venetian, gn, and cher

since it has been two weeks since we returned, i had finally better get with some semblance of a trip report. maybe only the highlights will be remembered and make it a little shorter than usual.

purpose of the trip, a sunday through thursday in late august, was to buy at the clothing trade shows for our retail store, and the show that we always attend the first day, sunday, is at the venetian's sands expo center, so the very surprising postcard from the venetian offering two nights free, during our window of attendance, was snapped up fast. we usually do not stay at this level of hotel, and our gambling level, at the venetian, certainly does not warrant the free room, but we took it!

arrived at the venetian by 10 am, of course no room available, so after storing the bags, and having been up 7 hours or more, it was time for breakfast before going spending money, so the grand lux was the easy choice. as much as i like the grand lux, there is only so much that can be done to make breakfast special, and it was perfectly average. oh well, i know how good other meals are there, so there will be a next time, and it was good just to decompress and plan the rest of our day.

shopped until about 4, successfully, and then to the room, and called for the bags, took about an h our to arrive, but with our pool view, and a very comfy bed, that was ok. staying there where we had worked, and not having to find a cab for the night was really nice. the room was multi level, two steps down from the bed area down into the sitting area, with a nice view down to the pool, three televisions in the room, but not in the sitting area of the bathroom, which was actually crammed, a little too dark for reading, and had a doorknob that kept falling off. after putting the doorknob in the sink the next morning, we did come back to find that fixed, right, the next afternoon. no other issues with maintenance, which is one of the slams we had heard about the venetian before.

down to get new players cards, some free play with them that my wife turned into about 80 dollars cach when hit a four of a kind while using the play, i did not do so well on my free play, but got a good hit on a multistrike poker machine and cashed out up.

dinner was at delmonico, this was our fifth semiannual dinner there, and actually had the same head waiter that we had on the third visit, he remembered us, to the point that he made a big point of the amuse bouche they served, after i inquired why we had not gotten one, two trips back, apparently he made a note in their computer system! had the bone in ribeyes, perfectly cooked, and the garlic mushrooms, a tableside prepared caesar for two,(not that great) and a bottle of australian shiraz off the low end of the huge wine list. tab was 230, including a very nice tip on the food portion of the bill, and a standard tip on the wine, and the taxes.

think we played a little more after dinner, but after a very long day, it was back to the room, had to be over at the rio at 8 am the next morning.

the nice thing about the show we attend at the rio is that they feed you, knowing that if customers leave the trade show area for the casino or elsewhere in town, they may not come back! so we had a continental breakfast at the show, and at 9 am were sitting down at our first appointment. i helped with the selection and orders and while wife was making decisions, i would scout the next aisle, and we did find some new vendors, so that was successful. after getting her her lunch about 1 pm, and then getting mine, i was off to the casino, and spent about 3 and a half hours at the race book and poker machines, all the pai gow tables were full every time i went by. lost some, so about 5 ish i went back to t he trade show, it stays open until 8. but they serve wine and cheese at 6, and that is good for business. we usually spend a day and another morning at this show, but with starting early and going until 8, we got it all done in that day. after the wine and doing one order for my bride, i headed back to the casino, and with the paigow tables full, wound up at a CRAZY 4 poker table, had some luck right away, and when wife came and got me, i was up 180 at the table, and ahead for the day!

walked out of the rio, boarded the shuttle to harrahs just on time, and when arriving at harrahs walked on down to margaritaville for dinner. cant remember what kind of chicken wife had, i had a bowl of soup and the volcano nachos, and between the two of us we must have put away a third of the nachos, that is how huge they are. we got to see the beauty slide out of the volcano into the margarita, and see a lot of brother jimmy on the video screens, it was fun. the band however, wasnt going to start for another hour, and we were packing a briefcase with a lot of papers, and it had been a long day, so off to the room at the venetian, without much play there again...there goes any more free offers.

next morning was moving day, and since we had done so well yesterday, no need to go to a trade show today. we went down and had breakfast at wolfgang puck's REVA, maybe RIVA, poolside at the venetian. expensive, but we each had coffee (4 dollars), and a yogurt/granola parfait (9 dollars). with tax and tip, about 35, but just so relaxing and great service and refills on the coffee, i will do it again in a minute if staying there, and even if not staying if we dont want a full breakfast...sometimes we have breakfast at bouchon there in the venezia towers at the venetian.

checkout, no charges, only thing that had even went on a credit card, for the trip, was that dinner at delmonico, and down to the golden nugget. on the agenda, play a while, then up to caesars for the cher show, with tickets we had already bought and paid for back in april. more on that later.

 

I'm surprised that the Caesar salad wasn't that great. We've had it several times and it's been top notch. We haven't found another that's come close.

 

Good TR, but not to be noisy. how much play do you think you gave Venetian? i am going on a similar offer for 4 days and this is a question i was wondering about.

 

tanswa, negligible, probably, in their book. certainly only in the hundreds of play, just not enough time.

vegasbound, hope you are enjoying the new home! asked my bride this morning what she recalled of the caesar salad at delmonico.
* it is amazing how good other caesars are with dressing out of a jar without the rigamorole
*it was cool watching, and i am glad we did it, but i am not eager to go back for it, though i would return for the french onion soup or the lobster bisque we have had before!

so, cabbed on down to caesars after checking out of the v, immediate service at checkin, and they had a south tower room ready. this room was booked along with our flight, i am guessing they added on about 70 a night as part of t he package, but since the flight through the consolidator was about 120 a person less than flight alone...delta really has a lock on the market up here, so we take savings when we can, and i love the golden nugget anyway.

settled in the room, had about 4 hours to play, then would migrate up to caesars, to put a few points on the total rewards card, eat a bite, and get to cher. did not have a good gambling afternoon there at the golden nugget, they have two machines of big strike poker, the only other place i have ever seen the game is at the el cortez. i love the game, you are dealt 8 cards, and then have to sort them into a 5 and 3 card hand, and then get paid by multipliers of how good the hand is. the game did not love me, though, on this day, and i finally just had to quit feeding it hundreds, after getting a pretty good hit on my fourth hundred , and getting back to only down 250, i quit. played a little around the casino, just no hits, and was glad when it came time to go to caesars.

at caesars, decided to find the crazy4 poker game, and had a great hour and a half at the table, same kind of atmosphere as paigow, where everyone is rooting for everyone else against the dealer, and we were tipping great as a table, so the dealer was having fun with us. had to dig into the wallet once more after buy in, and as it was close to time to go meet the bride i hit a couple of nice hands, and at the end cashed in down 8 bucks, up a couple of drinks, and i know that i tipped the dealer a lot more than the 8 bucks, i was happy and ready to move.

we met, had a quick bite at the food court there at caesars, really not too bad of a selection and food, and a flaming bargain compared to the extremely expensive options there at caesars. a little more vp, up 50, and an exacta wheel at the race book, with a 35-1 horse winning and my wheel horse second netting me 140. used my drink tix from the race book on the way by the bar to the coliseum, and we drank a gin and tonic on the way to the concert, then got another inside the arena. good thing i was ahead, because those two drinks were 28 bucks!

cher was wonderful, the whole show is just an outpouring of peoples respect, appreciation, or love for her. could have used a little more singing by cher of her hits, and a little less costume changes/video clips of sonny, moonstruck and other movies, and costumes over the years. on the other hand, how do you capsulize a 40 year career into 90 minutes? probably just how they did it. and when she did sing, WOW.

back to the gn for the night, a very nice day of playing and not working, but we have to do one more show tomorrow, so played a little more on my favorite machines, had a late night pizza at the grotto, and that was it.


somewhere in there was a session at the poker tables at the golden nugget, at 2=4. had two other sessions at 3-6, a much better game for my style at this point. had two losing sessions and one win that covered the losses, liked the poker room and the personnel.

more later, kitson

 

let's finish this up. cabbed it over to the lvcc on wednesday morning, i worked until about noon, wife until about 3, so that means i got a few hours in at the hilton casino, lost a little at paigow, lost a couple of horse races, but then 4ofakind 3's, on the top level of a multistrike poker machine, think it was nickels but maybe dimes, anyway i cashed out up 250 and ahead of the hilton for the trip!

back downtown, got in a poker session before dinner, we walked down to t he triple george grill, they had a placard outside with half price drinks and appys in the side bar, so had a gin and tonic and split an order of crabcakes, 15 dollars with a tip. only bad thing about that part of it was the tv's in the place being turned up, really loud, for a couple of groups who had requested that of the bartender. no, not a game, the acceptance speech and the spectacle of a political convention, and no, it would not matter if it had been the other candidate or one of the lesser speakers. one of the viewers, though, sorta looked like mayor goodman, though i sort of thought he would probably be at the convention in person, but i just stayed quiet and we ate our appy pretty fast and just got next door to dinner.

i had a rack of ribs, wife a stuffed chicken dish that was the special, meals included sides. very nice meal, quiet, and reasonably priced. not very busy, but about 7:30 when we left it got busier.

played some more, mostly at t he golden nugget, though wife played at the four queens some. i really like the nugget, will stay there often, and would just as soon putnts on that players card. the same applied to thursday, i was just perfectly happy to stay at the gn, and we never did make it down to the el cortez, or the other way toward mss.

hit 4 aces, on one of the draws on a triple play ddb quarter machine, as i was waiting for a poker table to open up, so cashed that out up 200, couple other profitable sessions at the other gimmick games of the poker variety, like multistrike and big split, so that helped out my stupid play at the last session of poker, when i was paying too much attention to how good my hands were, and not to the other players actions, i absolutely built the pots for them, and then was second best every time. not bad luck, just dumb play, and i lost my 100 dollar buy in, after being up about 40! lesson learned? hope so.

thats it.

 

We got the same offer from the Venetain and we have hardly gambled there at all
maybe a couple of quick stops in the past 2 years and no big cash
but we still got the offer for 2 free nights

unfortunately it was only available one night (friday - go figure)
and it had a minimum of 2 nights and saturday was 300 bucks :Þ

uh no thanks I have free rooms down the street

but it sure would have been nice to give it a try

nice to read your trip reports

thanks

 

nice TR!

 

I'll have to try their french onion soup, sometime. Also, want to see Cher. Always find that people really enjoy her performances. Glad you had a good time.

The house is great, thanks!

 

Thanks for posting your TR.

later, GVJ