Trip Diary 8-13-06 (10 of 20)
Ah yes, the half way point for this trip. It's moving day
once again. I hate to leave the Hilton, but it's on to the next
hotel, Sam's Town, but I won't be checking in until tonight. First,
Martin and I headed to the Silverton where I was supposed to meet
fellow member LVA member, Terry. This end up being a quest in
futility. We get there at the agreed upon time of 10:00 AM. He
told me to meet him at the Sports Bar and he'd be playing a machine,
and at that early time, there wouldn't be many people: mistake #1.
The bar was full. I simply yelled out, "Is Terry here?" A lot of
irritated looks came my way, but no Terry. We then walked to every
bar in the casino looking for himstill no luck. No problem, he
gave me his cell phone number. I call himmistake #2, some lady
answers saying I've got the wrong number. I did give him my cell
number, but he hasn't called me. Mistake #3: next time, get a
description or picture. Being that he didn't call me, I figure
something has happened, and he never made it. Oh well, maybe next
time.
By the way, for you Silverton players, the new overpass is
now paved, but it's still about two months away from being open.
Take Dean Martin Blvd (the old Industrial Rd) and stay away from
this quagmire of traffic.
It's breakfast time and the line to the Sundance Grill at
the Silverton is much too long, so we head out. Martin has an LVA
coupon for the Wild Wild West. It's a two-for-one. I haven't been
in this old casino in a long time, but many have said the food is
pretty good. Walking in, it still has all the markings of a truck
stop (which it is, really) and the café located in the back reminds
me of Old Las Vegas. However, the waitress is an old vet with a
nice smile, and the food was excellent, again the portions huge, my
ham steak covered three quarters of the platter. The bill for both
meals came to $7.00 with drinksonly in Vegas. (3 forks)
I haven't played any live poker since the Luxor almost a
week ago, so Martin and I headed over to the Palms. The Palms is a
low-rollers paradise for live poker. They have 2/4 tables and offer
generous high-hand bonuses, the drink service is fast and plentiful,
and they give you a dollar an hour in comps to boot. When we get
there, about 11:15 AM, there aren't any 2/4 tables open yet. They
give me a hand-held beeper (a very nice touch, better than the usual
PA announcement you rarely can hear over the din of the casino
noise). We see a bank of new Star War machines, which I'd never
seen before. They're called The Dark Side and look like the old
machines, but the large globe on top has a multi-times numbers and
multi-spins numbers on it. Like most new machines, I like to give a
twenty to see what it's like.
In a very short period of time, I hit the bonus round and
get 23 free spins at 9X the point values. After the spins, I'm up
over $60. For a bet of thirty cents, this is a VERY nice bonus
round. I cash out. Martin, who doesn't like playing these type of
machines begrudgingly slips in a twenty. He hits a bonus round with
32 spins at 6X. During his free spins, he hits a retrigger bonus
another 32 spins. When it's all finished with its bonus round,
Martin's thirty cent investment turned into $123.00. Now before you
start thinking these machines are broken or set too high (as I
thought at first), I later hit a bonus round for 13 spins and won
only fifty-five cents. I also lost my next $20 investment.
However, we both walked away winners at this game when we were
buzzed into the poker room.
I won't bore you with the ugly details of this poker
session. Though I started out with a couple of pot wins, I went
through a long period of dead-hands and then worse: I started
getting sucked out almost every good hand I had: my trips losing to
a higher kicker, my dealt straight losing to a flush on the turn,
and the final big blow, my pocket kings losing to pocket Acesa
classic. It really didn't matter what I had in my hand, I was
destined to lose to someone sucking out on me. That's okay, I'm not
angryjust frustrated. I know I played well, I didn't make any
mistakes. It just wasn't my day.
I left Martin and told him I'd be at the 50-play machines
until he was finished. I played for almost an hour, and was down to
my last two hands when I held an A/J of clubs and hit a royal (the
second time this happened in the same suit), which brought me back
to evenkeep in mind, these are penny machines, so the royal is only
worth $40.00. This is my third royal on these machines this trip.
I don't "really" count these as royals in the true sense of the
word, mostly because they are only for pennies, and when you play 50
hands at a time, you're supposed to hit a few along the way. I end
up breaking even for the session, but once again I was frustrated at
not being dealt four-to-the-royal on my initial hand. I've played
well over 10,000 dealt hands over the past three Vegas trips on
these machines, and I've yet to be dealt four-to-the-royal. I've
been dealt dozens of them on single line machines and spin poker
machines. It's almost suspicious.
I can't figure out why Martin hasn't shown up yet, and I
head back to the poker room. He's still there, but now his stack is
down. He, too, has gone through a bad streak of suck-outs. The
problem with playing these low limit games is that people will tend
to fish for hands more often than other, bigger stake games. I
understand this and accept it as part of game. I really play these
games for fun and the hopes of catching one of the high-hand bonuses
(which I've done on a couple of occasions in the past). So, losing
isn't a big deal to me as long as I know I played correctly. I do
get angry with myself when I get scalded for playing hands I had no
business playing the first place and getting caught fishing to the
riversomething I've worked hard to not do.
I told Martin to meet me out at the Dark Side Star Wars
machines when he was finished and I tried another $20. No bonus
rounds for me, but I sat next to a lady that had hit one. She
didn't know what to do, so I explained her the game. She made 32
spins with 11X and then hit a retrigger. She end up beating
Martin's score and made $332.00 on her thirty cent investment.
Checking the help key, you can earn as many as 999 free spins! This
is one wild ride of a machine. At this point, I don't know HOW
these machines are making money over the long term. However, I'm
going to keep at `em for awhile and see if I can catch one of these
monster rolls too.
We left the Palms and drove downtown to check Martin into
the Vegas Club. It was now dinner time, and we planned to use the
LVA two-for-one coupon at Roberta's in the El Cortez Hotel and
Casino downtown. Most of you on the board know about this hotel and
its restaurant and can skip the next couple of paragraphs, but I'm
going to make this explanation for my friends and family who are
also getting these diaries:
The El Cortez downtown has a bit of a reputation. It's has
been for years iconic for "old Las Vegas" gone bad. For years it
was rumored to be surrounded by drunks, panhandlers, prostitutes,
and the homeless. Its ceilings were low and the ventilation poor so
if you walked in, you were greeted by a cloud of tobacco smoke and a
smell of body odor and urine. The El Cortez became the butt of
jokes of what downtown used to be.
The truth is--the El Cortez deserved this reputationabout
five or six years ago. However, it has undergone a change. Its
sports book is state-of-the-art, its remodeled casino is better
ventilated, it has all the latest machines, and it's cliental,
though still mostly old timers and regulars, are nothing to fear.
It's still a tad smoky, and it's still in a rundown part of
downtown, but it also has a rather cool vibe to the place. It's old
school Vegas, to be sure, but the people are all very friendly and
the owner, Jackie, can still be found at the poker tables playing
with the customers.
As Martin and I headed for the restaurant, we went by the
poker tables, and sure enough, there was Jackie, now in his late
80s, playing at a 3/6 table in his suit and tie (he always dresses
in a suit though everyone around him are t-shirts and shorts). It
looks like he's not been doing to well this night as his rack of one
dollar chips are down to just one stack. Think of that, the OWNER
of this hotel and casino whose likeness is on his slot cards and
billboards around town likes to play the dollar poker games most
every night with his customers. Just how cool is that?
We're seated at our table in Roberta's. This is, despite
its location, an upscale restaurant. The entrees of fish and steaks
are what you'd expect in most high end steak houses and the food was
wonderful. The help (though I've heard can be slow at times) on
this night was efficient and friendly. I had the barbecue ribs, and
Martin had halibut. The portions were large. Martin's halibut
steak covered half his plate and he noted was wonderfully prepared.
My ribs were two slabs with the sauce on the side. With the half
off coupon, our bill came to $21.00. Thank you again LVA. (4
forks).
We waddled out of the El Cortez, stopping briefly to see if
Jackie's luck had turnedit hadn't. I'm eating FAR TOO MUCH this
trip. My diet of the past couple of months is being destroyedI'm
feeling guilty as hell. Okay, not that much.
We get in the car and we're off to Mandalay Bay. Martin has
this coupon for the Shark's Reef that is just burning in his
pocket. We take the back roads (Valley View to Hacienda right into
the Mandalay Bay's covered parking lot) completely missing all of
the mess of traffic that the Strip now is famous for. From downtown
to parking the car at Mandalay Bay in twenty minutes, I love knowing
the short cuts.
Mandalay Bay is one place that I've never stayed at. They
don't offer any video poker worth playing, and they don't cater to
low limit players and they NEVER offer discounts or coupons. Yet,
the place is always packed. It is one of the nicer places to walk
around. We follow the signs to the Shark Reef exhibit passing the
Border Grill restaurant on the way. This brings back memories to me
because my daughter, Tracy, was a food server (waitress) here when
they first opened and it was a kick to come to Las Vegas to have my
daughter wait on our table and introduce me to everyone. She has
since moved back to San Diego.
With the coupon, the exhibit was $11 each. They give you a
listening device that you carry along (like a cell phone) and there
are numbers by all the tanks that tell you about what you're looking
at and the different types of fish. The entire tour took us about a
half hour. It was nice, and the information was interesting, but as
others on this board have noted, it's not really worth the full
price. I understand though that it must cost a fortune of house and
feed all these wonderful animals, so you can't complain too much.
But as an entertainment value, it falls a bit short. (2 claps).
We make a stop at the Starbucks just outside the Border
Grill and I order my favorite vanilla latte. I smile when looking
at the prices. I know the prices of Starbucks everywhere, and any
Starbucks in a hotel jacks up the price a dollar per drink on their
already over-priced beverages. Of course, as they say, if they'll
pay for it (and I did), you can charge it.
I dropped Martin off downtown and headed for Sam's Town to
check in. It was almost 9:30 PM and I stopped at two Starbucks on
the way to buy some coffee for my room only to find they both closed
at 9:00 PM (I should have bought this while in Mandalay Bay). So, I
end up stopping at an Albertson's and bought a liter of lemonade and
some "Java Supreme Gourmet" coffee blend (Mari, this should
qualify).
I check in and they put me on the eighth floor with a
distant view of the Strip and downtown. The rooms here have been
refurbished since my last stay (about three years ago), and I'm
impressed. The carpet is nice, the pictures colorful, and the two,
cushy armchairs are probably the best thing about the room. The
bed, though not the quality of the Silverton or Sunset Station, is
quite nice. The only complaint, really, is that Sam's Town
continues to scrimp on the TV. It's a little 19' Zenith that's
probably been here since they built the joint. Come on Sam's!
Spring for some new TVs! (3 sheets).
With the trip half over, I find that I'm in the red (though
when you consider the comps and discounts, not so much). I've only
had two winning days out of the seven. This is not to say that
things are looking bleak. First of all, my minus for the whole trip
is probably less than most people lose in one medium day. I'm still
way ahead of my budget and there's always a possible winning day
ahead. It's all part of the fun.
More tomorrow.