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The other March Madness 2014

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by mikenhe, Mar 29, 2014.

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  1. mikenhe

    mikenhe VIP Whale

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    My Trip Report

    so its off to vegas again for the annual March Madness - been doing this one for a few years now with a friend of mine from England (miles - tractorboy on here). for this year our other friend (Pete) swung the trip as well.

    been watching the deals for ages before the trip. ended up with direct flights from Tampa on Southwest. changed my flight from the evening to the Thursday morning and got flight credit as well. Result and a win.

    Hotels. was booked into the plaza and El Cortez. Black Friday sale dropped the Plaza price by 50% so ended up with a room there for 200 for 6 nights! Then the Gate send me a comp offer for 3 nights so I took that and added a further 3 nights for a massive $60. No resort fee at the gate if you are comped.
    I put Pete and Miles in the plaza room and spared them my snoring as I took the gate and cancelled El Cortez.

    early start on the Thursday - up at 3am for a 6.50am flight. Off to the airport and was prepared to take a bump if it was offered (as I had about 8 hours in vegas before the boys arrived from the uk). Nothing doing so a five hour flight and touchdown slightly early. got my bag by 9am and I knew that there was a wax bus due at 9.16 so I headed to ground level zero and got my $2 limo to downtown. dropped in at the gate to drop my bags but as I was comped they let me check in early. In the room, with a great view of the alleyway, and unpacked by 10am!! oh yes! VEGAS IS NOW MINE!!


    (the room at the gate was 240 - right above the casino but never heard that. did hear the occasional thump thump late at night from Fremont but nothing else. small room - enough for a queen bed (soft but comfy) and room ro unpack all my stuff. Bathroom was tiny - small bath with a shower that I never could get working properly -it was always cold or scolding hot. clean and they did a decent job of keeping it fresh daily. AC was poor - you had to have it on full blast all the time to maintain a reasonable temp - but that as background noise drowned out everything else. I wouldn't stay there in the summer because of that - but otherwise I'd use the gate again)

    off to MSS for a traditional pint of black chip - no trip has started until I have one of them. Had a couple of them as I surveyed MSS and let the noise and atmosphere and the reality of Vegas sink in.

    took a walk through a few casinos and checked out various table games and other ways to wager my cash.

    I ate lunch at binions as I still had plenty of comps on my card. A club sandwich and a coffee in the new café (which is an improvement over the old open version - but I still wish they had the downstairs café operating).

    after dabbling in a few slot games (winning very small but managing to keep a drink in my hand) I headed back to my room with the idea of grabbing a nap (I love naps) before the boys turn up. However although it was a great idea my body rejected it as I was in vegas. My liver demanded drink and my brain demanded games of chance. I gave in and settled down for a quick bj session which I ended up slightly down.

    The boys landed and texted to say they were on their way, so I walked over to the plaza and checked into the room. sorted them out (decent room - north tower at the end of the corridor) and offered them a chance to eat, rest, shower or whatever before we headed up to the strip. they declined... so back to MSS for more beer and to meet murph (atcmurph) so we could share a cab to the Board suite party at the cosmo.


    More later - probably in less detail as the memory did get hazy occasionally..
     
  2. Sonya

    Sonya Queen of VMB

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    I don't know how your memory could get fuzzy after the Suite Party. :wink2:
     
  3. SH0CK

    SH0CK Stylin' and Profilin' Quasi Tech Admin

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    I think he took notes. :evillaugh
     
  4. Sonya

    Sonya Queen of VMB

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    I thought what happens at the Suite Party, stays at the Suite Party. :haha:
     
  5. SH0CK

    SH0CK Stylin' and Profilin' Quasi Tech Admin

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    I think that's why he stopped.
     
  6. mikenhe

    mikenhe VIP Whale

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    so - first evening - what better to do with a total lack of sleep for most involved than hang with a bunch of vegas degens at a suite on the strip.
    off to the cosmo it was and dropped at the west towers. obviously the suite was in the east so we dragged our low rolling asses through the cosmo and to the lifts. go on one and tried to hijack it to the right floor but as we didn't have a key card we failed. back to the ground floor and text upstairs for someone to come and rescue us.

    even though they knew who it was they still came and got us!!

    great evening with old and new friends party with the balcony overlooking to pool area (had it been two nights later we could have watched flogging molly from up there!!). got my drink on big time. my Canadian bud Patti does 3 sizes of pour - normal (you are in trouble) - large (you are in trouble quickly) and mike sized for me!!

    there was fun, new people, lewd words, lewd actions, food from newbies (cheers Chele!) and general fun and games. I did see at least one lappie, was greeted by one person who just grabbed me from behind and tweated my nipples (I guessed who it was - and i'm not sure just what my friend pete knew what to make of that! - it was his first suite party though so I'll cut him some slack. just all round good fun with great people.

    the boys who flew in from the uk were getting a little tired so we cut at some point and jumped a cab downtown. one hit the sack and pete and I decided what else to do while tired and drunk than gamble!! we had a decent BJ table at the plaza with fast drink service and as we were holding our own there only stayed on it until 2 am when pete decided that sleeping in the room was preferable to sleeping at the table. so he left me and I carried on until... later.

    Friday - food was needed when I got up so I check the phone and the boys were up and about - still am as well!! we did eat and wonder around downtown for a bit tried to make a plan. turned out that we went for a binions poker tourney which I played ok - until my pair of queens with a pair of tens on the flop couldn't beat the other guys two pair. yeah - he had two pair of tens.... guess I did read it right that the pair in his hand was lower than mine - didn't save me though.

    Friday pm - seem to recall that I had a reasonable evening - walked away with a couple of blackchips from somewhere. sadly that was to be the last of my successes from the trip.

    Saturday was back up the strip. a few ales had been consumed the night before and as we got to the pink chicken early for the board poker tourney it seemed like a good idea to hit up rockets for a massive burger and onion rings. Poker was fun - couldn't get any traction and went out about half way. usual abuse was being delivered from all quarters and we had an all new top three.. scott, Pete and sticky. for years we've been hearing about "boobies representing" and now they have finally won we will have the end of that. Like fuck we will.
    oh - I also managed to lose 2 $10 last longer bets that I took on due to my drunken bragging at the suite party. good work.

    Saturday afternoon we headed back downtown and drank and played more games of chance. statistical varience was totally against me and I lost everything I touched. it was the start of a trend.

    Sunday morning was good - Binions put the football on so after playing pai gow for an hour I was able to watch the might reds smash the mancs. if you didn't understand that - nevermind - move on.


    Sunday was more of the same. I did enter the binions 2pm and had a good long run. I was reading everything and playing well. one guy I'd been trying to isolate for ages as I could see he wasn't as strong as he thought he was. after about three hours I finally do it - get all my chips in with the stronger hand, get him to call and then get to see him hit his two outer on the river.... and the fat lady sang..

    nothing wrong with my poker this trip - just got unlucky when I needed average!!

    after that I just got killed. I sat at a packed bj table and would see the other 5 win while I lost. tried heads up and would lose 3 out of 4 hands.

    Sunday night we arranged to meet one of the board members at El cortez so even though I got a few texts saying the rest of the crew were downtown I felt obliged to go to ELCO. Naturally 30 minutes after getting there we gto cancelled!! we did carry on playing and drinking for a while though.
    Headed back down fremont and I was tired, grumpy and sick of losing so I decided to call it quite. Pete went into the plaza and found a few of the crew playing there so he emailed me - and I would have joined them but pete forgot to check if the email had actually been send - and it hadn't. so I missed everyone there...



    on Monday morning I tried giving the gate some play. hundred bucks gone in five minutes. at a five dollar table.
    pai gow was fun - but got killed on that too.

    for the rest of the trip I couldn't win. we did have a very nice lads dinner out - the porterhouse at the redwood grill.. and a few beers at mss beforehand.

    I ended up not being able to win a raffle if I was the only one playing. terrible run and for the first time ever I called it quits on Wednesday after losing another buyin at bj in ten minutes.
    One other thing of note - we were playing early morning pai gow at binions on the Wednesday morning when Kevin James sat down with us for a couple of hours. Funny guy - which is quite a shock after he's been in a couple of Adam Sandler movies.

    summary - excellent fun . ballbreaking bad for everything I gambled with.

    Could have been financially better - but I'm already eyeing up hotels to do it all again next year......
     
  7. SCRATCH73

    SCRATCH73 Assman

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    Thanks for the TR Mike. I wish I would have wagered with you on first one out. :Þ
     
  8. sanonofresurfer

    sanonofresurfer Dude

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    It was damn good seeing you again Mike!
    :drunk:
     
  9. Beach Crazy

    Beach Crazy Hostess With the Mostess

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    Yep, the gambling sucked for me too but we are always ready to go back, aren't we?! Until we meet again....:drunk:
     
  10. mikenhe

    mikenhe VIP Whale

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    whipped, beaten and planning for next time :D
     
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