Hello people,

It's once again time to head to Las Vegas, this time along with my brother. The latter has actually promised to contribute a bit to the TR this time around, so hopefully you guys will get a little bit of variation when reading.

I traveled from Malta to Norway yesterday, and we will travel together from here to Vegas - starting tomorrow. We are going via Chicago, and actually not making it out to Vegas until Sunday morning. But that's obviously a calculated move; it makes the trip a bit cheaper when you don't have to pay expensive hotel prizes on a Saturday.

As stated in the subject line, we will be in Vegas for 11 days - thus plenty of time for grind + relaxation. Weather forecast looks a bit weird, but seems it will warm up towards the end of our trip at least. And it's Vegas, don't need amazing weather to have fun!

I obviously have shoes & roll ready for action:



Results-wise, I had a great trip in November last year and I hope to build on that. I just need to be focused and have the right thoughts during hands, and the results should follow. Definitely looking to dip my toes into a little bit more $2/$5 at least, especially during the weekend. And another big goal is to avoid at all costs the games where 2+2 legend 'LAG' is sitting

I will be staying at 3 different hotels during the trip, as always taking advantage of some comped nights at MGM Rewards. I will find myself at Delano, Horseshoe and Vdara along the way, and especially looking forward to try out the latter towards the end of the trip.

Can't wait to be back in Vegas again, and although I will try to relax a lot and play some other stuff (hello, Video Poker!) as well, poker will definitely have first priority.

Will come back with an update from Chicago tomorrow evening, and obviously updates every day when we make it to Vegas!

let's goooooo

can't wait. and would love your pov on Vdara as I'm there for 10 days in June

safe trip and run good

Thanks! Brother will be staying at Vdara even longer than me, so there will be plenty of Vdara-feedback.

Rooms look great from the YouTube-videos I have seen at least, and the location is awesome for getting to Aria and Bellagio.

Good luck! Subscribed!

Always in for a BigWhale TR! How will we know your brother, is he dolphin or something?

Never heard of a whale worrying about hotel prices lol. You're a funny little man

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At Vdara April 12-16, hopefully will run into you the last 2 days of your trip! Good luck!

WooHoo, I will be there as well, grinding the CET 5x tier credit bonus.

I traded in all my fifties for hundos today. No pic tho.

Yikes, I have to avoid you both. I don't know what LAG's accent sounds like. You're originally from Norway, is it? Norwegians don't have an accent.

If you're not Diamond at CET or want an even higher status, video poker is one of the best ways to build tier credits.

5x sounds like a really good promotion, do you have any more details about it? (too lazy to Google).

Quick update after a long travel day; we have made it to Chicago after waking up super early this morning and flying Oslo - Stockholm - Chicago.

First flight was just a 45 minute hop over to the neighbouring country of Sweden, and from there it was around 8.5 hours flying time (+ one hour delay before takeoff) to Chicago. Thanks to brother's frequent flyer status on that airline we put in a bid for business class which was accepted (ship it!):



A fully reclining business seat sure made the travel much easier, although I was only able to sleep around an hour in total. After landing in Chicago, we breezed through immigration in five minutes and took a taxi to the random hotel we chose for the night. Here is a quick room picture:



Not a very exciting update, but I promise some Vegas-action tomorrow We will be landing around 10am, to what looks to be a nice and sunny day!

I think basically you just find a Total Rewards kiosk and enable your bonus. Only the tier credits you earned are multiplied. You still get daily bonuses but the bonuses are not multiplied. Say you earned 1000 tc in one day. Normally you also get a daily 1000 tc bonus for a total 2000 tc. With the 5x multiplier, you get 5000 tc but still get only 1000 tc bonus, 6000 total.

which airline and how good a deal did you get for the upgrade?

good luck man and have a fun trip

I am the aforementioned brother in this thread. For now, enjoy some slightly dirty Ecco shoes. Would also post roll, but it only consist of 50s, which I understand is not something you want to show in a photo.

The airline was SAS (Scandinavian Airlines), and I put in a bid for upgrade for us both to business class using bonus points, since I had too many of them points anyway. My point-bid was also internally elevated in their systems (worth more than what I actually bid) since I have the highest frequent flyer status on that airline.

Just a quick update to say that we made it to Vegas! After a good night's sleep in Chicago, we both woke up between 3-4am and eventually made it out to Chicago O'Hare for our morning flight to Vegas.

Not that much to say about the flight, great weather, it went by fairly quick (despite being almost 4 hours long), and eventually we touched down and could get the first glimpse of The Strip:



We are not staying in the same rooms and sometimes not even in the same hotel, as brother is now at Luxor while I am enjoying some comped nights at Delano. As we arrived fairly early in the day, we had to wait a while before we could check in. But after around 2 hours or so, my room became available and we headed up to check it out:







Room obviously looks amazing, and I am really looking forward to stay here for a couple of nights. Since the weather was nice, we just quickly showered and changed, and went to the Mandalay Bay pool to get some pool time in while we still can (crap weather next two days). Felt pretty refreshing, although it was super packed down there (added bonus: lots of pretty women!) and we didn't stay for too long.

After that, brother went to check in at Luxor while I headed out real quick to buy some essentials and look at the Vegas view:



To be honest, I will most likely not play any poker today. I have been feeling quite exhausted all day, as my body at times is not the best in dealing with long flights and travel days. So will probably just meet up with brother a bit later and play some Video Poker before going to bed.

Not the most exciting start, but I don't want to exhaust myself and potentially get sick etc. But I guarantee that we will get some actual poker content in this report tomorrow. And I'll update later tonight in case something exciting happens and/or I should happen to get a second wind and change my mind.

And regardless it's awesome being back in Vegas again

thanks. and was this pre flight or after boarding? I've learned from either Muck or Whale about buying an upgrade when on the plane already, which I'd never thought was a thing...can you do the same with points too?

nice pics. Delano looks great

welcome in. hope you have a fantastic week, and rungood

Pretty sure it’s considered illegal in Vegas to land rested 10am and not play all day.

Yeah that was me. Actually scored a complimentary upgrade on the way out last time with KLM, smiled nicely at the boarding counter and asked if they had any upgrades available and for how much. And since business class was full they put me in premium economy for free.

I've been pretty successful at getting a room early if I check in on the app well before I arrive. (I usually do it before I board my plane, around four hours in advance.) I would suggest checking in online early at Vdara as soon as you get the email notifying you that you can check in early.

Morning! Fell asleep very early last evening (just past 8pm), and woke up today around 4:30am. Early AF, but I feel decently rested.

After getting out of bed and taking a shower etc., I headed down to the casino floor where it was a quiet and relaxing atmosphere. Here exemplified with House Of Blues:



I sat down to grind some low stakes Bonus Poker, and did that for around 30 minutes, pretty much breaking even. Nice to get some low risk wagering in, and also hit the occasional quad:



I have also paid a visit to the Delano Gym this morning, which felt very refershing and is definitely something I'm gonna do every day I am here.

Believe it or not, it's soon time to play some poker! Gonna join the 10am $100 tournament at Ceasars with brother. And after we (hopefully) chop that one HU, I'm gonna find a cash game somewhere and start getting some hours in!

Delano does look great. It's always an option that pops up for me...it may be a choice now.
Keep the pics comin. Good luck

How are you getting around from way out there in the boonies? Ubers and cabs or hiking the whole way? It's windy as hell this morning - at Bally's I have a room where the balcony windows used to open, but they were disabled. Unfortunately the sliding doors were not sealed well and the outside wind is coming into my room. It's pretty cold outside.

Delano to Caesars, you can take the trans from Mandalay Bay to Excalibur and Aria to Bellagio and have less than 30 minutes of walking.