TR-March Madness, the PH, and a happy ending

Will post as a reply..

TR-March Madness, the PH, and a happy ending

March 26-29..Group of 4 guys heading out for the usual trip to watch the basketball and do lots of gambling.

Thurs.

Got up way too early for the 7:40 flight out of Milwaukee, the best airport to fly out of. When we checked in, they actually said that we were going to leave early. Nice little bonus. Got on the plane and sat next to a nice woman who goes out to see Barry Manilow quite a bit. Gave her the red middle Roulette strategy. Hope it worked for her.

Landed in Vegas, grabbed the bags from overhead, no checked bags for us. Met the limo driver from the PH and headed off. Last trip was Dec 2007. Too long ago. Me and Double flew together, the others came the night before. Man, is that City Center project huge.

Checked in to the room, fantastic view of nothing. Don%26#39;t really care. Will save the good views when my wife and I go.

Did a little gambling. Down 120 on BJ before I knew it. Went over to Roulette and banged it for 170. The last time I would be up for the trip!

Where to go for lunch? ESPN Zone of course. We hit that place every trip. 3 chicken sandwiches, 1 buffalo chicken. Easy to please. Everybody said the food was very good.

Next thing to figure out was where to watch the games for the day. We took the train down to Mandalay Bay to check out their sports book. Decided it was just okay. Thought we would see if Paris had the ballroom open this weekend too. No dice. Ended up watching in the sports book with buckets of Bud Light for 20 bones. Didn%26#39;t do very well on the games. Won on UConn, lost on Memphis, Duke, and split on Pitt.

After the games, we headed back to the PH for some more gambling. For the record, the Pleasure Pit at Planet Hollywood is unreal. The women are gorgeous and the outfits are distracting to say the least. And starting at about 8 or so, they also add go-go dancers to the pit until at least 3 or 4 am.

Some of the boys were over served a bit. Made for some funny moments. I ended up heading over to the poker table where a very annoying lady was talking from the time I sat down to the time I left. She had major issues. Oh well, it is Vegas after all.

Towards the end, a guy that had also been overserved, came in and started some crazy talk as well. Only it was kind of funny. Kept saying, ';give the kid a cheeseburger'; when someone won, instead of ';winner winner chicken dinner.'; He said that was overplayed.

Left there down a few bucks, went to the room and found out that one of the guys moved my backpack to their room by mistake. Needed some asprin and so I had to go back down, get their key and get my bag. They were feeling no pain and told me to get in the game. I did and got blasted for two hundo. Not good times. Got the bag from their room, my bag and headed to bed. Local time:3:30. I%26#39;d been up for 24 hours. Time for sleepy. Oh yeah, forgot to eat dinner because we were gambling for so long.

TR-March Madness, the PH, and a happy ending

Great trip report so far.

tell us about the hookers at the Heart bar.

Day 2.

Today was supposed to be a big day filled with great plans. Unfortunately, they sometimes don%26#39;t work out the way they should.

After getting up around ten or so, I proceeded to head downstairs and played some blackjack in the pits. Started playing two hands at a time. Either win big or lose big. I was running really hot and we had a really fun dealer, pretending like he made twenty or twenty one when he busted, and also pretending like he had blackjack all the time. Not good if you have a heart condition. Of course, since he was giving away money, they had to make a shift change. The new dealer, while very nice, kicked our you know whats. Walked away up 150 so it wasn%26#39;t all bad.

Found the boys playing roulette, their new favorite game after the night before. We were going to head over to the BLT Burger at the Mirage for lunch. It came highly recommended so we thought we%26#39;d try it. We couldn%26#39;t get Double off the table to go to lunch. He kept saying one more spin, one more spin. So he said that if he could do one more spin and he hit one of his numbers, he%26#39;d buy lunch.

Well, give the kid a cheeseburger, because he hit it!

We walked over to the Mirage and went to BLT. It was really good. Had the burger, fat fries and a chocolate shake. Two combos with shakes, two with cokes, total bill was 90 bucks. Double gave the waitress 120 and said keep the change. About two minutes later he realized that he tipped her 33%. Oops. Said no big deal. Thought maybe his generosity would be rewarded with some luck. Nope.

We walked over to the Wynn and checked out the sports book and the casino for a bit. Went out by the pool for some blackjack.

Sat down and started playing. The dealer was not friendly at all. Tried to get some sort of banter with her but got nowhere. Put the charm on overdrive. Nothing. Asked her where she was from. Yugoslavia. I said that Vegas must remind her of home. Crickets. Whatever. Made 125. Generous Double-Minus 300.

Headed out to the taxi line and saw our first famous athlete-Charlie Batch coming into the Wynn. From there back to the PH for the games.

The sports book at PH, while small, is pretty technologically sweet. Two monster high def screens for the game. Great place, and was able to get a seat without too much problem. Free drinks with 50 dollar bets. Had all the ';free'; coronas I could handle.

Fridays bets were a ton better. Hit the first half and game on Louisville and North Carolina. Hit the Michigan State game vs Kansas. Lost on the Syracuse game. Hedged at half on Arizona as well because I had 13 points where I could win both sides. Dumb. Louisville ends up winning by almost 40. Oh well.

Here%26#39;s where plans start to backfire.

We were supposed to do the $89 special at the Palm. We also were going to go to Jenna Fisher%26#39;s (Pam from the Office) birthday party at Prive with bottle service. But there was a winter storm heading into Milwaukee so one of our guys who had to get home by Sunday instead went home on Friday to ensure no problems. So we headed over to PF Chang for dinner (in PH) and then one of the four had to leave. We decided against bottle service as it was only three of us and it was approaching 11:30 so we did a little gambling and headed to bed around midnight.

Good day gambling, bad day for plans blowing up.

Saturday-Day 3.

After a great night of sleep, got up and checked in on the other two guys and what they were up to. They were going to head out to the pool for some of the late morning and early afternoon. I decided to play a little blackjack and won a couple bucks.

Headed out to the pool to check on the boys. They were sitting next to a smoking hot chick. Good pick on the pool seats. Tried not to stare. Didn%26#39;t work.

We rehashed a couple of details from the night before and figured out what to do for the day.

I headed off to the Earl of Sandwich for a meatball sub. Definitely hit the spot. Proceeded to head over to the PH to watch the Saturday games.

The UConn/Mizzou game was unbelievable. Lots of people betting on the game, most on UConn. (-5.5) I had the first half and won that one to keep the good mojo running. Then it got interesting. The line went back and forth and back and forth. Mizzou hit a 3 to go down by 5 with 6 seconds left. They foul UConn and the guy makes two free throws to go up 7. I knew it was going to come down to the wire and things got scary.

The book starts screaming De-fense, De-fense. UConn lets the Mizzou guy go straight down the lane and he puts up a layup with a second left...and misses!! The crowd went crazy. I was hi fiving guys I just met. It was unreal. I was still shaking my head ten minutes after the game. These are the types of experiences that make you never want to miss March Madness in Vegas.

I then sat to watch the Pitt/Nova game. That was a great game too, back and forth and the book was again mostly on Pitt...who didn%26#39;t cover. The run is over.

After the games, I played a little more blackjack and I was getting flat out crushed. Peeled off 400 and was just trying to survive. Ended up clawing my way back to down about 150, which was a bit of a moral victory.

Met up with a buddy from high school that moved out to Vegas and had a couple beers at the Heart Bar. Good to catch up and hear what living in Vegas is really like. He headed back to Summerlin and we tried to figure out what to do next as it was about ten or so.

We couldn%26#39;t figure out what the best option was, so we ended up heading back up to PF Changs for dinner again. Quick and easy. Had dinner and a few laughs and decided to head back over to the Heart Bar for some cocktails. Got some nice seats on the couches and met up with some sisters originally from Canada, eh, and their friend from the Bay area. Also met up with a guy who they met a few nights earlier, a crazy Irishman who was a riot. We ended up boozing and talking until about 3 or so. Nice conversation, good booze and ample people watching.

May have seen a couple working girls but weren%26#39;t approached by any. Sorry for no details there. Maybe next time.

Headed off to bed for the night.

I was on the other side of that missed layup - glad you enjoyed my money :).

HTR

HTR...never support Mizzou! LOL

Oh great........a Monday quack attack. Plus, your Jayhawks cost me money. But I still love you.

HTR

You are the best!!! I am sorry we disappointed, but a tip for next year is we are going to win it all again :)

That game was absolutely crazy. In retrospect, they should have covered. I was on the wrong end of probably the most brutal play in college ball a few years ago on another Vegas trip. Final four, Duke vs. UConn. UConn up 3, Duke misses a 3, Okefor gets the rebound and is fouled. Three seconds left. I say to the boys we want either two misses or two makes. Worse case scenario, a miss and then a make. Of course that happens. Duke inbounds, quick pass to Duhoun streaking up the sideline and he banks in a half court shot and Duke loses by 1. The spread-UConn minus 2. The place went nuts, and I got kicked in them. I will NEVER forget that game or where I was.