Bob back at South Point and sore as hell

Trip Report 06/28/20-07/01/20 – South Point

This was my first trip of the year after canceling a May visit. Not coming with me, even though they all had booked, were Fred and his wife and his two friends and my friend Dave. Yup, they all wussed out on me and left me to go all by myself. As I was driving to the airport, I started laughing as I hoped it wouldn’t be the last stupid decision I’d ever make. I proved that wrong within 12 hours.

Air
Southwest round trip from Chicago. The outbound flight (7:25am) left on time and arrived a couple of minutes early. It was surprisingly crowded as we had over 90 passengers. Still, no worries about someone sitting in the middle seat. I took a nice window seat in row five and actually slept for about ½ hour, highly unusual for me. I know I must have dozed since I was never offered a snack. We were also offered cups of water. Now can someone explain the illogic of offering cups of water but not soda or other drinks? And explain the safety factor when the flight attendant hands you your drink while not wearing any gloves but managing to touch the cup right from where you will be drinking. The return flight (2pm) left a bit late and arrived a few minutes late. This flight was not at all crowded as there were only about 30-35 passengers. Still, this guy across from me felt the need to sit right next to his companion. Seriously dude? After rebooking seven times, this became one of the cheapest airfares I’ve ever had for MDW-LAS, coming in at $74rt.



Local Transportation
Since the South Point shuttle wasn’t running, I took the rental car shuttle bus to the rental car center and caught a cab from there to SP. Total with a nice tip was $25. On the way back, my favorite pit guy set me up for a ride to the airport, provided by security. I tipped $10 and incredibly made it from the hotel to the GATE in 22 minutes. Thanks to a heads up I received from Fred about a problem at the SW TSA access, I was able to successfully avoid that issue. And that ride was not my first from SP; more on that later.

Hotel
South Point – I wasn’t sure what would happen arriving early and I was not able to get a room for a few hours. I didn’t understand that since the place was certainly not crowded. I could not get my preferred location on the 23rd floor near the elevator, but instead ended up on 17 with a pool view.

My room was comped by Roxanne Kraemer who replaced Courtney Whitaker as my host. Rox has done wonderfully as far as I’m concerned. I can highly recommend her for anyone looking for a new host at SP. She has also comped two upcoming trips for me. I gave her a gift card to thank her and she was very appreciative, as am I. Weather was hot, mostly in the 90’s, or so I was told.

Entertainment
Nope.

Dinners
Night 1 ended up at the Café (1 fork, barely) for a post-midnight special. There’s a big story as to how I ended up here so late, which I’ll; explain later. I had the ham steak and eggs, with hash browns and toast. Good thing there were hash browns cause that was about all that was edible. The ham steak was extremely dried out; the eggs were over medium instead of over easy, and the toast was cold and hard. But to make up for it, the service sucked. Not many late night options these days but this was just bad.

Night 2 was at Don Vito’s (4.5 forks). I used the ACG free appetizer coupon and got the stuffed clams, which were excellent. For dinner I had veal marsala which also was excellent. Soup or Caesar salad is included. I had the pasta fagioli which was very good. No desert and my $35 comp covered the cost. This meal was comped by pit boss DJ, who is one of my favorites.

Night 3 was at the Silverado Steakhouse (5 forks). This is pretty much always my final night’s dinner but this was extra special as my good buddy Fredo joined me. We played enough blackjack for each of us to get a $60 comp, which was more than we needed. This was provided by pit boss Smitty. Lots of great people work the pit here at SP. Dinner was, as always, a great meal. And per usual, I got the French onion soup which is absolutely the best anywhere and the small (8 ounce) filet cooked medium rare as ordered. Fredo had the 18 ounce prime rib which was cooked a bit more medium than medium rare, but I was assured it was still excellent. Dinner comes with a very good baked potato and house salad. I used the SP coupon for a free bottle of house wine for Fredo, which he drank some and then took the rest home. The bread basket is also one of my favorites as it includes raisin bread and pretzel rolls. Service was, as always, excellent. For the price (even if I had to pay), this is a great dinner.

Not a dinner but on my final morning, SP reopened the buffet. I figured, what the hell, let’s give it a try. Talk about sparsely attended, there were definitely more workers than customers as you can see from my picture. The opening hadn’t been publicized so business should improve over the next couple of weeks, assuming they can stay open. No change in the omelet station but it looked like everything else would be served by folks behind the counter. Donuts and sweet rolls were on individual plates. The server was very nice and clearly happy to be back working. I tipped her $5 which almost equaled the cost of the buffet, after coupon.



Sorry there aren’t any food porn pictures this time. I really didn’t want to leave me phone on the table and honestly, just look at earlier reports of mine to see the same dinners I had here.

Gambling
After losing the last few trips, I was hoping for a better outcome this time. I cut back on the VP and also switched from DB to BP. In December I lost $475. This trip, other than day 1 was a good one. But day one was damn near a killer, which you’ll see later (how many teases am I putting in this report?).

While I didn’t play a lot of VP, I was able to hit four quads. One was a bonus but all were for quarters. Here’s the proof:












I had a good time playing blackjack and certainly appreciated the safety measures. Only three players allowed per table and whenever a player left the table, either a cleaning person or the pit boss would quickly wipe down the cushion and the chair. Outstanding job South Point. Some of the best dealers here are Sam, David, Carlos, Andrew, Vicky, Karla and Laura.

Here are my day by day results:
Day 1 – BJ - $150, VP - $55 including $15fp; total - $205 (and yet that was nowhere near the bad news for this day (another tease)
Day 2 – BJ + $200, VP + $100; total + $300
Day 3 – BJ + $425, VP + $41; total + $466
Day 4 – BJ + $100, VP cashed $145 fp and points and netted $122; total + $222 including the free play
Combined Total – BJ + $575, VP + $86 + $122 net after free play; Final tally, including the free play net + $783

This was about time coming home a winner. Now who knows any other costs that may be coming my way, as per the below.

Here are pictures of the race book (pretty crowded) and sports book (empty)






Other Things
I guess it’s time to end the mystery of what happened on day one. After arriving around 9:30, I started playing bj and after a couple of cups of coffee proceeded to drink heavily, much more than I realized. Throw in zero water and zero food for 10 hours and I found myself to be quite trashed. I went/staggered up to my room and tool a nap for about two hours. When I woke up, I got rid of (?) some of the vodka and went back downstairs to get some food. I chatted with my two top pit guys, Dan and Todd, and Dan set me up with a $20 comp at the Café. After I told him I miss the shuttle, he told me to just let him know whenever I need a ride and he’d take care of it. Don’t think he realized how soon I’d take him up on that offer.

So off I went to the café. I didn’t feel the worse for wear but after standing in line for a couple of minutes I started feeling woozy. The next thing I knew, security was hovering over me as I was laying on the ground. I had passed out, hitting (somehow) both sides of my head, one arm and my hip. I also cut up the back of one ear which was bleeding. After they, and medical folks, sat me up they found my bp to be very low and strongly suggested going to the hospital. I said I’d like to try standing up to see how I felt and after I did that, I wholeheartedly agreed with their assessment. I was then placed on the gurney and wheeled into the waiting ambulance and off to Sunrise Hospital we went. At the hospital they took a chest x-ray and a head CT and didn’t see anything alarming. After four stitches in the back of my ear, I was allowed to leave. BTW, those stiches hurt like hell and they were right where the ear loop went for the face mask. Not fun.

At that point I thought, well let’s see if Dan was serious about providing a ride. He was and he sent someone to pick me up at the hospital and bring me back to SP. I chatted with Dan when I got back, thanking him for the ride and when I noticed a big line at the Café, asked if he could get me a line pass. Note, it’s now about 17 hours since I had any food. Dan walked me into the Café and they were able to quickly seat me. Thus, the horrible late night meal at the Café.

I’m obviously now back home and my doc removed the stitches yesterday. Only remaining damage is a very sore hip and a black and blue mark over the top third of my leg. Everyone told me, “don’t go to Vegas now, it’s not safe”. They were both wrong and right. Oh, I had not been feeling great the previous week so I went to see my doctor. He thought it’s just allergies but I asked to get the Covid test. He didn’t think it was necessary but since I was leaving town, I wanted to know if I should actually go. That test was negative, which I found out when I got the result, two hours after landing in Vegas. Good thing it was negative?

And for those of my friends that thought I should have my head examined for going to Vegas now. Well, I did have it examined, in Vegas, and they found nothing, or should I say nothing wrong.

If anybody has any questions or comments, fire away.

 

Wow. Could have been a really nice trip if you hadn't passed out. You need a new mantra. How about 'Water...food. Water...food'?

 

Yeah, being dehydrated and standing in one place for any amount of time can be a bad combination that can lead to fainting, you might ask your doctor to give you a tilt table test. I recently had that test and the results gave my doctor the information he needed to provide me with strategies to reduce the likelihood of passing out

 

Thanks for the detailed report.

What were the table limits at craps and BJ?

 

Bobby B, so happy to hear you are OK. Now, next time you know, water, water, food, booze, water, booze, booze, water, booze, food, booze.
Work for you?
Edit, there should be a few more ‘booze’ in the health sequence above; each add’l booze + 1 water should be perfect balance. !

 

Wow. So sorry that happened. Not a doc but I'm 99.9999999% sure it was dehydration. I passed out ON THE PLANE traveling TO Vegas about 10 years ago. An emergency room doc thank goodness was on board. Cause? 1000% dehydration. He said my BP was so low that had I been brought to an emergency room I would have been triaged (sp?). I only had a sip of wine on the plane before I started to not feel well. He literally had to help me drink lots of water on the floor in the back of the plane and per his direction I licked salt from chips the FAs gave him. I started to come back to life; almost like a wilted flower that straightens up with water. He had me retrace what I had had to drink in the last 24 hours before my flight and it was NO alcohol but also NO water. Instead, it was 100% diet cokes, coffee, or tea . . . .

You had a full day of travel, little food, probably not much water and with the extra alcohol that caused you to get sick you lost fluids, alcohol expands the arteries (causing a drop in BP), plus the heat and excitement, etc.

It's why after all of these years, when I want to drink on a plane I make myself drink a LOT of water starting the day before and I force myself to have at least 8, ideally, 16 ounces of water on the plane before having a cocktail, wine or champagne.

Beyond the first day, it sounds like you had a great trip! I love how organized and informative your report was and it was neat to hear that pit bosses at Southpoint have a fair amount of flexibility to comp.

 

Just curious your vp coin in and the amount of time you play bj to be comped out there. I've played several times and never received a mailer

 

From my experience, you need to email a host at SP and include your players card number. My mailers are normally only 2 nights, but my host always covers my entire stay up to 7 nights, plus all meals and a little free play.

 

Thanks gang. I really do know better than to just drink alcohol and no water/food. Not sure why it never dawned on me to use my brain.

I didn't notice the craps game but I'd guess it was $10. There were plenty of $10 DD BJ games, hand dealt but face up so players don't touch the cards. Same normal DD rules apply.

No question that mailers from SP suck. I doubt I even put through $1k in the machines this trip. I play about 5-6 hours of BJ, the vast majority of which is for $10. Rox comps my room up front and I ask the pit guys for the meal comps as I go. Very rarely do I get turned down for a request but I ask for a specific dollar amount and not an unlimited comp.

 

Congrats on the win!

 

Thanks.