Gambling on the Strip

I’m just off of a long weekend on the strip in Las Vegas. We stayed at Planet Hollywood and the hotel, itself, was more of the same. I love the hotel, but everything inside the room leaves something to be desired. You can see the highs and lows on Vegas Chatter.

I gamble differently when I’m alone then when I’m with friends. When I’m alone I mostly play video poker and slots, but when I’m with friends I’ll be a little more social with my gambling and play much more blackjack and table games. This group of friends strictly played blackjack so when we were together, which was most of the time, I played blacjkack.

I played anywhere from $10 minimums to $25 minimums. Unfortunately I never won enough in a row to get my progressive bets over $75. That’s where the real money is won!

We played at Planet Hollywood both in and out of the Pleasure Pit and I won both ways. We also played some double deck blackjack in the Heart Bar at Planet Hollywood. This was also considered the Pleasure Pit so we only got paid 6:5 for blackjack, not that I saw many blackjacks this weekend. We also played at Aira, Caesars Palace and Hard Rock.

I was a winner everywhere except Aria where their CSM dealt me almost the same hand every time.

10+ > low card > 10+

Even though the odds say don’t I’d rather play 6:5 single, double or shoe games than CSM because I get some kind of rhythm for the cards. By calculation each Grey Goose and soda at Aria cost me $100, but they were 3 good drinks! Once again no blackjack games under $25 were shoe Aria. This ensures that I will not be staying at Aria or any other CityCenter properties. It also gives me no real reason to return to Aria to gamble.

The night before we had one of the greatest runs of blackjack at the Hard Rock where we played until they kicked us out at 5:30am. We all won. The size depended on how much we bet. The smallest winner walked away with $150 and the biggest walked away with over $1,000 in profits. I played small and drank heavy. Since I don’t frequent the Hard Rock I wasn’t worried about accumulating any points for comps so I only won only a portion of that I could have. I also made a death defying recovery from my last bet to plus $200-300!

One of my friends didn’t speak for the last hour we played at Hard Rock. We later realized he wasn’t just in a zone, but he was way to drunk. At least I’m smart enough to cut my Grey Goose with club soda.

I’m leaving the horrible tales of the worst payouts ever at the Pussy Cat Dolls Lounge at Caesars Palace for my friends over at Vegas Chatter. I walked away even, but I was the only one. At least there were PLENTY of good looking girls.

The only other tale of gambling is that I saw someone playing my special 9/5 3-play Jacks or Better video poker machine at Planet Hollywood. Previous to this sighting the machine had ALWAYS returned at least even money. After the old man touched it I couldn’t win. This took any winnings I may have had in sports betting and blackjack.

Overall this was a negative trip, but I only needed one days worth of my bankroll for all four days. I will call this a success!