Trip Report #9: BeeeJay Brings the Ole' Ball-N-Chain to In-N-Out Las Vegas , ANIMAL S

After numerous Vegas trips sans the wife, I decided it was finally time for me to get some action in Vegas…..for free. I had an ulterior motive as well insomuch as I tend to drone on and on and on about Las Vegas and all the magical happenings and fairy tale-like comps and suites. My wife will either ignore me or tell me to shut the F up. She is as sick of my blowhard Vegas rants as most people on these message boards.



But I digress. Let’s get back to the story at hand. Some 39 years and 364 days after my mother unleashed the first weapon of mass destruction on this world, my wife and I set a course for O’Hare International Airport for our mid-day flight on American Airlines to Las Vegas . We dropped the kids at Nana & Poppy’s around 11 and were on our way for 3 days/2 nights in the Wynn Salon Suite.



Our flight left on time and we enjoyed the company of headphones and a good book like any couple of 8 years with 3 little kids. They definitely added rows to American Airlines since we last flew them… the seats were small and we were smashed in like sardines. It sucked. We quickly arrived in Vegas and had to take that stupid-ar$e tram to baggage which delayed us slightly. Normally flying Southwest I hadn’t experienced this little backup yet. As we came down the escalator I spied the bald head of Phil holding the Wynn placard with my name, which I knew meant we had lucked into our requested Rolls Royce Phantom. Nice!



The wife wasn’t too impressed but did agree it smelled like the inside of one of her Louis Vuitton purses. The vehicle was running a little rough so Phil couldn’t “punch it†for us like he did for me last time. We arrived at the tower suites, I slipped Phil $40 and headed to the Tower suites lobby for check-in. This is when the wife began to be impressed with the décor and aroma of the Wynn.



As it was Friday night we decided we would relax a while and save our energy to head out on the town a little later. To be honest it really is nice just to be away together from the kids sometimes and relax. But still this is Vegas so we headed out for a little shopping and to check into The Palazzo, The Stratosphere , and Luxor in order to obtain various promo chips, meal comps, and other goodies.



My wife insisted on messing up the bed at each place as she was nervous about the whole multi-booking thing….so that worked out nicely . It was funny how she got all nervous when they would ask where my bags were. Then I would always turn it around and say “yeah I don’t want to wait 2 hours for the bellman again so I’ll take care of my own bagsâ€. I did get a huge amount of grief from the dude at Palazzo up on 23. he kept trying to upsell me all kinds of crap. They must have trained this dufus well.



Anyway we got our check-ins done and the room at Luxor was an atrocity, suite at Strat was surprisingly decent, and Palazzo was actually my wife’s favorite, even over the Wynn Salon. Our primary challenge was blowing thru $250 in “resort credit†at Luxor without eating. So as you can imagine my kids all have those pyramid banks and we have a bunch of MGM-Mirage towels along with enough coconut dice lollipops to last about 6 months.



While at the Luxor we played some light BJ and Craps, also sat down at a $1 VP machine and played long enough for my host, Brian to stop by to introduce himself and say hi. He was a little better than the standard fake, but still basically a polished used-car salesman. My wife thought he was nice and it was cool to get the special attention sitting at a VP machine in the middle of no where.



So we cabbed it back to Wynn as she was tired from the travel and we ordered a feast via room service. Funny thing was she had a taste for PF Changs but I didn’t have any Planet Hollywood comps this trip so she ordered the chicken wraps from Wynn room service. Well they must have been out of the specially seasoned and diced chicken meat because they just brought up a PLAIN grilled chicken breast with lettuce. WTF! Wynn really sucked this trip overall but my cashew chicken dish was good so we shared that.



After dinner we enjoyed the champagne bubbles Jacuzzi tub and other room amenities for a while, then popped the grey goose and got primed for the evening of gambling. My wife won’t gamble much, I can get her to play one coin on quarter VP and that’s about it. She will hang with my while I play though and at Wynn it wasn’t crowded even though it was the weekend so there was always an extra seat at the table.



Luckily she doesn’t pay much attention to the action and money otherwise she would probably have been bitching more. I was getting pounded pretty good on roulette and blackjack…didn’t play much craps. Finally she got tired and I took out a couple markers and started to really play. . I was playing $75/$75/$125 3 hands on BJ at a MINIMUM. I played $200/spin on roulette at a mimimum, and I played lots of $500 BJ hands, and lots of $500 roulette spins. I played some $1,000 roulette spins and a couple $1,500 blackjack hands and took a total beating. I had one good run on high limit BJ and hit one $100 straight up number bet on roulette (#2 shockingly) to keep it from being a total bloodbath and ended up with about a $4,500 loss for the night after I threw $1,000 into $5 VP over by Blush in a drunken stupor. Went to bed around 3:30am.





Wife woke up early as she is used to getting the kids up for school. I usually try to get out of the house to work before that freak show starts but after the late night I was good for sleeping in a bit. She popped over to the fashion show mall for some shopping and returned with the usual stack of bags. Hmmm one would think with her arm strength for carrying shopping bags she wouldn’t need me to carry the laundry up and down and the garbage out but hey I’m a fat a$s so I need the exercise anyway.



We ordered some breakfast from room service and plotted our day. I wanted to put in some play at Luxor and she wanted to shop at the Caesars Forum Shops. Dinner reservations were set for SW Steakhouse, and we made plans to meet her best friend (maid of honor from our wedding) husband who was in town on business. We both wanted to get some exercise walking the strip and seeing some sights as she hadn’t been to Vegas since 2001.



So we walked from Wynn outside past Palazzo and Venetian, crossed over by Mirage and went into the Forum Shops. After about an hour of attentive shopping she gave me a break and offered to meet me in the casino in an hour. I jumped on that and took the couple grand in cash I had from my comeback late last night (which I had NOT paid back on my markers) and headed for the casino. I flipped her a grand to shop with.



The casino at Caesars has been a black hole for me. It goes the same way every trip. Cab drops me off below mall. I go up escalator, buy wife $698 Coach purse less 25% off coupon plus $30 shipping, I walk into Caesars and lose $1,000 in 3 minutes and 45 seconds just like I had taken a hot hooker back to my room….not even a kiss after….just a dangling empty Gold Coin (condom brand BTW) around their neck.



Well this time was different! My lucky a$s actually won on roulette, blackjack AND video poker. My wife called 3 times to delay our meeting 10 minutes. Each time I re-bought in and each time I won more. Amazingly the cashier is a lengthy walk from this section of the casino. Somehow I had never had that issue before as I had ALWAYS lost all my buy-in at Caesars!



Anyway we took a cab up to Luxor and played small there and used the remaining credit on some small crap. We walked thru to Mandalay Bay . Beautiful hotel, casino does nothing for me, its like a big warehouse to me. After a while we went back thru Luxor , Excal, and into NYNY where I showed my wife the high limit lounge which I really like. Or did before they misrated me by 8 hours and NYNY cut off all my comps----jag bags.



Getting tired we cabbed it back to Encore from NYNY, walked thru Encore for a quick tour and hit the room for a late afternoon nap. Sleep is a priority when you have a bunch of little kids.



We woke up and got ready for our dinner (my 40th bday dinner) at SW Steakhouse. The service at SW Steakhouse was pretty piss poor in my opinion. We were in no hurry and my host had set us up in a great table right on the glass in the middle of the patio so we could throw our leftovers in the lake of dreams. even not being in a hurry we were constantly waiting. waiters were either really weird, really condescending or just idiots. We still can't figure it out, but I guess sitting at the next table beside David Navarro (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jane's Addiction, was married to Carmen Electra) we didn't rate decent service since we were not famous.



It’s a real bummer about the chicken wraps and SW because now my wife thinks Wynn is an overrated joke and she won’t go back to my fave place. Good thing they opened up Encore and she doesn’t realize the extent of the relationship. Still she pretty much is a non-Vegas person, and the primary reason I go monthly is a break from her, so she won’t be going much anyway.



After dinner we gambled a bit until the drunken friends’ husband called us and we met those guys. We took him and his 2 coworkers up to the room to help me polish of the 1.75 of grey goose as it was the last night and really for 2 nights that was a little much in-the-room alcohol for us. That bottle was empty faster than you can believe. Pretty soon the wife excused herself to the separate bedroom, we polished off our drinks and excused ourselves to the Encore blackjack tables.



We were drunk as hell and having a blast. The one big guy was hungry and was NOT appreciating my constant Sizzler jokes. It was making him ever more ravenous. Finally he had to take a break to grab a sandwich while the continued playing. By the time he made it back the husband dude was tapped, his friend was tapped, and I was up about $500. As things were going nicely I agreed to ride with the boys over to MGM where they had markers (they were staying at Bellagio thru work).



Well over at good ole MGM I took a total bath. It was pretty damn bad as I steamed a few times with multiple $1,000 buy ins on blackjack tables where the dealer just kept pulling out the 6 card 21's against my double down 20's. I blew the whole $4K I had in my wallet plus some from the ATM. Uuuugly. Also those guys were drunk and rude to the point of belligerence and I didn’t like the interaction with the pit boss and dealers….it just wasn’t fun losing and these guys being dicks rather than joking around like my friends. I mean jeesh you are only playing like $25 a hand, who the F cares?!?!?



So I cabbed it back to Wynn and took out a final marker in TITO form and sat at the Blush VP machines for a stogy, a few drinks, and relaxation. Well luckily for me I did decide to have one more drink. I was down about 5 grand before this freak run on $5 video poker where I got 7 or 8 4OAK on jacks of better in 2 hrs and built $500 into $4,161 which had never happened to me. No W-2’s and no worries. Kinda wish I had been playing my usual DOUBLE BONUS---then again back then it wasn’t my usual, and also that would have been 8 $1,250 W-2G’s which I don’t need.



So I continued the run on roulette, gave some MORE back on BJ, finished up with a great craps roll, paid my markers and came home with $830 after heading out with $1,000. Sometimes there is no better feeling than being down and making a big comeback right before you have to quit for the trip. This was one of those times. Literally felt better than the $5K win on an earlier trip. I think it was the relief of paying the markers. I had some really fun dealers and great times at the tables and came thru relatively unscathed besides maybe a couple years off my life due to stress, although honestly none of it gives me the adrenaline it used to anymore, either win or lose so it wasn’t as emotional as say a few year ago.



By the time I finally packed it in and headed up to the room it was 7:30am and the wife had just woken up and was getting ready! She was cool and said since I entertained HER friends’ husband I could sleep until we had to get ready to leave while she headed out on the last shopping session of the trip.



I hit the pillow and it literally felt like 30 seconds later she was back and we had to pack up to leave. Luckily we had brought one extra fairly empty suitcase to fill with purchases. We got all that done and I headed down to see the host. I had chosen not to use an RFB this time as I wanted the nicer room and I hadn’t figured to gamble much as when I made the reservation I was unaware of the other dudes being out there.


So I go to see the host and Wynn had rated me $247/hand for 4 hrs. total play for the trip. I played a little at Luxor to keep them happy and in the mood to provide my Pacquio vs. Hatton tickets, but most of my play was at Wynn. So I was thinking 4 hrs my a$$. and $247/hand my ass with some of those bigger bets and my standard $275 on BJ. Wynn can blow me on their rating scale and their back end comping sucks. Then again they are really cool on their upfront comping. I think what they do is undercomp you at check-out on non-RFB trips so you have enough comp balance remaining (even though it supposedly doesn’t carry over) so that they can bring you in RFB next time, or at least offer you more. It’s a smart trick actually and works on me quite well!

We headed out via regular limo on the way back, I like the regular limo better, you can stretch out your legs. The wife commented how nice it was to have time alone together and how well we got along without the kids there. I agree with that it was a good time, unfortunately we can’t do anything over a weekend and then only once a year due to child-care constraints.

So nother BeeeJay trip in the books, got in some good grub and good gambling, and now back to the real world for well….about 8 days before I check back into Encore on my “Road Trip 2009â€!

 

Thanks for the post. Enjoyed reading your TR.

later, GVJ

 

Ahh Vegas 2001, long time between trips for the wife, lol.....I went a couple months after 9/11 and, for the first and only time, found myself completely alone on the sidewalk at about 2:30am not a soul in sight in either direction. Just thot I'd share that

great report as always

 

never mind, i see she isn't really a Vegas gal...so i guess it pays for u as it only costs around 750 for shopping...or more lol

 

Awesome TR and very entertaining........

Good for you on getting a break from the kids......

 

Thanks for the TR

 

I always enjoy reading your TR . . . but here is my main question:

How do you remember everything with all the drinking and gambling going on?

I don't think you forget one detail . . . i can't even remember what i wore to bed last night.

 

Someday I hope to play like you.... I've done 100/ hand at BJ and a few 200 per, but nothing at that level... kudos!

Playing big gets the heart pumping.... It can be a good time, a great time or a very, very bad time. I like it once in awhile though!

Nick

 

Great report as usual. It sounds like you and your wife could actually use a get away together from the kids once a year. Maybe, you two could do Vegas together once a year.

 

we went 9/19/01 and it was freaking spooky....people say Vegas is dead now! nothing like it was then. my flight had like 10 people on it, we each had row and rows to ourselves

 

i put a bunch of notes into my pda/phone and email them to myself to put together the trip report later....usually do that while waiting for something like in line to cash out or just taking a break from playing....honestly I actually do those notes a lot in the washroom but don't tell anyone....thats gross!

 

Im kinda glad you know what I'm talking about, cuz so many poeple honestly think im tryin to put one over on them...