The 13th Annual
Christmas/Birthday Trip Report
Welcome to the 13th annual Christmas/Birthday Trip! Not only is this the 13th birthday trip, it will also be my 40th birthday. My wife Dee will be with me as usual on this trip and we've got a fun trip planned with the usual deals, video poker, comps, shows and more. There will also be a few days down in Laughlin and visits with friends. So, now that the introduction is done, let’s get this report started!
My wife created a video from this trip that can be seen at:
https://www.openvegas.com/vegas/videos/id_678/title_christmas-2010/
Day 1
Saturday December 11, 2010
We didn't have to get up too early today because we spent the night at the Best Western Albany Airport. I had booked a rate on their own website as opposed to Best Western.com and got a rate of $75. They also have a deal where you can park your car there while you're away for $25 and they would shuttle you back and forth to the airport. We were assigned room 207 yesterday and everything was fine with exception of the room not having a remote for the TV. A stop by the front desk fixed that situation in just a few minutes though.
They also offer a deluxe continental breakfast so we hit the restaurant for a quick breakfast. They had scrambled eggs, hash browns, ham and pancakes, fruit and yogurt along with the traditional continental breakfast items. After breakfast we went back to the room to check e-mails and flight times and then the front desk called the room to let us know the shuttle was there and ready when we were. The driver loaded our things into the van while I ran over to the car to throw a few things in it that we didn't need for the trip and then I ran in to check out at the front desk. They had pre-checked us out and I noticed on the bill they didn't charge for parking there for the next 18 nights. I'm not sure why because I put it on the original reservation when I booked and we told the guy the checked us in yesterday. Well there would be no argument from me on this one and I looked at it as a way to offset the bullshit we went through last time we stayed here back in the summer.
The ride is only a few minutes from the hotel to the airport and we arrived at Albany International with no events. The driver was cool and said he'd been to Las Vegas a few times and loved it and his father goes at least once a year and stays all over the place when he goes.
We were dropped off at the Southwest are of the terminal and the line was long but moved quickly and people were doing what they were supposed to be doing. We checked in yesterday online and got 'A' boarding passes 35 & 36. Then it was off to security. Security lines were short here and it's a lot easier flying out of here than Newark, that's for sure. Once again there we no issues at security and people seemed to do what they were supposed to do without being told 5 times. They did have to run Dee's carry on through a second time and they tested some casino chips I had for explosives but other than that there were no hang ups.
In the terminal we grabbed a roast beef and cheddar sandwich for the flight that we would share for the rip off price of $8. The sandwich was large and would be enough to hold us over on the flight.
While we were waiting in the terminal we were informed our incoming flight was going to be a little late but they still anticipated an on time departure as long as all of our passengers lined up correctly and boarded quickly. Once again everyone did exactly what they were supposed to do and we left right on time.
I'm in shock so far at this point of the trip between the hotel, and the airport, from check in, through security and boarding the plane no one was being stupid and everyone did exactly what was expected of them. No one held up the check in line, no one tried to go through security with their shoes on carrying bottled water while sporting their Mr. T starter kits with a carry on the size of a steamer trunk and no one tried to board before they were supposed to. Could it be people are finally getting it???
One note about security this trip so far. We had to show our boarding passes and ID at 3 different check points today. One prior to entering the line for security, once again when we walked through the metal detectors, and again while we were lined up waiting to board. It's no big deal to me and if it's going to keep things safer I'm for it although I think it might just be overkill.
Today's flight is on Southwest Flight 154 Non-Stop to Las Vegas. I originally booked this flight back in August for $164 one way. I rebooked 3 days later for $139 banking the difference in my Southwest account and then rebooked yet again in September for $109. I really like Southwest and with exception of the boarding process they are pretty good. I really like not having to be nickel and dimed on things like luggage.
When we boarded we took 2 seats together near the back of the plane and settled in for what was scheduled to be almost a 5 hour and 50 minute flight. We left on time and the captain came on saying the flight would be 5 hours and 20 minutes and might even be less. He did warn though if we got there too soon they might not have a gate ready for us and we'd be waiting on the tarmac.
Since this is Southwest the is no food other than a small snack (today was a choice of Lorna Doone 100 Calorie packs, Ritz Cheese Sandwiches or Athenos Pita Chips) and soda. We broke out our sandwich and chowed down. That is where we are right now in this report as I type Dee is fast asleep and I'm about to do the same in a few more minutes.
The flight was smooth for the entire trip except for a bit of bumps over the Rockies which is typical this time of year. Even though I slept a bit this flight is still really, really long but eventually we were on our approach into Las Vegas. The landing was ok but I've been on smoother. We taxied to the gate for a while and when we pulled in we actually saw our luggage get thrown onto the carts! We took our time getting off the plane and to the monorail to the luggage claim area. Our bags came out within 5 minutes of getting to baggage claim which has to be a record and it was on to shuttle to the rental car facility.
I have 3 rentals booked today. I had one with Alamo that I booked back in early September, one with Avis and one with Dollar. Avis is my company of choice and I had booked what I thought was a decent rate back in September but Dollar came in with a killer rate back in October of just $209 + taxes so I booked that as well. It dropped again a few weeks later to $200 and then just Wednesday night it dropped to $197. This is probably the lowest rate I've paid in years. Although it's a great rate I still prefer to rent with Avis and thought I'd check with the manager on duty (this is one good thing about the consolidated facility) and see if she'd match the rate. She said she didn't price match but would look to see if she could give us a good rate. She actually quoted us a price higher than what I had previously booked and was shocked at the rate Dollar was offering. I told her to cancel the reservation and we had no option but to go with Dollar and save $170 plus tax. She agreed that's what we should do.
There were no lines at Dollar's Fastlane booth and we were given a car in space 30. It ended up being stupid Hyundai Sonata with over 35,000 miles on it. I don't think I've ever had a car with that many miles on it in my entire renting career! I wasn't thrilled with this but for about $11 a day beggars can't be choosers. Oddly it was in decent condition. After the quick check for damage on the car we were on our way to Green Valley Ranch.
Dee wanted to see a show tonight at Green Valley Ranch with an instrumental artist called Keiko Matsui so we ran over there to try to get tickets. I wanted to use comps to cover the cost but my Stations account was low. I did have over 400,000 Fiesta points and was able to transfer points from there. The tickets are section 6, row C, seats 12 & 13. I scored us 2 tickets in the middle price range that normally went for $86 for free and we were set for 8pm tonight. We didn't stay here long and were on our way to the hotel.
For the first 4 nights we are staying at M Resort. Each of us got offers for 2 nights and we both booked separate reservation. When we arrived we linked them both together and were assigned room 8131. This room has a strip view and a king bed with 2 night stands attached to the wall. There's also a wall unit with dresser and closet equipped with a mini bar, work desk with a flat screen TV on it. The bathroom is large and has a soaking tub with shade that allows views of the strip and bedroom area, separate shower stall and a toilet room. The vanity has double sinks and there's a large open closet area.
As part of our mailer we were offered 5 different coupons for gifts, 1 free buffet and 7X points on slots and 2X points on video poker on Friday, Saturday & Sunday so we'll make sure to take advantage of those today & tomorrow.
We were both starving so didn't even unpack and ran down to the Vig Deli in the casino. Dee got a turkey wrap and I got a BBQ pulled pork sandwich. We didn't have our slot cards with us so we just charged it to the room and would get it taken care later on. The food here is pretty good and the prices are fair for a casino restaurant however, there are some things on the menu that are out of line when it comes to price like $5 slices of pizza.
When we were done eating we came back here to the room to get cleaned up from the trip and unpack some of our things. We traveled light so it didn't take long to do this before we were ready to head out.
Our first stop was to the slot club to get some cards made up and to redeem a coupon for one of our free gifts. I got a bottle of Cuervo and Dee chose an M logo sweatshirt that's pretty nice and doesn't have a giant M logo on it but just a small one on the front.
The next stop was over to CVS for some survival items and then off to our friend Anne's house to grab our tote full of other essentials that we don't take back and forth anymore that allows us to travel lighter than we used to.
Next we ran over to the Orleans to their box office to get some tickets for the Wranglers midnight hockey game next week. We got seats on the glass Section 101, row AA, seats 1 & 2. These tickets are normally $17.50 a piece but I used comp dollars from my B-Connected card to cover the cost of them.
Now it was back to Green Valley Ranch to play a bit and to go to the show we got tickets for earlier today. We started with some triple play video poker. I hit a quad early on but that was about all. I hovered for a bit then sank like a rock. Dee on the other hand hit multiple quads and got a few nice dealt winners. I dropped $100 and she won $75 so not too bad for about 45 minutes of play. Next we played a few penny slots. I hit a bonus round but did poorly on it. I had bigger hits just in regular spins. Dee hit a few bonus rounds and they kept her alive. She cashed out even and I won $10.
At about 7:30 we went over to the Ovation Lounge where the show would be tonight. The seats here were fine as this is a smaller venue and I don't think there's a bad seat in the house. I'd actually prefer these seats to the closer ones in most cases. I was totally unfamiliar with this artist so didn't know what to expect. I thought the show was decent although not exactly my type of music. It was all instrumental which is ok but most of it sounded the same to me. Dee enjoyed the show quite a bit so I was glad we went.
After the show we grabbed a quick late night meal at Panda Express. We got a 2 item combo with a side for $6. Yes, I actually paid for food to save time. We got some type of spicy beef and their signature orange chicken with fried rice. This was good and we headed out of Green Valley Ranch.
On the way back to M we stopped off at Wal-Mart to grab a few more items for the trip and then came back to M to take a much needed break from the long day we've had. Other than the hour or so of sleep I got on the plane I have been up since about 6:30am Eastern Time. It's now midnight here in Las Vegas or 3am in NY. Goodnight everybody!
Total win/loss for the day -$50
Total comps for the day $269
Day 2
Sunday December 12, 2010
When we got up today we were up at 7am but lounged around for a while before we headed downstairs. The first order was to get a quick "breakfast" at Baby Cakes. They have an assortment of baked good here. I chose a pear danish and Dee had the raspberry danish. These things are really tasty and did the trick. Just a word of warning for everyone. The pastry chef here at M LOVES to use lots of butter in his creations.
Now it was on to the casino. We didn't play at all here yesterday but the plan today is to play and take advantage of the multi points in our mailer as well as the free play. We found the bank of triple play progressives we like here and found a few seats. I was doing fine here holding even for the most part but Dee was getting killed. I popped a few quads and a straight flush but there was a slow drain between hits. Dee dropped a few bills here and went in search of some fun penny games to use her free play on. When she was off doing that I went into a tailspin so switched over to Double-Double hoping to hit a quad. As luck would have it I hit a bonus quad (no kicker) and switched back to jacks. I cashed out the session even and met back up with Dee to go use my free play in a variety of penny slots. I eventually lost all of the $35 free play they had given me but got quite a bit of play out of it while earning 7X points too.
The next thing we wanted to do was a little game we call "ticket boy". To fill you in on what ticket boy actually is may be absurd but I find it funny. The story comes from Atlantic City where I play on a bank of triple play machines with bonus poker. Regularly when I'm there I see this guy that machine hops this bank of machines feeding only $20 bills in. he plays until the $20 bill is gone or until he's up 1 bet ($3.75) or more. He does this ALL day when I see him from early morning into the evenings. After seeing him on multiple trips doing this I dubbed him "ticket boy". It's no great way to come out ahead but it gives us something to root for and slows down the play a bit. I started off getting a bunch of $20 bills from the bill breaker machine and we headed back to the triple play machines. I handed Dee some money and she got started and I put money in my machine but didn't start playing right away as I was writing down our slot card points. Dee was already getting beat up before I even started playing. When I was done writing all of our information down I hit the deal button and what did I see? Well it was a dealt royal flush for ME! This was my first hand of the session and my initial reaction was "Holy Shit, I got a dealt royal!" There's no bonus on this bank for the dealt royal so you just get the total of all 3 royals which was $3347.75. This was a great way to start out the trip not having to crawl our way out of a hole. While I was waiting for my hand pay and tax form Dee was continuing to get beat up and started machine hopping just like the original ticket boy. She moved to the end of the bank and after I was paid I cashed out of my royal machine and moved next to her. I wasn't hitting much of anything else and Dee continued to get killed. She was on her last hand of a $20 bill and what do you know, she scored a royal on the top line just minutes after my dealt royal. It was so close to when I hit mine that her pay out was $1000.76 and the machine paid her $1001. For those of you keeping score at home that's 4 royals in about a 10 minute time frame. We continued to play for a bit longer but the VP gods weren't with us other than the royals. Between us we were losing more $20 bills than we were cashing out winners and we only hit one quad between us.
We'd been playing for quite a while and needed a break. It was also getting into the afternoon so we wanted to grab lunch. First thing we did was stop off at the slot club booth to cash in coupons for some gifts. I got a sweatshirt and Dee got a bottle of Cuervo then it was up to the room to drop off our goodies and then back down to the buffet.
They are running a promo this month where if you earn x points you get a free buffet and you get to keep the points. This is probably one of the best deals in town right now for "free" eats. When we got there it was about 2pm and there was no wait at all to get in. Today is the special weekend seafood buffet but they have plenty of other items as well. This is a $60 comp for 2 people and it can't be beat.
After lunch we hit the casino and tried our luck with a variety of penny slots. We played these for about 2 hours straight and between us cashed out with a $4 win. Yes that's four dollars. I thought that was impressive and add to that we were getting 7X points too.
It was now 5pm and we needed a change of pace and we decided to go up to the Cannery. We hadn't been there in about a year. We hit the triple plays like we usually do and started pounding away. This was a tough session for both of us. At first I was getting killed and Dee was holding her own including nailing aces on two lines while I was feeding in bills. Then I caught some luck and started hitting quads and dealt winners and Dee was getting killed. Between us we dropped $300 on these and moved on to some penny games. I found a machine that was giving me lots of play but in the end I lost here too. Dee did much better than I did but still no luck in the end. We were done playing here and hit the slot club to cash in some points for gift cards. We got a total of $80 in Wal-Mart cards but dropped in the area of $400 doing so. To add insult to injury we also lost 2 match plays on the way out the door on the roulette wheel. Dee played odd and lost and I played black and lost. Had we switched the order we had played we would have won both. Oh well, so far we were 0 for 2 on match plays this trip.
We came back to M after getting beat up at the Cannery and hit the casino here. We decided to play some single line video poker to try and smooth out the bumps but still be able to play. Dee played bonus poker and I played some aborted deuces wild pay table just for fun. I held my own for almost the whole session staying +/- $20 the whole time. Dee was on fire on her machine and got dealt deuces (why didn't I get those?) and a few other quads. Other than that she was steadily growing the meter by hitting flushes and full houses. She cashed out her session with a $200 win which I thought was impressive for single line play. I dropped $50 by the end of my session. After this we took my ticket and a $20 and played some penny slots. I of course lost again but Dee won $30 from hitting 2 bonus rounds. All in all it was a decent evening we were done playing for the day.
Since we hadn't eaten in a while we hit the Vig Deli for a late night snack. Dee grabbed a turkey wrap and I got chicken fingers to go. Dee's sandwich was good again today but I wasn't happy with the chicken fingers. When I ordered they asked what kind of sauce I wanted and I chose BBQ. What I didn't know was they were going to pour it all over them. By the time we got the food up to the room they were soggy and mushy from being soaked with BBQ sauce. They tasted ok but I was only expecting BBQ sauce to dip them in.
For the rest of the evening we just chilled out up in the room and watched TV while we ate before calling it a day at around midnight.
Total win/loss for the day $3500
Total comps for the day $336
Day 3
Monday December 13, 2010
Today we started with breakfast downstairs at Hash House A Go-Go. Dee got a hash that was some mashed up pile of stuff with mushrooms and artichokes in a skillet with 2 eggs. I opted for there signature Sage Chicken and Waffles. This is 2 chicken breasts on top of 4 bacon waffles (they bake the bacon right into the waffles) with maple reduction and fried leeks. It was a tasty meal but the portions are just way too big. If this were just 1 chicken and 2 waffles it would be the perfect meal. The food and service were great and we left filled up and hit the video poker machines.
We went back to the same bank we played on yesterday and I called Yahtzee Mike. He called me during breakfast and we had missed each other on this trip. He was here a few days ago and won't be making it back for the holiday trip. We chatted for a while about his trip and how ours was going so far and played. Dee was getting clobbered again and I hit a set of aces while I was talking to Mike. This kept me going for a while and I also scored quad sixes multiple times as well as a straight flush. I hung up with Mike and kept playing. Dee continued to get killed and I eventually lost my $100 despite hitting aces and numerous quads. I popped in another bill and played for a little longer. I ended up cashing out my session down $100 and Dee got slammed for $300.
We decided to get out of here and on the way to the room stopped off at the slot club to get more gifts. Dee got a bottle of wine and I got a duffle bag with the M logo on it.
We dropped our stuff off into the room and then headed out. The plan was to go to Tuscany to play on one of their promos where you earn gift cards. The deal was for every 1000 points you got a $10 gift card up to 4 cards. Dee had never been here before so we signed her up for a card. She also got to pick a card from a box and got a random amount of free play loaded on her card and a funbook too. I needed to get a new card since I hadn't been here since they opened and I was no longer in the system. This also gave me the new member sign up bonus and a funbook. We found some triple/five play machines with 8/5 bonus on them so started pounding away. The free play we won was $5 for both of us so pretty much worthless when you come down to it. I was getting killed and hoping that these gift cards weren't going to cost me a grand. It was so bad I was going 5 or 6 hands without winning any coins. I dropped a bill here in near record time before things smoothed out. On the next bill things got much better. I scored a set of aces right away to get back to even and hovered for a while. I then hit quad 4's, another set of aces, fives, and got dealt quad sixes along with numerous full houses and flushes. One hand that almost had me crap myself was when I saw the first 4 cards to a royal appear on my screen. That would have been some shit to have gotten another dealt royal but it wasn't the case. It was a dealt flush though so I dumped the odd card and ended up with a total of 30 coins. Dee continued to play on her original bill and the highlight was getting down to around $10 and growing the meter all of the way back up to $100. Dee had passed the 2 gift card mark and I was close to 3. Looking at our meters we were up a fair amount so instead of maxing out the promo we decided to cash out when we were at a total of 5 cards between us and to take a little profit too. Dee lost about $75 and I won about $200 for a net of about $125. We hit the slot club and collected 5 Wal-Mart cards and walked away with $125 in winnings. This is the way promos are supposed to work.
On the way out the door we both played a $5 match play on roulette. Dee bet on odd and scored when 5 came up and I bet on black and scored when the ball popped out of the red 9 and landed in the black 26. We collected our $20 and headed to the gift shop to use the coupon for a free gift at the gift shop that turned out to be a deck of used playing cards.
We needed a light snack now to hold us until dinner so hit Jack in the Box for some tacos and burgers off the value menu and headed back up here to M for a break. While we were napping the fire alarm went off and I was getting flashbacks of the Aquarius last summer. They quickly announced it was a false alarm and I fell asleep again. After about a 90 minute siesta we were up and ready to go again. That's where we are in this report right now and the plan is to go to the buffet again for dinner. Stand by to hear about that just below here!
There were no lines at the buffet so we just did the point promo again and were seated quickly. As always everything was good here and the service was good too.
When we were done with dinner we played a variety of penny slots. We played for quite a while but then suddenly took an ass kicking. I know these things are a losing deal but it was like someone flipped a switch and the typical slow drain became a fast pour.
Next up we hit the single line video poker games. Dee played bonus and I played double-double. I was getting killed but then scored a set of deuces for $100 to bring me back just above even. Dee kept plugging away going up and down. She eventually gave up at the even point and came upstairs to bed. I stayed down longer and kept playing but didn't hit anymore quads and the slow drain of double-double bonus took its toll. I ended up dropping 2 bills by the time it was all over.
It was still early so I took a shot at some double deck blackjack. Things started out horrible here with the dealer almost wiping me out before the shuffle. I can't recall seeing so many dealer blackjacks in one round. The next round was almost as bad and then she went to break. Things got a little better but I couldn't get any double down hands and when I did I was losing them. Finally there was a turn around and the dealer was breaking every hand. Normally I would have started pressing my bets but being behind by so much I didn't dare. One of the highlights of the session was splitting 8's into 4 hands, and doubling down on one of them. In total I busted just one hand and won the other 3. That seemed to turn things around for me. Eventually I was up a bit after being down over $400 and I cashed out happily up $28.50 after tipping the dealer a few bucks.
It was now about midnight so I came up here and went to bed!
Total win/loss for the day -$600
Total comps for the day $239
Day 4
Tuesday December 14, 2010
We started off today by stopping at the slot club for more gifts. Dee took the mystery gift that was a travel coffee cup. I used my wine coupon but since they only had rose left offered me the chance to have a bottle of Cuervo instead. I took that and now we've got 3 of them. Someone is going to get them as a nice gift!
For breakfast we were going over to the Silverton for breakfast at the Sundance Grill. They recently made a change to their slot club and I had some old table game comps that were going to expire in spring so we wanted to use them up. I ordered a sausage & cheddar omelet and Dee had mushrooms, Swiss, chives and bacon. The food came out quickly but my omelet didn't look right when the server sat it down. It actually looked identical to Dee's so I sent it back because this boy doesn't eat fungus. While we ate we played 5 games of Keno picking 6 numbers. We did so well I don't think we had 3 numbers in all 5 games combined.
On the way out the door I popped a $5 bill into a penny slot and cashed out at $6 and change just for fun and to say we won. Our next stop was back down to Tuscany to play on their gift card promo again. We settled in at the triple/five play machines once again and we were off to the races. We were both hovering even for the first part of the session and then things got bad. I was feeding in bill after bill and Dee ended up needing another bill too. Eventually we were in for $500 before things settled down. I scored a few quads one after another to get some more ammo but Dee dropped her second bill just short of a second card. I had already made enough points for a second card and gave her my tickets so she could finish up. She didn't hit anything special but hit her goal and made $2 as well. I took the ticket back as I was close to a third card and a few hands in got dealt a straight flush. This really saved us for the session and we only ended up losing about $175 but hey, we scored $50 in Wal-Mart gift cards.
When we were finished at Tuscany we made a quick stop at Walgreen’s for a few items and then Dee wanted to go to Ethel M's to see the Christmas display in their cactus gardens. We also looked in at the chocolate factory and watched them make what looked like peanut brittle and then headed back to M.
On the way back to M we stopped off at Barley's to show Dee what it was and told her of the days they used to offer good VP and had a free pizza coupon in the Las Vegas Advisor Pocketbook of Values. After they got rid of that coupon and the decent VP they lost me as a player. I hadn't been there in years but the place hadn't changed at all.
When we got back to M we played some single line machines. We both started with bonus poker but then I realized the ACE$ Bonus had a full pay table on it so we switched over to that. I had lost $50 there so switched to double-double hoping for a quad to get back to even. I never hit a quad and ended up losing yet again. Dee had switched to regular bonus and scored quad 3's, kings, and aces but the VP gods went to bed after that and she ended the session even.
Since last night was a late night and this morning was an early start we took a break and napped for an hour or so before getting ready for dinner. Tonight we were hitting the buffet one last time to use the coupons from the mailers. These were also VIP line passes which came in handy today because the lines to get in were long. We were seated almost immediately and I had a huge grin on my face when we walked past everyone that had been standing there. Once again the foods were all fresh and good and our server did a great job clearing the dirty dishes and keeping the drinks full.
When we rolled out of the buffet we hit the triple play machines again. We decided to slow things down we'd do a round of "ticket boy" play again. The session was rocky with most rounds being losers. We did manage to score a few quads including me hitting a set of aces to keep us going. After about 4 hours we had dropped about another $400. It seems after those 4 royals the other day we can't seem to hit anything.
We took what was left of video poker money and played a variety of penny slots. We got some decent play out of what was left and after another hour or so it was after midnight and we decided to go to the room. We packed up some of our things because we would be moving tomorrow and didn't want to mess with it then. That's where we are in the report right now. It's now just after 1am and I'm going to bed. Dee's already sound asleep!
Total win/loss for the day -$800
Total comps for the day $235
Day 5
Wednesday December 15, 2010
Today we finished packing up our things for today's move. Checking out was easy and we were off to the valet.
We made our first stop of the day at Panera Bread to check e-mails and get caught up with the folks back home. We also wanted to get a light breakfast here but at 10:30am breakfast is already over. WTF is up with that? Instead we both got the 1/2 sandwich and soup special. Once we were done with that we were on our way to the Tuscany again. Today was the last day of the gift card promo for the week and we wanted to take another shot at that. When we got there we hit the triple/five plays again. The results were great for Dee after she hit aces twice, quad 4's about 5 hands apart and numerous big dealt winners. I on the other and was getting killed and didn't get a dealt winner better than trips before I was down $150. Then I got dealt quad 6's but the fast drain continued. I had a semi come back towards the end but not enough to overcome the earlier losses. When it was all over Dee was up $400 and we walked out of there up $85 and we ended up with 5 Wal-Mart gift cards.
Today's move was to the Flamingo. I haven't stayed here in years and Dee has never stayed here. We booked this with no offer going through the Harrah's reservation system and booked 4 nights in a GO Luxury with View. When we arrived we used the Diamond check in. There was only a slight line at the main check in so it wasn't as fun as it could have been. Check in was quick and were assigned room 28052 on the top floor with a view of Bally's, Paris, Cosmopolitan, and the Bellagio. It's got a great view of the fountain show over there too. The room has a king bed with these cool desks on both sides of the bed as nightstands. There is a small couch near the windows for relaxing and viewing the strip and a neat entertainment center. It has a 42" TV and a stereo with surround sound. The room is done up in gaudy pinks, browns and whites. The curtains are also electric. The bathroom is a decent size with a frosted glass window and frosted glass sliding door. These don't allow for very much privacy so if you're with someone you're trying to impress and have to drop a deuce, they'll hear every move you make unless you blast the TV. The bathroom has a tub, glass shower and single sink vanity with a TV in the mirror. The light switch in the hallway operates 2 small lights in the bathroom as well that illuminates the room in pink.
Once we were settled into the room we went to the diamond lounge here at Flamingo. Neither of us had ever been here before so it was new for both of us. I'd say of all of the diamond lounges here in town that this one is the lamest. They did have a nice selection of veggies and dips and for hot food they had chicken wings and some sesame balls stuffed with black beans. They were odd but not too bad.
When we were done eating we hit the casino and some short pay video poker. We don't typically play as much here as at other properties because of the poor pay tables. We started off with 7/5 bonus triple play. These things gobbled up money like crazy at first. I'd like to say that it was the pay tables causing the bleed but when you don't hit any full houses, you can't blame the pay tables. I managed to pull out a quad and still dropped $100 in 15 minutes. Dee did the same. I switched over to double-double and dropped another $100 but Dee held steady. I tried one more bill and scored quad 4's (no kicker) and switched back to bonus. I played a bit longer hitting a few other quads and Dee got killed. This was a tough session and in under an hour she dropped $200 and I dropped $80 brining us down $200 for the day so far. At this point I really can't believe the losing streak we've been on since we hit the 4 royals earlier in the trip. I am also thankful that we did it those though because if we hadn't we'd be down over 2 grand 5 days in.
After the ass pounding we took at video poker we decided it would be a good idea to go to the room and take a break and take advantage of the nice views we had. We watched way too many fountain shows and waited around to see if there was any fanfare over at the Cosmopolitan which was scheduled to open at 8pm but there wasn't.
Dee wasn't feeling well so called it a night early. I went out by myself to play for a while. I walked over to Bill's to play some penny games for fun but didn't do well on them. It seems that Harrah's has finally put the cabash on decent payouts here too. I also noticed as I was walking through the casino that ALL of the blackjack games pay 6-5 from the single decks, double decks and shoe games. A place that was once a good place for the low roller to get some decent gaming action is now a complete wasteland from top to bottom.
I came back over to the Flamingo to play a little blackjack. I found a double deck game with 3-2 pay outs. The dealer here was dealing himself blackjack after blackjack. It seemed that every time he had an ace up he flipped over a blackjack. I was able to ride it out for a while and got back to even but then one deck did me in. I lost $200 here and moved back to the crappy VP machines. Things were quite a bit better and I was switching from bonus triple, five and ten play to double - double triple, five and ten play. I wasn't getting many dealt winners but I hit a few straight flushes and quads including 2 sets of fours and a set of aces all without kickers. I cashed out the session up $300 and gave up for the night.
It was after midnight now and I was getting a bit hungry so thought I'd go over to the Burger Joint for the $3 burger and fried special but they were closed. The cafe was also closed so I decided not to eat a big meal and just came back to the room and had a cookie before bed.
Total win/loss for the day -$350
Total comps for the day $130
Day 6
Thursday December 16, 2010
We got up around 8am today and started off with breakfast at the Tropical Breeze Cafe here at the Flamingo. Dee had the Gamblers Special which consisted of bacon, sausage, eggs, home fries, French toast casserole and toast. I had the Belgian Waffle with Blueberries and whipped cream. The food was tasty and filling but pricey with the total bill coming to $32. I'm sorry but $32 and breakfast should never be uttered in the same sentence. We played a few games of Keno while we ate too but didn't do well here either.
After breakfast we went to Total Rewards Center to get a voucher for Dee's 2 free show tickets for being diamond. For the month of December they added George Wallace to the list so we jumped on those. The tickets are for a 10pm show so we've got all day to keep active before the show.
Once we got our tickets we were off to the casino to play some video poker. Dee was holding out well and getting dealt winners and quads. I on the other hand couldn't buy a dealt winner. I dropped a bill in no time and put in another and switched to double-double. I got dealt trip 4's and connected a 4th on the top line for $100 and switched back to bonus where I proceeded to lose everything again with only 1 dealt straight to keep alive and nothing better than 2 pair dealt other that that. I dropped $200 here and gave up while Dee continued to play and cashed out with a $50 win leaving us down $150 for the session.
I didn't sleep well last night so we hit the room to take a break. I napped for a bit and to reenergize and start the afternoon, hopefully with more luck.
We slept about an hour and then were back to the casino for more video poker action. I lost $100 in about 8 minutes with nothing more than a few pairs of jacks along the way. I popped in another bill and switched to double-double and hit a set of deuces for $100 and moved back to bonus and then hit a set of aces on bonus holding only 1 ace. I got decent play and carried us for a while. I won $200 this session and Dee lost $100. We netted a $100 win between us though so it was a good session overall.
We were getting hungry so decided on going to the Harrah's diamond lounge for a mini meal. We got there a little too early for the diamond lounge so we played a variety of penny slots. Oddly we got decent play for a strip casino and I cashed out even on one machine and Dee doubled up to $40 on her game. We moved to another bank and decided to just split her profits a bit but lost those. In total we played for about 45 minutes and lost $3 before the diamond lounge opened.
Today's food offerings were veggies and dips, nuts, tortilla chips, Terra mixed veggie chips, garlic crustan, teriyaki chicken wings, beef skewers that were about the size of a nickel and a variety of little desserts. We chilled out in here for a while and watched hockey on one of the big TV's before heading back to the Flamingo for a little more video poker.
We hit the triple plays again and I did well here switching back and forth from double-double to bonus. I hit quad aces on the bottom line of double-double holding only 1 ace for $200 and carried us in this session. I was getting lots of dealt winners and pulling quads regularly. It was almost as someone snapped their fingers and said "Let him play". Dee on the other hand got her butt kicked in the same way I had been getting kicked earlier today. For the session she dropped $200 and I won $100.
We still had a few hours before the George Wallace show so we came up here to take a nap so we wouldn't be tired for the show. I didn't realize it but we must have both been very tired as we slept like 2.5 hours but felt great afterwards.
We got to the showroom as the previous show (Boyz II Men) was letting out so there was a line starting to form for George Wallace. This show has reserved seats though so it really doesn't matter where you are in line unlike many of the other shows that take place at the Flamingo showroom. Our seats were in section B Front, Table 22 Seats 1 & 2. The tables and seats in this showroom are tight but luckily this show was no where near full so we had the table to ourselves. George is a funny guy and talks about everything. I think most of his shows are different from one another because he does some crowd work but doesn't embarrass people. He also uses some dirty words but is not dirty. I think his favorite words are shit and ass. He routinely talks about people needing their asses kicked for being stupid. I liked the show and he actually ran 2 hours tonight.
After the show we were ready to eat again but again the cafe and burger joint were closed so we came up here and ordered room service. Dee had a turkey club with French fries and I had chicken fingers and French fries. The foods were actually pretty good and it was delivered quickly. One thing I've noticed is that room service menus seem to be getting smaller and smaller. For late night dining there were only about 8 things on the menu. We ate and watched TV for a while and I finally went to sleep around 2:30am.
Total win/loss for the day -$150
Total comps for the day $277
Day 7
Friday December 17, 2010
We slept in today and chilled in the room until about noon before heading out today. First stop was the 99c store and then to Walgreen’s for more supplies before landing at Sam's Town. The plan here was to play a bit and then later in the evening we were supposed meet with some friends for dinner at the buffet.
We started off with lunch at the Sportsbook snack bar. We both had the vegetable soup and split a roast beef sandwich. For dessert we split a fruit cup. The total bill with some drinks was a bit pricey for what we had but the food is decent and it beat sitting in stupid Friday's for 90 minutes.
For video poker we started off with the triple play progressives by the front door. The dealt royal was at over $8,000 and all of the single royals were at $1200 with the bottom over $1500. I hit aces right of the bat but they didn't last. Before long I was back on my original buy in. Dee was getting beaten up pretty good and needed to reload. Things got better for her after that as she hit 2 straight flushes, 2 sets of aces and got dealt quad 10's. I hit a few quads to keep going but nothing major. Even with all of the nice quads the dealt winners were far and few and we still ended up down about $100 for the session.
Next up we played a variety of penny slots. I was doing ok here hitting some nice bonus rounds. For the most part we hovered even with my larger bonus rounds and Dee getting beat on a little. We played these things for about an hour and dropped just $10 between us.
In the atrium they have a water and laser show at Mystic Falls and Dee had never seen it before. For the holidays they had a special version of the show with Christmas music. Before the show we hung out in the park and snapped some pictures and shot some video and then watched the show from one of the balconies.
It was still a little early to meet up with our friends so we went upstairs to play the 9/6 jacks progressives. We sat down side by side and then realized the machine next to me was double bonus. I looked over to the machine next to Dee and saw it was not only 9/6 jacks but also had $46 on the meter. I told Dee to move over, quick! We played here for a while and between us cashed out with a $5 loss.
We met up with Stacy, Steve and Amanda and discussed that the buffet closed at 9pm and we might be rushed. We decided between us that we would go to Billy Bob's Steakhouse instead. As we were being seated Anne and Steve arrived. They were offering a 4 course meal deal for $80 per couple that consisted of all non-alcoholic drinks, an appetizer, soup or salad, entree and dessert. We opted for this and ordered the coconut chicken, house salad and filet mignon. For dessert I had the chocolate mousse cake and Dee got her carrot cake. The total bill for all 7 of us was $307. I collected the cash from everyone and used points to pay the tab. This equated to converting some comp dollars into cash at a better rate than at the slot club. We left the tip out of the cash and the difference was added to the bankroll as if it were cash back. This would certainly help a little bit by the end of the night.
After dinner Stacy, Steve and Amanda left and me, Dee, Anne & Steve played video poker. Dee held her own turning $50 into over $100 and cashing out with only $30 but it wasn't a bad session for her hitting a few quads and playing for over an hour. I hit a quad early on but after that got low paired to death and couldn’t connect on anything. I switched to double-double and hit a straight flush and then came back to bonus. I ended up losing $100 without hitting anything of value and tried another $100 on double-double. The first $50 of this bill got sucked away with just 1 hand better than 2 pair. In the end I dropped a total of $200 here and Dee only $20 so it wasn't a very good session. Anne on the other hand hit numerous quads and needed to be beaten for winning but we let her slide.
It was after midnight now and we'd been at Sam's Town for about 12 hours and it was time to drive back to the Flamingo, Traffic was light and the ride didn't take long at all. We got back to the room and the bed by about 1:30am
Total win/loss for the day -$150
Total comps for the day $330
Day 8
Saturday December 18, 2010
Well it's been a week since we got here. I have to say that the week didn't fly by and we're both happy about that. We've played a lot, saw some shows, ate good food and visited with friends. Even though we've been on a 5 day losing streak we're still in positive territory although we're getting dangerously close to that changing unless things turn around.
We slept in this morning until after 10am getting caught up on some much needed sleep after yesterday's long day. We decided on room service for breakfast so we could get ready for our day while the food was being prepared and delivered. I ordered the corned beef hash and eggs and Dee got a fungus, spinach and sausage omelet. The food arrived pretty quickly for a Saturday morning and everything was tasty.
Once we were done eating we hit the casino for some video poker action. We started off with the triple plays and Dee quickly got her butt kicked. She machine hopped a bit and even switched to double-double a few times and not hitting anything. I was up and down and in for $200 and I was switching between triple play bonus and double-double and even a little double-double ten play. I got lucky and scored a few quads on double-double ten play including 1 hand with 2 sets of 5's and quad 4's twice within a few hands. I just can't seem to hit those bonus quads with kickers though I'm getting kickers constantly on regular bonus. We played for a little over an hour and finished the session down less than $100 as the losing continues. Thankfully all of my quads saved the morning from being a disaster.
When we were done playing we came back to the room for a break and to pack up some of our things. We're moving tomorrow and since we don't know if we're going to be out late tonight wanted to get a head start on getting ready. A quick nap was in order after we packed up and then we were out of here.
Later on we went to South Point to meet up with our friends Jimbo and Katy for dinner, a visit and some gaming fun. We got there early so we could play for a while and rack up some points. They are running a special this month that if you pay for anything with your points you get 50% off. Also since it's my birthday month just for showing up and playing I get 2500 points added to my card which would be like 5000 today.
We started off playing single line 8/5 bonus. Dee hit a quad right off the start followed by another shortly after. I wasn't hitting much of anything but doing ok. I got dealt 4 to a royal and hoped to hit this one to get the bankroll healthy again. I hit the draw button and scored the 10 to fill in the royal! I cashed out the ticket and started over with another $100. I couldn't seem to hit any quads but exactly 30 minutes later held 3 to a royal and fill it in again for my second royal of the day and my 5th of the trip. Combined with Dee's we're now at 6, a new record for us. Dee finished her session up $50 and I finished mine up $1950 for a nice $2000 profit.
Jimbo & Katy arrived right after and Katy wanted to beat my ass because she hasn't had a royal in along time. We hung out in the casino for a bit then they showed us their room at South Point where we chatted for a while before dinner.
We chose the Coronado Cafe and after a short wait in line (sure wished my diamond card worked here) we were in. I had the hot open turkey and Dee got the Monterey Chicken which is a chicken breast with tomato and avocado. My hot turkey was excellent. Dee said hers was good even though it looked like nothing more than a chicken cutlet with a tomato and slice of avocado thrown on top of it. We used points to pay and they only took $15 to cover the cost because of the promo.
After dinner Dee and Katy played triple play video poker and me and Jimbo went in search of a blackjack table. You sure know you're not on the Strip anymore when you find a $5 double deck game that pays 3-2 on naturals on Saturday Night. We had decent luck here but the dealer would constantly make a hand at exactly the wrong times. The session wasn't great for winning money but we got to play for about 3 hours. Jimbo made a few bucks and I cashed out with a $7.50 and gave half of that to the dealer!
We met back up with Dee and Katy and found they'd been playing VP the whole time. Dee turned her $150 ticket from earlier into $200 for another $50 win. We moved on to play some penny slots for fun afterwards. Dee turned $40 into $80 in about 5 minutes on her game of choice without even hitting a bonus round. I promptly lost that $40 in my game of choice which was one of the Monopoly games.
So after all of the gaming we did today and visiting it was going on towards midnight so we said our goodbyes and headed back here to the Flamingo. Before we went to the room we stopped by the front desk which was booming and had a really long line. However the diamond line (the diamond room was closed) was empty and we were right in. We just wanted to apply rewards credits to the room service charges so that we didn't have to do it tomorrow when the check out line is sure to be long.
I had a snack while Dee packed up the last of the stuff and typed up this report. It's now 12:48 am and I'm going to bed. Dee's already asleep I think!
Total win/loss for the day $1950
Total comps for the day $149
Day 9
Sunday December 19, 2010
When we got up this morning we packed up the rest of our things and headed out. We are heading to Laughlin for the next 5 nights for a slower pace before the holiday. The ride to Laughlin isn't as bad as it used to be now that they've widened the roads. It used to be painfully slow at times but now there's plenty of room for passing. The drive is pretty boring for the most part but sometime you get to see some strange stuff. Today the weather was a little evil looking but other than that there was nothing odd about the ride.
When we got to Laughlin the first order of business was a quick lunch. We hit the Arby's over in Bullhead City for some processed roast beef! Next up it was time to do laundry back in Laughlin. I dropped Dee off and then headed to the hotel to check in and unload the car while she took car of the clothes so we could save a little time.
I rolled into the Golden Nugget parking lot and went to check in. Neither of us have ever stayed here and the only reason we actually were this time was to try something new. Each time we come to Laughlin we'd play here a bit but oddly weren't getting any mail. Last visit I stopped by the slot club and found they had a digit wrong in my zip code. That got fixed and the offers started showing up again. This offer was for 2 nights, $25 in free play and 2X points on one day during the month.
Checking in here went quickly and I was on my way to room 449 in the West Tower in about 3 minutes. This room has a king bed with 2 nightstands and a view of some trees between two of the hotel towers. There is a small table with 2 arm chairs, a work desk and a dresser with an old 19 inch TV on it. The bathroom is a decent size with a long counter but only 1 sink, toilet and tub.
After I got the bags into the room I went back up to the Laundromat to pick up Dee and we came back to the Golden Nugget to get ourselves settled in. Since we were only here for 2 nights we didn't unpack much other than the necessities. We took a short break then headed out to go shopping over at the outlets to a store called Burke's. The place was pretty picked through and most of the good deals were gone. I was able to score a nice pair of Wranglers for $3.90. I also found a pair of shorts for 40¢ but they were vetoed by Dee!
We came back here to the Golden Nugget to get dinner at Harlow’s. We just missed the early bird blue plate specials so ordered off the main menu. Dee had a chicken wrap and I had the nachos. Dee liked her sandwich wrap and my nachos were way too big for one person to eat. While we were eating we played a few games of Keno and again got nothing out of it.
When we left the restaurant we played a few more rounds of Keno. We weren't hitting anything and then we hit the penny games. We got quite a bit of play out of our money tonight and I ended up cashing out with an $80 win and Dee lost $20. I had a few nice hits during my games but very few bonus rounds.
Next we tried some roulette. Dee likes the lower limits here so we bought in. Dee was hitting quite a few numbers but I wasn't hitting very many. I managed to hit a few but the ball kept dropping in the number next to the ones I bet on and was quite annoying. I was also betting more than Dee and dropped $200 here. Dee broke even so between my slot win and this the day wasn't too bad at this point.
Next up we hit a few more slots and were getting beaten up pretty bad and Dee decided to take her last $8 and put it in an original 25c Wheel of Fortune machine. Dee hit 2 bonus spins on the big wheel. On her first one she hit 40 coins and on her second spin hit for 1000 coins. I played the machine next to her and hit two spins almost back to back. One for 60 coins and one for 250 coins and we quit for a dessert break up nicely for the session.
For dessert we went back to Harlow’s and both had a brownie sundae. It was pretty big but nothing that couldn't be finished. It was 3 triangle brownies and a large scoop of vanilla ice cream with whipped cream and chocolate sauce.
Total win/loss for the day $100
Total comps for the day $54
Day 10
Monday December 20, 2010
When I woke up this morning Dee was gone and left a note that she'd gone for a walk. I got up and got ready to start the day and she came back shortly after. We hit Harlow's for breakfast. We both got the deuces breakfast that comes with 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausage patties and 2 pancakes. The service was a bit slow but the food was good.
When we were done eating we came up to the room took a short break and then headed out for some shopping over in Bullhead City to Beall's Outlet. The same thing was the case here as was at Burke's yesterday and the real bargains were already picked through. A few more stops to Big Lots and CVS for a few survival items got us loaded back up and came back here to the Golden Nugget to start playing. We played a variety of penny slots with no luck at all. It seemed as if it would have been better to light the money with a match. It would have taken it longer to disappear.
I played a bit of blackjack after the slot killing and Dee took $10 over to Keno. Things were rough at first again today but then calmed down. I couldn't get ahead because on the doubles I got I didn't get a card better than 4. I went from being down as much as $200 to being up $60 and cashed out with a $5 win. Yes, that says FIVE dollar win.
I met back up with Dee and we went to dinner at Harlow’s. Dee got the spaghetti and meatballs special and I got the t-bone special. Dee's food came with a slice of garlic toast and she ordered a side salad to go with it. My meal came with mashed potatoes, broccoli and a dinner roll. Dee's food was good and min e was ok. The $5.95 t-bone isn't exactly the best cut of meat out there and was a bit tough.
When we were through eating it was back to the casino again. We toured the place playing penny games and a little bit of video poker on some old coin droppers. It was strange cashing out coins and dumping them in a coin bucket. We played much longer this session on the games than we did last with each of us hitting a good number of bonus rounds. We even returned to the Wheel of Fortune machines in the little room and Dee turned $10 into $100 so that was a nice win. We eventually got tired of losing and gave up with a last ditch effort at the roulette table.
Roulette was up next. I hit a bunch of numbers right off the start and Dee followed with a few more. After my initial hits I wasn't hitting nearly enough to stay alive. What was actually happening was the ball kept dropping right next to the numbers we were betting. We both lost our buy ins here but did get to play for over an hour.
At about midnight we were hungry again so hit the deli back by the sport book. We both had the 1/2 sandwich (roast beef) and soup (vegetable). The sandwich was actually very good and the vegetable soup was alphabet mixed into regular vegetable. I wanted to start picking out letters and leaving dirty words on the table but that was going to be too much work and probably would have been vetoed by Dee, even though it sure would have been funny shit!
Just after midnight we came back to the room and watched TV for a bit before going to bed.
Total win/loss for the day -$650
Total comps for the day $45
Day 11
Tuesday December 21, 2010
Today we slept in to get caught up on sleep. When we finally got up we packed up a few of our things and got ready to leave. We don't usually move while we're here in Laughlin but today we are moving to Harrah's.
Before we left I stopped by the host office at the Golden Nugget to see about getting a few of the room charges taken care of. The lady I spoke to they weren't allowed to comp any food above the comp dollars earned. They were only allowed to comp rooms based on play. I wasn't happy about this because their comp rate is low to begin with. Then my thought process was, what the eff do I need a host for when my rooms are comped by a mailer and my comp account is the only way food can be comped? I left the office aggravated knowing I wouldn't be back there except to burn my free play on future visits. In all I had to pay for 3 meals that I really hadn't expected to pay for but that was my own fault for not knowing how their club worked.
We got to Harrah's at about 12:30. We booked this room on the Harrah's website with no offers through the reservation system and got 3 nights comped. When we arrived we checked in at the diamond check in and were given room 2-04-52 in the central tower. This room has a river view and a king bed and 2 nightstands. It also has a sitting table with 2 armchairs, wall unit with built in closet, dresser and TV. The bathroom is nice with a long single sink vanity, tab/shower and toilet.
For lunch we went to the Beach Cafe. Dee got the fish and chips and I got a grilled cheese. For dessert we split an apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream. The food and service were great in here today and the food came out quickly.
Next we grabbed our things from the car and got settled into the room and took a short nap for under an hour and then hit the casino. We started with the 50-play video poker. I know they shorted the pay tables on these but I thought it would be a good way to churn some coin through the machines. This didn't work out well as we got killed on these things to the tune of $300 each. I'd like to blame the reduced pay tables but between the 2 of us the best we got dealt was three 3 of a kinds the whole session and without dealt winners it’s tough to do well on these.
Next we wandered around and played a variety of penny slot again. We got to play for a while but I can see a huge difference in the slot here compared to the Golden Nugget. We didn't hit many big hits and only had a few bonus rounds.
We were hungry again so hit the diamond lounge for some food. They had sandwich meats, cheese and crackers, snack mix, veggie platter, soup and some small desserts. The foods were all good but it seemed as if no one was restocking things.
After our visit to the diamond lounge we went to play some dollar video poker in the high limit room. The pay tables suck in here too but like schmucks we played anyway. My thought about playing dollars was that Dee seems to be able to hover around even when she plays single line games and rarely gets killed. Today that was true as well. She hit a quad right away and kept playing on that money for quite a while. She didn't hit any more quads but did get to play for a while and she cashed out even. I on the other hand was the bankroll killer this session. I didn't hit any quads and dropped $200. Between us we got a little over 4k in action. Again I'd like to blame the pay table on losing but since I didn't hit any full houses, it was meaningless.
We went back to the main casino for a bit and played a few more penny games with not much luck. I think after this session I figured we shouldn't play them here anymore and went back to the high limits room for some more video poker. Dee hit a bunch of quads and got the meter up while I sat at the machine next to her and just bled more money. I still hadn't hit a quad and was going 10+ hands in a row without winning anything. We ran another 4k through the machines this session between us and I lost $400 and Dee won $100.
It was getting late but I still had a small ticket left from the slots earlier so we ran that through for a while before losing that too and calling it a night and heading to bed after today's huge ass kicking.
Total win/loss for the day -$1350
Total comps for the day $80
Day 12
Wednesday December 22, 2010
We slept in until 9:30 today and the lounged around the room for a while. It was raining out again today and would be raining all day long. That eliminated pretty much any outdoor activity today so we figured we'd chill.
Once we finally got motivated we went to the Beach Cafe for breakfast/lunch. I got the hash and eggs and Dee got Joe's Scramble. The food was excellent and the service was good again with the server that we had yesterday.
We went to the high limits room for some $1 video poker action this morning. I didn't play but Dee played some bonus poker. She didn't hit any quads but hit a bunch of smaller stuff to keep going. She actually ran over $1000 through the machine and cashed out the session even.
Today's plan was to go down to the Aquarius and check in for a 3 night stay. We weren't actually going to stay here but I had an offer for some free nights and $200 in free play. You don't need to be staying in the hotel to get your free play here but I also got a birthday card from my host offering me an additional $50 in free play. I felt kind of dumb just calling her and as
Christmas/Birthday Trip Report
Welcome to the 13th annual Christmas/Birthday Trip! Not only is this the 13th birthday trip, it will also be my 40th birthday. My wife Dee will be with me as usual on this trip and we've got a fun trip planned with the usual deals, video poker, comps, shows and more. There will also be a few days down in Laughlin and visits with friends. So, now that the introduction is done, let’s get this report started!
My wife created a video from this trip that can be seen at:
https://www.openvegas.com/vegas/videos/id_678/title_christmas-2010/
Day 1
Saturday December 11, 2010
We didn't have to get up too early today because we spent the night at the Best Western Albany Airport. I had booked a rate on their own website as opposed to Best Western.com and got a rate of $75. They also have a deal where you can park your car there while you're away for $25 and they would shuttle you back and forth to the airport. We were assigned room 207 yesterday and everything was fine with exception of the room not having a remote for the TV. A stop by the front desk fixed that situation in just a few minutes though.
They also offer a deluxe continental breakfast so we hit the restaurant for a quick breakfast. They had scrambled eggs, hash browns, ham and pancakes, fruit and yogurt along with the traditional continental breakfast items. After breakfast we went back to the room to check e-mails and flight times and then the front desk called the room to let us know the shuttle was there and ready when we were. The driver loaded our things into the van while I ran over to the car to throw a few things in it that we didn't need for the trip and then I ran in to check out at the front desk. They had pre-checked us out and I noticed on the bill they didn't charge for parking there for the next 18 nights. I'm not sure why because I put it on the original reservation when I booked and we told the guy the checked us in yesterday. Well there would be no argument from me on this one and I looked at it as a way to offset the bullshit we went through last time we stayed here back in the summer.
The ride is only a few minutes from the hotel to the airport and we arrived at Albany International with no events. The driver was cool and said he'd been to Las Vegas a few times and loved it and his father goes at least once a year and stays all over the place when he goes.
We were dropped off at the Southwest are of the terminal and the line was long but moved quickly and people were doing what they were supposed to be doing. We checked in yesterday online and got 'A' boarding passes 35 & 36. Then it was off to security. Security lines were short here and it's a lot easier flying out of here than Newark, that's for sure. Once again there we no issues at security and people seemed to do what they were supposed to do without being told 5 times. They did have to run Dee's carry on through a second time and they tested some casino chips I had for explosives but other than that there were no hang ups.
In the terminal we grabbed a roast beef and cheddar sandwich for the flight that we would share for the rip off price of $8. The sandwich was large and would be enough to hold us over on the flight.
While we were waiting in the terminal we were informed our incoming flight was going to be a little late but they still anticipated an on time departure as long as all of our passengers lined up correctly and boarded quickly. Once again everyone did exactly what they were supposed to do and we left right on time.
I'm in shock so far at this point of the trip between the hotel, and the airport, from check in, through security and boarding the plane no one was being stupid and everyone did exactly what was expected of them. No one held up the check in line, no one tried to go through security with their shoes on carrying bottled water while sporting their Mr. T starter kits with a carry on the size of a steamer trunk and no one tried to board before they were supposed to. Could it be people are finally getting it???
One note about security this trip so far. We had to show our boarding passes and ID at 3 different check points today. One prior to entering the line for security, once again when we walked through the metal detectors, and again while we were lined up waiting to board. It's no big deal to me and if it's going to keep things safer I'm for it although I think it might just be overkill.
Today's flight is on Southwest Flight 154 Non-Stop to Las Vegas. I originally booked this flight back in August for $164 one way. I rebooked 3 days later for $139 banking the difference in my Southwest account and then rebooked yet again in September for $109. I really like Southwest and with exception of the boarding process they are pretty good. I really like not having to be nickel and dimed on things like luggage.
When we boarded we took 2 seats together near the back of the plane and settled in for what was scheduled to be almost a 5 hour and 50 minute flight. We left on time and the captain came on saying the flight would be 5 hours and 20 minutes and might even be less. He did warn though if we got there too soon they might not have a gate ready for us and we'd be waiting on the tarmac.
Since this is Southwest the is no food other than a small snack (today was a choice of Lorna Doone 100 Calorie packs, Ritz Cheese Sandwiches or Athenos Pita Chips) and soda. We broke out our sandwich and chowed down. That is where we are right now in this report as I type Dee is fast asleep and I'm about to do the same in a few more minutes.
The flight was smooth for the entire trip except for a bit of bumps over the Rockies which is typical this time of year. Even though I slept a bit this flight is still really, really long but eventually we were on our approach into Las Vegas. The landing was ok but I've been on smoother. We taxied to the gate for a while and when we pulled in we actually saw our luggage get thrown onto the carts! We took our time getting off the plane and to the monorail to the luggage claim area. Our bags came out within 5 minutes of getting to baggage claim which has to be a record and it was on to shuttle to the rental car facility.
I have 3 rentals booked today. I had one with Alamo that I booked back in early September, one with Avis and one with Dollar. Avis is my company of choice and I had booked what I thought was a decent rate back in September but Dollar came in with a killer rate back in October of just $209 + taxes so I booked that as well. It dropped again a few weeks later to $200 and then just Wednesday night it dropped to $197. This is probably the lowest rate I've paid in years. Although it's a great rate I still prefer to rent with Avis and thought I'd check with the manager on duty (this is one good thing about the consolidated facility) and see if she'd match the rate. She said she didn't price match but would look to see if she could give us a good rate. She actually quoted us a price higher than what I had previously booked and was shocked at the rate Dollar was offering. I told her to cancel the reservation and we had no option but to go with Dollar and save $170 plus tax. She agreed that's what we should do.
There were no lines at Dollar's Fastlane booth and we were given a car in space 30. It ended up being stupid Hyundai Sonata with over 35,000 miles on it. I don't think I've ever had a car with that many miles on it in my entire renting career! I wasn't thrilled with this but for about $11 a day beggars can't be choosers. Oddly it was in decent condition. After the quick check for damage on the car we were on our way to Green Valley Ranch.
Dee wanted to see a show tonight at Green Valley Ranch with an instrumental artist called Keiko Matsui so we ran over there to try to get tickets. I wanted to use comps to cover the cost but my Stations account was low. I did have over 400,000 Fiesta points and was able to transfer points from there. The tickets are section 6, row C, seats 12 & 13. I scored us 2 tickets in the middle price range that normally went for $86 for free and we were set for 8pm tonight. We didn't stay here long and were on our way to the hotel.
For the first 4 nights we are staying at M Resort. Each of us got offers for 2 nights and we both booked separate reservation. When we arrived we linked them both together and were assigned room 8131. This room has a strip view and a king bed with 2 night stands attached to the wall. There's also a wall unit with dresser and closet equipped with a mini bar, work desk with a flat screen TV on it. The bathroom is large and has a soaking tub with shade that allows views of the strip and bedroom area, separate shower stall and a toilet room. The vanity has double sinks and there's a large open closet area.
As part of our mailer we were offered 5 different coupons for gifts, 1 free buffet and 7X points on slots and 2X points on video poker on Friday, Saturday & Sunday so we'll make sure to take advantage of those today & tomorrow.
We were both starving so didn't even unpack and ran down to the Vig Deli in the casino. Dee got a turkey wrap and I got a BBQ pulled pork sandwich. We didn't have our slot cards with us so we just charged it to the room and would get it taken care later on. The food here is pretty good and the prices are fair for a casino restaurant however, there are some things on the menu that are out of line when it comes to price like $5 slices of pizza.
When we were done eating we came back here to the room to get cleaned up from the trip and unpack some of our things. We traveled light so it didn't take long to do this before we were ready to head out.
Our first stop was to the slot club to get some cards made up and to redeem a coupon for one of our free gifts. I got a bottle of Cuervo and Dee chose an M logo sweatshirt that's pretty nice and doesn't have a giant M logo on it but just a small one on the front.
The next stop was over to CVS for some survival items and then off to our friend Anne's house to grab our tote full of other essentials that we don't take back and forth anymore that allows us to travel lighter than we used to.
Next we ran over to the Orleans to their box office to get some tickets for the Wranglers midnight hockey game next week. We got seats on the glass Section 101, row AA, seats 1 & 2. These tickets are normally $17.50 a piece but I used comp dollars from my B-Connected card to cover the cost of them.
Now it was back to Green Valley Ranch to play a bit and to go to the show we got tickets for earlier today. We started with some triple play video poker. I hit a quad early on but that was about all. I hovered for a bit then sank like a rock. Dee on the other hand hit multiple quads and got a few nice dealt winners. I dropped $100 and she won $75 so not too bad for about 45 minutes of play. Next we played a few penny slots. I hit a bonus round but did poorly on it. I had bigger hits just in regular spins. Dee hit a few bonus rounds and they kept her alive. She cashed out even and I won $10.
At about 7:30 we went over to the Ovation Lounge where the show would be tonight. The seats here were fine as this is a smaller venue and I don't think there's a bad seat in the house. I'd actually prefer these seats to the closer ones in most cases. I was totally unfamiliar with this artist so didn't know what to expect. I thought the show was decent although not exactly my type of music. It was all instrumental which is ok but most of it sounded the same to me. Dee enjoyed the show quite a bit so I was glad we went.
After the show we grabbed a quick late night meal at Panda Express. We got a 2 item combo with a side for $6. Yes, I actually paid for food to save time. We got some type of spicy beef and their signature orange chicken with fried rice. This was good and we headed out of Green Valley Ranch.
On the way back to M we stopped off at Wal-Mart to grab a few more items for the trip and then came back to M to take a much needed break from the long day we've had. Other than the hour or so of sleep I got on the plane I have been up since about 6:30am Eastern Time. It's now midnight here in Las Vegas or 3am in NY. Goodnight everybody!
Total win/loss for the day -$50
Total comps for the day $269
Day 2
Sunday December 12, 2010
When we got up today we were up at 7am but lounged around for a while before we headed downstairs. The first order was to get a quick "breakfast" at Baby Cakes. They have an assortment of baked good here. I chose a pear danish and Dee had the raspberry danish. These things are really tasty and did the trick. Just a word of warning for everyone. The pastry chef here at M LOVES to use lots of butter in his creations.
Now it was on to the casino. We didn't play at all here yesterday but the plan today is to play and take advantage of the multi points in our mailer as well as the free play. We found the bank of triple play progressives we like here and found a few seats. I was doing fine here holding even for the most part but Dee was getting killed. I popped a few quads and a straight flush but there was a slow drain between hits. Dee dropped a few bills here and went in search of some fun penny games to use her free play on. When she was off doing that I went into a tailspin so switched over to Double-Double hoping to hit a quad. As luck would have it I hit a bonus quad (no kicker) and switched back to jacks. I cashed out the session even and met back up with Dee to go use my free play in a variety of penny slots. I eventually lost all of the $35 free play they had given me but got quite a bit of play out of it while earning 7X points too.
The next thing we wanted to do was a little game we call "ticket boy". To fill you in on what ticket boy actually is may be absurd but I find it funny. The story comes from Atlantic City where I play on a bank of triple play machines with bonus poker. Regularly when I'm there I see this guy that machine hops this bank of machines feeding only $20 bills in. he plays until the $20 bill is gone or until he's up 1 bet ($3.75) or more. He does this ALL day when I see him from early morning into the evenings. After seeing him on multiple trips doing this I dubbed him "ticket boy". It's no great way to come out ahead but it gives us something to root for and slows down the play a bit. I started off getting a bunch of $20 bills from the bill breaker machine and we headed back to the triple play machines. I handed Dee some money and she got started and I put money in my machine but didn't start playing right away as I was writing down our slot card points. Dee was already getting beat up before I even started playing. When I was done writing all of our information down I hit the deal button and what did I see? Well it was a dealt royal flush for ME! This was my first hand of the session and my initial reaction was "Holy Shit, I got a dealt royal!" There's no bonus on this bank for the dealt royal so you just get the total of all 3 royals which was $3347.75. This was a great way to start out the trip not having to crawl our way out of a hole. While I was waiting for my hand pay and tax form Dee was continuing to get beat up and started machine hopping just like the original ticket boy. She moved to the end of the bank and after I was paid I cashed out of my royal machine and moved next to her. I wasn't hitting much of anything else and Dee continued to get killed. She was on her last hand of a $20 bill and what do you know, she scored a royal on the top line just minutes after my dealt royal. It was so close to when I hit mine that her pay out was $1000.76 and the machine paid her $1001. For those of you keeping score at home that's 4 royals in about a 10 minute time frame. We continued to play for a bit longer but the VP gods weren't with us other than the royals. Between us we were losing more $20 bills than we were cashing out winners and we only hit one quad between us.
We'd been playing for quite a while and needed a break. It was also getting into the afternoon so we wanted to grab lunch. First thing we did was stop off at the slot club booth to cash in coupons for some gifts. I got a sweatshirt and Dee got a bottle of Cuervo then it was up to the room to drop off our goodies and then back down to the buffet.
They are running a promo this month where if you earn x points you get a free buffet and you get to keep the points. This is probably one of the best deals in town right now for "free" eats. When we got there it was about 2pm and there was no wait at all to get in. Today is the special weekend seafood buffet but they have plenty of other items as well. This is a $60 comp for 2 people and it can't be beat.
After lunch we hit the casino and tried our luck with a variety of penny slots. We played these for about 2 hours straight and between us cashed out with a $4 win. Yes that's four dollars. I thought that was impressive and add to that we were getting 7X points too.
It was now 5pm and we needed a change of pace and we decided to go up to the Cannery. We hadn't been there in about a year. We hit the triple plays like we usually do and started pounding away. This was a tough session for both of us. At first I was getting killed and Dee was holding her own including nailing aces on two lines while I was feeding in bills. Then I caught some luck and started hitting quads and dealt winners and Dee was getting killed. Between us we dropped $300 on these and moved on to some penny games. I found a machine that was giving me lots of play but in the end I lost here too. Dee did much better than I did but still no luck in the end. We were done playing here and hit the slot club to cash in some points for gift cards. We got a total of $80 in Wal-Mart cards but dropped in the area of $400 doing so. To add insult to injury we also lost 2 match plays on the way out the door on the roulette wheel. Dee played odd and lost and I played black and lost. Had we switched the order we had played we would have won both. Oh well, so far we were 0 for 2 on match plays this trip.
We came back to M after getting beat up at the Cannery and hit the casino here. We decided to play some single line video poker to try and smooth out the bumps but still be able to play. Dee played bonus poker and I played some aborted deuces wild pay table just for fun. I held my own for almost the whole session staying +/- $20 the whole time. Dee was on fire on her machine and got dealt deuces (why didn't I get those?) and a few other quads. Other than that she was steadily growing the meter by hitting flushes and full houses. She cashed out her session with a $200 win which I thought was impressive for single line play. I dropped $50 by the end of my session. After this we took my ticket and a $20 and played some penny slots. I of course lost again but Dee won $30 from hitting 2 bonus rounds. All in all it was a decent evening we were done playing for the day.
Since we hadn't eaten in a while we hit the Vig Deli for a late night snack. Dee grabbed a turkey wrap and I got chicken fingers to go. Dee's sandwich was good again today but I wasn't happy with the chicken fingers. When I ordered they asked what kind of sauce I wanted and I chose BBQ. What I didn't know was they were going to pour it all over them. By the time we got the food up to the room they were soggy and mushy from being soaked with BBQ sauce. They tasted ok but I was only expecting BBQ sauce to dip them in.
For the rest of the evening we just chilled out up in the room and watched TV while we ate before calling it a day at around midnight.
Total win/loss for the day $3500
Total comps for the day $336
Day 3
Monday December 13, 2010
Today we started with breakfast downstairs at Hash House A Go-Go. Dee got a hash that was some mashed up pile of stuff with mushrooms and artichokes in a skillet with 2 eggs. I opted for there signature Sage Chicken and Waffles. This is 2 chicken breasts on top of 4 bacon waffles (they bake the bacon right into the waffles) with maple reduction and fried leeks. It was a tasty meal but the portions are just way too big. If this were just 1 chicken and 2 waffles it would be the perfect meal. The food and service were great and we left filled up and hit the video poker machines.
We went back to the same bank we played on yesterday and I called Yahtzee Mike. He called me during breakfast and we had missed each other on this trip. He was here a few days ago and won't be making it back for the holiday trip. We chatted for a while about his trip and how ours was going so far and played. Dee was getting clobbered again and I hit a set of aces while I was talking to Mike. This kept me going for a while and I also scored quad sixes multiple times as well as a straight flush. I hung up with Mike and kept playing. Dee continued to get killed and I eventually lost my $100 despite hitting aces and numerous quads. I popped in another bill and played for a little longer. I ended up cashing out my session down $100 and Dee got slammed for $300.
We decided to get out of here and on the way to the room stopped off at the slot club to get more gifts. Dee got a bottle of wine and I got a duffle bag with the M logo on it.
We dropped our stuff off into the room and then headed out. The plan was to go to Tuscany to play on one of their promos where you earn gift cards. The deal was for every 1000 points you got a $10 gift card up to 4 cards. Dee had never been here before so we signed her up for a card. She also got to pick a card from a box and got a random amount of free play loaded on her card and a funbook too. I needed to get a new card since I hadn't been here since they opened and I was no longer in the system. This also gave me the new member sign up bonus and a funbook. We found some triple/five play machines with 8/5 bonus on them so started pounding away. The free play we won was $5 for both of us so pretty much worthless when you come down to it. I was getting killed and hoping that these gift cards weren't going to cost me a grand. It was so bad I was going 5 or 6 hands without winning any coins. I dropped a bill here in near record time before things smoothed out. On the next bill things got much better. I scored a set of aces right away to get back to even and hovered for a while. I then hit quad 4's, another set of aces, fives, and got dealt quad sixes along with numerous full houses and flushes. One hand that almost had me crap myself was when I saw the first 4 cards to a royal appear on my screen. That would have been some shit to have gotten another dealt royal but it wasn't the case. It was a dealt flush though so I dumped the odd card and ended up with a total of 30 coins. Dee continued to play on her original bill and the highlight was getting down to around $10 and growing the meter all of the way back up to $100. Dee had passed the 2 gift card mark and I was close to 3. Looking at our meters we were up a fair amount so instead of maxing out the promo we decided to cash out when we were at a total of 5 cards between us and to take a little profit too. Dee lost about $75 and I won about $200 for a net of about $125. We hit the slot club and collected 5 Wal-Mart cards and walked away with $125 in winnings. This is the way promos are supposed to work.
On the way out the door we both played a $5 match play on roulette. Dee bet on odd and scored when 5 came up and I bet on black and scored when the ball popped out of the red 9 and landed in the black 26. We collected our $20 and headed to the gift shop to use the coupon for a free gift at the gift shop that turned out to be a deck of used playing cards.
We needed a light snack now to hold us until dinner so hit Jack in the Box for some tacos and burgers off the value menu and headed back up here to M for a break. While we were napping the fire alarm went off and I was getting flashbacks of the Aquarius last summer. They quickly announced it was a false alarm and I fell asleep again. After about a 90 minute siesta we were up and ready to go again. That's where we are in this report right now and the plan is to go to the buffet again for dinner. Stand by to hear about that just below here!
There were no lines at the buffet so we just did the point promo again and were seated quickly. As always everything was good here and the service was good too.
When we were done with dinner we played a variety of penny slots. We played for quite a while but then suddenly took an ass kicking. I know these things are a losing deal but it was like someone flipped a switch and the typical slow drain became a fast pour.
Next up we hit the single line video poker games. Dee played bonus and I played double-double. I was getting killed but then scored a set of deuces for $100 to bring me back just above even. Dee kept plugging away going up and down. She eventually gave up at the even point and came upstairs to bed. I stayed down longer and kept playing but didn't hit anymore quads and the slow drain of double-double bonus took its toll. I ended up dropping 2 bills by the time it was all over.
It was still early so I took a shot at some double deck blackjack. Things started out horrible here with the dealer almost wiping me out before the shuffle. I can't recall seeing so many dealer blackjacks in one round. The next round was almost as bad and then she went to break. Things got a little better but I couldn't get any double down hands and when I did I was losing them. Finally there was a turn around and the dealer was breaking every hand. Normally I would have started pressing my bets but being behind by so much I didn't dare. One of the highlights of the session was splitting 8's into 4 hands, and doubling down on one of them. In total I busted just one hand and won the other 3. That seemed to turn things around for me. Eventually I was up a bit after being down over $400 and I cashed out happily up $28.50 after tipping the dealer a few bucks.
It was now about midnight so I came up here and went to bed!
Total win/loss for the day -$600
Total comps for the day $239
Day 4
Tuesday December 14, 2010
We started off today by stopping at the slot club for more gifts. Dee took the mystery gift that was a travel coffee cup. I used my wine coupon but since they only had rose left offered me the chance to have a bottle of Cuervo instead. I took that and now we've got 3 of them. Someone is going to get them as a nice gift!
For breakfast we were going over to the Silverton for breakfast at the Sundance Grill. They recently made a change to their slot club and I had some old table game comps that were going to expire in spring so we wanted to use them up. I ordered a sausage & cheddar omelet and Dee had mushrooms, Swiss, chives and bacon. The food came out quickly but my omelet didn't look right when the server sat it down. It actually looked identical to Dee's so I sent it back because this boy doesn't eat fungus. While we ate we played 5 games of Keno picking 6 numbers. We did so well I don't think we had 3 numbers in all 5 games combined.
On the way out the door I popped a $5 bill into a penny slot and cashed out at $6 and change just for fun and to say we won. Our next stop was back down to Tuscany to play on their gift card promo again. We settled in at the triple/five play machines once again and we were off to the races. We were both hovering even for the first part of the session and then things got bad. I was feeding in bill after bill and Dee ended up needing another bill too. Eventually we were in for $500 before things settled down. I scored a few quads one after another to get some more ammo but Dee dropped her second bill just short of a second card. I had already made enough points for a second card and gave her my tickets so she could finish up. She didn't hit anything special but hit her goal and made $2 as well. I took the ticket back as I was close to a third card and a few hands in got dealt a straight flush. This really saved us for the session and we only ended up losing about $175 but hey, we scored $50 in Wal-Mart gift cards.
When we were finished at Tuscany we made a quick stop at Walgreen’s for a few items and then Dee wanted to go to Ethel M's to see the Christmas display in their cactus gardens. We also looked in at the chocolate factory and watched them make what looked like peanut brittle and then headed back to M.
On the way back to M we stopped off at Barley's to show Dee what it was and told her of the days they used to offer good VP and had a free pizza coupon in the Las Vegas Advisor Pocketbook of Values. After they got rid of that coupon and the decent VP they lost me as a player. I hadn't been there in years but the place hadn't changed at all.
When we got back to M we played some single line machines. We both started with bonus poker but then I realized the ACE$ Bonus had a full pay table on it so we switched over to that. I had lost $50 there so switched to double-double hoping for a quad to get back to even. I never hit a quad and ended up losing yet again. Dee had switched to regular bonus and scored quad 3's, kings, and aces but the VP gods went to bed after that and she ended the session even.
Since last night was a late night and this morning was an early start we took a break and napped for an hour or so before getting ready for dinner. Tonight we were hitting the buffet one last time to use the coupons from the mailers. These were also VIP line passes which came in handy today because the lines to get in were long. We were seated almost immediately and I had a huge grin on my face when we walked past everyone that had been standing there. Once again the foods were all fresh and good and our server did a great job clearing the dirty dishes and keeping the drinks full.
When we rolled out of the buffet we hit the triple play machines again. We decided to slow things down we'd do a round of "ticket boy" play again. The session was rocky with most rounds being losers. We did manage to score a few quads including me hitting a set of aces to keep us going. After about 4 hours we had dropped about another $400. It seems after those 4 royals the other day we can't seem to hit anything.
We took what was left of video poker money and played a variety of penny slots. We got some decent play out of what was left and after another hour or so it was after midnight and we decided to go to the room. We packed up some of our things because we would be moving tomorrow and didn't want to mess with it then. That's where we are in the report right now. It's now just after 1am and I'm going to bed. Dee's already sound asleep!
Total win/loss for the day -$800
Total comps for the day $235
Day 5
Wednesday December 15, 2010
Today we finished packing up our things for today's move. Checking out was easy and we were off to the valet.
We made our first stop of the day at Panera Bread to check e-mails and get caught up with the folks back home. We also wanted to get a light breakfast here but at 10:30am breakfast is already over. WTF is up with that? Instead we both got the 1/2 sandwich and soup special. Once we were done with that we were on our way to the Tuscany again. Today was the last day of the gift card promo for the week and we wanted to take another shot at that. When we got there we hit the triple/five plays again. The results were great for Dee after she hit aces twice, quad 4's about 5 hands apart and numerous big dealt winners. I on the other and was getting killed and didn't get a dealt winner better than trips before I was down $150. Then I got dealt quad 6's but the fast drain continued. I had a semi come back towards the end but not enough to overcome the earlier losses. When it was all over Dee was up $400 and we walked out of there up $85 and we ended up with 5 Wal-Mart gift cards.
Today's move was to the Flamingo. I haven't stayed here in years and Dee has never stayed here. We booked this with no offer going through the Harrah's reservation system and booked 4 nights in a GO Luxury with View. When we arrived we used the Diamond check in. There was only a slight line at the main check in so it wasn't as fun as it could have been. Check in was quick and were assigned room 28052 on the top floor with a view of Bally's, Paris, Cosmopolitan, and the Bellagio. It's got a great view of the fountain show over there too. The room has a king bed with these cool desks on both sides of the bed as nightstands. There is a small couch near the windows for relaxing and viewing the strip and a neat entertainment center. It has a 42" TV and a stereo with surround sound. The room is done up in gaudy pinks, browns and whites. The curtains are also electric. The bathroom is a decent size with a frosted glass window and frosted glass sliding door. These don't allow for very much privacy so if you're with someone you're trying to impress and have to drop a deuce, they'll hear every move you make unless you blast the TV. The bathroom has a tub, glass shower and single sink vanity with a TV in the mirror. The light switch in the hallway operates 2 small lights in the bathroom as well that illuminates the room in pink.
Once we were settled into the room we went to the diamond lounge here at Flamingo. Neither of us had ever been here before so it was new for both of us. I'd say of all of the diamond lounges here in town that this one is the lamest. They did have a nice selection of veggies and dips and for hot food they had chicken wings and some sesame balls stuffed with black beans. They were odd but not too bad.
When we were done eating we hit the casino and some short pay video poker. We don't typically play as much here as at other properties because of the poor pay tables. We started off with 7/5 bonus triple play. These things gobbled up money like crazy at first. I'd like to say that it was the pay tables causing the bleed but when you don't hit any full houses, you can't blame the pay tables. I managed to pull out a quad and still dropped $100 in 15 minutes. Dee did the same. I switched over to double-double and dropped another $100 but Dee held steady. I tried one more bill and scored quad 4's (no kicker) and switched back to bonus. I played a bit longer hitting a few other quads and Dee got killed. This was a tough session and in under an hour she dropped $200 and I dropped $80 brining us down $200 for the day so far. At this point I really can't believe the losing streak we've been on since we hit the 4 royals earlier in the trip. I am also thankful that we did it those though because if we hadn't we'd be down over 2 grand 5 days in.
After the ass pounding we took at video poker we decided it would be a good idea to go to the room and take a break and take advantage of the nice views we had. We watched way too many fountain shows and waited around to see if there was any fanfare over at the Cosmopolitan which was scheduled to open at 8pm but there wasn't.
Dee wasn't feeling well so called it a night early. I went out by myself to play for a while. I walked over to Bill's to play some penny games for fun but didn't do well on them. It seems that Harrah's has finally put the cabash on decent payouts here too. I also noticed as I was walking through the casino that ALL of the blackjack games pay 6-5 from the single decks, double decks and shoe games. A place that was once a good place for the low roller to get some decent gaming action is now a complete wasteland from top to bottom.
I came back over to the Flamingo to play a little blackjack. I found a double deck game with 3-2 pay outs. The dealer here was dealing himself blackjack after blackjack. It seemed that every time he had an ace up he flipped over a blackjack. I was able to ride it out for a while and got back to even but then one deck did me in. I lost $200 here and moved back to the crappy VP machines. Things were quite a bit better and I was switching from bonus triple, five and ten play to double - double triple, five and ten play. I wasn't getting many dealt winners but I hit a few straight flushes and quads including 2 sets of fours and a set of aces all without kickers. I cashed out the session up $300 and gave up for the night.
It was after midnight now and I was getting a bit hungry so thought I'd go over to the Burger Joint for the $3 burger and fried special but they were closed. The cafe was also closed so I decided not to eat a big meal and just came back to the room and had a cookie before bed.
Total win/loss for the day -$350
Total comps for the day $130
Day 6
Thursday December 16, 2010
We got up around 8am today and started off with breakfast at the Tropical Breeze Cafe here at the Flamingo. Dee had the Gamblers Special which consisted of bacon, sausage, eggs, home fries, French toast casserole and toast. I had the Belgian Waffle with Blueberries and whipped cream. The food was tasty and filling but pricey with the total bill coming to $32. I'm sorry but $32 and breakfast should never be uttered in the same sentence. We played a few games of Keno while we ate too but didn't do well here either.
After breakfast we went to Total Rewards Center to get a voucher for Dee's 2 free show tickets for being diamond. For the month of December they added George Wallace to the list so we jumped on those. The tickets are for a 10pm show so we've got all day to keep active before the show.
Once we got our tickets we were off to the casino to play some video poker. Dee was holding out well and getting dealt winners and quads. I on the other hand couldn't buy a dealt winner. I dropped a bill in no time and put in another and switched to double-double. I got dealt trip 4's and connected a 4th on the top line for $100 and switched back to bonus where I proceeded to lose everything again with only 1 dealt straight to keep alive and nothing better than 2 pair dealt other that that. I dropped $200 here and gave up while Dee continued to play and cashed out with a $50 win leaving us down $150 for the session.
I didn't sleep well last night so we hit the room to take a break. I napped for a bit and to reenergize and start the afternoon, hopefully with more luck.
We slept about an hour and then were back to the casino for more video poker action. I lost $100 in about 8 minutes with nothing more than a few pairs of jacks along the way. I popped in another bill and switched to double-double and hit a set of deuces for $100 and moved back to bonus and then hit a set of aces on bonus holding only 1 ace. I got decent play and carried us for a while. I won $200 this session and Dee lost $100. We netted a $100 win between us though so it was a good session overall.
We were getting hungry so decided on going to the Harrah's diamond lounge for a mini meal. We got there a little too early for the diamond lounge so we played a variety of penny slots. Oddly we got decent play for a strip casino and I cashed out even on one machine and Dee doubled up to $40 on her game. We moved to another bank and decided to just split her profits a bit but lost those. In total we played for about 45 minutes and lost $3 before the diamond lounge opened.
Today's food offerings were veggies and dips, nuts, tortilla chips, Terra mixed veggie chips, garlic crustan, teriyaki chicken wings, beef skewers that were about the size of a nickel and a variety of little desserts. We chilled out in here for a while and watched hockey on one of the big TV's before heading back to the Flamingo for a little more video poker.
We hit the triple plays again and I did well here switching back and forth from double-double to bonus. I hit quad aces on the bottom line of double-double holding only 1 ace for $200 and carried us in this session. I was getting lots of dealt winners and pulling quads regularly. It was almost as someone snapped their fingers and said "Let him play". Dee on the other hand got her butt kicked in the same way I had been getting kicked earlier today. For the session she dropped $200 and I won $100.
We still had a few hours before the George Wallace show so we came up here to take a nap so we wouldn't be tired for the show. I didn't realize it but we must have both been very tired as we slept like 2.5 hours but felt great afterwards.
We got to the showroom as the previous show (Boyz II Men) was letting out so there was a line starting to form for George Wallace. This show has reserved seats though so it really doesn't matter where you are in line unlike many of the other shows that take place at the Flamingo showroom. Our seats were in section B Front, Table 22 Seats 1 & 2. The tables and seats in this showroom are tight but luckily this show was no where near full so we had the table to ourselves. George is a funny guy and talks about everything. I think most of his shows are different from one another because he does some crowd work but doesn't embarrass people. He also uses some dirty words but is not dirty. I think his favorite words are shit and ass. He routinely talks about people needing their asses kicked for being stupid. I liked the show and he actually ran 2 hours tonight.
After the show we were ready to eat again but again the cafe and burger joint were closed so we came up here and ordered room service. Dee had a turkey club with French fries and I had chicken fingers and French fries. The foods were actually pretty good and it was delivered quickly. One thing I've noticed is that room service menus seem to be getting smaller and smaller. For late night dining there were only about 8 things on the menu. We ate and watched TV for a while and I finally went to sleep around 2:30am.
Total win/loss for the day -$150
Total comps for the day $277
Day 7
Friday December 17, 2010
We slept in today and chilled in the room until about noon before heading out today. First stop was the 99c store and then to Walgreen’s for more supplies before landing at Sam's Town. The plan here was to play a bit and then later in the evening we were supposed meet with some friends for dinner at the buffet.
We started off with lunch at the Sportsbook snack bar. We both had the vegetable soup and split a roast beef sandwich. For dessert we split a fruit cup. The total bill with some drinks was a bit pricey for what we had but the food is decent and it beat sitting in stupid Friday's for 90 minutes.
For video poker we started off with the triple play progressives by the front door. The dealt royal was at over $8,000 and all of the single royals were at $1200 with the bottom over $1500. I hit aces right of the bat but they didn't last. Before long I was back on my original buy in. Dee was getting beaten up pretty good and needed to reload. Things got better for her after that as she hit 2 straight flushes, 2 sets of aces and got dealt quad 10's. I hit a few quads to keep going but nothing major. Even with all of the nice quads the dealt winners were far and few and we still ended up down about $100 for the session.
Next up we played a variety of penny slots. I was doing ok here hitting some nice bonus rounds. For the most part we hovered even with my larger bonus rounds and Dee getting beat on a little. We played these things for about an hour and dropped just $10 between us.
In the atrium they have a water and laser show at Mystic Falls and Dee had never seen it before. For the holidays they had a special version of the show with Christmas music. Before the show we hung out in the park and snapped some pictures and shot some video and then watched the show from one of the balconies.
It was still a little early to meet up with our friends so we went upstairs to play the 9/6 jacks progressives. We sat down side by side and then realized the machine next to me was double bonus. I looked over to the machine next to Dee and saw it was not only 9/6 jacks but also had $46 on the meter. I told Dee to move over, quick! We played here for a while and between us cashed out with a $5 loss.
We met up with Stacy, Steve and Amanda and discussed that the buffet closed at 9pm and we might be rushed. We decided between us that we would go to Billy Bob's Steakhouse instead. As we were being seated Anne and Steve arrived. They were offering a 4 course meal deal for $80 per couple that consisted of all non-alcoholic drinks, an appetizer, soup or salad, entree and dessert. We opted for this and ordered the coconut chicken, house salad and filet mignon. For dessert I had the chocolate mousse cake and Dee got her carrot cake. The total bill for all 7 of us was $307. I collected the cash from everyone and used points to pay the tab. This equated to converting some comp dollars into cash at a better rate than at the slot club. We left the tip out of the cash and the difference was added to the bankroll as if it were cash back. This would certainly help a little bit by the end of the night.
After dinner Stacy, Steve and Amanda left and me, Dee, Anne & Steve played video poker. Dee held her own turning $50 into over $100 and cashing out with only $30 but it wasn't a bad session for her hitting a few quads and playing for over an hour. I hit a quad early on but after that got low paired to death and couldn’t connect on anything. I switched to double-double and hit a straight flush and then came back to bonus. I ended up losing $100 without hitting anything of value and tried another $100 on double-double. The first $50 of this bill got sucked away with just 1 hand better than 2 pair. In the end I dropped a total of $200 here and Dee only $20 so it wasn't a very good session. Anne on the other hand hit numerous quads and needed to be beaten for winning but we let her slide.
It was after midnight now and we'd been at Sam's Town for about 12 hours and it was time to drive back to the Flamingo, Traffic was light and the ride didn't take long at all. We got back to the room and the bed by about 1:30am
Total win/loss for the day -$150
Total comps for the day $330
Day 8
Saturday December 18, 2010
Well it's been a week since we got here. I have to say that the week didn't fly by and we're both happy about that. We've played a lot, saw some shows, ate good food and visited with friends. Even though we've been on a 5 day losing streak we're still in positive territory although we're getting dangerously close to that changing unless things turn around.
We slept in this morning until after 10am getting caught up on some much needed sleep after yesterday's long day. We decided on room service for breakfast so we could get ready for our day while the food was being prepared and delivered. I ordered the corned beef hash and eggs and Dee got a fungus, spinach and sausage omelet. The food arrived pretty quickly for a Saturday morning and everything was tasty.
Once we were done eating we hit the casino for some video poker action. We started off with the triple plays and Dee quickly got her butt kicked. She machine hopped a bit and even switched to double-double a few times and not hitting anything. I was up and down and in for $200 and I was switching between triple play bonus and double-double and even a little double-double ten play. I got lucky and scored a few quads on double-double ten play including 1 hand with 2 sets of 5's and quad 4's twice within a few hands. I just can't seem to hit those bonus quads with kickers though I'm getting kickers constantly on regular bonus. We played for a little over an hour and finished the session down less than $100 as the losing continues. Thankfully all of my quads saved the morning from being a disaster.
When we were done playing we came back to the room for a break and to pack up some of our things. We're moving tomorrow and since we don't know if we're going to be out late tonight wanted to get a head start on getting ready. A quick nap was in order after we packed up and then we were out of here.
Later on we went to South Point to meet up with our friends Jimbo and Katy for dinner, a visit and some gaming fun. We got there early so we could play for a while and rack up some points. They are running a special this month that if you pay for anything with your points you get 50% off. Also since it's my birthday month just for showing up and playing I get 2500 points added to my card which would be like 5000 today.
We started off playing single line 8/5 bonus. Dee hit a quad right off the start followed by another shortly after. I wasn't hitting much of anything but doing ok. I got dealt 4 to a royal and hoped to hit this one to get the bankroll healthy again. I hit the draw button and scored the 10 to fill in the royal! I cashed out the ticket and started over with another $100. I couldn't seem to hit any quads but exactly 30 minutes later held 3 to a royal and fill it in again for my second royal of the day and my 5th of the trip. Combined with Dee's we're now at 6, a new record for us. Dee finished her session up $50 and I finished mine up $1950 for a nice $2000 profit.
Jimbo & Katy arrived right after and Katy wanted to beat my ass because she hasn't had a royal in along time. We hung out in the casino for a bit then they showed us their room at South Point where we chatted for a while before dinner.
We chose the Coronado Cafe and after a short wait in line (sure wished my diamond card worked here) we were in. I had the hot open turkey and Dee got the Monterey Chicken which is a chicken breast with tomato and avocado. My hot turkey was excellent. Dee said hers was good even though it looked like nothing more than a chicken cutlet with a tomato and slice of avocado thrown on top of it. We used points to pay and they only took $15 to cover the cost because of the promo.
After dinner Dee and Katy played triple play video poker and me and Jimbo went in search of a blackjack table. You sure know you're not on the Strip anymore when you find a $5 double deck game that pays 3-2 on naturals on Saturday Night. We had decent luck here but the dealer would constantly make a hand at exactly the wrong times. The session wasn't great for winning money but we got to play for about 3 hours. Jimbo made a few bucks and I cashed out with a $7.50 and gave half of that to the dealer!
We met back up with Dee and Katy and found they'd been playing VP the whole time. Dee turned her $150 ticket from earlier into $200 for another $50 win. We moved on to play some penny slots for fun afterwards. Dee turned $40 into $80 in about 5 minutes on her game of choice without even hitting a bonus round. I promptly lost that $40 in my game of choice which was one of the Monopoly games.
So after all of the gaming we did today and visiting it was going on towards midnight so we said our goodbyes and headed back here to the Flamingo. Before we went to the room we stopped by the front desk which was booming and had a really long line. However the diamond line (the diamond room was closed) was empty and we were right in. We just wanted to apply rewards credits to the room service charges so that we didn't have to do it tomorrow when the check out line is sure to be long.
I had a snack while Dee packed up the last of the stuff and typed up this report. It's now 12:48 am and I'm going to bed. Dee's already asleep I think!
Total win/loss for the day $1950
Total comps for the day $149
Day 9
Sunday December 19, 2010
When we got up this morning we packed up the rest of our things and headed out. We are heading to Laughlin for the next 5 nights for a slower pace before the holiday. The ride to Laughlin isn't as bad as it used to be now that they've widened the roads. It used to be painfully slow at times but now there's plenty of room for passing. The drive is pretty boring for the most part but sometime you get to see some strange stuff. Today the weather was a little evil looking but other than that there was nothing odd about the ride.
When we got to Laughlin the first order of business was a quick lunch. We hit the Arby's over in Bullhead City for some processed roast beef! Next up it was time to do laundry back in Laughlin. I dropped Dee off and then headed to the hotel to check in and unload the car while she took car of the clothes so we could save a little time.
I rolled into the Golden Nugget parking lot and went to check in. Neither of us have ever stayed here and the only reason we actually were this time was to try something new. Each time we come to Laughlin we'd play here a bit but oddly weren't getting any mail. Last visit I stopped by the slot club and found they had a digit wrong in my zip code. That got fixed and the offers started showing up again. This offer was for 2 nights, $25 in free play and 2X points on one day during the month.
Checking in here went quickly and I was on my way to room 449 in the West Tower in about 3 minutes. This room has a king bed with 2 nightstands and a view of some trees between two of the hotel towers. There is a small table with 2 arm chairs, a work desk and a dresser with an old 19 inch TV on it. The bathroom is a decent size with a long counter but only 1 sink, toilet and tub.
After I got the bags into the room I went back up to the Laundromat to pick up Dee and we came back to the Golden Nugget to get ourselves settled in. Since we were only here for 2 nights we didn't unpack much other than the necessities. We took a short break then headed out to go shopping over at the outlets to a store called Burke's. The place was pretty picked through and most of the good deals were gone. I was able to score a nice pair of Wranglers for $3.90. I also found a pair of shorts for 40¢ but they were vetoed by Dee!
We came back here to the Golden Nugget to get dinner at Harlow’s. We just missed the early bird blue plate specials so ordered off the main menu. Dee had a chicken wrap and I had the nachos. Dee liked her sandwich wrap and my nachos were way too big for one person to eat. While we were eating we played a few games of Keno and again got nothing out of it.
When we left the restaurant we played a few more rounds of Keno. We weren't hitting anything and then we hit the penny games. We got quite a bit of play out of our money tonight and I ended up cashing out with an $80 win and Dee lost $20. I had a few nice hits during my games but very few bonus rounds.
Next we tried some roulette. Dee likes the lower limits here so we bought in. Dee was hitting quite a few numbers but I wasn't hitting very many. I managed to hit a few but the ball kept dropping in the number next to the ones I bet on and was quite annoying. I was also betting more than Dee and dropped $200 here. Dee broke even so between my slot win and this the day wasn't too bad at this point.
Next up we hit a few more slots and were getting beaten up pretty bad and Dee decided to take her last $8 and put it in an original 25c Wheel of Fortune machine. Dee hit 2 bonus spins on the big wheel. On her first one she hit 40 coins and on her second spin hit for 1000 coins. I played the machine next to her and hit two spins almost back to back. One for 60 coins and one for 250 coins and we quit for a dessert break up nicely for the session.
For dessert we went back to Harlow’s and both had a brownie sundae. It was pretty big but nothing that couldn't be finished. It was 3 triangle brownies and a large scoop of vanilla ice cream with whipped cream and chocolate sauce.
Total win/loss for the day $100
Total comps for the day $54
Day 10
Monday December 20, 2010
When I woke up this morning Dee was gone and left a note that she'd gone for a walk. I got up and got ready to start the day and she came back shortly after. We hit Harlow's for breakfast. We both got the deuces breakfast that comes with 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausage patties and 2 pancakes. The service was a bit slow but the food was good.
When we were done eating we came up to the room took a short break and then headed out for some shopping over in Bullhead City to Beall's Outlet. The same thing was the case here as was at Burke's yesterday and the real bargains were already picked through. A few more stops to Big Lots and CVS for a few survival items got us loaded back up and came back here to the Golden Nugget to start playing. We played a variety of penny slots with no luck at all. It seemed as if it would have been better to light the money with a match. It would have taken it longer to disappear.
I played a bit of blackjack after the slot killing and Dee took $10 over to Keno. Things were rough at first again today but then calmed down. I couldn't get ahead because on the doubles I got I didn't get a card better than 4. I went from being down as much as $200 to being up $60 and cashed out with a $5 win. Yes, that says FIVE dollar win.
I met back up with Dee and we went to dinner at Harlow’s. Dee got the spaghetti and meatballs special and I got the t-bone special. Dee's food came with a slice of garlic toast and she ordered a side salad to go with it. My meal came with mashed potatoes, broccoli and a dinner roll. Dee's food was good and min e was ok. The $5.95 t-bone isn't exactly the best cut of meat out there and was a bit tough.
When we were through eating it was back to the casino again. We toured the place playing penny games and a little bit of video poker on some old coin droppers. It was strange cashing out coins and dumping them in a coin bucket. We played much longer this session on the games than we did last with each of us hitting a good number of bonus rounds. We even returned to the Wheel of Fortune machines in the little room and Dee turned $10 into $100 so that was a nice win. We eventually got tired of losing and gave up with a last ditch effort at the roulette table.
Roulette was up next. I hit a bunch of numbers right off the start and Dee followed with a few more. After my initial hits I wasn't hitting nearly enough to stay alive. What was actually happening was the ball kept dropping right next to the numbers we were betting. We both lost our buy ins here but did get to play for over an hour.
At about midnight we were hungry again so hit the deli back by the sport book. We both had the 1/2 sandwich (roast beef) and soup (vegetable). The sandwich was actually very good and the vegetable soup was alphabet mixed into regular vegetable. I wanted to start picking out letters and leaving dirty words on the table but that was going to be too much work and probably would have been vetoed by Dee, even though it sure would have been funny shit!
Just after midnight we came back to the room and watched TV for a bit before going to bed.
Total win/loss for the day -$650
Total comps for the day $45
Day 11
Tuesday December 21, 2010
Today we slept in to get caught up on sleep. When we finally got up we packed up a few of our things and got ready to leave. We don't usually move while we're here in Laughlin but today we are moving to Harrah's.
Before we left I stopped by the host office at the Golden Nugget to see about getting a few of the room charges taken care of. The lady I spoke to they weren't allowed to comp any food above the comp dollars earned. They were only allowed to comp rooms based on play. I wasn't happy about this because their comp rate is low to begin with. Then my thought process was, what the eff do I need a host for when my rooms are comped by a mailer and my comp account is the only way food can be comped? I left the office aggravated knowing I wouldn't be back there except to burn my free play on future visits. In all I had to pay for 3 meals that I really hadn't expected to pay for but that was my own fault for not knowing how their club worked.
We got to Harrah's at about 12:30. We booked this room on the Harrah's website with no offers through the reservation system and got 3 nights comped. When we arrived we checked in at the diamond check in and were given room 2-04-52 in the central tower. This room has a river view and a king bed and 2 nightstands. It also has a sitting table with 2 armchairs, wall unit with built in closet, dresser and TV. The bathroom is nice with a long single sink vanity, tab/shower and toilet.
For lunch we went to the Beach Cafe. Dee got the fish and chips and I got a grilled cheese. For dessert we split an apple cobbler with vanilla ice cream. The food and service were great in here today and the food came out quickly.
Next we grabbed our things from the car and got settled into the room and took a short nap for under an hour and then hit the casino. We started with the 50-play video poker. I know they shorted the pay tables on these but I thought it would be a good way to churn some coin through the machines. This didn't work out well as we got killed on these things to the tune of $300 each. I'd like to blame the reduced pay tables but between the 2 of us the best we got dealt was three 3 of a kinds the whole session and without dealt winners it’s tough to do well on these.
Next we wandered around and played a variety of penny slot again. We got to play for a while but I can see a huge difference in the slot here compared to the Golden Nugget. We didn't hit many big hits and only had a few bonus rounds.
We were hungry again so hit the diamond lounge for some food. They had sandwich meats, cheese and crackers, snack mix, veggie platter, soup and some small desserts. The foods were all good but it seemed as if no one was restocking things.
After our visit to the diamond lounge we went to play some dollar video poker in the high limit room. The pay tables suck in here too but like schmucks we played anyway. My thought about playing dollars was that Dee seems to be able to hover around even when she plays single line games and rarely gets killed. Today that was true as well. She hit a quad right away and kept playing on that money for quite a while. She didn't hit any more quads but did get to play for a while and she cashed out even. I on the other hand was the bankroll killer this session. I didn't hit any quads and dropped $200. Between us we got a little over 4k in action. Again I'd like to blame the pay table on losing but since I didn't hit any full houses, it was meaningless.
We went back to the main casino for a bit and played a few more penny games with not much luck. I think after this session I figured we shouldn't play them here anymore and went back to the high limits room for some more video poker. Dee hit a bunch of quads and got the meter up while I sat at the machine next to her and just bled more money. I still hadn't hit a quad and was going 10+ hands in a row without winning anything. We ran another 4k through the machines this session between us and I lost $400 and Dee won $100.
It was getting late but I still had a small ticket left from the slots earlier so we ran that through for a while before losing that too and calling it a night and heading to bed after today's huge ass kicking.
Total win/loss for the day -$1350
Total comps for the day $80
Day 12
Wednesday December 22, 2010
We slept in until 9:30 today and the lounged around the room for a while. It was raining out again today and would be raining all day long. That eliminated pretty much any outdoor activity today so we figured we'd chill.
Once we finally got motivated we went to the Beach Cafe for breakfast/lunch. I got the hash and eggs and Dee got Joe's Scramble. The food was excellent and the service was good again with the server that we had yesterday.
We went to the high limits room for some $1 video poker action this morning. I didn't play but Dee played some bonus poker. She didn't hit any quads but hit a bunch of smaller stuff to keep going. She actually ran over $1000 through the machine and cashed out the session even.
Today's plan was to go down to the Aquarius and check in for a 3 night stay. We weren't actually going to stay here but I had an offer for some free nights and $200 in free play. You don't need to be staying in the hotel to get your free play here but I also got a birthday card from my host offering me an additional $50 in free play. I felt kind of dumb just calling her and as
