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

I'm generally not that type of player and am not recommending it. I had a reason for wanting to play that machine and the game became FP at dollars. I discovered after my play that I also could have played 8/5 BP. That would have been a smarter choice. As for playing $2 and $5 denominations, never done it before and certainly don't have the bankroll for it. I'm down so much, that a couple hundred more didn't seem to matter that much at the time. It was exciting for the brief time it lasted even without getting any of those near misses that people post pictures of.

You are always welcome to question or criticize my play. I respect your knowledge of and approach to the game. I think that your post was very educational and thank you for making it.

 

2/18 Tuesday at MSS.

It's Young at Heart Day. My first day playing it on a Tuesday. At each Boyd DT casino, over 50's can get an 11X point multiplier, a breakfast/lunch buffet or $5 food credit and a gift choice of a couple thousand pts, $10 MP, or $5 food credit. I was also able to play the mystery game. I had previously not been able to play this on Senior day. I got $25 FP.

My plan for today was to play .25c JOB. I wanted at least 3,000 pts or $6,000 coin in. Because of the way the bar tops are placed, the social scene and my increased drink consumption: I tend to play slower at BHB, so this may take awhile. I got to BHB at 10:15 and started on Bailey's and coffees. I lost $50 10:49 with 266 points. There was already a line for the buffet lunch opening. I hit 2's with a kicker at 11:05 and my $31.55 in credits racked up. The line was worth. A non player at the end of the bar said that right before noon would be the buffet line sweet spot. I quit at 11:32 with 538 points up $25.

I went to the Cal to play a little 9/6 JOB. At 12:27 I got 2's again. I quit at 12:46 with 265 pts. down $50. I got a $10 MP and a $5 food coupon from the kiosk. I won my $20 MP bet betting Black on my way out the door. I had a lunch buffet coupon from the MSS kiosk and used it. The food seemed better today. I had Mexican (enchiladas and fajita's), Asian, and a sausage link.

I restarted play at BHB at 2:05 I lost $125 at 2:41 with 841 points. I hit 9's at 3:34, aces at 3:41, 2's with a kicker at 4:06, and 5's at 5:31. I wish I would have hit these quads last night when I was playing $5 DDB. I downloaded my $25 FP and hit 9's at 7:14.

I took a break to see a host about a California Noodle comp. For the second night in a row, the MSS host was on break. Last night a supervisor was contacted who said that I would have to go to the Cal and see their host. Tonight there was no Cal host on duty for the night. They called down a supervisor and I explained to her why I was there bothering her instead of dealing with a MSS slot supervisor as I had in the past. She was extremely apologetic and insisted on me telling her when this occurred so that she could track down who told me that and set them straight. She wrote me a $30 comp and assured me that I could continue to use slot supervisors when the MSS host was not on duty. Even though the new style comp is loaded onto your card, it is still only good for the place it is written for and I was told that it is good for 24 hours.

I went back to playing at BHB. I was dealt Q's at 8:11, 8's at 8:25, 9's at 8:30, and I quit at 8:38 up $300 with 3043 points and $17 in scratch cards.

Dinner was chicken Pad Thai. It tasted great and there is enough to make it Weds dinner as well. Bottles of Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA made it taste all the better. The place was dead when I got there, had already dismissed staff, but then had a late rush.

I still had some pt multiplier time left, but I had played enough. It was nice to have a small profit for the day. For the day I'm up $300 and burned through $25 FP. For the trip I'm down $1,905 and burned through $225 FP. Scratch cards and earned points mitigate this a bit and I haven't factored them in yet. I'll save a couple $5 food comps for tomorrow.. I took my last Dogfish to my room and called it a night.

Tomorrow I move to Fremont.

 

2/19 Weds at Fremont

It's another moving day. I have a 2 night stay at Fremont. I plan to run all my play through .25c JOB at BHB. I consider this a basically break even game because of the scratch cards. I got a 1:00 checkout and headed downstairs. If you have a mystery game offer, you can use it on checkout day before you check out. They can see at the desk that you are checking out, but as long as you still have a room, you're good. I got another $25 FP.

I started playing at 10:50am. I went with my typical drink progression when Oleg is on from Baileys and Coffee to strong White Russians. I'm generally buzzed by early afternoon. I hit 3's at 11:00, 2's at 11:23, 10's at 11:40, dealt 6's at 11:56, and 2's at 12:32. This was a decent run of quads that would have made me some money on DB. On JOB, though, I was never ahead more than $50. I quit at 12:43 with 806 points down $50.

I checked out of MSS. Fremont had my room ready. The Fremont room didn't have a refrigerator, so I'll finish my leftover Pad Thai today. For some reason I can no longer connect with Boyd Wi Fi without IT assistance. Today was particularly difficult. Once I was finally signed in, I got a free buffet from the kiosk and ate lunch at MSS.

I started playing again at 5:50pm. Since Rob left, I lost my 777 rotating tap hookup. I was drinking their IPA and Stardust. Jose was back on, and I eventually switched to his Bahama Mama's. My buzz progressed to tipsy. My accounting became a bit fuzzy. I recorded losing $25 at 5:55 with 936 pts and being down $100 for the day.

I had a smoker/cougher move next to me. I had been traveling this year and had only spent a couple weeks at home since early January. While I knew about Coronavirus, I hadn't understood the probable impact and was spending most of my time at bar counters. I don't like changing machines, but machine #1 (Joe's machine) opened up and I jumped on it. I didn't have much company from machine #2. People would sit down, get their bankroll eaten , and quickly move on. It was becoming a running joke about how badly people were faring on it. Then a guy held 2 and drew a Royal. Joke played out.

On my new machine, I hit J's at 6:41, K's at 7:06, K's at 7:52, and 10's at 8:25. The quads were keeping me afloat, but I was Flush deprived and struggling the whole time. At 10:10 I lost my $100 with 2,553 points. I hit the change button and asked for a 777 comp, which was approved by the slot supervisor.

I lost another $100 at 10:27pm with 2,571 points. I had $18 worth of scratch cards. I was wondering whether the percentage of $1 cards would increase this trip. I think that I only got one more $1 card than I did $3, so the average is just below $2. I didn't get any $5 cards this trip. It looks like I was down for the day $300 on machine play and burned through $25 in FP.

I got a beer to go, went to my room and finished off my Pad Thai. I'll use my food comps tomorrow.

 

2/20 Thursday a Fremont.

I am moving to QQQQ's tomorrow and my stays there are generally a rather intense 3 days of play. Today is going to be a non-play day. The only thing that I did this morning was roll out of bed, turn my TV on, and got a coffee with my D comps. Morning drifted into early afternoon. There was a lot Coronavirus news on, but nothing was making me rethink my pattern of spending a couple hundred hours sitting in Vegas bars.

I finally roused myself for lunch. I had $5 coupons from the Cal and MSS. It was HH and the $10 would cover a cheese quesadilla, BBQ chips and a large Stone collaboration double red. I eventually had to ask about the quesadilla and then about the payment. The bar tender told me that it wasn't possible to combine the coupons. I told him that other people have done this, but that it wasn't a big deal. He found someone who showed him how. There was no one at the bar to talk to. I was nibbling at my food, sipping my beer, and causally watching TV. I was still feeling tired, and the news in my room was more interesting, so I took my beer back with me.

I finally got a burst of late afternoon energy and walked to Tenaya Creek to catch the tail end of their happy hour. They had a decent selection of their own beers and a few interesting guest taps. They had a DIPA that they were out of during my last visit so I jumped on that first. I was still in sipping mode and HH was ending. I ordered my next beer with half my original one remaining. The bar was packed when I walked in, but the crowd dissipated quickly. I'm normally relatively social at a bar, especially in a brew pub. Since there was no one around to talk to, I grabbed something to read. I finished My DIPA and started on their stout/brown blend. I tried a couple of guest brews These are pricey, but often excellent. Whoever selects them has a great palate. It was getting late, and I decided to walk back to 777 brewpub before yesterday's comp expired.

Dinner was a couple apps and more Double Red. I asked the Bartender to run the comp as soon as I ordered so that it wouldn't expire. He thought the comp would be good till midnight, but we didn't test that out.

I move to QQQQ's tomorrow and expect a much more exciting day.

 

Good stuff! Thoughts on playing on the Aristocrats generally? I'm not a big fan.

 

I don't like the displays. At the dollar level, DDB and BP become FP and it's a quick way to earn points at BHB. Otherwise, the VP displays are horrible with bad quarter pay tables.

 

Yeah the displays suck imo. They are fine with buffalo, but they should redesign the VP layout.

 

A word of caution on these: the Buffalo slots on the Aristocrats bartops do not earn the standard slot tier credits ($5 = 1 tier credit).

 

Oh, interesting...do you know about how many dollars coin-in that was needed for a tier credit? Might be able to estimate the game's return then.

 

@wasilla I love your trip reports. So much detail. I am only reading now since I was at my own trip in Vegas for the Ceasars Millionaire Maker Finale. You roll the way I do when the wife is not with me, focusing on downtown beer and full play video poker. Is it your experience that if you use comp food credits at QQQQ but don't gamble, it does not dilute your offers?

FAB

 

2/21 Friday at QQQQ's

I'm halfway through my trip and it's another moving day. I get a 1:00 checkout and wander over to see a 4Q's host about a suite. He's sick and tells me to disinfect my player's card. I didn't realize until later how long the virus can live on plastic or how fast it was spreading. I got the suite. I also booked a room for March 1st and 2nd which was another suite. I read off my credit card number. The room was ready, so I checked out of Fremont and moved into my new digs.

I normally play .50c 10/6 DDB and .50c 9/6 JOB when I'm here. I'm down $2,200 and .50c DDB can eat through bankroll. Not only do I need to get through this WE, but I'm coming back here and have stays at DTG and the D in between. I decided on a different approach this time. I'm going to, at least start out, playing the .25c 9/6 DDB with a progressive on all the quads. The progressives on this game tend to grow pretty fast on weekends.

I start playing at Chicago Brewing at 12:22 with my first $100. I'm saving my $300 FP for later. The progressives are good and climbing. The bar isn't as crowded as usual. The bar tender thinks that a lot of people are watching the races. She serves my Bailey's and coffee in a large mug which is filled to the brim and sloshes out every time it is moved. Once I sip it down to a manageable volume , I turn my attention to my game. I drew 2 more Aces for $219 at 12:22. I have 1177 credits. So far so good. I drew a 4th 3 for $103 at 1:39. I only had 490 credits. I lost my $100 at 2:23pm while eating my pizza and drinking an IPA. I had 214 points. I finished my pizza and loaded a $100 FP and started playing again at 2:44.

At 2:45 I was dealt 3 threes and drew the 4th and a kicker for $203. I didn't hit it soon enough for the nice progressive .I got 5's for $65 at 3:24 and 3's at 3:26. My FP had grown to 1181 credits. At 4:11 I drew Q's for $62 and had only 693 credits. I hit 2's for $115 at 4:56 and had 524 credits. I hit 5's for $65.75 at 5:10. At 6:03 I lost my FP with 331 points. A guy a couple machines down hit the aces kicker progressive I had been chasing. He said that was the third time he had hit it this stay. I'm filing under "People different than me."

I took a break and was able to get a table at Hugo's. Some of my Rib Eye was tough. In general it wasn't my favorite meal there.

I started playing again at 10:05 with another $100 FP. I lost that at 10:36. The bar is dark, I can't see what I write, and 4Q's pens are horrible. At 11:28 something happened. Either I won $107 or lost $100. I'm going with the $100 loss being more likely. At 11:46 I hit 5's for $65.75 and I lost $100 at 12:32 with 242 points.

I think that I lost my $300 FP and $100 out of my wallet today. I got a Belgian Trippel to go. The store was open and takes comp dollars for most things. They had fancied up Vegas calendars and I got a couple for kids back home. I also got M+M's and Junior Mints to eat away my sorrows.

The suite isn't fancy, but it's comfortable. I sit on the couch. It looks like I'm watching TV, surfing the internet, sipping beer and scarfing down candy. What is really going on is that I'm processing that I've burned through all of my February FP and will probably need 3 or 4 Royals just to break even. I decide to stick to quarters tomorrow. I can handle a losing trip, but I don't want to leave behind my entire bankroll.

 

I got to meet Philonous815 and his wife last trip. He seems to keep a lot of interesting pieces of info filed away.

 

Thanks FAB. I was hoping your wife would take one of the top prizes. Loved the way you told the story and kept us updated.

I'm sure that using comp dollars without playing that day has not affected my offers. Since that might change someday, I check the board before each trip.

 

I didn't keep track precisely except that it was significantly less tier credit than what a slot machine would have earned. I was trying to earn enough for a free buffet when Boyd had the earn 15/30 tier credits and earn free buffet promotion while also make progress toward Sapphire.

 

Not just display unbearable, the buttons are also horrible for VP.
If someone wants to use one finger to play super slow, maybe not a issue.
But for those who play fast with 10 fingers, horrible, horrible.

 

2/22 Saturday at QQQQ's

My notes indicate that I thought I lost an extra $100 more yesterday than I reported. That's probably accurate as the count probably came from a pocket dump last night, I recall this day pouring down rain. The races had been postponed, so some people with tickets were at the bar instead. My Bailey's and coffee was just as full and sloshy as yesterday.

I started playing at Chicago Brewing at 12:45. I drew 3's a few minutes later for $106.50. Some of the other players were having a rough time and commented on the quick start. I still lost my $100 at 2:00 with 143 points. I got 8's for $62.75 at 2:33 and lost that $100 at 2:55 with 233 pts. I hit another quad at 3:21, 5's for $65.50 at 3:43, 2's for $103.50 at 3:51, K's for $63.50 at 4:19, 5's for $65.75 at 5:13, 6's for $64 at 5:19, and was dealt 7's for $63.75 at 5:26.

It had good run, but I lost this $100 at 6:14 with 5:15 points. The rain was coming down too hard to enjoy a walk. I took a break in my room. I grabbed another grand from the safe. That only left $3,000 going back into the safe.

I went back to the bar at 8:00 pm. I lost another $100 at 8:11.My Belgian Trippel's were coming in 22oz glasses. I played on. I drew 4's with a kicker for $224 at 8:19. That helped. I hit 8's for $76.75 at 8:34. My credits were climbing. At 10:34 I held a single Ace and drew 3 more with a kicker for $566. I was surprised, took pictures, and messaged my friends. My next deal had 2 Ace and I drew the other 2 for $212 at 10:34. My $100 had grown to 3,329 credits. At 10:39 I was dealt a 3 Ace Full House, but blanked on the draw.

When my TITO dropped to $800, I cashed out and put a new $100 in. I lost that $100 at 11:15 with 316 pts. I got Q's for $62.75 at 11:33, and lost my $100 at 12:17 with 413 pts. I hit K's for $63 at 12:38, At 12:33 I was dealt quad Aces, but couldn't draw the kicker for $221. I drew 5's for $66 for 12:48. I quit at 1:21 with 508 points. I had some big hands today, but I was only up $200 for the day.

I've often been giving trip totals, but I think I made a math error somewhere and will go back to check my arithmetic. I recall my pocket dumps showing several hundred dollars more in losses.

 

I tend to be not impressed with the steaks there myself! I thought you were a Binion's Steakhouse convert, for steaks, after your last trip.

Been there on the needing a couple of royals to break even, while playing 99.5+ games. So, it's like reading some of my own trip reports, complete with the mini jackpot 4-of-a-kinds not being enough to make a significant dent in the losses. It's not fun. At those times, I tend to curse at the casinos for removing full pay machines, as in, "hey, you don't need to cut pay tables, I lose enough already playing the good ones!". And, after one of those trips, I tend to end up reading a trip report where someone plays 92% EV slots, and wins for their trip, just for more self torture.

 

I had a $50 food credit, 20% discount, and was after a last minute table. My waiter wasn't there, otherwise I would have had him recommend something. He seems to know when the steaks are good.

 

What’s the 20% discount from?

How’s solo dining at Hugo’s? I’d like to give it a try my next trip.

 

Nice update still waiting to see you hit the good side of variance.