konceptum's Blog

Trip to Vegas, Tuesday, June 28, 2011, Day 2

There are three things that I want to mention that I had wanted to state in my previous blog post about this current trip of mine, all of them relating to the hotel. The first is that the television in the hotel room is uneventful. It is a standard sized tube type television. I know that some people are insistent that the television be a really nice flat screen in their rooms. I've never cared about this, as I have ever watched tv in a room in Las Vegas.

The second thing is that there are plenty of electrical outlets in the room. Not only that, but the outlets are easily accessible and do not require the moving of furniture to use. In today's modern age, it's not uncommon for people to travel with electronics. I, alone, could claim to require 4 different outlets. Laptop computer, cellular phone, digital camera, and Nintendo DS. People traveling together could theoretically double this number. That might not always be realistic, but there has been times in the past where it has been a struggle to simply find two outlets in order for me and a significant other to simultaneously charge our cell phones. So, kudos to whoever put plenty of easily accessible outlets in these rooms.

The third thing, which I know will out me as being a moron, had to do with the elevator. I am not a frequent traveler, or at least, not as much as I would like to be. The fact remains that I have, in the past, been unable to open my hotel room door. Instead of putting in the key card and then removing it, I leave the key card in the slot and wait for the green light to come on, which of course, it doesn't do until the key card is removed. I'm usually able to figure this out. The elevator in the El Cortez requires the usage of a room key card, and it operates in the same way as the room doors. However, I was perplexed by this when I went to my room the first time. I stuck my key card into the elevator slot, and pushed my floor number, and nothing happened.

Granted, I should have been able to figure this out. To my credit, I would like to state that the instructions under the key card slot in the elevator reads "Insert Room Key / Push Floor Number". Technically, the instruction should state "Insert and Remove Room Key / Push Floor number".

As I mentioned yesterday, I had 3 main goals that I wished to accomplish today. Goal #1 was to go hiking. I know this may not seem like a big deal to most people, but for an overweight middle-aged sedentary guy looking to get into shape and who has recently met an attractive woman who expressed a fondness for hiking, it's a big deal. Now, know that I'm not talking about real hiking. To put it into perspective, I don't have any gear. I'm talking about walking along a nice trail, taking my time, enjoying the scenery, and taking a few pictures.

I drove up to the Mount Charleston area, and selected the Fletcher Canyon Trail. I started at 9:15a. The trail was rated as "moderate", 1.8 miles one way, and an hour round trip. I rated the trail as "holy crap my feet are killing me". I had brought along a pair of walking shoes that are a little more supportive than the shoes I normally wear. As I was putting them on, I started to feel a twinge in my thighs. Great. I haven't even left the truck yet, and I'm already starting to hurt.

About 5 minutes into the walk, I was already out of breath. Some of this could be blamed upon the steepness of the slope and the elevation. But the majority of this is just being out of shape. Fortunately, I know my body fairly well, and I knew that the key thing is to get to the Kobe point. I'm sure that real hikers, runners, professional athletes, and maybe even scientists might have a different name for this, but the Kobe point is that point where my body and mind stops fighting what I'm doing to it, and goes along with whatever I've planned out. This is usually anywhere from 20-30 minutes into the activity. (For those that are curious, my calling it the Kobe point is based upon the one liner joke, "It's just like having sex with Kobe Bryant. You can kick and scream all you want... but it's still gonna happen.")

The trail IS fairly moderate, with a decent slope to it, but not at all difficult to traverse. I did see some of the infamous Mount Charleston Chipmunks, but none of them would pose for pictures nor would they sing me any Christmas songs. (And yes, I know they are actually squirrels.) The nice point was when I finally came to the stream that I could hear trickling. The water was so pure and so cold. It's amazing to think that this is what clean water is supposed to look like. Naturally, I know that this water may have not been perfectly clean, but it's a lot different sight than what you see in the city.

Shortly after crossing the stream, I started to hear a rhythmic pounding noise, not unlike that given off by those people with heavy bass systems in their cars as they are approaching. It struck me as odd. Generally, people that go hiking are not the type to bring a boom box with them to listen to music. But then, times are changing, so I figured maybe it wasn't all that unusual. I stopped a few times to try to figure out what song they were listening to. On the third stop, I realized that the rhythmic pounding noise was the beating of my own heart.

It wasn't actually the beating of my heart that I was "hearing" but rather the rushing of blood through my circulatory system, specifically the veins near to my auditory canal. I utilized a heart beat measuring app on my cell phone and was able to determine that my heart was at 157bpm. I'm not even sure if that's bad or not, but I knew that hearing the pounding was not good. It was time for a small break.

It didn't take long before I was able to continue, and eventually made it to the end of the trail. I took lots of pictures, but none of them were all that great, although I did like the one of a butterfly that I am including in this blog post. In my explorations at the end of the trail, I managed to slip and dunk my entire left foot into the water. This of course, would seal my doom.

On the way back to the trailhead, I stepped on a rock, slipped, and went down. Fortunately, my more than ample backside was kind enough to take the brunt of the fall. Fortunately, the soreness there only lasted a little while, but it did mean that I was more wet. And, as usual, one fall precipitates others, and I managed to nearly turn my ankle twice. Fortunately, it never got fully turned, and it was the same ankle both times, so while it was a bit sore, nothing ever got really painful.

By the time I made it back to my truck, it was 11:55a. so, a decent two and a half hours of exercise. And I greatly enjoyed it as well. At this point, I was a bit hungry, which isn't too surprising considering that I hadn't eaten anything yet today, and had just finished burning a whole bunch of calories. However, on the drive back to town, my body informed me that what it really wanted was a nap and a shower. So, I headed back to the Elco to do just that.

After awakening from my nap, I decided it was time to tackle Goal #2. Goal 2 was actually designed as a reward for Goal 1, and since I figured I had accomplished Goal 1 rather fabulously, I headed over to New York New York to eat at Gonzalez y Gonzalez. I really like the food there. It's not 100% authentic, but it is tasty. I try to make it there during every trip to Las Vegas that I make. I've tried everything on the menu, and there is only one thing I didn't like, although I can never remember what that item is. I mainly order the pork carnitas, which I did today, and they were delicious.

After eating, I walked through the casino a bit. I don't normally play on the strip simply because the table minimums are higher than I would like. They did have an electronic craps game with dice. It was not called "Organic Craps" as was mentioned in a forum post on this website, but was fairly well exactly similar to it. I watched for a little while as a few people played, but was unimpressed. I then walked over to a "real" table, where the table minimum was $10. However, there were a few people there who were only betting $5. It's obvious that they had been grandfathered in when the table minimum was increase. I find this to be rather confusing, but it's just a personal problem of mine. I played craps for a little while, but as the minimum was high, I didn't last very long. I also started thinking about some things in relation to craps that I will probably eventually end up asking in the forums once I've fully formulated my though process.

It did occur to me that the automated Craps would be a good addition to a casino that prefered to have their real craps be a higher limit. The lower limit at the automated craps (the limit was $1) allows players who feel the $10 is too high to still play. Further, since there are more explanations on the automated craps, those players who are intimidated by the real craps table could also get in on things. (One of the things I found most humorous watching the automated craps, was the display screen. After a point had been made, say a 5, the screen would indicate that a 5 wins, a 7 loses, and a "2 or 3 or 4 or 6 or 8 or 9 or 10 or 11 or 12 rolls again". Granted, we all know that's not the entirety of the rules, but I can see this as being easier for new players.)

So, after losing at craps, I decided it was time to tackle Goal #3. Goal #3 was to play EZ Paigow Poker. Unfortunately, the only thing I could distinctly remember was that in some forum post it was mentioned that the game was available at the Cannery, so that's where I headed. It actually took me a while to get to the Cannery. Despite the numerous times I've driven in Las Vegas, I still manage to get turned around and confused. For some reason, I can't for the life of me get my bearings. I end up going the wrong direction and having to get off the freeway at the next exit and get back on going the right direction.

I eventually made it to the Cannery. My complaint at this point is that I was unable to find the EZ PaiGow Poker tables. This is because they are not called EZ PaiGow Poker. They are called No Commission PaiGow Poker. And even then, it was difficult to find, as there were no big signs pointing out the tables. My next complaint was that I did not have a Cannery player's card, although I did apparently have an Eastide Cannery player's card. I do find it annoying that a company which operates numerous casinos requires players to have diffent cards for each one of those casinos instead of combining them together into one card. I declined signing up for a Cannery player's card.

As for the game itself, there's really nothing I can say that hasn't already been said about the game. In reality, I can't say that I had any kind of different experience in playing No Commission PaiGow Poker as opposed to playing Commission Paigow Poker. Yes, the game is somewhat more "streamlined", if you will, by the simple fact that a commission doesn't have to be worried about. But it's not as though this significantly sped up the game in any way. I felt that the game took just as long as a regular PaiGow Poker game. If anything, it sometimes took a bit of explaining to a new player why they didn't have to pay a commission.

While the game didn't really feel or behave differently than the standard PaiGow game, I am simply amazed at the general simplicity of taking the existing game, eliminating the commission, and simply pushing if the dealer has queen high paigow. In the time that I played, the dealer only got a queen high paigow once. I will admit that I originally thought the push occured on a queen high paigow or lower. But, again, it seemed to me that the number of times the queen high paigow push would occur is fairly small. Thus, making for an easy game, with no commission to worry about, that plays at the same speed, with the same "complexity" as the regular game. In a word, I found it brilliant. So, congratulations to Dan for coming up with this.

During my Commission Free Paigow play, I managed to win $75. I then went over the craps table, where I managed to lose $75. Ah well, easy come, easy go.

There was a movie theater right outside the Cannery doors, and I went over to see what was playing, and decided to watch Green Lantern. There's not much to say about the movie itself. If you're expecting an action adventure superhero movie, then that's what you will see. If you're expecting something else... then why are you watching Green Lantern? The movie was in 3d, and this is the first time I've seen a movie in 3d. While I will admit that the 3d was kind of neat, I didn't really feel like it added anything to my movie watching experience, and certainly not enough to justify the extra cost of the movie. If anything, the 3d glasses not only got annoying within about 30 minutes or so, but the 3d screen made me more nauseous than the regular screen does. (For some reason, the large screen format doesn't sit well with my insides.)

After the movie, I came back to the Elco, where I stopped at the craps table, and managed to win $80. One thing I found surprising this time around was how angry people would get at the dealers. As I mentioned, the dealers at the Elco tend to be newer, or at least inexperienced. But it seems like some of the players had no patience with the dealers and their mistakes. I understand that you want to paid out the correct amount, and there were times that I pointed out mistakes that a dealer made in paying me, but I did so in a polite manner. It seemed these other people would only yell at the dealer. And when it became clear that the dealer still didn't understand, they yelled louder. It just didn't make much sense to me.

Such ends my second day in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, around about the time I was eating my pork carnitas, I started to get to a point where I was no longer having any fun. This has nothing to do with Las Vegas itself, but rather to do with personal problems that may or may not be cropping up at home. Thus, I have no idea what, if anything, I will be doing tomorrow, or even if I will be staying.

Trip to Vegas, Monday, June 27, 2011, Day 1

Unfortunately, I had a whole bunch of arrangements to make before I could leave Phoenix. For one, I have a new dog that I acquired earlier this year. While I was always able to drop food and water into some bowls and take off when all I had was cats, a dog required a bit more babysitting. I had made arrangements to leave him with a friend, but then it because an issue where I would not be able to drop him off until early in the afternoon. Another issue that came up had to do with my mom and her boyfriend. The boyfriend was scheduled to have a heart procedure at the hospital, and my mom needed a place to stay for the night. This resulted in a mini cleaning frenzy in order to get the house somewhat presentable for her stay.

Anyway, I was finally able to leave Phoenix at 3pm. In retrospect, I'm a bit surprised that my truck even made the trip. It has been on its last legs for a while now, and the heat seems to really do it in. It had quite a bit of a struggle during the 120 heat of late afternoon Phoenix, but once I got going, it seemed to do a bit better. However, due to the problems with the truck, I did take my time, not pushing it too hard, and not worrying about how long the trip took.

I decided to swing through Laughlin on the way, and stop at the Riverside to play some craps. Laughlin is undergoing some sort of construction on its main, and basically only, road, which makes for some horrible traffic, even during a non-peak time. I was glad I wasn't going any farther than the first stop, and even more glad that I didn't have to put up with the horrible road for any lengthy amount of time. I'm sure they will get the construction done as quickly as possible, but it did make for some minor annoyance.

$200 went very quickly at the craps table. I played beyond my means, with higher odds than I normally would. I'm normally a fairly cheap player, and tend to stick to smaller bets. For some reason, perhaps excited about the start of my trip, I played too high.

The Laughlin road construction is poorly signed, and I ended up in a situation where I could not turn where I wanted, and had to go out of my way to make a u-turn in order to get on the proper way to Las Vegas.

I checked in at my destination, the El Cortez. It was around 8pm. There was a big of a wait at the front desk, as there was only one clerk working at that time. I found this to be a bit odd, but I've never stayed at the El Cortez before, so I'm not sure if this is normal or not. When I finally made it to the desk, the clerk was helpful and friendly and very quick about my reservation. At the time she was printing the document, I realized that I had never indicated my desire for a non-smoking room. Not at the time I called and made the reservation and not up to that point in my conversation with the front desk. So, I asked. She explained that the room I was staying in would be non-smoking. I was glad, and made a comment about how I was worried since it had never come up. She told me that the newly renovated rooms were all non-smoking. I think this is a good idea.

Up to my room on the 14th (13th) floor, one floor below the top. The view is nothing to speak of, but the room is huge. A lot bigger than I would have expected for a free offer, and much bigger than I need for myself. I ended up with two queen beds, and a little sitting area that includes a char, a love seat, and a small coffee table, upon which using my computer is fairly convenient. There is also a large dresser and a desk with a chair. Nothing in all of this is cramped. The room is truly a lot bigger than I would have ever expected.

Upon entering the room, the first thing I noticed was that the room was really cold. I've already noticed that Las Vegas is not as hot as Phoenix, but the chill of the room really took me by surprise, especially considering that the window had the curtains open and had obviously been that way all day long. Unfortunately, the room does not have climate controlled air conditioning, but rather the very simple on/off, high/low, type of switches. I always find it somewhat odd that when renovating rooms, hotels do not put in climate controls. While the units themselves may be a bit more expensive, it seems it would save money by allowing the customer to set the temperature to what they prefer, and thus the a/c would only operate as needed. With the current set-up, I get to choose between leaving it on all the time, or being annoyed by constantly having to turn it on and off as needed. Obviously, I'm going to stop going with the "being annoyed" route, and leave it on all the time.

After dropping off my stuff, I headed back downstairs. I had no intentions of doing a lot of gambling, or walking around very much, but wanted to do a few things. The first was to stop by the Club Cortez desk, as part of my package deal included $75 in slot play. I don't like slots. I don't choose to play them, other than on a lark, and then usually for $5 or $10. But if I get slot play, I might as well use it, convert it into whatever cash I can as quickly as possible, and then get the heck out. So, I took the $75 in slot play and played some video poker. Now, before anybody asks or complains, I don't particularly care for video poker, either, but I do like it a bet more than slots, and will choose to play it over slots when available. Further, I don't know anything about choose the right game or playing the right strategy, or anything like that, so don't ask what I played, because I don't know, and don't ask if I used perfect strategy, because I don't know. I just picked a game, put in my free play, and started playing 1 credit (25 cents) at a time. I turned my $75 in free slot play into $55 in cash in a reasonable amount of time. (It was actually $56.50, but I gave a $1.50 tip to the cashier.)

I then went over to the craps table, which was moderately full. The one thing I do like about the Elco, is that the craps table is a $3 minimum, with 10x odds. While I don't normally play that high, I do usually play double odds at most craps tables with a $5 minimum bet. Here, at least, I can bet $3 on the pass line, with $10 in odds, which is my normal way of doing things. One of the frustrating things about craps at the Elco is that they tend to have virgin dealers. There's usually at least one in every shift, although I have played there where there has been more than one at the same table. The more experienced dealers and the pit bosses will usually get frustrated with these new dealers. The pit bosses are not shy about snapping at the dealers for making mistakes. In general, I have mixed feelings about this. Since I know what the payout amounts are that I will be given, I can make sure that there aren't any mistakes being made. With the new dealers, the other dealers and pit bosses can't always be checking them, although most of the time they are. I don't know how many payout mistakes are actually made, but I know the possibility is there. It's somewhat frustrating and also slows down the game to have a dealer that isn't quite sure on payouts, doesn't have the rhythm of payouts down, and isn't quite used to paying attention to everything going on. On the other hand, I understand that people are new and have to learn somewhere. It's surprising to me how much the pit bosses bark at the new dealers, but I suppose there isn't much else that can be done about this. It's not really the kind of environment where you can subtly pull the person aside and explain any mistakes they made. It's probably much more effective to let them know they screwed up right away. Not being a casino dealer nor a pit boss, I can't really know what is best.

Surprisingly, there were only two payout errors made to me. The first was the matter of $1. This was not even by the new dealer, but rather a not-so-new dealer. (It was somewhat obvious that while he knew the game, he wasn't quite as fast as experienced dealers.). I had a $3 come + $10 odds bet on the 4, that won, and he paid $22, instead of the $23. It was easily pointed out to him and he quickly fixed it. No problems.

The second error was in my favor, and was technically made by the dealer, the croupier, and the pit boss, none of whom were new dealers. I had made a $6 hard-10 bet, which won. In my head, I quickly calculated my win amount to be $48. I told the croupier, pay me $40, and keep $8 for the boys. What I had not done was take into account keeping my bet on the table, which would cost me $6. (The correct payoff to be me $42, of which I should have said, pay me $35, and keep $7 for the boys.) However, perhaps confused by the fact that someone was actually tipping the crew, nobody caught this mistake of mine. I was paid $40. $8 went to the tip jar. And my $6 hard-10 stayed in place. That bet did then later lose, but it was an interesting sequence of events. And for those of you that think I should have spoke up, I actually didn't realize that this mistake occurred until my second session of playing craps.

Anyway, I had started with $100, and with a choppy table, I didn't last too long, although I was there for longer than I had figured I would be. At this point, it was about 10:30p, and I went over to the cafe. Part of my booking deal included $75 in food credit. There's basically no way I would eat $75 in food during my stay, mainly because I wouldn't be eating all my meals at the Elco. I also don't eat anything 'fancy'. I'm not quite sure if the Elco has anything fancy, although I'm sure they have some kind of steak house, but it's still not something I do on my own. I decided instead that I would eat whatever meals I would eat, and just leave large tips. I mean, why not. Of course, I don't actually know if the tips will be included in this meal allowance I've been given, but I guess I'll find out the hard way when I check out. Each time I eat, I'm to tell them to charge the food to my room, so it's not until check out that I will see what has happened. This is a new concept to me, having never been given a food credit for any stays I've booked in the past.

After eating, I went back to the craps table and lost another $100. It was during this session that I made another $6 hard-10 bet, and when it hit, told them to pay me $40 and keep $8 for the boys. The croupier was a bit confused, but the pit boss, who was different than the first session, said "he knows what he's doing". They paid me the $40, kept $8 for themselves, and took my bet down. That was when I realized the mistake that had been made in the first session. Regardless, another $100 lost.

Even though I had plans for the next day that would require me to get up somewhat early, I still felt it was early in the evening, not yet having reached midnight. Las Vegas has always been one of those places where you can't seem to get to bed before midnight. And if you do, it's like you failed. I sat down at Paigow Poker. This was the dumbest thing I could have done. I know that PGP is basically a way to kill time, and that's what I normally use it for, between sessions of craps to slow down and let the dice decide to change their minds back into my favor. But I had already reached my loss limit for the day, and had no intentions of playing anymore craps, or anymore of anything for that matter. It was just this stupid mindset that I couldn't go to the room before midnight. Even on a Monday night. Even with things to do the next day. As such, I got bored very quickly, put all my money on one hand, and lost it. Another $65 gone.

So, I ended up back in the room before midnight anyway. I did some online research for what I needed the next day, and got into bed. I still felt like the room was really cold. But I feared turning off the a/c altogether. I'm used to Phoenix where turning off the a/c means you will be up in 15 minutes turning it back on anyway. So I curled up in the blankets as well as possible and went to sleep.

I had forgotten to close the curtains before going to sleep, and the incoming light woke me around 5:30a. Instead of trying to get back to sleep, I decided to go ahead and start my day. I have three items I want to accomplish today, and getting started early should fairly well assure that I get them all done. Details to follow.