The Stratosphere Hotel and Casino is ok. The, "not changed as often as other casinos table coverings" in the ok sized casino is ok. The rooms are clean and comfortable, they are Holiday Inn like, but that's ok. The easy to park in, parking garage has an outside walkway to the casino, but how often dose it rain in Vegas.. so it's ok. The Strat. isn't really near anything else of interest, but people usually go there on the way to, or coming back from Downtown, so that's ok too.<br><br>I was getting up a little later each day. Vegas is three hours earlier than the East Coast and getting up at 10:00am was much better than 5:00am like the first day of the trip. When you're asleep at 11:00pm it pretty much takes going to reviewable restaurants, out of the agenda. I like the, good food at a cheap price, no line and waiting for the check convenience, of coffee shops and food courts anyway.<br><br>After getting up and spending a couple of hours going over notes, watching CNBC business news, and as usual, drinking water copiously, flushing out the good time at New York/New York the night before, i went down to the casino at the Orleans.<br><br>I lost $20 at VP. The ham sandwich, coffee and VP part of the day always seems to be worth the $20. Before i left the Orleans for the day, i played a few quick hands of $10 a hand Pai Gow and won $10. Down $10 for the day.<br><br>From the Orleans, it's about a mile down West Tropicana traveling East to get to Industrial Road. I took a left next to Interstate I-15 onto Industrial Road and Industrial Road north to the Stratosphere. Industrial Road runs parallel to the West Side of the Strip and is, like Paradise Road on the East Side of the Strip, an excellent alternate route for avoiding strip traffic. <br><br>About 4pm, after playing Pai Gow at the Strat.<br>i headed for the Mirage. $10 a hand, won $30, up $20 for the day. (toldya the bad run was fading :-) <br> <br>From when i first saw The Mirage Hotel and Casino in Time Magazine when it first opened, i liked it. The Mirage has a pleasing design that makes sense, it's a good looking building.<br><br>The Poker Room at The Mirage has become legendary. Matt Damon's dream, as a pro poker player from New York City, in the underrated but great movie "The Rounders" was to go to Vegas. To Play at The Mirage and to play in The World Series Of Poker at The Horseshoe. At the end of the movie, Matt Damon's character is riding through the canyons of Manhatten alone in the back seat of a cab, on the way to the airport. The cab driver says to him, in the still dark early morning, as most of us from the East Coast experience, in the same way, when going to the airport, "where ya goin"<br>Damon says, "I'm goin'a Vegas" <br>Love! that part.<br><br>I stopped at the valet station at The Mirage, got out of the car, took the claim ticket from the attendant (tip when picking the car up, $2) and walked right through the entrance to the casino without slowing down.<br><br>Unfortunately, most of the poker games at casinos are played very conservatively. The good players don't bet on the prospects of a hand, especially the locals that have plenty of time and the pros. It's the ultimate in grinding it out. If you have any hopes of winning, you have to be very patient, know the game cold, not make any mistakes..and get lucky.<br><br>With a full table, half are likely to fold after the first three cards are dealt in seven card stud. Raising is scarce and the pots are small. It' not unusual, with five or six cards dealt, for all players left in a hand, to be checking around the table. <br><br>A newbie chasing, trying to force larger pots, will be eaten alive. If you're losing heavily, from going all the way in consecutive hands, it's impossibe, with the small pots, to make up losses.<br><br>My game of choice is poker, but i'm not often at a point when in Vegas, to invest that kind of time. There's too much to do and places to go. I'm happy playing poker related games like Pai Gow Poker, Caribbean Stud Poker and Video Poker.<br><br>The Mirage Sports Book is near the Sports Bar and the Sports Bar is near the Poker Room. The Sports Bar is a good and obvious choice, to spend time while waiting for an opening in the Poker Room.<br><br>The hostess at the entrance to the Poker Room will greet you with the gracious and professional manner of an airline stewardess when air travel was glamorous. She'll introduce you to the "brush". The brush, with an ease and affable camaraderie of a familiar restaurant owner and friend, will ask for your first name and last name initial and put it on his list. There were three names ahead of me.<br><br>The World Series was on at the sports bar. A little more talk was going on than usual because of it. I played VP and told the bar tender my "big story" about placing a bet with 20 to 1 odds last December at the Palms. The bet was on the Red Sox to win the world Series and i told him i WAS hoping to collect on it in person this trip. The bar tender told me that this year's World Series had the lowest TV ratings ever. I said it's probably because New York isn't in it. He said the Mets/Yankee's World Series had the second lowest TV ratings ever, "figure that one out" We had a laugh about that, always feels good when it's on the Yankees :-) Lost $20, even for the day.<br><br>It seemed to be taking awhile for an opening in the Poker Room. I checked once and there were still two ahead of me and i moved on to the Pai Gow pit.<br><br>I guess The Mirage still has the Steve Wynn influence left, it's great place and coincidentally i've had good luck at the tables and VP. I won $60 at Pai Gow that session, and again, it was still coming in when i got up. <br>$10 a hand, won $60, up $60 for the day.<br><br>The Lagoon Lounge at The Mirage. Waterfalls, jungles, atriums, the expensive Kokomos restaurant and the Mobile Five Star, Renoir restaurant all around it. I spent an enjoyable two or three hours here, with comped beer, bottled water, playing VP and watching the band called Party Central. Lost $30, up $30 for the day.<br><br>I went through a full tank of gas already and when i stopped at the Shell Station a short distance West of the Orleans on Tropicana, it was down about another half a tank. The next day, <br>Wednesday, was the flight out, back to Boston. The needle on the fuel gauge of the rental car wouldn't move between the time of the last stop Tuesday night until drop off. I filled the tank with regular for $1.44 a gal, total $12.<br><br>The T-Bone steak special in the excellent coffee shop of the Orleans was..excellent. Salad, big steak, onion rings, fries, garlic bread, for $8.99<br><br>Pai Gow was a break even episode, i thought i'd end play winning, go over to the Orleans lounge and NOT play VP. Won $30 for the day.<br> <br>The band playing in the lounge was the best i heard this trip for rock songs. The lead singer had a great rock voice, good for singing rock. I meant find out the name of the group, ask the bartnders, but must've forgot when the guy down the bar hit the royal at VP.<br><br>I think he was a local, the bar tenders knew him and did as much cheering about it as the winner. <br>There was, understandably, a lot of commotion, the casino likes this, other players like it, it demonstrates it can happen, everybody's happy. <br>