I believe my old style trip reports where I just dump a bunch of
facts has become boring, Soooo I will try a more narrative approach.
This trip I brought one of my old cronies with me , who is coming on
his first real gambling trip with his personal Guru (me), I have had
him practising up on Video Poker, and he has been champing at the bit
to try out his new skills .
Day 1.....
Flight left Toronto on time and arrived in Vegas a few minutes early
( a normal occurrence since they add so much time to the schedule
that they can leave a half hour late and still arrive on time, but it
looks good when they publish their on time reports). Hit a little
turbulence on the way due to all the rain. Arrived in the wet and
cold of sunny Las Vegas.
Caught shuttle bus to Alamo, flashed my upgrade certificate and got
our midsize (Mitsubishi Galant) I was extremely happy with this set
of wheels.
Acting as a tour guide and driver I missed the cut off for I-15 and
got on the beltway instead, wasted 10 minutes getting back on track.
Arrived at MSS. Checked in and picked up our Silver Card for the
comped eats, dumped the bags and headed off to the casino to check
out the changes since my last trip. I identified the new FP deuces
machines which were occupied, and we played for a few
hours.
We broke for dinner and hit the buffet (steak and Scampi night), food
was good as usual and we ate our fill .
Back to the VP. Rick (my rookie) hit the ducks on the quarter NSUD
his first ever and was quite pleased with his first day results.
I couldn't hit diddly but wasn't getting creamed too badly. So ends
first day.
Day 2.....
Meet my Vegas local buddy Stan for breakfast at the buffet, and had
an Omelette ( Manuel the egg man makes great omelettes and is quite a
showman to boot) . Rick goes off to play some more deuces while Stan
and I go play the Jokers, we are both losing on these
machines , and then my luck takes a sharp turn and I buy 2 cards for
a natural royal and $1175, nice recovery. Stan and I high 5 and then
he has to be off to take his better half to their next stop. Later in
the day I hit 5k on another jokers machine and ended up pretty good
on the day. Rick was a little down for the day but still holding his
own. Played some of the treasure chest machines for a break and
finally hit a couple of 500 coin payoffs.
We hit the 777 for dinner Rick had the monster hamburger and a Caesar
salad which he found to be very good. I had the rib-eye steak which
wasn't too bad either. We played another few hours then crashed
around midnight.
Day 3.....
Nothing fantastic to report for today, I finally hit the ducks on the
FP deuces and that helped me stay around even for the day.
We hit the Cal for lunch in the coffee shop, food was good and we
missed the crowds by eating late. For dinner we hit the Fremont for
their Seafood buffet, I wanted to pig out on the lobster claws. Major
disappointment here . the Lobster claws were overcooked and were
tough, the rest of the food on the buffet was good though , so , I
will give them another chance next trip. On the way out we stopped to
play a little pick-em Rick hit quads and I held my own with smaller
stuff.
My major disappointment with MSS was that I found the value of the
scratch cards further diminished. My average based on about 30 cards
received was around $2.75, 2/3 of the cards were of the $2 variety.
It is still one of the best promotions around for the quarter
player.
Day4: Checked out of MSS and went to the strip to stay at the
Stardust for a day. They made me an offer I couldn't refuse, when
they sent me a check for $300.
We got to the dust early and picked up some new slot cards for their
upgraded system. Checked out the inventory and noticed that they
replaced the venerable treasure chest machines with some crummy ddb
machines, and I noticed that most of the 9/7 db's were downgraded to
9/6 db , I can find payoffs that good in Toronto, I really don't know
where they find the suckers to play some of this crap. We found some
9/6 jb with the double up option on them (which I hate) and they
still had a couple of the fp bonus deuces around %99.5 and then I
stumbled onto the NSUD games on the multi game machines. Played for a
few hours then we went to GVR for the buffet guests of Stan and met
up with the whole family for an enjoyable evening. We played a little
before heading back to the dust.
Ended the night hitting the deuces on the bonus deces machine for a
recovery on the day so that I still left with $100 of the money that
they gave me, and grabbed a comp for breakfast for the morning.
Day5: Off to Sams Town ...
Arrived at Sams town and since we were early we played before
checking in. Nothing to eventful to start with and around noon I went
to check in. When I got back to the machines that Rick and I were
playing Rick proudly showed me his ticket for a jacket, he had hit
his first Royal and got a Sams Town jacket to commemorate the event.
My luck did not go as well and all I managed to do all day was donate
money to the coffers of sams town. We met a California buddy for
dinner and had a fine feast at Wily and Joses. Played a little more
after dinner and hit the sack.
Day 6.
Got up , we had breakfast at the coffee wagon because the line ups at
the coffee shop were a joke on this Presidents day ( why don't they
open the buffet for breakfasts on special days like this especially
when they have sent out mailers to every local habitue of Sams Town
and they were there with their coupons in droves ). Finished eating
and I drove Rick to the airport, he only had a 5 day vacation as
opposed to my full week. He will be back with me I think next year,
this is the first time he has ever gone home a winner.
Finally got some play time in and then met another local friend for
lunch at the coffee shop, fairly good food there as most of the time.
Got in some more disappointing play and then went off to the Gold
Coast to meet another pal of mine from California for dinner at the
Cortez room. I was treated to a fine Prime rib dinner, and we chatted
for quite a while.
Then it was back to Sams Town to try my luck again. I sat down to
play some fp deuces and naturally I couldn't hit the deuces for love
or money.
I decided to blow a few bucks on the ddb bank with the 5 way
progressive, the pot for the aces with the kicker was approaching
$600 and looked tempting. To make a long story short after losing
about $20 I hit a small quad, then I hit quad deuces TWICE no
kickers, then I had Deuces dealt to me and I drew the kicker. I never
hit the aces, but I did manage to make up all my losses for the day
and went to bed a happy camper.
Day 7.
Last day, had breakfast in the coffee shop and started to do my
rounds. I saw the progressive on the 5 way was gone so they went off
my list, the deuces machines were busy so I went upstairs to have a
shot at the one-eyed jacks machines. I really like these machines
because they can go on monster hitting streaks. I hit one machine and
did nothing and then hit another and got 5 of a kind and a couple of
straight flushes. I then played some db, never hit the Aces once on
this trip. The rest of the day was basically a break even sort of
affair. For dinner I got an invite to a special dinner at the Fiesta
courtesy of Stan, and I met him and his wife Patti and we went to
dinner. It was a nice dinner , food was good and there were a lot of
brass around glad handing the regulars. It was a worthwhile event.
After dinner I played a little FP jokers and then headed back to Sams
Town. Played a little before heading to bed, nothing of note happened.
Day 8
Headed home, flight was on time and relatively few hassles at the
airport.
Regards to all
A.P.