I've been doing short sessions at the Barbary Coast for years. I'd
never gotten a mailed offer, but during the summer I called up & they
gave me a good casino rate for a 3-night stay. I think I played
between $3K and $4K/day, mostly quarter FPDW (now changed to NSUD),
with some short shots at 50-cents & dollar (NSUD available in quarter
and dollar, JOB at quarter, 50-cent, & dollar). At the end of that
stay, Lisa Vios comped all three nights.
I was sort of surprised to get the mailed offer for last weekend's
slot tourney, but the deal seemed good. Free room plus free banquet.
The tourney itself was $25K in prizes for 200 entrants, so the $100+
EV offset most of my airfare too.
The tournament was 3 sessions of 20 minutes each, pushing the button
of a slot machine & seeing how many points accummulated. We played in
groups of about 25 I think.
I'd quickly read the rules, & thought that tournament prizes (I think
$10K first to $1K fifth, and gradually decreading to $100 for 25th
place) were based on the best single score for the 3 sessions. In the
first session, I got 9000+, but looking around I saw someone else
with 10K, & later saw another. I figured that since I didn't even
come in first among the 25 people I was playing with, it wasn't
enough for one of the big prizes, but maybe could squeeze through
with something.
Second round I got 8K+, which I figured was a throw-away since it
didn't beat my first. And in the final round, I got a slightly higher
9K+ than the first round. It was the best of the 25 people who played
with me, but I hadn't seen the other 175 people play that round, so I
still figured my result was good but not great. I told my mother
(who'd flown in for the weekend to share the room, food, & VP play
with me) that I'd be disappointed if I didn't get $100. Later, I
amended that to say I was really hoping for $250, & would be thrilled
with $500.
Went to the banquet Sunday afternoon at Drai's. When they started
announcing winners, they started with 25th place, a $100 prize to
someone who'd gotten 25K credits on the slot play. I was amazed that
anyone had beaten me by so much, & felt stupid for having such high
hopes. I sat there morosely as they called up each winner, wanting to
just leave the place, but figured that might be impolite.
Then out of nowhere, I hear my name called. I walked up in a bit of a
daze (wondering whether they'd made a mistake, & figuring maybe I
could sneak out with the money if they did). Turns out I had misread
the rules, & the prizes were actually based on the sum of credits
earned for all 3 sessions, so I had 26 or 27K or something. I don't
know. But they gave me a BC jacket, put a cowboy hat on my head, gave
me one of those oversized checks & took a picture, & after taking my
social security number (I guess they tell my Uncle Sam about this,
huh?) I got an envelope with 25 hundred-dollar bills in it.
Otherwise, between my mother & I, we were down about $300 for the
trip (no royals, 3 quad deuces). In addition to BC, played 50-cent
Pick'em at Bally's with two $300 quads within an hour or two. Lots of
triple-play quarter NSUD at NYNY. AA at LVH. BJ at LVH (the BJ Blitz
machine is 6-deck, not 4). Easy comp to the LVH lunch buffet, which
was good.
On the first night, the fun club desk at BC was quick & friendly in
giving me a comp dinner at Victorian Room, even though I'd hardly
played yet on this trip. Victorian Room had good food & big portions;
I could have split my meal two ways.
Stuart (RandomStu)
sresnick2@comcast.net
http://home.comcast.net/~sresnick2/mypage.htm