so it's time for the next Vegas trip and this one is shaping up to be the most epic ever! it's going to be awesome for sure, the only thing that could possibly make it better is booking that elusive 6-figure win.

so it's going to be me and my wife and my buddy and his wife. he's the same buddy G that i always take to the UFC fights. our wives get along really well also, so it's a good combo. at the moment we're booked in a 2BR Villa at the Mansion, but that's always dicey. some 2M player like Natedog calls in at the last minute and i get bumped. so no clue until the plane lands if we'll end up there or in the Skylofts. thankfully Natedog is already there, so he won't be the one that bumps me, lol.

first thing Friday morning G and i are going to play golf with Natedog at Wynn. i haven't played at Wynn before, so i'm looking forward to it. not sure if Nacho or Cuz is coming along or not.

Friday night the 4 of us and my host at the B and his wife are going to JR for the 16-course degustation menu. in all my trips to MGM i've actually never eaten there before, but i figure it's something you have to do once in your life. and i'm over $20k in ECs now, so it's time to burn some on a $4k dinner. the only thing i'm not looking forward to is paying the $800 tip, lol.

Saturday is the UFC fights. G and i are sitting with Natedog, Nacho and Cuz and my host said we'll be in the front row, so it should be a lot of fun. looking forward to seeing the Silva/Sonnen fight also; it should be a good one.

after the fights, the plan is to head over to Wynn and meet up with Mangoport and his family at XS or Tryst.

first thing Sunday morning G and i are playing golf at Shadow with my host at the B. i told Natedog to come along, but he said he needs his beauty sleep, lol.

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Sunday night we're going to eat at Shibuya and then see Mystere at TI. it's the only Cirque show in Vegas (sans Criss Angel) that we haven't seen, so we're looking forward to it. i had avoided it in the past because i'm too cheap to pay for the tickets myself, but they were able to setup a bill-back and comp it, so that's cool.

i'll try to post some updates as things go along. that always seems to start out pretty well, but as things get busy on Friday and Saturday it's hard to keep up, but we'll see how i can do.

getting ready to head to the airport soon. if you've been following Natedogg's TR you know they screwed with me at MGM and dropped me from the Mansion to the Skylofts and then down to a Marquee. at the moment i'm not sure exactly what the accommodations will be, but i did decide to stick with MGM. my host there has been working hard for me trying to do everything he can and i would feel bad to ditch him at the last minute. sometimes doing the right thing for someone else means you don't get exactly what you want.

so other than that, everything is on schedule. Natedogg and his family are going to join us for dinner tonight at the Mansion where we're going to drown our sorrows in some very expensive wine! then maybe we'll play some Bacc at the Mansion if i can convince him to come out of MGM retirement, lol. if all goes according to plan, by the end of the night Nate will be out of the hole and i'll be up 100k.

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so just a quick update. friday night we got in and our suite wasn't ready. they had given the guy in it 5pm late checkout even though i was due to arrive at 530. whoever came up with that bright idea deserves a medal. it took them 45 minutes to figure out what was going on and it turns out he had checked out, but they needed time to clean it, so they gave us a temporary room to get changed for dinner with Natedogg.


dinner was great, we had a fabulous bottle of 2000 Bordeaux and caviar to start. then Natedogg ordered some great chinese food that we ate family style. we had steamed shrimp, lobster, beef tenderloin, risotto, sea bass and i think some other stuff i forgot. i always love the chinese food at the Mansion, but never know what to order. so it was great to have an expert pick it all out. plus it was great to meet Natedogg's lovely wife who's a real sweetheart. my wife and friends also had a great time.

after dinner i checked on our suite because everybody else wanted to go to bed and housekeeping hadn't even touched it yet. i was livid of course and my host was as well and got right on it. he was able to find us an open Skyloft to put us in for the night, which was a nice consolation after all the hassles.

when they went to bed, i headed to the tables. i should have gone to bed, too.

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on top of all the room hassles, all the public tables are out by the KA theater, which i don't really like. so already i was starting not feeling great. i sat down at an open table and things started out pretty good and we hit a 5 player streak right off the bat. but i just wasn't comfortable being out in the open with all the noises and everything. i really like how quiet the Mansion is and it just feels comfortable and helps me focus. on top of that i was really tired from the flight and travels and dealing with all the hassles, so i probably should have called it a night early. unfortunately i didn't do that and quickly things turned around and i went from up a little to down a lot in no time. i just couldn't win any of my big bets and was pressing too aggressively for how poorly i was running. at one point i managed to get things going for about half a shoe and make a little comeback, but then the dealers changed and i didn't win a single hand with the new dealer. 6 or 7 losses in a row always hurts. so i closed the first night down really big.

got to bed about 330 and had an alarm set for 550 for golf. but i had been drinking bottles of water all night trying to stay hydrated, so i woke up about every 30 minutes. so i might have gotten an hour total sleep.

golf was fun and the course was in great shape. it's a much tighter course than Shadow and really required pinpoint accuracy off the tee. i didn't play that well, but had a great time.

after golf we hit the craps table. Ira was there at the other end. we hit a few passes early to keep things close to even, but then we had 2 straight rounds of no-pass city. we'd hit a few numbers, but just couldn't get enough passes to keep things up. then we went to Bacc where the shoes were choppy. i don't have a line at Wynn, so i had just brought a little cash and blew through that in no time. as soon as i lost my last bet, player went on a 7 streak and then banker went on a 7 streak. i figured out then that i was just bad luck today, so i quickly left and headed back to MGM and hoped things would turn around for Nate. some days you're the pigeon, some days you're the statue and it just wasn't my day.

when i got back to MGM, my host said he had found a Skyloft he could put us in for the rest of the trip, which was nice to hear. i had hoped someone would cancel or no-show and we'd get the Skylofts, so that was nice.

we had lunch at Wolfgangs and then i got back to the loft and crashed on the bed for 2 hours. then it was time for a steam and get dressed for dinner at JR. my host at the B and his wife were to join us, but they had something come up and weren't able to make it. we had a late lunch so nobody was terribly hungry, so we decided to do the 6 course menu instead of the 16 course. even with only 6 courses, it took almost 3.5 hours. i can't imagine how long the 16 course would have taken. the food was great, but the place is really stuffy and pretentious and i don't think it can compare with Le Cirque. not only that, the food was about $800, but we had the sommelier put together some wine pairings for us and just a few glasses each ran over $900. i was pretty shocked actually, each glass was $30-40. we could have gotten 3 bottles of some really nice stuff for that price. so $2200 with tip for the dinner and i could get the same thing with more fun waiters for half that at Le Cirque. so i doubt we'll go back, next time we're at MGM and we want a tasting menu, we'll just limo it over to Le Cirque.

after dinner we were all tired, so headed back to the loft. my host met us up there and we drank the bottle of Jokigen Sweet Dream sake i had delivered and played some pool. i was the big schlep losing every single match, but i'm terrible at pool. we got to bed by 11, which is unheard of for me in Vegas, but it was much needed. slept really well until almost 7.

now we're headed to the Mansion pool and then the fights with Natedogg.

At the fights now. Great seats ringside where the fighters come out. Played Bacc for an hour before coming and got a good shoe and got back 10k which feels good. Got the good mojo back and ready to hit them up again after!

I think he'd rather get one from you lol. Btw we're sitting right next to Joe Benevidez.

Randy Couture just walked in sitting right in front of us.

Just look for Couture in the front row and we're right behind to the right.

so the fights were great. afterwards we went over to the Mansion with Natedogg and his buddy and had dinner. then we limped it over to Surrender at Encore to meet up with Mangoport. he and his wife are great and it was good to meet them. we stuck around for a couple of hours and drank a ton and then it was off to bed around 230.

550 alarm for golf came awfully early though, but a steamshower did wonders and golf was great. i didn't play that well, but actually scored pretty decent. interesting that last week at Fallen i played so great and shot 81 and today i played crappy and also shot 81. sometimes you just can't score and other times you pull shots out of your ass and come up with a better score than you deserve.

after golf i hit the tables for one last hurrah. with dinner and a late show tonight and then leaving tomorrow, i knew this was my last chance to get even. at first it started off pretty decent and i was up 7k for the session. unfortunately then i hit the shoe from hell. couldn't win with 7, couldn't win with 8, couldn't even win with 9 sometimes, i'd get a tie. every single pattern that i could identify would break as soon as i tried to hit it. it was just the choppiest ugliest shoe ever. so i switched tables and the same thing! patterns would break and i would pull a natural 8 and lose to natural 9 or pull a draw for a 9 and tie.

so that's the end of the gambling this trip for me. i wish i would have been able to get a comeback like i did my last 4 trips, but alas i hit the end of the road there. tonight it's Shibuya for dinner (and lots of sake, i need it) and then off to TI for Mystere. then bed and tomorrow we'll just get up and catch the flight home.

so that's pretty much the end of this TR. will be back in Sept for my wife's and my birthday party. hopefully i will have better luck then!

 

this still takes the cake as the worst trip ever.

awful hassles, awful gambling, just awful everywhere.

 

Sometimes they knock it out of the park, this time the customer service just wasn't there.