Quick Trip to Vegas before the Holidays Kick In

Tuesday:

My wife and I flew Southwest from Denver to Las Vegas, our flight only had 90 people on board, so we got to spread out and each had an aisle to ourselves. I think it’s called Southwest First Class. We rented from Hertz, and we had a tier match, so we received the Gold Plus level even though this was our first time using Hertz in a long time, we were able to skip the counter and pick a car in the Gold area. Quick, easy, and we were out of the airport on our way to M Resort.

We had three comped nights at the M Resort but had to pay the $35.99 per night resort fee, each of us got $20 per day free play, one $25 per day food comp, and $25 casino cash each per day if we earned 400 points. The 400 points were a sure thing! This offer was from our play at our local casino in Blackhawk, CO.

After we checked in at the M, we headed to Emerald Island for our first-ever visit there. We went to guest services to sign up for the slot club and before we even got our new cards, we were greeted by a very nice lady named Sammy who welcomed us to the casino and gave us a rundown on the promotions we could qualify for. She let us know that one of the first things we could earn would be the new player gift after earning 50 points, she told us to come back to member services or flag down an employee and they would take care of it for us. We quickly hit the 50 points and just continued to play, to our surprise, Sammy showed up and let us know we had qualified for the new member gifts, and she had them for us. Pretty amazing!

We played 10-play NSUD, nickels, my wife hit a Royal on one line, and I had 4 deuces on one line and that was the excitement of our play. The wife ended up $80 ahead, I lost $50, we each got $10 new member free play, I used the LVA coupon for a $15 cash wheel spin, and we each earned $20 cash on another new member promotion. I enjoyed two Lovelady Brewing IPAs, that were really good, and we ate at the café on the 50% promo.

We had a blast! Right when we first walked in my wife turned to me and said, “I like this place!”

We went back to the M and played video poker (full pay NSUD, Bdlx, Ace$, and BP) and Blackjack(double deck, 3:2, $15 min), I won on video poker, and BJ, the wife was down a bit.

 I talked with a cowboy from Colorado who was in town for NFR at the BJ table, he was staying at Southpoint but came to the M because it was too busy there, so we decided to skip Southpoint this trip because of that.

Wednesday:

The next day we had breakfast at the M on our food comp and headed over to EI again for the 10 am 25x’s multiplier. We had planned on playing for 2 hours and then going downtown for a coupon run, but after an hour the smoke really got to us, and we decided to go back to the M to play.

In the afternoon we did the coupon run downtown and had BOGO slices at Pop Up Pizza. I won the $25 and $10 match play bets at Golden Gate and lost the $50 and $10 match play at the Plaza.  We finished up at the Sand Dollar bar but had no luck on the $500 royal flush LVA coupon.

Then had dinner at Fat Choy’s with the BOGO LVA coupon, before going back to the M to play.

Thursday:

On Thursday we played at the M most of the day and went to Angie’s Lobster on Blue Diamond Road for lunch based on the LVA review. It’s a very small, bare-bones place, you order at the kiosk, I ordered the warm Lobster Roll and the wife ordered the warm Snow Crab Roll. The lobster was $12.99 with fries and a drink, and the crab was $10.99, both were delicious!

Late afternoon we went to the Palms for our lobster buffet reservation, we had the BOGO LVA coupon and it was as good as advertised. While we were wandering through the casino we saw a bank of Buffalo Ascension machines so we checked them for a vulturing  opportunity and sure enough one was in a positive state. We each put in $100 and quickly hit 8 free games that retriggered 3 times for an additional 15 free games for a total of 23 free games. On the 19^th free game, we hit a Super Stampede for $1,130, but now we had 4 free games that were still to come, and I was worried we would win another $70 triggering a W2G. Thank goodness the last 4 spins came up blank! The machine was still slightly positive so with $1,270 in credits we decided to play it down to $1,200 and quit. We ended up triggering 8 free games for a small win and a small Stampede to finally cash out at $1,275.20. We had a great time at the Palms!

We headed back to the M for more VP and BJ, with a little 3-card poker mixed in, the wife likes 3-card poker, so I play a bit with her. They also had a free slot tournament going on, everyone received 1 entry and you could earn up to 4 more entries by earning 200 points, we had already met the requirement so we sat down for 5, 3-minute rounds. The lowest qualifying score was 320,000 and my highest score was 248,000, I think my wife's high score was in the low 200,000s as well, so neither of us won anything.

Headed home early Friday, asking for them to comp the remaining balance on our hotel bill, they said they would have a host review it, and I probably won’t get it but I always ask.

Glad you did so well! The EI is a lot of fun, and the employees are really nice--you get treated like they're actually glad for you to be there. As you mention, the smoke can get a little annoying--which is why I play there at odd times of day (everybody and his orchestra shows up there for lunch, for example, so I don't).

I haven't set foot in the M in a long time, since they removed the best buffet in town (sob!). Not sure what deals are available and the quality of the games, but it would probably be a good idea to get back on their radar.

The way you did things sure beats getting pounded into jelly and ripped off on the Strip, doesn't it?

Great TR, Thanks.

Excellent Report, Max, thanks for sharing.  Nice hit on that Buffalo game.  

Great trip report, sounds like a fun time!  Thanks for sharing.

I haven't been to the Strip in over 20 years, until Thursday that is. When we left the M for The Palms, I told Google Nav to take me to The Palms to help avoid the highway traffic. Navigation took me off the highway to Frank Sinatra Blvd, I figured it would take me to Flamingo, we drove past the highway traffic jam and navigation told me to turn right on Park Ave and I ended up on the Strip! Haha. Turns out it was taking me to Pampas restaurant at Planet Hollywood, I turned into the parking garage, exited on the east side, and ended up at The Paris valet and hotel drop off on the Strip, made my way through that, turned onto the Strip to Flamingo and got outta there! It actually was a fun 10 minutes of people-watching.

Hi Max. If I'd known that you were at the M Resort on Thursday, I would have waved as I drove past on St. Rose Parkway on my way to the southbound I-15.  It must be nice to have all of those points from Ameristar.  Glad you had a great time.

Just missed! Haha