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. . .