Poker Guys trip to Las Vegas - Day Two

 I woke up around 6:30 AM because my legs were hurting.  This has happened to me a few times on my prior trips in Las Vegas (the last trip in Jul/Aug and also last year Sep/Oct).  I was able to fall asleep for another hour, but I was pretty much up around 8:00 AM.

My roommate, Bob (not to be confused with other Bob's I usually travel to Las Vegas), was already awake.  We were figuring out today's plan, which would first start with breakfast.  We decided on Hash House a Go Go, which is in Plaza.  We got ready and were down around 9 AM.  There was about a 50 minute wait, so I put our name on the list and I would let everyone know when the table was ready.

I went to play dice with John.  I can't remember the last time I played dice, and then I recalled why.  The table was bad, and in no time I lost most of my stake.

I tried my "luck" on a Hexbreaker slot, but that went just as poorly.  I was spared any further losses by the text telling me that our table was ready.

The poker guys assembled at HHaGG before me, and were already seated when I got there.  We had eaten there on our last trip, commenting on the size of the pancake Bob (not the Bob on this trip, or any other Bob's on any other trip) got.  I got the biscuits and gravy last time and decided to keep the tradition.

Biscuits and gravy!

Breakfast was $83.90, which we charged to John's room, since he'd be the biggest player (although I'd hope that our host would consider all of our play in regards to comps).

Since it was  nice day, we decided we'd play some pickleball.  We went back to our rooms to get ready.  When I checked in, I was told that Joe and John were in different towers (even though we booked at the same time through the host).  When told where each was, I asked to be put in the same tower as John, but apparently that was Joe's (North Tower).  As opposed to the Garage Mahal view I had, Joe had a nice view down Fremont Street.  The clerk told him it is a nice view if you don't mind the noise.

A pretty nice view.

The pickleball courts are on the pool deck, which apparently you can no longer access from the North Tower.  John had already booked the courts and rented the equipment (paddles and balls).  None of us had played pickleball before, so after figuring out the basics, we went at it.

There was pickleball!

We all had a pretty good time, and were pretty worn out (good thing I bought that ibuprofin!).

I was hoping to get some play in at Plaza today, since I'm staying here on an up front comp from the host, but we're having dinner at Andiamo at The D, and I'll be using comps there and don't want to stiff them.

I put in about an hour of play at Plaza before heading to The D.  I got up to Vue Bar around 4:00 PM, so I had an hour before our 5:00 PM reservation at Andiamo.  Play wasn't great, I hit two quads (6's for 134 credits, and 3s).  I ended up with a $74 loss when it was time for dinner.

Andiamo is probably my favorite steakhouse downtown (and it's really nice when it's comped).

The guys ready to eat!

I usually don't get a drink with dinner, but everyone was getting wine, so I didn't want to be left out!

A little Pinot Noir!

The always popular lobster bisque! 

NY strip and side of pasta.

I had $150 in monthly comps, which we easily exceeded.  I was expecting to use some of my earned comps and I had plenty to cover the entire meal.

We were going to the Las Vegas Days Rodeo at the Core Arena by Plaza at 7:30, so I had a little bit of time to get the points I wanted at Vue Bar.  Bob stayed with me while John and Joe headed off, so I was educating Bob on video poker play.  I did bump up my play at times to $1 and 50c, and I thought I had 544 points by the time we needed to go, but in reality, I only had 473 points.  Hopefully that won't affect my offers too much. . .

Bob and I headed back to Plaza, where I showed him the "secret" path back to Plaza, avoiding Fremont Street, and we messaged everyone to see where they were.  John was waiting for us, but there was no sign of Joe.

The three of us headed to the arena, where I witnessed my first rodeo.

View from the Core Arena

Why yes, this is my first rodeo!

There was bull riding, steer wrestling, barrel racing, saddle bronc riding, team roping, bareback riding, tie-down roping, and breakaway roping.  Most of it was exciting, a few came up duds, but I guess that happens.

Afterwards, we headed back to Plaza and I had some play to do.  I played up at Omaha Bar, tried some $1 Bonus Poker Deluxe, and was rewarded for my effort. . .

Interestingly, the machine immediately printed out the ticket for $400.

I didn't want to stay up too late, since I knew we were planning on hiking the next day.  I was out until a little after 2:00 AM, that's how I figured out the gaming day ended at 2:00 AM.  I managed 2,390 slot tier and 215 table tier (I like that they break that out on the kiosk) for the day, on another losing day. . .

Poker Guys trip to Las Vegas - Day One

The poker guys have been talking about making a Las Vegas trip for a while.  The last group trip was in 2015 (and the time before that was 2005).

We had hoped things with COVID would have gotten better, but relatively speaking, they still weren't great.  Still, four of us managed to organize a trip together.

I committed to go when I booked my flight on August 19, for the planned November trip, for around $300 r/t, not great, but acceptable.  I originally booked a late departure (6:55 PM, arriving at 12:15 AM) with the hopes that there would be an itinerary change, and I could rebook at no cost.  They did make an itinerary change, and even though it was in my favor (arriving 5 minutes earlier), they allowed me to change my flight, which I did, to a 12:00 PM departure with a 3:45 PM arrival.  Much better!  The other guys were arriving around noon, and unfortunately, I couldn't change for free to an earlier flight.

My wife dropped me off at Dulles around 10:15 AM.  There was hardly anyone there, and I had my bag checked and through security in about 15 minutes.  I took the underground train to the terminal and I figured I had time for a sit down brunch.

Even though I was seated quickly, service was still slow, and I was worried about not being able to finish, but I was able to finish in time before boarding (not terribly important, since I was B26).

Breakfast, although I think there were also supposed to be potatoes.

The flight to Denver wasn't full, so I had an empty middle seat, however the flight from Denver was full, so we were packed in.  Always interesting to see the topographical features of that part of the country.

Looked like smoke down there. . .

We arrived a wee bit early, which is always nice.

Touchdown!

Due to the crazy rental car prices, and our not planning to go anywhere until Saturday, I didn't rent a car from the airport and rented one from downtown.  I saved close to $200 doing this.  This did mean, however, that I needed to get from the airport to downtown.  Originally they told me to get an Uber, which I priced before the trip at around $22.  However, being there at 4:00 PM meant that it was rush hour, and therefore subject to surge pricing.  So when I opened the app and saw that the price was $66, I figured a cab might be cheaper.  After going into the cab queue and getting in the cab, the driver told me that it was rush hour (which I knew) and that traffic might be bad (which I also knew).  I told him I usually rented a car and knew many of the surface streets, so when he told me the route he was going to take, I told him that sounded good to me.

We both were surprised that there wasn't much traffic on the surface streets, and we arrived at Plaza in around 26 minutes.  The fare was $31.25, plus $2.40 "Req'd Airport Fee" and $3.00 "CC Convenience Fee" (which I'm assuming was because I was paying by credit card).  As this was significantly less than the $66 that I was seeing on Uber, I left a pretty decent tip.

The guys wanted to stay at Plaza since that was where we stayed the two previous trips.  I stayed there in 2016, but didn't play as much as I did in 2015, and my offers ended in December 2016 (which I found out when I wanted to book a room for January 2017, and they told me I wasn't getting an offer since I hadn't played).  I told them I preferred to stay at a place where I was getting comped rooms (The D, Golden Gate, Four Queens, or Binion's), but told them I'd work with a host at Plaza to see what we could do.

I e-mailed a host on August 30 (for a November trip) and didn't hear from that host.  I then forwarded that e-mail to another host on September 10, and still didn't hear anything.  On September 20, I forwarded that e-mail to the Director of Casino Marketing asking why I haven't heard from anyone.  She replied apologetically and then I did receive an e-mail from the second host.  I explained that we had stayed there in 2015 and asked if she could do anything regarding rooms.  She replied that one of our players qualified for a comped stay and offered the rest of us a casino rate for the stay (11/11 to 11/14).  I told her I had received comped offers back in 2016, but didn't play because my offers were cut, and moved my play to another casino, and asked if she would match my other offers.  After sending her a copy of my offers, she did give me a comped stay (although didn't match my free play and F&B offer from the other casino).  The room saving was around $356.40 + tax and "resort fee".

Plaza isn't anything fancy, and the bathroom is pretty tiny, but it is clean, and the casino has decent video poker, so that's fine with me.  Plus the pool is nice (and was open).

View into room 827

The tiny bathroom area.

The room view of the Garage Mahal!

Figuring out where the guys were (playing poker at Golden Nugget), I headed over to Golden Gate and Prohibition Bar to see if one of my favorite bartenders, Valeria, was working.  She was. . .

I played a little video poker waiting for the guys to get there and educated them on how to get the comped drinks at the bar (playing video poker).

So, while we were waiting for our drinks, I feel a tugging on my hair.  I look around and see that the woman next to me is stroking my hair.  I found this unusual, and Valeria is giving me a quizzical look.  The woman was telling my how great my hair was, I tell her I get that a lot.  She says it is really soft, but it doesn't smell as good as her's does.  I kinda felt obligated to verify her claim, and I told her that indeed, her hair smelled better, a bit fruity, as I recall.  After she left, Valeria said she had been drinking (and possibly smoking) a bit.

The Rat Pack Manhattan!

It was probably a bad idea to have that before eating (not the first time I've done that), but I did have some free play to redeem before meeting the guys at Magnolia's at Four Queens for dinner.  Due to some technical difficulties, it took me longer to redeem my free play, so I didn't get down to Magnolia's until around 7:30.  They had already seated and ordered, and John actually left to go gamble!  That was fine.  Unsure what to order, since we had two steakhouse dinners coming up, I ordered chicken parmesan.

Chicken parm!

Dinner was fine, although I forgot I was wearing a white shirt, and of course, I got sauce on it.  I used a 2-1 entree coupon, and the total was 44.46 and I used my earned comps (since I had over $400).  I told the guys they should leave the tip (since I was paying with my comps).

After dinner, the guys wanted to play more poker.  The only place to play downtown is at Golden Nugget.  When we got there around 8:30 PM, there was around a 15 minute wait.  I don't remember if we waited that long, but they opened up a new table with all of us.  Now I did say that it wasn't great that we were all at the same table, since we could be taking our money from each other (less the rake), but that's how it goes.  In fact, the largest pot I won was off one of our guys.

I was doing okay, then I had jacks against one other guy.  The flop was a dangerous one, with flush and straight draws, but I had the over pair.  I bet out and the guy called.  The turn made the flush and I bet out again and the guy just called.  The river was a blank and I fired out again.  The guy though about it and eventually called.  I was thinking he didn't have a straight or flush, and I was right. . .  he had queens.  Ugh.  I had a jack of hearts and was thinking I would have been in good position if I made my flush, but that would have been worse.

There were some other exciting hands I wasn't involved it, where two guys hit trip 10's on an X-10-10 flop with three total people in the pot. Then a J hits on the turn and one guy pushes all-in and the other guys call.  First guy shows J-10, but second guy shows J-J (third guy with the other ten just walked away).

Another hand was with one of our guys, hit three deuces on the flop (with 2-4) ended up pushing with the crazy Dutchman calling behind him and a third called.  The river was a four of diamonds, which gave Joe a full house, but gave the third guy the nut flush, and the Dutchman was almost out, calling with 7-2 (which he played a lot).

Everyone left and I was the last from my group at the table.  Being down to around $25 in chips, I was wondering why I was still there, but doubled up once, and finally decided to walk away with $20.  During that time, a young guy came to the table from San Diego, said he was there for a hockey tournament.  We started talking hockey, I told him I played a long time ago, and ended up taking a long time trying to find the photo of my in my goaltender equipment.  He was impressed with my "Osgood" cage and leather pads.  He said I should get back into playing, maybe that will be something for 2022. . .

As I was heading out, I noticed this, and wondered how I missed seeing this person in the poker room, I would have loved to have been at his table. . .

I should have asked for Steve Rogers' table. . .

I took a picture of "The Hand of Faith" nugget, since there is a display at Atlantic City, so I'm wondering which one is the real one. . .

I was going to head back to Plaza, but I remembered I still needed to go by Walgreen's to get distilled water for my CPAP.  I got there and they were out!  That's disappointing.  I did pick up ibuprofin (since I figured I'd need it), and a new brush.  Since it was on the way, I stopped at Vue Bar at The D to see if any of my favorite bartenders were there, and I caught Jason towards the end of his shift.  I ended up playing more than I should there, but it was nice to catch up with him.

I got back to the room around 3:30 AM, much later than I wanted.  I'm thinking we will be getting up relatively early the next day (today).  That was poor planning by me!

July - August Las Vegas Trip - Summary

Since the blog seems to post the first photo when I post the link, I thought I'd post this one:

This was the 13th group trip I've participated in since the first one in 2008, to coincide with 08/08/08.  We didn't meet in 2018, had two meets in 2019, and missed 2020.  Overall, this was my 33rd trip to Las Vegas.  I've stayed at Golden Gate for the most days (23), passing Main Street Station (16), Bally's (15), and Rio (14).  Some of those nights I actually didn't stay in the room (such as Rio this trip), since I was double (and sometimes triple) booked.

Flight:

I was booked as Bob's companion on Southwest, so we split the cost of the one flight.  Flights were a bit cheaper departing from Dulles (IAD) than Philadelphia (PHL), so Bob drove down to my condo and we flew from IAD.  He did save on parking as he was able to park in our lot for free.  He did end up with an extra expense by booking a hotel the night before our departure.

Depart IAD:  12:05 pm, arrive DEN 1:45 pm

Depart DEN:  3:05 pm, arrive LAS 4:00 pm

Depart LAS:  9:25 am, arrive IAD 6:15 pm (with a stop in DEN, no change of planes.

Rental Car:

We saw high rental car prices a few months before the trip, so we saw a pre-pay rate with Budget for $328.64, with an Amazon code that gave 20% back in an Amazon gift card.

We had no issues picking up and dropping off our car.  Bob's name was on the board at the kiosk in the garage, and his rental agreement was in the car.  The "touchless" check-out was a bit difficult, but we managed.

Hotels:

I booked three nights at Rio using an offer I received that was supposed to include $75 in resort credit.  We arrived after the diamond check-in closed, and since there was a long line at the lobby (and no dedicated diamond line), I checked-in via kiosk.  As we were running around (and I wasn't really in the room for the rest of the stay), I wasn't able to follow up on the credit.  I called the front desk and they told me it was only $25, but I was supposed to have $100 in freeplay.  I stopped back there Thursday night, but the slot club was already closed and no one at the cashier could help me.  The person told me go come back the next morning, but I had my big play day at Four Queens, so I wasn't able to go back.  I completed their "how was your stay" form, mentioning several times about my difficulties, but I have not received a response (as a side, I completed a questionnaire for Four Queens which I mailed from home a few days after I got home, and I already received a response from the General Manager, thanking me for my responses, and even offered me two tickets for a show in their showroom).  Being a diamond card member, my resort fees were waived.

One of the reasons I booked the room was for the dining credit, since we were going to have dinner at Bacchanal.  Bob used his diamond celebration dinner and I charged the remainder (Kip and my dinners) to the room, which was $135.44.  The final charge to my room was $110.44, so at least they did give me the $25 resort credit.  Maybe I'll see something about the other $100 freeplay, or at least the additional $50 resort credit that was in my offer, but I seriously doubt it.  I'll just chalk it up to verifying these things when I check in.

Another reason was that I was planning on using the pool.  We originally thought we could use the pool in the morning, but then discovered that it didn't open until 10:00 am.  I could have carved out time later, but I had my play plans all scheduled out, and there were logistical issues between getting between Rio and downtown.

I booked three nights at Four Queens through a host.  I got a nice room in the South Tower and I was pleasantly surprised with the room quality.  The large refrigerator and coffee maker were nice, and the shower was very good.  I just wish it had a tub, on the odd chance that I'd like to just sit and soak.

I inquired about a suite upgrade, and my host said that Wed/Thu would have been $65 and Fri was $120.  Perhaps with my increased play, I can get one comped on my next stay.  Four Queens doesn't charge a resort fee.

I booked four nights at Golden Gate in one of their mini-suites.  Other than the how the bathroom/shower area is set up, the room is good.  It has a mini-fridge, Keurig machine, and they provide two bottles of Smartwater (it used to be Fiji).  We did not get housekeeping, so the water and coffee were not replenished (but in prior stays with housekeeping, they were).  The suites are on the opposite side of Fremont Street, so there you don't have most of the noise from the stage that is right there.  Comped rooms don't have resort fee.

My last stay was at Wynn, where Bob used rewards from the Wynn Slots app.  He paid to get to the level where you can book a room, but I'm not exactly sure how much that was.  A benefit to the booking, though, was that there was no resort fee.

Meals and drinks:

I don't have a lot of exact totals, so for those of you who like that, I apologize in advance.  There were a lot of comped meals though. . .

Tuesday, July 27

Dinner:  Ellis Island BBQ - Used 2-1 coupon, my total was $15.92

Drinks:  Ellis Island Pop-up Tiki Bar - 1 drink, $17.00

Wednesday, July 28

Lunch:  Starboard Tack - $40.00

Drinks:  Golden Tiki - 1.5 Dole Whips, paid around $20?

Dinner:  Bacchanal, Caesars Palace - $110.44, plus tip

Thursday, July 29

Breakfast:  Binion's Cafe, Binion's - comps

Lunch:  Whiskey Liquor Up, Binion's - comps ($93.99 for four people)

Dinner:  Orchid's Garden - $20.00?

Drinks:  Jammyland - $38.40

Friday, July 30

Breakfast:  Magnolia's, Four Queens - comps

Dinner:  Hugo's Cellar, Four Queens - comps

Saturday, July 31

Lunch:  Saginaw's Delicatessen, Circa - comps ($21.68)

Dinner:  Andiamo, The D - comps

Sunday, August 1

Breakfast:  Magnolia's, Four Queens - comps

Lunch:  Victory Burger, Circa - comps

Dinner:  Barry's Downtown Prime, Circa - comps, $55.26 was leftover from monthly comps.  I charged it to my room, but my host used my earned comps and not discretionary

Monday, August 2

Breakfast:  Magnolia's, Four Queens - comps

Early Dinner:  Pizza Rock - comps

Tuesday, August 3

Breakfast:  Binion's Cafe, Binion's - comps

Lunch:  Whiskey Liquor Up, Binion's - comps

Dinner:  Starboard Tack - ?

Activities:

Pinball Museum

Bellagio Fountain and Conservatory

Putting at Angel Park

Stadium Swim

Bowling at Gold Coast

Check out Resorts World

Wynn pool

Stop at Eureka

Gaming:

Thanks to Kip's royals, we came out ahead this trip.  We only had three losing sessions (-$292, -$7.75, and -$70.82), so that's pretty good.  Even without the royals, we would have only taken a relatively small loss, but it's still good that we came out ahead!  We maxed out one month of the Four Queens promo and half of the same promo at Binion's.  We could have maxed out both for both months, but that would have taken a majority of the trip, and we would have to be as lucky as we were.  As it stands, we did put in a fair amount of coin-in at these properties, so hopefully our offers will increase in a few months:

Binion's:  Harv - $16,800 coin-in

Binion's:  Kip - $16,000 C/I

Four Queens:  Harv & Kip - $32,000 C/I each

The D:  Harv - $15,000 C/I

The D:  Kip - $10,000 C/I

Golden Gate:  Harv - $5,000 C/I

Golden Gate:  Kip - $5,000 C/I

So an overall good trip, it was good seeing friends I haven't seen in over a year, and other friends who I've seen, but haven't been able to hang out with.  The weather was hot, but we were inside most of the time.  The mask mandate happened while we were there, so it was tough playing those long video poker sessions with a mask on, but we managed.  I look forward to the time when things will be closer to normal, not just in Las Vegas, but everywhere.

July - August Las Vegas Trip - Day Nine

Wednesday, August 4

6:00 am sunrise in Las Vegas. . .

Time to shower and finish packing for our 9:25 am flight.

We stopped at the ARCO at 7280 Las Vegas Blvd S (at E Warm Springs Rd), which seemed to have a decent price.  The drop off at Budget went fast, but it seemed like we waited quite a while for the shuttle to take us back to the airport.

We managed to get our bags checked and through security with time to pick up some sandwiches for the trip (since we wouldn't have time during our stop in DEN, since we weren't changing planes).  I also picked up a breakfast sandwich.

There seemed to be a bit of confusion at the gate, and they announced the flight going to Denver, Washington, Chicago, and Phoenix.  Well, I was getting off at one of those stops!

I had the window seat leaving Las Vegas, so I took some photos as we were departing. . .

There were only around eight people going to IAD, so we were able to change seats.  As Bob is taller, he wanted to be seated in the emergency exit row.  As I am short, I usually don't worry about that.  We got the row, and were talking with the flight attendant, who occupied the middle seat area (while I avoided eye contact with every tall person who walked by), and by the time everyone boarded, the middle seat remained empty!  Bonus!

I had a ridiculous amount of legroom. . .

I dozed off a bit and Bob dozed of a bit, but we were awake when we were arriving back at IAD.  Now I know that I live along the flight path to IAD, and was wondering how close we were.  I leaned over to look out the window, and I said that it looked like I saw my daughter's old elementary school.  Turns out that it was!  I recognized the I-66/Route 28 interchange and soon enough, we landed at Dulles.

We got our bags and Bob decided that he'll eat here before hitting the road.  We ended up going to Silver Diner.  I got what I usually get, the flat iron steak, although I got a chicken noodle soup and a chocolate malt.  Both were good, as always.

We headed back to our condo, where Bob was parked, and he headed home.  I unpacked and headed to bed, since I had to be "at" work the next day!  The trip was truly over. . .

July - August Las Vegas Trip - Day Eight

Tuesday, August 3

My last day downtown and last full day in Las Vegas!  Hopefully it will be a good one!

Kip and I have one last play planned, 2,000 points for her at Binion's.  I had to take my bag to the car, since we were checking out of Golden Gate just afternoon and I didn't think I'd have time to get back from Binion's and take the bag to the car before lunch and heading to Wynn.  I took a last photo of the view from my Golden Gate suite, which is pretty much the same view I always have, although this time it was a floor higher.

It's not the best view, but it sure beats hearing the noise from Fremont Street!

I sent a message to Kip around 8:00 am, telling her I was taking my bag to the car and heading to Binion's to meet her for breakfast.  Around 8:30 am, she said she was heading down.  There was a little bit of a line before, but by the time she arrived, there was no wait.

The same waitress who waited on me during my trip in September waited on me again and recognized me (or maybe she just recognized Jacques D. Monquee) and I told her I remembered her from my prior trips.  Once again, I get the Gambler's Special (maybe one time I'll get steak and eggs). . .

We finish breakfast and head to the machines to start play.  Things are going pretty well, I hit quad sevens, which I didn't think much of until the guy next to me says that I could get a hat for it.  Apparently for their 70's anniversary, Binion's is having some giveaway, one being if you hit quad sevens, you get a hat.  We are in a pretty isolated part of the casino, but it is close to the slot club, so I head over there, and a slot attendant happens to be there.  He takes my card number and soon enough, I have a hat!

Hit quad sevens, get a hat!

It's a pretty nice hat too.  Here are the other promotions they were running:

Too bad I didn't know about this when I did my play in July (although it would have been difficult for me to do this in August without some rescheduling), it did work out for Kip.  She said she wanted to get a hat, and sure enough, not too long after I got mine, she got quad sevens as well!  The guy who told me about the promo was telling another woman on the bank the same thing when she got quad sevens.  I told the guy that he should be getting a commission for this, and he said he got his good karma back, he was waiting for a handpay for the $1 royal he just hit!  That's the kind of karma I needed!

I hit two more stinkin' bonus quads with kickers, and still ended being a $60 loser!

Obviously it could have gone a lot worse.  Kip finished her session up $35, so we put in $16,000 coin-in with a $25 loss, and we were still getting freeplay and cashback.  I hit a 50c quad on my freeplay and Kip redeemed $185 from her $200, and with the cashback, we were up $355 for the session!  Kip also got the t-shirt (which she gave me, and it is nice), and she got the insulated flask, which she kept.

We finished just in time for our 12:00 pm lunch, and we got seated while we waited for the rest of our party to arrive.

I ordered the meatball sub this time, which was pretty good, I really do like the fries though.

Bob and I say our temporary goodbyes as we head to Wynn.  We decide to stop by at Resorts World to check it out.  We were a bit confused as to where to park (we entered from the back side, since Las Vegas Boulevard had heavy traffic around The Strat).  I believe we parked at the Conrad hotel parking and then walked down some stairs that opened onto the ground level, and you couldn't reenter those stairs, so we'd have to figure out how to get back to that garage.

We walked around the property and it looked nice, it also looked pretty large.  We went by the poker room, and there seemed to be a few tables going.  We ended up finding our way back to the parking garage and were happy to discover that we didn't have to pay.

The Resorts World sphere

We got to Wynn around 4:15 pm.  Bob had already checked in, and went to a kiosk to pick up his keys, since there was a bit of a line in the lobby.  However, technology failed us, as the kiosk failed to process Bob's ID and credit card.  It locked up processing and Bob wanted to make sure that his card wasn't going to be charged, so I told him he should go to the lobby and I'll stay at the kiosk and make sure nothing happened.  Eventually, the kiosk reset and I made sure his information wasn't in there.  I went back to the lobby and the line moved quickly.  We were soon in the room for our last night in Las Vegas.

No Strip view tonight. . .

We had a little bit of time to hit the pool before meeting Kip, Cathy, and Jose for dinner at Starboard Tack.  We also discovered that the pool was open until 7:00 pm (I believe the check-in clerk had told us it was open until 6:00 pm).

It was nice, and I found it warmer than Stadium Swim, although I was at this pool at 5:30 pm, not 9:00 am.

Last time chilling poolside!

We needed to hurry if we were going to meet our friends at 7:00 pm, but we lingered a bit longer at the pool, and didn't arrive to Starboard Tack until a little before 8:00 pm.  It was all good, our friends already ordered drinks and appetizers.

I got a cherry blossom drink and tried the fried chicken fried rice, both of which were very good.

We wanted to do some "fun play", and Eureka Casino isn't far away from Starboard Tack (and on the way back to the Strip) so we stopped there.  The five of us kicked in $20 each for a shot on 25c Multistrike.  Our first hand was a winner, and almost a double up.

Nice first hand!

Now, we typically play to a double up, and we could have easily lost trying to get that last $6.25, but we managed to get it in a few more hands.  Doubled up and out I think in around 20 minutes!

We all get to Wynn and try one more group play, on Ultimate X Spin Poker.  It was going okay, but we weren't getting the "quick hit" at nickels, so I bumped to dimes, and we ended up losing.  Ah well, those are the breaks

We said our goodbyes to Rob and Melody on the casino floor.  Kip, Cathy, and Jose went up to the room to pick up a few things that Bob and I weren't going to take on the plane with us and then we bid them farewell.

It was quite the early night, but it was going to be an early morning for our flight out. . .

July - August Las Vegas Trip - Day Seven

Monday, August 2

Got up around 8ish.  Kip sends me a message saying she was shooting to meet me at 10:00 am before heading to Four Queens and Magnolia's for breakfast.  I hit the shower and am ready for her to come by around 9:30 am.  She drops off her bag and we walk down Fremont Street to the Queens.

We are meeting Cathy and Jose again, and we get there around 11:00 am.  Looking for a change for breakfast (and seeing Jose get it a previous morning), I ordered the chicken fried steak.  He said it was okay and it was just okay.

We head back to Golden Gate to get our day's play in.  Kip and I stopped to check her in to her last room at Hotel Apache.  She had a decent size room, larger than the one I had in April, but smaller than the one she had in March.

Things were starting slow for me, then I hit aces.  Then I hit aces again.  Then I hit aces again, this time with a useless kicker.  I hit aces three times in an hour.  Not too bad. . .

Then I followed that up with quad fours, and then a bit later, deuces (with another useless kicker)!  At least I'm hitting bonus quads on a bonus game!

Well, it's now around 4:00 pm, and we had a 4:30 pm reservation at Pizza Rock.  It was for happy hour, and we could also use our One Club (earned) comps there.

I had never been there before (but Kip had, and recommended it), and it was really good!  The pizza was great and they had a good drink selection.  I'll be sure to add this place to my restaurant rotation on future trips!

The Tony 2 Times (without salami) and a Black House Vanilla Latte Stout

It was a nice little break to hang out with friends.  We then headed back to Golden Gate to finish our play.  We figured we had a few more hours to go.

The evening session did not go well for me.  I hit one bonus quad (with another useless kicker), and turned a large winning session in the morning to an overall win of 18c.  I guess I really can't complain about that.  Kip, unfortunately, had a losing session, but with our monthly freeplay and earned cashback, we only ended up being down $70.82 overall, which isn't bad for $10,000 coin-in.

We had 9:00 pm bowling planned, so Kip and I had to rush up to get socks and then get over to The D where our ride was waiting.  It was a good thing our friend had a full-size car, because we were still packed in there.

Our other friends were waiting at Gold Coast for us, and soon we were ready to bowl:

 Yeah, we were bowling with some Asshole. . .

I hadn't bowled in a while (and I imagine most other people hadn't either).  We still had fun though (there might have been alcohol involved).  And in the end, the Asshole won. . .

Afterwards, we tried a group play on 10c 10-line Ultimate X.  Unfortunately, we couldn't string together a bunch of winning hands, and it was soon over.

We headed back to The D, and Kip and I walked back to Golden Gate.  I believe that was pretty much it!