Emily Trott
Legend
Loyaler
This is a very very very tardy report on my trip to Vegas last spring. It was different than my previous two trips because my best friend Alice and her husband were in town as well so I spent the first two of my 5 1/2 days with her so I didn't play any tournaments during that time. Did have lots of fun though and visited a few new places. 
We were all staying at the Sahara, which I'd chosen due to their cozy little poker room where I'd planned to play some cash games for an hour or two before bed each night. Unfortunately that comfy little card room had been converted to a secluded little slots section. So for my morning smoke and coffee, as well as my before going to the room at night cigarette, I made do by playing the Buffalo Bonus machines and did pretty well with them.
On the first morning I met Alice and Paul in the lobby and had planned to introduce them to Vickie's Diner on East Sahara, but Paul had other ideas and he took us to Siegel's Bagelmania at 252 Convention Center Drive in Las Vegas. I'm glad he did because it was fantastic! It had two large rooms with the first one being a deli style with all the wonderful items in display cases and fresh coffee ready for the customers. The other room is tables and booths where we sat and ordered our breakfasts. I should have had a bagel with cream cheese and lox like Paul did because the poached eggs on toast, though delicious, were way way too big a portion for me. The eggs were served on thick slices of freshly toasted bakery bread, and the home fries were pretty good too but a little dry for me.
After breakfast Paul headed off to see his son who was playing in some sort of competition, while Alice and I took at Uber to the Flamingo so she could exchange a pair of slacks that she'd wanted to buy at the Sahara, but they didn't fit quite right so they checked with their store at the Flamingo which had them in the right size. What they hadn't told Alice is that their store in the Flamingo had different name, and it took us over half an hour to locate it.
Then with new slacks in hand we started walking up the strip back to the Sahara. We spotted the Fashion Show Mall (3200 Las Vegas Blvd S) across the street so we crossed over to do some browsing at Neiman Marcus. They had lovely outfits, but would have had to mark them down 99% instead of 50% to fit into my budget. The whole mall was gorgeous and we wandered through some of the other stores. Then, between the escalators, we spotted COCOLINI gelato! The coconut lime cone I had was fantastic, and that on it's own made our visit to the mall worthwhile. After that we crossed back over the strip and headed for the Sahara.
Back at the Sahara we decided that we deserved a reward for the hike we'd just completed, so we went into the Casbar lounge for a couple of Irish coffees with Bailey's. We were waiting to be served and a nice cocktail waitress told us that if we wanted, we could go back onto the casino floor, sit at a slot machine, and all we'd need to is tip her because the drinks would be on the house. So instead of paying $30+ for the Irish coffees and tip, we just tipped her $20. Saving over ten dollars. (The lighting of the lounge is much more subdued than in this picture.)
The next morning Alice and I walked a mile down the street to have breakfast at Vickie's Diner (953 E Sahara Ave). Vickie's home fries are still the best that I've ever had, and Alice gave me this friendship bracelet for my birthday. After that we took another hike down past Circus Circus to put a few quarters in the old time coin slots, and then to Beall's for her to get a top to wear to dinner. Then it was back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at Herbs & Rye (3713 W Sahara Ave). The meal was superb as usual, and I love the happy hour prices on the steaks.
The next morning I saw them off to the airport in an Uber for their trip back to Florida. As they were pulling out of the Sahara's garage, I ordered an Uber to take me to South Point (9777 S Las Vegas Blvd) for the 10 am tourney. I was knocked out a little after 2 so I caught a ride back to the Sahara. Walking back to my room I noticed that Uno Mas Street Tacos (inside the Sahara) had $5 margaritas on special so I turned in there to try one out. As I walked through the doors to my right I could see their kitchen staff assembling tacos behind large glass windows.
I sat down at the bar, ordered a drink, and selected two tacos from the menu the bartender handed me. They were served in a rectangular tray along with a lime and some salsa. They were delicious and the margarita's sublime taste was the perfect thing to wash them down with. After that I had a few cigarettes, played a machine for awhile, and then went up to bed.
The next morning I had a coffee and pastry before taking the monorail down to the Horseshoe for a tournament. Afterwards I picked up a small pizza from the Prendi Grab & Go inside the Sahara, grabbed some soda and snacks from the store, then headed upstairs for bed. Prendi also has some delicious pastry in the mornings. Then it was off to sleep in anticipation of my last full day in Vegas.
I slept in a little bit in the morning before getting up and dressed. Then I did a little preliminary packing in anticipation of heading to the airport the next morning. Rested up I headed over to the Aria (3730 S Las Vegas Blvd) to play an afternoon tournament that had been recommended to me by @Debi right here on CardsChat. It was the fanciest poker room that I've ever been in, and reminded me of one of those fancy San Francisco gambling halls I used to see in the westerns. While I was waiting for the tourney to begin, across the room they were setting up some men with a private table for some game they wanted to play. It was quite the experience. The staff was excellent and made this pretty low roller feel like a high roller.
Well that was my 2025 birthday trip to Vegas. For places I mentioned that I've been to before you can read more about them in my posts about my 2023 and 2024 trips which are linked below.
2023
Diners and Restaurants: https://www.cardschat.com/forum/liv...play-eat-in-vegas-264725/page-25#post-6632427
Poker Tournaments: https://www.cardschat.com/forum/liv...play-eat-in-vegas-264725/page-25#post-6647470
2024
We were all staying at the Sahara, which I'd chosen due to their cozy little poker room where I'd planned to play some cash games for an hour or two before bed each night. Unfortunately that comfy little card room had been converted to a secluded little slots section.
So for my morning smoke and coffee, as well as my before going to the room at night cigarette, I made do by playing the Buffalo Bonus machines and did pretty well with them. On the first morning I met Alice and Paul in the lobby and had planned to introduce them to Vickie's Diner on East Sahara, but Paul had other ideas and he took us to Siegel's Bagelmania at 252 Convention Center Drive in Las Vegas. I'm glad he did because it was fantastic! It had two large rooms with the first one being a deli style with all the wonderful items in display cases and fresh coffee ready for the customers. The other room is tables and booths where we sat and ordered our breakfasts. I should have had a bagel with cream cheese and lox like Paul did because the poached eggs on toast, though delicious, were way way too big a portion for me. The eggs were served on thick slices of freshly toasted bakery bread, and the home fries were pretty good too but a little dry for me.
After breakfast Paul headed off to see his son who was playing in some sort of competition, while Alice and I took at Uber to the Flamingo so she could exchange a pair of slacks that she'd wanted to buy at the Sahara, but they didn't fit quite right so they checked with their store at the Flamingo which had them in the right size. What they hadn't told Alice is that their store in the Flamingo had different name, and it took us over half an hour to locate it.
Then with new slacks in hand we started walking up the strip back to the Sahara. We spotted the Fashion Show Mall (3200 Las Vegas Blvd S) across the street so we crossed over to do some browsing at Neiman Marcus. They had lovely outfits, but would have had to mark them down 99% instead of 50% to fit into my budget.
The whole mall was gorgeous and we wandered through some of the other stores. Then, between the escalators, we spotted COCOLINI gelato! The coconut lime cone I had was fantastic, and that on it's own made our visit to the mall worthwhile. After that we crossed back over the strip and headed for the Sahara.
(The lighting of the lounge is much more subdued than in this picture.)The next morning Alice and I walked a mile down the street to have breakfast at Vickie's Diner (953 E Sahara Ave). Vickie's home fries are still the best that I've ever had, and Alice gave me this friendship bracelet for my birthday.
After that we took another hike down past Circus Circus to put a few quarters in the old time coin slots, and then to Beall's for her to get a top to wear to dinner. Then it was back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at Herbs & Rye (3713 W Sahara Ave). The meal was superb as usual, and I love the happy hour prices on the steaks. The next morning I saw them off to the airport in an Uber for their trip back to Florida. As they were pulling out of the Sahara's garage, I ordered an Uber to take me to South Point (9777 S Las Vegas Blvd) for the 10 am tourney. I was knocked out a little after 2 so I caught a ride back to the Sahara. Walking back to my room I noticed that Uno Mas Street Tacos (inside the Sahara) had $5 margaritas on special so I turned in there to try one out. As I walked through the doors to my right I could see their kitchen staff assembling tacos behind large glass windows.
I sat down at the bar, ordered a drink, and selected two tacos from the menu the bartender handed me. They were served in a rectangular tray along with a lime and some salsa. They were delicious and the margarita's sublime taste was the perfect thing to wash them down with. After that I had a few cigarettes, played a machine for awhile, and then went up to bed.
The next morning I had a coffee and pastry before taking the monorail down to the Horseshoe for a tournament. Afterwards I picked up a small pizza from the Prendi Grab & Go inside the Sahara, grabbed some soda and snacks from the store, then headed upstairs for bed. Prendi also has some delicious pastry in the mornings.
Then it was off to sleep in anticipation of my last full day in Vegas.I slept in a little bit in the morning before getting up and dressed. Then I did a little preliminary packing in anticipation of heading to the airport the next morning. Rested up I headed over to the Aria (3730 S Las Vegas Blvd) to play an afternoon tournament that had been recommended to me by @Debi right here on CardsChat. It was the fanciest poker room that I've ever been in, and reminded me of one of those fancy San Francisco gambling halls I used to see in the westerns.
While I was waiting for the tourney to begin, across the room they were setting up some men with a private table for some game they wanted to play. It was quite the experience. The staff was excellent and made this pretty low roller feel like a high roller. Well that was my 2025 birthday trip to Vegas. For places I mentioned that I've been to before you can read more about them in my posts about my 2023 and 2024 trips which are linked below.
2023
Diners and Restaurants: https://www.cardschat.com/forum/liv...play-eat-in-vegas-264725/page-25#post-6632427
Poker Tournaments: https://www.cardschat.com/forum/liv...play-eat-in-vegas-264725/page-25#post-6647470
2024
