Vegas Day 2

After getting a minimal amount of sleep, I roll out of bed and go through the rinse cycle and get out of the room to avoid disturbing my room mate.  Even though we have a 2-bedroom suite, and technically it's my room, I still wanted to be courteous as possible.

I roll downstairs put in a small losing craps session, when my buddy finally stirs.  We head over and have breakfast at the cafe.  There's a reason I will only eat breakfast at the cafe.  It's usually pretty hard to screw up breakfast.  After a nondescript meal and some mediocre service, we will about before sitting down and playing the IGT heads up machine.  I put in $500, run it up to around $750, swing back down to $555, when I have to relieve myself.  I tell my buddy to play, as he was just watching trying to get a feel for it.

I arrive back and he's run it up to over $850 in the matter of a few minutes.  I tell him to just keep playing, and 10 minutes later we're cashing out for 1045.  I give him 245 for his share, just to say thanks.  After this we roll into high limit lounge Carta Privada for some blackjack action.  I am extremely tired and on a whim ask the pit boss if that's a house phone in the middle of the pit that I can borrow.  He says sure, and I book a 2pm massage at the Aria Spa.

We split up around 1:10 or so, with my roommate wanting to check out the pool and take care of some business.  I show up at the spa around 1:15 or so, relax a bit, and get a nice 50 minute Swedish massage from an attractive Asian miss, named Mai.  This is definitely the way to go, I've decided.  Normally I get a massage the day of my arrival, but this massage was so much better after already been on the Vegas experience for over 24 hours.

After showering and heading back to the room, I run into the bachelor and the best-man on their way out to the pool.  So I join up with them, and hang at the pool for a little bit.

My roomie and I decided we had enough of the pool experience, so we head on back up to our room.  I change out of my beach attire, and he decides to take a nap.  At this point I am hungry, but it's late in the afternoon, so I know I shouldn't eat a ton, considering we have a group dinner at Mesa Grill at 8:45.  So I decided to grab a bowl of soup at LemonGrass.

I talked with Tony the Italian bartender for a bit over slurping down my soup.  Then I hit the craps tables before dinner.  I'm humming along going up and down as one should, when my roomie finally arises from his nap and asks where I am.  I let him know and he shows up and buys in.  At about 7:25pm, the dice have come me to as it appears the table is cooling off, and I say, well we don't need to meet the others until 8:00, and it's not even 7:30, so I guess we have time for one more roll.  3 minutes later, I have seven-out and the dice pass to him.  I look at my watch and say, well now it's only 7:28, so we still have time.

He then proceeds to go on a humongous heater.  He bought in $500 and cashed out $4000.  I made another 20k+ score.  I told him, honestly, I don't really mind missing dinner.  All good things must come to an end however and at about 8:05 we head up to the bachelor's room, AKA party central.

As to be expected after more than 24+ hours in Vegas with a group of 16 guys, getting anything organized is just not happening.  Most everyone is some combination of drunk, hungover, high, crashing, baked, or sleep deprived.  Eventually mostly everyone shows up, but at this point it's too late to actually walk over to Caesar's Palace so we split up into 4 cabs and try to reorganize and meet over there.  As expected, big gigantic huge fail.

I think we finally got seated at the restaurant at around 9:15pm, only 30 minutes later than our actual reservation.  I must say that I was severely disappointed with just about everything at this establishment, with the exception of the shrimp corn tamale.  That was excellent, everything else from the ambiance, waiters, service, and food was nothing better than mediocre.  I did grab a peek at the regular menu and it appeared to have some good items on it, so I might be tempted to come back with the wife some day.

After dinner we walked back to Aria in the 85+ degree heat in the night, stopping by the Bellagio fountain show to watch for a bit and take a group picture.  We head back to Party Central and I break out the Cuban Cigars I have for everyone and we start smoking up a storm in the no-smoking executive suite that Cecil booked.  By the time I showed up to the room, Cecil had already booted and was looking much the worse for the wear.

After smoking the stogie and having some good conversation, it was obvious that Cecil was about to pass out, and my roomie couldn't stand the smoke anymore, so we headed back down to get our gamble on with a couple others as well.

We played craps and I made a small 2k score, but we were playing with the most annoying, game-slowing, bring the pace of the game to a halt group of guys at the other end of the table.  $1 more on this bets, move this bet from here to there, no I didn't want that, etc, etc.  They had the dealers and the pit boss hating them and themselves.  After like an hour of this, I couldn't take it anymore and I rage quit.  I didn't think I could tilt from craps, but I learned something new.

My roomie didn't want to crash just yet as it was only 3am in the morning, so I said ok, let's play a real carnival game, and we stopped by an ultimate texas holdem table.  The players, play this game so absurdly bad it's insane.  I bought in 2k, my roomie broke down his 5k flag and we were off to the races.  We played about an hour, I doubled my buy-in, my friend got crushed for like 3500 or so, even though I was betting bigger than him.  He ran super-bad.  Flop a set, lose, top-top no good, two-pair no good, etc, etc.  It was pretty funny in my opinion.

I was extremely out of it at this point, and had stopped drinking at dinner, so I was completely ready to turn and so we did a little after 4am.

End of Day 2 in Las Vegas.

Vegas Day 1

Wow what a weekend!  Had a great time doing the dual celebration of Cecil's bachelor party and my law school admission.  The whole weekend was a blur, although I didn't drink very much the entire weekend, but I definitely suffered from sleep deprivation.

Flew out from San Diego on the 11:30 am flight with a bunch of Cecil's crew from San Diego, including myself, the best man, and a few others.  We arrived in Vegas, met up with Cecil and a few others and then headed over to Aria casino, with a stop for liquor at the liquor store first.  I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of all the alcohol that was purchased, but here are a few shots from in the room:

After checking in 8 of us headed down to Julian Serrano's for lunch.  We had a good lunch, lots of food and wine was ordered, and good conversation as we got to know each other better.  I think there was a total of 16 guys for this trip with quite a few people still rolling in.

I am now completely jonesing as I had been in Vegas for over 3 hours and had yet to place a single bet.  New record for me, I'm sure.  Gambling this trip was a very positive experience for me, with a minor bump in the road.  We got a craps table together and I proceeded to dump a 20/40 bankroll in short order.  Other people were showing up, and I ended up in the high limit room playing blackjack with my other buddy who came out from San Diego.  We booked a small win and then headed over to Aria poker room to play drunken 4/8 limit no look holdem.

We started off by everyone putting in 5 bets preflop and then 5 bets again on the flop, so we were essentially on the turn immediately.  The gamble was a little too thick, so we then changed it up so everyone put in 5 bets preflop, and then you were allowed to look at one card, cap it with a chip and then do your action.  On the turn you were allowed to look at the other card, and also ask to see one of your opponents cards.  It was a ton of fun, we were very loud, and very obnoxious.  I was really expecting others to join us, since we were trying to give away money!  I however, ran like a god.  I had JJ, KQs, AA, and something else all hold up, making in order, jacks full, nut flush, and aces up.  I believe I was the only winner cashing out 440 in about an hours worth of play.

After that we freshened up

and got ready for a big group dinner at Blossom.  They had a nice setup for us with a private room in the back and a large banquet table with 3 lazy susans situated in the middle.  Food was excellent and we managed to finish most of it.  The group then headed to the Marquee night club inside of the Cosmopolitan.

Now, I am not a club guy at all, but I felt like I should make a token appearance and not be a total dickhead and bail on the guys.  So the club was what I expected, large, loud, and crowded.  I did manage to walk around a bit, and saw a blackjack party pit inside the club, with female dealers wearing basically trashy lingerie.  Not stripper skimpy, but skimpy enough.  I kicked it with the guys in the club long enough to have a few beers and yell over the music trying to chat.  We got bottle service and a nice setup.

I bailed after about an hour, and headed back to Aria.  Although I got lost in the back corridors of the club's exit ways, and eventually got dumped out onto one of the Las Vegas Strip side streets and proceeded to hoof it back.

I then hit the craps tables again, and went on a massive heater:

That's after hitting the bonus bet for 50/100/50 a pop.  Although I did get a little paranoid.  After hitting the all small, and then only having the 10 left for the all tall, and legendary status, I took a bit of insurance and layed 2000 on the 10.  Two rolls later, 10 baby!  20,900 minus the 2000 insurance I took, was almost a 19k hit.  This is what this score looks like after coloring up:

Then it was off to bed.

There and back again

Back home from our Northern California family road trip.  Added about 1500 miles to the family minivan.  Added a couple more cities that I have never been to, to my travel log.

We left last week on Friday.  Spent the day in Los Angeles, specifically Wi Spa.  Enjoyed our relaxation time there and then spent the night in LA at the Hyatt Regency.  Woke up rather latish, and had brunch at Chez Marie on the edge of Santa Monica.  Food was ok, service was good, ambiance was very nice, but they had a massive fly problem out on the patio.  From there we made the very long drive to Woodland, California where my sister-in-law lives.

We arrived around 7pm or so Saturday night.  My sister-in-law literally moved into her new house, the night before.  There were boxes everywhere, nothing could be found, etc.  It was a major disaster area, as to be expected.

On Sunday, we went to Napa Valley.  We had brunch at a very nice place call Brix.  The Sunday brunch was very good, as far as brunches go.  From there we toured Sterling Vineyards.  I wasn't super impressed with the wines, but then again, I pretty much just drink Pinot Noir, and Sterling apparently doesn't make too many of those regularly.  My sister-in-law and her husband have a membership there so that's why we went.

Monday was my free day and I got out to Capital Casino.  I made 2k playing 2/5 no limit and 300 playing 8/16 limit. I got involved in two big no limit hands.  The first I had pocket sixes and flopped bottom set on a 6 King Jack two diamond flop.  The spot limped, I raised to 25, everyone else cleared out.  He called.  He check/raised my flop bet of 35 to 100 and I called.  Turn was 5 of diamonds, he bet 210, I called.  River was 5 of clubs, and he check/folded to my river bet of 475.  Talked to some of my friends, who play no limit a lot more than I do, and they pretty much said that I screwed up every street.  Oh well.  The other big hand I got involved with was pocket kings that ended up winning unimproved.  Very loose aggressive splashy player open raises under the gun to 25.  New spot calls him next in.  Folded to me in cutoff.  I raise to 115.  Splashy calls, spot folds.  Flop comes 973 rainbow.  He check/calls my flop bet of 150.  Turn was a blank.  He check/called my turn bet of 350.  River paired the 3, and he lead for 500.  I insta-called and he tabled 75 suited, and I collect the monies.

In 8/16 two memorable things happened.  When the table first started, we had 5 chops in 6 hands!  The only non-chop hand was when I raised the cutoff with A9o.  Then I proceeded to dribble off a bunch of chips, before I went on a rush, winning like 4 or 5 pots in row.  In a kill pot, some obviously poor player open-limped early, I raised with A4h, everyone else cleared out.  Flop comes AQx.  He check/calls, turn A, same action, river A, same action.  I collect the monies.  In all I enjoyed Capital Casino.

Tuesday we headed out to San Francisco.  Did the San Francisco thing, visited Pier 39, the wharf, rode a cable car, yadda, yadda, yadda.  Then drove to Monterey and spent the night at Casa Munras.  Nice hotel although we didn't get there until a bit before midnight, and their bar was already closed, which was a little irksome for me.  

The next day, we hit Monterey Bay Aquarium.  And then drove into Carmel, and had dinner at Dametra Cafe.  The food was good, but the service was horrible.  The owner came by and asked us how our meal was and I was pretty honest with him.  The bartender/waiter and kitchen screwed up multiple things, and I let him know, particularly since I have worked in restaurants before and I know how they are supposed to work from both front of the house and back of the house operations wise, exactly what I think went wrong.  He was very apologetic and offered to buy our dinner for us.  I didn't let him, but he did buy my wife and I a bottle of wine, and gave us two for the road as well, along with a free dessert, so that was nice.  We'll definitely go back and give them another try, next time we are in Carmel.

Comparing Carmel and Monterey, from the little I saw of both of them, I much preferred Carmel.  Carmel reminded me of a mix of La Jolla and Del Mar.  After dinner we got some ice cream and coffee, and then it was off to Solvang, a little piece of Denmark, right here in California. 

We arrived at the Kronborg Inn  a little after 10pm.  From a hotel room perspective, I actually liked this room the best, even though it was the lowest star hotel we stayed at.  Go figure.  As it turns out, there is a casino located super close to the hotel.  After getting settled in, the wife said I could go check it out, and grab another $1 check for my collection.  So off I went to Chumash Casino.  Big casino, little poker room.  I played 15 minutes of 1/2 (yes one dollar two dollar blinds) no limit and played I think 4 hands, winning 3 of them, and booking a $52 profit.  The first hand I played, I flopped quad 8's.  The second hand I played, I missed my open ender with 87 on a J56AK board.  The third hand I played I hit made my straight with KT on a QJ889 board, and the fourth hand I completely forgot as I think I raised the button, continuation bet the flop and took it down.  And then the table broke, and I took off.  I stopped off at the blackjack tables for a little bit, and lost some.  And then headed back to the hotel.

Today, we toured Solvang, riding around on a surrey which was fun.  As we were walking around the town, I hear this woman yell out my wife's name.  Turns out one of my wife's friend from San Diego was also in Solvang today, small world.  Then on the drive home, we stopped in Los Angeles and ate at Beer Belly in the heart of Koreatown, unbeknownst to me or my wife when I suggested we eat there, care of Diners, Driveins, and Dives.  Food was just a tad above average.  We ordered the following off their menu: Duck French Dip, Beer Belly Grilled Cheese, Beer and Chipotle Braised Short Rib, Death by Duck, and the Summer Crab Salad.  The Duck French Dip and the Grilled Cheese were excellent.  The short rib was mediocre to blah, and the Death by Duck was nothing special, and I mentioned to my wife that the Summer Crab Salad would have been better without the crab!  So don't think we'll be headed back there anytime soon.  And then we drove home, just so I could head on back out tomorrow!

I am leaving for Vegas tomorrow morning, to attend Cecil's bachelor party and to celebrate my law school acceptance as well.  So it's a dual trip for me.  The only real issue, is I am extremely tired, and I am not sure how much partying I will actually get done this weekend.  We'll see.


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Off to school again!

Got my acceptance letter to USD school of law today via e-mail.  Things are going to be busy, busy, busy!