Baby Vegas!

I'm baaaaaaaaaaack!

Got back on the red eye yesterday morning after having the usual blast in Vegas. Unfortunately, no crazy stories involving 3 dwarves, 2 hookers, chocolate syrup, and a giraffe. Seriously, no crazy stories about that at all. Only the completely sane ones.

Stayed at TI, which turned out to be a solid choice. We got in around 1am, so they had no more non-smoking rooms with 2 queen beds. Instead, we got moved up to the penthouse floor! This worried me -- I figured we'd topped out at this point, and it was all downhill from there. I was wrong.

I guess I should talk up TI a bit. It's gradually moving away from "Arrr!! Look kiddies! Thar be pirates!" to "Hey! Check out the sexy pirate chicks we have... oh, you have kids?" Beds are plenty comfortable, the buffet is perfectly fine (it's not gourmet, it's buffet), the deli is solid, the games are reasonable... and the new poker room is perfect for me. The TI Poker room holds daily tournaments - at 4am, 11am, and 7pm - $60 buy-in gets you $2000 in chips, blinds starting at 25-50 and lasting 20min. At the first break, a $5 add-on gets you another $1000 chips (with blinds at 200-400 at that point). Compared to everywhere else we looked, this is the best buy-in:chips:blind structure I saw. The players are a mix, but pretty much all fall into the pretty good online player range. They also offer 1-3 NLHE, 2-4 Limit, and other levels on request.

Day 1, I played in the 11am, go crippled by the biggest LAG I've ever seen when my flopped set of Jacks ran into 4 clubs on the board, I folded to his big river bet when my full boat didn't come. However, I tightened up, stuck around, chipped up, and eventually knocked his ass out when he called my all-in (we were tied in chips at that point) with J7o against my rockets. I finished in 8th out of 80... when top 6 paid.

Day 2, no crippling moves, but no cards either. However, it got me to 11th of 67... I was incredibly short stacked and went all-in on the last hand before the 2nd break... and my ATo (SB) ran into AQs (BB), and I went out. I debated on the move, but figured with the chips I had, there was no point in waiting 10 min to last 5 more.

Day 3, I got cards... I didn't get boards. Out before the 2nd break when two decent hands (AQo calling a short-stacked all-in, and my AKs all-in when I was short) didn't get what I needed.

Hey, I had fun... and it cost me $195.

Craps - up on my first game, and down on all the others... with a walk away from my last when I dropped to what I started with. All-in-all - down about $450 on the dice. I know it's all stats and odds... but it always amazes me how a table can get soooo cold so fast, and when it gets hot, it smokes.

This leaves... slots. They were pretty cold to me at first. I was down around $120... then... a $110 win... a $130 win... a $480 win... and finally, not one, but TWO, count 'em TWO $1000+ jackpot hits ($1,116 and $1,062) on high-payout $1 progressives. There was much rejoicing. There was also much me paying for the rest of the cabs, and covering a fantastic dinner at Sensi in the Bellagio. Also, much me spending more on slots :). When all was said and done, the trip cost me about $170 CDN, including airfare, hotel, show tickets, drinks, food, gambling and other costs. I can't complain.

Enough with the gambling - I also saw Cirque Du Soleil's Love - aka The Beatles show. It was amazing. I need to see it about two more times to catch what I missed the first time through. Some solid and surprising choices in the music... and I was more surprised by what wasn't in it. As usual with Cirque, amazing acrobatics, flying trapezes, visuals like there's no tomorrow... it was awesome.

Also did the Star Trek Experience. I'd been there a few years ago, when it was just the Klingon Encounter. They've added the Borg. For any Trekker/ie - it's a must. It's cheesy, geeky fun. Heck, even the walk to the "expeirences" is fun, with the History of the Future Museum -- Trek props, costumes, and a comprehensive timeline.

Food - mostly nothing special - breakfast at the hotel restaurant, brunch buffet on Sunday, deli, snacks on the go... somehow always full. Then Sensi on Monday night, which involved American Kobe Beef, shrimp, tuna three-way, calamari, and some of the tastiest molten chocolate cake ever.

Nightlife - umm.. hrmm. Well, cheap drinks on Fremont street, cheap drinks on the strip, less cheap drinks at The Beach, drunk people stumbling all around... and no stories to tell.