mandalay bay sept 12-15

i just got in this morning from a four day, three night stay in vegas. i'm not sure if any of you remember but i won this trip through a contest with vegasfreedom.com. my brother and i flew out of columbus on america west on the 9:15 am flight. no problems at all with security. flight was pretty decent. got to mccarron and caught a cab to Mandalay Bay. had a $250 allowance per night with contest win. some of the details are a little fuzzy but i tried to jot some things down while in vegas. i go to vegas to gamble so this may not interest some of you.

friday
used the invited guests line at mandalay as i have played there several times before. had room number 14212 which overlooks the beach area. room was very nice and seemed bigger than most. had a huge bathroom with a seperated tub and shower. we immediately went down to the casino to hit the tables. i am mostly a blackjack player and usually play $25 per hand. hit a bj table and walked away with a $125 win. took that over to the poker room and played some 4-8 texas hold'em. first time i have ever played poker in vegas. i won around $20 but the game didn't have enough risk in it to make it exciting for me. after a little while, we headed over to nyny, which is where i usually stay. nyny turned out to be where i would take the worst beating. played bj and lost 200, played pai gow and lost 100, then played a baseball game and lost another 100. couldn't catch a card to save my life. we started to make our way down the strip and played a while at Monte Carlo and broke even. we went down to aladdin where i wanted to turn in a coupon i had for a free mug. played some job vp and hit four fours for a 150 win. made the cash i lost at nyny a little less painful. when we were getting ready to leave aladdin, we noticed a small crowd gathering. max baer, who played jethro on the beverly hillbillies was there promoting a new beverly hillbillies slot machine. we got in line and got a 8X10 cartoon drawing of jethro and the machine which max personalized and autographed. they also gave us a bright yellow tshirt. it was pretty cool. we then headed over to ballys and played some more bj where i broke even. we then used a 2 for 1 coupon and ate at the big kitchen buffet. food was pretty good and it only cost us ten bucks each. we headed back to the home base and i proceded to lose 360 at mandalay bay. nice way to end the day just before bed. my figures aren't exact but i lost around 500 bucks for the day.

saturday
woke up at 5:14 am vegas time. got a shower and something to eat and headed to the sports book to play some college football. was lucky enough to get a table in the lounge which has some big stuffed chairs in it. almost as comfortable as home and had some beauties bringing me beer. the only game i played was the ohio state/ncst game to go over. needed a touchdown in the last minute to put the game over but it was a nice $100 win. played some more bj and vp and lost around $300. headed over to the mgm since it was fight night (delahoya vs mosely) to see if there was any famous people around. didn't see any but played some pai gow and won $25. we headed down to paris to play some bj and i had a $10 matchplay coupon to use. lost the matchplay but ended up around $50. my brother had taken a pounding with college football betting so we decided to do something that you can't lose any money at. headed down to harrahs and bought some improv tickets with a $10 off each ticket coupon. todd glass (some of you may have seen him on comedy central) was one of the comedians and i can't remember who the other guy was. the emcee was funnier than anyone. some jerk sitting in front of us kept doing things to make himself get noticed and kept the headliner from really getting into his show. i wanted to go up and beat the crap out of him. while at harrahs we also played some game that was three games in one. i can't remember what it was called but it was very fun. the table was in the party pit and the dealers, tom and spike, were a blast. in the game you have three different bets out. the first bet is war, the second is bj, and the third is poker. you can win any of the three bets or all of them. ended up winning $90 on the game. my brother got tired and wanted to go back to the room so he went ahead and i stopped by the flamingo to play some double deck blackjack, which would end up being the game that saved my trip. i was up and down, back and forth but ended up $85 for the session. for the day i lost a little money. i don't seperate out my money so whatever i use for eating, taxi, tips, souvies, i pretty much count as a loss. probably had around $200 out of pocket for the day.

sunday
got up early again as i wanted to get the good seats in the sports book. turns out we got the exact same table. day started out great as i was 4 for 4 on the early nfl games for a profit of $400. the late games sucked as philly looked like a junior high team and tampa bay can't kick the ball. lost $330 on those two games. took a break between the games and played some bj which cost me another $200. so after a great start, i walked out of mandalay down $130. we headed over to the rio to eat at the carnival world buffet with a 2 for 1 coupon. if you have never been to this buffet, do yourself a favor and go. i was so impressed with all the choices. i walked out of there ready to explode. we walked on over to the palms and i found a great double deck game. the guy beside me was counting cards so whenever he put out a big bet, i would raise mine to $50. played for quite a while and ended up winning $300. played some pai gow also and won $25. was a very profitable trip to the palms. walked back over to the rio and took the shuttle to harrahs. played some more of that three game game and won a little. we then stopped and played at the imperial palace. i have been to vegas alot and this is the first time i set foot in the place. found a double deck table and won $125. we headed back down the strip and i wanted to use and $25 promotional chip coupon in nyny. well, i should have stayed away as i lost the chip and another few hundred bucks. once again i headed to bed with a losing session in my mind. for the day ended up a little lighter in the wallet but the palms kept it from being a disaster.

monday
we actually slept in to around 8. check out was supposed to be at 11 but i talked to vip services and they gave me a 6pm checkout since our flight wasn't leaving until 11:30 pm. thought i'd run downstairs and start the day off right with a big bj win. yeah, right. the cards were so cold there was ice on them. i lost $300 in a heartbeat. my brother came down and we headed down to caesars. he had a watch from the nike store that ate up batteries and the kind people there replaced it for him. i played some bj and was up and down again but ended up around $25 and won another 20 on vp. we walked through the forum shops and bought our kids some shirts. we also ate at the stage deli and it was very good. we wanted to go to hardrock as i had several coupons i wanted to use and also my daughter wanted a tshirt. turns out this was the smartest move of the trip. i found a dd game with a very fun dealer named vicki. they let me use two $10 matchplay coupons and for the session i ended up ahead $450 big ones. made the losing at mandalay bearable. we taxied over to mgm to play some baseball in the sports book. i played the braves game and won $105. i also won 90 playing three card poker, 35 playing roulette, and then hit four jacks on a vp machine for 250. that made another 425 i won. we trammed our way back over to mandalay to take our bags to the bell station. i lost 100 on the giants in the first half of the monday night game. thought i'd take a little chance and parlayed the giants and the over for the second half and hit it for 260. before the end of the game, i headed back over to the bj tables as i couldn't leave mandalay with them kicking my butt so badly. had alot of fun at the table and was up $100 when the relief dealer showed up. damn, it was frank. frank was the worst dealer i had my entire trip. he dealt at my table friday night when i lost 360 and he didn't say one word the entire time i was there. even if you tried to talk to him he would ignore you. so since frank showed up, i grabbed my 100 profit and cashed in. the monday night game went to overtime which put us in a pinch concerning catching our flight. i wasn't sure how busy mccarron was going to be. turns out, getting through security was a breeze. the lady at the america west ticket counter changed our seats so that noone was sitting between us. flight home was restless as everyone on the plane seemed to be coughing, snoring, sneezing and spitting. i only slept about 15 minutes. i counted my cash when i got home and had about $150 less than what i started with. if i was to add up the food, taxi, tips, and souvies, i probably spent around 350 which would make me about a 200 winner at the tables. so what a trip. free airfare, free room, up 200 hundred at the tables, and i got to meet jethro! sorry this is so long but had to get it all in there. thanks for listening.

todd

[ September 16, 2003, 07:26 PM: Message edited by: buckeyetodd ]

 

I would rather have met Ellie May except that she probably looks like Granny by now!

 

Great trip report. You sure spread your gambling around. My personal preference is to stay put at the casino I'm staying at and play blackjack and nothing else. My Wife will play video poker (FPDW) and nothing else. You might say that's boring but that's what we love to do. We'll also see a comedy show and have dinner at the restaurants where we're staying. Again, I enjoyed reading your report.

T-8

 

cruiser, normally i do play where i stay so that my room gets comped but the room was free up front so we traveled around alot. when we met jethro, he would shake your hand and ask your name so he could personalize the autograph. my brother said hi, i'm ellie may, and jethro said from what i've heard, you look alot like her now. i about laughed my head off.

todd