Trip Report Day 1 - Started so good, ended so bad(reprise)

I did the first post back on 11/8 but my treo does not work well for long posts. So here we go again.

Here I am in my hotel room typing on my treo(forgive any errors) and decided to put my pain in a report. First off, had a nonstop flight on Southwest out of San Antonio. We left a little early and got into vegas thirty minutes early so great job there. Yet all that extra time was spent at baggage claim(no suprise there) and then spent a good twenty minutes at the wells fargo at the airport. my buddy didnt want to carry his money like last time and he banks with wells fargo. I don%26#39;t know what the deal was but man, this line took forever. In the end, we were able to get in line for a taxi, which was thankfully short. We%26#39;re staying at the Aladdin and I asked the guy to take Swenson. Quick ride and only $12.75 so I told my buddy to give a nice tip.

Now I have to say this about the Aladdin. THE CONSTRUCTION IS NOT A BIG DEAL! Yes at first, where the taxi dropoff is akward. You have to take an almost backdoor way to the elevator(where the staff would travel) and from there go to the mezzanine to check in. Before checking in, I had to run and get a player club card for the promo rate. No problem getting the card nor checking. I was asked for the card and the typical CC and ID. Yes I did do the $20 trick and yes it worked. Got the upgrade to foutainview room which isn%26#39;t much of a view(freakin balloon from Paris is in the way) but it only cost me $20(would be an extra $30 a night) and its right near the elevators which is great since I don%26#39;t have to walk as much. Had to wait a few hours for the room to be ready(we were there at 1pm).

The room is nice. Good size room and bathroom. I can only compare it to the MGM rooms and these are better. As for the the casino, it is much nicer than the old style. Everything is laid out well and it%26#39;s real quick to get to the strip. While waiting, we ate at PF Changs(40 minute wait) which was good. I played a little video poker and while laughing at my friend%26#39;s mistake of doing a max bet for 100 instead of the typical 5, well I did the same mistake he did and lost some money real quick.

After some video poker, it was time for some regular poker. For those who havent been to the Aladdin lately, the poker ';room'; is upstairs on the mezanine. I used the term ';room'; loosely since it%26#39;s more of a roped off area. However, being where it is, the area is not annoyingly loud(like MGM Grand) nor incredibly quiet(like Ceasars Palace). Now being where it is and no real signs pointing to way to the poker room(there are posters that say where the room is, but no big signs pointing the way like in other casinos), well this makes the room a little less popular than other rooms on the strip. What I enjoyed about the room was that it was a friendly room. It wasnt filled with arrogant poker players who think they%26#39;re a hand a way from being a pro(when they%26#39;re playing the lowest limits) and it didnt have the incredibly annoying poker novice that has a lot of money, playing like a complete idiot, and thinking they%26#39;re the best poker player around.

What I learned from my last trip is that starting off with some limit poker really helps. It%26#39;s less of a stress and gets me going for some poker. Unfortunately, the Aladdin only had one table going and it was NL. There was just not enough people to start up a limit game. After 20 minutes or so, there were finally enough people to start up another no limit game which I decided to partake in. After an hour or so, after winning a nice pot, I remember one thing that I have read online and that is to try and play after you win. Why? Like in any gambling game, there are streaks that happen. These streaks are not something that can proven by statistics. There are just times that people go on a roll where they pick up great cards or get cards that just make great hands. So I decided to play an overall mediocre hand of 5-7 offsuit. The result of the hand was me getting the full house and going all in, while another guy made a better full house and called my all in. In this situation, there%26#39;s really not much you can do and almost everyone will go broke in this case.

With that, I leave the table and find my buddy who%26#39;s playing roulette. On our last trip in February, we both made big money off of roulette doing a very simple betting pattern of only betting on a section of the wheel. My buddy was there, winning a bit of money and I joined him borrowing $100. We played, winning a bit here and there but then losing it. After a quick trip to a non casino ATM(saw the charges was 4% of the amount you take out), we went to the Bellagio buffet. The line took some time to move but overall, it was just a great buffet. One thing that I really enjoyed was the Sweet and Sour Chicken. The reason I bring it up is that I had some Sweet and Sour Pork at PF Changs earlier and the two dishes werent that much different. That%26#39;s saying a lot about a buffet that can match a dish from a quality restraunt like PF Changs. Myt only complaint was the shrimp. Like other buffets, they had it on ice of course. My complaint comes that there were quite a bit of just shrimp tails. Maybe it%26#39;s sometihng that I%26#39;m missing, but having just the actual tails in the pile of shrimp is pointless. Overall, it%26#39;s a real toss up between the Wynn and Bellagio for the best buffet. May have to give the edge to the Bellagio for the Sweet and Sour chicken.

Back to the Aladdin for some more poker for me and roulette for my buddy. Poker didnt work out for me again so I headed to the room. Not much later after that, my buddy came up to the room. He had lost $300 in roulette in 30 straight spins. So with everything starting so well early on, it just did not end on a good note. Nevertheless, this was still just day 1.

Trip Report Day 1 - Started so good, ended so bad(reprise)

kinda fun hearing your report AS you are there.... how many days are you in Vegas. Looking forward to hearing what else happens with you and your buddy.

Trip Report Day 1 - Started so good, ended so bad(reprise)

The plan was to report on a daily basis but that didnt work out well since my treo is a pain to type on and has a limit of characters to post. On top of that, using my phone to get online with my laptop didnt work out right.