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OK, started off the New Year right. 55" TV and a hand pay!!

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by DaiLun, Jan 11, 2016.

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  1. DaiLun

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

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    My Trip Report

    The first of three birthday trips this month. It supposedly is a "milestone" birthday for me, but to my birthdays are just another day to mark the passage of time.

    Meeting a lady friend who insisted on taking my out for my birthday since I took her out for her birthday last month. Coincidentally, it was "TV weekend", so it was appropriate. Unfortunately, it was also CET weekend and plane flights were insane.

    Flew in for 36 hours. Friday night "N" and I drove out to Texas Station to have the Pan Roast, it was good, but I really don't know what all the hub-bub was about.

    I had been up since 5AM and my 89 year old Dad had another "accident" Friday, so I cleaned up and worked from home Friday and didn't have a nap before I left, so I was tired. "N"'s room and mine were on the same floor in the Augustus Tower.

    Saturday morning I woke up to get some play in. "N" had already woken up (she's on East Coast time), so she was over at Paris picking up some things and I was playing downstairs at Caesars.

    After playing .01 in the Forum casino and being up about $300, I started back to the room and played $1 Wolf Run. It was a maximum of $40 a pull, but I cut it back to $20. I got the bonus of 5 spins and 3 retriggers and ended up with a handpay of $2300! So, now I'm up, and the objective was to make 1000TC and keep as much of the handpay as I could. . . .

    handpay_2.jpg handpay_1.jpg

    Emailed my best friend and "N" to report the hand pay, and went over to pick up "N" at Paris. We drove out to Fry's and then to breakfast at Blueberry Hill. Breakfast was on me. This was lucky money, or "chan gee".

    I went back and I dropped "N" off. I had things to do downtown and we were scheduled for lunch at Julian Serrano at Aria (tapas) at 1PM. I took care of business downtown picking up gifts at Jinju chocolates, paying off markers at the D, bringing a gift (box of chocolates) to the credit manager, who extended my marker payment past 30 days, walking up and down the strip, using my FP, making enough to pay for the 3 boxes of chocolates and my purchase at the Beef Jerky store.

    hit an interesting jackpot at the D

    super_sweet_dracula.jpg

    If you are familiar with "Rumble Rumble" by Ainsworth, this is their next generation slot machine. Order of the Dragon: Fortune and Order of the Dragon:Quest? There are two spaces on the 2nd and 4th reels that trigger the "Sweet Zone" and getting a dragon in two sweet zone spaces triggers a "Super Sweet" zone that pays $250 on a $5.00 machine.

    Went back to pick up "N" and head over to Aria. Played some slots over there, we were up $30 and afterwards, I wanted to show here the SLS casino, so we saved the $230 for SLS.

    We were so hungry we didn't take pictures at Julian Serrano. We had 4 dishes

    FISHERMAN'S SOUP
    shrimp | mussels | whitefish | sofrito


    YELLOWTAIL "TIRADITO"
    filo dough | horseradish cream | ponzu


    SAUTÉED BABY SPINACH
    pine nuts | drunken raisins | apple | shallots


    CRAB BLACK RICE
    crab | lobster | calamari | saffron | squid ink | spicy alioli


    I thought the yellowtail was the best, but I'm partial to yellowtail. Lunch was $80 (plus a $20 tip), paid for with mLife comps.

    Went over to SLS. It was dead over there. I had "N" sign up for the slot club, and I played my Free Play, and we went into the High Limit pit and promptly lost the $230 we had from Aria.

    Then back to Caesars. Went and registered for the TVs. 6-8 weeks for delivery. Primary objective done. I was left with about 88 TC to make 1000. Went upstairs and tried to take a nap, but couldn't. Was working on my "new" spreadsheet for keeping better track of gambling wins/losses, and expenses.

    At about 5:30PM we went back to Paris to view the Eiffel Tower, well, go up in the elevator. It's just an elevator to the top of the tower we spent about 10 minutes up there and then came back down.

    Next, dinner at the EIffel Tower restaurant. "N" arranged for us to have a table at the window.

    We had:

    Seafood platter for two

    SeafoodPlatter.jpg

    She had lamb Chops

    LambChops.jpg

    I had a 22 oz. bone in Rib Eye with bone marrow.

    RibEye_BoneMarrow.jpg

    We shared spinach and mushrooms with potatoes Alla?

    SpinachMushrooms.jpg

    The chef served us goat cheese on a puff pastry, King Crab Salad on a beet slice, and Dijon mustard duck confit on a sweet potato chip

    GCPP_KCSB_DMDCSP.jpg

    We each had soufflés for dessert. She had caramel

    CaramelSouffle.jpg

    I had pistachio

    PistachioSouffle.jpg

    The dinner cost? Well, she had two drinks and I drank soda (I'm a cheap date). It came out to be $450. I took the leftovers home and my son and I had them for dinner tonight. Thanks, "N"!!

    After dinner, we had two things to cross off the bucket list.

    1)The High Roller
    2)I was buying a new hat at Goorin Bros. (since I was ahead)

    Parked in the valet at the Linq. Being a 7* member has its privileges. Parking was sold out at the LINQ, only hotel guests and 7* members got the valet.

    We parked the car and went to Goorin Bros. I wanted a felt fedora this time, espcially since I needed a hat for the rain. The straw one wasn't cutting it. "N" tried to talk me into a wide brimmed "Pharrell" model, but I preferred the shorter brimmed model. I asked them to hold it until we rode the High Roller. "N" had her four tickets for the High Roller, and she gave the other two away.

    One FOB family and another couple. As "AANG" (All Around Nice Guy) I offered to take pictures of each group.

    35 minutes later, we were back at Goorin Bros. and I picked up my hat. Now, these hats aren't "cheap" . . . more than my pants budget for the year (lol), but . . I was up, and I hadn't bought one since the last time I won.

    feltfedora.jpg

    Back to Caesars. It took me $200 to make the remaining 88TC, so, at 1002TC, I decided to quit and I headed back to the room. I saw "N" coming down in the elevator as I was going up. She had about 500TC to go.

    The next morning, I was up early. I had thought that the airport was going to be packed, so I got up early to pack. I was taking "N" over to Planet Hollywood, since she was "moving". (PH is her preferred property). We decided to cross another thing off of our bucket list . . . Cambodian donuts. Well, American donuts made by a Cambodian guy. I had read this article a couple of years back:

    http://www.reviewjournal.com/view/sunrise/cambodian-doughnut-shop-owner-fought-against-viet-cong

    My best friend and I went to visit this guy after I had hit a jackpot at the D. I left him a $20 tip then and since I had won again, I wanted to leave him another $20 tip. So we drove out to his shop and "N" bought 2 dozen donuts for the dealers back at Paris and PH, and I said hello and asked how he was doing. He remembered me and we said hello and goodbye.

    Took "N" back to PH. We hugged and she checked in to PH.

    I went to the airport about 2 hours early. I didn't want to be at the airport 2 hr. early since I was up and would be tempted to play the slots at the airport. I did, and made about $40. Enough for lunch at PeiWei diner. I then sat and waited for my plane.

    By my calculations, I was about $1200 up when I left, which is "seed money" for the second birthday trip to Reno this weekend. I also have $500 in Free Play to use (before 1/31/2016) that I won at the last Asian Marketing dinner. There's another one on 1/26/2016 in Millbrae and I have been invited. It will be a smaller dinner, with just Reno/Tahoe people.

    Well, that's it. I started of the New Year with a winning trip.

    Thanks for taking the time to read my TR.
     
  2. win4me

    win4me VIP Whale

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    Nice report! Happy birthday and congrats on the win! I have 3 trips planned this month for my birthday (Vegas, Reno, Tahoe) & hope I can win at all three:beer:
     
  3. BreakEven

    BreakEven High-Roller

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    Congrats on the win!

    So what did you think of the High Roller? You mentioned it was a bucket list thing, and then didn't say if it was good/bad :)

    I'd be interested in hearing more about your spreadsheet for tracking wins/losses (worthy of its own thread). My current system sucks.
     
  4. mrstealth

    mrstealth VIP Whale

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    Great report (as always) and even better that you scored a nice little win. Awesome way to start the year with a nice amount of tier credits and some money to pad your bankroll.

    Hope your luck continues in Reno next week
     
  5. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Nice report! But yeah, what did you think of the high roller? ;)
     
  6. newmans

    newmans VIP Whale

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    Great trip report..... as usual. I always love the details and pics.
    The Eiffel Tower Experience and High Roller have always been on my Vegas To Do list.

    Good luck on your next 2 Birthday trips!
     
    Last edited: Jan 13, 2016
  7. Elf70

    Elf70 High-Roller

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    Congrats on the win. I've done well on Wolf Run lately. Glad it gave you a handpay! Enjoy the rest of your birthday trips.
     
  8. DaiLun

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

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    Posted a review on the High Roller from Thanksgiving. It was more of the same . . . just different company. Different gender (female) and someone that I wasn't related to . . . .:)

    "N" didn't even request a picture. I guess she didn't want any photographic evidence that she'd been there (with me).

    https://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?126467-Review-The-High-Roller&highlight=High+Roller
     
    Last edited: Jan 12, 2016
  9. VegasChic-

    VegasChic- VIP Whale

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    Great start to the year! For a short trip, you sure managed to get a lot done!
    Congrats on leaving a winner!!
     
  10. DaiLun

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

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    Well, it goes like this:

    I carry a notepad in my pocket and track, just like I was keeping a contemporaneous (is that the correct word?) log:

    denom machine in out net
    $1 Power Burst $100.00
    $1 Heat Wave $100.00 $325.00
    0.01 Great Owl $325.00 $296.16
    0.01 Sky Rider $296.16 $443.36
    0.01 Rumble $443.36 $351.81
    0.01 Baby Dolls $351.81 $351.51
    0.01 Lunaris $351.51 $304.31
    0.01 Wonder 4 SE $304.31 $516.31
    Cash Out $2,272.15 $2,588.46 $316.31

    So, on this session I was $316.31 UP.

    I also make a notation on the amount of FP that I used.

    It really just tracks coin in and coin out. You just have to make sure that you write everything down when you move from machine to machine.

    At night, or in the afternoon, I go to the room and input these into my laptop.

    I also have a list of expenditures related to the trip, but not for gaming because if you want to declare "professional gambler" as an occupation, I understand that you are not allowed to have slots as your primarily game. I have since moved those out to another section in the day.

    "N" chided me for being so "old school" and not keeping it on my phone. I guess I could take pictures of each machine, but there are casinos that frown on picture taking.

    "N" questioned how long I would be able to keep doing this and I reminded her that I once kept a log of every penny I spent for a month.

    The real test will be next weekend in Reno, where I tend to "jump around" a lot!

    What I may do is print "sheets" that I can carry in my pocket that have the categories already listed and I just "fill them in. How Anal-retentive would that be?

    So, on this trip, I was actually up almost $1700 in gambling, but (including my new hat) had almost $500 in expenses.

    I also want to note that I am tracking the value I'm getting out of 7* to see if it was "really" worth it.
     
    Last edited: Jan 12, 2016
  11. Raptor

    Raptor High-Roller

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    Great TR, thanks for sharing and congrats on leaving Vegas a winner!
     
  12. TIMSPEED

    TIMSPEED Money’s on the way, with CashNetUSA

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    Nice report and good luck in reno!
    I made my new years resolution to not visit reno and not play craps...we'll see how long it lasts
    And a side not..I see the Millbrae train every day on BART, hahaha
     
  13. IM ALL IN

    IM ALL IN High-Roller

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    Enjoyed your report. And need to switch it up a bit this year. Wanna do a Reno trip. Something out of the norm.
     
  14. sybgal

    sybgal VIP Whale

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    Always enjoy your posts! Congrats on leaving a winner & best of luck in Reno!!!
     
  15. BreakEven

    BreakEven High-Roller

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    Thanks for the diary suggestion. Yeah, carrying pre-filled out sheets in your pocket does sound a little anal retentive (but in the good way). I can probably write faster than I can type on my phone, so I think that is a good option.

    https://www.irs.gov/publications/p529/ar02.html#en_US_2015_publink100027003 You may want to consider tracking the machine # as well (it's suggested as a minimum requirement by the IRS).
     
  16. dvandentop

    dvandentop VIP Whale

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    Congrats on the big win and happy new year
     
  17. pebbles

    pebbles Micro Roller.

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    Thanks for the report.

    What is an FOB family? I'm not familiar with that one.
     
  18. DaiLun

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

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    Giving up Reno? The Cal-Neva craps dealers will be sad . . . . . :-(
     
  19. geoff

    geoff Low-Roller

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    Fresh off boat.. Usually refers to first generation in the us
     
  20. DaiLun

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

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    I should have been more "PC" with that one. It was excerpted from a TR to my family and best friend.

    FOB = "Fresh Off the Boat" an old term referring to Asian (primarily Chinese) immigrants by ABCs (American Born Chinese)

    Perhaps I should have used the term "Chinese Immigrant Visitors"?

    When I was much(like 40-50 years ago) younger it was a term of derision. Now it's just an adjective. (but some still use it as a negative term).

    "N" refers to me as an FOB, but I'm actually 5th generation ABC.
     
    Last edited: Jan 13, 2016
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