Great May Trip 2022 and my birthday

Went to California for two days for my cousin's wedding which was great.  But alot of people got Covid.  Either didn't have the shot or just got sick, what can you do.  Looks like my 2nd booster held though.  Then drove on Tuesday accorss the desert and got into Vegas around 2:30.  Stayed at Park MGM. 

Gotta say, hotel is nice, but the room is warm and wifi is shotty.  If you use the moblie check in, ensure you have a strong signal as when you get the evelvator, when you press your phone to the reader it doesn't click. then you can't get up to your room.  Had to back and get a plastic room card.  However, you can print those out at the kisok. I'll do that next time.  Had to go back and forth with housekeeping, even with tipping, came to my room at 1100 p.m to clean.  Oh well, it normally if they were not charging resort fees, then no problem.  But in this case I went back to the front desk and politely explained the issues and she canceled all the resort fees(cousins advice).  that took about $100 off the bill.

Played craps, roulette, pai gow, and blackjack. Plus using the coupons from LVA was a HUGE advatange.  found those Video Poker machines at Binon's on the back wall and played a bit there.  What was cool was the skill based game of asteriods. got the high score on the asteriods slot machine.  Sat at that machine for 2 hours.  Then went to a "slot machine" contest area by the players club area.  Cool two minute pressing slot machine contest, won a t-shirt.  ok cool! 

Went to Battista's Hole in the Wall for my birthday, mentioned alot here on LVA.  Been there since I was 8 year old kid at my grandma's house by Palace Station.  Great food, great wine, great service. 

Most of my win came from craps.  Minimum bet on the strip now is at $15.00 on the pass line.  At higher end hotels like Bellagio it's $50.00 on the pass line.  However, in my opinion, stil one of the best games to play.  Play the passline or the don't pass if you feel the shooter is going to rool a 7 and play the don't come.  That  seemed to work well going back and forth.  Went to the Palms and it's nice in there.  Ate at the food court and played at one of the loud craps tables(usually where I get the most win).  Learned a little more about placing odd's on the come bet.  If you just bet the come bet and don't place odds on come, then you just get back even money.  So another learning point for me.

Played the horse racing game at Belligio.  Put $1 on the long shot horses and unbelievable win, won $464.00 off that race off $1.00.  Bought my wife some 14K earings at the Ceasars forum shops and was great haggling with the owner of the stand.  May have to go back there and buy and haggle with that guy again.  Earnings were $600 and talked him down to $205.00  That was pretty cool.  Also learned from my buddies that you can walk from Manadlay Bay through Luxor accorss the bridge to New York, New York and right back to Park MGM.  From Park MGM walk to Aria, Belliagio, pretty cool, almost all inside. 

Saw America's Got Talent (AGT) show.  Have to say Kodie Lee was pretty cool to see in person, so talented.  Also the fasion lady Lea Kyle was great to see.  I've not watched that show on TV, I guess I'll have to see it.  Went to the Grand Canyon this trip. Started at 6:30 a.m., picked my wife and I up and had breakfast, at lunch at Grand Canyon and made a few stops back.  Be prepared to listen to the comedy host talk almost the whole way there and back.  But offline the driver and host were very nice and knew everyones name.  The couple sitting behind us were from Jersey and he was a pitboss at Altanic City.  Also did 3 years here at MGM National Harbor.   Bus got back to Excalibur at 6:20 p.m. and my wife and I walked right into Luxor to see AGT.

Saw the Doobie Brothers and Micheal McDonald.  Show was great.  first half of the show songs were good, but no one knew the new stuff.  But when Tom Johnston got up there and started with China Grove, the place went nuts.  Just awesome show.  Not a bad seat in the house at Planet Hollywood.

Racked up about 50,000 tier credits between playing, eating at MGM restruants and using my MLife mastercard.  Almost back to gold.  for military, they gave me a cool Pearl Status card.  That's new.  Just don't like they switched from 25x the tier credits to 4x times the points.  The mastercard gives you 2x the points for gas and groceries.  Oh well, still smarter than them, i'll be back to gold in June.  Then no more resort fees.  .  Of course I have cards at all the casinos, why not get as much as you can.  I have so many free rooms now.  Pretty cool.  Jean Scott knows what she is talking about.  Been using that coupon run for al long time. On sportsbook betting MGM, you only get 9 tier credits for every $25.00 you bet and 13 tier credits on a parlay for every $50.00 you bet.  That's like only .36 tier credits per dollar spent and it goes down for the parlay bet at .26 tier credits.  When Anthony Curtis says the casinos are making money, he is not lying.  Well all the advice I get from LVA helps keep me a winner.  Took home over 2K this trip.  Loved walking out of there with a stack of cash, room, airline paid for.  Can't wait to return for Christmas 2022 at belligo.  Hope to see a few fellow LVA"s there.

Dave

Good for you. I'm sure you realize, playing craps at those limits can get you stomped into kindling, and rapidly at that...so glad to hear that didn't happen to you. BTW, it actually doesn't matter whether you place odds bets on the Pass, Don't Pass, Come, and Don't Come...or you don't. The net result of those odds bets will be zero. Which of course, makes them the best bets in the house. But you have to place a bet that does have a house edge in order to make them.

The benefits associated with players' clubs have been drastically scaled back. Nowhere is that worse than on the Strip. I know the Strip is fun and all, but I recommend going elsewhere--or at least, staying there but gambling elsewhere. You can eat wherever you want, and the Strip is fine as long as you don't mind paying double what you would everywhere else.

I hope that you only played 3:2 blackjack. 6:5 is a license to steal, and no one should abet that thievery by saying "Oh, what the hell" and playing anyway.

So based on the assumption that prices won't be any better next December and will probably be worse, why not come to Vegas then and burn all your credits/comps/good cheer, but don't play those shitty, high-limit, no-comp games. Hop a shuttle and go over to the Palms or the Orleans or Ellis Island and get some bang for your buck. Same games, but MUCH lower house advantage and therefore, more fun. You're ahead...stay ahead! You don't owe MGM or any of the other Strip megatoilets a thing.

Good advice Kevin as always.  Your right, that 6:5 blackjack is terrible and I don't put my money in those games or on that table.  Putting 6 down to win 5, plus a shoot of 8 decks or more.  Just not my game. Tried to warn my buddies off of that even for "oh well, just for fun".  You might as well hand the pit boss your dollars.  Yea i'lve learned to stay uptown on the strip and gamble downtown. Been doing alot of sportbetting with the MGM sportbook app and the Ceasears app.  game lasts 3-4 hours and just as much fun.  Plus here in Virginia I get to do it daily becuase sportsbook betting is legal here.  So staying on craps, trying to master video poker and sportsbetting.  Hope to meet up with you in Vegas on a LVA meet sometime. 

Dave

Good TR, Thanks, love playing craps but high$ minimuns kill me, love $5 tables will play $10 tables, again Thanks.

Just now getting to TRs, way behind.  Very good and fun TR, congrats on the horse race win.  And seeing the Doobies and Michael McDonald, well that had to be a big winner.  I'm a jealous wreck about that!

And, yep, I used to get to Platinum at MGM early in the year...now I'll be lucky to get there at all, or a tier lower.  Well, that's life.  

Again, thanks for the TR.

Candy