February 27, 2020
Day 2 of this trip. Sleep went well! I only say this because come Friday night when I move to Golden Gate, it’s going to be a battle of sleep and noise from the Fremont Experience. So, I know I need to enjoy the quiet now while I have it.
I met up with Terry at the D and we had breakfast at the café there and I had Huevos Rancheros, which were terrific…highly recommended. We paid using our food comps and sat down at the Vue Bar to begin the gambling day.
In the American Casino Guide, there is a coupon that good for $100 in free play if you put 1000 points on your slot card within 24 hours. Video poker is $10 per point, so this would mean running at least $10K through the machines ($5K at slots). Because we only play quarter 8/5 Bonus Poker with progressives at the Vue Bar, that’s some serious time and money to commit.
I’m one who really enjoys a challenge and we came up with a plan: Today, we will both play on Terry’s card requiring each of us to play 500 points. Then tomorrow we’ll do the same with both of us using my card. Because there are coupons for both the D and the Golden Gate, we will then do it Saturday on his card and then Sunday on mine. Assuming we don’t give up run ourselves too much into the ground, this would be a total of $400 free play. Crazy, I know, but we decided to go for it.
Today’s session began at 9 AM. Without going into the grizzly details, we accomplished the 1000 points at 1 PM. We’re both fast players and by cutting the time in half by sharing the same card really helped. When the royal progressive went over the $1200-mark, Terry switched to 50-cents and that sped up the process.
Today’s results were mixed. Terry took a sizable loss, but I had some good hits along the way hitting straight flush for $141 as well as quad Aces ($100) twice and many assorted other quads and end up the day ahead $200+.
Terry went down to the slot club and the boothling put the $100 free play on his account. Tomorrow, it’s on to the Golden Gate and we’ll be using my card.
We walked down to Le Thai on Fremont to enjoy an early dinner. This is a terrific little restaurant if you like Thai food and they accept the D’s slot points for payment. I had the veggie salad and in came with a small tin of something. Terry said it might be peppers but wasn’t sure. I took a VERY small bite to see. Oh SHIT! My mouth started burning, every breath was like fire going in and going out. My eyes began to water, everything in my mouth went numb. The waitress came over and immediately knew what was going on. She offered some remedies but I just waited it out sucking on ice for a while. As I said, the food here is wonderful, however, lesson learned: never…ever…I will never, ever try something I don’t know what it is.
We went over to the Golden Nugget and sat down at the 2/4 poker game. We only played for a little over an hour. I was at a great table as everyone was raising and re-raising but I had a session of dead cards. I just couldn’t get dealt anything to play and finally lost $60 and quit. Terry did okay at his table and we took off.
We got my car and drove over to the Strat as Terry had some dividend money from his slot club card to check on. The Strat has done a wonderful job on their remodel. It’s well lit and designed in wonderful colors. There’s a sign at the door that this is a camera-friendly casino and you are encouraged to take pictures and videos anywhere and anytime in the casino. This is a smart marketing tool and I wish all the other casinos would take notice.
Terry was happy to find he had over $360 in free play. The casino has dreadful video poker schedules, so he decided to play at the Dragon Link games. After some bonuses and features and a few machines, he was happy to head back to the car with $360 cash (the same as the free play…yes!) and also brought him almost back for the entire trip. Peter takes it…but Paul gives it back.
We stopped at Walmart for a power cord and then I dropped Terry off downtown, and I drove back to Sam’s Town.
