10 Days in Vegas 6/14-24 (Paris, Cal, Cosmo)

Wow. This is most enjoyable and I hope not the last of your reports.
I see boyd is cutting out the “little” guy or also the guy that eats way more great food and drink for his play level.
I told you and @Ty both, there are camera EVERYWHERE!!!!
See ya at the bar, we’ll do Keith a good turn and change the prevailing mood.

 

Sun 6/20

Today's goal was 2000 pts at Binion's. I managed to get 350 of them before breakfast with R. There was a short wait to get in, but now that Magnolia's is back at full capacity the line moved quickly. I went with the country fried steak with a side of corned beef hash. Looks like the new style of CFS is here to stay...it was like my favorite Wookie (Chewie). Our corned beef sides were suitably crisped. The total came to $47, but we did splurge on sides and R had a few omelette toppings. After the $1.50 discount and tax removal, the meal cost 42 comp dollars.



After breakfast I got right back to work on grinding VP. Luckily cocktail service had started so I was able to get a Bailey's and coffee. After a 1000 pts on the day I was down $400 On the bright side, the $50 comp dollars earned more than offset breakfast.



After a siesta, I put in a two hour session to get the remaining 1000 pts. This session turned the trip around. In the 1600 hands I hit quad aces twice, plenty of low card quads, a high card quad, and a few Lagunitas. Went from down $400 on the day to up over $400 on the day. Finally the good side of variance!



Hope no one was waiting up in the room for this Crave Case. I wouldn't eat anything that's been on the floor at Binion's. Guess the guy was lured in my the siren song of craps, or possibly the cowgirl dealers' "assets."



Dinner was at Hugo's. Both R and M were very impressed with the service and ambiance. No one got a rose.

As usual, I got a Bombay Sapphire martini with bleu cheese olives. I love that you get two martini's for the price of one here. No picture, but they bring you a martini and also and carafe on ice filled with martini. We had the cheese plate and bacon wrapped prawns as appetizers. Both were very good.



Pro-tip, don't ask for extra anchovies from the salad cart. The picture doesn't really show it, but I ended up with over a dozen anchovies.



We were all done steak at this point. R and I both had the scallops with a shrimp skewer added. The scallops were great, my shrimp skewer was a little mushy. I always enjoy wild rice.



The total came to $328, which I charged to "M's" room in order to use my $150 monthly food credit. I would deal with the rest at checkout.

This was M's last night in town, so after dinner we all bounced around downtown. I finally went into Toy Shack. They've got a lot of neat toys, but I don't need any more "stuff" in my house. Mega Bar is an apt name.



After a bit we found a $15 BJ table with three open seats at the Cal. It was a little frustrating to play since my basic strategy knowledge had atrophied, but in a bit over two hours of play I actually finished up $11 (even more if you count the drinks and tips) and 71 bconnected tier credits. In fact, all three of us came out ahead.

 

Mon 6/21

According to Binion's, it was 101 F before 8am. Man was it hot this trip, but quick hops between downtown casinos were bearable.



M was very impressed with the comps he earned at 4Q, and covered breakfast at Magnolia's with them for all of us before heading to the airport. No pictures or recollection of what I had, but definitely not CFS.

Today's goal was another 2000 pts at 4Q to max out the June promotion ($400 FP and 140 comp dollars for 4000 pts). I don't know how @eliza gets the whole 4000 in one day, the uprights at 4Q kill me. I might be able to pull it off at Binion's slant tops, which are both faster and more comfortable.

The 2000 pts ended up costing $360 over 4.5 hours of play. Not too shabby for $16k coin-in. After getting the rewards desk to put the fp on my card, I was back at the machine to play through $550 ($400 promotion + $150 monthly Emerald offer). That turned into $495 cash money...I was so when I couldn't get a paying hand on the last deal to finish at $500+. Overall I finished down cash-wise at 4Q, but I earned a ton of comp dollars, cashback, and hopefully future fp.

Before dinner I decided I should probably give the Cal some play. No exciting hands and I finished down after 30 minutes of play.

Dinner was at Golden Steer. There were no taxis staged on 1st St, and you never know where Ubers will show up at the Cal (often on Stewart behind the garage), so we walked over to the Garage Mahal and hopped into a waiting taxi. A Circa attendant came out of nowhere to "assist" us, so be prepared to tip

Another steakhouse, another Bombay Sapphire martini and wedge salad



R like his medium-rare lamb chops. I went for prime rib the first time this trip, 12 oz, rare. It was great! And way more than 12oz. Out of habit I had ordered bearnaise sauce...I reluctantly put some on so as to not completely waste it, but it was a poor choice for prime rib. The potatoes lyonaisse were meh. We did like the creamed spinach.



I liked that they had some memorabilia on display. I'm not sure I've ever stayed in a hotel as an adult with metal keys. Linq is nice and all, but I really do miss Imperial Palace.



After dinner we walked to the other end of the strip mall to the MINT Tavern for Dimmare's Martinis and Magic show. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend it. Either he doesn't practice or is as uncoordinated as I am, but he kept flubbing tricks. He completely exposed how one of the tricks was done, and even failed at it a second time after trying to fix it off stage. And his banter was cringey, especially with the very young ladies assisting. R's main complaint was that we were only able to get one round of drinks. This show needed more booze for the audience.



Back at the Cal I played another 1.5 hours of VP trying to help "pay" for my suite. The next day was check out day and I had played just a couple of hours of $15 BJ. It ended up being another losing session. My coin-in for the Cal was really low, but cash losses were high. Maybe that will keep them happy?

Where was this when I was on the strip? I mean, it wasn't very fun ending up on the bad side of variance

 

Not going to lie, 4,000 points in a day is a grind. Going to do it again Friday and Saturday. Wish me luck.

 

Was this at binions? 4Q’s has crappy beer on the floor but can get this at the bar but 16:1 also for conversion. AND where’s a French onion type soup in the meals above? Slacking’ off a bit me thinks.

 

I laid off the soups this trip...it was too darn hot out to eat hot soup...usually around 115 F at dinner time.

And yeah, that's Lagunitas at Binion's. I was surprised they would bring something decent. 4Q does only have swill beer on the floor, but surprisingly decent bloody marys.

 

Tue 6/22

Today's plan: play 2000 pts at Binion's, eat breakfast, check-out of M's 4Q room, pack my room, and check-out of the Cal, all by 1pm.

Luckily, I got an early start and was grinding VP at 6:30. Had another good run, and at 750 pts I was up over $100.

Breakfast was at Second St. Grill at the Fremont. Evidently they've moved the Paradise Cafe breakfast here. When the place was mostly empty service was fantastic and quick, a nice change from Paradise.

I ordered the country fried steak and a side of corned beef hash. Was told I could not get the hash crispy because they steam it...and sure enough it came out with a dog food texture. Oh well. But, we have a new king of country fried steak downtown! It was almost identical to what Magnolia's used to serve.



Of course, as we ate the restaurant filled up and our server came by less frequently. She dropped off the check which stated "Please Pay Server" and disappeared for 10 minutes. Normally this wouldn't have been a problem, but I had a long list of tasks with a hard time limit. When she finally came back she said "Oh, you pay at the bar on your way out. I've asked them to take that off the checks." Then why didn't you tell us to pay on our way out when you dropped the check if you knew about the confusion?

Breakfast came to $53 (those sides of hash add up!), but it took just $19.58 of bconnected points to cover it.

After an hour to eat breakfast, it was right back to Binion's. Finally got dealt 4 to a royal:



did I finally hit a royal this trip?






Nope, and even lost $5 on the draw. Ended up losing almost a buy-in earning 1250 pts in 2.2 hours of play. I ran to the players' club desk and they put on the $400 FP and 140 comp dollar for the 4000 pts I earned this trip. With the $250 Diamond 1 offer, I turned $650 of free play into $670 cash money. Nice.



Overall, with free play redemption, I finished up after $64k coin-in downtown. It was nice to book a win after the debacle on the strip.

I wasn't sure if the players' club desk at 4Q could see my room charges, so I went straight to the front desk. The leftover room charge from Hugo's after the $150+$50 comp was $116. To use comps I needed to go back to the players' club desk, have them deduct the comp dollars, and then take a voucher back up to the front desk. Not too onerous, but it would be nice if the front desk could take comp dollars directly.

At check-out at the Cal I had forgotten about the Redwood room charge. There was $86 leftover after my discretionary comp + monthly comp. So I ran over to the host desk to use bconnected points to cover it. If Chona had been there I would have just ran away...I didn't want to face her after playing just 2.5 hours of $1 VP and 2 hours of $15 BJ over a three night stay. Luckily for me it was a different host on duty. I told him I wanted to cover my room charges with points. He ended up just comping off the charges! Score! Can you say over-comped? I owe the Cal some play.

After all that, R and I walked over to the Garage Mahal to catch a taxi to Cosmo. At check-in I requested floor 39 or 50 in the Boulevard tower. Those are the lowest two floors in the high elevator bank. I don't think the clerk liked me...I ended up with a room on the 38th floor, the highest floor in the low elevator bank Nothing like stopping six times on your way down to the casino floor.


The room was the same layout I always get at Cosmo, with a view to the south. And this time it had been cleaned.





R and I grabbed a late lunch at China Poblano. As usual, it was great. I love the salt air margaritas. R enjoyed his Quesabirria tacos. My carnitas taco with chicharrón was good, as was the Ants Climbing a Tree.



After lunch we just wandered around the strip. We swung by to see the roses at Mayfair...they're no longer roses! Of course MGM cheapified it and went fake This was opening time, but I would never wait in a line like this for any Guy Fieri restaurant.



I went to the cage at Cosmo to draw on my marker and was told the host desk had put a hold on it. At 6pm there was no host on duty to unlock it. Luckily I had a bunch of cash from all my partial markers at CZR properties.

In a an hour session of 6 handed $1 9/6 JoB before dinner I scored another nice hit!



My second dealt straight flush of the trip for another small handpay. Sometimes this game is easy

We decided to hit the food court for dinner. After verifying that the line to Hattie B's was short, I hurried downstairs to add the Gold "buffet" credit to my card for it. Of course, by the time I got back upstairs there were approximately 1000 people in line for Hattie B's. We weren't willing to wait, so Cosmo got to keep their food credit. Such an annoying system.

Luckily there were open seats at Tekka Bar. R got the Foursome hand roll and I got the Threesome plus another salmon hand roll. The food was fine, service so so.



After dinner we found seats at the Chandelier Bar. The video poker did not go well (lost 12.5% of coin-in on a 2% house edge game). But the drinking did go well. I started with a Verbena, and then had a few Maker's old fashioneds. Tickets were coming every 10 minutes at first, then every 15. Maker's was just one ticket, but that changed to two the next night. Had to do the walk of shame in the morning (bringing a glass back down to the casino floor).

 

Gold "buffet" credit for Hattie b?? I was always the impression with gold, it was only the buy one get one buffet each day?

 

While Wicked Spoon wasn't open 7 days/week Golds got a $15 food credit once per week on days it was closed. Unfortunately, you had to have it added to your card for a specific restaurant to be used same day so I missed out on it.

Wicked Spoon is back to 7 days/week so I assume this is gone.

 

Wed 6/23

Met R on the 2nd level of Cosmo for breakfast. Everything at Cosmo was packed, so we started wandering around the strip looking for food. We were going to try Ocean One or something in Miracle Mile, but then R got a hankering for Hash House. Hash House was crazy crowded, and I couldn't even get to the desk to see if Seven Stars get to skip the line.

Chayo on the Linq Promenade wasn't too crowded, and the weather had finally cooled so we were alright sitting outside. Forgot to take pics of the food, but we both enjoyed some kind of carne asada scramble.



After breakfast I spent time looking for a t-shirt for a three year old's birthday gift. I found nothing. Flamingo did have a cartoon flamingo shirt, but it was a girl cut. Not sure why there are gendered shirts for three year olds...aren't they all the same shape?



I finally made it to the host desk to get my marker hold release. It turns out I don't play enough to have a marker at Cosmo. It would have been nice if they had told me that they had cancelled my marker before I arrived in town. I happened to have cash on me, but I often don't.

That soured my mood, so I low played the heck out of them. I played just 10 minutes of 12x50 cent 9/6 JoB before dinner.

I had made reservations at STK at 4 and Momofuku at 5. There had been complaints about too many steakhouses, but for our last dinner in town R chose to stick with STK.

We got there for the 4:00 cocktail hour, which is a good deal at Cosmo, and great for people keeping east coast time. I had an aperol spritz and we had the shrimp, tartare, and slider $10 appetizers.



I recall having a martini after that, and getting steaks...but the booze kept me from taking any pics. I used my $50 food credit I won in the 10th Anniversary game.

After dinner we grabbed drinks in the sports book and watched the end of the basketball and hockey playoff games.



R was done for the trip, but I needed another Verbena. And tonight the Maker old fashioneds cost two tickets. Three different bartenders the night before charged only one. I don't care if it really is two (it would make sense, Bombay Sapphire martinis are two), but what I really need is consistency.

The free drinks cost a couple hundred dollars



That's it for gambling for the trip.

 

Thu 6/24

I did not enjoy the 5am alarm, but we had an early flight and wanted to hit the Centurion Lounge at the airport right as it opened at 7am. Taxis were queued and waiting, and $23 later we were at T3. Security was a breeze, and the lounge was pretty sedate on a Thursday morning. Even with being able to physically see R, the bartender could not hand me two Bloody Marys. R had to come up and grab his. I can only assume some extreme shenanigans lead to this strictly enforced policy.

Got a nice view of Boulder, the I-11 bypass around it (driving through Boulder sucked, glad this is open), and Hoover Dam. It was my longest non-stop flight home ever, we almost crossed into Mexico near El Paso. Must have been some monster storms to avoid, or maybe the jet stream was acting up. But soon enough I was home, thinking about another Vegas trip



The trip was not a disaster, but it was not a good trip financially. I ended up down less than 3/4 of a dollar royal. That's after $246k coin-in overall ($150k of that at crappy 9/5 JoB). That's 49,000 hands of $1 JoB/BP, an entire royal cycle without a royal. Without the $3100 of free play I would have been down 1.5 dollar royals. Of course, I would not have played so much coin-in without the free play incentive.

I want to get 4000 pts at Binion's/4Q in both July and August, and CZR has an enticing August free play offer, so I'll be back soon.

While Cosmo's poor customer service annoyed me this trip, I need just 8000 pts by mid August to maintain Gold. That's two hours of VP to get 2x2 guaranteed room nights. And I'm "only" 19000 pts from Platinum (11000 after renewing Gold). That gets a $250 resort credit, but there are no extra guaranteed free nights. I'm not sure how the "Airport Transportation" benefit works. I bet it's through a host, and the hosts have already established that they don't care for my play level. Platinums do get a priority line at the Identity Desk and VIP check-in, so maybe it's worth it since I'm close.

Anyway, I survived 10 days in Vegas. As R realized on the second day downtown, it was like I was playing video poker as a job. He wasn't wrong, I put in many hours to earn a salary of comps/free play/future comps and rooms. That didn't leave me too much time to get into trouble.

 

If you slept less there’d be time.
Great report. Too bad about the soup. I try to sit under the a/c vent when enjoying a bowl during heat events.
Good luck with those goals for August….

 

I like the way you think.
Great report, thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks for taking us along!