 Vegas November 2022 |
| Days 1 and 2 - Drive, football, no poker |
| Last Updated: 2022-11-14 12:27:02 |
| Just to get myself into the writing groove...
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| Easy drive as usual. Right now there is virtually no construction on my route except for ongoing bridge repairs in the short stretch of Arizona between St George and Mesquite. The drive back also has a long one-lane stretch coming into Mesquite from the west.
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| But other than that, not a whole lot of "left lane closed signs" on the route and the ones I did see were in very light traffic areas any time of day.
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| Usual Starbucks in Avon, CO and In-N-Out at Washington, UT. Left home around lunchtime, got to Vegas around 10, pretty much moved into the suite and went to bed.
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| Yup, I said suite!
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| I made my original Sunday to Saturday reservation quite some time ago. When I decided to add Saturday a few weeks ago I found out that something massive was going on out here and rates were through the roof. Some hotels entirely sold out. I was paying $275 total for a king room at Park for 6 nights (plus tax) but they were sold out of kings for Saturday at Park so I couldn't just add to the reservation. I had to book a "2 queen" room for one night for $505. Almost double for one night what I'm paying for 6 nights.
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| The only reason Joann and I decided I'd pay that much for Saturday was to keep our Platinum status. We're just a little short as I said in my planning entry so I'm spending a little more than I normally would to try and keep it. I was able to ballpark how much I need to spend by the end of the trip, I even have a spreadsheet I made to track my spending and confirm I get over the hump! Yup, total geek...
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| And we like getting upgrades! A lot!
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| But no way I'm getting an upgrade for Saturday with whatever is going on that night (turned out there was a UFC event), right?
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| So ... simple plan. I pack a one-night bag and a one week suitcase, check in Saturday night, slum it in the 2-queen room, check out Sunday morning, leave stuff in car, go watch football at Tom's with Heather and Glenn, check back in Sunday afternoon, ask for my upgrade.
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| Well ... it didn't go as planned ... it went better!
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| I roll up to the VIP desk at 10-ish, hand over my license and credit card and the guy looks up my reservation.
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| Typing ... typing ...
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| "Sorry I'm taking so long, I'm trying to get you an upgrade"
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| "Really? OK..."
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| Picks up phone, chats a little, hangs up.
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| "OK I have you in a suite for tonight"
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| "Seriously? Ok, well in that case..."
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| He can't do an upgrade for the second reservation, but says if I come down before 9am I can ask if I can stay in the room. He's going to lock the room out of the reservation system which only a supervisor could override and add all kinds of notes about it.
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| I hit the sack, get up the next morning, get some Starbucks, hit the front desk around 7am.
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| Very cheerful and perky young woman (too perky for 7am IMHO :-) ) helps me. I explain the situation. Phone call, lots of chatting ... yes I can have the suite for the rest of my stay. Checks me out, checks me back in, hands me new keys.
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| I've got a walk-in closet, an entryway with a big counter to set up my dry bar on (always bring some bottles for the room, usually one or two that are almost empty that I plan to polish off, haven't touched any yet as I write Monday morning), a TV for the bed, another TV for the "living room" space, a view of T-Mobile Arena, Allegiant Stadium and the mountains.
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| It's good to be the king, er, Platinum...
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| Run to car to get the full week suitcase (it'll be valet rest of the week but I wanted access for this reason), really move into my suite.
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| Joann and I have been betting football since middle of last season. We're not doing great, but we're not betting much. It's fun to have a little skin in the game while watching games. When we were here in October we bet a little more than we normally would and crushed it, tho. So naturally ... I'm here ...
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| Joann loved a couple of games (Dolphins to cover 3.5 over Browns, over 45.5 Vikings/Bills). I liked those a lot as well as some others...
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| So I place those bets for "us" (for our usual low stakes at a kiosk) and add on Titans covering 2.5 over the Broncos for a little more. I liked those bets A LOT.
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| Then I decide it's parlay time. Dolphins cover and Vikings/Bills over are no brainers IMHO. I add Bears to cover 3 over the Lions and "Broncos/Titans" over under at 39.5 catches my eye. No way in hell those two teams are putting up 40 points combined. I select that for a 4th entry on my parlay and click "place bet".
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| Confirmation page comes up and look it over ... can I really trust the Bears? No. No way in hell.
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| Back up, drop the Bears, add in Titans to cover instead.
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| So Dolphins and Titans cover, Bills/Vikings over, Broncos/Titans under. $20 bet to win $211. And added Rams -3 vs Cardinals as separate bet. I watched the Cardinals game last week, they looked like the worst team in football, thought it was a no-brainer...
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| Meet Heather and Glenn at Tom's, they're Saints fans, make sure we can see that game. All but that last bet were on early games.
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| Well long story short the 'Phins crushed the Browns (CHECK), the Vikings and Bills went into halftime at 34 total and only needing 12 to hit but made me sweat into the 4th quarter (CHECK) so Joann was 2 for 2 and it was all down to the Titans and Broncos for me!
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| 0-0 after the first quarter which is great when you're "under"! Broncos take a 10-0 lead in the second quarter.
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| Seriously? Are the Broncos going to take me down?
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| But the Broncos don't score another point, Titans rattle off 17 straight including the only points in the second half and cover the 2.5 and keep it to 27 total points in the game.
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| YES!!!!!
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| Oh, and by the way ... the Bears lose outright at home to the pathetic Lions. Knew I couldn't trust them.
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| Rams look like the worst team in football and somehow lose to the Cardinals so I don't run the table. But we netted over $230 on about $85 in bets. Not a bad day!
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| Heather and Glenn depart, I move to the bar to have a couple of black and tans while I watch the Packers inexplicably beat the Cowboys in OT to my right and the Rams choke to my left. And the Raiders choke right in front of me, but I had no financial or emotional attachment to that one.
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| I thought I was going to play some poker! I did a great job of spacing out my drinking and made sure I'd be good enough to drive over to Orleans to play in their daily 7pm tournament!
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| Except ... they don't run it on Sundays. Double-checked their schedule before I left the room. No game. Check the Card Player magazine "daily tournament" list and they agree every day but Sunday. Dammit!
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| But ... I notice that Venetian has a 6pm bounty tournament as part of their quarterly(?) Deepstack event going on now. I decided I was going to end my Venetian boycott.
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| Really two strikes against this tournament. First, I'm not going to get into it but they did some really poor things as far as poker tournaments in years past, plus I didn't want to put so much as a penny into the pockets of the asshole owner or his family (again, won't get into it today...). And I really don't like bounty tournaments even a little bit.
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| But ... paraphrasing Mark Twain ... I would never wish death upon anyone, but there are some obituaries I read with great satisfaction. My understanding is they're under new ownership. And I really wanted to play so I can tolerate a bounty tournament for one night.
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| I make the trek all the way up the strip from Park to Venetian, walk in the door ... and half hour in they only have 18 players. Argh! Definitely not worth my time for that buyin (which was also a little higher than I was planning on this trip ... but again, one time I was gonna do it ...).
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| So ... back to the room, and I think even tho I was totally sober by then the drinking I had done caught up to me a little anyway and I was sound asleep probably by 9pm. As it turns out probably best I just got a good night's sleep.
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| The plan for Monday is the 11am at Orleans rather than the 1pm at Aria because I want a better chance to be available to play the H.O.R.S.E. tournament at 7pm at Orleans (but not so much that I'm going to sit around not playing all day).
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| Wish me luck! It's all poker from here on out.
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| Oh and I gotta put a few bucks on the Eagles tonight! |
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