The poker guys have been talking about making a Las Vegas trip for a while. The last group trip was in 2015 (and the time before that was 2005).
We had hoped things with COVID would have gotten better, but relatively speaking, they still weren't great. Still, four of us managed to organize a trip together.
I committed to go when I booked my flight on August 19, for the planned November trip, for around $300 r/t, not great, but acceptable. I originally booked a late departure (6:55 PM, arriving at 12:15 AM) with the hopes that there would be an itinerary change, and I could rebook at no cost. They did make an itinerary change, and even though it was in my favor (arriving 5 minutes earlier), they allowed me to change my flight, which I did, to a 12:00 PM departure with a 3:45 PM arrival. Much better! The other guys were arriving around noon, and unfortunately, I couldn't change for free to an earlier flight.
My wife dropped me off at Dulles around 10:15 AM. There was hardly anyone there, and I had my bag checked and through security in about 15 minutes. I took the underground train to the terminal and I figured I had time for a sit down brunch.
Even though I was seated quickly, service was still slow, and I was worried about not being able to finish, but I was able to finish in time before boarding (not terribly important, since I was B26).
Breakfast, although I think there were also supposed to be potatoes.
The flight to Denver wasn't full, so I had an empty middle seat, however the flight from Denver was full, so we were packed in. Always interesting to see the topographical features of that part of the country.
Looked like smoke down there. . .
We arrived a wee bit early, which is always nice.
Touchdown!
Due to the crazy rental car prices, and our not planning to go anywhere until Saturday, I didn't rent a car from the airport and rented one from downtown. I saved close to $200 doing this. This did mean, however, that I needed to get from the airport to downtown. Originally they told me to get an Uber, which I priced before the trip at around $22. However, being there at 4:00 PM meant that it was rush hour, and therefore subject to surge pricing. So when I opened the app and saw that the price was $66, I figured a cab might be cheaper. After going into the cab queue and getting in the cab, the driver told me that it was rush hour (which I knew) and that traffic might be bad (which I also knew). I told him I usually rented a car and knew many of the surface streets, so when he told me the route he was going to take, I told him that sounded good to me.
We both were surprised that there wasn't much traffic on the surface streets, and we arrived at Plaza in around 26 minutes. The fare was $31.25, plus $2.40 "Req'd Airport Fee" and $3.00 "CC Convenience Fee" (which I'm assuming was because I was paying by credit card). As this was significantly less than the $66 that I was seeing on Uber, I left a pretty decent tip.
The guys wanted to stay at Plaza since that was where we stayed the two previous trips. I stayed there in 2016, but didn't play as much as I did in 2015, and my offers ended in December 2016 (which I found out when I wanted to book a room for January 2017, and they told me I wasn't getting an offer since I hadn't played). I told them I preferred to stay at a place where I was getting comped rooms (The D, Golden Gate, Four Queens, or Binion's), but told them I'd work with a host at Plaza to see what we could do.
I e-mailed a host on August 30 (for a November trip) and didn't hear from that host. I then forwarded that e-mail to another host on September 10, and still didn't hear anything. On September 20, I forwarded that e-mail to the Director of Casino Marketing asking why I haven't heard from anyone. She replied apologetically and then I did receive an e-mail from the second host. I explained that we had stayed there in 2015 and asked if she could do anything regarding rooms. She replied that one of our players qualified for a comped stay and offered the rest of us a casino rate for the stay (11/11 to 11/14). I told her I had received comped offers back in 2016, but didn't play because my offers were cut, and moved my play to another casino, and asked if she would match my other offers. After sending her a copy of my offers, she did give me a comped stay (although didn't match my free play and F&B offer from the other casino). The room saving was around $356.40 + tax and "resort fee".
Plaza isn't anything fancy, and the bathroom is pretty tiny, but it is clean, and the casino has decent video poker, so that's fine with me. Plus the pool is nice (and was open).
View into room 827
The tiny bathroom area.
The room view of the Garage Mahal!
Figuring out where the guys were (playing poker at Golden Nugget), I headed over to Golden Gate and Prohibition Bar to see if one of my favorite bartenders, Valeria, was working. She was. . .
So, while we were waiting for our drinks, I feel a tugging on my hair. I look around and see that the woman next to me is stroking my hair. I found this unusual, and Valeria is giving me a quizzical look. The woman was telling my how great my hair was, I tell her I get that a lot. She says it is really soft, but it doesn't smell as good as her's does. I kinda felt obligated to verify her claim, and I told her that indeed, her hair smelled better, a bit fruity, as I recall. After she left, Valeria said she had been drinking (and possibly smoking) a bit.
The Rat Pack Manhattan!
It was probably a bad idea to have that before eating (not the first time I've done that), but I did have some free play to redeem before meeting the guys at Magnolia's at Four Queens for dinner. Due to some technical difficulties, it took me longer to redeem my free play, so I didn't get down to Magnolia's until around 7:30. They had already seated and ordered, and John actually left to go gamble! That was fine. Unsure what to order, since we had two steakhouse dinners coming up, I ordered chicken parmesan.
Chicken parm!
Dinner was fine, although I forgot I was wearing a white shirt, and of course, I got sauce on it. I used a 2-1 entree coupon, and the total was 44.46 and I used my earned comps (since I had over $400). I told the guys they should leave the tip (since I was paying with my comps).
After dinner, the guys wanted to play more poker. The only place to play downtown is at Golden Nugget. When we got there around 8:30 PM, there was around a 15 minute wait. I don't remember if we waited that long, but they opened up a new table with all of us. Now I did say that it wasn't great that we were all at the same table, since we could be taking our money from each other (less the rake), but that's how it goes. In fact, the largest pot I won was off one of our guys.
I was doing okay, then I had jacks against one other guy. The flop was a dangerous one, with flush and straight draws, but I had the over pair. I bet out and the guy called. The turn made the flush and I bet out again and the guy just called. The river was a blank and I fired out again. The guy though about it and eventually called. I was thinking he didn't have a straight or flush, and I was right. . . he had queens. Ugh. I had a jack of hearts and was thinking I would have been in good position if I made my flush, but that would have been worse.
There were some other exciting hands I wasn't involved it, where two guys hit trip 10's on an X-10-10 flop with three total people in the pot. Then a J hits on the turn and one guy pushes all-in and the other guys call. First guy shows J-10, but second guy shows J-J (third guy with the other ten just walked away).
Another hand was with one of our guys, hit three deuces on the flop (with 2-4) ended up pushing with the crazy Dutchman calling behind him and a third called. The river was a four of diamonds, which gave Joe a full house, but gave the third guy the nut flush, and the Dutchman was almost out, calling with 7-2 (which he played a lot).
Everyone left and I was the last from my group at the table. Being down to around $25 in chips, I was wondering why I was still there, but doubled up once, and finally decided to walk away with $20. During that time, a young guy came to the table from San Diego, said he was there for a hockey tournament. We started talking hockey, I told him I played a long time ago, and ended up taking a long time trying to find the photo of my in my goaltender equipment. He was impressed with my "Osgood" cage and leather pads. He said I should get back into playing, maybe that will be something for 2022. . .
As I was heading out, I noticed this, and wondered how I missed seeing this person in the poker room, I would have loved to have been at his table. . .
I should have asked for Steve Rogers' table. . .
I took a picture of "The Hand of Faith" nugget, since there is a display at Atlantic City, so I'm wondering which one is the real one. . .
I was going to head back to Plaza, but I remembered I still needed to go by Walgreen's to get distilled water for my CPAP. I got there and they were out! That's disappointing. I did pick up ibuprofin (since I figured I'd need it), and a new brush. Since it was on the way, I stopped at Vue Bar at The D to see if any of my favorite bartenders were there, and I caught Jason towards the end of his shift. I ended up playing more than I should there, but it was nice to catch up with him.
I got back to the room around 3:30 AM, much later than I wanted. I'm thinking we will be getting up relatively early the next day (today). That was poor planning by me!
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