My Farewell Year – Chapter 2
I’ll assume you’ve read the previous chapter rather than rehash the point of this year’s trip reports. You might remember that Chapter 1 ended with me taking $23 profit from the $35 free play. The next day, I went to the promotion’s booth to pick up the second day’s free play, but was surprised when I was told I hadn’t played the required 700 tier points yet to qualify for it. This was news to me. There was no literature handed out for this promotion (New Year’s Eve party and dinner) so I wasn’t aware of a play requirement. And even if I did, to play $7,000 through the machine to earn a meager $50 in free play certainly was no great deal. I thanked the boothling, went to my room, packed, and checked out a day early and headed home.
Friday, January 16
The drive to Laughlin, which takes 5 hours from San Diego was uneventful and boring (thank goodness for Sirius Radio). I arrived too early to check in and went to the Riverside to watch a movie. I saw AMERICAN SNIPER starring a beefed up Bradley Cooper, which was a very intense and sometimes disturbing movie. When it ended the theater, which was about half-full, was eerily quiet as we all filed out. This movie is good but not for the squeamish. I went downstairs to see how the buffet remodel was going and it was finished. The buffet itself is the same, but the entrance now has a full service bar with VP machines.
New bar at entrance of buffet—usually not a big deal, but a huge update for the Riverside
I’m back in Laughlin for a $20,000 poker tournament offer. It includes two night stay and a free entry into the tournament. I was given a suite in the South Tower, which was nice as I didn’t get a suite for the New Year’s stay. I didn’t realize it was only a two night offer, and I needed an extra night, so I called down to my host and left a message that I needed another free night. I soon got a message telling me that my host (Leslie) was off for the week, but she took care of it. I checked online, and had I purchased the suite for this weekend, it would have cost me $169 per night. The tournament entry is $100, so the total package I’m being comped it $517. Add to that the gift basket (sold in the café for $25), my total value is $542.00.
The gift basket delivered to my room after my arrival
Considering that I’m not gambling with my own money this year, I am now faced with the “what to do with myself” dilemma. I’ve been to Laughlin so many times, that I’ve seen everything and posted enough pictures of the place over the years, it’s hard to come up with anything new and interesting. I walked around the casino for a while to see if anything was new or different. Aside from moving machines from one part of the casino to another (no idea why they do this), nothing has changed. I hung out in the Diamond Lounge and enjoyed some snacks (miniature beef wellingtons and chicken cordon bleu balls) and a Bailey’s coffee watching Sportscenter. I went to the café to pick up a turkey wrap to take back to my room ($9.95 value—used my reward credits); I then headed back to the room where I watched the pay-per-view of BIRDMAN (costing $17.95, insane cost but free for 7 Star members). The movie was simply too “outside the box” for me, so I didn’t care for it. Fortunately, there are a lot of the Best Picture nominees on the pay-per-view, so I’ll be seeing a lot of them during this trip.
Saturday
I woke up early and began this report wandering how I’m going to format these chapters. I thought for this chapter, I’d check out the values of all the things I’m being comped or using my reward points; however, in the further chapters, I will simply keep those figures at the end of the report because for some; it’s simply not very interesting.
Today was the poker tournament and I was given Table 6, Seat 7. There are a total of 200 people playing this one. In the first round, each table’s last two seated players go to the next round tomorrow. Then each winner of that table make it to the final table of 10 (the money table) with the winner taking home either a $10K entry into this year’s WSOP or $8K in cash. I played well but with four people left and I was the short stack, I went all in with a pair of jacks after the flop. To my surprise, a lady who had checked before me called. She was a novice player and showed it when she turned over only Ace high (an experienced player would have never called an all-in without at least a pair). She caught an Ace on the river and I was out. This is the way it goes in these types of tournaments. Because they’re free for members, people who don’t even know how to play hope to get lucky—and she did against me.
I drove over to the Golden Nugget because I had $5 in free play and $15 in comps. The free play went well as I played a Spartacus machine and caught a good bonus and won $65. I cashed out and went over to the Claim Jumper (where the coffee shop used to be) and had half a club sandwich and some iced tea to use up the food comp. It was an excellent meal. If you haven’t eaten at a Claim Jumper, you need to know the portions are huge, but very good. I was glad to see that you could buy halves of most the dishes.
The Golden Nugget in Laughlin
I then went over to the Center Mall to the theaters there as I wanted to see BLACKHAT, a Michal Mann flick. It’s an intrigue thriller and I loved it, though I’m sure some will find it’s pace slow and all the computer hacking lingo hard to follow. After the movie I drove over to Bullhead to fill up ($1.87) and run over to Target for a couple of things. Then it was back to Harrah’s. I’m going to skip dinner tonight and just have some fruit from the gift basket as lunch along with popcorn at the movie was enough for the day.
Tonight’s choice for my pay-per-view is BOYHOOD, another best picture nominee. This movie was shot over 12 years and it was interesting seeing an actual brother and sister as they grow up throughout the movie. There was no real plot other than following the life of the boy from 6 years to 18 and all the growing pains he and his family go through. It’s an odd movie but interesting.
The Laughlin Center Mall, one of two theater complexes in the city
Sunday
Today is going to all about live poker and football. I bought in for $60 at the Colorado Belle at their 2/4 game. They have bonuses for quads, cracked Aces, straight and royal flushes. I started playing at 8:30 AM and was disappointed that the doubling and tripling of the cracked Aces promotion is no longer in effect—not that it matter. In all the years I’ve played here, I’ve never been dealt pocket Aces and that streak continued today. It was yet another day for being dealt dead cards all session. Even a change of seats didn’t help. I noticed I was getting dealt 9/2 off a lot and started counting. Since that point, I was dealt 9/2 six more times…insane!
I did manage to win enough small pots to keep in the game for almost four hours but finally felted (lost it all). I’m not too disappointed considering I won the $65 yesterday, so I’ll call this a free roll. I’m certainly due for a good poker session or two. Even with losing, playing live poker is still be best game for me. You can play for a long time with limited loss exposure—assuming you play reasonably disciplined.
The Colorado Belle where I play poker.
I headed back over to the mall to see the new Kevin Hart movie WEDDING RINGER. I expected a formulaic comedy, sometimes silly, and the obligatory heart tugging realization scene, and I got exactly that. There’s nothing special here other than a few laughs and a reason to enjoy some good theater popcorn.
I drove back to Harrah’s so I could be sure to get a table in the Diamond Lounge for the divisional playoff games. They served hot dogs, turkey wraps, and chicken wings today (pretty good). The place was evenly populated with Green Bay and Seahawk fans, so every caught ball or sack was met with an eruption of cheers. The Laughlin Harrah’s Diamond Lounge might be all retired folks but put a few free drinks in them, and the noise can be ear-splitting. I watched the New England/Indianapolis game for a little bit, but it was obvious the Patriots were going to run away with this one, so I headed back to my room, no dinner needed with all the DL food. Besides, here at Laughlin, they give you a container of either brownies or cookies at turn down service (far better than any other Caesars property). I just watched some mindless TV and went to bed after some business on the computer.
Monday
Today I’m moving to Las Vegas. I was up early and worked on this trip report and played some MY VEGAS (a game that gives you free or discounted goodies in Vegas). I read a little of this month’s book club selection, MY SOUL TO KEEP by Tananarive Due. I checked out early and picked up a morning breakfast sandwich at the Subway to eat along the way. The drive from Laughlin to Las Vegas is one of easiest you’ll find anywhere. The Hwy 95 is a multi-lane 75 MPH road and with the exception of driving through the speed trap (25 MPH) at Searchlight, it’s straight to Vegas.
I drove to Sam’s Town as it was much too early to check in and I signed up for their daily $35 poker tournament. I had a half hour to kill and walked around to see what was new. I went upstairs to check out the bank of 9/6 Jacks progressive and was alarmed to see that they were gone. I asked a slot attendant where they moved them and she said they were taken out with no plans for them to return. That set off a red flag in me, so I headed down to the two banks of full pay deuces downstairs and they were still there though these machines are set up to run very slow and you need to put in 4X the coins for points. The Aces Bonus machines on the first floor were also downgraded to 7/5. So, the only full play jacks are now limited to the one coin-fed machine across from the downstairs cashier. It seems Boyd properties have joined the big boys in going after video poker players. First they double the play for the points, now they continue to downgrade the machines pay schedules. It seems I’ve decided to quit playing just in time.
They announced my poker tournament was to begin. I sat down at table 3 in the corner. I’m hoping to last a long time and money in this tournament as I’ve been on quite a poker losing streak. On just the second dealt hand of the tournament, I was the big blind and was dealt 7/8 off suit. No one raised me so I played the cards. The flop was 4-5-6 rainbow (all different suits). I have a straight (the nuts—the best possible hand). To my shock the guy on my right goes ALL-IN! On the second hand? Who does that? I know I have the best hand, so I have no choice but to call. He has a 5 and 6 for two pair. The river is a 6 (gives him a full house) and I’m out of the tournament in the second hand! What the hell? The entire table is in shock as I walk away.
I drove to my next stay, which is the Linq. I haven’t stayed at this hotel since it was the Imperial Palace and it was a dump. I had vowed to never stay there again. However, since it became the Quad, soon changed to the Linq after it was discovered that the word Quad was a bad luck word in Asian culture (leave it to Caesars to not check this out first); I had read they remodeled the rooms and I was curious. They had done such a remarkable job in the casino; I had to find out what they could do to the rooms. I checked in at the VIP Services desk. They offered me cold water, juices, or soft drinks (nice), and then after the paperwork was signed, the clerk walked with me to the elevators explaining things to see along the way (they do this for all Diamond and 7 Star players).
The room was on the 15th floor away from the Strip, which for me was good as I didn’t want to be anywhere near the Carnival Court where live bands play into the night. The room was itsy-bitsy-teenie-weenie (only thing missing was the yellow polka dot bikini). I expected this as the original hotel was built back in the day when all the rooms were small. However, the designers have done an amazing job with such a small area to work with. It’s smartly decorated with quality furniture. The bed is very comfy and the bathroom has all the latest fixtures. Quite frankly, it’s a beautiful, little room and it’s just fine with me. There are no other bathroom supplies as the soap, conditioner, and moisturizer are in push dispensers on the wall in the shower (smart, cost cutting move). The smallness of the room doesn’t bother me at all, so I would be happy to stay here again.
Sorry for the lighting. Here’s the room—basic but functional.
Bathroom, though small, is in beautiful marble. Walk in shower is to the right (no tub)
Another reason I’m staying at the Linq is that I’m taking advantage of a three night stay and slot tournament, which happens to be in this casino. It also came with $40 free play, which I used playing a Spartacus machine and ran it through cashing out for a $37 profit. I registered for the tournament and asked for the latest time possible (2:15) because I had made an appointment to have my oil changed tomorrow morning at a Ford dealership on Decatur and didn’t want to chance missing it.
It was almost 4:00 PM, so I hustled over to Harrah’s to their Diamond Lounge and I sat at the bar. The food today was BBQ beef ribs and macaroni and cheese (very good). Robert, the bartender, gave me a Bailey’s and went into a rant about the Caesars bankruptcy. Many regulars know Robert. He loves to talk. Get him started and you’re in for the long haul. It didn’t help that the guy next to me asked, “So, what’s new Robert?” Three drinks later, I was out of there. I picked up a turkey wrap at the new food court in Harrah’s for dinner and walked back to the room. I got a call from housekeeping just to ask if there was anything I needed (this was a first) and I mentioned I’d like to have a coffee maker. Within ten minutes, she showed up with a Keurig coffee maker, two ceramic cups and a bag full of coffees in three different brews. I asked if there was an extra charge and she said that it’s complimentary for 7 Star members. An hour later, an attendant came to the door for turndown service which included a couple of waters, a small box of gourmet jelly beans and a little pillow—an odd item. So far, I have nothing but high praise for my stay here at the Linq.
The Linq today. Hard to even imagine Imperial Palace was ever that building. They never closed throughout the entire remodel.
Tuesday
I drove to the Ford dealer at 8AM to have my regular maintenance. When I bought my car, I went ahead a bought the extended maintenance package, which covers all service on my car with only tire replacement as the lone exception, so all my oil changes and such are free. Everything was fine with the car and I had some time before my slot tournament, so I drove over to the Orleans. Being a Boyd property, I was curious if they, like Sam’s Town, gutted their full pay VP. There’s a bank of full pay Aces Bonus in front of the BConnected booth and four of them still have it at 8/5. I walked down to the poker room and put my name on the list to play some live 2/4 poker, but after waiting almost an hour, I gave up and ran my card through the kiosk and there was a free entry into their VP tournament. I played that and catching only one small quad, it’s likely a bust, so I won’t bother to come back tomorrow to see if I won.
The Orleans still has some decent VP to play on a couple of banks of machines
I headed back to the Linq to get a little reading done and update this report before heading down to the tournament at 2:10. I checked the cost of my room had I purchased it online and was really surprised that it was only $36 per night. Granted, it’s a Mon thru Thurs, but that’s crazy cheap (not forgetting there’d be “resort fee” on top of this). I’d pay this in a heartbeat for this room.
The tournament was on the newer machines and lasted only 2 minutes. There are 20 people per session, ten sessions per hour for five hours, which means there are approximately 1000 people playing. The top 100 scores with two days play win assorted amounts of free play. In my session, I came in 6th place. So, I figure I’d have to come in to the top five tomorrow to even have a chance at one of the prizes.
Wait all day for just a two-minute session
I went over to the Flamingo to play some live poker. They do deal a 2/4 game here but typical of a Caesars property, their drop (money the house takes from each pot) is as high as $5 per hand, depending on the size of the pot. I only won one hand through the whole session. I’m really having the worst slump of my life with live poker. I only lost my buy in of $60 and played for almost three hours, but it really starts to nag me being out-drawn time after time. Things will turn around—eventually. At least the table was a lot of fun. There were a couple of Canadians who were keeping the table lively.
I went back to the Linq and up to the Hash House for a chicken sandwich to go and had dinner in my room while watching FURY with Brad Pitt on pay-per-view. Movie was good but pretty intense and bloody.
Wednesday
One of the challenges of my taking these trips this year now that I’m not going to be gambling, aside from poker, is to figure out things to do. I’ve come here so often for so long, I’ve seen everything many times over. I was here just a couple weeks ago, and nothing new has opened since then. I’ve even pretty much seen all the movies I’ve wanted to see, so it’s just walking around and playing poker. My son is coming tomorrow for his annual birthday trip, so that will rejuvenate my stay.
I drove back to Sam’s Town to play their $23 tournament. When it started there were five tables (50 players) and when I finally was felted (another draw down when my two pair were thwarted by a river straight), there were only 16 players left, so at least my cards and play were decent and I had a good time. I’ve played this tournament so often now for the past couple years that even the regulars are beginning to know me. I had some breakfast at the sports deli where you can get two eggs, four sausage links, four slices of bread and breakfast potatoes for $4.99. This is a great place for cheap eats.
I headed back to the Linq. I always park in the valet here as it located in the back and you drive under parts of the hotel to get there. Very few people know about it, so it’s rarely busy. The Linq is centrally located across from Caesars and sandwiched between Harrah’s and the Flamingo, so it’s a great place to stay. Now that the rooms have been upgraded, it (along with Ballys) will be my go-to hotel if I want to stay on the Strip. I sat down at my machine for the final session of the slot tournament. The two-minute session ended with me in 3rd place, not bad. When I went to the cashier at 8PM to see if I was in the top 100, I end up in 52nd place for a prize of $250 free play. I ran that through the machines and had a couple of bad runs but managed to cash out $125 cash. Overall a profitable three night stay: free room, Internet, pay-per-view movies, and a total of $159 cash.
After playing the free play and picking up a burger from McDonalds (upstairs next to Harrah’s—still the worst hamburgers in the fast food kingdom), I went back to my room and watch the movie NIGHTCRAWLER—another intense, and somewhat disturbing movie. I think I’m getting old. I like action thrillers, but I’m tired of the needless blood spewing corpses. Give me a good Pixar of Disney movie anytime.
Thursday
It’s time to check out of the Linq. Today I’m picking my son up at the airport at 11 AM for the annual father/son birthday trip. When he turned 21, I brought him to Las Vegas and we’ve done that every year since. This is the 21st year of that tradition. Using my host, I got him a room at Planet Hollywood while I’m staying at the Westgate.
We drove over to the Westgate where I’m staying. When it’s possible, we’ve been staying in different hotels simply because I go to bed early and we both are snore demons, so if I can get different rooms, I do. On the way, we noticed a motel and casino called the Mardi Gras on Paradise. I’ve never noticed this place before so, of course, had to check it out. It turns out to be your typical motel and the “casino” consists of about 25 slot machines. Just for fun, we put $20 in a Zeus machine and caught a bonus and cashed out $34. There are no tickets here, you have to walk over to a booth where an attendant pays you.
The “casino” in the Mardi Gras Motel on Paradise
Though it was only a little after noon, I thought we’d take a chance that I could get an early check in. The Westgate (what was once the International, then the Hilton, then Las Vegas Hotel, and now the Westgate). I was given a room in the East Wing, and was very happy to find it clean a comfortable, and spacious. Considering how many years this hotel has been here, they’ve done a very good job keeping it up and contemporary.
It was too early to check in at Planet Hollywood, so we drove to the valet at the Linq to have lunch at Chipotles and I wanted my son to see the transformation of the Imperial Palace into the Linq. We walked over to Planet Hollywood to check in and were given a very nice mini-suite with a Strip view. We hung out there for a while before heading back to pick up the car. As it turns out, Jon’s father-in-law and brother-in-law (Steve and Andy) happen to also be in town for a Gun Show at the Convention Center and are staying at the Luxor, so we drove over to pick them up and have dinner together. They asked me to recommend somewhere to eat, and I chose one of my favorite places for BBQ and that’s Binion’s in downtown. I thought we could not only have a good dinner, but also they could experience the craziness of Fremont Street.
The dinner, as always, was great. Everyone loved the ribs and the sides. We walked down Fremont and finally made it to the Canister Park for a quick look around. We then visited the El Cortez and played some machines for a bit before heading back to the car where I dropped them off back at the Luxor and then to the Westgate where I had Jon take my car because he could then drive around if he wanted to and it’s much easier picking me up each morning than trying to navigate the mess at Planet Hollywood’s valet.
Friday
I had told my son that he should try playing in the poker tournament at Sam’s Town that I play all the time, and though he hasn’t played poker in quite a while, he agreed. Andy had also wanted to join us, so Jon picked him up and then came a got me at the Westgate. I filled up the tank at Costco ($1.95) and we checked in and paid the $23 fee. Andy was the first to go after about a half hour. I made it to the first break after an hour and five tables had dwindled down to three when I soon felted out leaving only Jonny, who was doing very well with a good stack to work with. Steve joined us after driving from the Luxor as he and Andy are heading back home this afternoon from there. We played some slots while waiting for Jon. It turns out that my son was out of the tournament in 8th place, three short of the money, when somebody caught a bad beat runner, runner. For not playing poker for a couple years, Jon did played pretty damn well.
My son and I at the Poker Room at Sam’s Town
We had lunch at the Sports Deli and Steve and Andy headed back home. Jon and I decided to see a movie and went to the Green Valley Casino to see THE IMATATION GAME. It was excellent. I had my two comp show tickets to use for January and I wanted my son to see The Million Dollar Quartet. We had picked up the tickets after lunch. The show was a 7PM at Harrah’s. I’ve already seen the show twice and believe me, it was a good the third time as the first. I’d be happy to go again and again. Jonny felt exactly the same telling me it was one of the best shows he’s seen in Las Vegas.
Saturday
We decided to have breakfast at the Westgate because I had two comp buffet passes. The buffet here is good with all the usual breakfast items and omelet bar. We enjoyed a leisurely morning catching up on family, business, and fixing all the problems in the world. The plan was to play the poker tournament again, but Jon said he’d rather check out some of the photo and art museums in Las Vegas (he’s an amateur photographer). Surprisingly, we had a difficult time finding any. Our first stop was the in the far southern part of Henderson called the Clark County Museum. It wasn’t really what he had in mind. It was a history of Clark County with plenty of displayed artifacts from the indigenous Indian settlements on up to contemporary Las Vegas.
The Clark County Museum in Henderson
We next headed for the Contemporary Library in Summerlin where they have a photo display. A few wrong turns along the way but we got there. This turned out to be a small room with photographs of Las Vegas history gung by categories such as Entertainment, Sports, Neon, etc. Jon and I went through the room discussing each group and selecting our favorite from each one. It was a nice little display but we both agreed that most of the photos were not worthy of a museum display (a few were downright amateurish).
Next it was to Fremont and back to the Canister Park where there was an art studio in one of the shops. We parked and went to the place shown on Google Maps and it turned out to be a “leather art” store selling purses and belts. Oops. We did stop in the El Cortez for a very short session at the craps table. We lost never catching even one pass line bet. Back to the car and we drove down Boulder heading to Maryland where, across the street was a photography store. After searching for the place, we finally found it across the UNLV and it turned out to be a 1 Day Photo shop. After a laugh and picking up a soft drink, we finally decided to head over to the Pinball Museum on Tropicana where there is a camera shop next door.
The Pinball Museum finally put up a new sign
After playing a pinball game, we walked over to the store where Jon explained to me the different cameras and lenses (Greek to me) and how much they cost (not a cheap hobby). So, it turns out, after spending most the day cruising the entire Las Vegas Valley, we’ve come the decision that Las Vegas is serious need of a photographic museum. Of course, many of the casinos have great pictures of old Las Vegas on their walls, but those are confined to those properties. It would be nice to have one place that shows them all.
We decided on another movie and chose to see UNBROKEN, another true story movie of WWII directed by Angelina Jolie. It was a very intense and moving film and we both enjoyed it though hard to sit through knowing this really happened. Jon took me back to my hotel as I wanted to get this trip report finished as we’re heading back home tomorrow. I picked up a sub at the Sports Deli and headed up to my room for the final night of this trip.
It was an overall good trip. I made a little money from the tournament and the free play. Jon’s annual birthday trip was certainly a good time what with his good showing in the poker tournament and The Million Dollar Quartet. I was actually supposed to check into Ballys for the next three nights for another tournament, but I had to cancel it as I’ve taken another job as assistant manager of the my park complex which requires me to be home every other week and I start on Monday. I’ve also had to cancel a prearranged trip back the second week of February for a video poker tournament as it also falls on my work week, but I’ll no doubt be back many times as I do want to take every last advantage that this 7 Stars has to offer in this final year.
I’ll assume you’ve read the previous chapter rather than rehash the point of this year’s trip reports. You might remember that Chapter 1 ended with me taking $23 profit from the $35 free play. The next day, I went to the promotion’s booth to pick up the second day’s free play, but was surprised when I was told I hadn’t played the required 700 tier points yet to qualify for it. This was news to me. There was no literature handed out for this promotion (New Year’s Eve party and dinner) so I wasn’t aware of a play requirement. And even if I did, to play $7,000 through the machine to earn a meager $50 in free play certainly was no great deal. I thanked the boothling, went to my room, packed, and checked out a day early and headed home.
Friday, January 16
The drive to Laughlin, which takes 5 hours from San Diego was uneventful and boring (thank goodness for Sirius Radio). I arrived too early to check in and went to the Riverside to watch a movie. I saw AMERICAN SNIPER starring a beefed up Bradley Cooper, which was a very intense and sometimes disturbing movie. When it ended the theater, which was about half-full, was eerily quiet as we all filed out. This movie is good but not for the squeamish. I went downstairs to see how the buffet remodel was going and it was finished. The buffet itself is the same, but the entrance now has a full service bar with VP machines.
New bar at entrance of buffet—usually not a big deal, but a huge update for the Riverside
I’m back in Laughlin for a $20,000 poker tournament offer. It includes two night stay and a free entry into the tournament. I was given a suite in the South Tower, which was nice as I didn’t get a suite for the New Year’s stay. I didn’t realize it was only a two night offer, and I needed an extra night, so I called down to my host and left a message that I needed another free night. I soon got a message telling me that my host (Leslie) was off for the week, but she took care of it. I checked online, and had I purchased the suite for this weekend, it would have cost me $169 per night. The tournament entry is $100, so the total package I’m being comped it $517. Add to that the gift basket (sold in the café for $25), my total value is $542.00.
The gift basket delivered to my room after my arrival
Considering that I’m not gambling with my own money this year, I am now faced with the “what to do with myself” dilemma. I’ve been to Laughlin so many times, that I’ve seen everything and posted enough pictures of the place over the years, it’s hard to come up with anything new and interesting. I walked around the casino for a while to see if anything was new or different. Aside from moving machines from one part of the casino to another (no idea why they do this), nothing has changed. I hung out in the Diamond Lounge and enjoyed some snacks (miniature beef wellingtons and chicken cordon bleu balls) and a Bailey’s coffee watching Sportscenter. I went to the café to pick up a turkey wrap to take back to my room ($9.95 value—used my reward credits); I then headed back to the room where I watched the pay-per-view of BIRDMAN (costing $17.95, insane cost but free for 7 Star members). The movie was simply too “outside the box” for me, so I didn’t care for it. Fortunately, there are a lot of the Best Picture nominees on the pay-per-view, so I’ll be seeing a lot of them during this trip.
Saturday
I woke up early and began this report wandering how I’m going to format these chapters. I thought for this chapter, I’d check out the values of all the things I’m being comped or using my reward points; however, in the further chapters, I will simply keep those figures at the end of the report because for some; it’s simply not very interesting.
Today was the poker tournament and I was given Table 6, Seat 7. There are a total of 200 people playing this one. In the first round, each table’s last two seated players go to the next round tomorrow. Then each winner of that table make it to the final table of 10 (the money table) with the winner taking home either a $10K entry into this year’s WSOP or $8K in cash. I played well but with four people left and I was the short stack, I went all in with a pair of jacks after the flop. To my surprise, a lady who had checked before me called. She was a novice player and showed it when she turned over only Ace high (an experienced player would have never called an all-in without at least a pair). She caught an Ace on the river and I was out. This is the way it goes in these types of tournaments. Because they’re free for members, people who don’t even know how to play hope to get lucky—and she did against me.
I drove over to the Golden Nugget because I had $5 in free play and $15 in comps. The free play went well as I played a Spartacus machine and caught a good bonus and won $65. I cashed out and went over to the Claim Jumper (where the coffee shop used to be) and had half a club sandwich and some iced tea to use up the food comp. It was an excellent meal. If you haven’t eaten at a Claim Jumper, you need to know the portions are huge, but very good. I was glad to see that you could buy halves of most the dishes.
The Golden Nugget in Laughlin
I then went over to the Center Mall to the theaters there as I wanted to see BLACKHAT, a Michal Mann flick. It’s an intrigue thriller and I loved it, though I’m sure some will find it’s pace slow and all the computer hacking lingo hard to follow. After the movie I drove over to Bullhead to fill up ($1.87) and run over to Target for a couple of things. Then it was back to Harrah’s. I’m going to skip dinner tonight and just have some fruit from the gift basket as lunch along with popcorn at the movie was enough for the day.
Tonight’s choice for my pay-per-view is BOYHOOD, another best picture nominee. This movie was shot over 12 years and it was interesting seeing an actual brother and sister as they grow up throughout the movie. There was no real plot other than following the life of the boy from 6 years to 18 and all the growing pains he and his family go through. It’s an odd movie but interesting.
The Laughlin Center Mall, one of two theater complexes in the city
Sunday
Today is going to all about live poker and football. I bought in for $60 at the Colorado Belle at their 2/4 game. They have bonuses for quads, cracked Aces, straight and royal flushes. I started playing at 8:30 AM and was disappointed that the doubling and tripling of the cracked Aces promotion is no longer in effect—not that it matter. In all the years I’ve played here, I’ve never been dealt pocket Aces and that streak continued today. It was yet another day for being dealt dead cards all session. Even a change of seats didn’t help. I noticed I was getting dealt 9/2 off a lot and started counting. Since that point, I was dealt 9/2 six more times…insane!
I did manage to win enough small pots to keep in the game for almost four hours but finally felted (lost it all). I’m not too disappointed considering I won the $65 yesterday, so I’ll call this a free roll. I’m certainly due for a good poker session or two. Even with losing, playing live poker is still be best game for me. You can play for a long time with limited loss exposure—assuming you play reasonably disciplined.
The Colorado Belle where I play poker.
I headed back over to the mall to see the new Kevin Hart movie WEDDING RINGER. I expected a formulaic comedy, sometimes silly, and the obligatory heart tugging realization scene, and I got exactly that. There’s nothing special here other than a few laughs and a reason to enjoy some good theater popcorn.
I drove back to Harrah’s so I could be sure to get a table in the Diamond Lounge for the divisional playoff games. They served hot dogs, turkey wraps, and chicken wings today (pretty good). The place was evenly populated with Green Bay and Seahawk fans, so every caught ball or sack was met with an eruption of cheers. The Laughlin Harrah’s Diamond Lounge might be all retired folks but put a few free drinks in them, and the noise can be ear-splitting. I watched the New England/Indianapolis game for a little bit, but it was obvious the Patriots were going to run away with this one, so I headed back to my room, no dinner needed with all the DL food. Besides, here at Laughlin, they give you a container of either brownies or cookies at turn down service (far better than any other Caesars property). I just watched some mindless TV and went to bed after some business on the computer.
Monday
Today I’m moving to Las Vegas. I was up early and worked on this trip report and played some MY VEGAS (a game that gives you free or discounted goodies in Vegas). I read a little of this month’s book club selection, MY SOUL TO KEEP by Tananarive Due. I checked out early and picked up a morning breakfast sandwich at the Subway to eat along the way. The drive from Laughlin to Las Vegas is one of easiest you’ll find anywhere. The Hwy 95 is a multi-lane 75 MPH road and with the exception of driving through the speed trap (25 MPH) at Searchlight, it’s straight to Vegas.
I drove to Sam’s Town as it was much too early to check in and I signed up for their daily $35 poker tournament. I had a half hour to kill and walked around to see what was new. I went upstairs to check out the bank of 9/6 Jacks progressive and was alarmed to see that they were gone. I asked a slot attendant where they moved them and she said they were taken out with no plans for them to return. That set off a red flag in me, so I headed down to the two banks of full pay deuces downstairs and they were still there though these machines are set up to run very slow and you need to put in 4X the coins for points. The Aces Bonus machines on the first floor were also downgraded to 7/5. So, the only full play jacks are now limited to the one coin-fed machine across from the downstairs cashier. It seems Boyd properties have joined the big boys in going after video poker players. First they double the play for the points, now they continue to downgrade the machines pay schedules. It seems I’ve decided to quit playing just in time.
They announced my poker tournament was to begin. I sat down at table 3 in the corner. I’m hoping to last a long time and money in this tournament as I’ve been on quite a poker losing streak. On just the second dealt hand of the tournament, I was the big blind and was dealt 7/8 off suit. No one raised me so I played the cards. The flop was 4-5-6 rainbow (all different suits). I have a straight (the nuts—the best possible hand). To my shock the guy on my right goes ALL-IN! On the second hand? Who does that? I know I have the best hand, so I have no choice but to call. He has a 5 and 6 for two pair. The river is a 6 (gives him a full house) and I’m out of the tournament in the second hand! What the hell? The entire table is in shock as I walk away.
I drove to my next stay, which is the Linq. I haven’t stayed at this hotel since it was the Imperial Palace and it was a dump. I had vowed to never stay there again. However, since it became the Quad, soon changed to the Linq after it was discovered that the word Quad was a bad luck word in Asian culture (leave it to Caesars to not check this out first); I had read they remodeled the rooms and I was curious. They had done such a remarkable job in the casino; I had to find out what they could do to the rooms. I checked in at the VIP Services desk. They offered me cold water, juices, or soft drinks (nice), and then after the paperwork was signed, the clerk walked with me to the elevators explaining things to see along the way (they do this for all Diamond and 7 Star players).
The room was on the 15th floor away from the Strip, which for me was good as I didn’t want to be anywhere near the Carnival Court where live bands play into the night. The room was itsy-bitsy-teenie-weenie (only thing missing was the yellow polka dot bikini). I expected this as the original hotel was built back in the day when all the rooms were small. However, the designers have done an amazing job with such a small area to work with. It’s smartly decorated with quality furniture. The bed is very comfy and the bathroom has all the latest fixtures. Quite frankly, it’s a beautiful, little room and it’s just fine with me. There are no other bathroom supplies as the soap, conditioner, and moisturizer are in push dispensers on the wall in the shower (smart, cost cutting move). The smallness of the room doesn’t bother me at all, so I would be happy to stay here again.
Sorry for the lighting. Here’s the room—basic but functional.
Bathroom, though small, is in beautiful marble. Walk in shower is to the right (no tub)
Another reason I’m staying at the Linq is that I’m taking advantage of a three night stay and slot tournament, which happens to be in this casino. It also came with $40 free play, which I used playing a Spartacus machine and ran it through cashing out for a $37 profit. I registered for the tournament and asked for the latest time possible (2:15) because I had made an appointment to have my oil changed tomorrow morning at a Ford dealership on Decatur and didn’t want to chance missing it.
It was almost 4:00 PM, so I hustled over to Harrah’s to their Diamond Lounge and I sat at the bar. The food today was BBQ beef ribs and macaroni and cheese (very good). Robert, the bartender, gave me a Bailey’s and went into a rant about the Caesars bankruptcy. Many regulars know Robert. He loves to talk. Get him started and you’re in for the long haul. It didn’t help that the guy next to me asked, “So, what’s new Robert?” Three drinks later, I was out of there. I picked up a turkey wrap at the new food court in Harrah’s for dinner and walked back to the room. I got a call from housekeeping just to ask if there was anything I needed (this was a first) and I mentioned I’d like to have a coffee maker. Within ten minutes, she showed up with a Keurig coffee maker, two ceramic cups and a bag full of coffees in three different brews. I asked if there was an extra charge and she said that it’s complimentary for 7 Star members. An hour later, an attendant came to the door for turndown service which included a couple of waters, a small box of gourmet jelly beans and a little pillow—an odd item. So far, I have nothing but high praise for my stay here at the Linq.
The Linq today. Hard to even imagine Imperial Palace was ever that building. They never closed throughout the entire remodel.
Tuesday
I drove to the Ford dealer at 8AM to have my regular maintenance. When I bought my car, I went ahead a bought the extended maintenance package, which covers all service on my car with only tire replacement as the lone exception, so all my oil changes and such are free. Everything was fine with the car and I had some time before my slot tournament, so I drove over to the Orleans. Being a Boyd property, I was curious if they, like Sam’s Town, gutted their full pay VP. There’s a bank of full pay Aces Bonus in front of the BConnected booth and four of them still have it at 8/5. I walked down to the poker room and put my name on the list to play some live 2/4 poker, but after waiting almost an hour, I gave up and ran my card through the kiosk and there was a free entry into their VP tournament. I played that and catching only one small quad, it’s likely a bust, so I won’t bother to come back tomorrow to see if I won.
The Orleans still has some decent VP to play on a couple of banks of machines
I headed back to the Linq to get a little reading done and update this report before heading down to the tournament at 2:10. I checked the cost of my room had I purchased it online and was really surprised that it was only $36 per night. Granted, it’s a Mon thru Thurs, but that’s crazy cheap (not forgetting there’d be “resort fee” on top of this). I’d pay this in a heartbeat for this room.
The tournament was on the newer machines and lasted only 2 minutes. There are 20 people per session, ten sessions per hour for five hours, which means there are approximately 1000 people playing. The top 100 scores with two days play win assorted amounts of free play. In my session, I came in 6th place. So, I figure I’d have to come in to the top five tomorrow to even have a chance at one of the prizes.
Wait all day for just a two-minute session
I went over to the Flamingo to play some live poker. They do deal a 2/4 game here but typical of a Caesars property, their drop (money the house takes from each pot) is as high as $5 per hand, depending on the size of the pot. I only won one hand through the whole session. I’m really having the worst slump of my life with live poker. I only lost my buy in of $60 and played for almost three hours, but it really starts to nag me being out-drawn time after time. Things will turn around—eventually. At least the table was a lot of fun. There were a couple of Canadians who were keeping the table lively.
I went back to the Linq and up to the Hash House for a chicken sandwich to go and had dinner in my room while watching FURY with Brad Pitt on pay-per-view. Movie was good but pretty intense and bloody.
Wednesday
One of the challenges of my taking these trips this year now that I’m not going to be gambling, aside from poker, is to figure out things to do. I’ve come here so often for so long, I’ve seen everything many times over. I was here just a couple weeks ago, and nothing new has opened since then. I’ve even pretty much seen all the movies I’ve wanted to see, so it’s just walking around and playing poker. My son is coming tomorrow for his annual birthday trip, so that will rejuvenate my stay.
I drove back to Sam’s Town to play their $23 tournament. When it started there were five tables (50 players) and when I finally was felted (another draw down when my two pair were thwarted by a river straight), there were only 16 players left, so at least my cards and play were decent and I had a good time. I’ve played this tournament so often now for the past couple years that even the regulars are beginning to know me. I had some breakfast at the sports deli where you can get two eggs, four sausage links, four slices of bread and breakfast potatoes for $4.99. This is a great place for cheap eats.
I headed back to the Linq. I always park in the valet here as it located in the back and you drive under parts of the hotel to get there. Very few people know about it, so it’s rarely busy. The Linq is centrally located across from Caesars and sandwiched between Harrah’s and the Flamingo, so it’s a great place to stay. Now that the rooms have been upgraded, it (along with Ballys) will be my go-to hotel if I want to stay on the Strip. I sat down at my machine for the final session of the slot tournament. The two-minute session ended with me in 3rd place, not bad. When I went to the cashier at 8PM to see if I was in the top 100, I end up in 52nd place for a prize of $250 free play. I ran that through the machines and had a couple of bad runs but managed to cash out $125 cash. Overall a profitable three night stay: free room, Internet, pay-per-view movies, and a total of $159 cash.
After playing the free play and picking up a burger from McDonalds (upstairs next to Harrah’s—still the worst hamburgers in the fast food kingdom), I went back to my room and watch the movie NIGHTCRAWLER—another intense, and somewhat disturbing movie. I think I’m getting old. I like action thrillers, but I’m tired of the needless blood spewing corpses. Give me a good Pixar of Disney movie anytime.
Thursday
It’s time to check out of the Linq. Today I’m picking my son up at the airport at 11 AM for the annual father/son birthday trip. When he turned 21, I brought him to Las Vegas and we’ve done that every year since. This is the 21st year of that tradition. Using my host, I got him a room at Planet Hollywood while I’m staying at the Westgate.
We drove over to the Westgate where I’m staying. When it’s possible, we’ve been staying in different hotels simply because I go to bed early and we both are snore demons, so if I can get different rooms, I do. On the way, we noticed a motel and casino called the Mardi Gras on Paradise. I’ve never noticed this place before so, of course, had to check it out. It turns out to be your typical motel and the “casino” consists of about 25 slot machines. Just for fun, we put $20 in a Zeus machine and caught a bonus and cashed out $34. There are no tickets here, you have to walk over to a booth where an attendant pays you.
The “casino” in the Mardi Gras Motel on Paradise
Though it was only a little after noon, I thought we’d take a chance that I could get an early check in. The Westgate (what was once the International, then the Hilton, then Las Vegas Hotel, and now the Westgate). I was given a room in the East Wing, and was very happy to find it clean a comfortable, and spacious. Considering how many years this hotel has been here, they’ve done a very good job keeping it up and contemporary.
It was too early to check in at Planet Hollywood, so we drove to the valet at the Linq to have lunch at Chipotles and I wanted my son to see the transformation of the Imperial Palace into the Linq. We walked over to Planet Hollywood to check in and were given a very nice mini-suite with a Strip view. We hung out there for a while before heading back to pick up the car. As it turns out, Jon’s father-in-law and brother-in-law (Steve and Andy) happen to also be in town for a Gun Show at the Convention Center and are staying at the Luxor, so we drove over to pick them up and have dinner together. They asked me to recommend somewhere to eat, and I chose one of my favorite places for BBQ and that’s Binion’s in downtown. I thought we could not only have a good dinner, but also they could experience the craziness of Fremont Street.
The dinner, as always, was great. Everyone loved the ribs and the sides. We walked down Fremont and finally made it to the Canister Park for a quick look around. We then visited the El Cortez and played some machines for a bit before heading back to the car where I dropped them off back at the Luxor and then to the Westgate where I had Jon take my car because he could then drive around if he wanted to and it’s much easier picking me up each morning than trying to navigate the mess at Planet Hollywood’s valet.
Friday
I had told my son that he should try playing in the poker tournament at Sam’s Town that I play all the time, and though he hasn’t played poker in quite a while, he agreed. Andy had also wanted to join us, so Jon picked him up and then came a got me at the Westgate. I filled up the tank at Costco ($1.95) and we checked in and paid the $23 fee. Andy was the first to go after about a half hour. I made it to the first break after an hour and five tables had dwindled down to three when I soon felted out leaving only Jonny, who was doing very well with a good stack to work with. Steve joined us after driving from the Luxor as he and Andy are heading back home this afternoon from there. We played some slots while waiting for Jon. It turns out that my son was out of the tournament in 8th place, three short of the money, when somebody caught a bad beat runner, runner. For not playing poker for a couple years, Jon did played pretty damn well.
My son and I at the Poker Room at Sam’s Town
We had lunch at the Sports Deli and Steve and Andy headed back home. Jon and I decided to see a movie and went to the Green Valley Casino to see THE IMATATION GAME. It was excellent. I had my two comp show tickets to use for January and I wanted my son to see The Million Dollar Quartet. We had picked up the tickets after lunch. The show was a 7PM at Harrah’s. I’ve already seen the show twice and believe me, it was a good the third time as the first. I’d be happy to go again and again. Jonny felt exactly the same telling me it was one of the best shows he’s seen in Las Vegas.
Saturday
We decided to have breakfast at the Westgate because I had two comp buffet passes. The buffet here is good with all the usual breakfast items and omelet bar. We enjoyed a leisurely morning catching up on family, business, and fixing all the problems in the world. The plan was to play the poker tournament again, but Jon said he’d rather check out some of the photo and art museums in Las Vegas (he’s an amateur photographer). Surprisingly, we had a difficult time finding any. Our first stop was the in the far southern part of Henderson called the Clark County Museum. It wasn’t really what he had in mind. It was a history of Clark County with plenty of displayed artifacts from the indigenous Indian settlements on up to contemporary Las Vegas.
The Clark County Museum in Henderson
We next headed for the Contemporary Library in Summerlin where they have a photo display. A few wrong turns along the way but we got there. This turned out to be a small room with photographs of Las Vegas history gung by categories such as Entertainment, Sports, Neon, etc. Jon and I went through the room discussing each group and selecting our favorite from each one. It was a nice little display but we both agreed that most of the photos were not worthy of a museum display (a few were downright amateurish).
Next it was to Fremont and back to the Canister Park where there was an art studio in one of the shops. We parked and went to the place shown on Google Maps and it turned out to be a “leather art” store selling purses and belts. Oops. We did stop in the El Cortez for a very short session at the craps table. We lost never catching even one pass line bet. Back to the car and we drove down Boulder heading to Maryland where, across the street was a photography store. After searching for the place, we finally found it across the UNLV and it turned out to be a 1 Day Photo shop. After a laugh and picking up a soft drink, we finally decided to head over to the Pinball Museum on Tropicana where there is a camera shop next door.
The Pinball Museum finally put up a new sign
After playing a pinball game, we walked over to the store where Jon explained to me the different cameras and lenses (Greek to me) and how much they cost (not a cheap hobby). So, it turns out, after spending most the day cruising the entire Las Vegas Valley, we’ve come the decision that Las Vegas is serious need of a photographic museum. Of course, many of the casinos have great pictures of old Las Vegas on their walls, but those are confined to those properties. It would be nice to have one place that shows them all.
We decided on another movie and chose to see UNBROKEN, another true story movie of WWII directed by Angelina Jolie. It was a very intense and moving film and we both enjoyed it though hard to sit through knowing this really happened. Jon took me back to my hotel as I wanted to get this trip report finished as we’re heading back home tomorrow. I picked up a sub at the Sports Deli and headed up to my room for the final night of this trip.
It was an overall good trip. I made a little money from the tournament and the free play. Jon’s annual birthday trip was certainly a good time what with his good showing in the poker tournament and The Million Dollar Quartet. I was actually supposed to check into Ballys for the next three nights for another tournament, but I had to cancel it as I’ve taken another job as assistant manager of the my park complex which requires me to be home every other week and I start on Monday. I’ve also had to cancel a prearranged trip back the second week of February for a video poker tournament as it also falls on my work week, but I’ll no doubt be back many times as I do want to take every last advantage that this 7 Stars has to offer in this final year.
