Farewell 7 Stars – Laughlin/Vegas
End of February and my friend from Denver, Terry, and I decided to meet up in Las Vegas for a few days of gambling and Pickleball. I invited another friend, Dave, to join us while we’re there. Dave, like me is from San Diego. I met both from the Las Vegas Advisor boards. Before meeting them in Las Vegas, I decided to go to Laughlin for three nights staying at Harrahs. My 7 Star tier status with Caesar’s ends March 31. I am dropping them from my play stays because for the past two years, the benefits have continued to be nibbled away and has gotten so bad that it’s no longer worth it for me. I’ve already used up all my reward points and this final stay at Laughlin’s Harrahs will be it for me.
Now that I’m not doing any more gambling with Harrahs, I spent two of the three days playing live poker at the Colorado Belle. This has become my favorite gambling past time now. For the past twenty years or so, I’ve been obsessed with gathering points from the many different properties in order to score free rooms, food, and entertainment. Now, I’ve become complacent about the suites and trips. I’m happy with a small clean room at the lower scale hotels and don’t mind buying my food. Without the pressure of maintaining the levels I’ve tried to achieve year after year, I’m now just playing when I want to play and as little as I’d like to play.
The price of gas in Bullhead just across the river from Harrahs
During the three days, I saw plenty of movies: DEADPOOL is deserving of its hard R rating, but is really entertaining. JANE GOT A GUN is surprisingly good and a throwback to the classic western. SPOTLIGHT, which has won best picture, was very good. CAROL was also excellent (I’ll see anything Cate Blanchette is in). And finally, I watched STARS WARS for the third time.
I gambled some at the Riverside playing quick quads for a while and broke even, but this trip was for live poker. The Colorado Belle deals a 2/4 game and they have many bonuses, which is why I play there. You can’t win or lose much money at these 2/4 tables, but it’s fun and I enjoy chasing these bonuses. In addition to cracked Aces ($50 for mixed suits and $100 for suited), they also have a couple of progressives as well as extra money for quads, straight flushes, and royals. What I enjoyed the most is the “flush attack” bonus which during that day, if you win flushes in three different suits, they give $50 and if you get that fourth suit, they give you another $100. It took me just over seven hours of play one my second day, but I managed all four suits for a nice $150 extra along with my small winnings. I was dealt suited Aces ONCE during the two days and unfortunately, I won the hand.
As for Laughlin, there’s been some resurgence as the economy has improved and it’s nice to see that the hotels are beginning spruce things up. It was nice to see some of the hotels repainting their buildings and many are redecorating and upgrading their rooms. Laughlin conventions tend to cater to outdoor sports and on this day, there was a large group of off-road vehicles in the parking lot showing off their wares.
One of the many convention displays in the Colorado Belle’s parking lot.
The Tropicana in Laughlin finally with a much needed repainting
Sad to say, these signs are posted on the doors of most the casinos in Laughlin
After my stay, it was off to Las Vegas. I’m staying at the Westgate because I was giving my comped room at Bally’s to my brother who’s visiting from Arizona to play in a golf tournament with his friends for three days. The Westgate (the once Hilton and before that the International) continues to be a favorite spot as they maintain their rooms well and still offer full pay schedules on their video poker machines. They’ve recently completely upgraded their sportsbook and is now bigger and better than ever.
The view from the window of the Westgate in Las Vegas
Terry and Dave are staying downtown. I picked Terry up at the airport and he stayed at the Golden Gate on a comped offer and Dave drove in from San Diego and stayed at Main Street Station. They both then moved over to the Four Queens for the final day. The next three days, I would move over to Sam’s Town. The plan was to gamble but since Terry who retired this past year (I retired five years ago); we’ve both taken up playing Pickleball. I’m not going to try to describe it, but if you’re curious, Google Pickleball and there are many short videos of people playing. We played all three days teaching Dave the game the first day. The next, it was crazy windy and we tried to play but it was tough; however, we met a local (also named Dave) who said that the YMCA on Durango has four indoor courts, so when the third day was also windy, we went over there and joined all the players (about 20) and played for a few hours. It’s a great game that I now play four days a week at home.
Me playing Pickleball
Terry hitting another shot I can’t return
As for entertainment, the three of us have seen most the shows in Las Vegas (many multiple times), but somehow Terry hasn’t caught Penn and Teller. Being that this is one of the last chances for my two monthly free tickets, I picked up my February freebies and we saw it. I’ve seen their show a couple of times before, and this time, with the exemption of a couple of illusions, all of the show was new. We had a fun time though Penn can get bogged down in his political ranting a bit.
As for food, there’s nothing special to report. We ate on the fly when it was convenient and almost all of the food was comped or discounted. We ate a couple of times at Binion’s coffee shop and snack bar after swiping freebies and of course, HAD to have the ribs at Binion’s BBQ bar, which Dave was kind enough to use his points to pay for it. Of course, we also took advantage of the various Diamond lounges throughout the trip.
Gambling was hot and cold for me. The Westgate has three Spin Poker machines that have Ugly Deuces for nickels ($2.50 per spin) and I was dealt all four of the beautiful deuces on one spin, which resulted in a nice win of $450. Everything else was up and down. The three of us played for a good three hours or so at the bar in Main Street Station as there was a deal for a free buffet with so many points and they have great beer there along with 9/6 Jacks. I hit around 8 quads (all my scratch cards were $2 each). It was after this that we learned that the computers in all the Boyd properties were down, and though we’d eventually get our points added to or accounts, there were no meals using points and we didn’t bother to go after the free buffet the next day. I also played in my favorite daily $23 poker tournament at Sam’s Town and was chip leader with four players left when we all agreed to chop for $153 each.
Dealt four deuces on Spin Poker
I have another reason I enjoy having Dave join Terry and I on our trips to Las Vegas. I go to bed very early and these two like to gamble to wee hours of the morning. So, I left them and they did just that staying up to 2 or 3 AM—no thanks. There were no Royals for anyone this time around. I end up dropping about $300 for the trip and both Terry and Dave also lost a little as well. But we had a terrific time playing Pickleball, gambling, and all the other things to do in Las Vegas. I should also mention that on the final day of my stay, a Wednesday, is Senior Day which offer seniors $4 movie tickets, drawings, and you can swipe for up to 50X points for the day. I’ve been here on many Wednesday s, and every time I’ve swiped, I’ve gotten the gratuitous 11X slots and 7X video poker (not bad in its own right), but for the very first time, I hit the 50X slots and 30X video poker. Needless to say, I had to take advantage of this. I played all day running just short of $10K through various games (mostly video poker) and managed to add an extra $300 to my comp account. I attended the nightly drawing and even with all that play, I still wasn’t picked—nothing new there.
Fast forward one week and I’m back in Las Vegas, but this time, I’ve come with my son finally getting around to celebrating his annual birthday trip (the 21st time we’ve done this, noting he’s now officially come to Vegas with me once a year for half his life). I couldn’t get a room through Caesar’s though I’m supposed to be given one simply because I’m a 7 Stars card holder until March 31. However, when I tried to book a room, I was consistently told I must book it through my host because I didn’t have any “offers” and the free rooms must be booked through the host. The problem was that my host was “never available” and many emails sent to her were never returned—not that I could blame her—I haven’t given Caesar’s any play all year and it was obvious to her that I was milking the system. So be it and I booked a room for my son at the Westgate (three nights for $79, no resort fee). I had my usual Sam’s Town three nights per month offer and was going to stay there, but though I could book Mon and Tue night, Sunday night was sold out. It turns out that this weekend was the NASCAR event of the year, so I booked another room at the Westgate for Sunday and booked Sam’s Town for Monday and Tuesday.
Gambling was a good win for this trip. First, I hit two royals playing nickel Spin Poker as well as catching four sets of deuces, all good for $600 at the Westgate; at Sam’s Town I held four and caught the King of Hearts for a quarter Royal at Sam’s Town. The rest of the gambling went as usual. Both my son and I played the Sam’s Town poker tournament and though I lost both, my son did make the final table, but caught a bad beat before making the money.
Can you find the two royals?
Four quad deuces in there somewhere
One of the things I wanted to do is teach my son a little Pickleball, so we did manage a few games of one-on-one outside, but the wind wasn’t kind. At least he now understands the game Terry and I am enjoying so much now in our old age!
Dining was here and there with two outstanding things to note. The Westgate room offer included two one day passes to their “Concierge Lounge.” This room, which reminds me of a diamond lounge but much nicer, includes free breakfast, lunch, and dinner along with drinks all day. We went for breakfast—buffet style that was excellent. I asked about this room from the person at the door thinking it was usually for their top tier card holders, but that’s not the case. It turns out the room is for anyone and is $40 for a day pass. Make no mistake, this is a very nice setting and thinking about it, if you’re staying in the hotel for the day, you could eat all three meals here, and have as many drinks as you’d like (there’s a nice bar seating area on the side with TVs); this is a pretty good deal.
I had $100 left on my 7 Stars card ($500 per year), so my son and I enjoyed an excellent meal at Guy Fiere’s restaurant at the Linq. He had the full rack of ribs and I had the brisket and both meals were outstanding as was the deep friend ice cream for dessert.
The final two nights I stayed at Sam’s Town while my son remained at Westgate. After registering, I had some free vouchers for the theaters at Sam’s (thanks Martin), so I encourage Jon to see DEADPOOL, which I watched again. It turned out to be a private showing as the two of us was the only people in the theater. My son took the car back to the Westgate to get in some work and I played a little settling down at the one bank left with quarter full pay Jacks or Better. After about twenty minutes, I was dealt four to the Royal, and miraculously I picked up the needed King of Hearts for my first quarter Royal of the year.
My first quarter Royal of the year.
Huge news concerning parking: As many of you may have read, MGM is going to begin to charge $10 for parking. My son and I spent the morning at a camera convention at the MGM and when we parked, we could see that the apparatus is already being installed in preparation. At the Westgate, they’ve already initiated it (to the mass confusion of every one). At least at the Westgate, if you’re a hotel guest, you simply insert your room key as you exit and you’re free to go; otherwise, you need to put in a credit card and the fee is extracted. There are also machines for cash payouts in the hotel—think airport parking—the system is set up the same. Also at least at the Westgate, if you’re not staying at the hotel, you can validate your parking at any restaurant or by making a $10 bet in the sportsbook. I have no idea how the MGM properties are going to do this. They’ve already announced that hotel guests still have to pay the fee. Make no mistake, once MGM has done this, the rest of the major resorts are going to do the same—just like the resort fees. This is reason #23 I’m glad I’m leaving the Strip properties and will do all my playing at the local places.
Entertainment—not much to report: I had my two free tickets for March and my son and I have seen pretty much everything available, so we opted for the Legends in Concert and though we’ve seen this as well, they constantly change the acts to keep it fresh. This time it was the Blues Brothers, Prince, Adele, and Frank Sinatra. All were good, but the Adele impersonator was wonderful. Other than the show, the entertainment was simply people watching, which you can never go wrong—Vegas attracts the craziest people.
I may have left some things out, though this covers the main events and thoughts. My 7 Stars life is now over, and trust me—I won’t miss it. I’ll still come to Vegas, but I’ll now focus on the Boyd properties and the Westgate. If those offers dry up (not likely), there’s always someone else to fill in the gap…at least in my remaining lifetime. I’d love to see what Vegas is going to be like in 50 years.
Until next time…
End of February and my friend from Denver, Terry, and I decided to meet up in Las Vegas for a few days of gambling and Pickleball. I invited another friend, Dave, to join us while we’re there. Dave, like me is from San Diego. I met both from the Las Vegas Advisor boards. Before meeting them in Las Vegas, I decided to go to Laughlin for three nights staying at Harrahs. My 7 Star tier status with Caesar’s ends March 31. I am dropping them from my play stays because for the past two years, the benefits have continued to be nibbled away and has gotten so bad that it’s no longer worth it for me. I’ve already used up all my reward points and this final stay at Laughlin’s Harrahs will be it for me.
Now that I’m not doing any more gambling with Harrahs, I spent two of the three days playing live poker at the Colorado Belle. This has become my favorite gambling past time now. For the past twenty years or so, I’ve been obsessed with gathering points from the many different properties in order to score free rooms, food, and entertainment. Now, I’ve become complacent about the suites and trips. I’m happy with a small clean room at the lower scale hotels and don’t mind buying my food. Without the pressure of maintaining the levels I’ve tried to achieve year after year, I’m now just playing when I want to play and as little as I’d like to play.
The price of gas in Bullhead just across the river from Harrahs
During the three days, I saw plenty of movies: DEADPOOL is deserving of its hard R rating, but is really entertaining. JANE GOT A GUN is surprisingly good and a throwback to the classic western. SPOTLIGHT, which has won best picture, was very good. CAROL was also excellent (I’ll see anything Cate Blanchette is in). And finally, I watched STARS WARS for the third time.
I gambled some at the Riverside playing quick quads for a while and broke even, but this trip was for live poker. The Colorado Belle deals a 2/4 game and they have many bonuses, which is why I play there. You can’t win or lose much money at these 2/4 tables, but it’s fun and I enjoy chasing these bonuses. In addition to cracked Aces ($50 for mixed suits and $100 for suited), they also have a couple of progressives as well as extra money for quads, straight flushes, and royals. What I enjoyed the most is the “flush attack” bonus which during that day, if you win flushes in three different suits, they give $50 and if you get that fourth suit, they give you another $100. It took me just over seven hours of play one my second day, but I managed all four suits for a nice $150 extra along with my small winnings. I was dealt suited Aces ONCE during the two days and unfortunately, I won the hand.
As for Laughlin, there’s been some resurgence as the economy has improved and it’s nice to see that the hotels are beginning spruce things up. It was nice to see some of the hotels repainting their buildings and many are redecorating and upgrading their rooms. Laughlin conventions tend to cater to outdoor sports and on this day, there was a large group of off-road vehicles in the parking lot showing off their wares.
One of the many convention displays in the Colorado Belle’s parking lot.
The Tropicana in Laughlin finally with a much needed repainting
Sad to say, these signs are posted on the doors of most the casinos in Laughlin
After my stay, it was off to Las Vegas. I’m staying at the Westgate because I was giving my comped room at Bally’s to my brother who’s visiting from Arizona to play in a golf tournament with his friends for three days. The Westgate (the once Hilton and before that the International) continues to be a favorite spot as they maintain their rooms well and still offer full pay schedules on their video poker machines. They’ve recently completely upgraded their sportsbook and is now bigger and better than ever.
The view from the window of the Westgate in Las Vegas
Terry and Dave are staying downtown. I picked Terry up at the airport and he stayed at the Golden Gate on a comped offer and Dave drove in from San Diego and stayed at Main Street Station. They both then moved over to the Four Queens for the final day. The next three days, I would move over to Sam’s Town. The plan was to gamble but since Terry who retired this past year (I retired five years ago); we’ve both taken up playing Pickleball. I’m not going to try to describe it, but if you’re curious, Google Pickleball and there are many short videos of people playing. We played all three days teaching Dave the game the first day. The next, it was crazy windy and we tried to play but it was tough; however, we met a local (also named Dave) who said that the YMCA on Durango has four indoor courts, so when the third day was also windy, we went over there and joined all the players (about 20) and played for a few hours. It’s a great game that I now play four days a week at home.
Me playing Pickleball
Terry hitting another shot I can’t return
As for entertainment, the three of us have seen most the shows in Las Vegas (many multiple times), but somehow Terry hasn’t caught Penn and Teller. Being that this is one of the last chances for my two monthly free tickets, I picked up my February freebies and we saw it. I’ve seen their show a couple of times before, and this time, with the exemption of a couple of illusions, all of the show was new. We had a fun time though Penn can get bogged down in his political ranting a bit.
As for food, there’s nothing special to report. We ate on the fly when it was convenient and almost all of the food was comped or discounted. We ate a couple of times at Binion’s coffee shop and snack bar after swiping freebies and of course, HAD to have the ribs at Binion’s BBQ bar, which Dave was kind enough to use his points to pay for it. Of course, we also took advantage of the various Diamond lounges throughout the trip.
Gambling was hot and cold for me. The Westgate has three Spin Poker machines that have Ugly Deuces for nickels ($2.50 per spin) and I was dealt all four of the beautiful deuces on one spin, which resulted in a nice win of $450. Everything else was up and down. The three of us played for a good three hours or so at the bar in Main Street Station as there was a deal for a free buffet with so many points and they have great beer there along with 9/6 Jacks. I hit around 8 quads (all my scratch cards were $2 each). It was after this that we learned that the computers in all the Boyd properties were down, and though we’d eventually get our points added to or accounts, there were no meals using points and we didn’t bother to go after the free buffet the next day. I also played in my favorite daily $23 poker tournament at Sam’s Town and was chip leader with four players left when we all agreed to chop for $153 each.
Dealt four deuces on Spin Poker
I have another reason I enjoy having Dave join Terry and I on our trips to Las Vegas. I go to bed very early and these two like to gamble to wee hours of the morning. So, I left them and they did just that staying up to 2 or 3 AM—no thanks. There were no Royals for anyone this time around. I end up dropping about $300 for the trip and both Terry and Dave also lost a little as well. But we had a terrific time playing Pickleball, gambling, and all the other things to do in Las Vegas. I should also mention that on the final day of my stay, a Wednesday, is Senior Day which offer seniors $4 movie tickets, drawings, and you can swipe for up to 50X points for the day. I’ve been here on many Wednesday s, and every time I’ve swiped, I’ve gotten the gratuitous 11X slots and 7X video poker (not bad in its own right), but for the very first time, I hit the 50X slots and 30X video poker. Needless to say, I had to take advantage of this. I played all day running just short of $10K through various games (mostly video poker) and managed to add an extra $300 to my comp account. I attended the nightly drawing and even with all that play, I still wasn’t picked—nothing new there.
Fast forward one week and I’m back in Las Vegas, but this time, I’ve come with my son finally getting around to celebrating his annual birthday trip (the 21st time we’ve done this, noting he’s now officially come to Vegas with me once a year for half his life). I couldn’t get a room through Caesar’s though I’m supposed to be given one simply because I’m a 7 Stars card holder until March 31. However, when I tried to book a room, I was consistently told I must book it through my host because I didn’t have any “offers” and the free rooms must be booked through the host. The problem was that my host was “never available” and many emails sent to her were never returned—not that I could blame her—I haven’t given Caesar’s any play all year and it was obvious to her that I was milking the system. So be it and I booked a room for my son at the Westgate (three nights for $79, no resort fee). I had my usual Sam’s Town three nights per month offer and was going to stay there, but though I could book Mon and Tue night, Sunday night was sold out. It turns out that this weekend was the NASCAR event of the year, so I booked another room at the Westgate for Sunday and booked Sam’s Town for Monday and Tuesday.
Gambling was a good win for this trip. First, I hit two royals playing nickel Spin Poker as well as catching four sets of deuces, all good for $600 at the Westgate; at Sam’s Town I held four and caught the King of Hearts for a quarter Royal at Sam’s Town. The rest of the gambling went as usual. Both my son and I played the Sam’s Town poker tournament and though I lost both, my son did make the final table, but caught a bad beat before making the money.
Can you find the two royals?
Four quad deuces in there somewhere
One of the things I wanted to do is teach my son a little Pickleball, so we did manage a few games of one-on-one outside, but the wind wasn’t kind. At least he now understands the game Terry and I am enjoying so much now in our old age!
Dining was here and there with two outstanding things to note. The Westgate room offer included two one day passes to their “Concierge Lounge.” This room, which reminds me of a diamond lounge but much nicer, includes free breakfast, lunch, and dinner along with drinks all day. We went for breakfast—buffet style that was excellent. I asked about this room from the person at the door thinking it was usually for their top tier card holders, but that’s not the case. It turns out the room is for anyone and is $40 for a day pass. Make no mistake, this is a very nice setting and thinking about it, if you’re staying in the hotel for the day, you could eat all three meals here, and have as many drinks as you’d like (there’s a nice bar seating area on the side with TVs); this is a pretty good deal.
I had $100 left on my 7 Stars card ($500 per year), so my son and I enjoyed an excellent meal at Guy Fiere’s restaurant at the Linq. He had the full rack of ribs and I had the brisket and both meals were outstanding as was the deep friend ice cream for dessert.
The final two nights I stayed at Sam’s Town while my son remained at Westgate. After registering, I had some free vouchers for the theaters at Sam’s (thanks Martin), so I encourage Jon to see DEADPOOL, which I watched again. It turned out to be a private showing as the two of us was the only people in the theater. My son took the car back to the Westgate to get in some work and I played a little settling down at the one bank left with quarter full pay Jacks or Better. After about twenty minutes, I was dealt four to the Royal, and miraculously I picked up the needed King of Hearts for my first quarter Royal of the year.
My first quarter Royal of the year.
Huge news concerning parking: As many of you may have read, MGM is going to begin to charge $10 for parking. My son and I spent the morning at a camera convention at the MGM and when we parked, we could see that the apparatus is already being installed in preparation. At the Westgate, they’ve already initiated it (to the mass confusion of every one). At least at the Westgate, if you’re a hotel guest, you simply insert your room key as you exit and you’re free to go; otherwise, you need to put in a credit card and the fee is extracted. There are also machines for cash payouts in the hotel—think airport parking—the system is set up the same. Also at least at the Westgate, if you’re not staying at the hotel, you can validate your parking at any restaurant or by making a $10 bet in the sportsbook. I have no idea how the MGM properties are going to do this. They’ve already announced that hotel guests still have to pay the fee. Make no mistake, once MGM has done this, the rest of the major resorts are going to do the same—just like the resort fees. This is reason #23 I’m glad I’m leaving the Strip properties and will do all my playing at the local places.
Entertainment—not much to report: I had my two free tickets for March and my son and I have seen pretty much everything available, so we opted for the Legends in Concert and though we’ve seen this as well, they constantly change the acts to keep it fresh. This time it was the Blues Brothers, Prince, Adele, and Frank Sinatra. All were good, but the Adele impersonator was wonderful. Other than the show, the entertainment was simply people watching, which you can never go wrong—Vegas attracts the craziest people.
I may have left some things out, though this covers the main events and thoughts. My 7 Stars life is now over, and trust me—I won’t miss it. I’ll still come to Vegas, but I’ll now focus on the Boyd properties and the Westgate. If those offers dry up (not likely), there’s always someone else to fill in the gap…at least in my remaining lifetime. I’d love to see what Vegas is going to be like in 50 years.
Until next time…
