Sunday July 3
I was up once again at 6:00am and gave my wife a call. She wasn’t as angry as I thought she would be after I told her about the big loss at the MGM Grand; even after warning me to take it easy.
“You know, in some strange way I feel a bit relieved. I know you can’t get your hands on any more money, so now you’re forced to take it easy. Just enjoy the last few days with your mom and come home.”
My wife’s pretty good in that she knows yelling at me now won’t change anything and would possibly make us both feel worse. I’m a lucky guy.
I head downstairs to play for a bit in the Paris casino. Things were going pretty good on the blackjack tables. I booked a few small wins and then I saddled up next to a crap table to try my luck.
“Fire bet?” the stickman asked me.
“No, thanks, that’s the worst bet on the layout.” I replied.
“You never know…I was at a table here that had the Fire Bet come in twice in 1 hour, and I was at the Rio the very first time it ever came in, with 5 people each having a 10 dollar bet up!” The pit boss chimed in.
“Oh yeah? How long ago was that?” I asked.
”About 4 years ago.” She replied. I know it’s a sucker bet, but I faithfully put my $5 up when the dice were passed to me.
You know what I hate more than anything when it comes to casino dealers? It’s when they think they deserve a tip and start making sarcastic remarks when you don’t tip them or don’t tip them “enough”.
During a good roll, I had up three $25 Come bets with full odds (3X 4X 5X). I had a $25 chip sitting in the Come area of the layout as well. If any of my numbers hit, the dealer usually will say something like,
“On and off for $175.” I’m paid $175 (seven betting units), and the free odds bet go back on the number, hence the “on and off”.
Well, after the shooter rolled a 5 (one of my numbers) the lady dealer just placed the chips beside my come bet and I scooped them up. The amount of chips didn’t “feel right” in my hands, and I thought she may have shorted me a $25 chip. The shooter was already getting set to roll again, so I didn’t say anything. Besides, how could I prove it?
The shooter rolls a 5 again, and this time I didn’t touch the chips paid out to me on the layout. Sure enough, she only paid me $150. I pointed this out and both the stickman and boxman said they would keep an eye on it. I then said I was shorted $25 on the first 5 as well. The female dealer shook her head flashed me a mean look and said ‘No way.” Whatever.
I colour up and am given exactly two $1000 chips. I had no other smaller denomination chips in my hands. Depending on how you look at it, I either made $1000 or I reduced my overall losses by $1000. I start to leave, when the dealer who shorted me $25 earlier leans forward towards me and says sarcastically,
‘Why, thank-you! Thank-you for everything!” Did she honestly expect me to tip her? If I had a $5 chip with me, I would have thrown it to the stickman but she didn’t deserve anything.
I meet up with mom and we head over to the Gold Coast to see if I could check in early. The offer I was coming in on included $25 in food credit and a $30 slot credit per day. For breakfast we decided to just grab an apple fritter and coffee by the small coffee shop near the Gold Coast lobby.
The Gold Coast had a promotion going on where you could earn a Slap Chop food chopper by earning 300 points. Well, I earned the Slap Chop, but lost $200 in doing so.
It was now time to see our first pre-paid attraction of the trip, The Atomic Testing Museum.
This was a very interesting place, and I was surprised that my mother actually took a lot of interest in the displays.
An actual ‘retired” nuclear missle.
A “retired” hydrogen fusion bomb.
A piece of a steel girder from the World Trade Center
For a mere $12 (for both of us) it was a great way to spend a couple of hours.
Our next stop was the Bodies Exhibition at the Luxor. Unfortunately I couldn’t resist the lure of the blackjack tables and lost all the gains I had made earlier that morning, or about $2000.
It was strange but as soon as I sat down and the pit boss scanned my card, she offered me an $80 food comp. Maybe she could see that I got reamed at the MGM Grand yesterday and that I was a live one. I should have taken her up on the offer of food and saved myself some money. I did very poorly at all the MGM Mirage properties this trip.
I didn’t get any pictures of the Bodies Exhibit because you weren’t allowed to take any. My mother found this to be quite interesting as well. I have a job in the medical profession, so most of what I saw wasn’t new for me. There was one creepy display that contained the entire full intact body skin of a cadaver. It kind of reminded me of ‘The Silence of the Lambs” or “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”
As it was getting close to dinnertime my mom and I decided to enjoy our $2000 meal at the Luxors’ Pyramid Café. They serve way too much food here. The nachos I ordered were probably the best I’ve ever had. The plate must have had at least 5 pounds of nacho chips, tomatos, sour cream, guacamole, black beans, grilled chicken breast, onions, cilantro, jalapenos and even a small kitchen sink on the side. For only $12 you could have easily fed 4 people. The service was great in here as well. I would definitely come back here just for the nachos. (And to use up some of the express comps I had accumulated.)
We would be seeing 2 show tonight; Barry Manilow and Love @ the Mirage. I knew traffic was going to be terrible later that night, and to reduce the amount of walking my mom had to do, I dropped her off at Paris and then drove to the Mirage to leave the car with the valet. I timed myself, and it took about 20 minutes to walk back to Paris. This would be cutting it close as Barry's show ended around 9:00pm and Love started at 9:30pm..
Just as I was about to enter Paris, a thunderstorm started! Just my luck. This was the only day where we had to walk from one hotel to another and it was pouring rain.
Back in the hotel room, my mother and I rested for a bit and watched Law and Order on the TV. The rain was coming down pretty hard and I noticed that our room had a leak! Water was coming in from just above the window and soaking the carpet and drapes. I called up maintenance but they didn’t arrive before we had to leave for Barry Manilow.
Of all the shows I had booked for us, I was really looking forward to this one the most. I’m not really a fan. I just think that there are certain entertainers I need to pay homage to (by paying to see them) before they are no longer around. I’ve seen Elton John, Wayne Newton, the Righteous Brothers, Bobby Vinton, James Brown and Tom Jones to name a few. I’m a bit of a throwback that way.
Well, this would be a first for me, as my mother and I actually walked out on this show after only an hour. The volume in the theatre was cranked up so loud that all the music and vocals were badly distorted. To make matters worse I sat beside a huge beast of a woman who had on brown pants and a lime green shirt that made her look like Shrek.
She kept putting her dirty green sausages into her mouth to whistle and the shrill sound was making me deaf. My mother thought she was a man, but I assured her it was a woman and she was here with her “spouse”. My mother sat through all she could before she told me she wanted to leave. How disappointing.
It stopped raining and had cooled off a bit so the walk over to the Mirage wasn’t that bad. Our seats for “Love” were in section 200, row R (last row). These seats were much better than the one I had last year, and I enjoyed it much more as well. The part where they cover the audience with a huge white blanket was a pretty cool effect. It stopped just short of where we were sitting and we were able to take it all in. Overall though, my mother didn’t really like it that much. She thought there was too much going on, and couldn’t really follow the action.
I picked up our car from the Mirage valet and we drove back to Paris. I probably used valet parking more on this trip than I ever have. I’d say I spent at least $30 on valet tips ($2 at a time). Oh well, my mom had some blisters on her feet and who wants to walk in this heat? We were both asleep by 12:30am.
Day 9 to follow.
I was up once again at 6:00am and gave my wife a call. She wasn’t as angry as I thought she would be after I told her about the big loss at the MGM Grand; even after warning me to take it easy.
“You know, in some strange way I feel a bit relieved. I know you can’t get your hands on any more money, so now you’re forced to take it easy. Just enjoy the last few days with your mom and come home.”
My wife’s pretty good in that she knows yelling at me now won’t change anything and would possibly make us both feel worse. I’m a lucky guy.
I head downstairs to play for a bit in the Paris casino. Things were going pretty good on the blackjack tables. I booked a few small wins and then I saddled up next to a crap table to try my luck.
“Fire bet?” the stickman asked me.
“No, thanks, that’s the worst bet on the layout.” I replied.
“You never know…I was at a table here that had the Fire Bet come in twice in 1 hour, and I was at the Rio the very first time it ever came in, with 5 people each having a 10 dollar bet up!” The pit boss chimed in.
“Oh yeah? How long ago was that?” I asked.
”About 4 years ago.” She replied. I know it’s a sucker bet, but I faithfully put my $5 up when the dice were passed to me.
You know what I hate more than anything when it comes to casino dealers? It’s when they think they deserve a tip and start making sarcastic remarks when you don’t tip them or don’t tip them “enough”.
During a good roll, I had up three $25 Come bets with full odds (3X 4X 5X). I had a $25 chip sitting in the Come area of the layout as well. If any of my numbers hit, the dealer usually will say something like,
“On and off for $175.” I’m paid $175 (seven betting units), and the free odds bet go back on the number, hence the “on and off”.
Well, after the shooter rolled a 5 (one of my numbers) the lady dealer just placed the chips beside my come bet and I scooped them up. The amount of chips didn’t “feel right” in my hands, and I thought she may have shorted me a $25 chip. The shooter was already getting set to roll again, so I didn’t say anything. Besides, how could I prove it?
The shooter rolls a 5 again, and this time I didn’t touch the chips paid out to me on the layout. Sure enough, she only paid me $150. I pointed this out and both the stickman and boxman said they would keep an eye on it. I then said I was shorted $25 on the first 5 as well. The female dealer shook her head flashed me a mean look and said ‘No way.” Whatever.
I colour up and am given exactly two $1000 chips. I had no other smaller denomination chips in my hands. Depending on how you look at it, I either made $1000 or I reduced my overall losses by $1000. I start to leave, when the dealer who shorted me $25 earlier leans forward towards me and says sarcastically,
‘Why, thank-you! Thank-you for everything!” Did she honestly expect me to tip her? If I had a $5 chip with me, I would have thrown it to the stickman but she didn’t deserve anything.
I meet up with mom and we head over to the Gold Coast to see if I could check in early. The offer I was coming in on included $25 in food credit and a $30 slot credit per day. For breakfast we decided to just grab an apple fritter and coffee by the small coffee shop near the Gold Coast lobby.
The Gold Coast had a promotion going on where you could earn a Slap Chop food chopper by earning 300 points. Well, I earned the Slap Chop, but lost $200 in doing so.
It was now time to see our first pre-paid attraction of the trip, The Atomic Testing Museum.
This was a very interesting place, and I was surprised that my mother actually took a lot of interest in the displays.
An actual ‘retired” nuclear missle.
A “retired” hydrogen fusion bomb.
A piece of a steel girder from the World Trade Center
For a mere $12 (for both of us) it was a great way to spend a couple of hours.
Our next stop was the Bodies Exhibition at the Luxor. Unfortunately I couldn’t resist the lure of the blackjack tables and lost all the gains I had made earlier that morning, or about $2000.
It was strange but as soon as I sat down and the pit boss scanned my card, she offered me an $80 food comp. Maybe she could see that I got reamed at the MGM Grand yesterday and that I was a live one. I should have taken her up on the offer of food and saved myself some money. I did very poorly at all the MGM Mirage properties this trip.
I didn’t get any pictures of the Bodies Exhibit because you weren’t allowed to take any. My mother found this to be quite interesting as well. I have a job in the medical profession, so most of what I saw wasn’t new for me. There was one creepy display that contained the entire full intact body skin of a cadaver. It kind of reminded me of ‘The Silence of the Lambs” or “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”
As it was getting close to dinnertime my mom and I decided to enjoy our $2000 meal at the Luxors’ Pyramid Café. They serve way too much food here. The nachos I ordered were probably the best I’ve ever had. The plate must have had at least 5 pounds of nacho chips, tomatos, sour cream, guacamole, black beans, grilled chicken breast, onions, cilantro, jalapenos and even a small kitchen sink on the side. For only $12 you could have easily fed 4 people. The service was great in here as well. I would definitely come back here just for the nachos. (And to use up some of the express comps I had accumulated.)
We would be seeing 2 show tonight; Barry Manilow and Love @ the Mirage. I knew traffic was going to be terrible later that night, and to reduce the amount of walking my mom had to do, I dropped her off at Paris and then drove to the Mirage to leave the car with the valet. I timed myself, and it took about 20 minutes to walk back to Paris. This would be cutting it close as Barry's show ended around 9:00pm and Love started at 9:30pm..
Just as I was about to enter Paris, a thunderstorm started! Just my luck. This was the only day where we had to walk from one hotel to another and it was pouring rain.
Back in the hotel room, my mother and I rested for a bit and watched Law and Order on the TV. The rain was coming down pretty hard and I noticed that our room had a leak! Water was coming in from just above the window and soaking the carpet and drapes. I called up maintenance but they didn’t arrive before we had to leave for Barry Manilow.
Of all the shows I had booked for us, I was really looking forward to this one the most. I’m not really a fan. I just think that there are certain entertainers I need to pay homage to (by paying to see them) before they are no longer around. I’ve seen Elton John, Wayne Newton, the Righteous Brothers, Bobby Vinton, James Brown and Tom Jones to name a few. I’m a bit of a throwback that way.
Well, this would be a first for me, as my mother and I actually walked out on this show after only an hour. The volume in the theatre was cranked up so loud that all the music and vocals were badly distorted. To make matters worse I sat beside a huge beast of a woman who had on brown pants and a lime green shirt that made her look like Shrek.
She kept putting her dirty green sausages into her mouth to whistle and the shrill sound was making me deaf. My mother thought she was a man, but I assured her it was a woman and she was here with her “spouse”. My mother sat through all she could before she told me she wanted to leave. How disappointing.
It stopped raining and had cooled off a bit so the walk over to the Mirage wasn’t that bad. Our seats for “Love” were in section 200, row R (last row). These seats were much better than the one I had last year, and I enjoyed it much more as well. The part where they cover the audience with a huge white blanket was a pretty cool effect. It stopped just short of where we were sitting and we were able to take it all in. Overall though, my mother didn’t really like it that much. She thought there was too much going on, and couldn’t really follow the action.
I picked up our car from the Mirage valet and we drove back to Paris. I probably used valet parking more on this trip than I ever have. I’d say I spent at least $30 on valet tips ($2 at a time). Oh well, my mom had some blisters on her feet and who wants to walk in this heat? We were both asleep by 12:30am.
Day 9 to follow.
