December 23: I am going to start the 2nd day by heading out of our room in the cabana suites at El Cortez after my wife was fast asleep. I figure I would wait until midnight since my 5x play was not activated until the 23rd. I put my $20 in the end machine on the right in the older section off the garage elevators. This machine gave me almost 2 hours of play on just the one $20 bill. Just when I would get low in credits, I would hit another 4 of a kind. It finally drained me and I decided to try a gamble at a little higher level. I went to the highly volatile 10-7 triple bonus quarter machine. Again I got a lot of play, but never hit a four of a kind here. I finally lost my $20 and went back to the nickel ten coin Joker’s Wild.
This time the machine was not near as nice. I lost my whole $20 buy-in in a short 15 minutes. I decided to try one hail Mary on the Double Double Bonus quarters. I was almost out of money from my $20 when I hit quad King. I decided to collect my quarters and go to bed with a mere $15 lost since it was almost 3 in the morning.
We both slept till almost noon. By the time we got around it was 1:30 and we were starving. We decided to use our $15 in free food at the Café Cortez. My wife ordered a quesadilla dinner and I ordered the ½ pound burger special. Both meals where great and hit the spot. We finished eating and we decided to play a little more at the El Cortez. I went back to the nickel Joker’s Wild machines since the progressive was now over $900. My wife found a seat as well and we both put our $20 in. We hovered for a while but eventually lost our first buy in. We decided to give a 2nd $20 a try. My 2nd $20 didn’t last at all while Kim hit a few four of kinds and was almost back to even. I put in my 3rd $20 and we both started going down hill. Just when we both had our meters close to zero, some one hit the progressive royal. We both played a couple more hands and zeroed out. The final damage was a $40 lost for Kim and $60 for me.
We decided to head down Fremont Street to use the coupons out of my wife’s LVA reward’s book. We first stopped at the El Cortez for the $10 free play coupon. My wife went to activate the coupon and found out that she had done it this summer. Opps, I guess we had used her cards for the downtown coupon run during the summer. So I used the coupon instead. We did free play at the Four Queens, Binion’s, and the Plaza along with match plays at the Plaza and LVC. When the smoke cleared, I had recovered $62 in gambling funds. My wife also had a $5 match play at LVC that she won for an additional $10 in bank roll recovery.
We decided to settle in at the Fremont and put another 400 points on our B-Connected card to get 4 more stuffed dogs and also use the ACG 250 points for a free buffet coupon. We decided on playing penny 50/100 play machines 10 hands at a time. Our game of choice was 7-5 bonus poker. We decided to play to 250 and go get the buffet since it was getting close to 7 and we were getting hungry. We got our points and headed to the both to get our buffets. We found out when we got there that the buffet was closed. I was not too happy about this. We had tried to use this same coupon during the summer, and had played at an early morning time like 12:30 on one day. We found out when we came back later in the day, the points we had gathered from 12:30 to 2:00 on the morning did not apply to that day, but the prior day. So we were 0 for 2 using these coupons.
We were both famished, so looked in our LVA rewards books and saw that they had a 2 for 1 coupon at the Main Street Station buffet. We decided to head there and use points to cover the charge of one of the meals. It was great again as it was last night. When we finished, we decided to play some nickel video poker and try to collect some scratch cards. I decided on double bonus that I think had 9-6-5 pay tables. Kim decided on some 7-5 bonus poker. I hit quad 10’s early on. I got my card and then about 20 minutes later hit quad aces. I cashed out $27 up and cashed in my 2 cards for another $2 in profit. Kim eventually lost her $20 buy-in without any quads. She went and blew another $10 on slots and finally came back ready to leave. We have played 4 times at MSS since being married and she still has won a score with four card.
We headed back to the Fremont and decided to finish our chase for the remaining 150 points to get our stuffed dogs. We sit down at the same penny video poker machines. I was up a little from our prior trip there and Kim was a little down. Both our machines started slow. I wasn’t hitting a thing. I got dealt K and J of spades and kept the two. Up popped the Royal Flush on one of my ten lines for a nice $40 win. Too bad I wasn’t playing at a higher level. Kim kept on bleeding and finally decided to quit after losing $24 total for the day and heading out to slot land. She lost another $26 in a short time on the bandits but got her 400th point. I stuck with the same machine and cashed out with a $30 win once my 400 points was reached. We collected our cute doggies and headed back towards the El Cortez.
We couldn’t resist the pull of the 101% Loose Dueces at the D. Kim went up stairs and slipped a $20 into the machine. I sit down and tried my luck at the good ole Sigma Derby machine. I play this one quarter at time. I was playing this past summer when the two horse combo came in at 200 to 1. I cashed out with a nice $50 win. I didn’t fare as well this time and lost $3 when I decided to quit. Kim had only 100 credits left out of her original 400. I decided to slip a $20 into a quarter 8-5 bonus machine. I hit a couple of full houses and decided to cash out with a $10 profit. Kim lost the last of her buy-in and we decided to head back since it was getting close to 10:00 and we wanted to get some rest before heading to my sister’s in California in the morning.
We were getting ready to cross Las Vegas Boulevard when it occurred to me that neither of the two LVA MR books were in my back pockets. Oh Crap! I had left them on the table at the buffet at the Main Street Station. We hurried back to see if someone might have placed them somewhere to see if someone came back to claim them. We meet the cleaning crew and they one guy I talked to said they were probably thrown away. We checked our table, and they were not to be found. I was not happy with myself for this bone headed move. I know we could have gone the LVA office and got our one time replacement for losing our books, but we were going to be gone for a few more days and would only have 3 more days to use them. So I stomped back to the El Cortez and called it a night mad that I would't be getting pancakes at the Golden Gate for 25 points this year.
This time the machine was not near as nice. I lost my whole $20 buy-in in a short 15 minutes. I decided to try one hail Mary on the Double Double Bonus quarters. I was almost out of money from my $20 when I hit quad King. I decided to collect my quarters and go to bed with a mere $15 lost since it was almost 3 in the morning.
We both slept till almost noon. By the time we got around it was 1:30 and we were starving. We decided to use our $15 in free food at the Café Cortez. My wife ordered a quesadilla dinner and I ordered the ½ pound burger special. Both meals where great and hit the spot. We finished eating and we decided to play a little more at the El Cortez. I went back to the nickel Joker’s Wild machines since the progressive was now over $900. My wife found a seat as well and we both put our $20 in. We hovered for a while but eventually lost our first buy in. We decided to give a 2nd $20 a try. My 2nd $20 didn’t last at all while Kim hit a few four of kinds and was almost back to even. I put in my 3rd $20 and we both started going down hill. Just when we both had our meters close to zero, some one hit the progressive royal. We both played a couple more hands and zeroed out. The final damage was a $40 lost for Kim and $60 for me.
We decided to head down Fremont Street to use the coupons out of my wife’s LVA reward’s book. We first stopped at the El Cortez for the $10 free play coupon. My wife went to activate the coupon and found out that she had done it this summer. Opps, I guess we had used her cards for the downtown coupon run during the summer. So I used the coupon instead. We did free play at the Four Queens, Binion’s, and the Plaza along with match plays at the Plaza and LVC. When the smoke cleared, I had recovered $62 in gambling funds. My wife also had a $5 match play at LVC that she won for an additional $10 in bank roll recovery.
We decided to settle in at the Fremont and put another 400 points on our B-Connected card to get 4 more stuffed dogs and also use the ACG 250 points for a free buffet coupon. We decided on playing penny 50/100 play machines 10 hands at a time. Our game of choice was 7-5 bonus poker. We decided to play to 250 and go get the buffet since it was getting close to 7 and we were getting hungry. We got our points and headed to the both to get our buffets. We found out when we got there that the buffet was closed. I was not too happy about this. We had tried to use this same coupon during the summer, and had played at an early morning time like 12:30 on one day. We found out when we came back later in the day, the points we had gathered from 12:30 to 2:00 on the morning did not apply to that day, but the prior day. So we were 0 for 2 using these coupons.
We were both famished, so looked in our LVA rewards books and saw that they had a 2 for 1 coupon at the Main Street Station buffet. We decided to head there and use points to cover the charge of one of the meals. It was great again as it was last night. When we finished, we decided to play some nickel video poker and try to collect some scratch cards. I decided on double bonus that I think had 9-6-5 pay tables. Kim decided on some 7-5 bonus poker. I hit quad 10’s early on. I got my card and then about 20 minutes later hit quad aces. I cashed out $27 up and cashed in my 2 cards for another $2 in profit. Kim eventually lost her $20 buy-in without any quads. She went and blew another $10 on slots and finally came back ready to leave. We have played 4 times at MSS since being married and she still has won a score with four card.
We headed back to the Fremont and decided to finish our chase for the remaining 150 points to get our stuffed dogs. We sit down at the same penny video poker machines. I was up a little from our prior trip there and Kim was a little down. Both our machines started slow. I wasn’t hitting a thing. I got dealt K and J of spades and kept the two. Up popped the Royal Flush on one of my ten lines for a nice $40 win. Too bad I wasn’t playing at a higher level. Kim kept on bleeding and finally decided to quit after losing $24 total for the day and heading out to slot land. She lost another $26 in a short time on the bandits but got her 400th point. I stuck with the same machine and cashed out with a $30 win once my 400 points was reached. We collected our cute doggies and headed back towards the El Cortez.
We couldn’t resist the pull of the 101% Loose Dueces at the D. Kim went up stairs and slipped a $20 into the machine. I sit down and tried my luck at the good ole Sigma Derby machine. I play this one quarter at time. I was playing this past summer when the two horse combo came in at 200 to 1. I cashed out with a nice $50 win. I didn’t fare as well this time and lost $3 when I decided to quit. Kim had only 100 credits left out of her original 400. I decided to slip a $20 into a quarter 8-5 bonus machine. I hit a couple of full houses and decided to cash out with a $10 profit. Kim lost the last of her buy-in and we decided to head back since it was getting close to 10:00 and we wanted to get some rest before heading to my sister’s in California in the morning.
We were getting ready to cross Las Vegas Boulevard when it occurred to me that neither of the two LVA MR books were in my back pockets. Oh Crap! I had left them on the table at the buffet at the Main Street Station. We hurried back to see if someone might have placed them somewhere to see if someone came back to claim them. We meet the cleaning crew and they one guy I talked to said they were probably thrown away. We checked our table, and they were not to be found. I was not happy with myself for this bone headed move. I know we could have gone the LVA office and got our one time replacement for losing our books, but we were going to be gone for a few more days and would only have 3 more days to use them. So I stomped back to the El Cortez and called it a night mad that I would't be getting pancakes at the Golden Gate for 25 points this year.
