Vegas: Wednesday Night

The last night, and we decide to go to a club. A real, honest for real club. We decide to go to Studio 54 at the MGM grand. We get there early, at around 8:30 for the doors to open at 10:00. We thought there'd be a long line up, but it was only about a dozen or so people.

We get in, and it's really, really dead. In fact, there was only one dude dancing. By himself. Wow. His moves were styling, better than I could be on my best dancing day.

A few hundred people start coming in and it's getting hopping. I'm back on the horse and drinking again. We start by having some Jag. They don't serve Jag in a shot glass, but a drinking glass, and fill it up about three fingers. More than a gulp. $8.00 a shot. Yeah, it's expensive.

Studio 54 is amazing, and I can see how it was so popular back in the day. Even though I'm having a good time, there's a lot of money in my pocket looking to find it's way to a blackjack table. About 11:30, I leave Trev at the club and play an hour of blackjack. This is about as obvious sign of my gambling problem as you can get. Have you ever abandoned your siblings to gamble? I can hear a cousellor say in a future "group." My answer will be hell yes. I'll qualify that by saying that I was IN LAS VEGAS! The next question from the cousellor will be, "How many times have you been to Vegas?" I'll think for a few minutes, and say "This year?"

At the tables and having a good streak. Playing $10.00 per hand, at a table where the dealer stands on any 17, and surrender is allowed. Good tables. After an hour, I was up $100.

I met up with Trev at the club and started to drink again. We start to wind down the club and get back to the hotel. I forget what time it was, but it must have been 3:00 or so.

Trev hits the bed, and I'm ready to gamble some more. Have you ever sacrificed sleep to gamble? Hell yeah, this is VEGAS!

I cash in starting around 4:00 with $200. Playing the $10 tables. I sit down with a group of young guys, maybe 22 or 23. A range of dealers come and go. These dudes didn't know how to play blackjack, but were winning anyway. (A lot of people don't really know how to play blackjack, but play anyway. They give me advice to say "You don't always have to do what the book says." They usually don't last as long as I do on the tables. hehe)

I find later that they were from the Orange County and hadn't been any farther than Vegas. I played a game with most of the people down there to guess where I was from. Most were able to say I was from Canada, a few even volunteered the info after I said a few words.

These young boys answered my question of where I was from by saying "Hmm, the OC." Wow. How sheltered can one group of guys be? I then answered by saying I was from Saskatchewan. Blank stares was their response. I then usually tell them the states that are close to SK. North of Montana and North Dakota. Still only blank, unknowing nods (as if they are trying to bluff there way out of this one). Morons.

I end my session $180 up and gave the dealer a $10 tip. Cash in my chips and do the math to find I was down only $43! The last day of winning $280 really helps.

I still have US$683 at the end of the trip and will open up a US dollar account for my next Vegas experience. It should be in a few weeks.

Vegas: Tuesday Night

After going to the pool for a while, Trev and I decided to go to the north end of the strip to the Stratosphere then to downtown.

We get to the Stratosphere around 6:30 and we find a TV production crew from the Jimmy Kimmel show set up around a blackjack table. They bought $30K worth of chips to play three hands of blackjack. If they won the $10K hand, they'd double up to $20K, then double up to $40, and if they won the third hand, they'd share it with the home audience. Jimmy's cousin played basic strategy, but lost all three hands. The dealer felt really bad that he lost.

After which, I sat down at a single zero roulette table to try my luck. I had collected a few other wagers from other people to gamble. The last time I did this, I won a guy $350. But this time, I was not so lucky. I started with $100 and lost all of my money within about 10 minutes. Uhler was grumpy.

We hung around the Stratosphere for a while, not actually going up. We each had a huge container of Heineken and went downtown to catch the Freemont Street Experience.

The Golden Nugget was the destination, and we hung out there until the next show started. Watched it for a few minutes, then went back in to play some blackjack. At this point, I was down $371. I dropped $40 in a few minutes, and then tried my luck playing $7 on the slots. Nothing.

At this point, I was down $418!

We eventually went back to the hotel, and not wanting to be a big loser on the night, I went back downstairs to play my main stint of blackjack.

I took $100 and picked a good table where the money seemed to be flowing out more than in. Next to me was a very drunk lady playing good basic strategy, despite being very, very drunk. She ended up gaining 500-600.

I played $10 a hand for a few hours and managed to double up my money! My first big success.

5:00 rolled around and I went to bed content with my winnings. At this point, I was only $318 down.

Vegas: Monday Night

We went to sleep about 5:30 very intoxicated, and I was so drunk I forgot to drink water before I went to sleep -- bad idea.

We had stopped by the pool on Sunday and intended to wake up at a decent hour to go there again. 1:30 in the afternoon rolls around and Trev wakes up and gets ready for the pool. Uhler is quite tired and decides to go back to sleep. We both sleep until 5:30, twelve hours after we went to sleep. I needed the rest.

Get ready for breakfast, and go to the Hard Rock Cafe, a few minute walk from the hotel. I had some very good ribs. I saw an older man with a Canon 20D with the extended battery pack taking pictures of his family. He had it set on full auto! I couldn't believe that he would buy a very expensive and very capable camera, only to use it in full auto. Sigh. That's just like buying a jeep and never getting it muddy.

Back to the hotel room and we prepare to go. A few gambling sessions downstairs as Trev gets ready takes me down a few more dollars.

Hit a cab and go to the MGM. Trev is on a mission to find a good hang out place where he can find the 'cool' tourists. He has a beer while I play some BlackJack. (Seriously the best BlackJack tables I've seen -- $10 tables, surrender, and stand on any 17 -- I want to go back!).

We get vague directions to an English pub type place and get there quickly. It's called the Crown and Anchor. A dude ranch. We speak with a local who works on the strip and we exchange stories on Vegas. We meet another local who loves Canadians and he bought us a few beers. (Note, that this is just after a huge night of drinking and I prolly had only two beers on the night.)

We were done around 2:00 and went to Paris to see the mid-strip.

Walked around and found a craps table ($5 - $5,000, 3-4-5 odds). There was a high roller who was losing money left and right. He'd take a half an inch worth of $100s from his pocket and lose it quickly. He took out markers, and was down about $30K in a half an hour.

I had the dice and wanted to make this man a whole lot of money, moreso for my benefit because he might throw some money my way. I managed to make him some money, but not after losing him about $15K.

He had a monster comeback and finished $43K in the plus.

I had some coffee and went home while the sun was coming up.

Most of my gambling sessions were big losers, and I've lost exactly $271 (so far).

Vegas: Sunday Night

Alright, so we get into our hotel at 3:00 or so, after waiting in line for a shuttle bus in 120F heat. Yeah, that's right, about 50 effen degrees celcuis. We chit chatted with some out of towners on the bus for a few minutes and got dropped off at our hotel first.

We get to our room and Austin Powers #1 was playing on the flat screen TV. Quite cool. After surveying our surroundings, and purchasing some redbull, we did some crown and redbull shooters. I can't quite describe the taste, so I'll let you try it yourself.

We go downstairs to the pool area, and it's Rehab, a Sunday afternoon party with about a thousand half naked, young and drunk people.

More crown drinks, this time we need Coke, but we don't have any. Trev phones down to room service and about 20 minutes later we get a litre of coke for a goodly price of $20. Wow.

Finish up the drinks and we head downstairs in our Sunday best to get into Bodyenglish. Started to stand in line about 9:45, and remained to be in line until about 11:30. (Well, I should say that Trev stood in line, while I went to gamble. Mainly craps.)

We decide to screw the club and take a cab to the strip. We walked starting about O'Sheys. Walked to TI, and made it to the New Frontier. Here's where Trev started to gamble.

At this point, we had had a lot of alcohol. Trev took the dice on the craps table and had a moster roll. He must have thrown it 25 times before he made his point. He made about $50 just betting the pass line. I was up a bit, too.

Went across the street about 4:00 to the Riviera and was completely tired, drunk and incoherent. Took a cab back to the hotel and passed out around 5:30 am. Slept until about 1:30 where Trev woke up and wanted to go down to the pool. I wasn't feeling too into it, so I went back to sleep until 5:30. Very long day.

WestJet is the bomb

(I'm going to write my Las Vegas chronicles as if I actually had access to the innernet, but I didn't, so I'm going to use my noggin and write in the past tense, changing seamlessly from the past tense, first person, to the present tense third person, and using a lot of commas, and a lot of ands.)

Okay, westjet rocks. A very good on-time record, and I had an opportunity to fly in one of their new jets with leather seats and TV. Yeah, it rocks. Lots of leg room and the Simpsons at 31,000 feet. The only problem with the flight from Saskatoon to Edmonton is that it was too short.

My brother picked me up from the airport, and we then had a scheduled stop to pick up some USD traveller's checks for my brother. Woops, all his banks were closed. He had to take money out of the bank and have it changed in Vegas. Don't worry, Vegas will take your money, even if it is Canadian.

We had an early night, and a very early morning. Woke up around 4:20 to catch a taxi at 5:00, to get there at 5:45 to catch a 7:30 flight.

Our America West flight was pushed back from the gate, only to stop for mechanical problems. We were pushed back into the gate to wait for a mechanic to change a widget. The widget was changed, but we had to get a signature from said mechanic in order to fly. His signature wasn't good enough, so we had to wait for his buddy to come and sign us off. Nearly three hours later we took off. Missed our connecting flight and was rebooked on a later flight.

Connected in Los Angeles and had a kickass chips and salsa. The sky in LA is orangy brown. Very disgusting.

Update on stuff

I'm at work right now cleaning my office at the PAC, drinking a coke, and staying out of the heat. I'm recycling my BEvERage containers and cashing in my coins to allow me some more currency while I'm in Las Vegas.

This will be my second time down there this year. Me and my brother are leaving from Edmonton on Sunday July 18th returning to Edmonton on the 21st. We'll then drive to Saskatoon in his Jeep, and then up to the lake.

I've bought a few different camera bags so that I can bring my camera to more places. When I went down with Devo, it never left the hotel room because I had such a huge backpack. You should see more good pictures this time.

I went out for a BBQ and drinks at a coworker's house last night. Those pictures will be posted sometime today.

Playing poker with the boys, and hopefully win some money. I'm resisting my temptation to visit the local casino. I don't need to practice craps, nor lose any money on Roulette... I'll be strong.