I forgot to post this at the time.
Went back to Vegas and stayed at the Excalibur with the same bunch of friends I went with…um…was it before 2008? Geez.
Went back to the some of the same restaurants I was just at a couple weeks ago: Tao at the Venetian and Gordon Ramsay’s Steak at Paris. Repeated them because they are just that good. Note to all: Worcestershire butter sauce on your steaks is the way to go.
I spent a lot of time playing craps at the Casino Royale just beside the Venetian. It’s the only $3 craps on the strip and they take 100x at one of the tables. On this trip, I honed my No Pass strategy. Although it takes longer to make (the odds are flipped since you are playing house), it also takes longer to lose. More often than not, you end up slowly making and eventually, if patient, you’ll likely double money before you get tired of playing.
The weater was great for the 1st 2 days (Wed Thur) but then dropped to the low 10s…which ironically was even lower than the weather back home. So not so much walking. Initially we took the monorail to get around but then I remembered that it is so inconvenient it’s hardly worth it. The stations are always at the back of the casinos so you end up spending way to much time walking around anyway. I decided to cab it everywhere I went. I also would pair up with a stranger who was going to a casino close to where I was going. This amounted to spending about $5 to go from Excalibur to Venetian which pretty much is the distance of the strip. So keep that in mind whenever you visit Vegas and want to get around on the cheap.
I also played a bit of poker. Last time I played was way way back when online poker was just starting to pick up. It was hard to find a table anywhere. Now, they are at all the casinos and the rooms are usually pretty nice. I played a couple of sit-n-gos at the Luxor and the Excalibur. Both were $50 buy in multi-tables. I busted out early in the Luxor but made it to top 5 at the Excalibur which netted me about $30….and about 8 Heinekens too.
The other new twist to my gambling this year was playing video poker. I know a professional poker player who told me that a lot of them play video poker when they are not playing real poker. Video poker is quite different than what most people think. It is a house game true, but if played properly, the odds are 99.96. With comps you can actually make playing. But you need to search far and wide to find the right machine: Jacks or Higher with 9/6 odds. Anything else lowers the odds. I had a heck of a time finding any 9/6. The best I could find was 8/6. Which was good enough for me. I ended up making a couple hundred when I eventually hit four 7s on a progressive machine.
When’s my next trip to Vegas? Can’t wait.