Mark here - must have been a winning trip as I'm posting a trip report fairly soon after. We'll see...
Flew in on Christmas Day. 4 nights at SIlver Legacy in Superior Suite , 33rd floor corner, pre-comped. $0 charge.
Flight was full, but Southwest keeps the passengers happy. I even won a Christmas present, as did 3 other randomly selected seat occupants. I got a tin of 25 tea bags. I regifted them to my seat neighbor as they wouldn't fit in my satchel. Nice card, signed by the attendants.
Day 1
Landed at 1:10, limo'd, checked in and gaming by 2:00.
Hovered about even before I took a break for dinner, thanks to a dealt quad Aces for $400 playing $1 ACE$BP & a bonus quad 4 with a 3 "kicker " in 50c DDB for another 400.
I got a photo of this last hand- works great when you turn OFF the flash. GF got me a canon powershot digi-cam for christmas- what a great addition to the tour.
BIG porterhouse STEAK for dinner at the classy Sterling Steakhouse. I stuck with my one big meal per day routine on this trip.
After dinner I hit Quad wild 2s for $500 playin 50c NSUD (two machines on the mezz near the FPJW bank of 4) & another quad 4 with 3 kicker for $800 playing dollar DDB & got a photo of both.
Sleepy sam- heading for my corner suite even tho it's early for me: only 10PM.
Up $1500 on the day for about 6 hrs play.
Day 2
Up early and gamin by 9:00 am. pretty sunrise view.
played a lot on the end machines near Keno on the mezz. It has NSU deuces and DDB "plus" which is the 9/6 DDB with and extra bonus thrown in on the quad 5-thru-Ks if you have an Ace kicker (!) (pays 80-1 instead of 50-1) Never hit this "plus" bonus. But it's possible I did & didn't even notice...? Hit quad wild ducks playin dollar NSUD for $1000 - hand pay ?! Piddled it away on $2 ACE$BP, but played plenty of other games with frequent quad nourishment. Lotsa photos, bonus quads are a'happenin' on this trip. Always a pleasure. Have gone some trips without any bonus quads with kickers when I'm playin DDB.
Playin 50c X 5 lines DDB on the mezz, got DEALT quad 3's. drew one for the kicker, only hit it on one line. So, payoff was worth 200,200,200,200,400 = total 1200, tax form ugh. Puts me up about 400 on the day, almost +2K for the trip.
Lotsa families here, cloggin the aisles and willing to wait in LONG line at the buffet & sedona junky cafe. certain foreign speaking nationalities are rampant.
off for grub break 3:45PM - RICH meal at Fairchild Oyster bar- Scallop & Crab pan roast, caesar salad, key lime pie desert.
good stuff after dinner. up 300 on $1 NSUD. played $1 suited prog short pay 7/5 BP.
I hit the hearts RF for $4950. Held 3. in the word of a passerby: "Beautiful"
Called it a night at 9PM.
8 hrs play +5100
Day 3
Today the wad grows even more. 7:30AM start today (!) Another tax form $1200 for quad Aces playing Triple Bonus Plus $1 denom at the main flood jackpot Mill. Another handpay $1000 quad wild ducks on the $1 NSUD up on the mezzanine.
Up 1150 on the day and my pocket is bulging and camera is getting a workout.
This is FUN.
gotta go find the displaced deuces wild full pay- there's an automated poker room where they were last. The PA system is now as annoying as it is at Peppermill. The poker room bosses begging for new players, itinerant signed-up players getting called three times every 5-10 minutes, each one their last call. I got an e-mail & reply posts from vpFree_reno posters after I posted a request to locate the deuces. There they are- next to the SE corner doors against the east wall.
I found the 25c (only denom) Fullpay Deuces wild, but the 4 machines are set so agaonizingly slow that I dropped a 100 and called it quits for that game for the trip.
pulled a quad 3 playin $2 ACE$Bonus for 400, but the session was down -1400 which put me down 700 for the day til then.
dinner was McDonalds across the street- Silver was uncomfortably crowded with those huge, slow-moving families. There was a line waiting to check in all the way down the lobby out to the gift shop. Took my take out burgers up to my room, and took a long break watchin the HD TV big screen.
After break, I went on a terrifying losing streak playing $1 and $2 denoms. lost 2400 for down 3100, then started playin $5 JoB and ACE$BP. Hit two quads for 625 each, but dropped another 500. Recouped that 500 on $2 ACE$BP. A thin blond young gal in short shorts offered: "would you like a massage sir?" I said no, but she found a customer nearby and he looked happy. She was official- not to worry. In between backwood cigars, I went upstairs to play 50c X 5 DDB in the no-smoking area near circus circus. Got dealt 4 to the RF and it came home on one line for $2000 & tax form. Lost half of it before a night-ending $5 ACE$ BP session with a quad 5 for 625 & some Fullhouses for + 900.
Down 1450 on the day, 14 (!!) hours of gaming.
Still up 5200 for the trip.
Got to the room about 12:40AM and watched an old Jack Nicholson movie- the Last Detail, 3 navy guys taking one to the hoosegow, til 3AM.
Day 4
Woke up today about 11AM, another good nights sleep.
Got to gaming about 12:30.
Playin 50c DDB+ up on the mezz, the isolated area near keno and hit quad Aces with a sweet 3 kicker, held AA only, for $1000 hand pay. playin mostly 50c & $1 denoms today, still in PLUS territory on the day.
seems not quite as crowded, but I'm going to get some food.
my comp balance is about $780 here. shopped at the "Tradewinds" mens casual store, but every item in the place is over $100 each- tommy bahamas silk shirts. Looks like there's no $600 comp ceiling, but I'll be packing back as much baileys and kahlua as I can lug. Maybe a shirt or two.
Yep, focusing on bringing home this wad in my pocket.
Dinner at Sedona cafe: bowl of chili & a Legacy Burger w/cheddar & avacado & fries, milk & a decadent brownie, vanilla ice cream & hot fudge desert.
A mezzanine even session w/50c DDB plus, $1 NSUD & $1 JW (paytable: 4700RF,18-1 on the quads, not bad). Then down to the main floor, the old $1 DDB progs. I dropped 200 & switched to $2 ACE$BP. I hit quad Aces for 800, up 200 post-dinner.
Some youths walked by & one said, "I'm taking up second-hand smoking today." Good one in a casino. I endured Neil Diamond singing Sweet Caroline.
Then I had a "Truman Show moment." < hope you've seen the movie > When I noticed everyone playing their role in the Casino scene. Security guy is serious: lugging his box of money over to the cashier cage (or to the secret counting room). Janitor makes noise emptying the trash bag full of bottles as he's annoyed he's not carrying around the boxes of money. Waitresses flit about delivering inebriants and being sociable to us anti-social gamblers. Oh - and Mark inserts money into the machines and pushes buttons. Everyone plays their role and the movie continues on. Oops- another revelation. I'm a bit player in someone ELSE's movie.
Monday Nite Footbal is on the TVs. I'm concentrating on my video poker, but the whole casino groans collectively a few times when something happens on the monitors of the game. Not just the sports book clowns, the whole casino. I am amazed that so many people give a rat's ass about some football game.
So, back to the mezzanine for a long session of mostly $1 coin gms. Hovering about even, down only 200 when I decide to play some $5 coin ACE$Bonus Poker. After -800. I switch to $5 JoB. -500. Switcharoo over to the no smoking area for some 50c -5 Line DDB. -900 (!!) harrumph!. Escalate to $1 -3 Line DDB. Hit a lot of quads, a Straight FLush for 250 , a bonus quad 3 for 400. then I'm DEALT bonus quad 3's and I'm drawing for the kicker on 3 lines that will turn a 400 payoff to 800. on each line. I only hit one kicker, so that's a 1600 payoff handpay/tax form. Things are lookin up. But I'm still down 700 on the day.
a -400 $2 ACE$BP session doesn't help. Then I got into a night -ending tailspin on $5 coin ($25 /hand) Bonus poker and JoB. Dropped 2000 before a +500 session featuring a LOT of full houses brought me back a little. Called it a night about 2AM with that profitable last session.
THis is the longest I have ever slogged thru a $5 denom session. Actually it's $1 coin playing 25 creds. I must have hit 4 to the RF 15 times on the hundreds of $25 hands, I know I took about 12 photos. That's one-off $20,000. Gotta either hit it soon or quit this big adrenaline rush addiction.
11 hrs play on the day, down 2600 OOF.
Day 5
Tuesday is flight day, so I am checked out by 10:30. Guy at the bell checks my flight status for my limo ride, it's 45 min delayed status- so I arrange to leave about 1:45PM for (now) 3:20 departure. I dribble away 200 on 50c games, -200 on a $1 BP session despite a quad 3 for 200, -100 on $2 BP, -400 on $1 DDB, where the prog got up to 4380. And -100 on last hurrah on Wheel of Fortune. I convince the limo driver to stop at another casino, Peppermill, and "keep the engine running", as I pop in to play out $500 in free play, for which I pocket $400 of it. worth a stop. Big $50 tip to the limo driver. I get to the gate about 45 min before departure and drop 200 on the airport 6/5 DDB 50c denom.
Guy next to me playing VP says "hey , look at this:" I see he's hit a royal. playing nickels. One nickel to be specific (not 5), so he scored all of $12.50. A 5 cred bet would have scored him $200. I could only sigh and say "nice one". As he cashed out he says, hey, bought in for $1 cashed out for $10. Happy. Big spender. sheesh.
Net for trip: 42 hrs play, +$1800.
Next trip: Jan 14 for 4 nights. Fully comped at Grand Sierra, host gave me free suite for 4 nights and I have yet to even meet her. THans to me dropping a bundle there last July. Scrabble tourney. Son unit attending also. He's ranked 25th on the continent in tournament scrabble. I'm ranked about 320th. I'm no slouch, but son is an amazing player at 20 years young.
Stats:
day1 = 6 hrs = +1550
day2 = 8 hrs = +5100
day3 = 14hrs = -1450
day4 = 11hrs = -2600
day5 = 3 hrs = - 800
total = 42 hrs = +1800
jackpots: (counted $200/$225 full houses in $5 denom)
< 19 x $62 >
8 x 100
16 x 125
26 x 200
27 x 250
10 x 400
1 x 500
4 x 625
3 x 800
3 x 1000
1 x 1200
1 x 2000
1 x 4950
coin in - I figured $900 comp balance increase (!!) divided by 0.1 % comp rate = $90,000.
I'll get my host, whom I talked to for about 20 min one day, to verify.
Cheers all.
~MARK