las vegas weekend
Dec. 17th, 2002 09:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rmdso, i got in yesterday morning on the red-eye flight from las vegas and man, i was fried. while i normally don't have a problem sleeping on planes, i don't think i managed more than a couple of hours of sleep on this flight. lots of sitting in my chair twitchingly tired unable to sleep. bleck. however, the trip itself was great.
this was a trip with one of my brothers and my parents, nominally to celebrate my folks' 20th anniversary. so my brother john booked us rooms at the bellagio.
i played poker in las vegas, and it would appear that if i'm playing at a time when there are lots of other tourists, i can hold my own in a 4-8 game of texas hold'em. friday night i won $200 bucks in 3 - 4 hours of play. i lost a bit playing at binions and the palms on saturday day, but that was much less of a tourist crowd. i lost about a hundred in a quick hour and a half of play sunday night, but the biggest chunk of that was a hand that i think i played completely correctly but still lost so while it stings, i can't really blame myself. (i had A-10 unsuited, and the common cards ended up being A J 10 4 A. i lost to the guy next to me who had A-J)
i won some and lost some on craps. i won some and lost some on slots. i totally scored on video poker, tho. i had recently won about $100 on the craps table and was wandering back to meet up with my folks and brother and was waiting down near the elevators for them. and i went to go sit at one of the machines and was about to start playing when i realized that it was a $5 machine. but i figured, hey, i just won $100. what the hell.
and after about $40 worth of play, i got a four of a kind which brought me to 220 coins (at $5 per coin). while waiting for the attendant to show up and pay me off, my family wandered by and i got to use the opening line: "so, what's 220 times 5?"
the guy sitting a couple of machines away did me one better -- he got some wait-for-attendant level of jackpot and while waiting for the attendant started playing the machine next to him and proceeded to win similar amounts of money on that machine too. :-)
saturday morning, my brother and my dad and i went to the nevada pistol academy (whose parent company is front sight) and did some shooting. we had a .45 glock, a 9mm glock, and a full-auto ?9mm? colt rifle which was supposed to look all combat but isnt' actually a military issue rifle, as far as i know.
full auto is fun.
my dad mostly shot with the .45. john and i did time with all of the guns.
by virtue of having lots of comp points with the consortium of casinos affiliated with the bellagio, my parents got their room upgraded to one of the spiffier rooms up on the 31st floor that looks out over the bellagio fountains. the fountain show is really quite nice from there. (i am told you can somewhat simulate this by watching it from the top of the eiffel tower mockup at the paris casino across the street.)
the bellagio's buffet totally kicks ass.
so, after covering the cost of the gun range, almost all the meals (my dad beat me to the check once, but it was a cheap meal), and assorted other stuff ... and gambling somewhat aggressively, i ended up leaving vegas with almost exactly as much money as i arrived with (modulo the small bills that were part of my pocket money and not part of my gambling bankroll).
i don't think i can complain. :-)
my reading for the trip: on the way out i read "fast food nation" and "bringing down the house" (which reminded me that i do need to at least learn basic blackjack strategy some time).
this was a trip with one of my brothers and my parents, nominally to celebrate my folks' 20th anniversary. so my brother john booked us rooms at the bellagio.
i played poker in las vegas, and it would appear that if i'm playing at a time when there are lots of other tourists, i can hold my own in a 4-8 game of texas hold'em. friday night i won $200 bucks in 3 - 4 hours of play. i lost a bit playing at binions and the palms on saturday day, but that was much less of a tourist crowd. i lost about a hundred in a quick hour and a half of play sunday night, but the biggest chunk of that was a hand that i think i played completely correctly but still lost so while it stings, i can't really blame myself. (i had A-10 unsuited, and the common cards ended up being A J 10 4 A. i lost to the guy next to me who had A-J)
i won some and lost some on craps. i won some and lost some on slots. i totally scored on video poker, tho. i had recently won about $100 on the craps table and was wandering back to meet up with my folks and brother and was waiting down near the elevators for them. and i went to go sit at one of the machines and was about to start playing when i realized that it was a $5 machine. but i figured, hey, i just won $100. what the hell.
and after about $40 worth of play, i got a four of a kind which brought me to 220 coins (at $5 per coin). while waiting for the attendant to show up and pay me off, my family wandered by and i got to use the opening line: "so, what's 220 times 5?
the guy sitting a couple of machines away did me one better -- he got some wait-for-attendant level of jackpot and while waiting for the attendant started playing the machine next to him and proceeded to win similar amounts of money on that machine too. :-)
saturday morning, my brother and my dad and i went to the nevada pistol academy (whose parent company is front sight) and did some shooting. we had a .45 glock, a 9mm glock, and a full-auto ?9mm? colt rifle which was supposed to look all combat but isnt' actually a military issue rifle, as far as i know.
full auto is fun.
my dad mostly shot with the .45. john and i did time with all of the guns.
by virtue of having lots of comp points with the consortium of casinos affiliated with the bellagio, my parents got their room upgraded to one of the spiffier rooms up on the 31st floor that looks out over the bellagio fountains. the fountain show is really quite nice from there. (i am told you can somewhat simulate this by watching it from the top of the eiffel tower mockup at the paris casino across the street.)
the bellagio's buffet totally kicks ass.
so, after covering the cost of the gun range, almost all the meals (my dad beat me to the check once, but it was a cheap meal), and assorted other stuff ... and gambling somewhat aggressively, i ended up leaving vegas with almost exactly as much money as i arrived with (modulo the small bills that were part of my pocket money and not part of my gambling bankroll).
i don't think i can complain. :-)
my reading for the trip: on the way out i read "fast food nation" and "bringing down the house" (which reminded me that i do need to at least learn basic blackjack strategy some time).
