T'was the week before X-MAS Trip #2

$20 TRICK GONE WRONG:
We left for LV Friday the 17th around 1m Mtn and arrived in LV at 1:30. With a quick cab to Harrahs we went right up to the Platinum checkin hoping to see Joyce as we had a gift for her. But we got Therese instead. We mentioned that Joyce was always good and “hooks†us up with a nice room as I slid the $20 under my credit card on the counter. I then proceeded to ask for the best room she could get us. She said I have a suite, will that be ok? Score! – 4 nights in a nice SUITE!

We checked into our room #3414 and despite facing the east overlooking the parking garage, we were happy as it had the separate Living room and a huge hot tub with the large bathroom. It even had a separate refrigerator besides the wet bar!

BIG ELVIS:
After checking in, we worked our way down to the BC to see Big Elvis!
This was our second time seeing him and the Mrs. Loves Elvis… We sat at the bar and I played VP while we listened. Big Elvis seemed a little livelier this time as he stood and moved around more. I proceeded to lose over a hundred in VP, as I could not hit more than 3 of a kind. Finally, right before intermission, I hit 4 of a kind and got all my losses back…
Big Elvis was great as always and was drawing a good crowd. We always enjoy him and will try to make his free show whenever we can! It was intermission time, so we decided to cash out, as I saw a wide-open $5 craps game!

CRAPS RUN:
I bought in for an onion and proceeded to place my usual $5 pass and a craps check. As I was the only one on the table, I always bet craps when I shoot, because my strt sixes hit a lot of craps… I made a point and then placed the 6 and 8 as always. I rolled a few, hit a six, and then hit the point. By now, the table was starting to bring action. I rolled another point, then several numbers before it hit again! Then I sevened out right away on the next point… Well, I played for only a half an hour, but doubled my $$$ by setting decent enough to hit a few of my points and place bets, so decided we should get some grub.

PERFECT MARGARITA:
As we left the BC, we walked past the Margaritaville and I swayed in to check it out. We went upstairs to the open bar and I looked over the menu. I saw a drink called the perfect Margarita and had to have one. The Mrs. ordered a Jamaican Hurricane and I mentioned that I did not need much Ice and the bartender – Ryan fully complied. As I watched the bartender, I noticed he did not put in any ice in, but he also did not put in any premium orange liqueur. So I said where is the Grand Mariner? He mentioned that the drink was all alcohol. I said yes, but it will be much better with some of the good stuff. So after I took a swig, he topped off the glass with a healthy shot of Grand Mariner! Needless to say, this drink was a knock out…
As this drink was basically 6 shots in one, I decided we better eat soon!


STICHES:
On the way back, we hit Tequila Joes and ordered the usual 2-1 happy hour, as it was not quite 7pm yet. We always order a special drink there – Stiches. Now this drink packs a punch too! It is 4 different shots with a little grenadine and ice…
We drank these as we walked back to Harrahs.

THE RANGE:
By now we were really ripped and needed to eat. So, we found our way up to the Range steakhouse and were able to get seated right away. We ordered the usual Bone in Fillet and split it. We always split our entrees, as the proportions are just too big in America anymore! Well the food in our tummies would have helped, except we had to have a nice bottle of merlot!
The food was good as usual but it was by now a blur and after dinner, we found our way back down to the casino. As the night was still young, we had to play more…

3-5-7:
I could not get on the Triple shot game which is always fun when drunk, so I found a 3-5-7 poker game??? I had no clue what I was doing but bought in for $200. The Mrs. proceeded to the gift shops while I played. Well, after several hands, I was frustrated and still drunk. I did not get the game as I was too plastered and I seemed to be losing more than anyone on the table…
Then all of a sudden, as I was getting more brave (couldn’t be the alcohol?) I put 4 - $5 chips on the 2nd bet. I was dealt 2 sixes. Then a 3rd six came, then a fourth!!! Next thing I know, the table is high five’n me and the dealer is pushing over a black and a whole lot of green!!! I have no idea how much I won, but it was several hundred! Then just about that time, the Mrs. comes by and asks whats up? I gave her a glazed over look and she asked if she could take some of the chips. I said sure and handed over the majority of them except about my original buy in…
I played a little longer, won another hundred. Then the Mrs. met up with me, we cashed in, and hit the SUITE!!!


DAY 2:
Or was it still day one? Seemed like it was still day one as we arose to such a clatter and looked at the clock to see it was only 5am!
Turns out, this time when we got the $20 trick to work it was because they were remodeling the Suites on the top floor and as we were one floor below, we heard it all!

SPORSTBOOK:
Well, since we got woke up by the noise early and the Mrs. could not sleep, we decided to hit the casino at 8:30 am… I was still very hung over but she had visions of shopping in her head. So, after a quick breakfast at McDonalds, she headed to the Forum shops and I decided to check out the lines before my beloved STEELERS game…
I saw nothing too enticing beyond the over in the Steelers game, so after placing that, I played some slots near by. I hit the dollars a bit, then after losing a hundred or two, played the wheel of fortune dollars because I noticed the nice 2.8 million pot!
Well, after about $60 into it, I hit the spin wheel for $1,000!!! Jackpot! I cashed that in and decided to find a good seat to watch my Steelers play as they were coming on in an hour or so. I planted myself in the sports book and played some VP for the entire time I was there as I watched the Steelers squeak by the Giants but covered the over. While I was there, I saw the guy that was sitting on the 3-5-7 Poker game the night before. He proceeded to tell me that when my wife came by, he told her to take some of my chips as I seemed a bit drunk and he did not want to see me throw them all back!!! Now what a nice guy!
Meanwhile, I kept playing 5 qtrs a time on the Bonus Poker game the whole time but could not seem to hit more than 3 of a kind and an occasional full house. Finally, about the time the Mrs. got back from shopping, I hit 4 of a kind. This made some back, but I wanted more. I kept playing until I sank $300 back into that machine. I did however; get lots and lots of free beers for that $300………….

GAMBLING, SHOPPING, MORE GAMBLING, AND MORE SHOPPING:
The rest of the second day was another drunken fest as we made our way back to Tequila Joes for more Stiches. Then we ate supper at the IP as we had it comped. After, we went to Karaoke in Tequila Joes and the Mrs. sang a couple songs. We then went back to the IP and hit it hard there. From here on, the rest of the trip becomes a broken record –

Gambling, Drinking, Shopping, Eating, More gambling, more losing, more shopping, and more eating….
We repeated this process Saturday night and Sunday, and Sunday night and Monday…

To fast forward to the highlights,

Monday:
The Mrs. wanted to go to see the Elviserama Museum again as it had been a couple years. I decided to catch the nearest casino, which happened to be the Frontier.
I taxied with her to the museum, and then walked through the Fashion show mall to get to the Frontier. I went to the players club and got a card with a fun book. The book actually had a decent selection of food coupons and a match play or so. While walking through the casino, I noticed a lot of good old machines that I liked but could never find anymore…
I new I would like this place! I sat down at a quarter “DOUBLE WILD†machine and played awhile until I hit Double red 7’s! So I cashed in $80 and moved onto the Double American Beauty quarter progressive machines. I played just a bit before I hit Double, Double, red 7’s!!! This time it was $240!!!
Now I was starting to make some ground back! I played several of my favorite machines and the Mrs. then came back from the museum via the Fashion show mall, which took her a long time to walk through LOL! While I was waiting, I had grabbed a chili at the sports book deli. It was not too bad. We played there awhile longer then, decided to work our way back down the strip, as we wanted to eat supper and then meet Falcon Rob from T2V, at the IP poker room later Monday night.

We used the remainder of our comps from IP at Ming’s Chinese restaurant and I must say, it is pretty good for IP food… I could not complain as it was all comped, including the wine…

After supper, the Mrs. wanted to sing a couple songs again at Tequila Joes. So we caught the eight pm 2-1 happy hour that ends at seven and had two more stiches! Well, you know the routine by now. These are strong and we soon decided to re-group at the Suite. Soon, Rob called and we decided to meet him at the Harrahs taxi so we could catch a cab to MC and she could shop there while we played poker. When we got down to meet Rob, he had some nice gifts for us! Thanks again Rob!!! (Best of all the Falcons covered later in the week!!!) We realized though that the shops would be closed by now as it was after 10pm, so we took Rob up to see what the Harrahs suites were like, then we went onto the IP poker room. The Mrs. went back to the Elvis machines and Rob and I bought in.

I will let Rob elaborate more on this venture, but needless to say, we were on a table with a bunch of drunks, and so we both just bided our time for the right moments. Well, for me, the right moment was my flopped full house. Just to get beat by 4 of a kind!!!
Rob did better and cashed out ahead. I only lost $30 for the session, not too bad, but I regretted that this was the only time the whole trip that I played Poker.

We were all hungry, so Rob, the Mrs. and I went to Victoria’s room at BC for some late night grub. The food there is real good and Rob had the 24-hour special Prime Rib for $11.95 and the Mrs. had a Reuben that she said was real good. I had the breakfast special, a New York strip and eggs with hash browns for $7.95… All good food and I was able to pay almost half with comps for the little time I had played there from Friday. Then, by now it was real late and the Mrs. and I could barely stay awake. So we wished Rob well, thanked him again and hit the pillows!!!

Needless to say, Tuesday morning at 5am we were awoke by the construction again!!!!
So, we got up fairly early for our last day in Vegas… We did not have to leave for the airport until 4:30pm, so we hit it hard again on Tuesday.
We grabbed lunch at Victoria’s room again, because I was drooling over the Prime Rib Rob had that late night before. We tried to find him at BC and call to meet us, but no luck. Oh well, maybe next time Rob. (Hope you had great luck)! I had the Prime Rib, which was wonderful! They give you a horseradish sauce that will knock your socks off, or wet your eyes at least! I am used to hot hot chilies in NM, but this horseradish would clear any sinus infection, even bronchitis!

Soon, it would be time for us to go and lament on what could have been had we gotten any sleep this trip! We might have had clearer minds to keep all those winnings from the first day or two!!!

Oh well, we can look forward to our next trip - 5 nights in January!!!

T-26

PS: I will try to write something in the casin gaming section about the “little cheese for the rats†comment by the craps boss at IP during the trip, stay tuned….

 

Now that's what I call a trip! Your wife is the coolest! I have to plan a guys trip to get someone who can hang with me. After I polished off my 54oz boot full 'o booze, she just looked at me funny and was concerned that I would make a scene at the restaurant!

However, if I may be so bold, I was a little disappointed that you were riding the Video Poker machines instead of rockin' the hairdo and inflatable guitar with Big Elvis!

Great trip report! But your countdown makes me a bit envious and I have only been back home 8 hours!

T- Too damn many days!

 

Sounds like a good trip. Where is tequila Joes?

 

NEON, great TR! Exactly what I needed to get me through another day of waiting to leave! Glad you two had a good time. I'm going to have to get one of them there drinks buddy! I'll down a couple for ya!

 

good TR -- a NICE win at that w-o-fortune machine!!

What place serves the 'stitches' ?

mK

 

Great trip report. Sounds like you had a good time. Every trip we make it a point to stop at Tequila Joe's and have a few.

Thanks for sharing!

 

okay---so (lol) WHERE is Tequila Joes?

mK

 

LOL, that's exactly what I asked earlier. Where is Tequila Joes? I definitely want to go to Margaritaville, which is at the Flamingo, but wondering where Tequila Joes is. I LOVE Tequila.

 

Tequila Joes is right in front of the Imperial Palace, just before you get to the carnival court. If you walk in through the doors they have several chairs with tables and a couch or two as well as a small bar and of course the stage for Karaoke... And yes, this is where they make the delicious Stiches drink!
The 2-1 happy hour is daily from 4-7 and during the winter weekends too! The stiches is $5.50, so you get two for $5.50 during happy hour! They also have some good prices on quick sandwiches although I have never tried them there?

Habanaman, sounds like we just missed each other and yes I did the Big Elvis participating last time so I copped out this time! LOL

 

Sounds good...no salt please.

Oh, Margaritaville... VERY VERY mediocre food. Good driniks. I'd suggest a 'rita & some salsa n chips--then OUTTA there! lol

mK

 

Nice trip Neon, and very cool that you managed to meet up with FRob.

 

Great Trip Report Neon!!

Sorry I wasn't around on Tuesday to meet up again. I'm pretty sure I was making a permanent butt-groove on an IP poker room chair all day that day!

Sorry to hear about that renovation! The suite was very nice and I was envious until I read that little tidbit! Thanks again for covering the meal at BC later that night. I really appreciate that.

I'll try to finally get a trip report written sometime today, but you'll see that it kind of went downhill from the time I saw you......including a touch of food poisoning!

Great read and good luck in getting ready for your upcoming trip!

 

I love T.J's they always have good drink specials there. Man I miss Vegas ..

 

dude, good TR

Glad someone had fun in Vegas!!!! a trip like yours makes me wantto go back and redeem my sorry self in vegas.

 

I LOVE margarita's but then I LOVE tequila

Thanks MisterK for the tip. I would rather be drinking margarita's than eating.