I have posted Martin's Trip Report for you:
QFTS – Fall Edition and my dad the duck hunter…
Greetings fellow trip readers via JMAN of SD.
This is Martin – who finally has completed the “QFTS – Quest for the Sapphire” at B-Connected. And yes ‘It’s Great to B-connected.’ With their fairly decent promos at various properties, multipliers, gifts for play, and other offers, and still playable games - still worth it to play at their properties. My dad (aka – the deuces wild vp duck killer) joined me on this extended 6 day, 5 nights adventure (long for him – he prefers the shorter 3 day/2 nighters). I may have changed his mind after this trip – as he had phenomenal VP luck, even for him! JMAN knows (and may recall when he visited MSS downtown, within 10 min, my dad either hit the 4 deuces or a Royal….). That’s the kind of ‘vp luck’ my dad seems to have.
Oct 4 – 9, 2014 Trip plans and results.
1. My goal this trip was to earn a mininum of 4300 base pts (Sam’s Town, GC, Orleans) combined to reach 25K tier. If I earned 1600 above that (6K) total, this would keep my Sapphire status until next June, as the B-Connected card currently is a rolling 12 mos., which is better than a fixed 6 month timeframe for tier status evaluation, i.m.h.o. especially for out-of-towners. (I had last earned 1600 pts in Dec/2013, so those will roll off my Tier score at the end of Dec/2014).
2. I had an offer for Oct 6-8 (Mon-Wed) that includes 7x pts daily and a ‘Cash Grab’ event on Tues. (Only #75 total winners, although with guests, it seemed like 200 or more were at the event.
3. To extend the trip, my dad had a std 2 nights free with $10 dining, with Sat check-in ok! One of the few places where you can still use offers and check-in on Sat (if there are no special events going on). We used this for the weekend, and linked with #2 above gave us together 5 nights total.
4, Daily offers each month – it’s best to check each Boyd Property (Sam’s Town, Gold Coast, Orleans) about a week prior to your trip (if out of town). Each property has rotating DAILY promos, as well as bigger advertised monthly promo dwgs. based on weekly pts earned (Dwgs. usually on Fri/Sat). Even for a wise LVAer / comps-master it’s hard to keep up with ALL promos and which ones are best to try for (as a visiting out of towner).
E.g. – Mondays – unadvertised on website, but is ongoing (so it seems) – Bonus 50+ (YAH* : Young at Heart) for those over age 50 at Gold Coast. From 3am-midnight, after swiping in, qualify for 5x VP pts/ 10x slots. Free tix for Bingo bonus blue pack. After 50 pts earned, usually a free vp tourney tix – take to Tournament alley area (by TGIFs). Top 35 scores paid with lowest prizes $50 in freeplay. Game is std 9/6 JB for the tournament. 15min session scores usually 1800 and higher get the prizes. Sundays-Mondays-Tuesdays was $5 per 500 base pts at Sam’s T, (only >100% vp games excluded, but they have plenty of 99%-99.9% games). Some even with progressives, often making some vp games go over 100%, if you are the lucky RF winner…
I’ll list the promos I chose as I report each day’s happenings……
So we begin…
Arrival Day 1 of 6 - Saturday Oct 4, 2014
I made the 1.5 hours trip to Los Angeles, to pick up my dad. My Blue Prius was on it’s last wheels (at only 140K young in 7 yrs, but all that desert driving to Laughlin caused the main converter/catalytic system to burn out – over $2800 to repair), so I surprised my dad when I drove up in my trade-in upgrade to the 2014 Prius C. Smaller, more compact, but runs quite well. He still preferred to drive in his ever durable Ford Focus 2 door (from 2002). Since he’s retired, he only had 90K miles on it, and kept it running well, so off we went.
We catch up on things – and this was to be a good Father/son catch up trip. He’s a spry ‘80’, but life can be short, so I chose this trip to catch up on life stories. Easy to do over the 4 hour drive together in a car. He likes Peggy Sues for lunch, and showed me the fresh made Pizza bar in the back. He’s kind of a mellow ‘barfly’ guy – the type that enjoys an occasional beer sitting at a low key bar, chit-chatting with the bartender for relaxation… Beer and Pizza – with 50s music and memorabilia all-around Actually quite relaxing.
It’s a fairly easy Saturday drive, although the usual truck traffic seems heavier than normal to me. The goods and services must keep the economy ‘rolling’, so to speak, but it’s the speeding So. Cal drivers you have to be aware of. Fortunately, my dad is a good commuter on this type of drive, and we make good time. It’s only a little after 3pm, and I wanted to check out South Pointe’s Bingo Hall and costs (possibly to play later this trip).
Sign of luck? – I arrive during the middle of the 3pm session, and they just finish the “Dual-Daub (DD)” jackpot game. I have been monitoring online the various DD jackpots around town. The game (which has 2 #s in each square instead of 1) is a ‘coverall’, and usually hits by 35-40#s. Jackpots start anywhere from $10K-$25k, with as few as 30#s to hit the jackpot, and grows into $35K+ or more…. With the Total # to hit upped by ‘1’ every week. As I’m picking up the Bingo pgm/info, I hear a stadium like cheer as someone HITS their jackpot ($48K!) on the 34th number called! WOW- biggest jackpot I’ve witnessed in a while – inspires me to try this game later…This one was ‘due’ (seems like most DD jackpots hit by 36#s). B-Connected Progs stop at #35, I think, until hit. (So must be won by 35#s or less). GC and ST DD jackpots were well over $35K also and 35#s or less….more later.
That was inspirational…. I meet my dad to tell him that story, and we check in to ST. Our home for the next 6 days/5 nights…..
Sam's Town
He prefers using the Bell Desk, so we check in Front (well – he checks in, with Bell Hop, and I self-park the car in the garage and meet him at the Registration area).
We got a nice room facing Boulder Hwy/RV park with view of Strat tower to Wynn/Strip in distance from the 6th floor. The Indoor Park Waterfalls was under renovations/repair and wouldn’t be on at this time:
Workers up close working on Sam’s Town Water Fall ‘rock’…
Note: My dad’s prefers things simpler (face to face), so this new idea of using technology (i.e. – Kiosks to swipe for daily promo stuff) confuses him a bit. Once I SHOW him, then he understands…. So he can check his pt balances, etc anytime.
First, though we have to get him his new ‘Sapphire’ card (apparently he just made that tier level with 25k base pts this past July). Then I ask the boothling about the ‘6 pack’ giveaway, which he confused with the Tables games promotion (and thus we went to the wrong area).
Gift giveaways at ST are either at B-Connected Booth, or 2 distribution areas (by Dunkin Donuts, or room upstairs near YAH/Shepler’s). Today was upstairs near promo area by Shepler’s Western store.
Saturday Oct 4 ST has a simple promo gift for pts, no pts deducted.
October 3 or 4 (Friday/Saturday) – Unsweetened Tea
Earn 200 base points or card score on the select dates shown to receive your gift.
Pure Leaf Tea 6 packs and Cooler Bag
10:00am – 8:00pm, while supplies last.
One free gift per person WHILE SUPPLIES LAST. Offer is non-transferable and expires when daily supply is exhausted or at 8:00pm (whichever comes first) on giveaway dates. Complete details available at B Connected Club. See Kiosk voucher for redemption location details. Offer subject to change without notice. Actual item may vary from picture shown. Management reserves all rights. PEPSI is not a sponsor of this promotion. ©2014 PURE LEAF is a trademark of the Unilever Group of Companies.
Since it’s already past 5pm, I first made sure they had some gifts left. Yep – but maybe only about 50 or so, and a few scattered players are walking over with tix. So we decide to play the 200 pts. I show him this slot machine (vs FPDW) to start with, as JMAN knows. The jackpot still hadn’t hit (3-coin quarter Blazing 7s). It was 4k then 5K this past August. Now it’s over $6k (I see JMAN ready to give it a try!). My dad’s test of luck began here.
This is a picture towards the end of my trip, it was at around $6005 and only grew about $100+ in 5 days.
The ‘overdue’ progressive that JMAN and I have watched climb from over $4K in June, to over $5K in August. Still growing. It all can be won for a 3-quarter bet!
I play JB prog (a bit over 1$083, and seems to always hit by $1199 – under taxable, but neither JMAN or I have yet to hit the Royal on this bank). I do win for the first session in a while, for $45 profit on 200 pts. My dad donates $60 of his $100. He said he will try it later, though. Got a few mixed 7s off the line (only pay 100), but you need them to hit on the line to profit more (200 / 300) payoffs. The 3 jackpot Blazing 7s off the center line still paid 1600 - $400). It was attractive to him.
My first quad is Aces in ‘wrong’ game of JB, but lucky draw! (Held lone Jack).
My 1 cd RF draws seem to keep missing- Ten of Hearts this time … I’ve stopped counting now, but well over 20 times.
I know 1 in 47 true odds, and perhaps I’ve filled more than my share, just seems lately……. Maybe I need my dad’s lucky touch!
Next we print out our gift ticket at the kiosk – not sure why they couldn’t automate this by having a computer/scan check with ID or pin# at the distribution area…but it’s a nice gift – insulated large lunch bag (about 18” tall ) and easily could hold a few 6 packs in it! I can definitely use this for my lunch at work…. Great gift, and no pts deducted! The flavor of the week was unsweetened Pure Leaf Tea (I would have preferred flavored, but that’s ok – as I need less sugar in my diet!). It was simple enough to pick up some sweeteners at McD or the Deli later as I drank them during these next 5 days…
This was just check in day, and my bonus pts didn’t’ start til Monday. So I told my dad I’d either play some poker tonight, or study fball for teaser bets later.
He was ready to go ‘duck hunting’. We parted ways, until dinner later.
Turns out I was a little tired now (must be aging even at a tad over 50+). So I did the last college game teaser with some pro bets (Boise St at Nevada, Reno, with Home team NEV getting +10!). Game looked like a loser until final qtr, down 44-29 Nevada came back to make it a reasonable 51-46 final – high scoring affair, but it covered! Now I could root for my Pros on Sunday. Only $10 wager, but $80 win potential…
I just used the room packet coupons for extra Panda/Chinese take out food for dinner in the room, and my dad couldn’t be found. I was watching some TV in the room, while enjoying my dinner, and finally around 8:30pm he shows up and shows me 2 payout tickets of $1K and $1k…..Unbelievable. He had hit 2 sets of ducks and 2 Royals at the FPDWs (and 1 by playing wrong! – yes he now gambles and tosses the ‘wild’ RF away if 3 or 4 nat’l to RF. I can see risking the 1 cd draw, but not 2, esp now that only 2 wilds left to redraw for…). Well can’t argue with his luck. He is THE DUCK killer (and Royal Master!) Must be picking up where JMAN and I have spent endless hrs of NOT hitting those royals and deuces on that game….good grief! So his minor -60 beginning just had a +2500 infusion, and he’s got a great start (net of +2200 or so).
More Tomorrow.
602 tier pts net, +35 pending fball ticket (-10 or +70).
Total spent: $30 (Peggy Sues $6, Gas $16 – my share as dad had filled up earlier, and it uses more than a Prius…, $8 Panda express – I paid cash, saving my pts for later. Also Panda costs 1000 pts/$1 comp vs 600 pts/$1 at Sports Deli/buffet/Willy – Jose/Billy Bob’s.)
Martin.
QFTS – Fall Edition and my dad the duck hunter…
Greetings fellow trip readers via JMAN of SD.
This is Martin – who finally has completed the “QFTS – Quest for the Sapphire” at B-Connected. And yes ‘It’s Great to B-connected.’ With their fairly decent promos at various properties, multipliers, gifts for play, and other offers, and still playable games - still worth it to play at their properties. My dad (aka – the deuces wild vp duck killer) joined me on this extended 6 day, 5 nights adventure (long for him – he prefers the shorter 3 day/2 nighters). I may have changed his mind after this trip – as he had phenomenal VP luck, even for him! JMAN knows (and may recall when he visited MSS downtown, within 10 min, my dad either hit the 4 deuces or a Royal….). That’s the kind of ‘vp luck’ my dad seems to have.
Oct 4 – 9, 2014 Trip plans and results.
1. My goal this trip was to earn a mininum of 4300 base pts (Sam’s Town, GC, Orleans) combined to reach 25K tier. If I earned 1600 above that (6K) total, this would keep my Sapphire status until next June, as the B-Connected card currently is a rolling 12 mos., which is better than a fixed 6 month timeframe for tier status evaluation, i.m.h.o. especially for out-of-towners. (I had last earned 1600 pts in Dec/2013, so those will roll off my Tier score at the end of Dec/2014).
2. I had an offer for Oct 6-8 (Mon-Wed) that includes 7x pts daily and a ‘Cash Grab’ event on Tues. (Only #75 total winners, although with guests, it seemed like 200 or more were at the event.
3. To extend the trip, my dad had a std 2 nights free with $10 dining, with Sat check-in ok! One of the few places where you can still use offers and check-in on Sat (if there are no special events going on). We used this for the weekend, and linked with #2 above gave us together 5 nights total.
4, Daily offers each month – it’s best to check each Boyd Property (Sam’s Town, Gold Coast, Orleans) about a week prior to your trip (if out of town). Each property has rotating DAILY promos, as well as bigger advertised monthly promo dwgs. based on weekly pts earned (Dwgs. usually on Fri/Sat). Even for a wise LVAer / comps-master it’s hard to keep up with ALL promos and which ones are best to try for (as a visiting out of towner).
E.g. – Mondays – unadvertised on website, but is ongoing (so it seems) – Bonus 50+ (YAH* : Young at Heart) for those over age 50 at Gold Coast. From 3am-midnight, after swiping in, qualify for 5x VP pts/ 10x slots. Free tix for Bingo bonus blue pack. After 50 pts earned, usually a free vp tourney tix – take to Tournament alley area (by TGIFs). Top 35 scores paid with lowest prizes $50 in freeplay. Game is std 9/6 JB for the tournament. 15min session scores usually 1800 and higher get the prizes. Sundays-Mondays-Tuesdays was $5 per 500 base pts at Sam’s T, (only >100% vp games excluded, but they have plenty of 99%-99.9% games). Some even with progressives, often making some vp games go over 100%, if you are the lucky RF winner…
I’ll list the promos I chose as I report each day’s happenings……
So we begin…
Arrival Day 1 of 6 - Saturday Oct 4, 2014
I made the 1.5 hours trip to Los Angeles, to pick up my dad. My Blue Prius was on it’s last wheels (at only 140K young in 7 yrs, but all that desert driving to Laughlin caused the main converter/catalytic system to burn out – over $2800 to repair), so I surprised my dad when I drove up in my trade-in upgrade to the 2014 Prius C. Smaller, more compact, but runs quite well. He still preferred to drive in his ever durable Ford Focus 2 door (from 2002). Since he’s retired, he only had 90K miles on it, and kept it running well, so off we went.
We catch up on things – and this was to be a good Father/son catch up trip. He’s a spry ‘80’, but life can be short, so I chose this trip to catch up on life stories. Easy to do over the 4 hour drive together in a car. He likes Peggy Sues for lunch, and showed me the fresh made Pizza bar in the back. He’s kind of a mellow ‘barfly’ guy – the type that enjoys an occasional beer sitting at a low key bar, chit-chatting with the bartender for relaxation… Beer and Pizza – with 50s music and memorabilia all-around Actually quite relaxing.
It’s a fairly easy Saturday drive, although the usual truck traffic seems heavier than normal to me. The goods and services must keep the economy ‘rolling’, so to speak, but it’s the speeding So. Cal drivers you have to be aware of. Fortunately, my dad is a good commuter on this type of drive, and we make good time. It’s only a little after 3pm, and I wanted to check out South Pointe’s Bingo Hall and costs (possibly to play later this trip).
Sign of luck? – I arrive during the middle of the 3pm session, and they just finish the “Dual-Daub (DD)” jackpot game. I have been monitoring online the various DD jackpots around town. The game (which has 2 #s in each square instead of 1) is a ‘coverall’, and usually hits by 35-40#s. Jackpots start anywhere from $10K-$25k, with as few as 30#s to hit the jackpot, and grows into $35K+ or more…. With the Total # to hit upped by ‘1’ every week. As I’m picking up the Bingo pgm/info, I hear a stadium like cheer as someone HITS their jackpot ($48K!) on the 34th number called! WOW- biggest jackpot I’ve witnessed in a while – inspires me to try this game later…This one was ‘due’ (seems like most DD jackpots hit by 36#s). B-Connected Progs stop at #35, I think, until hit. (So must be won by 35#s or less). GC and ST DD jackpots were well over $35K also and 35#s or less….more later.
That was inspirational…. I meet my dad to tell him that story, and we check in to ST. Our home for the next 6 days/5 nights…..
Sam's Town
He prefers using the Bell Desk, so we check in Front (well – he checks in, with Bell Hop, and I self-park the car in the garage and meet him at the Registration area).
We got a nice room facing Boulder Hwy/RV park with view of Strat tower to Wynn/Strip in distance from the 6th floor. The Indoor Park Waterfalls was under renovations/repair and wouldn’t be on at this time:
Workers up close working on Sam’s Town Water Fall ‘rock’…
Note: My dad’s prefers things simpler (face to face), so this new idea of using technology (i.e. – Kiosks to swipe for daily promo stuff) confuses him a bit. Once I SHOW him, then he understands…. So he can check his pt balances, etc anytime.
First, though we have to get him his new ‘Sapphire’ card (apparently he just made that tier level with 25k base pts this past July). Then I ask the boothling about the ‘6 pack’ giveaway, which he confused with the Tables games promotion (and thus we went to the wrong area).
Gift giveaways at ST are either at B-Connected Booth, or 2 distribution areas (by Dunkin Donuts, or room upstairs near YAH/Shepler’s). Today was upstairs near promo area by Shepler’s Western store.
Saturday Oct 4 ST has a simple promo gift for pts, no pts deducted.
October 3 or 4 (Friday/Saturday) – Unsweetened Tea
Earn 200 base points or card score on the select dates shown to receive your gift.
Pure Leaf Tea 6 packs and Cooler Bag
10:00am – 8:00pm, while supplies last.
One free gift per person WHILE SUPPLIES LAST. Offer is non-transferable and expires when daily supply is exhausted or at 8:00pm (whichever comes first) on giveaway dates. Complete details available at B Connected Club. See Kiosk voucher for redemption location details. Offer subject to change without notice. Actual item may vary from picture shown. Management reserves all rights. PEPSI is not a sponsor of this promotion. ©2014 PURE LEAF is a trademark of the Unilever Group of Companies.
Since it’s already past 5pm, I first made sure they had some gifts left. Yep – but maybe only about 50 or so, and a few scattered players are walking over with tix. So we decide to play the 200 pts. I show him this slot machine (vs FPDW) to start with, as JMAN knows. The jackpot still hadn’t hit (3-coin quarter Blazing 7s). It was 4k then 5K this past August. Now it’s over $6k (I see JMAN ready to give it a try!). My dad’s test of luck began here.
This is a picture towards the end of my trip, it was at around $6005 and only grew about $100+ in 5 days.
The ‘overdue’ progressive that JMAN and I have watched climb from over $4K in June, to over $5K in August. Still growing. It all can be won for a 3-quarter bet!
I play JB prog (a bit over 1$083, and seems to always hit by $1199 – under taxable, but neither JMAN or I have yet to hit the Royal on this bank). I do win for the first session in a while, for $45 profit on 200 pts. My dad donates $60 of his $100. He said he will try it later, though. Got a few mixed 7s off the line (only pay 100), but you need them to hit on the line to profit more (200 / 300) payoffs. The 3 jackpot Blazing 7s off the center line still paid 1600 - $400). It was attractive to him.
My first quad is Aces in ‘wrong’ game of JB, but lucky draw! (Held lone Jack).
My 1 cd RF draws seem to keep missing- Ten of Hearts this time … I’ve stopped counting now, but well over 20 times.
I know 1 in 47 true odds, and perhaps I’ve filled more than my share, just seems lately……. Maybe I need my dad’s lucky touch!
Next we print out our gift ticket at the kiosk – not sure why they couldn’t automate this by having a computer/scan check with ID or pin# at the distribution area…but it’s a nice gift – insulated large lunch bag (about 18” tall ) and easily could hold a few 6 packs in it! I can definitely use this for my lunch at work…. Great gift, and no pts deducted! The flavor of the week was unsweetened Pure Leaf Tea (I would have preferred flavored, but that’s ok – as I need less sugar in my diet!). It was simple enough to pick up some sweeteners at McD or the Deli later as I drank them during these next 5 days…
This was just check in day, and my bonus pts didn’t’ start til Monday. So I told my dad I’d either play some poker tonight, or study fball for teaser bets later.
He was ready to go ‘duck hunting’. We parted ways, until dinner later.
Turns out I was a little tired now (must be aging even at a tad over 50+). So I did the last college game teaser with some pro bets (Boise St at Nevada, Reno, with Home team NEV getting +10!). Game looked like a loser until final qtr, down 44-29 Nevada came back to make it a reasonable 51-46 final – high scoring affair, but it covered! Now I could root for my Pros on Sunday. Only $10 wager, but $80 win potential…
I just used the room packet coupons for extra Panda/Chinese take out food for dinner in the room, and my dad couldn’t be found. I was watching some TV in the room, while enjoying my dinner, and finally around 8:30pm he shows up and shows me 2 payout tickets of $1K and $1k…..Unbelievable. He had hit 2 sets of ducks and 2 Royals at the FPDWs (and 1 by playing wrong! – yes he now gambles and tosses the ‘wild’ RF away if 3 or 4 nat’l to RF. I can see risking the 1 cd draw, but not 2, esp now that only 2 wilds left to redraw for…). Well can’t argue with his luck. He is THE DUCK killer (and Royal Master!) Must be picking up where JMAN and I have spent endless hrs of NOT hitting those royals and deuces on that game….good grief! So his minor -60 beginning just had a +2500 infusion, and he’s got a great start (net of +2200 or so).
More Tomorrow.
602 tier pts net, +35 pending fball ticket (-10 or +70).
Total spent: $30 (Peggy Sues $6, Gas $16 – my share as dad had filled up earlier, and it uses more than a Prius…, $8 Panda express – I paid cash, saving my pts for later. Also Panda costs 1000 pts/$1 comp vs 600 pts/$1 at Sports Deli/buffet/Willy – Jose/Billy Bob’s.)
Martin.
