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Las Vegas and California 6-day TR Spectacular!

Discussion in 'Vegas Trip Reports' started by spinette, Jul 13, 2019.

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  1. spinette

    spinette True Aficionado

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    Hypercluster Area alpha-eta

    As a seasoned rocket engineer, one of the perfunctory gestures is some drinky at the Chandelier. Thanks to Tring for pointing this one out!
    IMG_20190715_013400636.jpg

    Star Command likes to put its pilots through the gamut. First mission: rock-dodger. Just how many drink tickets can I get out of you, copilot Ben?
     
  2. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    No problem! Good luck in Vegas!
     
  3. spinette

    spinette True Aficionado

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    Blahahahammm...
    IMG_20190715_040909631.jpg

    At Vue bar at about 4 AM
     
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  4. spinette

    spinette True Aficionado

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    Outer Rim: Plaza, D, El Cortez, Aztec Inn, Eureka,Red Rock, Rampart, Sagos, and Tuscany

    Please forgive the interruption in transmission, but with Star Command's rocket engineers running around like headless chickens, there was barely any time to write of my foibles.

    "Please report to the Sweaty Spaniard for tests of the rocket's rear booster and graviton circuits."

    Ay-aye, Admiral! Ay-aye. And a big ay-aye to the Plaza for making me feel like a winner at the bar. Mind you it was about 2:30 in the morning, but they were already figuring when, not if, I would be back. I also got to Queen, which made the lady who got my card's eyes bug out a little.

    It was now time for the D. Why? I wanted to wait until about 8 A.M. for the players clubs to open at Rampart and Tuscany, so I had about 5 hours to kill. You'll see the photo a bit earlier of the $350 or so straight flush ( that I was playing 1,000 hands/hour to get) and no quads. Darn, what a terrible tradeoff :kiss:

    In any case, there was more. Feed me! Feed me! I needed breakfast, so it was off to the Cortez to grind for an hour or so to get a voucher for Siegel's. Here was something nice at oh say 5 A.M.

    IMG_20190715_045532494_HDR.jpg

    Several minutes later, time for breakfast. I was the only one in there, and I got the Belgian waffle with ice cream and strawberries. Very Meh, but at least it was free :goofy:

    "Chart course for realm omicron-714, outer Rim. Beware of asteroids and Intergalactic smog. Safe travels. End Of Line."

    Highly unusual...Command was directing its rocket engineers to an area where the paint's still wet on the map. First, it was off to the Aztec to follow up on a post I thought would make for something amusingly broken at the bar:

    "Drinks are only comped after you lose $10."

    There's more to it: it appeared you got a drink for each $10 loss. So what I figured was turning up the machine to $2 and when a hand was lost, get a drink. Quaff it, press the button again, and ask for another. "But you have to wait 10 minutes before we--" n-n-nuh-nuh-nuh-no. Just a slippery second. Now in a crescendo: did you not just say...(pause) D-d-dude...(another short pause) you just Said..."

    But nevermind all that. They just said you have to put $10 in the machine and your Bud Light is free. Mind you I was only playing a nickel at a time. And oh the beer was terrible. It was baaaad. I called a Lyft, and was off to the Eureka. Joke time: you-reek-ah. Yes, I did smell from staying up for 48+ hours in effect (see CA portion of the report), and I was quite likely reeking.

    But again, nevermind. I called ahead to make sure yes...their players club was open. Twenty four hours...just like the Las Vegas I remember--the 24-hour city.

    I went to the bar for some drinks and the bartender introduced himself by name and asked if I needed anything. A short time later, I left $100 ahead and took a shared Lyft to Rampart for one of two big sessions.

    "Black holes with severe corporation have been detected in this region of hyperspace. All rockets will engage graviton flux and mind course. End of Line."

    Star Command's spaceography control found pockets of black matter in the area--so dark, in fact, that not even light can escape. The plan was to blast around for several hours at their bar, trying for about twenty thousand in. They had a fair spread of 8/5 BP featuring a return of 99.16% and a fraction when played well. Now one rocket engineer of old--an engineer by the name of Bob Dancer (applause)--suggests playing well without the need for "cover plays" like A-10s or holding the pat aces-full on bonus with 2P paying even money...stuff I find annoying but that I've been encouraged to do by interlocutors and nosey others. Hike your own hike. HYOH!

    Anyway, time to engage rear boosters. For brevity (laziness), here are the stats: about $600 in the minus, but $300 up for the trip. For those who saw my VMB wristband, you've been drinking too much :D

    Yikes. Not so great, but quads were late. The rocket not only took, but sustained, a fair amount of damage. Stellate patterns of cracking glass on the windshield from heavy asteroids and streaks outside from Lagrange-type dark energy interactions. "Code omicron-persei-8. O-P-8. Set phasors to vaporize. I mean...rockets will leave this hypercluster immediately. Outer Rim, area Q-691. Please set Krylov-type mapping sequences appropriately."

    Now off to Sagos to pick up $100 FP. It was really a 10-minute in and out-type thing, and after that, Tuscany time for their 3x multiplier.

    Another good Lyft (and I'm surprised actually...having entered the "sharing culture" late...and I am one of the late ones...I got better than what I thought) and it's off to the players club for a card. Headed right for the bar ( there are three...the big one) and got this awesome dealt quad.

    IMG_20190715_164206647.jpg

    That certainly helped, but then, after a few hours and cranking up the ratchet to $1, and worse playing DB with all its wierd exceptions and penalty plays, I was set back about a thousand to put me in the red $320 so far.

    Will these rockets turn themselves around? Only time will tell.
     
  5. casinokid68

    casinokid68 Caesars Diamond Member

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    I'm just freaking confused. I give up!! We just don't talk like that here in Brooklyn.:cuss:
     
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  6. spinette

    spinette True Aficionado

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    A good start at the four queens, then the Nugget (with decent pours), then the plaza. A bit tipsy right now waiting for bingo to start, but since I'M not driving, not too much to worry about. IMG_20190716_105214024.jpg

    Some bowling at Silverton

    IMG_20190716_130127726.jpg

    Over at the plaZa after abreak from 4 queens IMG_20190716_142107511.jpg

    Didn't know I was only betting a dollar...but was happy nonetheless for something that's twice as rare as the royal!
     
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  7. spinette

    spinette True Aficionado

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    At Plaza for some bingo...got the "triple postage stamp" for $60
     
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  8. spinette

    spinette True Aficionado

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    Bam!

    1563318604315-1899117171.jpg


    Deja Vu. Another nice kicker.... Didn't see it coming.
     
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  9. boxofbirds

    boxofbirds Royally Flushed

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    Damn, a $364 progressive straight flush!?! Never seen it that high.

    What a marathon!
     
  10. Richard Alpert

    Richard Alpert LOST

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    Your space log gets better as it gets longer!

    DJo8Qf4XUAA9ae5.jpg

    I will stand by for future entries.
    Best wishes! :alien:

    RICHARD
     
  11. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Wow, $364??? That might be a record from what I've seen!
    Yeah neither have I.

    Keep the hits up @spinette! Nice Aces with a kicker at 4Q!

    Messed up policy at Aztec with the $10 loss thing...
     
  12. spinette

    spinette True Aficionado

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    The Final Frontier

    Makes sense to catch up on the report for this mission while aboard yet another junket bus. My last day aboard the rocket was relatively uneventful, with much of my time spent charting coordinates and planning my next expedition.

    Hotel

    I thought my room one of the least favorite parts of the trip. The walls were paper thin and I could hear the sound of snoo-snoo (you do know what snoo-snoo is, don't you?) very well at about 3:30 in the morning. There were also people squealing in soprano voices midway through the hall early in the morning. This cacophony of loud sex and falsetta-speak made me rethink the notion of comp rooms at out-of-the-way places. :cry:

    Anyway, I'm an early riser, so at least I got away from it early :D. There was a shuttle leaving for Aria at about 10:15, so I took that instead of a Lyft which would have been another $10. There was a truck driver on board, and that was it besides myself. The temperature was headed to the triple digits, so it was nice to be in an air-conditioned bus instead of, say walking 2-3 miles, as some choose to do.
     
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  13. spinette

    spinette True Aficionado

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    We were let off in a wierd area: right at the loading docs. (I thought we were going to be thrown on the runners by a bunch of cattle herders actually....) Anyway, up the escalator and of course I get lost in what seemed like a maze of slot machines and restaurants. I had to ask directions and finally (!) I found the waiting area for Lyft. The entry is a bit annoying: the cars have to go around a long hairpin turn and then double back to get to the waiting area. I waited for about 10 minutes as the driver got lost in the labyrinthine entry to the (sigh) lower loading area.

    Bellagio

    It took years, but I finally went to Bellagio not to get lost, but to give them some teaser play. They had the Baccarat bar shut down for remodeling ( fancy for "under construction"), so I looked around and found a 7/5 BP spin poker returning 98.01% with good strategy. The bar was (almost) empty, except for a man to my right and a couple in back of me. I sat down and played for a bit until I got a SF in diamonds for $250. Great, but I chickened out and left after 20-30 minutes figuring I might lose a bit of cash playing on the strip for higher stakes and for too long. So out I went and off to the 4Q.

    Four Queens (Part II)

    Today would be a little bit more time. The plan was Chicago brewing for lunch and some soft drinks. (Wierd story: despite the Golden Nugget's drink light system, I was told I couldn't have another drink for 30 minutes per NV state law, so I went to another bar, asked for a Grey Goose, and he took out the whole bottle and was ready to give me pours whenever I wished it seemed. Cost: about $10/hour at a contemplative pace.) Ordered a salad and later paid for it out of the 180-some-odd comp dollars I had, but drank water/soda during my time there.

    The session didn't go so well: I was seeing precipitate drops thanks to a lack of quads (I only got one) and was down about $400 quickly. The latter half was spent at the king's bar (the large rectangular bar with seats in the direct sun and others much more comfortable opposite--where I was sitting), where I was flanked by burly, tougher-looking types with a hammering voice. The guy on the left said he was a sniper during his days in the service, and the one on the right kept chiding me with annoying laughter while looking at my credit meter. I didn't know what to make of it, so I kept going until what I thought was a reasonable stopping point. (N.B. When I left, one of the bartenders looked briefly at the machine I was playing at and said "that can get you a job!" I also seemed to have had the blackjack dealers' attention the whole time. :blink:)

    Back to the Hotel

    Wow! I was exhausted-- so much, in fact, that I just had to crash at the hotel. (Did I cover my very ho-hum dum dum time at Ichabod's yet? :confused:) I also felt an early start home was in order, so I rescheduled my bus reservation for the following morning and rode...ahem...flew...back to the starbase.
     
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  14. spinette

    spinette True Aficionado

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    Mission Summary

    A little late I guess, but nevermind. Yikes...what's that!?

    Zzt. Beep beep-beep beep. Beep beep-beep beep...

    Incoming transmission from Star Command!

    * * * * * STAR NOTICE * * * * *

    To: Mr. Spinette, former Superstar
    From: Star Command
    Re: Censure of the First Kind (code Gamma Mu Nu Sigma)

    Dear Mr. Ramjet--I mean...Mr. Spinette:

    A merit factor of 60 / 100 has been entered into the hypergalactic record for the following reason(s):

    R123: Ultrasurface geodesic not optimized: failure to plan trip ahead of time.
    R451: Brownian mixing matrices found above critical parameters: please minimize movement in triple-digit heat.
    R199: Negatron flux encountered in multiple domains: eschew 7/5 TDB during early-morning hours.
    R077: Cloudy with a chance of meatballs: positive variance detected in this region of hyperspace.

    Defrocking ceremony to be scheduled. End transmission.

    * * * * * * * * * *

    Maybe they're just testing out the new fax machine...:stir:

    Well that last one looks pretty good: some good news for good luck this trip! Here come the pluses and minuses:

    Pluses:

    * Another lucky trip: ahead about $1500 thanks to the 4Q and a lucky hit at the D.

    * Good drivers on the bus and Lyft generally.

    * Poor planning. Always a trouble spot when I try to hop on a bus at the last minute. Definitely need an itinerary.

    * Hydration: Silly to travel during the day without a bottle of water or a Gatorade.

    * Why was I playing 7/5 DDB late at night and early in the morning?

    * Found a mailbox full of offers. Could another mission be coming this October?

    Thanks for reading :wave:
     
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  15. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Nice report!

    But Nevada State Law for a 30 minute break between drinks??? God, I hate Golden Nugget. I'm 99.54% sure I would have called for a manager there.

    It's okay if that's their house policy (ASSHOLES), but State Law??? BULLSHIT.
     
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