Usually I'm screwed on my birthday. At home it's SXSW, a huge music/movie/interactive conference that literally takes over Austin for a couple of weeks. In Vegas it's March Madness. So generally I'm busy playing (three shows on my birthday last year) which is fun, but (insert whiny voice here) I wanna go to Vegas on my Birthday!!! My Girlfriend also works for SXSW so she stays downtown in a hotel (with a roommate) the whole time. So we barely get to see each other.
This year my birthday fell on a Sunday (March 18th) and technically it's the last day of the conference, but I had no shows to play and no one to see. So I asked ever so sweetly "Sweetie..." and with a begrudging yes I got to work booking my first ever birthday trip!
Sunday March 18 "the day"
I'm up at the ungodly hour of 6:15 AM. I got home from playing in San Antonio the "night" before around 3:30 AM and I was whipped. Got to the airport, through security, boarded, landed, got the rental car and headed Downtown.
Parked at the 4 Queens and headed to the Golden Gate for the LVA pancake coupon. I'm at the bar playing for 50 cents a card and before I had enough points I hit quad 3s with an Ace! I keep playing for a while, head to the booth and cash the coupon (a very easy process) head to DuPars and in 5 minutes I'm eating pancakes I was paid $400 to order. Las Vegas!
Finish off the pancakes and head to the El Co play the $10 LVA slot play and I'm up $10 more. Hit the 4 Queens and $10 LVA slot play and I'm up $20 AND a silver strike! It's time head to the Wynn. The red card system is down... so I head to TI and play for a couple of hours basically breaking even. Back to the Wynn and the card system is still down. I'm off to Bally's
They sent me $25 in free food for my birthday offer and I was given a room in the North tower with a view of Ellis Island, beautiful. Thanks to "xan51090" I got a pair of 24 hour monorail passes and since I was really looking forward to a nice Vegan (I've been Veg for years so a high end vegan meal it a pretty great thing for me) birthday dinner at the Wynn. So I "rail" it to Harrah's and walk the rest. Guess what? The card system is still down. I walked away. Three times and your out Mr Wynn.
I head back and hit Casino Royal. I've never had a card here so I sign up and give them some points (we want to stay at every strip and downtown property and would like to do it for "free"). Rail it back to Bally's and have Pad Thai from Sea for dinner. I love that place.
The rest of the night I mostly played at the Cosmo. Soaking up free drinks and breaking even at VP. Then I hit Planet Hollywood on the way "home". That craps table took a bite out of my winning day.... GO TO BED!
March 19
It was Wellness week and a few of the spa's had some kind of deal going and I went for two of them.
#1 Yoga with the Dolphins at the Mirage. Usually this is $50 but it was on sale for $25 and included use of the full spa facilities. The class was incredible. Our instructor (Willow) was really cool (and pretty!). We are about 10 minutes in to the class and the dolphins start squeaking and clicking, really cool. After class they give us a smoothie.
#2 A facial at the Luxor. I've never had one (but my girlfriend has been telling me to get one for years) It was great! The were charging $50 for 50 minutes and usually it's $140. A very nice deal. My lady was very sweet and she gave me the check list of products she used on me but said I should look for a different line the DIDN'T sell. I was impressed by her honesty.
I ate a little lunch and started "gaming". This day was a slow bleed. $100 here $100 there, at least I got some points on the card...
The craps tables were almost violent. $200 buy in ten rolls later $200 gone! This happened more than once on this day.
I wasn't very hungry so I had some pizza from the stand in Paris (5 mushroom!) and I ate it on one of the couches heading to the Paris convention center. It was nice to watch folks walk by while I was eating.
Back to the Bally's craps table, buy in for $200 and I'm down to $60 in no time so I head to the cashier and some girl runs up and asks me to join her at some club (I don't do the nightclub thing so I can't remember which one). I politely decline and she keeps saying "please" and looking at me all cute like. Eventually she gets that I aint goin to a club and we are not going to "do it" so she moves on. I don't think she was a pro just a girl looking for fun. Hope she found it.
Bed
March 20
I monorail it down to the MGM and hit the Lions share and lose $200. I monorail back home and loose $100 at VP... this is getting old. So I head to the room and play guitar for a while. I love bring a guitar, It really breaks up the losing.
After a while I hit some MGM props and (to my surprise) I made gold card and a little bit of money! Then head back to Bally's and lose lose lose... Back to the room.
I'm looking through my money and things aren't so bad so I put some in my retirement account and take $100 downstairs to play in some kind of penny machine. I'm not big on slots especially penny ones, but I know the casino loves it if you play them, so I'll make them happy.
The day before I played Ghostbusters for a bit so I went for it again. My card wouldn't work... So I turn around and put it in a vp machine nearby and it works fine. So I head back to the busters and both seats are taken. Screw it, I'll play LOTR instead. I put in the $100 and I'm getting decent play, up to about $110. But those machines take SO long when they are counting up your "win" (even if it's less than your playing) that gets annoying. The machine gives me two of those bonus spins to play later but I play them now.
On the first I get 3X and it's a nice little hit, I'm sitting somewhere in the $140 range and then I play the other spin. Suddenly the screen starts "growing" wilds until it's almost all filled. As my excitement grows I stars seeing "Line pays 1000" and I'm thinking cool, ten bucks! But then it starts adding credits and it takes an annoyingly long time (ding ding ding) so I hit the bet again button and nothing happens so I hit it again and it spins.
At this point I'm a little confused prior to the wild hit my credits looked like this 13500, but now they looked like this 145500. On this machine you can't touch your credits and find out how much cash you have, it only gives you the credit balance. I play a bit more and cash out.
Yup, I had some kind of $1100ish hit! Nice.
I take $100 to the high limit and punch a $5 DD for a while earning 200 tier points until it's gone. Then I take $100 to the craps table and it disappears instantly. Back to the room, count the cash, pack, return the rental, airport, and home to my sweetie.
So it was a breakeven trip with paying cash at all times (including spa and food) AND putting some in to my retirement fund.
I'm ready to go again!
This year my birthday fell on a Sunday (March 18th) and technically it's the last day of the conference, but I had no shows to play and no one to see. So I asked ever so sweetly "Sweetie..." and with a begrudging yes I got to work booking my first ever birthday trip!
Sunday March 18 "the day"
I'm up at the ungodly hour of 6:15 AM. I got home from playing in San Antonio the "night" before around 3:30 AM and I was whipped. Got to the airport, through security, boarded, landed, got the rental car and headed Downtown.
Parked at the 4 Queens and headed to the Golden Gate for the LVA pancake coupon. I'm at the bar playing for 50 cents a card and before I had enough points I hit quad 3s with an Ace! I keep playing for a while, head to the booth and cash the coupon (a very easy process) head to DuPars and in 5 minutes I'm eating pancakes I was paid $400 to order. Las Vegas!
Finish off the pancakes and head to the El Co play the $10 LVA slot play and I'm up $10 more. Hit the 4 Queens and $10 LVA slot play and I'm up $20 AND a silver strike! It's time head to the Wynn. The red card system is down... so I head to TI and play for a couple of hours basically breaking even. Back to the Wynn and the card system is still down. I'm off to Bally's
They sent me $25 in free food for my birthday offer and I was given a room in the North tower with a view of Ellis Island, beautiful. Thanks to "xan51090" I got a pair of 24 hour monorail passes and since I was really looking forward to a nice Vegan (I've been Veg for years so a high end vegan meal it a pretty great thing for me) birthday dinner at the Wynn. So I "rail" it to Harrah's and walk the rest. Guess what? The card system is still down. I walked away. Three times and your out Mr Wynn.
I head back and hit Casino Royal. I've never had a card here so I sign up and give them some points (we want to stay at every strip and downtown property and would like to do it for "free"). Rail it back to Bally's and have Pad Thai from Sea for dinner. I love that place.
The rest of the night I mostly played at the Cosmo. Soaking up free drinks and breaking even at VP. Then I hit Planet Hollywood on the way "home". That craps table took a bite out of my winning day.... GO TO BED!
March 19
It was Wellness week and a few of the spa's had some kind of deal going and I went for two of them.
#1 Yoga with the Dolphins at the Mirage. Usually this is $50 but it was on sale for $25 and included use of the full spa facilities. The class was incredible. Our instructor (Willow) was really cool (and pretty!). We are about 10 minutes in to the class and the dolphins start squeaking and clicking, really cool. After class they give us a smoothie.
#2 A facial at the Luxor. I've never had one (but my girlfriend has been telling me to get one for years) It was great! The were charging $50 for 50 minutes and usually it's $140. A very nice deal. My lady was very sweet and she gave me the check list of products she used on me but said I should look for a different line the DIDN'T sell. I was impressed by her honesty.
I ate a little lunch and started "gaming". This day was a slow bleed. $100 here $100 there, at least I got some points on the card...
The craps tables were almost violent. $200 buy in ten rolls later $200 gone! This happened more than once on this day.
I wasn't very hungry so I had some pizza from the stand in Paris (5 mushroom!) and I ate it on one of the couches heading to the Paris convention center. It was nice to watch folks walk by while I was eating.
Back to the Bally's craps table, buy in for $200 and I'm down to $60 in no time so I head to the cashier and some girl runs up and asks me to join her at some club (I don't do the nightclub thing so I can't remember which one). I politely decline and she keeps saying "please" and looking at me all cute like. Eventually she gets that I aint goin to a club and we are not going to "do it" so she moves on. I don't think she was a pro just a girl looking for fun. Hope she found it.
Bed
March 20
I monorail it down to the MGM and hit the Lions share and lose $200. I monorail back home and loose $100 at VP... this is getting old. So I head to the room and play guitar for a while. I love bring a guitar, It really breaks up the losing.
After a while I hit some MGM props and (to my surprise) I made gold card and a little bit of money! Then head back to Bally's and lose lose lose... Back to the room.
I'm looking through my money and things aren't so bad so I put some in my retirement account and take $100 downstairs to play in some kind of penny machine. I'm not big on slots especially penny ones, but I know the casino loves it if you play them, so I'll make them happy.
The day before I played Ghostbusters for a bit so I went for it again. My card wouldn't work... So I turn around and put it in a vp machine nearby and it works fine. So I head back to the busters and both seats are taken. Screw it, I'll play LOTR instead. I put in the $100 and I'm getting decent play, up to about $110. But those machines take SO long when they are counting up your "win" (even if it's less than your playing) that gets annoying. The machine gives me two of those bonus spins to play later but I play them now.
On the first I get 3X and it's a nice little hit, I'm sitting somewhere in the $140 range and then I play the other spin. Suddenly the screen starts "growing" wilds until it's almost all filled. As my excitement grows I stars seeing "Line pays 1000" and I'm thinking cool, ten bucks! But then it starts adding credits and it takes an annoyingly long time (ding ding ding) so I hit the bet again button and nothing happens so I hit it again and it spins.
At this point I'm a little confused prior to the wild hit my credits looked like this 13500, but now they looked like this 145500. On this machine you can't touch your credits and find out how much cash you have, it only gives you the credit balance. I play a bit more and cash out.
Yup, I had some kind of $1100ish hit! Nice.
I take $100 to the high limit and punch a $5 DD for a while earning 200 tier points until it's gone. Then I take $100 to the craps table and it disappears instantly. Back to the room, count the cash, pack, return the rental, airport, and home to my sweetie.
So it was a breakeven trip with paying cash at all times (including spa and food) AND putting some in to my retirement fund.
I'm ready to go again!
