TR - Aug 9-11 - Hurricane hits Cosmo, Jemaa, Craps and BJ Tables

This will be my someteenth trip to Las Vegas and, apart from my bachelor party, the largest group trip yet. 8 couples plus one single friend for a total of 17, hailing from 4 states plus London and staying at a variety of mid-Strip hotels.

The plan for this trip started when my sister-in-law and brother-in-law scored childcare from my wife's parents and requested a Vegas adults weekend for the four of us. I took the liberty of inviting a few friends and now here we are, rolling deep.

The four of us are scheduled to land in Las Vegas after a quick flight from Santa Ana at 2pm on Friday, and my wife and I leave on a redeye around 1am on Monday morning to continue our trip in Hawaii. I won't bore you with any other travel details, though I will likely post some photos of golf etc. from Hawaii and maybe SoCal (before Vegas).

Plans for LV are as follow:

• Upon arrival, I need to check in to my comped rooms at Caesars, NoMad and Cosmo (where we'll actually be sleeping). With this many friends coming to LV, I took advantage of all available comportunities. My current plan is to short play Caesars and adequately play Cosmo and mLife. But we'll see what happens in the fog of war.
  
• Planet 13 for gummies and hard candies.
• Place some futures bets on Premier League, NFL and NBA, and bet on every Premier League match of opening weekend.
  
• Friday evening group slot pull in the Cosmopolitan for $100 each.
• Friday night dinner at China Poblano in the Cosmopolitan.
• Saturday Grand Cabana at Jemaa (NoMad pool).
• Saturday evening possible group dinner at Lago. This might get canceled in favor of every-person-for-themselves ad hoc scrounging at the fancy Cosmo food court which I haven’t yet tried.
• Sunday brunch at Wicked Spoon, maybe some pool time, then gambling and wandering the Strip.
• Sunday night dinner at Mesa Grill using my Diamond reward.

What this trip report will include:

• Photos of drinks, pools, chip stacks and hopefully cash stacks.
• Some light commentary relating to gambling wins and losses, adult beverages, the pool scene and anything else that happens of note.
• Quick reviews of restaurants, pools, rooms, etc.
• Grasshoppers?

What this trip report will not include:

• Video poker.
• Descriptions of how much things cost.
• Detailed reviews of anything.

I've had a successful year of gambling so far and I'm willing to risk a solid chunk of that profit, so I think the gambling budget will be about $5k-8k. Hopefully I buy in at my first craps table for a fraction of that and never look back.

I'm going to do this live and take the same approach that NFC planned for his latest TR (back at the outset of his trip before he "caved" and wrote a novel) - mostly photos and some short captions. Of course, if anything exceptional happens I will get into the details (after the trip if necessary).

Suggestions and commentary of all sorts are welcome.

So tune in next weekend for this TR if the foregoing is of interest to you, and otherwise, thanks for stopping by and good luck out there!

 

That is a large group to keep up with - hope you have a blast

 

Enjoy!

 

I found that the Cosmo makes them the best, yes.

I'm sure that's what you're referring to.

 

Where in Hawaii are you going??

 

Lanai, then one day on Maui (plan to drive the road to Hana).

 

Last gambling tune up before Vegas. In for $600, out for $1501 plus two Sam Summers playing 2/5 NLH at Encore Boston Harbor.

 

Today is Vegas Day! @Sonya , would you please move this over to the TR section?

Last night’s sleep: 7/10. Couldn’t stay asleep past 7am despite my best efforts. Also did some battle with a mosquito during the early AM. I’ll try to rest my eyes for 20 minutes on the very short flight from SNA to LAS this afternoon.

Now enjoying some time at the park with my niece. Creekside Park in Dana Point, CA: 9/10. Great equipment for children of all ages and a huge dog park.

Heading to the airport in a couple of hours.

 

Thanks, @Sonya !

Checked bags at a full service counter and went through security at John Wayne in less than 10 minutes.

Now time for Javi’s for lunch - feels like Vegas (Aria) already!

This is my favorite airport.

 

Margs up!

 

Boarding has begun. As Ryan DePaulo would say, I’ve got the degen tingles.

 

Love it!

 

Advice: don't drink prior to road to Hana! Tried this once, and had to turn around, as the road was extremely curvy and wasn't conducive to a 'safe' trip. Returned the next day, and it was unbelievable!

 

Reading materials for the flight.

 

Hotel check in #1 went great. BIL and SIL have a terrace wraparound suite in blvd tower overlooking Marquee, and we got an adjoining 1BR suite on my comp.

 

Wow! Some pretty suggestive pics! Hope your trip goes well and you win a bunch

 

Room wasn’t ready at 3:15 when I got to Caesars so played $25 craps and $50 BJ for an hour in the dome and lost $1100. Ice cold. That might be the end of CET gambling for this trip.

 

Got it all back and an extra $1475 playing craps and BJ at Park MGM. I made some inspired decisions when to ship a big stack at BJ leading to some massive double down winners that the floor had to check before being paid.

 

Welp last night got away from me, but what a great time. China Poblano was awesome, and for a bill that came out to $77/ person including tip, a good value by Strip standards. Everyone had an awesome time talking and drinking and eating. 10/10.

Gambling continued to go my way until it didn’t. Ran $3000 buy in up to $11,000 on craps and BJ before losing it all. Whoops. Down $1525 for the trip. Well within budget and having an awesome tome.

Also still drunk from last night and heading down to play more craps. Viva Las Vegas!