VIP Vegas Trip

Ladbrokes Poker Vegas Trip by James666

“I had forgotten how much I loved Vegas until Ladbrokes took me away for this fantastic weekend! Every night was beautifully planned and organised, and we all had so much fun! This is why I am part of one of the Poker worlds best VIP Clubs, and I can’t emphasise enough how well you are treated, so all players who love playing, get yourself together and start raking, to get yourselves into the VIP Club at Ladbrokes Poker! Your easiest way to live like a Celebrity!”

Ladbrokes Poker VIP – Vegas Trip

My name is James, and apparently my second name is 666. We’ve all been there, we meet up at various tournaments, poker festivals and days out and are introduced to other players as interested; or more, in the fine game of poker that we are. When we first get introduced, and we each know we play poker the first question is “Hi I am [place your name here], what is your name?” After we have heard our degenerate new friend’s name, we then ask “so where do you play?” and once we know that and/or recognise the online poker room, the third and final question is “what alias do you play under?” Now frequently I have asked this question, and frequently I have heard their alias and made up that all too familiar “oh yes, wow great to finally meet you” as you are still trying to recollect ever playing anyone by that alias on any site. Whilst at the same time completely forgetting that player’s real name, which was the first question you asked them! These [politically correct] ‘persons’ have not got a hope in hell of you remembering them, by ‘either of their names’. Whereas if you do instantly recognise their alias, you completely disregard their real name and from this moment forward whenever you meet them you shall be calling them out by their online alias – how very sad...

Everyone is now clocking off, realising I am not writing about Las Vegas, but my bad habit of rudely ‘disremembering’ players names whenever I meet them. Well now the tangent will take a sharp turn back toward the Vegas line. I merely mentioned the forgetful tendencies of most poker players, as this is what happened to me in Las Vegas, when Ladbrokes kindly took 10 of us away for an extended weekend to see the Ricky Hatton fight at the MGM Grand on the 22nd of November. My guest (Gemma) and I arrived at Heathrow airport on the 20th and after hanging around for a while in duty free, as she used me as a large section of perfume testing paper; we made our way to the Virgin Atlantic Gate.

There was a huge queue, as always the ‘gate closing sign’ on the screens, actually meant ‘we can’t be bothered to start boarding yet’. We hung around the departure gate for a good 10 minutes whilst the queue of people wanting to be the first on the plane (god knows why) stood around waiting to be called through. Over the tannoy all upper class, business class and premium economy passengers were invited to skip the queue, so we headed toward the line of passengers with a social standing of a far superior family lineage to the commoners on the left in economy. This is where I first saw the other poker players. Although I had met 2 of the players before, the others were not hard to identify, as usual carrying the standard poker player laptop bag, scandi looking and stern faced. In fact the only 2 I didn’t associate with us until I arrived in Las Vegas, where the two least poker looking, ironically the two most British of us all (Tony and his son Dan).

God knows how many G+T’s later we arrived in LA, then Las Vegas and were greeted by Naomi and Lucy, who swiftly took us off to the hotel (none other than The Bellagio) in a stretch hummer limo. I think at this point everyone was more than tired from the travel to Vegas and just wanted to get to bed.

Apparently this view was not shared by two of the team (C1975h and his guest), who went off to drink and did not get back until late the following morning! Whilst we were too late to catch the last performance of the Bellagio Fountains for the night, the rest of us enjoyed the comfy beds and slept off the long trip.

We all woke up refreshed, sort of, we had a day to ourselves, to explore. Most of us opted for shopping, assuming that we would probably not be in fit states during the day, for the remainder of the week to shop. I managed to find a lovely little DKNY shop in the Caesars Shopping Mall, where I found a velvet suit jacket, some jeans, belt etc... Then a nice trip to the ladies store next door saw me spending even more money!

In the evening, I had just popped out to get something from the hotel shop, and on the way up to my room, met ‘ElloMallo’ who looked rather sweaty, distressed and in a rush – so obviously I stopped him to ask how his day had been! I forget the entire story, but it was something along the lines of “my new suit is still in the shop and I have to go pick it up and I don’t have long until we have to meet the others... argggg”. I let him rush off and went to get dressed up for the night ahead. Being the lazy arse I am, I got dressed late and therefore we arrived at the meeting place 15 minutes late, which apparently was early, as no one else except Naomi and Lucy had got there!

Numerous Cocktails later (some of the best I have tasted, only beaten by the cocktails in the following restaurant), we all headed off to Caesars Palace, to a gorgeous restaurant, which specialised in steaks. Lots of drink, and not so much wine later, we headed off to the ‘Pure’ Nightclub which is right next door to ‘The Pussy Cat Dolls Club’ where I have been many times before... Pure was a fresh experience for me though, and as with every new experience, I got lost! Lucy came and found us, and dragged us through to the VIP section, smack bang in the main dance floor area with more than enough space to lounge on the VIP sofas, with our complimentary bottles of VIP Gin, VIP Vodka and VIP waitresses. This is the life! I love to dance, and make a fool of myself because I can’t dance, so I was the first onto the dance floor attempting to pull others to dance with me, whilst a famous DJ (apparently Mariah Carey’s husband) hammered away R&B until there were no R&B sounds to be played without a repeat. I am a Dance man, and love my anthems, dance and hard house, but the music was good and the alcohol was flowing!

The next day was Fight Night! The day we were all looking forward to, two men in a concealed area punching each other until blood excreted through their skin.... what a fabulously British sport! We were all met, and taken to the MGM Grand in the stretch hummer limo again; whilst Lucy handed out the official floor fight tickets (worth $1000 each!) and VIP Passes. As efficient Ladbrokes members of staff, we arrived to the pre fight meal only a few minutes late, to find that no one else had turned up. Apparently all the other tables at the meal would come fashionably late... Hey ho, more alcohol for us! As Lucy and Naomi set on the bucks Fizz’s, the lads set on the bottled beers, and the other ladies at the table (Gnisteren included) continued with champagne ;-). A very funny comedian kept us all laughing, with some very dry humour and impressions before introducing the speakers, of whom I have no idea who they are. I am sure if you were a heavy boxing enthusiast you would know them, but the fact one appeared to be 7ft tall, whilst the other a mere 4ft kept me entertained no end! After the meal we all headed to the arena to catch some of the undercard match featuring Ricky Hatton’s brother, Mathew Hatton, who won in the 9th round I believe.

The last undercard fight was almost as impressive as the Main fight, when a boxer called ‘Vera’ caught the attention of the 30 something year old lads in the row behind us, who started chanting a very witty “come on Viera!” As it happens ‘Viera’ was getting seven shades of Sunday knocked out of him, but respect, he kept getting up and taking more until his coach threw in the towel!

All of a sudden Gemma, Lucy and Naomi started to quiver, as I think everyone else in a 50 metre proximity did, as David Beckham walked through to a seat only a few away from where we were sitting. I have never seen as many girls try and take photos of the back of a bald man’s head, as David Beckham, it’s ridiculous, girls pull yourself together! Other Celebs nearby were the god Sylvester Stallone, Viv Anderson, the Gallagher Brothers (who are Dan’s biggest hero’s, and also the inspiration for his visionary lady like hair style) and the bald guy from ‘The Transporter’ and ‘Snatch’. I don’t know much about boxing, but I got well into the mood of things cheering on my good friend Ricky Hatton.

Hatton wins in the end, lots of cheering, lots of drinks go flying, lots of loud Englishmen start chanting through the corridors on the way out and we end up at ‘Studio 54’ (MGM’s Nightclub) to celebrate. Through the course of the night I have once again been mugged by the guys with cameras, taking your group photos and selling them to you for thousands of dollars at the end of the night, to which I fall prey to everywhere I go. With my jacket, photo album, and somehow Gemma’s handbag in hand, we found a roulette table to have a flutter on before the club, and after making a nice tidy $400, we both decide we should play roulette professionally from now on.

At Club 54 Naomi proceeds directly to booking us a table, with copious amounts of alcohol just off the dance floor, and the night hots up. Now more aware of each other, all the players are starting to bond, and through the strong vapour of alcohol spreading as each player talks to one another, I start to feel very up for some heavy dancing action! The dance floor had my name on it, and I think I could have taken down ‘Strictly come Dancing’ with my Latin flair and well-timed moves, at least I thought so! Numerous drinks later, lots of dancing and talking (shouting in each others ear’s to be heard above the music) later we made our move back to the hotel room, not after taking the micky out of ‘ Rapunzal’ (someone in the club who had hair down to her knee in a plat, just like in the fairy tale).

The following day, I woke up with the ever so slightest touch of a headache, but that was quickly gone when the sight of the Bellagio Fountains dancing to the tune of ‘Titanic’ meant that mist was spread across the lake in a magical way whilst the fountains danced like fairies, out of my lake view window. Another Fillet Steak for breakfast and I was good to go. Yet again the day ahead had been planned by Lucy and Naomi, to keep us all entertained. I was not looking forward to this trip via helicopter to see the Grand Canyon as much as I was looking forward to the other nights, as I am not a very ‘nature sightseeing’ sort of guy. I would rather be locked in a bar all night with endless Gin. I was wrong!

Just taking off in the helicopter was like a rollercoaster, and our pilot was awesome. I turned into a school kid, the fact that he said do not open the door, do not touch this, do not touch that, and the fact that every button was red or said DO NOT PULL, made me sit on my hands for the duration of the journey! When we landed in the Grand Canyon, I was mesmerized, I did not think I would be, but I truly was. The view from the helicopter was amazing, but when deep inside the crevasse of the canyon, right where a river used to tear through billions of years ago was breathtaking. Whilst Gemma looked for rocks to take home as presents, I took as many photos as I could of the scenery, other people shouted loudly, to hear the echoes dance around the sheer rock faces of the canyon. I lived in Las Vegas for 5 months last year, but not once did I take the helicopter ride to see Lake Mead, the Hoover Dam, or the Grand Canyon, sunset over the Vegas Strip, all of which we saw on this trip which I am really glad I did! I was missing out for 5 months, not viewing this stunning scenery! On the return to the airport I sat in the front of the helicopter, bad idea... Juices were flowing to touch some of the many knobs and buttons on the dashboard! We flew past the Vegas Strip at night time, which was magical; the only thing better would have to have seen the Bellagio Fountains or the Mirage Volcano in action as we flew past. On arrival at the airport, yet again I fell prey to the photo album and DVD collection of the flight, I am such a mug! The rest of the night we all parted ways to enjoy Vegas on our own, therefore since we were in Vegas I had to go to a show. We chose Mystere, by Cirque du Soleil at Treasure Ireland, after watching the Pirates and Sirens show outside. The show was great, and the fact I was picked to take part in the show made the night all that much better!

In the words of Jason Medley – Good Luck at the Felt!