Smart Baccarat

This was my 4th Vegas trip of the year, and I was meeting my Uncle Jerry from NJ and 7 of his buddies. Michael was going to be joining us on Sunday, from Phoenix. Friday the 2nd of June was just a miserable day in Southern Ohio; and I drove to Dayton airport in the rain. I had only finalized plans for this trip a few weeks earlier, so I purchased my tickets less than 3 weeks ago. Was able to secure an under $250 fare, but it required 2 stops, one each in Detroit and Memphis. Since I am Platinum on Northwest, I had a good chance of sitting upfront on the Detroit and Memphis flights. The flight from Dayton is on a smaller regional jet, with no First Class section. Arrived in Detroit on time and relaxed in the WorldClub lounge near the gate, enjoying a beer and carrots and Cabot cheese. Struck up a good conversation, while watching re-runs of Law and Order with Mark about cheating and collusion in high stakes poker. This was prompted by the book Dirty Poker (direct link to purchase), which I was reading for this trip. Flight to Memphis was uneventful, and got my favorite First Class seat on the 757. Memphis to Las Vegas flight was on time, but had a last minute hydraulic issue. Luckily the flight left only 2 hours late, since they were able to find another Airbus A320 at MEM; otherwise I would have been stuck overnight in MEM. Lynn in the MEM WorldClub was absolutely amazing, rebooking me on all of the options (in First Class); just in case the flight was cancelled. Sat next a beautiful woman on the flight and enjoyed my vodka on the rocks and white wine with dinner. Dinner was much better than usual, a really tasty cheese ravioli; maybe I was just hungry, or Northwest is getting a bit better with their First Class catering. Arrived in LAS around 2 hours late and Mark was at the airport ready to pick me up. Gave Loralee from Arkansas a lift in my Limo and we enjoyed a few drinks before arriving at a Thehotel at Mandalay Bay to drop her off. I met her in MEM airport, and we had a nice conversation before boarding the flight. Mark is always great, the bar was ready to go in the Limo with vodka and scotch and all of the mixers. This is a picture being picked up at the Stratosphere. This was from our December trip, and we were on our way to Wynn Las Vegas to see Avenue Q. Boy, am I going to miss Mark when the Dust is gone. Quickly checked into the dust and got my usual suite (this time on the 27th floor with a Strip View), with a surprise gift basket and a bottle of Crown Royal --- boy, do I love this place. Got myself situated, and checked out the Baccarat Room at the Stardust. And found out that one of my favorite people had resigned a week earlier. Yes, Tony P. resigned from the Dust after 30 years, and took a position at Caesars. I just was in SHOCK. so, I decided to head back out and Mark dropped me off at RIO, since I needed to check in there for my Uncle, who was still delayed on Southwest out of Philadelphia.

Literally ran into Steve (tex2mex) in the high-limit slots room at the RIO. I was playing $5 9/6 JoB and saw him out of the corner of my eye. It is so funny when you run into people you know in Las Vegas. We decided to go to the bar and enjoy some drinks and video poker. I had some Davidoff Cigars, which we enjoyed. Tex suggested I try $1 bonus poker; while I hesitated, I decided that I would give it a whirl. Amazing enough, after around a half hour of play, I hit 4 Aces. boy, that was nice, and a great way to start off the trip. (for those NOT familiar with Video Poker that is an over $600 jackpot; can't recall exactly, but I did cash out for over $800 from that machine) My uncle and his friends arrived a few minutes later, and we talked and walked around a bit. I played a bit of dice with on of my favorite crews at the RIO, cashed out all of 12 bucks ahead.. little did I know this would be my only winning table game session of the weekend.

I started my Harrahs Diamond in a Day challenge at 12AM on Saturday morning, and I now had 24 hours to get 1,800 tier credits ($18,000 coin in at Video Poker) to upgrade from Platinum to Diamond total rewards card.

I continued to play into early Saturday morning at the dust. Played Baccarat for a few hours, but had no success. Went for a snack around 5AM, my favorite late night snack fried chicken at the Coco Palms coffee shop at the dust. Folks here are great, and they call me the chicken man --- I just love my fried chicken late at night. (and I love Mary late night at the coffee shop !!! she is the best !) Got back to the room around 5AM and took a Jacuzzi to relax and then went off to sleep.