Great Offer Adventure 2: The Search for More Money, 10/18-?, CZR/TLC/Boyd/?

Day 06, Fri 10/23, Work, Wicked Spoon Brunch, Planet Hollywood Suite, "NEW GEAR NEW YOU" Promotion, Harrah's Oyster Bar Dinner, Frozen Bailey's

I was out of turkey so the plan was to sneak downstairs and try Egg Slut for lunch. Unfortunately work got in the way and I did not get downstairs until after 9:00 PDT. On the way to Egg Slut I first went to load the cooler in the truck. It did not go well. Luckily there was still enough ice to last the weekend sitting in the truck. Back upstairs it became apparent that Egg Slut would have to wait for another day.



Instead, I stopped by the Identity desk to get the 50% off Wicked Spoon Gold benefit loaded onto my card and made the trek to the buffet. As far as I can tell the selection was the same as two months earlier. The rare beef (that I paired with marrow) and mac-and-cheese were quite good. The eggs benedict, parmesan tots, pork breakfast sausage, and bacon were meh. The toppings on the lox bagel were good but the bagel itself had gone stale. The bao, dumplings, and bok choy were all decent. I highly recommend making a reservation. There was quite a crowd waiting to get in when I finished around 10.



After that I wasn't having to think too hard at work so I flipped on the TV. A bunch of classic South Park episode were on. Step three is profit.

Before checking out I stopped by the host desk at Cosmo to see if anything could be comped off. I think I had charged one $25 meal to the room. No dice. Turns out I was "over comped" with just the free room. This was not news to me (and to be clear there was not any attitude from the host). I had earned 2750 points playing 7/5 BP. She said they look for 5-7,000 points per comped night, and that time was also very important. "Four hours of pennies is better than two hours of dollars." This was news to me because Cosmo is known to care only about ADT. But there was that common knowledge four hours time playing people say matters to the casinos.

The 2750 points of 7/5 BP has a theoretical loss of $328. That's $164/night, so Cosmo looks for more than that to cover the room. I really didn't expect to get anything from the host but information, but I'm not sure I got good information since there was no mention of theoretical loss/ADT. Cosmo hosts in the pass have specifically mentioned those.

After that I made the long drive to Planet Hollywood for the "NEW GEAR NEW YOU" promotion. The plan was to earn 15,000 TCs before 9am Sunday to get $5,000 free play. The expected value at 1.5% house edge 9/5 JoB was $5,000 - 1.5% * ($150,000 coin-in to earn 15,000 TCs + $5,000 coin-in playing the free play) = $2,675.

But first I checked into my suite at PH. It was one of the ones dead center between the two banks of elevators, facing the strip. Technically the north tower but I used whichever elevators that were convenient. The room had a weird layout. I was very glad the giant picture of a face near the front door was not visible from the bed...it was off-putting. There is no door between the bedroom and shower/tub, and it was quite a hike to get to the toilet over 180 degrees around the tub. But the views were great. It's just too bad they put the shelf underneath the middle of the bathroom counter...I could have setup my computer there and watched the fountains all day.



After getting the room setup it was time to start playing. On the walk to Caesars I was pleased to see the graffiti on Cromwell had been covered. I was not pleased to see the Caesars food court had been closed except for the pizza place. Even the Starbucks was taped off.



It took about an hour and $1,300 to earn 2,500 TCs at 8x$1 Spin Poker. If paying for the ninth line would have given me a royal on this hand please don't tell me



I finished playing around 4:30 and moseyed over to the Oyster Bar at Harrah's. The plan was to get in line 15 minutes before they opened but it turns out they started opening at 4:30. Luckily some people at the bar were just having oysters and drinks so it was just a short wait. As is my custom I had a Bombay Sapphire martini while I decided what to order.



Instead of raw, I got a half-dozen grilled oysters. They were great! And the squid ink pasta special was delicious. It had a saffron cream sauce and scallops, with fried calamari on top. I hope to see it on the specials again someday soon.



After comping off the drinks and taking $10 off the bill came to $45 RCs. On the walk back to PH I grabbed a frozen Bailey's at O'Shea's. I think I heard about these in one of @eliza's trip reports and it did not disappoint. Even better was that it was one of my four free drinks. It was worth the weird dreams from having something so rich near bed time.



Status: Down $1,900 cash on vp. No quarter royals. No dollar royals.
Up next: Egg Slut Breakfast, Bellagio Conservatory, Video Poker, Martorano's Dinner

 

Welcome back my friend!

 

Caught back up. And yeah Cosmo probably wants closer to $300 theo a night for a standard room. I dunno if I believe time makes much difference. Everything I've read from Kevin Sweet is tied to theo.

Also regarding that spin poker shot, no, line 9 wouldn't have been a royal. Line 15 on spin poker deluxe machine would have been a royal though.

 

Hope the underwear gnomes leave a clean pair for you...and maybe a royal.
When I last stayed at Cosmo and asked about comping at the end of my stay they weren't so nice. Basically told me that I was a flea, an irritant, and a mistake to have invited into their palatial hip property. Oh, and I didn't find Egg Slut to be any better than an Egg McMuffin. So, there!

 

Kind of same, when I was just asking to use my points on the resort fee, now I know I should just call down, or spend it elsewhere and just pay.
Yet they keep sending me room offers I keep taking, along w. the $75 FP they so kindly toss my way.. And made measly Silver for next year already. Maybe the mystery table rating black box is in play.

the hurdle for say, the current $10/100 FP @ 5000 Identity points promo is a bit high, no?
please tell me the coin in so I can
and oh, of course , "Machines in High Limits Slots plus any ETG machines are excluded from this promotion."

(TIL ETG is yet another contender in the slot machine space)

 

also geez @Tarpie, snap off a few royals already..
I'm still rooting for a spade one, I think everyone's been hitting red suits.

 

Yay! You are back! And I’m glad you enjoyed the frozen Baileys. Looking forward to one on my next trip.

 

I stayed at Cosmo once. It’s a great property with nice rooms, but they took $40 off my bill based on play. I didn’t give them much play after my 3rd day there, but when you run $500 through a slot machine, at $1.50 a spin, finally get to a bonus round and only win $10, it was enough for me to give up playing there, and spread my play around. I think I lost over $1000 total there.

 

Egg slut, as well as secret pizza are overrated.

 

Day 07, Sat 10/24, Egg Slut Breakfast, Bellagio Conservatory, Video Poker, Martorano's Dinner

Up and at 'em at 4:00. As I made my way to the elevator I could hear some weird noises coming from the vestibule. I should have just turned around and used the other bank of elevators, but in my groggy state I kept going. Turns out the noise was a guy pulling a Hasselhoff. He could not get up off the floor. But he was still cognizant I was there so I did not snap a pic. I've never seen someone that drunk solo in Vegas before. I figured he had enough problems without me informing security.

Managed to earn 2,500 TCs before 6am (and make $200 doing it) to get credit for 5,000 TCs on Friday 10/23. I really had no reason to maximize daily bonuses. Planned play for the rest of the year will get me to 250,000 TCs and there is almost no chance of making it to 500,000 TCs for another seven stars signature experience credit. But habits die hard and I got 10,000 bonus TCs for 10/23.

I finally made it to Egg Slut for breakfast. There were four people ahead of me in line a little after 7:00. It still took awhile...that line moved slow. The turkey sausage was actually pretty good, not dry and sweet like most turkey sausage. I had the Fairfax sandwich w/ sausage and a Slut and both were quite good. The slut is a coddled egg over potato puree in a glass jar. Since I got the order to go I needed to run the glass back over to Cosmo later in the day. I would not wait in a long line for Egg Slut but I would eat there again.



After breakfast I walked to Caesars Palace to play even more video poker. On the way I stopped and checked out the new Bellagio Conservatory display. What will those crazy bears get into next?!?



Managed to make $200 earning 2,500 TCs at CP. Then I stupidly walked across the street to play at Harrah's. 2,500 TCs there cost $2,000! Why did I walk over there? I don't know.

I had tried to print drink vouchers at CP but they got stuck in the machine. The slot supervisor was called and managed to pull out the blank paper. I tried again at Flamingo but the system knew it had already given me my vouchers for the day.



I stopped at the Bally's Caesars Rewards desk to correct the issue. After showing them the blank vouchers they had to put some work into it but were able to print new vouchers for me. These two same managers/supervisors will appear in this trip report again in a couple of weeks. That's not a good thing (because it meant I was having another issue with CZR's systems, nothing to do with them).

On the way back to the room at PH I saw a candidate for Father of the Year:


That's a mostly empty yard drink and there are actually two kids in that stroller. Guessing (hoping) mom was at the spa.

When I got back to the room I realized I was missing a wad of cash. It must have fallen out with the blank vouchers. I talked to Bally's Lost and Found and you're not going to believe this, but no one had turned in any cash. At the time I estimated a $500 or $1,000 loss.

That put a damper on my mood the rest of the day and I stayed in the room watching Office reruns. I finally dragged myself downstairs for dinner at Martorano's. The guy looks like if a meatball came to life, and I hate his Philly tough guy schtick, but the food has always been great here and the one in AC.


Guess what I started with?



I ended up having pretty much the same meal I had at Hexx earlier in the week. A giant meatball (this time in a "salad") and spaghetti carbonara (without peas!). Everything was great except for the guy who kept having coughing fits sitting at the corner of the bar. That meant he was facing me.



Evidently this was the last day you could use drink tickets at Martorano's. With $10 off and the drinks/wine comped off the bill came to $53 RCs, about what I spent at Hexx with booze on the bill. Martorano's is definitely better but I was almost as happy at Hexx.

Status: Down $3,400 cash on vp. No quarter royals. No dollar royals.
Up next: VP, Promotion Results, Chicago Brewing Dinner

 

At least the cooler dumped in the parking lot rather than in the lobby. That would not have been good.
Love Harrah's Oyster Bar. Everything I've had there has been superb. Love the Frozen Bailey's at O'Sheas, too...even though I'm not that keen on Bailey's in any other form.
Bombay Saphire Gin martinis...I used to drink that. My friends and I used to say that giving your olive away was definitely a sign of true love...as they're so good it's like a morsel given from the Gods. Thirty years later I've become a scotch man.

 

Sorry to here about the lost Benjamin’s. The last trip I took with my dad he dropped his wallet the first day at Planet Hollywood but luckily for us someone turned it in with nothing missing.

Mark

 

I think the looking for secret pizza part adds to the value. But once you been there, it's meh after

 

Oh man. I lost a $100 bill at El Cortez once and I am still not over it. Hope you get a win to recover your loss.

 

Damn. That would really suck.

 

I lost a couple $100 chips at Bally's last year with no one returning them. I feel your pain but it will pass.

 

Day 08, Sun 10/25, VP, Promotion Results, Chicago Brewing Dinner

I needed 5,000 TCs by 9am for the promotion. I drove over to Caesars Palace because walking from PH->CP before 6am is not a good idea...it's all angry drunks and homeless people at that hour. I started playing right at 6:02. Less than two hours and $1,900 later I had 5,000 TCs for the day, and 15,000 for the promotion. The kiosk had the updated hurdle prizes but I opted to head back to PH before redeeming.

I valeted at PH so I would not have to drag my luggage through the mall later in the day. Breakfast was two Sausage Egg McMuffins from the annoyingly busy McDonald's by PH (next to Taco Bell Cantina). You know what they look like so no pic.

After washing up and packing I headed down to an absolute zoo of a valet area. It was around noon and I guess every single LA person had valeted. It took over 20 minutes to get the truck, and that's after the attendant said she was expediting me because I'm seven stars. I believed her...there were a ton of people complaining and asking for a manager. That's the last time I'll valet at PH when I expect to leave on a Sunday.

Back at Caesars (self-parked) I used the kiosk to redeem $5,000 of slot play. Good thing I noticed the voucher print out...the stupid machine said the free play had been loaded onto my account. Yay, another trip to the understaffed Caesars Palace cage! There's always a line, even for Diamonds/7*. But eventually I had $5,000 in free play tickets.



I decided to run the free play through 9/6 JoB solely because CZR's had turned them off city-wide during an earlier promotion. That irked me even though I never bothered to use them. For running $5,000 free play the EV difference is $55 vs 9/5 JoB but you have to bet $25/hand. No hands of note, but was able to turn $5,000 FP into $5,025 cash.

For the promotion it cost me $4,700 to earn the 15,000 TCs, so I came out ahead $300. The EV of the promotion was $5,000 - 1.5% house edge * $155,000 coin-in = $2,675. Playing 30,000 hands of $1 VP without hitting a royal really put a dent in my final result, but at least I came out ahead.

After that I checked into the Cal for seven nights. My usual room was available, and no, they still haven't cleaned the shutters. Refer to my earlier report for pics of the room. Except for the short suite stay I've stayed in the exact same room every stay at the Cal.



Dinner was the deep dish pizza at Chicago Brewing. There certainly was a lot of dough and sauce, and not as much cheese, sausage, or pepperoni I just poked through the video poker tables without playing but I guess that was enough for the bartender to think I was playing...my beers were unjustly comped. I wasn't trying to hustle a beer, but I wasn't going to insist on paying. The pizza was $12 of comps and a generous tip.



Status: Down $300 cash on vp. No quarter royals (80k hands). No dollar royals (33k hands).
Up next: Work, VP, Market St. Cafe Dinner, Craps

 

And there's the reason I will NEVER stay at PH again. If you self park, which is my preferred option, you have to walk forever through this arced hallway through the mall. It takes forever to get to your car...which I use at least twice a day. Or, you can valet, which is a zoo. Actually, I have a problem with others driving my car rental and I won't valet, so it's that mall walk. Almost as bad is self parking at Caesars and staying in the Augustus/Octavius Tower.

 

1) If I had known your plans, I would have told you to get the filet sliders and garlic knots. Amazing meal!
2) Only down $300 after all these set backs? That's amazing. I got a feeling you'll have a royal in your future to pull you ahead!

 

That machine at Chicago Brewery is the same one where my partner won a $1,300 rf progressive lol you should have played slow. I love eating at Chicago Brewery and playing their VP there. Bartenders are quick to serve and comp drinks.