Vegas trip April 13-16

We flew Allegiant for 180 round trip.  We should have got in on the 12th, but were delayed 90 mins so got to the rental center after 1 oclock.  I had a sweet deal from sytx, bet they were closed.  My back up was with Avis for 209 all in for a full size.  Ended up with a free upgrade to a honda ridgeline.  The lady in front of us was going  off about  recieving an electric car with an 80 percent charge, and then having to return it 80 percent or more.  She wanted it to be at 100 percent when she picks it up.  We checked into Green Valley Ranch for 3 comped nights with 125 free play and 50 food credit.  2 am we went straight to bed.

      Monday  we slept in a little and then got some free pasteries from the VIP room. Then  live Keno way tickets playing 9 spots and made a few sports book bets.  The wife cashed in a nice one from last trip.  Then we hit the high limit slots bar for some mimosas.  15 minutes in the wife hits a six spot, 2 five spots and a couple four spots playing 25 cent multicard keno   She is up over 900 bucks on her 1st 40 dollars in.  We then hit a couple new slots that were hitting al week.  A bank of Bomber games, and a bank of bank robber racoons and wild berries.  Both of us up another hundy on slots, me down at the bar.

      Next we headed to Durango, and had the cheesebuger special for lunch at The George.  Them we played the huff n puff had enough and the bomber games for another profit,  We hit the bar for some drinks and I hit a nice string of 4 spots at 50 cents and the wife hit a 5 spot playing quarters..  The wife played some bonus steak and hit a royal, but no multipliers.  I wondered around and hit 3 nice bonus rounds on Luckey Lemmings, , The Bears cooking marshmellows, and a pot game.  When I joined the wife I also hit a royal playing 5 play.  We hit the bar to celebrate, and then headed back to Green Valley.

      Back at Green Valley we played at the bar and had some nice wine, and then had happy hour at Bottiglia.  We shared the ceasar salad and meatballs and they were great.  Paid with food credit.  We bounce back and forth from the new slots to the bar tops and  had a blast.

       We then decided to head to the Rainbow Club to stay on the mailing list. I lost 10 bucks and the wife won the hot seat wheel spin for 30 bucks and cashed out  up 50 total.  Then we drove over to the new Cadence crossing.  It was way smaller than we thought it would be, and very dead.  One person total at the 2 bars, and maybe 30 people on the floor.  We lost a little playing vp, and both made it back playing a new train game slot with 5 sets of firecrackers.  We were not impressed and did not use our 10 dollar food credit as planned.  I don't think I would feel safe parking here late at night.  Kind of felt like parking at Railroad Pass

      Back at Green Valley we had a night cap at the bar tops and called it a fun first day

More tomorrow

Thanks for TR Good luck.

Nice first, er, second day Brent.  Sorry the delay cost you getting your first rental, but the way the day went, probably didn't even think about it too long.  Thanks for sharing. 

Your TRs are illuminating, because they illustrate the goodies that chronic slot players get. Obviously, you and your wife get crushed--no one can fight off a 10% house edge--but I wonder what percentage of your losses are returned as comps and free play 

The formula Vegas-wide used to be that you got back 40% of your theo as comps/bounceback. Over the years, that has declined to 20% on the Strip, but downtown still gives you about 30% and some of the locals' places do as well. However, Boyd and Stations have tightened up, well, everything recently, so I'm wondering what % of theo they're returning these days.

I'm not a slot player (thank God), and I only play the best VP, so the offers I get are paltry or nonexistent. But I wonder how well they're treating the habitual slot players these days, in the era of The Gouge.

Do you ever keep track of your coin-in and -EV at the places you frequent? I know you can only estimate your slot theo.

Kevin we evaluate what we do wrong and what we need to do better after every trip, and who deserves our play .  I also keep track of our win / loss statements at the end of the year and compare coin in  and results.

This trip we probably put in 200 each on slots and both took about 300  in profit.  Mine should have been more but I gave some back on the last day.

     As I have said before, we look at what people are playing, and who is making money.  If nobody is playing your favorite slot, there is probably a reason

Tuesday we got up and had some free pasteries in the VIP room, and then both cashed small wins in the sports book and made a few more bets.  Our live keno way tickets  sucked, so we switched to 6 spots and reinvested.  Then we hit the bar tops for some mimosas, and the wife tried to hit the multicard keno again.  She did hit a 5 spot and a few 4 spots.  I hit 2 four spots and then went ice cold .  I was also cold on bonus poker, so down a hunfred  swithed to video roulette.  After playing the 3rds and  holding my own no green was coming up.  Sometimes you can pick up a pattern, and I did.  2 and 28 hit 6 times in 12 spins, and the middle 3rd hit the another 4 times.   I ended up cashing out a 150 dollar profi

        Next we headed to The Durango for some vodka tonics at the bar tops, and some 4 card heno.  We both hit a bunch of 4 spots for a nice profit and then the wife played a little bonus streak and I played some hunfred play and 5 play.  We both gave a little back, and then went to Red Rocks  for some Rubios fish tacos.  Awesome as always  We played the new bomber hameand the bank robbing tacoon game for a couple nice wins.  I got cut off  in route to this new chile pepper game and the chick who cut me off hit a triple pop on the 2nd spin for 186 dollar bonus round.  I was just giving her space as she was leaving her machine, and  she just pulled in front of me knowing that I was intending to play there.  

      So we left and went to the Suncoast.  The place is still being remodeled , but it is a 10 multiplier day, so we gave them some play for about 90 mins and earned about 100 tier credits.  The Suncoast gave us a 50 food credit which we used at Taste of Asia.  Big mistake.  Food was terrible, and we both didn't feel good  after..

      We headed back to Green Valley and played for awhile, but called it an early night with some rumblings.

More tomorrow

Brent, your trip reports are great. As I'm sitting here compiling mine in my mind, I'm amazed at how everything runs together. I'll get the details but the chain of events might be sketchy 😁😁

Hopefully you and the misses didn't need anything more than some pepto bismol.  Taste of Asia didn't taste very good...sorry about that. 

There ain't no "pattern" in roulette, and the results of previous spins have no influence on subsequent outcomes. Likewise, whether a prior player or players have won has nothing to do with the playability of a given slot machine--your chance of winning is the same regardless.

That said, it's amazing how many people think otherwise. I've read that there's a very strong compulsion in the human brain to identify patterns, which is a critical survival skill. That extends so far as to make us unable to truly understand randomness. It came up "red" eight times in a row? There must be a pattern! There must have been a cause!

(That urge is also the core foundation for all religions.)

Similarly, we, in our thirst for identifiable patterns, mistake correlation for causation. If you had hit a massive jackpot just after stumbling out of Taste of Asia with a case of the dry heaves, your brain would tie the two events together and form the hypothesis that the first had caused the second.

You also see it when people pound the machines during bonus rounds. At some point in the player's experience (not necessarily all that recently), bashing the machine "produced" a big bonus. Now the brain wants to test the hypothesis. Whap whap whap bang bang bang. "Just in case." Cue, enter stage left, confirmation bias. I wore my lucky underwear and I hit the major jackpot. Well, then...!

I surmise that casinos wouldn't make a tenth of the money they do on slots if not for this human brain misprogramming. The casinos are master exploiters of human psychology.

Excellent TR so far, Brent.  A guy at the race track once told me "always play your hunches", after I missed a big win not playing one of mine.  Thanks for sharing some of yours, what you look for, and sounds to me like you are doing as good as one could hope for, even a little better.   Sorry about the [bad] Taste of Asia.  

But..."free pastries in the VIP room"...an excellent play!  IMHO.

Candy