Slagar
Guest
Statistics:
Gambling Bankroll-1,400
Non-Gambling Bankroll-2,000
Days-4
Nights-3
Games-Blackjack, VP, Craps
Goals-Make money, get comps, visit my sister without punching her husband.
Day 1: Friday
My son and I spend an hour on his computer during the flight, playing a bunch of casino games he downloaded off the internet before we left. I lose five dollars to a bet that said we’d get to Vegas on time. We’re twenty minutes late but it’s no great loss. We try to hold in our excitement as we see the blinking lights of the casinos in the distance. We get into the Aladdin at about eight, drop off our bags at the room and head straight to the casino, two hundred dollars each.
We both sit down at the same blackjack table and start playing. Within an hour he’s doubled his money and I’m down 50$, feeling stupid next to my son who knows perfect basic strategy. He gets bored and we decide to go find a low-limit craps table. (The only experience he or I have ever had with craps is on his computer.) I lose another 100$ and he’s up another ten bucks after twenty minutes. We’re both tired after our flight, so we head back to the room and crash early.
Fun-o-Meter: 7.5
Gambling Money Total (GMT): 1,660
Day 2: Saturday
We get up early, about six, and take off in an attempt to find a breakfast joint. We end up at an IHOP in our failed attempt to find the Peppermill. By seven, it’s still too early to go visit my sister so we head back to the Aladdin, me with my dwindling 50$ and his 400$ in hand. He tries video-poker for the first time and gets bored after ten minutes, saying it’s “Too much like a slot machineâ€. I stay at the VP machine and go down another 20$.
I grab another 500 and track down my son at a 50$ minimum blackjack table. We play for another hour, I lose a hundred and he makes a hundred. By now it’s a little past nine a.m. and we aren’t going to my sister’s house till 12:00. Still left with time to kill, and tired of gambling for now, we decide to cruise the strip in our rental Ferrari (Paid for with some of last trip’s winnings) in an attempt to, ‘cure my uncoolness’ in the words of my son.
Seeing that nobody on the Strip seems to be caring what kind of car we’re driving, we stop at Caesar’s and go looking for the ‘Race to Atlantis’ ride. Buy a couple of tickets and get on the ride.
The ride was actually pretty good, we were pleasantly surprised.
We get out at twelve, drive over to my sister’s. We eat over there and I’m surprised to find that J.J. isn’t being a jerk, and I begin to wonder if maybe he’s simply not very bright. Either way, we leave at 2:00 and head back to the Aladdin, to find our quest for comps is starting to pay off. Our room has been upgraded to a better view, but that’s all for now. We decide to try out the Aladdin’s poker room. It’s clean and relatively smoke free, I’ll grant it that much. We sit down at a quiet poker table with only two other guys, sitting across from each other and giving each other the evil-eye. Here’s where it gets a little interesting…
We play for about twenty minutes, me and my son folding for most of the time and watching one of the guys lose every hand for the full twenty minutes, while the other guy rakes in the chips. Finally, the loser totally loses it and flips out, stands up and starts scattering his chips and cards everywhere, screaming and cursing bloody hell. My son - good ol’ faithful son - immediately evacuates the area and leaves me to be threatened by the wild man with a beer bottle. Security grabs the guy before I suffer any bodily harm and offers me a hundred bucks to keep me happy. I make a big show of not being sure of being ‘bribed by the casino’. The pit boss offering me the comp gets all nervous and sweaty and starts saying they don’t want to upset their customers…I finally drop it, having had my fun and take the 100 bucks.
I grab my chips off the table, give the dealer a healthy tip for his troubles, and head off to find my son.
Taking your son to Vegas: 400-500 dollars. Renting a Ferrari: 750 dollars.
Watching your son desert you at a poker table while being threatened by an angry drunk: priceless.
I find him sitting at the same 50$ blackjack table, acting like nothing happened.
“So, did he beat you up?â€
“No, the security people saved me.â€
“That’s good.â€
“Yeah, I know.â€
“Yeah.â€
“Thanks for askin’.â€
“No problem.â€
We hang out at the pool the rest of the day. End of story.
Fun-o-Meter: 8.5
GMT: 1,630
Day 3: Sunday
After our little ‘adventure’ the day before, we get up for breakfast at the Peppermill and decide to skip poker. We head back to my sister’s for the day and come back to the hotel at about 6:00 p.m. We do a half-hour of craps, and then head out to find something to eat. We end up at panda express (oh yeah, we’re sophisticated gamblers…) and head back to the Aladdin. We decide to give poker another try. I lose 20 bucks, he makes 50. While we play, my son and I spend some quality arguing time.
ME: “I could have kicked his butt.â€
HIM: “Oh?â€
ME: “Yeah! Piece of cake.â€
HIM: “You’re delusional Dad. Did you see that guy’s arms?â€
ME: “Yeah. So?â€
HIM: “So, they were like the size of your thigh. He would have crushed you.â€
ME: “Dylan, I could beat the Scorpion King any day.â€
Yep, a sad testament to my real maturity level.
While we play, a guy sitting at the table invites us to a poker match at his high-roller buddies penthouse on the top floor. My son’s all for it, but I’m hesitant. He convinces me and we head up there at 8:00. The penthouse is amazing with a class-A view of the strip. The guy had a poker table and dealer brought up to the room for all of us to play at. The catch: a minimum 1,000 dollar buy in, no limit Texas hold’em. I buy in alone while my son watches. There are about twenty people in the room altogether, half of them at the table. It felt weird to be playing poker in someone else’s room. There were even security guards standing next to the dealer. After twenty minutes of play I chicken out and break even, grab a bottle of beer from a nearby cooler and let my son have a try. After an hour of play he’s up 300$, which was nothing next to the guys with thousands and thousands of dollars worth in chips sitting in front of them.
We finally decide a high-roller party isn’t the place for us and take off.
Fun-o-Meter: 6.8
GMT: 1,960
Day Four: Monday
Leaving day. We head back down to the blackjack tables for an hour or two before leaving to the airport. We end up losing enough money to break a little over even: 1,760 by the end of our weekend. We head to the airport and are seen off by my sis and b-i-l. It was a good trip, and I’m glad we got it in without losing any money. My son thought it was great, we both had a good time, and … I’ve run out of things to say.
[ March 27, 2005, 08:19 AM: Message edited by: Slagar ]
Gambling Bankroll-1,400
Non-Gambling Bankroll-2,000
Days-4
Nights-3
Games-Blackjack, VP, Craps
Goals-Make money, get comps, visit my sister without punching her husband.
Day 1: Friday
My son and I spend an hour on his computer during the flight, playing a bunch of casino games he downloaded off the internet before we left. I lose five dollars to a bet that said we’d get to Vegas on time. We’re twenty minutes late but it’s no great loss. We try to hold in our excitement as we see the blinking lights of the casinos in the distance. We get into the Aladdin at about eight, drop off our bags at the room and head straight to the casino, two hundred dollars each.
We both sit down at the same blackjack table and start playing. Within an hour he’s doubled his money and I’m down 50$, feeling stupid next to my son who knows perfect basic strategy. He gets bored and we decide to go find a low-limit craps table. (The only experience he or I have ever had with craps is on his computer.) I lose another 100$ and he’s up another ten bucks after twenty minutes. We’re both tired after our flight, so we head back to the room and crash early.
Fun-o-Meter: 7.5
Gambling Money Total (GMT): 1,660
Day 2: Saturday
We get up early, about six, and take off in an attempt to find a breakfast joint. We end up at an IHOP in our failed attempt to find the Peppermill. By seven, it’s still too early to go visit my sister so we head back to the Aladdin, me with my dwindling 50$ and his 400$ in hand. He tries video-poker for the first time and gets bored after ten minutes, saying it’s “Too much like a slot machineâ€. I stay at the VP machine and go down another 20$.
I grab another 500 and track down my son at a 50$ minimum blackjack table. We play for another hour, I lose a hundred and he makes a hundred. By now it’s a little past nine a.m. and we aren’t going to my sister’s house till 12:00. Still left with time to kill, and tired of gambling for now, we decide to cruise the strip in our rental Ferrari (Paid for with some of last trip’s winnings) in an attempt to, ‘cure my uncoolness’ in the words of my son.
Seeing that nobody on the Strip seems to be caring what kind of car we’re driving, we stop at Caesar’s and go looking for the ‘Race to Atlantis’ ride. Buy a couple of tickets and get on the ride.
The ride was actually pretty good, we were pleasantly surprised.
We get out at twelve, drive over to my sister’s. We eat over there and I’m surprised to find that J.J. isn’t being a jerk, and I begin to wonder if maybe he’s simply not very bright. Either way, we leave at 2:00 and head back to the Aladdin, to find our quest for comps is starting to pay off. Our room has been upgraded to a better view, but that’s all for now. We decide to try out the Aladdin’s poker room. It’s clean and relatively smoke free, I’ll grant it that much. We sit down at a quiet poker table with only two other guys, sitting across from each other and giving each other the evil-eye. Here’s where it gets a little interesting…
We play for about twenty minutes, me and my son folding for most of the time and watching one of the guys lose every hand for the full twenty minutes, while the other guy rakes in the chips. Finally, the loser totally loses it and flips out, stands up and starts scattering his chips and cards everywhere, screaming and cursing bloody hell. My son - good ol’ faithful son - immediately evacuates the area and leaves me to be threatened by the wild man with a beer bottle. Security grabs the guy before I suffer any bodily harm and offers me a hundred bucks to keep me happy. I make a big show of not being sure of being ‘bribed by the casino’. The pit boss offering me the comp gets all nervous and sweaty and starts saying they don’t want to upset their customers…I finally drop it, having had my fun and take the 100 bucks.
I grab my chips off the table, give the dealer a healthy tip for his troubles, and head off to find my son.
Taking your son to Vegas: 400-500 dollars. Renting a Ferrari: 750 dollars.
Watching your son desert you at a poker table while being threatened by an angry drunk: priceless.
I find him sitting at the same 50$ blackjack table, acting like nothing happened.
“So, did he beat you up?â€
“No, the security people saved me.â€
“That’s good.â€
“Yeah, I know.â€
“Yeah.â€
“Thanks for askin’.â€
“No problem.â€
We hang out at the pool the rest of the day. End of story.
Fun-o-Meter: 8.5
GMT: 1,630
Day 3: Sunday
After our little ‘adventure’ the day before, we get up for breakfast at the Peppermill and decide to skip poker. We head back to my sister’s for the day and come back to the hotel at about 6:00 p.m. We do a half-hour of craps, and then head out to find something to eat. We end up at panda express (oh yeah, we’re sophisticated gamblers…) and head back to the Aladdin. We decide to give poker another try. I lose 20 bucks, he makes 50. While we play, my son and I spend some quality arguing time.
ME: “I could have kicked his butt.â€
HIM: “Oh?â€
ME: “Yeah! Piece of cake.â€
HIM: “You’re delusional Dad. Did you see that guy’s arms?â€
ME: “Yeah. So?â€
HIM: “So, they were like the size of your thigh. He would have crushed you.â€
ME: “Dylan, I could beat the Scorpion King any day.â€
Yep, a sad testament to my real maturity level.
While we play, a guy sitting at the table invites us to a poker match at his high-roller buddies penthouse on the top floor. My son’s all for it, but I’m hesitant. He convinces me and we head up there at 8:00. The penthouse is amazing with a class-A view of the strip. The guy had a poker table and dealer brought up to the room for all of us to play at. The catch: a minimum 1,000 dollar buy in, no limit Texas hold’em. I buy in alone while my son watches. There are about twenty people in the room altogether, half of them at the table. It felt weird to be playing poker in someone else’s room. There were even security guards standing next to the dealer. After twenty minutes of play I chicken out and break even, grab a bottle of beer from a nearby cooler and let my son have a try. After an hour of play he’s up 300$, which was nothing next to the guys with thousands and thousands of dollars worth in chips sitting in front of them.
We finally decide a high-roller party isn’t the place for us and take off.
Fun-o-Meter: 6.8
GMT: 1,960
Day Four: Monday
Leaving day. We head back down to the blackjack tables for an hour or two before leaving to the airport. We end up losing enough money to break a little over even: 1,760 by the end of our weekend. We head to the airport and are seen off by my sis and b-i-l. It was a good trip, and I’m glad we got it in without losing any money. My son thought it was great, we both had a good time, and … I’ve run out of things to say.
[ March 27, 2005, 08:19 AM: Message edited by: Slagar ]
