Las Vegas Trip: Final Chapter

I have already been chastised by Alysia Chang for omitting details in my blog -- like it was really necessary to report that she said my brother is cute? But I did neglect, in my late-night fatigue while writing my last post, to mention an interesting situation that happened when I was on my way to cash out at MGM on the Thursday night of my trip. There was a long line at the poker cage, so I walked toward the cashier station that wasn't too far away. Before I got there, however, clumsy me almost dropped a rack of chip and had redbirds flying on the ground. I picked them up but was short several. An MGM employee saw me and helped look with his flashlight. We found them all -- except one.

As we continued to search, a woman at a slot machine asked me what I had lost. I told her that I had dropped a bunch of redbirds and had found all but one. She said "I found one" and dove into her purse to return it to me.

I cashed out, but kept a $1 chip. I walked over to the woman, thanked her and handed her the $1 chip, saying "Please keep this for good luck." Later on, I heard that a woman won a $1,000,000 jackpot on slots that night at MGM. Do you think?

Anyway, back to Hooters.

I made my Orbitz reservation less than five minutes before I entered Hooters. They told me it would take about 15 minutes for the reservation to show up in their system. That was accurate.

The room had Hooters colors. They try to make the casino and hotel look kind of rustic with a lot of unstained wood. But ... the room did have bottled water (I was going to say "free," but that pesky resort fee, you know) and Keurig coffee pods.

After checking in I headed across the street to MGM. So yes - I would definitely recommend Hooters as a decent place to stay if you wanted your base to be on the south side of the strip.

At MGM, I was able to complete my second promo card ... on the third try for my black flush. The session was another winner.

I decided to cash out and grab a comped meal at Hecho en Vegas Mexican Grill and Cantina in MGM.

Enchiladas Banderas

After dinner, I headed back to the MGM poker room. I was fortunate to sit next to a smoking hot Aussie babe and was at a table with obnoxious guys. One guy got really drunk and was fascinated with the blond massage gal ( I preferred the ginger one - ruffff!). She was giving a long massage to a guy at the table when she suddenly said to the drunk guy "You're making me very uncomfortable staring at my ass." The guy then asked the floor, Frank, to come over while he complained about the massage gal. He apparently stared at her more, bringing a visit from another member of the staff who had a long talk with the guy. Good times.

Michelle tweeted that she was going from Bally's to Aria, so I decided to cash out that late night session at about even and toss some cards with Michelle during my last session. The table I started out at was nitty, unfortunately, as I got AA, AK, QQ and AQ all in the first half hour but only showed about a $40 profit. Michelle's table had more action, so I transferred there. After getting no cards for several orbits (Michelle may remember things a little better here as I was getting fatigued), I limped in or called a small raise with A-3 hearts. The flop was Q-2-4 with two hearts. One of the short stacks went all in for around $75. A big stack called. What to do? Maybe it was the hour, the success on the trip, the feeling that I would hit my flush, the urge to gambol some and win big or go home -- I don't know, but I shoved all in for $300+. The big stack called and I gulped. The turn was a ... brick. The river was a ... brick. The big stack flipped over Q-2 for a flopped two pair. Yuck -- felted. I decided to call it a night.

Walking back to Hooters via the Monte Carlo, I passed a lady of the night who asked "Why are you alone, Mister?" I chuckled and moved on. Had she only known that I would have been willing to procure her services for ... $5 ... lol.

On Saturday morning I checked out of Hooters and had a late breakfast with Alysia before heading to the airport. Now normally this would be the end of anything halfway interesting, right? Well ... it was a short time before my SW flight was ready to board. And ... my flight was overbooked by three people. Southwest asked for volunteers to be voluntarily bumped and I shot to the gate station. It turned out that I was indeed bumped. How sweet was the deal? My original flight left a half hour later than scheduled. I got on a flight that got me to the airport only one hour later. My compensation for the one hour inconvenience: a travel voucher worth the full unrestricted fare for the trip. Score!

Once on the plane, I met the coolest flight attendant ever:



 Erin

Once I was back in Chicago, I picked up my car and headed for home. A stop at Portillo's ...

... and I was good to go for the rest of the ride home.

In summary: one heck of a trip -- a solid A grade. Who could ask for much more?