Friday morning… the lines were even longer at the sports book this morning. It is absolutely packed at Mandalay Bay at this point, but it has already emerged as one of my favorite places to stay in Las Vegas. Because it’s so crowded, it is simply impossible to get a seat to watch the games on the various big screen tv’s in the sportsbook. Some people even sleep in the seats the night before to guarantee themselves a spot. To help alleviate this, they’ve set up an enormous tv and several other flat screens in the open, lounge area. Excellent decision by the management. Still, you even have to get at this backup spot an hour before the games start to get a seat there.
As I make my way down to this area (we sent Kevin down early to reserve seats... or he may have just been up early because he was still on EST, it seemed like he was up at 6:30 every morning), I love looking around and watching people drinking at 9 in the morning. Some went to bed the night before, some didn’t. You can spot the ones who didn’t, they’re wandering around like the Night of the Living Dead. And you wonder why the casinos give drinks away for free? Still, I follow my rule of never drinking before noon, grab a starbucks instead and settle in to watch the games. I think I ended up going 4-2 in the first half of the day, although my 2 losses were games I told Kevin to take. At this point, I am starting to think he is Mush… any game he bets is going to lose. Of course, he takes Notre Dame, a 3.5 point favorite, and they lose outright. Yeah, he’s definitely mush.
Around mid-day, I head off for a massage (no happy ending, so don’t even ask) and Neil and Kevin go to the pool/beach. Mandalay Bay has a pool surrounded by sand and a lazy river, further proof that Vegas is much more than just gambling. I eventually meet up with them, get some food (there is rarely time for food, if you haven’t noticed) and hit the tables again.
Kevin heads off to the Luxor to try his luck there. Neil and I sat atthe same table and he's getting much better at blackjack, but needs to improve his money management. You should never double your bet after winning one hand. Think about it, if you go 1-1, you’ll still lose money. We also played craps for a while, Neil’s favorite game.
I ended up losing at craps and winning at blackjack – usually it’s the reverse, but this trip was not a good time to be playing craps. For those of you not familiar with craps, it’s generally regarded as the most fun game you can play at a casino. It’s also not nearly as complicated as it looks on the surface. I actually believe that I didn’t find any hot craps tables during this trip because there were no crotchety old men rolling the dice. You can always tell who is going to be a good “shooter” and very few guys in their 20’s or 30’s are good rollers. You either need to find guys wearing gold chains, African Americans who do funky things to the dice, or old salty gambling veterans. If Morgan Freeman was ever at a craps table wearing bling, he would be the best craps shooter ever.
Anyway, I ended up going over to the Luxor, which is connected to MB. Kevin was there making friends with people cheering for Kentucky, I think he's still in search of his first basketball winner. It’s definitely a younger crowd there, mostly because it’s less expensive. However, the Luxor is nowhere as nice as Mandalay Bay and the tv they have in their sportsbook looks like it was the first big screen tv ever made, it may have even been a projector tv with squirrels running around inside.
While at the Luxor, something hit me, I came to thestunning realization of what a slot-slut Kevin really is. He loves playing the slot machines. Further proof that he is an 80 year old woman. Good thing he told me he never reads this… anyway, I play my first and last slot machine of the trip, it was a “cold machine” as they say. The best thing I can say about slot machines is that they no longer clank out coins, so they are generally much quieter than they use to be. Although the fact that they spit out tickets seems somewhat anti-climatic too. I would have liked to have seen some old lady (or Kevin) get paid out like 10,000 nickels. [Editor’s note: Kevin ended up hitting very big on one of those slot machines the next day]
After making our way back to Mandalay Bay and getting ourselves all pretty, we headed out to the Gypsy, a populargay Las Vegas dance club located off the strip near UNLV. Apparently, they made a ton of renovations and it turned out to be a blast, we had so much fun. Neil danced his a$$ off like he usually does. It has a great layout with two dance floors, but has a small, close-knit feel to it unlike the other major club in Vegas, Krave which feels like a big LA-style techno-trash warehouse. We ended up staying out pretty late but having a great time. Best of all, none of us lost any money.
Saturday March 17
Well the first round of games are over. I’ve watched more basketball over the past two days than one person should. Basically, if there are any gaps in timing over the past couple of days, I was watching college basketball. Saturday ended up being another winning day, although I lost my biggest game of the of the day when Butler upset Maryland. we also had another 93 degree day in Vegas. Definitely good times.
It is also St. Patrick’s Day today, which often goes unnoticed in Las Vegas unless you’re at one of the few casinos that acknowledges it. We were all a little tired from all of the dancing and drinking the night before, but Neil, Kevin and I decided to go for a walk along Las Vegas Boulevard (aka thestrip”). One thing about the strip, although another casino may look like it’s right next door, it will probably take 10 to 15 minutes to walk to it. Walking from one end of the strip to the other easily takes well over an hour. When it’s 90 to 100 degrees outside, you can work up quite a sweat... unless you take the newly built Monorail, which Kevin and I determined is simply impossible to mention without singing the Monorail song from the Simpsons.
We eventually stumbled upon an Irish bar right on the strip called Nine Fine Irishmen , although now that I think of it, I think Kevin led us there on purpose. They were having a huge St Patrick's Day party and we ended up having Irish lagers while the kilt-wearing bands played, various Irish men and women got drunk (redundant statement, yes) and everyone had their green shirts and pants on. Didn’t I move away from Boston to get away from all of this? As usual, St. Patrick’s Day was just another excuse for the Irish to get drunk… although I’m not sure what excuse they use for the other 364 days of the year.
We eventually made it back to the hotel and Kevin even hit a very big jackpot on one of the slot machines (clearly the luck of the Irish was on his side). He ended up flying out Saturday night; I was doubtful he was going to get on that plane with the shirt on his back... and we all know how cold it is in Boston. Neil and I ended up meeting up with a fun girl I work with (She actually lives in Vegas, so maybe my job will take me there too, haha) and we rolled bones for a while (translation = played craps). We lost again. I definitely needed that bling-wearing Morgan Freeman to show up because apparently Mr. Fuji no like game of craps.
We had a relatively uneventful Saturday night, electing to stay in and order room service instead of dealing with the thugs there for the boxing match held at the hotel that night (I have no idea who was fighting). Plus, we had to fly back early the next morning, which was okay. It's nice to get outta Vegas with the shirt on your back and a little extra money in your pocket. After all, it's only a 1 hour flight from SF, so there's always next time.
HEY SF BOYS,
HAVEN'T READ YOU FOR AWHILE, THE LINK WAS ON MY OTHER COMPUTER. SEEMS LIKE ANOTHER FINE TIME IN LV. I LIKE THE TARHEELS MYSELF SO I'LL APPOLIGIZE IN ADVANCE CAUSE YOU KNOW MY RECORD. YOU GUYS JUST WAIT FOR ZACH'S MATH SCHOOLWORK..........HE'LL BE CAPABLE OF 600'S BY THE 4TH GRADE. EASTER IS AT OUR HOUSE IF YOUR AROUND. (NO TURKEY OR HAM)
Posted by: MIKE SARS | March 21, 2007 at 06:51 PM