Las Vegas Trip Report - Plus Question

[Spuddy]

Alright, so long story short. I'm going to email/send a letter to Harrah's for pretty much being CRAP (hotel had a TV from the 70s, room keys didn’t work)..... read the report for all the details. But I was wondering if anyone could help me find an email address to email them. I'm not having success finding one.....

To the report......

Sunday Feb 14th

Day One

The trip day is finally here. We hop into our vehicle and head down to the United States. It is cheaper to fly from the States than Canada. Four young guys in a car going to Las Vegas for reading week = a sure thing we are getting pulled over at the border. Spend 45 mins getting searched at border, yada yada yada..... and we are back on the road. Arrive at our destination, and go and grab some eats/beer at chiliji's. Not bad place to eat at all, with fairly cheap beer. Another friend and I were secretly plotting on him coming on the trip for awhile now, and when he walked in as a surprise at chiliji's there were some great looks on peoples faces.... great way to start off the trip!! Go to airport, grab some more drinks.... feeling tipsy before the plane ride. Have some more drinks on the plane, and feeling awesome!! Probably not a great idea, but its Vegas!!

Plane arrives in Vegas 2.5 hours later, roughly 9 o-clock Vegas time. Things are going to get messy! And fun! I'm excited!! We arrive at the airport (total of 7 of us). Take two cabs. First bad beat of the week.
I take cab #2 and ask to take us to Harrah's as quickly and cheaply as possible. Cab guy takes the highway and Twenty-five dollars later we are at the hotel, and run into the guys from the first cab. They got there faster and for $15 less..... grrrr..... damn cabbies.

Before checking into the hotel, we all agreed to go directly to the roulette wheel and place a bet on red. This should have been a sign of things to come. We get ID and give our Driver's license (this is significant later) and have about $200 on red total. Of course, black comes and the first group spin was not a success. This was CLEARLY a sign of things to come, but mehh.... it's roulette.

Check-in to hotel, grab our rooms. Quickly change and limo takes us to Spearmint Rhinos. Compared to my other experiences here, it was REALLY weak. Not very many girls and lots of guys. Was hoping there would be a Valentines Day Special. Wasted some money getting some sub-par lap dances. Kept turning girls down for there "3 dances for $100" offers, saying that I would do five for 100 with them and that I've been here before. Not too shockingly, they turn my 5 for $100 offers down, and move on. Probably a good thing anyways, as they were likely a waste of money.

Owed $100 to a friend, and we agreed that I would buy him a VIP dance at the rhinos from the girl of his choice. We are walking around, etc. Two Hungarians approach and start talking to us. I offer the standard "5 for $100" for both of us to get VIP dances, in which they accept. Sweet, great deal..... let's go. Go to the VIP room (aka nothing special room). Found it odd they made me pay upfront, but I should have known better right away. The Hungarian I had dancing for me was mediocre and her accent didn't seem legitimate. About a song and a half in, the bouncer comes in and says something to the Hungarian dancing for my buddy. My stripper freaks out and says "We're outta here". She takes off, in which I go "Wait!! You still owe me dances!!" She books, but the other Hungarian keeps dancing for my buddy for a song before taking off. Complete garbage. $200 for 4 songs.... WASTE!!!!! I was pissed, but there was nothing I could do. Those girls booked fast, and I knew there was NOTHING that could be down other than curse and say "SHIT!!". I asked my buddy if he did anything wrong, and he 100% insisted he did nothing (no touching, nothing). So I got one and a half mediocre to poor dances for $200...... Not a great start to the trip.

The seven of us meet out front and take off. Except for one guy, he was missing in action.... wasn't going to ask any questions lol!! He's a great guy, so I was hoping he was having lots of fun and not getting taken for too much money. Three of us take back to the hotel, and meet up with these two locals we know. We are drunk, they are drunk so it was a great time.

Day 2

Wake up at 11 AM or something. Was super wasted night before, pretty sure I was already drunk getting on to the plane.... so it's all good. Feel like shit, but I'm in Vegas so it is all good. We take off to the buffet at Treasure Island. Unfortunately, they were in the middle of the switch from breakfast to lunch, but it was still pretty decent for $16 we paid. Would likely go back, but preferably for their breakfast.

We gamble a bit at Treasure Island, specifically at video roulette. Again, zero success at it.... Video Roulette = rigged!! Used the double the bet system and got OWNED badly.... grrrr.....

Meet up with two other guys who were still passed out in the AM, and work our way to New York New York to ride the Roller Coaster. Ride the coaster, it is fun as always!! Definitely seem like the track gets rougher and rougher everytime, but it provides a nice view of the strip and a pretty solid adrenaline rush. Plus, it's tradition I ride it every Vegas trip. After that, I lose 5 more spins in a row betting RED on roulette...... good game NY NY, take my money.

We walk across to the Hard Rock Cafe. Go up to the 2nd floor, wait the ten minutes to sit down. Pay the $10 for a super stiff rum and coke to go along with my meal. Food was mehh, service was mehh, wouldn't go back. Neat place to eat though. Definitely was fun voting on "what song played next" in the restaurant though. Better food and better service would have made the experience overall better.

Head back to our Hotel at Harrah's and decide to try out some gambling. Take a seat at the table, giving my money and my driver's license at the same time. Dealer calls over an inspector who than gives me a hard time over my license saying "It's not a government issued piece of ID". I explained to her that "Government of Canada issued" that is written on my license clearly shows it is from our government. I also tried to explain to her that if I carried my passport around and lost it, I'd be in a CRAP load of trouble getting back into my country. Inspector couldn't care less, was rude and wouldn't listen to a word I was saying. She told me it is "policy" to accept passports only from foreign countries. I told her I have gambled in Vegas before with no issues. I also mentioned that I was staying in the hotel, but again she was rude and continued to treat me like a second class individual. Way to be respectful to tourists..... I was calm throughout the entire situation being respectful and as understanding as possible. I asked to speak to someone hire up, a manager or something. Who does this lovely lady send? She sends a security guard who is equally as rude and wouldn't listen to a word I was TRYING to say. At this point I'm pissed, so we leave to gamble at the Mirage where shockingly our driver's licenses are accepted pieces of ID.

We go back to hotel, shower and change and than go to Freemont street for some cheap gambling and cheap drinks. We check out freemont, and are looking for the cheapest place to gamble. I think we went into Freemont Street casino and another place, but figured we could find cheaper. Eventually, we just go to Fitzgeralds. I find a $5 pai gow poker table and decide "I'm getting wasted". Other friends play $1 roulette I think.... Now, if you want drinks and cheaply. Pai Gow is definately the game. Tons of pushing and very little winning/losing most of the time. Perfect game to get wasted, especially at $5 a hand. Slap a $100 on the table and realized that I significantly overbought in this game considering I'm playing minimum bet. I see buyins for $20-$30. I kinda laugh, because everyone must think I'm some sort of baller. The rum and cokes were a little slow coming for the first little while, most likely because my waitress was this 80 year old woman named Maureen. She was extremely kind, but in terms of getting plastered wasn't efficient. I decide to come up with a great plan. I'm obviously tipping $1 for every drink, but decide to give Maureen (or "Call me Mo, dear" as she put it) a clean crisp $5 bill and tell her to continuously bring me a drink every round so that I have 2 rum and cokes in front of me at all times. So she is bringing tons of drinks for me (AWESOME) at $1 a pop.... great deal. I'm getting wasted. I think I was up $30 from playing pai gow for about 4 hours. But I was basically hoping to break even money-wise cause I wanted to get as much ethanol in the system as possible. Some other highlights at the table include - offering the dealer an awesome tip system:
$1 if I win the hand
$1 if she can guess my hand (no pair, low pair less than 8's, higher pair than 8's, full house, etc.)
$1 if she can correctly predict the first card I pick up

Seeing as I had $5 on every hand, it made the game fun. The dealer was loving it too, made it interesting and it was money in her pocket. I'm sure I was about 20 rum and cokes deep, when the friends join up and I tell Mo to bring everybody rounds. Great times..... super fun!!

Another incident happened with a dealer there. I had the following pai gow hand. A-K-J-9-8-4-3. I mess around and send a K-9 for my top hand and a A-J-8-4-3 as my low hand. Dealers hand is A-K-Q-J-7-4-2. Dealers play a K-Q top with a A-J-7-4-2 low. The way I played my hand is a push, but the dealer said "I misplayed my hand, and therefore I lose". I thought it was quite funny, as I'm allowed to play any way I want as long as I follow the low-high rank rules. Had to call the inspector over, and the dealer began to argue with the inspector over how I played my hand. The inspector said that I'm allowed to play my hand the way I did. The dealer got extremely mad which was funny, no idea why he was so pissed. I did feel bad, so I offer a tip of $5. I offer him two options: A) I play the next hand for $5 and if I win I tip you it all. or B) Take the $4.00 tip straight up..... Not surprisingly, he took the $4 straight up which left me puzzled. No fun haha.

Another friend sits and plays some pai gow with me. Dealer has an OBVIOUS flush, in which entire table says "DON'T PLAY THE FLUSH". Dealer plays a King high, entire table wins. Ahaha! Classic. Wouldn't expect such a noob move by any dealer in Vegas, but hey its a win. I end up $30 from Fitzgeralds with $5 pai gow bets, however the big win was the greater than 20 rum and cokes I had, and than the other 10-15 drinks Mo brought my friends. I will be back Fitz, AWESOME TIME!!

We than grab a cab, after some of my friends run into this creepy guy named Tom "Hockey" or something. Trying to sell us his "largest hockey stick" collection in North America. Guy was extremely creepy, and in my drunken state wasn't interested in listening to him. The 5 of us grab a cab, in which we offer him $25 to go off-meter and take us to Bellagio. We were all surprised by the "can't go off-meter" and the guy got us to the Bellagio for $16. Bad beat for him, but we ended up giving him $25 anyways. Cool!!

We walk into the Bellagio, place is dead. The five of us go on a group heater on a roulette wheel winning 4 spins in a row. Hitting and running the Bellagio!! GREAT TIMES! Plus I think we got free drinks too. We were pumped and high-fiving and the table was packed after our four spins cause of all the noise we were making I guess. We Hit and Run, and than I think we go back to hotel to crash or something like that..... the rum and cokes definitely blurr the memory from that point on. I think we might have gone to a McDonalds, and than a late night hit and run at the Mirage. I can't really remember to be honest.

Day 3

I wake up, feeling like ULTRA crap. Definitely drank way too much last night, but I definitely felt like just getting wasted. Good times. Three of us go to the Venetian and grab some pizza at that very oily pizza place. Pizza was great though, definitely did the trick for a hangover. One of our buddies it is his last day there, and he was trying to convince us to go back to Spearmint Rhinos. I wasn't sold on the idea, and neither was my other buddy, but somehow he talked us into it. Call the rhinos and ask for a limo for VIP. They tell us to just cab to the back. Grab a cab at the Venetian, in which the bell boy looks at us with a "Your going to the Rhino's" this early look. Than he tells the taxi driver, "You can thank me for this later". I laugh, and apologize to the cabbie telling him that we're going backdoor and he's not going to get any kickback. Guy was pretty cool about it.

Arrive at the Rhino's and decide that I'm limiting myself to one, maybe two lap dances. But being a "good friend" we had to go back. We walk in, and the place is empty. The other friend who wasn't too keen on going looks at me with a "This is going to be trouble" look. We walk in, and get molested by 3 girls. There is about 40-50 girls and three guys...... the three of us!! At this point, I know I'm screwed. I figured I needed to talk to the girls for as long as possible in my attempt to save money. My strategy was to act uninterested and broke. Didn't quite work too well haha! Strategy number two, ask them to tell you great club stories. This actually worked out well. Heard some HILARIOUS stripper stories, including a poker player who hit and ran the club for $1000 faking an "illness" and booking it the Wynn as fast as possible. Others include guys getting naked and stuff..... I was surprised by the comedy I got, probably more entertaining than the Carrot Top Show! My wallet and I would have been fine, until this Italian stripper named Amore got a hold of me. My one friend told me I had to get a dance from her. I did, and had ZERO regrets. This girl was INSANE. She was cute, petite, and had the "best ass" of Italy. She took me for some money but damn was it worth it. She was UNBELIEVABLE. Easily the best lapdance I have ever had.

We than take off from the Rhinos. Head back to NY NY. Go to ESPN zone to watch Norway get there ass kicked by Canada. WooOOTT!!!! Big win! And fun place to watch it as it was littered with Canadians. Food was decent, but overall atmosphere is great if your sports fan. Would definitely recommend going to ESPN zone.

So we head back to our hotel. On our way back, one of the hooker card guys punches our buddy in the back of the head. Not sure why this happened, but it was random and completely uncalled for. Our friend was obviously pissed and ready to fight, but hooker card guy clearly not worth our time. No point spending a night in jail over it. He was okay, so it was all good.

Go back to Harrah’s. I again figure it was an inspector having a bad day as I have had no problems gambling anywhere else. I sit down, with driver’s license and money in hand. Hand it over. Inspector comes over, and declines me to play. The guy was fairly nice about it, which made things a lot easier. I expressed my disappointment and that I wanted to speak to someone about it other than there “management known as a security guard”. I get the assistant casino floor manager named Burt. Burt said it is policy, etc. etc. etc. Wasn’t anything he could do, other than tell me to get my passport and that every place in Vegas is that way. Really didn’t do much other than waste my time. I told him I would not be gambling in this casino, because I can walk to any casino other than this one and gamble. It ended there…. I left disappointed and irritated that Harrah’s isn’t too friendly too there neighbors from the North.

We drink some more in our hotel, and than take off to O’Sheas for some beer pong. Two friends pick up some cougars there, while I proceed to donk off some money. I lost 14 spins in a row betting red/black on the outsides. Yep, that isn’t a typo 14 spins a row!!! WOW!!! I was defeated and pretty much on tilt. I left O’sheas by myself, walked over to the Bellagio and watched the fountains and than went to Planet Hollywood. Still on tilt, I place a big bet on the wheel. I luckily win, and realize how STUPID I was to place a big bet on a game with such poor odds. I come to my drunken senses and leave up a decent amount of money. Return to O’Sheas in good spirits. I think I talked to some girls from Michigan or something, but nothing really came out of it. We decided to play some beer pong, fun times. Novelty and alcohol wore off and decided that I wanted to play some poker. O’sheas had a 1-5 spread game. It was cheap, and it was 2 maybe 3 in the morning so I figured why not. A buddy of mine also sat in the game. The spread game supposedly played like a 1-2 limit game. We played for about 2 hours maybe. I was up about $160. Huge heater of cards. Totally fun playing with a bunch of drunk guys that couldn’t hold chips or even look at there cards. Some highlights include:
- Flopping a full house first hand with Q-7
-Calling a guy down with bottom pair
-Value betting aces on a K-Q-10-9-rag board with a flush there as well

There was a lot of smack talk coming my way in the game. I was cool with it. Everyone was drunk and it was all in good fun. Some guy beside me kept mentioning how he hated “French” people. I mentioned I was from Canada. He proceeded to call me homo and threaten to “tear me up the ass”. I found it quite amusing, especially when he shouted you’re a homo at me consecutively while I shipped his money my way! They also let you straddle on the button in this game. I was also trying to have some fun, so I straddled on the button on this guys blind. He FLIPPED OUT! I straddled TILTED a guy. Great stuff! The floor had to be called over because he was trying to argue how the action was being played. It was quite entertaining, but at least I can say I straddled tilted a guy….. LOL! Go back to hotel and crash

Day 4

Slept in pretty late, I think till 2. We were going to see the cirque du soleil Ka show at 7. Everyone wanted to sleep after breakfast/lunch whatever you want to call it. So I take off my own to grab our tickets and meet up at MGM later with everyone. I do a little bit of shopping for small things, and watch the fountains again. I than decide to play the 1-2 game at MGM. It was a fun, pretty soft game. I think was down about $20 after 3 hours of play. No real significant hands to mention. Won some small pots, lost some small pots.

Saw Ka for the second time. Felt this was the best show for everyone to see, and tickets were “on sale”. I loved it again. It really is an awesome show, very entertaining and great stunts/showmanship. I’m pretty sure everyone else enjoyed it, so I was happy. After Ka, grabbed a quick bite to eat at Wendy’s.

After that, we grab a few drinks and just walk the strip. Everyone chilling. Always a great time. We have some “free drink” coupons at the win. Go to the win order double rum and cokes. Waitress tells us to just keep the coupons, and we drink for free without gambling (minus tip of course). Great deal. Thanks for the free alcohol Steve Wynn.

We head back to our hotel, pretty much tired. Three of us decide we want to play some Pai Gow. We debate going to the room to get our “required” passports. I figured we should just give it one more shot because I just figured there “passport foreign policy” didn’t seem legit. Of course we all sit down and begin to gamble after showing our government issued Canadian driver licenses and have ZERO problem gambling. HUGE shocker…..NOT!! So we play Pai Gow and it is fun, having drinks etc. Couldn’t remember if I was up or down, so I’m assuming I was even. Just found it quite amusing that I could gamble with driver’s license no problem. We head back to the room, quite tired and grab some rest.

Two of the guys came back from the Flamingo and say they saw the first inspector that was extremely rude and called her manager (aka a security guard haha) from our first “Can’t gamble at Harrah’s” experience on a stretcher. I don’t want to wish harm on anyone, because that’s not cool, but I do kind of wondered what happened to her.

Day 5

So we spend most of the day searching for a good poker tournament. We decide that the Caesar’s $80 + $5 add on is a good deal. Blinds at 25/50, increase every 20 minutes and stack size is 7500. Not bad, seems reasonable especially compared to the other crappy setups we saw. Three of us are playing and decide to do a 60-20-20 stake in each other.

First level, get AK in the small blind. Pop it up to 250. Get two callers. Flop comes 7-4-2. I continuation bet 450. One caller. Turn is a 2. I bet 900. Guy calls. River is a Jack. I check, caller checks and shows me K-J off suit……

First hand of second level. (50/100) I’m in the small blind with K-K (King hearts and King of spades). Stack is about 5500. Button limps. I raise to 350. Big blind calls, button calls. Flop comes 2-5-8 all hearts. I fire 800. Big blind re-raises me to 1700. Button folds. I push my stack in. Big blind thinks for a minute and eventually calls. Flips over A-A, with the ace of heart. Good game……. Pretty shitty.

Good news though is that my buddy (Jtown15 on here) finished second for $1000, which means I got $200. He is a real solid player and I was really happy he went deep. Definitely deserving of it.

Played in the $1-$3 NL game at Caesar’s while the rest of the tournament happened. Was down about $450 in the game. Got caught bluffing with pocket tens on the river for about $150. And than lost a set over a straight hand. Left the room and watched the Canada vs. Switzerland game at the Mirage sports book. Definitely a tough game, but glad the boys pulled it out.

Played some more Pai Gow at Harrah's before going out. Had ZERO problems using my driver's license..... SHOCKING

We all go out the last night. Taking shots of Jagermeister and drinking tons of alcohol before we surf the strip. We cruise the strip with some highlights being:
- Some random cheerleaders from California (who were 19 – bad beat) chatted with us at the Bellagio. Funny stuff, and good times
- Some magician trying to do lame coin tricks. I grabbed his coin in the middle of one of his lame tricks and ran…… I wanted to throw it in the fountain….. I came back though, and he got tipped, but his magic was BRUTAL. Definitely needs work.
- One of our buddies, tipping the guitar player on the bridge between Bill’s and Bally’s to play his guitar. Than jamming out.
- Seeing some guy in the Paris fountain, trying to grab coins before running
- Going to the Bellagio drunk……. LOVE IT!
- Kinda blurry after the Bellagio, but all I remember is having a great time.

Day 6

Wake up, feel like crap and pack.
Take off to the airport and we are gone.
Brag: Hit up Culver’s on the ride back!!

Great trip and lots of fun!!!

[Robbie Robb]

Great report! A little confused how 19-year old cheerleaders is a bad beat. They're legal in any way that could possibly count.

[melioris]

nice report!

[Spuddy]

When your drunk in Vegas, there isn't really too much you can do with 19 year old girls other than one thing...... and I did not see it going there lol!!

[2Tone]

Glad your wallet and liver returned relatively unscathed.

To contact Harrah's

The right column has an email us option, which is a form rather than an address. Somehow I doubt it submits straight to the CEO, but there you go.

[Spuddy]

Merci!! +rep

The wallet took a minor dent, but nothing too severe. Liver is fine, but I have developed a case of vegasitis. Got a ridiculously bad cold...... must have been the two Hungarians!

Thanks for finding that link for me!! I doubt anything will happen, but I was just pissed off about being inconvienced and treated so poorly.

[Robbie Robb]

You may want to try or possibly just but it looks like their address structure is first two letters of first name and all of last name. Failing that, you could also email - that may be a valid email address for his office.

You may also want to see if you can dig up email addresses for the board of directors:

[Spuddy]

+rep to you as well

[PShabi]

Why would you provide ID w/o being asked? Just put the fucking money on the table and get your chips. Providing ID w/o being asked + foreign ID probably looked shady as hell.

[New Guy]

word!!!!

[MAYHEM45]

Yeah really, even at the bars here I just walk in like I own the place, if they tap me on the shoulder I roll my eyes and pull out my wallet.

[Spuddy]

I do that, but once the dealer requests ID I bring out my Canadian driver's license. Problem carrying around my passport is that it is big, doesn't fit in my pockets and if I lose it I'm SCREWED.

In my previous experiences, some dealers don't care. Other times, some dealers will look at my license like its from Mars (I know Vegas is a tourist, and they get a ton of ID's). They ask inspectors, and the inspector says its fine.

This last trip, the Palazzo made me go to a security booth to get a wrist band because I was a "foreign player". Again, I have no problem with that policy, as long as they accept my ID. The security searched the book of foreign licenses and 2 minutes later I'm good to go.

As for an UPDATE: Gary Loveman replied in an email to me, apologizing and told me that he is confused/apologetic as to why there were inconsistancies regarding my license use. He emailed two bosses from LV, in which they should respond. Interesting...... but I'm definately impressed with Gary Loveman right now.