MSS June 19-21

Setup: My friend from Dallas and I try to meet in Vegas about once a year. The last few of times we’ve been at Southpoint, but for whatever reason we wanted to go back downtown and stay at MSS (which used to be our home). No fancy dinners, no shows, no sightseeing. Just drinking and watching basketball and gambling and catching up on our life stories.


Transportation: Well I flew direct on Alaska Air’s newer 737 which was quite an upgrade from the older planes. As far as ground transportation, the plan was that when we got to the airport (he was getting in about an hour before me), we’d meet up and use Uber (primed with a $25 off code for new users) to get to MSS. Well, Scott got himself kinda tanked in that hour before I arrived and when I started texting him to meet me at baggage claim, we eventually figured out that we were in different terminals. And, in his state, he couldn’t figure out how to take the shuttle from one terminal to the other so we eventually gave up and just took separate cabs over to MSS. About $45 for that damn ride. So I figured, hey we’ll use the Uber on the way back. Even though his flight left a couple hours earlier than mine, we went back to the airport at the same time. When I’ve already used up my points, don’t want to eat or drink, and have checked out of the hotel, there’s no reason to just hang there by myself. Uber girl showed up, got us to the airport for exactly $18 which ended up being $0 because of the code. Boom.



4 OAK Scratch Cards: I always thought this was a pretty cool promotion, and had a good time collecting the cards a few years ago when I stayed there. Just to clarify the rules, you get a scratch card anytime you get a four of a kind or above (straight flush or royal flush). You apparently also can get one if you get a slots win above 3000 credits I think, but I never touch those machines so I can’t verify that. There are different values for 5 cent level versus 25 cent. 5 cent is ONLY $1 or $5000 values, 25 cent is $2, $3, $10 or $5000. They’ll give you up to 10 at one time (if you are playing a 10-hand machine and get dealt 4oak). You have only 24 hours to cash them in. I’d read some reviews from people who said they don’t bother to stop playing to get them. I don’t quite understand that. On this particular trip, I would say that conservatively I cashed in about $70 worth of tickets, and I never got one that was above the minimum $1 or $2. In one session alone I cashed in 24 tickets. I will admit that when playing a 10-play nickel game it did occasionally get annoying to have to stop so often and wait for the change lady, but most of the time it was a nice break.



Stupidity with a happy ending: Ok so by far the dumbest thing I’d done in a while happened during a long VP session. I’d been drinking, but not too much. At one point I got up from my Super Times Pay machine to go to the bathroom. Made sure I had my phone, wallet, pulled my players card, etc. Except, I left exactly $413 in the machine (never hit “cash out”). As I came out of the bathroom, I ran into the change guy who had been bringing me my scratch cards. He came up to me and said, “hey did you forget something?” I immediately figured out what he was getting at and I got a pretty panicked look on my face. He showed me my cash out ticket and explained that the guy who sat down at the machine next to mine had alerted a security guard who alerted him (the change guy). I was extremely thankful, obviously. When I got back to the machine the guy was still sitting the next one over and I thanked him profusely. The security guard came by and I gave him $20, and the next time the change guy came over I gave him $20 as well. Wow that could have turned out much differently






Gambling: I’m typical a quarters VP guy, and I love that the MSS bar has 9/6 JOB. I do also enjoy Super Times Pay and play some 5 or 10 line. I won’t give you a whole play by play from the weekend, but I’ll say that when we first got to MSS and sat at the bar, neither one of us could lose. We both turned $40 into $120 or so in about an hour, with the help of some nice 4oak. We made a smart decision to go to the 777 and have a snack to soak up some of the booze, and when we went back to the bar neither of us could win. Things went downhill pretty rapidly all the rest of that night, and it was a little depressing. My ass was saved the next morning when we were sitting at the bar playing DDB and I hit the progressive royal for $1048. I’m not sure I’ve ever been as excited for a royal as that one. Changed my whole mood for the trip. And the best part was the soon after that my buddy hit the four aces with a kicker for $500. The rest of the time there was just playing even. I got a nickel royal on 10-play Super Times for $200, four aces (no kicker) for another $200, and a couple of good 4oak with multipliers on STP. All in all I was probably about even for gambling on the trip, which I pretty much consider a win.





Food: On these trips eating is pretty much just a functional thing, we're not seeking out the best meals in the world. We had the lunch buffet at MSS once, and again I think it can best be described as functional. The salad bar was nice, everything else was just meh. I think we ate at 777 three times, mostly just snacky stuff. I like their buffalo wings a lot, and we did order the "off the menu" onion rings which were solid. We also ate at the noodle place at the Cal, which was also very good. They do have a typo on their menu however......




Comps: Well since I hadn’t stayed at MSS in about 6 years I couldn’t get any sort of upfront comp or even a reduced rate. So I think we were booked at $79 and $44 for the two nights. I was pretty confident that I’d be able to take care of that when we left, and I did. I’ve been staying at Southpoint a lot and I’ve never really taken the opportunity to directly ask a host for a discretionary comp, but the way MSS is set up with someone always sitting at the host station, it’s pretty easy. So that very first meal at 777 we charged to the room, but after that I just asked for a comp. Hey can I get $30 for dinner? No problem. Hey can I get a lunch buffet for 2? No problem. Another $25 for the 777? No problem. Used points to have a meal at the noodle house at the Cal. My buddy paid for a breakfast meal at Du-pars the last morning, so I made it through the whole weekend without actually paying a cent for food, or drinks, or the room. Oh, and I used air miles to pay for the plane ticket.

 

Congrats on the royal! I am one that doesn't always put my light on for my quads there. Last trip I found a hot machine and didn't want anyone else seeing how many quads I was pulling in. Crazy, I know.
Sounds like a nice getaway!

 

Congrats on your the royal and what sounds like a fun (although short) trip. I'm a huge fan of the scratch cards. I put through a lot of volume and can easily judge my results by the number of scratchers. A bad day is about $30 and anything above $50 is a good day. I've never gotten a card above $5 but there is always the dream. It's been a while since I did the math but I think the cards add about 0.4% to the expected return for a quarter player.

 

Thanks for posting your TR, enjoyed reading it and like the layout.

Have any idea what your coin-in was?

 

Nice report! And nice spade royal! I still need to get one of those...lol. Glad that voucher was reported instead of him taking a shot cashing it out!

@mwig yeah, $2 scratch offs is about 0.38% at quarters. Even better at nickels where $1 scratchoffs are worth about 0.95%.

 

I haven't scouted nickel games and VPfree2 only references quarters. Don't suppose there is anything like 10 play 8/5 bonus STP at the nickel level?

 

Do they have good nickel machines at MSS?

 

Unfortunately I've never got around to looking to see the "best" nickel options available. I get to MSS infrequently enough that I mostly just want to plop down at Boar's Head. Lol. For example, I've never got a scratch card, that's how little I've actually played there.

None are full pay probably, but 7/5 Bonus for nickels is possible I guess. That or 9/5 DDB maybe. I'll try to look when I get back out there. I need to get back out there!

 

I don't have any idea what my coin-in was. I'd say my time was pretty evenly split between single line 9/6 JoB at the Boar's Head, and 5 or 10 play nickel DDB DSTP (not sure what the pay table was). I did play 3-play quarter STP at the bar for a short time but without hitting anything big it was going too fast. My bankroll was about $1000 and I'd gotten dangerously close to hitting that before I hit the royal. As far as the scratchers, like I said I never got one that was above the minimum, but my buddy did get a $3 .25 scratcher on this trip.

 

Thanks for the report. Nice hits and a great free trip.

 

You'll be able to register on the B Connected site and check there, will just be your current tier score if you haven't been their in over a year. I'm sort of curious because it seems you were getting pretty easy 777 comps, I usually ask for $50 when I put 10K coin in (with room already comped) and I'm wondering if I'm leaving anything out there.

Congrats on that royal and thanks for the report!

 

Yeah I'll log and and take a look. I have to retrieve my player # cause I ditched the card at the airport.

Since there was only 2 of us, I wasn't asking for much. I asked for $30 one time, $25 another time, and a lunch buffet for 2 (which I think has a value of about $18.

 

Rush fan by any chance?

 

Haaaaaaale no. 6/5 Bonus Poker and 8/5 DDB.
We hate MSS..but for some reason, I can't get away from the craft brews there, HAHAHAH.

 

Of course. Grew up prog with Rush and Dream Theater, these days it's mostly Texas country and EDM though...weird how that happens.

 

Great report and congrats on the Royal.. Will be there in three weeks , can't wait!! Couple questions....

In my very limited experience I thought you had to have over 1250.00 or so to get a hand pay. Is it because of it being progressive?

Was wondering if you think if you just charged everything to the room instead of asking for individual comps, that they would have comped everything on the back end?

I feel like my play is very similar to yours and it would be nice to get a few free meals while I'm there. Thanks

 

Yeah it's because it's progressive and an odd amount of money I guess.

Interesting question. Yes, I do feel like at the end of my trip if I'd charged everything to the room it would have been comped anyway. I just think it works a little better to split it up, charge a couple things to the room and then ask for a couple discretionary comps. I usually did it after I'd finished a 3-4 hour stretch. The first time I went up there I asked for $20 and she said, "is that really going to be enough?". So I said well $30 would cover it for sure.

 

If you average $10k per day you should call a host before the trip starts and ask for either the food coupon book or a silver card. Barring that, you can get a buffet after 2,000 points. I've been given a comp for two at Redwood after 10k points in a day which is well over $50. Just a couple points of reference because I'm not sure what their actual guidelines are.