Day Two Las Vegas Trip

We ate at a buffet this morning. When we were done we decided to get going for the day. We also decided that after yesterday and all the walking we did we would now use the taxi system to get around. It will cost us a little bit more but at least we would save our legs and feet.
First stop was the downtown strip. We were dropped off at the door of Binions Horseshoe. As we walked in we noticed the dark wood and low ceiling. I noticed the pictures of past Poker Champions on the wall and we walked over to them. Standing next to those pictures was a person that started talking to us. He has been with Binions for 6 years as a dealer. He talked to us about some of the history and what was going to happen in the future for Binions. A company has bought Binions and will be taking all of the carpet out with the horseshoes on them and also changing all the chips. He told us that we need to get ourselves a chip because they will be gone. He mentioned that some of the chips are being sold for 2 or 3 times their value on the internet. We walked over to the poker room. The recent past champions pictures were on the wall. It was impressive to see where it all began. We went out of the casino and into the walkway of the downtown strip. This would look impressive at night with all the lights on. We went into the Golden Nugget and Cindy played a slot machine. Back out on the strip we walked the length and back. We went back into Binions and I sat down to play blackjack. I was able to walk out with one chip.
Back into the taxi and we went to the Mandalay Bay Casino. We went through the shops and we went through the Shark Reef. Such a big aquarium with all kinds of sharks and other tropical type fish. Cindy was able to pet the baby stingrays they had in a petting pond. We purchased tickets for the Imax Theater in Luxor to watch a 3D movie on sharks. By having the glasses on the sharks seem to come right up to you, the jellyfish would swim past you and you could reach out and touch them, so it seemed. By this time it was now about 3:45 and we wanted to get back to our room to change for the evening.
We walked through Excaliber, New York New York and arrived back to the Monte Carlo. We rested for a little bit.
At about 4:30 we took a taxi to the Luxor. The dinner reservation was for 5 PM. We were early by 10 minutes so we went out to the casino floor. Cindy found a machine she wanted to play so I put in $20 and she started working the machine. She was able to hit paydirt for $176. She paid me back my $20 and we headed for dinner. The dinner consisted of Salmon for Cindy and I had the Filet Mignon. Very good meal. We were done in time to go to the show " The Blue Man Group ". Our seats were in the mezzanine in the middle section. We were in the front row as well. The show had a lot of crowd participation. They were very good with the tubes. The guys would go up into the crowd. At one point they went to the back of the room and started to pull rolls of paper to the front over the people. There was so much paper and we were moving it forward to the front. At one point Cindy was buried in paper, as I was, and she was able to get the paper off of her and I heard her scream. I started to get to the top of mine just in time to see one of the guys staring at Cindy about 2 - 3 feet from her. The expression or lack of was priceless. It was a fun show.
After the show we got a taxi to the Venetian. Cindy noticed that they had some art pieces from Picasso and others they were showing. We just didn't have the time to see this one. We took a taxi back to the Monte Carlo and Cindy wanted to go shopping and then to bed. I was headed to the casino floor for some more gambling.
Walking down to the casino floor I decided to start with the Video Poker machines. I wanted to work the same machines as I did last night. I sat down and put in $20. My strategy was to play the same way I did last night. Keep all pairs. Keep all face cards unless a pair was on the screen. I got a 4 of a kind and it paid off about $200. I actually ran the machine out of money and an attendant had to come and refill it so I could get all the money due to me. At that time I decided to move to another machine two seats down. I put in $20 and started the same strategy. An older gentleman came around the corner and wanted to know if I was done with the machine I had just won on. He stated he had just left it before I started on it and won. He went back around the corner and moved his stuff to that machine and started playing. He never did get anything from it. The machine I was playing came up with 4 of a kind and it paid off about $125. I decided to move down a couple more chairs to the machine I used last night. I put in $20 and started using the same strategy. The older gentleman kept watching me and asking about what I was doing. This time I went through the $20 and did not win anything. I took my two buckets of coins to the cashier and she gave me $300 in cash. I wanted to play blackjack and I headed over to the tables. I walked around the tables to find a seat available and could not find a seat at all. All the tables were full. I sat down at a blackjack video machine. I put in $20 and by midnight I was even and decided to call it done for the night.