So I treated my Vegas trip basically as a reunion of my MBA class. It was great to see them after a long time. Even though I reached at 1am on Friday night/Saturday morning, the guys were out, and I ended up playing some roulette and some slots and being down already.

Never gamble when you are tired. Never gamble when you lose beyond a certain amount. Obviously I am not going to write how much I lost on that one day - just believe me when I say it was not that much. ;-)

Went up to the room at around 3am, watched a little bit of SportsCenter when one of my roommates came up. We talked for a bit and went to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up at 7am! Yea, after sleeping at 4am, I was able to actually wake up at 7am. Actually, I was woken up by one of my other roommates, who lives on the East Coast and he wanted everyone to think it was 10am. In any case, I showered and was ready for coffee by about 10.30 am.

Went for buffet brunch at Alladin. I think they have the best spread in town. Awesome food, but just so much choice that you get tired eating in no time. I still stuffed myself beyond limit. Could not walk at the end of it all.

Somehow, we made our way out. Some of the gang was going to watch the Cirque Du Soleil show ‘O’ at the Bellagio. So they went to pick up the tickets, while some of us stayed back at Alladin, trying to play some roulette or blackjack. Made up some of the money in roulette. Still down on the trip’s gambling.

Then after a couple of hours of gambling, we went back to the room for a quick power nap. After all, Saturday night was the big dinner planned, and most likely there was going to some some sort of post-dinner activity. So we took a quick nap and started getting ready. We were meeting at the lobby at 5.45pm. We were going to eat at Roy’s, which is Hawaiian Fusion cuisine. I did not know what to expect - never had Hawaiian cuisine. As we walked in, I knew this was going to be a high price place.

There was nothing on the menu that was clearly vegetarian. My friend and I were the only ones vegetarian. Everything was focussed on sea food, and everyone on the table was salivating. The only thing we could get was vegetarian sushi. So we both got that. The dessert was rocking - Chocolate Souffle. Still remember the taste ;-)

After that, everyone went to ‘O’ and I stayed back at the Bellagio casino. Wandered for a bit, and found no place to sit in the lobby or anywhere else. Found some slot machines where I could sit, but I did not want to play. Finally, after getting bored for 30 minutes, I went to a roulette table. In 30 minutes I was down even more. I felt low because there was no real need for me to play at that time. And I lost all of it there.

Then I went across to another roulette table. It was not crowded, and there was this lady who was on a hot streak. She had made so much money, she was putting $50 on 10 numbers at once. And winning! The payouts for numbers are 35-1. So if she hit a number with $100, she made $3500 in one shot! What I decided to do was to follow her good luck. I kept playing on the columns in which she had the most bets. I kept winning too! OF course, my payouts were 3-1 and my bets were small, but hey, I made up ALL of my losses for the entire trip! In a cool 30 minutes. As soon as I hit my breakeven point, I cashed out and left.

It felt good to break even. I started walking aimlessly again. Still could not find a place to sit. One thing that amazes me about Vegas is no matter what time of the day it is outside, it is always 7pm inside. There was no place to walk in the casino because there were so many people. That lucky lady was still winning after I came back from my walk. The table had changed the minimum bets to $25, so I could not play anymore. But the crowd at the table had increased, probably to witness her luck playing out over and over again.

At around mid night, those guys came out of the show. We met up and they wanted to go for some post-dinner activities. Some of us opted out and went to Paris to sit and enjoy a coffee. We sat and caught up on some of our current lives. It was fun.

Finally, went back to the hotel Luxor at around 2.30 or so. We were 4 of us. They were playing some blackjack while I stuck to my lucky roulette. I made some more money. I was ahead. I was AHEAD! I made money in Vegas! Yay! I cashed out, still ahead.

But then, the Vegas luck caught up with me. I was tempted to play some blackjack since those guys were playing. I played and was up. Again. But only for a while. I lost some and some more and ended up walking up with some of the initial stuff still remaining. Cut short my losses and decided to hit the sack. After all, I had a plane to catch at 10am next morning.

So once again, slept at 4 and woke up at 7. Took the taxi to the airport with of the roommates and spent some time chatting with him at the airport and came back home. Not ahead of Vegas, but not a complete loser.

I loved this little vacation.