Friday, March 20, 2009

DUG in Las Vegas March 2009 (pictures at bottom)

Botswana to Vegas what a long trip! We all got in about the same time. On this trip is Dwayne from my Puerto Rico trip, Gary my buddy that was on my Florida trip, Ronny, Dwayne’s father, Mickey, and Richie both good friends of Dwayne’s we all arrived on Thursday and meet up at the Flamingo Hotel.

I have to tell you on the gambling front, watching Dwayne play is more fun then playing myself, he is just a maniac, $2,000 down then $1,500 up then over $4,000 down back to up over $500 and on he went. I played some poker at the Flamingo poker room. $1 / $2 no limit won $400.00 in less then 4 hours. I only really played two hands the players were very loose so I played very tight. Gary also played and did very well for his first time.

On Friday Gary and I had a great breakfast at Denny’s, no wonder Americans are so fat, going to a restaurant where 90% of the people are ordering a meal called “The Grand Slam” which has enough grease to keep all the machinery in American running smoothly. We met up with the group and spent some time watching Dwayne go up and down and down and up. He was playing this game called 3 card poker. I was convinced a monkey could play this game. So I played for 15 minutes and never look at my cards. After 15 minutes I was up 8 dollars. At that point I stopped playing and tipped the dealer the 8 bucks I won. Dwayne in that same 15 minutes lost $280.00. I think Dwayne got my point. We later went to the Mirage Mickey wanted to play 7 card stud poker this was the only poker room we could find that had this game. Gary and I played $1 / $2 no limit Texas Holdem Richie played a small tournament and Mickey played 7 card stud. We all ended up doing well.

We had a late lunch early dinner since we had basket ball tickets that evening. We ate at the Flamingo Buffet I think between Ronny, Mickey, and Gary the Buffet may have to close for financial reasons. The three of them each ate for at least 10 people.

The basket ball games was at University Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) the first game was Brigham Young University (BYU) vs. San Diego State University. The game was a very close, coming down to the final seconds. The second game was Wyoming vs. Utah State, Utah won in a blow out.


We then went back to the Flamingo to watch Dwayne gamble some more. He was now playing a game called “Let It Ride”. There was a dollar bet you could make for each hand you played. Everybody but Dwayne was playing this bet. I asked him why he did not play it. He said it was a suckers bet. It seemed like good bet to me so I asked if I could play it for him. I quickly won $25.00. I think Dwayne got my point.

Hit the sack at about 12:00 AM. As a side note Gary is still in love with Sally, all he does is talk about Sally or talk to Sally on the phone.

Saturday AM met the group at Denny’s for breakfast everybody but
Richie, Richie got his comp at New York New York and was not staying with us so he passed on meeting us for a healthy breakfast of grease. After breakfast we watch Dwayne play every wacky table game there is. He went from up over $56,000 to down $45,000. Some real wild swings. At one point he had such a losing streak he even lost at the ATM. Yes you heard me right. Dwayne needed some cash so he went to the ATM punched in $1,000 and just got $500. Now that is a losing streak. I played some poker and won $20.00.

Richie was heading home so Dwayne gave him a ride to the airport. Gary and I hung out at the pool and got some sun. It is 75 degrees with clear skies, later that afternoon we went to downtown Las Vegas. This is where Vegas originally started and where the original casinos are.
The table limits are lower here. Gary and I played some black jack. I do not think I have every seen a worst black jack player then Gary. Splitting 10's when the dealer has a 10 showing, sticking on 14 when the dealer has 10 showing. His play messed up the whole table. Gary kept saying this is what the book says to do. It was clear the book was written by the casino. I quickly lost $135.00. Playing black jack was a mistake as I know it is gambling. Dwayne took my seat and quickly lost $270.00. Gary slowly saw his stack dwindle down.

As we started the drive back we realized we had a flat. No problem, with 5 guys we should have no problem changing the tire, if we had a lug wrench that is. That is correct, no lung wrench in the rental car.
Gary did a great job of borrowing one. Took three tries to find one the right size.

We had Ronny do all the dirty work since he was the oldest and wisest. Once back at the hotel it was back to the buffet for dinner.

Then watching Dwayne gamble some more. At 12:00 AM Dwayne, Mickey and I went over to Caesars where they have the Pussycat Dolls. Over the tables they have poll dancers you can watch while you gamble. I headed to the room at 1:00 AM. Guess what Gary was doing? You got it on the phone with Sally.

Got up at 8:00 am to play some poker I had an hour to kill so I figured poker was a great time killer. I got a seat right away there were 7 other players all had been playing all night half were very drunk. Unfortunately for me I only got one playable hand ended up 25 bucks. So far I played 4 sessions and won all 4 for a total win of almost $500.00.

Gary and I took Ronny to the airport returned Richie’s rental car and picked up a new one.

Gary and I were switching hotels our new hotel was Palace Station. On the way over we stopped at In-N-Out Burger. Then we hung out at the pool for the rest of the day, 75 degrees and sunny.

Monday we had a lot planed we headed North on I15 towards Salt Lake City, Utah. Our destination was Valley of Fire State Park 60 miles north of Las Vegas. We stopped for lunch at the Shelby Cafe right across from the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. All the décor in the restaurant was off the Shelby Mustang. After lunch we continued our ride north to the park. The rock formations were incredible all created from the wind blowing through the valley. We drove through the park until we reached Lake Mead. On the return through the park we went on a 1.5 mile hike to Elephant Rock. The name was given to the rock because it resembled an elephant.

We returned to the hotel at 4:30 PM watched some news and rested.

At 7:30 we headed to downtown (Fremont Street) where there is a show ticket outlet that sells half price tickets. No tickets were to be had so we had dinner and played some poker.

One cool thing on Fremont Street is a huge light show every hour we saw two of them and I posted some clips. Playing poker was a big mistake. Played from 10:00 pm to 3:00 AM lost $400.00. Most was my bad play. I was tired and not disciplined and should have stopped playing.



Gary did well for his third time playing.

Tuesday I am flying back to Philly going to be staying in the United States for a while as I have a lot of activities planned over the next few weeks.
Stay tuned to more updates.




Cheers,
DUG

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