communication breakdown

Vegas: The Narrative - Day Two

Here is Part 2/4 of my write-up of our trip to Vegas, recreated from a combination of (hazy) memories and notes I took each evening...

Day Two: December 17, 2004

Strangely enough, Adam had a job interview in the morning. Although he had already accepted another offer, he figured it didn't hurt to conduct the interview (since he was going to be in town anyways) and see what happens. So he was up and gone before any of us left the room.

Before heading to bed the previous night, we noticed that our hotel offered free craps lessons every morning, and we all thought it would be a good idea to get the instruction we needed so we could play the tables later if we felt like it. So we all got up pretty early (10:30 AM in Vegas is pretty early) and headed down to the craps tables. The lesson was pretty fun and very informative - I definitely put together the missing pieces that I couldn't figure out from watching myself. The coolest thing about the lesson was that, after it was over, they had a "beginner's table" with discounted minimums ($2 instead of $5). Several of us figured that this was too good of an opportunity to pass up, so we all jumped in for about $60. If I was a superstitious person, however, I would have avoided the table because there is bound to be bad luck when you're playing with all newcomers. The karma was against us. Needless to say, after several rounds of crapping out with little winnings, we were all pretty much broke. It only took about a half hour, and I think the speed with which we lost scared most of the guys off from playing anymore craps for the rest of the trip. It was kind of like me and Pai-Gow, I guess: when you lose a large sum of money in a very short amount of time, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

After the lesson and our donations to the casino, we decided to walk the strip and play the part of tourists - something we hadn't done at all the day before. About halfway through Adam got back from his interview and met up with us. We walked all the way down the strip from our hotel, hitting Caesar's Palace, Bellagio, Treasure Island, Mirage, and The Venetian. Caesar's Palace was amazing - not only was it ridiculously cool, but there were several extravagant showpieces within the hotel - greek sculpture replicas, a large trojan horse that marked the entryway to FAO Schwartz, and a long marketplace complete with the faux-sky ceiling (which looks amazing in person, by the way). One of the coolest things about Caesar's was something we stumbled onto by accident. When we got to the end of the shopping strip, there was a large rotunda with a huge open space in the middle. Just as we arrived, the lights in the enclosure dimmed and things started rising out of the middle of the opening. It was a stage, and on it were several life-size robotic (but pretty realistic) characters. They acted out the story of the sinking of Atlantis, complete with dazzling effects - fire, water, smoke, lights, and booming sound effects. It was something you truly had to see in person. I should have a video clip of part of it in my Vegas gallery soon.

Bellagio was also pretty cool because you could feel the upscale vibe that it had going on. The poker room there was hopping, and we found out that the World Poker Tour was doing an event there at the time. As we were walking away, we saw a crowd of people, armed with cameras, surrounding a man. We figured this had to be a celebrity, and in a way, it was - it was Howard Lederer, a pretty famous professional poker player. You can see him on the World Series of Poker events on ESPN all the time. His sister, Annie Duke, who is also pretty famous, was back in the poker room playing in the event. Unfortunately this was the closest thing to celebrity we saw all week.

The Venetian was also a really cool hotel/casino, particularly because of the river and gondola that they built on the second floor (which also sported the faux-sky ceiling). You can get an actual gondola ride down the river. While we were there, a couple was getting married in one of the gondolas. I guess if you can't afford to go to Venice, you might as well pretend like you can.

After the exhausting survey of the strip, we headed back to the hotel, changed, and went over to Mandalay Bay to hit their buffet. It was quite expensive, and depending on which group member you ask, you'll get a different answer as to whether or not it was worth it. It was definitely huge - there were probably 10 different serving lines where you could select from several types of food. However, you've got to serve some quality stuff to make it worth $25. The most memorable thing about dinner was Stephen making a complete ass out of himself (unintentionally) in front of our server. We were all talking and having a good time, when Stephen decides to blurt out a particularly graphic movie quote. What he didn't realize was that the server had come up right next to him before he said it, and heard every word. She just kind of walked away without saying anything. It was amazing (though Stephen might disagree).

After dinner we headed next door to Luxor for some gambling. We did a little of everything. Some of us went straight for the Hold'em tables, while others went to play Pai-Gow, and a couple others played some Roulette. On $100 I lasted about 4 hours at the Hold'em table, which I think is pretty decent. Eventually I got cleaned out holding pocket queens when another guy had pocket aces. Se la vie. At about midnight, some members of the group decided they wanted to head down to Rio and check out the club there. Others stayed behind at Luxor to do some more gambling. I had a craving to get back on the craps table and try again, so this I did.

The guys went to two clubs at Rio - Bikinis and Club Rio. According to them, Bikinis was pretty awesome and Club Rio was pretty not. The waitresses and bartenders at Bikinis were ridiculously hot and scantily clad, which always makes for a good atmosphere. Club Rio was more expensive to get into and didn't have a very good crowd, so it was a letdown. Of particular note is the fact that Dave got shot down by two different ladies when he asked them to dance, both of which claimed injury as their reason for saying no. That's pretty harsh - but we've all had our bad days.

Back at the Luxor, I put a little over $100 on the craps table and lasted about 2 hours before getting cleaned out. Day Two was by far the day in which I lost the most, but it was also the most fun overall. The Luxor is a great place to gamble - I think we all agreed that it was the best we visited all weekend. The atmosphere was great, dealers were great, we met some interesting characters at the tables, and overall it was just a lot of fun.. I might have lost $200 that night, but I'm not sure I could have enjoyed doing so any more than I did. The other guys fared OK: Daniel went back to the Hold'em table and lost (again), while Matt made some money on the Roulette table. By the end of the week he was our resident roulette expert. I don't ever remember seeing him lose. I always heard it was a sucker game, but those in our group that played seemed to do really well.

After finishing up at Luxor, we headed back to the hotel. Soon enough the guys returned from Rio, and we grabbed what little sleep time we had before the madness started anew in the morning...