I don't play BJ big enough/seriously enough to play for a long session and tip at the end, I usually stick $5 dealer bet on first hand of every shoe, then a $1-$5 (depending on how it's going) dealer bet every time I hit a BJ/double/split hand that wins, whether winning or losing overall.

I'm not playing BJ (or pai gow) as a long term goal of making money, usually I'm just ****ing around for an hour to kill time and get at least *some* play on the card to try to get some offers of rooms etc in future. It used to be I'd play for the "free" drinks too, but as (other than Friday) I had I think 4 drinks all weekend that's really not my style any more.

OK so Sunday we wake up early and order Uber over to Crown and Anchor on Tropicana to watch the Spurs place, en route I place my sports bets for the day:



(Those of you that know, may realize that I needed later on that day to get the broom out, that's a sweep ladies and gents)

We get to Crown and Anchor wearing Spurs tops and the chairman of LV Spurs comes over to introduce himself to us, nice guy with a British accent. We settle down, BK wants to drink and apparently they can't serve booze in the bar area at that time so we sit up top, there are maybe 15-20 people in the bar most of them there to watch Tottenham:







and I order the "Banger on the Bun" (essentially a British style sausage sandwich):



Comfortably the worst bar food of all time. Stale, almost chalky bread, what tasted like frozen chips which had freezerburn, slightly slimy onions and a below par sausage.

That said, I *adored* that place. Friendly server/bartender, great people, an actual atmosphere for Tottenham in Las Vegas (with half an eye on Houston/Illinois as I had money on that), all round pleasant. Next time I'm in Vegas I'm there in a heartbeat.

Tottenham win pretty comfortably in the end 3-1 (though took a Son goal near the end to settle the nerves with a 2 goal cushion), good atmosphere and people are happy, I buy a scarf (I always do when I go to other supporters groups):





Tottenham win, Houston cover easily, I'm now essentially freerolling my other 2 bets (Duke -6.5 (picked purely because I hate MSU more than just about anything in my life for deeply silly and personal reasons), and Purdue -3.5 (because my local bar in Chicago is a big Purdue bar and I've come to love them).

We say our goodbyes and Uber back to Park MGM to get changed to go to STK, BK has a 60 minute snooze, I walk downstairs and realize I have $50 free play on my MLife card from the reservation, stick it in a $2 one armed bandit (you can't use it on a progressive machine) and stick $2 in the machine to start it, run through that and the $50 freeplay and cash out:



I'll take that any day and twice on Sunday.

I wander over to the Cosmo and find a seat facing the sportsbook to watch some of the Villanova game, for some reason the biggest screen has the damn NIT on it, wonder if some whale had $500k on that and demanded it, seems weird:



BK shows up and we go to STK and immediately just send it in. As discussed above I'm a huge fan of a gin martini, dry, twist, so I order a Botanist one. Had I known it was $30 I might have asked if it came with a reacharound, but it was good nonetheless (not as good as the one the prior night at ResortsWorld).

This is what $58 (+tax and tip) worth of oysters, a $92 (+tax and tip) steak, and a $12 (+tax and tip) knob of truffle butter look like:





Oh and let's not forget the $41 lobster mac and cheese:





All in all the meal was very good. Oysters were superb. Steak was a little overdone for my liking (server said chef recommends medium rare to medium so I went medium rare despite ALWAYS going rare), it was closer to medium especially around the edges imo, but was still highly solid.

Sides were good. Drink was great. It came to $250pp including tip. It wasn't that good. Now immediately annoyed at Carversteak again for cancelling on me. The Las Vegas Dollar to USD exchange rate is about 1.8:1, we all know this.

I proceed to go to Planet Hollywood to find some cheaper craps but fail, end up punting $150 at a $10 table when I buy in for $300 only to get down to my last $50, go $20 on pair plus and $15 on ante and play blind and hit a flush, immediately cash out and wander over to Aria to meet up with the LADS and get packed and leave.

Put $100 in a video poker machine and there is this weird multi-hand version I'd not played before, this almost immediately happens:



As previously discussed, I'm kind of a nit at all things -EV so just cash out a couple of hands later for $184 from $100.

At this point it was that I see Duke are down 5 with less than 7 minutes left and give up on my -6.5. Ahhhhhhhhhh there's nothing like an easy cover.

We get back to room, grab a quick dinner at Eataly (which I love, but I have a principle usually of when on vacation never going anywhere that I can get either in the city I live in, or in NYC or London (where I visit multiple times a year/have lived for extended periods)), settle at the circular bar in Park MGM and watch my (very expensive Calcultta auction purchased) Auburn team go down in flames to a rampant Miami.

My +EV Miami players in my lower stakes player draft taking care of my more expensive -EV Auburn team feels like a metaphor for me kind of crushing at poker and getting completely dumpster fired at table games. Such is Vegas.

Jump in a cab to the airport, and wish Vegas adieu until probably WSOP 2023. I've got to go back and use the $300 off at Carversteak, that seems like as good a time as any.

Oh, and I haven't actually totted up my results exactly yet. I know I won 3/3 poker sessions for c. +$1700, and lost every table game session (LOL), while winning at both bubble craps sessions and a couple of VP sessions, but my phone going bananas throughout meant I couldn't keep as good a record as I usually do.

Will do that later this week as I've got bits and pieces written down everywhere.

Other than Friday night it was a nice relaxing trip (albeit with a bunch of plans spoiled for various reasons), BK on the other hand I think slept 15 hours total from when we landed at 2am Thursday to when we left for airport late on Sunday night.

Man crazy, at these prices not much reason to make the trek to Fremont.

Post masks and March Madness, can't imagine it stays this way every weekend...

Crown and Anchor needs to up there food game. That looks like 70s,80s British pub fare. I was in London just before COVID and had some excellent pub food, maybe best pub food I’ve ever had.

Yeah no fair it will take some time but it has to settle down at some point.

London is indisputably one of the best food cities in the world.

$10 3 card poker table obvs

Which is a baffling reversal of fortune - this is after all the empire that conquered India to get a hold of a cuisine that didn't involve boiling beef

I mean in theory there’s not a lot of difference in different European cuisines. The reason why French and Italian food was so much better is the use of high quality ingredients and preparation. I went to France for the first time and got an order of mashed potatoes and a side of meat. However this was not the mashed potatoes I grew up eating. Perfectly puréed potatoes of a quality and type not sold here. A lot of high quality butter and milk mixed in hot, fresh herbs, the perfect amount of salt, pepper nutmeg. My mom I love her would just throw in some cold margarine and a bunch of Morton’s salt in some roughly mashed potatoes.

The Brits have finally figured this out. If you’re ever in London and in the are check out The Grazing Goat. Randomly stumbled upon after hitting up Cadenheads Whisky shop for a few bottles.

https://m.yelp.com/biz/the-grazing-g...ylebone-london

I just got fish and chips and smoked fish appetizer but the best examples of both I’ve ever had, great quality products prepared perfectly.


Sorry OP I’m totally derailing this excellent degen trip report.

a lifetime of living abroad taught me to never eat the expat options

either they changed it in order to acquiesce to local tastes or they simply don't know what it should be like or they do but can't manage to get the proper ingredients etc etc

but overall seems pretty cool you found that place, is definitely a place i'll check out

"The Las Vegas Dollar to USD exchange rate is about 1.8:1, we all know this."


Many have spoken of Vegas high prices, but none have captured it as elegantly or as humorously as this! Well done, Mr. Gramuel! SlowPoker would be proud!

I've been an expat in the US for almost 12 years (with a 4 month stint in Paris earlier on in life), and yeah when homesick there are a few places I will go to and they scratch the itch.

This was purely a captive market thing. It's where LV Spurs happened to meet. That said, it's not just an inability to get proper ingredients etc here, it was just flat out bad food. Again as said, will still go back in a heartbeat.

Am from London as it goes (well technically just outside but still on the Tube, easier to say London to you yanks).

What's your Purdue bar in Chicago?

Waterhouse Tavern, Lincoln and Roscoe

Nice, love that bar. I've lived in Lakeview for 10 years now, good friend of mine used to work there a few nights a week.

oh snap, never knew you were among us

any recs for places to view soccer games in nyc (club affiliation don't matter to me) just like watching good games

Spurs bar is (or at least was) Flannery's at like 14th and 8th. Brooklyn Spurs is Banter in Williamsburg. General soccer bars I actually have no idea lol.

Bar 43 in Sunnyside used to be my local and they would occasionally open up early for games, but not sure about Manhattan/BK.

Thank you for the great TR!

I'm confused by this. I've never found (though not looked that hard) a place in Vegas where alcohol isn't available 24/7. Any idea why they couldn't serve when you were there?

They were allowed to serve us alcohol in a different area, like up steps and behind a sort of barrier, but apparently not at that time if we were sitting at the bar itself. No clue, didn't press her lol, just went to where she said.

Note to all add Downtown Grand to your downtown Fremont rotation they have $5 craps, just off Fremont.