LV Report 4-6-06 (5 of 12)
After getting up at 5:30 AM (still can't get that big
night's sleep yet), I made some coffee, which Fiesta Henderson
provided with an in-room coffee maker and read a little bit. I
watched ESPN and finally headed out.
I drove over to Sam's Town on my way back to downtown. I
wanted to see how many points I still had on my card and play some
of the full pay deuces wild. I didn't catch any deuces or royals or
wild royals; however, the four and five of a kinds were plentiful
enough for me to cash out up $22.00 and putting another couple
hundred points on the card. I'm guessing Sam's got tired of the
complaints about the full pay deuces machines being so slow and has
brought them back up to lightning speed. Good for them.
Sam's is pretty much the same place with the same machines
in the same places. They rarely move things around, and I like
that. They've also taken the area by the theaters that used to be
the old arcade and have added a mini-food court with a Subway
sandwich and a Katie's Cookies to go along with the ice cream shop.
Also, their breakfast and lunch buffet continues to be a bargain at
only $4.99 Mon-Fri. When you consider that a large orange juice in
their coffee shop costs $2.95 by itself, why not do the buffet and
have as much as you want along with the meal. Granted, the buffet
isn't going to win any awards for taste, but it's still okay food
and nice service.
I drove back to downtown and checked back into the Vegas
Club. Unfortunately, my other room wasn't available for the
weekend, but I still managed to stay in the North Tower. The room
on the 6th floor doesn't have the nice view, but it's a carbon copy
of the other one, so I'm fine with it. I still hate the thought of
having to pay for the room on the two weekend nightsI'm spoiled, I
don't like paying for rooms. But it's still a bargain.
I walked over to the Golden Gate for some soup and then
thought it would be a good time to go to my next movie, THE INSIDE
MAN. When I walked down to Neonopolis, I found that it wouldn't
start for an hour and a half, so I decided to take a walk down to
the El Cortez and The Westerner. These two casinos are a bit on
the "seedy" side for many, but I find the places have character, and
they are full of characters (I think I used that line already).
Anyway, after spending a little time in the El Cortez with its smoke-
filled casino, it noticed I had missed something in the newer
casinos: the old ladies walking around with coins in a bucket. You
don't see that too often anymore. The El Cortez is one of the last
places you can still bet quarters at the roulette.
I then really got up my nerve and walked down a couple of
blocks more to the Westerner. I realized that I had never walked
into this casino before. Like the El Cortez, it was filled with
people that looked like they were spending tomorrow's rent on the
penny slot machines. Men with old, weathered baseball hats, and
women who look like they had seen more rough days than I ever will.
I was surprised at how small it was compared to the El Cortez and
even more impressed that the entire floor was stained and polished
wood. Actually, the floor was the prettiest thing in the joint.
I ventured back to see the movie. I enjoyed it, but I
thought I would like it more than I did. After the flick, I walked
downstairs and had a lite beer at Julian's. If you haven't been
there before, it's like a Dave and Busters but with a cool, little
neon bowling alley. When it first opened I was real excited for the
place. It was different, hip, and clever in its own way. However,
as Neonopolis began to slowly die, so has Julian's. There was one
table with some people having lunch and me at the barthat was it.
I decided it was time for me to head back to the Golden
Nugget for some more live poker. For the next couple of hours, I
won some and lost some, but again was a victim of someone betting
every card with a gut shot straight and me holding trips, and he
hitting it. Another in a long line of people sucking out on me. I
only lost about $40, so it wasn't so bad, but it's hardest thing
about the game. When you play low-limit tables like I do, you run
the risk of people staying in with long shots. Sometimes you can
take advantage of these players, but other times, you just get
screwed. That's how it goes.
For the first time since I've been here, for whatever
reason, I was seriously hungry. I headed over to Main Street
Station's brew pub so I could watch some baseball and have a little
food. Unfortunately, there were no games being televised this
night. However, I still enjoyed a Caesar's Chicken salad. I've
never had a bad meal here, and their brews are top notch.
With the exception of the poker I mentioned and a few penny
video games, there was very little gambling today. The progressives
at both Main Street Station and Vegas Club are low and there's no
sense in playing poor schedule games if you can't make up for it
with a high royal progressive. I did manage to double my money on a
nickel Four Card Keno game. I like this game even though it's
pretty brainless. I tend to place five numbers on all four cards in
on an eight number group, with many of my numbers overlapping.
That's 20 numbers in eight slots. So far, this has worked pretty
well for me. If you make all five numbers, you win 854 coins from a
four coin bet. After almost going through my $20, I hit a fiver and
doubled my dough.
It was time to go to bed. The weekend is here, and I'm
expecting crowds everywhere I go. I've no idea what I'm going to do
but isn't that half the fun?
More tomorrow