StingerHook March Madness 2k19 (probably LIVE//ParkMGM)

Dinked around on the roulette machine at Cosmo for a bit and won $10 AND remembered to cash out my ticket, so I’m counting that as 2 wins.

Stomach still feeling a bit ‘off’ since yesterday - I know it’s because I ate too much bar food too fast so we’re gonna take it easy today on the booze and food front. Attempting to settle things down with ginger ale and a splash of Jack.

Exciting finish to the LSU game unless you had LSU -3 like I did haha.

 

Breakfast of champions! Hang in there. Bummer... LSU by 2

 

PlayMGM app is atrocious for me right now - can’t sign in on wi-fi or LTE. No action on UK game as a result. Wanted to tease UK with a few other games but that ship has sailed.

 

More of the same on the gaming front - unable to catch a good run in hoops, making a few dollars back on the roulette machine. Still well within my budget so no negative impact on the enjoyment scale.

Jack & ginger ale did the trick for my gut, so I grabbed the wing special at Pok Pok in the new Cosmo ‘food court’. Best thing I’ve had all week - highly recommend these wings if you’re a fan of fish sauce (that’s a bag of rice in the middle)

 

Back in the room for the evening - one more full day of hoops tomorrow, then working Monday and flying home Tuesday.

Hoops bets took a turn for the better tonight, as my 3-team parlay hit (Michigan -5.5, Mich St -10, Baylor +14 - Baylor game got REALLY sweaty in the last minute) to put a nice dent in my hoops losses. Also teased those 3 games but less of a profit on that. Also had Auburn -2, that was much less stressful.

Played slots at the Cosmo and dropped $220ish on just short of $1k coin-in (from what I can tell). I got some decent hits to keep me treading water for a while but nothing massive. My slot neighbors on the other hand did really well. Had a guy hit a bonus for $300+ next to me on the reels slot pictured below on a $3 bet and then while I was playing Game of Thrones, someone on the Buffalo game to my right hit a hand pay (not sure for how much, didn’t get that nosy). Pictures below include some fairly disappointing Buffalo Grand bonuses along with some better hits

 

Nice lazy Sunday going on - slept in a bit, grabbed breakfast from the Taco Bell by PH then have been floating around catching hoops action on a half-by-half basis at Park MGM and Bellagio. (Bellagio sports book was not crowded at all - I was able to walk in and get one of the seats on the right side)

Back at the room now to pound some water, then will proceed as strikes me.

Only hoops bet I have going right now is an 8-game moneyline parlay for all the favorites to win today’s games. Not sure I love anything else on the board right now but we’ll see.

 

Good luck with the chalk. How much that pay out?

 

Same sentiment. And I’m wondering what that pays as well?

 

Just shy of 6/1, so a little worse than the 3-team ATS I hit last night. Didn't place much on it but figured it was a flier I'd take

 

Buffalo is the enemy...

 

That is a fantastic deal and those fries and bacon are mouth watering.

 

Bummer of a finish to the Duke game - was rooting for UCF, my chalk parlay be damned.

 

Duke barely survived. Exciting game.

 

End-of-day-recap:

Went over to PH and updated my player’s card. Got Earl of Sandwich (the ‘Club’) for some sustenance and paid with Rewards Credits. Caught the disappointing (as an anti-Duke guy) finish in the sports book.

Walked over to the Cosmo to watch the UVA game and thanks to the quick start it was easier on my nerves than Friday’s game.

Trekked over to NYNY to redeem my final myVegas reward of the trip - $50 drink credit at The Bar at Times Square. Three of the $15 cocktails from their drink menu put me at $49 total. Tipped $10. I would have rather gotten the $50 credit at Juniper (assuming they have better bourbon there, which is what I was after) but couldn’t land one with an expiration date suitable to my trip - the batch available before I left needed to be redeemed by March 20. One peculiar bit about this is they make the cocktails ‘in the back’ rather than the bartender doing it in front of you. So if that’s not your style, be aware.

Watched my 8-team-chalk-moneyline parlay HIT as Oregon finished off UC Irvine. This puts me in the black for hoops bets on the trip. Great success and had a blast getting to that point.

Watching Billions on the iPad tonight before working tomorrow and flying home Tuesday. Will probably play some more tomorrow evening/night - I’ve given mLife virtually zero play this trip so I’m sure I’ve probably shafted my future offers from them but I can live with that. One of my goals for this trip was to not play out of a sense of obligation/chasing comps and I’m happy with how I’ve done in that area. Might play at a Caesar’s property to try to get back on their radar but we’ll see.

 

And if you're not a fan of fish sauce then stay away from this area! Bought a fried chicken sandwich from Hatties and sat down to eat, someone with the wings sat next to me and I had to move away or lose my appetite!

 

At McCarran waiting for departure in about an hour, will do my best to wrap-up yesterday and provide any other final thoughts:

Most of yesterday was taken up by working from the room, took a break during that to get some overpriced Starbucks food & drink from the casino level. After work wrapped up I cashed out my funds from the Play MGM app - finishing the trip net-positive on sports bets was a nice surprise that took me on some fun turns along the way.

Spent time packing my bags up as best as I could then headed over to PH again for another round of Earl of Sandwich and some slots. Finished down about $80 - a Stinking Rich machine that gave me virtually nothing, Fortune Gong that was very swingy, and a Quick Spin game that gave me plenty of wheel spins & allowed me to play for a decent while (the free games feature was nearly always disappointing on this one).

So for the trip, I played more slots than I ever have in previous trips and tried to divide that play between Cosmo and a Caesars property to get back on some sort of radar for them in hopes that I might land better future offers/discounted rates from either (and/or both). Played virtually zero table games which is a change of pace but not totally unexpected as table minimums for March Madness weekend (that I saw, anyhow) were a bit higher than I wanted to tangle with. Also played next to none at Park MGM so I’m bracing myself for future MLife offers to take a hit (not that they were all that good to begin with, but every little bit helps). From a big-picture view one of my main goals on this trip was to not gamble out of any false sense of obligation or fear of future offers and instead only play what/when/where I wanted - can definitely say I accomplished that.





Overall loose-end thoughts:

- My previous 2 MM trips I spent the Friday-Sunday chunk downtown due to room rates. After now spending a full opening weekend on the strip, I prefer the atmosphere on the strip for sure but it’s more difficult to find a good seat unless you’re willing to shell out for one.

- Glad I got to try the Pok-Pok wings and they did not disappoint. SREB was also a great first-time experience.

- I stand by my earlier comments that I wouldn’t hesitate to stay at Park MGM again in the future. The room checks all my boxes and the location is really solid.

- Saw/explored less of the strip on this trip than I did over Labor Day weekend, and I think a large part of that was being consumed with the hoops action and not wanting to risk being ‘in transit’ during an exciting finish

Looking down the road, next visit to Vegas will probably be in July for a few days of NBA summer league, but that isn’t set in stone yet.

Thanks for following along!

 

Thanks and safe travels.

 

I really liked Park MGM. glad you had a good trip overall.