Super 19

Flew Southwest from Sacramento to Orange County on Friday 2/1/19. The flight was uneventful with about 60 open seats, so most middle seats were vacant. My brother M picked me up at the airport in his new 2019 911 Porsche. He just bought it and the thing is a beauty inside and out. Had to cram my big ass roller luggage behind the front seats as it wouldn't fit in the trunk lol.





We had a few hours to burn, so we made a fast run to the bank for some cash, stopped for lunch, and then went to M's house to wait for our ride to the airport. This is our 19th year of watching the big game together (3 in Reno /Tahoe, and the last 16 in Vegas).

 

Next, we had a flight to catch to Vegas. It's only about 50 minutes airtime.



Here's our ride to the Mecca. It's time to party. Vegas here we come!









No, we didn't need this. But I know a few people who could use one.



Pretty tasty





Feeling like a million bucks. Almost time to touchdown



To be continued . . .

 

Sweet ride. Way to arrive in style.

 

Wow... Going in style! Nice!

 

Looks like something epic in the making. I think I'm your long lost brother.

 

Looking forward to this TR, someone clearly does something decent for a living lol.

 

Following!

 

I foresee an epic trip in the making . . . I will be following along!

 

Feeling really good, and ready to Rock N Roll, we land and head over to the Venetian where we are staying for the weekend. Check in was a breeze and we headed to our rooms to unpack. The first hiccup of the trip occurs when I realize I forgot my prescription glasses. I had a terrible time all weekend differentiating dealer 8's & 6's in black jack. Soldiers march forward and I make the best of the situation. Although, I must admit, I had to lean in pretty far a couple times to make out the dealer up card. Damn the 8's & 6's.

What is the first thing you do after unpacking? For us, it's straight to a blackjack table. About 30 minutes into our first session we get word from the relief dealer that some young guy had just hit the progressive at Carribean Stud at the Venetian. The table was about 50 feet behind us and the payout was a cool 1.11 million for a $5 sidebet. I think I'd be pretty happy with that kind of hit lol. Can you imagine, coming out to watch the superbowl and conveniently hitting for over 1 million. The guy was saying he was going to bet a huge sum on the game. I think he was just caught up in the moment, but who knows.

After about an hour of BJ at the Venetian, we color up about even and decide to head over to the Palazzo to play, as we have dinner reservations at Morels Steakhouse. So we enter the Palazzo and sit down at a Free Bet BJ table, and my brother starts playing big on the side bet (sucker bet). It's the one in Free Bet where you get paid for splits & doubles. In other words, the more gold coins you have for a hand, the better the payout for the sidebet. M starts playing $50 on the sucker bet and he quickly gets a great split that resulted in 4 gold coins. The payout is 60 to 1 for four coins, or a cool $3,000. And then, in the next 30 minutes, he hits twice more with 3 gold coins which pays 30 to 1 on a $50 bet. So $1,500 + $1,500 for another 3 grand. That's 6 grand boys and girls, all on a sucker bet, and all within 30 minutes of sitting down. All 3 were $50 sidebet wagers. Not a bad way to start the trip for M. We quickly left the table when a new dealer came in relief and immediately told M that the MAX bet was $25 for the sidebet. Clearly, M had been playing $50 on the sidebet, and was winning, which means the casino made a mistake by paying him. Fearing that someone would come up and say, "sorry, but you've been paid too much and we have it on camera", we got a little paranoid and bailed from the table. It's always good to stick it to the casino. M got $6,000 instead of $3,000, all because the prior dealer didn't enforce the max bet. Take that Sheldon.

Dinner was at Morels by the Palazzo check-in. We had a 9pm reservation and the restaurant was more than half empty. We went there partially because we heard they have one of the largest cheese menus in Vegas. They have over 60 assorted cheeses from around the world. Love me some cheese lol. So we ordered a bunch of cheeses and a bunch of salami's to eat it with. We also got the ribeye, the roasted chicken, onion rings (prime at Bellagio is at the top of the list for onion rings), and a bunch of other sides. The food was good, but the Service was piss poor. It took forever for the food to come out and drinks to be refilled. What should have been a 1 hour meal turned into a 2 hour meal. This would be the running theme for the weekend.

After dinner was more blackjack. I ended the night down $1,000. M on the other hand ended the night up, primarily because of his sidebets on Freebet BJ. Matter of fact, he never went negative for the weekend. I'm pretty sure it's the first trip in 20 years where he stayed up the entire trip and never had to take out additional markers. Here is his pocket dump before bed.



Day 2 coming next . . .

 

Keep it coming! Great report!

 

Wow great start on the recap!

 

Saturday morning started with breakfast at Grand Lux. We got a couple dirty looks when we skipped the line that was spilling outside onto the casino floor. We walked up to the Hostess, flashed the card, and even though we haven't been there for about 5 months, she blurts out, "good to see you , how have you been". We request a seat on the patio so we can people watch and quickly get seated. No food pics, but the scrambled eggs and lox was as good as usual, as were eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, and english muffin.

After breakfast it was time to play some blackjack. For me, the sessions all day were almost all the same. Up $500, down $500. Up $1,000, down $1,000. I just couldn't catch that one shoe that we all hope for during a weekend trip.

Today was the day the last member of the party was arriving. A was arriving via Southwest around Noon. M & I decided to go pick him up. We snagged a limo out front of the Venetian and went to the airport to pick up A. His flight was on time and soon enough we were heading back to the Venetian. A was laughing at us in the limo because we were day drunk and it was still early. He had some serious catching up to do and once we got back, he held up his end of the bargain and didn't stop drinking until 4am. He's a trooper.

Back at the Venetian, we immediately grabbed some betting sheets and went up to the room to have some drinks and figure out our bets. I ended up making 11 bets. My biggest bet was on the OVER. I was pretty confident both teams would score more than 57 points combined. How did that turn out? There is a twist I'll share later about this bet that actually made me some money. My remaining 10 bets were all long shot prop bets.

After placing our Super Bowl bets, it was time to gamble again. M continued his winning streak and did well at Roulette. That's $50 on zero, same on the split, and same on the corner. There are 5 purples on that stack being pushed towards him. Pretty sweet hit.



Before our dad passed away, we used to bring him with us each year to the Venetian for the superbowl. After he passed a few years back, I took a bunch of his ashes and discretely spread them all over the casino floor, late one night, while I was very drunk and somber. Now he is always with us when we gamble at the V. Also, he used to love the restaurant at the top of the Stratosphere . So I also dropped a bunch of ashes over the edge of the observation deck where the roller coasters are.

The day breezed by and before we knew it, it was time to grab another limo and head over to the Stratosphere for dinner. Through the metal detector and up the elevator we go. The doors open and we are in the restaurant. The only fast thing about the meal is how quickly we were seated. Once again, dinner would be a long one. At least we had the bitchen view to eat up the time. The meal was good as usual. We got Caesar salads, lobster bisque, crab cake, Wagyu skirt steak, Rib eye, Maryland crab stuffed chicken, and several sides. The lobster mac & cheese was disappointing and 90% of it didn't get eaten.

Here is A. The dude got carded all weekend long! He will be 29 later this week. He's going to look 35 when he's 50. Lucky SOB.



We tried to find him a birthday card at the Venetian around 1am Friday night. The first couple shops didn't have any. We finally found this and gave it to him LOL. The inside made it clear it was for a 6 year old girl. We had to cross out a few words and add our own, to make it gender positive lol.



After Dinner we went back to the Venetian. I played Free Bet and got down another thousand. I grinded my way back, got my yellow chip to break even for the session, and went to the room as I had a terrible headache. I think I was in bed by midnight.



To be continued.

 

Subscribed to the rest of this report. Love your style. Hope the breakeven session means you are trending in the right direction.

 

A seriously looks 16 lol

 

Excellent TR, can't wait to see some more blackjack wins!

 

Sunday rolls around and it's breakfast at the Grand Lux again. The low point, or maybe it's the high point, we order multiple Long Island Ice Teas with breakfast. You can't drink all day if you don't start in the morning. Today is all about the Big Game.

The back story on the above is that I told the cashier I wanted the over on the game. She asked which game and I told her the superbowl. After paying, I shoved all my bets in my pocket and didn't look at them again until we were at dinner later that night. When I looked at all my tickets at dinner, I was angry to find out the sports book cashier gave me the UNDER and not the OVER. I bitched about that for the next 18 hours. I know better than to not check my tickets after getting them. And I know they won't refund me that far after the fact. I sort of beat myself up about it.

Why would the cashier give me the under when I wanted the over? Why didn't I check my tickets like normal after receiving them? How on earth were only 16 points scored in the Super Bowl? Lady luck was on my side here. I guess it's better to be lucky than good. Maybe my dad's ashes all over the casino had something to do with it. We will never know, but I'm not going to complain about winning money.



I also hit on Sony Michele to score the first touchdown. I forget to get a picture of that one. These two wins gave me a profit on my superbowl bets.

 

Haha!

Love that over/under story + your dad’s ashes.

I can empathize with you about forgetting your prescription glasses. A few year’s ago, I attended an expensive conference at Bally’s. My prescription glasses broke before the first session. Fortunately, I was able to run over to the drug store and get a cheap pair of reading glasses so that I could follow the course book as father speakers lectured.

 

Funny thing was I had my prescription sunglasses with me, just not my regular prescription glasses. Those got left at home. That didn't do me much good as the dealers didn't want me wearing my sunglasses at the Black Jack tables LOL.

 

Great report... lookin' forward to the rest!

 

M also did well on his superbowl bets. M & I both do the same thing every year. We don't ever bet on a team, rather, we place a bunch of longshot prop bets. If you can hit 1 or 2 longshots, you make all your money back. It's fun for us and that's all that matters.

LOOK at the long odds on this ticket that M had.. What a wonderful payout for a measly $20 bet. Who would have ever fucking thought 16 points would be scored in the entire game. We were all stoked when the game ended at 16. There wer hi-5's, hugs, and more...