Setup: My friend from Dallas and I try to meet in Vegas about once a year. The last few of times we’ve been at Southpoint, but for whatever reason we wanted to go back downtown and stay at MSS (which used to be our home). No fancy dinners, no shows, no sightseeing. Just drinking and watching basketball and gambling and catching up on our life stories.
Transportation: Well I flew direct on Alaska Air’s newer 737 which was quite an upgrade from the older planes. As far as ground transportation, the plan was that when we got to the airport (he was getting in about an hour before me), we’d meet up and use Uber (primed with a $25 off code for new users) to get to MSS. Well, Scott got himself kinda tanked in that hour before I arrived and when I started texting him to meet me at baggage claim, we eventually figured out that we were in different terminals. And, in his state, he couldn’t figure out how to take the shuttle from one terminal to the other so we eventually gave up and just took separate cabs over to MSS. About $45 for that damn ride. So I figured, hey we’ll use the Uber on the way back. Even though his flight left a couple hours earlier than mine, we went back to the airport at the same time. When I’ve already used up my points, don’t want to eat or drink, and have checked out of the hotel, there’s no reason to just hang there by myself. Uber girl showed up, got us to the airport for exactly $18 which ended up being $0 because of the code. Boom.
4 OAK Scratch Cards: I always thought this was a pretty cool promotion, and had a good time collecting the cards a few years ago when I stayed there. Just to clarify the rules, you get a scratch card anytime you get a four of a kind or above (straight flush or royal flush). You apparently also can get one if you get a slots win above 3000 credits I think, but I never touch those machines so I can’t verify that. There are different values for 5 cent level versus 25 cent. 5 cent is ONLY $1 or $5000 values, 25 cent is $2, $3, $10 or $5000. They’ll give you up to 10 at one time (if you are playing a 10-hand machine and get dealt 4oak). You have only 24 hours to cash them in. I’d read some reviews from people who said they don’t bother to stop playing to get them. I don’t quite understand that. On this particular trip, I would say that conservatively I cashed in about $70 worth of tickets, and I never got one that was above the minimum $1 or $2. In one session alone I cashed in 24 tickets. I will admit that when playing a 10-play nickel game it did occasionally get annoying to have to stop so often and wait for the change lady, but most of the time it was a nice break.
Stupidity with a happy ending: Ok so by far the dumbest thing I’d done in a while happened during a long VP session. I’d been drinking, but not too much. At one point I got up from my Super Times Pay machine to go to the bathroom. Made sure I had my phone, wallet, pulled my players card, etc. Except, I left exactly $413 in the machine (never hit “cash out”). As I came out of the bathroom, I ran into the change guy who had been bringing me my scratch cards. He came up to me and said, “hey did you forget something?” I immediately figured out what he was getting at and I got a pretty panicked look on my face. He showed me my cash out ticket and explained that the guy who sat down at the machine next to mine had alerted a security guard who alerted him (the change guy). I was extremely thankful, obviously. When I got back to the machine the guy was still sitting the next one over and I thanked him profusely. The security guard came by and I gave him $20, and the next time the change guy came over I gave him $20 as well. Wow that could have turned out much differently
Gambling: I’m typical a quarters VP guy, and I love that the MSS bar has 9/6 JOB. I do also enjoy Super Times Pay and play some 5 or 10 line. I won’t give you a whole play by play from the weekend, but I’ll say that when we first got to MSS and sat at the bar, neither one of us could lose. We both turned $40 into $120 or so in about an hour, with the help of some nice 4oak. We made a smart decision to go to the 777 and have a snack to soak up some of the booze, and when we went back to the bar neither of us could win. Things went downhill pretty rapidly all the rest of that night, and it was a little depressing. My ass was saved the next morning when we were sitting at the bar playing DDB and I hit the progressive royal for $1048. I’m not sure I’ve ever been as excited for a royal as that one. Changed my whole mood for the trip. And the best part was the soon after that my buddy hit the four aces with a kicker for $500. The rest of the time there was just playing even. I got a nickel royal on 10-play Super Times for $200, four aces (no kicker) for another $200, and a couple of good 4oak with multipliers on STP. All in all I was probably about even for gambling on the trip, which I pretty much consider a win.
Food: On these trips eating is pretty much just a functional thing, we're not seeking out the best meals in the world. We had the lunch buffet at MSS once, and again I think it can best be described as functional. The salad bar was nice, everything else was just meh. I think we ate at 777 three times, mostly just snacky stuff. I like their buffalo wings a lot, and we did order the "off the menu" onion rings which were solid. We also ate at the noodle place at the Cal, which was also very good. They do have a typo on their menu however......
Comps: Well since I hadn’t stayed at MSS in about 6 years I couldn’t get any sort of upfront comp or even a reduced rate. So I think we were booked at $79 and $44 for the two nights. I was pretty confident that I’d be able to take care of that when we left, and I did. I’ve been staying at Southpoint a lot and I’ve never really taken the opportunity to directly ask a host for a discretionary comp, but the way MSS is set up with someone always sitting at the host station, it’s pretty easy. So that very first meal at 777 we charged to the room, but after that I just asked for a comp. Hey can I get $30 for dinner? No problem. Hey can I get a lunch buffet for 2? No problem. Another $25 for the 777? No problem. Used points to have a meal at the noodle house at the Cal. My buddy paid for a breakfast meal at Du-pars the last morning, so I made it through the whole weekend without actually paying a cent for food, or drinks, or the room. Oh, and I used air miles to pay for the plane ticket
Transportation: Well I flew direct on Alaska Air’s newer 737 which was quite an upgrade from the older planes. As far as ground transportation, the plan was that when we got to the airport (he was getting in about an hour before me), we’d meet up and use Uber (primed with a $25 off code for new users) to get to MSS. Well, Scott got himself kinda tanked in that hour before I arrived and when I started texting him to meet me at baggage claim, we eventually figured out that we were in different terminals. And, in his state, he couldn’t figure out how to take the shuttle from one terminal to the other so we eventually gave up and just took separate cabs over to MSS. About $45 for that damn ride. So I figured, hey we’ll use the Uber on the way back. Even though his flight left a couple hours earlier than mine, we went back to the airport at the same time. When I’ve already used up my points, don’t want to eat or drink, and have checked out of the hotel, there’s no reason to just hang there by myself. Uber girl showed up, got us to the airport for exactly $18 which ended up being $0 because of the code. Boom.
4 OAK Scratch Cards: I always thought this was a pretty cool promotion, and had a good time collecting the cards a few years ago when I stayed there. Just to clarify the rules, you get a scratch card anytime you get a four of a kind or above (straight flush or royal flush). You apparently also can get one if you get a slots win above 3000 credits I think, but I never touch those machines so I can’t verify that. There are different values for 5 cent level versus 25 cent. 5 cent is ONLY $1 or $5000 values, 25 cent is $2, $3, $10 or $5000. They’ll give you up to 10 at one time (if you are playing a 10-hand machine and get dealt 4oak). You have only 24 hours to cash them in. I’d read some reviews from people who said they don’t bother to stop playing to get them. I don’t quite understand that. On this particular trip, I would say that conservatively I cashed in about $70 worth of tickets, and I never got one that was above the minimum $1 or $2. In one session alone I cashed in 24 tickets. I will admit that when playing a 10-play nickel game it did occasionally get annoying to have to stop so often and wait for the change lady, but most of the time it was a nice break.
Stupidity with a happy ending: Ok so by far the dumbest thing I’d done in a while happened during a long VP session. I’d been drinking, but not too much. At one point I got up from my Super Times Pay machine to go to the bathroom. Made sure I had my phone, wallet, pulled my players card, etc. Except, I left exactly $413 in the machine (never hit “cash out”). As I came out of the bathroom, I ran into the change guy who had been bringing me my scratch cards. He came up to me and said, “hey did you forget something?” I immediately figured out what he was getting at and I got a pretty panicked look on my face. He showed me my cash out ticket and explained that the guy who sat down at the machine next to mine had alerted a security guard who alerted him (the change guy). I was extremely thankful, obviously. When I got back to the machine the guy was still sitting the next one over and I thanked him profusely. The security guard came by and I gave him $20, and the next time the change guy came over I gave him $20 as well. Wow that could have turned out much differently
Gambling: I’m typical a quarters VP guy, and I love that the MSS bar has 9/6 JOB. I do also enjoy Super Times Pay and play some 5 or 10 line. I won’t give you a whole play by play from the weekend, but I’ll say that when we first got to MSS and sat at the bar, neither one of us could lose. We both turned $40 into $120 or so in about an hour, with the help of some nice 4oak. We made a smart decision to go to the 777 and have a snack to soak up some of the booze, and when we went back to the bar neither of us could win. Things went downhill pretty rapidly all the rest of that night, and it was a little depressing. My ass was saved the next morning when we were sitting at the bar playing DDB and I hit the progressive royal for $1048. I’m not sure I’ve ever been as excited for a royal as that one. Changed my whole mood for the trip. And the best part was the soon after that my buddy hit the four aces with a kicker for $500. The rest of the time there was just playing even. I got a nickel royal on 10-play Super Times for $200, four aces (no kicker) for another $200, and a couple of good 4oak with multipliers on STP. All in all I was probably about even for gambling on the trip, which I pretty much consider a win.
Food: On these trips eating is pretty much just a functional thing, we're not seeking out the best meals in the world. We had the lunch buffet at MSS once, and again I think it can best be described as functional. The salad bar was nice, everything else was just meh. I think we ate at 777 three times, mostly just snacky stuff. I like their buffalo wings a lot, and we did order the "off the menu" onion rings which were solid. We also ate at the noodle place at the Cal, which was also very good. They do have a typo on their menu however......
Comps: Well since I hadn’t stayed at MSS in about 6 years I couldn’t get any sort of upfront comp or even a reduced rate. So I think we were booked at $79 and $44 for the two nights. I was pretty confident that I’d be able to take care of that when we left, and I did. I’ve been staying at Southpoint a lot and I’ve never really taken the opportunity to directly ask a host for a discretionary comp, but the way MSS is set up with someone always sitting at the host station, it’s pretty easy. So that very first meal at 777 we charged to the room, but after that I just asked for a comp. Hey can I get $30 for dinner? No problem. Hey can I get a lunch buffet for 2? No problem. Another $25 for the 777? No problem. Used points to have a meal at the noodle house at the Cal. My buddy paid for a breakfast meal at Du-pars the last morning, so I made it through the whole weekend without actually paying a cent for food, or drinks, or the room. Oh, and I used air miles to pay for the plane ticket
