Orleans, Southpoint (with a break): August 10-18

We're back in Vegas and hoping for another fun gaming trip . We arrived yesterday after a minor travel disruption in Dallas (maintenance issue on plane, had to change planes which resulted in only a 1.5 hour arrival delay, this could have been much worse). No issues picking up the rental car, used Car Rental Savers site to nab a Thrifty full size for $357 for our trip (was initially over $600 but came down significantly over the last 10 days). Check-in was a breeze at Orleans and after a brief losing session on $1 VP (progressive was over $7,000 - VP bank is near the old paddlewheel bank) we decided to eat at Big Al's. We split the Big Al Pan roast (sorry, forgot to get a picture) and each had a salad, the pan roast was excellent and even though we split it we couldn't finish all the rice ! After dinner, Mrs Z hopped around on VP machines while I checked out the pit and took some things to the room. All of the BJ tables were $15 min or above and they had 3 craps tables open which were all at $15 min. - this was at ~7:30 PM. There were only players at one of the craps tables and the dealers at the other tables looked really bored (and I still don't get the financials of having staffed, empty craps tables !). After wondering around and a trip back to the room, I checked the craps tables and they had lowered one table to $10 and it was almost full, but I managed to fill the last open spot. I bought in for $300 and managed to play for ~1 hour and cashed out at $400 (thanks to the shooters at the other end of the table, I did a point/7 out - no waiting). Meanwhile, Mrs Z (who hit 2 royals during our May trip) was having no luck at VP and was down $300. We wimped out kind of early and headed to the room by 10PM (not like another recent VMB poster who shall remain nameless - we couldn't come close to hanging with him !).

We're up and at it this morning - plans are to game at Orleans this morning and then to head downtown and try the boarding pass match plays at The D and El Cortez and play at some of the other downtown casinos (and maybe Jerry's Nugget) and lunch will be at Le Thai and dinner at Don Juan's (downtown - using a groupon).

Only 1 picture so far - here's a view of the strip at sunrise from our room at Orleans Good Morning Las Vegas !

 

Best of luck! I imagine that strip view will be all lit up tonight. Have fun! Looking forward to future updates.

 

Best wishes and lots of luck. Will look forward to SP posts as we are staying there early Nov.

 

There was a power failure at Orleans this morning (~9 AM) in the casino & hotel - only emergency lighting for several minutes and all the machines went dark. When some of the lights came back on, it looked like the pit games continued on ! We heard another person say that the power went out in all of Vegas (yet to be confirmed). We’re currently at Le Thai ordering lunch, no current issues with power.

 

Good luck! Glad the craps table worked out for you!

 

Good luck on your trip!

 

Summary for 8/11:
* have not yet confirmed how widespread (beyond The Orleans) the previously mentioned power outage at The Orleans was yesterday, but the slots here last
night were saying to "retrieving balance info - please continue playing" (ie. couldn't get an update on your credits played on that session, kiosk's also didn't
seem to be updating)
* no daily housekeeping for the rooms at The Orleans due to Covid-19. If you want coffee, you have to try to contact housekeeping (have not got an answer
on their line yet) or just go to front desk and request coffee (have done that both days and coffee magically appeared in the room)
* finished the day up $460 as VP surged back to profitability after lunch at Le Thai (forgot to get the food pic), not so much luck with BJ or Craps
* could only get the $25 boarding pass match plays and ACG coupon $25 matchplay at The D - boothling said they ended the Richard Wilk/Bryan
Chamberlain additional $25 matchplay
- ended up breaking even on BJ using the five of the $25 matchplay chips, won some, lost some
+ on the last hand using a $25 match, was dealt two 8's vs dealer facecard - decided not to split and not to hit and the dealer busted !
* Jerry's Nugget ROCKS !
- although t wasn't profitable, played a lot of $5 craps (with the old higher STA payout schedule. Hit the Tall twice thanks to the shooters at the other end of
the table
- up $370 on VP play which included winning $100 on their freeplay
- the desserts at their restaurant all looked great - we settled on splitting the Kalua cake
* craps tables at The Orleans were $15 min all day, but there were some $10 BJ tables
* some pictures of VP hits follow. The $1 VP progressive (old Paddlewheel area bank) was approaching $9,000 last night. Mrs Z did hit four 3's for a $400
win on that bank last night, we'll continue chasing today if it didn't hit overnight

Today's plans include doing a Konami run and having breakfast at MGM buffet (courtesy mLife). We may also try to check out Resorts World and we have not yet been to the new Sahara reboot.

Orleans stage bar VP bank (Mrs Z hit this bank for a ~$2,600 royal on our May trip)


$1 progressive bank at Orleans in old Paddlewheel bank area



Jerry's Nugget win (if you run your points up to 1,000, you a get $100 in freeplay, which Mrs Z did & won $100 on her freeplay !)

 

Jerry's! Jerry's! We love their $2 Ultimate Texas Hold'em. Food is cheap and they give good comps. Dealers are quick at craps and they will put you on the waiting list (and call your name over the loudspeaker) when it is your turn to play. Jerry's is a must every trip!

 

Mid-day update:

After breakfast at MGM (thank you MyVegas) and winning $35 with our myKonami play we headed back to The Orleans. Mrs Z was having some luck with VP (pictures in the report tonight) but decided to give VP a break for a while and we were walking around and found an empty $10 pitch BJ table (surprise) at The Orleans (and it was the only $10 table, all others were $15 or higher). We settled in and had been playing for ~45 minutes and I had been betting the Kings Bounty side bet (until I see a K Spades on a deal) and as usual Mrs Z was teasing me for not winning many of the side bets. We were at the end of a shuffle and I was still betting the side bet and Mrs Z says "So you haven't seen a King of Spades yet on this deal ?" I say no, so she makes the $1 side bet. We were distracted by something at the table next to us and turn around and the dealer has an Ace up and is asking if we want insurance and of course we decline. Then Mrs Z picks up her cards and sees a King Spades, the dealer shows a Blackjack and Mrs Z finds the other King of Spades as her other card !! Bam - $1,000 side bet win !!

Now what do we do for the rest of the day ?

 

Summary for 8/12:
* Gaming results today were mostly good to great with only a few losses
* We mostly played at The Orleans with short visits to MGM and Gold Coast
* We won $35 with our Konami freeplay (played on VP machines) at MGM
* As previously mentioned, Mrs Z hit the Kings Bounty BJ side bet for $1,000 (got the two King of Spades when dealer had Blackjack - woo-hoo !)
* VP results today were much improved, losing efforts were turned in at Poker and Craps
* The Orleans had $15 min. craps tables all day and had at least one $10 min. BJ table
* Gold Coast had $15 min. and up BJ tables while both craps tables were $10 min.
* We ate dinner at Pasta Mia West which is ~2 blocks past The Palms on Flamingo (between Arville and Cameron), we both really enjoyed our meals
* Most of the VP progressive jackpots at The Orleans went off today, we tried on most of them and had only minor wins (but they were wins)
* We're up $1,375 for the trip, will try to not give back to much during tomorrow mornings abbreviated gaming
* It seems that the power outage yesterday was due to some work being done on the water lines near The Orleans, so the power interruption was limited to a
very small area around The Orleans

Plans for tomorrow are to head to Orange County around Noonish to visit with family (haven't seen them since pre-Covid) and help celebrate my nephew turning 55 on Saturday (geez, he's getting oldish !). Then we head back to Vegas on Sunday and will be staying at South Point and then back to The Orleans before departure back home on Wednesday (8/18). A few pictures from today's fun shown below.



Hold 'em all !





Dinner at Pasta Mia West - I had Lasagne and Italian Sausage, Mrs Z had a seafood Linguine special - both were very tasty

 

Congrats to Mrs. Z on the side bet And the winning results overall… if only that SF that filled in had an A instead of a 9 Oh well, next time

 

8/14 Update:

Well, we gave back $165 ($85 at BJ, $80 at VP) before departing The Orleans yesterday morning. The drive on I-15S is always enjoyable as we don't see that type scenery back east. I've attached 2 photos of other interesting things that those who never get off the strip have probably never seen before. We'll be back to gaming tomorrow afternoon at South Point.


One of 3 solar power generating fields at the CA/NV state line


The famous "world's largest thermometer" at Baker (southern gateway to Death Valley) - temp was a balmy 103F yesterday at Noon

 

Good stuff so far! Congrats on the side bet win!

 

Great reporting so far...loving you including game mins etc

 

That side bet win was awesome. If you see NFL prop sheets (season win totals, rookie of the year, etc) can you get some pics? My buddy is going in a week or two and wants to know what South Point is offering

 

8/15 update:

We had an enjoyable visit with family in SoCal, we checked in at South Point in mid-afternoon - some comments and pictures follow:
* after checking in and delivering baggage to the room, we immediately started gaming, the casino floor was very busy
* to my surprise there was a $5 craps table and it had an open spot, so I immediately jumped on. I only stayed on the table for one shooter, but I made $600 on that shooter ! He had an amazing run on even numbers and hit so many 6's and 8's that I totally lost track. Even more amazing was the number of hardways he was rolling. One of the players at my end of the table started with $30 on the 6 and I think he had it worked up to $900 ! The only reason I left the table was to eat dinner as we had skipped lunch and we were both hungry
* dinner was at Baja Miguel's and we had free margaritas courtesy of the booklet we got at check-in (food pictures follow)
* after dinner, Mrs Z decided to try the poker tourny and I played BJ. They had lots of $10 BJ pitch tables and even several $5 shoe tables. I won $40 at BJ and Mrs Z crashed out of the poker tourny when her pocket Kings got beat by a Jack on the river
* After some VP play we decided to try some BJ together - bad decision as we lost $300. After some VP play where we broke even, I went back to BJ (bad decision) and lost $150
* there were now 4 craps tables open at $10 and 1 craps table open at $15, I don't know why I didn't try craps again (maybe it was the margarita's ?). By the way, did I mention that our room number is 1111, why did I not go back to the craps tables ? The answer to that question eludes me this morning, but I plan to rectify if today.
* Overall we were up $280 for the day bringing the total trip win to just under $1,500 - more gaming today to do, we'll see where we end up ! I'll follow up and see what info the Sportsbook has on NFL season prop bets, let us know if anyone else has any questions. Tonight we check-in at The Orleans.

Free margarita's, Pablano Chile and Pork Enchilada, Halibut Veracruz





Some of the VP wins

 

$5 craps! Yeah! Giving me hope for my trip later this week. $10-15 at South Point? Boo, doesn't give me hope for my trip. Glad you made some cash!

 

I'm curious how was the mexican food? I almost always eat at the Coronado Cafe but I've been wanting to try it out.

 

I am staying at the Orleans in 2 weeks. Can you elaborate the room cleaning there. I don't need it every day I guess , but if they don't show - up at least half my stay (6 nights ) my wife will be pissed!

 

I like the food at Don Miguels. Can't speak to post-covid, but they have a huge lounge outside the restaurant where you could sit and relax for a couple HH margarita's before going in. You could get food there too, but I would check it out as who knows what the deal is now.