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Trip Report
October 15 – 17 & 25 – 29
Well it’s time for another trip to Las Vegas. This trip isn’t going to be my standard type trip. The main reason for this trip is to bookend a cruise I will be taking out of Los Angeles. This report will be split into 2 parts to make up one report. I won’t include the cruise details in this report but I will include a link to the review I do. While this won’t be the typical trip, I can assure you there will be some hitting promos, comps, and coupons. One other thing to note is that my girlfriend Dee won’t be joining me on this trip (and will be missed) because this trip was planned before things got serious between us (not to mention the lack of time off). Also note that I won’t have my laptop with me this trip so the report is being compiled from notes I will take and probably won’t be as detailed as normal. So now that everything’s packed, let’s get going!
Day 1
Wednesday October 15, 2008
Today I had to work but took an early out. I have a late afternoon flight and I couldn’t work a whole shift. On the same note, there was no need to waste a full day off either so I worked until 2pm. I punched out and hopped into the rental car that I booked and picked up at Stewart – Newburgh, the local airport. As always I booked with Avis. I booked this car back in August and scored a standard SUV for just $48. This was actually cheaper than the cars including compacts for some reason. I’m guessing because of gas prices no one wants to rent them. When I picked this car up yesterday it was ready. This has been a problem here the last few times I’ve rented. They issued me a Ford Explorer with 32000 miles on it. Amazingly it was in good condition. The problem was the gas tank was a little lower than full. In the past I wouldn’t have worried about that but with gas at $3.75 a gallon, this is a problem. I went back in and had told the agent who offered to have one of the guys follow me to the local station to fill it up or to just adjust my contract. I took the adjustment as it was easier.
Traffic wasn’t too bad heading to Newark since it was mid-week and a bit early for rush hour. I stopped at Wendy’s and picked up a snack for lunch and a little extra to take on the flight. As always I stopped at my usual gassing point just outside of the Meadowlands and made the rest of the trek to Newark Airport. I only had to put in a few bucks worth because of the fuel adjustment. I probably could have gotten away with putting none in but it wasn’t worth the risk.
Dropping off the car in Newark was a breeze except the agent noted my gas was low. I had to explain to him it was supposed to be low because it went out low. Here’s where it gets interesting. He completes his check in and I get my receipt and it’s about $20 lower than I was expecting it to be. There was no major breakdown on this slip so I have no idea what happened. After getting home I checked my e-mail and saw that he marked my tank as full when I dropped off and they gave me credit for the gas of over $19! SWEET! Dropping off here has always been pretty good. It’s picking up that’s usually the problem. After an uneventful drop off it was up to the monorail and over to Terminal A. Today’s flight is on USAir. I’m not a big fan of this airline anymore. Back when they were still separate from America West I loved America West. Since the merger though, this airline isn’t as good as it used to be. The reason for taking them this trip was price. I used some old banked frequent flyer miles and with the 911 tax and the new rip off processing fee this flight cost me $35.
Check in went very quickly but USAir charges $15 for your first checked bag. I think this trend the airlines are taking is pitiful. I think they should just raise their fares by a few dollars to offset their costs and not nickel and dime their passengers. In a few minutes I was on my way to security. Here it was the same old crap I always deal with. Now with airlines charging for taking luggage more people are doing carry on bags and it’s making security lines even longer and slower than they used to be.
I had plenty of time before my flight so I got a snack for the flight because the USAir doesn’t give you anything these days unless you pay extra for it. Christ almighty I wish they would just raise fares a few bucks and let me have my luggage and a meal for “free”. More bean counters that think effing their customers is a better way to make money than by treating them with respect and modest price hikes.
I’m on flight #35 scheduled to depart at 4:59pm. We pushed back on time but there was a ton of air traffic and lots of planes waiting to take off and we sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes. I don’t know why but there are always people on flights that think they are exceptions to the rule. There are two people I’d like to recognize on this flight (among the stand non rule following passengers). The guy sitting next to me that felt he was allowed to talk on his cell phone after we pushed back from the gate and send text messages as well as the guy behind me. The other one is the dumb lady that felt, while we were taxiing on the runway during our delay felt it was ok to get up and walk around the cabin.
Since this is a frequent flyer ticket I wasn’t able to get a non-stop so I’ll be connecting on Phoenix. We’re scheduled to arrive there at 7:16pm. The movie on the flight was Incredible Hulk. Since I worked all day and have been up since 4:30am, I tried to sleep for a good part of the flight and to read some of the book that Dee lent me. I was able to get a few winks in. Now USAir has stopped giving food away a long time ago except for a small bag of peanuts or pretzels but more recently they stopped doing that AND stopped giving out free drinks. Now they hawk soft drinks and water for $2 and alcoholic drinks for $7. This along with food ranging from $5 - $7. On this flight they hawked and hawked and hawked and by the time they got ½ way through the plane, they were out of food. Now explain to me how the airline expects to make any money by selling food and then running out ½ way through the cabin. This is unacceptable and another reason why the airlines are among the worst run businesses in the world.
We were late getting into Phoenix because of our delay. The flight attendant came on the PA and asked that those people that didn’t have connections please wait in their seats. This was so those that did have connections could exit and hopefully still make their connection. I’d like to personally thank all of the prick scumbags that feel they are too good or in too much of a hurry to go wait for luggage for ignoring that request. May you all miss your next flight because someone did the same to all of you!
I haven’t been to Sky Harbor in a long time and I only had a 43 minute layover. Being late made my connection tight. Of course my connection gate was clear on the other side of the terminal. I made my connection with no issues and boarded the next flight but was the last one to board and almost didn’t make it. That would have really sucked.
This is flight #232 and departs at 7:59pm and arrived in Las Vegas at 9:09pm. This flight was uneventful and no frills and we landed in Las Vegas early.
After getting off the plane I made the customary stop at the can before making my way to baggage claim. It took about 10 minutes to get my bag and I was off to the rental car shuttle. This is one thing that they seem to be doing a pretty good job running. In just a few minutes we were at the renal car facility and I headed up to the Dollar level. I had a full size car booked. Originally when I was looking at rates for this leg of the trip the rates were VERY high, in the $45 per day range. They eventually came down and I locked in at $22.97 per day. As I always do I check rates often and got lucky about 2 weeks ago scoring the same car for just $13.53 per day for the 2 day rental. This place wasn’t well organized. They had no full sized cards available and I was told by the lot attendant to give him five minutes and I’d have a car. Up rolled an electric blue Dodge Charger that brand new with only 2 miles on it! While I just hit the jackpot my only thought was, why don’t I ever get the brand new car when I’m renting for 2 weeks!! I was off to security and then on my way to Bally’s.
When I got to Bally’s I used the valet. I hate the self parking garage here because it’s 2 miles from the hotel. When I got to Bally’s the diamond check in was closed so I checked in at the regular area. I’m staying here for the next 2 nights although I have booked the room offer they sent me for 3 nights as I’m not sure what time of day we will be heading out to LA and the offer was good for 3 nights anyway. It also comes with $400 cash to help with travel expenses! There wasn’t much of a line here and check in went quick except for some reason I always get stuck behind the people that don’t know the procedure of checking into a hotel and slow everything down. I was given room 1706 with a view of Paris. This room has 1 king bed, wall unit, work desk, nightstands and sitting chair. The bathroom is small but good enough for me being alone. When Dee is with me I prefer a larger bathroom when possible so we have room to maneuver.
Speaking of Dee, even though she’s not with me this trip, we’ve been communicating through text messages and I’ve been updating her on the trip.
Since I’m in Vegas I wanted to go out for a while. My first stop was over to Paris to see if Ned the dealer was around and he was. The first thing he asked me is, “Where’s Dee?” For those that might not know, Ned was a craps dealer at Fiesta Henderson years ago and I always got along with him. I decided to go over to Bill’s and grab a hot dog using the coupon from the AGC. This is always a great value and even without the coupon isn’t a bad deal. I decided to take it easy tonight and just wanted to play some penny slots for fun. My first game was Gold Fish. It’s one of my favorite penny slots. I was doing ok on this one and hit a bonus round and for the first time ever got the actual Goldfish bonus. In this bonus you get 10 free spins and if you win anything, a bubble pops with a multiplier from 2X – 10X. I was getting some nice hits and then on one of my free spins I hit the Fish Food Bonus. I did really well on this one and hit it for over 3,000 coins. To my surprise after I finished the bonus I still got a bubble and it was for 10X so this was worth over 30,000 coins. I finished that bonus round with 45,520 coins. That’s equal to $455 playing penny slots! I was impressed to say the least.
I cashed out of that machine and went to a Super Jackpot Party. I hit a few bonus rounds on there and the highlight was hitting one spin for over 12,000 coins. I played a bit longer and moved to the new ebay slots. I couldn’t hit a thing on these and didn’t even get a bonus round.
I left Bill’s after a few hours of play and walked out with $300 in winnings and went back to Paris. I found Ned at a BJ table. I don’t normally play BJ but Ned had a good table of people and I jumped in. The game was choppy and I didn’t get many double down or split chances but did pull a few blackjacks. After about 2 hours of play I cashed out ahead $100 and called it a night.
Total win/loss for the day $400
Total comps for the day $142
Day 2
Thursday October 16, 2008
I woke up pretty early today. I looked over the options for playing today as far as promos and coupons went I decided to go with Sam’s Town. Since this is really my only day in town this week I wanted to hit something good. While this isn’t the greatest play I had traded for a $20 match play and a 5X points coupon. I also wanted to reestablish myself at Sam’s Town after not having been here in a few years.
My first order of business was to get new slot cards. Since the last time I was there, the club changed, merged with Coasts and B-Connected. The girl at the booth was very helpful in getting me set up with a new card. I had all of my older players cards from Sam’s Town, Coasts, and the downtown Boyd properties. She was able to combine all of those cards into one account and I had over 200,000 points between all of the accounts.
From here I found some 8/5 bonus $1 triple play machines. While I’m not fully bankrolled for this game long term, I like it from time to time to take a shot. Things weren’t good here today and not only did I not get any decent dealt winners, I got no quads and dropped $600 in no time. After this it was time to take a break and get something to eat.
I had a nice breakfast of hash and eggs at the Café in the Park, the temporary coffee shop. Everything here was quick and service was good and as always, it was comped.
After breakfast I hit the blackjack tables. I found a $10 double deck game and played 2 hands. Things were choppy here to begin with but then got better. I was hitting some doubles and splits and got a nice gain. Things got bad for a few decks and most of those gains were lost before I got back to back hands with double opportunities on both hands. Not only did I get them, I won them. I also won my $20 match play and walked away from the table with a $700 win.
Next up was more triple play video poker. It was pretty much more of the same as before. There were very few dealt winners and I only scored one quad. I dropped another $500 into this machine and it was time to give up at Sam’s for the day after running only 10k through the machines.
As I was walking through the casino heading to the parking garage I spotted some coupons sitting on a slot machine. One was for a free beer and one was for a free hotdog. Hmm, free lunch! I headed over to the snack bar to cash in my coupon for a big hot dog. They also give you a pickle and a small bag of chips with this. Over at the bar I grabbed a soda and headed out to the park to eat my free lunch! Now I know I have plenty of comps all over town and can eat free but something was fun about eating for free with coupons I found!
I finally left Sam’s Town and went back to the Strip to Bally’s. I had to collect my $400 and that was only available between 4-6pm. I hate when they give you a great offer like this but then limit the pick up times like this. I got my $400 with no issues and went right back out and made my way to the Silverton.
Here I had a tiny $25 in free play but free play is free play so I’ll take it. Here I played some 10-play video poker for quarters. If I could sum up 10-play in 1 word it would have to be FUN! I wasn’t getting many dealt winners but did manage to pull a few quads before things started to dry up. I wasn’t down much at this point so decided to try DDB hoping to hit a quick quad or 2 and get back into the game. This worked out well because on the 3rd hand I was dealt 3 deuces and pulled the 4th with a kicker on one line and a 4th on another. This got me back into it and I switched back to bonus poker. A few minutes later I held 3 to a royal and hit one on line 6 for my first quarter royal of the year.
Shortly after I cashed out to lock up the gains and played some penny slots. My luck on these was great. I was hitting large pays and getting lots of bonus rounds. I didn’t get too far ahead but got to play a lot. So much in fact I ran over $2,700 through one machine. I eventually cashed out even and went to dinner at the Sundance grill.
Things were slow at the Sundance Grill and I sat up at the counter. I went with my favorite prime rib sandwich and mashed potatoes. After dinner it was getting pretty late and I had a busy day tomorrow with packing up and leaving for LA.
Total win/loss for the day $900
Total comps for the day $617
Day 3
Friday October 17, 2008
Today I was up early. I had to pack up and get ready to leave town. I’d be driving to the Los Angeles area with Anne, Steve, Jason, Christine and Terry where we’d be spending the night before tomorrow’s cruise.
First up was a little casino business though. I had a coupon from the Harrah’s properties that was good for $100 if I earned 25 points in 2 different casinos. I also had a coupon from the ACG that was good for $5 in comps after earning 50 points. I thought this was a good opportunity to double dip since the $100 was given at the second property you earned the points and they’d have no idea I dropped off a coupon at the Flamingo. I decided since it was short tern I’d play some penny slots to earn these points. At the Flamingo I just got slammed. Couldn’t hit a thing and hit no bonus rounds on anything I played. I ran through a little more than the 50 points for the $5 comps and in the end dropped in the area of $150. I took my coupon to the Total Rewards booth and there were no issues in turning in the coupon.
After that was taken care of I went back over to Bally’s. I was short on time so I played a 7/5 bonus $1 triple play machine to rack up the 25 points as fast as I could. As luck would have it I was dealt 3 deuces and connected with the 4th on the middle line. I also hit a few full houses and walked away from this machine up $205. This was good enough to offset the $150 loss at Flamingo and put me up by $50. Then I cashed in my coupon for a free $100 and completed the day up by $150. This wasn’t a bad day considering it was only about an hour of work and most of that was walking casino to casino.
After I got my money I ran up to the room to get my things and headed out to the valet to pick up my rental car. The valet here has always been pretty good and with my diamond card my car came up before other cars of people that were already there. It’s one of the perks of being diamond that has paid off for me over the years.
From Bally’s it was off to the Chevron station on the corner of Warm Springs and the strip to top off the tank. I only put about 40 miles on the car and it only took $2 in gas. I was surprised by this but they must have really had it full to the top when I picked it up. I met Anne and the group here and they followed me to the rental car facility. Dropping off took a little longer than normal. Dollar seemed to have been short handed and only had one guy doing returns. A manager finally came over and took care of me. I was on my way with receipt in hand and off to meet Anne and Steve in the visitor parking lot. From here it was off to Anne’s mother’s house to pick up her luggage (she was driving on her own). We left her house and made a quick stop at Jack in the Box and we were on the road at around 12 – 12:30pm.
This was my first time ever driving to LA from Vegas and hopefully my last! In the future I’d rather just fly and avoid the traffic. There wasn’t much traffic but there were a few spots of construction that bottlenecked the 15 and then we hit rush hour traffic as we got into the LA area. This drive with a stop for a pee break and snack took in the area of 6 hours. We arrived at the Sunrise Hotel in San Pedro and I checked in and was in my room at about 6pm. Now I was checked in here AND I was still a registered guest at Bally’s in Las Vegas. I guess it’s kind of neat being a registered guest in 2 hotels in 2 different cities and states at the same time!
Now even though I’ve left Vegas at this point it’s NOT the end of this trip. This trip will resume in just a week after the cruise. For anyone interested a review of the cruise can be seen at: A sapphire princess review october 18, 2008 sailing - Cruise Critic Message Boards
and this report will continue on Saturday October 25.
Total win/loss for the day $150
Total comps for the day $339
October 15 – 17 & 25 – 29
Well it’s time for another trip to Las Vegas. This trip isn’t going to be my standard type trip. The main reason for this trip is to bookend a cruise I will be taking out of Los Angeles. This report will be split into 2 parts to make up one report. I won’t include the cruise details in this report but I will include a link to the review I do. While this won’t be the typical trip, I can assure you there will be some hitting promos, comps, and coupons. One other thing to note is that my girlfriend Dee won’t be joining me on this trip (and will be missed) because this trip was planned before things got serious between us (not to mention the lack of time off). Also note that I won’t have my laptop with me this trip so the report is being compiled from notes I will take and probably won’t be as detailed as normal. So now that everything’s packed, let’s get going!
Day 1
Wednesday October 15, 2008
Today I had to work but took an early out. I have a late afternoon flight and I couldn’t work a whole shift. On the same note, there was no need to waste a full day off either so I worked until 2pm. I punched out and hopped into the rental car that I booked and picked up at Stewart – Newburgh, the local airport. As always I booked with Avis. I booked this car back in August and scored a standard SUV for just $48. This was actually cheaper than the cars including compacts for some reason. I’m guessing because of gas prices no one wants to rent them. When I picked this car up yesterday it was ready. This has been a problem here the last few times I’ve rented. They issued me a Ford Explorer with 32000 miles on it. Amazingly it was in good condition. The problem was the gas tank was a little lower than full. In the past I wouldn’t have worried about that but with gas at $3.75 a gallon, this is a problem. I went back in and had told the agent who offered to have one of the guys follow me to the local station to fill it up or to just adjust my contract. I took the adjustment as it was easier.
Traffic wasn’t too bad heading to Newark since it was mid-week and a bit early for rush hour. I stopped at Wendy’s and picked up a snack for lunch and a little extra to take on the flight. As always I stopped at my usual gassing point just outside of the Meadowlands and made the rest of the trek to Newark Airport. I only had to put in a few bucks worth because of the fuel adjustment. I probably could have gotten away with putting none in but it wasn’t worth the risk.
Dropping off the car in Newark was a breeze except the agent noted my gas was low. I had to explain to him it was supposed to be low because it went out low. Here’s where it gets interesting. He completes his check in and I get my receipt and it’s about $20 lower than I was expecting it to be. There was no major breakdown on this slip so I have no idea what happened. After getting home I checked my e-mail and saw that he marked my tank as full when I dropped off and they gave me credit for the gas of over $19! SWEET! Dropping off here has always been pretty good. It’s picking up that’s usually the problem. After an uneventful drop off it was up to the monorail and over to Terminal A. Today’s flight is on USAir. I’m not a big fan of this airline anymore. Back when they were still separate from America West I loved America West. Since the merger though, this airline isn’t as good as it used to be. The reason for taking them this trip was price. I used some old banked frequent flyer miles and with the 911 tax and the new rip off processing fee this flight cost me $35.
Check in went very quickly but USAir charges $15 for your first checked bag. I think this trend the airlines are taking is pitiful. I think they should just raise their fares by a few dollars to offset their costs and not nickel and dime their passengers. In a few minutes I was on my way to security. Here it was the same old crap I always deal with. Now with airlines charging for taking luggage more people are doing carry on bags and it’s making security lines even longer and slower than they used to be.
I had plenty of time before my flight so I got a snack for the flight because the USAir doesn’t give you anything these days unless you pay extra for it. Christ almighty I wish they would just raise fares a few bucks and let me have my luggage and a meal for “free”. More bean counters that think effing their customers is a better way to make money than by treating them with respect and modest price hikes.
I’m on flight #35 scheduled to depart at 4:59pm. We pushed back on time but there was a ton of air traffic and lots of planes waiting to take off and we sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes. I don’t know why but there are always people on flights that think they are exceptions to the rule. There are two people I’d like to recognize on this flight (among the stand non rule following passengers). The guy sitting next to me that felt he was allowed to talk on his cell phone after we pushed back from the gate and send text messages as well as the guy behind me. The other one is the dumb lady that felt, while we were taxiing on the runway during our delay felt it was ok to get up and walk around the cabin.
Since this is a frequent flyer ticket I wasn’t able to get a non-stop so I’ll be connecting on Phoenix. We’re scheduled to arrive there at 7:16pm. The movie on the flight was Incredible Hulk. Since I worked all day and have been up since 4:30am, I tried to sleep for a good part of the flight and to read some of the book that Dee lent me. I was able to get a few winks in. Now USAir has stopped giving food away a long time ago except for a small bag of peanuts or pretzels but more recently they stopped doing that AND stopped giving out free drinks. Now they hawk soft drinks and water for $2 and alcoholic drinks for $7. This along with food ranging from $5 - $7. On this flight they hawked and hawked and hawked and by the time they got ½ way through the plane, they were out of food. Now explain to me how the airline expects to make any money by selling food and then running out ½ way through the cabin. This is unacceptable and another reason why the airlines are among the worst run businesses in the world.
We were late getting into Phoenix because of our delay. The flight attendant came on the PA and asked that those people that didn’t have connections please wait in their seats. This was so those that did have connections could exit and hopefully still make their connection. I’d like to personally thank all of the prick scumbags that feel they are too good or in too much of a hurry to go wait for luggage for ignoring that request. May you all miss your next flight because someone did the same to all of you!
I haven’t been to Sky Harbor in a long time and I only had a 43 minute layover. Being late made my connection tight. Of course my connection gate was clear on the other side of the terminal. I made my connection with no issues and boarded the next flight but was the last one to board and almost didn’t make it. That would have really sucked.
This is flight #232 and departs at 7:59pm and arrived in Las Vegas at 9:09pm. This flight was uneventful and no frills and we landed in Las Vegas early.
After getting off the plane I made the customary stop at the can before making my way to baggage claim. It took about 10 minutes to get my bag and I was off to the rental car shuttle. This is one thing that they seem to be doing a pretty good job running. In just a few minutes we were at the renal car facility and I headed up to the Dollar level. I had a full size car booked. Originally when I was looking at rates for this leg of the trip the rates were VERY high, in the $45 per day range. They eventually came down and I locked in at $22.97 per day. As I always do I check rates often and got lucky about 2 weeks ago scoring the same car for just $13.53 per day for the 2 day rental. This place wasn’t well organized. They had no full sized cards available and I was told by the lot attendant to give him five minutes and I’d have a car. Up rolled an electric blue Dodge Charger that brand new with only 2 miles on it! While I just hit the jackpot my only thought was, why don’t I ever get the brand new car when I’m renting for 2 weeks!! I was off to security and then on my way to Bally’s.
When I got to Bally’s I used the valet. I hate the self parking garage here because it’s 2 miles from the hotel. When I got to Bally’s the diamond check in was closed so I checked in at the regular area. I’m staying here for the next 2 nights although I have booked the room offer they sent me for 3 nights as I’m not sure what time of day we will be heading out to LA and the offer was good for 3 nights anyway. It also comes with $400 cash to help with travel expenses! There wasn’t much of a line here and check in went quick except for some reason I always get stuck behind the people that don’t know the procedure of checking into a hotel and slow everything down. I was given room 1706 with a view of Paris. This room has 1 king bed, wall unit, work desk, nightstands and sitting chair. The bathroom is small but good enough for me being alone. When Dee is with me I prefer a larger bathroom when possible so we have room to maneuver.
Speaking of Dee, even though she’s not with me this trip, we’ve been communicating through text messages and I’ve been updating her on the trip.
Since I’m in Vegas I wanted to go out for a while. My first stop was over to Paris to see if Ned the dealer was around and he was. The first thing he asked me is, “Where’s Dee?” For those that might not know, Ned was a craps dealer at Fiesta Henderson years ago and I always got along with him. I decided to go over to Bill’s and grab a hot dog using the coupon from the AGC. This is always a great value and even without the coupon isn’t a bad deal. I decided to take it easy tonight and just wanted to play some penny slots for fun. My first game was Gold Fish. It’s one of my favorite penny slots. I was doing ok on this one and hit a bonus round and for the first time ever got the actual Goldfish bonus. In this bonus you get 10 free spins and if you win anything, a bubble pops with a multiplier from 2X – 10X. I was getting some nice hits and then on one of my free spins I hit the Fish Food Bonus. I did really well on this one and hit it for over 3,000 coins. To my surprise after I finished the bonus I still got a bubble and it was for 10X so this was worth over 30,000 coins. I finished that bonus round with 45,520 coins. That’s equal to $455 playing penny slots! I was impressed to say the least.
I cashed out of that machine and went to a Super Jackpot Party. I hit a few bonus rounds on there and the highlight was hitting one spin for over 12,000 coins. I played a bit longer and moved to the new ebay slots. I couldn’t hit a thing on these and didn’t even get a bonus round.
I left Bill’s after a few hours of play and walked out with $300 in winnings and went back to Paris. I found Ned at a BJ table. I don’t normally play BJ but Ned had a good table of people and I jumped in. The game was choppy and I didn’t get many double down or split chances but did pull a few blackjacks. After about 2 hours of play I cashed out ahead $100 and called it a night.
Total win/loss for the day $400
Total comps for the day $142
Day 2
Thursday October 16, 2008
I woke up pretty early today. I looked over the options for playing today as far as promos and coupons went I decided to go with Sam’s Town. Since this is really my only day in town this week I wanted to hit something good. While this isn’t the greatest play I had traded for a $20 match play and a 5X points coupon. I also wanted to reestablish myself at Sam’s Town after not having been here in a few years.
My first order of business was to get new slot cards. Since the last time I was there, the club changed, merged with Coasts and B-Connected. The girl at the booth was very helpful in getting me set up with a new card. I had all of my older players cards from Sam’s Town, Coasts, and the downtown Boyd properties. She was able to combine all of those cards into one account and I had over 200,000 points between all of the accounts.
From here I found some 8/5 bonus $1 triple play machines. While I’m not fully bankrolled for this game long term, I like it from time to time to take a shot. Things weren’t good here today and not only did I not get any decent dealt winners, I got no quads and dropped $600 in no time. After this it was time to take a break and get something to eat.
I had a nice breakfast of hash and eggs at the Café in the Park, the temporary coffee shop. Everything here was quick and service was good and as always, it was comped.
After breakfast I hit the blackjack tables. I found a $10 double deck game and played 2 hands. Things were choppy here to begin with but then got better. I was hitting some doubles and splits and got a nice gain. Things got bad for a few decks and most of those gains were lost before I got back to back hands with double opportunities on both hands. Not only did I get them, I won them. I also won my $20 match play and walked away from the table with a $700 win.
Next up was more triple play video poker. It was pretty much more of the same as before. There were very few dealt winners and I only scored one quad. I dropped another $500 into this machine and it was time to give up at Sam’s for the day after running only 10k through the machines.
As I was walking through the casino heading to the parking garage I spotted some coupons sitting on a slot machine. One was for a free beer and one was for a free hotdog. Hmm, free lunch! I headed over to the snack bar to cash in my coupon for a big hot dog. They also give you a pickle and a small bag of chips with this. Over at the bar I grabbed a soda and headed out to the park to eat my free lunch! Now I know I have plenty of comps all over town and can eat free but something was fun about eating for free with coupons I found!
I finally left Sam’s Town and went back to the Strip to Bally’s. I had to collect my $400 and that was only available between 4-6pm. I hate when they give you a great offer like this but then limit the pick up times like this. I got my $400 with no issues and went right back out and made my way to the Silverton.
Here I had a tiny $25 in free play but free play is free play so I’ll take it. Here I played some 10-play video poker for quarters. If I could sum up 10-play in 1 word it would have to be FUN! I wasn’t getting many dealt winners but did manage to pull a few quads before things started to dry up. I wasn’t down much at this point so decided to try DDB hoping to hit a quick quad or 2 and get back into the game. This worked out well because on the 3rd hand I was dealt 3 deuces and pulled the 4th with a kicker on one line and a 4th on another. This got me back into it and I switched back to bonus poker. A few minutes later I held 3 to a royal and hit one on line 6 for my first quarter royal of the year.
Shortly after I cashed out to lock up the gains and played some penny slots. My luck on these was great. I was hitting large pays and getting lots of bonus rounds. I didn’t get too far ahead but got to play a lot. So much in fact I ran over $2,700 through one machine. I eventually cashed out even and went to dinner at the Sundance grill.
Things were slow at the Sundance Grill and I sat up at the counter. I went with my favorite prime rib sandwich and mashed potatoes. After dinner it was getting pretty late and I had a busy day tomorrow with packing up and leaving for LA.
Total win/loss for the day $900
Total comps for the day $617
Day 3
Friday October 17, 2008
Today I was up early. I had to pack up and get ready to leave town. I’d be driving to the Los Angeles area with Anne, Steve, Jason, Christine and Terry where we’d be spending the night before tomorrow’s cruise.
First up was a little casino business though. I had a coupon from the Harrah’s properties that was good for $100 if I earned 25 points in 2 different casinos. I also had a coupon from the ACG that was good for $5 in comps after earning 50 points. I thought this was a good opportunity to double dip since the $100 was given at the second property you earned the points and they’d have no idea I dropped off a coupon at the Flamingo. I decided since it was short tern I’d play some penny slots to earn these points. At the Flamingo I just got slammed. Couldn’t hit a thing and hit no bonus rounds on anything I played. I ran through a little more than the 50 points for the $5 comps and in the end dropped in the area of $150. I took my coupon to the Total Rewards booth and there were no issues in turning in the coupon.
After that was taken care of I went back over to Bally’s. I was short on time so I played a 7/5 bonus $1 triple play machine to rack up the 25 points as fast as I could. As luck would have it I was dealt 3 deuces and connected with the 4th on the middle line. I also hit a few full houses and walked away from this machine up $205. This was good enough to offset the $150 loss at Flamingo and put me up by $50. Then I cashed in my coupon for a free $100 and completed the day up by $150. This wasn’t a bad day considering it was only about an hour of work and most of that was walking casino to casino.
After I got my money I ran up to the room to get my things and headed out to the valet to pick up my rental car. The valet here has always been pretty good and with my diamond card my car came up before other cars of people that were already there. It’s one of the perks of being diamond that has paid off for me over the years.
From Bally’s it was off to the Chevron station on the corner of Warm Springs and the strip to top off the tank. I only put about 40 miles on the car and it only took $2 in gas. I was surprised by this but they must have really had it full to the top when I picked it up. I met Anne and the group here and they followed me to the rental car facility. Dropping off took a little longer than normal. Dollar seemed to have been short handed and only had one guy doing returns. A manager finally came over and took care of me. I was on my way with receipt in hand and off to meet Anne and Steve in the visitor parking lot. From here it was off to Anne’s mother’s house to pick up her luggage (she was driving on her own). We left her house and made a quick stop at Jack in the Box and we were on the road at around 12 – 12:30pm.
This was my first time ever driving to LA from Vegas and hopefully my last! In the future I’d rather just fly and avoid the traffic. There wasn’t much traffic but there were a few spots of construction that bottlenecked the 15 and then we hit rush hour traffic as we got into the LA area. This drive with a stop for a pee break and snack took in the area of 6 hours. We arrived at the Sunrise Hotel in San Pedro and I checked in and was in my room at about 6pm. Now I was checked in here AND I was still a registered guest at Bally’s in Las Vegas. I guess it’s kind of neat being a registered guest in 2 hotels in 2 different cities and states at the same time!
Now even though I’ve left Vegas at this point it’s NOT the end of this trip. This trip will resume in just a week after the cruise. For anyone interested a review of the cruise can be seen at: A sapphire princess review october 18, 2008 sailing - Cruise Critic Message Boards
and this report will continue on Saturday October 25.
Total win/loss for the day $150
Total comps for the day $339
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