Hope you enjoy the read - might get a little long.
About 17 years ago I made my first trip to Las Vegas with my parents, Aunt S. and Uncle T. along with a few other of their friends, sometime in January of 2002 I believe. Since that trip I've been hooked - I love downtown and have stayed downtown with a few exceptions of staying on the strip. Since that first trip many years ago we've had many great trips with large groups of friends and family. Typically, we have anywhere from 6-12 of us that make our way out there from Texas together. Over the last few years due to families growing and getting busy with kids and whatnot we haven't all been able to go together in a while. 5 years ago almost to the date was my last trip to Vegas with my mother. She had just been given the "all clear" after her first battle of Breast Cancer. Little did we know at the time that the "all clear" wouldn't last long and the cancer was soon back and much worse. We lost my mom 3 1/2 years ago - I bring this up only to foreshadow the rest of the weekend.
We had a decent group going out there this weekend - My same Aunt S and Unle T along with their 2 kids and spouses, my wife and I and my Brother (whose wife was planning to go but had surgery scheduled 2 days after the trip). So we had a total of 9 going.
My wife, brother, and myself were leaving San Antonio on Friday and the rest were coming in Saturday afternoon.
We check in at the D with no problems in our comped room. My brother was staying at the GN. After freshening up I head down to place a few sports bets. $100 on the Rams to win on a ML bet. I already had a future bet in on the Rams to win the NFC that was going to pay $150 on a win so instead of hedging it I decided to double down on them.
The wife and I had reservations at Vic & Anthony's and my brother was going to go play at a Poker Tourney at Orleans.
I was a bit dissappointed with Vic & Anthony's - we started with some raw oysters (very small, tasty but small), oysters rockefeller - Pappadeuax's has better, and then had the steak and lobster deal. They were not bad... just not great. We personally enjoy going to Flemings from time to time and V&A just didn't meet that standard of expectations. Regardless, we enjoyed the time together and having a break from the kids.
We make our way to Freemont and find a couple seats at a $3 BJ table. We planned on making it an early night since the rest of the crew was coming in Saturday. We finally called it a night at 12:30am (2:30 Texas time). We played for 4 hours and lost $15 - and that was probably in waitress tips.
I text my brother to see how his is doing in the Poker tourney - He was still playing!
Upon waking up in the morning he told us that he mad the money - $140 buy in and he cashed $1500 after the top 7 split!! - Great start to the trip for him! He was up much later than we were so he slept in Saturday morning.
Day 2 - The wife and I head down to the Linq as we had planned on trying Hash House - well the line is way to long and we end up at Guy Fieri's Flavortown - I think that was the name. I get a bloody mary which was breakfast alone!! Had I known it had that much on it I wouldn't have even ordered a plate. Good food and service!
Walk to Mirage and cash in a sports bet that my buddy had put in for me from the College football playoffs. Ok, now i'm up for the trip! Made our way back downtown and met up with my bro after he got a few hours of sleep. Decided to make my coupon run around downtown. I didn't keep great details but here's what I remember.
GG - $25 matchplay - I play a few hands before using the MP and then put it down with my $25 bet and get a BJ! the pay me correctly and I play a few more hands and cash out up $50 thanks in large part to the MP.
Plaza - $10 MP and Freeplay. My wife took the freeplay - nothing. I play the MP on BJ - hit a winning hand. cash out up $20.
The next 2 or 3 MP's at Mainstreet, Cali, and I forget the other I played on roullette and lost on all of them.
After making our way back to Freemont St. we eat at the BBQ truck on our GG/the D comp dollars. They have partnered with a couple of the food trucks and other downtown restaurants to be able to use those comp dollars. Pretty good deal in my opinion!
Head back to the D to meet up with the family and play some. I start off on the Ultimate Texas Hold em table and I catch a few hands here and there. Nothing big so I leave the table to play some BJ and I get on a run. I started with $100 and before long I was stuffing green chips in my pockets (i remove them from the table so i don't use them). After a couple hours of play I cash out UP $800. We break for dinner and he purple chip goes into the safe in the room. We play a little more after dinner and put some more sports bets in. Some of the group calls it a night while my Aunt, Uncle, cousin and brother head to the Grand.
My bro and cousin get on the Ultimate Hold 'em table and not much is hitting. A flush or straight here and there. Finally, after watching for about an hour my Uncle gets in. About 7 hands later the Flop comes out Ac, Kc, Qc. My uncle is hoding the 10c.... turn, 8h, river... Jc!!! He hits the Royal Flush for around $2,800 payout! My uncle is the guy who will play table minimum for hours on a BJ table and never vary from that so for him to win like that is so awesome!!
Day 3 - Sports book all day for the games. We had some winning bets.. had some losing bets. I was won $300 on the rams with my future bet and the ML bet I had put in. 2nd game was not as good to me. As we were waiting on the reservations my wife's first time playing 3 card poker started with a straight, a flush, then 3 of a kind!! that was in the first 5 hands!! We walked with a $150 profit. We all went to eat at the Hibachi grill at the GN. The food was awesome there, very simple and very tasty. They give you a LOT of food. I took the leftovers to one of the homeless Vets on freemont.
After dinner we made our way around to the Freemont and the D to play some more. The 3 of us had a 5:40am flight... I played all night between Ultimate Texas Hold 'em and BJ and some craps and lost $65 on the night. Got on the plane knowing it was a free trip - winnings paid for all of our food, my wife's spa treatment and plenty of drinks as well as Uber rides and then some.
After we were gone - monday night the rest of the group hit the Grand up again and 2 of them hit a straight flush on the same Texas hold 'em table!
We all had a great trip.. i'm pretty sure my mom was looking down on us and loving every minute of it. We have a very close family and with busy lives we dont always see each other as much as possible, nor have we made Vegas trips as often as we used to all together. But this trip just seemed like something/someone was watching over all of us and helping the cards fall our way! THANKS MOM!!
