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Boys Superbowl Wknd - TI - And finally, we have a WINNER!

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by habshabs444, Feb 8, 2011.

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  1. habshabs444

    habshabs444 Tourist

    Joined:
    Jan 11, 2010
    Messages:
    15
    Location:
    Calgary
    Trips to Las Vegas:
    13

    My Trip Report

    Being my 2nd trip to Vegas in 4 weeks as the countdown was on seemed somewhat excessive, but what the hell... I couldn't pass up a 2nd annual Superbowl trip with the guys. This trip would be a bit different than my one a short three weeks prior which can be read here:

    https://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=61813

    I will apologize in advance if this is long winded as I tend to ramble on sometimes.

    This trip had been in the works for awhile and I was a relatively last minute addition. Everyone was staying at Treasure Island, so I figured I may as well stay there as well instead of my usual haunts - MGM and Mirage. Sure, I had to pay a casino rate of $120 or so for each night, but there wouldn't be any pressure to put my time in at the tables as I had a relatively modest bankroll of $2K for the trip. As it turned out, I probably gambled more than I usually do but I will get to that later.

    Arrival - I was working in Chicago for the last week so I was flying from O'Hare on Friday morning. Given my last minute booking, the direct flight on United was a little high, so I opted to connect to PHX on US Airways. It added some time to my travel, but I figured that with the WIFI which I assumed was standard on all their planes would keep me busy, plus I had some work to catch up on. Silly me for my foolish assumption. No WIFI, no tvs, no nothing. Canadians don't realize how good they have it with flying - sure we pay more as a result of less competition, but newer planes, TVs in all seatbacks, more legroom and seats that recline farther back more than make for it.

    Got in around 4pm. A buddy who was already there and picked me up in his rental. Got to the hotel and checked in. I had never even stepped foot in TI before so I wasn't sure what to expect. The checkin line was ridiculous so I stepped up to the 'invited guest' line that didn't have one person in it. (I wasn't sure if I was supposed to use this line as I had just called up casino marketing and they had given me a casino rate - hell - it seemed like an invite to me. Got a room on the 18th floor with a view across Las Vegas Blvd. The room was anything special, but on a guys trip, the only time I'm in there is my limited 3 or 4 hrs sleep per night.

    We went down to get our players club card and the guy at the desk goes on and on about the $5 freeplay we get when signing up... plus a chance at additional freeplay on our first swipe which ended up totalling a whopping $10 in freeplay. We head over to the $1 machines to quickly get rid of it. For the life of me, I can't seem how to access the damn freeplay so I quickly stick $20 in and on my last pull win $50. I think to myself at the time, I may as well keep this for later as this may be my food budget for the rest of the trip if I lose my bankroll for the night.. almost 18hrs later, this couldn't be farther from the truth.

    My host at Mirage at offered me a comped dinner wherever we wanted so I had him pre-book a reservation at Stack for 9pm. We headed over there around 7pm for a little pre-dinner BJ action. For those that didn't read my prior TR, 95%+ of my time is usually spent at the blackjack table. We settled down at a $25 table and I quickly went down $600. I had tentatively set my budget for the first night at $1K and I couldn't help to think that the majority of it would be gone in the hour before dinner! After 4 or 5 bacardi diets with the standard good drink service at Mirage, I was able to scrape back to just $250 down by dinner time. Buddy was in a similar predicament down about $400 or so.

    I had never eaten at Stack and was looking forward to a good meal. Neither of us were in the mood for a steak, so we opted to split the large shellfish platter as well as a couple of seafood appetizers along with a $70 bottle of sauvignon blanc from my usual go-to - New Zealand (I didn't want to push the envelope too much). After a cocktail, the wine, and a couple of spanish coffees, we ventured back out to the tables. By this point, I was starting to get a bit of a glow on and was feeling confident that things would turn around. The drinks were flowing freely and I will admit things were starting to get a bit hazy. After a couple of hrs, we were both now up a bit (who knows how much) so we hit a $100 doubledeck table. One thing that I did note is that there were a lot more high denomination tables than the trip three weeks earlier. We both had to be there till probably 3 or 4am but neither of us know for sure. As for whether we were up or down, another big question mark. All I know for sure is that I hadn't been to the bank machine hopefully, and I still had some of my $1K budget on me as when we stumbled back to Treasure Island where we both stopped to play some blackjack there.

    For whatever reason, I do remember a bit more of the next few hours. Although I don't know exactly what happened, we started to go on the heater of all heaters. Starting off at $25 or $50 I kept upping my bets. I continued to press periodically throwing down $500 bets which is never a good idea, but for whatever reason, I continued to win! Pulling 20s and 21s out of my rear on 16s...it was ridiculous. My buddy was doing similarly well, but not betting as high. I have no idea what time he went to bed at, but next thing I know the rest of my friends had arrived and it was 11am. Where all the hours had gone is beyond me. The rest of the morning was recounted to me by one of the recent arrivals later on that day and involved me, mumbling, stumbling and being overal very sloppy. I guess I had my friends with the pitboss (I do remember her name - Linda) and she kept encouraging me that perhaps it was best that I shut it down for the night. Per my friends, after losing around $1K since they got there, I went to bed around noon. I awoke around 3pm with a feeling that I probably had ended up in the black for the night as I do remember a fairly good size roll of hundreds. To my astonishment, I pull the massive wad of out my jeans that were crumbled out on the floor and starting counting and counting. Final tally - over $9K in 100s!
    First night/morning - up over $8K!!

    Saturday - I finally get myself together, pull open the drapes and realize that it is already getting dark out...always a strange feeling missing a day in its entirety. I make it downstairs around 5pm give or take and meet up with some buddies at the tables. I went breakeven over the next hr or so before three of us head to the Mexican restaurant in TI whose name escapes me. It actually exceeded my expectations, however the wine list was rather lacking - and yes - I was ready to start drinking again after a previous 18 hour session. Everyone else had since arrived (there was 10 of us in total) and everyone else had been drinking/gambling here and there all aft. 2 of us were headed to the George Strait concert at MGM so we headed over there. We head in the arena and one of the tickets ends up being invalid - WTF. I had bought them off of stubhub earlier in the week and had them fedex'd to TI. I try calling stubhub as they have a 'fan protection guarantee' but their offices are closed. I knew I would be able to get to get our money back, but it still sucked big time. As a result, I had to hit the concert solo. The concert was pretty good, but it would have been nice to go with someone. The seat beside me ended up being empty so who knows what happened.

    Post-concert, I meet up with everyone back at TI and hit the tables. After about an hr or so, I tire of the incompetence at the tables - staying on 12s with the dealer showing a 10... the usual nonsense at a $15 table, but I wanted to play with the rest of my buddies, but I can only take so much! I head over to the high limit room. Given I had had a huge first night, I could play a little higher than I usually do. Again starting with a modest $1K bankroll, the cards are just working for me. The high limit room at TI is nothing special but both players and dealers were all friendly and of course drink service was solid. Again the details were foggy, but around 3:30 I decide to take a break and I chipped up to a rare white for me ($5K) plus a yellow for good measure - Another $5K up! At this point, I'm up $14K on the trip, so I think what the hell - I have always wanted to play the $100 slots. I put $500 in and lose 4 in a row and then I think I won $500... and ended up losing that... needless to say, I lost the $500 but what did I care at this point. I shut it down at around 5am shortly thereafter. Day 2 tally - Up $4K - Net $12K and a bit up for the trip


    Superbowl Sunday - I woke up feeling very refreshed a short 2.5hrs later so I ordered room service breakfast. That refreshed feeling however was shortlived after my eggs benedict and I'm sure you can figure out what happened next. I wallowed in my misery till around 11am. The planner of the trip had prebooked some superbowl party at McFaddens at the Rio - $100 all you can drink and eat - what else can one want during Superbowl Sunday. After making some bets in the sportsbook, we headed over to BLT at Mirage and used our expresscomps earned from the Friday night and I attempted to put some food into me, however, I wasn't very successful. As for betting, I am by no means a NFL fan, nor do I know much about sportsbetting, but hey - I was up big time for the weekend, so I put down some bets on ridiculous things rather haphazardly.. putting down around $400 in total on some random bets. We headed over to the Rio for gametime and most of the other guys had already been there since noon for the optional additional $20 all you can drink between 12-2. I was a little disappointed with the TV setup as I could have watched a larger TV in my room back at TI from my vantage point, but the atmosphere was good and by kickoff the free drinks were flowing with reckless abandon. The betting did make the game more exciting and I ended up breaking even by winning on bets of $100 bet on no team scoring 3 consecutive times and another $50 on the team that scores first wins.

    We headed back to TI where we hit up Gilleys which is a country bar. I ran a tab in there on my room figuring that I was pretty much guaranteed to be fully comped for the trip and was buying drinks for random people as I was feeling like a pig in s*** being up so much. After awhile, we hit up the tables again and soon found myself back in the high limit room as I was getting annoyed of the incompetent players. I had set myself a budget of $2K for the night, but I ended up down that and some more. I finally gave up my fruitless chasing back to breakeven and shut it down at 530am. Day 3 totals - Down $4K - Final tally - up $8K for the trip

    Departure - I wake up a short 2.5hrs later way before my wakeup call as my flight was departing at 11:20am on Air Canada. Checking out, I stopped by where the hosts are and to see what they can do for me... and lo and behold, all food, bev, and the room are covered! I ended up getting rated at $160 per hand for 19 hrs over 3 nights. It is tough for me to assess how realistic that was as a result of the many flat spots that were experienced late night. The host sets us up with a ride in the house Escalade for the ride back to the airport which marked the end to my first winning trip in the last four!

    Flight back - A few of us had purchased packages of 8 flight passes on Air Canada which enable us to be able to book our flights last minute. Although they cost more than the standard seat sales, the flexibility is worth it, plus they are a higher fare level which enables me to upgrade to business class with my upgrade certs as I am Elite on Air Canada. The only direct flight back to Calgary doesn't get in till after 11pm, so we like the flight that leaves earlier and connects through Vancouver as it gets in at 5:30 and allows me to quasi function at work the next day. The flight departure was delayed so we missed our connection in Van which meant that we didn't get home till 9:30 - we should have just taken the direct. Good news was that I got upgraded on both flights.

    Overall thoughts - TI was ok, but it is a little dated. The smoke seemed to really get to me at times in there as I'm a non-smoker and the air circulation seemed to be lacking. Drink service was good however, and the dealers dressed as cowgirls in their skimpy outfits were fun and outgoing for the most part. The downside was that the scantily clad girls in the outfits only paid 6/5 on blackjacks, but I guess that is the price to be paid to have some eye candy to enjoy! I think I would probably stay there again as I would expect that I would be RFB going forward with hopefully some freeplay as opposed to my RFL at MGM or Mirage (used to be RFB). Due to the payday, I am already thinking of when we should head down again... only time will tell!
     
  2. Ice Tray

    Ice Tray Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Sep 28, 2010
    Messages:
    294
    Location:
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    Very nice!! I love the waking up to 9k in your pocket !! Its like you won twice and only remember the second time! Good for you, especially as you left with most of it and got a solid rating out of it.
     
  3. sulobo

    sulobo Low-Roller

    Joined:
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    Beverly,Ma.
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    I agree waking up to 9 k in my pocket would put me over the moon. I'd be happy to wake up with anything (money) that is.
     
  4. vegasvette

    vegasvette High-Roller

    Joined:
    Mar 11, 2010
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    Thanks for the nice, somewhat foggy details. Congrats. It must have been an amazing run. Hope you bet the Pack.
     
  5. techie223

    techie223 High-Roller

    Joined:
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    Nice win:beer: Thanks for the TR.
     
  6. ATXTX

    ATXTX VIP Whale

    Joined:
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    That's awesome, sounds like you had an great time. I can't remember the last time (other than working) where I stayed up all night & completely slept the day away - that is very disorienting.

    So strike while the iron is hot - call your new TI host & set up your next trip!
     
    When we Were Young
  7. zerofan

    zerofan VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Mar 26, 2009
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    Great report and nice job on the wins. :wink2:
     
  8. Tubbs

    Tubbs High-Roller

    Joined:
    Dec 7, 2009
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    Thanks for posting a very entertaining report. Congrats on the nice win.
     
  9. DirtyFrizank

    DirtyFrizank Tourist

    Joined:
    Dec 30, 2010
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    Location:
    Chicago
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    Great report. Enjoyable read and congrats on the nice win!
     
  10. jj_sparty

    jj_sparty High-Roller

    Joined:
    Jan 18, 2010
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    Good to see that someone benefitted from my losses at TI over the weekend. Enjoy my cash!!
     
  11. mojofilter

    mojofilter Tourist

    Joined:
    Jan 31, 2011
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    Location:
    Michigan
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    Great win and great trip report, thanks for sharing!!
     
  12. Manda

    Manda Tourist

    Joined:
    May 7, 2008
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    Toronto
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    I really need to get in on this winning!

    Congrats on the wins :beer:
     
  13. LaRae

    LaRae Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Oct 8, 2010
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    Twin Cities/Western Wisconsin
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    Nice read, lucky dog! What a great time!!!
     
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