03 Rolling the Dice: A Wild Ride Through My First Vegas Adventure

My first trip to Vegas was in the spring of 2010.  I went with four friends from college during spring break. We had all just watched the Hangover and I guess you could say we wanted to put ourselves into the movie. I booked the trip through Expedia, and it was around $400 per person for flights and hotel rooms.  I knew nothing about Vegas other than what I had seen on TV or in movies, but I packed a bag gathered my bank roll (my life savings) and boarded a plane.

Let’s talk about that bank roll I amassed.  I went to school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and we were lucky enough to have a casino downtown. Potawatomi Bingo and Casino for those that are curious. I would take what little money I had there and try to run up my bank roll in poker. I would play for hours in the lowest limits possible, usually $2-$4 hold’em.  There were times that I would go as soon as I got up on Friday and not leave until Saturday afternoon.  After it was all said and done, I don’t think I made any traction. My bank roll was about exactly where it started somewhere around $300-$400.

Day 1

After weeks of grinding in the poker low limit poker streets, the day was finally here.  The four of us headed to the airport.   We had a couple hour layover in Minneapolis where we enjoyed some McDonalds.  I’m including this as it will become a theme of the trip.  With our stomachs full of fries and Mcdoubles, we boarded the plane, took our seats and were wheels up on the way to Las Vegas.

Three short hours later we landed in Vegas. I think it was about 7ish PM.  We hustled off the plane, no need to pick up any checked bags because none of us could afford it and made our way to the taxi stand.   We piled into a taxi and were on our way to the strip.  On the way there the taxi driver would go on to tell us his reviews of all the strip clubs in town. He handed us all his card and told us to call him if we wanted to go to a strip club.  It was only a short drive from the airport as we were staying at the Luxor.

We got our bags made out way through the doors and I came to a complete stop.  I was in awe of what I was seeing. Staring up at the point of the pyramid I couldn’t believe it. This had to be a modern marvel of construction.  I then realized that all my friends were gone and made their way to the check in line.  Check in went smoothly and we even got upgraded to the tower rooms.  We made our way to the rooms, dropped our bags and now it was time for the night to begin.

Now the question was what to do. We all sort of decided that since it was later in the evening, we should just explore Luxor and venture out the next night.  Now that we had a gameplan, we headed to the elevator and down to the casino floor. At this point in my life, I was still a noob and didn’t know how to play any of the games besides Blackjack or Roulette.  To be honest trying to recall this night 14 years later, it’s kind of all a blur. I don’t even recall gambling that night, I think I was just to intimidated to walk up to a table or too caught up in all the sights and sounds around me to even place a bet.  I think for the most part I just watched other people gamble and farmed cocktails from the cocktail waitresses. 

At some point we realized that one of our friends, lets call him Mark, had disappeared. If you knew him, it was such a Mark thing to do. Where he went, no one knew.  He was just gone, and no one saw him leave.  Whatever he’s a grown ass man we went back to playing the slots that we were playing and stopped caring about where he was.   At some point I had to make my way to the bathroom, and on the way, I walk right into Mark.  He’s clearly intoxicated and way more intoxicated than I.  He comes up to me and goes come with me I have to go to the bathroom.  I thought great me too let’s go. 

We get into the bathroom, and he heads into a stall. I hear a bunch of clanking sounds.  The sounds that glass bottles would make on a tile floor.  He finally comes out of the stall with his pants unbuttoned and he is pulling wine bottles out of his pants.  Flabbergasted, I ask where the hell did you get these. He gives some sort of explanation that only he can understand and continues pulling wine bottles out.  He then bends down and pulls two more out of his pant legs.  I don’t know how he did it, but he had five bottles of wine in his pants.  To this day I have no idea where he went, where he got the wine from, and how he was walking around with five bottles in his pants.  The funniest part of this would come later when we tried to figure out how to open a wine bottle with no opener. 

Day 2

The next morning, we wake up and head down to get some lunch.  We settled on McDonald’s because it was cheap and we were broke and haven’t had it since yesterday.  I think it was in Luxor food court, but I could be wrong.  We spent the day walking from casino to casino. When you are outside looking at all the casinos they don’t seem that far apart, but boy were we wrong.  This was the first Vegas lesson I learned. Pack your walking shoes.

What we had for dinner that night is a mystery. My guess is that it was McDonalds’s, but I do know where we ended up that night.  We started out at Caesars Palace and eventually crossed the street over to a place called Bill’s Gambling Hall and Saloon. Sadly, this place no longer exists. It is now the Cromwell.   I started gambling straight away playing some Blackjack. I was able to sit at the table for maybe thirty minutes before I was out of money.  I counted what was left of my life savings and moved over to roulette.  This did not go any better. I could not win any bet. The dealer could have told me what number the ball was going to land on, and I would still have lost.   I again counted how much money I had left and a feeling of dread had come over me.  I only have maybe $100 left to gamble with and two nights remaining.  

Bills Gambling Hall and Saloon had a deal for $1 margaritas.  They were not the best margaritas, and they were small, but they were a dollar.  My friend, lets call him Tim, was doing work on these margaritas.  It didn’t take long before he was as intoxicated as Mark was the night before. To make it even worse he was winning at the tables. Now I wish I could have been happy for him as he was winning, but I was getting wrecked so bad that it just made me sick.  They way he reacted when he would win was the worst.  Every time his bet would win he yell and scream and throw his hands in the air, all while spilling his $1 margs on him and the people around him.  Instead of putting his chips on the table he had them lined up his arm, dropping chips on the ground after every win.  Mark, whose gambling was going about as well as mine was, couldn’t take it anymore and we left Tim at the tables and headed back to the Luxor to call it a night.

I have no idea what time it was when Tim finally made it back to the room, but he woke me up when he came in the door.  He stumbles over to the desk places some chips down then falls into his bed.  He proceeds to tell me that he thought I had locked him out of the room.  His key card wouldn’t work, so he started pounding on the door and yelling for me to open it up.   Finally, someone opened the door but it wasn’t me. It wasn’t anyone Tim knew.  It was a stranger telling him he had the wrong room.  He was at the right location, but he was on the wrong floor.

Day 3

I remember waking up on day three and looking at the window at the airport wishing I was on one of the planes going home. I had just had enough. I couldn’t win any bets, I was sick of drinking, eating fast food and the nonstop sounds of the casino.   I couldn’t understand how any liked this place. I eventually got out of bed got ready for the day.

I took a shower and got dressed came out of the bathroom to find Tim awake.  The following is what I remember from the conversation that morning:

Me: “Good morning. You were killing it at the roulette table last night.”

Tim: “I was?”

Me: “Yes. When Mark and I left, you had green chips lined up your arm from your wrist to your elbow.”

Tim: “I did? I don’t remember that? I think I put all the chips I had left on the desk over there.”

Me: “It looks like you have $5 here from Bill’s and $20 from the Flamingo.”

Tim: “We went to the Flamingo after Bill’s?”

Me: “We didn’t, but apparently you did.  You must have had almost $1k in chips when we left and all you have left is $25?”

Tim: “Expletive. I just checked my phone and I have a $250 charge from Bill’s too.”

Me: “That I do remember, you kept winning and kept shouting wanted to buy everyone in the place a $1 margarita.  Now get up we have to head over to the MGM Grand.”

Did he really buy everyone in the place a $1 margarita? I have no idea, but I hope so.

We were going to the MGM Grand to meet up with someone that one of the guys in our group knew.  We made it to the MGM Grand and I found a bank of slot machines to sit at while we waited for the guy to show up. I was exhausted from all the walking and gambling losses.  I put my elbow on the slot machine to rest my head in my hand, and I must have hit the spin button because the machine started spinning.  Nothing was won on that spin, but I thought that was weird why did it just start spinning I didn’t put any money in.  I reached over and hit cash out and it printed me out a ticket for $352.  I still remember the exact amount to this day.  Now that may not sound like a lot of money to some people, but to a broke college student, it was everything. I remember being in a state of shock looking at the TITO.  No one in the group could believe it. I eventually ran over a bill breaker and cashed out the TITO.  I than ran out of the casino on to the bridge between MGM Grand and NY NY.  I was sure someone was after me for their $352. 

Now that my gambling fund had been replenished, I wanted to start gambling again. This time I was going to take it slow and just place a sports bet.  I walked down to the sports book and surveyed all the lines.  I took the Chicago Blackhawks to beat the Pittsburg Penguins on the money line for only $20.  I got my ticket, and we headed off strip to an Irish Bar to play some trivia.  

How the trivia went I have no idea, but I do know that the Blackhawks beat the Penguins. I had finally won something. I remember thinking maybe things will start to turn around. After trivia we headed over to the Wynn.  Walking into that place for the first time I was blown away of how nice it was. Still to this day its probably my favorite place on the strip.  I made my way to some Blackjack tables to test my luck.  I was right, my luck had changed. Anything I touched turned to gold as they say.  I couldn’t lose.

Day 4

I woke up early this morning and still had all my winnings from the night before. Mark and I were the only ones up and decided to head down to the casino.  We walked over the Mandalay Bay as we had not been there yet.  One thing we had not done yet was play craps. We had no idea how to play but could tell there must be something to the game as the tables were always packed and seemed like a party.  This early in the morning the casino floor was nearly empty, and we were lucky enough to find a completely empty craps table.

I walked up to the table and I told the dealers straight up, I have no idea what I’m doing but I want to learn.  Dealers said sure no problem throw some money down on the table and we will walk you through it.  To this day I am forever grateful to those dealers. I wish I knew their names.  They taught us the basics and made guided us through the game.  I only bought in for $100 and soon enough I was up $100. My winning streak continued from the night before.  I cashed out and tipped the dealers and walked away from the table on a euphoric high.  Not only did I learn how to play craps, but I also won. (Tip for anyone that wants to learn craps. Do exactly what I did. Go early morning, find an empty table and tell the dealers you want to learn. Most dealers will be glad to help).

Now that we knew how to play craps, we wanted to take our new skill somewhere else. We walked back to the Luxor and found a table. We bought in again and shortly there after we were each up $100.  By this time the rest of the group had found us, and we made our way over to the Excalibur.   Same result. By in, play for a bit and win nearly $100.   I remember saying this game was like an ATM.  We did the same all the way up to strip with the final spot being the Riviera. RIP.  I don’t know how it happened, but I could not lose. To this day this might have been the best run I’ve ever had, I just wish I was betting way more.  I could now see how people loved this place.

My last memory from this trip was finally eating something that at a sit-down restaurant.  The group and I headed over to the Hard Rock because we heard we could get steak and shrimp for $7.77.  Sure enough it was true, not on the menu you had to ask for it.  Was it great no, but it was edible.  We finished up our dinner made our way back to Luxor to grab our bags and then to the airport for the red eye home. 

Conclusion

The way I do Vegas now is so different from how it started. That’s what I love about Vegas it can really be anything you want it to be. A party? Sure, it’s a party. Want to relax at the pools and have nice dinners, sure you can do that too.  Now most trips are with my wife (Heidi) and they tend to skew more to the relaxing getaways rather than the nonstop parties.  It was a lot of fun for me to think back almost 14 years and recall all the events that took place.