Background:
We were just out in Paradise for Halloween but then it looked likely my Pats were going to make the Big Game (aaaagain) so the pull of Vegas started to work on me. There must be a black hole in the middle of the desert that keeps sucking me back! So I got my Vegas Survival Kit ready and booked it.
Survival Kit
My real hope was to cash this little number.
Do they purposely print these things with disappearing ink!
Just a little aside, I was staying at Barbary Coast in Sept 2001 and was up a few bucks. The prior week Mo Lewis blew up Bledsoe and the Pats had some new kid named Brady at qb. What the hell I’m up, here’s a hundy on them to win it all at 35-1.
I’ve been on them every year since, I think it's performed better than my 401K!
This was going to be my 4th SB and my wifes, J, 1st game. I was there for both Giants Superbowl debacles and last years “What! They didn’t hand off to Marshawn???” Superbowl.
A friend was going to be out there from the 3rd thru 6th who we would hang out with some.
The plan was to arrive Sat 4th and leave Wed the 8th. We booked this one on the cheap with a stop out in Salt Lake City and on the way out & Kansas City on the return. Sometimes fate intervenes though….you’ll see!
Left Boston and arrived in Salt Lake. It was our 1st layover in Salt Lake and I must admit it was a scenic airport. I think I even got a little “OOOH” from J.
We arrived in Vegas on time, a quick stop at Budget for the rental then off to Aria, our home for 4 nights. The first 2 nights were comp and last 2 were $69 each. Not bad.
It was CNY so they had the obligatory dragon in the lobby and Roosters everywhere.
I spend 95% of my gambling hours at blackjack and thought I’d test the gambling waters so I wandered down to the tables by Jean Phillipe. Normally these are $50 during the day with all decent rules except they hit soft 17. I’ll give them the soft 17 but beyond that I won’t play. Unfortunately, the tables were all at $100, I like to start a little slower so it was on to plan B.
Plan B turned out to be a trip down to SLS to use a $75 free bet and play their tables. An hour or so of play netted me exactly 0. Bought in for $500, cashed out at $500…perfectly acceptable.
The time change was catching up so we decide to call it an early night. Got back to Aria and realized I caught my 2nd wind…funny how that happens….must have to do with the dry air! So I dropped J off at Aria and my buddy and I went back up to TI for more blackjack. The gambling gods smiled at me as I walked out an hour later with $600 more than I came in with. End of day one.
Superbowl Sunday!
First things First. Time to get some prop bets down. I’m not a big prop bet guy but decided to take a flyer for 3 $20 bets and 2 $20 parlays. Here are the props….one of them I am particularly proud of! Can you tell?
Next up was to watch the Budweiser Clydesdales. Metro had shut down the strip so they could parade up & down a few times in front of Paris. I guess it was some sort of promotion with the new Beer Park there.
Pretty cool to see and I learned something I didn’t know.
Following the horses are two guys in a golf cart with shovels. As far as I could tell their sole job was horse pooper scooper! And boy did they earn their money!
I think I’m going to change my profile on VMB from Head Shopping Cart Retriever to Clydesdale Pooper Scooper….seems like a step up!
After watching the scoopers do their thing J & I went back down to TI for some more BJ. Bad move, dumped $700 back in Ruffins coffers. Ugh
On the way back I lit some incense to a Hindu God! Never can be too careful!
We had an invite to Aria’s Big Game party and they do a great job. Outside the room are temporary betting kiosks. Which would be handy except the minimum bet is $1,000, pretty much $900 over what I’m comfortable betting on sports! I am the world’s worst sports bettor….so ”a man’s got to know his limitations” - Dirty Harry. Inside the room it’s set up with giant tv’s, couches to sit on, coffee tables, and a terrific buffet. Crab legs and shrimp so big they look like mutants! And best of all…mini-fluffernutters! The ultimate in high end dining!
Here’s the gift cooler bag that came with the invite. It’s stuffed with chips, candy bars, a couple Aria foam footballs and most important a foam #1 finger! WOOT, WOOT, SCORE! Can’t have enough foam fingers!!!
J, my buddy E and I are assigned to a couch in the 2nd row. Just prior to the game a guy about 32 – 35 years old, in the front couch turns and sees our Pats gear on. He high fives up and says “take a look at this” while handing me a folded betting slip. I’m a bit confused but he tells me to look at it. I unfold it and it’s an Aria betting slip on the Pats -3 for $125,000! Only $124,900 more than I had riding….YIKES!
Here are a few pics of the game & set-up.
Well the $125,000 man is really, really subdued by half time. He’s on his phone and I watch him leave the room.
The 2nd half starts and soon it’s 28-3 and the guy leaves the room. So I lean over to one of his buddys and say something like “too bad for your friend”. His buddy tells me that’s not the half of it…he put another $125,000 on the Pats at the half! DOUBLE YIKES! I have no idea what his points for that bet were. Anyway, I won’t bore you with the details but suffice to say there was one happy guy in front of us when the game ended! I just remember him jumping over his couch onto our coffee table and falling on us hugging all of us…good times.
My notes tell me after the game we hit Monte Carlo where I won $200 putting me up $100 for the trip. How do they keep the lights on!
Aria tables were all $100 minimum so the decision was to head downtown as E had only been there once before. We parked in some random dump garage, man they’re all so nasty, and headed for El Cortez to try Siegel’s 1941. Siegel’s is adequate….barely. Service blows, food is meh, but edible, cheap so no big deal, it’s the El Co so part of the charm…I guess. I was going to play some single deck for $100/hand at their $5 table and see if I could get kicked out but all the tables were packed. Single deck, double deck, 6/5, crappy rules, didn’t matter, every seat had an ass in it. We did a quick stroll under the canopy, watched a light show and caught a hefty Elvis impersonator on the 3rd St stage who was actually pretty good.
Next headed back to Aria still finding nothing but $100 tables so we called it a night.
Up Monday morning and todays job was cashing winning bets and playing hit & run Blackjack.. First off was play a bit of blackjack at Aria to keep the offers rolling in but it might be a little late for that. They finally had my $50 tables running and I netted $680. One thing very disappointing was I first sat at a $50 table, thankfully the dealer pointed out it was 6/5. Pretty soon 3/2 real blackjack will be a thing of the past. I’m done when it happens, the 6/5 game can’t be beat. DON’T PLAY IT!! Breakfast was at MAG. Still our favorite spot for breakfast. I had the Eggs Bennie and give it 7/10 forks. Wynn has a much better bennie but it’s hard to beat sitting in the sun watching the world go by.
We headed for Mandalay Bay to cash the futures bet for $800 and played a bit of blackjack for another $100. Next stop was Luxor for $300, NYNY where I was down $700 & clawed back to dead even and left, then Monte Carlo for another $100 win then finished up the tour at Aria with another $100.
At this point I’m up about $2,100, fair warning it doesn’t keep going. In fact, it all goes to shit!
Dinner is at Gordon Ramsey’s in Paris. We’ve eaten at & enjoyed the bar downstairs and always wanted to try his signature beef wellington. We had a booth upstairs which was fine. Here’s a quick view.
The red neon is supposed to mimic the way Ramseys hands move when he is making his Wellington…..oooook then, if you say so. Anyways, service was so-so. The staff seemed to be your typical young, cute, and bored 25 year old types. Just trying to save for a boob job so they can apply to Wynn for a cocktail waitress job where the real money is. Whatever. The food was good, not great. For $300 I think there is better value elsewhere.
Now back to Aria where in about 10 minutes I managed to blow off $700 a shoe game….just couldn’t catch anything.
I’ll make what we thought was our last full day short & sweet. Played at Aria – 700, craps at Ballys -230, Blackjack at 2D TI -600, Aria -500, Aria -500, Aria -1,200. AAARRRRGGGH!!!!
So now I’m down about $2,300 with one more session on tap tomorrow morning before the airport.
So the bleeding (gushing) finally stops on my last run pre-airport and I make $1,500 on the way out the door. Down about $800 for the trip…I can live with it, win some lose some.
Now the fun begins. Dump the car, get over to Southwest and they start herding people into line when I get a ding on my laptop. It’s Southwest telling me our KC – Boston connection is cancelled due to a storm in Boston. I see the woman at the counter and she informs me that they can still get me to KC and then can fly out of KC on Friday.
It takes me all of 2-1/2 seconds to inform her I’d rather be stuck in Vegas. Done, fly out on Friday morning thru Nashville. Next check offers and get 2 nights comped at Ballys. Things are looking up.
Then I see Elton John is at Caessars and I can get 2 tix for $85 each. Done, things are really looking up.
Here are a few show pics. I was never a big Elton fan but he put on a great show…highly recommend.
I’ll wrap this up with a couple quick things. Here’s how the gamboooling went.
Played Ballys, $500, Ballys $1,150, Treasure Island $100, Ballys $600, Ballys $450, Ballys $200. All in +$2,200 for the trip.
We celebrated the end of the extended trip with a light meal at Carbones in Aria. We sat at the bar and everything was excellent. Everything. We’ll definitely go back next time for a proper sit down meal, I think it will be worth every penny of the $300 I expect it will run.
Ok, last thing then I’m out, the Treasure Hunt! When I have a winning trip I like to give a random person a greenie on my way out the door, kinda a way to pay it forward. Karma and all that, can’t hurt and maybe it will brighten someone’s day.
This time I changed it up and tucked a green chip between these two columns! It’s at the base of them and out of sight, you’ll have to feel for it. You figure it out where it is…shouldn’t be too difficult.
When you find it be careful you don’t knock it off some kind of ledge its sitting on.
Now the only 2 rules.
1. You MUST play it on an even money bet, red or black, odd or even, etc. When you win, and you will, you MUST re-hide the greenie for someone else. The winnings are yours to keep.
2. Post it here when you find it and post where you hide it.
Failure to follow these rules will result in the gambooooling gods turning you into a Clydesdale shovel! DON’T RISK IT!!!!
Good luck on all your future trips and thanks for wading thru this slop!
VIVA
We were just out in Paradise for Halloween but then it looked likely my Pats were going to make the Big Game (aaaagain) so the pull of Vegas started to work on me. There must be a black hole in the middle of the desert that keeps sucking me back! So I got my Vegas Survival Kit ready and booked it.
Survival Kit
My real hope was to cash this little number.
Do they purposely print these things with disappearing ink!
Just a little aside, I was staying at Barbary Coast in Sept 2001 and was up a few bucks. The prior week Mo Lewis blew up Bledsoe and the Pats had some new kid named Brady at qb. What the hell I’m up, here’s a hundy on them to win it all at 35-1.
I’ve been on them every year since, I think it's performed better than my 401K!
This was going to be my 4th SB and my wifes, J, 1st game. I was there for both Giants Superbowl debacles and last years “What! They didn’t hand off to Marshawn???” Superbowl.
A friend was going to be out there from the 3rd thru 6th who we would hang out with some.
The plan was to arrive Sat 4th and leave Wed the 8th. We booked this one on the cheap with a stop out in Salt Lake City and on the way out & Kansas City on the return. Sometimes fate intervenes though….you’ll see!
Left Boston and arrived in Salt Lake. It was our 1st layover in Salt Lake and I must admit it was a scenic airport. I think I even got a little “OOOH” from J.
We arrived in Vegas on time, a quick stop at Budget for the rental then off to Aria, our home for 4 nights. The first 2 nights were comp and last 2 were $69 each. Not bad.
It was CNY so they had the obligatory dragon in the lobby and Roosters everywhere.
I spend 95% of my gambling hours at blackjack and thought I’d test the gambling waters so I wandered down to the tables by Jean Phillipe. Normally these are $50 during the day with all decent rules except they hit soft 17. I’ll give them the soft 17 but beyond that I won’t play. Unfortunately, the tables were all at $100, I like to start a little slower so it was on to plan B.
Plan B turned out to be a trip down to SLS to use a $75 free bet and play their tables. An hour or so of play netted me exactly 0. Bought in for $500, cashed out at $500…perfectly acceptable.
The time change was catching up so we decide to call it an early night. Got back to Aria and realized I caught my 2nd wind…funny how that happens….must have to do with the dry air! So I dropped J off at Aria and my buddy and I went back up to TI for more blackjack. The gambling gods smiled at me as I walked out an hour later with $600 more than I came in with. End of day one.
Superbowl Sunday!
First things First. Time to get some prop bets down. I’m not a big prop bet guy but decided to take a flyer for 3 $20 bets and 2 $20 parlays. Here are the props….one of them I am particularly proud of! Can you tell?
Next up was to watch the Budweiser Clydesdales. Metro had shut down the strip so they could parade up & down a few times in front of Paris. I guess it was some sort of promotion with the new Beer Park there.
Pretty cool to see and I learned something I didn’t know.
Following the horses are two guys in a golf cart with shovels. As far as I could tell their sole job was horse pooper scooper! And boy did they earn their money!
I think I’m going to change my profile on VMB from Head Shopping Cart Retriever to Clydesdale Pooper Scooper….seems like a step up!
After watching the scoopers do their thing J & I went back down to TI for some more BJ. Bad move, dumped $700 back in Ruffins coffers. Ugh
On the way back I lit some incense to a Hindu God! Never can be too careful!
We had an invite to Aria’s Big Game party and they do a great job. Outside the room are temporary betting kiosks. Which would be handy except the minimum bet is $1,000, pretty much $900 over what I’m comfortable betting on sports! I am the world’s worst sports bettor….so ”a man’s got to know his limitations” - Dirty Harry. Inside the room it’s set up with giant tv’s, couches to sit on, coffee tables, and a terrific buffet. Crab legs and shrimp so big they look like mutants! And best of all…mini-fluffernutters! The ultimate in high end dining!
Here’s the gift cooler bag that came with the invite. It’s stuffed with chips, candy bars, a couple Aria foam footballs and most important a foam #1 finger! WOOT, WOOT, SCORE! Can’t have enough foam fingers!!!
J, my buddy E and I are assigned to a couch in the 2nd row. Just prior to the game a guy about 32 – 35 years old, in the front couch turns and sees our Pats gear on. He high fives up and says “take a look at this” while handing me a folded betting slip. I’m a bit confused but he tells me to look at it. I unfold it and it’s an Aria betting slip on the Pats -3 for $125,000! Only $124,900 more than I had riding….YIKES!
Here are a few pics of the game & set-up.
Well the $125,000 man is really, really subdued by half time. He’s on his phone and I watch him leave the room.
The 2nd half starts and soon it’s 28-3 and the guy leaves the room. So I lean over to one of his buddys and say something like “too bad for your friend”. His buddy tells me that’s not the half of it…he put another $125,000 on the Pats at the half! DOUBLE YIKES! I have no idea what his points for that bet were. Anyway, I won’t bore you with the details but suffice to say there was one happy guy in front of us when the game ended! I just remember him jumping over his couch onto our coffee table and falling on us hugging all of us…good times.
My notes tell me after the game we hit Monte Carlo where I won $200 putting me up $100 for the trip. How do they keep the lights on!
Aria tables were all $100 minimum so the decision was to head downtown as E had only been there once before. We parked in some random dump garage, man they’re all so nasty, and headed for El Cortez to try Siegel’s 1941. Siegel’s is adequate….barely. Service blows, food is meh, but edible, cheap so no big deal, it’s the El Co so part of the charm…I guess. I was going to play some single deck for $100/hand at their $5 table and see if I could get kicked out but all the tables were packed. Single deck, double deck, 6/5, crappy rules, didn’t matter, every seat had an ass in it. We did a quick stroll under the canopy, watched a light show and caught a hefty Elvis impersonator on the 3rd St stage who was actually pretty good.
Next headed back to Aria still finding nothing but $100 tables so we called it a night.
Up Monday morning and todays job was cashing winning bets and playing hit & run Blackjack.. First off was play a bit of blackjack at Aria to keep the offers rolling in but it might be a little late for that. They finally had my $50 tables running and I netted $680. One thing very disappointing was I first sat at a $50 table, thankfully the dealer pointed out it was 6/5. Pretty soon 3/2 real blackjack will be a thing of the past. I’m done when it happens, the 6/5 game can’t be beat. DON’T PLAY IT!! Breakfast was at MAG. Still our favorite spot for breakfast. I had the Eggs Bennie and give it 7/10 forks. Wynn has a much better bennie but it’s hard to beat sitting in the sun watching the world go by.
We headed for Mandalay Bay to cash the futures bet for $800 and played a bit of blackjack for another $100. Next stop was Luxor for $300, NYNY where I was down $700 & clawed back to dead even and left, then Monte Carlo for another $100 win then finished up the tour at Aria with another $100.
At this point I’m up about $2,100, fair warning it doesn’t keep going. In fact, it all goes to shit!
Dinner is at Gordon Ramsey’s in Paris. We’ve eaten at & enjoyed the bar downstairs and always wanted to try his signature beef wellington. We had a booth upstairs which was fine. Here’s a quick view.
The red neon is supposed to mimic the way Ramseys hands move when he is making his Wellington…..oooook then, if you say so. Anyways, service was so-so. The staff seemed to be your typical young, cute, and bored 25 year old types. Just trying to save for a boob job so they can apply to Wynn for a cocktail waitress job where the real money is. Whatever. The food was good, not great. For $300 I think there is better value elsewhere.
Now back to Aria where in about 10 minutes I managed to blow off $700 a shoe game….just couldn’t catch anything.
I’ll make what we thought was our last full day short & sweet. Played at Aria – 700, craps at Ballys -230, Blackjack at 2D TI -600, Aria -500, Aria -500, Aria -1,200. AAARRRRGGGH!!!!
So now I’m down about $2,300 with one more session on tap tomorrow morning before the airport.
So the bleeding (gushing) finally stops on my last run pre-airport and I make $1,500 on the way out the door. Down about $800 for the trip…I can live with it, win some lose some.
Now the fun begins. Dump the car, get over to Southwest and they start herding people into line when I get a ding on my laptop. It’s Southwest telling me our KC – Boston connection is cancelled due to a storm in Boston. I see the woman at the counter and she informs me that they can still get me to KC and then can fly out of KC on Friday.
It takes me all of 2-1/2 seconds to inform her I’d rather be stuck in Vegas. Done, fly out on Friday morning thru Nashville. Next check offers and get 2 nights comped at Ballys. Things are looking up.
Then I see Elton John is at Caessars and I can get 2 tix for $85 each. Done, things are really looking up.
Here are a few show pics. I was never a big Elton fan but he put on a great show…highly recommend.
I’ll wrap this up with a couple quick things. Here’s how the gamboooling went.
Played Ballys, $500, Ballys $1,150, Treasure Island $100, Ballys $600, Ballys $450, Ballys $200. All in +$2,200 for the trip.
We celebrated the end of the extended trip with a light meal at Carbones in Aria. We sat at the bar and everything was excellent. Everything. We’ll definitely go back next time for a proper sit down meal, I think it will be worth every penny of the $300 I expect it will run.
Ok, last thing then I’m out, the Treasure Hunt! When I have a winning trip I like to give a random person a greenie on my way out the door, kinda a way to pay it forward. Karma and all that, can’t hurt and maybe it will brighten someone’s day.
This time I changed it up and tucked a green chip between these two columns! It’s at the base of them and out of sight, you’ll have to feel for it. You figure it out where it is…shouldn’t be too difficult.
When you find it be careful you don’t knock it off some kind of ledge its sitting on.
Now the only 2 rules.
1. You MUST play it on an even money bet, red or black, odd or even, etc. When you win, and you will, you MUST re-hide the greenie for someone else. The winnings are yours to keep.
2. Post it here when you find it and post where you hide it.
Failure to follow these rules will result in the gambooooling gods turning you into a Clydesdale shovel! DON’T RISK IT!!!!
Good luck on all your future trips and thanks for wading thru this slop!
VIVA
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