Smart Baccarat

Woke up on Sunday morning, and started the day with some Starbucks and a light breakfast in the Diamond Lounge. Enjoyed reading the Sunday morning paper about the fight. Today was going to be a more serious gaming day for me, and I intending to put in a bit more time gaming today. I was looking forward to this, and spent some decent time banging away at the $1 STP machine. Things were back and forth, but I was only down a little bit by the end of my morning and afternoon sessions.

Interrupted my gaming to join our good friend Carrie and her awesome boyfriend Louis at their favorite local sushi place. They picked us up, and after a 15 minute ride up Flamingo we arrived at this great restaurant that had an all you can eat Sushi lunch special for $20.95. The menu was quite extensive and we let our hosts do most of the ordering, since they were very familiar with a number of the specialty rolls. We washed everything down with a most refreshing iced green tea. It was great catching up, and I am so glad lunch worked out on Sunday.

Ellen and I were going to go to Neiman Marcus to do a bit of shopping, but we decided to go back to RIO. The weather was finally nice (no more wind !) and Ellen spent around 3 hours at the pool while I took a great nap in the room. Once again, it was awesome that we were able to relax so much on this trip. In addition, we needed a bit of time to rest up for another uber exciting evening.



My lovely aunt invited us to a VIP reception and a performance of Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian. We went over a bit early, and relaxed in the Venetian gold lounge, before heading up the reception. The VIP reception and cocktail hour was at the top floor of the theater. Oh my god, they had the most incredible hor d’oeuvres ! Baby lamb chops, coconut shrimp, spring rolls, ahi tuna canapes, crab cakes; it was better than a wedding ! The open bar was also awesome, the Champagne pour was a non-vintage Mumm Champagne. Considering that Ellen spent $16/glass the night before at Le Reve, this night was turning out to be a real bargain. Our seats were incredible. Third row orchestra, perfectly centered. I must admit, I was a bit hesitant about the new re-worked shorter version of Phantom (only 95 minutes with no intermission). I had seen Phantom twice before in New York (once on New Years Eve and both times over 10 years ago). The production was spectacular. The theater was incredible, and this production takes the Phantom special effects to a whole new level. I strongly urge folks to see this show, especially if you have never seen Phantom. We were invited to a post performance dessert reception and private audience with the stars; but we had another party to go to.

The cab line at Venetian was incredibly long, but since we had many ladies in high heals, I was vetoed with regard to walking over to Caesars Palace. I impressed everyone by going directly to the cab guy, showing my Venetian gold card and tipping him $15. I felt the tip had to be a bit strong since we needed 3 cabs and the cab line was so long. He held back the line, and gave us the next 3 cabs. My friends were very impressed; and I probably saved us 40 minutes ++ of waiting for a cab. Got over to Caesars Palace for a private party at Pure. Entrance took a second, and we proceeded to the private table area that was setup right in the center of the club. Incredible ! I never do bottle service, since $400/bottle of Grey Goose just doesn’t work for me. This private group had around 12 tables, each setup with Grey Goose and White Wine. It was so nice, and we had waitress service which I hadn’t expected, so we didn’t even have to mix our own drinks. Our server was super nice, and her outfit was great. I especially loved her heals, which I snapped a picture of. It was still a bit early (only around 10:15PM) but Pure was slowly starting to fill up.




Of course, we were in our own space roped off from the general public; but just close enough so they could watch us hang out in our own little personal piece of Pure. Some of the girls were hungry so we eventually left to have a snack at the Augustus Café. The table shared the great onion rings and I had my favorite Cuban sandwich (without the bread). Ellen and I went back to Pure (which was now getting crowded) and we proceeded to dance a bit and have a few more drinks at our private tables.

Left around 2AM, and hit the RIO dice tables. Ellen was only able to hit one point, and I didn’t have very much success. I was down around $250 and slowly started to make my money back, then the table went a bit cold again. I dropped around $300 during this 90 minute dice session. I was rated $71 average bet (checked at the total rewards desk the next day). Now, how the hell does someone rate you $71 ??? why not $75; not only is HET stingy with the bonus points for table players, but why the heck do these pit bosses not round up the average a little bit. Don’t think it would really kill anyone to rate you $75 average instead of $71…. (ok, rant over). I was basically even before this session, and should have just gone to bed. But, this was my last night, and I was really enjoying the Champagne (lol). Anyway, hit the Baccarat table at the beginning of a new shoe. Tried to bet just $20 Bank and $20 Tie but, wanted it to be cash on the table. Stupid dealer said that he couldn’t let me play cash bet on the Tie at the mini-baccarat tables --- so, I said, OK --- just put $10 on tie and give me the change. Of course, the hand is a tie; so I would have had a very very nice hit with that $20 on tie, boy was I ever pissed. I played one more hand and then left the table.

Proceeded to play more Video Poker and just had the worst luck. Ended the night (and the trip) with a loss, not an incredible loss, but a loss nonetheless. Lets just say my loss was less than the face value of a Mayweather vs De La Hoya Ticket (lol). This was my strongest day of play, and I got around 1100 tier points on this day (combination of dice and video poker).

Went to bed and before I knew it, it was 8AM and Ellen was getting ready for her flight to Tokyo. She was flying this morning on Northwest Las Vegas to Los Angeles and then a short connection time to her Northwest Flight #1 Los Angeles to Tokyo non-stop.


The limited sleep was a good thing for Ellen, since she would be nice and tired for the 11 hour ++ flight; and would be able to get some really good quality sleep in the lie flat business class seat on the upper deck of a 747-400 series plane.

I made sure she had a seat in row 77 upstairs, one of the coveted exit rows with no seats in front. Though, in business class on Northwest there is quite a bit of distance between you and the seat in front of you (even in a non-exit row seat).

I was taking the late afternoon Southwest Las Vegas to Manchester, New Hampshire non-stop, so I basically had most of the day to relax. I spent around 2 hours at the pool (a perfect sunny and 80F day) and had a burger and a pina colada while reading the newspaper. The burgers at the RIO pool are much better than I expected. Went to the Diamond check-in area to settle up my bill and arrange for the limo to the airport. Talked to a host for a minute and noticed on her screen that my ADT had hit a new all time low (though, play from this trip might help boost it a bit). This is to be expected, because of the high number of comp room nights so far this year, and a bit of short play in March over a few days.

Had a relaxing shower, finished packing and got the airport in plenty of time. Since this was my first time on Southwest, and there is no first class or elite security fast track line, I didn’t want to take my chances. I also had 3 bags to check, since Ellen gave me her Vegas stuff to take back home. Had another great female limo driver from RIO, and she told me some great stories. She had driven De La Hoya before when he stayed at the Palazzo at RIO; and once even had him alone in her limo from RIO to Aladdin without his entourage. It was nice to hear that De La Hoya is as nice of a person as he seems in the media. She also had Don King and Trinadad in her limo once before.

I sit here typing on the airplane reflecting on another incredible weekend in Vegas. The flight left on time, and I have 3 seats all to myself in an exit row --- a great way to end my trip ! Don’t know if there will be any more trips to Vegas this year…. But, can’t wait for July 4th in Atlantic City !

Saturday May 5th
FIGHT NIGHT !!!
DE LA HOYA VS. MAYWEATHER
THE WORLD AWAITS MGM Grand Garden Arena

On Saturday morning, we woke a bit later than we usually do, and just relaxed for a while. We went to the Diamond lounge for our morning coffee and champagne. Also had a bit of fruit and shared a croissant for breakfast in the lounge. This was Kentucky Derby morning, so I had to spend a bit of time deciding on my bets for the derby. In addition, I had to decide on how much I was going to bet on De La Hoya. We caught a late lunch with Marcie and Nathan at Sao Paulo Café and then went to the sports book to watch the derby.

The vibe in the RIO sports book was great, and we really enjoyed watching surrounded by a bunch of screaming people. Took the shuttle over to Paris, since I needed to meet a messenger from the ticket agency to pick up my fight seats. This was a bit of a James Bond scenario, with my friend giving the number to her contact, and him calling me to arrange the meet with another contact to pick up the tickets. Anyway, I was so excited, and the meet went very smoothly. I debated the prospect of selling the seats (since we could have probably gotten around $2,000 each), but folks worked very hard for me to be at the fight. Though, I have to admit that $4,000 ++ in extra bankroll was very tempting. Ellen and Marcie went off to have dinner at Nobu at Hard Rock followed by the performance of Le Reve at Wynn Las Vegas.

I went back to the RIO to relax a bit and take a nice shower and prepare for the fight. I decided to wear my back velvet jacket, true religion jeans and a juicy t-shirt along with my black suede puma sneakers. I forgot my bling, though, I don’t really have any real flashy bling. Nathan was dressed a bit more conservative than me --- but, he had at least the watch bling going on. I just LOVE his Rolex, and the blue face is just so sharp. I really want that watch. He let me wear it one night on the Queen Mary 2, and it is just an awesome timepiece. Nothing like rolling the dice with a $10,000 watch on your wrist. I think if I am going to continue to attend major fights, I really need to get myself some substantial bling.

I got over to MGM around 6:30PM, and just wandered around a bit and waited for Nathan outside (and enjoyed the great people watching and ticket sales transactions going on). We walked over the the MGM Garden and had no problems getting in right away. Everything was very organized, and they had metal detectors set up for security, as well as a number of MGM security folks wanding folks to double check for metallic objects. The security presence was enhanced by the very visible anti-gang units of the Las Vegas police department. We had a bit of time, and purchased shirts and programs. We got to our seat around the 6th round of the final under card fight. The seats were centered perfectly, though a bit higher than I had been in last year for Judah vs Mayweather. The angle was perfect, and had nothing blocking our view. My joke, was that we were sitting in $1,000 nose-bleed seats (the face value of the ticks was $1,000 + $40 service charge). I had given up my much better single seat (provided by HBO) to get 2 seats. While it would have been nice to sit in the VIP section, I still prefer to share an event like this with a friend. IMHO, it just makes things that much more memorable.

It took forever to announce all the stars; and we got to get a peak at a few of them (Nicolson, De Caprio, Lopez, Tom Jones, Michael J Fox, 50 cent, Senator John McCain etc etc etc). They proceeded to do both the Mexican and American national anthems (sung by Mark Anthony). I don’t know how to truly express how awesome the fight was. By the 6th round, it was seriously looking like De La Hoya might just pull off a win by decision --- AMAZING. While I wanted (and bet on) De La Hoya to win, in my heart of hearts, I really thought that he was out classed by Floyd. Well, he absolutely wasn’t. I was so glad to see Mayweather put into his place after all of his trash talking over the past few weeks. Yeah, Floyd won the fight, but it was by no means a blow out; and considering everything, he was just not that impressive. The icing on the cake was the split decision, and we all know that is going to haunt Mayweather.

Now, after you have gone to probably one of the biggest fights, you really need a superb place to dine. I made a 10PM post-fight dinner reservation at SHIBUYA @ MGM grand. We got there just on time, and were seated very promptly. Our waiter Matt was awesome, and started off with his suggestion for a carafe of sake and some San Pellegrino sparkling water. We ordered a number of cold plates which included the incredible toro with beluga caviar and gold shavings on top (yes, it is real gold… I asked). The mushroom salad was orgasmic good, like I remembered from January. Incredible fresh yellowtail with an awesome marinade.

We finished off our selection of Sashimi with Uni (Sea Urchin) topped off with raw quail egg (one of my favorite yummy yummy wake up your senses foods). Skipped dessert, but had a lovely soothing tea. Ahhh…. What an awesome way to finish the evening.

We walked around MGM a bit, and got to see (only 2 feet away) Mayweather Senior (he was joking and taking pictures with folks off the casino floor). We walked over to Luxor and met up with the girls. We did our final goodbyes since Marcie and Nathan were leaving on an AM flight on Sunday morning. Got to bed on the early side (early side = before 3AM) again, and no late night gaming (once again).

Vegas May 3 to May 7, 2007

Thursday May 3rd and Friday May 4th

WOW ! basically that sums up a number of moments during my most recent trip to THE VEGAS. I’m writing this as I sit very comfortably on my nonstop Southwest airlines fight from Las Vegas to Manchester, NH.

The trip started out on Thursday, May 3rd; but the most exciting news came on Tuesday evening, May 1st. I was anxiously awaiting the start of my son Ryan’s first baseball game of the season (as well as his first game ever, since this is the first year he has decided to do Little League). About 25 minutes before the game, I get a call on my mobile that they (my contact) finally came through with getting me a ticket for the fight. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. HOLY SHIT, I was actually going to the Mayweather vs De La Hoya bout. I had given up all hope a few weeks ago, since the increased press and hype had made the tickets a real hot commodity. I originally planned the trip around the fight, but I always knew that my prospects for getting seats were not great; though, my contact thought they would be able to work it out --- just no guarantees. I had such fond memories of my previous big fight, Mayweather vs Judah, which Steve (tex2mex) was so kind in allowing me to accompany him (compliments of HET). Last year’s fight was a pretty big deal, but this was going to be the fight of the year (if not the next 5 years).

We departed on Thursday evening choosing to take the Delta non-stop to Vegas (from Boston). This was a great getaway for my wife (Ellen) and I, since the kids were going to be at home with my parents. It also was a quick pleasure trip for Ellen before she departed for a 12 day business trip to Asia (Japan, Korea, and China). We got to Boston airport pretty early for the evening flight, but it was better than hanging around the house, since I wanted the kids to adjust to us being away --- and that extra time in the house right before departure can be stressful for all parties. We had a decent amount of time to relax in the Delta Crown room, and sample a few of the Mile High Mojitos that Delta has been promoting as part of their upgraded beverage service (both on the planes and in the clubs). It turned out to be a very full flight with no empty seats, and only one of us was fortunate enough to be upgraded.

Being the gentleman, I let Ellen have the first class seat for the flight. Though, 5 foot tall women don’t really have leg room issues in coach; but she said I wouldn’t have wanted to be in first class anyway, since I would have had to eat her pre-ordered vegetarian dinner. Funny, the excuses some will give to get out of giving away their first class seat. Anyway, she boarded the flight very early (with the special first class people) while I was trying to have a gate agent fix the frequent flyer number on my boarding pass (I wanted them to change it to my Northwest not Delta number for the flight). As I’m boarding I say hello to my wife as she is enjoying her pre departure cocktail. The guy sitting next to her (who is on the way to a double bachelor party) says that he’ll give me his first class seat (next to my wife) for $100 --- I look at him in shock, and then he says “I’m serious dude, $100, and you can sit in my seat.” I decided to pass on the offer, since I had a very good coach seat (2nd row of coach, aisle); and figured that the $100 would be put to better use at Video Poker or Dice.

Flight was pretty good, and Delta comp’ed the entire flight Champagne (actually Prosecca) since they had just relisted on the stock exchange and come out of bankruptcy. I had heard that this was going to happen on all flights (on May 3rd); and it was amazing seeing the flight attendant come down the aisle with a cart filled with open Champagne bottles on top. What a great way to start a flight to Vegas !

We arrived at McCarran on time, but had to wait for our bags. I always carry on, but since Ellen was going to Asia, we had a bit more luggage than usual. It took forever for our bags to come off the plane; close to an hour. But, our lovely limo driver was there waiting, and we had a great time chatting with her. Arrived at RIO at 11:50PM and was able to do Diamond check-in (right before they closed at midnight). We got a very standard RIO room with an awesome view of the strip on the 33rd floor of the Masquerade tower. At check in I was told that they had nothing in the Ipenema tower, though, I am certain they were holding back since it was Thursday night. It was going to be a sold out weekend at RIO (due to the fight, cinco de mayo, Kentucky derby, and motor cross). The guy who checked us in was very nice, and I was happy to just have a room with a good view. Didn’t even try my usual $20 ++ trick, since I thought there would be very little chance with the fight this weekend. Considering the number of rooms I have used so far this year (over 25 nights) and my ADT continuing to plummet, due to my new --- “I don’t give a fuck about my ADT philosophy”; I was happy to get the entire four days comp’ed at RIO (Thursday to Monday). Got up to the room, and our bags arrived in under 10 minutes.

We got ourselves set, and then went downstairs to the All American Grill for a quick bite to eat; since some of us (hint : those flying in coach) didn’t have dinner yet. After a bite, Ellen and I headed up to VooDoo lounge; and were amazed that there was quite the line of people to get in. To me, VooDoo is so past its prime, but I guess they still manage to attract people. (and charge a nice cover) Of course, Diamond gets you in at the front of the line and cover comp’ed for 2 people. It was beyond windy and most of the outside of RIO was closed off. The little bit that was open outside was super windy and not comfortable at all. We went back inside, but it seemed overly crowded since everyone was packed into the inside section of the club. We left right away, and were so glad that Diamond provided free cover, since it would have been very disappointing to have spent money on a 10 minute visit to VooDoo. We went upstairs and relaxed and got to bed relatively early (by Vegas standards) --- and yes, I didn’t gamble at all on our first night. Now, that was definitely a first.

We woke up around 9AM on Friday morning and were hoping to spend a bit of quality time by the pool, but unfortunately it would be too windy for any pool time on both Friday and Saturday. My wife was off at the Gift Show at the convention center with her friend Marcie. Our very good friends Marcie and Nathan (from Cincinnati) joined us for this trip. After meeting Nathan at the Luxor we took a leisurely walk over to Paris for the breakfast buffet. The line was hugh, but the Diamond entrance did its magic. I also had a $10 coupon for the buffet, which I was quite proud I actually remembered to bring along. After lunch, we returned to the RIO and I played a bit of Video Poker (mostly 25 cent 9/5 JoB spin poker and a bit of $1 STP Bonus Poker which was not the best paytable). Nathan played next to me, and since he was a total VP newbie, I was able to instruct him a bit on proper procedure. Nothing incredible about the gambling sessions, and was down a bit, after a few not very long sessions.

I had a hair appointment at AMP Salon (at Palms) at 2PM, and had given up my pedicure to Marcie, so she could get her toes done with Ellen. I have to say, AMP is just awesome, and is always a great and consistent experience. The girls opted for French pedicures and they looked awesome. The lovely Stella did their nails, and my hair was coiffed by the incredible Kristie. I only got a trim and no highlights this trip, since I got highlights in March. Had fun chatting with Amy, who is one of my favorite nail ladies @ AMP. Nowhere but in Vegas, can you have a semi-degenerate 6 foot tall incredible looking bade in Rock n Republic $250 jeans do your nails while discussing dice strategies. Amy swears that she really does have the vibe at the dice table and is the queen of rolling hopping hard nines (5 and 4). I really must gamble with that woman sometime; I’m trying to get her into Baccarat; though, she likes to play a bit of Blackjack also. AMP set us back around $300 (Hair, Pedicure, and eyebrow wax for Ellen)

After AMP the four of us went back to RIO to join Judy (judykq) and her husband at the Wine Cellar. It was awesome meeting them, and I really wish I had a bit more time to spend trading gambling war stories. The wine flights were terrific as well as the cheese sampler. We had a little bit of time to get relax and get ready for dinner; which was early by our standards (7:15 PM). I went down a bit early and played some more the the $1 STP BP and managed to win back some of my losses (and drink 3 glasses of Champagne) from earlier. For convenience, we made reservations for dinner at Buzios at RIO. I had arranged to have a bottle of Moet White star at the table when we arrived, and dinner got off to an excellent start. I had a very nice surf and turf with an Australian lobster tail, and started with some oysters. We managed to polish off another bottle of White Star, and the service got a bit slow after the appetizers. The entrees seemed to take forever, and our waiter had disappeared for quite a bit. Due to the slow service, we really had no time for dessert or coffee since we had tickets for the 10PM George Wallace show. Luckily, I had RIO VIP reserve a limo for us at 9.30PM, so we wouldn’t have to stress about getting to the show, and since we were a party of 5, we probably would have needed 2 cabs anyway.

OK, without trashing it too much… as George Wallace likes to say (over and over and over) during his show “I be think’in” --- we’ll during the show and afterwards, I also “be think’in.” --- basically, “I be think’in that this show absolutely SUCKS…” probably the worst show I have seen in Vegas in the last 3 years. Of course, I am certain there must be some hard core George Wallace fans somewhere. At different points during the show, we all fell sound asleep (the best part, IMHO) In addition, it is NO longer one of the two free tickets shows for Diamond, instead it is only 2 for 1. The lady at total rewards told me that there were complaints from the show folks that there were too many comp tickets for the show, so they had to change it to 2 for 1. Well, “no shit” --- the show “sucks” and personally, the only way one should consider seeing it is if it is FREE !

Ellen and I returned to RIO and had a very very short session of Video Poker (more $1 STP). After hitting 4 aces I played a bit more (dropping about another $100), but cashed out right away, since I wanted to retire for the night with a small win erasing my previous video poker session losses. Ellen and I treated ourselves to a late night room service snack that was delivered very quickly by the most lovely RIO room service employee. She set up the table really nice, and was such a pleasure. Once again, I didn’t gamble late into the night, and instead concentrated on relaxing a bit more than usual (which goes very well with my new philosophy regarding ADT).

the world awaits.....

to be continued.....