TR, MSS Dec 25-31. They turned off my 4OAK switch

This was our second consecutive Christmas trip with our son along (19yo).
Arrived Friday the 25th, departed Thursday the 31st.

Typical flight out of ATL, no delays, just a little bumpy at times. We did get TSA Pre-check (Kim works for the DOD and was able to sign up for a Known Traveler Number). Took the shuttle over to the Rental Car Center, skipped the counter at Alamo and picked out a Hyundai SUV.

Arrived at MSS mid-afternoon, no line for checking in.

For supper we went over to The Cal for the Prime Rib special at Market Street Café. Good food and price. We got there around 5:00, no line.

Saturday.
Kim and I played VP at the Boar’s Head bar for a couple of hours. During the session I went to The Cal and bought some doughnuts for us to eat as we played VP. When we have our son along we try to get out and see some sights. We headed to Red Rock Canyon to do a little hiking. Kim and I aren’t the hiking type so we picked one of the shorter trails. We decided on trial #5, Keystone Thrust. The trail started off rather flat and open with a gravel base. As we progressed it got narrower and steeper with some good sized boulders to go up. After about 30 minutes Kim decided she was done and found a rock to sit on. Tyson and I went a little further till I decided I was done. Tyson went a little further and hit a wall, a literal wall, so he turned around. Once we got home I pulled up a Google image of Red Rock Canyon. Turns out we actually missed the start of the trail and hiked in a dry wash. It was fun though. Later when we bumped in to Bubbykitty at MSS Kim admitted she got scared waiting for Tyson and me to return so she started singing “Jesus loves Me” out loud till we came back.






We went to Four Queens/Chicago Brewing Company for lunch. Chicken Tenders, Garlic Knots, Sliders, and a small pizza. We always like the food here, especially the chicken tenders. After lunch we explored Fremont Street a bit, including The Toy Shack.



For supper we went to The Cal/Market Street Café. Tyson and I had liver and onions, Kim had Mahi mahi. The food was average. It took 30 minutes to get seated. After bringing out our food no one checked on us or refilled our drinks. The salad bar was in need of restocking. Although we enjoyed our visit to Market Street the crowd seemed to have taken a toll on the staff.




Sunday.
Again we played VP at the Boar’s Head Bar and had doughnuts for breakfast. For lunch we had burgers at Triple Seven Brew Pub. Sunday afternoon included more VP and dinner was take-out from 777, pizza, wings, and sushi. We ate in the room and watched a bit of TV.

Monday.
Again we played VP at the Boar’s Head Bar and had doughnuts for breakfast. Today would be a Vegas Strip day. Around noon we headed to Mirage, thanks to myVegas we had two free rooms, a free dinner buffet, a BOGO dinner, a free breakfast, and a BOGO breakfast. After our noon check-in we carried our bags to the rooms then headed over to Bally’s for some Mexican lunch. I had a chicken quesadilla. Kim and Tyson had chicken burritos with green verde sauce. Good stuff. After lunch we headed over the Forum Shops at Caesars and watched the Atlantis show. Headed back to Mirage. We had the buffet (35 minute wait) then we caught the 7 o’clock showing of Love. Kim and I are hooked on the show, yet we aren’t big Beatle’s fan. I was hoping Tyson would like the show and I had been careful not to build it up too much. On the way out Kim asked him if he liked it, the reply “I could watch that three times in a row”.

Tuesday.
Still at Mirage. Headed down for the free/BOGO breakfast buffet. No-go at the cashier, she said Kim’s card showed a free dinner buffet (dinner? We used that last night) and nothing for breakfast. Back to the players booth. We had taken care of this the day before (so we thought). The boothling was very nice, looked at Kim’s account, scratched her head (not Kim’s) and seemed puzzled. She mentioned something about a new girl and added a correction to Kim’s card to add the breakfast buffet. Simple fix. Due to the holidays the buffet was brunch, we enjoyed it.

Time for some pinball at the Pinball Hall of Fame, http://www.pinballhall.org/ , this is great place. Kim relaxed in the SUV while Tyson and I spent 90 minutes and 60 quarters playing the machines. They have pinball machines I remember playing at the drug store in the mall when I was ten. They have new stuff too.

Back to MSS. More VP at the bar. 5:45 ressie at The Cal/Redwood Grill. Arrived and promptly seated, this would be the last prompt thing during dinner. Seems they were short on waiters. The food was tasty and the staff friendly, it just took a long time between the courses. At 8:00 we were waiting on the desert included with the Porterhouse Special, the waiter told us three times, “Desert is on the way”. We asked for the check. Found out later Bubbykitty ate there at 9:00 the same night with no problems. http://www.thecal.com/whats-new/offers/porterhouse-steak-dinner-special-at-the-redwood-bar-_-grill!

Wednesday
Our last full day. VP at the bar. Kim decided she wanted to bring home clean clothes so she could focus on taking down Christmas decorations the first day home. We head over to the RV park and load four washing machines, get back in the SUV and go to Burger King for some burritos. I drop Kim at the outlet mall, head back to the RV park to move the clothes to the driers. Pick Kim up from the outlet mall and we go back to retrieve/fold the clothes.

Hit Lotus of Siam for lunch, this was our first visit and plan to return. http://lotusofsiamlv.com/
Kim had the Pad Thia, which I’m not a fan of but she said it was good.
Tyson had the Musaman curry, very good.
I had the Drunken Noodle Seafood, very good.







After lunch we visited the Atomic Testing Museum. I was disappointed, after seeing good reviews on Tripadvisor I expected a little more ‘wow’. They have tons of stuff to look at but the writing is rather small and difficult to read.

Back to MSS. Played more VP and Kim picked up a comp voucher for 777. More pizza, wings and such in the room. The three of us hung out, watched tv, and packed for the trip home. A good time. We had two connecting rooms which made it feel like a suite. During the day we would open the connecting door for the family feel, but at bedtime would could shut the door for privacy.

Thursday.
10:30 am flight home. Left MSS at 7:30, hit Burger King for burritos, gassed up the rental, dropped the bags at the curb, returned the rental car. Our flight was delayed one hour but no other issues. Our drive home from the ATL airport is almost two hours. We have a routine of picking up a bag of Krystal burgers at exit 216 on I-75 just south of Atlanta. Got home with no issues. I jotted down notes and downloaded pictures while Kim unpacked and put-away the clean clothes. Watched the ball drop and went to bed.

4OAK switch and gambling notes. I had a major Four of a Kind dry spell this trip. We often had sessions were Kim would get 3-4 scratch cards and I would get one. Combined we had 22 scratch cards (all $2) with a coin-in of 66681 over 5 gambling days. The vast majority was $1 JoB. Kim played a little Christmas Story slots and a bit of Megabucks (one short session at each). One or two evenings we dropped back to quarters while we drank at the bar. We had a loss of 3135. I actually hit the ATM for 1k Tuesday evening to pad our bankroll for Wednesday (but in the end it wasn’t needed). No Royals or Straight Flushes.

I wish MSS had half-dollar and dollar JoB on the floor (other than the $3=1 point machines near the valet). Some evenings, especially when football games are on tv, it’s hard to get two adjacent VP machines at the bar. One afternoon the bartend saw us looking for a spot, she asked a couple if they were done playing, they agreed and moved on.

VMB met at Pizza Rock. Met Timspeed/wife, Swimjim10/girl-friend, mb12848, and BackinVegas. Enjoyed talking and drinking with the group, great to put faces to names. Nice people. BackinVegas, Thanks for the drinks!

I'm ready to go back.

 

Good report Ty, nice seeing you again!
Eeek! You lost almost exactly like 10x of the EV of JoB

 

Thanks for the trip report. I enjoyed the pics. One of these days i'm going to hit up Red Rock Canyon. Sorry your gambling was so crummy. Just be happy you're not a Double Bonus or DDB player like me. The 4oak drought probably would've cost you twice that. I hope they up your offers. That coin in looks like limo and gold card territory.

 

Great report!

"Combined we had 22 scratch cards (all $2) with a coin-in of 66681 over 5 gambling days. The vast majority was $1 JoB."

22 Four-of-Kind for 13000 hands (assuming $1 JoB) is low, but not unusual. In average you should get ~30, so you are at 70%.

 

Nice report and sorry we had to postpone our trip. I was looking forward to meeting you. Maybe Feb if you are still there on the 26th.
Just curious. Was your server at Redwood, Brian?

 

Sorry for the loss. Let's see what happened...

You were 8 quads short (8x125) = -$1000
You were 2 Straight flushes short (2x250) =-$500
JOB has a 1/2% negative EV ($66,000 x 0.005%) = -$330
No royals ($66,000 x 2%) = -$1320

So should have finished down -$3,150... so you were right on the number based on what you hit! Not sure if that makes you feel any better...

 

Nice job!
I believe that after playing 13000 hands those high frequency hands (FH and lower) all approach the math average.
And the total loss or win is from the top hands, exactly as you calculated.

 

Good to see you and the Mrs. although somewhat short in length of time. Us too; not nearly the number of quads (scratch cards) as previous but then again it all depends on when you sit and when you get up. I can't count the number of times I looked down and had 4 to a royal after the draw. Although did draw some hands when not expecting anything other than hoping for even money payback.
Donuts for breakfast? Sounds like a pre-breakfast snack to soak up some morning coffee(?). Good idea.
Your trip to the PHofF reminds me again we need to look at a meet-up / contest sometime when all parties come together for some steel-ball fun and @ a quarter a pop it is a lot less costly but oh so fun.
See ya next time and nice report.....

 

Our next trip has us coming home on Feb 27. Our server was Wayne Newton, but going by the name of Ray. I believe BubbyKitty had him an hour after we left with better results.


For the folks that posted facts and figures, thanks. Hopefully the numbers will be better the next trip.

 

Yep happens with a quad drought... Why I always suggested you brought more money when you went after things like "Diamond in a Day".

If you play 13340 hands of dollar 9/6 JoB...losing -$3135 or more is 6.22% likely (1 in 16.1).

Over 50,000 sims...the results ranged anywhere between -$6385 and $25,460.
Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max.
-6385.0 -2075.0 -1055.0 -302.2 1235.0 25460.0

No SF or Royal and less than 23 quads...is 1.09% likely (1 in 91.7).

Sorry about your luck TY31088. But glad you seemed to have a good time for everything else!! Hope you can win 5 digits back next time!

 

Thanks for the report, maybe there will b a meet near the end of your trip that way I could attend also

 

Thanks for the great report. Really enjoyed reading it.