Mi litterbox es su litterbox: Days 3/4

Well, we got to the hospital in good order, with some anticipated difficulty maneuvering into my car, but as I thought, an attendant came out with a wheelchair and rolled her in from the parking lot. I accompanied her inside with her stuff (overnight bag, etc.) and we waited until she was admitted--not too long, about an hour. At that point, I wasn't going to be needed or useful, as she spent all of yesterday getting poked and prodded and prepped. I texted her last night--she's good to go and is scheduled for surgery at 11 this morning.

I dropped by her apartment at 7:00 this morning and the kitties demanded to know where Mom was and what had I done with her and by the way, no one has fed us and could you do something about that, please? So I gave them their morning munchies (wet food), topped off the dry food, made sure the water bowl was refreshed, etc. I'm going on a grocery run later. Mandrake and Daisy actually seemed pretty nonchalant about my presence and allowed me to pet and scritch them. I guess the way to a cat's heart is through their stomach.

Yesterday, after dropping my friend off, I returned to my regular crime scene, Emerald Island. I had breakfast (a bowl of oatmeal and a blueberry waffle, with abundant coffee; yummy, as usual, and free). i intended to put in some heavy play with the free gift promo (200 points, and you can choose a gift from the table, which has a lot of useful household stuff and the like; I got a nonstick frying pan, a camping lantern, and a beach towel on prior visits). the wheel spin promo (1500 points and you get a wheel spin, which LVA calculates is worth $15), and the 25X points multipliers, which come into effect every two hours.

For my play when the multiplers weren't in effect, I chose 10/6 DDB Spin Poker, a breakeven game. When the multipliers turned on, I moved to single-line NSUD, as the multipliers don't apply to multi-hand games. So this whole day was a titanic struggle. I kept missing and missing (and MISSING and MISSING and MISSING) big draws. AKQ10 suited...HONK. AAA. HONK. 222, HAHAHAHAHAHA. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over. The worst part was that on the single-line games, I kepr making small comebacks, only to have the machine immediately flip over to MurderDeathKill mode, and I'd lose the next ten or fifteen hands. It's so demoralizing--you get, say, a wild royal at NSUD, or 9999 at DDB, and you say, well, that's something at least, and immediately after that, it's like you're getting punished for that one good hand.

So I gradually sank to -$280. It was about 8 in the evening, and I was ready to hang it up, when Nasty McDeuce dealt me 2222. Well, that was worth $200 (100 cents a hand), and I said, OK, fine, good enough. Then I remembered the promo stuff. I got the wheel spin and hit the $50 slot. Then I got a nice picnic blanket from the gift table. So I was down only $30 for the day--and then I remembered my point balance. Turns out that I earned $70 worth of points that day--and I had only been playing about a dollar a hand. Yay multipliers, and yay promos! Dinner (free) was a killer chicken fried steak.

You just can't beat Emerald Island. Great games, terrific promos, and an awesome coffee shop. Grab your LVA book and get thee to the EI and Rainbow.

Gonna transfer my flag to the 4Q this afternoon and then finish off my promo play. Stay tuned.

Good luck at the 4Q. I haunted Magnolia's for a few days. Had french toast a couple of times. And much coffee. 

I noticed the new NFL slots there (and at El Cortez and elsewhere). They actually have NFL-licensed slots. LOL. I invested $20, played a half hour, and lost 40 cents. The inestimable slot expert, mickey crimm (of GWAE fame) publicly stated that the NFL slots are exploitable. I'll take his word for it, but I do need to report that I was the only person I saw at any time who was playing them.

Play hard and eat well. French toast there is never a bad idea.

Robert, I assume that Crimm didn't provide details. The only way these or any slots could be exploitable is if they built up banks as people played, and if they're being ignored...I'll take a look, though. You don't happen to recall where they are?

My friend is out of surgery. I had arranged for me to be one of the persons authorized to receive info on her condition (thanks, Candy, for the tip), and the nurse on her floor says the surgery went fine and she's resting comfortably. I won't disturb her tonight.

I finished up the 4Q promo; thanks to another recalcitrant JOB machine (WHY do I even play those goddamn things?), I lost $67 in the process. BUT: $140 free play and $50 comps added to my account. I already have $40 free play from my room offer. I also have a $25 comp for Whiskey Licker that must be used tonight, so OK, OK, I'll have dinner there. Looks like good (if high-priced) burgers and pizza and such. The comp will cover food and beer.

I'll then go over to the Plaza and do some shameless couponing, give them some play, see if I can wangle some future room offers. I also want to play that last-of-its-kind joker poker machine, even though it awards no points. Then I'll visit Golden Gate long enough to play the LVA matchplay--I think I already belong to the ONE club, though I'm damned if I remember when or how. I might play some of their crap 8/5 bonus, again, just to stimulate future room offers.

I'm in a very nice room at the 4Q, double beds even though I only need one, but you know what you get with a surplus bed? Extra pillows, bwa ha ha ha.

Sometime tomorrow, I'm going to slither over to Tuscany to check out that free play signup offer. I have the feeling that they're going to kill it soon--it's too good. I also don't remember ever playing there but I DO remember eating there--at least 15 years ago--so I don't know if I ever joined their players' club or if I'm still in their database if I did. 

Coupons is fun :)

The Plaza had some Tue/Wed promo stuff when I visited -- $10 free bet; $5 food comp; some other stuff. Most trips, I spend the last two or three days at the Tuscany. Didn't do it last time because Thurs pricing was bad.

Love this trip reporting!  I am a cat lover too!!  Mine is the worst.  Her name is Sassy.  Wakes me up for breakfast promptly at 5.45 am. 

How do the mulipliers work at Emerald Island? Is there a set schedule?

Marilyn's is the coffee shop at Tuscany.  Food is really good. 

Yes. It's 10 am to noon, then 2 pm to 4 pm, then 7 pm to 9 pm, then, I think, 12 am to 2 am, and maybe another period early in the morning...? Not sure.

The 25X multipliers apply to all machines. There are also separate 50X multipliers on a different schedule for slots only, and one hour a week, I think Saturday at 4:30, you get 100X points on slots.

The return is $1 coin-in = 1 pt. and 1500 pts = $1 comps. That's a fairly feeble 0.067%, but 25X makes it over 1.6%, making almost every VP schedule in the casino positive! And if you like slots, I personally don't play them, but you can get 3% or even 6% back in comps by playing during multiplier periods. And given the generosity of the VP pay schedules there, I'll bet that the slots are set to a high payback, too. You certainly see a lot of handpays (over $400) when you're there.

Now, of course, you can only use the comps for food, plus a few local businesses accept them for goods and services. But that ain't a problem for me :) Tonight is steak night, and I know where I'll be.

Sounds good. I'd be playing NSUD, and the food has been really good when I've gone out there. Is that schedule also at Rainbow Club, or just Emerald?