East Coast Gambler

I know I’ll miss some things from my trip to Las Vegas last week so I’m compiling a list of quick hits so I don’t forget some of the minor details that may interest.

BNBLV - Awesome.  Beer and Blogs Las Vegas is a gathering over beer with bloggers, tech heads and nerds.  I met a bunch of people I follow on twitter and met some new faces.  I expected to be at the happy hour for 30-60 minutes and I was there for 4 hours.  Good times.  Nice to meet y’all!

Orleans – File under a place I no longer need to visit.  Very similar to Gold Coast, but slightly more depressing.  Low ceilings and smoke don’t help.  Unless I’m in the area (which I doubt) I don’t see myself visiting again.

Free Shuttles – Orleans has a shuttle to Bills on the strip.  This was a bus of drunks, but it saved another $20 (or so) cab ride.

Tourists – I don’t like them.  They move slowly and/or stop abruptly constantly being in the way.  The Las Vegas strip is full of these people and they ruin the experience.  I recommend walking on the CityCenter (west?) side of the strip if you need to get from one place to the other.  You can throw old people in here too.  Ludacris mirrors my thoughts here.

Strip walking – I haven’t walked the strip in a while, but I did twice last weekend.  The walks were great, but made worse by tourists and old people.  I did find one way to make the strip walk enjoyable.  Stop at each casino and either tweet or drink.  It breaks up the monotony.  Sure it took me about 30 minutes to get from Palazzo to Planet Hollywood, but at least I had fun.  That was better than my drunk strip walk the previous night from Bills to Palazzo.

Go-Go dancing in casinos – No longer cool or interesting.  This doesn’t work for all casinos.  Check Mandalay Bay and Excalibur for reference.

Lucky @ O’Sheas – Little man has great pipes.  He was outside of O’Sheas shouting out facebook and twitter offers with a deep booming voice.  He fit O’Sheas marketing image perfectly.

Flamingo – Low ceilings still give it an old feel, but it seemed as if there were a bunch of updates in the casino that gave the look a bit of a modern feel.  In my quick walk through it seemed as if the casino was caught between their history and being current.

Aria Tram - I don’t like heights.  The tram platform is bordered with glass which gives it an edgeless look.  It probably looks cool to many, but I don’t like this at all.  I don’t like heights and between the station shaking and the feeling like can fall off at any moment I won’t go up there again.  I’ll just walk.

Celebrity Sightings – One morning I saw Joan Rivers leaving the Palazzo.  That was awesome.  Later that night I was playing blackjack at Palazzo and saw Brad Garrett across the way.  He’s the brother in “Everybody Loves Raymond”

Palms, Hard Rock, Bellagio – All places I normally make it a priority to visit.  Since I was alone I decided to visit places that I don’t normally visit – for better and worse.

The rest of my trip will be delivered in separate posts with pictures.  These are items that are small and I didn’t want to leave out.

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Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas (Cosmo) set an official opening date for December of 2010.  Kinda.

The CEO of the new $3.9 billion Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas casino says it will open in mid-December with about one-third of its rooms delayed until July 2011.

The Cosmo will open in December, but will keep some of its rooms closed.  CityCenter properties opened similarly.  All of this room capacity that goes unfilled should keep prices in check for a while.  So, Cosmo, thank you for opening.

You may be familiar with the Cosmo, but not aware that it exists.  It’s nestled between CityCenter and Bellagio and surrounding the Jockey Club. You can see the location on the awesome Vegas Today and Tomorrow map.

Because of location and look it can easily be confused for part of CityCenter.  The Cosmo website has very little information, but everything I’ve read makes it seem as if it will have an urban south beach feel to it with multiple restaurants, clubs, etc. with a fancy beach club in the air between both towers of the hotel.

I walked by the Cosmo on the way to CityCenter in December and it looked like it was almost ready to open.  I’ll check it out.  With it’s proximity to the strip, hopefully it will be inviting to me.

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I didn’t just play slots and video poker when I was in Las Vegas in December.  I played 3 card poker, 4 card poker, blackjack, blackjack switch and of course, bet on sports.  Unfortunately phones and cameras are shunned at the tables and sportsbook so there aren’t any pictures.

I didn’t only gamble at the Palazzo. I played a little at Wynn, Encore, Bellagio and Palms.  The people I was traveling with were blackjack players so most of my time at the tables was spent playing blackjack.

3 Card Poker
I only played at Palazzo and only played a couple of times.  If the table isn’t full I like to play multiple hands.  Palazzo didn’t allow me to do that.  I went at it with just one hand both times I played.  I lost everything I put in both times I played and lost it quickly.  I’d like to blame this loss on the rules at Palazzo.  I’ve had no problem playing two hands in Atlantic City.  Thumbs down to Palazzo.

One point to note; there was only one 3 card poker table open all weekend and it was rarely full.

4 Card Poker
I put a couple hundred bucks up while killing time at Bellagio.  I’ve only played this game once before and wasn’t too familiar with the rules.  Thankfully, I happened upon a table of very nice people.  The game was a slow bleed until my friends found me.  I wanted to play the hand blind, but was told not to.  I didn’t want to look at the cards, so I showed them to someone else at the table and ended up with a straight or a flush.  Whatever it was I won all of my money back + $5!  WOOOHOOO!

I probably won’t play this game again.  Most of the non-blackjack card games at Bellagio were packed.  This was the only table that had players that also had room for me.  There were a couple empty tables.  I don’t like playing these kind of games alone.

Blackjack Switch
This was the game I was most looking forward to trying out.  I wrote about it when I first heard about it last year.  Blackjack Switch it a newer table game where you are dealt two hands of blackjack and can switch cards dealt.  I learned two things about this game after playing at Wynn after a great steak dinner at SW.

First, I had a little too much wine with my steak and probably wasn’t in condition to experiment with a new game.  I lost my initial buy in of $200.  I was too confused to play the game properly.  I lost patience fairly quickly.  As a result I lost my money, but I had a good time losing it.  The game was fun and kind of slow.

The second thing I learned about Blackjack Switch came the following night when talking to a pit boss at Encore.  More people walk away winners at Blackjack Switch.  In fact I was one of the few losers they met that played the game.  Oh well, there will be a next time.  In fact, I just got an idea on when that next time will be!

The tables in this area at Wynn were pretty crowded for a Thursday night.  There was an entire pit area that was empty, so I guess they did a good job shuffling people to one area.

Sports Betting
I ended up at Legasse Stadium every day of this trip.  Unfortunately, I didn’t record all of my bets, but I did ended up on the plus side at sports betting.  I split my action between the NBA and NFL.  I may have lost one NBA game and a couple NFL parlays.  You can see my review of in game betting at the Palazzo here.

One resource I found shortly before my December trip is covers.com.  I like to use trends to help with my knowledge of NBA and NFL.  Covers.com color codes and simply lays out game and total trends.  It’s an easy read on an iPhone too.

Blackjack
I played a lot of blackjack on this trip because that’s what the others on the trip played.  The best time I had at the blackjack table was at Encore.  It was one of those runs that keep people gambling.  Read full details at Wynn and Encore Win Me Over.

I only played blackjack at Palazzo once and I went from up $700 to losing $300.  This was my first gambling session of the trip and it lasted about an hour.  It was a wild ride.  Kenny Rogers said it right..have to know when to walk away, know when to run!

We made a stop at Palms after a quick stink at Bellagio and it was a quick stop.  I turned $200 into $500 in about 20 minutes.  I don’t even remember the game.  A friend of a friend happened by and introduced his girlfriend.  Chit chat began and I just kept pressing winning bets.  Palms rules.

The best thing about my blackjack play is that none of the games I played were 6/5 payouts.

Overall, the tables didn’t treat me too poorly.  Bad runs in 3 card poker and Switch were made up for with wins at video poker, sports betting and blackjack.  I’ll take an even trip to Vegas every time!

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Happy Thanksgiving!

I’ll be taking some time away from posting for Thanksgiving, but here are a few articles I’ve come across this week and want to pass on in case you want a distraction.  Enjoy the long weekend!

• Rate Vegas recently toured CityCenter and gives a very detailed essay on what was seen.
• There’s officially a bidding war for Trump Casinos!
• Harrah’s seems to be moving forward with plans to take over Planet Hollywood.
• Vegas Tripping reviewed Bellagio hotel rooms a few weeks ago.  Lots of pictures, easy read.

I’ll be sharing some football picks on my tumblr later today.

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I often come across some interesting articles that don’t leave much room for additional comments or need a post of their own.  When I notice that there are handful of those I’ll round em up and share them with you.  Here are some of the interesting Las Vegas blog and news posts over the past couple of weeks.

• Uh oh, Barry Manilow is leaving the Hilton.  I read rumors that he may go elsewhere, but I lost the article.  Sorry.
• Royally Flushed recently stayed at the Bellagio.  There’s a few nice pictures and although the room didn’t do much for me, I find that I like the hotel more the older I get.
• Vegas Tripping notes that Mirage is now adding resort fees to their hotel room prices.  Resort fees are added charges to your per night hotel room fee.  Sometimes the charges make sense, sometimes they don’t.  This is something I plan on looking into deeper and will share information and thoughts down the line.
• ECG got a shout out on this week’s Five Hundy By Midnight podcast!  WOOP WOOP!!
• I imagine that this new Wynn private jet package from LA isn’t a good deal, but since I don’t live in LA I’m not going to compare prices.  However, it’s a pretty cool offer.  If you are not a high roller and want to feel special this could do the trick.  The private jet experience is awesome.
• The New York Jets traded for Braylon Edwards today.  If he keeps himself together this is a steal of a deal.
• If you like some of the Las Vegas podcasts I talk about here, check out Vegas Podcast-A-Palooza streaming live this year.
• Mainstream media is always ahead of the curve.  There’s a building slowdown in Las Vegas in case you didn’t know.  Thanks Wall Street Journal.
• Royally Flushed takes a quick look at Top Chef Vegas with a highlight on some of the chef’s that have restaurants in Las Vegas.  This was just an excuse for me to get a picture of Padma Lakshmi, the host of the show, on ECG.

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It’s been a while since I’ve had enough stories interesting enough for a roundup.  Take a look.

• Wizard of Odds took a survey of Blackjack in Las Vegas.  This shows 6:5 vs 3:2 payouts and when dealers stand.  I will look at this deeper because there is a lot of raw data here.
• Rate Vegas looks at the layout of the Aria in Las Vegas.  I look forward to checking out Aria on my next trip.  Aria sounds fancy and very big.
• Gambling Teachers breaks down the basics of sports betting and multiplayer poker.  This is a nice introduction for someone new.
• Vegas Today and Tomorrow takes a different point of view at Harrah’s “Project Link” aka The Big Ferris Wheel on the Las Vegas strip.
• Atlantic City revenue drops 13%.  Getting closer to what will be more equal economic times.
• Tapas Tuesday at the Foundation Room at Mandalay Bay!  I like the Foundation Room a lot.  I also like Tapas.  Unfortunately I won’t be in Las Vegas on a Tuesday this year.
• Royally Flushed visited the Bellagio conservatory at night.  It’s so pretty.
• If you have an iPhone Vegas Mate 2 is now available.  Nice app to have when you’re in Las Vegas.

Here’s the video for “It’s Been A While” by Staind if you would like something to listen to while reading some of the articles above.

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