Earl, Sleep, Grind, Repeat
10-27-2017
, 11:17 AM
I don't know. I'm not really a big alcoholic drinker and 99% of the time would just pick soft drink unless it's a big night out with mates etc. Infact for the whole trip the only alcoholic drink I'd had was that one sip of sour cocktail the night before. While for most people it would be red wine, for me nothing really better than freshly squeezed orange juice and amazing steak.
10-27-2017
, 04:18 PM
Hey TwoPlusTwo,
So this picture can only mean thing. I’ve arrived safely back in grey and gloomy Tbilisi, Georgia with only the office on Monday morning to look forward too!
The Vegas dream is over, at least for another year.
So as I said in my last post I woke up after CUT and Elton to a message from Martin saying that my Virgin flight to London had been delayed two hours which meant I would miss my flight to Dublin and then miss my flight to Munich and back home to Tbilisi. I called Virgin Atlantic and they said there is a later flight going from London to Dublin which they could transfer me onto but that would mean I’d be arrive in Dublin around 16:10, have to get my bags, check into my Munich flight, go through security and get to get the Munich flight gate before the scheduled flight time of 16:55 which just wasn’t going to happen. I spent most of the morning checking if I could fly out of Dublin later but the 16:55 Munich flight was just about the only way I could get back to Tbilisi that day without spending $1.5k on a flight or flying 24 hours. With the realization that I would most likely having to spend a night in a Dublin hotel and booking flights out of Dublin for the next day I was pretty tilted to say the least. I just wanted to get home and have time to chill before going back to work. Then it hit me… Why don’t I just fly back via London? According to Virgin Atlantic rules if you skip any part of the journey then you void all future flights but the only flight I wouldn’t be making is the last flight of the leg to Dublin so it didn’t really matter if they cancelled my flights as the journey with them had ended. It would also be less hassle as it’d mean one less flight. The only worry I had was my luggage would go straight through to Dublin and I’d be arriving back in Tbilisi with no bags. I called Virgin Atlantic again and told them my plan and told them because the flight had been delayed out of Vegas this was the only way I’d get home. The person on the phone said it would be fine to not take the Dublin leg but I would need to make sure the check-in staff in the Vegas airport check my bag to London. This was great news for me! I found and booked a London to Istanbul and then Istanbul to Tbilisi flight. It would mean I arrive in Tbilisi one hour later than I had planned but would also mean I actually get home rather than spending an extra night in Dublin and means I have one less flight for the trip (a total of 9 flights instead of the planned 10 flights).
With this sorted I clean my room, pack my things up and say bye to the room one final time. I head down to the Poker room to make sure that the poker room rate is taken off my hotel bill before I check out. As I said in my last post I was around five hours short to get the whole trip discounted so when I went to the poker desk to get the discount I asked them if they could make an expectation and discount the whole thing as I was just 5 hours short of the full discount and it was mainly down to my friend missing his flights that I’d not been able to do it all alone. The woman at the poker desk said “They’re normally really strict with the policy so probably not but let me call them and ask”. She called what I assume was the Poker room manager and pretty quickly she put down the phone and confirmed that it would be fine and I’d get the whole thing discounted. $200 saved, good old Sheldon and his love for customer service! But in all seriousness, the Venetian staff are and have always been great to me which is the main reason for returning there every year. I head over to the hotel checkout desk and have that awkward minute silence while I’m hoping the checkout lady isn’t looking at the room internet history on her computer haha. Check out and pay with the newly acquired discount. At this point it’s 11am and my flight now isn’t until 17:30 so I still had plenty of time to kill in Sin City. I drop my bags off and as it was nearly lunch time and I was getting hungry I decided to grab some food, I’ll give you one guess where I ended up
The last Earl of the trip and most likely the last one for at least 18 months so went with two sandwiches to make up for lost time and also got an extra cookie for the flight back home. Gonna miss it and hope the withdrawal symptoms aren’t so bad
After Earl and still with time to kill I mooch around the Planet Hollywood mall for a little while and then decide it’s time for a final Craps session of the trip. I was imagining how cool it would be to win $1k and be able to post on here that I won a extra $1k as I was leaving. I actually felt really good vibes about the session I was about to have and I couldn’t see how it wouldn’t be a decent session. I arrive at the table and was told by someone playing that the woman who was rolling was on a massive heater, most people’s chip racks were full of red, green and black chips. Right, this is it I thought. I threw $50 to the dealer and after the woman had hit the point I decided to strike and place my bets across the table, 6, 8, 10, hardways, one of the dealers I shout as I throw my chips across the table, let’s go! I really felt good about this.
The shooter rolls the dice across the table, and almost as if it’s in slow motion first dice I see is a 4 and the second one is a 3… “Sevens and out!” shout the dealers. The shooter looks and me and says “I’m really sorry!” as it was literally my first roll and I’d just lobbed $50 onto the table. I just responded with “It wasn’t you, I think it should me saying sorry!” With my last Vegas ‘victory’ craps session over in one roll I head to Roulette and throw $10 on black 17 and when this totally bricks for not even a sweat I decide that my Vegas gambling is done for this year.
I head back down the strip one final time. Chill in a Starbucks for an hour or so writing the previous TR post and when it was about time I set off to the Venetian to collect my luggage.
As I’m walking through the Venetian one final time I notice a Vegas store and as by this point I was running fairly late for my flight I quickly fill a basket full of gifts for people back in the office, it was like one of those shopping spree videos where they get to keep everything they put in their basket but only have a minute to do it haha.
So after spending a couple hundos for gifts for people back in Georgia I finally collect my luggage, flag a taxi and leave the Venetian.
Last view of the strip
Georgia socks ready for the trip
Another really cool taxi driver. He had come over to the US from Ethiopia two years ago and was telling me stories about Ethiopia. I got lucky with the taxi drivers this trip, they all seemed super friendly and have really interesting stories. But maybe this is only after 10 months of Georgian taxi drivers who smoke and don't speak any English
So I arrive at the Virgin Atlantic check in desk and have the fairly large sweat when they couldn’t change my bag location from Dublin to London “it’s really strange sir but the computer system just isn’t allowing us to change it”. I really thought that I would somehow have to get my bags shipped from Dublin to Georgia which would have been a real ballache but after 30 minutes of trying the third operator managed somwehow to fix it so I would be picking my bags up in London.
One last gamble before leaving. Only ever see this in Vegas airport.
The original flight was meant to be setting off at 15:30 and this had been delayed to 17:30 so we got on the plane at 17:15 but by 18:30 we still hadn’t set off yet. The pilot announced that the engineer had not passed the plane safe to travel and they needed to test something on engine 4 and if that was all good we’d be going. When it comes to delayed flights there is one reason I really I don’t care about and that’s mechanical delays. Please please please check that engine 50 times if that’s what’s needed, just make sure it’s good for flying and no pressure if not haha. Anyway after a little longer we take off just as the sun was setting, slightly more worried about the flight after all this engine talk.
I really like the Virgin night flight, though I didn’t get much chance to sleep. Woman in front of me watching some strange webcam thing haha.
Yesterday I had the best mac & cheese at CUT and today the downgraded plane mac & cheese
One last taste of Vegas:
The engine 4 is a trooper and lasts the whole flight without blowing up so I arrive in London safely. I have the small sweat waiting for my bags as I thought there was still a chance my bag would somehow not turn up and find itself in Dublin so I was pretty relieved when I saw it coming down the baggage claim, phew! I now had six hours to kill in London Gatwick before my flight to Istanbul. I head over to the Turkish airlines desk to check into my flight. I travel a lot and used to live in Spain / work in Gibraltar which means my passport is fairly damaged and let’s just say it’s on its last legs but as I’d had no issues on any other part of the tourney I thought it would be fine. The woman at the checkin desk seemed to be concerned with the state of it though and kept playing with the corners which have started to fold up. I honestly thought that this would be the cherry on the cake of my flight nightmares and I wouldn’t be allowed on this flight back home but after calling her supervisor she said I was allowed on the flight but I had to sign a bit of paper saying that if I had any issues getting into Georgia that it wasn’t Turkish Airlines fault. As I’m signing the paper I explain the flight problems I’ve had this trip and that this would have really been the worst problem. She seemed to take pity on me and said “would a free upgrade to the exit row with extra leg room seats make things a little better” I snap call. And with flight runbad EV slightly increased I head to the departures gate. With 5 hours to kill I blast through most of Narcos season 3 (really enjoyed it, probably my favorite season out of the three). And get onto the flight to Istanbul.
And with a further 3 hours to kill in Istanbul get onto the flight back home to Tbilisi!! Finally land in Tbilisi, play one more game of baggage roulette and grab a taxi back to my apartment.
I had started a stopwatch as I got onto the plane in Vegas and stopped it as I got off the plane in Tbilisi and in total just over 24 hours of travelling, I was dead.
Ready for bed!
I get back to my apartment door at 5:30am and realise that I don’t have my apartment key! I remember putting it somewhere when I left Tbilisi two weeks previously but had totally forgot where I’d put it for safe keeping. My landlord lives next door but I really didn’t want to wake her up at 5:30am in the morning so I literally have to empty my entire suitcase out on the floor infront of my door haha. Eventually find the key in a laptop case pocket and just as I do my landlords door opens “Tommy, you ok?” she says her in Georgia accent. Ooops, the noise of me emptying my suitcase must have woken her anyway, bodishi, bodishi! (sorry in Georgian).
I finally get into my apartment, have a well-earned shower and literally sleep for the next 12 hours.
Trip P&L:
Poker:
Total comps: $43
Total hours played: 43
Total hourly rate: $32
I had a great start to the trip but dropped a little back over two fairly large losing sessions but overall still happy with how I played after 10 months without hardly playing any poker. I’ve been to Vegas seven times now and come back up in Poker each trip (brag ). This is the least amount I’ve won playing poker during a trip but I really can’t complain.
For spending money including the $250 I’d dropped out of my pocket (still tilted about that) I have spent $1,695 which includes all meals, Helicopter, taxis, drinks, work gifts, San Fran visit and Craps. Meaning my total P&L for the trip (excluding flights and hotel) is -$313 (my first Vegas loss) but still isn’t bad for a week in Sin City with everything that I got up too!
Right, so that’s the end of the adventure TwoPlusTwo. Another year and another Vegas dream is over with. Just work emails and spreadsheets waiting for me on Monday morning. But jeez what a hell of an enjoyable rollercoaster this trip has been. Amsterdam, Solo Trip and flight sweat, arriving in Vegas, first $500 winning session, San Fran, CUT, Elton John, Wynn Buffet, Helicopter and Earl lots and lots of Earl Thanks again for everyone who read and commented on the TR, I really enjoy doing these things. For me the nice feedback, comments and well wishes just make the whole Vegas experience 10x more enjoyable, especially this time when I was there alone. Thanks!
As I said, I doubt I’ll be back in Vegas in 2018. I’ve done it seven times now and spent most of my vacation during my 20s in Sin City and it’s time to see somewhere new I think. However, it’s my 30th birthday in Feb 2019 and I’m already planning what will almost certainly be the most epic trip of all time. I would love to go with a big group of friends and I barely mentioned it to Dan, Joe and Martin who already instantly snapped it up. In total there are 10 potential Vegas legends on the list of invitees which include a full mix of degens, partiers, poker players and ballas. I’m already super hyped to start my 30s in Sin City surrounded by my friends! I’ll make sure there is a TR as well (with guest posts from Joey) so you guys can all join along with the fun. This will be epic!
Until then, may your cards be live and your pots be monsters.
Thanks again!
Tom
So this picture can only mean thing. I’ve arrived safely back in grey and gloomy Tbilisi, Georgia with only the office on Monday morning to look forward too!
The Vegas dream is over, at least for another year.So as I said in my last post I woke up after CUT and Elton to a message from Martin saying that my Virgin flight to London had been delayed two hours which meant I would miss my flight to Dublin and then miss my flight to Munich and back home to Tbilisi. I called Virgin Atlantic and they said there is a later flight going from London to Dublin which they could transfer me onto but that would mean I’d be arrive in Dublin around 16:10, have to get my bags, check into my Munich flight, go through security and get to get the Munich flight gate before the scheduled flight time of 16:55 which just wasn’t going to happen. I spent most of the morning checking if I could fly out of Dublin later but the 16:55 Munich flight was just about the only way I could get back to Tbilisi that day without spending $1.5k on a flight or flying 24 hours. With the realization that I would most likely having to spend a night in a Dublin hotel and booking flights out of Dublin for the next day I was pretty tilted to say the least. I just wanted to get home and have time to chill before going back to work. Then it hit me… Why don’t I just fly back via London? According to Virgin Atlantic rules if you skip any part of the journey then you void all future flights but the only flight I wouldn’t be making is the last flight of the leg to Dublin so it didn’t really matter if they cancelled my flights as the journey with them had ended. It would also be less hassle as it’d mean one less flight. The only worry I had was my luggage would go straight through to Dublin and I’d be arriving back in Tbilisi with no bags. I called Virgin Atlantic again and told them my plan and told them because the flight had been delayed out of Vegas this was the only way I’d get home. The person on the phone said it would be fine to not take the Dublin leg but I would need to make sure the check-in staff in the Vegas airport check my bag to London. This was great news for me! I found and booked a London to Istanbul and then Istanbul to Tbilisi flight. It would mean I arrive in Tbilisi one hour later than I had planned but would also mean I actually get home rather than spending an extra night in Dublin and means I have one less flight for the trip (a total of 9 flights instead of the planned 10 flights).
With this sorted I clean my room, pack my things up and say bye to the room one final time. I head down to the Poker room to make sure that the poker room rate is taken off my hotel bill before I check out. As I said in my last post I was around five hours short to get the whole trip discounted so when I went to the poker desk to get the discount I asked them if they could make an expectation and discount the whole thing as I was just 5 hours short of the full discount and it was mainly down to my friend missing his flights that I’d not been able to do it all alone. The woman at the poker desk said “They’re normally really strict with the policy so probably not but let me call them and ask”. She called what I assume was the Poker room manager and pretty quickly she put down the phone and confirmed that it would be fine and I’d get the whole thing discounted. $200 saved, good old Sheldon and his love for customer service! But in all seriousness, the Venetian staff are and have always been great to me which is the main reason for returning there every year. I head over to the hotel checkout desk and have that awkward minute silence while I’m hoping the checkout lady isn’t looking at the room internet history on her computer haha. Check out and pay with the newly acquired discount. At this point it’s 11am and my flight now isn’t until 17:30 so I still had plenty of time to kill in Sin City. I drop my bags off and as it was nearly lunch time and I was getting hungry I decided to grab some food, I’ll give you one guess where I ended up
Spoiler:
The last Earl of the trip and most likely the last one for at least 18 months so went with two sandwiches to make up for lost time and also got an extra cookie for the flight back home. Gonna miss it and hope the withdrawal symptoms aren’t so bad
After Earl and still with time to kill I mooch around the Planet Hollywood mall for a little while and then decide it’s time for a final Craps session of the trip. I was imagining how cool it would be to win $1k and be able to post on here that I won a extra $1k as I was leaving. I actually felt really good vibes about the session I was about to have and I couldn’t see how it wouldn’t be a decent session. I arrive at the table and was told by someone playing that the woman who was rolling was on a massive heater, most people’s chip racks were full of red, green and black chips. Right, this is it I thought. I threw $50 to the dealer and after the woman had hit the point I decided to strike and place my bets across the table, 6, 8, 10, hardways, one of the dealers I shout as I throw my chips across the table, let’s go! I really felt good about this.
The shooter rolls the dice across the table, and almost as if it’s in slow motion first dice I see is a 4 and the second one is a 3… “Sevens and out!” shout the dealers. The shooter looks and me and says “I’m really sorry!” as it was literally my first roll and I’d just lobbed $50 onto the table. I just responded with “It wasn’t you, I think it should me saying sorry!” With my last Vegas ‘victory’ craps session over in one roll I head to Roulette and throw $10 on black 17 and when this totally bricks for not even a sweat I decide that my Vegas gambling is done for this year.
I head back down the strip one final time. Chill in a Starbucks for an hour or so writing the previous TR post and when it was about time I set off to the Venetian to collect my luggage.
As I’m walking through the Venetian one final time I notice a Vegas store and as by this point I was running fairly late for my flight I quickly fill a basket full of gifts for people back in the office, it was like one of those shopping spree videos where they get to keep everything they put in their basket but only have a minute to do it haha.
So after spending a couple hundos for gifts for people back in Georgia I finally collect my luggage, flag a taxi and leave the Venetian.
Last view of the strip
Georgia socks ready for the trip
Another really cool taxi driver. He had come over to the US from Ethiopia two years ago and was telling me stories about Ethiopia. I got lucky with the taxi drivers this trip, they all seemed super friendly and have really interesting stories. But maybe this is only after 10 months of Georgian taxi drivers who smoke and don't speak any English
So I arrive at the Virgin Atlantic check in desk and have the fairly large sweat when they couldn’t change my bag location from Dublin to London “it’s really strange sir but the computer system just isn’t allowing us to change it”. I really thought that I would somehow have to get my bags shipped from Dublin to Georgia which would have been a real ballache but after 30 minutes of trying the third operator managed somwehow to fix it so I would be picking my bags up in London.
One last gamble before leaving. Only ever see this in Vegas airport.
The original flight was meant to be setting off at 15:30 and this had been delayed to 17:30 so we got on the plane at 17:15 but by 18:30 we still hadn’t set off yet. The pilot announced that the engineer had not passed the plane safe to travel and they needed to test something on engine 4 and if that was all good we’d be going. When it comes to delayed flights there is one reason I really I don’t care about and that’s mechanical delays. Please please please check that engine 50 times if that’s what’s needed, just make sure it’s good for flying and no pressure if not haha. Anyway after a little longer we take off just as the sun was setting, slightly more worried about the flight after all this engine talk.
I really like the Virgin night flight, though I didn’t get much chance to sleep. Woman in front of me watching some strange webcam thing haha.
Yesterday I had the best mac & cheese at CUT and today the downgraded plane mac & cheese
One last taste of Vegas:
The engine 4 is a trooper and lasts the whole flight without blowing up so I arrive in London safely. I have the small sweat waiting for my bags as I thought there was still a chance my bag would somehow not turn up and find itself in Dublin so I was pretty relieved when I saw it coming down the baggage claim, phew! I now had six hours to kill in London Gatwick before my flight to Istanbul. I head over to the Turkish airlines desk to check into my flight. I travel a lot and used to live in Spain / work in Gibraltar which means my passport is fairly damaged and let’s just say it’s on its last legs but as I’d had no issues on any other part of the tourney I thought it would be fine. The woman at the checkin desk seemed to be concerned with the state of it though and kept playing with the corners which have started to fold up. I honestly thought that this would be the cherry on the cake of my flight nightmares and I wouldn’t be allowed on this flight back home but after calling her supervisor she said I was allowed on the flight but I had to sign a bit of paper saying that if I had any issues getting into Georgia that it wasn’t Turkish Airlines fault. As I’m signing the paper I explain the flight problems I’ve had this trip and that this would have really been the worst problem. She seemed to take pity on me and said “would a free upgrade to the exit row with extra leg room seats make things a little better” I snap call. And with flight runbad EV slightly increased I head to the departures gate. With 5 hours to kill I blast through most of Narcos season 3 (really enjoyed it, probably my favorite season out of the three). And get onto the flight to Istanbul.
And with a further 3 hours to kill in Istanbul get onto the flight back home to Tbilisi!! Finally land in Tbilisi, play one more game of baggage roulette and grab a taxi back to my apartment.
I had started a stopwatch as I got onto the plane in Vegas and stopped it as I got off the plane in Tbilisi and in total just over 24 hours of travelling, I was dead.
Ready for bed!
I get back to my apartment door at 5:30am and realise that I don’t have my apartment key! I remember putting it somewhere when I left Tbilisi two weeks previously but had totally forgot where I’d put it for safe keeping. My landlord lives next door but I really didn’t want to wake her up at 5:30am in the morning so I literally have to empty my entire suitcase out on the floor infront of my door haha. Eventually find the key in a laptop case pocket and just as I do my landlords door opens “Tommy, you ok?” she says her in Georgia accent. Ooops, the noise of me emptying my suitcase must have woken her anyway, bodishi, bodishi! (sorry in Georgian).
I finally get into my apartment, have a well-earned shower and literally sleep for the next 12 hours.
Trip P&L:
Poker:
- 5hrs - $503
- 3hrs - $202
- 1hrs - $235
- 4hrs - $310
- 5hrs - $348
- 7.5hrs - $304
- 1hrs - $47
- 6.5hrs – ($457)
- 2.5hrs – ($372)
- 6.5hrs - $215
Total comps: $43
Total hours played: 43
Total hourly rate: $32
I had a great start to the trip but dropped a little back over two fairly large losing sessions but overall still happy with how I played after 10 months without hardly playing any poker. I’ve been to Vegas seven times now and come back up in Poker each trip (brag
). This is the least amount I’ve won playing poker during a trip but I really can’t complain. For spending money including the $250 I’d dropped out of my pocket (still tilted about that) I have spent $1,695 which includes all meals, Helicopter, taxis, drinks, work gifts, San Fran visit and Craps. Meaning my total P&L for the trip (excluding flights and hotel) is -$313 (my first Vegas loss) but still isn’t bad for a week in Sin City with everything that I got up too!
Right, so that’s the end of the adventure TwoPlusTwo. Another year and another Vegas dream is over with. Just work emails and spreadsheets waiting for me on Monday morning. But jeez what a hell of an enjoyable rollercoaster this trip has been. Amsterdam, Solo Trip and flight sweat, arriving in Vegas, first $500 winning session, San Fran, CUT, Elton John, Wynn Buffet, Helicopter and Earl lots and lots of Earl
Thanks again for everyone who read and commented on the TR, I really enjoy doing these things. For me the nice feedback, comments and well wishes just make the whole Vegas experience 10x more enjoyable, especially this time when I was there alone. Thanks!As I said, I doubt I’ll be back in Vegas in 2018. I’ve done it seven times now and spent most of my vacation during my 20s in Sin City and it’s time to see somewhere new I think. However, it’s my 30th birthday in Feb 2019 and I’m already planning what will almost certainly be the most epic trip of all time. I would love to go with a big group of friends and I barely mentioned it to Dan, Joe and Martin who already instantly snapped it up. In total there are 10 potential Vegas legends on the list of invitees which include a full mix of degens, partiers, poker players and ballas. I’m already super hyped to start my 30s in Sin City surrounded by my friends! I’ll make sure there is a TR as well (with guest posts from Joey) so you guys can all join along with the fun. This will be epic!
Until then, may your cards be live and your pots be monsters.
Thanks again!
Tom
10-27-2017
, 05:46 PM
Thanks for sharing your TR. It's always fun to read about peoples adventures, good and bad. I think you definitely made the most of your trip considering it ended up being solo. I've done numerous solo trips over the years, but don't get out nearly as much as you did.
24 hours to get home??? Holy F**K!!! I feel like a cry baby whining about having to connect once on my past trips when I lived in Austin. lol At least I'm back in Dallas now and have tons of direct flights.
24 hours to get home??? Holy F**K!!! I feel like a cry baby whining about having to connect once on my past trips when I lived in Austin. lol At least I'm back in Dallas now and have tons of direct flights.
10-28-2017
, 09:32 PM
12-12-2017
, 04:45 PM
CUT is my favorite steakhouse in Vegas. I eat there every trip. I almost always stay at Palazzo so it’s convenient. The dry aged Ribeye there is amazing. To me it’s the best steak there as it has the perfect marbling. The filet is 2nd choice. I’ve ordered the more expensive Waygu and didn’t like it as much. You have to get their onion rings. They are so light and crisp...perfect. I also get the appetizer the crab/shrimp Louie. It is chopped seafood salad and it has a really nice acidic zing to it. Creamed spinach is also great. Their bread selection is awesome too. If you need any other suggestions at any V/P restaurants let me know as I’ve eaten at them all many times.
12-18-2017
, 03:25 PM
I work in online gaming over here. I'm the Head of Casino for the largest online Casino in Georgia. Georgia is not exactly famous for i-gaming but it's very popular over here. Quite a few riggers here I believe so you're most likely right about your friend
12-18-2017
, 03:26 PM
Quote:
CUT is my favorite steakhouse in Vegas. I eat there every trip. I almost always stay at Palazzo so it’s convenient. The dry aged Ribeye there is amazing. To me it’s the best steak there as it has the perfect marbling. The filet is 2nd choice. I’ve ordered the more expensive Waygu and didn’t like it as much. You have to get their onion rings. They are so light and crisp...perfect. I also get the appetizer the crab/shrimp Louie. It is chopped seafood salad and it has a really nice acidic zing to it. Creamed spinach is also great. Their bread selection is awesome too. If you need any other suggestions at any V/P restaurants let me know as I’ve eaten at them all many times.
12-18-2017
, 03:28 PM
Enjoy