3/26-3/31 at Bally's: Basketball bets without the madness

This was my fourth trip to Vegas, first solo. I've been with Dad twice and once with friends. Since I knew I'd be going solo, I avoided the opening basketball weekend and opted for Sweet 16/Elite 8 weekend. I booked Bally's so I could stay center strip and avoid the need to rent a car.

I got in late Wednesday evening 3/26 after 11 p.m.. When I got to Bally's, TR Platinum checkin was empty. I had a $20 sandwich ready, but the clerk only asked for the license. My license was on the bottom of the sandwich, I fumbled and remade the sandwich. He saw the $20 as I asked for a complimentary upgrade. I was moved from a Indigo Classic King to a Jubilee King on the 61st floor. The view was nothing special, but a very nice room.

Sports:
The focus of this trip was basketball betting, particularly the 12 games of the NCAA tourney that weekend. I did the bulk of my Thursday-Friday bets on Thursday morning. I bet about $375 on seven games that morning. I was disappointed to only receive three drink tickets even after a $5 tip. She said they are only supposed to give two out at a time. Later, cashing winners on Friday and making two more bets for about $100 dollars, I tipped the two ones that were part of my winnings and the older gentleman ticket writer gave me an extra two tickets (four total).

After going 1-3 on Thursday, I hit my next seven picks to finish up 8-3 on the weekend. Moneywise, I left up about $120. In the future, I might scrap units, and go to a straight all $50 or all $100 bets in the future. I watched games at Bally's, Paris, Sapphire :evillaugh , Harrah's and Caesars. Sapphire is pretty fun if you make it for $3 beer happy hour (daily until 6 p.m.). Harrah's is the worst book I've ever seen.

Food:
I had two MyVegas comped buffets, Bellagio lunch and Mirage dinner. In retrospect I really should have done Aria lunch instead of Bellagio lunch, big goof on my part. Mirage dinner really impressed me, especially the sushi station, gelato and the free beers. Cosmo Wicked Spoon is probably third best IMO (behind Wynn and Aria - have not tried Bachhanal). WS probably had the best Asian station of any, that crab fried rice is amazing.

Finally tried Secret Pizza too, worth the price and effort.

Gaming:
Only gaming I did was video poker. First VP session came Thursday at Cosmo after my lunch at Bellagio. Before I started, I registered with Identity and had my MLife Gold matched to Identity Gold. I turned my first $20 into $63 (hit a four Jacks when I was almost out of credits) and cashed out to return to Bally's to watch basketball. I returned to Cosmo that night to get Secret Pizza, and quickly found myself up $10, so I cashed out and went to get my pizza. Of course, I had to go back Friday to play more VP. This time I hit 4 Aces, turning my $20 into $210. So my first three $20s turned into about $310. This was my peak, I ended up giving back about $50, but got good mileage and about four beers out of my Saturday and Sunday night sessions. It felt good to leave up $200 at VP.

Overall, a fun, successful trip. I'm not sure I'll do March Madness again though. These games are so good you don't really need money on them to make them interesting. College football, especially bowl games, is probably my preferred sport to bet.

 

Thanks for posting the TR. Seems like you had a relaxing MM weekend in a fun environment. No matter the amount - always good to go home with a bigger gambling bankroll than you arrived with.

later, GVJ

 

Great report.

Did you ask to get your Identity status matched or did they do it for you? I'm MLife Gold but want to give Cosmo some play but haven't signed up for Identity yet.

 

I said "I read online you status match in the past, is that still the case?" She said, "Let's see what you've got."

 

Nice report....thanks for posting. Amazing how many of us board members stayed at Bally's at the same time!!