"So, How'd You Do In Vegas?"

As I alluded in my post of yesterday, the question you see at the top of this post is the question that everybody always asks you when you return from Las Vegas (or from a trip to the Rivers of Meadows Casinos, for that matter).  So, when we departed for Sin City, I decided that I would keep a log of just exactly "how I did" while there. Now tracking your wins and losses is tantamount to asking the car dealer, "How much does that car cost?"  In other words, if you have to ask, or, in this case, keep track, you shouldn't be doing it in the first place, but what the hell?

So, to answer the question.  I took a stake of $500 with me to play with, and I'd have been willing to lose that with the idea that I had fun while playing.  When I tallied it all up on Monday night before bedtime, I was in the red for the whopping amount of $24.70.  Losing that small of an amount over four days is a "win" for me.

Lowlights:

• On two occasions I made a "what the hell" bet at a roulette table.  Dan and I would each place $20 on Red for one spin.  Twice it came up black.
• On three or four occasions I fed money into a slot machine, violating my oft made promise to never play slot machines.  They don't call them one armed "bandits" for nothing.  I know that people sometimes hit big on slots, but I hate the damned things.
• On separate occasions, I lost $60 and $100 at a black jack table, and it happened so fast that I felt like I was gut punched by Mike Tyson.

Highlights:

• I made $15 bets on three of the four NFL Playoff games, going with the Chiefs, Patriots, and Eagles (I didn't bet on the Cowboys-Rams game), and I won all three of those.
• On two occasions, I left the black jack table with a $50 and a $60 profit.

• On Monday night, our final night, I started with $100 at a $15 black jack table at the MGM Grand Casino.  It wasn't going well. I was down to only $25 in chips, and then it turned.  I started to get some good cards, made a couple of nice hits, and I cashed it in when my stack got to $175.  Let me tell you, THAT felt good, and it was the gambling highlight of the trip for me.  It was the last bit of gambling that I did on the trip. I knew that if I pushed it, that sweet taste in my mouth would have, inevitably, turned sour.

I also made a $15 bet on the Pirates to win OVER 79.5 games this year, a $15 bet on the Patriots to win the Super Bowl, and three separate $15 bets on Jordan Speith, Dustin Johnson, and Tommy Fleetwood to win the Masters.  If any one of those guys win the Green Jacket, that $24.70 loss will be turned into a very tidy profit.

I will say that it was really fun to be in various casinos while NFL Playoff games were taking place.  Wherever you went in the casinos, you were never far from banks of TV sets where you could see what was going on. Dan and I spent some time watching the Patriots game while ensconced in the Sports Book at Caesar's Palace.

Sports Book at Caesar's Palace

Sunday, January 13

That was a different experience.  The place was huge, it was packed with people yelling and cheering, and you just marveled at the thought of how much money was at stake for many of the degenerate gamblers who were doing the yelling and screaming, certainly a lot more than my measly fifteen bucks.

No doubt about it, Las Vegas is a fun place.  We arrived at our hotel at about 8:00 on Friday night, spent three full days visiting other hotels and casinos, eating some great meals, and catching two shows, but by the time we checked out on Tuesday morning, we were ready to go.  Three days was just right for us.

Viva Las Vegas!!

My Pirates Bet

While on our Vegas Vacation, I see that Neal Huntington had a press conference - not sure if it was here in Pittsburgh or down in Bradenton - and announced that in the period of 2013 through 2018, the Pirates have had the overall NINTH BEST RECORD IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, and have made the post season in THREE OF THOSE SIX SEASONS (going 2-5 in those three appearances, which I don't believe he mentioned).

I swear that, while sitting in Las Vegas, I could hear the fans  cheering, the bands playing, and the fireworks exploding that was surely taking place in Pittsburgh over this joyful news.

WE'RE NUMBER NINE!!

WE'RE NUMBER NINE!!

WE'RE NUMBER NINE!!

Sorry I wasn't home to take it all in.

Anyway, while out in Las Vegas, I figured that I had to make some sort of bet on the Pirates.  The Paris Casino Sports Book had the Over/Under for Pirates wins in 2019 set at 79 and 1/2.  Now, if I were a logical, unbiased, objective better, I would definitely go for the UNDER on this bet, however, I'm still a Pirates fan at heart, and I didn't want to put myself in a position of rooting against  the Pirates winning if, say, the season came down to the final week, and the Bucs were sitting at 76 or 77 wins. It will also make it really interesting if,  on the final day of the season, the Pirates are sitting 79-82. Should that be the case, I am going to really, really be paying attention on what would otherwise be a meaningless 162nd game of the season, and I'll be very unhappy if Clint decides to play nothing but September call-up scrubeenies and give Doyvadas Neverauskas the ball to start that final game.

What did I bet, you ask?  All of $15.  It won't break me if I lose, but I'll STILL want to see Jameson Taillon starting that last game of the season!

Oh, and Marilyn happened to have a two dollar bill in her wallet, and she wanted to do something "fun and frivolous" with it in Las Vegas, so she put that Thomas Jefferson on the Pirates to win the 2019 World Series.  At 150 - 1 odds.  A tidy little $300 payout when the Bucs kick the Yankees' or Red Sox' asses come next October!

Caesar's Palace Sports Book

on an NFL Playoff Sunday

Viva Las Vegas, 2019

The seed was planted over a dinner with our friends Dan and Susan right after Thanksgiving.  "We're thinking about going for a long weekend in Las Vegas right after Christmas.  Whaddaya think?", said Susan, and before we knew it, CLICK/BOOM, we had booked a long weekend trip to Las Vegas, and thank you Southwest Airlines and the Paris Las Vegas Resort for making such  great deal to fly out and stay in the Town That Moe Greene Built, and so it was that last Friday night, we were welcomed accordingly:

For Marilyn and I, it had been ten years since we last visited this uniquely American playground, and if anything, it has gotten bigger, brassier, and more over the top than ever.  Las Vegas truly defines the term "sensory overload", and we had a ball every step of the way.

In all we visited and won/lost money in eight different casinos: Paris, Bellagio, Mirage, Caesar's Palace, Venetian, Encore, Aria, and MGM.  We saw two different shows:

Marilyn and I had actually seen "Love" in 2009 when we last visited Vegas.  We said at the time that it was so good that we'd like to see it again someday, and so we did.  The show has actually changed some since then.  Some different Beatles songs are featured now, but still the same great Beatles music (need I say more?) and still those marvelous acrobatics and dancing moves of the Cirque Du Soleil performers.

As for David Copperfield....well, it was simply an amazing show of magic and illusion.  It seemed to me that I have seen Copperfield do his thing on television forever, so it surprised me that he is only 62 years old.  To see his act live on a stage was really a fantastic thing to see.  And he does this twice a night, three times on weekends, throughout the year.  As the concierge at our hotel said, "He's a machine."  

When we decided that we were going to the Copperfield show, it triggered a memory for me.  Many years ago, David Copperfield was going to do a show in Pittsburgh, and I remember at the time that my mother said that that was something that she wouldn't mind seeing.  I don't think she ever got to that show back then, so I dedicated my visit to that show two nights ago to my Mom, which was kind of nice.

We had some great meals at some cool places.

This restaurant, Mon Ami Gabi, is in the Paris Resort and includes an outdoor seating area that simulates and outdoor Parisian cafe.  It is directly across the street from the Bellagio, so when you are there for dinner in the evening, you get a great view of the famed dancing fountains of the Bellagio.

And when you breakfast there, which we did twice, you get this view.

The other fancy meal we had was here.

Carbone's is located in the Aria Hotel and Casino, and it is an "Authentic New York Italian Restaurant".  More than being a great meal, which it was, dinner there was a real experience.  The atmosphere made it a dining event as much as a meal.  Many thanks to my Highmark friend and fellow retiree Sandy Tomlinson for recommending the place to us.  

Another very cool thing that we did was ride The High Roller.

It is a huge ferris wheel that takes a half hour to make a complete circle.  At its peak, you are 540 feet above the ground, and it really is spectacular to see all of Las Vegas and the surrounding desert and mountains.

A really fun thing to do.

Of course, the question that everyone asks you when you return from Las Vegas is "How'd you do at the tables?"  Testing the laws of probability, of course, is an integral part of the Vegas Experience, and we did do that, but that part of the trip deserves a separate write up, which will be forthcoming in the days ahead.  Watch for it.

In closing, no matter where you go, even Las Vegas, there is always a Pittsburgh connection...

Here's looking at you, kids....