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1/23-1/25 Trip report - A short trip that was more like work! day 1/2

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by DaiLun, Jan 26, 2015.

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  1. DaiLun

    DaiLun R.C., L.C., and A.A.N.G.

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    My Trip Report

    I got into Las Vegas at 11PM. Sixt is falling out of grace with me. At 11PM they only had one person on shift to handle rentals and returns. However, to her credit, I did not have to wait once I had completed check-in and my car did not have to be retrieved from overflow.

    Let my buddy know that I had arrived, he gave me the room number. We got the "big" suite. (as opposed to the Jr. suite). Very, very nice, as usual. I guess I'd better send my host a gift.

    I got to the room at midnight and put my stuff "away". 160 Silver Strikes. 20 lbs. even after I gave my buddy 4 lbs. to bring down. For the $300 redemption as well as the trading session Saturday night.

    So, my buddy told me that the 6 strike machines were all taken at 10PM, but he went by at midnight and there were some openings.

    I hurried over and found one machine on the back of 4 open. The Four Queens has 6 machines. Mirage has 2, El Cortez has 1 and Sam's Town has one. Four Queens has 4 which are 2 machines back-to-back.

    For more information on Silver strikes, please go to www.silverstrikers.com. below are pictures of the Silver strike machines.

    Here is a picture of a Silver Strike machine. If you look at the turrets above (the main machine), there are six of them. These dispense the tokens.

    Silver strike full.jpg Silver strike turret.jpg

    I sat down next to Carl who I had negotiated the purchase of some Silver Strikes (more on that later). He wasn't doing very well, and I hit for 4 strikes in the first 20 pulls. The silver strike machines are (3) quarter Double Diamond machines. You must play 3 coins in to be eligible for Silver Strikes.

    Here is a size comparison between a $300 strike (left) and a blue cap (right)

    Size_comparison.jpg

    After about 15 minutes, Carl said that he was going to get something to eat and head on to bed, since he had to get up for the tournament later that day.

    The clear ones are silver plated brass tokens which are worth $10 at the cage, but, if you collect 30 of them, you can turn them in for a $300 token that is 6 troy ounces of silver.

    The $300 strikes are distributed 4 times a year, at the January and June tournaments, at St. Patrick's Day, and at Halloween. There are only 148 $300 strikes minted each release.

    I was also down to pick up (5) $300 Halloween strikes from Bill, who was kind enough to pick them up for me because I couldn't make it for the distribution.

    Haloween_2014_300.jpg

    There are also special strikes issued. The are called red and blue caps (caps is short for capsules) since the capsules are colored. Below are the Hallowees red/blue caps.

    Blue caps are colorized clad, and red caps are .5 ozt of .999 silver in the centerpiece. The outside ring is brass.

    Haloween_2014_red.jpg Haloween_2014_blue.jpg

    Now, some people just play one machine, and are rather social, because this is, for most people a social event. For me, not so much. I want to get in and out as quickly as I can, getting what I need to as quickly as I can, so I can spend more time doing "serious" gambling.

    And, as I am also collecting for friends that cannot make it to the event, that adds to the "complication".

    The turret spins to a random position, and the red/blue caps are spaced 1:7 apart. That is, 1 red or blue and 6 clears. It was 20 clears before I hit my first colored.

    I played 2 machines for about 45 minutes. I take $1000 to invest in Silver Strikes. The machines are rather liberal. For the $770 I invested in the 45 minutes, I got 64 clear, 3 red and 6 blue. After calculating the value of red/blue caps, I estimate the "cost" of a silver strike at about $12-$12.50 apiece.

    Here is the $300 in play for January

    Jan2015_300.jpg

    Here are the red/blue caps that were in play for January.

    January_2015_red.jpg January_2015_blue_hearts.jpg January_2015_blue_diamonds.jpg January_2015_blue_clubs.jpg January_2015_blue_spades.jpg

    Went back to the room at about 3AM. Dropped off the silver strikes. I'm glad I wore pants that had additional pockets, but even at that, caerrying 5-6 lbs. of extra crap must've looke amusing.

    Went back out at 3AM to "make my play" at the D. Ended up even at the D. Turned in at 5:30AM.

    End of Day one half.
     
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2015
  2. DaiLun

    DaiLun R.C., L.C., and A.A.N.G.

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    Half of the 2nd half the day - $300 strike distro and trading session

    So, in the morning (9AM when I got up), we decided to go to Mirage to:

    1)Pick up the $300 strike since they were out last time
    2)Put down our Superbowl prop bets
    3)Eat breakfast at the Carnegie Deli

    On my NYE trip, I had accumulated 30 Mirage clad strikes, only to find out that they had run out of $300 strikes and wouldn't get any new ones in until 1/14/2015. I called before I left to make sure that they had some.

    I got my $300 strike. Pictured below.

    2014.MIRAGE.300.TERRY.FATOR.LOGO.jpg 2014.MIRAGE.300.TERRY.FATOR.DESIGN.jpg

    We were then off to the sportsbook to get the prop sheet. After breakfast, we would put down (1) $10 bets (I know, big spenders, but if Oregon would have won the National Championship game and covered, it'd be a different story.

    So, we went to the Carnegie deli. They changed it from a standard restaurant to an "order first, then sit" restaurant. I am definitely not a fan of this style, at least not for Carnegie Deli style food. The food is still high quality and plentiful, just not really worth it if there's a line. See my review in the restaurant section for a further review.

    Had breakfast, then placed out sports bets.

    $10 each on:

    Total points scored - 29-35 points
    New England wins exactly by 6
    Russell Wilson to score the 1st aTD
    First scoring play is a Seattle FG
    Last scoring play is a NE TD run
    Total punts over 8
    New England !st team to score 8+ points
    Last team to score wins the game - NO
    At least 1 Safety in the game - NO
    Team to score first - New England

    By then, it was 11AM and Miracle Mile shops were open, and I decided to go use my $20 for $40 Travelzoo coupon. OK, so sue me for not reading the coupon. After taking the coupon to the Munsingwear sore directly, I then discovered/figured out/was told that you had to take it to the Customer Service desk to get a $40 Miracle Mile gift card. No duh.

    Unfortunately, the customer service desk that was doing the gift cards was back by the valet parking where we entered. So, having gotten the miracle Mile gift card (see my post in the Miracle Mile gift card thread), we were then off to the Munsingwear store.

    So, the salesperson was going on an on about their clothing line and asked me "Have you ever worn Munsingwear?" And then, I got to use the line I have always wanted to use but never had the chance to. My reply "I have been wearing Munsingwear since before you were born . . . ". So, after the salesperson recovered and I apologized and thanked him for the opportunity, I told him that 40-45 years ago, Munsingwear (the penguin logo) was considered "cool" but over the years, it became "old guy's clothes" and now it's come around to "cool" again.

    Anyway, I digress. I picked up 2 shirts off the 50% rack (since 50% off is the normal price in Miracle Mile stores) and endfed up paying an addl. $29.00. So, $49.00 for two new shirts since my 2015 resolution is not to wear LV shirts to LV. Whenever I wear my "the D" shirts at the D, I'm always mistaken for someone who works there.

    OK, so we left Miracle Mile and went back to the room. Just in time for me to take a nap. My buddy and I had scheduled a meeting time at 4PM back at the room since the distribution was at 5PM and people started lining up at 3:30

    So after meeting with my host at the D and meeting an alternate host at the D for me to use when my primary host was off shift, we were off to the Four Queens.

    The $300 strike distribution starts promptly at 5PM. Only 148 strikes are available and given out. In order to be fair to everyone, only one strike is given out per person, then you have to go to the end of the line for your second, or third, or whatever. That is fair. So that's one of the reasons why I bring my buddy along, so I can get at least 2.

    On this occasion, I asked Shawn Webster (slot director at QQQQ) if I could get all 4 on the first run, since I saw more than one or two being distributed at a time. he asked me how long the line was and i told him that I didn't think he'd run out but I would give one up if he did run out.

    So, having received the $300 strikes, we went back across the street to get what we would be offering at the trading session. There were people who were not participating in the $300 distribution that set their tables up early.

    So, we got our stuff and set up for the trading session.

    Finish the trip in the next post.
     
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2015
  3. Iamrice

    Iamrice High-Roller

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    I'm learning a lot about Silver Strikes here. Thanks!
     
  4. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    +1

    This is way more serious than I initially thought!
     
  5. DaiLun

    DaiLun R.C., L.C., and A.A.N.G.

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    Wait until I post about the trading session. People that are into it, are really "into it". I only collect Las Vegas and Reno silver strikes, but here are over 280 casinos that had Silver Strike machines going back to 1996. The Four Queens has over 150 $10 strikes. A friend of mine is only missing one of the entire set of Four Queens.
     
  6. Royal Flusher

    Royal Flusher Savvy Gambler

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    Which one? Maybe I have it.

    Enjoyed the report! Very interesting Silver Strike info.
     
  7. Kobra2848

    Kobra2848 VIP Whale

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    Great report. I remember my first trip to Vegas in 1999 winning a bunch of Silver Strikes at 4 Queens and the other downtown casinos. It was my favorite slot to play along with the one where you tried to push quarters off the shelf into the bin. I think I came home with a few dozen. Where do you trade the strikes at Mirage for the $300 one?

    Mark
     
  8. sandybeachbar

    sandybeachbar Low-Roller

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    I remember playing seeing these machines in Reno. I also remember when all the dollar coins out of the machines were silver.
     
  9. Bigcash12000

    Bigcash12000 Tourist

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    This makes me want to go win some Silver Strikes right now!!
     
  10. TIMSPEED

    TIMSPEED Money’s on the way, with CashNetUSA

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    I have a huge collection of the "silver dollars" from casinos, circa 1995 (Vegas and Reno)
     
  11. DaiLun

    DaiLun R.C., L.C., and A.A.N.G.

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    At the cashier's cage.
     
  12. DaiLun

    DaiLun R.C., L.C., and A.A.N.G.

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    Last half day . . . The trading session

    The trading session . . .

    For those of you who attend swap meets or convention shows, the trading session was a "mini" one of those.

    The Four Queens graciously lets the club use the 2nd floor banquet room for the trading session. Every trading session has people that are selling, trading, or a little of both.

    The front tables were occupied by the "regulars", who had spouses to watch them or who weren't participant in the $300 distribution, so they got set up in advance of the 6PM start time.

    The guys at the front two tables were "regulars", one had 15-20 $200/$300 strikes on display, and the other had about 100 $10 strikes for sale/trade. All in all, there were about 10-15 banquet tables in use, some by two people, and some with only one.

    Many people had $300 strikes for sale/trade (mostly sale for the $300) If I had been up a little more or sold some of my extras, I probably would have bought some $300 that I was missing.

    Silver prices are down right now, and prices for purchases were down appropriately. $300 strikes for which $450 was the asking price a year ago could be had for $350.

    I brought (6) of my extra $300 strikes and about (100) $10 strikes to trade.

    I would leave my buddy to watch the table while I crept off to see what I needed to pick up. "Selling or trading?" was my first question after greeting the seller. That would at least set me up for further negotiations.

    I also had a list of strikes that i needed, such as the blue cap "White Rabbit" from the Alice in Wonderland sets a year before. I found a guy that had 2 extras and was willing to sell them at "book" prices.

    I also made other trades. In some cases, the guys really didn't have things to trade that I needed, so in those cases I sold them outright. I had a guy come over and trade me 30 clear $1 for a Halloween $300. I know that this was "below cost" but I had five and he was a new member, so I made the trade.

    People had mild interest in some of my $300 but I think I was asking too much. ($400)

    Anyway, the trading session was nice. Good to go around and meet other Silver Strike club members. One of my buddies who has one left to complete the Four Queens $10 collection (over 100 strikes) saw the one he was missing, but it was slightly damaged. I suggested to his that he could wait, another one that was "perfect" would come around eventually.

    Our dinner reservation was at 9:15PM, so we closed up and left the trading session at about 7PM, which gave us about 2 hours. I went to put more time in at the D, and my buddy went off to play craps.

    No joy for me, We ate a comped dinner at Andiamo's Steakhouse. Always a great meal.

    So, after dinner we went back to the room. It was 10PM and I was "done". I told my Buddy, "We must be getting OLD! Saturday night, 10PM Las Vegas and we're getting ready to go to sleep!!". Then again he had a 6AM flight the next morning and mine was 8:30AM

    So, all tolled, I was down $1000, actually down $2200 but I came back with:

    (4) $300 Halloween 2014 Silver strikes
    (4) $300 Steppin' Out 2015 silver strikes
    (60) $10 clad silver strikes (my head start for St. Patrick's Day)
    (4) red caps
    (7) blue caps

    And, my silver strike activities kept me out of "serious" gambling activity for about 8-10 hours. Not a bad trip after all.

    The next trip is for St. Patrick's Day. I go down Thursday night, play for red/blues, attend the $300 distribution at 10AM Friday and then fly home.
     
  13. ajp

    ajp High-Roller

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    Do you happen to have an of the $10 strikes that are silver that you want to sell? I always mean to hit the machines in vegas and just never do. I am a big silver junkie though.
     
  14. DaiLun

    DaiLun R.C., L.C., and A.A.N.G.

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    Sent you a PM.
     
  15. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Good report, thanks for sharing!
     
  16. VegasChic-

    VegasChic- VIP Whale

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    Thanks for the report, and so much detail on the strikes. Was thinking of trying one of the machines at V/P next time, just to get a few for my kids. Yikes that it has Sam on it though- no offence to him, but geez......of all the fun things they could have put on it!!
     
  17. DaiLun

    DaiLun R.C., L.C., and A.A.N.G.

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    I know that you're staying at V/P. The silver Strike machines count towards V/P play, but if you don't like the look of their strikes, I would go across the street to Mirage and play their SS machine. They have Terry Fator's character's
     
  18. VegasChic-

    VegasChic- VIP Whale

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    Thanks - may check it out!
     
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