Summer of Tournaments – Day 9
This morning I was checking in with the Las Vegas Advisor (LVA) on what, if anything, was going on in Vegas that I might go visit, and though there wasn’t anything listed that I hadn’t already done or didn’t want to do, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Question of the Day had actually accepted one of my questions. I’d been submitting questions for years and never had one accepted, but on June 9th they finally answered my question about whether or not the Lake Las Vegas still shows their “Movie on the Lake” during the summer. If you care, here’s the link (I’m not sure if you need to be a member or need to see it):
LVA Question of the Day
I slept in late (unusual for me) and after finishing yesterday’s report, it was time to get down to the daily $23 poker tournament. It’s Saturday so there are many more people than usual with six tables with ten players each filled with some alternates waiting to get in. I had another so-so tournament lasting once again to the fourth session. I was low on chips so I went all in with pocket tens and was called by one guy who was holding 10/Q. All I had to do was fade a queen and sure enough, a queen came on the river (good for TV, not good for me). I’ll keep trying. Even without a cash, this tournament is so inexpensive, it’s a good time to get more experience and practice, plus it helps fill in my tournaments theme for these reports.
As I mentioned yesterday, Sam’s and some other Boyd properties (none in downtown) are offering an excellent June promotion with multiple points on Friday and Saturdays. I took a picture of the promotion:
This is an excellent promotion considering both Sam’s and the Suncoast have plenty of full pay video poker schedules with no penalty for VP players ($1 = 1 point).
With this, I was determined to play at least 4,000 points today. That doesn’t sound like much considering the amount of play I give Caesars; however, I’m not trying to get to the highest level with the Boyd properties, I’m simply playing to keep the free room offers and generous comps coming in. Oddly enough, notice the small print at the bottom where it says that at the Orleans and the Gold Coast, only locals get this promotion. It occurs to me that these two properties cater more to tourists than Sam’s and the Suncoast. Also, it doesn’t show on the board, but you must swipe your card at the kiosk before you play in order to activate it. I wish these properties would quit playing these silly games in hopes of tricking people into not taking advantage of the promotions. LVA columnist Jean Scott has gotten into this practice in detail in her blogs.
I played about 2K through the Jacks or Better progressive—I won’t bore you with how many times I had four-to-the-royals but I assure it, there were a lot of them—so frustrating. When I play the Caesars’ properties, I always play 3-play or 5-play; unfortunately, the only full pay machines at Sam’s are single line quarters, so it takes a long time to rack up many points. I did manage to break even, so I headed out as I wanted to drive down to Sunset Station to see the new movie 22 Jump Street.
On my way, I made a fast stop at the almost completed new water park in Henderson. It’s called the Cowabunga and is slated to be open on July 4th. All I could think was whoever came up with this really missed the boat losing half the summer business by starting thier opening so late.
It’s on Galleria Rd just off Hwy 95, very easy access. Looks like a good one if you’re into that sort of thing.
At one time, the Station properties were among my favorite places to play and stay; however, in recent years they’ve really tightened up their reward points and this year they pulled an outright con on their players offering “3X points every day!” but don’t bother to tell you that you have to swipe at a kiosk before playing and worse, they’ve tripled the amount of points for anything you’d like to use them for—meaning, you don’t come out ahead at all. Bogus promotions like this piss me off. Having said this, though I don’t intend to give them play anymore, I do still like the properties for their movies and buffets. I’m going to collect some money from my Ultimate Poker account plus see the movie.
The center bar at Sunset Stations remains one of the best designed anywhere
Sunset Station hasn’t changed all that much since they first opened. It’s a beautiful property. Inside, the area where the Hooters restaurant was located is now more slots and the entire food court except for Peking Palace has been boarded up—no more Sbarros, no more Fundruckers. The movie, 22 JUMP STREET, for me wasn’t all that good though there are some really good laughs, mostly with the Ice Cube character. I don’t like movies that throw their jokes in your face and this one seems to try too hard. I can’t recommend it. I do play online Ultimate Poker, but can only play when I’m in Las Vegas (Laughlin is too close to Arizona and my computer picks up the AZ towers, so I can’t play there). I’m just not getting in enough playing time right now, so I picked up $300 from my account at the cashier—one of the benefits is you can deposit and withdraw funds from any Station property.
I headed back to Sam’s Town to go after the 9/6 Jacks and played for a good couple of hours amassing another 2K points, but this was the first session I lost, though $50 wasn’t too bad a hit. I’m tempted to run a hundred through a Buffalo penny game tomorrow because again, Sam’s has a promotion that runs Sunday through Tuesday with 20X points on all Buffalo penny games. I’m really making an effort to stay away from the penny games this trip, but I might make one exception here.
There was a wedding taking place on the balcony that overlooks the atrium, which quite honestly is a nice spot. I couldn’t get a good angle for a picture but it looked quite beautiful. I debated what to have for dinner. Billy Bob’s was having a BBQ Rib special, but having put on so much weight this year, I’ve decided to go the better route and settle for a small dinner I took up to the room and called it a night.
More tomorrow
Totals:
Tournaments: 6 Cost: $69 Won: $1000 Balance: $931
This morning I was checking in with the Las Vegas Advisor (LVA) on what, if anything, was going on in Vegas that I might go visit, and though there wasn’t anything listed that I hadn’t already done or didn’t want to do, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the Question of the Day had actually accepted one of my questions. I’d been submitting questions for years and never had one accepted, but on June 9th they finally answered my question about whether or not the Lake Las Vegas still shows their “Movie on the Lake” during the summer. If you care, here’s the link (I’m not sure if you need to be a member or need to see it):
LVA Question of the Day
I slept in late (unusual for me) and after finishing yesterday’s report, it was time to get down to the daily $23 poker tournament. It’s Saturday so there are many more people than usual with six tables with ten players each filled with some alternates waiting to get in. I had another so-so tournament lasting once again to the fourth session. I was low on chips so I went all in with pocket tens and was called by one guy who was holding 10/Q. All I had to do was fade a queen and sure enough, a queen came on the river (good for TV, not good for me). I’ll keep trying. Even without a cash, this tournament is so inexpensive, it’s a good time to get more experience and practice, plus it helps fill in my tournaments theme for these reports.
As I mentioned yesterday, Sam’s and some other Boyd properties (none in downtown) are offering an excellent June promotion with multiple points on Friday and Saturdays. I took a picture of the promotion:
This is an excellent promotion considering both Sam’s and the Suncoast have plenty of full pay video poker schedules with no penalty for VP players ($1 = 1 point).
With this, I was determined to play at least 4,000 points today. That doesn’t sound like much considering the amount of play I give Caesars; however, I’m not trying to get to the highest level with the Boyd properties, I’m simply playing to keep the free room offers and generous comps coming in. Oddly enough, notice the small print at the bottom where it says that at the Orleans and the Gold Coast, only locals get this promotion. It occurs to me that these two properties cater more to tourists than Sam’s and the Suncoast. Also, it doesn’t show on the board, but you must swipe your card at the kiosk before you play in order to activate it. I wish these properties would quit playing these silly games in hopes of tricking people into not taking advantage of the promotions. LVA columnist Jean Scott has gotten into this practice in detail in her blogs.
I played about 2K through the Jacks or Better progressive—I won’t bore you with how many times I had four-to-the-royals but I assure it, there were a lot of them—so frustrating. When I play the Caesars’ properties, I always play 3-play or 5-play; unfortunately, the only full pay machines at Sam’s are single line quarters, so it takes a long time to rack up many points. I did manage to break even, so I headed out as I wanted to drive down to Sunset Station to see the new movie 22 Jump Street.
On my way, I made a fast stop at the almost completed new water park in Henderson. It’s called the Cowabunga and is slated to be open on July 4th. All I could think was whoever came up with this really missed the boat losing half the summer business by starting thier opening so late.
It’s on Galleria Rd just off Hwy 95, very easy access. Looks like a good one if you’re into that sort of thing.
At one time, the Station properties were among my favorite places to play and stay; however, in recent years they’ve really tightened up their reward points and this year they pulled an outright con on their players offering “3X points every day!” but don’t bother to tell you that you have to swipe at a kiosk before playing and worse, they’ve tripled the amount of points for anything you’d like to use them for—meaning, you don’t come out ahead at all. Bogus promotions like this piss me off. Having said this, though I don’t intend to give them play anymore, I do still like the properties for their movies and buffets. I’m going to collect some money from my Ultimate Poker account plus see the movie.
The center bar at Sunset Stations remains one of the best designed anywhere
Sunset Station hasn’t changed all that much since they first opened. It’s a beautiful property. Inside, the area where the Hooters restaurant was located is now more slots and the entire food court except for Peking Palace has been boarded up—no more Sbarros, no more Fundruckers. The movie, 22 JUMP STREET, for me wasn’t all that good though there are some really good laughs, mostly with the Ice Cube character. I don’t like movies that throw their jokes in your face and this one seems to try too hard. I can’t recommend it. I do play online Ultimate Poker, but can only play when I’m in Las Vegas (Laughlin is too close to Arizona and my computer picks up the AZ towers, so I can’t play there). I’m just not getting in enough playing time right now, so I picked up $300 from my account at the cashier—one of the benefits is you can deposit and withdraw funds from any Station property.
I headed back to Sam’s Town to go after the 9/6 Jacks and played for a good couple of hours amassing another 2K points, but this was the first session I lost, though $50 wasn’t too bad a hit. I’m tempted to run a hundred through a Buffalo penny game tomorrow because again, Sam’s has a promotion that runs Sunday through Tuesday with 20X points on all Buffalo penny games. I’m really making an effort to stay away from the penny games this trip, but I might make one exception here.
There was a wedding taking place on the balcony that overlooks the atrium, which quite honestly is a nice spot. I couldn’t get a good angle for a picture but it looked quite beautiful. I debated what to have for dinner. Billy Bob’s was having a BBQ Rib special, but having put on so much weight this year, I’ve decided to go the better route and settle for a small dinner I took up to the room and called it a night.
More tomorrow
Totals:
Tournaments: 6 Cost: $69 Won: $1000 Balance: $931
