This is great. So to add to the mayhem; myself, 44 and Hollywood will be making our triumphant return to Vegas for March Madness this year. It should prove to be a smashing good time as always, but this year we will be adding some additional new West Coast members to the group. Hollywood swears by them and well really it can’t be any worse than our trip in 08. We had 3 different people in our group lose their minds at one point or another during the trip and it was frankly exhausting. None of that this year, but we will see.

So get ready for more posts as the run up the MM10 is on… My Vegas is most definitely showing.

I do enjoy a limited amount of slot play, but table games are the bee’s knees and I never frequent a slots only casino.  Slots are a good temporary distraction after a couple of hours rollin’ the dice or taking blackjack hits.  In that capacity, they’re fine.  But they’re no main event!  It would be like going to a live WWF event in 1988 with a 2-match card consisting of Leaping Lanny Poffo vs. Mr. Perfect followed by The Killer Bees vs. The Bushwhackers.  Fun?  Sure, to a degree.  But without Hulk, the Macho Man, or the Ultimate Warrior…what’s the point?

Well loyal readers, problem solved!  This past Thursday, January 7th, the PA State House passed Senate Bill 711 and, after Governor Ed Rendell’s signature, table games are now legal in the state of Pennsylvania!

On the surface, the benefits of this are vast.  First and foremost, the legalization of the games and the revenue they’re planned to generate will prevent the Governor from having to layoff about 1,000 state employees in order to balance the state budget.  Secondly, it will of course create jobs.  The Rivers Casino alone is planning approximately 80 tables games which will require the hiring of an additional 300-350 employees.  And finally, interest in the casinos should skyrocket to a new level, especially to the table game enthusiasts such as myself.

The Rivers already has about 3,000 slots and initial reviews have appeared very positive in terms of the facility being a fun, flashy Vegas style environment.  That’s great but many (not all, mind you) customer testimonies have complained about those slots being too tight.  While there may be a shred of truth to this, I”m a believer in that most people who take the time and effort to go online and write a review of an establishment do so because of being stung by a bad experience.  Those people may have valid points, but most people who have pleasant ones tend to not write these reviews.  Therefore, a collection of reviews tends to look overwhelmingly negative at times when, in fact, it’s an inaccurate picture of experiences by all customers.  But hey, even if true, the addition of table games makes this irrelevant anyway.

With its perfectly located downtown spot, I can’t wait to make it back home to check out The Rivers.  I will detail an ideal gambling-oriented Pittsburgh trip in an upcoming post, but we’ll be rollin’ craps, dealing blackjack, spinning the roulette wheel, and buying into poker tourneys in Pittsburgh sometime between July and September when the tables open.  Bring it!

You son of a bitch! I’m talking to you! Yeah you, Las Vegas! You and your alluring siren call. Why must you do this to me? I’m not Odysseus asail on the Greek seas. I’m merely a simple man. A man who loves Vegas. Just when I think I”m out, Vegas pulls me back in…

Ok, I’ll stop.

As we all know, we’re in a nationwide state of economic instability. That means people have less disposable income. Less disposable income means less spending on non-essentials. Less spending on non-essentials means less traveling and fewer vacations for people across America. As a result, tourism in Vegas is down to its lowest point in years.

Sure, this is bad for the city itself and its inhabitants, but not for us! With less people coming to Vegas, hotels are more and more in need of ways to attract gaming patrons into their glitzy doors. That, coupled with the recent opening of CityCenter and its 5,000 total rooms, makes this the best time in years to cash in on casino comps, especially when it comes to scoring free rooms.

I recently received a flyer in the ol’ mailbox from The Venetian and its Club Grazie program. Grazie is just like Harrah’s and MGM’s player’s clubs but exclusively for The Venetian and its sister property, The Palazzo. The flyer outlined a great offer: 2-4 free nights in a suite at either property!

If you’ve never been to either of these sites, they are a must when in Vegas. The Venetian has somehow taken a dip in notoriety over the last few years, but it is simply a gorgeous resort chock full of great gaming, dining, and amenities. Personally, I prefer it to its upper-echelon competition, Wynn and Bellagio. It has all the same luxury, but is a little less pretentious and offers more options for the middle class visitors and non-whales.

I checked out the offer online by logging in at clubgrazie and was pleasantly pleased to see many available nights to take advantage of this offer between January and March. Never having a free suite offer before, I decided to just book one well knowing that I could cancel it if I could not actually make it out. I expected just Sunday – Thursday nights of availability here, but I even had some weekends! I booked Saturday Jan 23rd to Mon the 25th. A free Saturday at a suite at The Venetian?! This was by far the best room offer I’ve ever had.

I have had the pleasure of staying at The Venetian once on my very first trip to Vegas in 2005. The rooms are simply stunning. All are suites that are at least 700 square feet, have 2 flatscreens, a fold out sofa in the sunken living room, and remarkable marble bathrooms with separate tub/shower and water closet. Simply put, these are the lap of luxury and typically worth every penny. The fact that I could stay in one of these for free is quite the shock. And here’s why…

The craziest part about this offer is that I even received it in the first place. On my very first visit to The Venetian in ‘05, I knew nothing of gambling or casinos yet. Therefore, I did not sign up for Club Grazie at the time. It wasn’t until my last trip out this past September that I did. Once signed up, I played blackjack for maybe 45 minutes at a $10 table and played a penny Sopranos slot for maybe 20 minutes. That’s it.

One visit, slightly over an hour of low-limit play (including on a penny slot!), and a free suite as a result. Hell, I even won during that session. I ended up about $25 on the slot and broke even at the table. This is undoubtedly a product of many empty rooms, but hey, fine by me! Fact is, I didn’t give The Venetian a dime of my money and they are still giving me a free suite. That, my friends, is stellar.

Unfortunately, I should NOT take advantage of this offer. I’m closing on my first house in early February and have my money tied up in that and all the things involved. I also likely can’t find a travel mate for this one on such short notice.

My mind and wallet say “hell no”…..but my heart says “Yes! Do it.”

I’m really having a tough time passing this offer up. I should. I likely will. But we’ll see…

What do our loyal readers think?

Hello to my VegasChronicles Peeps! It’s been a minute since our last post and really all I can say is that life has gotten in the way.  Lori messed up her knee playing football on a company field day (uggh), and I have been traveling like a fiend so the posts have been thin lately.

Not to worry, we will get back into the swing of things and all will be right with the world.  Vegas Baby!

I was just playing a random game of my favorite iPhone app, 21 Pro, when it goes and deals the above hand…in real life to me this is worse than losing a hand. I would have been using Hedge Economics, I would have been jumping for joy to pull trip 21, and then only to watch no-one win… what an epic FAIL.

While on our last trip to Vegas a few weeks ago I did something that I never thought I would do, I turned my back on “The Wheel of Fortune” just for a minute. Don and I had about 15 minutes to spare before playing in one of our poker tournaments and I decided I wanted to play the slots for a bit.  If you have been to Harrah’s before you know that the $1 “Wheel of Fortune” can be found on the back wall by the poker room. As Don and I headed towards the wheel I decide I wanted to try a new slot.  I told Don I wanted to try a new slot and ask him to find me one with good odds. Of course he looked at me puzzled; I think he was more shocked than anything, but after a few moments he did find me a machine. It was $1 Red, White, and Blue machine with a 10x multiplier, so I sat down with $100.  After the first $50 I starting wondering if this was a good idea, it was kind of boring because there was no wheel bonus spin to look forward to spinning. I continued to play through the last $50. I get down to my last few spins and I hit a ridiculous 10x payout. It was craziness, I had already written that hundo off as a lost cause, but instead I ended up winning $400.  I do have to admit that “Wheel of Fortune” is still my favorite; I mean nothing beats the bonus “Spin”.  However trying a new machine every once in a while is fun and can pay off.  The payout from the slot was just the beginning of me pimping Harrah’s that day.  Read about that poker tournament and you will see what I am talking about.

Well on Sunday night of last trip, she wanted some Chinese.  Well seeing how we were staying at Paris I knew that we could walk next door to Planet Hollywood for some PF Chang’s.  Now my grandmother who is a first generation Chinese American from mainland China actually hates PF Chang’s.  She lives in Chinatown in Boston and basically thinks that any place that doesn’t give you orange slices at the end of the meal is clearly worthless.  However, Lori and I’s tastes are less discerning so head over.

There are a ton of people waiting so we just say first available and of course that lands us in their outside seating area.  Now it is 9pm Vegas time and it’s like 92 degrees out (down from the 112 degrees early in the day) so it’s safe to say that it’s not “comfortable” dining, but we manage.

During the meal I notice 4 people walking up and down the strip with what appears to be large boards on their backs.  It turns out they are human billboards for the Hooters casino around the corner. I couldn’t get my camera out in time for a decent shot, but I did find one from the LA Times Vegas blog.

Each sign was showing a slightly different ad, but all of the people wearing them looked the same, beat down tired.  I can’t imagine how long their shifts were, but the fact that its 9pm and still hot out and they are lugging what appears to be a very heavy digital sign on their back can’t be a good thing.

Outside of the random assortment 20 of so immigrants lined up side by side passing out pornographic playing cards, I have to say that this is the most unique people centric Vegas advertising yet.  No “flick, flick, flick” necessary.

Well it turns out that we really didn’t need to get there so early as we were bumped from US Airways to Airtran as our original flight was delayed coming in and of course we would have missed our connector.

The Pros: A new direct flight, crappy pretzels, and more drinks than you know what to do with.

The Cons: We found out that our bags “could” make it to Vegas as Airtran’s baggage system is a manual one. Excellent.

So we are waiting for another couple of hours to take off and Lori noticed something on the Runway. There is a sign that is hanging underneath the Jetway. You can see it more clearly in the second photo, but yeah it’s clear that no one reads those signs until there is a reason to.

Thank goodness there was no reason. We got on our plane with no further observations other than the fact that CNN would not actually proclaim Michael Jackson dead, but only in a coma. More on that to come as well.

Now I have been really too busy to think about it since it was a surprise and all.  However I am ready for some fun and relaxation.

The WSOP will be going on so I am sure that we will be checking that out as well as doing our normal thing; Blackjack, Poker, and of course Johnnie Walker.

More updates to come, but I can’t help feeling especially grateful to be getting away to our happy place.  Joy has indeed returned to Mudville as the mighty Casey plans on hitting it out of the park!

It’s a pretty interesting conference that is in it’s 4th year.  The production level is amazing, and normally you don’t get to see what goes into the whole thing. 

Well here is a pretty neat timelaspe video that shows just want it takes to make something like this happen. Just click the player below: