July 25th, 2008

We wake up after a mediocre night's sleep and get moving. Today we're scheduled to tour the neon bone yard at 10:00. I have directions and it's only $15 a person for the non-profit organization that stores all the historical signs. It was decided that we'd skip the tour since it would likely be a $30+ cab ride each way on top of the "donations." Lunch sounded better at the moment.

A quick walk through Bellagio and we head on over to Caesar's Palace up to Mesa Grill. We're both Food Network nerds, so we thought we'd see what Bobby Flay's offerings amount up to.

Mesa Grill offers a lunch time fixed menu but after looking at the regular offerings we were swayed. To start we ordered a round of drinks. I went with a Mesa Margarita while the boss elected the Cactus Margarita. For an appetizer we went with the fun-dido. Soon the bread arrived. You get a sample of the blue corn bread, an jalapeno bread, and I think a raisin bread.

The muffin was okay, but on the dry side. It was nice to see actual pieces of corn throughout it though. The jalapeno bread had the expected bite to it you'd anticipate. The fundido was okay. It was still sizzling when it came to our table. Tons of melty cheese with roasted red and green pepper. In my opinion the margaritas tasted the exact same. The boss insisted hers was better. I didn't dispute her on that.

For our main lunch items I went with the Cuban burger while Ang decided to try out the fish tacos (heh). The burger was great. The pickles, cheese, beef and thin strips of roasted red pepper worked well together. Towards the end I was so filled I hardly had the chance to sample a fair share of the fries. They were standard fries. If McDonald's fries are a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give these a 7. Nothing mind blowing. The boss said the tacos were superb. With a little bit of black beans, avocado, and chipotle mayonnaise, it worked. The fish fell apart in your mouth and the fresh herbs and lemon gave it a clean taste. However it was a pricey lunch. Before tip it came to $80.81.

We bolt from Caesar's and head back to Bellagio. Ang looks for her favorite slot, which is called Double Diamond Run. It's a game without any reels, and the bonus round is some butler smoking a pipe named Jeeves who tells you to grab as many diamonds as possible. This machine is no where to be found. We even ask the floor and after a quick radio to the rest of the slot team no one can confirm if the game is still around. She's bummed. Instead a few other machines are fed our money. I'm not a slot fan by any means, so I was mainly keeping her company since she was a little down. All the slots are the same exact thing only with different icons and sound effects (borrrrrring). She elects for some digital blackjack and I slowly lose again by feeding the machine a quarter at a time. I tell her "this never happens at a real table" as my 3rd natural 20 is out drawn by the "dealer."

She tells me she's in the mood for a nap while we still have time before dinner. I'm in the mood for a little bit of gambling since I really haven't played too much this trip. We agree to meet back in the room around 3:30. This gives me about 2 hours to donate more of my money to the MGM / Mirage Corporation.

I get lucky and find an open seat at the $5 wheel chair accessible table. I buy in and hand over my players card. After a while the dealer asks who's card it was. She slides it back saying the casino doesn't rate the $5 table. At least they could have run it and given me the illusion that I'm a "somebody" but nooo.....

I steadily win $5 nearly every hand. I never increase my bet, and I'm having fun being cautious. The first dealer is a big haired lady who's all but deaf. I notice every half hour she stops to take some sort of medication. One hand I ask if the table offers surrender. "What? You have to speak up, I can't hear very well." I say it again, this time a little louder. "What?!" Nevermind.... "And you're talking in my good side too!" Yeah, I find that hard to believe.

Dealer change and again things continue to go in a positive direction. The table does offer surrender and that's exactly what I did during a few hands (to my advantage). As the cocktail waitress was coming around I'd order Bellagio's signature Tennessee Highball. These drinks are about $14 in the Baccarat Bar, so I figured I was getting a deal costing me only a $2 tip each time. So by my calculations I had $56 worth of highballs. But, I did try a Bellagio Cocktail so I guess I had $70 worth of freebies. I thought the Bellagio Cocktail was too sweet, so I went back to the highballs.

3:30 made it's way around and I colored up and left. I made a $115 profit, betting only $5 a hand.

I meet the boss in the room and after a few minutes of prepping we're out the door. I managed to take a few pics of the Bellagio fountains while I waited. We had some time to kill before heading out to MGM's Craftsteak for dinner tonight so we went to the Baccarat Bar. Ang orders a Tennessee Highball, but since I had my share of those already I went with the mojito. When our drinks came out, I noticed they now provide a small bowl of mixed nuts with it. That seemed new to me. I ate the cashews and left the rest. I'm a snob like that.

Around this time we head off towards the taxi stand to wander over to MGM. The line is longer than I'm comfortable with so I try to bribe my way into the next available taxi. It didn't work, but I was offered a limo or a town car. The only problem was it was going to cost about triple what I'd likely pay for a cab. The line was more intimidating looking than it really was. We got in the end and moved forward without too much of a delay.

The driver was a hilarious black woman with huge bug eye sunglasses on. She was belting out tunes with no discretion which we got a kick out of. I couldn't name the songs she was singing but we both got a shared a chuckle. As we're nearing MGM she let's us know that a DUI in Vegas will cost you $12,000 with no questions asked. I guess they don't mess around out there. She gets a decent tip and we wander through the casino towards Craftsteak.

We're immediately seated into one of the round and very comfortable booths against the wall. Each booth is separated by what I'll call a wall of chain mail (for a lack of a better description). Our server's name was Eric and he immediately knew we were interested in trying out the promotional Summer Tasting menu. For $60 a person you receive a few courses and for an additional $30 you receive a sommelier wine pairing with each. We were sold.

The first course included roasted red peppers, Persian cucumber & watercress salad, grilled quail, and some warm bread. The wine was a Sidney Chardonnay. 2005 Russian River Valley to be exact. The peppers were nicely seasoned and very thin. They had just the slightest bite to them. The quail nearly fell off the bone, was tender and juicy. The salad was "eh, it's a salad." The chardonnay was light and crisp as one would anticipate with a first course.

The next course was huge. Eric and company brought out new plates and silverware for us and a mountain of food. This time around was the grilled Kobe sirloin, roasted chicken and diver sea scallops. This alone would have been ample, but then came out the side dishes. Sweet corn, potato puree, and shiitake mushrooms also joined our table.

The sirloin was also tender and easy to cut. Minimal chewing was needed. We couldn't tell if there was a little bit of sauce added to the sirloin, or if it was just cooked in its own juices. In any case it was wonderful. The roasted chicken, like the quail, melted off the bone. We felt bad for leaving the two extra pieces. The scallops were large and while good, they were just "eh, it's a scallop." The sweet corn, potato puree and shiitake mushrooms were all great and filling, but no overly prestigious marks were earned. The wine was a BV Tapestry Reserve 2004 Napa Valley red. All in all from a taste perspective I'd give it a B to a B+.

And now for the best part. The dessert tasting. The menu simply read "Chef's Selection" and with an open ended statement like that means he can bring out a pile of steaming crap and call it "dessert" I suppose. We figured we were in for a treat and we certainly weren't disappointed.

It was a lot to sample, and most of it went unfinished. The molten cake was certainly devoured, and we both tried the coffee ice cream accompanying it. Perfect combination. Nothing beats coffee and chocolate together. The ice creams were all flavorful and refreshing. One dish had a pairing of fruit sorbets. I want to say pineapple and coconut. The next was a walnut with a flavor that escapes my mind. I recall we both agreed they were a nice pairing. The fruit crisp was decent. Lots of fruit flavors and together with the vanilla ice cream it feels like comfort food. The wine was a Saracco Moscato Dasti 2007 from Italy. I don't recall too much about it's flavor.

The meal was paid for using my MGM / Mirage gift certificates that I collected from using their Visa card. I had about $175 worth, and that all but covered the meal, aside from tax and tip. Our server was so accommodating and helpful that we asked him to pose for a picture for the purpose of this review. He had no problem and genuinely appeared to enjoy his job. Thanks again, Eric!

Craftsteak was certainly a nice meal for two. The samplings could have easily stretched to three or four people. The food, I'd give a solid B+. The service was an outstanding A. The presentation and wine pairings were also a strong B+. I'd highly recommend Craftsteak for anyone else looking for a decent meal at a reasonable price.

From here we slowly hauled our stuffed selves out of MGM and took a cab over to Wynn. Tonight we were going to see Le Reve in the VIP section. Our driver spoke broken english, and I noticed him texting on his cell phone throughout the drive. Better make sure the seat belt is secure. We arrive with no problem and find our way inside. It's a good hour or so until the show starts and I decide to check out the poker room to see what kind of action is going on. A table just on the other side of the rail from me was playing a $5/$10 no limit game. Mountains of $10 chips were stacked in front of seemingly each player and most had at least a few folded $100's to back up their chips. Yeah, that game is too big for me.

I asked the check in desk what their lowest no limit game and to my pleasant surprise she told me $1/$3. I thought it'd be a $2/$5 game like Bellagio. Back towards the front of the casino we go, and to kill some time without too much effort we wander into the Parasol Up Parasol Down lounge.

I order the Savory Martini while the boss elects a Cucumber and Lavendar mojito. Like the Baccarat Bar at Bellagio our drinks were served with a finger food. This time it was greasy nasty charred potato chips. It was as if they were scooped out of a bag of Lays and then put under the fryer for more baking. Bleh.

My martini was good and came with two blue cheese stuffed olives. It was a nice touch and came with an eye appealing presentation. Ang's mojito was pretty damn good despite my first impression. We just sat around and people watched from our vantage. After taking our time sipping on our cocktails we decide we should head over to the theater.

Slowly we trek through the casino finding nothing but $25 minimum bet tables. I anticipated it being this way on a Friday night, but I had hope of finding a $15 table mixed in somewhere. More than a few tables had players betting $500+ on a single hand of 3 card poker or blackjack. Most tables were $100 minimums and apparently Wynn has no problem filling them.

We find the theater easy enough and suddenly a wave of utter panic washes over me. "Do you have the tickets? I don't. I'm serious!" Ang didn't have them either and I know exactly what happened. They were left on the table in the lounge. I half sprint / jog back to where we were only to find our table has been completely cleared off. I walk up to the closest waitress I could find and ask if they found any tickets laying there. She looks at me and says "Like.....I dunno, maybe like....check the table or something?" I try to explain to her (again) that I was sitting at that table (I pointed to help her understand) and the tickets are no longer sitting there. "Ohhh.....hrmmm....well, like....talk to that guy over there." as she points to a male server. I tell her "thanks" and not to be disappointed if Mensa doesn't come knocking on her door in the near future. She didn't know what I meant.

I ask the bus boy / server / whatever he was if he found two printed tickets on the table. "You mean these?" he says as he takes them out of his back pocket. I breath a sigh of relief. He thought they might just be receipts but held onto them anyway. I put a $10 spot on his tray and thank him again as I walk out while my blood pressure begins to return to normal.

The doors open and we're shown our seats on the top row. Seats 1 and 2 in section F, row L. They're the VIP seats with strawberries and chilled champagne awaiting us due to the higher ticket cost. Within a few minutes a server comes over and introduces herself. I forgot her name, but it was something on the exotic side. She pours our first glass and talks a little bit about the show without giving anything away. I snap a few pics before the show starts to help document the view.

I was really surprised at the size of the theater. It only had a dozen rows in each section. Unlike the Circ productions there's a million seats in the house. This certainly was a more intimate place, but there wasn't a bad seat in the house. Despite us being in the last row, we enjoyed our view. We had some more leg room, and directly in front of us was a TV displaying behind the scenes action from the actors (pre recorded).

I took a few more pictures of the theater before the show started. Some with and some without the flash.

The show...where to start. It's not a Circ production but a lot of the Directors have helped with various Circ shows. I couldn't tell you the exact "story" of the show, but I think it's open to each person's interpretation. I felt it was about a soul trying to find their way between heaven and purgatory, but that's just how I viewed it. It had humor interjected into it at just the right places. The performers are phenomenal like most others in this type of production. The music and dance had influence from African, Soul, Opera, and a touch of break dancing was thrown in for good measure. Like other similar shows I didn't know where to look. There's something happening everywhere. The TV in front of us was useful for about the first 10 minutes as you could see the performers meeting up with fully geared scuba divers under water so they could breath. After that point you mainly saw an over head view of the stage which isn't as good as watching it in front of your eyes. Once our bottle of champagne was depleted our server brought over two chilled bottles of water without being asked. Very nice.

The boss says it's her new favorite show in Vegas. It was a great experience and I'd highly recommend it.

Concluding the show we took a taxi back to Bellagio. The line moved fast and we weren't waiting around long. Once back inside our home property we again wandered looking for a decent slot machine for the boss to play. Again nothing really caught her eye so we settled by the blackjack pit. I soon got bored with the machine I was playing next to her (which only took about 3 minutes) until an empty seat at a lively table opened up. I handed her some more cash and opted to take my seat at the table.

Turns out the guys at the table all knew each other from back home in Canada. They were out for a buddy's bachelor party and were staying at Caesar's. They said they were going to hit up Pure later, but at the current hour I thought that might be a long shot.

The waitress comes around and asks if I'd like a drink. I notice these fellows were all drinking the same thing. "Are you guys drinking scotch and waters?" I ask. No....it was red bull and vodka. Not to be one to break the chain, I ordered one of the same "Six red bull and vodkas!" the guy at third base shouts. One of them says "Hey Kev, you wanna yada yada yada." I turn to 3rd base and say "Is your name Kevin? Mine is too." Since that point we were all "single serving friends" for the night (Fight club reference).

Whenever the dealer would bust the table would erupt and vigorous high fives were exchanged. They were betting from $10 to $50 a hand and I was playing the table minimum only. The boss would peer over from her slot machine and give a grin whenever my new friends and I became excited. About 45 minutes of these shenanigans and I get a text on my phone. It was from Ang saying she was heading to bed and for me to "be good and don't stay up too late." I didn't even notice she had disappeared. But she was cool enough not to try to nag me to bed. She gave me my space. I thought at least she'd stop by and say she was heading up. Oh well, I had a pass to play.

I asked the dealer if I could take a few pics at the table and she gave me the standard "If I don't see it" followed by a wink. So I got the following pics to document my enjoyment of the moment.

Then the fateful blackjack hand came up for me. We all know the kind. Where you end up splitting and doubling down a multiple of times. It's the kind of hand that's going to make or break your session. I'm dealt 44 against a dealer's up 6. I split. I get another four, and split again. You can see where this is going.... The whole table shouts out "give him another four!" and of course just like that, I get another four. At this point I have four hands out and of course I get yet another four. The dealer has to call the pit boss over to ask if I can split a 5th time. I don't know why since I already knew that I couldn't. I double down on my 8. In the end on my 4 hands I have a 14, 21, 14, and a 12. Hey....no problem. The dealer's going to bust with that nasty 6.

The down card is turned face up....the adrenaline starts flowing as I anticipate my fate. It's a four. Oh crap.....I ask "low card!" The next is a three giving the dealer a mediocre 13. Right now I say "Give him a face! Face card!" I got my wish. And when I say "I got my wish" I really mean "The dealer got his god damn 8 for a lovely 21." Of my four hands, I pushed one of them. To help combat the disappointment I shout out "Yay the Bellagio!" Guess they can keep the lights on a little bit longer now.

Yeah, I probably misplayed that hand in so many ways, but what can ya do? Even after that hand I was only down $10 from my buy in. Yes, it eradicated the profit zone I was moving into, but it's all good.

Their blackjack money was dwindling down and they managed to snake some line passes from the pit boss for the Bank at Bellagio. I was invited to come along but declined. Before we parted ways a couple from Lebanon offered to take some pictures with my camera.

From here I'm not quite ready to turn in for the night. The thought of playing poker in the famed Bellagio entered my mind. I was afraid it might be the liquid courage talking, but I ventured that way anyway. I immediately sign up for a $2/$5 no limit game and buy in for $300. This is it.....the big boy poker room. I've never played in the Bellagio but have always wanted to. Let the cards fly.

I tell myself that I'm going to play extremely tight to get a feel for the table and then loosen up based on the vibe.

It doesn't take long before I have to put my money where my mouth is. I'm the small blind and have a meager A♠ 8♣. I call to see what happens and I have someone that called in late position. The flop brings promise showing 6-A-2. I check and he bets about $20. I call wondering if I'm out kicked. I remember thinking "An eight would be nice on the turn." I actually got my wish. I had turned aces up. I check again and this time bets $50. I call. The river is another blank and again I check it. He moves all in for another $200. I contemplate the possibility that he has a set. It only took me a minute since I rationalized he'd make a smaller bet in hopes of me calling if he did. I push my money in the middle for a call and turn up my cards. He had a pair, but I had the winning hand. Whoa! That was nice.

The next action hand comes when I'm dealt pocket 10's. I raise it to $25. I'm re-raised not once, but twice. When it gets back to me the total bet is $75. Contemplating re-raising or folding, I opt to get out of the way. It ends up being pocket 9's taking on pocket queens. The ladies won.

Not too long after it's my turn to have pocket queens. I raise it to about $30 and get a single caller. Before the flop comes out he decides to check in the dark. He then proceeds to stare at me. I always like it when people do that sort of thing. It can mean one of many things. Either he's intimidated and thinks I have the better hand, he's trying to intimidate me out of the hand, he thinks I'm good looking and wants to have sex with me, he's trying to pick up on a tell, or all of the above. In any case the flop brings out a scare card. It was K-7-6. I check too. The turn is a deuce and this time he fires $50 into the pot. I call behind him. The river is yet another damn king, and this time he doesn't shy away. He decides to move all in for about $280. It took me a split second to announce the verbal call and I turn up my queens proudly. He was pulling a daring bluff with his failed Ace-Jack. The whole table was talking about the hand and what a sick call I made. When he pushed in, I was 95% sure I had the better hand. At this point I've sent someone from New York and England to the nearest ATM.

The cards just kept showing up. A few minutes later I'm given pocket aces. I'm at the Bellagio and I get pocket aces....perfect. Someone raises it to about $35 and the action comes to me. I announce re-raise and instead of pushing in some chips, I simply toss in two $100 bills I've accumulated from the prior hands. It's folded and I gladly scoop the small pot. I turn up the aces to represent that I'm not just a bully.

About one time around the table and I'm now given pocket kings. Does it get much better than this? I pop it up to a standard $25. It comes around to a kid in the one seat who reluctantly moves all in. It's about another $75 to me. I quickly announce that I call. It's my kings against his Ace Queen off. My hand holds up.

Not too much longer I'm dealt pocket sixes and again it's between me and a single player (this time in the 5 seat). I'm hoping to finally flop a set with a pocket pair, but it doesn't happen. It brings out nothing but over cards. I bet about $35 and he calls. The same thing happens on the turn. Something higher than my six, I bet about $70 and he calls. Grrr..... The river is another utter blank for me. This time I bet $150 with a single $100 bill and five $10 chips. He gives up the hand. I managed to steal over $100 from him with an utter bluff. Oh yeah, it's my night.

In a matter of two hours I was given pocket aces, kings, queens, tens and sixes. I also had a few fortunate AK's and AQ's thrown in for good measure. Don't get me wrong, since I was on a roll I stole more than my fair share of pots. New York on my right said "man, they just want to give you the chips tonight, don't they?" I guess so.

After a quick count I now have just under $1,200 in my possession. I say to myself "If I can make it to $1,300, that'll be an even grand profit. Then I'll leave." Then I came to my senses. I got up and cashed out feeling ecstatic with my performance and biggest Vegas profit from a single card session yet. I thought about being that guy who just runs over the table for hours on end, but I had to get some sleep.

I send out a few texts from my phone and retire to my room reliving the experience over and over again in my head.