Palazzo T.R.

The plan:
While it might make more sense to many to take the free offer downtown
at Fitzgeralds it would have been just the same as the last half dozen
trips. I was getting bored and ready for a change even if it meant
cutting into my gambling budget heavily for a change of scenery. It
was the start of Chinese New Year and the most important time of the
year for the wife so a chance for me to express appreciation for the
joy she's brought me. I couldn't tell her about the reservations or
more importantly how much it cost because she'd have insisted I cancel
them and take the free room. I also wanted to book her a spa treatment
at the Venetian and knew that would be an uphill battle too.
While most of my trips are chasing the elusive royal flush at video
poker this one would be different. It's been 8 years since I was last
in Italy and this trip would be more about finding the tastes that I
so enjoyed. First on the list would be some genuine Parma proscuitto,
preferably draped over a slice of cantalope as an appetizer.
Next would be the chance to sip on some fine Italian grappa with an
expresso on the side. If not then some black Sambuca that's not so
easy to find. Of course they'd be the downside staying at Palazzo. The
same downside I saw at Wynn, Bellagio and THE Hotel. It's the 'why
can't we decorate our place like this?' that seems to pre-occupy
women.

As the plan comes together:
Well a Superbowl was just played and the outcome makes a difference to
the plans. I opened an off shore account to make sports wagers like I
do every year with a $500 bankroll. This year I started late, in
November. I won't mention the name of the outfit as I'm not shilling
for them. We go back a few years with no problems. I give them money,
make bad bets and lose it. Last year after losing most of the money I
added some funds and bet about $1200 on the superbowl, winning. That
was nice even though over the time we'd be doing business they were
still ahead. This year was different. I got on a lucky roll. I was
betting football, basketball and even a couple of college games I had
no idea about. In one streak I hit 16 wins in a row with bets in the
$100-$400 range. Any time I bet a parlay it was an automatic loss. I
even picked the one game that Miami (football) won taking the money
line, no less. I got cocky and bet about $1000 that Green Bay would
win in the playoffs and got hosed. I played some weird prop bets that
cut my losses in half, like:
Would any team score 3 times consecutively, without the other team
scoring, conversions excluded. This paid something like +160 and with
$400 bet it paid off nice too.
Would the first score be anything other than a touchdown? Another +140
or so wager. A field goal brought that home for me.
Would any team score in the first 6 1/2 minutes. This one I lost.

Anyway, by Xmas my account was up to around $4,000 so I had the max.
withdrawel wired to my bank account $3,000. Some off shore outfits
charge up to $40 for bank wires but mine allows one free per month.
By Superbowl I'd already laid about $1200 on N.Y.+12 getting a vig of
-105 by placing it on a Friday. I had another $150 on the under 54.
$300 on the 3 scores consecutively (not)(won). $105 on the coin toss,
tails (won). $105 on who received the opening kick off (lost) and my
prize bet $30 on the N.Y money line (+330) parlayed with the under 54.
My first parlay win netting like, $216.

Long story short, after taking out the $3,000 my balance is like
$4,300.
Normally I'd take a few hundred and bet conservatively in Vegas but I
think my streak isn't over yet so am tripling my budget....stay tuned.

I waited until we both got home from work to spring on her the
upcoming trip in the morning and the need for the suitcase to be
packed. We got home at 7pm and I'd planned for a 6am drive to Vegas so
packing became a priority. Chinese New Year is geared around the color
red, for good luck, so anything red got packed. I'd heard the Highway
Patrol was cracking down on speeders so I was keeping an eye out. I
was coming up on a group of slower cars me doing about 95 and was
given a double brake light warning from the tail car. It never
registered. All of a sudden an unmarked patrol car swerved out of the
group in the slow lane and made a sharp U-Turn crossing a deep median
seperating the north/south bound traffic that had to be 200 feet wide.
A good omen, right. We stopped at Primm for an hour and I played V.P
at $2.50 per hand losing fast. Not a good start.
We dropped the car off at Palazzo valet and checked in. They'd be no
$20 trick as they were selling upgrades for $45 per night. I was
feeling good so took it. The strip view on the 43rd floor was awesome.
The room was about as good as it gets. 750 sq.ft with a 2 step down
living room. The marble bathroom was huge on par with Wynn, Bellagio
and THE Hotel. Down to the casino and a quick attempt at the bar V.P.
It was $1 machine that ate money fast. My wife wasn't having much luck
either at her machines so we quit and went for an early lunch as we'd
skipped breakfast.
Morels French bistro/steakhouse:
I pretty much NEVER eat at the same place twice on a trip. It doesn't
make sense as there is so much to choose from. This proved to be an
exception. As you walk by the bar with a large oyster/crab/lobster
display on ice you next pass the cheese and meat platter station. The
guy was busy trimming the fat off a proscuitto leg and there were a
dozen or so cheeses on display and several salami's. My wife ordered
the club sandwich. I chose the fish and chips, dover sole and wanted
some meat and cheese for dessert. I chose a glass of wine by the glass
a my wife had the fresh orange juice. Monty, the waiter, was
exceptional. He asked if we needed anything. I wanted some salt and
pepper and some malt vinegar and my wife wanted a jalapeno pepper!
That request threw him for a loop. I tried to tell her we were in a
French restaurant and a jalapeno pepper might be a tough request. He
actually came back with the freshest, plumpest pepper that was perfect
as far as heat. Instead of handing me a salt and pepper shaker the bus
boy went behind a station and was busy grinding pepper into a silver
platter with a divider the held the salt. I had to laugh when I saw
the salt because it would have easily passed as crystal meth. The
whole presentation came with an oversized coke spoon. The only thing
missing was a razor blade!! The bread rolls were about as good as
bread comes. We ate all 4 and Mei, my wife, stuffed 4 more in her
purse. We both love French bread. Portions were un-French and I was
actually full with no room for cheese. My wife eyed the dungerness
crab on the way out and I was checking out the farmhouse cheeses on
display. We both already knew what we wanted.
I didn't like the payout table on the V.P and was ready to quit
gambling and concentrate of taking care of Mei. I couldn't believe how
much effort the hotel went to to celebrate Chinese New Year. Huge
banners hung everywhere and red lantern type devices hung from the
atrium like ceiling. We went up to the fourth floor going to Canyon
Ranch spa. I needed help in selling a spa treatment for Mei and a cute
Laotian attendant helped me out. The catch would be that I'd have to
have one too. We both passed on having a treatment in the same room
and both agreed to have something more aggressive than the Swedish
massage. I wanted a woman she wanted a man and both decided on the
optional mint scalp massage. We had a hour to kill cleaning up in the
jacuzzi, wet steam and dry steam rooms. Sweating out the 3 martini's
was fun. I was loving the whole experience. The steam room was tough
to take after 5 or 10 minutes. I can't remember having so much fun
getting clean. I robed up and headed for the living room/waiting room
with about 20 other guys. Rachel escorted me to our room. It was a
great massage. She was aggressive buy not overly so. I work on my feet
all day so she paid special attention to them quickly finding the
problem area in my right foot. The mint flavored scalp massage was
awesome. I felt like a lamb chop.
By 6pm we were back in the room ready to relax and just enjoy
ourselves.
Previously I asked security, dressed as Italian police, where the
sportsbook was an instead of directing me he personally escorted us
down to the lower floor. As far as sportsbooks go it's called a
satellite station. It's bare bones, no chairs, in a remote location,
just a place to place a wager and that's all. I put $220 on the Lakers
who were -3 and lost by 3 more.

DAY 2: We wandered around taking pictures, eating rolls out of the
purse for breakfast and headed back to Morels for a late lunch, 2:30.
We asked for Monty which started as a problem as all of his stations
were full. Anyway they worked it out and took us to a table with a
long bench which Mei took and I took one of the chairs. On the table
next to us sitting on the bench was Penn Gillette, of Penn and Tellar.
We made eye contact and I had no intention of ruining his lunch asking
for autographs or pictures I just acknowlege recognizing him stating
"I'm a huge fan!" and left it at that. He thanked me and went back to
enjoying his lunch. The chef came out and personally presented him
with a platter of dessert tasters going into a lenghty explanation of
each one. I guess one of the perks of being a celebrity. Talking with
the manager after they left Rita Rudner was there the day before.
The meal:
I started with a $22 glass of premium grappa and filled out a sushi
like form of what I wanted on my platter. I chose the 3 cheeses ($15)
and 3 meats ($15) and a $6 medley of olives. I had no idea of portion
sizes. Mei surprised them by ordering the WHOLE crab ($55). They had
to rearrainge the table to make room for everything. The guy running
the meat/cheese station brought the platters explaining each item. I'd
ordered a sheeps milk blue cheese from New York, a farmhouse blue from
Ireland and a farmhouse chedder from Cadbury, England, more known for
it's chocolate. The bread was thinly sliced baquette and a dark bread
with lots of flavor. The meat was proscuitto from Parma, Italy and a
couple of salami's that just sounded interesting. The meat was sliced
very thin and when laid out along with the cheese looked enough food
for 4 people. Mei was making headway on her crab nicely presented on a
bed of ice. They'd taken the thing apart and the main shell, with what
I consider, all the nasty parts, was missing. The Chinese eat the
whole thing, just removing the 'lungs?'. She wasn't complaining as it
was a big crab. It came with a citrus creme that looked a bit like
tartar sauce. She promply had that hauled away and wanted the malt
vinegar. I had a screwdriver to wash the meal down with as their
orange juice is fresh squeezed. We probably spent 2 hours gorging
ourselves and had the remainer boxed up for a late evening meal in the
room. The bus boy brought some more rolls for us and Mei gave him $5
tip for being on top of our needs.
To settle things I had the double expresso which disappeared in a
couple of swallows. Mei ordered a coffee and Monty helped out by
choosing a nice Rwanda coffee served in a cafeteria. Coffee for 2
gives about 6 small cups.
The bill wasn't bad. Something like $135 or with tip $160.
Bottom line: It was just what I was looking for and we both highly
recommend the place.

Now over to the Venetian sports book. On the way, while still at
Palazzo we passed a $25 blackjack table with an Asian player, playing
by himself and an Asian dealer. What stopped me in my tracks was the
mounds of chips he had placed in the wagering area. It was like 6 or 7
mounds. I couldn't help noticing the $1,000 limit per hand because he
had chips I didn't even know the value of. I like to give these people
privacy but Mei got close for the blow by blow play even asking the
dealer in Chinese how much was on the table. $25,000. He won the hand
and the next hand was $10,000. He won that too. I had to drag her away
from the table.

I bought another $110 ticket on Cleveland +5 and we'd watch the game
in the comfortable chairs. I went to the desk and requested drink
coupons so they looked at my tickets I'd bought at Palazzo and gave me
4. We watched part of the game and wandered around. Cleveland lost by
more than 5 so I was down $330 on the sports and a few hundred at V.P.
Things not looking good. I bought a $110 ticket on Chicago +13 playing
at Golden State and before the game started I had Mei buy $110 ticket
on the over 211.5. She wandered off to play some machines before the
start of the game and I bought another $400 ticket on Chicago +13.
While the game played I played 25c V.P at the bar next to a loud guy
from Chicago who now lived in Vegas. He would announce everytime he
hit something big or one card missing from a royal. He was on a roll.
I looked over and his machine was on fire. When he'd hit 4 of a kind
he'd cash out and start again. He showed me his 5 payout tickets from
the session. His friends showed up for them to go to dinner and he was
reluctant to leave. He told us to jump on it as soon as he left. Of
course it got cold when I took over but it eventually hit a low 4 of a
kind with the kicker. I was playing double double bonus poker and I'd
had too many drinks to remember the details but I cashed out well
ahead for that session. When Chicago won I was busy talking to another
salesman from Chicago and gave the 2 tickets I had for the game to
Mei. She had the 'over' ticket. I told her to keep the money as a
gift. She came back all happy and gave me $185 back from the gift. I
accepted not thinking much about it. Later I found out they paid her
$985, a very lucky number and she just wanted to keep $800, again
lucky. We went off to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night after
the drinks were wearing off doing the math and it didn't add up. The
$400 ticket paid $763 and change and the others paid $210 each. That
added up to $1163+. I'd made the mistake of not telling her how much
to expect at the payout and she didn't have her glasses on to read
them. Once you leave with your money you acknowlege everything is O.K.
In the morning we went back to the sportsbook hoping when they balance
out after their shift one of the workers had a $200+ discrepency. They
all balanced within $10 so no report was written. Our bad luck. She
was positive she gave them the 3 tickets and I still can't see the
number $985 and how they got it. If it was $973+ I'd have said they
just paid on 2 of the tickets although they all were winners. Chicago
won the game and we didn't need the 13 points and the total score was
216, more than the 211.5 on the ticket. Oh well, another lesson
learned the hard way.
The hotel is nice. I've seen better presentations at the check-in
counters, especially Bellagio. There were hundreds of conventioneers
there all herding around to meetings.
All in all a nice short getaway.
T-Bone

On Feb 8, 9:19 pm, T-Bone <trev_....DeleteThis@nospam.verizon.net> wrote:
> The plan:

<snipped for brevity>

Nice TR, T-Bone. However.... could you have at least thrown in a
paragraph or two???


--EE--