LV Report 4-5-06 (4 of 12)
I'm becoming a little frustrated. My first night here I was
able to sleep a good nine hours. However, since then it's been six
each night. It's only an hour or so less than I normally get at
home, but I come here hoping to sleep at least eight hours a night.
I might consider taking a "no-doze" or some other mild sleep
inducer.
Anyway, it's up and away to my next destination. I have a
strange trip this time around. I usually spend two or three nights
in different hotels throughout my trips because I take advantage of
the free offers mailed to me from the different hotels. Being a low-
roller, I'm happy to move around, but I rarely get weekends for
free.
About two months ago the Vegas Club sent me a postcard
offering free nights during Sundays and Thursdays, and the weekends
would only be $19.00 per night. So, knowing this was the best deal
for a weekend, I took them up on it. Well, three weeks later, I get
another offer from Vegas Club offering the free nights with the slot
tournament. Okay, this means April 2 through 4, I'm in the Vegas
Club for the tournament, and then I have to go somewhere else on the
5th, and then return to the Vegas Club on the 6th. I called and
asked if it would be okay if I simply stayed on the 5th considering
I'd be back the very next day. She told me that I wasn't allowed to
use two offers within the same month. I thought it over and decided
to give up the weekends and look somewhere else; however, she asked
me to hold. When she came back, she said that her manager said that
if I don't book the Wednesday and come back on Thursday with the
other offer, no one would be the wiser. Therefore, I can't stay on
Wednesday. Now, if you're confused with this paragraphtry being
there. Who can ever figure out marketing departments?
So, it just so happened that I got another mailer from
Fiesta offering me one free night (even this is strangeone free
night?). But it worked out perfectly for me, and I booked the
renegade Wednesday knowing I'd be coming right back again on
Thursday to the Vegas Club. I'm going and cross my fingers and ask
for the same room.
I stopped at a Starbucks across from Sunset Station to file
yesterday's report. For the couple of times at Starbucks, my Hot
Spot signal was cutting off in the middle of my using the Internet.
Once or twice can be understandable, but now at a different
Starbucks, it was doing the same thing. With my cell phone, I
called them and explained the problem. For the next two hours, the
technician and I worked on the problem. After going through dozens
of possibilities, including removing some programs, firewalls, and
others, we finally came to the conclusion that my Internet Driver
was breaking down. He walked me through updating the driver from my
computer company, and now all is good. There's a part of me that
feels foolish paying $30 a month for a service I use really only a
couple times a month, but I have to give kudos to the tech people at
tmobile for being patient and as caring and determined to solve my
problem as much as I was.
Before checking into Fiesta, Henderson, I drove out the
Montelago, the casino at the Las Vegas Lake, next to the Ritz
Carlton. On Wednesdays and Sundays, they have 5X point days, and
they have 10/6 Double Double Bonus games for nickels and NSU Deuces
for dimes, my favorite video poker games to play. It turned out to
be a good choice because after about 15 minutes, I hit the deuces
for $100. This is the seventh time now hitting the ducks this trip
(keeping in mind that the other six were on Spin Poker machines,
which play nine games at a time).
I then lost a little and moved over to the 10/6 DDB, and
even though I hit one quad and a few full houses, it was not to be.
Whenever I'm here, I like to walk around the shopping square on the
lake. This is really a beautiful area, and I read that a new Irish
bar and restaurant had just opened. However, today was a bad
weather day in Vegas. It was blustery and cold. It sprinkled off
and on and the surrounding mountains were covered with a fresh layer
of snow. It was not a good day to be sightseeing.
I checked into the Fiesta without a hitch. The rooms here
are motel small, but since Stations took over, they've been kept up
very nicely and are more than adequate. I wish they'd bring in some
of those great mattresses that Green Valley and Sunset added.
I went down to Fiesta's coffee shop (which has always been and
continues to be outstandinga top 10 in my opinion), and I ordered
the Emperor's soup bowl. Martin (MMoy/Martimus) recommended this to
me a few years ago. It's a huge bowl of wonderful broth with
shrimp, beef, and many different vegetables. It's an entire meal by
itself and was fantastic.
It was time to turn in my 3X points coupon and do some
gambling. I first played my $5 match coupon, which was a bust, and
then I headed over to the Spin Poker game, which has the same deuces
schedule as the Hilton and the Silverton. I played for over an
hour, but no deuces. It was also frustrating to not be dealt three
deuces for the fun of drawing the forth. This happened at the Hilton
five times, though the deuce didn't come up on those occasions.
Also, I was never dealt four-to-the-royal, which makes for a heart
stopping time. When I play the single line games, these come up two
or three times a session, and it's yet to come once during all my
Spin Poker sessions. Is it a conspiracy?
After finally losing my stake here, I moved over to the Spin
Poker Deluxe machines. I've never played these yet. It's the same
set up as the regular spin poker, but instead of nine lines, there
are twenty lines. That's 100 coins per spin. At a nickel per line,
this is five bucks every time you hit the button. It's just too
rich for my blood. However, I did want to try it out, and these
machines had penny and two cent options. I put $40 and chose the
two cent option, which still means that I playing $2.00 a spin. I
wanted to see what it was like and worth the experiment.
Unfortunately, there are NO decent pay schedules on this
machine. The deuces schedule was really bad, so I opted for the 7/5
Jacks or Better (don't say it, I knowbut I wanted to experiment and
this was the best of the bunch). Well, those extra lines really
make a huge difference. With that $40, I went through almost $1500
in play (4500 points with the triple point coupon) and finally lost
my stake after almost an hour and a half. I really like this
machine. I obviously can't play it unless I can find one with a
decent pay schedule on it, but it is worth the extra gamble. I
can't even begin to tell you how many times four deuces have come up
on the regular spin poker, but where not on the pay lines. With
this game, that's very unlikely to happen. Almost every possible
combination is a pay line. I had a really good time with only a $40
investment.
I headed back to my room and called it a night. I'm only a
third through my vacation, and I'm still on budget. With my daily
budget loss acceptance, I'm doing just fine and really having a
great time. It seems I'll be meeting a couple of members next week
as I've received messages that they're going to be in town. I'm
looking forward to that.
More tomorrow.