the standard for the whole trip at the Cromwell tables. On Sunday night, we played there on a $10 table and were just getting beaten down until the dice got on our end of the table. There was a couple playing beside us that rolled for a good while, then IllMarty kept the dice for about half an hour and I finished up with a good 20 minute roll myself. In those four rollers, we rebounded from almost out to a couple of hundred dollar win for me and nearly a $1000 rebound for IllMarty.

We got butchered at double deck blackjack at Paris. At least the dealer was fun

IllMarty was also making the Game of Thrones games his bitch once again this trip. I tried them myself, along with Buffalo Gold and just couldn't get much going.

Now video poker, that was good to me...







For those that were wondering, I ended up throwing away the King in that Royal with Duece to play for either the 4 deuces or 5 aces... No bueno.

Oh how I love me some Deuces Bonus Poker... And I had to cash out and go home with this one



Funny though, I get home and I just got an offer for a video poker tournament in February. Always at a time when I can't go... bastards!

Anyway, it was a nice, relaxing birthday trip for me. Too bad Tennessee went into the shitter late in the season as I was hoping to watch them play in the SEC title game, but still enjoyed watching the other games in Vegas. I came home with more than I left with and that's always a good thing. I kinda wish a few more folks could have made it, but not many people really want to do Vegas is the winter time, especially this close to Christmas. This makes the third year in a row I was in Vegas for my birthday, but I doubt I will repeat it next year with my actual birthday being in the middle of the week... but then again, I didn't originally plan on going this year either

 

Happy happy birthday!!!! Have a blast, and thanks for the trip report, I loved it!

 

Thanks for the report Scott. I noticed some of the 4 OAKS were on double up machines. Were you tempted at all?

 

That's why I like playing VP at the Flamingo.
But I try to limit it to when I just win even money or maybe the occasional 20-25 credit win. Too bad the double up gods weren't as good to me this trip as the one in September.

 

Nice report! But breaking a wild royal for 222A? 22A was right though. I've only pulled off 5 Aces with that hold.