Thanksgiving in Vegas

Vegas can be beaten with advantage play.

The Set up

Ok, I am a deal hound. I love getting the best airfare, the best prices on hotel rooms, free drinks and gambling with the best chance of winning, so of course, I love Vegas. The Wife and I decided to hit Vegas for the Thanksgiving holiday because she teaches school and had Wednesday thru Sunday off. So, instead of the cooking, cleaning and dealing with the family.. We decided to embark on the drinking, gambling and buffets of Vegas. I found a package deal on America West for air and hotel (the Riviera) for $465 each from Boston and booked it. Leaving Tuesday night non stop and returning non stop on the midnight red eye sat night. Well, an hour after booking I realized that I should have booked it separately, and by doing it online I would have gotten a bonus 3000 flight miles.. giving my wife and I just enough miles for a free trip. Ok, so I called them back, made up a lame excuse, got my original trip cancelled and rebooked the same flight online for only $310 each. I then traded online with LVGrandma for a few winterfest coupons which entitled me to 2 free nights at Harrah’s (Tues and weds) and 2 free entries into their daily slot tournament. I purchased the Las Vegas Advisor (highly recommended) which gave me the coupon I needed to trade with Lvgrandma and over 100 other good, great, and fair coupons to use. Well, my brother Chip decided to join us, and I had an extra voucher so he could get a room and free entry as well. So, I start doing my usual message board research and trade and collect as many match play coupons as I can. With a minimal amount of effort, I collected a good number of them. I booked a rental car from Thrifty for $15 a day… Hell, it costs more than that to get to and from the airport. Lastly I booked us 2nd row tickets to the Amazing Jonathan on Thursday night. Ok, Everything seemed to be in place… just waiting for the big day.

The System to Beat the house

The system for this trip was to prove that Vegas could be beaten with advantage play. When I say advantage play, I mean that I generally only want to gamble when I have the advantage. I talked this strategy up for weeks prior to going to Vegas with my friends and decided to keep a journal with me and record every gambling session (casino and net win or loss). I have included the complete journal list at the end of this report in case you are interested. I also planned on taking advantage of all the free sign up deals, 2 for 1 dinner deals and any other advantage I could get against Sin City. So, basically advantage gambling consists of playing blackjack or craps with matchplay coupons. You risk $10 and they pay you $20 when you win. This is a huge advantage to the player, and if you are disciplined, you can easily pay for your entire trip, as I was destined to prove to all my gambling friends. Slots have horrible odds, but you can play advantage if you can find “free play” vouchers which are offered as a “get em in the door” promotion from some casinos. They give you free credits which must be gambled in their slot machines, even though slots have horrible odds, if it is free to play, it is a good deal for the player. My system was to go to each casino where I had some advantage play and play that offer if I won with the matchplays, I would continue to gamble with the house money, If I lost the matchplays, then I would walk and go play the next deal. Yeah, it takes some effort and some footwork, but my trips to Vegas are about walking all over the place drinking and gambling anyway.. I just gave myself a mission to prove that this strategy could and would leave me ahead of the game in Sin City. Want to find out how well it worked…. Well, read through this report.. or just skip ahead to the end for the final numbers.

The travel to Vegas

The big day finally arrives (Tuesday Nov. 26th); we drive to Logan airport, check in, and fly non-stop to Vegas. No worries, we arrive at 11:30pm Vegas time grab our rental car and head to Harrah’s. We check in, the room is average… but free, so we don’t complain.

The story

Tuesday: We immediately walk next door to casino Royal to shoot the dice. The dice are choppy, and after a 45 minute up and down session I cash out $ 7 ahead and book the first “winning session” of the trip. After a long foodless flight we decide to head to The Barbary Coast Victorian Room for the “midnight teaser”. It’s now 3am in Vegas and 6am for us, so we decide to get some sleep.

Wednesday:
We get up and take a walk down the strip, playing a few advantage plays at the I.P., Flamingo and Bally’s. I have a good run at the Craps tables in Bally's and make $59 while the wife makes $50. We head back to Harrah’s to sign up for the free slot tournament. Basically, you play for 10 minutes on these “special tournament machines” and whoever has the 15 highest scores for the entire day qualify to come back at night and compete for $5,000 in cash prizes. Well, the wife and I don’t do so hot … but my Brother Chip gets like 14,000 points and is in second place when we leave Harrah’s at 11am. So, we head over the Orleans and have the Breakfast buffet… It was good; I had a 2 for 1 coupon from the Vegas advisor, so it was like 3 bucks each. I noticed in the “what’s on” magazine that Palace Station was offering a deal, if you signed up for their card with a recent airline ticket, you got $15 in free slot play… well between the 3 of us.. that’s $45.. so we went there.. lost the slot money but played a 3 team parlay with the pats/under pats (44)/cowboys… for $5 and got an additional $5 Match card from Palace Station…. All 3 of us did this and for a $15 risk we later collected $180 … not to bad. After that we went to the Hard Rock, had a few more drinks and a good run at the Blackjack tables for a $85 win. We then went back to the Strip… had dinner at Tequila Joe’s (plastic silverware does not make the experience any better) and went back to Harrah’s so that Chip could enter the “final round” of the slots tournament. Well, it starts and on the very first roll, Chips gets triple Diamonds… the highest bonus on these tournament machines (2500 points)… well… Chip was hysterical.. dancing.. jumping up and down (ok we were pretty drunk from drinking all day) and being a total fool. When the ten minutes was up… you guessed it… HE WON !!!! $2500 cash … yep… 25 $100 bills….. Ohh Yeah.. this trip is looking pretty good!!! Well after a few celebration drinks, we went up to the rooms and changed so that we could go clubbing at RA that night. We decided to walk down there, as we love to drink and walk the strip.. so that’s what we did. RA on Wednesday night is pretty happening… good vibe in there.. the $20 cover is overpriced, but Chip paid so who cares. I think the highlight was some drunk girl flashing her undies next to me while her friend took pictures of her…. Umm.. let’s just say that was worth the cover alone!!!! Cabbed home around 3am and stumbled into bed.

Thursday
Got up at 8:30am… left the wife to head over to the Bellagio to secure seats for the Pats / Lions game at 9:30am (Vegas time).. I find Chip at the bar .. still drinking and celebrating his victory (he was too jazzed up to sleep) talking to some skanky hooker… fortunately, I drag him away from skankville and we head to the Bellagio sports Book. We get seats and some hot young girl wants to bring me free drinks… umm yes… I want free drinks … Kettle One Bloody Mary Please. You gotta love the Bellagio sports book… free Kettle One Drinks, leather recliners, and the Patriots kicking ass over the Lions… now this is the way Thanksgiving is supposed to be. Eventually the wife shows up and I am already talking too loud and pretty sure I’m the smartest guy in the sportsbook. Sometime during the Cowboys game we left for Thanksgiving dinner at The Alladin Buffet. It was pretty good… crab legs for Thanksgiving, what the hell… more like 10 Kettle Ones for thanksgiving… Umm… liquid lunch. Anyway, We head out of there, check into the Riviera and the wife takes a nap… while I go throw the dice at Slots a Hell. Eventually we all get together again and go downtown to see the Amazing Jonathan.. Ohh Man..is he funny.. holy crap.. We were laughing our asses off. Yeah, he may offend some people… but those are people I don’t like to hang out with anyway!! I highly recommend you go check him out… very very funny.. or was it the large Brain freeze with extra shot of grain I drank before the show? You know the deal here.. Go to La Bayou and get a frozen drink, then sweet talk the lady while getting the extra shot of grain.. one or 2 of these and you’ll be riding the grain train too…. Damm, wonder why my group were the only people dancing during the light show… hummm…. Slow glow of alcohol taking over again.. the Grain Train is a nice ride…..Eventually made it back to the Riviera and threw the dice some more at slots a hell… that place just has a great place to play $2 craps… no, it ain’t the Bellagio… but it’s got character man… and it is usually filled with characters!!!

Friday
We meet up at the Craps table at slots a hell, the best place to meet, cause you never mind waiting for your friends to arrive. Finally, my wife and Chip are there; I cash in a small $16 profit and we head off to see if we can make any cash. We play the deals at Circus Circus (good) and the ones at Stardust (bad) and head down the strip. I need to get to Bellagio to cash my winning ticket on the Cowboys from yesterdays Game. Thank you very much, we are also parched from the long walk, so we order a couple of kettle one Cranberries… dammm .. They charge $8 each for these things… humm.. I liked em better yesterday when they were free!!! OK, across the street to Casino Royal for some more throwing of the dice… I can’t get much going… but finally quit $5 ahead. Notice a pattern here, I’m not trying to Gamble till my money is gone.. just trying to have some fun and quit while I’m ahead.
Chip heads back to the hotel, while Beth and I head over to Ellis Island for the Steak special.. it has been a top 10er in the Vegas Advisor for over a year.. so I thought I would check it out. While we are waiting to be served, we play some blackjack… hummm, lure me in for the food, then shake me down for some gambling cash. I see how it works. The table was kinda weak, and the wife and I each lost 20, but a very nice waitress suggested the house made egg nogg .. It was sooo good; we threw a few nickels into the slots while we waited for another round. Haaa.. and I made 3 bucks.. Take that Ellis Island!!!! Anyway, we sat down to eat, and the food was great, the salad was large and nice, the rolls were warm and the steak, mashed and vegetables were all good. I had a homemade beer with dinner, and using the LVA 2 for 1 coupon, the whole meal was $6.78 for both of us !!!! Man, you gotta love Vegas. They call a cab for you from the “locals’ bar… and the cabby comes in and gets you.. Nice touch. We went home and got ready to go clubbing that night. We decided to check out the new Bikini Beach club at the Rio. Humm, hot girls in thongs making drinks and these other hot girls dancing in swimming pools in thongs… did I mention Vegas is great? Well, while waiting in line, we decide we are going to have an eXellent time at the club. The front room is Hip Hop, the back room is a shag carpet disco lounge and the vibe is pretty fun… not the best club I have been in, not the worst. Eventually, I decide we should go check out my favorite club “the Beach”.. back over near where we are staying. We jump a cab, and Chip tells me he was just starting to chat up this girl when I made him leave… Yeah, ok.. well, there’s plenty of other girls at the beach.. Not to worry! We get to the beach, use the VIP entrance and resume the fun. If you are looking for a spring break type party.. Consider the beach, it’s 2 blocks off the strip across from the Stardust.. but always a fun time, diverse crowd and no dress code. Eventually, around 4am, we left (without Chip) and I think I accidentally told the driver to got to Olympic Gardens instead of the Hotel.. humm.. How could that have happened? … Well, a few lap dances later (and a sizeable chunk of our winnings) we went home for some… ummm… rest. Damm, now that was a fun Friday Night!!!

Saturday
Ok, the last day of the adventure has arrived… we get out of bed and check out by 11am. We pack the car and immediately head to Palace Station to cash our $180 worth of winning Parlay tickets.. Take that, Palace Station!!!! We decide to grab the Saturday brunch while we are there. It’s $9 bucks and not too special.. about what I expected I guess. Next we make a horrible mistake and decide to go ride the “Speed” coaster at the Sahara. Normally, I like roller coasters, but man did it ever kick our ass! Holy smokes, just Chip and I rode it; the wife was smart enough to pass on the coaster ride. It shoots you straight out around a curve under a tunnel, through a loop to loop and straight up.. then goes back the same way, but in reverse. The whole deal takes about 12 seconds. Then they ask if anyone wants to get off, before they send it again. Damm, did I want off of that thing.. but I didn’t want to seem like a wuss in front of my little brother.. So I stayed on it and went around again. By the time it got back (12 seconds later). I was white as a ghost and sweating profusely. Now, I have ridden many other rides in Vegas, the Big shot (12 times), the NY NY coaster, the old Sky Screamer at MGM, but damm.. that Speed coaster messed with me hard. Chip and I stumbled out the front door of the Sahara and just lied on the sidewalk out front. We were too crushed to do anything but lie there and sweat. Unfortunately for us.. the damm coaster roars overhead every couple of minutes.. So instead of peaceful tranquility while we try and regain our senses… that damm coaster is blasting by every few minutes… after about 15 minutes.. I can’t take it anymore and we head for the car. We are still crushed, so we have the wife drive us to the Hilton across the street. She parks and Chip and I climb out and lie down in the grass right in front of the car… Ahhhhh, nice cool grass… the birds chirping… this is the serenity I was in search of… I doze off in slumber land, while my body tries to readjust itself. I don’t know if it was the 4-day bender or what…. But that coaster ride screwed with us bad!!! Next thing I know, some security guy is telling me I can’t be passed out on the lawn on the Hilton. Hummm, I can’t? Well, he was a nice guy, and I explained to him why we were in the state we were in. I think he thought we were drunk off our ass… but after talking with us he realized that the coaster had crushed us. Anyway, the rest had restored my equilibrium enough.. that I felt like going in and getting my $10 in free chips and using my 2 $10 matchplays. I still didn’t feel great… but watchcha gonna do. Well, we get in and see the Megabucks Jackpot is over 21 million.. So we each decide to throw $10 in and see if we can change our lives. Ummm, my life changed for $10 to the worse.. So did Chips (the self-proclaimed slot wizard).. but the wife actually hit for $70.. Yeah.. Take that Hilton !!!! She cashes out.. I use my advantage play and leave the Hilton up $30… Gosh, I love advantage play!
We head back to the center strip for some more craps at casino Royal and advantage play centerstrip. Well, the wife uses the advantage play and makes a quick $30.. then we go shoot the dice. This doesn’t go so well, and my $44 disappears.. $44 and not $40 you ask.. well, I went for the extra $4 to make the correct odds play.. and umm.. lost. Okay, enough of this.. Let’s get downtown for one last ride on the Grain Train!!! We go back to La Bayou… my friend Teresa is working again.. and the wife and I decide to split a “sex on the Brain” with the extra shot of grain. Well, Teresa likes me now.. cause I’m a friendly drunk.. and pours in about 3 extra shots of grain (see picture of me and Teresa). Damm, it was one powerful drink.. I mean like crazy powerful. We go outside to walk around and the wife and I are starting to feel sooo good, we insist Chip have some… next thing you know the light show comes on and we are dancing our asses off to the Doors, Hendrix, Zeppelin.. Yeah.. It was a hoot. We are all feeling so good from our ride on the Grain train, that we decide to make a trip to the El Cortez for one last roll of the dice. We stop along the way and Chip buys some magic 3-footed Fung Shi toad.. to increase our luck and he also buys me a little dragon pocketknife keychain.. to do some magical fung Shi thing… yeah, for $1 Mr. Big spender. Well, that toad most have been defective, cause umm… we all lost our cash at the Craps table… and I got busted taking a picture of Chip rolling the bones… “No picture taking”… oh really, I pretended I didn’t know that rule.
So, we went back to the car to head towards our final stop the Hard Rock before the airport.. but as we got close, we realized the Stones were playing there that night and the place was a mad house!!!… so we went and checked out Terribles. We ate at the café.. it was average to poor.. and I played my last Matchplay of the vacation…. A $25 bet on Blackjack…. Got a 13, dealer had a 2 … decided to hit it and yep… got an 8 .. 21 .. Yee Haa.. Made a few more bets and left a $10 winner… gotta love leaving as a winner.
Got to the airport, and realized that I had that stupid pocket knife dragon keychain in my pocket, and we weren’t checking any bags. Oh well, I threw it in my carry on, to see what would happen. Haaa… they didn’t even notice it … nice tight security. Anyway, that’s for a different forum. We took the midnight direct red eye back to Boston and got back in my own bed at 9:00am.

Final Thoughts and Observations

Vegas offers so many deals to get you in the door, you can go there and win if you are willing to grind it out.
There is nothing better than getting your coffee from the waitress at the craps table in the morning.
Watching football in the leather chairs at Bellagio while drinking free premium liquor is my idea of Heaven
The La Bayou Grain Train is the best way to enjoy the light show
If I moved to Vegas, would I be the guy in dirty clothes begging you for quarters on the strip…. Probably!
Thanks for reading please feel free to give me your thoughts, questions and observations.
If you want to see a few pictures, I posted them here under Thanksgiving in vegas
After paying for everything, I came home with $60 more in the wallet than I left with… Damm, I love Vegas!!!

The Gambling Journal
I would only risk $40 at each stop, If I won, I might continue to Gamble, If I lost the Matchplays I would just leave. If I just played Craps with no “advantage” it just says craps. Sometimes I gambled for awhile, other times it was over in a matter of seconds. I always tried to cash in a winning session.. even if it was a small one.

Casino Games, advantage plays result total
Tuesday
Casino Royal craps +7 +7

Wednesday
Imperial Palace BJ (2) 5 matchplays -10 -3
Flamingo BJ (4) $5 matchplay +35 +32
Bally’s Craps (3) $10 matchplay +59 +94
Orleans BJ (3 for1) +15 +109
Palace Station $15 free slot play/$5 Matchplay/$5parlay +29 +138
Hard Rock (2) $10 matchplays +85 +223

Thursday
Barbary Coast $110 on Patriots –6 +100 +323
Barbary Coast $22 Patriots to win 3rd quarter -22 +201
Palace Station $5 parlay with $5 match +60 +361
Bellagio $16 Pats +14 +375
Bellagio $30 Cowboys +1.5 +27 +402
Plaza (2) $25 matchplay/ $5 matchplay +20 +422
Slots a fun Craps +19 +441
Slots a fun Craps +8 +449

Friday
Slots a fun Craps +16 +465
Circuscircus $5 free chips/$5 matchplay +15 +480
Stardust (5) $5 pays $7 matchplays -25 +455
Imperial Palace (3) $5 matchplays -15 +440
Casino Royal BJ and Craps +5 +445
Ellis Island BJ -17 +428
Slots a Fun Craps +52 +480

Saturday
Hilton (2) $10 matchplay/$10 free chips +30 +510
Casino Royal Craps -44 +466
Las Vegas Club BJ -40 +426
El Cortez Craps -44 +382
Terribles Craps $25 matchplay +10 +392

 

Great Report! It sounds like you had a fantastic thanksgiving! Just one question whats a kettle one?

 

Steve, that report rules. I am a Vegas veteran but gamble very low-roller, a couple questions please: What is the best source for matchplay coupons? Your system is outstanding for a jump-around casino hopper such as myself (always in search of a new environment to drink in). How much do you need to be betting in the Bellagio sportsbook to get these free premium beverages all day??? That portion of your report made me salivate.

You have made me so fired up with your report, thanks! The pictures are great too, those yard glass drinks from the Bayou are like sprinkling grain directly on the brain stem...lovely. Thanks again for replying and the rockin report!

 

Steve, if I may, Emily, Steve was referring to Ketel One vodka.

 

Damn! How long did it take to write this report. It took me 10 min. to read. Great Novel!!

 

Beef, you don't even need to have a bet down.. just sit in the sportsbook leather chairs.. she will be by... I had already made my bet at the Barbary (got a 5.5 line instead of 6 at Bellagio).. but I threw an additional 16 down on the pats cause I needed to get a few singles to tip the girl. Also, the Las Vegas Advisor is a great way to get a ton of great offers... you can even buy them on eBay for like $15/ $20 bucks.. this late in the game.. people might be willing to send you theirs... hell, you can the the rest of mine... but of course, almost all the matchplays are gone. Check it out at LASVEGASADVISOR.com ... it is weel worth the subscription. also check the coupon trade section of the message boards .. some people just want show and buffet coupons.. where as I really want Matchplay's .... advantage play is the way to go!!

 

Steve, you da man. Will take advantage of your advice and report later this month. T - 10.

I played Lock and a little scrum half in HS and college before I got lazy and gave it up. What position are you on the squad? That balls poster on your homepage is hilarious. Ladies, check it out.

 

Great Trip report! It was a fun read. I agree with you about moving from Casino to Casino. I like to spread the wealth.

Not a very big drinker when I'm playing (usually craps or blackjack), maybe a beer now and then but whenever I drank too much I would stay and not walk away a winner like you did (and what I do).

The last time I was at the Bellagio watching the games and the waitress came and asked what I wanted I had to pay for my drinks. I'm impressed that you didn't. Especially since you were ordering my favorite vodka - Kettle One! Then again I pay for drinks at the bar when I play VP too. What's wrong with me??? lol...

I liked the pictures you included it was a nice touch.

 

Way to go, Steve! Great report!

I think the whole LV/gambling thing is about trying to beat them at their game. If that means coming home a big winner or breaking even, or even a couple of good meals for free or cheap, they all score points in my book!

 

You can drink for free at Bellagio sports book? We could only drink at the Nugget for free if we were betting, you had to have the coupons.

Brain Freeze is my favorite flavor at La Bayou too, mixed with Watermelon Shock. So, did Amazing Jonathan have any new material, or the same things he does on TV? I wanted to see the show while we were there last week, but was told his material was still the old stuff. Oh well, next time.

We fly out of Logan too on America West's direct flights. Those are great, and we get the emergency exit row, it's almost like first class...only with peanuts.

Welcome home to the snow and 20 degree days!!!!!!!

Glad you had a good time. Your report was

 

Hey there... I play 2nd row for the rugby club. We sell a fun "naked Poster" on our site www.wormtownrugby.com if you want to check it out. I'm the 3rd guy from the left. As for the free drinks in the sportsbook. You must sit in the leather recliners... for free drinks... If you sit 2 feet away in the couch/lounge area the drinks are like $8 each... it makes a big difference when you are gonna be there for the entire game. If you go to the Bellagio, you will easily see what I mean. Most sports books offer free drinks to gamblers.. but some have started this "lame" ticket system when you make your bets. But just like anything else in Vegas.. give the guy an extra $5 and you will have more drink tickets than you know what to do with.

 

....interesting poster..... I did notice that some had to hold the ball vertical, and some did not. hahaha just kidding!!!

 

you`re a smart player to hustle the casinos,it`s good to hear some people leaves vegas ahead. chip was intent on scoring with some ladies, did chip ever make a conquest??? if chip did can you tell him to post a strip report.

 

I think that the amazing Jonathon is using the same basic act you have probably seen bits of on tv. I remember a few of the gags from previous Tv appearences... still.. very very funny. I don't think Chip has been to this site.. although i did send him the link.. and I think he just enjoyed the novelty of chatting with the hooker... but wasn't willing to actually pay any cash. As for the clubs... well, who doesn't enjoy chatting/dancing with new hot people!!!!