Catching up!

Well, I see it's been over three years since I last posted an entry, I hope to be more timely with my posts.

I don't want to take up a lot of time catching up with what's happened between January 18, 2015 and now, but let's say a lot has changed.  I'm currently looking for a new job (got laid off Jan 2017).  There were several trips to Las Vegas and Atlantic City (many trips here).

I made a trip to Disney in May, 2015 for Star Wars weekend, which was also the date for the 24 hours of Magic Kingdom (which I mostly survived).

Right after that, I had a short trip out to Las Vegas with my poker friends.

I had several business trips to New York City, which were mostly fun.

We bought a n'used Honda Civic in June of 2015.

I had another trip to Las Vegas in July/Aug.

I got comped tickets in a suite at Madison Square Garden to see the Rangers play the Capitals in November!

We had our annual end of the year meet in Atlantic City for 2015.

March of 2016, we spent Tessandra's Spring Break in Atlantic City and Philadelphia.

I had a wedding in Newport, RI in July.

Was in Las Vegas again in July/Aug.

We went to my nephew's wedding in Canada at the end of August, Tessandra's first trip outside the US, and stayed a few nights at Niagara Falls.

I did my first 5k in October.

We went to my first JMU MRD Alumni game in November.

Back in AC for December 2016 (amongst other trips).

The beginning of January, 2017 was the end of my career at EY.

Following that were quite a few trips to Atlantic City, just to get away, and to collect some generous free play offers.

I turned 50 in February.

Bob and I took a trip to Detroit (and Caesars Windsor) in March to see a game at Joe Louis Arena before it closed.  It also coincided with the Big Ten men's ice hockey tournament.  We also made a side trip across the state to Founder's Brewery.

April saw us stay in Atlantic City for Tessandra's Spring Break again, going to Storybook Land, taking the train into Philadelphia to go to the Franklin Museum, and then heading down to Baltimore for a few nights.

We had our handbell festival in NYC, and a friend of mine and I made a side trip to Resorts World Casino, since I had a $100 comp to the steakhouse.

At the end of April, I did a 5k/8k down in Wildwood with some friends.

In June, we took Tessandra for her first trip to King's Dominion with some friends.

July/Aug brought our annual Las Vegas trip.

In August, we headed down to Columbia, SC to see the total eclipse!

I was lucky and got some temporary work from the end of August to the beginning of November.

In September, we took Tessandra to HersheyPark for Girl Scout day, her first time there (but not her first time in Hershey).

We had a nice stay at the Gaylord National Harbor and then saw Ice!

The end of the year brought our Atlantic City meet, and I won the Mattress Poker Tour Main Event for the second time!

So. . .  That brings us to now.  A friend of mine and I were in Las Vegas from Jan 10 - 17.  We had so much fun, I had to write a trip report, and that's coming up over the next few days!

I meant to write some reports on my other trips, perhaps that will happen, perhaps not.  But for now, stay tuned for the latest Las Vegas trip!

Day 10 - 2018 Las Vegas Winterfest, AKA Hipfest 2018

Thursday, January 18

So, this is it, the last day of the gambling trip.  We had coffee in the room and Kip was lamenting about our loss last night.  I said we’re going to take a parting shot and we’re going to get it back.  I’m not sure if she was convinced then, but I think that got her spirits up.

We slept a bit late, and Kip thought it was earlier when I said it was 10:30. Check out time at the Trop is 11:00.  I told her to call down and ask for an extended (noon) check out. They typically do that, but I’m not sure why they just don’t make it standard, she called and they gave her a noon check out. The housekeeper knocked on the door while we were packing up and I said we had a noon check out, but it was probably going to be closer to 12:30. She said just be sure to remove the Do Not Disturb sign from the door, otherwise they may charge us. I made sure we removed it as we left.

We took our bags to my car and headed back in the casino.  I wasn’t sure what we were going to play, but I hoped it would be fun.  She said she had to go to the bathroom, so I sat down at the Super Draw machine, which is next to the Triple Play machine.  She came back and asked me if we were going to play that machine.  I said sure, and we went through all of the games and decided to play the Jacks or Better machine, with a 10/6 payout for full houses and flushes, and a 500 coin quad.  We were up and down, not hitting any full houses or quads.  A few times we were around half our $100 buy in, but we were on our last shot, so we kept playing.  Right when Kip suggested we switch to Bonus Poker, we were dealt X-Jd-10d-Ad-X.  I started chanting, “Royal pair, royal pair, royal pair.” Kip joined as well and I pressed the button.  First line hit an ace, but the middle line filled the Kd-Qd for a royal!  Wheee!  We DID get our losses back, and more!  No music or anything, since it was not a hand pay, but it was nice none the less. We relished the moment for quite a while before continuing on. I was looking for a nice cash out amount when we finally hit a Super quad for 500 credits. Well, that helped!  We got our buy in, plus the quad on top (well an additional $89 on top of that).  I thought we’d do more shots, but it seems nothing would top that, so after an additional 30 minutes or so in the casino, we were done.

Yay, parting shots!

And a Super quad to boot!

On the way back from the airport, I noticed that my front driver’s side tire looked low, and was going to stop on the way to AC, but we just didn’t have time (or a convenient gas station).  Plus, it’s hard these days to find a station that has free air.  I knew that Wawa does, so when we were going to lunch at Shore Diner, we passed a Wawa.  I needed gas as well, so after going the wrong way to the restaurant, we turned around, stopped at Wawa, took care of business, and then headed to the diner.

We had eaten here before (I’ve been here a few times), and we always had a good meal. I had a nice salad and chicken parm. They also make very good bread.  After enjoying our lunch and regaling the week’s events, it was finally time to head home.  We had no issues heading to her place, the weather was chilly and a bit overcast, but nice. We talked about how awesome the trip was and we should make it an annual thing.

Salad

Chicken parm you taste so good. . . When you're winning!

I made a quick stop at the Wawa in Woodstown, NJ.  I picked up some Cokes and some matches for another victory cigar. Stopped again briefly at the Sunoco at the Maryland House, and then the last stop at the Maryland Welcome Center near Laurel.  Finally, a stop at the local McDonald’s for dinner.  I arrived home around 9:30 PM.

Tropicana housekeeping:  $5 tip (Kip)

Wawa:  $34.50

Shore Diner:  $25.64, $4.36 tip

Final notes:

It was a great trip, and it was nice to spend it with my best gaming buddy.  The true excitement we share at winning and our consoling each other after our losses helped maintain our balance and focus during this trip.  We experienced the lowest of lows and highest of highs and everything in between.  We were able to utilize a lot of comps and 2-1 coupons to keep our costs down, which was a big consideration for us.  Although we left a bit of Expected Value on the table, we did pretty well.  The fact that we hit three royals and two other jackpots certainly helped our bottom line.  This was one of the few trips where I actually came out ahead, and actually paid for the entire trip.  I know not all trips will be this way, but it is certainly one of my most memorable gambling trips!

It also appears that the Silverton did indeed comp my lunch without taking points.  I still haven't heard from them, but there hasn't been any charge to my credit card, and I didn't notice any points taken from my account.

Jointly, it looks like we had the following expenses:

Food:  $154.88 (this is what we paid in cash for two people over ten days, so that's $15.49 per day, divided by two, so we averaged $7.75 per person per day for food!)

Food tips:  $96.05

Other expenses:  $196.51 (the bulk of this being the car rental and parking.  I didn't include my airfare in this, nor some other expenses that were not shared.)

Hotel fees:  $37.31 (all from Atlantic City)

Hotel tips:  $33 (this may seem low, we did not have housekeeping service our rooms until the day we left, except the second day at El Cortez, when we needed more tissues and coffee)   *I just updated this total on 1/27)

Drink tips:  $81 (what can I say, we drink a lot!)

Misc tips:  $51 (shuttle drive tips, casino attendant tips, etc)

Coupons/promos used (each, unless noted):

Gold Coast:  $10 free play, $10 match play

Siegel's 1941, El Cortez:  2-1 entree

Downtown Grand:  $10 free play, $10 match play, free deck of cards

Binion's:  $10 free play; Motherlode promo:  free deck of cards, free drink, free sewing caddy, $25 non-negotiable chips, $50 free play, $50 free play

Ellis Island:  $45 total free play ($10 + $10 + $5 (new member) + $10 + $10), 2 x $10 match plays, free t-shirt, 2-1 entree at Village Pub

Hooters:  $10 free play, $10 match play, $5 free play (new member), $40 free play (new member promo), free shot glass (Dare Devil spin), 2 x free doughnut (Dare Devil spin)

Main Street Station:  8 Score with four scratch cards totaling $16

The D:  2 x $25 MP, $65 free play ($5 for 50 points, up to $100 in FP)

We noticed we forgot about a $10 free play coupon for Hooters.  I guess we'll have to go back.  There were also many other coupons we planned to do, but just didn't have time.

Here's a list of things we planned to do, but didn't for one reason or another (which may or may not have been documented in this report:

Movies at The Dome at Container Park

Live poker at Golden Nugget during the Double High Hand Jackpot promotion

Diamond show

A meal at Market Street Cafe at California

Grand Buffet at MGM Grand (myVEGAS reward)

Triple 7 happy hour at Main Street Station

Valley of Fire (I was really looking forward to this, but with my back and foot, I just couldn't make it)

And since we didn't go to Valley of Fire, we didn't go to Cannery or the other North Las Vegas casinos

So much undone, but we did so much.  I guess there will have to be another trip. . .

Oh, and I'd like to thank Kip for allowing me to come along and also reviewing most of this report!

Day 9 - 2018 Las Vegas Winterfest, AKA Hipfest 2018

Wednesday, January 17

Departure day.  Is there any sadder day?  Especially when you only have a few hours of sleep?  Well, the thought had crossed my mind to stay up and gamble until departure time, but I could use the nap.  We had planned on a 5:30 AM departure from The D, which should give us enough time to fill up the rental car, drop it off, take the shuttle to the airport, get through security, and get to the gate.  So I was up around 4:30 to shower and pack.  There was a bit of traffic on the highway as we made our way toward the car rental facility.  We felt a bit rushed, so I didn’t scout out cheap gas, and just filled up at the Sinclair down the block from the facility.  As I recall, gas there was around $3/gal, about 60c more than other places I had seen.  We were there at 6:05 AM, and dropped the car off at 6:20 AM.  Apparently everything checked out, and we were on our way to the airport.  After around a short 12 minute shuttle ride, we were at Terminal 1.  We went up to security and the lines were short.  I breezed though TSA Pre, and waited for Kip to clear.  We must have hit the right time, because after I got through, I saw many people were lined up to get through.

We walked down to our gate (all the way at the end), and I still needed to get some souvenirs for my daughter.  Yes, all that running around, and I didn’t pick up anything.  The Hudson News had a Hello Kitty with an “I love Las Vegas” t-shirt on, which I knew she would love (as I knew Kip would love as well, I bought two), and some bath bombs.  I was going to grab some breakfast, but the line at Burger King was a bit long, so I just got a sandwich at the shop next door (Market Place).  I got back to the gate so Kip could go out and do anything she needed to do before take-off.

The gate area didn’t look too crowded, and we took window/aisle seats near the back.  There were plenty of seats, so we had the open middle seat (yay!).  I noticed the girl across the row from us had the super Southwest first class seat, with the whole row to herself (and she took advantage of this by leaning up against the bulkhead and resting her legs across the other seats).  We napped (or at least I did) shortly after take off and I awoke in time for drink service.  I got a coffee and orange juice to go with my sandwich and Kip got a hot tea and orange juice.  We talked about our trip, the fun, the wins, the losses, meeting people, things we didn’t get to do.  I pulled out some cards and we played a little Pai Gow poker to kill the rest of the flight.

A nice view over the Rockies. . .

We landed in cold Philadelphia around 3:48 PM, just slightly behind schedule.  We made our way to Ground Transportation and called for the shuttle.  It didn’t seem to take long, and soon we were at the facility.  Kip had made a reservation and there was a 10% discount and an AAA discount, we had figured they wouldn’t take both, but we tried, but in the end, she only applied one discount. Still, $66.68 for a week’s worth of parking wasn’t too bad.

Now you’d think our gambling trip was over, but no, it wasn’t.  Since we were arriving around rush hour, and I still had to take Kip home, I suggested that I could either spend the night at her place, or we could get a room in Atlantic City.  Hmm, which do you think we did?

During the flight, our friend in the area asked what our plans were for dinner, and we had none.  We were on the road to Atlantic City, when I suggested we could actually meet Bob for dinner near Philly, so he wouldn’t have to come out to AC.  There is a nice brewery/restaurant that we like, so I suggested we meet there.  Although Kip’s GPS took us to some sort of industrial area, I managed to get us back on track and to the restaurant, just around the time Bob arrived, a little before 6 PM.

We had another good meal here. I got a cup of the seafood bisque and the North Atlantic salmon (even though I wasn’t too thrilled with the sides, it was pretty good). I also got one of their craft beers, the Chewbocka, which was good.

Seafood bisque.

Chewbocka.

North Atlantic Salmon

After dinner, we parted ways with Bob and headed to Atlantic City, last stop, the Tropicana arriving around 9 PM.  We were able to park on the bridge level (meaning we didn’t have to take stairs or elevator). The Tropicana parking garage is one of the worst, not just because of the layout, but because a majority of the people feel the need to take up two (sometimes three!) spaces.  The spaces are a bit tight, but that’s no reason to hog up two spaces.  I fit my Ford Freestyle in just fine, people!

Kip had booked the room, and we had a nice room in the North Tower, almost completing the cycle of hotel towers for me (they just recently added the Chelsea Tower). The room was quite different from the other room towers I’ve been in there.  It was very “creamsicle” orange and white.  It was a decent sized room, but there was some unutilized space. They could have put a small, thin table by one of the beds, and the chair and side table seemed a bit crowded in the spot it was in. The bathroom was large though, as was the shower.

So, we didn’t want to lose our hard earned winnings in AC, so we decided to take just $300 each to gamble. We played some Five Joker Wild, one of the better games there. Even though I hit four jokers (for 250 credits) and a wild royal for 100, I still managed to lose around $100. Kip lasted a little longer, but lost as well. We tried a shot on the $1 8/5 BP TP, which we were under bankrolled for and didn’t even get a full house (as I recall). We tried a slot shot on $1 Top Dollar, but we didn’t even get a bonus round after losing $50. We took the other $50 and lost that on $1 9/5 JoB.  We wandered around a bit.  We discovered that the 10 North Lounge only comps well drinks for Copper card holders betting at least $1. We headed back up to the room a bit dejected. . .

One joker short.  I actually hit the five jokers last February for $5,033.92!

The D housekeeping:  $5 tip (each)

Sinclair Gas:  $11.86 (Kip)

EZ Car Rental:  $92.47

Market Place:  $9.73

Hudson News:  $43.28

Colonial Parking shuttle:  $3 (Kip)

Colonial Parking:  $66.68

Drink tips:  $7

Day 8 - 2018 Las Vegas Winterfest, AKA Hipfest 2018

Tuesday, January 16

Here we are, last full day in Vegas, where did the time go?  We were originally planning on driving up to Valley of Fire and doing some hiking, but my back had been bothering me the whole trip, and somehow during our walk around town on Thursday, I developed a blister on my toe, so hiking seemed out of the question.  Plus we had The D play to do, plus we had laundry to do!  We didn’t have a good time to do it over the weekend, and we spent too much time running around on Monday, so we had to fit that in for sure!

I woke up around 8ish and went to the shower.  While I was in there, I realized that I had forgotten to check in for our flight tomorrow!  Afterwards, I immediately went on the Southwest app and checked in, B43, not too bad.  I immediately texted Kip and she said she had forgotten too, but even after we checked in about an hour and a half after check in began, she was B47.  We figured the flight would not be too full.

We were going to have breakfast at The D Grill, since we both had comps there.  Before heading over, we checked out the video poker at the Vue Bar, since we heard stories that they had removed the good games.  Rumors of their demise were greatly exaggerated, and we found the 8/5 BP Progressive still there, and now in new shiny machines!  Happy day!

We headed to The D Grill around 10:30 and got seated.  Kip said there was someone she knew from one of the old boards and they were having breakfast there as well.  Turns out, they were sitting just across the room from us!  He came over and joined us and we had a nice talk.  He was going out couponing, but if we had time, he’d catch back up with us in the evening.  Breakfast came to $37.32, which Kip used her $25 food comp, plus the $5 we got at check in, and used comps for the rest.  I left an $8 tip.

More steak and eggs!

Mini meet with Dave!

We got seated at the Vue Bar, and the new machines were really nice, and fast!  No sticky buttons and the screen was nice and clear.  Unfortunately, we did not hit the progressive royal, which was around $1,215, but Kip did hit a straight flush for $144.75, and I followed up with one for $88.75.  But despite hitting 5 quads (no bonus) and that straight flush, I still ended up down $100.  Kip had a decent run, hitting 4 regular quads (with an average payout of $36.25), two bonus quads, and the straight flush, and cashed out up $80.

My straight flush!

Jacques favorite bar top!

Around 4:30 PM, we decided to go do our wash.  There is a place just down the street called, “Busy Bee.”  I had used their fluff and fold service a few years ago when I was downtown, but Kip wanted to do our laundry ourselves. I also needed to run to the credit union to make that deposit, so we started our laundry and I ran out while Kip stayed. It only took around 30 minutes round trip to get out to North Las Vegas and back, and the Credit Union was open, so I made the deposit inside (also since there was a line for the ATM). The teller told me that they would be moving in a few weeks, and I told her that didn’t matter to me, since I was from out of town.

Afterwards, we headed back to The D to finish up our play.  Eventually Dave joined us at the bar and we were all playing, drinking, and having a good time.  We were thinking about dinner, and Kip’s friend told her he was going to come by and we were going to Andiamo’s.  I had mentioned that in our plans, that we could go there if we were running well, which we were.  Kip had another good run, she hit 5 regular quads (averaging $33.50) and three bonus quads (no aces though).  I only mustered two regular quads (at $39.50) and two bonus quads.  I ended about even and Kip was up.  We played a little more until Kip’s friend arrived and we went to Andiamo’s around 10:20.

There were a lot more of these, like on the first day. . .

Now, they close at 11:00, so our service seemed a bit hurried, but we had an excellent meal.  I had the lobster bisque and the rib eye.  We also ordered truffle fries, just because.  I’m not sure what the total bill was, but Kip’s friend had comps to cover most of it, I had a $25 comp to throw in and tried to use my $5 comp, but that was only good at The D Grill.  We were going to try to use comps on our player’s cards, but the system wouldn’t accept the transaction, so we had to come out of pocket for the remainder.

Lobster bisque

Rib eye!

Truffle fries.

It was late, so we got our Free Play from the ACG/LVA coupon we used.  Apparently there are different parameters for the coupons; the LVA is only good for that gaming day, whereas the ACG coupon was good for 24 hours. Interesting.  We had played 650 points, which meant that we had $65 in Free Play, plus the FP from our offers ($30 and $40). Although Kip did have an issue when she went to the booth, the person there told her she didn’t have 650, even though the machine told her that she did.  Eventually, the person gave her the slot play for 650. When I went down a few minutes later, the person agreed with my total, and told me that a woman who was just there had an issue with her play.

We can’t use the FP on the bartops, but there is a separate 8/5 BP progressive by the sportsbook, so we went there.  Kip proceeded to hit aces and I hit two quads and we cashed out tickets for $150 and $200!  Yay free play!

We still had our match plays to use, but we decided only to use the ones from our monthly offer, which we split on roulette and won/lost.  I was going to put a straight up bet on some numbers, but didn’t get my money out in time, and of course, it would have hit.

It was around 2 AM, and we had an 8:05 AM departure time, so it was going to be another short night!

The D Grill:  $8 tip

Drink tips:  $16

Busy Bee laundry:  $5.50

Andiamo’s:  $34, tip unknown

Day 7 - 2018 Las Vegas Winterfest, AKA Hipfest 2018

Monday, January 15

Aw, our last moving day! Kip got up relatively early to go with TB to Popcorn Girl and Gelatology. (They know the owner, and she opened up especially for them, since she’ll be leaving for Chicago shortly.)  I thought about going, but decided to stay at the Silverton.

I called for a host to check about my room charge and was told that a host wouldn’t be on duty until noon. What? Oh well. I head down to the slot club and asked the person if they do discretionary comps, or was it all based on points. She responded with, “What?” I then asked if there was a host I could speak with. She said their office is by the front desk and that someone should be there. It was about 11:30, and I told her I was told no one would be there until noon, but she reassured me that someone was there. I get to the front desk and ask about a host and they tell me that no one is there. I say I’ll be checking out today and wanted to see if I could get my room charge comped. She took my information and said she’d give the request to a host. I asked that someone call me to confirm and she took my number.

I finish packing and go down to the bar to play a little and say goodbye to the bartenders. They were very nice. (Did I mention that before?) I got another Bailey’s and coffee and tried some more BP. It wasn’t going well, but after putting in $80 total, I hit a quad and managed to cash out for $45.

Just before noon (checkout time), I get a text from Kip asking me where I am (she’s in the room). I say I’ll be right up and since it’s a small hotel, I’m there shortly and we take our bags out to the car.

Now when I arrived, I saw they had a machine that I had seen on Videopoker.com: Super Draw 6-card Poker. For a double bet, you get a sixth card on the draw to complete your hands. Plus there are additional six card hand payouts. We played some 9/6/4 DB at nickels and put in $20 each. We got some play out of it, getting the six card hands up to the 150 six card flush. We had a few nice draws with a dealt full house, so if we hit a quad, we’d get a nice 1500 coin payout, and even two three of a kinds would pay 250, but we didn’t hit those. We were close to even, but we gambled and lost.  It was fun though.

We head out of Silverton. Hopefully we’ll get some decent offers for the summer. I had to stop by the Post Office to drop off my 2017 estimated tax payments, since they were due today, and then we headed to Ellis Island. Kip had never been to Ellis Island, and she didn’t know what she was missing. I was just there last summer, and I noticed that quite a bit was missing. A whole area of machines between the bar and where they have the karaoke was missing! Well, they weren’t exactly “missing.” There were machines in the parking garage and where the cashier used to be. They’ve apparently moved the cashier closer to the Village Pub & Café (which is better than calling it, “The Restaurant”).  These included the slant top NSUD and other good games (like 9/6 JoB and Shockwave). I inquired at the player’s club about this, and he said that they were remodeling and were going to move the pit (which consists of like 6 tables) over there and filling in the current pit with the machines. Hopefully they keep their decent games. We checked the remaining machines, and most were not good. They even had a horrible version of what they called, “Bonus Poker,” but the bonus was a slightly inflated quad payout (for all quads, there wasn’t a separate payout for aces, and deuces to fours).  We did find some 8/5 BP machines, which was also on a progressive for DDB (for the aces and kicker and the royal). I discovered that these were individual progressives, so I checked the machines and there was one around $1,700, one at $1,500, and one at $1,400, the rest were around $1,000 - $1,200. We decided to take a shot on the progressives, so Kip sat at the $1,700 and I sat at the $1,500, which were catty corner across from each other.

We put in $20 to play for the ACG (play $10 and get up to $100 in FP) and LVA (play $10 and get $10-$100 in FP) coupons.  Kip also got a chance for $5-$500 in FP for $5 play as a new member, and we both had the play $5 and get a T-shirt. So during our play, I hit a quad (5s) and cashed out at $85. Kip did okay, and cashed out at $28.75. We went back to the slot club and got our free play loaded up and went to the kiosk. After the spin and picking the chip, I got a total of---$20! Oh joy. Kip got the same thing. I think one time I did get $25 in FP, but yeah, I’m sure it’s weighted to get the minimum. Well, free play is free play, so we head back to the progressives, but someone is playing the $1,700 one, so I say we could both play on the one at $1,500. We’re just going to play off the FP, so I’m counting hands for Kip as she plays. On the 16^th hand, she hits quad nines, which we are excited about. Then two hands later, she is dealt Qs-Ks-Js-As-X. We chant, “Ten of Spades, Ten of Spades, Ten of Spades” and then she presses the button.  It takes a moment for us to realize that the Ten of Spades has materialized on the last spot.  OMG! Another royal! And this one is for $1,542.50! The machine goes off and we go crazy. I get my phone and take a video recording of the jazz song, but in my excitement while waiting for the hand pay, I deleted it, to apparently be lost forever. I’ll have to get another chance to get a good recording of this song. . . But while we are waiting, there a woman behind us who goes on about how they took all sorts of taxes out of her hand pay and it took them like an hour to pay here and how we’ll just give it all back.  We were just like, go away. Another guy stands next to me, and I thought he was going to ask for a handout, when I noticed that he has a jacket with, “SECURITY” on it. He said he was waiting for the guy to pay us.  He then tells us that he hadn’t seen a royal flush before. I found that odd. We eventually got paid and she had to finish off her free play.  So, for $20 in, she cashed out $8.75 + $67.50 + $1,542.50, the last two payouts on Free Play!  Me? Well me? Well, I figured we didn’t need to play on that machine, since someone reset the progressive, so we went over to the one at $1,400.  I did not have that luck, but I did cash out a ticket for $32.50.

Ten of Spades, Ten of Spades, Ten of Spades. . .

While I was playing off my FP, the attendant came up to Kip and asked if she wanted to take a quick survey and she did.  One of the questions was, “What would make you come back to Ellis Island?” She said, this was her first time here, and she’s only been in the casino for about 15 minutes!

It was lunch time, well it was after lunch time, and winning makes you hungry (as well as not eating breakfast), so we went to the Village Pub & Café. I was going to use the coupon from the kiosk for the $7.99 steak special, but we wouldn’t be able to use the LVA 2-1 coupon. After doing the math, I paid full price for the steak special and we used the coupon. I usually get the prime rib special, but the steak special was nice. Kip got fish and chips, which she said was nice, although a bit bready. The base bill was $22.98, plus $1.90 in tax, but with the coupon, that took $10.81 off, making the total $14.07. Since Kip was the big winner, I suggested that lunch was on her, and she obliged, leaving $20.

Salad

Steak special

We also had four match plays to do.  Since Kip doesn’t like table games (and there weren’t many there to play), we just did roulette.  This time we did decided to halve our coupons intentionally, and the first spin, Kip won.  Now, I’m not sure how long the dealer had been dealing, but she proceeded to pay Kip her winning bet, and then attempted to pay me my losing bet.  The pit boss was right behind her (I’m assuming she was relatively new) and asked what she was doing.  I was wondering what she was doing as well, and I would have said that my bet actually lost, but the pit boss was there to clear that up. If she did pay me, that would have been the first time I’d have seen a payout for both red AND black. At least green didn’t come up. We tried some straight up numbers as well, and didn’t win, so we took a color up for $60 total for a $20 loss overall.

We then headed to Tuscany, getting there around 4:50. We had never been there before, and I thought there was a decent coupon there (turns out there wasn’t, earn 300 points, get $10 free slot play).  I also thought they had a new player promo, they didn’t.  We should have left then, but we decided to check it out.  The casino looks very nice, as does the exterior.  Our trip to the slot club was pretty efficient, we got a little coupon book, nothing of great value (but the ACG says it’s, “a good little Fun Book with some nice coupons in it including match plays, food discounts, FREE gifts and comp deals.”  I didn’t see any match plays. I found it neither good, nor fun.

In any event, VPFree2 said the best game was 9/7/5 DB Prog at the bars (99.11%). We set up at one bar and for the first 10 minutes we were there, no one asked us if we wanted anything. There was a bartender down the bar talking and a bartender about ten feet away from us talking and another one came and was talking, but no one was talking to us! Our $20 went pretty quickly and we were going back to the slot club when someone finally asked us if we wanted anything, to which we said no, we were just leaving.

Back at the slot club, I felt it was too easy to get that 300 points, and, as I suspected, they were running a 6x point multiplier day, so we needed to play a bit more, like a lot more.  We didn’t want to go back to that bar, but we didn’t find any other bars.  We went into the Pub 365 when I saw they had VP there.  They had the same game, so we sat down.  We figured since it was a separate “bar” that they wouldn’t comp drinks for play, and the bartender said they could do drafts or well drinks.  Kip asked for a Bailey’s and coffee and was told that would be a “specialty drink” and not comp-able.  She ended up getting a plain coffee (which she said wasn’t that good) and I got nothing.  They do have a nice beer list (if you’re willing to pay), including Founder’s Kentucky Breakfast Stout on tap!  Our bad vide continued at these machines. We both lost an additional $40 each. I checked my points and we were around 150. I decided that we ought not to continue to try to get $10 in FP, plus we just had a bad overall vibe here, so we left.  It’s a shame, because we both did like the property. Perhaps we’ll have a different vibe the next time we come here.

If you want KBS on tab, you can find it here (for now). . .

Kip asked if we were going to Hooters, since I knew they did have a new member promo, plus there were a few coupons there (ACG play $10, get $10, and ACG $10 MP).  It wasn’t far away, so we stopped by, getting there around 6ish. They are also running a $1M Dare Devil spin, where you get a free spin to try to win $1M and other assorted prizes. You also earned another spin at 250 points, and Kip got a new member offer where she earned $10 free play for every 250 in points (I think that was the deal). In any event, we were playing 9/5 JoB instead of the 99.11% 9/7/5 DB since we lost at Tuscany and we wanted to go less volatile. We played our $10 and both cashed out at $15. We then took our $10 FP and both cashed out at $12.50. We then played a bit more so Kip could get more Free Play and the additional spin. On our first spins, Kip won a shot glass and I won a Krispy Kreme doughnut (with a purchase of a small coffee). On Kip’s second spin, she was the doughnut as well.

Congratulations!  You won a doughnut!  *(with purchase)

This free play session was not as good as the one at Ellis Island (which would be hard to top anyway), and we ended up losing.  While doing this review, I noticed that we failed to use the LVA play $10, get $10 in Free Play (lost EV), although we will probably be back, I’m not sure we’ll go out of our way to redeem this.  Sadness. . .

We still had our MPs, so we did roulette again.  The one table was a bit crowded, but eventually we were able to get to the table.  The guy in the middle was leaving and as he was taking his chips to go, another guy mentioned that he needed to cash out the roulette chips at the table (rookie mistake).  We did our red/black split and did not hit a zero.  Kip played her $5 MP from her new member bonus and lost that, so we left the table with a small loss.

I wanted to make a deposit at the local Navy Federal CU, but the ATM wouldn’t accept deposits (must have been full due to the holiday), so we headed to our last hotel stop, The D.  We arrived there around 9:45 PM.  The parking garage is not one of my favorites, where the first 6 floor are reserved for valet, we ended up parking on the 8^th floor.  We got down to the lobby and checked in together, asking if we could get connecting or rooms close together.  We got rooms 716 and 718, which were next to each other, but not connecting.  Oddly enough, our rooms connected with other rooms.  Oh well, not a big deal.

Waiting for the light to change seemed like a good time to take a picture. . .

Hey, the best view of our trip!

We didn’t want to open up a play day at The D so late, so we decided to go to Main Street Station to take advantage of the 6x points on VP.  We got there around 11:25 PM and I asked when the multiplier ended.  The person at the booth said midnight.  I then asked when the gaming day ended, and she said, “What?” Hmm. It used to end at 3 AM or so, but she gave me the impression that it now ended at midnight. Oh well, we were here and were going to play, so we set up at the Boar’s Head Bar, one of our favorite bars to play.

Panda lantern for the Lantern Festival  *(I found the link)

Black Chip porter at Boar's Head Bar at Main Street Station!

We both put in $40 at 50c 9/6 JoB and did pretty well.  I hit four quads, including some FU aces (our term now when we hit aces on non-bonus machines), and Kip hit three (the last quad we hit almost simultaneously). We both cashed out up over $200, so it was a pretty good session. Our bar service was not outstanding, but the microbrews are always good. Our seven scratch cards gave us an additional $14 dollars, yay!

Since we were there, I had to play the Pay the Aces machine that our friend showed me a few years ago.  Last year, I got three aces on the deal with no faces for a nice 250 coin payout.  We had no such luck this time, but I did hit a quad and cashed out for $60 on my $20 buy in, plus a $2 scratch card.

I then had to take a shot on the 50c 8/5 BP Progressive, where I hit my first royal in Las Vegas back in 2008, and follow up with another one on the exact same machine in 2010. I sat at the same machine, but unfortunately did not hit a royal, or any quads for that matter, and that was that. Looking back, I see we never had dinner. . . We headed back to The D to prepare for our last full day in Las Vegas. . .

Silverton Housekeeping:  $5 tip

Village Pub & Cafe:  $14.07, plus $5.93 tip

Jackpot tips:  $15

Drink tips:  $7

Day 6 - 2018 Las Vegas Winterfest, AKA Hipfest 2018

Sunday, January 14

Is it possible that our trip is already half over?  Where did all the time go?  Anyway, Kip deemed today, “Day – of – Winning” (ala Wheel-of-Fortune).  I’m not sure how we could top the Day of Recovery, but I’m sure we’ll try.  It was actually a Day – of – Drinking, as we had the Bellini Brunch and the Twin Creeks Happy Hour on the plans.

We got up and talked about the day and the trip and just things in general.  I mention this now, but this was something that we did every day, morning and night. We do like to talk. We’d get up relatively early with plans to do things, but we would sit in the room and talk for a few hours and then we’d be behind our mythical schedule.

So, Kip has this thing for Multi-Strike. It is the Devil’s game, but they do have an 8/5 BP version here, so at least it is “full-pay.” We give it a shot, but unfortunately we don’t hit any quads anywhere and soon bust out. And the crazy thing is that it takes $4 to earn a point on this highly volatile game! In any event, I show her where the multi-denomination 8/5 BP machines are and we have a short session before brunch.  We have a nice chat with the bartenders and get some Bailey’s and coffee (something I couldn’t get at B Bar at Borgata in Atlantic City, because they don’t serve hot drinks at the bar) while we’re playing. It was a horrible session for me, where I hit ZERO quads. Kip was doing well, hitting two regular and one bonus quad for an even session. (I lost $50.) It’s around 12:15, and the brunch ends at 3:00, so we head over.  We were expecting a line, but there wasn’t one and we get in relatively quickly. I use my $25 comp, but the total was around $30-something, so I end up using some points for the difference. I also used this time to clear my $150 Free Play, which I ended up taking $100 back in cash. Not the result I was hoping for, but at least it was something. . .

One of our friendly bartenders with Jacques!

I have had the Bellini Brunch for the past three years and actually stumbled (so to speak) on it by accident. A friend of mine and I were there on a Saturday after being at Red Rock Canyon and were heading to South Point. I knew the buffet was decent after eating there the year before, plus there’s an ACG 2-1 coupon. It was only after we were done eating and saw people with drinks that we began to inquire and discovered the free Bellinis! Last year, I discovered that instead of Sat and Sun, it was just Sun, so I’ve made the adjustment in my plans to come here (unless I find something better).

The buffet isn’t like Bacchanal, but it’s a good, solid buffet. They have plenty of things I enjoy, and, oh, did I mention the Bellinis? They had (based on a photo two years ago) Sunrise (like a tequila sunrise), Peach, Pomegranate, Mimosa, Raspberry, and Mango. I started off with a raspberry and then got a sunrise, and then another sunrise.  Kip tried the Mango, which she didn’t like, but she did like the sunrise, and had another one of those (or two).

Double fisting is the only way to try all of the Bellinis!

Raspberry Bellini and food!

And dessert. . .

And more food!

After brunch, we had some time to kill before TB would arrive to take us to Ethel M’s so he could pick up some chocolate, and then over to Popcorn Girl’s for popcorn (duh).  We had a short session at the Shady Grove Bar, where Kip hit 50c quad 3s and I hit ZERO. Kip again ended up even while I took another $50 loss.

We headed over to Ethel M’s, which had been on my list of things to do, but hadn’t gotten around to it.  We didn’t watch the chocolate factory much, but went out and enjoyed the cool weather and walked around the cactus garden. It wasn’t dark enough, but we noticed they still had their Christmas lights up.  I guess we should have come back to see it, but we didn’t. We headed over to Popcorn Girl, but we just missed them by about 5 minutes. They were already closed.  Sadness. . .

Superb Penstemon (that's what the sign said)

Hedgehog Cactus

Rabbit Ears cactus

Purple Pancake Cactus

Saguaro Skeleton Cactus sign

Saguaro Skeleton Cactus

We got back to Silverton and had some time to kill before the Twin Creeks Happy Hour started, so we finished up play at Shady Grove Bar. I finally hit a quad, but Kip hit four, including two bonus quads, and finally ACES! She hit them just as the Vikings-Saints game ended, with me yelling, “Noooo!” as I watched the Vikings score and then yelling, “Yessss!” when Kip showed me four beautiful aces! Continuing the theme, I took a $50 loss, while Kip had a $100 win. We headed to Twin Creeks. . .

It was quite crowded when we arrived at 5:30 (the HH started at 5:00), but we squeezed the three of us at a table designed for two. This was where we were going to blow out my $75 comp, and we ordered several dishes:  Bacon Wrapped Shrimp, Calamari, Chophouse Sliders, Goat Cheese & Crab Fondue, and Lobster & Sweet Pea Risotto. We also ordered two of their fancy cocktails. (TB got a beer.) I believe Kip got the Rye Old Fashion and I got The Smokin’ Sazerac. It was good, not great. The food was good though. We got a bit of attitude from our server, when Kip asked if the drinks were good, she said that they were all good, since she created them. Well. . .

The Happy Hour menu

The Smokin' Sazerac

Bacon Wrapped Shrimp

Calamari

Chophouse Sliders

Goat Cheese & Crab Fondue

Lobster & Sweet Pea Risotto  *People have told me it looks like it is in a toilet bowl.  Yeah, kinda. . .

Strawberry Blossom

Anyway, we calculated that we still had around $20 or so to get to $75, so Kip and I ordered two more drinks, I got the Strawberry Blossom, which was good, and Kip got the Frambuli. So, when the bill arrived and I went to use my comp, she said that the comp wasn’t good for happy hours (it said so on the comp ticket). Well, we could either save the comp and pay the total in cash, or use the comp on the full price of the bill. Since we were leaving tomorrow, I said it didn’t make sense not to use it, we wouldn’t be able to spend that much on breakfast tomorrow, so we took the $75 off the full price, which left $54.13 for us to pay in cash. We divided that up and left around a $20 tip.

Kip and TB were going to go to Gelatology, but I still had “work” to do.  I asked if they could bring one back for me and after perusing the menu online, I asked for the Froot Loops gelato.  I settled in on some 50c 8/5 BP at the bar and dropped $100 fast, even after drawing an inside straight flush.  I put in another $100 and got a dealt SF and then a regular quad and cashed out up $20 for the session.  Finally, a winning session!

Hard to believe I ended up losing this!

I love the easy decision holds!

Yay, quads!

Kip arrived back with my gelato, which I ate at the bar while playing. It was very good, tasted just like Froot Loops! Even with Kip hitting aces again, and two other quads, I only hit 3s early, and we both had losing sessions. I said enough of that; it’s time for some “fun play.”

Froot Loops gelato.  Tastes like it, and has actual Froot Loops in it!

We started with a Golden Egypt slot. We put in a $20 and after a while, we cashed out at $18. I said we should at least get a bonus, so we put the ticket back in and had to put in another $20 before we got a bonus game.  It was a decent round, and we cashed out a ticket for $48.35. During this time, a man behind us hit a hand pay for around $2,500. He must have been a regular, because they knew him and he asked for it all in a check. He was talking with us about the slots and was rooting for us when we finally hit the bonus round. He was telling us about the jackpots he’d hit and pointed at several machines and telling us about the bonuses and what not. We both wished each other good luck as we moved on.

We saw a slot called “Star Rise,” which looked interesting. There was a huge progressive, but when we started, we noticed that the progressive was less, but then we realized that the progressives were based on the bet size. Well, we were betting the minimum, and if we hit for $500 or so, that would be fine. It was one of those 1024 (or whatever) ways to win, so we didn’t have to line up the symbols, just get them on the reels. We managed to hit a mini for around $7.00 and then we hit a nice line pay with an expanded reel for like $42. We had two of those hits and cashed out at $100.39, up $52.04.

Kip couldn’t help herself as we saw an Invaders from the Planet Moolah machine. I reluctantly put in our voucher and starting spinning. Things weren’t going well, and then we got a nice line pay. We never got a bonus, but when we were up, I cashed us out at $101.34, up 95c!

We gave the 5c Wheel Poker Triple Play a chance, playing the short BP quick quads.  There are some quick quad holds that you do, and we had one where we had 8-8-8-6-4.  I said we would hold the 6, since we could draw the 8 or the 2s to make the quad, whereas the 4 had one fewer out.  The woman next to us overhead us talking and said that we could always hit a natural quad.  Yes, but this is quick quads, so we could draw the 8 or something to make eight, and we had the six.  It was nice when the first card on the bottom line was a 2, giving us the quick quad.  We got a few quads, but not great spins.  We did manage to cash out at $112.70, making our fun play profit $72.74. We then called it a night. . .

Seasons Buffet:  $10 tip, plus $4 drink tips

Twin Creeks:  $54.13, plus $20 tip

51/49 raffle:  $20

Drink tips:  $10