Vegas

It has been a long time since I have been to Vegas.  I actually had to go through my records and realized that my last 3 trips were September 2009, December 2009, and February 2011.  I have not been up to Blackhawk since 2012 and most of my gaming has been at the Bay 101 in San Jose, when I am in Santa Clara for business.

As my parents were there for vacation, I decided to head out for a weekend getaway after my daughter's Children's Music Academy graduation.

I was on a 4:30 PM flight which got me in around 5:30 PM local time.  I only packed a duffel bag and was able to get on a shuttle to the Mirage.  Arriving, I found my Mom at the Pai Gow table and was able to head upstairs and drop off my bag and freshen up a little bit before going out to dinner.

We had a nice meal at Fin Chinese Cuisine in the Mirage Hotel.  I especially liked the stir fry chicken with vegetables.  After a leisurely meal, it was time to hit the tables.  I started with $3-6 holdem and walked away down half a buy-in.  I wanted to play some craps, but was dismayed the stakes were set at a $15 minimum (it was Saturday night, so it made sense).  I went ahead and bought in with 3X what I would normally use for a $5 pit and was surprised that I could hold my own and only lost $20.  Then it was over to the roulette table to test out everyone's birthdays.  I was missing most of my numbers and called it quits down half a buy-in.

With the change in time zone and the fall back, I was in bed at 1:30 AM local time, but 3:30 AM relative to when I woke up.  I got a reasonable night's rest and we were chatting around 7:30 in the morning.  We ended up doing breakfast at the Fulton Street diner at Harrah's which made a good skillet breakfast.  After that it was back to the Mirage for some gambling.  I picked 5 games at the Sports Book and then headed back to the craps pit.  On Sunday mornings, the minimum bet was $10 and I got a nice roll in, hitting 3 points and lots of numbers.  I ended up doubling my buy-in and as a result was up for the weekend.

Feeling good, I headed to the gym, showered and packed for the return flight home, before heading down to the Sports Book to check on my games.  On the early games, I won with the Cowboys and the Giants..  On the afternoon games, I won with the Saints and pushed on the Rams.  Finally I lost on the Broncos.  All in all it was fun to watch the games on the big screens and enjoy a sandwich from the Carnegie Deli.  We all chatted a little bit more and then I caught my shuttle to the airport at a way too early 6:15 PM for my 9:00 PM flight.