Written by Kim
We always enjoy a stop at Hard Rock Hollywood during our January Florida adventure. We’re not huge gamblers but like to play pai gow poker and some slots. We know the casinos always win but we’ve been on quite a roll with the same gambling money we budgeted before Christmas which is a nice feeling. We’ve been to Borgata twice, 2 cruises and now Hard Rock and have more money in our envelope than we started with. Wahoo! We had quite the experience yesterday playing pai gow. A guy at the table next to us got 5 aces which is a very rare hand that pays 400:1. We were all excited to see him win $4,000 on his $10 bet. The next hand I start opening my hand and I see 3 aces – that’s good a $15 payout. Then I see another ace – even better $125. I open 2 more cards and there’s a joker. I yell “holy shit I got 5 aces”. Alex tells me to put my cards down immediately so I don’t disqualify the hand by pulling it off the table. I settle down and set the hand while the pit boss comes over in amazement. He’s never seen 5 aces dealt and now he’s seen 2 in back to back hands. Wow! Hard Rock has been good to us. 2 years ago Alex got 5 aces and I was convinced I’d never see another. Wahoo now we both have gotten 5 aces for $2,000 payout on a $5 bet (and a W2G to report to IRS).
We decided to head out for some trivia where our good luck continued. We went to a dive bar about 30 minutes away. It was a very local crowd but it was inexpensive, beer was cold & food and trivia were good. We were in second going into the final question which is always hard for us because you typically have to rank things in order. The question was rank 4 places in order built oldest to newest. We got it – Leaning Tower of Pisa, Ivan the Great’s Kremlin, Taj Mahal and The Alamo. We told the host to pass the trophy and gift cards to 2nd, 3rd and 4th place teams since we were visiting which made the locals happy. Many came up to us congratulating and thanking us.
Wednesday was laundry day to off to the laundromat (my happy place) we went after a great breakfast. Alex found this local breakfast spot on Google that we almost couldn’t find. It was in the back of some office buildings. It was quite a local place – everyone knows your name and orders the usual. We had a yummy breakfast that was much cheaper than Hard Rock
Thursday we spent the day giving back a little of our winnings but our envelope is still full. Thanks to our friends, Pat and Michelle, seeing our post on Facebook that we were at Hard Rock we were able to catch up for some lunch before heading off to the airport.
The Hard Rock Hollywood is a really nice property. It’s very well kept and you always see people cleaning and maintaining things. The have this cool Oculus water show that I was lucky to see my favorite artist, Bowie, Let’s Dance.
We used Park & Sleep to leave our car at Hilton Garden Inn at Dania Beach so it is secure while we fly up to Philly for Brady’s birthday. The hotel offers airport shuttle and gated parking which makes me feel better because we have lots of stuff in the car from our month in FL. We decided to stay a few extra days and fly from FLL to ACY because the round trip flight for both of us was $72 – $36 each. We only use Spirit for short direct flights because you can’t beat that cost. We will have a few nights at Borgata before the party then we will fly back to FLL, sleep one night and drive home.
Thanks for following along on our January in Florida.
