CPF 2010 Las Vegas Trip Report Thread
Well, I can't believe it's over. Seven amazing days in Sin City with good friends and even better times. I'm sure you've read the other thread, but I wanted a space to lay down my thoughts and answer any questions.
I guess the best place to start is my wish list for the trip:
I guess the best place to start is my wish list for the trip:
Johnnies wish list:
Eats/Drinks:
Pink Taco (HRH) We missed HRH entirely. It goes to the top of my list for next time
Bellagio Buffet (Saturday Morning Champagne!) I've had the regular buffet before, but the champagne breakfast was amazing. We arrived at 7:45am and walked straight in. 15mins later there was 30 person line-up. Win!
Hofbrauhaus Las Vegas DUNKEL BEER! IMO, the biggest disappointment of the trip. Maybe it's becasue I've been to the REAL Hofbrauhaus in Munich, but this place sucked. Mediocore food, and beer, and way, way, way overpriced. FAIL!
Fun:
Hoover Dam-Amazing experience, I can't really but into words. Totally EPIC.
The Gun Store (the ladies can go shopping or something) Missed it, but I'm not to bummed about it.
Outlet Malls (I like a good bargain)- Pretty cool if shopping is your thing. We each bought something at a good deal. (Check out Mooses' new watch. Pretty nice!)
The Gamblers Store (basically a used casino store) Missed this but we got to another store which specializes in poker stuff. I got an original Dunes Casino $5er. Moose spent....well let's not go there
Gold & Silver Pawn Shop (from the show Pawn Stars) Didn't get into the store, but drove by it after Binnions. Next time.
The Guitar Centre - Didn't even see it, and I did nothin' but look for it. Also next time.
Maybe a concert if there is a good band/artist in town- Nope, but did see Blue Man Group. I liked the show a lot. Great interaction with the audience.
Watch the NFL games from a Sportsbook- The SB was full by time we got there (it was after our Bellagio buffet) but we did watch from the Seahorse lounge at Ceasars. Very cool, my team won and picked up 4/5 bets for almost $75! WIN!
Get one of those big football beers and walk around The Strip- Didn't happen but I was very drunk after drinking for 12 hours straight on Sunday.
Poker:
I don't care. I'll follow Moose. Worked out great as I cashed in both tournaments!
Comments
Flights: No problems flying with SpirtAir again. Flying out of Detroit is an inconvenience, but the amazing deals far out way the hassles of the trip.
Rental Car: In my mind this is a no brainer. Totally the best way to get around Vegas, especially if you plan to go outside the city at all. Next time we need a permanent DD though
Hotel: We stayed at Flamingo this time. The mid-Strip location is great, and our wives loved the pools. Actually so did I. The poker room is pretty crappy but the donkeys and nits make it so profitable.
Cell phones: We purchased Verizon phones for $20. Ten for the phone and ten for the prepaid plan. If you called another Verizon phone, it was only .99c a day of your $10. They did work great although we did get a few random texts and wrong numbers. If anyone else is heading to Vegas and wants to borrow mine, just ask.
JohnnieH wins Lazy Man title hands down. He waits until Vegas to buy a watch so he doesn't have to adjust the clock.
JohnnieH is an 80 year old man in a 34 year old body. Even on the last day when he promised to play until midnight - he quit at 11 pm. Most conversations between Compuease and I went like this "Where's Johnnie" "In bed". One time I left the table for the night 45 min before Johnnie woke up, went downstairs and started playing.
Compuease can roll the bones like nobody else.
"I think I have a meat injury"
"Gotta drink my singles"
Jackpot drops GOOD. Quad 7s and AA cracked for me for $200. Quad 5s 2x and a flopped straight flush for mmoose for $593.
Johnnie timed his run good just right. Ran so hot he couldn't even get AA cracked until his final hand the morning we flew out. UTG AA beat by K7 for the $100 AA cracked bonus.
"Ron Loxton Where are you?" Entire room at Venetian Blue Man theatre.
Compuease the only sober driver after visitng Hofbrauhaus, takes the keys, even though he's not insured on the car to get the rest of us drunks safely home and then drives the wrong way on a one way street.
Asshole in tourney claims someone touched his chips while on break and then makes the floor go upstairs to check the video. Floor tells him no-one touched his chips. "Well I'm not counting out Leprechauns". WTF!
Downtown charges everywhere for parking. Nugget rakes the pot without a flop. Apparently all the nits now have jobs at the downtown casinos.
I'm game.
fyi.....pretty sure you can still do this.....park in parkade behind Binions...they give you a time stamp.......take said stamp to cashier's cage to get it punched.....no pay for parking.
At least that's how it was last year (last time I had a vehicle there).
Or park down the street and possibly get mugged (or hookers and blow).
^^^ This... shoulda asked.. Still worked this past June... They don't check..
1. I was going to buy a watch in Vegas for that reason, but instead I opted to use the cell phone. So I'm more cheap than lazy I guess.
2. Yes, I'm an old man, but I did stay up past 12am TWICE, I was just in the hotel room
3. My timing for run good was perfect. Thanks to you guys and everybody on CPF for the support. Having a fan club rail me during the Binnions tournament was very cool. Sorry I made everybody late for dinner.
4. The A-hole show at Caesar might have been the best experience I've ever had in a poker room. How the pit boss didn't laugh in his face, I'll never know. After Jeff crippled him with 86d was even better.
97 100 97 101 102 103 98 97
Tues morning went smoothly. We all met at my house and loaded up the RAV4. Smooth sailing across the border though slightly worried 'someone' might have left a warning to look out for 5 people in a RAV4 heading for Vegas.
We land in Vegas and quickly go down $10 playing luggage roulette to the master, Compuease. We pick up the rental and go looking for a Walmart to pick up cell phones but a Supercentre Walmart in Las Vegas is just a grocery store so that effort was wasted. Starving now we stop in at In N Out burger to load up on carbs before checking in the Flamingo and starting gambling.
mmoose and I squeeze in 4 hours of play to qualify for the $1k freeroll the next day but in the start of a disturbing trend Johnnie bails early. After playing 4 hours mmoose and I head to Bills to play electronic craps and in the start of a looong trend, I drop $240. Ugh. About 6 am our time we head for bed.
The next day we go to Terrible's for the $2.99 two pancake, two meat, two egg special. Compuease shows his experience and goes for the ham steak instead, which covered almost the entire plate. I head downstairs and roll another $58 bucks in the hole at craps. Then we head to Target across the street and get $20 Verizon phones, which including $10 airtime. Plenty for the week since it has a .99/day plan with free Verizon to Verizon calling. Not bad for a bluetooth, camera flip phone that also takes voice commands.
The boys meet at Caesar's and we play the noon tournament. Nothing happens for me but JohnnieH makes $100 for the bubble prize and Compuease chops for a whack of moniez. My 5% share nets me $37. Woot. Good thing too because I blow another hundo on Bills craps. Dammit
The Ladies head for the pool and we meet up for dinner. mmoose and I register for the freeroll and we all drive over to Planet Hollywood to start our $39.99 24h buffet with the Spice Market buffet. Again Compuease schools us all and somehow gets in for $25. Senior's discount or comps for Compuease or something. There was about a 20 min wait and we ate for quite a while so we missed the freeroll.
We decide to head for Aria and Monte Carlo. By the time we walk through the Bellagio and take the tram to Aria, Johnnie again decides to bail without playing so Compuease and I soldier on to Monte Carlo. We play there for a bit and leave at 12:30 am. Of course not enough gamble for me so I sit in the 2/4 game at the Flamingo while Compuease heads for bed. I think I actually played at the table until about 1 hour before Johnnie wakes up and heads downstairs to play the next day.
Thurs mmoose and I meet up with Compuease at Harrahs to continue our 24h buffet. Fuck me I don't bring ID and they make me go all the way back to the Flamingo to get it, even though I had my players card (with the 24h pass logged on it) and my CC. We go our separate ways with me heading back to the room for sleep and mmoose goes to the pool. I meet up with her late afternoon and we go to the Flamingo buffet on our 24h pass.
Compuease donks out of whatever tourney he was in and meets us for dinner. We head to the World Carnival buffet at the Rio. One of the best buffets I have ever had in Vegas. Time is tight and we race to the Venetian and do a mad dash from the parking lot to the theatre and get there 5 min before the show starts. Hilarity ensues when they use an electronic message board to post embarrassing things that the staff learned when people picked up their tickets. It went something like this: Ron Loxton you are late for the show. Everyone please say "Ron Loxton where are you" You have not updated your facebook profile for 5 minutes. The show was good and I'm glad I did it but wouldn't see them again. The seats were excellent, directly behind the splash zone seats.
After Blue Man we head to Flamingo and we all sit together in the 2/4 game. Johnnie bails early again and mmoose and I play on until about 1:45 am to qualify for the $2k freeroll the next day.
Fri morning mmoose and I play the freeroll. With 19 left they chop and after tips etc she is up $90. Then we head out for Primm Valley and Rock Rock Canyon. I've wanted to get to Primm to ride the Desparado roller coaster but every trip something conspired against me. Best thing was, with our Terrible's player cards and a new member coupon, we got to ride for free.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperado_(roller_coaster)
It was the tallest coaster in the world when built and still ranks #9 today as the biggest drop.
Road beers.
After riding the coaster I show Johnnie how to play craps. We got in on an incredible roll and I finally start to reverse some of my craps losses. Right beside us this lady went from $2 to over $2200. I make $74 min betting.
The hot shooter was the guy in between us.
We drive back towards the west side of Vegas to do the scenic Red Rock Canyon drive. Beautiful scenery.
I had planned to play the $150 bounty at Mirage but we got back too late and go to Ellis Island for dinner. $9.99 gets you a rack of ribs, 1/2 chicken, corn, garlic bread, beans and coleslaw. This is something that we never miss on any trip to Vegas.
It is also a brew pub and 16 oz draft beers are $2. We enjoyed working our way through the selection but the stout was the clear winner.
JohnnieH is a rib pirate. Arrgh.
Afterwards we head to O'Sheas and I may or may not have had a high blood alcohol content.
We then head for Bally's and I sit in the 3/6 game and mmoose in the 1/2 nl game. Once again Johnnie bails without playing and the moose's start to reverse the trend booking $123 for me and $145 for her.
Sat morning we went shopping at the outlet malls and stopped to take pictures at the Vegas sign afterwards. Another thing on the list of things to do crossed off. Yes!
Another stop at In N Out for lunch and we stop in at Spinettis Gaming Supply. Essentially poker chip nirvana for me.
You name it - they have it.
Next we head downtown to play the $5k guarantee at Binions. Nothing works in the tourney but JohnnieH plays on until early evening and cashes 8th. In the meantime mmoose and I head across the street to the Golden Nugget to play some 1/2 nl. My AA holds for a big pot and I cash out up $326 and mmoose hits quad 5s for a $243 jackpot. We also get to meet the Duke of Freemont street. The 1/2 game has no cap so he buys in for $100k.
The Duke of Fremont Street
We head back to Binions to cheer on Johnnie and get our free picture with the Million Dollars. Craps continues to cycle upward and I make the 6 point at max odds for an $80 win.
It's now 9ish and we hook up with Compuease who has gone busto in the Venetian $340 (or so he says). Other than the first day we never actually saw Compuease playing in a tournament. Hookers and blow is probably closer to the truth. So we go to Bills for AYCE Chinese for $9.99 which is pretty good. Afterwards we try to play at Bills but there is only one seat open. We head to Bally's where evil craps takes $108. Johnnie actually gets as far as putting his name on the list before bailing again. I book $162 at 3/6, including hitting 7777 for $100 jackpot bonus at 1/2 nl, while I was waiting for my 3/6 seat.
Sunday was football day for JohnnieH and I sat at Flamingo, played poker and watched the Miami game. Scored a $100 bonus for AA cracked. After it was over I met up with the Hornes, who were watching football in the Seahorse bar at Ceasar's and I sampled the Caesar's pool.
Seven pools and two hot tubs in seven minutes.
Then we all hit the Flamingo pool to enjoy the waterslide, which is only open on weekends after August. Sneak in $5 Oil Cans from Bills FTW!
Again I may or may not have been drinking heavily.
Just posing. Not actually unconscious.
Next we hooked up with Compuease and went to Hofbrauhaus for dinner. One litre bier steins rock.
As Compuease was now the only sober driver we put our life in his hands to return us safely to the Flamingo. Big mistake. The drunks had to point out to him that he was driving the wrong way down a one way street. Not as much fun as you might think, even when drunk. It's not even 9 pm and Johnnie bails again. The three of us go to the IP, where we run into Matthew, a dealer we met on the last CPF trip. He actually remembers us from almost two years ago. He asks where the others are and we reply "Johnnie is in bed" Std. response.
Flashback Nov 2009:
Monday was our last full day in Vegas and we all meet up and have breakfast at Terrible's then head out to the dam. mmoose and I had already done the dam so we dropped Dad and the kids off and headed back up the road to the nearest casino. Hacienda has $2 BJ, $1 craps and $.25 roulette and we shot craps for a bit booking a $49 win. We head back to the dam to pick everyone up. It is only about 8 min drive but it takes almost 40 min due to the heavy traffic. They are building a bypass to alleviate the traffic and also permit truck traffic, which has been banned from the dam since 9/11.
Very cool shot Johnnie. That's looking up the dam from a vent about 1/2 way down the dam.
On the way back we stop again at the Hacienda to teach Dad and the kids how to play craps. Everyone makes at least two points and Compuease hits at least 6 himself. mmoose and I win a combined $170, which is pretty hard at only 2x odds and $1 min and everyone walks away a winner. Johnnie is pleased as punch to score a hundo when he cashes out.
For our last meal in Vegas we pick up discount tickets at Tix4Tonight for Pampas Brazilian steak house that saved us about $70. Before dinner mmoose and I hit Bally's for more 3/6. mmoose flops a straight flush for a $250 jackpot and 30 min later hits 5555 for another $100. We cash out up $451 and we are freerolling Vegas!
Meat gooood.
After dinner we walk up to the Mirage and sit in the 3/6 game. Yes, it actually takes Johnnie a full week to sit in a cash game at a casino other than the Flamingo. It's the final night in Vegas and Johnnie vows to play to at least midnight. Alas, at 11 pm we cash out and go looking for Compuease, who 'says' he is playing a tourney at Caesar's. Johnnie bails yet again and I walk into Caesar's but no Compuease. WTF? I call Compuease and he 'claims' to have busted out 15 min earlier. Orly?
I play on at the Flamingo and head to bed, wrapping Vegas for me. Johnnie gets up early (we check out at 6 am) and on his final hand, uses up his run good and gets his Aces cracked for a hundo jackpot bonus.
Good good times. I can't believe I only gained 7 pounds. The moose's booked about an $1100 win overall.
Ellis Island. Fantastic BBQ since it's more of a locals hang out than a tourist trap. $9.99 for half a chicken, rack of ribs, beans, coleslaw, and garlic bread. They also brew there own beer. From what I remember we tried them, every one was a winner.
Chinese Food at Bill's Casino. I think this was in the Steakhouse, and it was just awesome. Everyone ordered a different dish so we could share. I believe the total was >$15 each. I don't quite remember as it was the end of a long day, and Moose bought 2 pitchers of beer.
24 Buffet pass for $40. The pass gets you into all (I think) the Harrahs owned buffets. Start in the evening one night and get 4 meals in one day. We did Spice Market (Planet Hollywood), Flamingo for breakfast, Lago for lunch (Caesars) then Carnival World Buffet (Rio) I think the Mooses devoured half of the worlds supply of crab legs.
Pampas Las Vegas Similar to Boa Nova where they keep bringing meat to the table. Truly a mans dream. The Moose paid $3 for a coupon that brought the meal down to $22 each, instead of $42. Great deal!
Apparently there are no transformers at Hoover Dam anymore because they have discovered Vegas.
My chip scores. The bottom three rows are all extras I don't want if anyone is interested.
Thus endeth the trip report.
Nice job guys, but is Comp camera shy or what?
Glad you had a good trip..... I"m back to vegas in January...... haven't set the date but if there are CPFers who are interested pm me....
I charge.... lol... Actually I was in tournaments almost 7/24 so they couldn't catch up with me...
Vdara visitor: 'Death ray' scorched hair - News - ReviewJournal.com
Sorry Moose not true.... I rolled for 50 minutes at the El Cortez...... that more than made up for all the short term loses......
The Duke, the Lady and the Poker Card Bender