Just got back from our semiannual Vegas trip. It was a good trip; we’re down about $350 on about $38K of action, could have been a lot worse. Linda (wife) and I went with our friend from Minnesota, linda2244, and our friends from here in St. Pete, Glen and Jennifer. This was our first stay out on the Boulder Highway, also Linda’s first royal (well, she had a short-coin royal a few years ago, maybe that doesn’t count).
So anyway,…
WEDNESDAY
It was an uneventful flight on Delta, aside from having to check our carryon luggage (they said it was too big for the overhead bin, first time that happened; they didn’t charge for it, anyway). Had the usual Krystal burgers in Atlanta (they seem to be getting thinner; unfortunately, there’s no White Castle south of Nashville). We got in to McCarran early and the bags were already on the carousel, so we had no trouble catching the WAX downtown. Our first three nights were at MSS (linda2244 had two at PH and then moved to the Plaza; Glen and Jennifer didn’t arrive until Saturday and checked in to MSS as we were leaving for the Plaza). I had a bad start, lost about $400 within the first few hours (who says JoB isn’t volatile?). Linda got seriously lucky, she was down about $60 playing quarter JoB on the bartops, debated about throwing in another $20, decided to go ahead and almost immediately hit the royal for $1000. This was within an hour of arriving; nice start to the trip, although there are advantages to a royal on the way out of town. Anyway, this was her first big hit and her first hand-pay, and she didn’t even have to deal with the bittersweet experience of a W-2G.
The rest of the afternoon was up and down at MSS, we didn’t go anywhere else. Decided to have dinner at the Pasta Pirate over at the Cal. Not a bad meal, the escargot and the baked oysters were both good; I had a tasty cioppino
and Linda had some forgettable spaghetti and meatballs. Swore I’d go to Lappert’s for some ice cream for dessert, but that never happened. Played some more (had a good NSUD session, the early wild royal helped) and made it a relatively early night.
THURSDAY
Finally had a cheap cup of coffee at the bar for breakfast, in contrast to the usual $100 to $200 cups. Had a good first session, with the first quad of the trip. Took a walk up Fremont ST, played some of the FP from the MRB and ACG, also $50 I had at Four Queens (played it in the dollar 10/7 DB progressives, cashed out exactly $50). As other have mentioned, both Binion’s and Four Queens are giving out free ace coupons with their otherwise relatively worthless coupon sheets by the promotional slots. They’re good for up to $10, redeem for a voucher at the player’s club, only once per lifetime. Still a good deal, obviously; did both as hit-and-runs, got a natural and a soft 20 and won both. Back to MSS, up and down some, played some DB (I prefer to play it at Four Queens where there’s a progressive and the points aren’t shorted, but this was convenient), was about to quit and cash out an even $20, but played one more hand and got quad aces. Nice.
Linda and I took the bus up to the BTC and walked over to El Sombrero (which is Spanish for “The Sombrero,” in case you were wondering). It’s been on my want-to-try list for a while, not because I’m fond of Tex-Mex (the owners are from New Mexico and insist it’s New Mex-Mex), but because it’s the oldest restaurant in town (we usually go to Dona Maria’s; I also like Tacos Mexico up near the Strat for hardcore tacos; I don’t have the balls to eat the balls, but I have the brains not to eat the brains). Anyway, it was good New Mex-Mex, nothing earth-shattering but generally solid and tasty.
After lunch I walked up to the El Cortez for some free play and just to play around. Knagl has always said that it’s worth giving them some play on their BP machines to get the offers flowing, so I played some at the bar for a while. Got quad aces, so that made it a worthwhile trip. On the way out, there was some homeless guy sitting on the sidewalk telling some passers-by about how he got kicked out for smoking in the casino (“honest, that’s all that I did”). Love that neighborhood!
Anyway, back to MSS (also played some Shaka Five-Way at the Cal, fun game), up and down the rest of the afternoon. Played some Goldfish to make sure my obsession with the music and the fish food dance doesn’t fade with time. Had dinner over at Aloha Specialties (I had a bento plate and a piece of haupia, Linda had what she considered to be a suspicious cheeseburger), one last crappy VP session, then bed.
FRIDAY
linda2244 moved downtown today, to the Plaza, so we caught up with her. Before that, though, I had a very scary cup of coffee; down $195 of my initial $200 drop, then hit a full house, and a very long string of 2 pairs and trips, nothing higher. Got my $200 back and hauled ass. Got a spam musubi at Aloha Specialties for breakfast, took another walk (found a bunch of 9/6 JoB machines at Binion’s, all with a shorted royal of 2500 coins; bastards), tried to win the free steak at Fitzgerald’s as usual, but no luck (but stay tuned…), played some Pick Em at Fremont, no luck (I think RecVPPlayer is the only person who really likes this game). By then it was lunch time and we caught up with linda2244 and ate at Hash House a Go Go at the Plaza. Huge portions but I’m luke-warm on this place at best. I had the chicken and waffles, the concept was okay with slices of bacon set in the waffle batter, a maple drizzle and julienne fried leeks. The chicken was kind of dry, though, and the waffles doughy. Linda was relatively happy with her scrambled eggs, and linda2244 had some sort of sandwich.
After lunch, we all went over to Four Queens to give them some more play. I played mostly quarter DB, hit quad 3s and cashed out ahead. Then we went back to Fitzgerald’s; I was playing the FP coupon from the MRB, and I decided to go for the free steak again. I’ve been trying to win that damned steak for four years now, never hit it. So I’m playing the 8/5 BP steak machine, having a great session, lots of flushes and full houses (which of course piss you off on BP because it ain’t 9/6). Finally hit quad queens, get the steak voucher from a generally pissed off slot attendant. Within the next four minutes, I would hit quad 2s, then quad 6s. So he had to give me two more vouchers, then a hopper fill. He was livid by then. Too bad, no steak for him.
From Fitzgerald’s, linda2244 and I went back to the El Cortez and met Lee O, who was there for a week. Really nice guy, we really enjoyed our time with him. He’s been staying there for years and gave us kind of an insider’s tour of the joint, lots of advice, and forced linda2244 to take a pear and a banana. We played a little more at the El (had a coupon for 50% off a dollar 6-spot keno ticket, only hit one number but really enjoyed my 5 minutes lounging in the keno lounge; I think I’m going to spend most of my retirement there) and then headed back to MSS and the Plaza.
So, guess where we ate for dinner. Yeah, got those three free steaks at Fitzgerald’s (almost got hosed, the waitress said that you could only get one steak per steakwinner per day, but we got it straightened out). The salad bar and the meatball soup were good, the steaks were mediocre, but the price was right. Definitely got the Fitzgerald’s free steak promo out of my system.
Linda and linda2244 played some slots after dinner; I smoked a crappy Guama cigar that the guy at Bad Habits talked me into (never again), decided to play the nickel LDW machine for a while. Nickels are boring to me, but this is the loosest machine in town (101.60%) and I had to say that I played it. Well, $5 in that machine can last a long time; got lots of wild royals and quints (also at least three natural quads, that pissed me off), took over an hour to get rid of that damned five-spot. Had a very cold walk back down Fremont ST and slept off the steak.
SATURDAY
Glen and Jennifer arrived today; they were checking in to MSS as we were checking out and moving over to the Plaza. Had another scary cup of coffee (a quad saved my ass this time), played that new Batman game a little but hit nothing at all (been running around saying, “I’m Batman!” with that weird voice since, though). We played with Glen and Jennifer for a while and moved over to the Plaza. I really like the remodel, we had a room on the 24th floor in the south tower (the north tower is all non-smoking now), very nicely redone, great furniture, very comfortable bed, nice sink, electronic safe in the room, which was nice. All the rooms have a big photo of the hotel from the early 1970’s, when the top of the port cochere was the swimming pool, not a domed restaurant.
Really cool. I’ve always liked this place. One thing that sucked, though, is that they haven’t fixed the neon on the Plaza sign on top of the north tower, so that ruins the night-time photo op.
Anyway, Glen and Jennifer were still kind of burned out from the trip and didn’t have their room yet, so they ate over at Aloha Specialties (saimin, Breakfast of Champions). Linda, linda2244 and I went over to Du-Par’s. I’m not much of a chain restaurant person, but I have to admit, everything there has been consistently good and honest. I had a very basic, very good chicken pot pie, Linda had a BLT and linda2244 won the stack of pancakes using the MRB coupon. I do have to admit, they were awfully good pancakes. Some signage indicates that they’re the best in the United States and some indicates that they’re the best in America, so I guess that must keep the Canadians mixed up. But they are very good pancakes.
The Plaza was having a deal, free slot tournament with only 25 points earned, so we played that every day. Some nice perks, you get $5 FP if your final score has two 2s in it, or $10 if it has three 3s. The last day, I had a lousy score (couldn’t come back for the finals anyway), had like 3383 points with 45 seconds left, stopped hitting the button and promptly got a remarkably stern lecture by the otherwise really nice, friendly staff. I was asked (rhetorically, I think) if that sort of dishonesty and shame and that sort of a black mark on my immortal soul was really worth five dollars. So I just kind of tried to look ashamed, looked at the floor for a while and started hitting the button again. Back to VP; they only have three full-pay JoB machines in the Plaza now (to the left of the Swingers Club), one had a broken validator and the other two were occupied by people playing keno (keno!), so I went over to the Las Vegas Club and played for a while. Didn’t go well.
This was El Cortez Day, so the five of us headed down late in the afternoon. Linda and I played a lot of blackjack; I had a breakin dealer who was really slow. Lost anyway. The relief dealer was much more polished (but not so polished as to not pay me on a couple of pushes). We all caught up with Lee O again; he was hoping to join us for dinner, but wound up waiting for some friends who were coming to town.
So, dinner was at Roberta’s (I’ll never call it The Flame). I always enjoy it there and the food did not disappoint. I had some good lentil soup and finally tried the filet mignon that everyone has raved about. It was small but very nicely aged and very tender; I was pretty happy with it.
Most of the other people had walleye pike and Linda had king crab legs. We had a terrible experience with the waiter, though, he had sort of an attitude to begin with, then it was about 50 minutes between first courses and entrees, and he kept blowing us off when we asked. Finally everything came out but Linda’s crab legs. The assistant waiter said that they don’t bring out crab legs until everyone else is served, so they’re hot; the waiter said that the assistant waiter lied and had forgotten to put in the order. So I called over the manager and explained how the waiter had apparently tried to throw the assistant under the bus. She was apologetic and took the crab legs off the bill, but it was still a half hour until they arrived and everyone was done eating. Also took another 20 minutes to get the bill sorted out. Good food as always, and I think it was a real outlier experience with the service, so we’ll be back. Really bad experience, though.
Anyway, after dinner we played some more; I decided to invest some money in the Multistrike machine, which is always fun but plenty volatile. Played for about a half hour and got dealt trips on the top line, so I was thrilled. Kept my fingers crossed (seems like you never turn trips into quads) and was dealt the fourth 7,for about a $130 hit. Most enjoyable hit of the trip, I think (although I’m sure Linda enjoyed her royal more).
Back down Fremont ST and to the Plaza; played some more JoB and tried a Lobstermania 2 machine (I like the original Lobstermania, love it when Larry talks about how some of the lobsters look like crabs) but had no luck. Bedtime.
SUNDAY
Started out playing an old DDW coindropper over at the LV Club. I remember the machines from last visit, they’re really old and really, really loud. The thing chirps really loud with each card held or dealt, if you’re not arm’s-length from the machine it kind of feels like someone has a chisel on your forehead and keeps hitting it with a mallet. Anyway, I was up and down, played some more JoB, held my own all morning. We went to Island Sushi, the new Hawaiian venue at the Plaza, for breakfast/lunch. I really like the place. Hate to say it, but the food is a lot better than Aloha Specialties (although Aloha Specialties is a lot more homey). They also have the best sushi I’ve had downtown, and a poke bar. I had some sushi (top-notch hamachi, good eel), some ahi limu poke (yellowfin tuna and seaweed) and a bento; Linda had tonkatsu and linda2244 had garlic shrimp (and ate a bunch of my poke, I guess it’s hard to come by in rural Minnesota). Very good meal (I really like that kind of food, though).
All five of us played a lot of virtual blackjack over at the LV Club in the afternoon; it’s a nice leisurely, $2 game, easy way to accumulate a few points. We decided to go back to the El Cortez (maybe we’ll get on their radar yet), played some more VP and had a disastrous blackjack session) and had dinner at Careful Kitty’s (I’ll never call it Café Cortez). I had the prime rib special, which was about as good as they get downtown for under $10. Don’t remember what everyone else had, I think Linda and Jennifer both had open-faced turkey sandwiches. Good, solid food, but the service was hellaslow again. Not a lot of good luck. Ran into Lee O again on the way back to Fremont ST, smoked a Bad Habits house-rolled cigar (which are always good; never going to listen to the guy there again), played some more at the Plaza. On linda2244’s advice, I played Ghostbusters. Not that I liked the movie, or even slot machines, but she promised a memorable audiovisual experience, and I wasn’t disappointed. I played for about a half hour, got lots of bonuses. The machine really shakes you, you can feel the bass line of the music constantly. Lots of fun. Kept me awake for some reason, though.
MONDAY
Moving day, over to Sam’s Town. We’ve been out there a few times, always wanted to stay out there. Got beaten up on VP a little more in the morning, then had a late breakfast at Island Sushi again. Linda and linda2244 had breakfast food, and linda2244 ordered some more ahi limu poke; I had a chicken katsu curry bowl and some dried aku (skipjack tuna) poke, which was really flavorful but chewy (you really have to like fish to enjoy this). Another great meal.
We checked out and caught the Sam’s Town shuttle over at the Cal, checked in and had a nice room on the 9th floor with a north view down Boulder HWY, with Boulder Station in the distance. Very different experience, staying out there. All locals, none of the Fremont ST crap. Very good VP, played a lot of $1 JoB progressives, also a lot of FPDW and some 10/7 DB. My first FPDW session was a great one, hit a couple of wild royals and a bunch of quints, cashed out about $80 ahead (this would be a fun game for dollars). Also played some slots here and there.
Linda, Glen and Jennifer weren’t too hungry and were comfortable where they were, so linda2244 and I walked over to the E-Can for dinner. Had a fairly good buffet (a lot better than Firelight, from what I remember of it) and I played a bunch of blackjack, did fairly good. Went back and caught the Mystic Falls water/laser show; it’s been upgraded, the lasers seem a little more powerful now, and the show is about 15 minutes. The bear seemed a little pale and I asked the guy who was running the show; he talked some about the upgrades, also said that the bear was well past its service life and he was pretty sick of sewing fur back on it. Played some more VP after the show, had a few good sessions and went to bed.
TUESDAY
The day started out good, with a quad over coffee at the Stagecoach Bar on the second floor. We all decided to go down to Boulder Station today; none of us had ever been to a Stations casino so we thought we’d check it out and maybe get on the radar. Interesting casino, it’s huge and almost all locals. Played some VP before lunch, didn’t have much luck, then we all went to the buffet for lunch. Unfortunately, you can’t combine points (we all got 5000 as new sign-ups) with the MRB coupon, so we all just used points, it’s a pretty cheap buffet. It was a good, solid buffet, lots of choices and everything was pretty good. Played blackjack after lunch, had a scary session with almost no winners for the first $95 of my $100 buy-in, then won a few and eventually hit a few $20 bets and doubles. Cashed out for $105 and ran; Linda stayed and made some good money. Played some FPDW for a while, then took the bus back to Sam’s. Nice little outing.
Played VP for the rest of the evening, mostly alternating between dollar JoB, quarter FPDW and a little DB. Nobody was too hungry, so we just got some sandwiches at the sports book deli (I had a tasty kalua pig sandwich; didn’t think you could find Hawaiian food this far from downtown), played some more (played a bunch of FPDW with Linda and Jennifer, but I don’t think either of them got hooked) and went to bed.
WEDNESDAY
Last day. Had a last crappy session over coffee and got packed and ready to leave. Didn’t get our second night comped, unfortunately; the original offer was one night comp and one at casino rate ($30), I had about $6500 coin-in over the two nights but Linda had a lot less (she played a little less than usual and watched a hockey game at the sports book). The host said that that wasn’t nearly enough to comp the second night, which was a little surprising (I had a bunch of FPDW and DB play, but that was quarters, and most of my action was dollar JoB). Not a big deal, but it always sucks to have to pay for a room. Still, we enjoyed staying at Sam’s, and we’ll probably be back; we’ll probably check out the Stations properties a little more in the future, too.
We took the airport shuttle from Sam’s (nice touch) and had an uneventful flight home, aside from having a horrible bratwurst sandwich and fries cooked in old oil at Jody Maroni’s, or whatever the hell that restaurant is called on Concourse D at McCarran. Never again. Glen and Jennifer left earlier that morning, linda2244 is staying an extra day.
So now I have the usual post-Vegas gambling hangover; still seeing cards in my sleep (none of them quads or higher, though). We’re down some and had to pay for a room for one night, but overall it was a really nice trip, saw some new things and spent a lot of time with good friends. I think it’s a good time to not think about Vegas for a while; we’ll probably hold off on planning the summer trip until at least Monday.
Thanks for reading!
So anyway,…
WEDNESDAY
It was an uneventful flight on Delta, aside from having to check our carryon luggage (they said it was too big for the overhead bin, first time that happened; they didn’t charge for it, anyway). Had the usual Krystal burgers in Atlanta (they seem to be getting thinner; unfortunately, there’s no White Castle south of Nashville). We got in to McCarran early and the bags were already on the carousel, so we had no trouble catching the WAX downtown. Our first three nights were at MSS (linda2244 had two at PH and then moved to the Plaza; Glen and Jennifer didn’t arrive until Saturday and checked in to MSS as we were leaving for the Plaza). I had a bad start, lost about $400 within the first few hours (who says JoB isn’t volatile?). Linda got seriously lucky, she was down about $60 playing quarter JoB on the bartops, debated about throwing in another $20, decided to go ahead and almost immediately hit the royal for $1000. This was within an hour of arriving; nice start to the trip, although there are advantages to a royal on the way out of town. Anyway, this was her first big hit and her first hand-pay, and she didn’t even have to deal with the bittersweet experience of a W-2G.
The rest of the afternoon was up and down at MSS, we didn’t go anywhere else. Decided to have dinner at the Pasta Pirate over at the Cal. Not a bad meal, the escargot and the baked oysters were both good; I had a tasty cioppino
and Linda had some forgettable spaghetti and meatballs. Swore I’d go to Lappert’s for some ice cream for dessert, but that never happened. Played some more (had a good NSUD session, the early wild royal helped) and made it a relatively early night.
THURSDAY
Finally had a cheap cup of coffee at the bar for breakfast, in contrast to the usual $100 to $200 cups. Had a good first session, with the first quad of the trip. Took a walk up Fremont ST, played some of the FP from the MRB and ACG, also $50 I had at Four Queens (played it in the dollar 10/7 DB progressives, cashed out exactly $50). As other have mentioned, both Binion’s and Four Queens are giving out free ace coupons with their otherwise relatively worthless coupon sheets by the promotional slots. They’re good for up to $10, redeem for a voucher at the player’s club, only once per lifetime. Still a good deal, obviously; did both as hit-and-runs, got a natural and a soft 20 and won both. Back to MSS, up and down some, played some DB (I prefer to play it at Four Queens where there’s a progressive and the points aren’t shorted, but this was convenient), was about to quit and cash out an even $20, but played one more hand and got quad aces. Nice.
Linda and I took the bus up to the BTC and walked over to El Sombrero (which is Spanish for “The Sombrero,” in case you were wondering). It’s been on my want-to-try list for a while, not because I’m fond of Tex-Mex (the owners are from New Mexico and insist it’s New Mex-Mex), but because it’s the oldest restaurant in town (we usually go to Dona Maria’s; I also like Tacos Mexico up near the Strat for hardcore tacos; I don’t have the balls to eat the balls, but I have the brains not to eat the brains). Anyway, it was good New Mex-Mex, nothing earth-shattering but generally solid and tasty.
After lunch I walked up to the El Cortez for some free play and just to play around. Knagl has always said that it’s worth giving them some play on their BP machines to get the offers flowing, so I played some at the bar for a while. Got quad aces, so that made it a worthwhile trip. On the way out, there was some homeless guy sitting on the sidewalk telling some passers-by about how he got kicked out for smoking in the casino (“honest, that’s all that I did”). Love that neighborhood!
Anyway, back to MSS (also played some Shaka Five-Way at the Cal, fun game), up and down the rest of the afternoon. Played some Goldfish to make sure my obsession with the music and the fish food dance doesn’t fade with time. Had dinner over at Aloha Specialties (I had a bento plate and a piece of haupia, Linda had what she considered to be a suspicious cheeseburger), one last crappy VP session, then bed.
FRIDAY
linda2244 moved downtown today, to the Plaza, so we caught up with her. Before that, though, I had a very scary cup of coffee; down $195 of my initial $200 drop, then hit a full house, and a very long string of 2 pairs and trips, nothing higher. Got my $200 back and hauled ass. Got a spam musubi at Aloha Specialties for breakfast, took another walk (found a bunch of 9/6 JoB machines at Binion’s, all with a shorted royal of 2500 coins; bastards), tried to win the free steak at Fitzgerald’s as usual, but no luck (but stay tuned…), played some Pick Em at Fremont, no luck (I think RecVPPlayer is the only person who really likes this game). By then it was lunch time and we caught up with linda2244 and ate at Hash House a Go Go at the Plaza. Huge portions but I’m luke-warm on this place at best. I had the chicken and waffles, the concept was okay with slices of bacon set in the waffle batter, a maple drizzle and julienne fried leeks. The chicken was kind of dry, though, and the waffles doughy. Linda was relatively happy with her scrambled eggs, and linda2244 had some sort of sandwich.
After lunch, we all went over to Four Queens to give them some more play. I played mostly quarter DB, hit quad 3s and cashed out ahead. Then we went back to Fitzgerald’s; I was playing the FP coupon from the MRB, and I decided to go for the free steak again. I’ve been trying to win that damned steak for four years now, never hit it. So I’m playing the 8/5 BP steak machine, having a great session, lots of flushes and full houses (which of course piss you off on BP because it ain’t 9/6). Finally hit quad queens, get the steak voucher from a generally pissed off slot attendant. Within the next four minutes, I would hit quad 2s, then quad 6s. So he had to give me two more vouchers, then a hopper fill. He was livid by then. Too bad, no steak for him.
From Fitzgerald’s, linda2244 and I went back to the El Cortez and met Lee O, who was there for a week. Really nice guy, we really enjoyed our time with him. He’s been staying there for years and gave us kind of an insider’s tour of the joint, lots of advice, and forced linda2244 to take a pear and a banana. We played a little more at the El (had a coupon for 50% off a dollar 6-spot keno ticket, only hit one number but really enjoyed my 5 minutes lounging in the keno lounge; I think I’m going to spend most of my retirement there) and then headed back to MSS and the Plaza.
So, guess where we ate for dinner. Yeah, got those three free steaks at Fitzgerald’s (almost got hosed, the waitress said that you could only get one steak per steakwinner per day, but we got it straightened out). The salad bar and the meatball soup were good, the steaks were mediocre, but the price was right. Definitely got the Fitzgerald’s free steak promo out of my system.
Linda and linda2244 played some slots after dinner; I smoked a crappy Guama cigar that the guy at Bad Habits talked me into (never again), decided to play the nickel LDW machine for a while. Nickels are boring to me, but this is the loosest machine in town (101.60%) and I had to say that I played it. Well, $5 in that machine can last a long time; got lots of wild royals and quints (also at least three natural quads, that pissed me off), took over an hour to get rid of that damned five-spot. Had a very cold walk back down Fremont ST and slept off the steak.
SATURDAY
Glen and Jennifer arrived today; they were checking in to MSS as we were checking out and moving over to the Plaza. Had another scary cup of coffee (a quad saved my ass this time), played that new Batman game a little but hit nothing at all (been running around saying, “I’m Batman!” with that weird voice since, though). We played with Glen and Jennifer for a while and moved over to the Plaza. I really like the remodel, we had a room on the 24th floor in the south tower (the north tower is all non-smoking now), very nicely redone, great furniture, very comfortable bed, nice sink, electronic safe in the room, which was nice. All the rooms have a big photo of the hotel from the early 1970’s, when the top of the port cochere was the swimming pool, not a domed restaurant.
Really cool. I’ve always liked this place. One thing that sucked, though, is that they haven’t fixed the neon on the Plaza sign on top of the north tower, so that ruins the night-time photo op.
Anyway, Glen and Jennifer were still kind of burned out from the trip and didn’t have their room yet, so they ate over at Aloha Specialties (saimin, Breakfast of Champions). Linda, linda2244 and I went over to Du-Par’s. I’m not much of a chain restaurant person, but I have to admit, everything there has been consistently good and honest. I had a very basic, very good chicken pot pie, Linda had a BLT and linda2244 won the stack of pancakes using the MRB coupon. I do have to admit, they were awfully good pancakes. Some signage indicates that they’re the best in the United States and some indicates that they’re the best in America, so I guess that must keep the Canadians mixed up. But they are very good pancakes.
The Plaza was having a deal, free slot tournament with only 25 points earned, so we played that every day. Some nice perks, you get $5 FP if your final score has two 2s in it, or $10 if it has three 3s. The last day, I had a lousy score (couldn’t come back for the finals anyway), had like 3383 points with 45 seconds left, stopped hitting the button and promptly got a remarkably stern lecture by the otherwise really nice, friendly staff. I was asked (rhetorically, I think) if that sort of dishonesty and shame and that sort of a black mark on my immortal soul was really worth five dollars. So I just kind of tried to look ashamed, looked at the floor for a while and started hitting the button again. Back to VP; they only have three full-pay JoB machines in the Plaza now (to the left of the Swingers Club), one had a broken validator and the other two were occupied by people playing keno (keno!), so I went over to the Las Vegas Club and played for a while. Didn’t go well.
This was El Cortez Day, so the five of us headed down late in the afternoon. Linda and I played a lot of blackjack; I had a breakin dealer who was really slow. Lost anyway. The relief dealer was much more polished (but not so polished as to not pay me on a couple of pushes). We all caught up with Lee O again; he was hoping to join us for dinner, but wound up waiting for some friends who were coming to town.
So, dinner was at Roberta’s (I’ll never call it The Flame). I always enjoy it there and the food did not disappoint. I had some good lentil soup and finally tried the filet mignon that everyone has raved about. It was small but very nicely aged and very tender; I was pretty happy with it.
Most of the other people had walleye pike and Linda had king crab legs. We had a terrible experience with the waiter, though, he had sort of an attitude to begin with, then it was about 50 minutes between first courses and entrees, and he kept blowing us off when we asked. Finally everything came out but Linda’s crab legs. The assistant waiter said that they don’t bring out crab legs until everyone else is served, so they’re hot; the waiter said that the assistant waiter lied and had forgotten to put in the order. So I called over the manager and explained how the waiter had apparently tried to throw the assistant under the bus. She was apologetic and took the crab legs off the bill, but it was still a half hour until they arrived and everyone was done eating. Also took another 20 minutes to get the bill sorted out. Good food as always, and I think it was a real outlier experience with the service, so we’ll be back. Really bad experience, though.
Anyway, after dinner we played some more; I decided to invest some money in the Multistrike machine, which is always fun but plenty volatile. Played for about a half hour and got dealt trips on the top line, so I was thrilled. Kept my fingers crossed (seems like you never turn trips into quads) and was dealt the fourth 7,for about a $130 hit. Most enjoyable hit of the trip, I think (although I’m sure Linda enjoyed her royal more).
Back down Fremont ST and to the Plaza; played some more JoB and tried a Lobstermania 2 machine (I like the original Lobstermania, love it when Larry talks about how some of the lobsters look like crabs) but had no luck. Bedtime.
SUNDAY
Started out playing an old DDW coindropper over at the LV Club. I remember the machines from last visit, they’re really old and really, really loud. The thing chirps really loud with each card held or dealt, if you’re not arm’s-length from the machine it kind of feels like someone has a chisel on your forehead and keeps hitting it with a mallet. Anyway, I was up and down, played some more JoB, held my own all morning. We went to Island Sushi, the new Hawaiian venue at the Plaza, for breakfast/lunch. I really like the place. Hate to say it, but the food is a lot better than Aloha Specialties (although Aloha Specialties is a lot more homey). They also have the best sushi I’ve had downtown, and a poke bar. I had some sushi (top-notch hamachi, good eel), some ahi limu poke (yellowfin tuna and seaweed) and a bento; Linda had tonkatsu and linda2244 had garlic shrimp (and ate a bunch of my poke, I guess it’s hard to come by in rural Minnesota). Very good meal (I really like that kind of food, though).
All five of us played a lot of virtual blackjack over at the LV Club in the afternoon; it’s a nice leisurely, $2 game, easy way to accumulate a few points. We decided to go back to the El Cortez (maybe we’ll get on their radar yet), played some more VP and had a disastrous blackjack session) and had dinner at Careful Kitty’s (I’ll never call it Café Cortez). I had the prime rib special, which was about as good as they get downtown for under $10. Don’t remember what everyone else had, I think Linda and Jennifer both had open-faced turkey sandwiches. Good, solid food, but the service was hellaslow again. Not a lot of good luck. Ran into Lee O again on the way back to Fremont ST, smoked a Bad Habits house-rolled cigar (which are always good; never going to listen to the guy there again), played some more at the Plaza. On linda2244’s advice, I played Ghostbusters. Not that I liked the movie, or even slot machines, but she promised a memorable audiovisual experience, and I wasn’t disappointed. I played for about a half hour, got lots of bonuses. The machine really shakes you, you can feel the bass line of the music constantly. Lots of fun. Kept me awake for some reason, though.
MONDAY
Moving day, over to Sam’s Town. We’ve been out there a few times, always wanted to stay out there. Got beaten up on VP a little more in the morning, then had a late breakfast at Island Sushi again. Linda and linda2244 had breakfast food, and linda2244 ordered some more ahi limu poke; I had a chicken katsu curry bowl and some dried aku (skipjack tuna) poke, which was really flavorful but chewy (you really have to like fish to enjoy this). Another great meal.
We checked out and caught the Sam’s Town shuttle over at the Cal, checked in and had a nice room on the 9th floor with a north view down Boulder HWY, with Boulder Station in the distance. Very different experience, staying out there. All locals, none of the Fremont ST crap. Very good VP, played a lot of $1 JoB progressives, also a lot of FPDW and some 10/7 DB. My first FPDW session was a great one, hit a couple of wild royals and a bunch of quints, cashed out about $80 ahead (this would be a fun game for dollars). Also played some slots here and there.
Linda, Glen and Jennifer weren’t too hungry and were comfortable where they were, so linda2244 and I walked over to the E-Can for dinner. Had a fairly good buffet (a lot better than Firelight, from what I remember of it) and I played a bunch of blackjack, did fairly good. Went back and caught the Mystic Falls water/laser show; it’s been upgraded, the lasers seem a little more powerful now, and the show is about 15 minutes. The bear seemed a little pale and I asked the guy who was running the show; he talked some about the upgrades, also said that the bear was well past its service life and he was pretty sick of sewing fur back on it. Played some more VP after the show, had a few good sessions and went to bed.
TUESDAY
The day started out good, with a quad over coffee at the Stagecoach Bar on the second floor. We all decided to go down to Boulder Station today; none of us had ever been to a Stations casino so we thought we’d check it out and maybe get on the radar. Interesting casino, it’s huge and almost all locals. Played some VP before lunch, didn’t have much luck, then we all went to the buffet for lunch. Unfortunately, you can’t combine points (we all got 5000 as new sign-ups) with the MRB coupon, so we all just used points, it’s a pretty cheap buffet. It was a good, solid buffet, lots of choices and everything was pretty good. Played blackjack after lunch, had a scary session with almost no winners for the first $95 of my $100 buy-in, then won a few and eventually hit a few $20 bets and doubles. Cashed out for $105 and ran; Linda stayed and made some good money. Played some FPDW for a while, then took the bus back to Sam’s. Nice little outing.
Played VP for the rest of the evening, mostly alternating between dollar JoB, quarter FPDW and a little DB. Nobody was too hungry, so we just got some sandwiches at the sports book deli (I had a tasty kalua pig sandwich; didn’t think you could find Hawaiian food this far from downtown), played some more (played a bunch of FPDW with Linda and Jennifer, but I don’t think either of them got hooked) and went to bed.
WEDNESDAY
Last day. Had a last crappy session over coffee and got packed and ready to leave. Didn’t get our second night comped, unfortunately; the original offer was one night comp and one at casino rate ($30), I had about $6500 coin-in over the two nights but Linda had a lot less (she played a little less than usual and watched a hockey game at the sports book). The host said that that wasn’t nearly enough to comp the second night, which was a little surprising (I had a bunch of FPDW and DB play, but that was quarters, and most of my action was dollar JoB). Not a big deal, but it always sucks to have to pay for a room. Still, we enjoyed staying at Sam’s, and we’ll probably be back; we’ll probably check out the Stations properties a little more in the future, too.
We took the airport shuttle from Sam’s (nice touch) and had an uneventful flight home, aside from having a horrible bratwurst sandwich and fries cooked in old oil at Jody Maroni’s, or whatever the hell that restaurant is called on Concourse D at McCarran. Never again. Glen and Jennifer left earlier that morning, linda2244 is staying an extra day.
So now I have the usual post-Vegas gambling hangover; still seeing cards in my sleep (none of them quads or higher, though). We’re down some and had to pay for a room for one night, but overall it was a really nice trip, saw some new things and spent a lot of time with good friends. I think it’s a good time to not think about Vegas for a while; we’ll probably hold off on planning the summer trip until at least Monday.
Thanks for reading!
