TR, MSS Sept 2-6

Left Georgia on Wed, Sept 2 to return home on Sun, Sept 6.

It takes us about 2 hours to drive to the ATL airport so we left the house at 6:00am for our 10:15am non-stop flight on Southwest. Our boarding positions were A26 and A27, we picked the last row on the driver’s side, aisle and middle seats. The seats seemed narrower than others we’ve had on Southwest. Being that I had an aisle seat I found myself encroaching on Kim to my left in order to keep my arm/shoulder from getting bumped by people walking in the aisle. Flight was uneventful except for one young man. Before we took off this young man came to the back of the plane and went in to the gallery and started looking around. I peered back and he asked me if the restroom was at the front of the plane. I responded restrooms front and rear, he looked a bit more and found it. Since we were sitting in the last room I often had visitors standing beside me as they waited for the lavatory. At one point I noticed a young woman beside me, she eventually made it in the restroom, but a minute later another woman headed for the restroom. A male flight attendant in the gallery pointed out the restroom was occupied. The second woman pointed out the occupied sign wasn’t on, the flight attendant said, “she didn’t close the door”, I am guessing she didn’t lock it. No biggie. A while later a woman from the row in front of me headed to the restroom, about 30 seconds later the young man I mentioned earlier came through. This young man was quite lean and had no problems walking quickly down the aisle. He zipped through the galley and opened the restroom door. I heard a female flight attendant yell at him, “It’s occupied!” She pushed the door shut. The young man mumbled something, the flight attendant said, “I don’t think she knows English very well.” Sounds like the woman in the restroom got an uninvited visitor. Why don’t people lock the door?

Moving on. Headed to Alamo, skipped the counter, got our mid-sized SUV in a matter of minutes.

Made our way to Excalibur for the free buffet compliments of MyVegas. I’m happy to say it was very good, they didn’t have as much variety as some buffets but everything I tasted was good. Kim was pleased also. (This place was crap the last time we ate there, it has improved a lot!)

Went to Dollar Tree for water, snacks, and starch for ironing. Wife’s phone provided navigation as we headed to MSS. We were sitting at a red light at the intersection of N Las Vegas Blvd and Bonanza, Kim said, “Oh God, look!” and pointed to an older guy standing on the sidewalk. He slid his hand up the leg of his shorts, pulled his manhood down and peed on the sidewalk (3ish in the afternoon).

Made it to MSS, quick check-in, unpacked clothes. This would be a short gambling day so we played on my player’s card. I visited in the player’s club and signed up for the multiplier promotion, activated the multiplier at the kiosk, 15x for reel slots, 10x for VP. We headed to Fremont casino to earn 250 points on my card (free lunch ACG coupon when you earn 250 points). We’ve been wanting to play some MegaBucks, put $100 in, got it up to $380, cashed out at $350. Went to the booth and got my free buffet voucher (good for 72 hours).

Played 25 and 50 cent Jacks or Better VP at MSS the rest of the day, still on my card. Earned more than enough points to redeem the AGC free buffet at MSS.

We ended the day playing at the Boar’s Head bar and the bartender placed an order for us at 777 brew pub. Bar-b-q pizza and Dragon Roll sushi ($25 charged to room), taken to room to eat while watching a bit of TV.

In addition to the 5 new VP machines at the left end of the bar, they’ve now added 3 new machines at the right end of the bar. I like being able to read the points info.

Thursday
Went back to Fremont and put $100 in the Megabucks machine (lost $100), earned Kim 448 points on her card. Went back later in the day to redeem her ACG coupon for a buffet.
Went to the Cal and had the breakfast buffet ($13 charged to our MSS room).
Starting Thursday all of our play would be on Kim’s card. Thursday morning we earned enough points for Kim to redeem the ACG coupon for a free MSS buffet.

Around 9:00am I dropped Kim off at the nearby outlet mall, I returned to MSS and played at the Boar’s Head Bar, picked Kim up at 11:30am. We used our free MSS buffet vouchers for lunch on Thursday.
Played more VP during the day. Once again the day ended playing at the Boar’s Head bar and the bartender placed another 777 order. This time we had the Sicilian pizza and Spicy Tuna Roll sushi ($18 charged to room), taken to room to eat while watching a bit of TV.

Friday
While Kim got ready for the day I went across the bridge to the Cal and bought 3 doughnuts. Met Kim at the Boar’s Head bar for VP and doughnuts. Once again I did the take Kim to mall, play at bar, pick Kim up at 11:30am. Today we used the vouchers for the lunch buffet at Fremont.
Had several VP sessions during the day. Shortly after 4:00pm we went to GN for the Chart House happy hour. We split an order of Prime Rib Sliders and Ahi Tuna Nachos. Very good, will do this again. Seating is limited and crowded.

Ended the day playing at the Boar’s Head bar, decided to have wings from 777. Bartender Kelly suggested wings tossed in Hot and Honey-Dijon combined and we added an order of Mild. I stopped in and placed the order to go ($20 charged to room, this time they charged $2 to-go fee), taken to room to eat while watching a bit of TV.

Saturday
While Kim got ready for the day I went across the bridge to the Cal and bought 3 doughnuts. Met Kim at the Main Street entrance for VP and doughnuts. Once again I did the take Kim to mall, play at bar, pick Kim up at 11:30am. I guess I should mention my duffle bag had an empty duffle bag packed inside it to bring home Kim’s shopping bounty.

For lunch we went to Chicago Brewing Company, we had Garlic knots, Chicken tenders, and potato skins. Very good.

Played VP for a while at the Boar’s Head bar. Noticed Timspeed in the hallway near the bathroom (recognized his black VideoPoker.com shirt) and introduced myself. At 7:00pm we went to the 777 Brew Pub for a meet-up with Timspeed, Yoyoseven, and Flysrb. It’s really neat to meet follow VMBers, everyone is very nice and lots of fun to talk to. This first time I did this it seemed kinda creepy/worrisome, I still get a bit anxious about meeting new people but making the connection is great. Kim had a side salad and we split a Sicilian pizza and garlic fries. We each had a few cocktails ($50 charged to the room).


After the meet-up Kim stopped and talked to a host about our bill. Our room was booked for 2 free nights on a mailer and paying for two nights. The host comped the remaining two nights and the four meals we had charged to the room (that’s why I’ve noted the room charges btw). Very cool, it was our first time getting food comped off our bill.

Got to bed around 10ish, had 3 alarms set for 3:00am, dropped our bags at the curb-side baggage and got our boarding passes. The airport was rather quiet then. Returned to rental car. TSA was a breeze, nobody ahead of us. Full flight coming home but we managed middle/window seats in the passenger side exit row. Did a bit of napping on the flight.
We got home around 4:00pm.

Video Poker results.
Wednesday on my card, coin-in $2828, combined win of $75 plus one scratch card.
Thursday on Kim’s card, coin-in $11699, combined win of $394 plus 18 scratch cards.
Friday on Kim’s card, coin-in $10419, combined win of $54 plus 21 scratch cards.
Saturday on Kim’s card, coin-in $10449, combined win of $220 plus 20 scratch cards.
$14796 was played on quarters, $20599 played on half-dollars. All on 9/6 Jacks or Better at MSS.
60 scratch cards for a total of $121 (one was $3, others $2).

 

Nice trip report - lots of detail yet concise and fun read! You guys packed a lot, no pun intended, into a short time.

1) how did you get all your wife's shopping goodies into your extra duffel bag? Quite a haul there on the bed!
2) how many ACG coupon books do you need to get that many coupons, or can they be used more than once for the same place?
3) how do you get such detailed coin-in info on a daily basis? Your record keeping or the casino? If casino provides,I never knew that info was available - wow - dummy me....
4) what fun to meet up with fellow VMB'ers!

 

Nice report. Love the pictures.

It's fun meeting other Message Board Members.

Can you tell me a bit more about the Chart House Happy Hour? Times? Menu?

Thanks.

 

Nice concise, all in one report TY!

OK, now we have stayed at MSS for 18 years now and not that we would do it, but the bartenders at Boar's Head are able to call ahead and get food ordered at 777? I didn't even think they had 777 menus at Boar's Head.

Note to Geogran: Downtown Boyd properties are 1 point for each dollar in, so it is very easy to keep track of daily coin-in.

 

1) My bag had extra space for coming home since it no longer had the extra duffel bag, a bottle of vodka, and it wasn't totally packed out when we headed to Vegas.
2a) We have two ACG books. Each book offers "earn 250 points and get a free breakfast or lunch buffet when you earn 250 points (and keep the points)" for Main Street Station, Fremont, and the California. Since the California does not have a buffet they send you to Main Street Station. That is 3 separate coupons per book. We haven't used the one for the California yet.

2b) Not sure if we could repeat with the same casino or not. Hopefully someone can chime in and let us know. If its repeatable that would be great, people often have AGC coupons for trade here on VMB.

4) Yes, it's great to put faces with names and make a personal connection.

3) I carry a small note pad when we gamble. I jot down how much cash we put in the machine (usually $200 if playing quarters, $300-400 if playing half-dollars or dollars--I have a thing about not going back in my pocket for more cash.) At the end of each session I record the win/loss for each of us. With Boyd most VP machines give you one Card Score point per dollar played. When you insert your players card the machine will display your Card Score, I make it a point to jot down the card score at the end of each session. I also note the denomination we are playing. When I get home I plug the info in a spreadsheet. I also make note of our outbound and return flights plus our parking location at the airport. I have forgotten the time for our flights coming home, now I have it in the notepad. I used to use a new note pad for each trip, not now, I just tear out the used pages and staple them together and file them. Please note, credit goes to Buddha for record keeping, after reading his TRs and asking him questions I started keeping notes. Thanks Buddha!

 

Duplicate.

 

Positive days every day? You squeeze any royals in the those days or just a ton of quads?

Nice report!

 

VJ,
Here's the times and menu. When we got there we had to wait 5-10 minutes.
http://www.chart-house.com/pdf/menus/CHLV_happ.pdf

 

Our first night at Boar's Head there was a 777 bartender filling in, he found a menu at Boar's Head and placed our to-go order for us.

 

tring, positive every day, no royals, straight flush for me x 3.
Missing pic of one.

 

The strategy of using either your card or Kim's card daily, does that lead to better offers?

 

I believe it does, leads to a higher average daily coin-in. I know casinos will combine accounts but I think the combined accounts end up with diluted offers. I could be wrong though.

 

Regarding MLife, I'm not sure this is true as I always get the offers and my wife never gets any even though our accounts are tied together. I am the higher theo gambler so they address it to me.

I suspect it may be true for other systems though...

 

Very nice trip report, amazing to have winning days each day. Good job!

 

Nice east read. Love the simple record keeping. Great job on the wins. What was Kim's daily average at the mall?

 

I thought if you were doing 10k coin in per day they would at least give you the silver card.

 

Wow...that is a lot of shopping!
Thanks for the great report!

 

TY31088- Thank you kindly for your helpful response.
I'm going to order the ACG for next year and give those coupons a try. You are very disciplined with your record keeping, I have a spreadsheet I use, but get sidetracked when playing, I need to adapt your system of noting events at end of each session, very helpful info, thanks again.

I am the more frequent gambler, so we mostly use my card to earn and maintain tier level points, comps, rewards, etc at the various properties. But will make sure in future at Boyd properties to use the method that you and your wife use when wanting to use coupons.. Even though our mlife (MGM properties) accounts are linked, we seem to get much better offers on my card than he did.
Again, very nice and helpful trip report!

 

Kim stayed within budget on the shopping, $1k total for the trip. She gets nicer stuff at a much better price than she would get at home. Our deal is, buy in Vegas, no more clothes shopping till we go back to Vegas. She gets most of it from Chico's and it requires a lot less ironing than what she normally buys. On Sunday afternoon she irons all of our clothes for the upcoming week.

 

ajp, I think it may have something to do with your average coin in over a certain time period. We've been slowly upping our play the last few trips.