A damn good trip

Well, many of the details are fuzzy but I will do my best to hit the highlights.

Arrival

Flew from Indy on ATA with MyCarDick(Whitey) and his fiancé, Shannon. Arrived at the IP around noon. Check in was packed. Whitey walked up, gave the guy at the desk a $20 tip and poof….we’re right into the room. Lots of pissed off looks from the others standing in line. Now….for all the IP bashers out there. The room was actually pretty nice. A bit small, but a balcony overlooking Harrah’s pool, with a view of the mountains to the left. Two queen beds. Updated, not the cheesy floral prints. OK..drop our stuff, change and head downstairs to the burger palace for a quick bite. Burgers were ok and very inexpensive.

Sunday night

Headed over to BC around 4. Played some VP a waited for the gang to arrive. Don’t really need to go into detail here. You’ve already seen the details. But let me say this. The T2V gang is an absolute blast. Killer and Sonya…thanks for the cocktails! Sanonofre…Jeagerbombs are the devil! Anyway, it was great hanging out with you folks. Kinda surreal and very cool. I lost track of pretty much everyone except sanonofre. The two of us headed north, and for some reason we both decided to be overly polite to the porn slappers. I'm pretty sure we were kinda loud and fairly out of control. LArry decided to do his shopping for a new shirt right there on the street. $25 for a beautiful florescent yellow, only worn(at least) once "Girls to Your Room" designer tee shirt. Larry…did you ever get the smell out of that thing? Somehow, we made it to the IP and tried to shoot some dice. First shot…off the table. I damn near took Mikey out. Shoulda quit right then. actually, I think I did. Wandered to CR in search of a dice table. Sanonofre sat down at a blackjack switch table and somewhere in there I lost track of him, too. Sorry, Larry. My recollections are fuzzier than yours., I just remember having a kick ass time! Anyway, the short time I spent with the gang was great. Hope to make it happen again some day.

Later that night, somehow hooked back up with Whitey and Shannon. And…celebrity alert….I think we saw Ozzy and Sharon…..just walking through the IP. Sure looked like them. Definitely NOT two of the dealertainers. Speaking of dealertainers, the Elvis guy kicks ass. We were playing BJ in the Champagne pit and he fired up a GREAT tune behind us. A true VEGAS MOMENT. The Stevie Wonder guy sucked. Had a great prime rib sandwich with Shannon and hit the sack as the sun was coming up. Not a great first night gambling wise, but a great night, none the less.

Monday

Slept until 2. Another buddy got into town(Brad) and we goofed around at the IP and BC. Headed to the Orleans…nothing much happening, so cabbed to NYNY and then to MC for a GREAT Black Jack session. Bought in for $100 and Played for hours. I colored up about $400.00. Shannon and Brad did about double that. Headed back to IP and ran into a rather drunk Typhanie playing roulette. Coversation was something about Area 51 and that’s about all I remember. Got one last hug and then headed to bed. Oh, that didn‘t sound right….Typhanie headed to the Black Jack table. Early to bed for me (around 2:30).

Tuesday

Ate comped buffets at the IP. One step above horrible. Headed north. Successful match play at the Frontier, and some decent FP Deuces. Then to the Stardust. Whitey and Brad went to a free comedy show filming for WB with some of those Jeff Foxworthy guys. I opted out and took a beating at the dice table. The show started at 4 and didn’t finish until around 7. Quick stop at Slots A Fun for free teeshirt and cards, and then Whitey and I headed downtown to meet Pattiinontario and her friend. Found them at the LVC and wandered over to the Plaza for a little VP. Patti, Whitey and I headed on down to the ELCO for a much anticipated craps session. Had a great time at the ElCO. The remodeling really has made a difference. The place actually looked and smelled nice! They rearranged the tables and opened things up a bit. I kept getting vertigo, because every time I looked up from the table, I expected to be next to the bar. Found out that the worlds grumpiest cocktail waitress retired. Things got pretty rowdy at the table. Whitey and Patti were in rare form. One old character, with one eye started to roll and Whitey decided he looked like Quint, from JAWS. Needless to say, every quote we could remember from the movie came rolling out. Quint seemed to get a kick out of it and proceeded to have a pretty good roll. Ended up about even and got three prime rib dinners comped at Careful Kitty’s. Good stuff. Made our way back under the canopy in search of a $5 blackjack table and never could find one with 3 open seats. So…Patti, we owe you a BlackJack lesson!

Wed.
Royal Flush Alert!
I got up around 10 while everyone else slept in. Headed to the Barbary for one of those wonderful Bloody Marys. Decided to sit down to play a little 3 card. As I was sitting down, my phone rang. Got up from the table to talk to my wife. Had a seat at the bar and chatted for a while. When I hung up and turned around the 3 card table was full, so I decided to play a little deuces at the bar. I had just put my second $20 into the machine and was discussing the bloody mary mix with the bartender when I was dealt ace, jack, queen of clubs in the last three positions. Discarded the other two cards…..hit the deal button and BAM…10, king of clubs!!!!! Got up and started jumping up and down, then realized I was by myself…oh well….continued to jump up and down. Thanks for the phone call Cindy!!!! Couldn’t have come at a better time. My bankroll was starting to dwindle.

Headed back to the IP to let the rest of the crew know and stopped at the craps table on the way. Had a great session and was up about $200 at one point. I just can’t seem to get out while the getting is good. Ended the session down an bit. Took the rest of the day pretty easy, and called it an early night.

Thurs.
Up early to shop for gifts and then headed home.

Those are just a few of the highlights. All in all a great trip. Won’t make it next year for MM3. Spring break falls in the middle of April. Glad I got to experience just a bit of it this year.

Thoughts

-the IP is NOT a dump. Nice room. Great dealers. Very easy comps…..OK food (buffet sucked). Will definitely stay again.
-My wife is awesome for letting me do this once a year!
-I can’t believe they put carnival games in the row of BJ tables at Binions.
-never made it to Ellis Island….always next time
-I MUST learn when to leave the dice table in a timely manner
-crowds were much bigger this March than they were two years ago. NO low table limits on the strip in the evening that I could find.
-sanonofresurfer is one crazy guy. Hope we get to hang out again sometime!
-Nothing can make you forget your troubles like being in Vegas with great friends! Thanks, Whitey!!! Can’t wait until the next trip!!!


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It was nice meeting you and running into you again in the casino. And yes, I was VERY drunk... and I think I was talking about Area 51... stupid friends!

Anyway, sounds like you had a fun trip!

 

Typh-I-nie...I will spell it right from now on.

 

Great meeting you, bosco, but yeah, keep the dice on the table man.

 

That's alright, I always spell Typh's name wrong too.

Make sure you let me know when you're out in Vegas again and I'll drive out and meet you. That was one fun night! But remember...I kept trying to get you to sit down at a Blackjack table at the IP...but the Craps bug had bit you too hard.

And I think I said something about how glad I was that you hit Mikey when you threw the dice off the table, since that's usually my job...throwing dice off the table...not hitting Mikey.

Nice job on the Royal! I have yet to hit one.

I wouldn't say that...I think we just looked so intimidating that people just naturally got out of our way and cleared a path for us.

That was one fun night. Thanks for the good memories!

 

So when you hit the royal flush at the bar how much did you win?

 

It was great meeting you Bosco! I wish I had joined you in those Jaegerbombers, I could have used the boost!! Hopefully next time I'll be able to hook up you both you and Larry for some serious par-tays! I can see it now, watermelon martini shots and jaegerbombers the whole night long!

 

Great TR Bosco. It was definitely nice meeting you Sunday at BC. Too bad I was on my way out. Sounds like you had an excellent trip.

 

You had a Stevie Wonder dealertainer??? Guess he's not an authentic impersonator, huh? Or maybe that's why he was no good?

 

Oh Gawd! I don't hink Vegas would be left standing if the three of got together for even one full night of partying together.

 

Kathy-$1000.00. Wish I would have been playing dollars instead of quarters!

RamBill-I think my one encounter with the J-bombers will be my last...wait...twist my arm...

Hope to someday hook up with you guys again. Looking at the pics of the things I missed, I think I would have fit right in!!Don't know when my next trip will be. MM3 won't be happening for me. Damn school calendar. My spring break won't happen until April 10 next year. Hey...maybe a welcome home party for Larry!!

 

Good point, Straitlover! Never had a blind dealer before!

 

Bosco,

LV trip details are supposed to be fuzzy. It was nice chatting with you at the BC Bar.

RossW

 

Man, just to be able to stand around the table singing the "Show me the way to go home, I'm tired and I want to go to bed" song would be priceless. Good times.

Congrats on the royal, and thanks for the great TR!

 

Great meeting you at the BC, Bosco. I'm amazed you can sleep in Vegas like you can. I'm still catching up.

 

Jack-I learned my lesson the hard way after the LAST TWO trips. Pretty much no sleep at all. Made for a really rough "re-entry" to the home life. This year's "splashdown" was much easier. Besides, there's always next time