Vegas 2017 Diary: Part 3

Thursday, March 9

The 2 days of exquisite golf starts today! Wiz and his connections set up rounds for us at Shadow Creek for Thursday and then the annual Southern Highlands round on Friday. This is starting to become a primary focus of the trip instead of just side diversion. And with Layup now returning to the links this year - all of us participated!

But first - before golf - we found out something new about the operating policies at the Mirage. Our tee time for Shadow was around 11 - our departure time from the casino was about 10 - so plenty of time for early gambling.

The notes from this morning were a bit fuzzy - I see that I had my morning craps session, alone, which was a loser. The group starting getting texts from Layup about a dog.

"There's a dog licking me - WTF"

Um - ok. Where are you? Jogging? Getting a Sausage McMuffin without telling the group?

"I'm at the table!!!!"

Dogs now welcome at UTH!

I couldn't get over there right away - since I was busy pouring money down the drain at craps - but Wiz immediately verified. A guy was at the UTH table with a dog - a 10-15 pound toy breed - and said he was keeping it for his girlfriend/wife. This dog is the medical companion for the lady - I guess she needed it for mental comfort. (Cue the millennial jokes now).

(Actually, maybe a comfort dog would do us all good when we go into the Salon.....)

The Mirage employees all gleefully petted the dog - the dealers loved it. Layup was livid. He got the pit boss over and asked "Do you seriously let dogs in here at the table". Yes, the answer came - proudly.  So Layup - and a few others in the group, like Mike D - played UTH with the dog licking Layup's leg every few minutes. I'm sure the mood there was wonderful. And - as I read the texts - it seems that "dog boy" hit a straight flush at the table with Mike D and Layup. Extra pain!

The golf and atmosphere at Shadow was much, much better this year than it was a few years ago when we played. Maybe playing it when you are not sleep deprived helped. We had 6 of us - and split up into 3 2-man team, each in opposite groups. I can't even remember the teams now - I think I drew Layup. The course was fantastic - as many people say, it's crazy that we have a hole like this one in the Vegas desert. So artificial, yet it looks so natural.

My golf was good - for about 13 holes, then everything fell apart. The one negative to the round was the caddy. It got off to a bad start on #2 - I had about a 50 footer for birdie; I left it 6-7 feet to the short and right. It was a tricky downhiller for par.

Shadow #17

The caddy gave me the line - I think I hit the line, at the right speed. I felt good as soon as I stroked the putt......halfway there, the caddy opens his mouth. "Nice putt! Nice par!"

The ball, of course, did a 90 degree turn and missed the hole.

The last one was on #16 - a longish par 5 with a wide fairway - but if you miss the fairway, you were dead. I was struggling and hit a bad banana ball that started left and was moving right.

"Good drive, should be in the fairway" said the caddie.

The ball hit the right side of the fairway, kicked down into an impossible lie in the rough. I barely made double. I was so pissed.

I felt better on 18 as I was the only one to finish the hole as the others (my opponents) all found water at least once. Routine par for me!

Highlight of the round was this excellent layup shot by Don on 18. No, this is not a drop - this is where the ball came to rest on 18.

Bottom line - loved Shadow this year. I was a bit apprehensive after the 2013 (?) trip - but I played decent, course was fantastic (better than I remember), and the drinks were good.  We got back to the homestead around 5 and went straight to the UTH table  - all 6 of us played UTH for a good 3 hours until dinner; I got crushed in that evening session.

Dinner that night was at Japonais in the Mirage; Layup earned a free dinner as he was the "1" from the 1-6 parlay yesterday - we treated him to dinner at Japonais, but I think he was expecting something else. This - and a parlay ruling we will talk about tomorrow - requires some more details on how the parlay works. Where can the winner "cash" his dinner?

Mr. River comes through

Back to the UTH table after dinner for more UTH fun. It was about now where Mike A started pulling hands out with regularity on the river. There were multiple time I can recall - 10? 12? - where the flop does nothing for him; the 2 river cards are exposed and then we hear a "oh! I have a flush!". The two river cards made a total of 3 spades on the board, and he just happened to have 2 more in his hand. Or the river cards filled in a gutshot straight for him.

Near the end, we have this hand - of course the 8 and Q of hearts were on the river.....

He's on tilt....

It was a good session; I made a little bit and I think others made a whole lot more. Layup and Wiz left to head into the salon later that night. I'm not sure exactly what was happening, but Wiz almost got into a fight with one of the ConAg expo attendees as the person wanted to watch Wiz's blackjack play - and I guess was leaning on Wiz's chair. I need more details of this in the comments.

Anyway - the last text of the night was this picture, with the comment: "Here is a man on tilt....."

Vegas Diary 2017 - Part 2

Wednesday, March 8

Well, those sleeping pills did their job. I opened my eyes around 6:30 and was still under the influence of the pills. Stayed in bed for another hour - that never happens in Vegas! Finally got downstairs around 8 or so - and found an empty craps table. I was by myself - why not? - and started rolling. Another guy joined me, and he hit an all small for me. Great! Even though the Mirage dropped the payout for the All Small from 35 for 1 to 30-1, I still was addicted to it. It's like an ATM! It eventually pays out!

(It was the only all small I hit all trip).

I think the roller who hit it for me was part of the Con Ag convention. Let me pause and say a few words about that convention. The ConAg convention is a annual convention of heavy agricultural equipment vendors, and every 3 years they come to Vegas. This was their week. There as a check in for the expo at the airport; when I landed, the line was at least 100 people long.  From Tuesday - Friday, the casino was full of people with their blue lanyards milling around the casino. Some found their way to UTH; some were beginners at craps; some just had rooms there and had no interest in gambling. I think I saw the same woman from Mansfield at least 5 times in the elevator over the course of our trip. The people were fine - for me - except for the fact that the UTH tables were fairly crowded on the weekday afternoons; I don't think Wiz liked many of them in the Salon.

Layup and I had breakfast, where we (mostly I) charted the games; I was convinced of Western Kentucky -4 over UTSA. I'm the leadoff batter for our parlay! I don't lose early games! After breakfast, Layup and I went back to that craps table where I won the all small - no luck.

The old home

It was about 9 am - and we all went our separate ways for a bit - exercise, work, etc; I wanted to jog but the treadmills were crowded. Plan B - run on the strip! There's a first time for everything. 30 minute jog from the Mirage down to the MGM - crossing at Caesar's, and having to run inside the mall at Planet Hollywood for about 100 yards. It was great! Perfect weather, no crowds (except for hurdling a few homeless people on the east side of the strip across from the Aria). That, followed by a massage, was a great way to really relax for the trip.

It was now about 1:00 on Wednesday - Don and Mike are still on the course and won't be back until about 4 - now what? Another first for the trip - Top Golf! The three of us went there and had a great time. The end of the range had 4 giant TVs that were showing basketball - so it was golf, alcohol, appetizers while watching 30 foot TVs. The cost was lower than expected (although not cheap). Got to see a great Duke cover in the 2nd half of the Clemson game, but also was there when someone convinced all of us to bet heave on Arkansas St - and they were a loser.

Back at the Mirage, we waited at the UTH table for Don and Mike D to return from golf; we all headed to Lavo for dinner - what to say? The regular meal at Lavo never disappoints. There was a huge line for the casino/sportsbar  on the second floor of the restaurant - someday, we need to make an expedition there.

When we returned for dinner - what else? UTH with the 5 of us, and then Mike A arrived to make it a full table of 6. Wednesday night was also John the Pai Gow dealer's first night on - and he was there and came over and said. He lingered at our table for a while during each of his breaks - part to catch up with all of us.....but things turned a bit odd. During the conversations, he would put his hand on our shoulder - nothing wrong with that - and then massage our shoulders and arms while talking. It was just .... odd. Was it genuine happiness in seeing us? His Italian roots coming out? Or a cry for help? Wiz will have to get more information for us.

Not a winner

All of us were exhausted around 11, and the session ended. An early night for us.

Oh- our parlays? Wednesday's parlay was no good. I think this is a 1-6 ticket; the first clue that this is a losing ticket was having 6 favorites.

Vegas Diary 2017 - Part 1

Well, I guess it is time to start putting the notes into actual words and save for history. Yes, it's time for the Vegas 2017 trip diary! The trip vibe was a little different this year - which is good. We need to have every trip be different in its own way. If I look back, there were not a lot of true gambling stories, but the interactions with all the other gamblers (and within our group) made up for the memories. And the golfing - as Layup caught the golf bug this winter, more emphasis was placed on the golf this year. For the better, I think!

Tuesday, March 7

The trip started a bit earlier this year - I took the direct flight out from Cincinnati to Vegas on Tuesday morning. The trip therefore started when my alarm went off at 5:45. Layup picked me up at the airport at 9 am - and off we went to Royal Links. Driving with Layup was much better than the taxi ride last year.

Teed off at Royal Links around 10 - just Layup and I in a twosome. Great round; gave Layup a few pointers for chipping/wedges and Layup was ready to put the clock on me a few times. On #8 - a short par 3 - I staked it to 4 feet and Layup pulled his a bit into the greenside bunker - or so we thought. Here's the picture - and Layup's ball at the bottom.

I gave him a free drop (due to man made obstruction), and off we went. I shared the picture and was immediately told I gave an incorrect ruling. Some people (like the idiot Wiz) felt that there was no free drop in this situation since the stairs went down to the bunker- and the stairs are part of the bunker.

We did not resolve that ruling - need some outside help on this one. (RRD? Kermit?). If the ball is on railroad ties, it's a free drop! It's not in a marked red/yellow hazard, and there is no local rule that the steps are an integral part of the course!

(of course, I missed my putt in the picture).

On the way back, we stopped at a Bank of America where Layup spent 20 minutes in the bank getting money while I was in constant fear of being robbed in the parking lot. Checked in to the usual room - the suite with the adjoining room - cleaned up, and the trip starts!

Layup and I first hit the UTH table; there was a poor guy sitting there by himself with the dealer when we come in and both ask for markers. Play grinds to a halt for this guy. He eventually gives up and leaves, leaving us two alone with Rosemary, the dealer.

Rosemary is friendly, ice cold as Layup and I start getting good cards.  We were into the session about an hour when a random flop comes up - like Q of spades, 6 of diamonds and 3 of diamonds. Nothing there.

Rosemary turns over the 4 and 7 of diamonds..... hmmmm..

After 1 second, Layup smiles at me. "I have a straight flush". Sure enough, he had the 5.... a good start for the trip.

Quote of the trip happened during that session....Rosemary asked if we were in town for the Con Ag expo that took over Vegas that week. "No", we said. Just a guys trip - 7 of us. We always come in this weekend for golf and the basketball.

A guy was sitting on first base... and he paused. "It's....Tuesday..."

I think the Vegas trip should start on Tuesday every year - and I assume by 2020 it will move to Monday.

Wiz came in around 5 or so; we headed to Heritage at 5:30 for dinner where we had great food but the worst service. First, we sat down in the bar area - ready to watch the end of the Ga Tech game and the start of the Gonzaga game. We were ready for drinks - and our waitress was 5 feet away from us, talking to a friend of hers. And talking...And talking....And talking. Am I exaggerating when I say she did this for 10 minutes? We are ready to drink, and get back to the tables -but she is gabbing with a long lost friend. She half-heartdly mumbled an apology and took our orders. We did not hide our displeasure.

OK - nowe we can watch the games....until what? A 6'5" guy stand in the exact same place where our waitress was, and starts talking to another person. And, of course, this guy is in direct line with the TV so we are blocked. We did our best to cheer obnoxiously loud to see if he would get the hint - again, it took 5 minutes for him to move.

At least Gonzaga won (and covered) and Northern Kentucky won and covered. And Columbus covered the money line (-1.5). So a good start with the sports bets that day.

The rest of the day's gambling was non-eventful; we tried to roll and none of us could, and one more UTH session was a wash. I fell asleep around 11 after taking 2 sleeping pills - since I never sleep in Vegas.....