VEGAS: 18th August (General)

Day/Night 2: Thursday 18th August (General)

After just four or five hours sleep it was up this morning for my free breakfast from Starbucks. This is a freebie that comes with booking through expedia and allows me to grab anything worth up to $9 from Starbucks each morning as a breakfast. This just involves getting in the lift down to the foyer, exiting the lift and walking a few steps to the Starbucks' line and (today) picking up a small coffee, a croissant and a cream cheese bagel and then taking it back up to the hotel room to be eaten in the privacy of my room. All very convenient and totally free!

My hotel room is so massive that I was able to do my morning jog inside the room and then, after writing up the notes on yesterday evening's adventures, it was onto the first stop today which were the Venetian Canal shoppes. (Don't ask me why they spell "shops" that way.) One word on this: elegance. We're talking fashionable designer shops, art galleries, mock Venetian architecture such as pillars and arches along with canals and a piazza - and all topped off with Michelangelo-style painted ceilings! Again, we also had the daylight sky effect giving off that surreal early evening ambience and I would say it was a pleasure to walk around. Ultimately you could say it's just a shopping mall but, with all the above PLUS added gondolas and singing gondoliers who break into operatic song for the benefit of those who are being ferried around, it's a magnificent mall with a huge twist! The place is also heavy on classical music with music gently issuing forth from the speakers (outside and in) as well as songs being sung from performers in the main square (piazza?) dressed in their harlequin, jester outfits and all their finery.

From here, it was a fairly hot trek north up to the Wynn casino. This fairly new casino consists of a large squarish area with the main colour scheme being a deep royal red (predominantly from the carpeted areas) and gold (mainly from the many chandeliers and lamps that hang down). After a quick peak at the poker room and a wander around the huge impressive corridors that surround the outdoor pool (more polished marble floors and a royal red and gold colour scheme) it was back across the walkway and onto the fashion-show mall for my first major purchase - that'll be a $5 pizza slice from Sbarro. A swift move via Treasure Island and a peak at the Venetian poker room and I was back at Carnaval Court for a cheeky purchase of a huge $4 can of Fosters and a recharging of the batteries back in my Harrah's hotel room. All told, I was having a magnificent time and I still hadn't yet gambled a cent!

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This evening it was time to get my feet wet with a bit of poker and so with the time at 5PM I made my way to play at the southernmost poker rooms on the strip starting at Mandalay Bay. Not, however, before popping into Bill's Gamblin' Hall for Session #1 - a little $0.50/$1 warm up. (The cheapest no-limit hold 'em stakes on the strip.) 4 hours later it was onto the MGM to register for this rewards card...

...and then on through Excalibur and Luxor to Mandalay Bay. With the time at 11:30PM and a huge Starbucks coffee to revive myself and to give me that added kick, it was onto Session #2. One thing about this walking malarkey is that whereas the locals seem to think it crazy to walk such long distances, it's all a novelty to me and I love it!

Now although I was a little tired after Session #2 at Mandalay Bay and faced a long walk back, I realised that I had only visited 1 room out of 4 on my itinerary. This meant I really needed to play in at least one more poker room before knocking it on the head for the evening so I stopped off at Excalibur's poker room for Session #3 - and in the end, I'm very glad I did!

The long walk back was fine although it was apparent that, with the accumulation of drunken behaviour going on, the weekend wasn't too far away. Strange, while walking down the steps of the walkway that connect Bally's to Bill's, a heard a young girl yell "Excuse me?" to me as she was going UP the escalator in the opposite direction. I ignored her at first but then she said it again, clearly wanting my attention. Yeh right, I just gestured indicating that I was traveling downwards and that it would be hard for me to respond to her unless I made an idiot of myself. Yeh right, we all strike up a conversation with a complete stranger while going up an escalator and they're going down! Alarm bells, much!

With the time at 4AM, I entered my room totally exhausted but still wishing to celebrate my opening triumphs at the poker table with a beer. Perhaps wisely, I opted for the more sensible choice of crashing out for a good night's sleep.