Another 22 days of playing VP and drinking good beer in DT Vegas.

Great run at QQQQ! Congrats!

 

Thanks for all your responses.

2/25 Tuesday at DTG.

I called Huntington press and confirmed that they had their coupon books back in stock. I bought a $2.50 day pass on the WAX, transferred to the Deuce at Bonneville Transit Center, and transferred to a westbound bus (202?) at Ceaser's Palace. I got off at the Rio and walked north for 20 or so minutes to buy the book. I then walked to the eastbound stop to go to Ellis Island.

I usually visit EI a couple times a year and bring along my LVA and AGC coupons. I intended to visit the newly opened Front Yard.

EI looks a lot different now and Front Yard is a different experience. I'll first note that they have expanded their beer selection. They've added a Rauchbier at 5.5% and 22IBUs, Coffee Stout at 5.8% and 40IBUs, Helles Bock at 7% and 30 IBUs, Belgian Trippel at 7.9% and 25 IBU's, Belgian IPA at 6.8% and 65 IBUs, Koval Pilsner at 5.6% and 34 IBU's, and a California Common at 5.5% and 35 IBUs. I tried the first 5 and they were all decent beers. I normally drank The IPA here, but that has changed. While I don't expect any of these to win GABF medals, they have definitely upped their game. When you combine these with their normal line up, you have an incredible amount of choices for a casino brewery.
I'm a fan of the Belgian IPA and drank 3 of them. I also drank a Trippel and a couple of Rauchbiers. I had intended on having a Bock, but misordered my last round. I spent a lot more time there than I intended. The Belgians and Helles Bock are served in snifters, the others were in their regular glasses that looked to be around 22oz.
Front Yard is only semi enclosed. The temp was fine for me, but they had fired up the heaters in the eating area. Apparently because there is an outdoor kitchen, no smoking was allowed at the bar. Don't know whether tables are also non smoking. I couldn't use my 50% coupon there, so didn't eat the food. The menu is different than the cafe's.
This is a VP Bar that comps all the beer with play. Free beer coupons only comped some of them, mostly their standard line up.
VP pay tables were worse than I normally play. The best game I found for quarters was 80/40/25/7/5 ACES BP. The pay tables improved at $2 bets. ACES became FP, but the other games were still a notch down from FP. I give a shout out to Tring for educating me about ACES.

I was thrilled by the beer list and soon made friends with the bartender. I ordered a Belgian IPA and started slow playing a $20. I made $7.50 before I ordered a Trippel, quit, saved my machine and headed for the players desk. I had coupons for two $10 to $100 FP and two $10 MP's. In most places, I expect the minimum FP, but I drew $50 and $20 last year. I got $30 total this time. On my way back to my machine I won and lost a MP on black for a $10 profit.

Back at the bar, I loaded my FP, played slow, and socialized with anyone who would talk to me. I discovered that local publications have free beer coupons, but they are only good for the standard line up. The bartender let me try a few more beers, but the Belgian IPA remained my clear favorite and I ordered another.

I never thought much of the extra EV that ACES added because the odds of getting it seemed astronomically low. Today I was dealt AC10SE (that's the aces letters with a ten). In my mind it seemed like a 50/50 miss that the 10 and the "E" weren't reversed. I've heard of studies claiming that the brain receives the same type of stimulation from a near miss as an actual jackpot. That was certainly true of me. I added $5 to my tip. I was having a good time slow playing and continued after the FP was gone. The bar tender was really interesting. He was a recent transplant from Oakland, and had a father in the Panthers who was now a conservative Republican. He was also half Italian. As the bar got busier, we had less time to talk.

I ordered a Rauchbier that came in around a 20oz glass and played my TITO down to $130. I said my goodbyes and took my beer to the café. I had a $5 plate of fish and chips. I think they do a good English version. I still had third of my beer left, but the place had gotten busy and I wanted to give the waitress her table back.

On my way out I swiped my card again on a whim and Senior Day awards popped up. I don't know why they hadn't been there before. I got a snack, free beer, and $5 FP. I headed back to the bar and finished my beer. The same bartender said that he couldn't trade the coupon for another Belgian, but he would give me another Rauchbier. This visit was going on way longer than anticipated. I sipped my beers, ate my peanut butter cookie, and read a magazine as time drifted away. I eventually roused myself to head to another machine. I ordered a last Belgian IPA as I loaded my FP. I continued to sip my beer and played the credits until they were gone. I left both beers unfinished and gave up my seat at the bar. I left with an extra $140, a t-shirt, and a buzz.

I took another bus to OYO.The road was under construction, and I was the only one at the stop. I had concerns that the bus may have rerouted, but it showed after about 15 minutes. I wasn't exactly sober, so the time passed quickly. I had to run $20 through for my two 10 FP coupons. I hit 6's playing the $20 on 7/5 BP and won a $10 MP. I had so much trouble playing my FP here last year, that I asked for a slot attendant. After running through $20 FP, I left up $40.

It was a quick visit and I took the Deuce back DT. Night had fallen, and I watched the strip lights from the front of the upper deck. I was hungry again and used my QQQQ's comp dollars for a combination taco plate at the taco stand. I had a wait, and it was long enough to learn that I didn't like the band playing outside. I took my food back to DTG. I briefly contemplated getting and playing my other $70 MP, but decided to save it for tomorrow.

I'll be playing a lot more tomorrow.

 

Dealt 4 Aces on the ACE$ game, nice! But they also have to be consecutive and in order to count, so even if you had AC-E$, it's still only a regular quad. The kicker has to be either in the first or last spot plus the Aces in order.

 

I didn't know that. In this case I think that means that, if the 10 and "E" switched places, the hand would have payed $1,000.

 

Yeah, that's true. Then you'd have ACE$10 and that would have paid $1000. I think @luckylinda has pulled it off once.

 

True it’s currently my avatar. I’ve been playing that game since vp games started. So long ago that I had forgotten about the possible win. Many years ago I played next to a lady at Colorado belle in laughlin who had gotten it once. She is the only person I know who has hit it.
I don’t expect it again

 

The ACE$ cycle is 297,222, over 7 times as rare as a Royal Flush in that game. I haven't played this game much, and so only came close to ACE$ once, drawing to ACExx. The rarity of this hand is on the order of a the Pick'em Royal Flush cycle of 351,851 (which I have hit once).

 

Big sigh! We were both so close to video poker greatness.

 

Glad you have your notebook today! I like all your details.....

 

I do have my notebook today kkinwi.

2/26 Weds at DTG

I start my day playing MP's. One of my coupons is for $10 and with another I choose the maximum $50 option. I bet black. I start with my other $70 MP and lose. I then win on my $50 MP and lose on the $10 one. Won $100 and lost $80 for a profit of $20. I also had coupons for $20 FP.

While I was at the players club, I asked if Curt was working. He wasn't, but another host was there. I dealt with the same guy last trip. He seems nice enough, but we don't exactly click. For one, I can't get a straight answer as to how much coin that I've played. He seems to consider it an odd question and reports other info instead. I talked to him about beer comps. He wanted to know what I would drink and how many. I guessed 5 Dogfish Head and he agreed. The bartender later told me that he was suppose to call the host at 3 beers. I'm a cheap bastard comp hound, but this was too trivial for even me to deal with. I think the bar tender just gave me a last beer before he got off shift. I remembered that the guy from QQQQ's that I gambled with Monday had brought his QQQQ's beer with him. I might have to resort to that.

I started at 11:35. I sat at a machine that had payed out over $1,000. I pondered whether I was too superstitious to play it. A guy sitting a few seats down told me he had just hit a big Keno hand on it. I put in a hundred, but discovered that it did not have full pay 8/5 BP. I took my TITO to the other end of the bar. I left that machine when I held a 3 OAK and one of the cards discarded. I've seen this before. Something about the release registering another contact that then deselects the card. In this case, though, the card was showing held until I hit the draw button. I guess there was a delay. I moved to another machine.

I was dealt 5's at 11:38. I drew to an inside club SF and hit it at 11:52. I had ordered chicken fingers and fries. It was more fries than I could finish and it was a good, cheap pub meal that went well with my Dogfish. I hit 9's at 12:31 and 10's at 12:43. I took a break at 1:00pm down $12.50.

I restarted at 1:25pm. I think that I lost $37.50 at 2:23 and lost my $20 FP at 2:31. I got 4's at 2:44 and Aces with an unneeded kicker at 3:07. On their downgraded DDB progressive, this hand was worth $814. I hit 4's at 3:49, J's at 3:57, and another SF at 4:03. I hit Q's at 4:09 and quit having doubled my hundred at 4:37.

I restarted at 6:35pm. I hit 5's at 6:51 and lost my hundred at 7:52. I quit for a while and suspect that I went to Chicago Brewing and played without a card for dinner and beer.

I got back to DTG at 10:25. I got 3's at 10:36 and cashed out at 10:53 with my $100 TITO intact. The machine was telling me that I had 14,370 points today. I think that translates to $7,185 coin in, but I'm not sure. It looks like I recorded a $207 win today which would mean that I won some money at 4Q's.

I move to the D tomorrow for a slot tournament and 3 night stay tomorrow.

 

@wasilla I had not thought of bringing QQQQ beer over to other casinos. Since I usually get full beer steins from Chicago Brewing Company, that is a realistic option you raised.

FAB

 

The sticky buttons are a real problem at the Furnace bar. I probably missed about 10 hands due to sticky buttons, and the worst is when a proper hold was deactivated.

 

2/27 Thursday at he The D

It's another moving day. The D invited me to one of their bigger money slot tournaments. They had a room ready and check in went smoothly. I went to the Vue Bar. Upstairs construction continued, but it no longer effected the bar much. I started playing at 1:20. I drew Q's for $37.50 at 1:34 and lost $100 at 2:14. I hit Aces for $100 at 2:16, 9's for $34.50 at 2:41, 4's for $50 at 2:58 and quit with my $100 intact at 4:01 with 252 points.

I had already used most of my monthly D and GG food credits. My plan was to eat most of my meals off of QQQQ's comp dollars, but the 4Q's meltdown made that impossible. I was going to eat a Chicago Brewing pizza, but the place was empty and could only take cash. I hit the happy hour at Pizza Rock. The bartender let me try several beers and I found a good IPA and ordered a large with one of their personal pizzas. I was still hungry. What I know now, having listened to Viva, is to want fries with that. I used my earned comps and she told me that I could even use them for the tip. I wondered later if she used my points rather than comps, but my records aren't good enough to determine that.

I was going to register for my tournament, but it had a long, slow moving line. It was a dual event and the other one required a payment. I decided to take a break and come back later. My break went too long and I missed the registration.

I started playing again at 8:50 pm. I hit 4's for $50 at 9:00, 4's again at 9:04 and 10's for $48. I was up to 741 credits, but lost those at 10:28 with 190 points. I was only down a couple hundred today and decided to play on.

At 10:45 I was dealt 4 royal diamonds. I've never, ever hit a RF at the D or GG, so I wasn't optimistic. I shut my eyes, hit draw, and listened to the credits accumulate. I had drawn the Queen for $1,168. I asked the bar tender for change for a hundred and stuck $20 in the tip glass. He was curious, so I told him about the Royal and my tipping habit. He liked it, and my Stone drafts now came in mugs and my celebratory Rum Chatas in tumblers. I was adjusting as I was drinking. I started playing 16 days ago. I've had a few small wins and one great day, but the rest were losers, some big. I realized that I was actually ahead for the first time this trip. I took pictures and emailed my friends.

I lost $100 chasing a good quad. I quit at 11pm with 235 points and up $900 for the day.

 

Congrats on the royal! But honestly, this report was way too short, as i waited all day for it!

 

I'm currently chuckling. Have you looked at Random Alaska Stories? I've posted about a half dozen so far. No VP, but otherwise sort of same, same but different.

 

2/28 Friday at The D

My tournament starts today and I have to go down for late registration. The line is shorter, but stagnant. I leave to check out QQQQ's. Glad I'm not staying there yet. Chicago Brewing was empty and the people working did not seem happy. Table players are fine, and VP players have the best games available, but the restaurants are still cash only. It looks like the machines are at least counting points.

I get back in line. They've only managed to process a person or two. At least that many have joined the line since I left. They have 4 people working the table, but it is still taking several minutes per person. Some are here for the Keno or Bingo tournament which requires an entry fee. They are also heavily selling the Mulligan round for the slot tournament. Buying that only makes sense if you have a good round and it can be bought after your first two rounds. These folks are good salesmen and many are buying it now. I listen to a woman telling someone how she had won this tournament before and she could tell what her machine was going to do. I wondered if their was any possibility that this tournament was anything but dumb luck. I didn't pursue it. A woman in front of me that had somehow managed to make the line even slower had finally run out of things to ask about, and I finally got to register. I chose the latest time still available. I would buy a Mulligan if I had a great round and a bad round. That won me a couple hundred in the past. I'd probably buy it if I had a great round regardless. Now to have a great round.

I started playing at 11:15. I hit 3's at 11:19, 4's at 11:39, Q's for $38.50 at 11:40, and 5's for $33.50. I was ahead the entire time. After a close to an hour long quad draught, I lost $50 at 1:06 with 220 points. It was time for my tournament round.

The prior winner I had heard talking was playing and she had a decent round. My round was terrible. If this is skill, I have no clue as to what I could do differently. I don't even have a clue as to how well I did till I see the final score. I write my score down. It is probably in the bottom 25%.

I restart VP at 1:50. I hit 3's with a kicker at 2:08 and lost $12.50 when I took a break at 2:22 with 54 points.

I'm assuming that I used the last of my February food comps for a late lunch at the café.

I started playing again at 4:10pm. The bartender that I had tipped last night came on and my drink serving size went up. I drew 8's at 4:19, J's for $34.50 at 4:43, J's again for $31.75 at 4:46, 9's for $34.50 at 5:08, and was dealt 2's for $50 at 5:19. Being dealt a premium quad is a lot more exciting on DDB when you have the chance to draw a kicker. I drew K's for $33.75 at 5:27 and drew the 5th card for a SF for $151.50 at 5:39. My credits had climbed to 1290. I hit 9's for $35.25 at 6:16 and K's for $36.75 at 7:08. I quit at 7:21 with 330 more points. I was up $150.75 for the day.

I went back to playing at 10:40. I got 5's for $35.25 at 10:45, 7's for $32.50 at 10:52, and K's for $32.50 at 10:59. Philonous815 and has wife had checked into 4Q's but had decided to play at the D because of a player's card issue at 4Q's. Their player's club is offline and they can't make cards. It was nice to see them again. Between them, they were gobbling up quads. My credits dwindled and I eventually lost my $100 at 12:57 AM with another 146 points.

 

great reporting----keep it coming-----love being downtown,playing bar-top full-pay video-poker and drinking draft beers-----

 

2/29 Saturday at the D

I went down for my 2nd tournament round. It looked like the groups were starting starting late. I checked out 4 Q's. and it continued to have problems. I got back 5 minutes before my round start time and a group was still competing. They finished at my start time and I looked for my seat. Turns out, my group started early and had just finished. They tried to put me in to this group, but I had been zeroed out and it became an IT issue. They told me to come back for the Mulligan round. I decided to return even though it was now impossible for me to win anything.

I started playing again at the Vue Bar at 11:10. I sat by someone I knew and we talked as we played. I was struggling and finally hit Q's for $33.75 at 12:02pm. I followed that with 3's for $50 at 12:27 and 8's for $39.50 at 12:29. I lost my $100 at 1:42. with 201 points. My friend sitting next to me keeps his cool. I know this because I saw him quietly staring at his screen. He had been dealt a Royal. It's not like he has gotten a lot of them, and it had climbed to around $1,500. He just acts like it's a normal occurrence in his life. His wife joked about whether he had held it for awhile to allow the progressive to win. This guy would totally do something like that, but of course a dealt Royal automatically locked the machine for a hand pay.

I went down for my next round. The Mulligan Rounds were sold out, and I had to wait until they were over to play. There was another person or two also playing. I got another terrible score. I also played my last round and finally got a good score. I was so far out of the money that it didn't matter.

This tournament had a awards banquet. I'd never been to a D one before and was curious. It was nice. The kababs looked good, but were a little dry. The other food choices were really good. I went back for seconds. I'm used to the bars at these things to give small pours, so I ordered two glasses of wine. Both the Merlot and Cabernet were big pours. They drew 10 people to play a game for extra prizes. The game took forever and became pretty entertaining once an employee took it upon himself to MC the event. Then they started announcing the tournament winners. My table had a game winner, a tournament winner, AND the Miss Congeniality winner. The woman next to me was raving about her drink. It was a specialty cocktail for the event. It had a page long list of ingredients. I got one and It was delicious. It took awhile before the wine got me talking, but I enjoyed my tablemates once I did.

I went back to the Vue Bar and started playing at 4:25. My bartender was back on shift and the Stone IPA's were coming in mugs again. I wished I had brought one of those Banquet cocktails down with me. I drew 2's for $50 at 4:49, 4's for $50 at 4:54 and Aces for $100 at 5:30. I was glad I wasn't playing JOB. I got 8's for $36.75 at 5:56 and drew 3 more K's for $32.25 at 6:19.

A woman had sat next to me that I recognized. She was a keno player who had previously peppered me with VP questions while I was trying to concentrate and she just had to press buttons. These weren't insightful questions, more like how hard it was to turn a 3oak into a quad. I was dealt a Heart SF. The progressive wasn't very high. I decided to hold it for a while, drink my beer, and watch TV. I hit draw at 6:34 for $94.25. The woman noticed and started talking to me . There were questions, keno stories, keno histories on other machines, other people's VP play, and more questions. The bar was very crowded being a week end and the QQQQ's issues. I was in hell and was responding less and less. She found some one else to talk to, he left, and she turned back to me. I'm going to start bringing headphones for these situations. She's a regular, and I'm sure I'll see her again.

She finally left. I hit 5's for $31.50 at 7:08, 9's for $41.25 at 7:41, 7's for $39.25 at 8:45 and 7's again for $33.25 at 8:58. At 9:27, I was back down to my $100 buy in and quit with 440 points.

I checked out Fremont and called it a night.

I move to QQQQ's tomorrow for my last 2 nights. Trips almost over.

 

Well crap, what are we gonna do now?

 

Where did they have the banquet at the D? I have had invites to the tournaments but haven't gone. The one event I did participate in had the meal in the showroom, but I'm thinking that is being reno'd now.