DonD
VIP Whale
Sunday 10/7
We decided to drive to Vegas a day early, as we always seem to do. Had two free rooms at the Gold Strike in Jean and gave one to Jennifer’s (my wife) granddaughter and her husband. Her daughter and her husband were to drive in on Monday.
Check in was a breeze and after dropping off the luggage in our rooms, step-grandson-in-law and I took off for the DDB VP machines and a beer. Before the waitress could bring the beer, I hit four aces with kicker ($500).Got several more four of a kinds and GSIL was now hooked on VP. He asked me, how do they make money in these places? I told him that he would find out.
We then took him over to the craps table, which is $2 minimum and 2X odds. He did badly and I didn’t do much better, but, the break-in dealers there were not picking up the odds bets on some seven outs and neither I nor anyone else at the table pointed that out to them. I lost anyway and tried some $2 BJ for a couple of hours with no luck.
We ate at the buffet which is a very hit and miss place and the food THIS time was pretty good and the price was better, comped.
Monday 10/8
Drove into Vegas about noon and checked into the Vegas Club, we had three rooms with one comped and the other two at casino rate. Check-in was a hassle because all the rooms were in my name and I wanted the other two rooms to be in my step-daughter-in-laws and GDIL names and the male clerk was a jerk and could not figure out how to do it. Anyway, it did get done and all rooms were in the North Tower and I found them to be pretty nice.
The four kids had front row center tickets to see the Phantom of the Opera at $150 per pop and left for the Venetian and when they got back, they said it was worth every penny, that is except for my GSIL who told me that he would have rather used the money for playing. He loves gambling now. I tried to teach him the better was to play and he was a little stubborn in the beginning as we all were. He is learning and I will loan him some of my books to study. Sure makes gambling more fun when played somewhat properly.
Latter that afternoon, we went over to the Plaza to see some of our friends and got a call from fellow board member/friend Coaster Kikky (Becky) saying that she was coming down to visit us for a few. When she got there, we did our hellos and hit the VP machines at the bar. I did badly and she did worse. The bar machines are not as good as some of the others throughout the casino.
Becky and I decided to checkout some of the changes at the Plaza. The poker room has been relocated and seems to have a much better feel to it. We went up to the new Dome and found it to be great. The one problem is they don’t serve any food, but you can bring food in. The reason for this is the smoking laws. The nicest change to the Plaza is the new, completely rebuilt bathrooms on the casino floor. The old bathroom was a nasty place for many years.
The three of us went back to the Vegas Club and played various games of chance with little or no luck. Especially for Kikky, aka Becky and Coaster Kikky.
Got a comp from Paul, the casino manager now with some kind of new title and went to the Great Moments Café. BTW, we ended up eating there four more times during our stay and found the food, service and ambiance to be pretty damn good. I have seen many more places with triple the prices and food not to par with this place. It deserves a chance.
After dinner, we played some more games of chance and the luck just wasn’t there. Becky had to leave around eleven and she had taken a pretty bad hit and so had I. The cards seemed to have changed around midnight and I had a couple of mini runs that got me all of my loses for the day. The money management that I use can return a pretty nice pile of chips when the cards turn. It doesn’t always work though.
Tuesday 10/9
Bad day for me, horrible day for Jennifer as far as gambling went.
The one bright spot to the day was the new show at the Plaza. It’s called, Viva Las Vegas. The first part of the show was OK to pretty good, but the comedian that does the last part of the show was great. Everyone was cracking up. I don’t laugh out loud too often, but this guy had me going.
The show is at two and four in the afternoons and they have coupons for two tickets for $5. I think they have a buffet and show ticket for $12. Becky, that’s why there was a line there all day.
Wednesday 10/10
This turns out to be a much better day. The VP gods were looking after me. I had three, four aces and every time it was with the kicker. Also had many 2,3 & 4’s and almost every time I had the kicker. More to come on this latter.
Went over to the Plaza to see my long time friend, Tim the bartender and to catch up on the latest gossip. They have just about closed down the bar that he was working at and is now the break bartender. He works at all the open bars and breaks the other bartenders lunch times. He told me that two of my long time full Pit-boss friends, no longer worked there. It’s a big secret in Vegas as to why the are no longer there. I did hear some rumors but I can’t say now.
Went back to the VC where they have a little cart running around and on this cart they have one box full of keys, one box with used keys and one box full of money ($1,000). If you hit a jackpot of $200 or more you can try your luck on picking a key out of one box and try to unlock the box with the money. I hit four aces with kicker and called the cart over. Well, you guessed it, I picked a key and it opened the lock. Got $1,000 plus the $500 on the machine. They made me do a W2-G because they added them together. Gave a $40 tip and was kind of cold shouldered by one person but thanked big time by the other. Gave the wife $300 and hit the tables. Only $300? We have a formula for sharing our nice hits. The tables were very good for about an hour or so, then it hit, lost about $400 in about an hour playing on a $5 table. The wife lost about $175. That means it’s time for bed.
OF NOTE.
The Plaza and the Vegas Club clearly mark their VP machines that have 99% payouts. One at the Plaza has (DDB) with 6-10 payout. They are all multi-play machines and you have to sort thru them to find the good games.
Their crap tables are $5 5X odds. That is full five times odds, it’s not 3-4-5.
We decided to drive to Vegas a day early, as we always seem to do. Had two free rooms at the Gold Strike in Jean and gave one to Jennifer’s (my wife) granddaughter and her husband. Her daughter and her husband were to drive in on Monday.
Check in was a breeze and after dropping off the luggage in our rooms, step-grandson-in-law and I took off for the DDB VP machines and a beer. Before the waitress could bring the beer, I hit four aces with kicker ($500).Got several more four of a kinds and GSIL was now hooked on VP. He asked me, how do they make money in these places? I told him that he would find out.
We then took him over to the craps table, which is $2 minimum and 2X odds. He did badly and I didn’t do much better, but, the break-in dealers there were not picking up the odds bets on some seven outs and neither I nor anyone else at the table pointed that out to them. I lost anyway and tried some $2 BJ for a couple of hours with no luck.
We ate at the buffet which is a very hit and miss place and the food THIS time was pretty good and the price was better, comped.
Monday 10/8
Drove into Vegas about noon and checked into the Vegas Club, we had three rooms with one comped and the other two at casino rate. Check-in was a hassle because all the rooms were in my name and I wanted the other two rooms to be in my step-daughter-in-laws and GDIL names and the male clerk was a jerk and could not figure out how to do it. Anyway, it did get done and all rooms were in the North Tower and I found them to be pretty nice.
The four kids had front row center tickets to see the Phantom of the Opera at $150 per pop and left for the Venetian and when they got back, they said it was worth every penny, that is except for my GSIL who told me that he would have rather used the money for playing. He loves gambling now. I tried to teach him the better was to play and he was a little stubborn in the beginning as we all were. He is learning and I will loan him some of my books to study. Sure makes gambling more fun when played somewhat properly.
Latter that afternoon, we went over to the Plaza to see some of our friends and got a call from fellow board member/friend Coaster Kikky (Becky) saying that she was coming down to visit us for a few. When she got there, we did our hellos and hit the VP machines at the bar. I did badly and she did worse. The bar machines are not as good as some of the others throughout the casino.
Becky and I decided to checkout some of the changes at the Plaza. The poker room has been relocated and seems to have a much better feel to it. We went up to the new Dome and found it to be great. The one problem is they don’t serve any food, but you can bring food in. The reason for this is the smoking laws. The nicest change to the Plaza is the new, completely rebuilt bathrooms on the casino floor. The old bathroom was a nasty place for many years.
The three of us went back to the Vegas Club and played various games of chance with little or no luck. Especially for Kikky, aka Becky and Coaster Kikky.
Got a comp from Paul, the casino manager now with some kind of new title and went to the Great Moments Café. BTW, we ended up eating there four more times during our stay and found the food, service and ambiance to be pretty damn good. I have seen many more places with triple the prices and food not to par with this place. It deserves a chance.
After dinner, we played some more games of chance and the luck just wasn’t there. Becky had to leave around eleven and she had taken a pretty bad hit and so had I. The cards seemed to have changed around midnight and I had a couple of mini runs that got me all of my loses for the day. The money management that I use can return a pretty nice pile of chips when the cards turn. It doesn’t always work though.
Tuesday 10/9
Bad day for me, horrible day for Jennifer as far as gambling went.
The one bright spot to the day was the new show at the Plaza. It’s called, Viva Las Vegas. The first part of the show was OK to pretty good, but the comedian that does the last part of the show was great. Everyone was cracking up. I don’t laugh out loud too often, but this guy had me going.
The show is at two and four in the afternoons and they have coupons for two tickets for $5. I think they have a buffet and show ticket for $12. Becky, that’s why there was a line there all day.
Wednesday 10/10
This turns out to be a much better day. The VP gods were looking after me. I had three, four aces and every time it was with the kicker. Also had many 2,3 & 4’s and almost every time I had the kicker. More to come on this latter.
Went over to the Plaza to see my long time friend, Tim the bartender and to catch up on the latest gossip. They have just about closed down the bar that he was working at and is now the break bartender. He works at all the open bars and breaks the other bartenders lunch times. He told me that two of my long time full Pit-boss friends, no longer worked there. It’s a big secret in Vegas as to why the are no longer there. I did hear some rumors but I can’t say now.
Went back to the VC where they have a little cart running around and on this cart they have one box full of keys, one box with used keys and one box full of money ($1,000). If you hit a jackpot of $200 or more you can try your luck on picking a key out of one box and try to unlock the box with the money. I hit four aces with kicker and called the cart over. Well, you guessed it, I picked a key and it opened the lock. Got $1,000 plus the $500 on the machine. They made me do a W2-G because they added them together. Gave a $40 tip and was kind of cold shouldered by one person but thanked big time by the other. Gave the wife $300 and hit the tables. Only $300? We have a formula for sharing our nice hits. The tables were very good for about an hour or so, then it hit, lost about $400 in about an hour playing on a $5 table. The wife lost about $175. That means it’s time for bed.
OF NOTE.
The Plaza and the Vegas Club clearly mark their VP machines that have 99% payouts. One at the Plaza has (DDB) with 6-10 payout. They are all multi-play machines and you have to sort thru them to find the good games.
Their crap tables are $5 5X odds. That is full five times odds, it’s not 3-4-5.
Glad you and the lovely Miss. Jennifer had a good time. We're really going to miss you two next week, but have a great cruise!
cause mine usually sucks. Great TR!
