Trip Diary 8-11-06 (8 of 20)
After a somewhat restless night, I finally got up and
enjoyed the view for a while before writing yesterday's diary over a
good cup of coffee. The best thing about these vacations is not
worrying about the usual day-to-day decisions that have to go on at
work, but to just sit back and appreciate the moment.
Today's plan was to check out the new Red Rock Station
casino in Summerlin close to the Red Rock National Park. Martin and
I set out around 10:00 AM. We decided a large breakfast such as a
buffet was just too much and pulled into a McDonald's on Sahara. We
had a light breakfast and went on (2 ½ forks). A lot of people on
this board have mentioned how far away it was from the strip;
however, I didn't find really that far and certainly not difficult
to find. You can take the freeway, which I find more complicated
than if you just take Charleston on the Strip and simply keep going
until you run into the place. Going this way also gives you an
appreciation of just how large Las Vegas has become. Charleston,
Tropicana, Flamingo, and Sahara all run parallel and these streets
are miles and miles long. It's a jungle of strip malls, drug
stores, fast food restaurants, gas stations, bar and grills, and
countless mom-and-pop operations. It makes you wonder just how all
these stores stay in business.
When we arrive at Red Rock Station, we park on the second
level and go inside. I'm immediately struck by the grandeur of the
lobby with its five stories-tall chandeliers, dark hard woods, and
earth tones. This place is truly awesome. They've managed the
class of a Wynn or Bellagio while keeping a local's intimacy.
Needless to say, a casino is a casino and Red Rock has all the
newest games. Of course, you're struck by how clean and new
everything is. There were so many restaurants and eating nooks I
lost count.
I played a penny video game with a $20 and actually played a
really long time before tiring of it cashed out for $10.00. Then the
mistake of the day: We saw some Optimum VP machines for quarters,
which have full pay deuces in them. With the exception of the first
day, I have not had much luck with full pay deuces, and today was no
exception. Within fifteen minutes, I was down $80.00. Needless to
say, I simply sat and watched Martin play after that. He didn't hit
anything either, and then we took a tour of the rest of the casino.
We considered taking in a movie at the beautiful Regal Theaters in
one of corners of the casino, but we didn't see anything we cared to
watch. We walked over to the poker room and sports book. I've seen
a lot of sports books in Vegas over the years, but this one is, by
far, the grandest, most spectacular one in Vegas. It has the
largest single screen I've ever seen, about the size of three movie
screens. It can be used for just one game, or can be broken up into
twenty smaller screens. Every individual chair has its own screen
and the entire book is surrounded by 20' flat screens. Simply
amazing!
We headed out after scouring the rest of the property. I
received an offer in the mail a few weeks before I left for this
trip from Red Rock. They offered rooms for $89.00. I had already
booked the entire trip, and though I'd love to stay here, it
certainly wouldn't fit into our LVA groups' advantage player theme
but I'm certainly going to consider it if another offer comes down
the pike.
I needed some shirts and some new toiletries, so we stopped
at a Wal-Mart on Charleston. It's another hot day, but it's not
unbearable. The plan now is to go to Poker Palace and play Bingo.
Mr. Coupon, Martin, found out that Friday's are giveaway days here,
and he enjoys playing Bingo. I'm not a big bingo player, though I
find it a very inexpensive diversion. So, off we go to the "seedy"
side of the tracks, which can be a fun view of Vegas most people
don't get to see anyway. Poker Palace is a very old local's casino
a mile farther down the road after Jerry's Nugget on Las Vegas Blvd
a side of Las Vegas Blvd most tourists don't know even exists beyond
the I-15.
It's exactly what you'd imagine. It's rundown, smoky, and
has a "smell" to it that's unique to these old dinosaurs. In its
own way, it's a cool, little place. It's filled with the working
people of Vegas, the construction workers, the minimum wage earners,
the people that like to have a place they feel comfortable in, where
they know most the help that's worked there for twenty years or
more. Martin has been here before (on another freebie giveaway),
and he tells me that if I sign up for their slot club (yes, they
have a slot clubI was surprised), you get a free "red" set of bingo
cards along with your "blue" set. All this is Greek to me, but
Martin is going to be my translator.
We're almost two hours early before the next Bingo game, so
we decide to venture into their video poker. All the machines here
are horribly short pay, which isn't a surprise; however, Martin
knows of three machines in a small corner that (though looks exactly
like all the other machines in the joint) have a full pay schedule
on them. Sure enough, there they are, some old, coin-dropping Game
Makers with 9/6 Jacks or Better for nickels. Only Martin would know
of these.
We camp down and begin to play. Martin chooses the DDB
(which has a strange 600 for a straight flush pay schedule), and I
play good `ol Jacks or Better. Without going into detail, after the
dust had settled, Martin lost a little, and I won. I played over a
thousand hands in an hour and a half (I was smoking-fast on these),
and though I didn't hit a royal and only three quads, I kept hitting
so many full houses and two pairs, that I was able to play for all
this time.
Finally it was time to play Bingo. We bought our cards
included a "special" cover-all card for the end, and it put me back
a whole six bucks. Martin sat me down and like you'd instruct a
first grader on how to subtract 85 from 10, he walked me through the
various games and who to use the blotter. The games began. I had
nine cards to read, and this lady announcing the numbers must have
had a hot date to catch, because she was reading off the numbers WAY
too fast for me to keep up. At times, I was three numbers behind.
Now, I like to say that I'm 55 years old, and I'm not kidding when I
say that I was one of the youngest people in this roomand by about
twenty years. But these old-timers were not only blotting their
numbers, they were giving Happy Birthday congratulations, ordering
drinks, and just having a grand `ol time, while sweat was pouring
down my temples trying frantically to find all the right numbers
"Damn it, was that O-64 or 0-62?" The caller has a New England
accent"Did she say I-17 or was it G?"
Okay, I didn't win anything. Martin didn't win anything
(except possibly an ulcer when he started a tirade of four letter
profanities under his breath because the caller was going too
fast). We did, however, get our giveaway, an insulated beer cooler
about the size of a fanny packI toss it in my trunk along with the
t-shirts, key chains, and myriad other logo-labeled, useless items.
It was dinnertime, and Martin wanted to eat here. In
the "restaurant," they had great food specials and he wanted one of
their gigantic baked potatoes that they're famous for (yes, I
understand this place is famousat least according to the sign
outside). Besides, Martin has a 2 for 1 coupon! Anyway, we're
seated in a nice little room with oversized booths facing an
aquarium where even the fish look bored. There's one waiter, a
middle-aged man who looks more like an accountant. He's alone
working this room, but he's fast and efficient. I marveled as he'd
bring in three different table orders at the same time on one huge
tray. How he balances eight or nine plates full of food on one hand
is amazing.
We both order the special sirloin beef with mushrooms. He
orders the baked potato (and yes, these puppies are some of the
biggest spuds I've ever seen), but I order mash. The food was good,
but nothing to run across town for (2 forks). The good news, of
course, is after the coupon, two full meals with drinks came to a
whopping $7.35. We left a nice tip and headed back to the Hilton.
We made a fast stop at a Walgreens to pick up some two-liter Minute
Maid lemonades for the rooms. Better to pay a buck and half for a
liter, which will last the whole stay, than a small bottle of soda
from the vending machine on our floor for two bucksalways on the
frugal lookout.
I was now starting to get tired, but Martin wanted to take
one more run at the Spin Poker machines down in the casino. Spin
Poker is my luckiest machines. I've done better on these than just
about anything else. They're expensive ($2.45 per spin) for my
usual budget, but playing nine games at once, a single hit can put
you quite a bit ahead. Long story short, I hit the deuces on one
line (rats) and made back my investment plus $15. This isn't
usually where I stop playing, but I was starting to get too tired.
You NEVER play video poker when you're tired. So I cashed out and
left Martin, who was at this time losing and headed up to my room.
One of the LVA members asked me a question on the board I'd
like to answer at this time. He'd said he'd like to plan a long
trip like this too, and understands my $100 a day gambling-loss
limit, but how much would I recommend for an entire day's budget
when considering everything else.
This is a somewhat difficult question to answer because I
don't know you're life style. I like to think of myself as
an "advantage player," which means that before I leave for a trip, I
take the room offers that are mailed to me and combine them being
very careful to take the best offers at decent places to stay. My
entire 19 nights here in Las Vegas are costing me a grand total of
$92.50. Therefore, room costs are low. I usually have already paid
for these charges (credit card when booking), so I don't pay during
my stay. I also eat many times using my slot club points, or 2 for
1 coupons, and other discounts. This isn't to say I'm cheap. I'm
not. But my Vegas trips have turned into "games" with me on one
side, and the casinos on the other. I don't play the game as well
as others (Martin takes frugality to a whole higher level), but it
is fun to see just how well I can vacation on as little as possible
sticking it to the man, so to speak.
Anyway, all this aside, if you like to eat at the nicer
places, shop at the better stores, and sleep at the bigger-named
joints, you'll need to plan about $300.00 a day in addition to your
gambling. But if you're like me (and my guess most of the other
LVAers), you can easily get by on $50 per day for food, gas, a
Starbucks, and tips for the free drinks while you play.
Surprisingly, tips are probably one of the most expensive things to
consider when you come to Vegas on a small budget. A buck per drink
while, playing, 15 to 20% for each meal, a couple bucks a night for
the room maid, and 1 to 5% for any jackpots. After 20 days, it
really adds up to a lot of moneybut a well deserved expense.
My $100 a day loss limit is based on my style of play. I am
a low roller, and try to stick to nickel and dime video poker
games. This allows me enough playing time to endure the inevitable
high and low swings of the game. If you're a quarter player, you'll
probably need to raise this to $250 per day, and a dollar player to
a $1000.00 per day. As you can see, when I ventured into quarter
territory today, after a streak of loses, I couldn't last long
enough for the plus swing to hit me and had to quit. Had I a $250
limit for that game, I could have continued and most likely have had
an upswing of hands. But it's all in your budget. I used to be a
quarter player; however, my comfort level was jeopardized by the
streaky loses, and I found it wasn't fun anymore. That's not why I
come to Las Vegas. It's not to come home rich, it's not to even
come out ahead (though it certainly is fun when you do), it's to
enjoy the hunt. So, budget your money accordingly.
Though I come to Vegas with a $100.00 a day budget, I always
go home with money. I rarely lose the whole $100 a day in
gambling. Yes, I'll have three or four days where I hit my stop
limit, then in one day (yesterday, for example), I'll win it all, or
some of it back. So, for 20 days, I have two grand set aside for
the worst trip of worst tripswere I to lose every dayit's never
happened, and it's likely to never happen because I stick mostly to
full pay machines and I don't spend all day gambling. There are
some days I don't play at all. After all, it's a vacation.
Speaking of which, today's totals started out bad at Red
Rock, but I made a small comeback here at the Hilton, so though
today is a loss day, it's a small one.
More tomorrow.