Part Three of the trip is my return to Las Vegas from Laughlin.
Tuesday, September 29
Time to head back to Vegas!
Another “early” morning, I was up around 7:30 AM, for no reason, although I
haven’t been staying up past 1 AM so far this trip.
No cake for breakfast today, but I did
enjoy a cup of coffee while I checked my emails. A quick view of the
video check-out revealed no charges (not that I was expecting any).
I was going to try to play some tables
before I left, but I was down there before 10 AM and the tables were just
starting to open. Again, I went to the casino cage, and the cashier
picked out a nice looking one for my collection. I just missed the 10:00
AM poker tournament, which apparently was barely able to fill one table.
They have plastic dividers on the poker tables there (the poker tables at
Riverside had none, that I recall), I can’t imagine playing there would be
enjoyable.
The poker room.
I tried a parting shot on a $1 Double
Diamond Deluxe slot. $20 in slowly turned into $25 and I decided not to
press my luck and left Harrah’s a winner (up $5.20)!
The sign as you depart.
Heading back to Vegas, I made a quick
pullover in Searchlight and took a photo of where the Colton mine is. The
plaque said that George Frederick Colton can be considered to be the father of
Searchlight. It was also Harry Reid’s hometown.
Site of the Colton Mine.
Mine cart and sign.
Close up of the plaque.
I made a side stop in Boulder City and
went to the old Boulder City Airport, where there is a commemorative plaque for
Paul Fisher, inventor of the Space Pen (and Boulder City is still the home of
Fisher Space Pen Co.).
The old Boulder City airport hangar.
The commemorative plaque.
I stopped at Railroad Pass for a
little break. I stopped here in January and tried some Loose Deuces Wild,
with no luck. I tried again, breaking even. I discovered they have
a small “vault” room off the casino floor near the entrance that has a vault
and some memorabilia. There’s some interesting history there.
Signage on some of the Railroad Pass machines.
Sign over the vault.
The vault.
Some of the memorabilia.
Some of the memorabilia.
Some of the memorabilia.
Union Pacific sign.
While I was there, I called my friend
who lives in Henderson to see if he wanted to meet for lunch. He asked
what I wanted to lunch, and I mentioned that I wanted Chinese food. He
said he didn’t know a good place, but we ended up at a place called “Amlee”.
It was pretty good, I ordered the beef with broccoli lunch special, which came
with egg drop soup, steamed rice, and an egg roll. Justin got an order of
crab Rangoons, which were pretty good. It was good catching up with him,
I last saw him last year (I think) when he was in DC on vacation. He was
quite kind to pay for lunch.
Egg drop soup.
Crab rangoons.
Beef with broccoli.
Justin and I.
My wife said my daughter had outgrown
the t-shirts we got for her the last time we were in Las Vegas in 2017, so I
took advantage of the free parking at the MGM Properties, and went to Mandalay
Bay to go to the Shark Reef. It was quite the walk from the parking
garage to the Shark Reef exhibit through the mostly empty casino, and the
ticket person didn’t have a problem when I said I just wanted to get a t-shirt
(especially since the souvenir shop that was usually outside the exhibit was
closed). After sending some t-shirt photos back home, I picked one up.
It was then off to The Mirage to go to
the Dolphin Habitat. This was the second time I forgot about my mask,
after I parked my car and was walking across the bridge to the casino, I saw
four guys walking out with masks. Fortunately, I was able to park close
to the bridge, so it didn’t take me long. It’s still a decent walk from
the parking garage to the Secret Garden, and when I asked the ticket booth
person if I could just go to the gift shop, he said I needed to have a ticket,
but I could ask the person at the entrance if it was okay. I walked down
to the entrance and the person said I could have around 15 minutes. I
said that would be great. I couldn’t find many t-shirts at the outer gift
shop (as opposed to the gift shop near the Secret Garden), but I found one
acceptable to my daughter and I purchased it. After buying it, I did find a few more, but
what I had was fine. On the way out, I did notice that the Beatles LOVE
phone booth had been replaced, not sure when that happened.
The LOVE bus.
Last stop on the casino train was
Golden Gate. There wasn’t a line at check-in and my room was ready, Suite
35. This will be the third time I’ve stayed in this room. It was
the second room I stayed in (after a late check-in during Rock and Roll
Marathon weekend got me put in one of the Penthouse Suites for the night, well
12 hours), and for my next reservation, my host said he looked up the room from
my prior reservation and put me in the same room. I jokingly made the
same request to my new host and she said she would. The room is as I
remember it, although apparently it is missing one of the oversized pillows on
the bed. For the COVID situation, though, there would be no housekeeping,
so I was wondering how the Keurig coffee, Fiji water, and the
shower amenities would be replaced. I actually only had a cup of coffee
on the morning I left (as I was up for breakfast early every morning), and I
was getting bottle water on the casino floor.
Hello again, Suite 35!
The view still looks the same.
I had another video call with home, at
least this trip, the wifi was included with my comped room. Last time I
was there, I was told wifi wasn’t included (although I did end up with the
password). I said it would probably be my last chat, since I’ll be busy
“working” the next few days.
Chatting with the family back at home!
I went down to the casino floor and
saw my favorite bartender, Valeria, was working at Prohibition Bar. Like
many other places, every other machine was shut off for social distancing. I
decided to drop a $20 in the 7/5 ACE$ BP and chat and get a drink. I got
a nice breakfast stout and cashed out a ticket for $50, so I was up $30! There
was also an issue with the linked progressives. I heard they move the
servers to Circa, so every so often, the machines would lock up with a “Call
Attendant” message for a minute or longer. This would be an issue for my
play the next few days.
The annoying shut down message.
My favorite bartender, Valeria!
The bartops have the same issue.
Every other bartop machine was shut down.
I let Scott know I was downtown and
ready to have dinner. We decided on Four Queens, since he had a lot of
comps there. I don’t think there was a wait, and we
were seated around 7:45 PM. I ordered their “Sundown Stout” and a
deep-dish pizza, which was good, as always. And since Scott was comping,
I left the tip.
Sanitized for your protection.
Sundown Stout.
Deep dish pizza!
He had play to do at The D, so I went
with him to Vue Bar. I was happy it was open, since up until last week,
it was closed. Still they had every other machine shut off for social
distancing, like Golden Gate. I started off well, hitting quad deuces,
but then things went downhill fast, as they often do. I only hit one more
quad after that and ended up dropping $80. If I stopped after hitting the
deuces, I would have been up $45. So much for being social!
One of the two quads I hit.
I headed back to Golden Gate and sat
back at the bar. I had another drink, but this time the VP wasn’t as kind
to me, and I lost $5. I called it a relatively early night. . .
Wednesday, September 30
This was the beginning of my big play
days at Golden Gate and The D. I would use the ACG coupons for both
properties, maxing them out at 1,000 points each for the extra $100 in free
play. I would also have my monthly offers at both properties to use ($75
free play, $85 F&B, and $100 in match plays at The D and $50 free play and
$25 F&B at Golden Gate). I had 24 hours to max out the coupon, so I
figured it would be around 10 hours of play at 25c video poker. This
issue with the machines might make this longer though.
I headed over to Binion’s for
breakfast at the Café. There was no wait for seating at around 8:45 and
the tables were socially distanced. I ordered the Gambler’s Special,
which consists of two eggs, any style, two slices of bacon, one sausage link,
hash browns, and toast. I ordered a cup of coffee, which took the total
to $13.48. I knew I had some comps from when I played here in January but
didn’t know how much. I left a $5 tip and went to the cashier to pay, he
said it was all good, and I was on my way back to Golden Gate. On the way
back, I took a photo of “irca”. Interesting that all the other “C”s seems
to be on the building except this one.
Gambler's Special!
Reasonable casino price.
Welcome to icra!
I visit Valeria at the bar and while
I’m there, my host, Carolina comes up. I was telling Valeria that
Carolina was my host, and Valeria said she would make sure Carolina came up to
meet me while I was there. I told Carolina how much I enjoyed
staying at Golden Gate and appreciated the work she did to set up my
reservation (two nights across Sept and Oct) in “my” suite.
Ready to gamble!
I stop by the slot club booth and drop
off my coupon. I’m on the clock! By 9:30 I’m over at the 8/5 BP
Progressives. The royal was a little over $1,300 and the straight flush
was just over $138, those would be nice to hit! Well, things didn’t start
out well, I dropped my first $100 only earning 42 points.
I didn’t hit a quad until I had earned 118 points on my second $100. An
hour and a half later, I hit my second quad, aces, for $100, so that got some
back, almost back to even. About an hour later, I held the 9c-Jc-Qc, and
drew the Kc-10c for the disappointing king-high straight flush. I knew I
wasn’t going to hit the royal anyway with that hold, but still
disappointing. Plus, someone already hit the SF for $140, but I did
get $95.75. Half an hour later, I hit quad deuces, so I’ve hit every
payline on the machine, except one. . . I managed to hit some decent
paying quads Js (175 credits), Qs (163), aces again, and then Ks (146).
Hurray for aces!
Ouch, king-high straight flush. . .
That's every payline except one. . .
Aces again!
Scott arrived and we decided to pick
up lunch. We weighed our options before decided to pick up from Project
BBQ, since we could use our The D/Golden Gate comps. I ordered the beef
brisket sandwich, which came with chips. I’m not sure what the price was,
since I didn’t get a receipt when I paid with comps.
Since there was really no place to sit
and eat, Scott and I went up to my room to eat. The sandwich was nice,
although it could have used a bit more sauce. Maybe they had extra sauce
available at the truck, but I wasn’t thinking about that at the time.
Chopped brisket sandwich and chips.
We headed back to the machines, I took
the same one I had before, and Scott took the machine on the opposite
side. It wasn’t that the machine I was using was bad, I just wanted to be
able to converse with Scott better, so when the machine opened on the other
side of him, I moved over there. Of course, we had plenty of time to
converse, as the machines kept going offline.
When I moved, I watched Scott hit a
king-high SF, then an 8-high SF, quad fours, then a jack-high SF. I hit
three quads (10, 5, 8) and was down a little. We had already seen the
royal progressive drop three times (including a friend of ours who hit for
around $1,090 at Vue Bar at The D). It was progressing again when I held
a Jh and Kh, and when I pressed deal, I saw the 10h, Qh, Ah fill in. I
finally hit a royal! It was around 4:15 pm, so maybe around six
hours of play. It had only progressed for an extra $6, but that’s better
than nothing. I basked in the glory that is the royal flush before I
played it off. Scott hit queens twice, and I managed to hit 7s (128), Ks
(132), Qs (138), Js (151), and 8s after Scott left. In the excitement of
hitting the royal, I didn’t even log the amount I cashed out (but at least I
did cash out and take the ticket)!
Yay Royal Flushes!
I went to the bar to play my free
play. I played 50c 7/5 ACE$ BP. I turned the $50 FP into $50 cash
but dropped $40 in extra play.
Scott and I were originally planning
on dinner at Andiamo at 6, but he said a friend had a reservation at 7 and
asked if we could do that instead. I said that would be fine.
I headed towards The D, stopping at
Binion’s to collect $40 in free play. I played 50c 8/5 BP to make the
process go faster and I hit quad kings and cashed out for $120, nice! I
also discovered that I have around $45 in comps.
We are at Andiamo around 7:00 and
we’re ready to be seated. They have cleared out tables in the restaurant,
so it isn’t as crowded. The three of us got a table towards the front of
the restaurant. We had over $300 in comps to use, but we just couldn’t
order enough food to use them up! I ordered the lobster bisque (which I
always get), the New York strip, and even got the coconut dream cake for
dessert. My new friend “eliza” won the comp lottery, as the waiter took
all of Scott and my comps.
Lobster bisque.
NY strip.
Coconut Dream Cake!
I headed down to the slot club to
start my coupon, 9:15 PM, I’m on the clock at The D. While I was thinking
about this, I realized that if I didn’t get my full 1,000 points at Golden Gate
“today”, I’d have to get up early to top the points off before 9:20 AM the next
morning. Apparently, I didn’t think this out too well!
First, I played my $75 free play on a 25c 8/5 BP
Progressive near BarCanada. I turned that into $55 cash. I then
settled in at Vue Bar to get as much play as I could before falling
asleep! I didn’t have a great run, even after hitting quad fours and
threes. I earned a little over 200 points with a $175 loss. It was
during this time that eliza happened by the bar and told me that she still had
a bunch of comps left over. It was around 10:30, so she only had
around an hour and a half to use them. I told her to consider loading up
on Coney Dogs, but we asked the bartender what drink we could blow the comps
on. He gave me a generous pour of Macallan 15. That did the trick,
and thank you so much, eliza, my new best friend!
That's a decent pour of Macallan!
It must have been around 11:30, I head
back to Golden Gate. I run into Scott there (he headed back to GG after
dinner to finish his play there), and played a bit, hitting quad 4s and 8s
(131) while Scott hit aces. I lost around $120 pushing to finish my 1,000
points. After Scott left, I took a shot on a $1 Top Dollar slot, and
after earning 89 points, I cashed out up $10. According to my
calculations, I earned 1,073 points. Just to be sure, I’ll check at the
slot club when it opens at 8 AM in the morning.
So, after the long slow bleed at the
first half of the trip, the royal brings me back to about even! I was
worried most about this play, but as it turned out, it was the other seed play
that hurt me (so far). . .
Thursday, October 1,
2020
Of course, the one day I stay up late
comes into the one morning that I really need to get up early. I set my
alarm for 7:45 and plan to roll out of bed, go to the slot club, play if I need
to, then head back to bed for a bit, since I still have play at The D to finish.
And, of course, I woke up around 6:45,
and decided just to shower up and head down. I get to the slot club right at 8,
and they tell me I earned 1,073 points. Then the ask
me what coupon I used, since apparently it wasn’t in the system. I said
it was an American Casino Guide coupon and I said I was here around 9:20 AM
yesterday. The pull out all the coupons and go through them and they find
mine. I do remember seeing the clerk write on it, presumably my card
number, so fortunately they found it. I can’t imagine what would have
happened if they didn’t find my coupon! And since
they are running a promotion for every 100 points you earn, you get a mask, and
the guy tells me I earned 8 masks. Huh? Well, I didn’t question
him, that’s already plenty of masks! But, unfortunately, yesterday, when
I commented on Valeria’s mask, she said they were selling them at the front
desk, but I could ask my host for one. When I saw Carolina, she said to
just charge it to the room. And when they asked me which color I wanted,
white or black, I said black. Well, when they were giving the masks out,
they said all they had was black, I had to purchase the white one. Ugh.
Look, masks!
I decide to head back to Binion’s Café
for breakfast. I order the same Gambler’s Special with coffee and I pay
with comps again. When I asked for more coffee, they brought me a new
cup, saying they couldn’t do refills. I decide to redeem my free play for
October, but not as lucky this time, I cash out for $35.
Gambler's Special, again!
Extra cup of coffee.
I head back to my room for a very
short nap, then I head down to the bar to play my free play. I have $165
total, and I used $5 in points and cash out for $165 playing 25c 7/5 ACE$
BP. I did some social play, since my friends Jon and Terry were
there. Also, while we were there, I did a video call with our friend Kip,
who couldn’t make the trip. She enjoyed “seeing” everyone, even though it
was difficult to hear. I ended up losing $45 but ended up earning around
50 points.
Ready to redeem free play!
About noonish I decide to head over to
The D and finish my play there. I have around 800 points to get by around
9:15, so I have a great deal of play to do! I meet Scott at Vue Bar and
we start playing. While we are starting, I hear a loud voice that I
recognize. The local guy, “John” is there, because he’s always there on
the first day of the month. From prior exchanges, I believe he is from
New Jersey, or at least he has relatives there. I hear him tell Roy, the
bartender, he had two (or three) aces, and is drawing for another and a
kicker. He starts yelling, which is hard to tell from his “normal” voice,
and he’s apparently made his draw. Against my better judgement, I lean
over and give him a high five congratulations. Then I realize that I
didn’t bring my hand sanitizer with me. Ah well, it’s a gamble, eh?
Again, I have a slow start, in for a
hundred or two and then forty more before cashing out with $42, a $198 loss,
and, by my calculations, 925 points. That was in around five hours of
play. Scott went to take a break, call home, and then went
to ElCo to use his LVA coupon. I hit two quads after he left, then went to
try some slots to earn points faster.
I went to the high limit area and
played some $1 Top Dollar. I put in a $100, I think I got two bonus
rounds, but nothing exciting. I did cash out for $151 and earned 97
points. By my calculations, I should have 1,022 points. I go down
to the slot club and I ask to check my points starting when I dropped off my
coupon. The woman pulls out the calculator, and then tells me that I’ve
earned 932 points. Hmm, I ask if she’s sure, and she says she is.
Well, I’ll go play a bit more. I go back up to the $1 Top Dollar machine,
but this time it is not so kind, I lose $75 and the countdown indicates that I
earned around 80 points. I go back down, and the woman says I now have 951
points. I say the countdown on the machine indicated that I earned around
80 points. She says that it takes $X to earn a point. I say so the
countdown on the machine doesn’t accurately track the points? She says
that it takes $X to earn a point. I say fine and leave. I drop $100
in a 1c Wonka slot, betting like $6 a spin. I lost around $97 and the
countdown said I earned 31 points. I put another $100 in a 1c Hot Roll max
betting. I lose that $100 and put in another, then I hit a nice payout
and cash out for $203.04, up $3.04! Yes! I go back down to the slot
club (and I better have gotten to 1,000 points). I get a different person
this time, and he pulls out the calculator and asks me if I cashed out
points. I said I did, I had around 500 points at Golden Gate from my trip
in January and redeemed them there, not thinking that it had anything to do
with my current points. He tells me I have around 1,169 points. I’m
certain that I didn’t earn 187 points in that last bit of play. I ask him
what the deal is with the point tracking system, since I didn’t have any issue
at Golden Gate, and he tells me it had to do with me redeeming points (which I
don’t believe). Sometimes the process is easy, and other times
it seems tedious, such as this time. Hopefully when Circa comes online things
will be better with their system (since it’s currently having issues with the
video poker progressives).
Scott comes back for our dinner at
Andiamo. It’s
just Scott and I this time, and we each have $110 in comps to use. When I go up
to the desk and tell them I have a 6:00 reservation, she says she doesn’t see me in the
system. I say that’s strange, I texted back my confirmation at 3:23 PM
yesterday. She says my reservation shows as cancelled in the system and I
show her my text confirmation. Fortunately, she says she can seat us
(it’s a Thursday evening, I can’t imagine they would be that busy). I start off
with the same lobster bisque, but this time I get the surf and turf, and get a
potato for a side. Scott started with a wedge salad, the cioppino for
entrée, with a side of asparagus, which he hardly touched. We calculated
that we still had comps to use, so I ordered a cappuccino. The total with
tax was $223.79, so with the tax forgiven for using comps, the total was
$206.50. We could have gotten another cappuccino!
Lobster Bisque, again.
Surf and Turf! And a baked potato!
Cappuccino!
The final bill.
Scott and I decide to play our free
play before going back to Vue Bar (since you can’t use free play on the Vue Bar
machines), we decide to play at BarCanada. Yesterday, Scott loaded up his
free play on the wrong machine, decided to bomb it out on $1 Triple Double
Bonus poker, and turned his $75 FP into $50 cash. I joked that we
would bomb this FP on $1 as well, as I load it on 8/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe.
I mention that the $1 quad side bet wouldn’t mean too much at dollars when I
look over and see Scott is playing quarters! Well, I decided to drop down
to 50c, and I guess I shouldn’t have, as I did hit a quad (and apparently, I
should have been playing Triple Double, as it was quad deuces with a three
kicker!). So, $185 in FP turns into $295 cash! And that’s the
benefit of the coupon! After that, Scott and I head back to Vue Bar, we
end up at the same seats on the end near the service window. Scott was
complaining earlier that his machine had a sticky button, and he wasn’t winning
on it before (only hitting quad kings), while I hit four quads before dinner.
At least it wasn't on Jacks!
Well, apparently having a good dinner
served Scott well. He hit the first quad of the session (queens) then
rattled off fours and sixes before holding a jack of hearts and pulling the
other four royal cards for a $1,092 hit! I still haven’t hit a quad, although
I’m holding even. Scott hits three and fours before I finally hit
sevens. Then we both hit quads at almost the same time, me getting jacks
and him nines. We were wondering how the payout would work, since it is a
progressive, and we were shocked that we both received the same payout for
$40.25! Scott
then rattles off fives, fives again, sevens, and a king-high straight
flush. He then hits aces, hitting the cycle (every pay line) on the
machine! Although I hit every pay line during my session yesterday, I did
switch machines and hit my royal on a different machine. Scott then hits
deuces, and I inform him that I thought he was close to hitting every
quad. I quick recap reveals that he had hit A, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and
Q. He needs 8s, 10s, Js, and Ks. After the aces, he hits twos,
twos, queens, a seven-high straight flush, then twos again, fives, and then
10s. He called it quits a bit after the tens. My last quad was
eights, and I hit jacks earlier, so the only quad we didn’t hit between us was
kings. In our quads or better side bet, he beat me 19-7. He was out
to a 5-0 lead, I think, and never looked back. It was quite an impressive
run, and I think that was the second most quads I saw someone hit. Back
in May 2017, my friend Kip hit 21 quads to my 6. Oh, I cashed out for
75c, losing $99.25. That’s the price you pay for watching greatness. . .
The quads or better beating I took.
I head back to Golden Gate. I
felt a bit bad for putting in a short play there, so I did a little more play
there. I put in $40 in a 25c Wheel of Fortune machine. It didn’t
end well, I lost $39. I tried the $1 Double Top Dollar slot in the high
limit area that Valeria said someone she knew played because it was
“good”. Well, it wasn’t good for me (or I was on the wrong machine), and
I lost $60 there. I dropped another $60 chasing the VP progressive.
Finally, I played one of those Fire Link slots that I saw people playing and
hitting all during the time I was playing video poker. I put in a $20,
was doing okay, hit a bonus game and cashed out for $22.25. I decided to
take my $2.25 win and call it a night! It’s going to be my last full day
in Las Vegas, hopefully it is a good one!
Friday, October 2, 2020
With all the “heavy” play done, now
was time to relax a bit. I wanted to try to put in some play at Binion’s
and Four Queens, but it wasn’t required. I get a message from Scott at 8:17
saying he was up and asking if we should have breakfast at Magnolia’s at
9. I said I needed to shower and said 9:30? He said that would be
fine. Before heading over, I stop at the front desk to get
a white mask. I charge it to the room and the clerk says that he sees I
already purchased a mask. I say yes, I got a black one, because I didn’t
know I was going to get eight black masks for free. If I knew that, I
would have purchased the white one. Strangely enough, the white mask is
$1 more than the black one. . .
About 9:45, we’re seated in the
socially distanced Magnolia’s. I ordered the King’s Court breakfast,
which consisted of two eggs (any style), two strips of bacon, hash browns, and
toast. I also ordered coffee and an orange juice. I’m not sure what
the total was, as Scott picked up the check using his comps. I left a $7
tip. I did
remember to check in for my flight tomorrow at10:10 AM, thank goodness there was good connectivity
there! I didn’t save the boarding passes, I just used them in the app,
but I’m pretty sure I was in the A30-40 group.
King's Court breakfast.
Scott was going to do some
couponing. I had already done most of my downtown coupons when I was
there in January, but I did have a few to use. We first walked to
Downtown Grand, but their tables weren’t going to open until noon (?). I
can’t remember, but we weren’t going to wait and headed to Fremont. I
already used my $10 match play, but watched Scott win his. We then walked
to Plaza to use the $10 FP, $10 and $25 MP. I played my FP on 9/6 BDlx, didn’t hit a quad,
but did cash out up $25. Our match plays went horribly, as we both lost
both coupons. Not only did Scott lose his $25, he had a double down hand
and the pit boss allowed him to double for the full bet amount, so he lost $75
on that hand. Sadness. . .
We walked to California to use the $10
MP there. We took some photos of the soon to be opened Circa (at least
the “C” is on these other sides). My MP luck continued, as I lost, but
Scott won. They just opened the double deck blackjack game, so I asked Scott
if he wanted to play a bit and he agreed. Things started out poorly, but
I believe Scott managed a small profit. I was in a steady drop and had
all of my chips in the circle when I went on a small run. I was always
one bet away from finishing up when I finally won that bet and cashed out for
$136, up $26. So, overall, for the FP/MP I was up $6! I did
have to be careful, as the plexiglass shields left two spots available to me,
and at one point, I had stacked my chips in one of the betting spots!
More views of Circa.
More views of Circa.
The Garage Mahal.
We headed back to Downtown Grand, and
the MP they offer is $5-$50, so why not max it out. Scott put his bet
down and got another doubling hand. I believe the dealer said he could
bet the full amount, but Scott didn’t hear her, understand her, or was simply
gun shy from the Plaza incident, so he only doubled his bet amount. Of
course, he ended up winning. But a win’s a win, right?
Scott showed me the Beef Jerky Store
and we looked around. I saw a lot of interesting things but wasn’t moved
to make a purchase. We arrived back at Four Queens around 2ish. We
found some 9/6 JoB machines past (Mike’s) Bar. I discovered that not all
the machines are multi-denomination, so I had to take a machine opposite
Scott’s to play 50c (since that went well for me last time I played at Four
Queens in January, of course that means something). But my
playing partner that was with me in January wasn’t here this trip (she also hit
a royal in Jan) and I had my typical slow start. Scott
had already hit a few quads before decided to move on to a different
machine. Pretty much as soon as he left, I hit quad 10s. On the
very next hand, I was dealt quad 8s! Two minutes later, I make quad
sevens. It took another 16 minutes, but I hit quad fours (with an ace
kicker, of course). I closed out that session with 529 points and a $120 loss.
Scott had moved on to another machine,
and I told him I was trying the 25c Pinball machine, which I usually have good
luck, but not this time. I ended up dropping $80 and only earned 31 points.
I found Scott and we were talking about the Silver Strike machines. I
knew there were several around, when I mentioned the one by the cashier was
occupied. I found the one near King’s Bar. On the second spin, I
hit a Silver Strike, and a few spins later, and was able to cash out even, plus
the strike. I found Scott again and played some 9/6 JoB, dropping $40 at
quarters.
Scott headed back to The D to play a
bit and call home. I saw the Face Up Pai Gow Poker game that I had first
seen when I visited Horseshoe Baltimore a few months ago, and Justin was
telling me about it when we had lunch a few days ago. He said it was a
good game to get a lot of pushes. Well, I had played $120 at regular PGP
and didn’t win a hand. I pushed a few but didn’t win. I bought in
for $100 and was losing a bit. I was getting some crummy hands.
Knowing what the dealer has is good, since you just need to set your hand not
to lose (if possible), so sometimes you make some non-house way splits. I
believe all hands push on a dealer’s ace-high pai gow. It was hard
to talk with the dealer with the plexiglass shields and I found myself leaning
down at the opening to hear the dealers. While I was playing the pit boss
raised the limit from $10 to $15, and it took me a while to understand that the
dealer was telling me that I could still bet $10. I had a pretty good run
and cashed out for $178, up $78.
My new friend eliza was going to join
us for dinner at Hugo’s, and my reservation was for four people. I called
them from the stairs of the restaurant to see if I could add a person to my
reservation. While I was speaking with someone, she put me on hold, and
while I was on hold, a man came up from the restaurant and told me it wouldn’t
be a problem. Great.
I told Scott to let eliza know she
could join us for dinner. Scott redeemed the $100 comp for Binion’s
Steakhouse from the Binion’s Slot App, which they allowed you to use at Hugo’s
since Binion’s Steakhouse was currently closed. Scott still had a bunch of
comps from his trip during the summer, and I had some comps, if needed.
While we were waiting, we played at King’s Bar. I took a shot on the DW
progressive, where the royal was at $1,262. I didn’t hit anything and
lost $60. Scott had hit two quads (jacks and sevens). It looks like
I was at 619 points with $60.98 in comps.
Sanitized at King's Bar.
We were right on time for our 6
res. We were waiting for AH and ZH to arrive. I sent both of them
text messages asking what their ETA was. In the meantime, we
were seated. It must have been around 10-15 minutes when I received a
text back saying they had forgotten and weren’t feeling well from something
they ate earlier. We explained that the two people we were waiting for
weren’t coming (said they “Vegased” too hard, which they completely understood).
I hadn’t eaten at Hugo’s since they
gave me a huge offer after I played there about ten years ago. The maître
d offered eliza a rose, which she accepted (and the maître d made a joke about
thanking her for accepting it). We were offered some nice soft bread and
butter in the shape of a rose. The plates have Hugo’s Cellar on them with rose
accents. I ordered the lobster bisque, and the prime rib. Eliza was
going to order a half bottle of wine, and I said I would have some. She
ordered the Sancerre, which was nice. The sommelier remembered her from
her prior trip, even recalling where she sat that time. They still make
your salad tableside and I had a nice Caesar salad. After the salad, they
give you a palate cleansing sorbet, lemon this time. I ordered the prime
rib medium rare, and the waiter repeated medium, and Scott pointed out that I
said medium rare, so I guess the waiter made sure it was more towards
rare than medium. It was still good though, and the steak came with
fingerling potatoes (I think you had a choice) and some root vegetables.
It was all very tasty. You can order desserts, but they offer you a
dessert of chocolate covered strawberries, apricots, and figs. Scott
graciously used his comps for the meal and eliza and I split the tip.
Hugo's Cellar
Tasty bread!
Lobser bisque, again!
We wined.
Hail Caesar.
Palate cleansing sorbet.
Mostly rare prime rib and potatoes.
Chocolate covered strawberries, figs, and apricots.
Eliza went back to Golden Gate to
finish her play there while Scott and I went to finish our Four Queens
play. Scott was playing $1 9/6 JoB, and earlier he was playing DDB, so I
guess he wishes he got the hits he got in this session, as he rattled off quad fours,
threes, threes, and deuces (with a 3 kicker). He finished the session
with quad jacks. Me? I was losing at quarters, $60 at the
time. And what do you do when you’re losing at quarters? Bump to
dollars, of course! I put in $200 before I started hitting some
hands. It would have been great if I hit the ace of clubs to make my
royal flush, but I didn’t even get a paying hand out of that. I did
manage three quads and cashed out for $350, up $150 for that session, and $90
overall, at 900 points. I was curious as to why Kip had received offers from
our play in January and I hadn’t. I checked my balances on the machine,
and low and behold, I saw I had a Promo Balance of $100! Nice! I
loaded it up and played some 50c 9/6 JoB. Although I didn’t hit any
quads, I did cash out for $165! I then dropped back down to quarters and lost $40 but
earned another 35 points. So, with these wins, along with my PGP win, I was
just about even!
Hello Free Play!
I walked back to Golden Gate and found
eliza at the 8/5 BP progressives. I went up to my room to start packing
and came back down and played some VP on the machine next to her (well, one
machine away). I noticed the people playing the slot behind us were very
loud, she said they were going crazy over small wins. I ended up losing
$55 chasing that last royal. I told eliza I had some water that I had
accumulated during my trip (one bottle of Fiji of the two they provide with the
room, and two bottles that Valeria gave me when I was at the bar) and asked if
she wanted them, since she would be staying in town longer. I also had
around five small Cokes, but she said she didn’t drink sodas. She came up
to the room and I showed her the suite. I told her other than the strange
bathroom set up, it was a nice, spacious room, compared to the standard room at
Golden Gate. I told her that I have never stayed in a regular room at
Golden Gate, I’ve only stayed in either the mini-suites and the one time when
they put me in one of the penthouse suites. I bid farewell to eliza and
called it a night.
Saturday, October 3, 2020
A 10:10 AM flight means and early wake
up. I think I got up around 6:30 to shower and finished packing. I
still must fill up the rental car before returning it. I checked my room balance; the
masks were still on my folio. I sent Carolina a text thanking her for
everything and asked if she was going to comp those masks. I told her it
was under $10, so it wouldn’t be an issue if she didn’t.
The white mask was $1 more than the black mask. It was all comped off anyway.
I checked out and took a last look at
the empty casino floor.
I checked the GasBuddy app,
and it seemed that the Maverik station near the rental facility had the best
price, so I headed down there. 8:21, I was filling up, and ten minutes
later I had dropped the car off. Five minutes to the shuttle and around
20 minutes I was at the Southwest ticket counter to check my bag. For
some reason, the shuttle couldn’t drop us off outside of the Southwest area, so
I had to walk through the terminal from the first stop to the Southwest
area. There was quite a line for the self-check kiosks and bag drop, I’m
guessing since there was no curbside check-in. After I checked my bag, I
finished off the last two cans of Coke I had and headed towards security.
For some reason, the TSA Precheck line was closed, so I had to use the regular
line. Since I was so used to TSA Pre, and not having to remove my laptop
from my bag, I did not, and my bag got kicked out for screening. The
agent there told me I was supposed to remove my laptop. I told him I
wasn’t used to doing that, and he sent my bag back and it was kicked out again. This
time he said it was due to the snacks I had in my bag. Finally, I was
able to go.
Quite the line at the Southwest ticket area.
It was now 9:30, and they were
beginning the boarding for my flight. I usually take a parting shot on an
airport VP machine, but there was no time. There wasn’t time to get
something to eat or get a quick souvenir. I was sitting on the left side
of the plane, which meant that I wouldn’t see the Strip as we took off. I
did get a nice photo of Boulder City and the Boulder Dam though. I had a
few hours layover in ATL, so I was looking for a place to eat. There
wasn’t much open, so I decided to eat at the Longhorn Steakhouse, as if I
already didn’t have enough steak during this trip. I got the sirloin,
mashed potatoes, and broccoli, which was fine, probably just as fine as the
pricey steaks I had earlier in the trip (although this was on a paper
plate). Lunch/Dinner was $23.75, including tip.
Ready for takeoff!
Wheels up!
Goodbye Las Vegas!
Boulder City.
Boulder Dam.
Renegade sirloin at Longhorn Steakhouse.
The flight from ATL to PHL was
uneventful, except that as we were taxiing to the gate, someone from the back
of the plane got up and walked to the front of the plane. The guys behind
me mentioned that they guessed that guy wanted to get off the plane
quickly. Apparently, it was fine, there was no incident.
It's apparently 666 miles from ATL to PHL. . .
I guess that's the normal flight path. . .
I waited a little while for Bob to pick me up and we were off to his apartment. In the meantime, my family was staying in Ronks, PA, after spending the day in HersheyPark. I was hoping to meet them for dinner, but it was going to take me around 90 minutes to get out there, and I ended up chatting with Bob for about an hour. I didn’t see many fast-food restaurants open on the way from NJ to PA, so I picked up a sandwich at a Wawa. I got to Ronks a little after 1:00 AM. I had packed an extra bag for this night, but I did have to pull out my toiletry kit.
This caboose had two bunk beds and a queen bed, I believe. It was cozy.
They did have a converted Union Pacific caboose available.
So, Sunday, we got out relatively late, and every restaurant nearby had around a one hour wait, so the family and I ended up getting sandwiches at a nearby Wawa. We then drove to Valley Forge, so my daughter could complete the Junior Ranger program. We got there about an hour before the were closing the welcome center, so the ranger let us finish it under the honor system.
Huts at Valley Forge.
The Memorial Arch.
We promised Tessandra pancakes for breakfast, so when that didn't work out, I said we could get pancakes for dinner, so we stopped at a Cracker Barrel. I, got chicken and dumplings though.
Always tasty chicken and dumplings!
We got home pretty late, I guess I should have taken Monday off as well!
