Wynn 10-18 through 23 on the fly

I'll post on the fly.

Travel was okay, our flight was at 6AM so we left the house at 4AM. Mrs Mosca forgot her phone, but we were only 10 minutes in so we turned around and retrieved it. Turned out to be no big deal, they still let us onto the plane. That 2 hoiurs stuff is bull.

Delayed in Chicago, United Airlines are such twits. The time we were scheduled to take off was actually 2 minutes BEFORE the connecting flight was supposed to land. We were feet down at McCarran at 11:40 local time. We arrived at Wynn, registered for the conference, checked into the hotel, and finally sat down to eat at Zoozacrackers around 2PM. I had a Zoozaburger, which was really a decent burger: pastrami, swiss, coleslaw, and russian dressing. All of which were really good, note to the pastrami that had a great smoky flavor, real not liquid smoke.

We were beat, so up to the room, which faces the Palazzo and upper strip. The room is okay, reasonably large, but kind of dated, which is strange to say for a hotel that is only 10 years old. You can't watch TV from the bed, and you need to insert the card for entry rather than hold it in front of the sensor for example. We were beat from travel, and napped until 5PM or so. Sigh. Old people: they just don't know what to do with a place like Vegas.

We went down to the cocktail reception (for the conference), ate a few canapes and nibbled on the other offerings. I was just too beat to play any tables, sort of asleep-on-my feet tired, so I played slots next to Mrs Mosca. And lo and behold, we had serious fun. I hit a Hot Shots bonus gane for $405 on blazing 777-3x-3x, she hit a Sons of Anarchy bonus game for about $500, and we played a long time on that, finally going up to the room around 9PM, which would have been midnight local time for us. Repeat comment about old people. I'm up $100, she's up $230.

Today is a new day! We're going to head down the strip and take our chances. Look out, Las Vegas, the Moscas are here to bring you to your knees!

Good luck. I miss Vegas. I need to schedule a trip down there soon.

Quote: Mosca

Travel was okay, our flight was at 6AM so we left the house at 4AM. Mrs Mosca forgot her phone, but we were only 10 minutes in so we turned around and retrieved it. Turned out to be no big deal, they still let us onto the plane. That 2 hoiurs stuff is bull.

Delayed in Chicago, United Airlines are such twits. The time we were scheduled to take off was actually 2 minuted BEFORE the connecting flight was supposed to land.

I don't think I have ever heard "2 hours in advance" for a domestic flight - even out of a busy airport, like LAS or PHL, the earliest I have heard is 90 minutes. Then again, two hours early in Philadelphia on a Monday morning has been known to cut it close. (Note that there is such a thing as "too early"; they will not check bags more than 4 hours in advance - at least, not on a domestic flight.)

As for getting a connecting flight with a layover of negative 2 minutes, how did you book your flight? Going directly through United, that shouldn't be possible.

Quote: Mosca

,,, You can't watch TV from the bed...

Does the mount for the TV swing or swivel around to face the bed? I seem to recall that set up at the Wynn.

Good variance to you and Mrs. Mosca! Should we be concerned that she is choosing "Sons of Anarchy" over "Wheel of Fortune"? Hehe

Holy heck, yes the TV does swivel! We were too tired to think of that.

The two hours, Mrs had just been talking to someone the day before, who works at the airport, and she insisted tht it should be two hours. Never argue with Mrs. But two hours, especially at Avoca PA, where the TSA line is about 10 people deep max.

We were booked through a booking agency that handled the entire convention. The layover in Chicago was 2 hours. Our flight was supposed to leave Chicago at 11:24, but the incoming plane that was handling that leg of the flight wasn't scheduled to arrive from Newark until 11:26. We left Chicago around 10:10.

Yeah, she watched Sons of Anarchy. I thought everyone was awfully pretty looking, considering they were supposed to be motorcycle outlaws.

The Wynn's breakfast buffet is really, really good. I can't remember a breakfast buffet that I thought was better; maybe Fairmont Orchid on The Big Island, because the fruit there was phenomenal. I'll knock Wynn's down a notch, though, because some sweet thing had a bit of a freezer taste to it. But the bacon is the best damn bacon I've ever tasted. EVER.

We left breakfast and headed downstrip on The Deuce, with the intent to hook up with Mr and Mrs Boz. We were early, so we stopped in The Bellagio, reupped our MLife cards, and played a bit. Mrs and I played a tandem slot and had a nice hit, a couple hundred, then found a "One Red Cent" machine and hit 7 "One Red Cent"s twice in a row, which is the middle progressive; $84 and $75. After playing more slots next to Mrs Mosca, I went to the UTH table, and did okay. $15 minimum, I raised 4x with Q-8 offsuit, and the flop came up 9-10-J. I raised 4x with A-9 of spades, and got the 5th spade on the turn/river. I started with a crap hand, and the board came up a full house, and I play the trips bet. I left The Bellagio with $700 of their money, $550 from tables and $150 from slots. Mrs Mosca broke close to even.

We headed across the street to the Sin City brewpub, which is really just a small watering hole. I'd heard that the stout was good, so I ordered it. It is Irish style, dry and not very potent (part of the style), but very good, with a nice creamy head and small bubbles that last a long time. Boz had sent me a PM, it is his 51st birthday and Mrs Boz surprised him with a trip to a brewery. Well, I would take a trip to a brewery over meeting us, and I think we're pretty fun folks, so Boz got a good deal out of it!

We hopped The Deuce back north and stopped in at The Venetian. I don't like The Venetian very much, sorry. We played some slots, and I lost about $300 back, which pissed me off. Mrs didn't play but a couple twenties, which she lost. We walked back through restaurant row and checked the menu for C.U.T., where we have reservations for Wednesday, then walked back to The Wynn. Mrs wanted to play a Wizard of Oz slot, so I sat down at 3 Card, bought in for $300 and playing $10 got absolutely smoked, until I said to someone "The cards don't have a memory" and on the next hand got dealt 7H-8H-9H. Considering that I'd already lost almost $200 of my buy-in, I figured that was as good a place as any to stop.

Mrs Mosca just came up to the room after losing $50 in the Wizard of Oz. I just finished counting out. Yesterday was +$100, today is +$630 and about a dollar in change from assorted slot tickets. Freakin' nickels, they kill me. Mrs is down almost $100, which is fine since she's all about the slots.

Really, that is not bad at all. It's going to pay for our tickets to The Judds, KA, and Wednesday's dinner at C.U.T. I'm going to take it easy on the gambling for now, see what happens.

Did you get any myvegas comps?

Quote: GWAE

Did you get any myvegas comps?

No, I didn't. I wasn't paying attention to them.

We had a good time at the conference, took home some cash in prize money. We hit the $5 Wheel of Fortune for $300 on the first spin, I played UTH for about an hour to the tune of $100 win, and then lost that in the $1x5 Wof, fishing for another hit. So, up $290 for the night, and $900 for the trip.

Sounds like a pretty great trip so far! Keep up the good action =p. How much did that 7H-8H-9H pay? I don't think I've ever played 3cp.

Quote: Romes

Sounds like a pretty great trip so far! Keep up the good action =p. How much did that 7H-8H-9H pay? I don't think I've ever played 3cp.

Betting $10, it paid $400 on the Pairs Plus, $60 on the ante, and $10 on the raise. You pay for the variance on that Pairs Plus though, about 7.5% or so.

Yep, kept up the streak so far today. $80 in the $1x5 Wheel of Fortune, lots of small spins and cashed out $100. Over to UTH, it took about 3 hours to turn $300 into $600. Every time I got to $585 or so, I'd go 4x on stuff like K-Q suited, and the board would go sideways and I'd lose to a pair of 6s. I was back down to $300, and ready to pack it in, and all of a sudden it became MY crap hands turning into gold. 2-5 offsuit became a straight, and so did 2-6 offsuit and 7-9 suited. I finally cashed in $600 and a couple reds, which I tossed to the dealer, who was a cool cat.

I was playing next to Dave and Eve, from London. Nice as all heck, good people, mid 70s. As often happens at UTH, there was some discussion about betting strategy, especially after watching me go 4x on K-6, Q-9, etc. Dave was betting green and very conservative, rarely raising until after the flop. And he kept getting killer hands, and cashed in close to $1600. During the table talk, we agreed that we were all here for fun, and neither of us would have any fun playing the other person's strategy, and anyhow if you want to make money in a casino you wouldn't sit down at a UTH table anyhow. After he left, Ken, the dealer finally opened up and said, "I know it doesn't make sense just looking at it, but when you have the advantage you have to bet as much as you can. You aren't winning some of those, but if you were getting his cards you'd be way ahead now." Someone at the table said something, and he said, "But this isn't like playing poker. All you have to beat is me, not everyone else. So logically you should bet four times when you have an ace." Everyone nodded their heads, and nobody did it. I took down a couple boards with A-9 offsuit and a pair on the board. No one said anything when I got paid $40 on my raise. While I was I doubling up my buy-in, four other players came in, played conservative, and busted. And Dave cashed out big. I think I'm on to something: you don't have to get great cards, just better cards than the dealer.

Later on we're heading down strip, to NYNY, Monte Carlo, and then KA at MGM. it should be a blast!

This visit is much better than the last one. We hit up New York New York for a few hundred each. I hit a Biergarden slot for an entire board of barmaids, which got me 80 free spins and about $450. Mrs Mosca filled a board of a Sons of Anarchy slot with Tara, on some bonus game that gave respins, for $475. We walked over to MGM and I turned $300 into $500 at 3 Card. Subtracting out the slot losses, I made $250 downstrip.

We ate at Gonzalez y Gonzalez, which has good reviews but it's really just a tortilla joint: everything looks and tastes about the same, only the shell changes. I asked for a capirinha, which they tried to make with tequila; I'd have rather they just said, "How about a miojito?" But everyone was nice.

Then we saw KA. THAT was some crazy shyte, I gotta say. Very impressive. I expected it to be more full, even taking into account mid week in October it was maybe 1/4 or 1/5 full.

Deuce to the home resort, too tired to play anything. Quick post. Another day tomorrow, including dinner at C.U.T. and The Judds.

Now I know what people mean when they talk about lousy dealers at The Wynn.

Breakfast was at The Terrace Pointe Cafe, and was decent enough. The decaf coffee here is actually pretty decent; it tastes almost like real coffee.

We went to play UTH. The first table I passed on, because as I neared it I heard the dealer say, "C'mon, are ya gonna talk or play?" As he slammed the table with his hand. The one I picked wasn't much better, he thought it was funny when players lost. I hit straights on my first two hands, had a couple other 4x plays work out, and when I cashed in he c alled out, "I have another quitter!" Instead of, "Color coming in!"

I was up $185, but over the next hour lost it back in the slots. So I went back to UTH, to a different dealer, and pretty quickly got slammed as every board went sideways. I lost pocket KK when the dealer paierd an A on the board. Stuff like that.

I was down about $220, and everyone else at the table left, so I moved to the next table over, where Cindi was about the most miserable person I've ever met. Not a smile. I cashed one green into reds, and she snickered and said, "I think it's fuinny when people color in only one chip." So I said, "Just deal me a full house and it won't matter." She didn't, she dealt me 6-6 and herself 7-7, and I bought in another $300.

I managed to play ahead a little bit, regardless of her attitude, and finally I held a 5 and the board had the other three of them! Then the next hand I got a full house, the hand after that my 4x bet held up, and I cashed in $1125 on a total of $600 buyin. I didn't tip Cindi, and I don't care. When people are aggressively ignorant, they deserve what they get.

We have Judds tickets, so we're changing into our going-out clothes and heading over to The Venetian for dinner and a show. It should be pretty good!

Did those dealers go to the same dealer school as the guy in Vegas Vacation?

Good for you Mosca! It is encouraging to hear about your wins despite the negative attitude. Have you walked back to the Encore's casino? I wonder if it is better back there?

How much would you have to tip the doorman at the Venetian's showroom to get a killer seat upgrade?

Great stuff so far, Mosca! Please provide details on CUT meals. And I'd like to hear about the show.

Getting a kick out of the UTH stories. Keep going! Win big!

Good stuff so far!

The Venetian was freakin' packed. I mean, just wall to wall. We were early, so Mrs and I walked around and played some slots. I won about $250 on a Sons of Anarchy again, but lost it back plus a little more playing a game I hate, Crazy Four Card. First hand I thought I was hot stuff with an A high flush, dealer flipped J-J-J and it was all downhill from there, I didn't win another hand until I was out of money. Down $300. Down $50 for The Venetian.

Babs, CUT was fantastic, one of the best meals I've ever had anywhere. We had an appetizer of American Wagyu filet mignon carpaccio with shaved white truffles, salad of pink and Fiji apples. I had an American Wagyu sirloin, Mrs had an American Wagyu ribeye. American Wagyu is a cross breed of Japanese Wagyu and Angus. I ate with my eyes closed so I could concentrate my senses. Sides were mac n' cheese and sauteed spinach. The spinach was good, not oily at all. The mac 'n cheese had a gruyere or emmental thing going on, with a hint of nutmeg. The waitress raved about it, but mine is better. Comparable to 'ULU at Four Seasons Hualalai, or Brown's Beach House at Fairmont Orchid. I'm sure there are equal or better steaks in the USA, but I haven't had them.

The Judds were seriously fantastic. Naomi has obviously not been well, and Wynona carried the show. But if you are looking for a singer to carry a show, that's a good place to start. They opened the show with a duet of "Mama He's Crazy" with just Wynona on guitar, no band; then introduced the band, played for almost two hours playing most of the hits and a handful of songs from a new album, ended the show with a full band version of "Mama He's Crazy", and encored with "Grampa (Tell Me About the Good Old Days)", with the band standing in a half circle playing all acoustic. There was a lot of back and forth with the audience, a lot of stage banter, and often Wynona would stop singin and the audience sang the words. That was actually pretty impressive considering that most of them appeared to be late 20s to early 30s. It was a great show, I am so happy to have been there.

We went back to The Wynn. I have what I call Disney legs, from all the walking that I'm not used to, so it took a while, we got there around quarter to 11. I went to UTH again, and got royally smoked. But it was a good table. As bad as the last dealer was, this one was that much over and above. He truly enjoyed dealing UTH. A young woman sat down who had never played, and he gave her excellent advice, along with explanations of why, and I couldn't fault him at all. Myself, I just got bad cards, and all my flops went sideways.

So I lost my $300 buy-in (betting $10, the whole trip my units were $10 except at Bellagio where the minimum was $15), and broke my rule by buying in for another $300 because this is our last day, we fly out tomorrow @ 2PM. This time I did okay, and the game worked the way it was supposed to work. Betting 4x according to proper strategy I took down quite a few boards by holding the high kicker, and finally hit a full house at midnight (half an hour ago), counted up, and I had $675... my Wynn buy-in plus the $50 I lost at The Venetian, plus another $25. So, unless I have a losing session tomorrow, when I don't plan on playing, I had 100% winning days, the exact opposite of the last time we came to Las Vegas, when I had 100% losing days, and sessions within those days. And it also beat our trip to Atlantis, where I played UTH to exactly even for the first 5 days and then lost $900 in about an hour on the last day.

We're flying out tomorrow, I'll file the last dispatch probably Friday.

ETA: I just did a count-out. Total win for the trip, $2150. Not bad for four days playing slots and betting dimes on carnival games.

I do want to add a note about game protection. Up and down the strip, the way the carnival games are dealt has changed. And the biggest change is that the dealer doesn't get cards until after all the players have made their decisions.

At UTH at The Wynn, the game is now hand dealt instead of machine dealt. The dealer slides the second card under the first. Then, after the flop and turn/river, and all bets are made, the dealer burns a card and deals the house hand. Other games follow the same pattern, with the mechanics adapted to the game play. For example, at 3CP at MGM properties, the players get their cards and make their decisions. Folded hands get pulled toward the center with the bet stacked on top of the cards, and then the dealer deals the house hand, takes the chips, and mucks the folded hand, or in the case of a 6 Card bettor, takes the chips and places the players cards under the 6 Card bet.

Other games and casinos have similar protections, the only place I didn't see it was at Crazy 4 at The Venetian.

I mentioned it to a few dealers, and they all said the same thing: when the WSOP came through the last time, they got clobbered as players took advantage of weak dealers. I haven't seen any of these changes in Pennsylvania or AC, but they are probably coming, as they didn't slow down the games much (if at all). If you want to buy a book and learn some AP, strike now while the information is still useful.

One other note, everywhere I went the house was very lax about players showing cards to other players. I found this surprising, especially in light of the other changes. At one point, with the last dealer who was helping the new player, he said, You have an Ace. You should raise." And then he said to me, "Show her what you raised on." And then the other guy at the table said, "I have an Ace too." Well hell, knowing that three of the Aces are in players' hands has to be worth something if you're sitting there with Q-small.

Stopped by the service desk on the way out, they comped all our food and beverage for the trip plus gave us breakfast today. Our room was already covered, so this makes it a triple Wynn... er, win!

Congratulations Mosca! Thanks for the detailed report, and observations of the updated table procedures. Hopefully you can get out of the airport without putting it all back in their 25% HE Sons of Anarchy machine.

Have a pleasant trip home.

Congrats on the wins! And interesting to hear about the dealing changes.

Thanks man!

I told the cab driver no freeway, and she still asked me if I was sure we wanted to go through town. Whatever, she didn't wreck the cab and there was enough room, and it was clean. At baggage check I made the tactical decision to check my carry on bag, which turned out to be prescient, for some reason United all of a sudden was getting nasty about size restrictions. Me, I just didn't feel like schlepping it through TSA and lugging it all over the airports. It was worth the $35.

United flight delayed, again. At the time we were supposed to board, the incoming passengers hadn't debarked yet. Our layover in Chi was 1:15, and Chi can get tight with taxi and gate delays. I checked with the gate agent, though, and she said that our plane would only be delayed about 5 minutes.

It turned out to be 10 minutes, but the pilot made up all that and more in the air and we were wheels on the ground 5 minutes early... and then 10 minutes of taxiing... and then there was a plane sat our gate that wasn't pulling out for at least another 10 minutes... Which turned into 15.... And now I was glad that I didn't have to wait for that bag to come up at the front.

Luckily we arrived at the shuttle from Terminal 2 to Terminal 3 right as it was boarding (15 minute average wait) and arrived at our gate just as it was boarding. The flight home in an Embraer 145 was pretty bumpy, and as we were descending into AVP the pilot suddenly went full forward with the thrusters and we went up a few thousand feet, STAT. THAT wasn't any fun, especially since we were in the middle of a cloud bank with no visibility side to side, just all white/gray. It is definitely not standard procedure for an approach to AVP. But no one said anything about it, and we landed (hard). Got the bags about midnight. We hadn't eaten since morning in Vegas, but there was a late Wendy's... CLOSED. Ah, but the late McDonald's... CLOSED. Dunkin' Donuts... CLOSED. Finally: Taco Bell. Yum, tacos at 1AM right before bed. The guy at the drive through window said that the other three places had all changed their late hours, and his was the only store open, until 2AM.

Home. Tacos no hot sauce. Bed. That was it, vacation over. Hell, I'd do that one again. Winning beats losing every time.

Mosca,

Thanks for the excellent trip report! "Live," Trip Reports are always extremely interesting, so I might try to do one next time I am in Vegas. The only problem might be that, by the time I get done for the day, it might be more of, "Live drunken rambling and fall asleep in the middle of typing a sentence, wake up, and hit, 'post,'" as opposed to an actual, "Live Trip Report."

Although, the former may be just as entertaining, if not more.

Awesome trip report Mosca! I definitely enjoyed reading about the snotty dealers (and I'm glad you didn't tip them) as well as the dealing procedure changes. Were more people upset because the dealer didn't have cards when they were playing? To me I feel like some players would want to know "no funny business" is happening because the dealers cards are on the table with theirs. Were the procedure changes at basically every casino you went to?

CONGRATS on the win, and 100% winning days to boot! That's impressive and something I don't think I've ever managed to do =P. Again, great report!

Quote: Romes

Awesome trip report Mosca! I definitely enjoyed reading about the snotty dealers (and I'm glad you didn't tip them) as well as the dealing procedure changes. Were more people upset because the dealer didn't have cards when they were playing? To me I feel like some players would want to know "no funny business" is happening because the dealers cards are on the table with theirs. Were the procedure changes at basically every casino you went to?

CONGRATS on the win, and 100% winning days to boot! That's impressive and something I don't think I've ever managed to do =P. Again, great report!

Thanks man!

I played at Wynn, Bellagio, MGM, New York New York, and Venetian, and the new procedures were in place everywhere but one. The only place I didn't see it was Crazy 4 at The Venetian, but that was also the only game I played there. No one seemed upset. And the dealers were happy to talk about their experience with WSOP players, many didn't seem to know that they were vulnerable before. And many of them had their eyes opened about how to play UTH specifically; not so much AP, but on why the game rakes in so much cash. No one considered that a $10 ante game would require such a large bankroll. At Bellagio, and Wynn during peak hours, UTH is $15 minimum. I didn't play it anywhere else.

Also, I had more good dealers than bad dealers; it's just that the bad ones were really bad, like Caesar's AC bad. A couple dealers that I played with asked if I reported Cindy; one even went so far as to say she was freeriding on her coworkers. He called it stealing. I did get the survey from The Wynn yesterday, and I did name names.

The 100% winning, that is the first time that's happened to me in almost 10 years, since I had a 3 day run in 2006. The last time we were in Vegas it was 100% the other way, so this balances that out. The only table I lost at was Crazy 4 at Venetian, where I dropped $300 and walked away.

Quote: Mosca

Stopped by the service desk on the way out, they comped all our food and beverage for the trip plus gave us breakfast today. Our room was already covered, so this makes it a triple Wynn... er, win!

Nice. I've never had any food or beverage comped at the Wynn beyond the free buffet they throw in with my room offers. I guess I don't gamble enough or take enough trips to make it Wynn's while.

--helpmespock

Quote: helpmespock

Nice. I've never had any food or beverage comped at the Wynn beyond the free buffet they throw in with my room offers. I guess I don't gamble enough or take enough trips to make it Wynn's while.

--helpmespock

Nice to see you again, spock! :D

Quote: beachbumbabs

Nice to see you again, spock! :D

Hello BBB,

I've never posted that much, but I do drop by every once in a while to see how things are going. 8-)

I got my latest offer from the Wynn, and I'll try to post about that tomorrow.

--helpmespock

Do you have any photots from your trip? I`m wondering that you have such an interesting trip and didn`t give any photos)))

Quote: Entirele

Do you have any photots from your trip? I`m wondering that you have such an interesting trip and didn`t give any photos)))

I took a bunch of shots, but they are mostly phone shots, which are a PITA to move among devices, or upload to Photobucket. If enough people ask, I'll upload a few.

One I didn't take, but should have: It happened for the SECOND time. Playing the $1 Wheel of Fortune progressive, in NYNY, I got WoF3x... WoF4x... SPIN. Son of a bitch, I thought I was going to win $1.64M. But I didn't. I did get 12 credits though.

View from the room.

A couple shots from around The Wynn.

Some slot hits.

From The Strip at night.

You know, phone shots. I wasn't going to carry a camera around. As an amateur photographer, I always decide: Are you there for the action, or are you there for the photographs? In Vegas, I'm usually there for the action.

Thanks for the photos Mosca, and congratulations on the wins! The weather looked pretty gloomy. Whenever I hear about rain in Las Vegas, I always flashback to pictures of cars floating in the Caesars Palace garage.

Is the M&M's store a "Hershey" store now? or is it something different?

Quote: Ayecarumba

Thanks for the photos Mosca, and congratulations on the wins! The weather looked pretty gloomy. Whenever I hear about rain in Las Vegas, I always flashback to pictures of cars floating in the Caesars Palace garage.

Is the M&M's store a "Hershey" store now? or is it something different?

The first day was gloomy, yes, but the rest of the trip was great weather. There were flood warnings on that Sunday (Oct 18th).

I don't know that the M&Ms store was anything other than this or that. This was down at NYNY. We didn't go inside, we'd just eaten at Gonzales y Gonzales. Vegas to me is like Disney World in that you'll never see everything there is to see, but it will always be there to go back to! We still need to get downtown, and to all the non-casino stuff, the museums etc. And of course the Grand Canyon.