Vegas 2019 TR - 6 nights of drinking, eating, gambling (ohhhhh the gambling)

Hey VMB. It's been awhile since I have done a TR and thought I would recap this one, my first ever 6 night trip. Be warned, this is a LONG TR and may miss a lot of shit but here goes...

We originally booked 6 nights at Bally's (5 comped and 1 paid for) and then i found out my buddy was going to be down there and he booked 2 rooms at Caesars and ParkMGM respectively. He said we could stay at ParkMGM on the Friday instead of paying for our 6th night, we obliged of course. We flew out of YYJ on June 2nd with a layover in Calgary. Got into Vegas around 4:15ish and hit the ground running. Usually we stop at Total Wine to get some booze and get snacks but who has time for that shit, off to Bally's via LYFT to get it going. I want to foreshadow by saying we were barely in the room, probably the least we have spent in a hotel room ever. A few of the days we left the room by 8-9am and did not return until 2-3 am the next morning.

Disclaimer: The wife and I, every trip, have a friendly competition on who can get more quads (4oaks, four of a kind, or whatever you like to call them) than the other. This year was no different and we went toe to toe on this adventure.

June 2nd (Day 1) travel day/half day in Vegas

I really wanted to watch the Raps/GS game so after we checked in we opened the hotel room door and although it's a bit hazy I THINK i drop kicked my suitcase into the room without ever entering it and slammed the door shut and ran downstairs. We booked it over to Caesars and hit up Gordon Ramsey's pub and sat at the bar to watch the game and eat some grub. First time here and I really liked the place and ended up eating here twice on our trip. I had a Barrel Aged Old Fashioned and wife had a Cereza de Mule (I only ended up getting a picture of them making my Old Fashioned).





After GR Pub we took a walk down the Strip, here's a few pics.



Only hit a couple of Quads on the first night due to limited gambling.



Went up to bed about 130am (up since 5am).



June 3rd (Day 2) first full day

Woke up around 7:30am to get the day started, off to play VP at Bally's Lobby bar and drink my routine Bailey's and coffee while the wife got ready. Once she came down we walked to Cosmo for some more VP, hit a quad and bet on the Raps to win the series


After this we hit PHO for a walk through and then off to MSS and then Fremont. Did not get a lot of pictures this trip, wish I had taken more. Random construction on Circa


Hit a few more 4OAKS at MSS/somewhere on Fremont. Which brings me to this, I played so much VP I didn't even track where most of my hits were. I was just sloppily playing and not looking for good paytables, just having fun doing it without a worry.



While downtown we ate at Coney Island (for the upteenth time it seems). Pretty good as usual. We headed back to the strip quickly before we headed over to Ellis Island for the first time. Pretty cool place, wife played some Roulette and I played VP and did a bit of slots. We ate at EI BBQ, awesome stuff and a great value.



After EI we walked back to the Strip and did a bit more gambling, this time at Cromwell. Wife was super tired so I escorted her to the room before I headed back out to grab some Dirt Dog for the first time. Man was it every delicious and is now my new favourite (was Haute Doggery at the Linq).



Headed to the VP bar by the Bally's poker room before heading up to bed around 1am'ish.

June 4th (Day 3) hungover walk to SLS/almost dead near MResort

Up at about 7:30am and again, off to Lobby Bar to play some VP and drink a Bailey's and coffee. Hit a couple of quads while waiting for wife



walked down the strip again and hit up the Linq quickly, Rematch is pretty awesome although I don't know if the bartop video games will be a hit,they should put VP there instead haha.


Decided to walk to SLS this day. I was hung over and felt like a bag of hammered dicks and with the heat (i think it hit 100) this was a BAD idea, a really fucking BAD IDEA. I knew it was far but in the condition I was in it felt like it was 1000 miles away. We hit up Wynn on the way, played a bit of VP had a drink or 2, then hit up Circus Circus for the same thing, VP and drinks.

At one point I had to run into a CVS to get a sprite and chocolate bar because I thought I was going to pass out, felt so dizzy. I was drinking a lot of water but not enough apparently. We finally made it there and we had a BLAST. It was our first time there and had heard how dead it can be but it was actually quite busy. Wife played some slots while I hit the new CASBAR for some VP. My bartender was Chris and we has incredible. Super nice guy and took care of me well. Had a few bourbon sours and beers and hit some nice quads while there.


Ate at 800 degrees, pretty decent pizza. We spent about 2-3 hours at SLS and then we took a LYFT to M Resort. What a fucking shit show that was. Our driver had only moved to Vegas 1 month before and had no idea how to drive let alone get around anywhere. M Resort is out in the middle of nowhere where there are a couple of structures and tumbleweeds (or so it seemed anyway). I had to tell the driver which exit to take and how to get in there even though I had never been there. After he takes the exit I tell him to turn right and then take the first left, he takes the right and stays in the right lane and just stops in traffic. There are a bunch of cars behind him and he just stays there for about a minute and was telling everyone to go around him even though there were no cars in the left lane. Finally all the cars go and he gets in the left lane and we barely make it alive.

Anyway, this place was on my bucket list because of @tringlomane recommendation of 32 degrees. Sat here and played awhile and had a couple of beers. Moved on to a few slots before hitting up the VP bar at the back near the pool. Hit some beauty Aces here and had a few more drinks


After a couple of hours here we headed back to the strip on a much more smooth ride.

For dinner we had


and had a few drinks



After this we played some VP at the Sportsbook in Caesars



and then we checked out Vanderpump Cocktail Garden (Garden, really?) Anyway I had no idea what this place was and my wife informed me that it was some Housewives reality star. I remember using a groupon at this place before it was revamped as Vanderpump. Drinks were good and we got a dessert tray, would probably not go back as it is not our style really.




After this we went to Montecristo Cigar Lounge and celebrated my Aces (with and without a kicker) as well as my wifes good day of gambling with some VP and a Cigar and hit another quad.




Don't remember much after this, I think we may have went to Earl of sandwich at like 2am. Here are some other random shots of the day.



This was at Bouchon bakery, had a breakfast sandwich to go on our way to SLS



June 5th (Day 4) A Royal Day it was...

I actually don't remember a lot about this day, especially early on. From what I remember based on the pictures we hit Cosmo in the morning for some Chandelier VP. I got a Vrbena (comped with 2 tickets of course), and wife had a really good cocktails as well.



sometime after we hit Fremont again, things are blurry at this point as the drinking was getting to me.



Played more VP down here at Binions and 4Q i believe then headed back to the Strip probably 2 hours later, short session downtown...wasn't feeling it. Headed back to strip and I had made reservations at Emeril Lagasse's Stadium to watch the Raps game (the first half anyway). I was getting pretty rowdy at this point and the Raps were playing well. Had some wings and Nachos and a couple of beers as we watched. As soon as the first half ended we booked it over to Caesars to try and find a seat at the SportsBook for some VP but it was packed so we sat at Alto bar instead. Struck up some conversations with the Bartender and some other people. Right after the Raps won i I planned on cashing out. I held 3 to a Royal and turned to my wife to let her know it was my last bet, I turned back to re-draw and bam...a fucking Royal.



We got excited as you can expect and I kicked the bartender a 20 before cashing out. We hit up Montecristo yet again to celebrate our VP wins. Don't remember much after this, I know we hit Dirt Dog again and got the spiciest fries in history which was a bad idea. According to my Galaxy Watch we went to bed around 4am and I have no idea what happened after Montecristo until that time...wow.

Some more random pics of the day



June 6th (day 5) meet up with my crazy friend, Golden Tiki

Another day begins, up around 9:00am with not nearly enough sleep, but...VEGAS. Same routine, down to Lobby Bar for coffee and baileys and VP. Wife came down and we decided to hit Chayo and use our Groupon (have been here 4 or 5 times, always a good time). Sat on the patio for some Promenade people watching. I had pancakes and wife had whatever this is



After Chayo we went to Catalyst to play some VP, did Ok there and had a few cocktails including a delicious rum punch (no pic).



After this I do not recall where we went, I think we took a stroll through the Promenade for awhile and then over to Caesars for awhile. Theme of the trip was hanging out at Caesars Palace a bunch. It's by far the most time we have ever spent there, we were feeling the vibe. For lunch we did Hells Kitchen for the 2nd time. I had asked about dinner the night before and they said they were booked until August or something crazy....what the fuck. Anyway, we sat at the bar and ordered the Scallops again and had a salad. I had a beer and wife had a cocktail. Good as always.

Around 3:30 we decided to check another thing off our bucket list and went to Golden Tiki via Lyft. We have been to Frankies at least 3 times so we needed to check GT out, man what a good time it was. I had the famous Dole Whip and wife had the Zombie



after i crushed the Dole Whip i ordered the 3 dots and a dash and it was DELICIOUS. I drank that way too fast as I do with all rum cocktails.



Spent about an hour and a half or more here, hit another quad. I went to the washroom and as many of you know that have been there there is a voice that comes over the speaker and yells at you. I won't spoil anymore so you will need to go see it for yourselves. Took a lyft back to the Strip for some dinner.



We decided for dinner we would hit up Carmines in Caesars Forum Shoppes (See the Caesars theme here?) Upon arrival they asked us if we wanted the personal plates or the family style seating. They should not ask this to someone who has had 2 tiki's and countless other cocktails/beers prior to arriving...i naturally said the family style. What the hell, the portions were massive because you know...they are fit for a family. We ordered a pasta and shrimp scampi. They were both unbelievably delicious but we left a lot behind because we didn't want to carry a to-go box around all night.



After dinner we hit up Cromwell for VP (near the stage) and played there. Wife had a great session and within a 10 minute span hit 3 quads including 4 aces twice (no kicker) and a regular quad on .50c denom. Spent about an hour and a half and drank a few Basil Haydens (neat). We cashed out and had to meet up with our friend (and his friends) at Rematch. Had a blast there while not gambling for once, had a few cocktails and I learned whatever the hell this is called.

After this we hit up Flamingo for some gambling.

Side note: My buddy, we'll call him B, texted me about 2 days before we flew out to Vegas and said he was "in my back yard". I'm thinking since I live on the side of a mountain with some mountain bike trails that he was mountain biking but he told me he was in Vegas. I let him know I would be flying in on Sunday but he said he was flying back to Victoria on the Saturday...but only for a few days and then coming back on Thursday...what the hell? anyway, my buddy is kind of insane, especially compared to us. He was throwing down hundreds after hundreds on Blackjack, Mississippi Stud and a bunch of other table games that I know nothing about. Before we came he asked us if we wanted to stay at ParkMGM on the Friday so we could save money. I told him we would pay for the resort fee (which turns out was comped) and he said no. I told him we would buy him dinner and he said no. He was buying us drinks all night and we got pretty drunk. I think we lost him around 1:30ish and decided we needed to eat. We ended up hitting up the Halal place in the Grand Bazaar shops before hitting the sack.



June 7th (Day 6) check out of Bally's & into Park MGM, Big Elvis

This was our last full day in Vegas and again, up around 9am and down to Lobby Bar for...you guessed it again...coffee and bailey's. We checked out around 10 am and checked our luggage. My buddy and his friends asked if we wanted to do TopGolf but we respectfully declined because BIG ELVIS has been on my bucket list for about 5 years. I have seen him a few times just passing by through Harrah's but really wanted to sit down and watch.

Before this we hit up Gordon Ramsey's Pub and Grill again for lunch, it was delicious and hit the spot.



After GR Pub we ran over to Harrah's Piano Bar, we got in line about 1:30 and waited for half hour. There was 2 MASSIVE lines at both entrances.



I even hit low quads with a kicker but forgot to take a picture, so here is this...



I urge everyone to go in and sit down and experience this show at some point. It's free, it's fabulous and it is the epitome of a Las Vegas experience. People were having an absolute blast and it was fun to see. The older gentleman next to me was hitting quads like crazy too, we had a blast.

After Big Elvis we went over to Park MGM so he could give us the key to the room. He asked us to if we wanted to join him and his friends at Golden Steer for someones birthday but again, the ******bag that I am, I declined because I wanted to watch the Raps/GS game. So we get up to the room after he gives us the key and it ends up being a suite with a nice view that he was comped.



We ended up at Moneyline Sports Pub and Book for the game. Ordered the Wings and got Nachos from the "make it yourself" joint that is connected to it. Really good food. I had the Banger Morning Joe (coffee Kolsch). It was delicious but it was a ripoff. @tringlomane asked me on Untapp'd if it was comped but sadly it was not as I was just in the Pub. Next time I will just go to Banger and pay half the price. Spent the first half there and to cater to the wife we payed our bill and hit the Casino. She did some Roulette while i just stood at the VP bar and watched the game (took a break from drinking for a couple of hours as it was getting to me big time). I witnessed the Raptors win and was ecstatic so I joined my wife after for some Roulette.

This was the craziest fucking table ever. I blew through $100 in 5 spins and witnessed a red number hit 30 of 32 times and the other 2 were 0 and 00. I am not joking. The table was dead when i sat down but 10 minutes later there was a horde of people throwing down multiple black chips on black and it kept hitting red. One guy dropped about $800 on black and he left, came back 2 minutes later and threw $50 on black and $50 on 15 black and it hit. He got like $1650 or whatever the payout is on that and my wife had 3 chips on that too.

After gambling I wanted to check out Nomad lounge for some cocktails. We walked in between 10 and 11pm and it was closing down. What the hell, this is Vegas on a FRIDAY NIGHT. Disappointed as I really wanted to try one, maybe next time. Came back out to the Casino and gambled a bit more before heading to bed before MIDNIGHT. I was exhausted at this point.

Some random pics from the day




June 8th (Day 7), last day in Vegas

Slept in until about 8:30am or so which was GLORIOUS. I felt like shit pretty much the whole day the day before and after a good sleep I was good to go, but the shitty thing is we had to fly out. I got a text about 7:30 in the morning from my buddy saying that there was $300 F&B credit and to order room service if we wanted because he wasn't going to stay there...what the hell. I looked it up on the Park MGM website and they had weird shit on there so I declined ( I know, it's a waste).

So we decided to had back to mid strip because we wanted to gamble and get Platinum with Total Rewards and my buddy asks if we were going for breakfast. I tell him I insisted on buying him breakfast and wanted to meet up with him and get this...he tells me he hopped a flight back to Victoria and was just landing in Seattle. He was supposed to be in Vegas until Sunday but because our mutual friend that we play hockey with is having a BBQ and a Poker game he decided last second to fly back. I am thinking what the actual fuck. Anyway, he says he hopped in an Uber and booked it on the way to the airport and got a first class seat so he could 'sleep'? After that random shit we decided to eat at Hexx. We have been here once before and it's pretty good. Wife ordered the Sangria Flight



As i said before I had a good sleep finally and i was ready to party. On the day I leave i usually never drink before flying. I am usually on my death bed at this point but this time I felt great so i was drinking, and drinking, and drinking. I had to slow myself down at one point but had a great last day. We hit up NYNY and got a souvenir for our daughter and hit the casino for some VP. I vowed to not go one day without hitting a quad and I did just that (kicker baby)



We were playing at Center Bar and I could not lose. I put in $100 and left at $250 after about an hour, good times indeed. At this point we needed to head back to Park to get our luggage, but before that we....gambled some more there.

Random pics from the last day again



Sadly it was time to leave and we ordered a Lyft to get us to the airport. This brings us to a close of a great trip with A LOT of places I got to visit that were on my Vegas bucket list. The only ones I didn't get to were Tuscany and Oak and Ivy which we will do next time.

VP Final Tally:

WIFE: 25 quads. More at the .50c level and I think 2 or 3 kickers (sadly no aces with kickers)
ME: 27 quads. Less at the .50c level, aces 3 times (once with kicker) and a Royal (which doesn't count but is oh so sweet).

I have only been going to Vegas since 2012 and got into VP in 2016/2017. I have already hit 4 Royal's which to me seems like a lot considering I only gamble once a year when I go to Vegas and maybe once a year at my pathetic local Casino. I think I have pretty damn good luck when it comes to gambling for the most part.

Thanks for reading this trip report, we had a blast and cannot wait to go back (hopefully this year ). And thank you all for posting your TR's, they get me through until my next trip.

PS: I missed a lot of things on here on what I did and this is the least amount of pictures I have taken to keep me on track of what I did, but oh well...VEGAS BABY

 

Awesome TR!
Congrats on the great time!
Thank you!

RICHARD

 

Congrats on the royal..... weird to see black $1 chips in Park MGM that is a recipe for someone to make a huge mistake!

 

Sounds like you and your wife had a fantastic trip - that's a ton of quads and a royal flush to boot. Plus a bunch of great meals. Thanks for writing this outstanding report.

 

Bloody great read.

 

Excellent report - enjoyed following along

 

Sounds like a great trip! Thanks for sharing... keeping me excited for our upcoming trip!

The chips are dark blue, and although a mistake can be made the color difference is a little more noticeable in person. Still weird to see $1 chips that are that dark.

 

Your trip sounded awesome! I think you are very lucky when it comes to VP and royals. My husband and I are Frankie's loyalists, but we're giving Golden Tiki a shot this time. Glad to hear you and your wife liked it.

I want a friend like yours!!!

Vegasworm

 

Great TR! Love all the pics! And congrats on those nice VP hits!!

 

Thanks so very much for posting! I VERY rarely read the live TR's....I get tired of scrolling through all the replies and half of them just end mid-trip, so I was thrilled to see a recap TR! What a great trip and a Royal to boot....thanks again!
diane

 

We were Frankie's loyalists as well but they are both great places.

 

You are insane walking that walk on the 4th, and from Canada at that! I took a photo of the thermometer on the dash board on the afternoon of the 4th on the strip. 112.1 degrees Fahrenheit slightly after noon! Might have been a few degrees cooler on the sidewalk, but yah Id say that it was 100 or more out is a pretty safe bet. Glad you made it ok! We're from Florida and we were choking out in the car with the AC on!

 

Haha yeah it was a bit insane. I walked from PHo to Trop when it was 110 some years ago so I knew what i was getting into. The only bad part about it was how hung over I was, normally it would have been fine.

 

Great report, the Mrs. talked me into going out next month which is going to be brutally hot. Tried to hold her off until September kickoff weekend. Didn’t work to well...after reading your report I’m ready to leave today

 

This is the best sort of TR with lots of "I THINK this is what happened."

 

Haha yeah I put this together based on time stamps on the pictures I took. When there was long lapses of taking no pictures I don't remember where I was. We actually visited a lot of places because I remember that at least.

 

Awesome trip and report!!!! Glad you and your wife had such a good time.

Love your friend. Yeah, maybe a bit insane but sounds like a really decent guy and that you have the kind of relationship where you could decline doing things you didn't want to do. Vegas should be about doing what you want to do when you want to do it and it sounds like your friend was cool/gets it ,so it's all good!

Love the "sangria flight" from HEXX. I'll have to try that in a few weeks!

Congrats again on the wins and good times and thanks for taking the time to write such a great report.

 

Great report! And nice of your friend to offer up that suite! That looked very nice!

And great run with the premiums and the Royal!

And glad to hear that someone other than me feels a bit "over royalled". In most VP threads about Royals, people say the opposite! It's a great feeling to be "over royalled", a Royal should happen for every 95 quads on average.

 

Great report!! Until I saw the Vegas Golden Knights pic..............lol
Perfect amount of pics. Some great cocktail and food choices.
Congrats on the Royal, always awesome of course, but better on your "last hand"

 

Fantastic report! Thanks for taking the time to recap the trip!