Thoughts about Vegas and Otakon Vegas

I’m not entirely sure how it happened, but somewhere along the line, I caught something and I’ve been home sick for the last two days.  I do not get sick very often, so needless to say this doesn’t please me in the least bit, but there’s nothing I can really do about it.  However, it’s given me a little bit of extra time to catch up on processing some of the photos I took while out in Vegas, as well as some time to do some writing.

It’s been like two years since I was in Vegas last, and it’s safe to say that there have been quite some numerous changes since then.  One of the conversations had during the trip was about how Vegas was obviously one of the larger casualties of the last economic massacre, and it’s in little things that I think I notice that such an assessment is true.  A few years ago, casinos were extremely generous with coupon books boasting all sorts of match-play tickets, buy-one-get-one tickets, and other offers to stimulate parting money from your hand to the hands of the casinos.  Typically, these were given upon check in to hotels, or upon registering with a different player’s reward program.

Two years of inactivity and returning to Vegas used to warrant some sort of offers to help make up for money of mine they haven’t been getting but neither redeeming new cards, or checking into the hotel prompted any sort of offers of sort.  To me, it’s not a big deal, since I hardly used anything other than BOGO drinks, but the lack of offers wasn’t lost on me either.

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This guy exists and he trolled me in Vegas

Yes I know it’s in German, but it’s not like the context can’t be derived from just watching it, or most people have already seen it and know what I’m talking about but I’m still giving visual representation.

I’m sitting at a single deck blackjack table at the Paris casino, with a beautiful girl clad in lingerie dealing me cards. The two people at the table with me are jobbing like Kaientai, but I’m faring pretty well for myself. Moments later, a Hispanic man; we’ll call him Pedro Griffin, takes third base, and our table is now four.

On the very first hand, sexy Inna is showing a 4, which means that most people typically would consider standing where they are, unless their cards are equal or less than 11, to which they would take a hit to try and get even closer to 21. A 4 showing means that the dealer has to hit no matter what they flip, and since in the game of blackjack, the player typically assumes the unseen card is always a 10, meaning with a 4, they have a 14, meaning they’re one hit away from busting and leading to a win with all players.

“HEET MEE,” says Pedro, when sexy Inna asks him what he wants to do on his turn. Pedro has a 13, and a hit puts him at risk of busting. Sexy Inna pauses with a confused look on her face, and points at her 4. The two people at the table with me groan that someone unenlightened to “the book” is at the table. And I’m staring at Pedro, pantomiming to wave it off and to stand.

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Photos: Las Vegas trip, Allison’s birthday

A whole bunch of firsts here – first picture drop of the 2012 year, first batch of images taken with my DSLR, and first photo post with this gallery format.  Which is all in relation to the first trip out to Las Vegas in quite some time for me, the occasion being a friend’s birthday party.  No better excuse to hit up Vegas.

I often say that the mark of a good Vegas trip is going home with the feeling that you missed out on doing some things.  I ate like a pig (surprise), got to do some gambling, and saw a couple of shows, as well as enjoying the company of our large-ish group out there.  But I didn’t get to indulge in Erris Irand ribs, I didn’t play craps, and I didn’t go up the Eiffel Tower, so I can say that I left with some of those feelings of missing out.  But that’s a good thing, because unlike the last few times prior to my burnout, I have something to look forward to the next time I go out there.

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Target marketing

During the summer, I was out in St. Louis for a baseball trip.  On the final day of my trip, I had the slight itch to play some blackjack, and I eventually found myself visiting Harrah’s St. Louis.  There, I got yet another Total Rewards card that was completely different from all the other ones I’ve collected throughout the years, and learned that nearly $150 worth of comp dollars were down the toilet due to inactivity.  These are a few of Jack’s melancholy tears of jew sadness for lost money.

I also ended up losing $100 extremely quickly due to a dealer that couldn’t bust even if they hit on 21.

But ever since that trip, I’ve been getting periodically in the mail, these “offers” of incentive to come back out to Harrah’s in St. Louis.  These offers are as unsubstantial as a free $5 bet to put on top of your original bets, to getting 10% off your meal at one of their overpriced restaurants.  Absolutely nothing that would get me to go out to St. Louis again for anything but more baseball.

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