Our plane left DIA and we were ready. After spending the two days leading up to the departure to Sin City cleaning and organizing the house and driving the boys to the in-laws, we felt as if we had finally passed the final level of hell. Thanks, Dante.
The flight was smooth, and Vegas was overcast so the heat wasn't that intense. Like a rookie, I forgot to book a rental car. So for about 45 minutes we went from one stand to another at the McCarran Rent a Car center looking for the best deal. Ended up with a Yaris from Payless for about $120 for three days. Whew.
First stop: Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris. It's tradition. I helped open the restaurant up in 1999 as an 18 year old. Fond memories. My first taste of the big city and I learned a lot working there. I even had the opportunity to help create a dish there that's still on the menu. We drank some Bordeaux and ate our hearts out. We were finally here.
Moseyed over to the Nugget, checked in and did a lap of the grounds. Much nicer than I thought. Loved the layout and how easy it was to essentially cut the casino in half by use of the outdoor entrance. Room was clean and so was the casino. Rush tower appears to have been updated and the rooms were spacious. Ours had a sectional sofa as well. I guess leaving jizz stains on the bed wasn't enough?
Headed down stairs with a slight buzz from the wine and the marijuana pen we brought along on the ride. It was awesome being able to toke up on the street on Fremont. What a freakshow! LV has definitely put some money on revitalizing downtown. It's cleaner and less violent. Of course, if you're familiar with LV and/or downtown, you know about the beggers. There were, as always, a good deal of them but they were interesting to say the least. Three different people simply had signs that read "**** You." Money jars all seemed empty. One meth-head had a sign that said "Kick me in the balls as hard as you can. If I fall down you keep your tip. If I can take it, you HAVE to tip me." No joke. Saw two big fellas kick the ever-loving shit out of this poor guy. No tip. Then the wife of said fella gave it a whirl and she ended up giving him a $20. It's worth it, I guess? Lots of scantily clad women, live music and art spread throughout the rest of Fremont.
Slightly tired of traveling and settling in for the first day, we made our way back at 10:00 P.M. to the GN. They were just starting up a No-Limit tourney and I was just in time. Buy in was $65 but there were only two tables. Played until midnight and the final 3 decided to split the pot. Not much money, but felt good since I didn't lose. Drinks came quick and the Mrs read her kindle behind me. Hit the hay since we had a big day following. So nice to not hear babies screaming and no washing dishes!
Day two:
Woke up early and enjoyed the sectional. Showered and headed over the to the Venetian. They have the best mid week tourneys. Hit up a restaurant I had heard a lot about called Yardbird Southern Table and Bar. Walked in upon opening at 11:00 (Poker Tourney @ 12:00 P.M.) and ordered my favorite dish of the trip. Fried chicken, watermelon and waffles. I asked for the hot/BBQ sauce recipe that came with it and our super chatty server who was a Cowboys fan gladly hooked me up with it. Lawd have mercy. They cubed the watermelon then marinated it in ginger, lemon and mint. It was AMAZING. Waffles had a bourbon (of course) maple syrup. Spent a good deal of time talking to our server about the plight of our sad Bears and terrible misfortune. We talked about betting against your favorite team in the "Leverage your head with your heart" theory. He was blown away. LOL. I checked CCS and thank-banged a bunch of posters who are much more succinct than I and headed down to the Poker Room.
I thought the buy-in was $150, but it turns out they are running a series of tourneys in September called "Deep Stack Extravaganza." Buy-in was $250. ****. I was planning on playing this tourney on Wed AND Thursday but was annoyed with the buy-in. Luckily, my wife talked me into staying and just going for it. I'm saving $50 anyways since there are no re-buys. So, I bought in. 130 entrants. A big prize pool, well, for me that is. The LV rounders were in full force. I flopped a few sets early, but hovered around my 15K initial chip stack for the first 1.5 hours. Hanging in there.
Around hour number two, I get dealt KhQh in the BB. Love it. A couple of callers and a woman who looked liked she hadn't slept since Wayne Newton was relevant raises it 4XBB. She's on the button so I believe she's just making a play, trying to keep herself awake. SB folds and I mull it over, hoping to keep the other callers interested as well since I'm looking for a semi-family pot with this hand. One other caller.
Flop comes: 2h Ah 10c
Yes! I'll take those draws. I bet out half the pot, just hoping for a raise. Caller folds, but sure enough, Meth McGee obliges me with a modest raise. I insta-call hoping to give her the impression I'm not drawing.
Turn: Jh
All-in time. I have the nut straight working on a royal. Bring it, baby. She flips over pocket twos and you know what comes on the river:
The last two. Barf. I didn't waste a bunch of time in the tourney, but I was annoyed. My shot at a big cash payoff was gone and I'd have to settle for cash games later.
We strolled around the Venetian for a couple of hours. Really, a gorgeous property. Rooms are too expensive for us at this point, but my oh my. It's really a complex.
We had dinner reservations at Joes at Caesars palace at 7:00 so we headed back to the GN to freshen up. On our way there we hear on the radio that there is a bomb scare at the Stratosphere. LV BLVD is shut down in both directions. Wow. Turns out it was just a medical device bag but a little bit scary nonetheless. So, we take the long way around. Get to the GN, change and have an hour to kill in our casino before driving over to CP.
Sat down at a 1-2 NLH cash game. Got waxed. Maybe I was steaming a bit, but I didn't have patience to wait and tried my best to push everyone off of every hand. Really like the GN room though. Good managers and dealers. My table was full of friendly people and I met a vet that lived in Denver and played "up the hill" all the time. We bonded. Good times despite the loss.
Crawled around CP for an hour. Joes is delish of course. Happy to see Far Niente chard BTG (by the glass). Had one with my fish. Yummy. Left around 8:45 and headed to the Orleans to watch a movie. Now, don't hate. Part of this getaway is just being "Away." Wanted to see Sully (not a lot of options) but gave in to the wife and saw the new Bridget Jones movie. I am pussy whipped, no doubt. Such a terrible, terrible movie. But I was rewarded afterwards. We went and checked out their poker room once the movie was done. Holy shit! 20 FULL TABLES at 11:30 P.M. on a Wednesday! Played 6/12 Omaha high for the first time. Won $200. I saw nearly every flop as it's hard not to in Omaha. Headed back to the GN around 2:00 A.M.
Up early for a morning/early afternoon at the pool. Grabbed a huge iced coffee and found plenty of pool chairs available. Finally sunny, but super windy. We usually never hit the pool but we wanted to try this one because of how nice it is. While on the smaller side it was well-maintained and in the middle of the casino. Easy to get to and it wasn't full of a bunch of bros and douches. Lots of nice skin though. Did the slide once before they closed the whole pool due to high wind. Several chairs blown over. We were disappointed but we understood. We could have easily spent 4-5 hours there.
Still hadn't eaten yet and I had a hankering for chinese food and it was inbetween Noodles at Bellagio or Chin Chin at NYNY. We choose poorly and headed to Chin Chin. No bueno. Got an hour long foot massage while in NYNY that was fucking amazing and headed back to the Orleans to play some craps and more Omaha. Broke about even and headed back to Fremont for our last night. Had the famous shrimp cocktail at Golden Gate and this foodie enjoyed it. Have to put it on crackers though. It's the only way. We had bought tickets for a show at the GN featuring Gordie Brown. No. Don't do it. Don't be lured in with a free buffet! TERRIBLE!
Fucked around the rest of the night and lost pretty much everywhere. Craps, roulette, poker, BJ, you name it. Went to bed and headed to McCarran at the butt crack of dawn.
All in all a decent trip. Didn't win enough to get the 777 burger and I wasn't disconnected enough to not check in on our beloved CCS to see this weeks epic and glorious meltdowns. Work left me alone aside from a power outage on Tuesday night. Thanks, Excel.
