DAY 4 MONDAY 2/7/11
Day after the SB is always a "drag" because you begin to realize that there will be no more football until August when the pre-season games start to be played. Oh sure, there's always the NFL Draft in April, and the next seasons schedule also comes out in April. Then in July the training camps open up, but unless they reach a settlement with their agreement, there might not be any NFL football at all!!! That would suck big time.
Nothing major to report for this day except it's our anniversary. 18 years ago today we met in Vegas, and we've been together ever since through thick and thin. We had no major plans to celebrate that night. We had already been to Twin Creeks on Saturday night, and TC was closed on Sun-Mon. Ironically we wound up "dining" at the Monday night $5 buffet. That's another reason to come to the Silverton. On Mondays there are drawings every two hours for $100 X 10 people and you have 24 hours to collect. Then at night, they have a $5 buffet for Seniors, although there were 5 of us and 2 weren't Seniors at all, but they charged me Senior prices. Maybe now it's just a $5 buffet on Monday nights. On Tueday, they have a $5 lunch buffet from 11 am - 3 pm. Can't go wrong with either one. They drop the Prime Rib and crab claws, but everything else is pretty much the same.
Today was the first major loss of just over $1000. Just couldn't hit much all night. During the day we went out to Albertson's to pick up a variety of things to have in the room. We started playing after we got back from shopping, but other than a few 4 OAK's, twice Aces, during the afternoon and evening session, it was downhill all day. Bottom line was -$1022 for the day.
DAY 5 TUESDAY
I was tired of getting a late start everyday. So I went downstairs earlier than I have been. I was going to eat at the counter and read the paper. I haven't had their Eggs Benedict in the coffee shop since they just make horrible Hollandaise Sauce. No matter how many times I've complained about their sauced, nothing seems to change although they claim the chef that used to make it was no longer there etc. I've even told them to start using packages of Knorr's Hollandaise Sauce since it really tastes good and is easy to make. When I grill filet mignon in the backyard, I'll always make a package of Knorr's Bernaise Sauce and it's really good. But walking into the Sundance Grill, I bumped into the manager, Jason, and asked him if they've corrected the Hollandaise Sauce problem. He said they had. When I sat down at the counter, I asked the waitress if she'd bring me some sauce to try out. But before she could, Jason placed a little sample in front of me. UMMMMM! Not bad at all. Well it looks like I can finally start ordering Eggs Benedict again....although I'll still always check the sauce first before I order.
I pulled out the Sports Section from the paper at the same time trying to fill out my Keno tickets. Although it seemed to me that the casinos would take a beating on a Packers/Over decision, Gaming , who monitors all the bets on the SB, said that the books made a little bit of money on the game with a .08% "hold" on the game. But these figures are a little skewed since they also include all SB future wagers in their figures. A lot of these future wagers are by tourists who hit town on vacation and want to throw a SB bet...no matter how far fetched...on their home team. Most pros really don't want to tie up their money so long, and sometimes can get better odds when it comes to playoff time.
Well breakfest arrived and Idug in right away as I was really hungry. I hadn't eaten much at the buffet the previous night, so I devoured the meal in front of me. I watched the Keno numbers "pop" up and 3 numbers came in for a $1 win. WOW! I swear these Keno runners make more on this game than I do as I always give them any "win" under $5. I headed upstairs to see if she was ready to come down yet. She wasn't ready yet so I headed downstairs myself to start playing. It seems that I almost always hit the Royal when she isn't there, and I hoped today would be no different. But it wasn't to be. With two large losses back to back, it was time to start winning some serious money.
Between the day and nightime sessions I hit quad Aces three times and other 4 OAK's multiple times, but could only come up with a win of $20 for the day. That should get me even in no time! Yeah right!
DAY 6 WEDNESDAY
Having less than $1000 on me, I wanted to hit the bank to make a withdrawal since we were going out shopping . I decided to make the first withdrawal for the trip since we left of $2000. That should hold me for a while...so I thought. After the bank we were headed to the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory which is in the Las Vegas Outlet Mall. She also wanted to stop at Liz Claiborne to possibly pick up some items.
Unfortunately, the Outlet Mall is undergoing some some major renovations so it's absolute chaos trying to find a parking space among all the diufferent heavy duty machine in the parking lots. I also get the different buildings mixed up, so the removal of all the names from the outside of the buildings was making it hard to find the Liz Claiborne where the RMCF also resides. The GF was really chomping at the bit to sink her teeth into one of their carmel apples. I took a good guess at which building housed LC and was lucky to get a parking spot right away. I told her to stay in the car in case it was the wrong building. But as I neared the front entrance, I asked a woman carry out some packages if there was a Liz Claiborne shop inside. She said that she had traversed the whole mall and she didn't see any LC store. Since it was the first shop on the right as you walked in, it would be pretty hard to miss. So I turned around and looked out to LV Blvd., and was sure the one there was one that was in front of the LC store mall. So I turned around and walked inside anyway. I looked at the first store on the right, and sure enough it was the LC store but...it was CLOSED! OUT OF BUSINESS!!! It even had the name removed. In front of the store were kiosks that I remembered, so I was now sure it was the LC store that was closed. Now I just had to walk past a couple of more stores to get to the RMCF. Their store is indented from the rest of the stores, so I had to walk up a bit to get a visual of the store. As I neared the store, I had a sinking feeling that this store also would be closed. In a few more steps my felling was validated. Boy this was going to be shocking news to the GF. That was one of her favorite stores in Vegas. We always bought candies for many employees at the Silverton as well as the dog sitter and neighbors back home.
When I got back to the car and got inside instead of opening her door to let her out, she asked me if it was the wrong mall. I told her it was the right one except her stores were both closed. OH NO!!! she exclaimed. What are we going to do now? She started going through her wallet looking for the business card she had been given one time. She swore they said they had another outlet in Vegas. But when she called the numbers, she got a fax machine on one number, and no answer on the other. I told her I would Google them when I got back to the room.
When we got back, she didn't feel like playing, so I took her up to the room and returned to the center bar to try and get some money back. I sat down at the second machine from the left and started playing bonus poker. Little did I know that this was going to be one of the craziest sessions I've ever had. First, let me say that this machine had a serious bill validator problem. It would suck in your bill and you'd hear it "whirring" around so you would think it would be "accepted". But as soon as you'd think it was taken, it would spit it right back out. This would happen over and over again, and just as soon as you think it was going to spit it out again.....it would FINALLY take the bill. BUT, this "problem" was going to play an important role in my gaming for that day.
The jackpot was now over $5600+. I started playing BP, but as my pattern on this trip, I would switch to DDB and then back to BP. I repeated this over and over, but was having absolutely no success on hitting ANYTHING!! I mean I was lucky to hit a 3 OAK. No 4OAK's...hardly any straights or full houses. It was getting to be BS. But I had made some major scores on this machine, and I wasn't giving up yet...even though I was slipping in the ninth hundred dollar bill, and the last money I had on me. The money I withdrew I left upstairs in the safe.
I did my switching between both games, and was returning to DDb with about $50 left. Well that went downhill to having just 10 bucks left on the machine. Believe it or not, I decided to switch back to BP. WHY? I don't know, it seemed stupid to me at the time, and usually at the speed I play, the $10 should have been gobbled up in two more plays. My think was, just maybe I could go on a two pair streak and build up the money again, and then go back to DDB and hit a 4OAK or two for decent money. Hey, 4 Aces with the kicker was still in the realm of possiblity. You just never know!
With the game now on BP, I hit the deal buton and prayed for the best. BOOM!! FULL HOUSE! BOOM! ANOTHER FULL HOUSE!! BOOM!!! A FLUSH! BOOM ANOTHER FLUSH! BOOM! A STRAIGHT! I had more than doubled my money in nothing flat. Boy where had these hands been all day. But alas nothing this good was going to continue and the money started slipping back to where I started. But then I was dealt 3 4's. I kept saying, "Four with a kicker...four with a kicker" and I hit the draw button with my eyes closed. Sure enough when I opened them, there was the 4th 4 without the kicker. However, the amount won stopped at +$226. WTF? Instead of being on DDB, I was playing BP. Better than nothing I suppose. I finally cashed out at $200 and needed a potty break. I had been playing for hours without a break. I also wanted to check on the other half to see if she needed anything.Well I did my business, checked on her, and went back to the same machine.
I sat down at the same machine and inserted my voucher. It started that "whirring" sound again and out popped the voucher. I tried it over and over again until I was finally fed up. I was now convinced that this was "destiny". Something wanted me to move. BUT...was it the machine to my right....or the last machine at the bar on my left? I got up and started to move to my right, when something stopped me and I sat down on the machine to my left. Was this going to be a "good" decision or not? Only time would tell. Truthfully, I really wanted to hit the Royal and get way ahead for the trip, and stop all this losing nonsense. But that wasn't going to happen. But this machine was OK. Nothing major was happening, but there was no disasters either. But as I switched back yet again to DDB, I hit a nice full house which took me over the $200 mark at $235. A pair of Aces kept on popping up, but if I was lucky, it would only improve to trip Aces. So with me just bouncing around the $200 mark, I switched once again to BP where I improved to $235 again, and then back to DDB. Within 3 hands, I got another pair of Aces, but wasn't expecting much when I hit the draw button. The draw spit out 2 more Aces with an 8 kicker. As happy as I was with the $800 win, I never got a chance to root for the kicker I desperately needed. But I now had over $1000, and had gotten back the $900 I was stuck for the day. I watched the amount get up to $1085, but when it came back to the $1000 mark, I cashed out and went upstairs to get some needed rest. Playing these machines can get tiring if you play enough, and I sure played enough this day. We both would return later that night, and even though we hit 4 8's and my first straight flush of the trip, there was a loss of $237 for the day.
Well it's now 316 pm, and still haven't been downstairs yet. Keep thinking it's anything but Friday and the trip only has a few days left. Something BIG better happen, as this losing has to stop!! So far I've only had room service for a glass of tomato juice and a small pot of Starbcks coffee. But Friday night night is the seafood buffet, and I'm ready for some more of that Prime Rib and egg drop soup.
