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Flamingo 7/3 - 7/7 First Official Trip - Gambling and Exploring

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by Check-Raise, Jul 10, 2012.

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  1. Check-Raise

    Check-Raise High-Roller

    Joined:
    May 2, 2011
    Messages:
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    Trips to Las Vegas:
    5

    My Trip Report

    We drove from the Seattle, WA. area to the Napa Valley area for a close friends wedding and then planned to continue on with a road trip to Las Vegas! I booked a Flamingo GO room with a strip view for an average cost of $54.00 a night (including a Friday night). Getting a luxury (with a view) was like an extra $4 a day so I decided to do that instead of the $20 trick. I did get an offer for a Go Mini Suite for like $25 extra a night but decided that wasn't necessary.

    Driving into Las Vegas on I-15 from Barstow we were pretty excited but as we got closer people started driving like maniacs! My Fiance (DF) and I were both amazed at how different the traffic behaved! I drive about 10MPH over the speed limit on interstates when it's open, people were FLYING by me, swerving around other cars, it was just insane. :poke:

    I hoped we would be arriving late enough to see the strip lights and the Luxor beam driving in but we made good time and got in around 8:30PM, not dark enough yet :( Driving onto the Strip I had to make two loops (possibly some illegal U-Turns :ssst:) just to make sure I was entering the right parking area for the Flamingo, not well advertised and well hidden by the MASS of people walking the strip. We finally found it and spent a few minutes waiting behind a polite driver who wouldn't muscle his car nose in to break the constant stream of people walking the strip in front of the parking entrance. Pedestrians have the right of way but if you just wait for an opening, you're gonna be there until 6:00AM.

    We pulled in but weren't smart enough to go to the valet entrance, instead I drove to the parking garage for self-park and we dragged half our luggage to the check-in desk. This really sucked because when you are on a 2 week road trip you have a lot of crap. Our hands and arms were full and the Flamingo lobby was packed with people enjoying their vacation, navigating a crowd after 12 hours of driving and arms full of stuff isn't a great mood setter. Next time I will NOT be making this mistake though I doubt we will ever drive to Las Vegas again, flying is the only way for us :faint:.

    There were about 6 groups in front of us in the check-in line and about 5 people checking everyone in. Needless to say we got up to the counter quick, which was nice :) The lady took my ID and credit card as I had an internal debate about trying to $20 trick to get a Go Mini Suite. I made up a few excuses like "ohh what if we can't get a strip view then" and "well, we are checking in late so they probably don't have one left" and got myself off the hook deciding not to try it. In reality, I was kinda nervous about doing it and pussed out. lol

    We were issued two keys, a packet of coupons and were told to head to the 21st floor for room 21076. We dragged our stuff to the elevators and ascended! Got out on the 21st floor, nobody in the hallway, no food dishes or other stuff in the hallway and the carpet must have been semi-new-ish because while I didn't get on my hands and knees to examine it, I didn't see any stains, rips or thin spots. So far, so good! We open the door to our room and immediately noticed the glowing pink bathroom. It has one wall which is hot pink and when the light in the bathroom is turned on it illuminates that section of the room bright pink. While not really my color of choice it was fun to know that whenever you went to the bathroom you knew exactly where you were, Vegas!

    The rest of the room was good, pretty standard. The TV in the bathroom mirror was cool, the wall jets in the shower was nice (didn't have a bathtub), the TV was large but I found it annoying that (unless I failed) their Bose speaker system wasn't set up to play regular television, only music, radio and DVD's. We also noticed the lack of alarm clock, or clock in general, this was both annoying and quite handy (I'll explain that later). The view was AWESOME! We could see the fountains and Ceasars clearly and also past Ceasars to the Rio and others, pretty cool stuff. One thing that was REALLY bizarre was that one of the windows (which are obviously all thick double-pane glass) exterior pane was broken. I mean, it had several massive top to bottom, side to side cracks and there was a dime sized chunk missing from it. On the 21st floor, I have NO idea what could have happened other than a bird flying into it (large bird flying FAST) or a pellet gun or some other man made projectile. It was really bizarre.. We didn't say anything though because we loved everything else about the room and figured we were safe enough with the other pane still in tact.

    We move in to the room a bit, head back to the car and unload the rest. Get back to the room and change for dinner since we felt dingy after the long car ride. At this point it was about 9:45PM and we hadn't eaten since before noon. I told DF we should grab a bite in Paris, it's close and I know they have a nice variety of good options. We walk over, amazed at the crowds, and see this one kid, looked MAYBE 18, closer to 16/17, OBLITERATED. I mean, this kid was blacked out on the verge of eyes rolling into the back of his head. We saw him as we were on the escalators climbing to the bridge from Bills to Bally's, he was in the middle stairwell and people both going up and down the escalators were looking at him, pointing and taking pictures. In retrospect I probably should have tried to help walk him to his hotel or something... I didn't though and we continued across. From the other side of the street we looked back and saw that he made it down the stairs and was holding himself up on one of the railings looking at the street. There was a sizeable crowd behind him in a U-Shape just staring and taking pictures. Kind of a wierd spectacle for the first hours in Vegas.

    We make it to the entrance of Paris and I see Mon Ami Gabi, I've read a lot about this place and know it's at the top of my list before we even walk in to scope out restaurants. As we enter Paris the first thing I see is four guys standing around a slot machine near the front entrance. One guy is being held by this other and two are maybe 2 feet away watching. These guys are obviously friends.. Though once I realize they were setting up to kick the one guy square in the balls and witness it happen, I can see they aren't good friends :vomit: I hope that guy made at least $200 off that kick to the balls. We are about 1.5 hours in and I've seen a broken window on a 21st floor, a REALLY wasted 17 year old, two members of the Auto-Bots (street performers :p) and a poor guy kicked in the balls by his friends. Ohhhhkay... Vegas is going to be REALLY interesting.

    We walk around and view all the menu's we can find in Paris, my DF is a dessert nut (even known by friends and family as the dessert queen) so before I even get a word out I know we are destined for Sugar. We stop in, ask for a patio seat so we can watch the fountains and crazy people. After a 20 minute wait we get our seat (keep in mind, it's just after 10:00PM at this point), I get the French Onion soup and the Clubhouse Sandwhich. Pretty boring but the French Onion soup was KILLER and the sandwhich was very good. DF got a savory crepe, think it had turkey and brie or something. It was very good as well. I think the fries were good with my sandwhich but I was too slow the DF consumed practically ALL of them :cry: .

    We finished up eating around 11:00PM and were STUFFED. DF was destined for bed but I wasn't willing to throw in the towel this early, though I was pretty tired... I walked DF up to bed, grabbed a cigar from my humidor and made tracks to the Flamingo poker room. The majority of my experience in brick and mortar poker rooms is cash game limit based ($4/$8) though I have a lot of tournament experience, some brick and mortar NL experience and probably too much online NL experience (I'm 80% sure playing online actually makes me a worse player). I almost immediately get a seat at $1/$2 NL and buy in for $160 (I always do $160, don't ask me why..). They have several tables running and it's very easy going. There are a couple international players at my table, a couple locals and several average joe's. I play for a couple hours without anything crazy happening either way but when I take my first break I'm up about $100. I clip my cigar, find a bank of empty VP machines and play some $0.25 JOB (my personal favorite, I seem to last a LONG time at that one). I spend about 20 minutes puffing on a cigar, get a drink and win about $30 when I go on a nice streak hitting 4OAK and several str8's and flushes. I head back to play more poker, realizing how late it is getting and being mildly concerned that my DF might get a little pissed at me since I said I was gonna "pop down for a few." I quickly get over it and cash out at about 3:30AM with $410 in chips, $250 profit. I take my $130 ticket and unfinished cigar and decide to play more VP until my cigar is dead. I have a couple more drinks and by the time I finish my cigar I'm up to $150 on my ticket, with about 30 minutes of consistant playing max credit. Not bad, VERY entertaininig. I hit 2 4OAK's and 2 4 to the Royals (so close, no cigar (there is a pun in there somewhere)).

    I head up to bed pretty excited about my success and when I get in the room DF wakes up and I am waiting to either hear "what are you doing down there so late, etc etc etc" or random sleepy sounds followed by snoring. To my surprise she just asks if I had fun and how much I lost. I give her the good news and she is excited, but the room is like 75 degrees with the air conditioner on ALL NIGHT, I'm a cold sleeper, I sweat myself to sleep, no good :( When I finally got ready to hit the hay I checked my phone, 4:30AM. Ohhh maaaaannnn.

    This is where it is handy NOT having a clock in the room. In the morning DF asked what time I came back and went to bed, since there wasn't a clock, each time she woke up from sleep and saw I was missing, she thought minutes had passed, not 5 HOURS! :p I told her I got back around 4:00AM and she was shocked, she thought I had been gone like 30 minutes. No clock was a gift!


    I'll have to post day two (though that whole last thing was one evening, not even a full day) tomorrow. We walked EVERYWHERE, got TIX4TONITE, ate great food and I played more VP, poker and enjoyed another fabulous cigar late night. I have some pictures on my phone and I'm debating downloading photobucket to share them with you all.
     
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2012
  2. tapakip

    tapakip Low-Roller

    Joined:
    Sep 10, 2007
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    Location:
    South of Boston
    Trips to Las Vegas:
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    Great trip report, very informative and enjoyable to read. I'll be staying at the Flamingo next week and doing the $20 tip trick to get an upgrade to a GO room, as I was able to book a Fab room for 3 night for only $85 total after tax. Hoping I get something similar to yours, as that will be fine by me for this trip.

    You wouldn't happen to have a similar room number to yours, one that might be a suite (in the corner) that I can offer up to the front desk to ask for, would you? TIA.

    Looking forward to the rest.
     
  3. btodd

    btodd High-Roller

    Joined:
    Nov 11, 2003
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    Location:
    Winnipeg, Canada
    Trips to Las Vegas:
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    Great start, love the Flamingo ( Ok, maybe don't love it but get comped so I can't complain). Looking forward to the rest of your report!
     
  4. ATXTX

    ATXTX VIP Whale

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2010
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    Location:
    Texas
    Trips to Las Vegas:
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    You know what they say - "pictures or it never happened"

    Interesting beginning to a first trip to Vegas, kind of like watching an episode of that Vegas tru TV show.
     
    When we Were Young
  5. Reed

    Reed High-Roller

    Joined:
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    IL
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    Sounds like a good first night to start the trip!
     
  6. auburnu008

    auburnu008 Tourist

    Joined:
    Aug 14, 2008
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    Trips to Las Vegas:
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    Great report so far.
     
  7. Check-Raise

    Check-Raise High-Roller

    Joined:
    May 2, 2011
    Messages:
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    Trips to Las Vegas:
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    Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to walk past any corner rooms or suites so I'm not sure what those room numbers would be. You can probably call them up and ask for a room number of a corner room on a particular floor (floor 21 for example) on the fountain side, just say you want to know so you can request it at check-in. I can't see them giving you too much of a hassle.
     
  8. Check-Raise

    Check-Raise High-Roller

    Joined:
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    Trips to Las Vegas:
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    So after getting to bed around 4:30AM I knew day two was going to be a long day with DF getting up early since she went to bed around 11:30PM. To my surprise we both woke up around 11:30AM! I got some good sleep in and DF got a LOT of good sleep in but I was slightly disappointed that so much of the day had already passed. We showered and prepared ourselves for a day of roaming the strip. We didn't really have any goals other than to check out the prices at TIX4TONITE and to see as much as we could.

    I was looking forward to making a pot of coffee because the room has a coffee pot. Unfortunately I quickly realized they don't provide the carafe/pot or the cup that holds the coffee grounds. Well, that's worthless.. lol So we head out on our venture and I make DF promise we can visit the Wicked Spoon Buffet for a late lunch (I'm spun this place up so much in my head after reading about it here). She, being anti-buffet, reluctantly agrees (score!). On the way out of the Flamingo I grab a large coffee from their Cafe by the south entrance. The coffee is decent enough and costs about $3, I'm satisfied.

    From our venture the night before we noticed the TIX4TONITE desk outside Bill's so we bee line it over there and take a moment to scope out the offerings. Satisfied with what we see (I had done a lot of pricing and show research so we had a good idea of what we wanted but they offer a LOT of stuff) we head over to the line. The VIP line is empty and the regular line has about 7 groups in it. We line up and I'm sitting there wondering, after reading the stories on this board about LONG wait times, if 7 people constitutes a large line. Well... about 10 minutes later I look back and see what a long line looks like. There must have been 30+ groups lined up behind us, we really lucked out. After about 15-20 minutes of waiting they call us up and we buy 2 Tickets to Absinthe for that night, two tickets to the titanic exhibit (that one is DF's fault...) and DF gets a (one, not two, I escaped this one!) ticket to Phantom of the Opera for the next night. All combined we saved probably over $150 from regular box office prices. I was content, whether or not I got a good deal or the best deal, who knows but I was happy.

    After receiving our ticket vouchers we had to convert them to actual tickets and the lady who sold us the tickets said to get to Phantom of the Opera early to get nice seats. I knew (at least I hoped) from my research that nearly every seat in the Absinthe tent is a good seat since it's so small. For that reason we then decided to start our trip north towards the Venetian. I didn't have a burning desire to stop in at Bills at that moment but when we passed Margaritaville I wanted to check it out. Walking through there the place felt very clean and new (because it is! :p) but it was really small and didn't have anything that caught my eye. We were however stopped by a lady next to this large computer terminal who asked us if we wanted to press a button to win a prize. Both being skeptical people we probably gave her some scowls but with the mindset that if she tried to make us sign up for something or sell us something I would just walk away, we gave it a go. DF went first and won a Hawaiian Lei and when they told me to give it a go, I pressed the button annnnnnnnnnnnnd BAM, $5 of freeplay lol. So I gave the coupon to my practically non-gambling fiance with hopes of getting her addicted and we moved along to the next property.

    The next place we ran into was the Imperial Construction. Nothing about it's reputation or the uninviting mess outside made me want to consider walking in there. Next! As we walked along we passed carnival court, pretty loud place for 1:00PM, Harrah's and Casino Royal. I did want to stop in Casino Royal because people have talked about having some fun with cheap gambling here so I wanted to see if I liked it because to me, I enjoy the games at most levels of play therefore playing at a higher cost or risk brings me no greater satisfaction than playing at the lowest possible level, same game to me. That and playing at higher levels like $25+ min just stresses me out, I think I start to lose the enjoyment. Casino Royal was a fine place but nothing memorable. I would have no problem spending some time there but I found no reason to travel the distance, Bills is close and has low limits. Walking through Harrah's was about the same, a little brighter than Casino Royal (which was actually pretty dark if I recall..) and more spread out, but again, sorta plain as expected.

    Next we were on to the Venetian to get DF her Phantom seat. We walk in and some guy tries to immediately sell us stuff. Not sure what his affiliation is but his group is at the main Casino entrance and they have a desk area and everything. I was expecting a classy place and here I am getting heckled in the first seconds of being inside. He tries to stand in front of us and starts his spiel, I very unpolitely inturrupt him and ask where the box office is, he points down and to the right and continues his spiel. Accpeting his answer I then proceed to pretend he doesn't exist and just start walking away.

    So we head down and to the right, all the meanwhile I'm taking in the AWESOMENESS that is this over-the-top building. So many fun things to look at, huge Casino, can barely tell there is smoking inside, all around very awesome! At this point though DF and I are starting to get hungry and the Cosmo is a bit of a walk from where we are. Following the guy's instructions we go down and run in to... nothing... We look around a bit and find the box office in a completely different place. Whatever, I am glad I treated that horses ass with no respect.. lol I used to be in sales so I understand what he's doing but I also understand a part of the job is being ignored a lot and taking the occasional verbal beatdown. Since DF is going to the show alone and it's for the next day, she gets AWESOME seats. First row orchestra seating, seat #3. If there were two of us the best they could do was like row 20 or something. Needless to say, she was exstatic but still hungry (don't mess with a hungry fiance... I've learned this over and over), however, I refuse to give up on the Wicked Spoon even though it's like 2:00 and the place is a good 20 minute walk away.

    So we head of the Venetian, I send angry thoughts to the salesmen as we walk by and we decide to take a picture out front. I have never owned anything more than a camera phone or the occasional disposable which I probably never developed anyway. I decide to take a picture of DF standing in front of the Jester's mask out on the strip side. I line her up for a nice shot when I get inturrupted by a police officer. The officer kindly offers to take a picture of the two of us together, which was awesome and very kind of him!

    Picture in hand (or on cell in pocket) we start our journey to the Cosmo. I have to say, both my DF and I enjoy a good walk but with empty stomachs and all the crowds, it wasn't the happiest time of my life. We decided to skip everything on the way and just reach our target. After passing the Mirage, Ceasar's, going through the Bellagio, we make it to the Cosmopolitan. This place is nice inside. It feels very fresh, vibrant and the air was the cleanest by far. They must be pumping tons of oxygen into this place because I felt great! Walking in off the hot strip tired and hungry, my first impressions were quite positive, plus I'm REALLY amped for this buffet. We finally make our way over to the escalators and up to the Wicked Spoon! We walk up, head towards the front desk and note a MASSIVE line on the left, people who have paid but haven't been seated.... Noooooooooo... It's ok though, I'm determined, thought it might make my DF a little angry... Ohh well, sticking with it, super excited! Talk to the lady at the counter, she tells us, that line is about a 30 minute wait, and we close in just over 45 minutes. Ok, I've been dying to eat here for this lunch but 15 minutes isn't going to cut it. It's around 2:30PM orso at this point, it's time to make something happen. I make the execute decision that we scoot over to Paris for the Burger Brasserie.

    We take no time in exiting the Cosmo, crossing the strip, passing by everything standing between us and meal satisfaction. We get to the restaurant and SCORE, more than half empty, attentive hostess, seated immediately! We quickly review the menu, which we already saw the night before and I decide on the Paris burger (brie, bacon and I think sauteed onions), DF gets basically the same thing but with a chicken patty and shallots instead of onions. We decide the split the beet and goat cheese salad and since everything is a la carte we decide to split the blue cheese fries appitizer. Ohh, and I got a stella artois, necessary.

    The goat cheese and beet salad comes out, freaking delicious.. This thing was huge too. We polished it off and I was already starting feel full.. Then the burgers came out with our blue cheese fries. Everything was incredible. The blue cheese fries are only like 3 or 4 dollars more than regular fries, totally worth it! The bugers were great and DF said the chicken burger was so good she didn't even notice it wasn't beef. The food was something to experience and worth every penny. The problem was that it was horrifically rich in content. I felt kinda sick afterwards (ate too much) and could really feel the effects throughout the day of this meal, it was kind of scary... Next time I would probably go and split a salad and a burger with someone, skip the fries and call it good there. I think we would have been better off.

    After eating we walked the 20 or so paces to Bally's! This place wasn't anything special but I still enjoyed it more than the other average casino's. I liked it more than the Flamingo casino because it was more open and less chaotic (I know, why stay at the Flamingo if you want calm.. We learned some stuff about ourselves this trip). I located a $5 craps table and made mental note, then I asked if we could play some slots (JOB $0.25 VP specifically) and get a couple drinks. DF agreed and I gave her a $20 and I put in a $100. We played there for about 5 minutes before getting a drink, not bad at all. I was playing max credits ($1.25 a pull) and DF (playing $0.25 a pull) was amazed and shaking her head lol I explained the difference in house edge by playing max credits because of the higher royal payout, she then asked me when the last time I hit a royal was (answer is never) and I explain she's missing the point and we agreed to diagree. After I got a second drink I had lost about $20 and she lost about $5 so we cashed out and walked over to the frozen drink place by the Paris/Bally's exchange. I told her she hadn't truely visited Vegas until she walked around in public with a giant guitar shaped frozen alchoholic beverage. She agreed and then went on to purchase the nastiest sweetest one they had, gross.. (she loves sweets, I do not). We go outside to head towards the Luxor for the Titanic exhibit and it's pouring rain. I'm like.. hmmm.. Taxi? Then I wonder, crap, can we take drinks in the Taxi? Instead of asking I assumed the answer was no and we headed towards the monorail. I couldn't remember which was the free one and which was the paid one. Well, I figured that out when I paid $10 for the both of us to travel one stop... LAME... Not worth it... I would have preferred the rain. BTW, later the next day I saw three guys get out of a cab with open beers, woops... lol

    We walk through the MGM and I know I have to keep my eye out for the Lions share machine. I'm not super dedicated to finding it just yet since we have two days left and I wasn't feeling so great after our rich late lunch. Failing we move through out the wrong exit of MGM and walk down tropicana street (or road or whatever) and run into a closed sidewalk for construction. We cross the pedestrian bridge to the Tropicana and then over to the Excalibur. I was interested in seeing the Tropicana but we had seen so many places already I was feeling slightly burnt out. We walk right on past Excalibur knowing the kind of place it is and head into the Luxor. I tried to get DF to ride one of the statues out front but was unsuccessful.. We head in and get in line at the box office for our Titanic tickets. There is a decent line and I'm thursty, I go to starbucks nearby and buy a cup of ice water for a buck I think. Totally worth it, I was dying! A large family of 7 orso plus a few other couples are in line, and it's moving nowhere.. Luckly the family of 7 dropps out of the line and soon after it's our turn. Hand the voucher from TIX4TONITE and they trade us for a couple titanic exhibit tickets. I toss my remaining water (no drinks inside) and we head in.

    DF loves everything Titanic. The movie, the history, the... whatever else there might be... Memorabillia? She was in heaven, walking me from artifact to artifact explaining how cool things are. I'm a good sport and I play "interested" very well, I know it will make her have more fun and I'm happy when she is happy. She buzzes around every exhibit like a bee pollinating a meadow, I read the stories about the people and glance at some artifacts recovered. I'll admit it was pretty interesting reading some of the stories about the different people but I thought the artifacts were stupid. Ohh, at the beginning you get a card with a personality and at the end they have a list of passengers and who lived and who died. Well.. I was a male in 3rd class so DF immediately exclaims, "You die." She was a female in first class so that must have been like a 98% survival rate lol, not taking that bet! :p

    We go through the exhibit, she decides she wants a picture on the staircase replica (of course this photo is taken by their staff and they charge $20 for it at the end). I subconciously close my eyes to make the picture as bad as possible so she doesn't waste the money, unfortunately they guy takes two pictures and I forget to look totally retarded.. crap.. At the exit we read and of course DF's character survives, big surprise! I start out reading through list of 3rd class passengers who died and think I've forgotten my alphabet when I realize, ohhhh my god, I survived! I do a little dance with some "in your face" comments and we proceed through to the exit, aka giftshop. Wuhh ohh, I have to play this carefully or we're going home with a bunch of useless Titanic stuff... Ohh noo, the picture.. that's right... $24 for that and the entrance picture, unavoidable..

    We look at the clock and realize we have just enough time to get to our room, change and shower and head over to Ceasar's for Absinthe. This part of the journey is boring.. we walked.. through NYNY, Aria, etc etc. Made it back to the room, got ready and scooted over to the box office. We got our tickets, for row 5, isle seats (score). We are about 20 minutes early and they have a bar set up outside so I get DF a Tequila sunrise and I get some Glenmorangie with one piece of ice. Man, that bartender gave me half a plastic cup of booze. It was over 2 shots, probably 3+. $12 each drink, not cheap but whatever, we wanted them so we got them. We asked a nice looking older couple if we could sit with them while we drink, they were kind and agreed. After a couple minutes they got up and went in, we waited until about 5 mins before the show started.

    When we go in to find our seats we realized the stories are true, there isn't a bad seat in the house, this place is tiny. The stage is a circle with a diameter of probably no more than 6 feet. We take our seat and who are we next to, the friendly old couple we met outside. Cool :)

    The show was great, go see it, we had a lot of fun. Amazing acrobatics, funny comedy and just all around entertaining, never a boring moment. My mouth was probably open wide 90% of the time.

    After the show we decided it was time to get some food. The bridge from Ceasars to the Bellagio was PACKED. I guess people decided to stop and wait for fireworks. FAIL since there were none planned on the strip that I knew of.... And in fact, we saw none... It was crazy on that bridge though, shoulder to shoulder, people pushing, people below running across the street, there was a fight that nearly broke out as well. It took us about 5 minutes at least to cross the bridge and get into the Bellagio.

    For dinner we thought Olives would be nice so we stopped in and they were booked solid for the whole night.. boooo... There was this idiot in front of us making a stink about it and actually said, I kid you not, "If you can't take more people then where are we supposed to eat dinner. How can you just not take more people, what are we supposed to eat." I thought to myself, you asshole, there are like 6 places to each in EACH property. Nevermind that nearly DIRECTLY behind you is one of those places.. The hostess was very kind and professional and pointed that out to him and he stormed off. We then moved along and ran into Yellowtail. DF saw the menu and wanted to eat here so we stopped in. They had just turned one couple away but we are too charming to resist so they allowed us to order fast and have a table. I got the cold hamachi plate with blood orange sauce and some salmon sushi. DF got a hamachi roll with scallions and fish roe (I know this as negihama). I also got a Chimay (i think red) to have with dinner, I wasn't feeling like sake though it seemed to be their specialty, woops... The food was very delicious and light (exactly what we needed after the lunch fiasco). Honestly, I know what kind of place it is and the blood orange sauce was pretty good, but it wasn't anything mind blowingly creative.. and hamachi and salmon are.. well.. hamachi and salmon.. The quility was great, but there are a lot of places you can get that quality fish. It was good, not amazing and I probably won't go back looking for this place, too many others to try.

    After that the dessert queen emerged and we were on a rampage to find the Jean Phillipe patisserie before it closed. Well, we got there just under the wire and they were out of almost everything and said there was a 30 minute wait for crepes. I just got a coffee and DF, slightly disappointed, got gelato and some cake ball things. Expensive for what you got in my mind (I think it's the Bellagio theme) but she was happy so I was too. My coffee was pretty good... :p

    After that she decided her feet had had enough traveling for the day and wanted to go to the room. I walked her upstairs, we made an agreement to wake up ealier, grabbed a cigar from my humidor and made tracks to the poker room! Wooo!

    I got on a table pretty quick again and sat down at $1/$2 NL with $160. Nothing super interesting happened to me here again either... I do recall one specific hand where I detected a weak pair on a large flop that missed me and with larceny in mind I called the flop continuation bet, bet out on the turn and hit a runner runner nut flush on the river to win about $60 off my opponent (total pot of like $135~) who flopped a set but thought I turned a straight. After a while I took off to have some of my cigar. At this point it was about 1:00AM and I was up a meager $30. I played VP $0.25 JOB while I had a drink and smoked my cigar, I did really well this session. I hit 3 4OAK and another couple misses on the 4 to the royal. I wanted to hit a royal just to make a point to my DF, the $1k would be nice but the satisfaction of justifying my max credit bets would be the cherry on top. Alas, it was not to be this time and I returned to my poker table.

    Honestly, I don't take notes or anything at the tables, I just figure if a hand it truely memorable, I'll remember it. Unforunately, as is frequently the case because I don't play too out of the ordinary, I don't often have insane standoffs, bluffs or suckouts. I typically fold when I detect I'm in with less than my aggressor and I only bluff when I put my opponent on a very foldable hand. I never try to get someone to lay down second best.

    It's getting pretty late at this point and our table breaks up. They have a seat for me at another table and it's about 3:30 AM. I'm dying of thirst and haven't seen a cocktail waitress in about 45 minutes. The floor has been calling for them apparently to no avail. Mind you, there are still like 5 tables of players.. That's 50 thirsty people dropping $5/hand to the casino, per table.. Ohh well, whatcha gonna do.. At this point I'm up about $200 (over my buyin) and sit down at a table with two people sitting at over $1k and most everyone else is at $300 or more. I'm starting to think I just combined into a table of locals. Some of them seem to know eachother, the dealers know them, ok, my flags go up. I need to actually pay attention to what I'm doing now and how the hands are playing to avoid being caught between two colluding players. Another 45 minutes goes by and no cocktail waitress, one even walks by and ignores the players and the floors shouts. I'm getting tired as it's about 4:30AM and without coffee, water or booze at a table of locals, I'm no longer enjoying myself. I walk away after bleeding off some chips in a few missed hands +$120. I take my $150 ticket to the bar to play some VP and finish my cigar, where I know I can get a drink. I ask if I can have free drinks if I play max credits on the machine and the bartender looks at my credits and says, I don't care what bets you make as long as you have $10 in there and you are actively playing. With $150, I was good. He brought me a water and a beer, chugged the water, drank the beer. During this VP session I never went down, I was always up after the first hand brining me a full house. After two beers my cigar was done and I was too tired to continue. I cashed out at $175, so VP has treated me well!

    I head up to bed and crash at about 5:00AM dreading the early wake up the next day... But also excited because I'm going to play in the Ceasar's $350 Megstack tournament at noon and, what the hell, I'm in Vegas!

    P.S. if you are still reading this I'm impressed.. I don't know how I keep writing so much... lol Sorry.. :p
     
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2012
  9. JosieCat

    JosieCat VIP Whale

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    Enjoying it. I love the details, not too long at all. Keep it up.
     
  10. MarkMcC

    MarkMcC Tourist

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    Excellent read so far.

    Looking forward to more :)

    >Mark
     
  11. cptcomp

    cptcomp Tourist

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    I was looking forward to making a pot of coffee because the room has a coffee pot. Unfortunately I quickly realized they don't provide the carafe/pot or the cup that holds the coffee grounds you might have a one cup machine.you take the little white bag of coffie put the entire thing in the top of coffie maker. pour one steyrafoam cup of water in top. stick same cup inside the bottom.wam bam one cup.:peace:
     
  12. Check-Raise

    Check-Raise High-Roller

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    Crap.. you're probably right lol.. ohh well, next time! :p
     
  13. Bloomview

    Bloomview Tourist

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    Love the details-make it as long as you like and I will hang on every word! LOL! Well, maybe not the poker details since that is not my thing. Hope you will continue soon with this wonderful account of your trip.
     
  14. gongoman

    gongoman MIA

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    Great report Pal--:beer:

    On side note I read about your Goat cheese etc...I was once at a dive place late and asked for a salad with cottage cheese--Now let me tell ya I was tipsy and feeling good and dove into the Goat cheese thinking it was Cottage cheese and ran out the back door and puked my guts out--Sorry all but I never have had a taste of Goat cheese till this happened..... :vomit:

    Sorry this went of base but I just had to say it--Good Luck:beer:
     
  15. LaRae

    LaRae Low-Roller

    Joined:
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    Trip reports are never too long for me. Can't wait to see how your trip progresses/ends!
     
  16. LTA

    LTA Tourist

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    I'm really enjoying your report as well!
     
  17. Check-Raise

    Check-Raise High-Roller

    Joined:
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    I was just reading through my posts a bit as I prepared to start writing my next installment and I noticed the spelling errors and in some cases where I wrote in the wrong word.. I'm sure context probably assists the reader in uncovering what I am truely intending to say, but slightly embarassing none the less...

    I am writing these directly into the "post reply" box, not on Microsoft word and I'm not planning any of this out, just sort of a stream of conciousness thing.

    It's fun writing this because I get to recall/re-live our vacation and some of the things that happened to us were sort of funny in retrospect.

    There are a couple of things I need to do before but expect the third installment will be posted this afternoon. Thanks for reading and I hope it's providing all of you with some of the same entertainment value I have always gotten from reading all of yours!
     
  18. denluvslv

    denluvslv Low-Roller

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    I'll look forward to your next installment. I'm staying at the Flamingo in about 9 days, so I'm enjoying your thoughts about the hotel. We stayed there last year and loved it.
     
  19. Suekel

    Suekel VIP Whale

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    I am dying trying to pass time til we leave for Vegas tomorrow evening, and your TR is exactly what I needed!! Can't wait for the next installment.

    BTW - I love playing VP at Flamingo, for some reason I've always had decent luck there.
     
  20. xixmerxix

    xixmerxix Tourist

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    like everyone else has mentioned, this has been a great read. I can picture myself walking through most of these places (though i've never been to the titanic exhibit nor know what the Lion at the MGM reference was)

    sad about the report on Yellow tail I actually like the place, but not for thier sushi they have a great beef short rib and i enjoy thier ahi tuna.

    question when you look for VOP machines are you looking at payouts or do you go to any random machine?
     
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