Las Vegas June, 2009

We went to Las Vegas for a regional bridge tournament. We only played five sessions, but did OK, getting about 6 points (two red and four gold). Afterwards, I updated my masterpoints spreadsheet and found that getting to a knockout semifinal (5.62 points) got Mischel to exactly 400.00 points (I’m about 40 points behind her).

Anyway, Mischel got a Southwest package deal, including a room at the Encore, the Wynn addition. Here’s the view from our room:

Encore: view from our room

The big blue building is the Fontain Bleu (sp?), a new hotel/casino which is almost done, but stopped, and in bankruptcy. The economy has caught up with Las Vegas. The existing casinos are doing OK, but not great, as advance vacation and convention bookings are apparently way down.

On the left of the picture is the corner of the construction site for the Echelon hotel/casino, also stopped. The striped tent thing is the front of Circus Circus. Way on the upper right is the Las Vegas Hilton.

In front of the Fontain Bleu is the Riviera, where the bridge tournament was held. We walked back and forth, a 10-minute or so amble along Las Vegas Blvd. with trashy stores (except for the Peppermill restaurant) on our side and the Echelon construction site on the other.

The Encore has a butterfly theme, with butterflies everywhere on the ground level: floor, ceiling and walls. The floor mosaics are better done than the flowers at the Wynn. Here’s one:

Encore: floor mosaic

Encore: butterfly on a flower on a wall

Tuesday, June 23

Our neighbor Jo gave us a ride to the airport and we flew Southwest from San Jose to Las Vegas. We took a cab to the Encore and checked in. The normal room is a mini-suit; still, Mischel prefers the Palazzo, with a similar layout, but with a step-down between the bedroom and living room areas.

Encore room: looking in; Mischel

The remote control drapes and sheers are fun. The right wall is a mirror:

Encore room: looking out

We were on the Heinz floor (57), room 35 ( 5 times 7 ). The 57 is phony, because there are no floors 40 to 49, supposedly because those numbers are bad luck.

Anyway, we had a late lunch at the Society restaurant in the Encore, then took a cab to Planet Hollywood to see the new T&A show, the PeepShow. It stars a Playboy bunny, Holly Madison, who never attempts singing or dancing, but looks good in a G-string.

Somewhere along the way Mischel got lucky:

Blazing sevens on a quarter slot

After the show the Planet Hollywood restaurants were busy, so we walked over to the Bellagio and had dinner in their café by the conservatory.

Bellagio conservatory

Wednesday, June 24

We walked to the Riviera and played bridge. We picked up two ladies from San Diego, and played a knockout event, in bracket seven of nine. We easily won the first and second sessions, and had dinner inbetween at Kristopher’s, the Riviera steak house.

Thursday, June 25

This is a walkway through the Encore casino. The main gaming area is on the left, the high-limit rooms are on the right. Society, Wazuzu and Switch are restaurants. The crystal peacocks are in front of the Baccarat room.

Encore casino

Encore casino peacock

On the way to the Riviera we had brunch at the Peppermill restaurant. We lost the third knockout session by a wide margin, but got a tie for third/fourth in our bracket worth almost 6 points.

To console ourselves, we had dinner at the SW Restaurant at the Wynn. SW: Steve Wynn. We had steaks and a nice bottle of wine. Very good.

Friday, June 26

We walked to the Riviera and played bridge. We tried a compact knockout event with Mich from our club and his friend Dick. Had we won the second match of the first session we would have played Saturday morning, but we lost both.

Somehow Mischel got us a complementary buffet lunch at the Wynn, which was very good. Among other things, I had a pear & walnut salad, seabass, lamb and a raspberry-chocolate dessert.

Friday evening we played a single-session Swiss event with the knockout ladies, but only won one match. Afterwards we showed Phyllis V. our room and gambled with her some at the Wynn. She found a twenty-payline Hot Shot penny machine and was happy as a clam.

Saturday, June 27

We checked out of the Encore and parked our bags at the Bell Desk.

Encore: crystal dragon at the Wazuzu restaurant

We had brunch at the Wynn Terrace Point restaurant. We had their Maine lobster Benedict, which was special.

Wynn: Terrace Point restaurant ceiling

We gambled some more, then flew Southwest to San Jose and took a cab home.