Summer of Cal/Nev – Day 30
Day 30 of this report…already? I had an excellent night of sleep, no doubt because I was up last night WAY past my bedtime. After a couple of cups of coffee, writing the previous day’s report and some magazine articles, I finally headed down to the tournament area for my first day’s run at the slot tournament. I was about 15 minutes early, so I thought I’d run a twenty through the Mystic Unicorn machine, if for nothing else, to prove that last night’s fast bonuses were a fluke. I lost that money in record time, confirming that it was.
I have NEVER done well at these slot machine tournaments. There’s nothing to it, you sit for ten minutes pecking away at a machine along with 50 other players during this time slot (there’s a total of 600 players—a 1 in 5 shot at the money 25th through 100th gets $50). The guy says go and we’re off. I catch a couple of triple 7s, but the guy next to me is catching everything. After it was over, I had 7,750 points, the guy next to me 10,950, and the guy next to him 10,430. I am once again fantastically mediocre. Barring tomorrow’s round that would have to be spectacular; I won’t have to hang around for the prizes presentation.
I headed back to the room to send off my report, but the Internet was down in the hotel. So, I packed everything up and headed for the library. For any of you who have not come to Laughlin and are one day planning to visit, here’s a word of warning: it’s a nice place with very nice people, very laid back. But the roads in and out of it are deceptive. For example, the road from Casino Dr. to the City of Laughlin is four lanes across, there are no businesses on either side and it’s straight as an arrow for about five miles. The warning? The speed limit is only 45 MPH. It really should be 55 to 65, but it’s 45. Why? Because the entire city of Laughlin is a Speed Trap. The road from Harrahs to the city of Laughlin, though only two lanes, again has on a smattering of businesses and miles of nothingness, yet the speed limit is 35. The police know every tall sage brush, side of building, and every other nook and cranny hiding place. I have no doubt that this is a (if not the) main source of income for the city—traffic fines. Rare is the day that I drive on one of these roads and see some poor tourist caught in the trap. So, heed my warning and do what I do. As soon as I approach Laughlin, whatever the speed limit is, I put on my cruise control and am even prepared to break if I start even the slightest downgrade. Again, nice place, cheap rooms and cheap grub, but speed here at your own risk.
After posting the day’s trip report in the quiet, air-conditioned confines of the library, I read through the comments and my emails. I received an email I thought I’d share with you. As many of you know, I’m a retired high school English teacher, but I still work occasionally as a substitute (I’m too young to sit in a rocking chair on the porch and I hate gardening—as my landlord will gladly attest). Last May I was working a class and a teacher had left the assignment for the students to write an essay. One student, Justin, began the time-honored ritual of complaining “I hate essays, I never know what to write about.” I told him to quit whining and simply write about something you know or think you’re good at. He came back to me with, “Yea, it’s easy for you; you never have to write anymore.” I told him that I’d make him a bet, this summer I will write the equivalent of TWO essays every single day for almost 60 days. If I do, he’ll have to promise to never whine about having a writing assignment for the rest of his high school and college life. If I don’t and he wins, then when the next school year begins, I will buy him the new X-Box coming out. He gave me his email address and said it was a bet. I had put it on the contacts list I have for these reports.
Quite honestly I had completely forgotten all about it until I received an email from Justin today.
Here’s what it read: “Okay…you win.”
I left the library and headed for the AVI Hotel and Casino, which sits right on the corner of Arizona, Nevada, and California and continues to hold the distinction of being the only Indian owned casino in the state of Nevada. I was going to go there so I could catch the movie PACIFIC RIM. There’s nothing that says Sunday morning more than a loud, explosive Transformers-like movie in 3D. The temperature has returned to its more Laughlin-ish 111 degrees. I walked down the hall towards the theater complex when I saw that the line for this movie was almost all the way to the food court. There is no way I’m going to get a good seat for this, so I gave up the idea. I’ll see it later.
I thought I’d walk over to the poker room to see what was happening and there were no tables going, but the poker manager took my name and handed me one of those vibrator things you sometimes get in restaurants while waiting for a table. I put it in my breast pocket and went searching for a nickel Keno game. Contrary to what it might seem in my recent wins at this game, I lose A LOT more than I win. So, I put in a twenty and start playing. I toyed around with a lot of different combinations, but none of them resulted in any nice wins. After a bit, I felt a strong vibration on my breast (felt kind of good) and headed back to the poker room. The game here is 2-6 spread kill—not a game I’m comfortable with, but there were plenty of bonuses including cracked Aces and Kings along with the other usual ones. I bought in for a rack ($100) and today I can honestly say I was “schooled.” The guy on my left was hyper-aggressive and to add to that catching great cards. In one run, he had quad 6s, dealt Aces, dealt Kings, and other great cards. I was raised every single time I tried to see a flop. I couldn’t move to another seat because they were all filled. I had no choice but to wait for premium hands, and those simply never came. After a couple of hours, I had lost it all. I’m not a very good poker player, but I can hold my own in most games, but this day was not mine.
The Avi Hotel and Casino
I drove across the bridge to the Arizona side as I wanted to stop at the Target and get some new coffee filters and tooth paste along with filling up the gas tank. Gas in Bullhead is the cheapest anywhere around, so I always fill up here. I’ve talked about it before and some people have asked what the name of the station was and I keep forgetting, so this time I just took a picture of it.
It's called Fastsrip in Bullhead , AZ. There are two of them.
I drove back to Laughlin and played some triple play Ugly Deuces until my 2-cent 50 play machine opened up. It finally did when I was down to $40 from my hundred. I soon had that up to $170 after a string of dealt two-pairs and trips, but as always happens on this type of game, the cool streak takes hold and I was losing, losing, losing. I will have to admit this: after 560 dealt hands today; I finally was dealt three Aces, which resulted in only one quad. However, I still maintain that I had justification for my anguish and frustration when I had to wait (with yesterday and today) for a total of 1,850 dealt hands to get them. I eventually lost the hundred. I headed over to the café to pick up some dinner to take to my room and checked my days point total. I was 55 points away from 500. Dang it, I need to play 55 more points to qualify for the bonus tier points. So, this time (because I was just a little sick of playing), I went to the 5-cent 50-plays and decided to just play 25 games at a time. No lie, folks, the very first hand I was dealt three Aces. I’m telling you—irony is a bitch. I did hit one quad so I jumped it up to all 50 hands ($12.50 per deal) and made my 55 points in no time and cashing out a $60 profit.
I headed back to the room, to watch some TV (TV on Sunday nights in the summer is terrible) so went to sleep at about 8 PM.
More tomorrow
Day 30 of this report…already? I had an excellent night of sleep, no doubt because I was up last night WAY past my bedtime. After a couple of cups of coffee, writing the previous day’s report and some magazine articles, I finally headed down to the tournament area for my first day’s run at the slot tournament. I was about 15 minutes early, so I thought I’d run a twenty through the Mystic Unicorn machine, if for nothing else, to prove that last night’s fast bonuses were a fluke. I lost that money in record time, confirming that it was.
I have NEVER done well at these slot machine tournaments. There’s nothing to it, you sit for ten minutes pecking away at a machine along with 50 other players during this time slot (there’s a total of 600 players—a 1 in 5 shot at the money 25th through 100th gets $50). The guy says go and we’re off. I catch a couple of triple 7s, but the guy next to me is catching everything. After it was over, I had 7,750 points, the guy next to me 10,950, and the guy next to him 10,430. I am once again fantastically mediocre. Barring tomorrow’s round that would have to be spectacular; I won’t have to hang around for the prizes presentation.
I headed back to the room to send off my report, but the Internet was down in the hotel. So, I packed everything up and headed for the library. For any of you who have not come to Laughlin and are one day planning to visit, here’s a word of warning: it’s a nice place with very nice people, very laid back. But the roads in and out of it are deceptive. For example, the road from Casino Dr. to the City of Laughlin is four lanes across, there are no businesses on either side and it’s straight as an arrow for about five miles. The warning? The speed limit is only 45 MPH. It really should be 55 to 65, but it’s 45. Why? Because the entire city of Laughlin is a Speed Trap. The road from Harrahs to the city of Laughlin, though only two lanes, again has on a smattering of businesses and miles of nothingness, yet the speed limit is 35. The police know every tall sage brush, side of building, and every other nook and cranny hiding place. I have no doubt that this is a (if not the) main source of income for the city—traffic fines. Rare is the day that I drive on one of these roads and see some poor tourist caught in the trap. So, heed my warning and do what I do. As soon as I approach Laughlin, whatever the speed limit is, I put on my cruise control and am even prepared to break if I start even the slightest downgrade. Again, nice place, cheap rooms and cheap grub, but speed here at your own risk.
After posting the day’s trip report in the quiet, air-conditioned confines of the library, I read through the comments and my emails. I received an email I thought I’d share with you. As many of you know, I’m a retired high school English teacher, but I still work occasionally as a substitute (I’m too young to sit in a rocking chair on the porch and I hate gardening—as my landlord will gladly attest). Last May I was working a class and a teacher had left the assignment for the students to write an essay. One student, Justin, began the time-honored ritual of complaining “I hate essays, I never know what to write about.” I told him to quit whining and simply write about something you know or think you’re good at. He came back to me with, “Yea, it’s easy for you; you never have to write anymore.” I told him that I’d make him a bet, this summer I will write the equivalent of TWO essays every single day for almost 60 days. If I do, he’ll have to promise to never whine about having a writing assignment for the rest of his high school and college life. If I don’t and he wins, then when the next school year begins, I will buy him the new X-Box coming out. He gave me his email address and said it was a bet. I had put it on the contacts list I have for these reports.
Quite honestly I had completely forgotten all about it until I received an email from Justin today.
Here’s what it read: “Okay…you win.”
I left the library and headed for the AVI Hotel and Casino, which sits right on the corner of Arizona, Nevada, and California and continues to hold the distinction of being the only Indian owned casino in the state of Nevada. I was going to go there so I could catch the movie PACIFIC RIM. There’s nothing that says Sunday morning more than a loud, explosive Transformers-like movie in 3D. The temperature has returned to its more Laughlin-ish 111 degrees. I walked down the hall towards the theater complex when I saw that the line for this movie was almost all the way to the food court. There is no way I’m going to get a good seat for this, so I gave up the idea. I’ll see it later.
I thought I’d walk over to the poker room to see what was happening and there were no tables going, but the poker manager took my name and handed me one of those vibrator things you sometimes get in restaurants while waiting for a table. I put it in my breast pocket and went searching for a nickel Keno game. Contrary to what it might seem in my recent wins at this game, I lose A LOT more than I win. So, I put in a twenty and start playing. I toyed around with a lot of different combinations, but none of them resulted in any nice wins. After a bit, I felt a strong vibration on my breast (felt kind of good) and headed back to the poker room. The game here is 2-6 spread kill—not a game I’m comfortable with, but there were plenty of bonuses including cracked Aces and Kings along with the other usual ones. I bought in for a rack ($100) and today I can honestly say I was “schooled.” The guy on my left was hyper-aggressive and to add to that catching great cards. In one run, he had quad 6s, dealt Aces, dealt Kings, and other great cards. I was raised every single time I tried to see a flop. I couldn’t move to another seat because they were all filled. I had no choice but to wait for premium hands, and those simply never came. After a couple of hours, I had lost it all. I’m not a very good poker player, but I can hold my own in most games, but this day was not mine.
The Avi Hotel and Casino
I drove across the bridge to the Arizona side as I wanted to stop at the Target and get some new coffee filters and tooth paste along with filling up the gas tank. Gas in Bullhead is the cheapest anywhere around, so I always fill up here. I’ve talked about it before and some people have asked what the name of the station was and I keep forgetting, so this time I just took a picture of it.
It's called Fastsrip in Bullhead , AZ. There are two of them.
I drove back to Laughlin and played some triple play Ugly Deuces until my 2-cent 50 play machine opened up. It finally did when I was down to $40 from my hundred. I soon had that up to $170 after a string of dealt two-pairs and trips, but as always happens on this type of game, the cool streak takes hold and I was losing, losing, losing. I will have to admit this: after 560 dealt hands today; I finally was dealt three Aces, which resulted in only one quad. However, I still maintain that I had justification for my anguish and frustration when I had to wait (with yesterday and today) for a total of 1,850 dealt hands to get them. I eventually lost the hundred. I headed over to the café to pick up some dinner to take to my room and checked my days point total. I was 55 points away from 500. Dang it, I need to play 55 more points to qualify for the bonus tier points. So, this time (because I was just a little sick of playing), I went to the 5-cent 50-plays and decided to just play 25 games at a time. No lie, folks, the very first hand I was dealt three Aces. I’m telling you—irony is a bitch. I did hit one quad so I jumped it up to all 50 hands ($12.50 per deal) and made my 55 points in no time and cashing out a $60 profit.
I headed back to the room, to watch some TV (TV on Sunday nights in the summer is terrible) so went to sleep at about 8 PM.
More tomorrow
