**Warning** Trip Report contains slight Poker talk and more of a trip summary but some poker talk is better then none :)

3/16

We arrived to the Aria hotel at 3:30pm. Upon checking in we were greated by a lady who told us to stand in a certain line. After about 15 minutes it was our turn and we recieved our room keys. The front desk lady kinda creeped me out but its vegas...The aria standard rooms are amazing. This is my wife and I's first trip to Las Vegas. She has to stand by me when i play alot of online poker so i really wanted her to get excited about this trip. we could of stayed at the excalibur for 53 bucks a night but the extra 100 is well worth it for 1st timers IMO. When we walked in our room you are greated with the TV turning on and welcoming you(by your name) and the curtains opening to give you the OH WOW feeling. After we settled in we were hungry and went to the sports bar called (Skybox). Their food was okay but their service was horrid. We must of waited 15 minutes before anyone came and got us our drinks. As i was telling my wife to just go they saw us getting up and decided to help us. After we ate my Wife and I started out playing *let it ride* a table game thats fairly simple to understand. I hit a straight flush and was up $400.00 within the first hour. We left that game and went to another table game called *Ultimate Texas Holdem* and won another $200.00. So excited we were up in Aria my wife wanted to do some sight seeing so we decided to check out as many of the casinos to the right of Aria tonight and the others tomorrow. Heres a brief summary of the 5 we stopped by:

1. Monte Carlo- average casino. Full fo young 21-30 men who love being loud at the table games.

2. Excalibur- Run down, crowded, smells old

3. Luxor- Young people party station. Cheap. Old

4. MGM Grand- walked in..took couple steps around... nothing special so walked out

5. New York- 14.00 roller coaster ride. Well worth it. Very scary IMO at night. 2nd lvl arcade for kids. Standard Hotel

We ended off the night playing letitride and blackjack to give back about $500.00 and ended the night after spending money on random crap about $-259.00 at 1:30am.
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3/17

Woke up and ate at "The Cafe" at Monte Carlo. Ordered belgian waffle and wife ordered biscuits and gravy. Some bad ass food and relatively inexpensive.
I have heard that the Aria tourny was pretty good and really wanted to play it this day. It is a 120 buyin with 8k starting chips and 30 minute lvls. I took my wife to the Spa inside aria and got her a 80 minute massage (190.00) at 1pm and registered for the tourny. For some reason i thought this tourny lasted 3-4 hours but was mistaken. After talking to the dealer he says if you run deep it will last until 8pm. There were 57 entrants with top 5 cashing. 1st place was 2498.00 which is awesome but this tourny is very top heavy. The players are mixed in with regulars and tourists. I think this tourny is catching on to some regulars because many knew the dealer and small talked as the tourny progressed. This was my very first poker tourny in vegas so i wanted to prove to myself i can play good besides at Winstar(An indian casino in Oklahoma). I played amazing with a couple bad beats here and there and managed taking 4th when i shoved A4 suited on sb to bb's AK. For the record, if you play this im sure theres no worse feeling then bubbling 6th after playing this for 6 hours. It was 7:37pm when i finished up. When i went to find my wife she was in our room and said she absolutely loved the spa and went down to the concierge to buy tickets to "O" at the bellagio and "Terry Fator" at the mirage the next two nights. We decided to eat at the Hard Rock Cafe across the street which ran us about 60 bucks but good food and visited the ABC store which was a small souvenir shop beside it.

I was exhausted from the poker tourny actually and my body hurt from sitting there for so long but my wife was pumped to go out so we decided to check out some hotels to the left of aria.
We saw:

1. Bellagio-(right next door)- played 5cent Monopoly slot machine and won $140.00

2. Ceasers Palace- Snuck into the pool area without knowing where we were going and took cool pics before security man came and made us leave.

3. Treasure Island- Crowded... No treasure found

After walking around a bit we went back to the Aria and gave about 60 bucks in slots and went to bed around 1:30am.

End day + 310.00.. Up about 50 bucks for the trip.
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3/18

Woke up and ate breakfast at "the Cafe" again for some good food. Bill runs around 35.00 after tips. Decided to play letitride with wife at the monte carlo. Sat down with 100.00 each and within an hour we were up to about 1700.00 between both of us from the best luck in the world. I hit 2 straight flushs and wife hit 2 or 3 full houses all within an hour. Left there after we lost 100 and walked away from table +1450. Wife played monopoly penny machine and won 60 bucks before we went back to the Aria. I bought a 32.00 Hugo Boss plain white T-Shirt since i forgot to pack any so i had an undershirt to wear that night with my nice cloths. I decided I wanted to eat somewhere really nice so we got dressed up and ate at the " Osteria Del Circo " italian restaurant at the bellagio. Great view, Great Service.. price for 2 ran about 120.00 after tip. We picked that restaurant because we were seeing "O" at the bellagio that night and while we were waitin we played monopoly slot and won +230.00 before the show. The show itself was amazing. Definetly a must see if you have not seen it before i believe. They had 2 errors and dropped a person on a catch from a boat and some guy passing a flaiming rod back and forth messed up but still the things they do is amazing in and out of the water. After the show we went back to the Monte Carlo to play a couple more table games and walked out +200.00 in blackjack..
Overall +1800 after expenses for the day
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3/19

Woke up and we took a taxi down to the Wynn becuase i really wanted to check this hotel out. It is the most pleasant to the eyes i think then any others. Not too crowded, nice shopping , many waterfalls and gardens etc. I think i will stay at this hotel next time we return. We ate at the pizza place out on the patio next to a waterfall which was amazing until the waiter came and spilled my Root Beer all over my nice clothes i was wearing. The manager came by and asked if i would like for him to have my shirt dry cleaned and i said hell yes i would. We were seeing Terry Fator tonight so i had to have it back in 4hours or less and he assured me it would be. The pizza was good. The service was good seeing as in how they took care of me and it was just an accident so all was good.
My wife and i went to gamble in the wynn for a bit to waste time and wait for my shirt so started playing slots. Easily dropped 200 on slots then went to table games and dropped about 450.00 on them from the dealers getting so lucky i could cry but its gambling.. whatever.....We saw terry fator and the show was awesome. I ordered a big ass Pina Colada because i wanted to get semi drunk and forget the bad run. Also it made the show extra funny. Went back to the Monte and gave about 400 more away from various crap i forget and ended the day -1200.00
The sleep this night sucked from the loss but still up 650.00 for the trip gambling wise
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3/20

Woke up around 10:30 to eat 1 last time at " the Cafe at the monte since it was good food. Wife and I played with 100 each. I sat at a blackjack table and lost mine and wife played her monopoly slot machine and won 65.00. We went back to the Aria to play ultimate texas holdem and lost the 165.00. Bought in again for 100 and got it to 265.00 and the gambling was done for the trip. We walked to M&M world and took some pictures then got 1 last drink before taking the taxi to the airport back to Dallas, Texas.

Overall we came with 2200.00 and came back with 1200.00 after having a great time doing many things. I think i have gotten my wife hooked on some of the table games that she played with me and hopefully will in the future. Life is better when your wife accepts/doesnt mind you gambling people. We will def return to vegas hopefully soon...