First trip of the year Jan 19th to 26th

First trip back to Las vegas after freaking out my wife with the Blood clot in dec.  We flew Alliegent for 336 round trip for both of us nonstop.  Rental car was a midsize with fox for 179 all in for the week.  The car had 16ooo miles and no line no waiting.

       Our first night was at Resorts World comped with 25 fp and 25food comp but had to pay 50 dollar resort fee.  We really like this casino and this was our first time staying there.  Nice rooms and we used our food credit at Juniors where we split the rueben.  All these meals are big enough to split so don't too scared of the price. Next trip we hope to play at the bar tops on the 66th floor.  Cool room with Quarter denom but does have a dress code. We had a fun night and made a little money.

        On monday we checked out and headed to Lva to renew our membership and pick up our coupon books. After that we went to Emerald Island to use our mailer coupons for the free breakfast which was great.  Eggs hashbrowns,  bacon , and biscut and gravey with a slice of fruit.  It was too smokey to play at EI so we went next door to the Rainbow club for an hour.. I broke even but the wife hit a 7 soot on keno for a nice payday.

      We then headed to Green Valley Ranch to check in for a free comped night with 125 fp and 50 food credit  . This is our favorite casino and we took advantage of the 10x multiplier from the app on this monday.  We had a great time and made a little money.  But not on Live keno.. We like to play way tickets for a quarter .  Usually 3 six spots for 75 cents a game for 20 games..  This trip we tried this at Green Valley , Gold Coast and Orleans, But we still have a !0 spot way ticket working for next trip so we could still be in the black !

       I will update more tomorrow

Lots of good stuff on your first day and a half.  Looking forward to more reporting from you.

Candy

So day 3 we slept in and made some sports bets before heading  to the Orleans for lunch at Ondori, which was very good and we used a 10 dollar food comp.  After lunch we took adantage of Boyds 10 times point day playing  until it was time to check in the Gold Coast for the next 5 nights comped with no resort fees..  We played a little with the multiplier and grabed some keno tickets before heading to the Suncoast for dinner at 9 ninety where we used another 10 dollar food comp.  We played here with more multipiers and then hit the movie theater for the Last Showgirl with discount tuesday tickets. The movie was hard to faloow at times, but was pretty good if you like Las Vegas. Then back to the Gold Coast for the night.

        Day 4 we headed to Palace Station to make some sports bets and then headed downtown.First stop was the Four Queens to use the 2 for 1 birthday coupon at Magnolias, and use the LVA free play coupon.  We both played ours on 4 card cleopatra and I cashed out 28 and the wife 14.  We walked through the Nugget and got a new card, but could't find a game we liked. Next it was the Circa where we played and had Mimosas.  I hit a 6 spot on multicard keno and then had lunch at 888 noodle, which was great using 30 dollars in food comps.  We then headed back to Green Xalley Ranch to play for the rest of the day and broke about even before headingbact to the Gold coast to check our Keno tickets reinvest and get to bed.

      Day 5 we headed to the Sahara for the birthday freeplay and breakfast at the cafe..  Both were not very good and we are crossing this off the list until next year.  It is still free parking so far, but no good games to play there and the food is not worth the price for us unless we get some promos.  We then  went down to Park MGM for a day on the strip.  We bar hopped and played at Park, Aria, Cosmo and Belagio and had a great time and making a few dollars, before hitting Ellis Island to use the LVA 2 for 1 coupon and free play.  We both had the Bar BQ and was awesome.  Half rack ribs and half chicken.  total bill 20 bucks and we were stuffed.  After dinner we played some 5 dollar craps and the wife used both freeplays on the new mo, mo, mo mummy game and won 64 bucks.  Lots of stuff walled off here with constuction but still a good time. Next we hit the Palms for some more birthday freeplay.  We had fun and the place was hopping.  They are doing things right over there. Headed back to Gold Coast to reinvest in our keno and call it a night.

     Day 6 we went to Blueberry hill on Flamingo for a great breakfast.  Pro tip here is get the toasted blueberry muffin instead of toast. We split the 3 egg hamsteak ahd hashbrowns with the muffin, and it was perfect. After breakfast we went to Silverton to say hello and use the LVA freeplay coupon.  We hadn't been back here since they took out the buffet.  I really like some of the changes they have made and we had our best video poker sesson of the of the trip, although we were just playing nickels and having fun. We then headed to the Durango to play and have lunch. We split a great sandwitch at Paulies and made some sports bets.  The place was busy,and we had fun earning the free golden Knights jackets . Well they weren't really free we gave back some winnings from the first of the week. Next was the Suncoast to play for the rest of the night.  Again we had a great time but no wins.  I think we start chasing toward the end of the week, and now we are both down a little for the trip. We decide to go to The Martini at Ft Apache and Charlston for dinner.We usually do this on Sunday for the steak special , but tonight had the fish and shrimp basket and it was fantastic, plenty for us to split.  We had a couple of nice glasses of wine and then hit a 5 spot on multicard keno.  Life is good.

        I will post the reat tomorrow

 Thanks! What a great trip report. Keep up the great work

Excellent Trip report, thanks for sharing.  Sorry to hear that you didn't have good food at Zeffer's at the Sahara.  We have gone twice and both times the food and service were excellent.  I have the hog omelette and my wife gets the chicken and waffles.   Every trip we actually hit the Olive Garden for lunch, which is right next to the Blueberry Hill you referenced.  Look forward to conclusion of the trip. 

Thanks for sharing.....Ill have to check out the Martini place.   Always looking for new local spots.

Day 7   We made a little profit on our 6 spot live keno so we reinvested with 10 spots to check on our next trip.  We both had 15 dollars free play at the Gold Coast and played it on 4 card Cleopata, cashing out at 30 and 20 for a nice profit.  Breakfast was at Blueberry hill again on Flamingo again and was excellent.  The Rio was our first stop, and the place is really looking good.  I was surprised to find I had 50 dollars free play when I scanned my card, and the wife forgot her card but they loaded 25 on hers.  I hit a train game for 40 buck while i waited and we both made a profit at the bartops on our freeplay.  Masqurade Village is a ghost town but the rest of the casino feels pretty good.  I also hit the Whitney Houston game for 30 .  This seems to be the hot new game this trip. Next we went back to Palace Station to make some more sports book bets and play at the high limit bar.  The drinks were great and we held our own before hitting the Westgate to say hello and check out the buffet for next trip.  The buffet looked like a good value with the LVA coupon .  It remided me of the Sunday brunch buffet at the Silver Severs back in the day.  Nothing fancy, but a fair spread with the shrimp , omlet staion and the salad bar.  The casino is just a shell of it's former self, and seemed like forever to earn any points.  This place has always had good rooms, and maybe they will send us some offers, but seems geared to the timeshare users and the convention tourist.  I used to love the bathrooms here with the bathroom expressions of the girls holding up the rulers and such in the front and the Star Trec bathrooms in the back telling you on the monitor how the hydration level was.

        Next we went over to the Virgin to keep our card active because they have sent us room offers in the past.   The parking garage was packed . so we were hoping thing were improving here.  Not so, the casino was dead and service stunk.  Everyone was there for the Adult Video awards .Anotherone off the list until next year.

Lunch was In and Out buger on Eastern in Henderson and was very good.  We were ready to get serious about playing so we hit Green Valley Ranch for the rest of the day  We had a great time but were probably too agressive and did some losing while watching the games.  The sports books were not kind this trip

         Day 8   We checked out of Gold Coast and went to the Silverton for breakfast at the cafe and played ustil it was time to return the rental car to fox.  Breakfast was great and everything was great getting back to the airport.  I know this is a little long, but I'm retired now and we love Las Vegas

Excellent reporting.  Glad you have the stamina to check out so many places and meals and deals.  Glad you got back to winning a bit after the "chasing" feeling.  We all dislike that feeling a lot.  Congrats on so many Keno winners!  Interesting discussions going on, including today's QoD, about Virgin.  We never did hit it when it was Hard Rock though always said we 'otta.  Being off the beaten Strip path, they've got to have something to attract folks. 

Thanks again for the TR.

Candy 

Brent, just a side note. As you and your SO seem to like to play slots (God help you, but OK), there's one basic fact you need to know. Any "themed" slot that uses a performer's image, reference to a TV show or movie, or other "pop culture" reference will carry with it the obligation for the owner/lessee to pay a license fee to the owner of the relevant copyright. Those fees will have to be paid for on top of whatever house percentage the slot is inherently set to. And those fees aren't trivial! The overall nationwide payback % difference between a copyrighted/themed slot and a "regular" slot averages 3 percent. (As you know, the operator can set the payback percentage to anything legal, which in Nevada is 75% or higher.)

Now, you're already fighting about a 10% edge every time you sit down at a slot, so I would recommend that you stay away from Whitney Houston or Captain Crunch or Willy Wonka if you MUST play the money-munchers. 87% is a dismally low payback.

Just a follow up with some of the questions.  Edso I think some of the fancy breakfast items at Zeffer's looked good but pricey and the lunch items have always been good.  We got the basic scrambled eggs, potatoes and toast, to just get on schedule and planned on having lunch.  Somehow we got powdered eggs with no flavor and the frozen potato cubes out of a bag with a few peppers and I hard piece of sourdough for 22 bucks with tax.  I like the way the casino is currently set up , but nobody is ever there.  Not sure who they are targeting and they are loosing their best restaurant.

       Candy the Virgin just isn't doing anything to attract customers.  It looks nice inside but nobody ever plays there.The two video poker bars each have about 8 machines  and usually serve drinks in plastic cups.  It is no fun drinking a mimosa out of a plastic cup. And the bartenders are there just hanging out talking with there friends instead of patrons.  The rooms here are nice, but not nearly as nice as the hard rock rooms were.  Very low beds and a modern californis feel.

       Kevin when we go to Las Vegas we try and pay attention to where people are playing and winning.  Usually we can find a hot new game that is paying and is always busy.  I made about 160 dollar profit on Whittney Houston this trip, and maybe played an hour total on 6 sessions at 4 different casinos.  Last trip was tiger vs dragon.  The trip before that was the big train game that is really loud, and the one before that my wife hit the Mo Mummy game and before that the Pot game. We have also done well playing the Buffalo Assention game when it has been positive.  This slot play is maybe 5 percent of our overall play and is a nice change of pace from playing video poker and video keno.  Our live keno play is just for fun, however we have hit 2 6 spots at Red Rock for 1200 each.  And before you dog our video keno play, we started playing this after noticing that it seemed to be the game of choice for many of the locals, and has made a big difference in our trip results. WE do not win ever trip, but our results keep getting better the more we learn and the less we chase !