Vegas Thanksgiving

Nothing says Thanksgiving more than dice, ultimate texas holdem, and a nice buffet. So Carol wanted to get out of town for Thanksgiving since our friends were gone for the weekend,we didn't really want to cook, and we couldn't fly. Below are some of the highlights and lowlights:



1. Ahhh the looks from people. Priceless. Totally worth it. The dealers were awesome about it. Actually met a couple of great people this trip. Had a great session at blackjack with another couple and an outstanding dealer.


1a. Ultimate Texas Holdem- God I love this game. Played it day and night. But man the swings are so intense. Especially since I'm supporting two people. Jay and Laura, I don't know how you guys do it.


2. Is there something during the interview to be an UTH dealer that finds out if you are capable of holding a conversation and dealing cards? I don't think they do since everytime I play it is a struggle for some of the dealers to actually deal cards. Ugh. I had a 10 minute conversation with one of the dealers about middle names for my kid. It took everything in my body not to light my cigar and put it out on her forehead.


3. Friday night it was busy and Carol and I were playing at the UTH table by Revolutions. An older man sat in seat one that had a direct view of the dancers at Revolutions. He nearly had a heart attack. He kept on looking at the girls, then looking at his cards, then looking at the girls and then looking at the dealer with a stare of "Is this real? Are there really girls dancing 20 feet away in barely nothing while I'm playing cards?"


4. Despite it being busy on Friday, on Thanksgiving morning at 8:00am I walked around the Mirage and there was a total of 5 people playing table games in the entire casino.


5. Overheard a conversation between a couple in their early 20s from the South over at the Venetian.


Girl: "Guess what I found? A row of restaurants sponsored by the Food Network."


Boy: "Is there one with that Bam guy?"


Girl: "I didn't see one."


For those of you that don't know, Emril does have a restaurant and there is no Food Network row. Just a bunch of really good restaurants. What was the first thing I thought of when I heard this? Don and what his reaction would of been to hearing this. Disgust? Laughter? A public thrashing?


6. Speaking of Emril, he took over the Palazzo's sportsbook. Made some changes, like putting a BJ, Pai Gow, and Craps table in the sportsbook, new colors, and a bunch of regular tables.


7. Emril's sportsbook now offers in game gambling. Very nice now that we don't have to travel 30 minutes outside of Vegas to try this out.


7. The Pai Gow pit is now gone at the Mirage.

8. I heart massages. Just a great break from gambling all day long.

9. Craps- Could not get hot. Wide open tables to be had and I got gun shy after my first run at an open table. Played only 3 sessions and took a beating.


10. Now onto the big story. The Mirage put in a BB King's blues bar and restaurant that replaced their old cafe. Pretty nice and lively. Carol and I ate there for dinner on Friday night to get a break from the UTH table. Food was OK. About 4 hours later my stomach started to hurt. Went to the bathroom and thought nothing of it. Carol and I stopped gambling around midnight and went up to bed. At 4:00am on Saturday morning Carol started to throw up every 15 minutes for about 2 hours. I started to get a little worried and decided to leave to get closer to home. I really didn't want to have to go to the local hospital there to get Carol treated so we left around 8 and I drove around 90-100 mph the entire way home with Carol just spewing in the passenger seat the entire way. I couldn't drive fast enough. I was guessing that if I got pulled over I had my pregnant wife with her trashbags full of vomit in the passenger seat would get me a free ride.





Got home and then Carol got worse. Ended up taking her to the hospital and a whole lot of shit happened that I won't get into, but in the end she had food poisoning and severe dehydration. After 11 hours we checked out and went home. Baby is healthy and doing just fine, but man what a scare. Not a good ending to a wonderful trip.