so it's almost time for another trip to Vegas, so I probably should put down some highlights from the last trip.

we headed to Vegas the week before TG with some friends for some R&R.

host pulled some strings and swung a 2BR Mansion for us since it was a pretty dead weekend. except it turned out it really wasn't a dead weekend since the Latin Grammy's were at MGM on Thu night and the Mansion was pretty full.

Thu we arrived and had some lunch and then the girls headed off to the spa. I decided to hit the tables and dropped into a nice first shoe. had a great pattern going on the cockroach road, I was pressing pretty good, but not huge since it was the first shoe of the trip, but by the end I was up 25k.

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headed back to the Villa to relax a bit and meet up with the girls. after a while I hit the tables again while waiting to meet up with some other friends. it started out bad, but not terrible, just couldn't get anything going. started pressing and digging a bit, but the first shoe just wasn't any good. started the second shoe and it was great. it was actually not a great shoe if you just looked at the big road, but there were awesome runs on the big eye road. I managed to get back what I lost in the last shoe and then started pressing at the end of the shoe and walked away up another 32k for this session, 57k total.

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met up with friends and played a little BJ and lost a couple thousand, as usual, then decided to head to bed.

always feels good to sleep on a nice big winner on the first night! but it's early yet...

next morning headed to Shadow first thing. got there and a huge

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bus is parked there. a huge corporate event is going out. so we immediately head into the bar to get some food going. I order a breakfast burrito, which is what I always order, but it's not on the menu. the other 3 guys decide to have the same thing. ok. now the corporate group descends on us. just about every one walks in and says "do you have a breakfast burrito"? I'm like wtf, I order a breakfast burrito and now everybody in the place wants one, this is going to take forever ... so it takes forever to get the food and the burrito is nowhere near as good as usually. usually they make 2 small ones and grill them a little crispy on one side, which is a nice touch. but since they were making 30 of them, they just slapped them together, rolled them up and sent them out. definitely disappointing ...

hit the course and went out the back since the corporate event was going out the front. played actually really well on the back considering I've played once in about 3 months. hit almost every green and made a couple of birdies. shot 1 over after making a 20 footer for bogey on the first hole. but started to get tired on the front, plus drinking too many Bloody Mary's turned the back into a 42. but 79 isn't that bad. I wasn't playing the tips because it was really cold and a little wet, so I played the second tees.

had a massage after getting back from the course, which was really nice. then we met up with everybody for a big Asian feast at the dining room. had a magnum of 1997 Opus, which was nice. had the whole turbot again, since that's my fav and a bunch of other good things.

while we were there, they were setting up shabu-shabu for 25 people. some big player and his entourage were coming in later. they finally arrived and they were so serious. nobody talked, everybody just started making stuff in a whirlwind. the big player was wearing shorts and towel over his shoulders, which was a little creepy.

a little while later, everyone stops. he asks for a Coke, so they bring him a glass. he says no, in the bottle, no ice. so they bring him that and he proceeds to pour it into the shabu-shabu cooking broth. he tastes it, pours in a little more, tastes it again and then they go back to their regularly scheduled serious cooking/eating adventure. I guess Coke is the key to good shabu-shabu.

after dinner, it was late and we were beat, so we just went straight to bed.

so Saturday woke up early and had a nice breakfast at the dining room. nothing quite like the calm of a Vegas morning in the Mansion. then the girls headed off for more spa. I texted Nate and we agreed to meet up at Cosmo in about an hour. so I decided to hit the tables at MGM until then.

it really couldn't have gone worse. I started small playing at a table with another guy. turns out he only bets player, so that wasn't a good fit. I play whatever is running and I hate playing against somebody every hand. lost 5k at that table pretty quick.

so I got up to look for another table. there were 3 available. had a good feeling about the first, second seemed OK, third definitely didn't like. decided to park at the second. bad decision as we'll find out soon.

started playing and the shoe is going nowhere. win a couple, press, lose. win a couple, press, lose. I was winning more hands than I was losing, but all the hands that looked good and I pressed, I couldn't win. not only that, we were getting out drawn on every hand. 6 vs 2, they draw 5. natural 8, oops, they have 9. 7 vs 3, they draw 5 again. just couldn't do anything.

but of course, I couldn't just take a small loss and move on, so I started pressing. then I really couldn't win. I must have lost 7 in a row if I lost a single hand. and they were all 5-15k bets. just kept pressing and digging and nothing. finally that shoe ends, so I get up and look at the first table I checked out before I sat down. it had one of the best shoes I've ever seen. every single chart was inline and they were rock solid the entire shoe. started kicking myself for picking the wrong table because this was a mid-6 figure shoe easily.

but there were a few hands left, so I started playing. it stuck for a bit and I made back a chunk of what I lost at the other table, but then the last 3 hands of the shoe switched, I lost all 3 for 15k bets and I was right back where I was when I sat down at that table. that really sucked.

so I moved back over to the second table because the new shoe was ready. it was off and on at first and I thought I might make some progress, but then I hit another cold spell. lost 5 or 6 more big bets in a row and I had successfully turned my 55k win from the night before into a 75k hole in under 2 hours.

as luck would have it, Nate texts just then. I was an hour late and he was wondering if I was coming. so I decided to head over there. had to make a run by the bank to pick up some cash since I don't have a CL at Cosmo and I had just donked off all my winnings. why are all banks in the ghetto? I had to dodge 2 different homeless dudes asking for money on the way in and the way out while carrying a sack full of cash. not my idea of a good time.

get over to Cosmo and find Nate in the Talon room at his private table. go to the cage to put my cash down and get some chips.

he wasn't enamored with the shoe he was playing, so we played a couple of hands and then decided to have them shuffle. great move.

new shoe starts and I start betting fairly small. it started pretty bad and I started pressing and still losing. pretty soon I was down a good bit there and the trip was starting to look really meager. but then we hit a nice streak on the small and big eye roads, so I start pressing. 5, 10, 15, pretty soon I'm slamming 20k when the shoe looks good. lost a few big bets, but won more than my share and pretty soon was up 6 figures. now I was really kicking myself for donking off the 130k at MGM when I didn't need to press there and could really have a big trip at this point. but then we get to the end of the shoe and it starts to turn and I lose a couple of big bets in a row to give some of it back.

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at that point i was going to leave for dinner, but i hate leaving after losing a few big hands in a row. so I wait for the shuffle and the new shoe starts. it continues where the last on left off - bad. we can't win a hand. now i've given back most of my win for the session and i'm pissed. I'm thinking about getting up and going, since I have dinner soon and I am still up for the session, but I decide to stick it out. I'm glad I did because just then banker just goes on a tear. after it broke through 2 in a row that it hadn't gotten past yet, I started slamming 20k every hand. i was just going to ride it for everything it was worth at that point. we just started tearing them up. no naturals surprisingly, but lots of 6s and 7s against small numbers and then monkey. or small card and we draw a 3 sider. whenever we needed it, player was drawing the perfect card every time. it was sweet to see the chocolates pile up so quickly. finally player outdrew us to end the streak and I was back up 115 for the session and back up for the trip.

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went to the cage and picked up my bricks and was back to MGM.

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got back in time to change and head over to the B for dinner at Le Cirque. had their special white truffle menu that's only available for a few weeks this time of year and it was fabulous. white truffles are 10x as good as black truffles. so much more fragrant, but yet milder and sweeter in flavor. but they're only available for about 3 weeks in the late fall.

after dinner we just headed back and crashed as I was in no mood to hit the tables after I had more than my share of sweating for the day.

Sunday was a lazy day. I decided not to play anymore and lock in my win for the trip. not the major 6 figure win that it could have been, but still a solid 40k win considering how bad it could have gone. saw Jabbawockeez at

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that evening. I'm not going to lie, it was pretty bad. some cool dancing, but overall the show sucked. 80 minutes of stupid, lame shit in between the 10 minutes of dancing.

so that's it for this one. looking for that elusive mid-6 figure shoe next trip!

 

So I forgot on Thursday after that nice session we meet up with my host and friends at the Pub 1942. I'm in love with this gin and basil drink they bottle in house. We ordered 2 a piece and watched some football.

That place is growing on me overall. It has a good vibe. Food is ok, but pretty much just bar food, of which I'm not really a fan although the chile nachos are good. But those drinks are addicting.

I can't wait to get back there now that I'm thinking about it.....

 

This may be a premature comment as I'm new here. Also being that this is only the second trip report I've read. But photos would make these baller trip reports over the top. Not sure if later TR's contain pics. Anyways, I genuinely approve of your lifestyle.

 

Not sure why I never added any pics to this one.

I'll add them now.