Of course you want to be on stage during “Peepshow.”  E! & Planet Hollywood are giving away a pretty cool prize in conjunction with “Peepshow” and “Holly’s World.”

• 3 Day/2 night stay at Planet Hollywood
• Meet Holly Madison
• Appear on stage for part of “Peepshow” in a walk on role

For full details and to enter, click on the image below.  If you win, do be weird.  Good luck.

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• October 26, 2009 -- Best Of Vegas: Peepshow
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My trip in April to Las Vegas was my first alone.  I don’t vacation much alone, bu I decided that this trip was meant to be – friends or not. As it turned out, my buddy bailed on me.

It wasn’t until last year where I realized that solo travel was a “thing”.  I met Gray from Solo Friendly and now vegassolo on twitter and have slowly learned about it.  Gray and I even contributed our solo experiences to each others blog.

My solo trip to Atlantic City
Prepping for a Vegas Adventure

I learned a few things on this trip to Las Vegas alone.  First and foremost, Las Vegas is a great place to travel alone.  I figured that I wouldn’t have a shortage of things to do and i didn’t.  I gambled, napped, ate, laptopped, drank and gambled whenever I wanted.

Sleeping, Gambling & Drinking

Since I don’t sleep much, I’m used to gambling alone to start the day.  However, things got a little more sketchy as the day went on and as the drinks flowed.  I had a pretty awful run at 3 card poker at Planet Hollywood one afternoon, but it didn’t bother me too much as I proceeded to have way too many Grey Goose & Soda’s.  This lead to a “nap” from about 6-9pm.  I wouldn’t normally have done this if I was with friends as we probably would have had dinner planned in that time frame.  Traveling alone made this not a big deal.  I didn’t have to be anywhere and had nobody waiting on me.  That was kind of freeing.

On a related note, Earl of Sandwich is an excellent spot to get a quick bite to eat at Planet Hollywood.  It reminded me of Quizno’s.  Not bad, but not the best sandwiches on the earth.  I’m a New Yorker and nothing beats a New York deli sandwich. I’m a bit of a snob about that.

Eating

I’ve mentioned in previous trip reports that I like to share excellent meals with friends, but when I’m alone I really don’t worry about what I eat and where I eat.  This solo trip proved that as I ate at Grand Lux a lot since it was in the hotel I was staying.  The only trip I made for food was to Burger Bar, where I ate at the bar.  The other meals I had were overpriced fast food.  Never again will I allow myself to fall prey to the $15 hot dog combo at Nathan’s at the Venetian.  Which leads me to…

Planning

I was stoked to have nobody with me which lead to me not planning anything.  I’m not an over planner, but I do like to make sure I maximize a trip.  For example, my trip in December had a night planned at Wynn.  My friends and I planned a night at the casino based around dinner at SW.  Simple plans like this allowed me to get to specific casinos.  I realize that without a plan it’s much easier to be lazy about leaving home base.  For future solo trips I’ll make sure to plan things out a little.  I’m not best left to my own devices.

Twitter

If you follow me on twitter you know that I love to tweet.  I found twitter to be an asset for traveling alone.  I shared tales of where I was visiting or checked out special events at the casinos, stayed in touch with people I had met on twitter that lived in Las Vegas and more.  It also provided me with a fun way to walk the strip.  I stopped at every casino between Palazzo and Planet Hollywood and tweeted.  It was a good excuse to stop and take in the sites.

Overall

Overall, I had a blast solo tripping to Las Vegas and it’s something I see myself doing again.  I’ve learned a little on how to maximize my stay without adding stress.  If you need some time away from the world Vegas is a great place to explore and have a good time alone – whether you gamble or don’t.  Feel free to comment or email or tweet with any questions.  I only grazed over the trip here.

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• May 13, 2010 -- My Vegas Vacation – Gambling
• February 21, 2010 -- Week In Review
• November 15, 2009 -- Week In Review
• May 23, 2010 -- Week In Review
• May 21, 2010 -- My Vegas Vacation – Eating at the Grand Lux Cafe

Lots of good stuff this week on ECG.  I’m going to slowly start ECG 4.0 in the next few weeks.  I’m going to try to do this behind the scenes, but my lack of programming skills may not allow that.  So if the site looks as if it’s under construction then it probably is.  This won’t effect the blog updates, but some features may go away.

Feel free to email me if there’s something you’d like to see on the next version of ECG or if you have an idea for a logo.  You can reach me than [eastcoastgambler] at [gmail] dot [com].

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Buy Bringing Down The House

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Harrah’s recently sent out a survey to guests at Showboat in Atlantic City.  The survey leads me to believe that they’re considering rebranding Showboat to something more hip – say Planet Hollywood.

I just received a survey via e-mail from Harrah’s on what I think about them remodeling the Showboat into a Planet Hollywood Casino. They asked about what room rates I would pay, what I normally do in Atlantic City, what I normally spend and a few questions about Vegas. It also asked me if I recognized a few different Virgin (as in Sir. Richard) brands.

The Mardi Gras theme of Showboat is a little dated so rebranding could make sense.  Harrah’s needs to keep focus on the rebranding if they want it to succeed.  They tried to brand the boardwalk side of the casino to be more “hip” when they added the House of Blues a few years ago.  Since then they’ve updated parts of the casino with no real concept.

I followed up with the original poster on TA and was told that the survey also inquired about Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin properties.  I’m curious to see if & how that could be incorporated into a new casino.

It’s nice to see Harrah’s doing small things to improve their east coast properties on the surface.  I recommend they bring in a customer service consultant to bring that up to snuff.  Outside of hosts, nobody tells the same story when asked a question about the properties.  The staffs don’t come across as sincere or nice.

These east coast improvements (here and here too) are all low cost moves to improve the casinos for short and long term.  These moves will make the properties easier to sell when the economy turns around if Harrah’s decides to go that route.

Photo: Flickr: Jose P

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• July 11, 2010 -- Week In Review
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Going into my solo adventure to Las Vegas I thought that I would end up gambling a little more than I would if I was with friends.  I met that expectation.

Being with out anyone else to consider I found myself wandering to just about any slot machine that looked remotely entertaining.  That was both good and bad.

Munny was located on the edge of the walkway to the rooms at the Palazzo.  I put $20 in and left with $50.  This is a 5 reel penny slot. There were tons of line combinations, but all that really mattered were the bonuses.  The big bonus set free a lotto ping pong ball scene.  Each ball had a multiplier.  I got a couple of 10x balls and bingo!  I played this game a few times and ended up positive each time.

I played a lot of slots in all denominations with unspectacular results, but not awful results.  I played my new favorite Time Machine at Palazzo, a new version of Top Dollar at Wynn and many more.

By definition, slots include video poker.  I played a good amount of video poker too and couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.  There were some nice wins like 25 straights playing multi-video poker at Planet Hollywood.

Unfortunately there was nothing better than 8/5 Jacks or Better anywhere I played.  I did pretty well on my last trip to Vegas playing 8/5 JoB…

..this trip to Vegas was the complete opposite.  It happens.  It’s time to move away from machines to the tables.

Let It Ride
My greatest session gambling was a win of a couple hundred dollars in Let It Ride.  I haven’t played Let It Ride in a while and didn’t have much of an idea what I was doing.  Maybe that’s the trick.

Sports Betting
The best gambling for me this trip was sports betting.  I won about 8 of 10 games.  I only wish there were more games that were that I felt strongly about.  I spent a good amount of time at Legasse Stadium and I can’t wait to get this TV setup in my house.  Someday…

Blackjack Switch and Blackjack
Wynn was a second home for me and I played slots, bet on games and played Blackjack Switch for the second time.  Being sober helped a lot as I almost doubled my money in about 15 minutes.  Not too shabby.

Blackjack is always the same for me.  Up and down, up and down.  I did have a great time playing blackjack at the Palazzo on my final night.  I went to a table to play alone, but that changed quickly as the table filled with a variety of fun people.  I doubled my money and even spotted comedian, Brad Garrett, across the way!

3 Card Poker
My worst gambling came playing 3 card poker.  I did not have a winning session or even a big hand.  My experience in 3CP was so bad I had to stop playing.

My downfall at 3 Card Poker began at Planet Hollywood where I fell prey to extremely hot dealers and plenty of vodka in the Pleasure Pit.  I wasn’t in the section with Go-Go Dancers.  That’s a bit too distracting.

I had a great time playing at the Pleasure Pit.  The music, other players  and dealers were all fun.  Drink service, to no surprise, was very quick.

I’ve had a pretty good year and a half run gambling.  I may have gotten a little reckless gambling alone, but I gamble to have fun and I succeeded at that.  Moving forward I have to get back to smart gambling.

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• February 21, 2010 -- Week In Review
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