Vegas Weather during our week:
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. :D Got a bit lost looking for Costco but managed to find it, squeeze in some shopping and get to our gate at the airport about 15 min before boarding.
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.
