It's still good to have a bellman. MGM Dec 4 - 8, 2016

[jpw711]

For the subject backstory, see my former TR from OCT: It's good to have a host and a bellman.

Until Dec 2, I still didn't know if this was to be another solo trip (I've had many the past three years) or if my lovely wife, Ann, was going to accompany me. We had been changing SWA tickets since June, and I was hoping to clear these "off the books" as when I fly solo, I tend to fly from the more expensive "where two bags, much less four don't fly free" closer airport on United. Solo = carry on, non solo = take the entire house.

It's not that Ann doesn't want to go to Vegas, but she suffers from Plantar Facsiitis in both feet, so walking sucks. She's had it since April, hence all the ticket changes.

Flew from Tulsa via PHX (hate it!) going, DEN (love it!) coming home for 208 each. PHX to LAS was an hour late, which gave us two hours in that hole. (airport, not city) Ann had scored random precheck, while I didn't but we figured two hours was plenty of time to go to the top of the parking garage and soak up some sun, and suck down some nicotine. She got back through the TSA in two minutes, 30 minutes later, after checking my unopened doritos bag for explosives, I joined her.

I'd sent my host an email detailing Ann's bad feet, wanting a limo pickup and a suite close to the elevators. I texed my bellman on the 2nd that we were coming and hoped he was going to be at work, and if not, which bellman would have my boxfan. He said he was off, but then texted he switched with another guy and to text him when we got there.

We got in about 6 PM and our limo driver was there, bellman met us outside, grabbed our bags, we went to VIP checkin while he waited, and was assigned 28-340. A spa suite. Spa suites are great, except they are as far away from elevators as possible. Nothing else was available so we took that.

So we head up, bellman comes up with our four bags, the fan he keeps for me and this:



And this




and this



Figuring he might hook us up again, I tipped him normal and handed him a visa gift card, told him to go buy his kids, or himself something nice for Christmas. I unpacked enough to find a pair of shorts, tossed them on, and headed to the casino.

First order of business was to get the Holiday Gift Shop out of the way, and since I only had about 32000 points, it didn't take long. Then it was off to find a beer and get my gambo on.



Mission accomplished on the beer part. Put $200 in and it started shitty, then had a little luck to get me started:



Hit this:



and this:



Had a few more little hits





Hey, there's nothing to this gambo, I'm gonna win all night, or so I thought. Sometimes I can be pretty stupid, or drunk, or both. I've hit on "7 times pay" before so I try it

Little off topic/on topic here, but have you ever noticed when you've had a few drinks and hit max bet, or in this case, the denomination is set to $10, instead of $1 so the bet is $45, or in this case $90, instead of $9, it never hits? Not even a nice little "you win $30, you're a winner" win while your really losing $60? Just once, I'd like to look up and say "shit, I didn't mean to do that, but I sure as hell am glad I did" and hit a big one,

Well, this time I did it twice before noticing. Switch it back to $1 and of course hit this:




Well, that helped some of my butt hurt. I reviewed that 7 times 0 equals 0. Yep, Math still holds there.

So I wander over to "Night of the Wolf"




played some more, in no order:



So much for "winning"

I'm drawn to the game of Cats, I can play the penny/nickle/quarter game all day long. They tend to let you play, the $ version, those cats can be well, Cats. I decide to give it a try.



I was starting to get a bit fuzzy and according to the meter, broke, so I took that hit and ran.

Try to call Ann, her phone went straight to voicemail. Yep, she didn't turn it off when the FA told the entire plane to, so it never regained a signal. Plane didn't crash so that's a plus. I wander upstairs to see about chow. By this time it's after 10 PM, so everything is closed. We end up with food court (Nathans), the wings were wings, the fries ended up soggy by the time we to the end of the hallway to get into our room.

Of course, then we had to make the long trek back down to have our nicotine fix. I spy a $5 top $ machine. First time in a long time I've been paid to smoke:



Decided that was a good enough place to stop for the evening, besides that, Ann had a milkshake to drink before it melted.

Part two still to come (and Parts 3/4)

 

[shamrock77]

I also have Plantar F in both feet and I find New Balance 405 sneakers help please let Ann know. Good luck look forward to reading more of your trip

 

[Flowers]

Other than the room at the end of the hallway, it's a good trip so far, plus your sweetheart is with you. Looking forward to the rest.

 

[CoveredinBeer]

NEVER does the accidental max bet pay off.

 

[tringlomane]

I've also mostly run shitty on the accidental max bet (usually 25/50/100 line VP), and one time it lead to a drunken hour argument with the MC slot floor because I did it twice, the second time intentionally. I claimed the second time was an "experiment" because their "bet one" button label actually "bet max", but apparently I was too drunk (and they were too stupid) to explain to them properly. Once the slot manager realized the argument was over $5 (I was arguing out of principle), he paid me out of pocket just to shut up. Of course my g/f reproved the scenario only putting $1 at risk. What a sober mind can do...

 

[DaiLun]

Congrats!!! Continued luck and success!!

 

[Tonez78]

Hi JPW, always good to read your reports and glad to see you shared. You have a great hook up with that bellman gig! Hilarious about carry on versus bringing the whole house, I can relate. Hope you and your wife had a great trip!

Tony

 

[jpw711]

I woke up Monday morning about 7 AM to five voice mails and thought to myself "Probably not that great of an idea to tell a twenty year olds mother 'only an idiot closes a door with a broken latch, and get's locked into the room the second time, you claim your son has done it four times now' but that's what you get when you text me at midnight" Yeah, I'm in the apartment business. Ann's still asleep so I put on yesterdays clothes and head down for a smoke, or three. Head back upstairs, find Ann sorta awake, and we make coffee. Remember those four bags? One has a coffee maker, a bag of regular for me, and a bag of espresso for her.

We head downstairs for Ann to have her smoke, and strike up a conversation with two late twenty year old ladies from the U.K. Newcastle I think. I know where that is about as much as they know where Iowa is. Ann and I have been binging on "Midsomer Murders" so I ask if they watch that. Their eyes lit up and we had a nice discussion about which is better, old or new Barnaby. (I think new, Ann thinks old).

We get our fix, I figure we are going back up so I can get "pretty", Ann's always pretty, but nope she wants a beer, Coors Original, so off to HL we go via the VIP check in so I can grab a warm coke (for later)

I end up with this:



pretty tasty bloody, but I still think SLS are better. I couldn't just sit there and not play, so I put in some money and have high hopes when I hit the bonus:



Good thing I hit that bonus cause Texas Tea was handing me my ass.



Oh boy.

Went back up to the room. Ann made some more coffee, I made one of these:



Ann's motto is be prepared.

We head back down and I tell Ann I want to go play the game I like to call politically correct, AKA eskimo money. Of course, it's all the way over by the strip entrance, but we make it over there. I've found if you can hit the bonus, it typically pays good.

Start playing and hit these:



Ann wanders off to play Jackpot party, I'm in "earn points mode" so I go play multi play Lobstermania. This machine has a max bet of $1.80, gives a lot of play, but it takes forever to earn points (compared to $9 a spin)



I go to find Ann, she's still playing Jackpot party, so I sit down behind her to play "plants vs. zombies" I've heard this game is a money sucker. Hit these



Between them, it sucked money, but it was still a pretty cool game.

Ann decided to go upstairs, I ended up at Amulet of the Charm. I always play this game, mainly because about 5 years ago, I was playing in Tunica at the Gold Strike and hit scatter bucks for $750. Didn't get that this time, but did get some play.



Was getting tired of drinking Coors Light, so I wandered back to HL, with a stop on the way at Stinking Rich Multi Play.



Then stopped off at a 3x4x5x 5 line $ I like:



Finally wandered into HL room for that beer and Ann found me there.

Always have to throw a few hundred at "super times pay"



Played various games and ended up at Triple Fire (9 line $). Some how I ended up with Ann's beer too, Memory serves she went to starbucks to get some more espresso.



No pictures of Triple fire wins, but I did have a few more beers. At some point I heard "somebody is having a good time"

She was right, I was having a good time, even though I was losing. So I said let's go play pennies. As if that $5 penny bet is going to lose any slower than that $5/9/15/20 bet. But that was my belief at the time. Sat down at Lightning Link, no clue how that works but did figure out if Ann had one more "ball" she would have hit for 17K



She won somthing, but no idea what. She remarked the Cosmo (drink) was pretty good.

While she played that one, I was playing this one:



@Chuck2009x : I still haven't played those points...

We end up in another part of the casino, I started playing a Batman/Robin Game, it was huge. When it said look up, you really had to look up.



no, my camera wasn't zoomed in.

So by this time, it's around 8:30, and I didn't want to eat at the food court. Grand Wok it is. We order, I mean I order. Maybe it's cultural differences, maybe our server was just a bitch, but Ann got pissed since the she decided that she only spoke to men. (I don't blame her for being pissed.) Server brings our food, well it went downhill from there. Ann excused herself, I thought to use the restroom. I later found out that it was to keep from killing said server. Let's just say the server didn't get much of a tip, but did get a nice note.

We go back to the casino, no more grand wok for Ann. By this time my daily budget is pretty low, but I forge ahead



That helped the cause, but that was the end of the wins for the day. Lost a little while longer and we went up.

 

[tringlomane]

I feel like you should be winning with all those pics! I think I might be passed out if I played that long. [emoji5]

 

[Chuck2009x]

@Chuck2009x : I still haven't played those points...

Just be careful, Jim Murren looks at your point balance the same way @tringlomane looks at a progressive.

Dude that is some serious slow-rolling on the drinking. I would never make it from 8:00am to 8:00pm

Accidental overbet - 200 lines on a $1 Davinci at MB I thought was set to 1 cent. Realized after the first spin. Was baked enough to spin 3 or 4 more times to get close to even. Was a good coin-in day, lol.

 

[Elort]

Looks like you're having a good time. Still trying to convince my host at the MGM that a box fan is a necessity for my trip in February. Totally don't think he believes me.
Also where in the casino is the Jackpot Party game that your wife plays?

 

[jpw711]

Looks like you're having a good time. Still trying to convince my host at the MGM that a box fan is a necessity for my trip in February. Totally don't think he believes me.
Also where in the casino is the Jackpot Party game that your wife plays?

The penny JP machine she plays is between the buffet and the casino restrooms.

As far as the box fan goes, good luck with that! My first one came from the Lowes at the end of the airport, that one went home with bellman, I told him to take it since he remarked that he's a fan guy too. The second came from HD, and bellman said he'd keep it at bell desk area for me. It's been there over a year, lol. I actually had asked the MGM limo driver to take me to lowes on the way from the airport. That earned some funny looks.

 

[jpw711]

Monday add-on.

One little story I forgot, while playing that Amulet and the charm machine, I recieved a text from the Bellman: "check your closet when you get back to the room"

I'm thinking "great, he found some coors original" and continue on with the day.

Make it back up to the room, tell Ann to look in the closet. Two brand new robes are in the closet with a note to take home. And there was a thank you card on the desk.

Totally unexpected.

 

[Elort]

Looks like I'm going to have to attempt to drop names at the Bell desk to get myself a box fan or I will also be asking our limo driver to make a stop at Home Depot or Lowe's first . It won't be the first they've heard that request
Thank you for the information on the Jackpot Party game. I like to play the one in the HL room but the significant other prefers penny machines and Poker.

 

[Richard Alpert]

Great report so far!
I remember giving that Jackpot Party game (penny version) a try on our last trip. I enjoyed it way more than the buffet though!

RICHARD

 

[RealSolGlow]

I've always wondered about a "comp" box fan.....I can't sleep without one. Of course usually in Vegas in my case I'm lucky to find my room and I just pass out until I wake up again ready for round 2 whatever time that may be....but dammit do I need a box fan.

Loving this report so far.

 

[93 Octane]

I found another casino that serves our beloved Original Coors----Jerry's Nugget. Yep I was hammered and decided it was time to finally go there and place a few bets, sat down in the keno lounge for a few minutes and what did the cw hand the chap in front of me?? The beautiful golden brown bottle that is OC just be sure the uber driver has bulletproof glass as the casino sits in a war zone

 

[jpw711]

Tuesday morning rolls around, we both wake up and it's 9:30. Wow, we never sleep this late. Well, we did 15 years ago, but then we weren't usually in bed till 5 am. Make our coffee, wander downstairs. This was not the morning for loud country music, so we went to the HL area for relative silence: muted country music.

Mentioned via facebook messenger to @tringlomane that I wasn't hungover. Must be the Vegas air cause I would have been dead if I drank all day at home.

Wandered back upstairs, got cleaned up, left Ann upstairs and wandered down to see what this day would bring. We had talked about going someplace today, either MB or SLS when she got ready.

Started with some Miss Kitty:



this was a good hit, but the amount didn't show.

Then wandered over to Lobstermania 3. Had a few bonuses, that paid a few bucks each. Nothing spectacular and after a $200 loss, moved on to an interesting machine next door. It didn't pay much, but did hit this big one:



I say big one in jest.

lost a bit more on that machine and said if I'm gonna lose, I'm gonna at least play $'s where I have a chance of hitting something.



That's better.



That helped too, would have helped more if the machine was actually set to $5, but was only set to $1 denomination.

lost some more on various machines, decided to go "make points"

Wolfs Run Multi play let me play a long time







noticed it was about 3 PM, decided I better go back up to room to grab more money, smokes, and Ann. She was ready to go, so we headed downstairs to play a bit and decide where we were going. On the way down, the English ladies came out of the room four doors down talking about how great their lunch was at Buffalo Wild Wings and the fact that "there's nothing like that in the U.K". They had a couple of those huge glasses from fat tuesdays and were headed down to get refills. It was one of them's 30th birthday that day and we told them to come find us the next morning because we had a gift for them, but not to early..

So we go down to play, I lose a couple of more hundreds in a 9 line $ quick and Ann says let's go someplace. We decide to Uber over to MB as I wanted to play there to generate some offers. We stroll around the casino and I see a Hexbreaker 2 machine and sit down.



well, that's more like it. We continue around the casino for a bit, and I see the wonder 4 tower I had hit on after Billy Idol last trip while waiting for my phone to charge to get an Uber back. While Ann went to find a starbucks, I played



We wandered around a bit, not see much to play, so while Ann went to get rid of the coffee, I sat down at a random nickle machine.



Walked around some more and ended up in the HL area.

Do you hear your furnace running right now? Imagine that is a vacuum cleaner running instead, because that's what happened to the money. Sucked right up.

Ann: how ya doing
Me: shitty
Ann: I was only gone 5 minutes
Me: That's all it takes in here
Ann: Let's go, let MGM suck up your money.
Me: Sounds good

so we Uber back, and listen to the driver (who has lived in LV all of two months) tell us that MB has the reputation of being a really tight casino. (yeah, two month expert). He then tells us the only game he plays is Roulette. I say because of the great odds, low house edge? Nah, it's because it's easy to understand.

In all fairness, he was a nice guy, I just got a kick out of him bashing MB.

We play some more when we get back at MGM, I managed to lose. Wasn't getting anything to hit, so we started talking about dinner. I knew we weren't going to the Grand Wok, Crush took their lamb chops off the menu, so we ended up with Room Service

Ann had the whole wheat pasta "filled with vegatables" It wasn't
I had the Chicken tenders and fries. They were good.

Went back down for a bit, lost some more and called it a night.

 

[jpw711]

Wednesday morning woke up thinking about having to get up at around 4 am to get packed up and stuff done before the 7:30 am flight back home. I'm not a fan of early morning flights, but also not a fan of mid afternoon flights that get into Tulsa around 8 and then driving back. I don't mind the drive back, I just don't like the being in the casino wanting to drink knowing I can't since I have to drive later. The 7:30 flight gets in around 1:30 via Denver so that ain't all bad.

So I'm thinking I'm not gonna drink, as much. That's my plan. Wander downstairs to get our fix, and sit down at a 9 line quarter machine that I promptly change to $. It doesn't make noise (hate it), so I move to the next one.



A good start after the beating I'd taken the day before. Ann says she's gonna stay off her feet today, so she heads back up to the room. I'm still licking my wounds from the day before and wanted to have some money left for later, so I went to multi play lobstermania.



then this.



Decided to go see the eskimos.



figure it's time for a beer and while I wait.



make that a few beers



move on to Amulet and the Charm. Was going to play Blood life, but the idiots in charge turned off the sound.



more beer.



decided that's enough coors light, time for original and start heading that way.

stop off at a nickle money storm.

I'd started with 2000 credits, so I decided to back it down to 20 credits a spin, enjoying my buzz and get the bonus. Figured that wasn't going to pay much and messed around on the phone. Boy was I wrong.



$5xx.xx on a $1 bet.

I call Ann, who is still up in the room, but says she's coming down for a smoke. I say meet me in HL room, which she does.

Ann: "Don't get to Hungover"
Me: "I won't"

I'm wanting to play Triple Fire


Go to Seven times Pay. Will it be friendly? No, but did hit this.





Snag my Coors and spy a $1 lobstermania I've never played.



now we are getting somewhere. I cash out that ticket and think maybe I should give Ann some of the loot for safe keeping. I quickly forgot that.


move back into HL and say let's give Cats a try.




Took that and decided to burn my free play on a $5 top dollar, the first $100 didn't do much, so I moved one machine to pinball. Well, that was a waste of freeplay.

went to a triple diamond.

then Night of the Wolf:



Now Ann's feet are starting to complain, so she tells me to find a machine and park it.



I stay there for a bit, and she decides we are having room service, it's about 6 pm, and told me to be upstairs in 30 minutes, she's gonna order, and I'm gonna sober up.

The Degen in me comes out. I decide I'm gonna take $300 and show that 15 line Cats $1 machine whose boss.


a good start. Wonder how long it's gonna last.



Time for a drink



time for another drink


And with that, the 30 minutes were up and I went upstairs like a good husband.

(and I put 9000 tier on that run to boot)

So I am walking down the hallway when out of room 28-304, out pops one of the English Ladies. I wave my hand at her to come on, and knock on the door. Ann lets us in, and I show her 90% of the bellman booze and say you are here till Sunday, we are leaving, happy birthday to you and gave it to her.

Her eyes BUGGED out. I said all I ask is what you don't drink, pass it on. and friend me on facebook. So we take it down to her better half, who is "hungover". Then we go downstairs to have a smoke, and I'll be damned if I didn't leave my phone in the room.

So English Lady, I'll call her K, and I go down and the nearest smoking section is the $ section. I spy a $5 Top $ machine and we set there. I put in $200 and within three spins hit the bonus. I start telling K how this works and how the first offer of $75 is to low for a $10 bet. Then it dawns on her that I'm playing $10 a spin and starts telling me she puts $5 in a machine and get's excited if she wins a few bucks. Second and third offers go by and the forth offer I get $400. So I cash that out.

Move over to the machine on the other side of K and say let's see if this hits. First spin, bonus. It pays 275. I'll take it.

So we head back up to the room and now Ann wants to have a smoke..So back down I go and set down in the seat K was sitting in. This time I had my phone.



That one pays another 400.

So with that we go up and order room service and start thinking about packing. Well, Ann did, I started thinking about not being hungover.

We had the wings/fries and quesadias. All were tasty. Back down for another smoke, and then we called it good.

I passed out at 10 PM, woke up at midnight. We finally got up at 4 and I asked Ann, did you sleep, cause you are gonna have to drive (8 hours from now that is). She says yes

We pack up, call for bellman (not my bellman) and they say he'll be up in 10 minutes.

That turned into 20, then the phone rang, he'll be up shortly.

I say define shortly. oh, 10 more minutes. I say nope, you tell him to come up and get the coolers and fan, I'll take my bags myself.

Cabbed to airport and texted real bellman. He says I'll get the stuff, don't you worry. (I wasn't worried about the fan, but wanted him to have his coolers)

Emailed host and said if we go over on the food credit, take it off via Express Comps and check me out. I never check out, I figure they will figure it out.

Head towards c/d security and right as we are passing precheck line, I decide to look. Both of us had precheck. Wow, that was nice.

Flight was full to Denver, where it was about 8 degrees, flight on to Tulsa was half full. FA said first person to sit in the back gets a comped beer. It wasn't me, back to reality.

Pilot says flight time is 1 hour 2 minutes, instead of 1:30.

I ended up driving home. Thanks to the Missouri Welcome center for the free coffee.

Final thoughts:

Put on 130K tier over the three days, we had 250 fp, 250 food, 4 nights comped in the spa suite and I didn't ask for it to be comped, but the limo to MGM was anyway. Offer was for 250 fp/250food/3 nights in suite. We came home with about 40% of our bankroll, thanks to Ann.

Now that I've achieved Plat status for 2018, I can resume trips to Tunica, where you get 20% of the tier points for same amount of coin in as in Vegas, and express comps are useless. (everything is comped)

And I wasn't hungover.

 

[emmas]

Enjoyed the report. You certainly got lots of play and returning with 40% of bankroll is not bad. Nice passing the booze on. Congratulations on a fun trip.