Trip Diary 8-21-06 (18 of 20)
Someone in the room next to me has their TV going at about
7:30 AM, and as I've noted before, the Silverton's room walls tend
to be on the thin side. So, after a while, I give up and get up.
It's okay, really, because I wanted to go down to the new buffet for
breakfast anyway. After finishing the morning's business, I head
down. To my dismay, the Silverton buffet doesn't offer breakfast,
so I go over to the Sundance Grill, their café.
The breakfast was good, but basic (3 ½ forks) and today I go
after the deuces on the Spin Poker machine (you play nine hands at
once using a single deck, but it's 45 credits per play, which
translates to $2.25 on the nickel version). I've done quite well on
these machines in past having been dealt both the quad deuces once
($450) and dealt a royal ($1800) in the long past. I commit a
hundred for this adventure in order to handle the swings this game
can give you.
After a little less than an hour of going up and down the
spectrum of the cash line, I leave down $50.00. It's not that I
didn't get my chances. I did catch some good size hands, and I was
dealt three deuces once that didn't catch the fourth, and I was
dealt four-to-the-royal that not only didn't catch the needed Ace of
Spades to fill it, it didn't catch anything at all for a big goose
egg. All I ask is for a fighting chance and it gave it to me, so I
leave the game and head over to the dollar Wheel of Fortune.
Every trip, I designate a hundred that goes to a life-
changing machine. This can either be Megabucks or any other
progressive that's seems ready to hit. The penny Megabucks machine
is over $16 million, but I tried it for the minimum earlier on the
trip, and couldn't even catch a bonus round, and I also sat and
watched a man with over $300 in credits play it at the Suncoast at
full coin-in ($3.00 a spin), and watched as he lost the entire
amount without hitting even one bonus round. So, I figure these
machines needed to be avoided. The quarter Wheel of Fortune is only
$250,000, so I go for the dollar version, which is currently at $5.5
million and ready to hit (I know, it's totally random).
On the second play, I get the spin button, I get forty
bucks. Then the cold streak begins, and I'm down to my last $50. I
move over to a different machine and get exactly nothingnot one hit
of any kind. These machines are merciless. I second-guess myself
and wonder if I should have stuck to the penny Megabucks game after
all. Oh well, maybe next year.
I decide, considering I'm approaching the end of my stay, I
better finish some of the things on my "to do" list. I drive over
to the Wynn. Even though I only play penny machines here, for some
reason, I tend to do pretty well and I'm here to enjoy some French
onion soup at the Sugar and Ice. My favorite Pharaohs machine is
taken, so I settle in on some kind of a Joker's penny game and catch
some nice hits and cash out ten dollars ahead. The random Bingo
game goes on and my card is only one number away from winning
rats!
(Wynn has this game on a video screen as you play your games as a
perk for playing; it guarantees a winner every game, one of three
cash prizes).
I head over to Sugar an Ice, which is located in one of the
wings near Las Vegas Blvd. Last April when I was here, I discovered
this place, which has perhaps the BEST view anywhere for a small
eatery. Everything is over-priced (it is the Wynn, after all).
However, the French onion soup is only five bucks. To sit at a
table on the porch overlooking three waterfalls from the Wynn
Mountain and enjoying a bowl of soup and ice water for only five
bucks is a great low-roller play (4 ½ forks).
I walk across the pedestrian bridge to the huge fashion
mall. This $1.5 billion behemoth is five stories of premium shops,
high-end clothing stores, and restaurants. Saks Fifth Avenue,
Macy's, Bloomingdales, Robinson May, and Nordstrums, to name just a
few are here. Target and Wal-Mart are no where to be found, so you
might wonder just what I'M doing here. Well, I need some good
earphones for my laptop and there's a Sharper Image here that has a
sale going on for the super noise-reduction, collapsible type I'm
looking for. I find them and make the purchase. The mall is
already busy. American's love to shop.
I walk back over to the Wynn where I find my machine is
available now, though some lug-head has his suitcase on the chair.
I ask him to move ithe gives me a cold stare and puts it on his
lap. I win another ten spot and leave (I've left with a little of
Steve Wynn's money now the past three tripsa moral victory, in my
book).
It's almost 3:00 PM, and I need to drive over to the Luxor
where I'm going to play in their high hand poker game, which Martin
had won $500 two weeks ago. I park at the Mandalay Bay once again.
This time I enter in THE Hotel entrance. I haven't been in
here yet and wanted to give it a peruse. I find it to be just what
I'd expect: beautiful décor, interesting flower arrangements,
polished marble floors, and all the amenities expected of a four-
star hotel. I'm amused as I walk by THE bar, THE café, THE coffee
bar (with 59 cent donuts and pastries selling for $3.95 and up), and
finally THE restrooms, which I used. If you're in the least bit
claustrophobic, stay away from THE toilets as these unique all
marble rooms are about 20 feet high with a complete locking door
from the floor to the top of the walls. Each toilet is larger than
my bedroom closet at home. THE menu at THE café looked more like a
high-class restaurant with even the lowly salads starting at $6.95
with an individual Caesar salad at $11.95. I don't foresee me
eating here anytime soon. Want to order a sandwich? Forget about
it!
I finally walk over to Mandalay Bay by way of the Sportsbook
wing and again, I stop to play the Men in Black game that I won on
last time here. Surprisingly, I hit the bonus round and somehow
manage to fine every, single alien in every country (a jackpot of
sorts), and walk away with a $40 profit ($400 if I'm playing full-
coin; if I only knew when it would hit!).
I buy into the game for a hundred. Without going into
detail, this trip is, by far, the worst live play poker trip I've
ever had. In days past, I was getting bitten by the fish who were
sucking out hands. This night, I was not only drawing dead cards,
but I was out-kicked on four hands, my dealt straight lost to a
flush, my sets lost to higher sets. At one point, I was down to $12
and I had not won ONE hand. That has never happened to me before.
I was beginning to make a joke of it. However, I will mention that
I was fortunate to at least be at a table with four locals who play
at the Luxor all the time and are all good friends. These folks
were fun and very nice. They took to me like a lost puppy even
mentioning I was playing well but not catching any luck. At one
point, one of them tells me (I have a card-cap that has a picture of
Marilyn Monroe), "Hey, you need to get rid of Marilyn, she's not
only killed two Kennedys, she's costing you all your chips." We all
laugh, and I take Marilyn and put it in my pocket. I go all in with
my $12 and I win the pot with an Ace high. The table erupts in a
huge laughter that brought over the poker room boss.
From that point on, I won about five or six other small
pots. I never recovered my hundred and no one at our table hit a
high hand. But I did have a great time with these locals. I
suppose it's just back to Internet poker for me where I do pretty
well.
I use my poker $4.00 comp coupons and buy a sandwich from
the Backstage Deli. This very well might be the largest sandwich
I've ever bought. The turkey, pastrami, and beef were piled so
high, I couldn't eat it whole, but had to put it in sections. I sat
down in the sports book where the Padres were playing the Dodgers
and enjoyed a very nice dinner (4 ½ forks).
It's back to the Silverton where I need to get some play in
to maintain my Silver card status (though it doesn't seem to mean
anything, offer wise). I put another hundred in the Spin Poker. I
do hit quad deuces on one line, but the rest of the session drew
blanks. I cashed out for $50 and put that into the full play
Joker's Wild machine for dimes. At first I'm down to the teens in
dollars, but then the quads start arriving. I'm moving back up the
latter. I decide I'll cash out if I make it to a hundred. I get to
$96.00, but I'm determined, win or lose to break the hundred mark.
I go down to the 60s when I catch a straight flush holding three
diamonds. Then, it's another quad and I'm at $113.00 and quit.
On the way to my room, I notice a new penny Elvis machine.
It's a 60 line game. I've never seen that many lines on a machine
and curiosity gets the better of me, and I put in a twenty. Well,
after a couple of plays, I see why. This is a penny video machine
molded after the video poker multi-strike game. It has three
tiers. The first game is even money, if you win anything, you move
to the next game for 2X, and if you win there, you move to the final
game, which is 4X any winning. It's 20 lines per tier and when you
play all three tiers, that's the sixty lines. Of course, it was
easy catching wins at the first two levels, and you (surprise!)
rarely win on the top level. However, I did hit two bonus rounds,
which are really terrific. The first is the Photo Scrapbook round
where an arrow spins around to a wheel of Elvis photos. Every time
you get on a photo, it enlarges and goes into your scrapbook. As
soon as your arrow lands on a photo you've already picked, the game
is over. The other bonus is a great one. You pick one of six
songs. After that, stock footage of Elvis performing that song is
played (and it's a long segment of the song, not just a tiny clip),
as the actual audience claps and screams, the meter at the top of
machine gauges how loud it is (remember Dick Clark's American
Bandstand) and you're paid according to how loud the applause is.
This is a VERY fun gamethough it can be expensive if you don't hit
any bonus rounds. If you're an Elvis fan, this is the best, by far,
of all the games with this theme out there. I end up winning $6
(hey, a win is a win) and cashed out.
Altogether, this was a busy but fun day. I still lost a tad
overall, but it could have been much worse. I really enjoyed
myself. This was the first day, that I was actually alone the
entire day (I think). It was almost strange.
More tomorrow.