Hipfest III - Final tally

So, here's the tally for my trip:

Transportation:

Airfare:
Outbound:  01/24:  Southwest PHL-BNA-LAS:  $5.60 (flight booked with points)
Inbound:  01/29:  Frontier LAS-PHL:  $19.85 ($100 flight credit, plus $4.55 and $15.30 additional)

     Total Airfare:  $25.45

It could have been less if I downgraded my Frontier flight, but if I knew that flight was going to be so empty, I wouldn't have upgraded to the stretch seat.


Ground Transportation:
Work to Colonial Airport Parking, Lester, PA:  Approximately 137 miles (x 57.5c/mi = $78.78)
Tolls:  $12.00
WAX bus from airport to downtown:  $2.00
WAX bus from downtown to airport:  $2.00
Dollar Car Rental:  $66.09 (1.5 days, $33.05)*
Gas:  $9.00* ($4.50)
5 days parking:  $45.21

Colonial Airport Parking, Lester PA - Voorhees, NJ - Home:  Approximately 195 miles (x 57.5c/mi = $112.13)

Tolls:  $9.00

Gas:  $27.25

     Total Ground Transportation:  $325.92

So here's where flying out of PHL gets me.  For gas, tolls, and parking, that's $93.46, but if you factor in mileage at the Government reimbursable rate, that adds $284.37.  Not much of a savings if I flew from IAD or DCA, I think.  But, I got to fly back with my friend (although we didn't sit together), and I enjoyed a free dinner with my friends.  Alternatively, I could have taken the Amtrak up to Philadelphia, but I think it worked out best by me driving.

*Rental car and gas in Las Vegas was split between Kip and I.

***  Edited note:  Bob pointed out to me that the reimbursable rate includes gas (and tolls as I discovered), so those amounts shouldn't be totaled together.  I wasn't really sure how to quantify my travel time in relation to the cost to get to PHL.  But, as I related to Kip, there is also the factor of time in the inconvenient itineraries for the flights between DCA or IAD and LAS (one included an overnight layover in DEN).  Without gas and tolls, the travel "amount" comes to $190.91, plus the $25.45 airfare comes to $216.36, which would probably be close to a decent round trip flight from the Washington DC Metropolitan area.

Lodging:

4 nights, Golden Gate suite:  $0

1 night, Wynn:  $0

     Total Lodging:  $0

I got the 4 nights comped through my monthly offers.  I redeemed 2,900 gems for a two doubles room at Wynn from the Wynn Slots app.  I paid no resort fees.

Food:

01/24:  Lunch:  Chickie's & Pete's, PHL:  $23.49

Something to eat before I got on the plane.

01/25:  Lunch:  The D Grill:  $0 (actual price $35.96)

01/25:  Dinner:  Andiamo:  $0 (actual price $99.71)

Both lunch and dinner were for three.  Scott chipped in $7 comp for Lunch, and my monthly comp offers covered everything else.  The tip was left by Scott and Kip.

01/26:  Breakfast:  Magnolia's, Four Queens:  $0 (actual price $26.51)

01/26:  Dinner:  Top of Binion's Steakhouse:  $0 (actual price $123.96 w/o tax)

I redeemed 2,000 crowns from the Four Queens Slot app for a $25 comp at Magnolia's.  I redeemed 10,000 hats from the Binion's Slot app for a $100 comp at Top of Binion's Steakhouse, where I was also able to use the 25% off LVA coupon.  Although both apps give you a QR code, I had to go to each slot club to get a printed comp voucher.

01/27:  Dinner:  The Buffet at Wynn:  $0 (actual price $89.98 w/o tax)

I redeemed 2,400 gems from the Wynn Slots app for a buffet for two.  I had already booked a buffet for the next day, but I had no issue cancelling that one and booking this one (you cannot have more than one buffet comp per day).  Redemption was easy, I just showed the confirmation on my phone to the buffet cashier.  The only trouble was the cashier reading the small print!

01/28:  Brunch:  Market Street Cafe, California:  $8.66 (actual price $16.65)

01/28:  Dinner:  The Buffet at Wynn:  $0 (actual price $89.98 w/o tax)

The Market Street Cafe meal was the only one I ended up paying cash.  If Boyd didn't wipe out my comps, I would have used those.  We did use the 2-1 LVA coupon for this meal.

I redeemed 2,400 gems from the Wynn Slots app for a buffet for two, which I booked this morning.

01/29:  Dinner:  Iron Hill Brewery and Restaurant, Voorhees, NJ:  $0

I was fortunate that my friend Bob had accumulated comps for this meal.  I left $10 as part of the tip.

     Total Food:  $32.15

So, we missed a few meals, but we powered through. . .

Drinks:

01/27:  The Laundry Room:  $64.00 for drinks (4), $24 in tips.

A really cool speakeasy bar inside Commonwealth.  Reservations are required.  Seems all the drinks are $16, including the personally crafted ones.  I highly recommend this place!

01/28:  Golden Tiki:  $0 (tab picked up by Kip)

We were there for happy hour, which includes some discounted drinks.  I only had one, since I was driving, hence Kip picked up the tab.

01/28:  Parasol Up/Down:  $35 for drinks (2), $8 in tips.

Since we did well, we treated ourselves to cocktails and a great view of the Lake of Dreams show.  I just had a neat Woodford, but Catherine enjoyed her cocktail, although she said it could be improved.  Could not beat the view we had (and we saw three shows), but next time, perhaps I'll get a cheaper beverage.

This doesn't include drinks/tips we had while gambling at The Vue Bar at The D, Prohibition Bar at Golden Gate, or Boar's Head Bar at Main Street Station.

     Total Drinks:  $99.00

Gambling:

Pretty simple.  Alone, I was probably around even, but with the Joint Venture with Kip, I won.  Sure, you might not like having a gambling partner (or partners), since all of your winnings will be divided among the group.  HOWEVER, all of your losses will be divided too.  What you are doing is spreading the variance around, hopefully one person's losses is offset by another person's winnings, and that's what happened to me.  Kip hit two royals this trip, of which I was able to share 3/8ths (since they were reportable winnings), and that saved me.  We also had a combined $1,050 in match plays to use, so I figured we should come out ahead.

We also used coupons from the Las Vegas Advisor's Member Rewards Book (MRB) and the American Casino Guide (ACG).

The D:

$25 Match Play (ACG)

$25 Match Play (MRB)
$25 Match Play (show Southwest boarding pass within 48 hours (?))

$5 Free Play per 50 points, up to $100 (MRB) (we maxed this coupon out)

El Cortez:

Show Southwest boarding pass for a chance to win $10-$1,000 in Free Play, and a $25 Match Play

Four Queens:

$10 Free Play (MRB)

Double points, up to 500 points (ACG)

Fremont:

$10 Match Play (ACG)

Downtown Grand:

$10 Match Play (ACG)

Earn 25 points, get $10 in Free Play (ACG)

$5 - $50 Match Play (MRB)

Binion's:

Double points, up to 500 points (ACG)

$10 Free Play (MRB)

Golden Gate:

$25 MP (ACG)

$5 Free Play per 50 points, up to $100 (MRB) (we maxed this coupon out)

Ellis Island:

Play $10, get $10 in Free Play (ACG)

Play $20, get t-shirt (ACG)

$10 Match Play (ACG)

Play $10, get $10 in Free Play (MRB)

$10 Match Play (MRB)

There were a lot of coupons I didn't get to use this trip, so hopefully I'll use them later this year.  Kip and I played it "safe" on our match plays, betting red/black at the same time.  We know it's not the best mathematical play, but I know I hate just jumping in on a blackjack table to play one coupon.

So, overall it was a very enjoyable trip.  It seemed fast, with all of the planning we had, and we did change a few things on the fly, but we made some time for things we wanted to do (and discovered that some of the things we wanted to do were closed).

Let me know if you have any questions!

Hipfest III - Day Six

Wednesday, January, 29:

Just a few hours of sleep, and we're up and ready to go.

We get gas at the Arco a block away from the rental facility (instead of the gougy Sinclair across the street).  We drove 54 miles, and yet it took 3.216 gallons to fill the tank (apparently it wasn't "full" full, or the car get really bad gas mileage).

We're on the shuttle to the airport at 6:55 AM.  Kip hasn't checked in to the flight since she's waiting on a decent seat assignment.  Since I'm on the flight as well, but already have an assigned seat, I can see the seating, and it looks wide open.  Kip gets seat 8F, a window seat, she's happy she's not in the middle!

7:06 AM, we're at the airport at Terminal 3, and thanks to TSA Pre-check, I'm through by 7:15 AM.  It only takes Kip seven minutes longer.  We get to the gate, and it is hardly crowded, apparently there are only about 30 people on the flight!  I'm seated around 7:46 AM, and it seems we take off around 10 minutes early.

My crazy amount of leg room!

Good bye for now, Las Vegas.

I spent most of the flight sleeping, and we arrive to PHL early, around 3:38 PM.  We get my bag, and the parking shuttle is right outside.  Kip runs out to hold it while I get my bags together.  We're at Colonial Parking in no time.  I discover that my parking rate is a bit cheaper ($45.21) than I reserved ($52.97).

Hello, Philadelphia!

The battleship New Jersey!

Another view of Philadelphia.

Philadelphia's sports complex.

While we were on the shuttle, I suggested to Kip that I have dinner in the area, since it was rush hour, and perhaps we should see what our friend Bob was doing, and perhaps eat at Iron Hill Brewery.  When we land, I see we have a text from Bob, asking if we had dinner plans.  Great minds think alike!

I had to take Kip to Bob's place anyway, since that's where she parked her car during her trip.  It took around 30 minutes or so, and then we arrived at the restaurant around 5:20 PM.  Kip and I hadn't eaten since last night, so we were a bit hungry!  Kip just got an appetizer and a bowl of seafood bisque.  I ordered a cup, but apparently they gave my cup to Kip.  The waitress noticed the error and gave me a cup, and got Kip a refill.  I had a nice pan-seared top sirloin steak.  Bob had points for this restaurant which he kindly used for our meal (another comped meal!).

Pig Iron Porter!

Seafood bisque.

Pan-seared top sirloin.

We headed back to Bob's where we all said our goodbyes.  I still have a long drive ahead of me, and with one stop on the way, and another for gas when I got home, I finally arrived home around 12:30 AM.  It was a bit later than I wanted, since I had to go to work the next day!

Hipfest III - Day Five

Tuesday, January, 28:

Last full day in Las Vegas, and we had a lot to see.

As I recall, I was up a bit early, and we getting things ready to go.  Kip woke up a bit later and we worked out what we wanted to do in the morning.  Having breakfast was on the top of the list, so I showered and went down to check the progressive while she got ready.  No one hit it, it was at $1,265.39, but the straight flush was at $135.58.  I gave it a shot and at least hit a quad for $39.50.  Kip arrived and we sunk $120 chasing the RF/SF to no avail.

We headed over to California and Market Street Cafe.  They have a small breakfast buffet for $7.99, which includes coffee or tea.  I find it to be a good value, they have eggs, rice, potatoes, bacon, Portuguese sausage, corned beef hash, ham, biscuits and gravy, fresh fruit, and other selections.  Using the LVA 2-1 coupon, the total was $8.66.

Market Street Buffet breakfast items.

We went back to Golden Gate, checked out of the room, took our bags to the car and went back to check the progressive. The Royal Flush still hadn't been hit, it was at $1,281.71 (and the straight flush was $151.98).  We took one last shot, saw that someone hit the straight flush while we were playing and I managed to cash out up $60.36 and Kip was up $0.27.  We decided to move on, since we had places to go and things to see!  Twice during our play (uncarded), we were approached by slot attendants asking us if we wanted cards.  The first time, we said we weren't going to play much, and the guy was a bit persistent, and I said we didn't want to open a short play day.  He then got it and said that was advantage play, and as he walked away he said, "I never saw you".  The second woman was a bit more persistent, but I didn't outright say that we didn't want to track a short play day.  We just thanked her for asking.

The first stop was Palace Station for some Chinese New Year chips.  I couldn't find anything on the web regarding which casinos had them, so I went to the Chip and Token report from the Nevada Gaming Control Board website and discovered that three casinos had chips approved for Chinese New Year (Palace Station, Cosmopolitan, and Rampart).  I stopped at the first table I saw, an open roulette table and asked the dealer for a chip.  She said she hadn't heard of them.  Odd.  While I was verifying my information, I finally decided to go up to the cage and ask.  The attendant said, not only do they have one, they have two!  Since they were $5, I got both.

Kip saw they had Multi-Strike, so we decided to give it a shot at nickels.  We tried Joker Wild-Kings or Better, but that wasn't working, so we switched to Bonus Poker.  We did get on a little roll and decided to cash out with a profit of $12.80!

Next stop was Hard Rock, to take one last look since it would be closing at the end of the month.  They had a promotion for a free closing t-shirt for 1,000 points, which I was considering, but we didn't have time.  It was pretty empty there, but a nice stop.

Prince memorabilia

Tom Petty memorabilia

Our next stop was Ellis Island for some couponing there.  Last time Kip and I were there in 2018, it was her first time and she hit a Royal!  This time we had no such luck, we lost our free play chasing a $1,500 royal, and didn't hit a quad either.  Ah well. . .

Golden Tiki had a happy hour from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM, and we wanted to make sure we made one.  We got there around 4:45 PM.  I ordered the Blue Lagoon, Kip got two Scorpions.  We brought the leftover lobster mac and cheese from our dinner a few nights ago, and had in the refrigerator in our room at Golden Gate.  We snacked on that with our drinks.

Blue Lagoon!

Scorpion!

A free mini Dole whip!

We wanted to see the Lantern Garden Show at Fashion Show Mall at 6:00 PM, so we hastily left and headed to Wynn to park and walk over to the mall.  The show was at the Great Hall, which is just about the furthest part away from the Las Vegas Boulevard side, and apparently we missed it.  The security guard said that it was a short two minute show, and the lanterns just went up and down.  We might have been disappointed even if we saw it.

These lanterns were supposed to dance.

We walked back to Wynn and I went to check in, since we were close to the registration desk.  Self park is close to the elevators, so we got our bags, went to the room, left our bags, and headed to the buffet for another dinner (I booked dinner for tonight early this morning).

We got to the buffet around 7:00 PM, and this time there was quite a line.  I anticipated it to be around an hour, and I was pretty close (it was an hour and ten minutes before we were finally seated).  The night before, we were seated close to the buffet, but this time we had what the hostess called, "balcony seating", as the table overlooked the exterior hallway.  It was kinda neat, it certainly was interesting.  The food was pretty much the same, although I did get more desserts than I did last time.

Our "balcony" seating!

Our "balcony" seating!

More crab legs!

Those chicken & ginger pot stickers, spring roll, BBQ buns,
pork belly with hoison, and mac and cheese.

More ice cream!

We wanted to see the Lake of Dreams show, and I said that if we did well during the trip, we'd splurge and get cocktails at Parasol Up/Down and watch the show.  Since we did do well, that's what we did.  Kip got the Pear-a-sol, and I just got a Woodford.  We caught three shows while we were there, the shows were interesting, whimsical, and bizarre, but entertaining.  I wonder how many different shows there are. . .

Our view of the Lake of Dreams.

A look back at Parasol Up/Down

Kip's Pear-a-sol!

Kip enjoying her drink!

We still had a few more stops to go, so we left around 11:30 PM, and headed to Bellagio to check out the Conservatory.  We missed out on the fountain show, but took in the splendor of the Chinese New Year display at the Conservatory.  I've seen quite a few, and this one was among the best, in my opinion.

Bellagio Conservatory.

Bellagio Conservatory.

Bellagio Conservatory.

Bellagio Conservatory.

Bellagio Conservatory.

Bellagio Conservatory.

Our last stop was the MGM Grand, to check out their lobby. Not much in rats (the year of the rat), but lots of pandas.  Fortunately, the lobby is close to the self-park, so we were in and out pretty quickly.

MGM Lobby

MGM Lobby

MGM Lobby

MGM Lobby

We got back to Wynn and realized that we didn't look around at the displays at Wynn!  We took some time to walk around and take some photos there.

Chinese New Year decorations at Wynn

Chinese New Year decorations at Wynn

Chinese New Year decorations at Wynn

We tried some last shots at some slots, Kip lost at her choices, but I wanted to try Pinball, which I had done well on in the past, and I did well this time as well, getting us a little over our buy-in.  We then tried some video poker.  They don't have great games, but I wanted to try the Triple Wheel poker.  Since we were taking a shot, we played double double bonus.  We got a few bonus wheels, but no large wins.  We then got dealt three deuces, which got us a wheel spin, but we also had a chance to hit either 400 or 800 credits, but we couldn't fill a four-of-a-kind.  We did get 800 on the wheel spin (the second highest), and cashed out for a $20 overall win.

It was probably around 2:00 AM, and we had to get up for our 8:24 AM flight!

Hipfest III - Day Four

Monday, January, 27:

We had a relatively early morning, as we had to get in five hours of play at Golden Gate before we needed to head to the airport car rental facility to pick up the car we rented for the last days of our trip.

I got my $5 for 50 points (up to $100 FP) to the slot club around 11:00 AM and began play.  Again, my video poker luck was not too good, and it was two hours before I hit a quad, at least it was a bonus quad (2s).  I recorded several four-to-the-royal draws without any luck.  I did manage a queen-high straight flush for $108.50.  We finished up the 1,000 points with a combined loss of $168.90.

We headed to the bus stop to pick up the WAX to the airport at 4:31 PM.  We took the airport rental car shuttle and picked up the car around 5:33 PM.  The car was a Kia Optima, I got a rate of $66.09 for about a day and a half.

So, originally, we were planning on having dinner at Andiamo again, but I ended up using all of my monthly comps with the meal at Andiamo and The D Grill.  And since we are again p-p-paying for a meal, we decided to use my Wynn Slot app gems to have the buffet.  Problem was that I had already made a booking for the next night, since we would be staying there tomorrow.  But, since I could cancel that reservation without penalty, I did that and was able to book the buffet for this day (I made the booking early this morning).

We got to Wynn around 6:00 PM, and there was no line at the buffet.

Look, no line!!!

Redemption was easy, I just showed the cashier the confirmation on my phone and we were in.  I hadn't eaten at this buffet for over ten years, and I found to be good.  There was a lot of variety, but not many selections within those varieties (such as choices in the Chinese section, or vegetables).  I did enjoy the crab legs and shrimp.  The meats I had were tasty as well, and the ice cream was very good.

Crab legs and shrimp!

BBQ pork buns, Japanese fried rice, spring roll, chicken & ginger pot sticker.

Chicken noodle soup, various meats, mac and cheese, and fingerling potatoes.

Sugar cookie, oatmeal raisin cookie, chocolate dipped treats, and ice cream.

Kip's dessert selections.

We spent around two hours there, partly because since we were focused on getting in our play at Golden Gate, we skipped breakfast and lunch (!), but also because we were meeting Alicia, who was staying here, and take her to the airport.  We got back to Golden Gate around 9:00 PM, which was important, since we had 9:15 PM reservations at The Laundry Room for cocktails.

It was a quick 10 minute walk from Golden Gate to The Laundry Room (a speakeasy bar inside Commonwealth).  It seemed a bit strange when we got there and saw that Commonwealth was dark.  I sent them a text message to let them know we were there, but no one responded.  There was a guy at the front door and I told him I had a reservation at The Laundry Room.  He asked to see my confirmation and ID, and after that we were in.  Turns out, Commonwealth is closed on Mondays, so it was pretty strange sitting in the the dark, empty bar waiting.  They were a bit backed up, so we waited an additional 15 minutes before we were lead into the bar area.

They do not allow photography in the bar, so I don't have any to share, but the experience was excellent, as were the cocktails.  They give you a bowl of popcorn to snack on, but Kip didn't have any due to her dental issues and I was pretty much still stuffed from dinner.   They have a selection on a menu, but their specialty is to craft a cocktail based on your flavor profile (sweet, smokey, fruity, spirit forward, herbal, floral, etc).  I didn't get a crafted cocktail, but the ones I had were nice.  It is an intimate place, it probably seats around 30, eight at the bar, eight on a wall behind the bar, four at one table, and maybe six around a coffee table.  We had seats at the bar, so we could see the mixologist at work!  Kip was interested in the crafting and was asking questions.  She had a drink crafted for herself and told the mixologist that she nailed it.  When asked what the drink was crafted with, the mixologist replied, "with love".  And apparently no amount of coaxing was going to get the secret of her love. . .

We spent a few hours there, enjoying the cocktails and the atmosphere.  We talked with the hostess as we left, telling her how much we enjoyed the experience.  She let us know about another speakeasy bar (Sip'n'Tip, which is part of Downtown Cocktail Room), which I will be sure to check out on a future trip.

We headed back to Golden Gate to play my free play.  We played up at the Prohibition Bar, where our favorite bartender, Valeria was working.  We got a nice pour of 12 year Glenlivet Double Oak, which was very fine!  I hit aces (but not ACE$) playing ACE$ bonus poker, and cashed out for $275, making up for the loss during the play.

Valeria is awesome!

$EAC doesn't pay as well as ACE$.

We also had match plays to use ($200), but this time the session didn't go well.  I lost three double situations, one double on eleven where I got a three or four, and another where I split aces and got a three and four.  Sadness. . .

We were now finished with our "required" play and now the rest of our gambling would be for "fun".  We checked out the progressive, and it was $1,231.32, so we took a(nother) shot at it.  We both bought in for $25 and I lost, but Kip won $53.02, so we basically broke even.

We headed back to Main Street Station for another shot at Pay the Aces, No Faces, and Treasure Chest, but unfortunately, we had no luck at either.  No quads on Treasure Chest and no more than two aces on Pay the Aces.  Fortunately, we only took a $20 shot at each.

Kip needed a snack after the drinks, but we couldn't find a gift shop open.  We ended up going to the Subway at Plaza, since I knew if they were open (they're open 24 hours), they'd have chips.

We checked the progressives at Golden Gate one last time, and no one hit it, it was at $1,239.51.  We started with $40 buy-ins, but Kip made a few more buy-ins.  It was a horrible session, neither one of us it a quad (pretty much our worst session for the trip), although I "only" had a loss of $15, we had a total loss of $115.

Not how we wanted to end our night, but we had a big last day ahead of us. . .

Hipfest III - Day Three

Sunday, January, 26:

I think we set the alarm for around 9:30, but we both got up around 7ish, I believe.  We were planning a play day at Four Queens and Binion's, along with some couponing.

We got cleaned up and got to Four Queens around 10:00 AM.  I redeemed some points from the Four Queens slot app for a $25 comp at Magnolia's.  We had to go to the slot club to get the voucher, and we loaded up our $10 FP coupon.

Magnolia's was good, as always.  Originally I was going to get steak and eggs, but changed my mind and got hash and eggs.  Kip was getting an omelette, but with my hash and eggs, we had money to spend, so she got the $1.99 add on for avocado and I got an orange juice.  We used $24.46 of the comp.

Hash and eggs!

Kip learned that she shouldn't wash her hair the first 2 days of the New Year and she should wear red or green for good luck.  Well, that must have worked, because shortly after we started playing she held the Ace-King of spades, and drew the Ten-Jack-Queen of spades for a Royal Flush!  And, since we wanted to reduce the amount of time for our play requirement, we were playing at fifty-cents.  A great start to our play!

Kp's Royal!

I hit yet another King-high straight flush (only holding a king).

Oh look, another King-high straight flush!

I didn't hit a quad until my play was mostly done.  I was up $15 at the time when I got dealt quad 4's (too bad we were only playing JoB).  That still gave me a profit of $75, which isn't too bad.

And we weren't playing Bonus either. . .

We were planning on being at Aria by 4:00 PM to see the Lion and Dragon parade, so we caught the SDX and got off near Cosmopolitan and walked to Aria.  While we were waiting for our friend to meet us, I lost $55 playing Dragon Spin.  Eventually we were sitting in the lobby, waiting for the parade.  Well, the article I read didn't mention that there was going to be a show outside, so we missed most of that sitting inside.  I did go out and caught the end of the show before they started their parade it.  It was interesting and I'm glad we saw it.

Aria lobby.

Aria lobby.

Outside the lobby.

We walked back through The Shops at Crystals back to Cosmopolitan, where I picked up a Chinese New Year chip.

The Shops at Crystals

The Shops at Crystals

Kip, Alicia, and I at The Shops at Crystals

We caught the Deuce up to Wynn, where Alicia was staying, and Kip and I switched to the SDX and continued back downtown.

We weren't sure what we were going to do for dinner, so I redeemed some Binion's slot game app points and got a $100 comp for Top of Binion's Steakhouse, a place that I've wanted to try for a long time.

We had some time to kill, so we went to Fremont and used a $10 match play coupon.  We just played it safe, and bet opposite red/black.  Fortunately, green did not come up, and we split our profit ($5).

We then went to Downtown Grand, where they had a $5-$50 match play (Las Vegas Advisor) and a $10 MP (American Casino Guide).  We went for the $50 MP and again bet opposite red/black.  Kip won both bets and we split the profits again.  Even though they again allow point earning on video poker, we earned the 25 points on a few slots for the $10 free play.  We did redeem the free play on VP though, and between the seed play and the redemption, I was up around $3.

We went to Binion's to get the voucher and start play.  There was no slot club line, but when we starting playing, there was an issue with Kip's machine.  After she loaded up her free play, the buttons nor the screen worked, so she had to call for a technician, which took around 15 minutes to fix, and we had around 20 minutes before our reservation.

We had an 8:00 pm reservation, and we just had a short wait to be seated.  She asked if we wanted a table or a booth and I said whatever was by the window (table).  She said all of the seating had views though (but it is definitely nicer by the window).

Our view.

Another view.

The steaks come with a potato and vegetable, so that's a bit better than some other steakhouses.  Still, we had $100 to use, so we each got a glass of wine and the lobster bisque.  Kip got the lobster mac and cheese for her meal (it is a side) and I got the 16 oz prime rib.  They have a larger one, but it's a good thing I got the smaller one, the portions were so large, I didn't even eat all of my potato or veggies.  They also serve a warm sourdough bread before your meal, with a sweet butter which was very nice.

My merlot!

Lobster bisque.

Lobster mac and cheese.

16 oz prime rib.

I knew we were going over the $100, but we had the LVA 25% off coupon as well. Our server said he didn't think we could use the coupon with a comp (but a friend told us that it had been done), and he came back, and sure enough, they took the coupon, and we were under the comp amount ($92.97).  I guess we should have checked to see how much a cappuccino was!

After dinner, we continued our Binion's play.  The slot club closed at midnight, so we had to make sure we finished up before that, so we could turn in our coupon.  We did, but we didn't have as much luck as we had at Four Queens.  We also managed to get our photo taken with the $1 million.

I'll replace this with a scanned version when I get a chance!

We stopped at the room and decided we would go to Boar's Head Bar at Main Street Station for some celebratory drinks.  I did have a tasty Black Chip Porter.

Black chip porter!

We played some 9/6 Jacks or Better, with Kip out quading me, 6-4.  Kip did come out a winner, while I took a loss.  We then tried Treasure Chest bonus poker, and only Kip hit a quad (for 140), so not terribly exciting.  We also tried Pay the Aces No Face, but no luck there either.

We walked back to Golden Gate and called it a night.