zlanga
High-Roller
Summary:
Rooms: South Point Friday night, The D Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Very comfortable and clean.
Food: Nothing spectacular, buffets and Magnolias. Standard fare, nothing disappointing, nothing truly fabulous.
Gambling: My last Royal was in 2011, so I know I was 2-3 cycles behind on them as I play around 15k to 20k hands of VP per trip. This time I played approximately 20,000 hands of VP and never could hit a straight flush. That's like 4 cycles behind on those just this trip. I normally get at least one or 2 over the course of the trip, so this was a little disappointing. Got one photo-worthy hit late Monday night (my birthday). It's at the bottom for those who don't want to read thru the details.
Details:
Flew in Friday from SAT via Southwest, flight left early and arrived early. Headed straight to South Point and checked in. Got a 4th floor room facing the pool. With the very windy conditions, nobody was at the pool that I could ever see, and the room was so quiet it was creepy, even with the a/c running. My goal was to play 10,000 points (a dollar a point) thru Friday evening, as I had to leave early the next morning. I played some of the 3-play JOB at .25, and put thru the first 2000 points, then took a break for the seafood buffet. It was good as usual. From there, I settled in on one of the slant-tops with BP and NSUD, playing at .50 level. I never hit 4 aces on BP, and never 4 deuces on the NSUD. However I had a continuous stream of quads and full houses on BP and a few dirty royals and straight flushes on NSUD. Stopped for the night down $10, earning my 10K point goal. That should get me covered for May when I return to South Point for the USBC Nationals tournament.
Early Saturday I checked out and Uber'ed up to the rental car center. The first car I got was a Passat, but when I got to the exit with it, the lady couldn't scan me out, apparently there was a recall on it, so she wrote recall right across the windshield and had me go drive it back to where I got it and picked another. Ended up with a Maxima that worked just fine all weekend for us. Not overly impressed with the fuel economy, but a comfortable ride. Saturday morning thru Tuesday morning all in at $104 worked just fine for me, as we did lots of running around.
After leaving the rental center, I headed downtown to the 4Q where one of my buddies from Austin had stayed the night before. He had a room on the 4th floor of the North tower, and didn't get much sleep. We got him moved to the 12th floor of the South tower for the rest of the trip, a big improvement. Played at the 4Q on the JOB machines at .50 level and put thru about 300 points before we headed out for a coupon run.
First stop was Gold Coast, then the Orleans. No miracles on the freeplay and matchplay coupons. Picked up another friend from Austin who was arriving at noon, then grabbed some wings at Hooters and used a few more freeplay coupons. Headed back downtown for the rest of the afternoon.
Checked in at the D and got room 2929, facing away from Fremont, and still could hear music thumping, although it was fairly muffled. The room overall was good, I do like the rooms at the D. The elevators are still an adventure for people unfamiliar with them, but other than a few times when it was a little busy, I had no issues with them.
I spent a couple more hours putting another 300 points in at the 4Q and used my double points coupon from the AGC to get an extra 500 for the day, then went over to the D to activate my $5 freeplay for every 50 points coupon (good for 24 hours). By 3 pm Sunday I had earned 800 points ($10/point) at the progressives by the sportsbook and the Vue bar progressives. Both were over $1300, and there were quite a few folks playing the whole time. By Sunday afternoon both royal progressives had been hit. I earned $80 more freeplay (on top of the $60 they started me with on my offer). At one point I was up $140 on the Bonus Poker, but ended up down $100 after an hour of no quads and only 1 or 2 full houses. That was one of the worst runs of cards I've ever seen on video poker ever. Saturday and Sunday I ended up down $150 and $250 respectively, sharing time between the 4Q and the D.
Monday was golf day. Thank goodness we didn't try to play Sunday, as the wind was insane. Monday morning it was down to around 15 mph when we teed off. The Legacy golf course in Henderson was in fabulous shape. Having spent $269 to play Rio Secco on a previous trip, we found The Legacy to be a fabulous value at $109.
One thing about the 17th hole on Legacy, it's definitely a birdie hole:
Apparently these geese spend a lot of time here. A few even choose to hang out on the green. Makes for some interesting putting...
Monday evening was spent bouncing back and forth between 4Q and the D again, and watching the Jets-Cardinals game. My fantasy football team was playing against my friend's team who was staying next door at the 4Q and I needed a good night from the Arizona D to sneak out a victory. Geno Smith provided me with a last minute birthday gift with the interception he threw on the Jet's final drive, and I pulled out the victory by a nose. That was a bright spot in what had become a video poker bloodbath on the slant-top progressives upstairs at the D. I hadn't even seen a 4 of a Kind for over an hour on Bonus poker, so I switched to Double Double, in hopes of catching a premium to at least break even. By the end of the game I was down $250, and still chasing, becoming increasingly frustrated. I played for approximately 15 minutes after the end of the game, and never hit that quad.
I did hit this though:
Happy birthday to me! Plus it's extra nice to hit it the night before leaving so you don't have enough time to lose it back! Funny enough, it was on the exact same machine that my friend hit a royal progressive for 2k on the year before. The one on the end next to the first Keno booth, on the sportsbook side of the bank.
Tuesday early morning Dollar rental car drop off was smooth, flight home left on time, arrived on time.
Overall, a great trip that ended on a very high note. Never really had any real traffic issues, crowds were a little lighter than what I'm used to seeing. Vegas weather in October is fabulous, albeit a little windy at times. Definitely my favorite time of year to visit. For a 4 day trip with excellent golf, good food, and generous tipping, I am happy to come back with almost every bit of my bankroll intact. Bring on May!
Rooms: South Point Friday night, The D Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Very comfortable and clean.
Food: Nothing spectacular, buffets and Magnolias. Standard fare, nothing disappointing, nothing truly fabulous.
Gambling: My last Royal was in 2011, so I know I was 2-3 cycles behind on them as I play around 15k to 20k hands of VP per trip. This time I played approximately 20,000 hands of VP and never could hit a straight flush. That's like 4 cycles behind on those just this trip. I normally get at least one or 2 over the course of the trip, so this was a little disappointing. Got one photo-worthy hit late Monday night (my birthday). It's at the bottom for those who don't want to read thru the details.
Details:
Flew in Friday from SAT via Southwest, flight left early and arrived early. Headed straight to South Point and checked in. Got a 4th floor room facing the pool. With the very windy conditions, nobody was at the pool that I could ever see, and the room was so quiet it was creepy, even with the a/c running. My goal was to play 10,000 points (a dollar a point) thru Friday evening, as I had to leave early the next morning. I played some of the 3-play JOB at .25, and put thru the first 2000 points, then took a break for the seafood buffet. It was good as usual. From there, I settled in on one of the slant-tops with BP and NSUD, playing at .50 level. I never hit 4 aces on BP, and never 4 deuces on the NSUD. However I had a continuous stream of quads and full houses on BP and a few dirty royals and straight flushes on NSUD. Stopped for the night down $10, earning my 10K point goal. That should get me covered for May when I return to South Point for the USBC Nationals tournament.
Early Saturday I checked out and Uber'ed up to the rental car center. The first car I got was a Passat, but when I got to the exit with it, the lady couldn't scan me out, apparently there was a recall on it, so she wrote recall right across the windshield and had me go drive it back to where I got it and picked another. Ended up with a Maxima that worked just fine all weekend for us. Not overly impressed with the fuel economy, but a comfortable ride. Saturday morning thru Tuesday morning all in at $104 worked just fine for me, as we did lots of running around.
After leaving the rental center, I headed downtown to the 4Q where one of my buddies from Austin had stayed the night before. He had a room on the 4th floor of the North tower, and didn't get much sleep. We got him moved to the 12th floor of the South tower for the rest of the trip, a big improvement. Played at the 4Q on the JOB machines at .50 level and put thru about 300 points before we headed out for a coupon run.
First stop was Gold Coast, then the Orleans. No miracles on the freeplay and matchplay coupons. Picked up another friend from Austin who was arriving at noon, then grabbed some wings at Hooters and used a few more freeplay coupons. Headed back downtown for the rest of the afternoon.
Checked in at the D and got room 2929, facing away from Fremont, and still could hear music thumping, although it was fairly muffled. The room overall was good, I do like the rooms at the D. The elevators are still an adventure for people unfamiliar with them, but other than a few times when it was a little busy, I had no issues with them.
I spent a couple more hours putting another 300 points in at the 4Q and used my double points coupon from the AGC to get an extra 500 for the day, then went over to the D to activate my $5 freeplay for every 50 points coupon (good for 24 hours). By 3 pm Sunday I had earned 800 points ($10/point) at the progressives by the sportsbook and the Vue bar progressives. Both were over $1300, and there were quite a few folks playing the whole time. By Sunday afternoon both royal progressives had been hit. I earned $80 more freeplay (on top of the $60 they started me with on my offer). At one point I was up $140 on the Bonus Poker, but ended up down $100 after an hour of no quads and only 1 or 2 full houses. That was one of the worst runs of cards I've ever seen on video poker ever. Saturday and Sunday I ended up down $150 and $250 respectively, sharing time between the 4Q and the D.
Monday was golf day. Thank goodness we didn't try to play Sunday, as the wind was insane. Monday morning it was down to around 15 mph when we teed off. The Legacy golf course in Henderson was in fabulous shape. Having spent $269 to play Rio Secco on a previous trip, we found The Legacy to be a fabulous value at $109.
One thing about the 17th hole on Legacy, it's definitely a birdie hole:
Apparently these geese spend a lot of time here. A few even choose to hang out on the green. Makes for some interesting putting...
Monday evening was spent bouncing back and forth between 4Q and the D again, and watching the Jets-Cardinals game. My fantasy football team was playing against my friend's team who was staying next door at the 4Q and I needed a good night from the Arizona D to sneak out a victory. Geno Smith provided me with a last minute birthday gift with the interception he threw on the Jet's final drive, and I pulled out the victory by a nose. That was a bright spot in what had become a video poker bloodbath on the slant-top progressives upstairs at the D. I hadn't even seen a 4 of a Kind for over an hour on Bonus poker, so I switched to Double Double, in hopes of catching a premium to at least break even. By the end of the game I was down $250, and still chasing, becoming increasingly frustrated. I played for approximately 15 minutes after the end of the game, and never hit that quad.
I did hit this though:
Happy birthday to me! Plus it's extra nice to hit it the night before leaving so you don't have enough time to lose it back! Funny enough, it was on the exact same machine that my friend hit a royal progressive for 2k on the year before. The one on the end next to the first Keno booth, on the sportsbook side of the bank.
Tuesday early morning Dollar rental car drop off was smooth, flight home left on time, arrived on time.
Overall, a great trip that ended on a very high note. Never really had any real traffic issues, crowds were a little lighter than what I'm used to seeing. Vegas weather in October is fabulous, albeit a little windy at times. Definitely my favorite time of year to visit. For a 4 day trip with excellent golf, good food, and generous tipping, I am happy to come back with almost every bit of my bankroll intact. Bring on May!
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Family vacation
Nice finish!