GOD, how time fly's Pt. 3 Conclusion

The conclusion to the “Mini Series†trip report, I must warn you, this might be long but I will finish this tonight….

Thursday 19 July:

The morning started like all the rest, we woke up and I pulled back the drapes and that damn Laser beam blasted my corneas and I curse Steve Wynn once again for not building a bigger casino. The plan for this morning is to shower dress grab a “Triple Venti Chino†at the Starbucks downstairs and then head over to the Excalibur to check V&B out of their room because they are moving over to our hotel for 1 night before we leave on Friday. My wife gets out of the shower and does the make up thing, I am checking emails and things on the laptop until she is ready to go. I have her call “V†and make sure they are ready and tell them that we will meet them down at the front desk around 10ish. As we are walking out to the Valet to get the car, I stop off at the front desk to see if I can get the room keys for V&B to avoid having to check them in once we get back to the RIO. Their room isn’t ready yet so they take down all my information and tell me to check back after 12. With that being done, we are in our car and headed to the Excal to check them out and see what is going on with them and what, if anything, they want to do. Get to the front desk and they meet us there shortly after, I grab their keys and do the self check out at the little kiosk they had there, quick, easy and we are done. I take their luggage out to the car and “RE†valet it again and then we go back inside. I forgot to mention that before leaving the Excal on Wed night my wife and I grab some food at the Sherwood Forest Café. I had the HUGE Club samich and was still stuffed and wasn’t hungry after getting V&B checked out. They wanted to get something to eat so they went for some breakfast and my wife and I walked around and ended up at a Craps table.

OK, Another Craps session is at hand here on the $5 min table. I buy in for a Half a Benji because I am basically wasting time until they are ready to head over to the Rio. Up, down, up, down and not really getting anything going. The next thing I know, I am only holding about $30 in chips. Here’s where I get Pissed off for the first time this trip, which is very rare that I lasted this long . As you all know by now that I will always play $5 on the pass, back that up with $10 and then place the 6 / 8 with $6 each. Ok, so the dice move to the next roller and I’m thinking that if it’s any number by my 6 /8 I have enough to make all my bets with $2 to spare and I don’t have to take any money out just to cover my typical bet. So the shooter sets the point as a “5â€, this is good, Back up the Pass Line bet with $10, and put $12 on the table and tell the dealer to place the 6 / 8 for $ 6 each. He takes my money and places the bets, I don’t watch him because my wife asks me something and I am leaving it up to him to “DO HIS JOB†and after all, I have been there for a while and by know, he knows what I have been playing and how I have been playing. So we go along for about 3 rolls and a 6 comes up, I reach down to collect my $7 win and instead of him putting it in front of me, he hands it to the girl to my left. I reach over to get it and she grabs it. I told the dealer that that was my pay out and not hers. He makes a comment (Smartly I might add) and tells me that it was hers. The following conversation took place:

Me – That was my 6

Dealer – NO, you had the 6 on the last roll

Me – No, I gave you $12 after the “5†was rolled and told you to put $6 each on the 6 an 8

Dealer – NO YOU DIDN’T, that was the last roll

By this time I stop the game and me and the dealer are going at it. The pit boss comes over and I’m telling him what happened. What had happened was, the dealer put the money in the position on the table where the girl to my left would be and not in my position and instead of making him look bad in front of the Pit Boss, he wanted to argue with me and make me look like I didn’t know what I was talking about. (Back to the conversation)

Me - I always place the 6 & 8, I gave you $12 to put $6 each on the numbers, I had just enough to cover my bets and I wouldn’t just play for the Point.

Dealer - No, you did not give me any money to put down on the numbers that is her bet.

Keep in mind, this girl to my left who got my payout isn’t saying a thing because she knows that she didn’t have the 6

Me – I gave you money to put on those numbers and nobody else is on that number, that is my number and my money that you gave that girl. I understand that it’s only $7, but you are saying that I am lying and, THAT, I won’t except.

Pit Boss – Give him his pay out and place the numbers for him.

Problem resolved, I’m still pissed, You can call me anything but a cheat, chicken or a lier. Also, I can understand mistakes by dealers if the table is loud, there is a lot of money on the table and things are moving really fast, BUT, I was the only one on the 6 / 8 so he should have been able to keep up. Anyhow, after 1 more roll “SEVEN OUT†is called, I walk away and my wife is trying to calm me down. When I get pissed, I get pissed, granted it was over something stupid, but he insulted me by telling me that I was wrong, It’s the PRINCIPAL of the matter.

Ok, done with craps we walk around and my wife finds a .02 slot that she wants to play and I walk around and actually sit down at a Roulette table just to have some fun. Meanwhile V&B join my wife at the slot machine and they start to play. Now, at this time I have to throw this in. V&B didn’t have much of a bank roll coming here, the just wanted to come here because we were heading out and they have never been there. I don’t mind that they didn’t have a bank roll and it was a spur of the moment thing for them, but because of the limited funds, it was hard to have a good time with them because my wife wanted to gamble and all V would do would sit there or want my wife to walk around with her. Anyhow, back to the story. The Roulette table that I was sitting at, just to waste some time, was right next to where they were sitting at the Slots. I walk over to my wife and tell her that I was getting hungry and if she was ready to go, she said that she was hungry as well so I told her to tell V&B that we would leave in about 10 minutes. 15 minutes later I go over to them and tell them that we are going to head out and go to the Hofbrauhaus - Las Vegas for lunch and then back to the RIO. I wasn’t going to go back to the RIO, check them in and then head out again, just a waste of time. So V&B ignore me, but I tell my wife that we are leaving, she tells them and B pushes MAX credits and loses all $3 of his money. He is pissed and I ask my wife what the Hell just happened back there, she told me that they said that they were having fun and didn’t want to leave. All Freakin week and now they start to have fun, that’s not my problem, they knew that we were going to be leaving about 15 minutes after they sat down. So, we are headed down Trop towards the German place and I hear a comment from B telling V, next time we are getting a rental car. What the hell!!!!! Everything was free for them except the airline tickets, I got them comped rooms except for the 1 night at the RIO, paid for the Rental car and now B wants to get PISSY because we were hungry and ready to get out of there. I told my wife before we even left for Vegas that I wasn’t going to Cater to them, if they wanted to tag along with us, that was fine but I wasn’t going out of my way to please them. Vegas is big enough for them to do what they wanted to do and thought that was going to be the way it was, and, for the most part it was. Anyhow we make it down to the Hofbrauhaus order and eat. I had their Potato soup and I must say, it was the best soup I have had in a long time. While eating, we make small talk but nothing really to talk about I guess. Eat, pay the bill and we are headed up Flamingo towards the RIO. We get to the RIO and I check them in and the lady behind the desk says that this is a special suite and really nice. So, I tell B that if their room is better then ours they are out of there and we are taking it. Just joking around and he took it well. We head up to there room, open the door and it’s the same size room and everything, just a different lay out. Actually, the way ours is laid out, we had more room in the sleeping area then they did. It’s about 4:00 by the time we are done with getting them in the room and my wife wants to go to the pool one last time before we leave the next day. She asks V if she wanted to go and V could never really give her an answer and said that she would call her in a few minutes. We leave and head up to our room and my wife changes to go to the pool, I really don’t want to go but will go out with her and put some SUNBLOCK 6000 on her. While she is getting ready V calls and says that they are going to lay down for a little while and will get with her later, I guess they are going to see that show ICE tonight and wanted us to go but once again, we are not in to shows. Head out to the pool and I can tell that the sun will be down behind the hotel in about an hour or so so I tell my wife that I would be back around in an hour or she can call me and I can tell her where I was. I go inside and the Rapid Roulette game is starting up, I drop a $20 down and get my credits put into my machine. This is a fun game, know that many dealers don’t like it, but it’s actually pretty fun in my book. I go up and down and hit a couple numbers and then cash out for $60, not bad, made a $40 profit. I throw $5 to the dealers and they couldn’t believe it, thought it must have been like I won a couple hundred. Like I said, when I make money everyone makes money . The next thing that happens I know you avid readers will not believe. I walk over around the Craps Pit and there are 3 games going, I walk by one table $25 min, walk by another one $10 min, walk by the last one and……Yep, $10…I think to myself, I’m up for the trip, I just made a $40 profit at the Rapid Roulette game, hell, let’s give it a try. I know, I know, this move is SOOOOOOOOO Not me but figured what the hell. I drop just $60 on the table, figured that if I lost that I wouldn’t feel so bad because I could have sat at the Rapid Roulette and lost $20 but instead walked away with $60, if I lose this on the craps I wouldn’t feel so bad. I still play my usual Pass line bet now $10, back with $10 and place the 6 / 8 on the first roller, yep $44 on the table all at once, down to a messily $16 in my hand. I hit a couple times on my 6 and 8 to keep me going and I am up and down and up and down. The next thing I know it I am up to a Benji and should walk because I just don’t feel good playing at this level. Not scared, but just didn’t feel in my “COMFORT ZONEâ€. I manage to go down to my original $60 and walk away. Good thing because my wife is walking in from the pool at the same time. I tell her I was playing craps for $10 and she couldn’t believe it, she started laughing. So, up to the room so she could shower and dress. The plan now is to head down town 1 last time and spend the evening down there gambling before check out and flight tmw. We head down, valet the car at Binions and I tell her that I wanted to check out the 777 Brewpub at Main Street Station. So we head over there and this is the first time that I am in the place. Nice place, nice little casino and just a nice overall feeling I thought. We get a seat in the 777 and we are not really hungry so we just order some wings and Taco Salad and I get me a Stout. Great taste this stout was, I could have sat there and drank another one but my wife was done eating and we wanted to check out the casino. Walked around and I stepped up to a Craps table with, you guessed it $5 min. I knew it would be $5 just because it was downtown and not one of the MEGA places who cater to only the high rollers. I drop a Benji and we are off. My wife goes to the slots while I play “MY†Game. The table is up and down and nobody really on a “ROLLâ€, just a couple numbers being hit and off and on hits of the point. My wife comes back from playing slots and says that she pumped $60 through it with really not much play. She stands by my side and I’m drinking me a couple stouts while playing. At this time I look and I am up about $75 off of a very choppy table, not too bad. There is this Chinese guy rolling and I’m trying to make him laugh and at least talk while he is shooting and he just gives me the 1000 yard stare, ok, this guy is SERIOUS. So me and my wife and just having a blast, laughing and trying to get the table to have a good time and nobody is joining in with the laughter. Chinese guy just picks up the dice, throws them down to the other end of the table without any expression at all. After a couple more rolls my wife is ready to walk around so I color up. “COLOR COMMIN INâ€, I color up with a profit of $100, not bad. I had fun at this place and will definitely go back for some Stout. We head out and walk down to get some free beads for our daughter and then walk in to Binions and I’m just not feeling the craps table in there so we walk down to the Freemont. My wife wants to play Blackjack so we find a shoe game and sit down. I drop a Benji and my wife drops half a Benji. We are playing and having a great time. I know this is our last night so I want to play and have a good time and not worry about if I make a profit or not, I just want my wife to have fun while she is playing. We sit there for about 3 hours, not really making a profit and not really losing anything either. The dealers love us because we are tipping and making money for them and they especially like my wife because she is a funny person with some of the things she is saying. I must say that she is the luckiest person I know to have never played blackjack in a casino. Her lucky streak continues with hitting just about anything and getting 20’s and 21’s. After about 3 ½ hours, I hear the craps table calling. I wanted to get one last craps session in before we leave in the morning. I take my chips from playing Blackjack and walk to a craps table. They had 2 open at the time and the one I walked up to had NOBODY playing on it and the other one only had about 5 people on it. I figured hell, I will open this table up and try to get it going. I start out by throwing $4 to the stick and saying this is C&E for the boys. I hit a YO and the boys are happy, their YO comes down so I put it back up for them. I don’t understand why it comes down after you hit it and it doesn’t stay up like ours does. Anyhow, I make the point and roll a couple times and “Seven Outâ€. Take the dice again and repeat the process for the boys and finally after a couple rolls some more people step up to the table and we start to have a good time. I hate opening up a table by myself because if I’m point, seven out, point, seven out, I could be out pretty quick. We are starting to have a good time and with my play “For the boys†some others start to jump on the bandwagon and I am happy to see it. I play at the craps table for a while and start losing pretty quick, I move over to the other table where there are about 8 people there and set up shop. I have about $20 left from my original $100 so I drop another Benji on the table in hopes of turning it around. I play there for about another hour and lose the Benji , not good I tell myself, I am down $200 in here but really only down $100 because of my win at Main Street Station. I walk down to my wife and she is still holding on to her original $50 she bought in for. She is getting tired so we decide to leave, but, instead of cashing in her chips, that’s right boys and girls, she lets me take it to the craps table. 15 minutes later we are out of there I am down $100 + my wifes $60. I give her back the $60 she gave me in chips and we are headed for the car at Binions. Get in the car and head back to the RIO, once at the RIO we dump the car and I walk by the craps table and my wife knows that I want to play, but I just can’t bring myself to it, we are still sitting on a nice profit for the week and pretty much came to the conclusion that we wanted to keep it that way. Go to the room and fall asleep around 3am.

Friday 20 July – FLY OUT DAY……

My wife is up around 8:30 and I’m just laying in bed until she gets done in the shower. She gets out and I tell her to call V and tell them that we will meet them down at the front desk at 9:30 to check out and get on the road to the rental car place and drop off the car around 10:00. We have an 1:30 flight and I am all about being in the airport and through security with plenty of time to spare. She calls V and tells her to meet us downstairs at 9:30, V tells her that they are going to the pool for a while…WHAT? IT’s almost 9 and NOW they want to go to the pool? What the Hell? I tell her, LOUD Enough for V to hear me, I am leaving at 10 one way or the other. I’m up, shower and pack everything and we are out of the room by 9:30 and headed downstairs. Get downstairs and they are not there, tell my wife to call them and they are walking through the Casino now. I get their keys, check them out and we are out to the Valet. Get the car and I have to top off with fuel before the rental car return. At the Car return place and I get in the wrong line, I need to back up and get over into the Dollar line. Lady comes, checks in the car and we are on the shuttle to the airport. It’s just at 11:00 when we get to the terminal and check in for our flight was quick and easy. Go through security, NO PROBLEM this time with V&B and we are headed down to the gate. We want to grab a little breakfast so we walk to Cinnabon and they walk off on their own. Don’t care, I know where the gate is and if they aren’t there, not my problem. Meet them at the gate, wait a while and then we are on the plane for an uneventful flight. As we turn out I see the strip and I start to get all MISTY EYED saying to myself, Come on Next year….

So that’s it, that’s the end, there’s no more to say. Ok, I will do a “FINAL REMARKSâ€

Final remarks.

Flights:

Flew Allegiant Air for $270 for the both of us round trip, can’t beat it. Flight to Vegas was rough because of storms over the mountains and then the heat coming in to Vegas. Return flight was smooth and uneventful

Rental Car:
Dollar rental is great if you have the Express card, walk through the rental center and straight down the escalator to the Express stand and you will be out of there in less then 15 minutes

Hotels:

BINIONS HOTEL: The one night we stayed there was not bad, the room was small in comparison to others, but it served it’s purpose. The casino looks a lot better then the last time I was in there, it’s brighter and looks like new carpet.

RIO: Loved this place, but only for the rooms. The “Premium Suite†was what I expected it to be, or should I say, what I was looking forward to it being. Spacious, King bed was comfortable, the view was great, except for the laser beam coming in my eyes in the morning when the sun came up. One bad thing though, the hot water in the shower was pretty much non-existent. I don’t complain about small things like this though, I am retired military and have had to shower out of my canteen cup when I was in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan several times, so a cool shower is nothing for me.

Restaurants:

Ellis Island – Steak special, can’t beat it. Prices, can’t beat them. Always a stop for us when we are in Vegas. We love this place, like the little casino and the food is great and at a cheap price.

Hofbrauhaus – Love this place, the beer is good, the food is typical German food, but for some reason, I like this place and we always make it a point to stop here. My wife likes the Brats so I know we will always come here.

777 Brewpub at Main Street Station: First time here, but have read a lot about the place from this board and many others. The Stout is great, the atmosphere is great, just a great place to hang out and the food is good too. Typical Pub bar food, but the place was packed when we were there.

Sherwood Forest Café at Excalibur – I have eaten here before, nothing special, typical restaurant food you will find anywhere.

ASIA at Bally’s - We LOVE this place, the food is OUTSTANDING with a capital OOOOOOO. One plate would usually do for a couple unless you are really hungry. We ordered the Chicken Cashew and the Beef and Broccoli and they were both outstanding. We ate here twice last year and just knew we would make a return to this place again this year.

Other places, I can’t remember but didn’t have any bad experiences.

Casinos gambled at:

Binions – Nice place now that it looks like they are putting some money in to the place

Freemont – Early morning Craps session, and “LAST†night blackjack and craps session, nice little place I thought

Rio – WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THE TABLE LIMITS? I can understand at night, but come on…4am and the limits are still at $25 with only a few people playing

Bally’s – Still hate gambling at this place

Excalibur – 2nd in the holdem tournament, lost at the craps table and got pissed at the dealer. Never really liked gambling here, stayed her back in Dec of 05 and didn’t like it then. TOOOO MANY Kids running around

Green Valley Ranch – Love, love, love this place. Quiet, nice atmosphere, love the décor oh yea, the $350 profit at the craps table didn’t hurt either. I would love to stay at this place, the only bad thing I see and this is really a small thing I guess, it’s out away from everything. In my mind, you would want a rental car to go to the strip or anywhere else for the matter. But, if you want to get out away from the hustle and bustle of the strip and the snobs at some of the MEGA resorts, this should be your place/.

Ellis Island – Made $70 on the Mini craps table before dinner there, nice little casino, definitely a LOCALS place.

GAMBLING Losse/Gains: I know this is what you all have been waiting for, I limited myself to just $200 a day for gambling. We were on a budget and figured that I would spend $800 gambling and that was it. I had $800 cash when we left Colorado Springs Airport and when we got home I had $800 Cash. No profit made while we were there, in part due to the last night session, but we had fun that night and I really didn’t’ care. Now, out of the $800 I took out with me, my wife took $300 when she would lose and I would win, I would flip her some money. When we would go eat, I would take money out of the $800 that I had for the week, SO, with that said, for us to go to Vegas for a week, not go to the ATM’s while we are out there to get more money, Eat, Drink, Gamble and still come home with what we went out there with, I would say that we were definitely winners. I had my original $800 and my wife had her original $300 + some change of about $50. All in all, I would say that this was definitely a GREAT TRIP.

I have to throw this at you all now, you won’t believe what you are about to hear. I started back to work on Sunday night, I work midshift, anyhow, I get home Monday morning and my wife is up and getting ready for work and I make a comment that I MISS VEGAS already. She laughs and tells me that we should go back out Next week. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? ANOTHER TRIP IN LESS THEN A WEEK? SAY IT ISNâ€T SO…. And to top this all off, She is serious about it. We pick our daughter up at the the airport on Saturday and my wife says that she goes back on vacation to spend time with our daughter before she goes back to school in a couple weeks and that we should go back out to Vegas next week while she is on vacation with our daughter. I don’t really think about it much and tell her that I will check on things when I wake up, I’m tired from work all night so I go to sleep. I wake up and start moving my fingers on the ole keyboard and check the internet. I can get 2 nights free at the Flamingo, the bad thing, airfare is going to cost $800 for the three of us to fly out there. My wife calls and I tell her about the flights and she says, If you want to go, I will pay for it. So I am really thinking about this and I tell her we can talk about it when she gets home. She comes home, we talk about it and as much as I hate to say this, I tell her that it’s better if we wait until next March when our daughter is on Spring break. But honestly, can you believe that we almost we back out there in less then a week????

Hope you all have enjoyed reading this, I know it was long, but we had a GREAT TIME and are really looking forward to going back out there in March. Until then, May all of you have great luck and great times.

Goose OUT!!!!

 

I think you showed great restraint with the craps dealer....if that were me, I might have been tempted to swing for the fences!

 

What gets me about your craps experience at the Excal is that the woman never said a word. If that had been me receiving a payout on a bet I never placed I would have spoken up especially when you pointed out they were paying the wrong person.

Not bad, all in all, come home with the money you left with.

It would have been hard for me to pass up another trip to Vegas so soon.

 

Great report!!! I agree about the woman not saying that wasn't her money. I am an honest person and would never just keep my mouth shut like that. How very rude! That is, of course if I knew what I was doing. I don't know craps, so I would probably just take the money with a dumb smile on my face, not knowing any better :confused2:

 

Best trip report ive EVER read!! With regard to the woman not saying anything with craps? Shame on her!! Sheesh ... this did happen to me once, but i was the woman receiving the bet... i quickly said, "i dont have any bet placed on that number," and the dealer quickly gave it to the gentleman next to me... hmmmm... wonder how many times dealers do this? Have a great NEXT TRIP!!

 

Goose:

Thanks for your trip report. Enjoyed the read. I am a believer that if you go to Vegas with friends or companions, they must have the same passion as you do or the trip could be wasted. I think your philosophy of not feeling the need to entertain v&b was the best policy. Next trip should just be your wife and you.

LC

 

Great report! Thanks for posting

 

he goose I just printed this monster of a tripreport and am going to read it in my lazy chair. I will let you what my thoughts are.

Man, it`s almost a book.

 

Great report!
It sounds like you really did well by coming home with your original money! Soemthing I have never managed to do. (Just a teeny side note...next time..please put in more paragraphs breaks. It makes it so much easier to read.)