Trip Report-5 days in May "The redundancy trip"

Hi all, and greetings from the UK.

recently returned from 9 nights in the US, including 5 nights in Vegas. a few highlights and low lights follow.
the trip was totally unplanned, after 2 visits last year, this year I only thought we would get away with one in October, and then in January within a week of each other, both my wife and I were given notice of redundancy ( downsizing)from our jobs, so a bit of a bolt out of the blue. However, we have both sorted out new roles and decided after a few stressful weeks a break in the sun was deserved.

we flew in LAX via Virgin, the new Dreamliner were extremely comfy and the flight was nice and quiet. after a couple of days in lA, including a trip to the MLB ( absolutely love the atmosphere, great way to relax and enjoy some sport). we got up nice an early on May 2nd for a drive across the Mohave. two things were very strange this morning, firstly it was raining, and secondly and very startingly there was a car on fire in the hotel car park ( it was 6 am in the morning). when we pointed this out to both the hotel duty manager and valet neither seem too bothered, not sure if it is something that happens often in that area!

so after a somewhat damp drive, we touched base in Henderson late morning, drove straight to Sunset Station, our home for the next two nights. Both of us love the vibe here, nice set of games, good restaurants both inside and nearby and very friendly staff. We had an early lunch buffet, me trying to be good with the salad bar, and afterwards went to check in. Upgraded to a suite as a treat and went off to our room.

After settling in my wife wanted to chill, I, of course, wanted to go to the casino, so off I headed, with "don't lose your shirt ringing in my ears". Now whilst I do love Sunset Station, I have had mixed luck there, including some terrible sessions, so I just wanted to play some VP and have a few beers, with no high expectations. what followed was something I just did not expect. I could not miss, everything I played seemed to hit, it was an incredible run , here are some of the highlights, as you see things went very well

 

following this run, I went to let my wife know how things were going, although I knew this would lead to increase shopping trips, needless to say, she was very happy with the results !!.

during the evening we celebrated our good luck with of all things, a burger, as neither of us really wanted much, however much many beers were had and we had a good time on the tables, although giving sunset some of their money back. A reasonably early night followed, which meant i was up early and raring to go at 5 am in the casinos. I love this time, you can play the machines you want, and just chill out, it is my favourite vegas time. My luck seemed to carry on, not quite to the same extent as the previous day, but still enjoyed some good hits, including a, dealt straight flush playing 75 hands, unfortunately on deuces wild. overall it was another winning session and a great start of the day. took my wife to Crackerbarrel for Breakfast as she had never been there, lovely breakfast, and after a quick play in Silverton, we spent the day shopping before returning back to Sunset for another awesome meal at Sonoma Cellar. I cannot say enough good things about this place, attentive staff, great food and super wine, without the need to take a mortgage out to pay the bill. they even treated us to desert to round off our meal without any prompting. Being fully refreshed i tried my luck at high card flush, and managed to hit nothing at all, however overall our two days had been profitable and very enjoyable, before we moved onto the strip. some of the other hits are below, more to come

 

Great TR. Wow what a run!

 

What a great little LV trip! Congrats on all the hits falling into place. Nice to hear some good things about Sunset Station, it's a casino that we seldom hear much about on VMB. I liked it when I was there but I'm usually at Klondike Sunset or Skyline when I'm in the area. Lots of good food at fair prices and fair playing in the area.

 

Looking forward to the strip portion of your report; great report and photos.

 

thanks for the nice feedback.

Friday we were due to leave for the Bellagio, I had another early morning session, where Sunset at first fought back, but then I hit Aces kicker for $500 ( no picture) drawing from just 2 aces, all in all a great end to the first part of our trip. Following our breakfast buffet, I asked for charges to be checked against my play and managed to get $200 off the bill, another win in my book. I had also managed to move up status, although I am not sure I would ever have enough time to hit Chairman status. the final act for me was too put a bet on the Kentucky Derby, I selected my horses and then had 3 to put on for a friend in the UK. I did a win, place and show and then a box trifecta for him, he only went and got the first Three home, mine came nowhere but I picked up $318 on Monday before we left town for him.

after leaving Henderson we picked up a few supplies and headed over to the strip, checked in early no problem ( why does anyone play early check-in fees? ) and settled in. I went downstairs to hit the games, the reality of playing strip machines rather than off strip, with losses accumulating all over the place, a small win on a dealt wild royal flush on spin poker helped, even so, did ponder for a while whether I should have just held the 3 deuces, but win poker said otherwise.

after that, it was off for drinking and gaming in as many casinos as possible, played some table games in Bally's, Flamingo and Harrahs, no luck whatsoever, but considerable amounts of beer was consumed and we finished the evening off with a nice meal at the Black Tap, their southern fried chicken was exceptional. More tomorrow including my wife having her turn to have some luck

 

Saturday i was up bright and early to watch the EPL in the sportsbook and continue my losing run. My wife joined me and we decided to head downtown for the morning, stopping off for breakfast on the way. we decided to see what the refurbished Palace Station was like, not realising it was still being refurbished, a mediocre buffet breakfast followed and it probably cost me $150 in VP losses and a headache from the incessant and very loud poker room calls that were repeated every ten seconds.

Left in a huff and navigated the roadworks and rolled up mid-morning in downtown, parking up at MSS. I tried to get a scratch card at MSS but no avail so we spent the next couple of hours casino hopping and seeing the sights, visited the D for the first time, won $40 so happy with that one, dodged some of the less attractive street artists and walked back to MSS.

as we were walking through I said I want one more chance to get a scratch card, my wife wanted to play deuces, so we settled for a pair of loose deuce machines in a bank of progressives just off the main walkthrough back to the car park. we settled down and I went chasing the 4 2's.

around a minute later I heard some all too unfamiliar music starting to play nearby and then the conversation went something like this,

wife- "what have I won"

me turning around- "that's a royal ! you just hit the jackpot, what did you hold "

wife- "nothing, it just appeared, how much have i won" ( yep she got a Ryal dealt on the redraw, holding nothing, hence her surprise

me- "blimey that's $1298 so you get a hand pay and a tax form, have you get your ID ?"

her- furtively looking in her purse, "erm no "

me" then we better swap seats as i have mine" just in time for the attendant who explains she will need to confirm the jackpot and fill in the paperwork. I informed her we were not from the UK so I believe we don't have tax withheld, she replies yes i see you are not from the US but Canadians do have tax withheld. then followed.

me " no not Canada, the UK "
her "arh I see the UK ok that is good."

10-minute wait follows after I hand over my ID

she comes back with $900 odd dollars and a tax form stating Canada, repeat conversation follows, she finally understands, apologises and goes off to sort out new paperwork which in total took another 15 to 20 mins. whilst we were waiting ( the song we are in the money gets very irritable after 30 mins) we watched a lady on the bank behind us get 4 4OAK in 20 mins, nice play.

attendant returns, apologises again which we said no need to and hands over the full amount, a $20 tip is returned and we leave a very happy couple. here is the beauty of a winning hand, my wife's first Royal and Progressive all in one. Final day to come later

 

Nice royal, congratulations, but what a bore the wait to get pay. You have been doing quite well on VP, maybe there are more royals on this trip.

 

Loving this! Know what it's like to get the flick but get something lined up and you always have grand plans of what to do in the meanwhile, I guess Vegas is as good as any!

Maybe next time at MSS I should take a globe in case of a handpay, or a printout of how much the bloody flights cost to show how far it is.

 

And the question is....did you get a scratch card for your royal?

 

No scratch card as my wife had also forgot her slot card, mine was in the machine I had actually been on

 

Congrats! Awesome luck!!

 

Oh my, what a great Royal hit. I love that quote "what have I won?"

 

Nice write up so far. I still can't believe your wife's first Royal is a "redraw royal". On deuces, less than 1% of all royals are "redraws". It's even a lot easier to get a "dealt" royal. If I get even one redraw royal in my life (have 9 total so far), I'll be amazed.

 

I cannot believe it either Trig, my 1/4 Royal drought is well into it’s 5th year ( although 1/ max 2 trips a year mean opportunities are sparse) , my wife hardly plays and hits that 2 mins after sitting down , she is still smiling about it now. I did not see the first 5 cards dealt but assuming it was all junk with no cards on any suit in a royal what would the odds be on a redraw royal ?

 

Amazing hit! Enjoying the report!

 

Part 3

the rest of Saturday was spent strip walking the southern end of the strip, taking in most of the casino's, watching my first ever Kentucky Derby, drinking and solidly losing money. However, we had a great sign, mingling through the crowds in the park celebrating Cinco De Mayo was great fun and after getting as far as Mandalay Bay, we cabbed it back to Ballys where i hit the tables with no luck whatsoever. On our last trip we did well on tables and not so well on VP, this time it was the reverse. as the luck was so poor there are no photos to share.

Sunday morning after a leisurely breakfast in the soon to be closed Bellagio Cafe, very nice indeed and free thanks to resort credit, we checked out, grabbed our rental drove over to Green Valley Ranch for our last hotel change. this was a late change so I could continue to build up play on my boarding pass. I thought the hotel was lovely, room very nice, but the bathroom seemed a bit dated. My wife decided to spend some of her winnings in the shops and left me to play. well, it was one word...... carnage. By the time my wife was back, I was down a good $800 and nothing was hitting. indeed it was completely the opposite. we stopped for some early dinner and hopped off to Lucille's for some BBQ. appetites suitability fulfilled i tried once again to seek some profit, at first we had no luck, but then managed to to hit 4 deuces with an ace on bonus deuces which put me back in the game, however, the change of luck did not stay with me and i called it a night before further carnage continued. my luck on this day could be summed up by the below, one good, but mostly bad





Monday we packed up and scooted over to Sunset to pick up my friends Kentucky Derby winnings, played our freeplay from points, turning $150 free into $100 cash, and called it a day. another trip to Vegas done, time to drive back to LA for our last couple of nights before flying home. All in all a great trip, hopefully we will be back in October for my 50th birthday, although permanent employment is needed first. thanks for reading if you got this far.
cheers
Graham

 

Wow! Great hit on deuces and of course the royal! I did not realize the Bellagio cafe is closing?? Is another restaurant planned for there?

 

Apparent.y so there is a thread in the restaurants section, a NY deli I believe