Brag - Won just over $7k playing blackjack
Beat - My ex-wife was with me for the trip
Brag - Had two different suites in on the strip, one at Venetian and one at Caesars
Beat - Did I mention my ex-wife
Sadly, a lot of my casino offers end up going to the house that I used to own...FU to the post office for not forwarding these. My ex saw the one from the Venetian and asked if she could come along. She had a conference their and we made plans to go together. We get along most of the time and I figured why not.
Day 1 - Tuesday
Arrived in Vegas at 6pm. Caught the shuttle to the Venetian. My first time staying at the Venetian and my first time riding the shuttle. A bit of a hassle but a lot better than the taxi line. For some reason, it takes me a little while to adjust to Vegas...always feel like someone is trying to hustle me.
Checked in and got a suite in the Venzia tower. Cool room, but I should not have chosen the strip view. The way the tower is set back all you could really see from the room was the roof of Casino Royale. I had imagined a suite at the Venetian would be nicer, but whatever, I won't complain about a free room. Splash a little cold water on my face and head down to the casino floor to check out the action. Ex went to sit by the pool.
I played blackjack for about an hour and got a few drinks in me. Looked down and my initial $400 was up to $800...not bad. Now time for dinner. We headed down to Hash House a Go Go in the Imperial Palace. Ok, yes it is in the IP, but it is good. Sadly, they do not sell hash (at least not the good kind) and it is not a Go Go. Whatever, food was outstanding. Got back to the hotel, Ex went to bed and I went back to the casino to play more blackjack. Bought in for $400 and about an hour later was up to $1000. Not bad, first night in Vegas and I was up $1K. Time for bed and a bit of sex with the Ex.
Day 2 - Wednesday
Wake up at 3am...hey, I am from the East Coast and I don't really like adjusting for a short trip. Headed down to the Grazie lounge for some fruit and coffee. The Ex tagged along. Considering how appealing the Venetian is, the Grazie lounge is a bit dumpy. The chairs are dirty and the selection is very limited. I am used to the Diamond Lounges in Atlantic City...on the plus side, the Grazie lounge is 24 hours. That and the coffee was actually really good.
The Ex went and played a slot machine and I headed to the Blackjack table. Bought in for $400 and an hour later had $900. Up $1500 for the trip. Ex started dropping hints that I could spend the money on her. Yeah right, I let her have the house. I draw the line there. She had to register for her conference soon, so we went back upstairs for a little morning delight. I think we have sex more now than when we were married...and it is better.
She left for her conference and I decided to head over to Qua at Caesars for a shave and to hit the saunas and pools. I love that stuff. Clears the head and is really refreshing. This has become my morning ritual in Vegas. So, I show up for my appointment with the barber. Apparently, there is some sort of barbering emergency. I never knew there was such a thing...and especially not so early in the morning. The barber came and apologized to me and said that he needed to push my appointment back 2 hours, but that the guy who was bumping me would pay for my service. Ok, I am cool with that. Caesars has blackjack tables and I need to work on maintaining my Diamond Status anyway. So, I left Qua and headed to the blackjack table.
There was small crowd watching the blackjack tables, but there were open seats at the table. After I sat down I realized why people were there. Ron Jaworski was at the table playing. That is one nice guy. I have dreamed of being a celebrity, but after the 3rd person interrupted him for a photo, he was still just as nice about it. I don't think I could be that way. Anyway, after I was at the table not about 30 minutes the pit boss came over and asked where I was staying. I told him that the Venetian offered me a suite and so I was staying there. No big deal. After about 90 minutes I ran my $400 up to $2000 and then my pile headed south a little bit and so at $1800, I colored up and decided to grab a quick meal before my shave. Pit boss came over and handed me a key for a room and me to move my stuff over from the Venetian and continue my stay at Caesars. Never had that happen before. Probably because I was already staying there. Up $2900 hundred for the trip. Maybe I should thank the guy who bumped me...because of his barber emergency, I won more.
Had a quick meal at the Augustus Cafe. What a waste of calories. I will eat almost anything, so when I don't clean my plate that is a bad sign. Maybe my perception of breakfast food was thrown off by the Hash House, but either way, not an enjoyable meal.
The shave at Qua was amazing! That guy is good. If the straight razor shave was an Olympic event, he might not win the gold, but he would be on the medal stand.
Freshly shaved, it was now time to relax by the pools. OK, this place has changed drastically since the last time I was there. Not really, it is exactly the same, but it was later in the day and a bit too crowded for my liking. Bunch of naked guys walking around is not my scene. I did see something new to me...a couple of guys had tramp stamps!?! Note to self, in the future, go early.
Swung by the blackjack tables to see if Jaws was still there. No luck, he had apparently left for a round of golf. I bought in for $400 and decided to bet $100 on the 1st hand. Not my style, but I hit blackjack. Then on the second hand, I bet $200 and had the 6-5, must double down hand. It hit and within the span of less than a minute, I was up another $550. At this point, I had determined that God had blessed me and it was time to make my Rainman/Galifiankis run on the house. I pressed my bet to $250. Ok, so maybe God didn't bless me and this was not the time for my run. I busted. Oh well, I colored up and decided to check out the room. $300 in 3 hands is nothing to be upset about and I was now up $3200 for the trip.
The suite at Caesars was pretty nice. It was big and probably could have used more furniture, but whatever, the bathroom was awesome. It was a his/hers set up with a shower that had two entrances and two different shower heads. There was a two person jetted tub and two different toilets. Oh, and a bidet. Never used one and didn't really feel like shooting water into my bum...but hey, it was there. At this point, my Ex called wondering where I was. Didn't realize I had been gone for so long. Seriously, I haven't been gone that long and if there wasn't the gay fashion show at Qua, I probably would still have been there. Either way, there is a reason she is my Ex. We made plans to meet in an hour for dinner.
I started to head back, but got side tracked by the blackjack tables at Caesars. Was up another $400 when my phone rang. Oh, it has already been an hour. I am in Vegas, where the Frick do you think I am...seriously, I am up $3600 at this point, enough that the bills do not fit comfortably in my wallet and she is busting my balls for being late. I head back over to the V and meet up with her for dinner. She asks what the hold up was, I show her my wallet. Now she isn't even dropping hints, she wants some of my money. Not going to happen. Seriously, we are divorced, why would I? Anyway, we head to dinner at Enoteca San Marco. What a great meal. Bottle of wine, a couple of salads, a tray of the meats and then a damn fine pizza. Molto makes good food. Ok, Molto's restaurants make good food.
It was pretty late and it was time for sexy time and then sleepy time. Except after sexy time, I just couldn't sleep. It kept eating away at me that my Ex thought I should be sharing my winnings. She brought it up a couple times during dinner as well. I had back down to the tables. Broke even after playing for a couple hours. Got to see a drunk guy play some of the sweetest blackjack ever. He hit on 17 and got a 4. Had an A5 against a dealer 10 and decided to stay. Soft 15 and you stay...this is some deep thinking here. he looked at the dealer and said that he knew the dealer had a low card under and the next card out was a 10. This guy should be working at the psychic hotline. At one point he passed out at the table. The pit boss asked his friend to take him away. The friend just said, oh he's fine, just resting. After getting an ear full from the pit boss, he smashed and elbow into the drunk guys ribs. The drunk guy shot up and grabbed a chip and threw it in and was ready to continue his crazy play. Anyway, my winnings for the session were $0...beats a losing session. Off to bed.
Day 3 - Thursday
Head back down to the Grazie lounge for the fruit and coffee at 3am. The Ex came along. I told her the tale of the drunken master. She apologized for asking for money. She could tell I was annoyed. Hey, she apologized...all cool in my world. Maybe she is learning and really just wants to hang out.
After the early morning snack I head to the blackjack table. The table is otherwise empty, so the Ex decides to take a seat and watch me play. First hand, I bet $75 and I get 88 against a dealer 6. Split the 88 and end up doubling down on both ends, I have $300 out and the dealer draws to a 6 card 21 (6-3-2-3-2-5). Not that I am a prolific counter, but that deck just went +10 over 12 cards. So, I take my last 100 and throw it in, thinking this must be the one. I get a 3-3 and the dealer has a 4 showing. I hit for a 10, dealer turns over a 6 and hits an 8. There goes my $400 and we are now at +13 after only 18 cards. I buy in for another $400. My luck turns and I run up to about $1400. Ok, I feel better now and decide it is time to walk away, but then the drunk's friend hows up at the table with a girl he had just met. We laugh about the drunk and then then worst thing happens. My Ex just starts to **** block this poor guy. Not cool. I have to pull her aside and let her know the score. Somehow, she didn't realize she was even doing it. Yeah right, she knew...what a bitch. Anyway, I continue to run good over the next hour and cash out for $2200. That now puts me up $5000. I think I could have kept going, but I knew I had just hit the $5k point and wanted to take a walk and savor this for a little bit.
Savoring lasted all of about 15 seconds. The Ex started needling me to give her money. I should point out that she has a good job as is well paid, so it isn't like she needs the money, but when we were married I shared my winnings. News flash, we are not married.
Either way, she has to go to her conference and I go hide in my alternate suite at Caesars. I tried to take a nap, but just played with the money for a while. To be honest, to this point this is my largest win in Vegas. I usually get bombed and give a solid portion back at some point. Not always to the casino. I have done the other stupid stuff as well. I am the idiot who has in previous trips paid hundred for a hand job only to be led to the back room and had a woman lotion up my hands and give me, yup, you guessed it, a hand job...quite a nice relaxing hand massage, but NOT anything like what I was expecting. So, maybe my Ex being there was a good thing. It did limit the damage that I could do to myself and I did keep my drinking in check. I am a happy drunk and probably would have ended up giving her cash.
Anyway, I ended up deciding to lock $4K in winnings and my original $1700 in the safe and leave that as won money and then only gamble from the $1k of winnings that I had left in my wallet.
I went down to the blackjack tables at Caesars and played for about an hour. Nothing of consequence really happened, but I won another $500. Then the Ex called, it was now time for lunch. Headed over to the Palazzo to go to Carnevino. This was an overall bad idea. The food was good, but the lunch menu is extremely limited and the portions were tiny. How the hell that small amount of food costs that much is beyond me, Molto's other place was way better and cheaper.
After lunch I decided to give the blackjack tables at the Palazzo a run. Didn't really like the atmosphere. It was just big...and even with a lot of people it felt empty. 30 minutes later I was $400 richer. I just could not get comfortable there and the dealer was just a rock. Not that I need a lot of interaction, but a personality on a blackjack dealer is preferred. Like Peter in the Venetian. He is an amazing dealer. A dealer can really make a table more fun and I tend to tip those dealers a much higher amount. Anyway, up $5900 by this point.
We (my Ex was still with me as she decided not to go to the afternoon session) headed over to the Venetian to play. I got a seat at a blackjack table and she went to play slots. Oh wow, the Sex and the City machine...yeah go play that. Slots are for fools. Anyway, my favorite dealer was there, Peter. Instead of my usual $400, I put out $800. It was time to make a run. Over the course of the next hour, I ran that up to $3000 and then lost 2 $100 bets and colored out. Up another $2000 to a total winning of $7900.
Now at this point, I am done for the day and I think I am done with gambling for a while. I have not had a losing session yet and blackjack is a game of averages...eventually, I am going to take a beating, if I continue.
The basketball games were on and it was an absolutely gorgeous day in Vegas. The pool at the Venetian was crowded and so we decided to headed over to Caesars and I wanted to introduce my two wads of cash to each other and make one big pile of cash. 5700, I would like you to meet 3900. 3900, I would like you to meet 5700.
We went down to the pool and I wanted to be a little bit of a balla, so I took up residence in a cabana. I am not really into basting myself in the sun and I wanted to watch basketball. There was a sign in the cabana that made it seem like the waitress will just come over and charge you for the cabana. That never happened. Spent the rest of the afternoon chilling in my free cabana drinking. I expected them to charge my room because I gave them my ID and room # for the drinks, but I am not complaining.
Decided to try one more restaurant in the Palazzo. We were both really wanting to go back to Enotecca San Marcos (I highly recommend the place), but there was an allure to SushiSamba. I like sushi, I like samba...seemed like a good idea. I think the cooks must have been UNLV fans and were watching the games. I was saddened that my last dinner in Vegas was just plain bad. The service was slow, the food wasn't good. In fairness, I would rather win and have bad food than the other way around.
Day 4
The plane was early, so there wasn't much time to do anything. Although, I am up at 3am, so there is time for more blackjack. I just wanted to win $400 more, so that I could go home with $10k in my pocket. Considering my previous daily winnings, this seemed like a simple task. Had the fruit and coffee in the Grazie lounge and then headed off to the tables. One note, over time and the more I think about it, I think I like the Grazie lounge more than the Diamond Lounge. Yes, the Diamond lounge has better food overall and serves liquor, but fruit is fruit and I have never gone to the lounge for more than a snack. The old people that go to the Diamond Lounge for dinner really piss me off. As for the free drinks, I can get those on the floor, so I am thinking the hours on Grazie lounge win out.
So, off to the table and I take an immediate $400 beating. I played a total of 12 hands. I lost 10 and pushed 2. The 2 that I pushed were both blackjacks where the dealer was showing a 10, so I didn't even have the option of taking even money. This was a very clear sign from the gambling gods. Go to your room, have sex with the Ex, pack your bags and get the F out of town. I am nothing if not a good listener. Although, my Ex would say otherwise.
She asked for money about three more times on the way home. What a buzz kill. When we got back, I didn't even spend the night in my old house (now her house), I just went home.
I won a lot of money. I am sure others have won more, but this was my biggest winning total yet. I should have been happy and partying it up. It is hard for me even now thinking about it.
Restaurant Report:
Hash House a Go Go: A, great food, great prices
Enotecca San Marcos: A, same as above
CarneVino: B, probably went at the wrong time, portions were tiny and menu was limited
SushiSamba: C, not sure how this place stays in business, not worth it
Augustus Cafe: F, there is a Dennys across the street with much better food
