I told you it was going to be a long post (you’ll hear more about the Vegas trip that you probably want to, but at least it’s broken down into easily digestible blog pieces).
Friday
To get us going, we needed some coffee. And although there is a Starbucks right in the PH, we decided to go for the full coffee-breakfast-lunch combo that was provided at one of the PH restaurants – Planet Dailies. We quickly realized that Planet Dallies was going to cost us an arm and a leg for our simple breakfast (although the food quantity was pretty large). In retrospect, for the amount breakfast cost, we would have been better off going for the breakfast buffet at PH – The Spice Market. However, we’d have time to hit that up later on.
No, no, this is the Hard Rock Pool. Planet Hollywood looks more like a parking lot.
From breakfast, it was off to check out the Planet Hollywood pool. We got out there and it wasn’t anything special. It wasn’t really anything at all. I’ve now been to four Vegas pools – The Imperial Palace (basically your standard hotel pool found in Anywhere, USA), the Flamingo (Cool area with two pools, nice cabana areas, fountains, Craps near the pool), the Hard Rock (Freaking awesome pool with multiple levels, waterfalls, a beach area, lazy river-esque layout, swim up bar/blackjack) and the Planet Hollywood. Which was a vast expanse of concrete with plenty of chairs. The two pools were raised slightly above this vast expanse, with chairs all around (but these spots were snatched up quickly). The pool with Cabanas felt cramped. And the way the pool was oriented with shadows from the PH and surrounding building meant that some areas took awhile for the sun to hit them and in some spots, the sun was gone way too fast. Still, it was nice and warm out and we enjoyed the chance to get our last little bit of sun before fall/winter.
We had also arranged to meet up with a guy I had met at Mitch’s bachelor Party, Kyle, who was in Las Vegas studying for a Masters in Hotel Management over at the Hard Rock later that evening. So, after the pool, we went back to the room to change and while Emily was still getting ready, I went down to the floor to make my first Sports Bets of the weekend (Missouri -7 over Nevada – which was a winner) and to pick some of the college games for the next day – a started out with a parlay of Penn State, N.C. State and Georgia Tech (I should have kept to my ACC knowledge as PSU got creamed by Iowa, killing my hopes for a good first parlay.
From there, we cabbed over to the Hard Rock. Not a bad cab trip, although construction is to blame for basically all that. The Hard Rock casino floor looks pretty small, and was fairly crowded – but the center bar area was even more crowded due to what would eventually shape the course of the rest of the evening – free tequila drinks until 9:00. I took advantage early, going for margaritas, while Emily was in more of a Big Lebowski mood and went with White Russians. Kyle showed up and we had several more drinks before we decided to walk over to Pink Taco (What’s with “Pink” in Vegas?) which was further inside the casino.
Mmmmmm, it's almost as good as Casa Bonita!
On our way across the floor, we made a decision that changed the course of our Las Vegas trip, Kyle stopped near the “Casino War” table and asked if we had ever played it, we hadn’t, so he quickly explained the rules and we sat down.
For those of you who have ever seen Vegas Vacation with Chevy Chase, this is a little more interesting than that Casino. Ok, so there is no skill involved in this game at all. But who cares. The odds were actually close enough to 50% (according to Kyle, who, since he lives there, must be a certified gambling expert. It’s a rule.). Here’s how the very complicated game of War worked.
You place your bet, lets call it $5. The dealer deals everyone playing at the table a card (this game is played on the same style table as blackjack games) and then deals himself a card.
If your card is higher, you win what you’ve bet (doubled your bet). If your card is lower, then you lose your $5 to the house. Simple, right? That’s the easiest part. Of course, Vegas needs to shift those odds in the favor of the house. This happens if you go to WAR (for those of you with lame, non-playing card childhoods, that’s when you both have the same card, i.e. dealer is showing 7 and you are showing 7).
Now, before you go to war, you have your $5 chip on the table and you stand to win $5. Now that you’re going to war, in order to play, you have to put down double your original bet. So you’re betting $10 to win $5. Then, the dealer deals you one more card and himself one more card. If your card is higher, you win that $5. If your card is lower, the dealer takes your $10. That’s the house advantage. There is still one way the player can help themselves in War, if you go to war and then on the second deal are again tied with the dealer (i.e. you had 7, the dealer had 7 – then on the War deal, you have 9 and the dealer gets 9) then you win double what the dealer would normally pay in war. So you would get $10 instead of $5 from the dealer.
I probably made it much harder in my explaination than it actually is. Just remember that higher cards are good, and if you do have to go to war, hope for another tie.
Well, anyhow, we sat down and we were instantly hooked. Especially Emily who was not a fan of Blackjack and especially since it was easy to find a $5 minimum table. When you have a low minimum table and a game with as close to 50% odds as you can get, you can sit there and play for ever, and with a fun dealer (or if you’re winning) it’s great. We probably just played 15 quick hands and all three of us left the table and headed to Pink Taco up $30-$50 dollars.
Pink Taco was pretty good, we continued the tequila theme with a pitcher of margaritas and some delicious Mexican. Well, at least I was pretty sure it was delicious, when you’re getting pretty toasty from the margaritas, you just know you want food (this explains many late night food orders, or why I ever ate Gumby’s Pizza. Please note I said the pizza, not the Pokey Sticks, which are one of the greatest treasures of mankind). So my recommendation is, if you’re on the way to inebriation, and are at the Hard Rock, check out Pinks. And keep drinking.
After Pink Taco, it was time to head out as Emily and I had planned on visiting a Vegas Club that evening. Weren’t really sure where, but we had to get back to our home base first. Before we left, we hit up the Casino War table for a couple last hands before headed back. Once again, I believe we all left up at least $10. We said thanks to Kyle and headed to the Cab line.
Where we found…. The most awesome cabbie in Vegas. We hopped in and told him where we were headed and, with the lead foot of a champion, tore off down the street, catching every light just as it was about to turn red (or just had turned red) riding long stretches in the turn lane only to cut off a ton of people by swerving back into the straight lane at the last minute. I swear it took only minutes to get back to the Planet Hollywood. Had I been sober, I might have been scared for my life. Since I wasn’t, I was thoroughly enjoying myself, egging our driver on and tipping him heavily when we screeched to a halt outside the PH. I wish I had this guys name, rank and serial number to nominate him for a medal, but instead, you’ll just have to “roll the dice” (Hahahahaha, AHAHAHA… haha… ok, no more puns).
A negative consequence of the Hard Rock trip, however, was the depressive effect that White Russians chased with margaritas has and Emily wanted to lay down for a bit before we checked out a club. In the meantime I was put in charge of finding a Casino War table. I left Emily in the room and went off to find it. A quick look around at the Planet Hollywood revealed no such table. A pit boss confirmed it. So off I went next door to Paris – where I found what would become our home away from home (or, at least, our casino away from Planet Hollywood). The Paris casino had two tables with Casino War going. I hurried back up to the room to let Emily know, but it was too late, the booze had done her in. Still wired/buzzed, I headed back over to Paris and sat down at a $5 table with a couple other people. Our dealer, Ruth, kept things entertaining enough although I made the cardinal mistake of gambling boozed up without someone there to tell you “Hey, you might want to take your winnings and walk away”. So instead, I started with about $50, was up over $100, and then, eventually, lost it all. Even so, I managed to stay up till the wee hours of the morning (and, of course, kept ordering Coronas) leaving me still a bit out of sorts as I finally headed back up to the hotel room.
Parlez-vous Casino War?
I woke up shortly later (early Saturday morning) on the cool floor of the bathroom. Ah, Vegas, where it isn’t a good time until someone winds up passing out randomly on the floor. I crawled back to bed ready for a College Football Saturday.
