We were due for a distracting visit to our favorite town. My wife got an unfortunate diagnosis after her last mammogram and had surgery scheduled to remove the involved area. (Gentlemen of LVA- please support and encourage the important women in your life to get their mammograms done). Going on a trip was a good plan to focus on fun rather than the unpleasantness before her surgery.
We also had been encouraging my brother to learn video poker, join LVA, and then to join us on a trip over the years and he was finally ready. We had two great offers; one from the Stratosphere for a suites with some free play along with one from Aria for my wife with $1,000.00 in free play. Naturally we booked all of them.
I worked a full day Thursday and then headed home to pick up my wife to make the ninety minute drive to the airport in Moline, Illinois from our home in Dubuque, Iowa. We drove through overcast skies and the occasional splatter of rain making me glad to be heading to Nevada. As we prepared to get our tickets, I did my usual self-pat down to make sure I had my reading glasses, wallet and bankroll;
Glasses: check
Bankroll: check
Wallet: huh?
I am compulsive by nature and I am typically packed up a week before we leave with a detailed itinerary prepared for our Las Vegas adventures, yet somehow, I managed to leave the house without my wallet and ID.
Crap!
The Stratosphere was sending a limo to pick us up- we had coordinated our arrival times with my brother so we could share transport. I tore apart my carry on- ran back to the car in what was now a heavy downpour.
No wallet.
I told my wife to fly to Vegas, meet my brother and check in at the Strat. I would drive back to Dubuque (repeatedly calling myself an idiot for ninety minutes), and then book the very next flight I could. Fortunately the wallet was where I left it and I was able to get a 6:00 am flight out of Moline arriving in Las Vegas at 8:30 am the next morning.
My second drive to Moline was uneventful and I was able to sleep on the way to Las Vegas. My spirits picked up as I cabbed over to the Stratosphere to meet my brother and wife by 9:00 that morning. We had coupons for free buffets at Harrah’s so we started over there. The buffet had all the usual breakfast items and hit the spot. I also had a voucher for $50 in free play. As a dedicated video poker player, Harrah’s is pretty much a wasteland unless you want to play $5 machines- so I did- had a few minor two pair hits and cashed out up $70. My brother signed up and got a 241 buffet pass, ticket to Mac King and some Harrah’s literature. Watching him play, I was disappointed to see that he had not practiced quite enough yet, but he did manage to hold his own. (The old stumbling block of three to a straight flush vs a face card).
It was then time to check into hotel number two, Aria. We had stayed here once before on an offer and even though I typically play heavier than my wife, she got the offer. With $1,000.00 in free play, we were planning on turning this into enough money to cover the airfare. We went to the invited guest line where we were redirected to the sky suite check in area. This was perhaps the easiest check in at any hotel we’ve ever experienced. The sky suite was absolutely awesome with a killer view out the windows. We went downstairs to find some playable VP. Just outside the high limit area, there is $5 JOB and BP. We had stopped by the M Life club to pick up our new cards and free play, and my wife settled in. She was able to cash out at around $1,500.00 which covered our airfare including the extra one ticket I had to buy due to my forgetfulness. The casino also seemed a little brighter than our last visit and was nice and clean with frequent drink service. I have the sense that the Aria is tweaking their operation based upon customer feedback- a nice touch. Employees were uniformly friendly and helpful.
We were having such a good time that we decided to stay and enjoy the buffet- something we had also previously tried. We each got the half lobster, king crab legs, prime rib and salad items. The food is pretty good although I thought that the crab legs were overly salty. The desserts were quite good and we enjoyed a miniature apple pie with walnut crust and crème brule.
After dinner, we planned on heading back to the Strat when I saw a $15 blackjack table with a continual shuffler in the Aria. This was a lower limit than I had seen at other tables. The dealer was just loading the beast with cards, so I bought in for two hundred. I had a good time playing including a hand where all three players were dealt blackjacks- pretty cool. The only annoying part was the player on first base kept jumping up to take phone calls and had to be reminded to pull his bet back. C’mon- either talk on the phone or play blackjack. Geeeez.
We then went back to the Stratosphere. The Strat has BP in $1 and $2 denoms at the bars although not every game has the better pay table. The high limit used to have some playable NSUD which has now been shorted to Airport Deuces. We played a bit in the HL area where my wife grabbed four deuces for another grand in the gambling kitty. I drifted off to the blackjack tables for some green chip therapy. I ended up $500 after a couple of hours and asked for a comp to Roxys for breakfast.
Time out for money management; this works for us. We have a bankroll we have won over our gambling career that generally averages about $5K, sometimes more, sometimes less. We have a special zippered bag we keep it in and allocate our daily play carefully. Each morning we count the stash and compare it with what we brought. On this particular trip, each day’s total was higher than what we brought so we were very pleased. Anything over 10K we cash out for frivolous reasons and keep the stake intact.
The next day we had breakfast at Roxys. I like the California omelet that has avocado and swiss cheese with a big old bowl of cheese grits. This is the kind of fuel a boy needs to successfully rampage in Vegas. Who knows, I might be able to get the cardiac catheterization comped.
My wife enjoys the lighter fare- granola, fruit and yogurt which probably mean that her arteries allow free passage of blood. My brother had an omelet as well, and we felt properly prepared for the task at hand. My wife was going to relax around the Strat while my brother and I hit Terribles and Tropicana to get the loss rebates.
This was my first time at Terribles and it wasn’t as smoky as I thought it would be- not like the dense impenetrable fog of El Cortez or Ellis Island. Of course it was early in the day. There was no problem signing up and turning in our LVA vouchers. I knew that there was some $1 BP near the cashier’s cage on uprights so we saddled up and fed in a hundred. We were both up about $50 when it occurred to us that there was no reason to play to a loss just because it would be covered so we cashed out. We decided to walk to the Tropicana which I was anxious to see. It was a wonderful slightly cool day in Las Vegas and the walk felt great.- a little over 2.5 miles.
We were both impressed with the Tropicana with its bright airy feel. I was still in their database so I did not qualify for the rebate but my brother did. I played in the high limit area for a while and lost several hundred. I switched over to blackjack which was fun, except the table area backs on to some pretty busy pathways where people walk. My brother did lose enough to qualify and also lost the first installment of his rebate. I hope our play produces some offers- if the rooms and dining are decent, this would be a nice casino to add to the stable.
We took the Monorail back from MGM Grand to the Sahara as I wanted to grab some Sahara chips- kind of my bereavement for soon to be closed casinos. The Sahara was truly sad- dim, few customers and you could see that the employees had the realization of the closure etched in their expressions. I played a few hands of blackjack and kept a red chip to join others from The Stardust, Frontier, Westward Ho and other ghosts from Vegas past.
We had tickets to see Dennis Miller at the Orleans so we cabbed over to what used to be our favorite casino until they started screwing around with the video poker years ago. My brother was fascinated about the idea of asking the pit for a comp so I decided to do a demo. I played green chip blackjack for a little over two hours and asked if I could get a comp for three to the café. I ended up down by $25 but we managed to all enjoy a good meal. As Jean Scott says, “Just politely ask”.
We consider Dennis Miller to be pretty funny and his descriptions of the Viagra TV ads as a “flaccid hootenanny” had the audience laughing. As I looked around the showroom, I realized that the last show we had seen there was the “Righteous Brothers” when they were both still alive (only Bill Medley survives).
Then back to the Strat for some more bonus poker play. There is a little bar tucked in next to the stage that had playable VP and I was pleased to hit a royal- up 4K- thank you very much. I did the ritualistic passing along my ID and social security number in exchange for a wad of hundreds and we decided to call it a night.
That morning we had to check out of Aria and decided to have coffee and pastries there. My brother and I had pastries about the size of a manhole cover while my wife again was good with fruit and yogurt. We tried some more play at Aria however couldn’t hit anything so we checked out and went back to the Strat. We needed to leave at noon to make our flights. My brother announced that he was down $400.00 so I thought it would be a great idea to play blackjack and fill in the gap- naturally we managed to only increase the loss.
The Strat provided a limo to McCarran and it was time to head home and start planning our next trip.
Medically, we are in the midst of the procedures necessary to address my wife’s condition. It is difficult to watch someone you love go through this however we have decided that we will take each day at a time and live our lives as normally as possible- including planning a trip to Las Vegas in August.
Life is a gift.
