Vegas Recap Part 1

I finished my 10th or 11th Vegas trip with cash still in my pocket but down about $600 in total. I can't quite remember exactly how all that cash was spent but I remember how I lost at least half of it, because I still can't think about what might have been. Anyways, if you make it through this whole recap, you'll soon find out that me & my group of friends aren't exactly ballers, but I hope to keep it entertaining nonetheless.

Friday

We got into Vegas around 5pm Friday & dropped off the car at the Worldmark Resort. It was about 3 miles south of the strip but it was comped to us courtesy of my girlfriend's parents, so we had no complaints. It was just me & two of my friends from Arizona, Mark & Becky. My girlfriend & her pregnant sister weren't due in until around 10pm.

We started off the trip at one of my favorite casinos, the Monte Carlo. It doesn't have quite the flair of other places but it's always been good to me in the past. Within 10 minutes, the Monte Carlo's reputation of good luck was validated when Becky hit 4 Aces with a deuce on video poker for a score of $500. The casino almost let me down after I lost about $120 on Roulette within 25 minutes, but I nailed a 23 with a $3 bet to recoup most of my losses.

Around this time, the urge for Pai Gow started taking over, so we headed to the north end of the Strip to some of the less expensive casinos in search of some $5 tables. We took our chances with the Imperial Palace first. You'd think, of all places, we would be able to find $5 Pai Gow here, but the cheapest tables were $15. We just left $10 Pai Gow at the Monte Carlo behind, so we weren't about to drop $15 a hand at the IP. So our trek continued up the strip, through Harrah's, Flamingo, O'Sheas, until we finally had enough and stopped for some Roulette at the Venetian, where I said good bye to another $100.

(For the record, yes I know that Roulette is a sucker's game. And I know what that makes me. I can live with this.)

Not nearly as intoxicated as we wanted to be, Mark & I finally succumbed to the allure of $15 Pai Gow back at the Flamingo while Becky couldn't escape the siren call of the Roulette table. It was just the two of us, a partly-Asian couple to our left, and an attractive blonde names Maggie to our right.

2 hours & many drinks later, we finally reached a level of intoxication we were satisfied with, and thanks to Pai Gow, we hadn't lost any money (well, that is if we don't could the $250 Mark could have one if he played the bonus when he hit a straight flush). Making things more enjoyable was Maggie, who turned out to be much more friendly & not at all as bitchy as she first appeared to be. It was about 10pm, and even the delight of Maggie's presence wasn't enough to prevent me from missing my girlfriend, so I gave her a call. Turns out her tax accountant sister had to work later and they probably wouldn't be arriving until sometime around 1-2am.

We decided to head somewhere else & somehow decided on Bally's. It was this location where Mark suffered the worst beat of the whole trip, when the walkway to the lobby tricked him into walking down a wall to get back to the sidewalk. When he reached a dead end, he tried to climb over the handrail and somehow got his knee twisted up in the fall, spraining it & nearly knocking him out of commission for the rest of the trip. But he had enough liquor in his body to walk it off, and we headed inside for more drunken times.

We found our way to the Roulette table, where Mark & I each recovered about $100 of our previous losses. Mark was especially hot, hitting numbers twice, including a 20 at the suggestion of the dealer. Mark threw an extra chip on for him right before it hit, giving the dealer a nice $35 tip. I started feeling a bit sluggish as the smoke from the casino was giving me & my attempts at beating my week long cold a nasty sore throat. We cashed out our good fortune, quickly made our way through Paris (which I swore never to play at again, and definitely will uphold that vow after this trip) over to the new Planet Hollywood.

Last time I was in Vegas, this was still the Aladdin. The new version is much more trendier, keeping in line with similar remodels like Treasure Island. But as long as these casino remodels keep adding stripper poles with girls dancing in lingerie, you won't find a complaint from me. Anyways, I scored nearly another $100 in Roulette in a quick sitting when we finally decided, after about 8-12 hours, we needed some food. We hit up a killer sandwich shop, the Earl of Sandwich, for some late night grub. I've been to some amazing sandwich places, and the Turkey Club I got here ranks up with the best.

It was around 2am, early for Vegas standards, when I started losing wind. Additionally, I didn't want to kill myself and make my cold any worse with another day ahead of us, so I talked the other two into heading back to the resort (which we found out was actually a block away from the one we parked at). Finally, at around 3am, we got to the room, where I met up with my girlfriend for the first time in a week, and got some much needed rest.

Coming up next: more Pai Gow adventures, a foray into some cash games at MGM, and the best Subway sandwich I've ever had.