My younger brother turns 30 on April 27 so I made plans for us to go to Las Vegas to celebrate his birthday. He is a Vegas virgin and left it up to me to do the planning. I have been to Las Vegas at least 10 times so I wanted to make sure I made his first trip to Vegas memorable.

We left Detroit metro on 4/26 on a non-stop flight, flying Delta. We did not have assigned seats so I was getting nervous about being bumped to another flight. First win of our trip was when we got our seats at the gate and we sat in the Emergency exit row with nice leg room for both of us.

Landed in Las Vegas 15 minutes early and saw my favorite sign



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We are staying for 3 nights at the Wynn. I have stayed all over the Strip but this was my first stay at the Wynn. I tried the $20 trick and it worked like a charm. We got a nice room on the 32 floor with views of the golf course. I was very happy with the voice for our stay and my brother was very impressed with the room and the resort.




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We rented a car for our stay since we wanted to take a couple of trips to the Hoover Dam and a round of golf.
These are some pictures from our drive to the Wynn.



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After checking in at the Wynn we were starving so decided to try the Buffet there.
This was my favorite buffet and we definitely got our money's worth.




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Both my brother and I like to play poker so we headed to the Luxor poker room to play some poker for a couple of hours. My brother wanted to watch Carrot Top (don't judge) so the Luxor poker room was convenient.
We both sat together at the same table (only table they had going). Got a chance to meet a local poker celebrity, the one and only Mark aka PokerKraut


PokerKraut was very friendly and a delight to play with. My brother held his own and was down about $50, while I got hit by the deck with some good cards and ended up the session +$285


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Carrot Top was actually not bad and we had a good time watching his shtick. We called it a night earlier since we had a long day ahead of us.

My brother wanted to go check out Hoover Damn on his birthday being the Engineering nerd that he is. We made a stop at the Aria buffet for breakfast and the food there was very good. We both though the Wynn buffet was better though.

40 minute drive to Hoover Damn and it was a cool place to see.

Hope your brother took the dam tour. Not to be missed by anyone with even a tiny interest in engineering.

Yep the tour was great and he enjoyed it very much.


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Subbed. Have a good trip.

PS poker Kraut's name is Kevin

Thanks for the correction. I'm not sure where I got Mark from.


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After we got done with the Hoover Dam tour we decided to stop by the Aria poker room for some cash games. We both sat at the same 1-3 no limit table and played for a few hours. Nothing too exciting happened and I cashed out +150 while my brother was down about -100.
This was near the peak of my chip stack, I know weak chip porn but wait... it will get better tomorrow



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I had scored a free race via MyVEGAS for the Pole Position Go Cart racing experience so we decided to go check it out later in the day after we cashed out from the Aria poker room. These electric Go Carts were pretty fast and topped at 45 mph. We were required to wear helmets for safety and you race 12 laps around an indoor track and the fastest recorded lap wins the race.
My brother beat my best lap by about 0.5 a second in our first free race. We bet $20 and he won the first bet. We decided to go double or nothing and paid for a 2nd race. I thought I memorized the turns pretty good and I had a better game plan to try to beat the birthday boy. Well, the good news is that my adjustments worked and I bested my own time by almost a full second but my brother also made adjustments and he squeezed by for the win by a mere 0.1 second. Birthday boy wins again and he's up $40 on me.



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It's still April 27 and my brother wanted to get back to the Strip to keep the birthday celebration going. We made a stop at the Cosmopolitan at my suggestion and we had a drink at Chandelier bar. Nice drinks and nice eye candy


No trip to Vegas is complete without watching the Bellagio fountains at least once. By coincidence the song playing during the fountain show was the same Andrea Bocelli "Con te partiro" that I saw on my first ever trip to Vegas back in 2004.



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It's 9 pm on 4/27 and my brother has more gamble on him and wants to try his first donkament of the trip. We decided to play the 9 pm $65 tournament at the Flamingo poker room. The blind structure is ridiculous as these tournaments are meant to be done in 2, max 3 hours. They had about 30 runners and paid top 3 I believe. My brother fired 2 bullets and got eliminated somewhere around 15th place. I lasted a little longer and made the final table. I had 5 big blinds left and pushed all in with KQ off and got called by a bigger stack with 77. Flop was favorable with K 62, turn brought me a beautiful Q but the river was a rather unfavorable 7 to bust me out in 8th place for a $0 cash for my 2+ hour effort.
I had been drinking some Vodka Redbulls while playing the tourney so I was still wired and wanting to do some more gambling at midnight. I was feeling the Dice Gods were with me this night so we stopped at a Craps table at Harrah's on our way back to the Wynn. We had some nice shooters, including yours truly and I turned my $300 buy in to over $725 for a nice $425 profit at Craps. This win sure erased the bitter taste of my tourney a few hours earlier. I forgot to take a picture at the pretty $500 chip when I cashed out. That's a wrap on 4/27 and more fun and chip porn pictures to come during our next day on 4/28. Stay tuned...


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Enjoyable read. Brings me back to my first ever Vegas trip last year also for my 30th birthday. Highlights also included a car rental and a trip to the dam. Hope you guys had a blast.


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Looks like a blast, the go carts in particular I am gonna have to try that one time!


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They were lots of fun and I would recommend you give them a shot.


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Thank you for tagging along. We just got back to reality and I will attempt to wrap up this TR in the next 24 hours. Lots of fun on our last full day with Quads and Quads and poker gods smiling upon us...


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Friday April 29 -

It's our last full day in Las Vegas and we want to make the best of today. We had originally planned to golf in the morning but the winds were very strong and it would not help our already wicked slice.
We decided to pass on golf and I convinced my brother to head over to MGM Grand and play the 11 am tournament there. My brother was down in all 3 poker sessions we had played and I felt he would be due a win.
But before the tournament started we hit the MGM buffet for their brunch with unlimited mimosas. Our bellies were full and we were ready to go battle on the poker felt.

The 11 am tourney started right on time and they had about 60 runners. They had re-buy options during the first hour and we were both ready to fire a couple of bullets if we had to. I had pocket aces my 2nd hand and won a decent pot. That would be as high as my chip stack would get and the highlight for my tournament. There were a few decent players and one of them bluffed my out of a good pot when a scary 3rd spade showed up on the river and he pushed all in. I folded my top pair, top kicker and he showed the whole table 8 2 off for complete air (he was on the button and had position on me).
This same player would put me all in right after the 1 hour re-buy mark had ended. I had raised pre-flop with 99 and the flop was great for my pair with 7 3 2 with 2 clubs. He had position on me again and pushed all in after my bet on the flop. I called and he shows 10 4 of clubs. Turn was a brick but the river was the 3rd club. He made his flush on the river and I was out of the tournament. I was not upset about since I put my money in with the best hand and sometimes that's how the cookie crumbles.
My brother on the other hand was doing better and had doubled his starting stack and having a good time at his table, with a mix of guys from Scotland, Ireland and Germany. I bought in for $300 in the 1-2 no limit cash games while keeping tabs on my brother's progress.
I was trying to cheer him and keep his spirits high during the roller coaster that is tournament poker.
I sent him this meme when he got beat and lost 2/3 of his stack as heavy favorite 4/1


He had about 8 big blinds left and he was able to double up through the same guy who sucked out on him


Top 7 players got paid and I sent him this old favorite meme of mine when he was sitting at the final table


The bubble burst about 3 hours after the tournament started and my brother was running well between getting some cards and stealing blinds when he sensed weakness. When there were 4 players left they all agreed to chop based on chip stacks. My brother had the 2nd largest stack and with the blinds going up quickly he was able to parlay the $70 free roll buy in to a 2nd place finish of $525!
I was very happy for him and glad that he listened to his big brother and saw his poker fortunes change for the better. I took a picture of him as he was cashing his winnings. This was his first live tournament cash pay out (1 out of 3)

My cash game session at MGM Grand was up and down, with the low point being down about -$250. I was able make a comeback and got myself out of the hole leaving slightly up for the session about + $35 and 7 drinks later.
We had made a 6:30 pm reservation at BLT Steak and we had a couple of hours to kill before dinner. We decided to check out the High Roller. The High Roller was a first for me as well and we both really enjoyed the views of the Strip and all the surrounding area.

2nd place should put two fingers up... haha, kidding. Nice run!

After the High Roller we picked up a few gifts for the people back home and we were ready to devour some good cuts of meat.
BLT Steak had a nice decor and we were very happy with the service we got there. I was able to use my $100 Diamond anniversary credit for this dinner.
They first brought up some appetizers to start us with

Next came the amazing bread that I had heard great reviews about and it was spectacular!

For the main entree I ordered the Filet Mignon cooked Medium and my brother ordered the Veal Chop. We ordered some Asparagus and Truffle mashed potatoes as our sides



The steak was phenomenal and I would give BLT Steak a 5 star rating in my book.
It was our best meal of the trip and I'm glad I made the reservation at this restaurant.

Ha ha true that! Thanks

nice tr and pics. where exactly is the go cart place? might give it a try next time im there.

The Go Kart place is next to Palms Casino less than 1 mile from the Strip