Las Vegas......The Good the Bad anf the Very Ugly.............Day 7.


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April 30th 2011
Published: April 30th 2011
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The Golden Nugget

Tuesday 11th December 2007. Day 7.



This morning we all rose later than normal and trudged off to Denny’s for a repeat visit. I was finally getting my appetite back so went for a T-bone steak with Eggs. I was still feeling a bit swimy though, so while the girlies went over to the Fashion Show Mall, (Roomy had found a couple of square inches of space in her bulging case) G & I went for some slot therapy in Casino Royal.

After only half an hour I was $60 down and wishing I had shopped with the girls, as it may have been cheaper. We found the girls and another 30 minutes later I regretted my earlier decision, as I definitely prefer to lose my money in the Casino’s than the shops. After what seemed like hours but was only a further few minutes, we left Roomy to it and taxied to Downtown in preparation for the M&G and to watch the Tree Lighting.

We arrived at a rather plain looking Downtown at about 12:30. Kaz and I had been here before but during the evening. We quickly realised that although it was a fantastic looking place in the dark, there was not much to look at while it was light. P & G are fantastic travelling companions. They are very easy to get on with and have an amazing enthusiasm for everything we see or do but I’m sure I saw even their faces drop when we exited the Taxi. I just hoped (with over 3 ½ hours to kill), we could find enough to do to keep us occupied long enough to see Downtown in all its glory.
It was lunchtime so after a quick wander along the length of Fremont we decided to jump at the 2 for 1 burger offer at Hennessey’s. Burgers were large, tasty and excellent value with the 2 for 1 option.

Onto the Golden Nugget, which was somewhere Kaz and I had not seen before. I am not a great lover of the whole old Vegas style thing. I think it’s old and jaded and I much prefer the glitzy, swanky new resorts on the strip. Just my opinion, that’s all. So I was surprised when I found the Nugget to be a really nice place. The thing that amazed me was the pool area. I had not read anywhere about the big Fish Tank in the middle. There was a clear plastic slide going right through the middle of it. I thought that was great. The fish in that tank were huge too. I bet it was quite a buzz hurtling through there on your back. Funnier still was all those sun loungers. They were packed in so tight you could hardly step between them. I’d love to have seen that in mid summer! Would be like a Seal Colony in mating season……………
Back inside it took us about 20 minutes to find that huge Nugget I had read about. I thought it was called the Hand of God or something but G took pleasure in telling me that belonged to Maradona and we probably wouldn’t find him in here.

From there, onto Binions and the home of Poker. I popped in there last year but it scared the Bjeezers out of me. I was hoping to play poker but when I saw all the drunks and undesirables that day, seated at the table’s swearing and shouting at each other I made a sharp exit. I would have probably taken them to the cleaners but I don’t think I could have put up with the abuse. To my amazement, this time round, it was a great looking place. They had obviously cleaned up their act and replaced all the stained old suede and velour with chrome and laminate. They had a new display dedicated to all the poker champions from previous years, which was interesting to see. I liked it so much I even went to register, finally, for my first poker tournament. One was starting in 30 mins but after speaking to the room staff, I blew it out as they said it would last over 4 hours. There are just not enough hours in the day……….

Onto Fremont Casino then 4 Queens looking for the big WOF that P was picking up on her radar. It was hard work for her as there was so many, in close proximity. We settled in for a session but all lost our cash pretty quickly. As there was no free drinks offered here we moved on.

Then finally to Golden Gate for a look about before the M&G. It was horrible! It was dark, smelly, old, musty, and small. I couldn’t believe how cheap the games were. There was $1 Roulette for goodness sakes. There was people sitting there with mountains of chips in front of them, which on closer inspection totalled on average to $4.20 each………………..I had gambled more money in 1 night at Caesars than was on the tables in GG this afternoon.
After about 10 laps we were bored and dizzy so went to scope out the M&G venue. On arrival we found that it was a restaurant. We had already eaten and didn’t really want to be seated again as the man suggested. We had just found out from someone that the lights were coming on an hour later than we thought. I was feeling really tired and to be honest, would have found it really hard work to make small talk with strangers after all the problems I had experienced recently. So we made a communal decision to give it a miss and return to the Bellagio to prepare for our last night out.
It was a shame that we could not meet some of the Forum guys to thank them for all their help but hopefully it will happen in a future trip.

When we arrived back at the room, Roomy was already ready (does that sound right?) and was looking well chuffed with her latest suitcase full of purchases. I had a quick shower and went down to watch some poker while the girls titivated.

The 5 Diamond Poker Classic was in full swing. There had been well attended, big buy-in tourneys running all week. Tonight was no exception as I walked around the roped off area in the middle of the casino, it was like a who’s who of modern poker legends. The 5K tourney was coming to an end. There were only 3 guys left at the final table. Short stack was a guy from the UK. 2nd in chips was apparently a famous USA singer for some group I had never heard of and well in the lead was JC Tran, probably one of the best players in the world. It was great to be so close to the action as I could virtually see Tran’s cards over his shoulder as he took a peak. Between them they had over $2 million worth of chips on the table.
There was also a smaller buy-in tourney in progress, where I spotted many famous players seated. Phil Hellmuth was already out and enjoyed some unusually jovial banter with the assembled crowd. Phil is not usually the happiest of players and is often given 10 minute penalties for his behaviour at the tables. Trouble is, a lot of other players know this and try to goad him during play. I once heard him described as the Poker Piñata because everyone likes to beat him up! I saw a different side to him on this evening. Shortly after we left for the Rio Tran took the Bracelet and the $650,000 first prize.

Taxi for 5 to the Rio and a long awaited evening in the Voodoo lounge. I had been waiting to try the highly recommended Witch Doctor cocktails that so many posters had told me about and we were not disappointed. We weren’t sure how many to have but settled on 3 between the 5 of us and were happy to fork out the $78 once we had tried them.
We took full advantage of the wonderful views as we indulged in a 30 minute photo session on the outdoor dance floor. It really was a great spot to get a good look at the strip from a different angle. I would highly recommend it to anyone.
We were here quite early. None of us are clubbers and didn’t want to dance to the early hours. Even so, in the early evening, the atmosphere was good and the music enjoyable. The Witch Doctors soon dissolved so we ordered a few more other kinds of drinks as we wanted to try some more from the interesting menu.
By about 11pm we decided to make our way back to the strip. We were flying home the next day and wanted to do some packing to save time in the morning for the Bellagio Buffet.
We stopped to watch another Fountain show and suddenly Roomy spotted her quarry. Her friends had challenged her, before she left the UK, to try to get a photo of herself with a Chinese Elvis. (I don’t know and I didn’t ask either!) There posing for photos at the edge of the Bellagio lake was Elvis but he wasn’t Japanese. Actually I believe this was the proper real Elvis. People all over the world have been wondering if he was dead or alive and there he was posing by the Bellagio lake……………..with Marilyn Monroe. I don’t think she was the real one though as she still looked young. The real Elvis on the other hand was knocking on and had definitely seen better days. I persuaded Roomy to jump in between them (she didn’t take much persuasion as the Witch Doctors were working their magic on her).
I took a couple of shots and thanked Elvis and the impostor Monroe and started to walk away. Elvis sprang into action and tried to block our path. They both wanted a tip!!
He said “It’s now or never” but we wouldn’t Surrender. He said “I beg of you” but I said,
“If you don’t move, there’ll be a heartbreak at the hotel!”
He was all shook up and told me I was the devil in disguise.
Roomy said, “I feel so bad” but he was a Teddy Bear so we decided to give him a couple of tips.
Roomy said, “Ditch the wig mate it looks awful!”
I said, “Don’t eat yellow snow!” and we ran off leaving them bemused and penniless.

Hungry now, we went into the Bellagio Snax bar for last orders where I had the best BLT I have ever tried. We played a few more slots then off to bed…………..

Next, the Big Bang Breakfast at the Bellagio Buffet turns out to be a little fizzle…………….





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