This was my last hotel stay of the trip had mixed feelings about this last comped stay at the D. I like this place and I've had some great times playing at the bar. I liked getting five dollars off breakfast. I like the rooms. They are comfortable and the painting with dice are just grand. I liked the second floor and the ability to come up to the room without walking through the noisy first floor which I do not like, except for the dancing girls.


I also felt that guilt we feel when we take advantage. In phasing out the D as a place to gamble, I was taking a two for one comp and not giving the play they had expected.


On the other hand, I do not like worrying that the elevators are going to be slow. They have never been slow for me, but I read reports of it.


I did not like it when they switched up the rules of the two for one, adding twenty dollars to the cost. Nor did I like it that my second night did not include wifi. Only the resort fee night included free wifi. At check out they did not charge me a resort fee. But when I went back and asked the policy, they said they were charging it. So, go figure!!


I did not like losing my favorite nickle machine when they eliminated all coin droppers from the second floor. I used that machine to play between times when the 8/5 with three progressives had not progressed much. I don't generally play 8/5 bonus. I prefer double bonus or full pay JOB. They pay much better. The dimes I will play as long as they have them at Palace Station have been EV than the quarters at the D.


I like the horse racing game but I don't play it for long and the sound of it between games is annoying.


I liked the pool today. It was fine. But in November it is very icy and no one swims there. The two pools at Palace Station are nicer and one is heated in November.


I like the easy luggage roll between the D and the Four Queens, but due to the Four Queens change in comps policy, I'm phasing them out as well. I especially am sad that the single free night offered instead of the three I normally received is subject to a black out that I never experienced in the three over the weekend. I always thought that the Four Queens put their gamblers in a separate category. But perhaps it was just that they were always struggling and wanted us whenever they could get us.


This trip I reduced my play and I also had some dirtbag switch out my card for hers while I was in the bathroom, and I did not notice it. It was early morning. I lost over $150 in record time and then had the Aces dealt to me after tossing away a hand. I was having fun.




Not having to worry about my daily gambling average at the Four Queens will free me up to fill in low bankrolled days with the Four Queens nickle roulette and the VP there when the progressive is in the right place. I don't play there unless I stay there.


The Comp dollars earned is quite good and some of those will be earned regardless of whether I just do twenty bucks one or two days.


I had the same sad feelings of moving on there as well. But I also felt unappreciated when I had a buy one get one offer and the could not comp any one of the four nights I wanted to book in September because of the Life is Beautiful Festival, not even the Monday night after the event was over. That could not be comped because the black out dates were during the festival. I did get casino rates, but the fact that I could not take advantage of this tiny offer when in the past I'd book three nights for free over Halloween, has just put me off.


Jean Scott says that they were just over generous before and so it is not unfair to have them cutting back. I think that might be true.


But unfair or not, it helps change the way I approach my trips. I can't imagine continuing to pump hundreds in the full pay machines during a losing streak and feeling good about it. I can imagine continuing to pump dimes in the same game at the Palace Station even if I have to pay a bit for rooms there. And I can imagine taking a block of rooms at Arizona Charlie's Boulder where the price approaches a partly comped stretch of rooms with no pressure at all to gamble a certain amount.


I can bus downtown from there for the Golden Nugget poker.






However, I really like playing Golden Nugget live poker which connects to no room rates. And not having VP to play makes it possible for me to arrange my times so that I get to those poker games when the bonus hands are doubled.


I found it so much easier to have more live poker downtown than I did when I felt I had to keep the VP daily average up.






This has not been a rich year for me and I actually was not bankrolled for two trips, but they made good sense. The first was started to celebrate a son's birthday. The second saved airfare because my wife's family was meeting for the first time in Denver for Thanksgiving so I might as well go first to Vegas.

note on October 12: I expected that I did not look good as a player on paper.
And when I did not get a mailer from the Four Queens, I thought perhaps they had dumped me.
But today I called and there was a mailer sent out to me for two comped nights which is I guess a change in policy from the two for one. That covered my November weekend 6 and 7 which at casino rate was $66. Rack rate was much higher due to yet some other event downtown that was raising all prices again.

So, I'm not conflicted. I was prepared if they dropped my mailer to switch my heavy play to Fremont on the Pick em. However, if they are going to be a place where I can cover my weekends, that is a different story. We'll see how it all goes and the offers that come in next year.