room Caesars Windsor. Used the comped room to catch
some Z's before crossing border. Nice rooms, always
clean and modern. HDTV and pneumatic toilet seat.
Wed Jan 30 - 6:45am Checked out, headed to Detroit Tunnel.
7:30am Breakfast at Rams Horn (2nd location)
Ham+Cheese Omlette and the Paul Bunyan Combo,
Tea + Coffee. $15.67 Great value, hot food
on the way to the DTW airport.
http://www.ramshornrestaurants.com/menu
flew Southwest Airlines, uneventful flight. ( $ 258 RT)
60 F (15C) upon arrival. sunshine felt great !
Vitamin D from a bottle just cant compare to the
healthy feeling from sunshine on your skin.
1:00pm picked up National rental car ($112.73 for entire week)
2013 Toyota Corolla - great little car, and headed to 99c Store.
loaded up with energy drinks (gotta love one called WhoopAss),
snacks, vitamins and personal care products. -$30
2:00pm. Bellagio, picked up Cirque de Soleil "O"
tickets at box office. Comped from myvegas.
(MyVegas is a Facebook game that earns comps at MGM properties)
$360 value. Took 15 minutes to redeem,
i dont think they've done too many.
2;45pm Checked in at Harrahs, room #2908, Carnival tower.
Comped for the week from poker play. Room was clean, decent,
nothing special, typical of Harrahs. No early check in fee.
Room wasnt very quiet, not hotels fault, just ignorant inconsiderate guests,
Saw this, its hard to read but sign says Compact Cars Only.
This person believes that a Crown Victoria qualifies as a compact.
4:00pm drove south of strip to Premium Outlet Mall.
no deals at NewBalance or other stores i checked out.
It was fairly busy, a lot of euros.
5:30pm Silverton Casino Buffet.
241 ACG (american casino guide) coupon.
$15.12 for 2. Consistantly good quality,
especially the desserts. Poker room still closed,
waiting for Cantor to remodel and likely integrate it
into the sportsbook like at Palms.
7:00pm Parked at Bellagio and walked strip.
Fewer straight up "spare some change" beggers,
but more "kick me in the nuts" and "punch me in the
throat for a donation" types. I admire their creativity.
Bills Gambling Hall is closing in a few days so we
checked it out. (reopening as Drai's boutique hotel in 2014)
Surprisingly dead. Happened upon Tix4Tonite,
Bought 2 tix for Esteban for $25each.
7:30pm Walked down to Flamingo,
poker room had 3 tables of 1/2NL going.
played 2 hours. - $24
Flamingo is one of 7 Caesars Entertainment properties
participating in the MegaBeat Jackpot promotion.
If your Quad Queens or better get beaten you win
the Bad Beat portion, approx $90,000, the winner of the
hand wins approx $45,000. Everyone playing at one of the
7 poker rooms when the Beat happens get a share which
fluctuates depending on how many people are playing at that
time, went as low as $650 at peak times and as high as $2500
in the early hours when crowds were thin.
10pm Cirque de Soleil 'O' at Bellagio.
Literally front row, 2 seats from center.
Some splish splash spray. Good show.
recommend sitting about halfway back for full view experience.
Thurs Jan 31
10am - drove downtown to Fremont St.
11am - Neon Boneyard Las Vegas Signs Project
(Las Vegas Blvd. between Sahara and Washington Street)
guided tours Mondays-Saturdays 10:00 a.m til sunset.
One-hour tours run every half hour. Tickets are $18.
http://www.neonmuseum.org/tour-info
Cool history lesson, wish the signs were laid out better
for picture taking. Recommended for an off the strip adventure.
12:30pm - Jerkey Store 3rd St., 1/2 block off Fremont.
www.beefjerkystore.com/ Crazy selection of jerky and candy.
Got some salmon, elk, and bison jerky -$37
1:00pm Heart Attack Grill. at neonopolis on fremont.
customers weighing in over 350lbs eat free. love the gimmicks,
add extra 20 slices of bacon to your burger for $3.95 ,
fries cooked in lard, butterfat milkshakes with a pat of butter on top,
but the execution was a fail. food wasnt very good.
yelp/tripadvisor reports say i'm not alone in my disappointment.
soggy fries, "shake" is served with a spoon, its a dessert, not a drink.
-$31
2:00pm Binions. only 1 poker table going, locals.
played slots -$10. My $42 in comps from 2 yrs ago are still alive.
Didnt want to redeem them for an ugly denim jacket or crappy fleece.
I hear that Binions Steakhouse is great, but already have 3 steak
dinners planned. Will save the comps for next trip, definitely eating
a big slab of beef for free here next visit to Binions
Wandered over to The D.
Renovations are a huge improvement over the Fitz.
Great place to stay downtown, nice rooms cheap.
Played 25cent Sigma Derby horse wagering for 90 minutes.
-$10 good fun way to pass the time, good drinks and service.
5:00pm El Cortez Hotel & Casino $10 ACG free slot play.
played video craps, +$6 Love this dive (hate the smoke)
7:30pm Las Vegas Hotel LVH, formerly the Hilton.
First time at the famous LVH SuperBook.
Placed a bunch of UFC and Superbowl bets. (net loss $20)
Free Drinks in sportsbook with betting slip.
You know you've earned the name 'SuperBook'
when there are lines designated for "Minimum $1,000 bets"
8:30pm Esteban in the Shimmer Cabaret at LVH.
Small venue, maybe 150 capacity. Great show.
Tipped the usher and got probably best seats in the house,
dead center 15ft from stage. A few static crackles
otherwise sound was great. Meet + greet after,
people are very rude but Esteban was classy about it.
10:30pm - back to Harrah's poker room.
It's been moved to the North Entrance by the Strip,
Unfortunately it's not isolated from casino smoke and noise
like its previous location. 5 tables going. Great opportunity
to make money, loose table, bad players but couldnt get
dealt playable cards. 6 hours -$25
4:30am walked across to Mirage to use free Wifi before bed.
Mandalay Bay, MGM, Bellagio, Mirage, Monte Carlo and Aria
have free wifi throughout. NYNY, Luxor, Excalibur will be
adding wifi within the year
Friday Feb 1
Noon - MyVegas comp redemption at Mlife booth for
Bellagio lunch Buffet. Fairly quick + easy, considering
its all done manually, handwritten. Comp paper allowed us
to skip the line up of approx 80 ppl. Still one of the best
buffet's in vegas. Weekday Lunch is great value at $20.99
1:00pm played 1/3 in the bellagio poker room til 4pm.
Still card dead -$88. Eli Elezra, Jennifer Harman, and
John Hennigan playing in Bobby's room.
Starting to get noticeably busy, people arriving for
superbowl weekend. 350,000+ expected for the big game.
There werent a lot of hotel vacancies and rooms were
going for premium prices on saturday and sunday.
4:30 walked over to the Monte Carlo poker room.
Had to wait a half hour for seat to open up.
Couldnt make much happen. -$24
Saw this ad for The Pub at Monte Carlo, made me giggle.
7pm went over to NYNY to redeem a $75 MyVegas food Comp.
Tried Chin Chin. Food was ok, not amazing. Drinks were very tasty.
Electric Lemonaide $12, Velvet Kitten $11
Sat Feb 2
1:00pm comp Luxor Buffet. myvegas redemtion was very slow.
Luxor Mlife booth has done over 600 of these and they still
dont seem to have the process down yet. Buffet is priced at
$21.99. I would be angry if i had to pay for this. At free it was
barely worth it. Only vegas buffet i've seen with self serve drinks.
Desserts were actually ok, everything else is soup-kitchen quality.
Avoid this place unless you're desperate.
Headed back to the 99cent store
(E. Charleston Blvd/Maryland Pkwy)
to reload on energy drinks and propel.
Need to have plenty on hand for the superbowl.
3:00pm Balley's poker room has recently relocated to near
the front of the Casino, next to The Nosh snack bar +$30
5:00pm THE Steakhouse at Circus Circus,
myvegas $150 comp. We had the Grilled Garlic Shrimp $21,
Porterhouse $49, Bone-in Ribeye $50, and some merlot http://www.circuscircus.com/images/PDF/SteakhouseMenu.pdf
Side dish of garlic mashed potatoes were excellent.
The tenderloin portion of my Porterhouse had big gobs
of fat and had some tendonous tissue.
The strip portion was a bit dry and flavorless
(despite being served rare).
The Ribeye steak was better, had some flavor.
Atmosphere was old-school vegas, dimly lit, wood and leather
Be sure to wear cool clothing, the heat from
the grill made it a little too warm, especially since my
body temp goes up when i eat.
7:00pm went to Palms to check out poker. Cool room,
its integrated into the sportsbook operated by cantor.
7 tables, 3 games going but no movement. Used a
$10 matchplay ACG coupon on the roulette table. +$20
7:30pm drove up to Luv-It Custard, near Stratosphere.
got Western cup and Cheesecake cone. $5ea.
http://www.luvitfrozencustard.com/menu.html
Very tastey !
8:30 back to Harrah's poker room for the rest of the night
played well, ran well +$350
Sunday Feb 3
10:00am up early to start superbowl sunday cuz
the game starts 3pm pst. myvegas Comp,
Border Grill Brunch at Mandalay Bay.
Fast redemption. value $30ea AYCE tapas style.
All items were sweet or spicey.
Paid $5 extra for unlimited mimosa's.
Had the option of dining inside or sitting outside
on a covered veranda overlooking the pool.
Beautiful morning, no way we would be eating indoors.
Saw this game combo coming out of Mandalay Bay.
Hesitant to tell my buddy Craig Robillard about it, he may
end up spending his entire next trip at this machine.
12:00pm - the original plan was to watch the superbowl
at the LVH superbook, but we stopped by Harrah's
poker room and started playing, the games were
pretty good and we had good seats to watch the
big screen tv's so we ended up staying and playing
poker through the whole game. 6 1/2 hrs +$70
8:00pm myvegas Comp redemption for Cravings buffet
at Mirage.another slow Mlife processing. $30 value each.
Buffet was good. but overpriced if you pay cash.
Seafood and Desserts were good.
9:30 back to Harrah's poker room for rest of the night -150
10am Red Rock breakfast buffet. Station Casino's are offering
great value on their buffets, and Red Rock is probably their best
(GVR is likely #2) Always been extremely happy with the food
and service. Dollar for dollar, best buffet value in vegas and the
scenery is amazing ! $6.99 Breakfast $8.99 Lunch $12.99 Dinner
12:00 drove back to the strip, stopped by the Stratosphere,
no poker games going, just a few guys sitting around waiting
for one to start.
1:00pm drove back to Harrahs for poker til 4pm. still cant get my
poker mojo going. Got it all in with AA vs a drunk guys 57.
- $236
5:00pm Tender Steakhouse at Luxor.
myvegas Comp $150value. Nice atmosphere,
servers more casual than at CircusCircus. Mohito was yum.
Had 3 soup sampler (lobster bisque, mushroom, kobe chile),
2 thumbs up for the soups. Ordered the foie gras
just to piss off the PETA people, large caesar salad,
20oz Black Angus Ribeye, 10oz range-fed wyoming Bison Sirloin.
Ribeye was great, flavorful. Bison was a little bland, but that is
often the case because of the leanness and being grass fed.
Probably my favorite myvegas comp (along with bellagio buffets)
7:00pm - given a groupon for free so we stopped by Ben&Jerry's
at Planet Hollywood. Had banana split with 3x ice cream, and
a Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream, Soooo tastey good.
8:00pm back to Harrah's for some poker + $80
Tues Feb 5
11;50am back for another free myvegas comped Bellagio
Lunch Buffet. Loaded up on the desserts. A+
1:30pm back to Harrah's poker room. still running like crap -400
6:00pm dinner at 9 Fine Irishmen at NYNY. $100 myvegas comp.
16oz Ribeye Steak w/mashed potatos, Seafood soup,
Fish and Chips and a couple beers. Food was disappointing.
Service was worse. Soup was mostly potatoes and didnt come
with a spoon, had to hunt down a server to get one. Steak didnt
come with a knife, had to hunt down a server to get one.
Elderly couple beside us got soup too, no fuckin spoons.
They were also served their main before their appetizer,
Fish was doughy, chips were soggy. For an irish bar, the menu
wasnt very irish. They didnt even have a beer menu. Others seem
to rank this place highly for a myvegas comp, I do not.
7:30pm Harrah's poker room for another 4 hours. still no poker mojo.
All in with AA vs JJ, guy hit a jack.
my QQ ran into KK, my KK ran into AA
my set of 777 ran into 888
and got it all in with a set o 3's only to get beat by a flush.
amazing i left down only - $200
A fitting way to end my first ever overall losing trip to vegas.
Wed Feb 6
up early 7:00am, checked out of hotel by 8am.
Palace Station buffet for breakfast only $4.99
(Lunch is $6.99, Dinner is $7.99)
Nothing fancy, decent quality. great value.
Unusually long line up because the national team from France
was here fuelling up for the World Series of Rugby
being held at Sam Boyd Stadium by UNLV.
Placed some futures bets to keep me interested in
otherwise boring sports over the winter. Woman at ticket counter
offered me free drink tickets at 8:30am, only in Vegas.
2013 Stanley Cup
Detroit Redwings 18 / 1
(bought as a hedge against a bet that Wings wont make playoffs)
Ottawa Senators 30/ 1
Colorado Avs 30 / 1
2014 Superbowl
Chicago Bears 20 / 1
2013 NCAA Basketball Tourny
Minnesota 30/ 1
Louisville 12/ 1
