Late Checkout

Wake up. No feeling at this point. Not sad or happy that I am leaving. Things are so routine at this point that it's basically another day.

Then it hits me, I have to checkout at 11AM.

I get ready, shower and then pack.

It's always a scramble trying to pack. I pack what I essentially needed and then stuffed my bags with all the free stuff I received from the conference. I scan the room one last time, leave what I can't take.

I call downstairs, ask for a late checkout. My flight is at 3:30 PM, it's around 10:30 PM, she ask me what time. I said 1PM, is that cool. She checks and says it is ok.

I am hungry and all the leftovers I had in the fridge was gone. I have an desire to go gamble one last time. It could be ill advised considering last night. But I keep telling myself, who knows when I will be back. So TVM, make the most of it.

I grab my bags and cancel the late checkout and checked my bags. Received my claim ticket and off to the Strip for the very last time.

I make my way to the food court again near MGM Grand and the M&M store. Had a delicious 5 for $5 mix and match Chili and Corn dog. Then a block north and across the street, Aria was calling me.

Scanned the tables but after playing 3.5 solid hours of blackjack, needed a change of pace. Looked at the poker room, computer was down. I asked the host to put me down for 1-3 No-Limit hold-em poker. There was 2 ahead of me. It's 12:30 PM. 3 hours till I leave, not good. I walked around the casino some more and make my way back to the poker room. Still 2 people ahead of me for a seat.

I asked the host if I can sit down at a empty table. He said "for sure, we will probably start a new game at the same table." We have 4 players. They usually like to have the table with a minimum of 6 players, so they can rake the table. Again, 10% max $4.

2 more players arrive and we have 6. Then 2 more and it's almost the full 10. I am playing "Guerrilla" Poker again. I buy in for the table min and I am immediately short stack. I play the through the first orbit, folding all my hands.

2 more orbits and the same, folded, not getting any of the 10 starting hand. On the 4th orbit, I finally received KQs, I was going to raise to thin the field but the person ahead of me did. I called since he did my job for me. The flop was harmless. I did not hit anything. When it came to me, I folded. Not really worth it to bluff.

Waitress comes by again, as always smoking hot. I debated if I really wanted to drink, since I should be detoxifying. Fuck it, New Castle. Every else orders their premium drink or Fiji water, thank you Aria for having such a nice poker room.

2 more orbits later, again just folded and the blinds are eating on my stack. Finally received AKos. Raised $15, guy 4 seats from me raised $50.

Whatever.

"All In"

He pauses.

"Call"

Ace showed up on the flop, some small card on the turn and a queen on the river. So I made Ace pair, a lot of ways to beat me. Dealers says show cards. I just said I got the lonely Aces. He said good enough to beat me. I pulled down the $160 dollar pot and toke the dealer. Guy leaves after a couple of hand.

1:30PM

Ok, I can probably play through one more orbit. Pretty harmless, just folded. I go cash out, make friendly with the poker host. I get handed a business card and am told that I can get the poker rate for Aria, just call ahead and I have to play a minimum of 5 hours a day. But I also earn $2 an hour comp playing poker, sweet!



The rate for poker players are $99 (weekday) and $139 (weekend). Sweet!! Compare to $159 to $799, depending on events going on.

I thank the staff and leave Aria without looking back. I have to catch that flight.

I get back to the Carriage House. Retrieved my bag and waited for the cab stand. Cab finally arrives 10 minutes later, it's 2:15 PM.

I am in the cab, on my way to McCarran Airport, flights leaves in about an hour. I say to myself, I should of left early.

Flying Home

The next series of post will be about my recent trip in April 2010. I will be blogging backwards in time (Memento style) because I remember the more recent stuff better and hopefully it will jog my memory on the earlier part of the trip.
--------------------

I am in the cab, on my way to McCarran Airport, flights leaves in about an hour. I say to myself, I should of left early.

Traffic is light and I make it to the American Airlines check-in. Tip the cab driver a job well done. He was happy. Print my boarding pass and I ran with my two bags to the D gate.

First, the security checkpoint. The line is long but moving. There are two TSA agents checking tickets and ID. Hurry up.

In front of me are a group of girls, fake tan, big sunglasses, wearing Juicy Couture warmup outfits, wannabe Cali girls I say to myself. One of them had a T-Square (gold thong sticking out, sweat pants low). She was good looking and had a nice body but no time.

I move past security and off to the terminal tram. 45 min to go.

Finally made it to the gate, D37. Get a text from AA, it's on time. Look for a seat, found one with a white girl who has tattoos of written chinese on both of her arms. Lame.

If your not Chinese, what's the point of getting your name and the word "Enduring and Strong" in written Chinese. Anyways, she was standby and the flight was full. Too bad, so sad.

I was Group 5 and almost the last to board. No big deal, my seat was 10A, so I should be out quick when it lands. I get ready to board. As you all have experienced, when flying solo, it's always a crapshoot who you sit next to.

I was just hoping for no kids, families, old people and big-tall guys. When I actually got on the plane, I scanned ahead. There was a very attractive girl with sunglasses who I think is near my section. She gets up and moves her bag to the other overhead bin. I put my bag next to hers.

I look at my ticket 10A, that is correct. She sits in 10B. Score!!!

She was about to sit down.

"I think I got the seat next to you, the windowless seat"

With a big smile on my face, I went to sit down. And there is no window in section 10 in a Boeing 737.

So at this point, everything is pretty normal, I go put my other bag under my seat, take off my flip flops and put my seatbelt on. I noticed she was wearing a designer t-shirt that showed off her shoulder, leggings, ballet shoes, Chanel sunglasses. So this girl has style.

Everything was pretty much silent. I was trying to think of a opening line but nothing really popped up. Her seatbelt got caught under my seat, so I helped her untangle it. She gave me a accented "thank you" and a beautiful smile.

There was another women (older) in 10C and she started to talk to the girl I was sitting next to. I overheard their conversation and I jumped in.

"Where are you flying to?"

"London, connecting flight in Chicago"

"How long is your layover?"

"40 min"

"But I don't have to go through customs."

"That's nice"

So it's a start.

Take off, she pulls a folder out, looks like notes and a syllabus. I'll let her do a thing.

I pulled out (that's what she said) my folder full of receipts and get ready to do my reimbursement. I organized the business cards I collected, sorted and entered the relevant ones on my phone.

So pretty much taking care of business, flipped through a networking (cisco) book. She pulls out her iPod and it sounds like she is listening to some euro mix. I guess conversation will have to continue another time.

I had loaded up some "The Office" on the BB trying to catch up on Season 5. They were showing "When in Rome" on the flight back, I will pass.

She falls asleep and leans towards me, not exactly resting on my shoulder but close enough. 3 episodes later and the sun sets. She gets up and goes to the back, when she came back, I really looked over her.

Wow. Overall body nice. She had her sunglasses off by now. She is definitely European. Still trying to figure out the country.

She smiled. What a beautiful face.

So the movie is over, they are just showing random stuff like previews for SceneIt the game.

They had a 80's section preview and on-screen was clues for Gremlins. I asked her do you know what movie that is from?

"Gremlins"

"Yep"

I was pretty much nailing all the 80's trivial there were throwing up there. A couple of Ferris Bueller scenes which I definitely nailed (I am from Chicago). It was nice to be playing along with her.

I turned my head over to talk to her and just inches away face to face and saw her most striking features which were her beautiful grey eyes and flawless skin.


"So what are you doing in the States"

"I am visiting my boyfriend in the Vegas?"

That was probably the most devastating word I have ever heard recently. I turn facing the seats.



"Wow, long distance."

"So, where are you from?"

"I go to school in London."

"I have one left year left in my degree."

At this point I knew she was from France after talking to her and looking at her syllabus which was in French obviously.

I continue to talk to her some more because she is a real nice girl and she's from France. Just mostly about traveling, schools and the states.

Then I get back to pressing the issue.

"So how long were you in Vegas?"

"Two days"

"So you are telling me you are traveling half a day each way. GMT is -8. Staying only 2 days"

"I know."

What a sweet voice.

"He's a lucky guy, he should be traveling to you"

"I know"

She saw that I was disappointed but what can she do.

We continue to shoot the breeze, she was telling me that she was trying to get to the other concourse in O'Hare. I looked over her map, she will probably make it but will have to hurry since she had 40 min between flights.

The plane lands. We go get our bags from the overhead bin. Sitting in row 10 helps since as soon as the door opens, exiting the plane is much quicker.

I tell her to go and to have a safe flights back.

She turns back and says "thanks, bye bye" smiles and her body language acknowledge my attempt "thanks for trying, I don't mind being hit on and I know I am hot."

She disappears in the crowd and that's the last I seen of her. I take a slow walk to baggage claims.

Thinking, Vegas, London, France, WTF.

It's all good. I tried and now I know.

Vegas has a funny feeling over me, every time I go there it gives me a super confidence boost, a girl like that I would never try to talk to and I am glad I did.

Overall, the trip was great, one of my best. I stayed 11 days and 10 nights, which is possible. 5 of those nights at Aria @CityCenter, the best new resort, hotel and casino. Vegas is what you make of it. So fuck those retards who says they can't stay in Vegas for more than 3-4 days, clearly you have been watching too many movies. It is sensory overload but I got used to it after trip 4 of 14. Just go with the flow and make it your own.

I gambled a lot on my free time. Lost only $350, which is very small, trust me. I had a lot of volatility. I had big swings up and down, but mostly down. Narrowed my lost towards the end. Swings like that does play with your emotion and that is why they call it gambling. But when you are winning or from any success in life, you just get that natural high from the flood of dopamine. I feel like I aged another year even though it's been 10 nights. Just probably because I experience a lot crammed into such a short amount of time.

I go home satisfied and happy because I know I will be back.

Till next time Vegas.

Disco Lemonade

The Pool at the Rio Casino host a series of free concert during the course of the summer. It's basically a conglomerate of sponsors and promoters putting together a sales pitch under the guise of a pool concert. But free is free and I'll take it.

Obviously, being free you can't really attract current, well known and upcoming music artist. So basically you get bands that are a little bit past their prime or best known for their one hit single. For this particular concert, I lucked out and got two bands for the price of one.

The opening band for that night was Nine Days best known for the song "Story about a Girl" and followed up with Marcy's Playground best know for "Sex and Candy."

The venue itself was at the Rio Casino pool complex oddly called Voodoo Beach. This is a beach with no sand by the way. The pool complex itself is not terrible and it's not good either. It a bunch of small to medium size pool sprawled over within close proximity but not interconnected.

But what really sold me was the offer of free beer since Foster's Beer was one of it's sponsors. So how can you wrong with that: concert, pool and free beer from 6-9 PM.

When we got there, we quickly found the only seating alongside the pool. We were all wearing jeans at the time so a little improvisation was needed. Next time, swimming trunks.


Next order of business was to line up for the free beer. They had two stations at almost opposite end of the complex serving up Foster beer from the keg. So the line went by quickly and they even allowed for multiple beers per person. After the first beer, I could see why it's free. It's because its a terrible tasting beer.

Could it be the keg? Possibly. Normally, I like lagers but it just has this taste that did not sit right with me. So free beer was a bust. One day I will try it again from their oversize novelty cans and maybe I'll have a different opinions. What was even worst is that the advertised 6-9 free beer was done by 7 when the keg went dry. Way to go promoters.

They also had a couple of promo/model girls handing out Foster promotions. One of them not bad and the other one a true definition of a butterface.

First band up was Nine Days and overall a good performance.

Second and last was Marcy's Playground and honestly "Sex and Candy" was the only song I wanted to listen to and they played their entire set from their current CD before playing their only song they are known for. I almost left and was at the exit before they announced they were playing their new single and then "Sex And Candy" came on.

Lame, walked back caught the song and left immediately after.

Anyways, here is the video of the nights event. I am never going back to the Rio again.

You can catch me singing a little at the 4:42 mark.

A Little Less Conversation

Every time I arrive at the city in the desert, I am excited and happy because of anticipated sensory overload.

Bright lights, sights, sounds, hot women, drinking and of course gambling.

Wagering big or small, its always a rush as you watch real redistribution of income.

The best part is that there is always something new to see. Up until recently, there was ongoing construction, old casino and hotels demo'd and new ones built to take its place.

I arrived a day ahead of everyone in my group which allowed me to cover a lot of ground and gamble.

I checked out the progress at CityCenter, the largest private construction project in the states. During the course of 4 years of my trips, I've seen it start soon after the implosion of the old Boardwalk Casino, to laying the steel skeleton frame, then to the first sight of the concrete elevator core to finally skinning the building with glass windows.

Definitely check out the show on the Discovery Channel called "Build it Bigger," they have a episode on the last few months of construction in CityCenter. If you like to see how large construction projects are manage or the stages, process and actual construction of large buildings then this is a show to watch. The entire project is set to open in stages during December 2009. I look forward to actually going inside and staying there in future trips.

I also made my rounds at the new trends that casinos are implementing. Which are the casino party pits, a strip or dance club vibe mix with tables games. I think it's a great idea, with gambling and casino becoming prevalent across the country its a way for the casinos in the city in the desert to still be somewhat unique.


So below is just a collection of events on Day 1.

Summerfest

For 11 days out of the year, Milwaukee host Summerfest which is the biggest music festival in the world according to the Guinness world record. So for 11 days on 11 stages you get roughly 700 bands performing. I am not talking about local or regional bands, you get them as well but also a lot of mainstream acts, past and present.

So when I was ask if I wanted to come, curious, I said yes and I am glad I did.

The day we chose to go was July 2nd, but the festival runs from late June to early July.

When we arrived, I was surprise by the size of the venue. Which is at the Henry Mailer Festival Park running alongside the lake in Milwaukee. From the map below you can see the size of the park and the location of the stages.



There were a lot of people in attendance but unlike other concerts or festival I've been to I never felt it was crowded, again due to the sheer size of the park. The price I paid for a ticket was $15 but is discounted or free depending on promotions.

There is a premium surcharge of roughly ~$50 if you choose to see the headline act on the big stage, which has a seating capacity of 23,000. The headline act for the night I went to was No Doubt. I like some of their songs but not for that amount. It worked out great though because it allowed me to listen and watch lesser known acts.

Besides that they also have a lot of food option bringing out some of local area restaurants. Nothing special here that you can't get in any major cities. But of course if you are up in Milwaukee you have to load up on some beer brats and sauerkrauts. Also, being that it is a Miller town, this is pretty much the beer of choice.

Special attractions are like any usual carnival minus the rides. But they do have one called the Skyglider which takes you up on something similar to a ski lift. This saved a lot of time for us because it goes almost end-to-end in the park, which helped us navigate over the crowd.

So for tonight, after deciding to skip out on the headline earlier I venture to see who were performing on the other 10 stages. They definitely have some thing for some one. For the 9pm prime show you have acts such as Whitesnake, Judas Priest, Femi Kuti, Wild Sweet Orange, Red Bull DJ series and of course the BMX Stunt Team.


But really it came down to Matisyahu or Shiny Toy Guns for the evening show. Just our luck, they happen to be on the opposite end of the park. I chose to go see STG with one of my friends while the other went to see Matisyahu.



With all that value I definitely recommend going to at least for a day.

The following clips are from SXSW performance but Summerfest performance was similar.



This was the first time I've seen and heard Shiny Toy Guns and I was impressed. They definitely put on a great show.

You can classify their style as electronica, synthpop and rock. But it all works together.

The song below "Le Disko" should be more familiar. A fun song to listen to.



The band has two lead singer, Chad Petree on the guitar and Sisley Treasure on bass or keyboard on occasions. Mikey Martin on drums and Jeremy Dawson on bass and keyboard.

Chad and Sisley alternate singing in the songs and the two different approach brings a balance of the male and female perspective. It is even more evident when you see them live.

Sisley has very good stage presence and entertaining to watch. She dances a lot and shows a range of emotion through her movement. Which is great storytelling for the song.

It amazes me that she is the same girl that was competing in the show "Search for the next Pussycat Doll." She had previous experience being in a band called "Cooler Kids" and so she came in the show being known as the rock chick. That pretty much typecast her and got her bounce from the show. I am glad she got knock out of the competition and not allowed to be molded in the pop factory.

When the original female singer Carah Faye Charnow left (kicked out from the band?), Sisley replaced her. Carah did the female vocals on the first albums "We Are Pilots" while Sisley did the vocals on the second album "Season of Poison." They both sound good in different ways, so I believed a lot of fans have moved on. Sisley can definitely hold her own.

This song is my favorite from their performance.

Crown and Coke

"Cocktails"

"Drinks"

The cocktail waitress shouts out as she walks by.

"Crown and Coke"

I shout back while looking at her direction. She writes down the drink order and takes some more before disappearing back to the bar well.

And so it starts, again.

She comes up behind me after a few minutes and lays the drink on the table. I give her the standard tip.

I take that first sip, too much coke and not enough crown. I down this one quickly and count my cards. I wave my hand across the cards, motioning to stand.

I am monitoring my chip stack. I catch a good run of cards early and my chip stack nearly doubles. We played through a six deck shoe.

The cocktail waitress comes back a little later.

"Cocktails"

"Another Crown"

I continue to play and take in the atmosphere. Besides me are a few of my friends, playing alongside and we have this table to ourself. In front of me are the "sexy blackjack" dealers.

They look like the attractive girl next door who happens to know how to deal cards. They are wearing short black dress and low cut shirt, just showing enough skin but keeping it classy. Tonight there are three of them for the late shift and rotating between the tables.

The music playing is the usual contemporary hits but soon a hip hop song came on, then a little show is being perform by the dealers. These are the types of moments I love hip hop.

I lay down a dealer's bet, for some dealer's karma.

The waitress comes back, places the new crown on the table and removes the empty glass. Feeling a little generous because of my growing stack, I give her a tip that maybe she will remember me by.

I take a fast sip and this one was on par, just the right amount of crown and coke.

We reach the end of the shoe, this is about the second time so far tonight. There's no automatic shuffle here. The dealer picks up the six deck of cards and begins to shuffle them manually. We continue to exchange friendly banters with the dealers, pushing the boundary.

Then there is collection of memory I am recalling at this moment, connected by times I have had with crown. Usually during vacation and always a good time.

"Cocktails"

As the waitress shouts out behind me. I turn around, make eye contact and just give her a quick nod. She comes around quickly and exchange drinks and I leave another good tip.

The drinks are getting beyond par, a lot of crown in this one as expected.

I love manual shuffle, besides the extended time taken do it, the cards are not uniformly distributed. They tend to come out in groups of high or low cards. We run through the rich part of the deck, high value cards are being seen more often. This shoe had the most blackjack during the session and the dealer would bust more often. Just so you know, blackjack pays 3 to 2 here.

During the course of this shoe, we do several pound with explosion to celebrate and make exchanges with the dealers as well. I expanded to toke the dealer every hand. Dealer karma is at its highest point.

"Thanks"

"I appreciate it"

Sweet voices.

I continue to play, we go through a fourth shoe. The waitress is coming back in rapid succession. Slowly, I am losing my ability to count my own cards. I am on autopilot after a few drinks, relying on my basic strategy reflexes and help from the female dealers.

"So what should I do with these cards? Honestly, I can't add or count anymore"

She laughs.

"I don't know, I don't want you to lose but you have a soft 16, I would take a card"

"Alright, I trust you"

Cards come out.

"hmmm, I am sorry"

I can't be mad at a face looking like that too long.

I check my chip stack, I am about even. A few hands later we change to the third dealer, the most attractive of the girls of the bunch but quiet. We slowly work her up.

Another shoe change and we start a new. During the course of this shoe, my stack starts to slowly dwindle but like all game of chance, volatility is to be expected. I jokingly take out my frustration on one my friends, he is deviating from basic strategy.

"Really? Dealer showing a 5"

"And you are hitting on 14?"

Looking towards him.

He takes the 9, bust. Dealer turns her card over, has a solid 15.

The 9 would of been the bust card. She gets the next card which was 5, gives her a 20. I lose having 19.

This type of scenario goes on throughout this shoe, some go in his favor and many times not for me.

"Let's trade him to the other table" I shout

Everyone laughs but they are all in agreement. I inquire with the pit boss about the trade. But then I hear.

"Cocktails"

I see her in the distances. I look over her direction again. She writes down on her pad and walks away.

We get through another shoe and for the first time tonight I am to reaching into my wallet to re-buy in. The waitress comes back in time and the usual exchange is made, old drink out, new drink in, tip given. The continue flow of crown will make me feel better and it does for my recent losing effort.

We eventually rotate through the female dealers one more time. I played through several more shoes, had some brief luck on some runs followed by extended times on the losing end. Dealer karma at this point was all but exhausted.

Late in the evening, the pit boss informs us that the end of the girls shift was nearing and we are given the equivalent of a two minute warning. I am disappointed but relieved at the same time that the session was to coming to an end. We play several more hands and a little later we reach the cut card in the shoe.

I decide to call it a evening and donate the rest of my stack to the dealers toke, which at this point is not very much. The rest of my friends color up and two of them actually had a positive session.

After a little break we make a trip to the cashier cage, everyone except for me cashes out. I enjoy my last crown for the evening.

We go back to the tables and say our goodbyes to the friendly dealers.

"Come back soon"

"I will and when is the next time that you are working?"

"We work for an agency, so we'll be at a different casino tomorrow but I will be at ..."

I digress.

It was a negative session tonight but I thoroughly had a good time. It was one of the rare times that I did not feel too bad about losing.

Obviously, the crown and coke helped a lot. But besides that and gambling, we entertained each other, traded jokes and stories, flirted with the attractive female dealers and was drinking like there's no tomorrow.

So good times and is that not what being on vacation is all about.