Vegas Trip Report

Las Vegas, Day One - Tuesday

Upon arrival at the Las Vegas airort, I headed straight for the tram booths. Taking a tram is always cheaper thasn taking a taxi, but the trams are usually slam packed because they go to all of the casinos. I paid my 5.50 and waited for the #5 tram to show up. I loaded my bag and waited about 15 minutes for the tram to take off. No one else that purchased a ticket was sent to number 5 for that go-round so it was just me and the driver. Straight to Treasure Island I went!

I meet up with my buddy Josh and he takes me to our room, an executive suite on the 32nd floor. I dropped my bags off in the room and he informs me that he has another meeting and that' he'll meet up with me in a bit. I had my MGM Player's club card made and was ready to hit the casino floor!

I decided to hop on a Wheel of Fortune $1 slot machine...I hit the bonus spin game 3 or 4 times within my first 50 pulls, but nothing higher than 50 bucks. All the while, there was an Asian gentleman playing an adjacent machine. He and I were rooting each other on every time one of us would hit the bonus game. Neither of us made anything huge and I decided to move to a different Wheel of Fortune $1 slot.

The new WoF machine was located directly across from the previously played machine in the "kiosk" and I was now seated caddy-cornered to the Asian dude and right next to an elderly Asian woman. I sit down and within 25 spins the woman hit the bonus game and won $500 bucks. I high-fived her and she said, "Your turn to hit big." She was right! No more than 20 pulls later, I hit the bonus spin game. The needle spun around and started slowing down around the $1,000 sector. 99.999999999999% of the time the needle goes just past the 1,000 and into the $20, but not his time the needle stopped in the $1,000!!!

Up over $1,000 for the trip so far, I decide to cash out and call Josh. It was around time for his meeting to let out. I darted over to the elevators to show him the voucher I had for just over $1,200. I cashed-in the voucher and went up to the room so Josh could get his wallet.

Josh isn't much of a gambler, but I taught him to play poker and he is becoming a decent player. He asked me to win him a hundred bucks. I told him to give me 40 bucks and I'll hit the blackjack tables. I turned the $40 into $140 within 15 minutes. I tipped the dealer and then headed off for the poker rom to play in a tournament.

Josh and I busted out of the poker tournament after a couple of hours and I heded out to the blackjack tables again. I gave the dealer my players club card and began betting $25 a hand, which is the minimum to become rated. I began making a bit of cash and decided to jack my bet amount up to $50 a hand for a while. After about 15 minutes of betting $50 a hand I was still hovering around my original profit amount. I looked up and this dude with slicked-back hair and a nice suit on had been closely watching my play. As I was getting up from the table he intoduced himself to me...Eric Barbaro, Casino Marketing. He asked ifm I had a host and informed me that at the rate I was betting, I would be able to get lots of free stuff. He asked where we were staying and I told him that we were at Treasure Island, but moving to another Casino after that night's stay. He told me that if I decided I wanted to stay at Treasure Island for the rest of my trip to give him a call and he could get me a huge discount.

Josh and I discussed it and decided we'd rather just stay at Treasure Island than move our stuff to another casino-hotel. I called Eric up and he set us up to stay in the hotel in one of the $300/ night rooms at the casino rate of $70 a night. He also told me to check with him at the end of the trip as I would probably get the room for free.

I went to the room for a little while and then decided to return to the blackjack table. The dealer got on a huge winning streak and I lost about half of what I had previously won. I called it a night... still being up almost $1,000 for the trip.


Las Vegas, Day 2 - Wednesday

...Details Coming Soon