DEFINITELY going to Vegas

[DaBurglar]

Apologies for not putting up info on my trip sooner, I had quite a bit of stuff to catch up on when I finally returned home to New England.Ultimately I departed May 29 via Southwest, utilizing a vacation package which I still strongly endorse IF....IF someone is planning a extended Vegas Stay of at least a week (6-7 days  OR MORE....in fact, the longer a person wants to stay in Vegas, the MORE a vacation package appears to be a good option.....and please note, Southwest is NOT the only airline with these deals.....ALL the major airlines have similar deals, so if one of you has a crapload of points or is a frequent flyer on some other airline, look into the option.)My stay had me DOWNTOWN at the four queens.....I have long been a huge fan of Downtown Vegas, and I still am.....The first two days I literally spent doing almost nothing except catching up with old friends and associates from years past, including many people still residing in Southern California only several hours away across the desert.    The only gambling I did between May 29 thru May 31 was about 6 hours of Video Poker (just messing around with numerous games and machines throughout all the downtown properties), and I played a few hours of cash game poker .     In addition to catching up with friends and trying to set up various get togethers and rendezvous' over the remaining 4-5 days of my trip, I also spent a lot of time the first couple days simply soaking up the latest changes and current layout of Vegas itself!   One drawback I now have since I only get to Vegas a couple times a year is I have fallen behind in knowing "what is what" and where everything is, etc.    I used to be extremely familiar and knowledgeable about Vegas but since 2009 I have fallen way behind......it can be overwhelming scanning all the ads and the newspapers and brochures, and looking out your hotel at night and seeing such a HUGE expanse of stuff to do and places and things etc etc.    So not counting May 29 since I arrived very late and crashed, May 30 and May 31 were mostly lost amidst this flurry of catch up.....but I did hit a couple premium hands (AWAK on a 25 cent machine for $500 at four queens, and four deuces on a 25 cent game for $250)  so I wound up nearly $250 ahead at the end of May 31.Day 3 (June 1) finally allowed me to start gambling for real and I spent most of the day and evening in the Poker room of Golden Nugget  taking a dinner break to enjoy a awesome dinner at Oscar's Steakhouse over at the Plaza.   I lost about $140 total during the day playing $1-2 N/L holdem BEFORE dinner, but it was over 6 hours of play and I was up and down all during the duration, a high of +380 and a low -290.     After enjoying Oscars and taking a nap to allow my food to digest, I returned to the GN poker room for some late night Poker action, and played $2/5 NL holdem for about 3 hours and won nearly $800!!! ........altogether I logged over 9 hours of cash play and earned some decent comps for food at the GN.      Worth noting is the Golden Nugget was sponsoring a pretty interesting Tournament Event called  "THE GRAND POKER SERIES", which offered some pretty good value tournament events for players like me who are not serious enough to fork over the large buy-ins at the currently running WSOP at the RIO, but who still are serious enough to want something more than simple basic sit n go type action.    The GN's  Grand series had a daily NLH tournament buy in event of $150 which caught my eye and I planned on entering the one scheduled for June 3.....they also had all kinds of other games like Pot Limit Omaha,  H.O.R.S.E., RAZZ and other popular games.   Quite often some of the more popular Poker rooms in Vegas will have their own toned down versions of the WSOP currently happening at the RIO.....A word on Oscars steakhouse:   I wound up eating alone since my friend who was supposed to meet me for dinner had an emergency, and as some of you may know, OSCARS has a number of "hostesses" who will literally join you for dinner if you want them......they are the "Broads"  in Oscar's titled mantra of "BEEF   BOOZE  BROADS"!   I had a nice conversation with a comely 30-something "broad" as I enjoyed my Filet.    I highly recommend this place to all who visit Downtown, and especially the corn and crab Bisque.June 2 was all about video poker during the day and meeting a group of friends for dinner for a cookout on Lake mead.   From 10 am until 5 pm I played nothing but DDB at the following casinos:  Four Queens, Fremont, Golden Nugget and the Plaza.    I finished down about $70 which for nearly 6 hours of total play on mostly 9/6/4 paytables is not too bad at ALL!!!!.   One thing I did notice is the difference in the infamous "dud rate":   In the Vegas casinos I played thus far, I never went more than a few hands (5-6 hands max) before hitting "something", unlike in AC where you can frequently find yourself going 15, 20 hands or more of nothing but zip.    I did not hit any huge hands (no royals or AWAK), just a fair amount of "normal" four of a kinds .... but everything just FELT a lot more normal and at ease than  AC video poker........June 3 had me planning to enter a 1pm tournament at the GN Grand Series ($150 buy in), BUT fate intervened in the form of a couple friends from Los ANgeles showed up after breakfast and I wound up spending the day and most of the evening with them, although we did play some Video Poker and Blackjack (social types of games), and one of my friends hit a $2000 Royal at the Four QUeens, so he paid for our dinner at Lillies in the Golden Nugget (I remember when it used to be "LIlly Langtry's" back in the 1990s thru early 2003).....I won nearly 300 bucks at Blackjack!Here is where my trip went a little haywire.....one of my friends insisted I take some time and drive back with them to Southern California and see his new home....he just purchased a really beautiful house in Newport Beach (one of the most beautiful places in the world in my opinion, I was actually fortunate enough to live there for a year back in 1993!) and he was understandably proud........I was torn;  here it was late on June 3 and I was scheduled to fly back on June 5, from Vegas back to Hartford;   since I purchased a Vacation package, I could not simply just up and change my flight and pay a simple fee ..... I thought and thought and thought, all the while being pressured to visit my old stomping grounds and see my friend's new place, and yet not content to just up and abandon my Vegas excursion.   I spent a lot of time on the phone with Southwest trying to see what options I might have and what could be worked out......I realized vegas would always be there but the chance to visit with my friends and see his new house and catch up with other friends and see all my old haunts.....eh, you get the idea.Ultimately, I purchased a separate one way ticket out of Los Angeles flying back to PHILADELPHIA on June 7; I cancelled the return leg of my vacation package trip which normally you would not get any credit for but in this case they allowed me to purchase my LA to Philly trip at the much lower "Wanna get away" fare instead of the last minute fare which is a lot higher.   Anyhow, I checked out of the four queens and las Vegas on June 4 and spent a awesome 2-plus days in Southern California!   Not what I planned but honestly given the spontaneous nature of it all it added to the enjoyment......But I am NOT done with the Video Poker reporting.......remember, I bought a ticket to PHILLY, and not Hartford.   I did this for two reasons:   the first is simply it was a easier, better deal during my attempt to back out of my vacation package and there were a lot of seats available versus flying into Hartford or even Providence, R.I.      Second, and more importantly, Philadelphia would allow me to hit AC as I took the Bus back home from Philly!!!!     I was determined to hit AC while my Vegas experience was still fresh in my mind with respects Video poker!So, I arrive late on June 7 and check in to the TAJ for two nights......and not surprisingly as soon as I started playing video poker that same old sinking/stinking feeling hit and the same results followed.   Almost a horrible joke.......I mean, the difference COULD NOT HAVE BEEN more stark or obvious......Video Poker at the TAJ, Resorts, and to a lesser extent Ballys was just horrible.    I managed to lose close to $1200 in 2 days in AC following my fairly successful and certainly much more fun (abbreviated) trip to Vegas!      there was one episode in particular in AC at the TAJ I must mention:   I decided to try one of the infamous ALL STAR poker machines offering 5 Aces Poker;   I put in almost $1100 bucks and selected 10 hand 25 cent DDB 5 Aces......in less than 15 minutes I was down to $385 !!!!!     Less than 15 minutes!    I hit absolutely NOTHING....N O T H I N G .... everytime I hit deal/draw on that game on that machine, almost all ten hands came up with ZIP!     I think I might have hit a couple full houses and that is IT!     That's how it was the 2 days or so I was in AC.....All in all it was an exhilirating, exhausting experience, but it definitely drove home the following undeniable conclusion:AC video Poker is NOT set up the same, nor do the games and machines function in the same manner, as Vegas/Nevada games.    Nope.....no way, no how.

[notes1]

the combination of vegas, some decent gambling, good food and old friends... doesn't get much better than that.  why not save the money and frustration and skip AC altogether and just go once a month to vegas.

[DaBurglar]

the combination of vegas, some decent gambling, good food and old friends... doesn't get much better than that.  why not save the money and frustration and skip AC altogether and just go once a month to vegas.Notes1   good point(s), & I am working my way to this eventuality......one of the main issue is with the flying and the airports and the hassle it represents for me.    This trip was no exception, especially coming home.......going through LAX was a friggin pain and a half  (granted normally I'd be flying home from McCarran, but BOTH airports are super huge, super busy and represent a challenge either way for me.)     If only we had a nice high speed rail service that spanned the length of the country!Before anyone else decides to criticize or complain about my ending the trip with 2 days in AC please note it was not planned

[Tedlark]

  I won't be one of those to criticize or complain about you ending your trip with 2 days in Atlantic City DaBurglar, even if it was unplanned. But: nobody held a gun to your head and forced you to go, did they?

[notes1]

i had forgotten about your commuting difficulties, but if only going once a month, to get your VP addiction (we all need it) satisfied, the more often you go, you may find some ways to make it easier. and, i know from experience, it does not take a lot of play to get free rooms/food in vegas, if you go more often. you would only be paying for airfare and with the losses you have incurred at AC, the airfare would be a cheaper trade-off.  you may have missed other posts, but there are many who are commenting that tunica has changed, biloxi is not the same, the Conn casinos are different, so, it is not just AC.  the definition of insanity is, doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result. we might all want to remember that.

[DaBurglar]

One thing I will never concede is that my video poker play is the manifestation of some sort of "addiction".....Ben & Jerry's ice cream is addicting.......DDB is not.I like the fact that AC combines the ocean and the typical Beach scene with Casinos......it kills me that AC is in the shape it is in .... I still like Vegas, but even when I was there last week there was a certain constant "droning" or vibe in the air that never really allows you to simply relax (not unless you imbibe.)   One of my favorite things to do in AC is early in the A.M. (crack of dawn) is go out side onto the beach and just ....breathe......spend about 15 minutes relaxing and meditating.    I do this anytime I am at the ocean (RhodeIsland, Connecticut, Maine all have wonderful beach spots I am fond of visiting......but only AC has the casinos and all that goes with it......I have another Vegas trip coming up,,,,,,was originally going to be in July but I am putting it off to the end of September or early October, when Football season is in full swing, and I will be going for at least 10 days next time.     AC I will probably stick with once a month for 4-5 days at a time for the foreseeable future.....