Vegas Trip Report: Eduardo Strikes Back

[Eduardo]

Okay, this will be long.
Well, this trip was much more exciting than last time, mostly because I had enough time not to be in too much of a hurry. I still have not seen most of the places on the strip but I'm not sure I ever could in my lifetime. But this was a real Vegas experience this time and I enjoyed it tremendously.
I'll get to my VP results in a minute but first a few highlights:
 
-Driving the strip. I hardly even saw much of the strip last trip so this time after we picked up our car, I decided to drive the family right down the entire strip to get a good look at everything. It was a fantastic way to enter Vegas for the first time and my wife had never been before. It really immersed ourselves right away... early evening just as the sun was setting, and it was Sunday so traffic was relatively light. It was fantastic.
 
-Browsing hotels and casinos. It was really fun just to walk to the different places and get the feel of them. I really liked the new Planet Hollywood casino (great atmosphere and it looked like nice restaurants all above it) and my favorite sight over all was probably the Venetian canal shopping area which leads into the new Palazzo, which also had a nice feel to it. The Belaggio fountain area is about 50 times bigger than I pictured it from the movies. Amazing. A lot of the casinos were easy to get lost in... I guess they don't want you to leave.   We got around in various ways... car, monorail, and taxi. I got a good feel for them all and they are all good in different situations.
 
-Great food. Even the sandwiches at the hotel were good, but someone invited my wife and I out to dinner at a place called Il Mulino. Talk about amazing food! I think it was expensive (I didn't have to pay) but if anyone has the chance to go I highly recommend it for something very special. Every little bit was so good to me, I felt guilty about using the restroom in the morning.
 
So, on to my VP play... how did things go?
 
I'll start with my tournament play briefly since I mentioned it in another topic. On day two I went for everything (even tossed a 3 of a kind for a ten) and came up short. I came away with $50 (which I quickly turned into $150 playing DDB, but that's another story) and was in the lower half of the standings. But looking at the score chart at the end, I really didn't even get any cards to place in a position that would have paid a lot more, so I'm glad I at least gave it a shot at hitting something big.
 
As for my normal play... that is a good story of its own.
 
I did all of my play at the Hilton since that's where i have my points built up and there is some alright play in the sportsbook area.
 
Well, as I mentioned previously I was going to start out with my beginner's luck strategy just like last trip. Super Times Pay, Deuces, 10 lines, quarters. 
 
I had 3 deuces dealt twice, but it did not deliver. But this time things went better and I got up $350 before I even came close to burning my original $100. This one helped out a bit...

 
I cashed out, up $345 and was going to call it a day (it was a late start on day one). But I got off to such a good start... on the way back to my room, a 100 play machine caught my eye.  It was only nickels ($25 a deal). I know it was a bad idea but I had to try it.  I decided that if I was up $250 after my first day I'd be alright. So I plugged in $100 and in what was probably 2 minutes I almost lost it all, then hit to get up $50. Cashed out, finished day one +$400.
 
Day two was another story. I lost left and right. It's a good thing I got ahead on day one or day two would have ended my play early on. I tried a lot of games, played a little on a progressive that was at $1,800 and obviously did not hit. The good news was, I finally found the only full pay machine in the casino that I looked for forever last trip and figured was removed.  It is loose deuces and on the last trip I was looking at the deuces wild paytable to try and find it, not realizing that loose deuces is a different button altogether. Loose deuces is higher variance than normal deuces but pays 2500 for 4 deuces... a nice reward if you can manage it. In the end, finding this machine was what saved my trip.
 
So, while I was busy donating my winnings back to the casino, my wife began her play on day two along side me with a fantastic $120 budget for the entire trip. I thought I'd show her slots first since she doesn't know video poker strategy at all.  After about a half hour trying different slots and wheels, she was bored out of her mind. We both threw away $40 or so I think just plucking buttons and winning nothing. I had never played a slot machine before and now I'm glad.  Even though video poker is a lot of luck too, I at least like holding some sort of control over my play. My wife wanted to quit, but then she wanted to try video poker since she knows how much I play on this site so I gave her a quick lesson in deuces at a bartop while I burned some more money because we were thirsty. She picked it up pretty quickly so we moved back to the full pay loose deuce machine since I didn't want to play the bar top pay tables any more myself. I think it was maybe 5 minutes before I look over at her screen and see this:
 

I snapped that photo after she had cashed out and I had just put my own ticket back in the machine which is why the cash amount it wrong. But the hit was for $650 I believe.
 
Ah yes... that beginners luck again.
 
With my wife up $700, we pocketed her winnings so we would take something home no matter what. She didn't want to risk it, so I gave her some of my own to play with while I kept trying. But day two had nothing for me. I think I was down more than $600 for the day and behind on my original bankroll. Time for drinks and a good night's sleep.
 
Day three: The comeback.
 
Again I tried a number of games here.  I fiddled with the STP machine again to see if it still loved me but it must have seen me gambling with my wife on day two. Gave up nothing.
 
I bounced around the Loose Deuces and even some DDB, coming out ahead on DDB over all with a few average quads, nothing huge. I had resigned myself to feeling good for my wife and the fact that combined we were going to come out a little ahead at least. But I don't think I would have ever heard the end of it if I lost everything that she had won. So, very late into the evening on our last night, tired eyes and a last bit of hope, I decided to stop messing around and just start out with a few 2's. Good idea, you should try it sometime.
 

 
Game, set, match. I cashed out ahead for the trip, my wife was ahead as well... we were both happy to call it a trip and come home with our winnings. We combined all of our cash since she had played quite a bit on my bankroll as well in the end, and we came out combined ahead about $1,000 for the trip. Not too bad at all. 
 
What a great trip and a great experience. I'm sure I'll be back to Vegas again to try something entirely different but for now I'll just be happy about this one and enjoy it for a while.
 
And of course, thanks to all of you for your great advice leading up to the trip which really helped make it the great experience that it was.

[MikeA]

OUTTA SIGHT Eduardo!  

[EDC1977]

  OUTSTANDING! Congratulations my friend. I was hoping to see pictures of the RF's posted but quad deuces and 8x on STP 10 will do just fine! I'm glad to see everything was relatively trouble free and wish you much success on future visits to sin city.  
 Eduardo, you went thru the Pallazzo. Is it worth the hassle to go see? I like to visit new properties and evaluate the ooh/aah factor.

[ginxxxx]

Eduardo,This is GREAT!  Also kudos for having the good sense to bring your wife!

[faygo]

You Da Man!!!!
Uh, er... and your wife is a lady.

[EDC1977]

  Ginny, I don't think he had an option but credit the newbie luck hitting quad deuces!

[Eduardo]

 
 Eduardo, you went thru the Pallazzo. Is it worth the hassle to go see? I like to visit new properties and evaluate the ooh/aah factor.
Honestly, we entered the Venetian through the canal shopping entrance and it funnelled into the Palazzo casino at the other end. I didn't even realize I was in the Palazzo until I walked out their front door and looked back from 100 yards away.  I thought I was still in the Venetian the whole time.
 
But I will say it was quite nice... the lobby didn't stand out as anything extraordinary on the way out, but the casino had a really nice atmosphere that I felt like I could spend a lot of time in and feel comfortable, and there was some nice decor and a great waterfall/fountain thing between the casino and the lobby. I didn't explore it much beyond that, on account of the fact that I obviously didn't even know where I was.
 
But it struck me as quite classy and the casino was in the top 3 or so that I visited, just from a very quick first impression. I think their grand opening is this coming weekend so I would have spent more time there had I known what I had walked into. It was towards the end of our afternoon walk though so I really didn't want to head back in at that point unfortunately.
 
I think it's definitely worth seeing if you are going to be in the area.  I don't know if I'd make a trip just for that unless you are into being up to speed on the latest offerings. Then I guess it's a must.

[Nancy J.]

wow way to go!!!!!

[BOOPSAHOY]

YAY Eduardo!

[EDC1977]

  Thanks Eduardo. I just like to gawk and be a good turista when I'm not out prowling VP games. I'm glad you had a successful trip