The last report I gave was a W.S.O.P. update in July of 2012.
The reason I'm giving an update is due to the respect and admiration I have for those who have taken the time and effort to give trip reports in pretty close to real time which has been a boon to those getting ready to make a trip to said gambling destination. So I feel the need to give of myself to all those who have done the same.
So here we go:
Saturday, March 29
My wife and I booked a Southwestern Airlines package from Love Field(Dallas). This package included: 4 nite stay at Vdara, round-trip air, and a choice of 1 free show ticket per person to a number of shows listed on the promo. We chose "Love" at the Mirage. Our flight had a brief layover in Amarillo. Once the plane pulled into the gate one of the SWA flight attendants said that we could stretch our legs and use the restroom before they boarded any other passengers. But, you had to stay in your seat so they could get an accurate count before changing to other seats or taking a restroom break. As soon as the other passengers departed the plane, and just before others got on board, we were told that it was too late to use the restroom due to passengers now coming aboard! lol And we think SWA is one of the good ones! Guess we will just hold it until we get to Vegas.
We landed at 11:50 a.m. and picked up our car rental at Thrifty. It was supposed to cost $134.00 all-inclusive thru our AAA membership. The guy behind the counter, whom I will call "Mr. Slick", tried to up-sell me from the full size car I ordered. "No thanks", I said to him. So he said: "So that's how your gonna be." Yes I am! He told me that I must buy gas on the same day and within 10 miles of the airport drop-off point or I will be charged $9.43 per gallon if I don't.(more on this later)They sent us to a row of full sized cars and said we can pick any in that row. They had mostly Chevy Malibus' except for one, which was a Crown Victoria. I considered that a premium car and was glad "Mr. Slick" was unsuccessful in gouging me for more money. We needed a larger car because we were meeting 3 of our friends that were already out here and needed a vehicle with some extra legroom. I looked at my bill and saw that I was charged a total of $155.00 instead of the $134.00 that it should have been. "Mr. Slick" got his pound of flesh after all. lol No use fighting it because it will only upset my wife when I get upset and she works hard to have these vacations. So who am I to get upset at this jerk?
Usually when we rent a vehicle when going to Vegas we will go by Whole Foods on the southern end of the Strip to get the necessary things for my wife to put into her Nutri-Bullet for us to have fresh smoothies. And to get bottled water and other snacks that we can put into the mini-fridge they have in our room at the Vdara. We also brought some wine with us to share with our friends as all of us have wine collections at home. A word of caution: It may behoove those of you who live out of the Las Vegas area to call your credit card company to let them know that you will be in Las Vegas for the prescribed days you plan on being there. I tried to use my credit card at Whole Foods and it was declined twice. My wife used her's and it was declined as well. We brought $1500 for gambling purposes for the 1st two days of our trip but I had to use some of that to pay the cashier. As soon as we got back into our rental car I got a call from Wells Fargo fraud prevention checking to see if I was the one actually using the card. Yes, I was actually!
We then head out for the short drive to Vdara for check-in. My wife loves Vdara because it is a non-smoking hotel that smells nice in the lobby. They also have a mini-fridge and access to any dishware you may need. But, they may be the biggest sinners in the daily fee nonsense permeating Vegas. It costs a total of $28 per day! Whether you use the facilities or not, its $25 plus another $3 for the $28 total. What a ripoff. Looking for the trend to go the other way before I die! Anyway, once inside I asked Abe, the congenial young gentleman behind the counter, if they had any rooms with a washer and dryer available and he told me that they were sold out but there would be these types of rooms available Sunday(the next day). He said usually they would sell them for about $40 extra per nite but that you can usually barter them down to about $20 per nite. We decided to stay in our room(#20003). Its not fun to repack and move somewhere else so we decided to just stay. Okay, we are now settled in the room. Called housekeeper and got them to bring up plates and wine glasses since our friends(who were also staying at Vdara) were coming by to have a pregame bottle of champagne(Bollinger Special Cuvee NV), along with a few cheeses, baguette, ham, etc... before we walked over to Paris for a 6:45 p.m. reservation for Mon Ami Gabi.
After walking from Vdara, through the Bellagio, across "Beggar's Bridge, we arrive at Paris to dine at Mon Ami Gabi. We asked to see if they had outdoor seating. We were informed that there would not be outdoor seating for 30 minutes. We decided to go ahead and eat in, but they gave us a window seat looking straight out to the Bellagio fountains. We all agreed that it was the best seat that you could get without being outside. My friend Alan, brought a bottle of 1990 Guigal Hermitage as his selection. We brought a bottle of 2002 Boillot Meursault. It costs $30 per bottle corking fee at Mon Ami Gabi. But they will not have anything on the wine list that will match these two beauties! And if they did it would be so cost prohibitive that we wouldn't even think of getting it. My wife got three bacon wrapped filet medallion steak special, I had the bacon wrapped sea bass special. Alan got the New York steak, his wife ordered chicken, and her daughter ordered chicken as well. We split the bill and it cost us $166 each. The waiter never told us how much the specials cost. Should have asked! brutal. Alan didn't enjoy his steak but everyone else liked what they had, but not for that price. Next time I will get the $13 burger! Even with the $30 corking fee it was $136 per couple(and a half) They included an %18 tip on the bill and we felt our surly waiter didn't deserve any more than that.
After the meal, our friends went south to MGM to watch a 9:30 p.m. David Copperfield show(which they said was very good), while we went north to walk to Casino Royale to try our luck at the craps table. We arrived about 8:45 p.m. and discovered that the floor supervisor was not allowing anybody to buy in because he felt it was too full. Even though there were a few spots available. Casino Royale has only one craps table. And it was a $5 minimum table. But there were plenty of available Super Fun and Switch blackjack tables available. Love to see games where the bored dealers have their arms folded waiting for somebody to come over and sit down, then ask questions how to play these stupid, casino boss favorite games so they can donate their cash as quick as possible. We did sign up for the players club stuff and play some VP slots. Nothing like trying to find some potential slots while having to move around two grown ups deeply French kissing and fondling each other right in the middle of the casino floor! Any of these security personnel, dealers, floor supervisors, pit bosses, etc... could write numerous interesting books on the things they see adults do in this town on a daily basis! We were now getting tired after a long day of travel and decided to call it a nite and starting walking back to Vdara. On the way back, we saw a large group of people on the median in between The Mirage and Harrah's trying to get across the street to the Mirage without getting run over by passing cars. One guy, 40ish with a beer belly, was hanging on to his over-sized margarita glass will rumbling, bumbling, fumbling, stumbling his way to the Mirage entrance and almost got smashed by an oncoming car. He and his other seemingly drunken friends laughed at him for the near miss. That's not the only one we witnessed while going around the town. This is a regular problem I see every single night I've been on the Strip. I'm truly amazed that more people don't get harmed by stuff they wouldn't even think of doing back home. I've come out here for nearly 30 years and the one thing that I haven't seen change about Vegas is how stupid people act when they get out here. It's like they think there is another set of rules out here that allow them to act like total douchewads. The laws here apply pretty much the same as anywhere else.
Sunday, Mar. 30
A pretty windy morning greets us as we get up to start another day of adventure. All five of us go down to Vdara valet to get the car. Vdara only has valet. Unfortunately there is no self parking to go pick up the car in less than a minute. It took them 15 minutes to get the car. They didn't pull it up to the front for us. Parked it on the side and put the keys back in their little windowed room. The Vdara valet staff were so busy that they didn't see us standing there waiting to get our car. We simply walked out to the car after getting the key from the windowed booth, got in and left. I originally had us going to Mirage for their Sunday brunch, using our trusty LVA coupon book. I had my friend Alan join LVA and get a book as well. While driving out of Vdara they decided they wanted to go to the Gospel Brunch instead. My wife called and found out that they have 2 different sittings. The 1st one is at 10 a.m. The second one is at 1 p.m. They were both sold out as you can either reserve one or the other for those specific times only. I learned something again! For example they will not let you show up at 10:30 for this particular brunch. So we went to Mirage and used our coupon to get the 241 deal. The price is now $31.99 plus tax for their champagne brunch. We thought the buffet was good, but not great. They shouldn't even be calling this a "Champagne" brunch because they don't serve REAL champagne. The "sparkling wine" they serve is called " J. Roget". It comes from New York and can be had for $5-$7 a bottle depending on where you live. Sorry about this seemingly trite detail but I am a wine snob and couldn't help letting this pass. I didn't think they would serve Perrier Jouet Grand Brut as the Sterling Brunch at Bally's had, but something that was at least from the Champagne region of France! Not very good sparkler either unless you chill it close to iceberg levels, as you would with Andre Brut, etc...
We get back into our SELF PARKED car and head over to Sam's Town for more LVA coupon fun! My wife has her I-phone so that makes her the navigator for this adventure. And and adventure it was to get to Sam's Town! The Sam's Town on her navigation had us going to Charleston Ave. Nope, no Sam's Town there. I haven't been to Sam's Town since the 90's so I had forgotten myself. Remember, I'm just the chauffeur so that everyone else can have fun! I'm just the tired tour guide. We pulled over to a Church's Chicken and Alan gets out and asks them how to get there. lol They tell him to go down to either Boulder or Nellis and make a right. We finally get down close to Nellis and pull over at a gas station to make sure we didn't go too far. There was a crack addict asking for money while we are waiting in the car for Alan to get more directions. Alan comes out of the convenience store with a big bottle of Miller Lite, opens it up, takes a sip, then gives it to the man asking for money. He then asks Alan for cash which he refuses to do! lol If you gave him a million dollars he would ask for more. We finally hit pay-dirt and find Wally World, and luckily they weren't close two week for renovations. My friend wanted me to show him the ropes at the blackjack table. We played for an hour or so(this was after I forced them to get players cards to get rated. Alan got a fanny pack! ahahaha). We lost about $50 each. Even though they had single decks they don't have the juicy rules of years past. For example, you cannot double down on any two cards you split. Yeah, its great to have single decks but the bean counters have taken away so many good rules to beat the game counting cards. Whenever I now see a sign proclaiming "We Got Single Deck Blackjack" I know the rules are so jacked up that its not a good game. Do they really think the public is that stupid? He wanted to play some craps so we go to the craps pit. As I've learned over the years, to play craps you have to be a decent sized bankroll. If I play $5 minimum craps I like to bring $500 or more to the table to take advantage of maximum odds. Anything less is playing with scared money. You have to be aggressive in craps to take care of a hot roll should it come. Bringing $100 to the table, which they think is a bunch, is just asking to donate when the inevitable cold streaks come. My wife, and friends told me when I was teaching them how to play back home that they would follow exactly what I did once we got to Vegas and played craps. And to NOT make any bet with anything listed in the middle of the table. Nope, after a few 7-outs they stopped taking any odds. I was taking full odds and making one come bet, and odds on the come bet. I wound up winning $102 while they lost their $100 buy-in. So we were in a huddle as I was scolding them like a coach court-side during a big basketball game. From that point on they finally saw and understood the tangible difference in playing the game the right way when they were each discovered they were a hundo lighter in the wallet! Just because because some other fish wants to make bets on hard eights doesn't mean you should follow him down that black hole.
After driving to the airport to drop off my friends' daughter at American Airlines, we went back to Vdara to freshen up and go downtown to El Cortez to take advantage of more LVA coupon values. We had 6 p.m. reservations at The Flame. Been on my hit list for awhile now and finally got the chance to do it. None of us left disappointed! The room was a little nicer than I thought it would be. No great views but we liked the ambiance of the place. Our server had a Long Island accent that my friend picked up on immediately, since he used to live in Brooklyn. I had the grilled pike, my wife had the steak Diane with the mustard-cognac sauce, Alan had the porterhouse, his wife had the baked chicken. We sampled each others dishes and were great. Had creamed spinach, creamed corn, mashed potatoes, and sauteed mushrooms as sides. Creamed corn was as good as other members here have said it was! As for wine, Alan brought a 1998 Haut Brion.! We brought a 2011 Henschke Reisling, and a Chateau Mailly Grand Cru Champagne NV. Corking fee was only $10 per bottle, but we let our server try the Haut Brion and he only charged us corking fees for two bottles instead of three. I perused their wine list just for fun. And even though its a small list the wines there are priced to sell! Very little markup. I saw a bottle of Cakebread chardonnay listed for $60 for example. It retails around $50. Try to find that wine at Del Frisco's for that price! We split the bill again and it was only $76 per couple.(after $30 coupon) Our friends said that it was the best meal they had during their entire stay! We all thought our meal at The Flame was better than Mon Ami Gabi and was about half the price. We all will be back.
After a most satisfying meal we played blackjack and craps at El Cortez. Yes, they do have single deck blackjack, but with poor rules. They dealer only dealt out 2 rounds irregardless of how many players were at the table. I lost $30 on this game and one hand was the key. It was on a rule they didn't explain to me but I should have asked about more of the rules before sitting down. So it's truly my fault on this one. I increased my bet due to the count being +6 with no aces dealt out. I got dealt AA. I asked to split the aces and on the first one I got a 9. On the second ace I got another ace. I asked to re-split and the dealer said that it was against the rules to re-split. The dealer had a 6 up-card. She turned over a 10 and hit a 5 for a 21. If I could have re-split those Aces I most likely would have won all 3 hands. Oh well! I immediately got up with Alan and we sauntered over to the craps pit. They had 2 tables but only one in use. We played an hour and a half or so and won a total of $34. We then went further downtown and I got them to get players cards at Four Queens, and The D. Alan didn't want to stand in line and get any more players cards. Alan is a pain management specialist and doesn't like to grind it out like us "little people". No, its not fun standing in line for 30 minutes in a smoke-filled casino getting a $10 matchplay coupon, deck of cards, slot play, fanny pack, etc...lol It's not easy grinding out a few bucks due to time constraints for sure. But pure grit, desire, patience, etc... will give you the chance to come out ahead during the long term. But I told Alan there are thousands of people that do this whenever they come to Vegas and they seem to enjoy doing it! More on this topic during part II of this report.
We are sad to report that craps at Binions has changed for the worse. Benny would be rolling over in his grave if he found out what his kids did to a once great Vegas institution. So no more craps excursions there for me. Alan and my wife got both the "free Ace" promotion and matchplay coupon(on a max $10 bet) at Four Queens. So, they had a total of 4 chances to win at least one of these juicy propositions. They sat together at a $5 min blackjack table for the Free Ace promotion. Their 1st card is automatically an ace, the dealers up-card was a jack. Alan got dealt an 8 and my wife got a 9. I don't have to tell you what the dealer's down card was.... On the matchplay promo they both got a hard 13 while the dealer had a 6 up-card. They stood of course while the dealer turned up a 5. Don't have to tell you how that ended either.... It would have been much easier them winning all 4 hands over losing all 4. Such is life sometimes. Drove back to Vdara for bed and to rest up for another fun day of adventure.
Part II to come soon!
"I cried when I wrote this song." "Sue me if I play too long". Steely Dan
The reason I'm giving an update is due to the respect and admiration I have for those who have taken the time and effort to give trip reports in pretty close to real time which has been a boon to those getting ready to make a trip to said gambling destination. So I feel the need to give of myself to all those who have done the same.
So here we go:
Saturday, March 29
My wife and I booked a Southwestern Airlines package from Love Field(Dallas). This package included: 4 nite stay at Vdara, round-trip air, and a choice of 1 free show ticket per person to a number of shows listed on the promo. We chose "Love" at the Mirage. Our flight had a brief layover in Amarillo. Once the plane pulled into the gate one of the SWA flight attendants said that we could stretch our legs and use the restroom before they boarded any other passengers. But, you had to stay in your seat so they could get an accurate count before changing to other seats or taking a restroom break. As soon as the other passengers departed the plane, and just before others got on board, we were told that it was too late to use the restroom due to passengers now coming aboard! lol And we think SWA is one of the good ones! Guess we will just hold it until we get to Vegas.
We landed at 11:50 a.m. and picked up our car rental at Thrifty. It was supposed to cost $134.00 all-inclusive thru our AAA membership. The guy behind the counter, whom I will call "Mr. Slick", tried to up-sell me from the full size car I ordered. "No thanks", I said to him. So he said: "So that's how your gonna be." Yes I am! He told me that I must buy gas on the same day and within 10 miles of the airport drop-off point or I will be charged $9.43 per gallon if I don't.(more on this later)They sent us to a row of full sized cars and said we can pick any in that row. They had mostly Chevy Malibus' except for one, which was a Crown Victoria. I considered that a premium car and was glad "Mr. Slick" was unsuccessful in gouging me for more money. We needed a larger car because we were meeting 3 of our friends that were already out here and needed a vehicle with some extra legroom. I looked at my bill and saw that I was charged a total of $155.00 instead of the $134.00 that it should have been. "Mr. Slick" got his pound of flesh after all. lol No use fighting it because it will only upset my wife when I get upset and she works hard to have these vacations. So who am I to get upset at this jerk?
Usually when we rent a vehicle when going to Vegas we will go by Whole Foods on the southern end of the Strip to get the necessary things for my wife to put into her Nutri-Bullet for us to have fresh smoothies. And to get bottled water and other snacks that we can put into the mini-fridge they have in our room at the Vdara. We also brought some wine with us to share with our friends as all of us have wine collections at home. A word of caution: It may behoove those of you who live out of the Las Vegas area to call your credit card company to let them know that you will be in Las Vegas for the prescribed days you plan on being there. I tried to use my credit card at Whole Foods and it was declined twice. My wife used her's and it was declined as well. We brought $1500 for gambling purposes for the 1st two days of our trip but I had to use some of that to pay the cashier. As soon as we got back into our rental car I got a call from Wells Fargo fraud prevention checking to see if I was the one actually using the card. Yes, I was actually!
We then head out for the short drive to Vdara for check-in. My wife loves Vdara because it is a non-smoking hotel that smells nice in the lobby. They also have a mini-fridge and access to any dishware you may need. But, they may be the biggest sinners in the daily fee nonsense permeating Vegas. It costs a total of $28 per day! Whether you use the facilities or not, its $25 plus another $3 for the $28 total. What a ripoff. Looking for the trend to go the other way before I die! Anyway, once inside I asked Abe, the congenial young gentleman behind the counter, if they had any rooms with a washer and dryer available and he told me that they were sold out but there would be these types of rooms available Sunday(the next day). He said usually they would sell them for about $40 extra per nite but that you can usually barter them down to about $20 per nite. We decided to stay in our room(#20003). Its not fun to repack and move somewhere else so we decided to just stay. Okay, we are now settled in the room. Called housekeeper and got them to bring up plates and wine glasses since our friends(who were also staying at Vdara) were coming by to have a pregame bottle of champagne(Bollinger Special Cuvee NV), along with a few cheeses, baguette, ham, etc... before we walked over to Paris for a 6:45 p.m. reservation for Mon Ami Gabi.
After walking from Vdara, through the Bellagio, across "Beggar's Bridge, we arrive at Paris to dine at Mon Ami Gabi. We asked to see if they had outdoor seating. We were informed that there would not be outdoor seating for 30 minutes. We decided to go ahead and eat in, but they gave us a window seat looking straight out to the Bellagio fountains. We all agreed that it was the best seat that you could get without being outside. My friend Alan, brought a bottle of 1990 Guigal Hermitage as his selection. We brought a bottle of 2002 Boillot Meursault. It costs $30 per bottle corking fee at Mon Ami Gabi. But they will not have anything on the wine list that will match these two beauties! And if they did it would be so cost prohibitive that we wouldn't even think of getting it. My wife got three bacon wrapped filet medallion steak special, I had the bacon wrapped sea bass special. Alan got the New York steak, his wife ordered chicken, and her daughter ordered chicken as well. We split the bill and it cost us $166 each. The waiter never told us how much the specials cost. Should have asked! brutal. Alan didn't enjoy his steak but everyone else liked what they had, but not for that price. Next time I will get the $13 burger! Even with the $30 corking fee it was $136 per couple(and a half) They included an %18 tip on the bill and we felt our surly waiter didn't deserve any more than that.
After the meal, our friends went south to MGM to watch a 9:30 p.m. David Copperfield show(which they said was very good), while we went north to walk to Casino Royale to try our luck at the craps table. We arrived about 8:45 p.m. and discovered that the floor supervisor was not allowing anybody to buy in because he felt it was too full. Even though there were a few spots available. Casino Royale has only one craps table. And it was a $5 minimum table. But there were plenty of available Super Fun and Switch blackjack tables available. Love to see games where the bored dealers have their arms folded waiting for somebody to come over and sit down, then ask questions how to play these stupid, casino boss favorite games so they can donate their cash as quick as possible. We did sign up for the players club stuff and play some VP slots. Nothing like trying to find some potential slots while having to move around two grown ups deeply French kissing and fondling each other right in the middle of the casino floor! Any of these security personnel, dealers, floor supervisors, pit bosses, etc... could write numerous interesting books on the things they see adults do in this town on a daily basis! We were now getting tired after a long day of travel and decided to call it a nite and starting walking back to Vdara. On the way back, we saw a large group of people on the median in between The Mirage and Harrah's trying to get across the street to the Mirage without getting run over by passing cars. One guy, 40ish with a beer belly, was hanging on to his over-sized margarita glass will rumbling, bumbling, fumbling, stumbling his way to the Mirage entrance and almost got smashed by an oncoming car. He and his other seemingly drunken friends laughed at him for the near miss. That's not the only one we witnessed while going around the town. This is a regular problem I see every single night I've been on the Strip. I'm truly amazed that more people don't get harmed by stuff they wouldn't even think of doing back home. I've come out here for nearly 30 years and the one thing that I haven't seen change about Vegas is how stupid people act when they get out here. It's like they think there is another set of rules out here that allow them to act like total douchewads. The laws here apply pretty much the same as anywhere else.
Sunday, Mar. 30
A pretty windy morning greets us as we get up to start another day of adventure. All five of us go down to Vdara valet to get the car. Vdara only has valet. Unfortunately there is no self parking to go pick up the car in less than a minute. It took them 15 minutes to get the car. They didn't pull it up to the front for us. Parked it on the side and put the keys back in their little windowed room. The Vdara valet staff were so busy that they didn't see us standing there waiting to get our car. We simply walked out to the car after getting the key from the windowed booth, got in and left. I originally had us going to Mirage for their Sunday brunch, using our trusty LVA coupon book. I had my friend Alan join LVA and get a book as well. While driving out of Vdara they decided they wanted to go to the Gospel Brunch instead. My wife called and found out that they have 2 different sittings. The 1st one is at 10 a.m. The second one is at 1 p.m. They were both sold out as you can either reserve one or the other for those specific times only. I learned something again! For example they will not let you show up at 10:30 for this particular brunch. So we went to Mirage and used our coupon to get the 241 deal. The price is now $31.99 plus tax for their champagne brunch. We thought the buffet was good, but not great. They shouldn't even be calling this a "Champagne" brunch because they don't serve REAL champagne. The "sparkling wine" they serve is called " J. Roget". It comes from New York and can be had for $5-$7 a bottle depending on where you live. Sorry about this seemingly trite detail but I am a wine snob and couldn't help letting this pass. I didn't think they would serve Perrier Jouet Grand Brut as the Sterling Brunch at Bally's had, but something that was at least from the Champagne region of France! Not very good sparkler either unless you chill it close to iceberg levels, as you would with Andre Brut, etc...
We get back into our SELF PARKED car and head over to Sam's Town for more LVA coupon fun! My wife has her I-phone so that makes her the navigator for this adventure. And and adventure it was to get to Sam's Town! The Sam's Town on her navigation had us going to Charleston Ave. Nope, no Sam's Town there. I haven't been to Sam's Town since the 90's so I had forgotten myself. Remember, I'm just the chauffeur so that everyone else can have fun! I'm just the tired tour guide. We pulled over to a Church's Chicken and Alan gets out and asks them how to get there. lol They tell him to go down to either Boulder or Nellis and make a right. We finally get down close to Nellis and pull over at a gas station to make sure we didn't go too far. There was a crack addict asking for money while we are waiting in the car for Alan to get more directions. Alan comes out of the convenience store with a big bottle of Miller Lite, opens it up, takes a sip, then gives it to the man asking for money. He then asks Alan for cash which he refuses to do! lol If you gave him a million dollars he would ask for more. We finally hit pay-dirt and find Wally World, and luckily they weren't close two week for renovations. My friend wanted me to show him the ropes at the blackjack table. We played for an hour or so(this was after I forced them to get players cards to get rated. Alan got a fanny pack! ahahaha). We lost about $50 each. Even though they had single decks they don't have the juicy rules of years past. For example, you cannot double down on any two cards you split. Yeah, its great to have single decks but the bean counters have taken away so many good rules to beat the game counting cards. Whenever I now see a sign proclaiming "We Got Single Deck Blackjack" I know the rules are so jacked up that its not a good game. Do they really think the public is that stupid? He wanted to play some craps so we go to the craps pit. As I've learned over the years, to play craps you have to be a decent sized bankroll. If I play $5 minimum craps I like to bring $500 or more to the table to take advantage of maximum odds. Anything less is playing with scared money. You have to be aggressive in craps to take care of a hot roll should it come. Bringing $100 to the table, which they think is a bunch, is just asking to donate when the inevitable cold streaks come. My wife, and friends told me when I was teaching them how to play back home that they would follow exactly what I did once we got to Vegas and played craps. And to NOT make any bet with anything listed in the middle of the table. Nope, after a few 7-outs they stopped taking any odds. I was taking full odds and making one come bet, and odds on the come bet. I wound up winning $102 while they lost their $100 buy-in. So we were in a huddle as I was scolding them like a coach court-side during a big basketball game. From that point on they finally saw and understood the tangible difference in playing the game the right way when they were each discovered they were a hundo lighter in the wallet! Just because because some other fish wants to make bets on hard eights doesn't mean you should follow him down that black hole.
After driving to the airport to drop off my friends' daughter at American Airlines, we went back to Vdara to freshen up and go downtown to El Cortez to take advantage of more LVA coupon values. We had 6 p.m. reservations at The Flame. Been on my hit list for awhile now and finally got the chance to do it. None of us left disappointed! The room was a little nicer than I thought it would be. No great views but we liked the ambiance of the place. Our server had a Long Island accent that my friend picked up on immediately, since he used to live in Brooklyn. I had the grilled pike, my wife had the steak Diane with the mustard-cognac sauce, Alan had the porterhouse, his wife had the baked chicken. We sampled each others dishes and were great. Had creamed spinach, creamed corn, mashed potatoes, and sauteed mushrooms as sides. Creamed corn was as good as other members here have said it was! As for wine, Alan brought a 1998 Haut Brion.! We brought a 2011 Henschke Reisling, and a Chateau Mailly Grand Cru Champagne NV. Corking fee was only $10 per bottle, but we let our server try the Haut Brion and he only charged us corking fees for two bottles instead of three. I perused their wine list just for fun. And even though its a small list the wines there are priced to sell! Very little markup. I saw a bottle of Cakebread chardonnay listed for $60 for example. It retails around $50. Try to find that wine at Del Frisco's for that price! We split the bill again and it was only $76 per couple.(after $30 coupon) Our friends said that it was the best meal they had during their entire stay! We all thought our meal at The Flame was better than Mon Ami Gabi and was about half the price. We all will be back.
After a most satisfying meal we played blackjack and craps at El Cortez. Yes, they do have single deck blackjack, but with poor rules. They dealer only dealt out 2 rounds irregardless of how many players were at the table. I lost $30 on this game and one hand was the key. It was on a rule they didn't explain to me but I should have asked about more of the rules before sitting down. So it's truly my fault on this one. I increased my bet due to the count being +6 with no aces dealt out. I got dealt AA. I asked to split the aces and on the first one I got a 9. On the second ace I got another ace. I asked to re-split and the dealer said that it was against the rules to re-split. The dealer had a 6 up-card. She turned over a 10 and hit a 5 for a 21. If I could have re-split those Aces I most likely would have won all 3 hands. Oh well! I immediately got up with Alan and we sauntered over to the craps pit. They had 2 tables but only one in use. We played an hour and a half or so and won a total of $34. We then went further downtown and I got them to get players cards at Four Queens, and The D. Alan didn't want to stand in line and get any more players cards. Alan is a pain management specialist and doesn't like to grind it out like us "little people". No, its not fun standing in line for 30 minutes in a smoke-filled casino getting a $10 matchplay coupon, deck of cards, slot play, fanny pack, etc...lol It's not easy grinding out a few bucks due to time constraints for sure. But pure grit, desire, patience, etc... will give you the chance to come out ahead during the long term. But I told Alan there are thousands of people that do this whenever they come to Vegas and they seem to enjoy doing it! More on this topic during part II of this report.
We are sad to report that craps at Binions has changed for the worse. Benny would be rolling over in his grave if he found out what his kids did to a once great Vegas institution. So no more craps excursions there for me. Alan and my wife got both the "free Ace" promotion and matchplay coupon(on a max $10 bet) at Four Queens. So, they had a total of 4 chances to win at least one of these juicy propositions. They sat together at a $5 min blackjack table for the Free Ace promotion. Their 1st card is automatically an ace, the dealers up-card was a jack. Alan got dealt an 8 and my wife got a 9. I don't have to tell you what the dealer's down card was.... On the matchplay promo they both got a hard 13 while the dealer had a 6 up-card. They stood of course while the dealer turned up a 5. Don't have to tell you how that ended either.... It would have been much easier them winning all 4 hands over losing all 4. Such is life sometimes. Drove back to Vdara for bed and to rest up for another fun day of adventure.
Part II to come soon!
"I cried when I wrote this song." "Sue me if I play too long". Steely Dan
