Day/Night 5: Sunday 21st August (General)
After just a three hours sleep (5AM-8AM) and my Starbucks breakfast routine I'm up and at 'em for my first trip on the Vegas monorail. I buy a $5 ticket to get from Harrah's to MGM and it's a very efficient, smooth and fairly painless process but I am struck with how few passengers there are. Futhermore, what the hell is it with the bleedin' advertising over the PA system!? There I was trying to enjoy the views and expecting a nice peaceful journey and I get my thoughts invaded by someone trying to sell me tickets to a show over the speakers. Not cool.
Anyway, a stroll through MGM brings me to Tropicana, once again, and once again I am disappointed to discover that there are no tables open and just two people on the waiting list. That's three visits to Tropicana now and still no joy at getting into a game. I know it's morning time but 11AM isn't THAT early. All I want to do now is play my 30 minutes at the Tropicana, get it over with, and never set foot in the place again - and by now I really am sick of that coconut/Malibu scent they pump into the place.
Being at a little bit of a loose end, I decide to take myself off for the short but very hot walk over to Hooters which is a lesser known casino and debatable as to whether it should be classed as being on the main strip at all. All Vegas Poker has it as a "near strip" casino but it's no less of a walk off the main drag as the much more well-to-do Aria. I pick up a $1 chip for my collection and try to get in on their $3 blackjack game which they proudly advertise in a huge billboard outside. As expected though, the table is full and there are no seats so I have a quick peak at their poker room and see that there is a sign there saying that it doesn't open till 2PM. (A sensible thing to do which maybe some of the quieter rooms on the strip should do in my opinion.)
With the Monte Carlo, Aria and Planet Hollywood rooms to check out, I headed off towards the former of these three by first crossing the bridges from Tropicana to MGM to New York/New York. I just couldn't resist a smooth pint of Guinness at the Nine Fine Irish pub in NY/NY but at $7.40 I was gonna take my time and enjoy it. (That's the same price as a pint of Fosters at The Empire!)
11:30AM and it was onto the the fairly non-descript Monte Carlo and another disappointment - a completely empty poker room. They told me that they expected it to get full very soon but I certainly wasn't going to just hang around and wait. Why not cut out the ambiguity and just open at 2PM, like Hooters, so that both staff and customers are crystal clear as to when the poker kicks off and so that players don't waste their time having to walk from place to place to find a game? Another thing I noticed about the Monte Carlo was that it seemed to be the quietest casino, for customers per square feet, than all the places visited so far.
Next up was the Aria. To get to this place you need to walk up the road with the skyscrapers, the shopping mall and the Cosmopolitan complex all around you on either side and with the hotel itself looming large in front of you. Aria is classed as being on the main strip but the walk up to it can seem pretty heavy in the middle of August and this can give it an out-of-the-way feel. It has a large spectacular circular driveway arching around its entrance with a beautiful fountain situated in the middle with water jets that create pretty sparkling effects with the water. It also has a long pebbled wall running around its entrance with water gently cascading down to create another interesting effect.
After a pleasant poker session at Aria (Session #11) it was the hot walk over to Planet Hollywood for Session #12 and then back to Harrah's at 5PM to touch base. From 7PM it was back out for my second, virtually dead, monorail trip down to MGM but unfortunately the fatigue started hitting me. This may have had something to do with having just 3 hours sleep the night before, four and half hours of poker and lots of walking in the mid-summer's sun.
Down to "B" or "C" game poker I decided to try and fit in a quick 30 minute session at Tropicana (Session #13), which I FINALLY managed to do, and a 30 minuter at Monte Carlo (Session #14) which still seemed to have very few gamblers in their casino. Anyway, with these two poker rooms ticked off the list and with the time at just 10PM, I decided it was time for an early night. I must have needed the sleep because I was out like a light and slept for 8 hours which was the best night's sleep I'd had since touchdown.
Anyway, a stroll through MGM brings me to Tropicana, once again, and once again I am disappointed to discover that there are no tables open and just two people on the waiting list. That's three visits to Tropicana now and still no joy at getting into a game. I know it's morning time but 11AM isn't THAT early. All I want to do now is play my 30 minutes at the Tropicana, get it over with, and never set foot in the place again - and by now I really am sick of that coconut/Malibu scent they pump into the place.
Being at a little bit of a loose end, I decide to take myself off for the short but very hot walk over to Hooters which is a lesser known casino and debatable as to whether it should be classed as being on the main strip at all. All Vegas Poker has it as a "near strip" casino but it's no less of a walk off the main drag as the much more well-to-do Aria. I pick up a $1 chip for my collection and try to get in on their $3 blackjack game which they proudly advertise in a huge billboard outside. As expected though, the table is full and there are no seats so I have a quick peak at their poker room and see that there is a sign there saying that it doesn't open till 2PM. (A sensible thing to do which maybe some of the quieter rooms on the strip should do in my opinion.)
With the Monte Carlo, Aria and Planet Hollywood rooms to check out, I headed off towards the former of these three by first crossing the bridges from Tropicana to MGM to New York/New York. I just couldn't resist a smooth pint of Guinness at the Nine Fine Irish pub in NY/NY but at $7.40 I was gonna take my time and enjoy it. (That's the same price as a pint of Fosters at The Empire!)
11:30AM and it was onto the the fairly non-descript Monte Carlo and another disappointment - a completely empty poker room. They told me that they expected it to get full very soon but I certainly wasn't going to just hang around and wait. Why not cut out the ambiguity and just open at 2PM, like Hooters, so that both staff and customers are crystal clear as to when the poker kicks off and so that players don't waste their time having to walk from place to place to find a game? Another thing I noticed about the Monte Carlo was that it seemed to be the quietest casino, for customers per square feet, than all the places visited so far.
Next up was the Aria. To get to this place you need to walk up the road with the skyscrapers, the shopping mall and the Cosmopolitan complex all around you on either side and with the hotel itself looming large in front of you. Aria is classed as being on the main strip but the walk up to it can seem pretty heavy in the middle of August and this can give it an out-of-the-way feel. It has a large spectacular circular driveway arching around its entrance with a beautiful fountain situated in the middle with water jets that create pretty sparkling effects with the water. It also has a long pebbled wall running around its entrance with water gently cascading down to create another interesting effect.
After a pleasant poker session at Aria (Session #11) it was the hot walk over to Planet Hollywood for Session #12 and then back to Harrah's at 5PM to touch base. From 7PM it was back out for my second, virtually dead, monorail trip down to MGM but unfortunately the fatigue started hitting me. This may have had something to do with having just 3 hours sleep the night before, four and half hours of poker and lots of walking in the mid-summer's sun.
Down to "B" or "C" game poker I decided to try and fit in a quick 30 minute session at Tropicana (Session #13), which I FINALLY managed to do, and a 30 minuter at Monte Carlo (Session #14) which still seemed to have very few gamblers in their casino. Anyway, with these two poker rooms ticked off the list and with the time at just 10PM, I decided it was time for an early night. I must have needed the sleep because I was out like a light and slept for 8 hours which was the best night's sleep I'd had since touchdown.
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