6 Nights, Some Good Wins, w/Pix

Wednesday November 27

Here’s another trip report from me & my husband P, both in our early 50’s, been to Vegas way too many times.

We left super early in the morning, day before Thanksgiving, to catch our 8 a.m. flight….cold and 37 degrees in Houston, airport parking already almost full, plane full, arrived in Vegas with no problems though. Our car was waiting for us in the parking lot at Budget, no hassles. Love that.

First stop Orleans for lunch at their Courtyard Café and to burn our last two matchplays there. I had an Asian Chicken Salad which was a solid A,



P had a club sandwich. We paid with points. We both lost our $10 matchplays on blackjack.

We headed on down Tropicana for a few blocks and to Albertsons to pick up some groceries. Then it was on to Palms where we had our $40 for $23.75 slot play. I really wanted to play the two-cent 50-play machine. P went on to the slot club while I checked to see if they were still there. I found a bank of three, and when I went to check the paytable a nice guy playing on the one to the left told me it was full pay on JOB. I thanked him and went to join P and get our free play. When we returned, the one guy was still playing and now there were two very old folks playing the other two machines. I know it’s a free country and I don’t own these machines personally, but come on, the guy was playing like a penny a line and he had maybe 10 lines going. We tried to wait them out…..I went to the bar to get a beer and figured a draft couldn’t cost that much, right? I am normally playing bartop and don’t pay attention to actual prices! So I order a Bass Pale Ale and it’s $7!!! Nobody gets up from their 50-play so we went back to the BP quarter machines that pay $1199 for a royal. I quit at $42.50 and P quit at $35 so a small profit there.

We went on to Palace Station because it was Senior Day and we thought we would give the slot tournament a shot. I lost about $5 at a bartop BP getting my 400 points and had a nice cold glass of chardonnay, P got deuces on an NSU for a tidy profit!



I chose the #1 machine for the first of three rounds at the tournament and got 3,400 points, which the attendant said was a very good score and would probably put me in the money. P came close on his second try but that was the best we did. We had to come back at some point before 7 p.m. the next day to check the board and see if I won anything.

We went to Riviera because we had some matchplays and they sent us a postcard with $10 each freeplay. We both lost our matchplay, mine on roulette and P on blackjack. I burned my $10 on Super Jack[STRIKE]pot[/STRIKE]ass Party and P salvaged $8.50 on China Shores.

Finally, we headed to Main Street Station to check in our our three-night comp, with $75 free play and free food coupons. They gave us room #1408, it was the first time they put us on the freeway side. The lady asked me what I wanted and I don’t know why she even asked because she put me where she wanted to put me. I know there’s a lot of people on this board that stay at MSS and I have to ask you, have you ever noticed there are two types of beds at MSS? I was always very happy with my beds in the past, but this one was on a very unforgiving boxspring, that was on wheels, almost like a cot. The whole room was old & worn and I hadn’t noticed that so much on other stays in other rooms. Just wondering. The shower was also tricky because it would suddenly get hotter if you didn’t turn the knobs just right. Other than those things, though, the freeway noise never bothered us and we liked the mountain views on that side. From now on though, I think I’ll stick to the train side.

Enough of that, back to GAMBLING!

We played our $75 free play right off the bat, in a 50 cent BP progressive. We didn’t get anything big, but cashed it out at $82.50 and split it between us.

I like to play five-play quarter 5/8 BP at MSS and P likes the coin-dropper quarter progressive 6/9 DDB. I sat down at a bank near Boars Head Bar and 5minutes later got my first 4OK and scratch-off card.



Then some doofus proceeded to sit down right next to me in an empty bank of five machines (I was in the middle). I really hate it when that happens and I just got my TITO and left. I went to another machine near the door and played, got 6’s and 10’s and was doing OK. Some guy behind me was just cussing his head off at the slot machine he was playing, he was super loud and after a while I think they chased him off because it went suddenly quiet. Later I looked and he was playing Fortune Chaser. Not so much I guess! I cashed out up about $50 (P was down about $100) and we went to get some dinner at the Cal café using our coupon book. I had coconut shrimp and P had NY Strip. I’m sorry to be mean because they are earnest at the Cal and they try, but that is just basically hospital food. It doesn’t look or taste appealing. We had lunch there in the past and that’s fine, but we won’t be returning for dinner, even free dinner. I know many of you feel differently.

I went back to my five-play near the door and was up & down, I got 7’s, 9’s, J’s twice….was talking a bit to the guy next to me, he was from Hisperia, CA which is a few hours away, nice guy. I got 2’s after a bad drought. After the guy left his machine, I switched over there, since his made noise and mine did not. I got J’s, 4’s and A’s



and cashed out at a profit. It was about 7:30 by this time. I checked on P and he was having a bit of a comeback on the DDB. I went up to the room to charge my phone and enjoyed some dessert


About an hour later I was back at the five-play. Somebody was playing that slot “It’s My Party” and getting frequent, long bonuses….the song was very loud….it was funny to keep hearing it. MSS really doesn’t play music at a level you can hear, which bummed me out, I really do like hearing music while I play. There was a sweet & pretty young Asian lady playing next to me, she got a clubs royal in nickels, we were talking a bit now & then. I was down $200 in about ½ hour with no 4OK’s and I thought I would try one more hundred. I got 2’s, 10’s, K’s and back to a little bit of profit and decided to call it a night about 10 p.m.

 

Great report so far! Where exactly are these 50 play JOB machines at the Palms? I couldn't find them on my last trip so I played $1 JOB instead.

 

Thursday November 28 – Happy Thanksgiving!

My morning tally: 15 scratch-off cards (one of which was the elusive $3)


I was up a whopping $29 and P was down about $150.

We walked over to 24 Hr Fitness but it was closed. I would like to report that I was sad about this, but that would be a lie.

We got ready and went over to Palace to see if I won any money on the tournament. I came in 13th place for $25 cash


At least it was something, and I never win on those things. We had sandwiches at Subway there and watched a bit of the Lions game. I had put $20 on the Lions yesterday….P is the big sports better in the family, but every once in a while I like to put my female intuition powers to work and pretty much randomly bet on a team or two. P declared this was a bad bet, but it turned out to be a winner in the end! Girl Power!

OK so we went back downtown and head to the D for our third try this year at our 50-cent NSU experiment. We had a coupon to get $5 free play for every 50 points earned, up to $100. We have done this three times before, the first time we played quarter BP but it took too long to get 1,000 points. Since then we’ve been playing NSU, side by side, both of us playing on one card. It takes about 3 hours. The first time we lost about $200, the second time we lost our ass (over $1000) but third time was the charm as P pulled out both the deuces


and the Royal!


for a total profit of over $1700 between us. (I lost $360 and only got one Wild Royal). This NSU money is considered separate and apart from our own money for the trip.

This game is mentally exhausting to me, more than BP or DDB by far. Many times you have to throw away your hand, and it just takes a lot of concentration. I’ve been known to make mistakes on this game even though I practice at home, and it makes me a bit nervous and OK I’ll admit it, cranky.

We went to Chicago Brewing about 4:30 for dinner and to take advantage of their free play rebate. As reported by others previously, the food is great and this is a fantastic deal. I hadn’t been there before and really enjoyed it. I had the veggie pizza and P had two apps (1/2 price), the cheese sticks and the quesadilla. We lost the matchplay and got almost all the money back on the free play, plus P got kings at the bartop but I lost a little bit….I think we came out almost even.

We went back over to the D to do our $100 free play, plus I also had $50 free play they sent me on a postcard. That’s the other advantage, since P and I have been chasing the experiment, the D is very happy with us and sends us mailers with a bunch of free play, $25 matchplays, and free rooms.

I started out on the free play but then I made a mistake (see?) and turned the steering wheel over to P. We ended up with $150 cash on it. I lost both my $25 matchplays, P doubled one and won (he doubled for $25 though not $50) and he lost the other one.

We went back to MSS and I went up to the room for a bit. Around 7 p.m. I joined P at the DDB coin-droppers, where he got Aces


I lost $200 on DDB in about 2 hours and had no 4OK. I called it a night about 9 p.m. and watched Lady GaGa and the Muppets. That was utterly and completely bizarre.

 

Enjoying the report so far.

 

Friday, November 29

I was down about $200 in the morning money count. But hey, one look at my horoscope and I knew everything would be OK



We went over to 24 Hour Fitness, I ran 4 miles on the treadmill. We got ready and headed out, had lunch at Port of Subs. We headed to Santa Fe Station because it was double points at Stations. First we stopped at Wildfire on Rancho Drive for Paul to get his Neon Nights fix. I looked for my nickel Winning Streak poker game but it was gone, so I played Lobstermania. I got the bonus, Larry pulled out the biggest lobster I have EVER seen on that game, and I got $90 on the bonus



and cashed out up $65. I blew $40 of that back on Planet Moolah, never getting the bonus.

We got to Santa Fe Station and made some football bets, I put $20 on the Bills and the Bengals for Sunday football. We sat down to play at their 6/9 quarter DDB that pays $1199 for a royal. I started out great with 4’s with kicker and a straight flush. I also got 3’s out of the box but no kicker on the redraw, and 8’s. I lost a couple hundred in between the wins but came out a little bit ahead. P lost a little.







We headed back to MSS and we were going to try the MSS buffet but the line was insane, so we thought we’d try Pasta Pirate. It was 6 p.m. and the place was pretty empty, but the hostess informed us we couldn’t be seated for another hour without a reservation. Huh? She did say we could sit in the bar area and order. We sat at one of the small bar tables and waited for about 10-15 minutes with no attention whatsoever. A couple came in about 5 minutes after we did and were also ignored. We got up and left, headed for Magnolia at 4 Queens where it was also crowded but we got seated & served in good time. I had the Greek salad which is flat out A+. The dressing is wonderful and there’s a lot of stuff on the salad, it’s not just a bag of lettuce thrown on a plate. P had CFS and mashed. He enjoyed it.





At about 7 p.m. as we headed back to MSS, Fremont Street was just absolutely packed with people.

I went back to my five-play by the door and was playing the noisy one, got a couple 4OK’s but then an hour-long drought and money-sucking session. Moved over to the silent machine next to it and got 7’s, and then about a half hour later I get this hand:



I went ahead and hit for the last card anyway, whatever!



A $500 winner, great to be sure, but if it had been DDB, a $2,500 winner! OUCH.

Decided it was worth celebrating with a Washington Strawberry ice cream cone at Lapperts. Heaven!



To sleep around midnight.

 

Saturday, November 30

We woke up around 7 a.m. I had 9 more scratch cards so I got a total of $49 for those. P had some, too. Those are so much fun and they do add up well, especially on five-play, we just love them! Morning money count had me down about $36. We headed to Green Valley Ranch for the next three nights, $79 (plus half the resort fee so $11.25), then comp/comp.

It was too early to check in, so we left the bags in the car. P went to watch some college football, so I went to the café at GVR and had my favorite egg white & spinach frittata, paid with points. I played 10-cent Winning Streak Deuces poker and for about an hour and lost $100. My best hand was a Wild Royal and I only got that once and couldn’t push it up to the higher paying levels. I played five-play 5/8 quarter BP and got 4’s but ended up losing about $60. Thought I was going to hit something on this, but no such luck.





I went shopping for a little while in The District. They had it decorated for Christmas and it’s always a nice break.





One thing I wasn’t happy about though, they added parking spaces down what used to be a wide pedestrian-only walkway. I guess that’s good for retail but not so much for humans and their pets that used to enjoy walking and just hanging out along the way.

I played a little more five-play and got Aces, cashing out at a profit when a smoker sat down next to me. I got up and went to a bartop quarter BP for a glass of wine and I got 5’s out of the box, and Q’s and cashed out even.

I wanted to see the movie Last Vegas, but it wasn’t playing at GVR. I found it playing at a theater only about 10 minutes away, so I drove out there. I gave it a B+, it was as expected….certainly a love song to Vegas, the city looked fantastic…..it was different to see a movie with so many wrinkled people on the big screen! Ha. Some touching moments, not enough really funny ones.

P checked us in while I was at the movies, we were in the East Wing with parking lot view, but you could see mountains, and we didn’t care anyway as we have had the pool view most of the time over the years. The room was fine and I just LOVE the beds there, the pillows and blankets and everything. I sleep very well there.

I had dinner at Tides because P was still watching college football. I had a wonderful shrimp cocktail and the cracker bread they give you is just the perfect accompaniment. Very fresh shrimp and really strong cocktail sauce! Nice glass of chardonnay, too, and paid with points. Living large (for me it felt that way)!





I bounced back & forth between quarter five-play BP and 10-cent Winning Streak deuces for the next four hours or so, winning & losing back & forth. Got four to a Royal TWO MORE TIMES on the bottom on five-play with no result….one at about 7 p.m. and one around 10:30 p.m. So that was three times in one day. Geez.





Around 11 p.m. I got bored of VP all together and decided I needed to play dollar Wheel of Fortune. I had a $70 ticket that I pulled out from the 5-play machine so I thought I’d just see how long I could play on that. Well I got 7-7-diamond so that was a good win and kept playing, thinking I would stop when I got something big or back to $70.



Yes we all know what happened, I got to $70 and said what the heck, I’ll just play it down to nothing….well I had $18 left and I got WOF symbol, which lit up, and then diamond diamond for $800!!! That is the biggest win I ever had on WOF dollar, spins included. For some reason it just made me very happy and there were animated coins flying all over the top screen and it was just a great moment.







I went up to the room and didn’t see that P was in the bed because he was pretty deep under the covers, so I started chirping aloud to myself about my big jackpot and he pops his head out of the covers and says “HUH?” I felt so bad I woke him up!

By the way, P did get this nice hand out of the box playing DDB around 9:30

 

Sunday, December 1

We went to the GVR gym to run on the treadmill, P left to get ready to watch Sunday NFL while I stayed a while longer out by the spa pool reading the morning paper. It was a bit cold outside so I didn’t stay long. I got ready and went down for lunch, I just had a small fatburger with cheese, it was so good, I hadn’t had one for a long time. But man, $8 for a small fat and a diet coke!

I played a nice slant-top 6/9 quarter DDB for a couple of hours because the two football games I bet on were later in the day. I found a happy machine and did pretty well, I got 2’s and Aces



10’s, 6’s. I decided to play on this bank because it’s one of the few places in the casino where I can hear the music. They were sprinkling in Christmas songs every now & then and I like that, I just wish these casinos would play music loud enough to hear from anywhere! I know maybe everyone doesn’t feel that way, but I sure do.

I went to the sports bar to play the bartops, it was somewhat of a problem because at this point I didn’t want to switch off of DDB but the paytable was a measly 5/9. I played but not very fast or very much. I had a couple chardonnays. I also watched the Bills and the Bengals and rooted for my bets to win.

A couple of ladies around my age bellied up to the bar and I got to talking with one of them, at first I really enjoyed the conversation but she started to get a little overbearing. It could have something to do with the fact that she was also slamming down the drinks like nobody’s business. The guy next to me got up and I moved over a machine, truthfully a big pole was in the way of seeing my football games. Someone eventually sat down between us so I was politely off the hook. Anyway, I still lost around $170 and got no 4OK while I was sitting there. I went over to sit with P and watch the end of the games. I won the Bengals and lost the Bills.

We had a somewhat early dinner (3:30) at the buffet, where I finally got the chance to enjoy my Thanksgiving Dinner which consists traditionally of the following, no exceptions: turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy and black olives all mashed up together. Followed by pumpkin pie & whipped cream. It all tasted just like it should and I was very happy.

I got some Tazo Awake Tea at Starbucks and hit my Winning Streak game, P went back to football. I got a 9x streak and a profit of $82, put in a different hundred and played a while, cashed out even, was bored. Played Goldfish and lost $60. The turkey and wine effect was kicking in and kicking my a** so I gave in and went up to take a “power nap” at 7 pm that turned into a 2-hour snoozefest. But I was back at it in the casino at 9:30 and drinking my Jim Beam on the Rocks with a bottle of water. I met up with P, he told me we were just about at President Level, so we played a bit of VP side by side until we got there.

Stations used to be so good to us, but then they tightened up and we turned to Boyd, specifically MSS, who has been very good to us. But we do miss Stations so we made an extra effort to reach President and see if they treat us better. If they don’t we might just have to say goodbye. As they say, don’t marry the casino!

Side note, it would be nice if they gave you any sort of fanfare for reaching President. Boyd at least gave us a $10 gift of our choice. Stations didn’t even blink an eye when we went up there for our new card.

I played five-play for a bit and got bored with it, then decided to go back to my “happy” 6/9 slant top DDB from earlier in the day, so I could maybe hear some music. I had only been playing there for about 20 minutes when I got a ROYAL! I callled P and said “Royal Flush Alert in Sector 5!” (whatever) and he came right over and we celebrated by taking 20 photos and grinning and hugging a lot. P has a thing about taking photos of Royals when the cards all have their "special" symbols showing. Pretty cool!






Santa Duck was very lucky for me this trip!

Before I went to bed I tried another $100 on that Wheel of Fortune I won on and lost it. I barely even got a spin. But who cares? I got a ROYAL.

 

Will post the last day's report later today or tomorrow....I realized I'm missing some photos...sorry! I know people don't like fractured reports.

 

Hillwood24, they moved the 50-play a little bit....as you enter Palms and the sports book is to your left, and the bar is to your right, the machines are just past the bar in front of you. They are now in that first "room" that juts out to the left.

 

Great TR so far - I love Video Poker so this is right up my alley! Congrats on the great win on WOF.

ETA - Just saw the update about the Royal, Woo Hoo! Maybe I need a good luck charm, because I've been hoping for a Royal for YEARS and have never had one.

 

Monday, December 2

The last full day of vacation and now we’re talking as the morning money count has me up over $1600! We headed out for some couponing today, first to Hard Rock where we both won our $10 matchplays on blackjack.

Then we experienced a blatant bait-and-switch at Tuscanny. You be the judge. Here is the ad that appeared in Las Vegas Weekly:





We were new members, and went to sign up. When she began to explain that we would receive the standard crap of up to $1000 in free play, I whipped out the ad and she said “Oh the ad doesn’t say so, but that’s only if you get up to a certain number of points in a certain time period, and the free play comes in portions on a weekly basis…yada yada bullsh**. Unbelievable. We didn’t say a word, I don’t want to take it out on a very pleasant slot boothling, but I will be sending an email to someone about this. Anyway, we had two $5 matchplays each, I lost both and P won one. We had a whopping $5 free play for sign up and we just played stupid slots for no cash out.

We had to go back to the D because now that it was December, we both had $50 of free play and two $25 matchplays each to burn. We hit the quarter NSU and I got $63.50 on my free play, P got $43.50 on his. Then we took a break and had lunch at the D café, using our $50 food vouchers. I had an excellent California Chicken Club and fries, everything about it was just fantastic. P had Moco Loco which he enjoyed. We had more than enough money on our voucher to cover it.



Then I won both my $25 matchplays! P won one of his. The D has been so generous to us, it’s been a great deal with all the coupons and the experiment. I like the atmosphere too. In my opinion, they are doing things right the old-style Vegas way, while also doing things that keep the younger generation happy. Kudos.

We went to the Alamo Casino/truckstop to burn our $10 free play and visit the ever-effervescent Stephanie at the slot club. I got $13.75 on a 5/9 quarter DDB and P got $8 on Damn Lumberjack Beavers. P had a sports ticket to cash at M, so I went in with him and on my way to the bathroom I decided to put $20 in Ferris Beuller. I am not an M member or anything. Just a girl with a vision. Who won $78.58 in an instant! It was so cool, I got a great bonus and it was making all kinds of cool sounds, I wish I had videoed it!





Back to GVR – it was about 4 pm, P needed a power nap and I was ready for a cold glass of white wine, so I went to the “Bingo Bar” as I call it, since it’s right outside the bingo room, and played $1 bonus for some odd reason, maybe because I was up or partially because the quarter progressive just hit. I had a couple glasses of wine, lost $100 there and got up and wandered around---I really wanted to play Plants and Zombies because it looks so cool, put $20 in but the machine made no sound, so I hit the “change” button and the slot attendant came but had no clue on how to increase the sound. That’s odd because they are usually pretty savvy about it and will do so if you ask them. So I took the $20 and put it in some Wizard of Oz bells & whistles out the wazoo game and lost it.

I played on my slant top DDB’s for a while until P came down, then we went to watch MNF and got food from the Turf Grill with points, very good comfort food. I had chili cheese fries and P had a BLT. The football game was a landslide and boring, so we broke up to play whatever we wished.

I went back to the Bingo Bar and this time I decided it was a good idea to play $1 DDB. At the $1 level, it’s 6/9 instead of 5/9 and there’s a progressive. The bartender remembered I like Jim Beam on the rocks with a bottle of water, and said that was a very unusual and memorable order (what he didn’t say but I could tell was especially for a bespectacled 50-something year old lady). I just smiled. And proceeded to get four 2’s while only saving a Queen!!!



Then I lost $100. Then I got 9’s. Then I got a straight flush!



Then I lost $200. But I made over $500 on that session and it was a blast! Winning is always a blast. Winning on a $1 machine when you are used to playing quarter machines is REALLY a blast.

For the next three hours I jumped around playing my favorite games one more time before the trip was over but mostly losing, on ten-cent Winning Streak, quarter bonus five-play, Wheel of Fortune $1, and quarter DDB. I ended the night on the quarter DDB where it seemed to take forever to get a 4OK to close out the night (and the trip) and I finally got 7’s at 15 minutes past midnight.



P got 2’s with kicker around 9 p.m.



and Aces around 11 p.m.



Tuesday, December 3

Final money count had me up almost $1700! P lost about $1000 in his regular gaming, but if the NSU experiment at the D was counted in and not kept separate, he came out about $800 ahead.

Our flight was at 11:30 and went without a hitch--all was well when we got home which is always the cherry on the sundae.

See you again in February, Vegas!
Thanks for reading, everybody.

 

Great report and congratulations on bringing money home. Your report just shows the great variety of Vegas. We are park and play players and rarely use coupons. It's fun to read about other people and how they do Vegas.

 

Great Report. Congrats on the wins!!

 

Loved the report. Sounds like a very fun trip. Thanks!

 

Very nice!

 

Nice report!
Crazy how you missed THREE SEPARATE TIMES,on 5-play no less!
Glad you were able to get one though.

 

Nice TR, great wins.

 

Great report, thanks for taking the time to write it. Love the pics of the wins!!

 

Love that Santa Duck. Looks like he brought you luck.

 

Why is this crazy? It's a 1 in 47 shot. On average you need to be dealt this ten times to hit a royal. It always sucks to miss a 4 to royal draw, but it happens much more often than a hit.