I was at your table right before you left. Nice TR, enjoy your vacation!

good chip porn. take asian chick back to room ftw. ...seat 10 says "FML".

I've played with seat ten (nine, actually. Aria is 9 handed.) lol. He always looks like that. He was begging to give his money away last time I played with him.

haha seat 10

No fear on the chip tower falling? pretty thin. love the chip pron though.

keep it up.

Thanks for all the kind words and comments everybody. One of the reasons why I want to continue writing a good TR!

Pure_Agression you the guy that took my seat when I left?

But yeah I was a little afraid the tower might fall, especially with people eye-it and giving it the evil stare hoping it would fall.

And yeah seat 10 was like that the whole session. It was like every single decision was a life or die kind of decision for him.

What a day.
Have you guys tried the beds at Aria? Jesus it´s hard to wake up. Slept like a baby tonight and every time I was going to get up from bed I fell asleep for an hour more. Finally at 11am I managed to get going. To begin with the only thing I had planned for this day was the reservation at Giada.

While still laying in bed I looked over the internet, beginning with my e-mail. To my pleasant surprise there was an e-mail from Icelandair. You see as mentioned earlier when I bid on an upgrade on the flight, I also bid on the flight home. I didn´t care that much about the flight home though so I only bid the minimum for the upgrade which is $300 with not much hope that the bid would be accepted. However, once I opened my e-mail I had two e-mails. One that said that my offer bid was accepted and another one with the new plane ticket. So I guess I´ll be flying home at Business Class as well.. Business class both ways, staying at a suite in Vegas and enjoying fine dining. Sounds almost to good to be true?

For breakfast I just started out with some of the juices that I had in the refrigerator. Yesterday after CUT and pretty much all yesterday evening my stomach was acting a little bit up. Was hoping that the juices this would have positive effects on the stomach in the morning but unfortunately I still had some stomach problems to begin the day off.

When I finally was good to go I really wanted to head over to Bellagio where I have always enjoyed playing. Also decently fun that you almost always see some poker “celebrity”. Despite loosing gambling yesterday I really wanted to try $5/10 for the first time. On the way there I made a pit-stop at slot machine and lost $100, then Video Poker where I also lost $150. Holy crap gambling was going bad and here I am on my way to $5/10…


Loosing at video poker


In route to Bellagio via city tram


Buying in for $1000

For 3 hours I was either up $50 or down $200-450 .. I really never got any momentum going and I really felt out of place. Table was pretty nitty and reg-fested with only 1 soft spot.

I was going to play until 4pm which is when I had to go back to Aria to return my rental car.

When it was soon time to leave I had A9 of diamond in the BB with around $500 stack.

It was raised to $30, which got couple of calls and I called from the big blind.

Long story short I flopped the flush and doubled up to over $1100. Soon after I had to leave to return the car and left with the stack at $1100 even, so made $100 on my first $5/10 session. Could´ve definitely gone worse.

Dropping the car off was quick and easy. Really nice that Avis is located right here in Aria. Realised I was getting stupidly hungry since I hadn´t eaten anything except for couple of juices and water. Not sure what to get I suddenly got a craving for pizza. Secret pizza at Cosmo was just a short walk away. Walked through City Center and decided to take the pizza to go and eat it at my room. Got three slices, two with pepperoni, and one margherita. The pizza was delicious as many of you know and just the gasoline I needed. After food I looked the Bravo app and saw that Aria had a couple of 2/5 games going with little waiting list so I got myself down to the casino.


Not so secret pizza

Couple of minutes later I had my most successful poker session in Vegas while playing 2/5.

Bought in for $500 and this was a session where everything felt right. Hitting hands at the right moment, hero calling at the right moment and folding at the right moment.

Biggest pot of the session came when I had QQ. Villain has $650 and I cover

Fish raises to $20, I 3-bet to $50 and aggro eastern european guy 4-bets to $155

The fish folds and I think for awhile before calling. The flop comes Q48 two spades and it goes check check.

Turn is a meaningless 3 and I bet $180.. He thinks for a while before calling. The river comes another 4 pairing the board and giving me the nut house. I shove on him and he calls reluctantly. I show my full house and he snap mucks and leaves the table.

Ship the $1300 pot.

I won a couple of other medium sized pots where I always had close to the nuts but people always thought I was bluffing and was calling me with very weak hands.

Since it was going so well I almost bailed on my reservation at Giada since I was still pretty full after the pizzas. But I was up a lot and I really wanted to try out the place, and I´m really happy I did.

I cashed out for almost $2300 which was just what the doctor ordered.


The cash-out picture. I got a couple of people asking “what game were you playing” while I was walking the racks to the table.

I cabbed it from Aria for $10 with tip to Cromwell hotel. I really dig the vibe at the hotel. Going for the dark/black/red style. No idea how the rooms are but the casino was doing it for me at least.


Entrance


Casino floor

Finally made my way to Giadas which is located on the second floor. The restaurant itself looks really good, I booked with some advance so I had requested a table by the window overlooking the strip and partial fountain view.


Entering Giadas


Partial view of the fountains

All the staff were extremely nice and knowledgable about everything I asked them about.

Again I trusted my waiter to start me off with a cocktail he recommended and wines for the main course.


Table overflowing with different kind of breads, lemon butter, chili pepper, etc and tequila based cocktail. Normally not a tequila drinking person but the waiter swore by it and it really was amazing.



Mushroom fiesta - The starter. Wood roasted mushrooms with almonds and ricotta salat.

The starter was really good but definitely could´ve been better with some more flavour. It was like 95% mushrooms 4% almonds 1% ricotta so a little mushroom overboard. At least for my palate

The main dish however was excellent.

I got the tortellini pea pesto with pancetta and mint. Really delicious pasta and the wine that was paired for me was just excellent.


Yum

After the main course I decided to skip out on desert (not much of a desert guy either way) but get another cocktail instead.

All in all I was extremely happy I went to Giadas, I´ve seen some hate for the place here on this forum but for me the experience was really good. It cost twice as less for me ($120 with tip, for two cocktails, glass of wine, starter and main dish) than CUT did and the service was definitely up to par and for me I really liked the food.

After dinner I headed down to the casino where I was feeling a little buzzed to try my luck at roulette one more time. Bought in for $250 at a really fun table. I again hit almost no spins at all so I´m running epically bad at roulette this trip.

Didn´t feel like playing any more table games so I walked over to the Bellagio and watched the fountains from the pedestrian bridge.


Making my way over to Bellagio, shot of Paris

At Bellagio I decided to just have fun at $1/3 while having some drinks. Ordered up a Mojito which was probably the worst “mojito” I have ever had. They just took rum, sour grape juice like in Greyhound and some mint and voila. But the session was very lively and fun. Couple of older couples, super nits, wannabe grinders it had it all. Dream table of softness. I was probably playing around 90% of the hands and raising every single one of them since everybody just limped. At 1am I was getting pretty tired so decided to call it a night and wished the people good night and good luck. I was in for $300 and cashed out for $200.. The $100 I lost was worth every penny for the fun I had while playing.

Today there are zero things on the agenda. But I´m sure I´ll find something to do. The waiter at Giadas really recommended that I went so see Absinthe which I had actually thought of before coming here so I might check that out tonight.

FYP

so far:
the sun
the poker profitz at 1/3 plo and 2/5 nlh
the epic dinner at Jean Georges

Yes sir, kid with the long hair. All those food pics are making me hungry haha.

Sin city
Woke up pretty late and feeling exceptionally lazy I decided to order room service. Never tried in Vegas before which was a shame

One phone call later and three egg omelette with peppers and avocado, buttermilk pancakes and chamomile tea would soon be up in my room.

Soon after the food arrived. It was expensive as you might guess. I think it was around 55 or something like that. But the food was nice and the view while eating it didn´t hurt. I must´ve been more hungry than I thought since I went through the entire omelette and most of the pancakes as well.


Breakfast with a view


Stacks of pancakes


Still feeling lazy I decided to check on the pool scene here at Aria for the first time. To be honest it wasn´t that much to it, expected it something more. But I got a towel and found an empty chair. (I never had to show my key card anywhere).

After lounging for over an hour I was pretty sure I was melting into the chair, I also had no sun protection with me so I decided that it was enough sun for one day.


Making my way to the pool




Made my way to the poker room where there was a pretty long list at both 1/3 and 2/5 NLH. I put my name on for both stakes and 25 minutes later I was not even that close to be seated. Then a seat opened at 1/3 PLO that had no waiting list and I snatched that right up. I don´t play PLO that much. Mostly one time a month but I do like the game. I decided I was going to play until I got a seat at 2/5.

I bought in for $400 ($500 max at 1/3 PLO) and session was pretty short since my seat opened at 2/5. But I managed to win over $180 in one hand where I check-called the flop and turn drawing, missed my draw on the river but bluffed into him and he folded.

Started 2/5 with around $600 and in no real hands of note I worked my stack to $850. Not wanting to play any longer I left with a total profit of $450.

I went up to my room, watched a show and took a quick nap. I had no idea what I was going to do for dinner but it being a lazy day there was no chance I was going far to find dinner. I looked at what restaurants Aria has to offer (The thing I dislike most about Aria is their selection in restaurants, it got a bit bitter though when 5/50 pizza opened) but I looked over the menu at Jean Georges and found some things I wanted to try. So down the elevator I went.


Entrance to restaurant

I just asked to be seated at the bar which was no problem and reminded that often it´s much better to sit at the bar when you are dining solo. Most often there will also be people there solo-dining and you can strike up a good conversation.
I started off with with the Ginger Pear cocktail, very good. They scraped some cinnamon over it as a final touch and it really made the drink.


Cocktail menu


Ginger Pear

For starter I went with the BBQ Back ribs

Probably one of the best ribs I have ever had. The seasoning on them was mind boggling good. Pretty spicy so it came with some heat.


So good! The thing next to them is a lime

For main course I got the “Crunchy organic chicken” that came with a buttery hot sauce and some sautéd spinach. It looked good on the menu but when I got the chicken it looked even better.

There were couple of other people dining at the bar and they snap asked me and the bartender what dish that was since it looked so good.

And to my delight the chicken tasted as good as it looked. The buttery hot sauce worked so well with it.


The chicken, already ate some of it before realising I had to take a picture before I ate it all up


All in all my best dining experience here in Vegas and I highly recommend it. Only thing that was kind of lacklustre was the service which was not as good as CUT and Giadas but perhaps that has something to do with that I was at the bar. Don´t get me wrong, the service wasn´t bad at all but not just as good as the other two restaurants.

After eating I got another Ginger Pear cocktail when a guy sat down next to me. We started chatting and turns out he just got off a date that didn´t go so well. He was a local that used to work at Aria as a manager but now has his own company. After one more round of drinks he asked if I wanted to join him at the Lobby bar where he was going to meet some of his old work buddies. Why not I asked and off I went.

The total bill for Jean Georges for 3 cocktails I think, one beer, glass of nice Chardonnay, starter and main course was around $150 pre tip.

At the lobby bar he introduced me to some of the people working here and told me fun stories about them and offered to buy me a drink, or two.

I told him I´m mainly a poker player and he got poker craving so we decided to see if we could get on the same table and have some fun. On the way I told him I had never played craps in my life, he took me to a table and explained some of it to me and helped me how the betting works. I was the person that was going to throw the dice.. I was betting $25 on the pass line I think and tossed the dice couple of times, won $25 then lost $25 and then we just left even. So I tried craps, I still have no idea how it works but at least I have tried it.

We both got seated at a 2/5 table and everybody at the table looked like they had just won the lottery when two drunk guys came at their table. He lost his buy in pretty quickly when he got three-outered on the river. He decided not to re-buy and went. I thanked him for the night and the drinks and off he went.


I didn't even remembering taking a photo of the session but drunk me was clever. Some sort of grey-goose mixed with something in the glass.

But it was really fun to meet a local, that knew everybody that was working here and introducing me to most of them.

I really dont remember much about the hands I played but I did loose my stack just after ordering some water to try and sober up. I had 99 vs 24.

Flop came 248 and I figured he either had A8 or 35 and didn´t want to give up my hand. His 24 held and off the room it was after a really fun night.

All in all it was a good day. Now I´m trying to get my ass up and head over to PH because I really, really want a sandwich. Then it´s Tiesto tonight.

Hey, awesome trip report and great pictures.

Can you tell us about your flight?

What airline did you use? Was the steak part of the ticket or did you have to pay for that separately?

Certainly,

The pictures are from Saga Class (same as business class) on Icelandair. Normally tickets one way to denver will cost you about $1600 or around $3200 both ways. I however manager to get the upgrade for around $1200 total for both ways using this class up bid thing where they auction of bc seats (depending on availability and such)

all food and bevereges both alcaholic and non are included. that also means food and drinks at the business class lounge in iceland

on usa flights they offer three different main courses you can choose from on the flight, two main courses to europe

at 2/5, in for 600 currently up around 340.. nice table with an asian guy next to me, bought in full, strattling and playing almost everyhand and makin huge bluffs.. his watch is also ballleeeer

out for 610.. 10$ profit boom

OP u seem fairly rich

still a fan of your TR just to reiterate lol...loving the chip/food pron

great TP op

Last day

I had a hard time getting rid of may hangover. When I finally managed to leave the room I headed straight to Planet Hollywood, had a craving for Earl of Sandwich. It being saturday in Vegas there was of course a lot of people in line. I barely had the energy to stand in the line but powered through it. Place was packed so couldn’t eat it there so I took the sandwich back to the room with a big bottle of gatorade.


Such long line


Such good sandwich


After the food and a little more rest I felt a lot better and headed down to the poker room. Played the 2/5 session I posted the picture of where I ended $10 up. Could've been a great session because of the whale on the table but I had zero hands against him and he didn't play for that long.

After poker I chilled in my room for a bit and showered and such to get ready for Tiesto.

Around 8pm I made my way over to the MGM. I had never before entered that casino but jesus christ that place was a zoo. I wandered around (most) of the casino and even got lost when I tried to find my way back. I thought the poker room looked kind of sad to be honest. I was going to play there but didn't feel right.

Decided that third times the charm might be the case with roulette so started playing 10$ min table with singles. Pretty fun table. Especially this one guy that wandered around the roulette tables, buying in for around 200, everything in singles and betting everything on just a couple of numbers. So he had huge stacks of singles out each time. If he missed it was off to the next table.
When it was almost 11 I was up around $100 at Roulette (in for $200) I was going to head over to Hakkasan around 11 to try and avoid some lines, also I had to be there before 12:00 according to my pre-paid ticket.

Since the number 11 was in my head now, since It´s also my birthday I bet pretty “big” with my singles on it. I already knew 11 was going to come and told the really dramatic older spanish woman next to me that “I was feeling it” she put faith in me and bet 11 as one of her 10 numbers.

What do you know, 11 comes she screams and hugs me and the dealer gives me a high-five.

Now up $500 from my roulette session I wished the table good luck and off to Hakkasan I went.


Finally roulette profit

First I was met by a gazillion people in the longest line in the history of the world. I hoped that since I had a pre-paid ticket I would be able to skip some of that line, asked some employee there and he pointed me to the right direction.

Buying pre-paid ticket is probably best decision I have ever made since there wasn't any line at all for the pre-paid tickets. I was into the club in a matter of minutes.

Now the club itself.. First I was a bit disappointed that the dance floor was so small, was expecting it to be a lot bigger for a club of this size. After wandering around (while you still could walk there) I realised this place has the most stupid layout of all times. Basically if you dont have a bottle table, you are ****ed good sir.

There are no good places to be, downstairs by the dance floor is absolutely CRAMPED and they closed off the dance floor around 12 because it was so crowded that people could hardly move. Half of the places you can than stand/be in are so cramped or so badly placed that you can hardly see the dance floor or the DJ. I saw some people standing upstairs and looking down onto the dance floor and thought that would be a decent place to stand and watch. Get upstairs and of course everything by the ledge where you can look down are bottle tables. And the tables are so big that almost no matter where you are upstairs, you cant see down unless you have a table.

I headed back downstairs and fortunately for me I managed to squeeze into a great spot right where you walk down to the dance floor with view of everything. But when I looked around me, especially at the people not with tables they were just waddling around. No place for them to be as the place was way over crowded and no way of finding a decent spot to even watch the dance floor.

It was my first time there so I have no idea if it´s always this packed but for me it was mind boggling that they were still letting people in.






With that being said I think this is a sick club if you do get bottle service. If you don't and you are in a group you probably will not have a great time. It was pretty fun though how they brought out some of the more expensive bottles I presume. Fireworks coming out of the bottle, and holding signs up like it was a boxing match. And of course couple of hot girls holding up some strobe lights while walking to the table.

Tiesto came on at 1am sharp, personally I didn't like the DJ before him that much. But Tiesto oh jesus. He probably made every people there forget that it was so cramped. He was way better than I expected and felt like every song that he played was right from my Spotify list. He also had way more energy, interaction with the crowds and such than the DJ that was before him who just stood still with his cap on for the 2 hours I saw him.

At around 3am I was getting so tired from standing in almost the same spot for 4 hours and having to catch an early flight I decided to call it a night.

Today. Home.

Will probably do a recap blog when I get back home

Looks are deceiving This trip is really "Balling on a budget"

Got the hotel stupidly cheap through some MLife offer
Suite upgrade for $20
Business Class upgrade for 1/3 of the real cost (and the flights themselves bought at a great discount)
Stayed free in LA with family
The rental car was just for one day, and found a 20% discount code using Google. The gasoline was almost as expensive as the car itself

I then shop very little, don´t do drugs or strip clubs so not spending any money on that. And fine dining by yourself isn´t that expensive.

Staying for four days also means that I had more money per day that I could use to gamble If I were staying for 7 days f.x. I would not have tried 5/10.

Bring a budget your comfortable with loosing without effecting your life at all and divide it into the days you are here seems like a nice simple rule to follow.

good trip report wojo ...enjoyed pictures and descriptions

B

Very good TR..

If you thought Tiesto was good you should have seen him 5 years ago. Def past his prime as a DJ.

Yeah
There hasn't been any outlandish spending.
Glad you're enjoying the trip.

Best trip report I have read in a while. Well done OP

Solid TR.

One of the best dealers at Aria