Living it Loving it

This should hopefully be the first of many post while we are out here in Las Vegas.

We arrived on schedule at 2.15pm yesterday afternoon(local time) after getting up at 4am in the UK so I believe that would have been 10pm we arrived UK time. Our flight for Chicago left on schedule and was a full flight. I must say I was a little concerned when I boarded since it was my first time flying with American Airlines and the flight number '99' sounded like something you would normally hear on the news "Flight 99"!

We had a 2 hour turnaround in Chicago so there was not really any hanging around. Our Internal flight to Vegas was also full but I am so glad we didn't take the direct flight because we were flying at relatively low altitude across about 5 U.S states including Colorado, Utah and a bit of Arizona and the views were absolutely stunning. I was hoping we would have flown over the Grand Canyon but we didn't and approached from the other side. The journey went quite quickly as I was chatting to the passenger beside me for a lot of the journe who was a Car Salesman that frequents Vegas so managed to get plenty of advice and tips for while we are out here, he also happened to be staying in the same hotel.

On arrival and first stepping out into the fresh(?) air for the first time we were smacked by the heat(106 degrees). This is the first time I have ever experience heat such as this, the only thing that comes close was Singapore however that was a very different heat and very humid, this is a very dry desert heat. If you have ever been here before you will know what I mean.

We arrived at the hotel and got checked in with no problems, the hotel is staggering I mean I know the Americans do things big but this place just takes it to another level. Even the vases in reception are huge and stand at around 15ft with suitably sized flowers in them as well. The room is unbelieveable with a small study area and lounge area, 3 flat screen TV's, even one in the bathroom, I don't how we can be expected to live in such conditions!

A quick shower and then downstairs to meet Dave Brannan for a drink and quick catch up, we then had a meal at the cafe within the Palazzo. Dave took us on a quick tour of part of the strip to familiarise ourselves with the surrounding area but by this time we had been up for about 25 hours with no sleep and so we went back to the hotel and crashed and burned about 9pm local time. I am currently writing to you at 3.30am local time because I can't sleep so I have a feeling this is going to be long day!

We have a couple of meetings in the morning, meeting with some players for a drink at lunch tomorrow to introduce ourselves and then off to the Rio to start work where we have to ensure all of the WSOP registrations have been correctly process and we have a few late arrivals to get bought in.

I will try and post up some photos shortly but for now I should really try and get some more sleep.

Si

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Wow was not expecting a write up that quickly, Vegas really is amazing and I know you will all have a great time, even if you are working.  I cant handle the heat here let alone 106 degrees!!!!!!   Get some sleep and we look forward to seeing the photos.  Enjoy the experience as much as you can.

 

Miss Rivercard xxx

Great post Si, keep us up to date, none of us are jealous honest lol.

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I'm already famous.

Lol we have not lost the weather here.  I would say its about 100 degrees in our office, at least they have air con!!!!!

Miss Rivercard xxx

Yeah very true its great here too...even if I have had to erect a tent to keep me semi cool while trying to fix the car lol.

 

 

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I'm already famous.

I'm awake again so here are some more photos from my other camera. I will hopefully have my better camera out with me today and get some better shots out and about. Off to meet the Brannans for coffee and breakfast.

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Apologies for the delay on the report for day 2, not a lot to be said as a large chunk of the day was work related so not had a great deal of free time so far and absolutely shattered.

In the afternoon we had a meeting at The Rio where we met with the World Series of Poker back office team, you would be shocked to see it considering the size of this organisation and event as it is a relatively small partitioned room in the cage. While we we were there we stuck our noses into the main hall and saw Phil Hellmuth. We also found out a bit more about the Ante Up For Africa charity poker event running the next day where the likes of Matt Damon, Ben Afleck, Charles Barkley and others would be taking part.

In the evening we saw a bit more of the strip taking a trip up to the Luxor a giant pyramid hotel where we had a buffet dinner which was pretty good value for money and not bad food. We needed to walk it off afterwards so we took a quick look in New York New York which I personally was not that impressed with and it definitely lacked atmosphere the same was to be said for Excalibur but this is just my own personal opinion.The MGM which I only briefly saw was different and did have a much more lively atmosphere in comparison.

I can't keep my eyes open any longer so will have to leave you with some more photos for now as I have another busy day tomorrow. 

                            

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Morning all,

Problems sleeping still so been up since 4.30am! Not a lot to report on yesterday really as it was one of our busiest days because the majority of players were due to arrive at the hotel. There was the Ante up for Africa charity poker event at the Rio which I managed to get to for about half an hour and saw Ben Afleck and Matt Damon (had to drag my wife away), also there that I recognised was Mike Tyson, Charles Barklay, Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson, Don Cheadle, Dean Cane, Jay-Z and I am sure many others that I just didn't recognise. Oh and the original Batman was there I think his name is Adam West. 

In the evening we went to...that's right you got it, another buffet. This one was at the Mirage and not so good but as I hadn't eaten all day I would eat anything. After the meal I took my wife to see the fountains of Belagio which were stunning! We want to return and try and see them again from the top of the Eiffel tower.

I will leave you with some more photos and hope to have more to report soon. Today could go one of two ways as it is our day of reckoning when we find out how many players did or didn't actually check in and we have to walk a bunch of players over to the Rio to buy them into the main event. Lets hope they all manage to drag themselves out of bed to make the registrations in time!

                      

P.S. Did I mention that the ladies in Vegas are B.E.A.utiful! :) - Sorry Mrs.D!

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Friday saw day 1 of the main event at the World Series of Poker begin. After some breakfast downstairs in the hotel we had a meeting to review how the hotel reservations and arrivals had gone and to agree how we could best manage the no-shows because Poker players being Poker players could still be coming they were just late! It was agreed that the hotel reservations would be kept open for a couple more days and any late for the WSOP would roll over to the next day of the main event until day 4 after which time we can no longer help them.

In the afternoon I actually got a bit of spare time and ended up running around the strip trying to get the best price for some tickets to see a show that evening with my wife. We both really wanted to see the Cirque duSoleil 'O' but it turns out it is the most popular show in Vegas at the moment and tickets need to be booked way in advance. I think the concierge were able to get a couple but at $180 a ticket they can take a hike. In the end we went to watch the Cirque du Soleil 'Love' show. In case you are in Vegas and want to get a good price on tickets there is a company called Tix for Tonight where you can buy discounted tickets for shows and excursions and they have a number of kiosks on the strip, the one I went to was at the Fashion Show Mall opposite the Venetian/Palazzo hotel.

We had pre-show drinks in a funky "VIP" Beatles bar at the Mirage and the drinks were expensive in my opinion. Now it appears that my opinion of this show is a bit controversial because I was not blown away by it, I loved the music and the video, special effects and artwork were great but it was a bit weird in my opinion. The second half of the show was by far the best. Having seen another Cirque du Soleil show before in Florida called La Nouba I suppose I was expecting something similar. I should probably mention that having got the tickets half price(about $80 per ticket) I have no regrets about watching it.

We were really tired during and after the show and agreed that a drink before hand was not the best move however now we were out we thought we would head back to the Palazzo where we are stayng and get a drink and play some of our free $25 slot credits. Having no idea what we were doing we sat down at the 1c machines and claimed some our free credit and just watched the wheels roll letting the machine do its thing - making no sense to us whatsoever. A scantilly clad barmaid came over and took our order for drinks and returned sometime later, it appeared I didn't have to pay for them as such I just slipped her a...couple of dollars - great news. However, as the night goes on it gets a bit annoying having to wait so long for someone to show up and then for her to bring them back when you want a drink because a single barmaid is covering such a large area. As a result we cashed up our winnings of about $12 and went up to bed.

Sorry for the quality of the photo but it was taken on my phone covertly as they restrict any sort of photography in there!

 

 

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Today was the first full day I have had off since I got to Vegas and happened to be July 4th. We started the day with a walk up the strip to Harrahs where we got dragged inside by some people that seemed to be selling some sort of time share thing or similar and in exchange for going on one of their viewng trips you get free show tickets. We told them to hop, skip and jump and continued to the buffet breakfast a little further into the casino. The casino itself is a bit of a dive but the buffet breakfast was good and they even cook custom made ommeletes to order. Now, what I don't get is that at 10.30 in the morning they are serving a full dinner menu also and some of the larger citizens are coming away from the buffet with plates piled high with chicken wings, burgers and all sorts - it was sickening! Only in America!

After breakfast we got a day pass on The Deuce, the double-decker bus line serving Las Vegas. The day pass is $7 and lasts for 24 hours and serves you for any bus trip in Vegas and I think is good value for money since cab fars + tips can rack up quickly. We headed up to the Luxur which is a Pyramid shaped hotel and casino, its an interesting building and has to be seen. Out the front as you will see from my photos there is a huge great big sphinx. We were there to try and get tickets to the relics of the Titanic exhibition but decided to give it a miss at $30.00 a ticket.

From the Luxur we got the monorail to Excalibur which I would consider to be a budget hotel on the strip in comparison to many of the others we had seen, it is something more affordable for the masses. We walk across the bridge to New York New York where we made the impulse decision to go on the roller coaste there which looked immense. I think it was $14 dollars a ride and goes up almost as high as the empire state building it runs next to - its one hell of a ride!

After the ride I was dragged into the M & M and Coke shops by my wife - I don't shop so this was not my idea of fun! We then continued down the strip to Miracle Mile shopping mall where outside they were setting up the equipment for a July 4th stunt that night. At the mall we saw Chester Bennington from Linkin Park signing in Club Tattoo another star my wife could add to her list she has seen since being in Vegas. I decided that being July 4th I would try one of the Yard long cocktails everyone was walking around with so I got a mixed one with an extra shot, it takes an age to get through but when I was done I was pretty merry and on my way, that was not my intention but hey :) If you had bought one in the UK it would have been 90% ice and 10% alcohol, this was the other way around which I was not expecting. We bussed it back to the hotel and I got another drink at the bar before heading upstairs to get ready for our July 4th night out downtown.

We caught a cab downtown and ate in the Golden Nugget which is where the Poker in the Pub winners stayed this year. The food was good and affordably priced. We had a drink in the Goden Nugget and then headed out into Freemont Street just in time to see a stunning light show. I will try and get a video up when I get back, later on they did one with Queen and "We will rock you", as a big fan of Queen I loved this one. We grabbed another couple of yard long cocktails and hung around to watch a live band before grabbing a cab back to the hotel where we crashed pretty early. I have to say that although I had a good night I was expecting much more in the way of celebrations for July 4th - it was a little disappointing!

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We started the day at the Rio where we had to move some players around between the day 1 tournaments, most seemed keen to play on the last day 1 tournament. We had to hang around the Rio until the tournament started and then we went for the obligatory drive out to the "Welcome to Las Vegas sign".

 

Off to the left of the sign there was a billboard(below) which we found quite amusing:

I was then made to continue on to the Bells outlet which is basically a shopping mall a little way out and sells all sorts of stuff at lower prices than you would find in general high street shops.

On the way back we popped into a few more shops on the strip and had a quick drink in MGM before heading back to the hotel to get ready for our evening meal.

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Today we had an 08:30 start and had to catch a bus over at Treasure Island that was to be taking us on our "half day trip" to the Hoover Dam and Boulder City. After going into most of the major hotels to pick up more passengers we eventually set off at about 10am. En-route we were played a DVD on the history of the Hoover Dam and how it was made - this was facinating and an amazing feat of engineering for the time and even by todays standards.

On arrival we went straight onto the VIP tour that took us underground in and behind the dam itself which was interesting. We went to 3 different levels where we were given talks on the purpose of each area. We went right down to into the heart of the Dam to where the turbines live that generate the hydro-electricity.

I have lots more photos from the outside views of the dam which I will try and put up later or it may have to wait until I get back as they are very big files and the WiFi here is not exactly fast.

There was a deal on with a new tour company so for $99 we got a 15 minute helicopter ride around the Dam and surrounding area which was great. I have some video for this that I will try and put up when we get back.

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I have uploaded more photos from my trip to the Hoover Dam for anyone that might be interested. If you are in Vegas this is IMO money well spent on a trip and tour around the dam. If you are interested in that sort of thing, the history behind it and how the dam was built is facinating especially given the tools that were available and the speed in which it was built.

View them as a slideshow here

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