Vegas Casinos seeing red

Really?

Hoping I can talk my kid's baseball team into scheduling a tournament there.

 

There is a place in Vegas like this. The Bighorn. Best rules in town.

Except after losing 10 of 11 hands playing heads up, I asked to see the deck because the count was high in tens remaining but no tens were coming out. They suggested I leave.

 

Even on the $3 tables I tend to surrender by the book. It's such a foreign concept to most that I get a lot of eye rolls. Not many, if any, sophisticated players there. But that also means the dealers are appreciative of "playing with them" because that doesn't happen much, either.

 

Had a lady dealer at the Tropicana scold me one time for surrendering. "If it's allowed, it's for the house." Right. You keep flipping them cards and managing those chips, hun.

 

Was in Vegas for Super Bowl weekend. Real hard to find a blackjack table under $25 at any of the name places on the Strip. We found a $15 table at Paris on Friday afternoon, but they paid 6-5 on blackjack, which I wasn't going to do. At Aria, I saw $10 table on my way to the gym Saturday morning before 7, but by the time I walked back a little after 8, all of the tables were $25.

I'm a foodie, and I had an all time top 10 dinner at Michael Mina's place at the Bellagio. Not cheap by any means, but fantastic.

 

A bump to keep this going and, Donnie, I apologize for coming back to this 6 months later.

Green Bay's Oneida Casino may still have early surrender which, when used properly, can wipe out nearly all of the house edge.

 

T-Mobile Arena looks great. Comfortable, wide walkways, lots of beer options. I saw Garth Brooks there on Saturday night. The plaza outside the arena was alive well before the gates opened. Food trucks and portable bars all over the place. I did get burned on parking. I usually use valet parking when I'm in Vegas and $1 tip is fine. I am aware that a lot of the MGM properties are starting to charge for parking, but I figured $10 to $12 would be OK. We decided to eat at NY NY, the Cafe America is good, has lots of choices and isn't overly expensive. So I drove into the valet area at NY NY and was told "because there is an event at the arena, valet parking is $30." I was stuck. I think self-parking is the way to go. It might be $10 to $15, but the lots are actually closer to the arena than if you use the valet and have to walk through the casino. The parking structures at NY NY, Monte Carlo and Aria are right next to the plaza outside the arena.
I've not been a follower of Garth Brooks. We went because my wife's friend loves him, my wife likes him and we wanted to check out the new arena as hockey fans. Brooks was fantastic, a real showman, not just singing. He played for nearly 2-1/2 hours. His wife, Tricia Yearwood, joined him for a duet, then she sang 4 or 5 of her own songs while he caught his breath. Then he came back for another duet and he finished out the show. The encore went about 40 minutes in which he did about 10 songs.

 

Sweet, sounds like a great time.