So first a bit about the trip before the report. First I had posted a month or so ago asking people about a short overnight trip and there thoughts. I got mixed reviews but most said to go for it. This had to be a short trip as I have an 11 month old son who can be very difficult to take care of and this is the first time Mom and I have left him since he was born. The wife and I have always staid on the strip but go downtown to gamble. Due to the short trip we figured we would just stay downtown to see if we like it reduce travel time to and from the strip. Also though I gamble I was never one to take a players card till I joined the site and found I could probably earn a free night or two based on my play.


Ok so now that you have some background lets get going. The wife and I went back and forth and where to stay trying to decide between the Golden Nugget and The D, the Nugget pool sound fantastic but we didn't want to spend a ton on the room since we weren't planning to spend but a few hours in it. I asked the site for a host at The D to see if maybe I could get a deal, I was given the name of a host at Golden Gate who I shot an email. The host was amazing, not only did he respond quickly but he asked if we could talk on the phone to try and work out a good deal for me. After speaking on the phone he agreed to comp us the one night in a suite at Golden Gate. I checked out the pics online and the wife and I agreed it was perfect and at the best price in the world. I also used miles to book both of our flights to Vegas on Southwest. Usually we rent a car as we stay 4-5 days, but since this was a short trip I arranged for the Bell Trans VIP Shuttle to and from the airport for $78 total. And that was all the pre-planning we did, no other set plans, except my wife insisted that we eat dinner at Gordon Ramsay Steak.

We booked the early direct flight from MCI to LAS on Sunday leaving at 10:15am and landing in Vegas at 11:30am. We took off a few minutes early and the pilot put the hammer down, we actually ended up landing in Vegas at a little after 11am. The wife picked a seat right on the wing for the flight and it was uneventful. We did have 4 drink coupons that we quickly used up on the flight to get the pre party started.

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Got off the plane and headed out to the Bell Trans kiosk and showed them my reservation, waited about 14 seconds and a stretch limo pulled up. They informed me that was my ride so away we go. We got to the Golden Gate before 11:30 so things are working out great so far. Went to check in but was told that the room was not ready yet, no biggie I figured this was going to happen. Told them to call my cell when the room was ready, dropped my bags with them and the wife and I were starving and ready to eat. We had last eaten at 7am Kansas time and it was now 11:30am Vegas time (1:30pm Kansas). I had read good things about 777 at MSS so we headed over there. Wife had a burger and I had a steak, food was good as was the beer and we were both starving so exactly what we needed.

I had read that MSS has good paytables on VP so we figured we would drop a few bucks and see where it took us. The wife and I got our players cards and I asked if they had any gifts for new players. She said yes and gave us each a BOX of playing cards. By box I mean 12 decks each, yes 12. She said they were told to start giving them out to everyone to unload them. Found some DDB at 9/5 and the wife and I each put in $20, I don't think either of really hit anything at all. We aren't VP people so we decided to take a walk down Fremont St and soak it all in and work on some plans. As we were walking out I saw a double deck $5 Super Fun 21 table that was empty, had the rules explained and the wife and I thought we would give it a go. Basic rules are you can double at anytime, allowed surrender, H17, push on 22. Wife and I each buy in for $30 and bet $5 per hand to try it out. We proceed to lose every hand, yes every hand. At this point we are each down $50 and ready to go explore so we take our leave of the Super Dumb 21 table.

On Fremont St the wife decides that she must stop at Mermaids to get some 99¢ fried Oreos. We do a bit of walking and checking things out, still early so not much going on. At this point I am ready to gamble some more so we head back to Golden Gate to gamble. Hit the players desk for our cards then sit down at a $5 black jack table. I play a few hands and hit a nice streak with 3 blackjacks in the first 4 hands. I am quickly up $50 when I notice it is a constant shuffle machine, I hate constant shuffle so I cash out. The craps table is now calling my name. The wife has never played and the table is empty, perfect time to learn. We get on the table and play for about an hour just us two. No big losses, no big wins, just even for the hour. My phone rings and they tell me the suite is ready so we take our leave of the table, up $4.

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The suite is perfect and really was a nice touch. Get the bags dropped off and the it is close to 1 now. I really want to play Free Bet blackjack that I head read about on this board (free doubles on 9,10,11 and free splits, push on 22). The tables at Golden Gate weren't open yet and when I asked the Pit Boss he said probably not till around 4 or 5 would they open. So we headed down to The D and found a double deck, H17, 3:2 Free Bet table with a $10 minimum that was empty. I sat at 3rd base and the wife to my right. We each bought in for $50 agreeing to try the $50 and see how it went. I have to say that my wife and I fell in love with this game. We played for 3 hours on our $50 buy in. And my wife who is a very cheap gambler and normally loves the $2 or $3 blackjack tables had no issues playing at the $10 table. Also a bit about my wife, normally no matter how good or bad the cards are running she will not up her bet, she plays the minimum every hand. True to form this is how my wife played never changing from her $10 bet. It was now close to 4:30 and we wanted to get cleaned up and ready for dinner so we head back to Golden Gate. When we leave the table I am up $150 and she is up $50. So this puts me up $150 for the trip and the wife is now even.

Quick shower in the room and we get cleaned up and dressed for dinner. Now I want to say that the wife and I fell in love with the shower in the Suite. Nice and big and plenty of room for both of us to help conserve water and help get squeaky clean.

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Grab a cab and head down to Paris for dinner at Gordon Ramsay Steak. Prior to the trip I signed up for the Total Rewards credit card and did the social rewards did to earn some rewards credits. I had over 20k rewards credits so dinner should be covered unless we go totally nuts. We had reservations and were quickly seated around 5:30. I know this is early for most but our bodies still think it is 7:30 when we normally eat dinner. We had great service and were very impressed with dinner. The wife had Blue Crab Soup and the Beef Wellington, I had the Market Green Salad and Beef Wellington. We also got the fingerling potatoes and Mac & Cheese to try. The wife ordered some drink called the HK antioxidant and I had a Belvedere and 7. The Blue Crab Soup was hands down one of the best soups I have ever tasted and the wife agreed. The salad was very fresh and tasty. The beef wellington was out of this world, super soft and tasted amazing. We also loved the fingerling potatoes, but the mac & cheese neither of us cared for. We had planned to get the sticky toffee pudding, but we were both totally stuffed. Bill came out to $189 covered by the rewards credits, I dropped a $40 tip. We grab a cab and head back downtown to gamble.

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Once back at Golden Gate the Free Bet table is now open and has the same rules as The D. We sit and play another probably 3 or 4 hours and my wife is on fire, hitting blackjack after blackjack. Things are going so well that she starts to up her bet and by the end is playing $20 a hand. We finally hit a stopping point and the wife is up $200 and I lost $50 leaving me up $100. The wife had learned about Sigma Derby and states that she now must play this, so off to The D we go. The wife sits down with $10 in quarters and I head over to a DDB VP machine. I hit 4OAK with 5's and leave the machine up $50 after playing for a bit, the wife lost her $10 and said she didn't win a single race. We both agree it is fun for a bit but not something we want to play for more than $10 or $20. It is getting close to midnight and my wife is good and drunk at this point, she says she wants to get some shut eye and not piss away her winnings. I take her up to the suite and put her to bed

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with a little good night special before heading back down to gamble. I sit down at the Free Bet table and my fortune had changed I quickly lose $300 playing $25 a hand putting me down $200. I head over to a lively craps table and just kind of tread water till it is my turn to shoot. Things don't start off great for me rolling 12 3 times in a row on the come out. Finally I set a point and start shooting. I hit a hot hot hot streak to. In the end I hit 6 points for 3 different numbers with plenty of hardways and yo's. When I finally 7 out I am up $300 from where I started, now up $100 for the trip. The rest of the table made some really good cash as well. One guy at the other end was betting the pass for $1000 when I was hot and I know I hit 11 on the come out for him 3 times. I should have probably quit for the night at this point as it was close to 2am and I was up. Instead I started to really splash my money around on the craps table and when I finally quit at close to 4am I was down $300 for the trip. Oh well easy come easy go. I had fun and I was good and drunk. I headed up to bed and tried to wake up the wife for round 3 but she wasn't having it. Oh well off to sleep, day 2 in my next post to follow.

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Day 2 started early at 8am. I had told the wife I wanted to get up early as we had limited time in Vegas and I wasn't worried about not sleeping much. Got up hit that shower again

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I really need one of these at home. Having read such great things about DuPars we head down for breakfast. I had the short stack and 4 pieces of bacon, the wife went for the French toast and 2 bacon. I will say this, Dupars lived up to the hype and I will be back. The wife and I agreed we liked it better than Hash House A Go Go our normal breakfast fave.

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I now want to head over to the Nugget to do some gambling as I want to try to earn some teaser offers. We get signed up for the players card and each are given $10 in freeplay. We sit at a $1 top dollar machine and turn the $20 in freeplay in to $15 cash. My wife informs me she wants to play roulette, I am floored. My wife doesn't gamble much as stated and normally just blackjack. We find a $5 roulette table and each buy in for $40. My wife starts off just betting black and makes a few hits and starts to play the numbers. I don't bet the black to start but when black hits a hot streak I did. I played the 17, 20, 21, 24, and 0-00 and had a few good hits and I am quickly up $100. After last nights losses I lock up the win and cash out, the wife keeps playing, at the end she cashes out up $50 but was over $100 at one point. In the pic below we played all those spins, I got up on the second 17, she got up at the 36. My wife bet $5 on black on each and every spin.

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I play some more craps at the Nugget and quickly lose $200 with everyone going PSO. I am now down $400 for the trip, wife is up $250. It is getting close to noon and the wife and I are both hungry but not really sure what we want to eat so we take a stroll and we both agree to junk food at Mermaids is calling our name. We grab a hot dog, sliders, and chili cheese fries, grand total $8.81. Give the cashier a $10 and tell him to keep it, the lady behind the counter goes nuts. I don't think many people tip in this place, she ends up telling me she is going to take care of us and gives us extra fries chili and cheese. Judge me if you will but I loved lunch and would do it again. Don't get me wrong the $200 dinner at Gordon Ramsay Steak was amazing, but so was my $9 lunch at the snack counter at Mermaids.

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We head over and check out of the suite at Golden Gate and check our bags, our flight doesn't leave till 5:45pm and the limo is coming to get us at 3:15pm so we have about 3 hours left to gamble. The wife wants to hit Binions as we have some fond memories of it from her first trip to Vegas. (I posted a trip report about it but basically she was out of work and I scrounged up some cash and surprised her with the trip, we played $1 blackjack at Binion's got wasted, won $40, and had a blast) We found a $3 BJ table and sat down to play. I knew going in the rules were going to be terrible but figured for memories sake we would play. It was an 8 deck shoe with a good 2 decks cut out, paid 6:5 (even money on $3 bets) on BJ. We played for for probably 10 hands and it was terrible, no fun at all. We cashed out even and found a $2 roulette table. We had fun here and played for about 45 minutes I lost $40 and the wife won $40.


I want to head back to the D and play some Free Bet. We get there and the table is open and only $5. We sit down to play and I can tell the dealer is brand new she is scared to death. As she has me cut I notice we have two different colors of cards red and black backs. I mention it to her and she about dies and has no clue what to do. Calls the floor over and the find that the shuffle machine isnt working right and not sucking all the cards in. It takes them almost 20 minutes to get it all sorted out before we can play a hand. I play the first hand and get a pair of 9's, take my split and get a 2 on the first one, take the double and get 21. She starts to sweep my money and collect the cards, I say wait wait wait, that is 21. Again call over the floor who confirms it is 21 and puts the cards and money back. I get a 10 on the other 9 so sitting on 19 and 21 against a 5. Dealer draws to 18 and moves to the cards. She gets to my 19 and then has to go back to her cards and count what she has again, and yep you guessed it, tries to take my cards and money, we call the floor for the 3rd time, he has to tell her what to do and she pays me At this point I am pissed so I just take my money and get up. I get machines will mess up, and dealers make mistakes, but come on this is to much. And the floor seeing all the problems I had did nothing to try to make it right, not even an apology.

I should have take this as a clue to get out of the D but I went to craps and proceeded to blow another $200, so now down $600. Finally take the hint and head back to the Nugget. I drop another $200 quick at craps so down $800. Sit at a $15 double deck bj table and blow another $200 so down $1000. I sure hope I get that teaser offer as I have blown $300 in short order. I brought $1500 to gamble with and we have an hour till the limo comes so I decide I am going to try to earn a bit back. I find a $25 table of double deck BJ and sit down to play. I put in a good hour of play and finally cashed out up $300 for the table, down $700 for the trip. I am OK for being down $700 since I got $400 in flights free, $200 dinner at GR Steak for free, and a $100 suite for free. The wife finished up $250 for the trip so she is on cloud 9, most she has ever won on a Vegas trip is $40, then again most she has ever lost is $50. I have to say I loved the Golden Gate, the casino had a good vibe, I loved the suite, and we got great service. I liked the D and hope to earn a few teasers for all the play I gave them. I am really hoping for a good offer from the Golden Nugget as I put in a good 3 hours of play with an average bet of probably $40. The wife and I did agree that no more 1 night trips, it was to short, we will go back to 2 nights 3 days. However we both agree that for our next couples trip Downtown is where we want to be, we loved staying here.