Day 2
Sunday June 24, 2007

When I got up today I went downstairs to the Dollar rental car desk. As I mentioned in yesterday’s report, I’m picking up my car at the hotel this time. The main reason simply being cost. Normally the rates at the hotels are normally higher than at the airport, even after you factor the bullshit taxes they add on. By booking this car to be picked up at Circus – Circus I saved over $350 between the price and the taxes. I thought this was just unbelievable. Normally if the rate is cheaper at the hotel after the taxes, it’s not by much but in this case, $350 is pretty substantial if you ask me. The rates have dropped since I booked but as of last week they were still over $100 more to pick up and return at the airport. The only thing I was actually worried about was the lack of car selection compared to the options of picking up at the airport.

I reserved a full size car I was given a Dodge Charger with 8000 miles on it in like new condition. The girl at the check in desk was pleasant to deal with and had everything ready for me.

After getting the car business taken care of I went up to the Cannery for some video poker and to hit their Neighborhood Partners promotion. This is one of my favorite places to play and one of my favorite promos, although it’s not quite as good as it used to be. Also the loss of the card of the day and the 50 coin bonus coupons from the POV and ACG the last few years hurt too. I was there for about 15 minutes and Yahtzee Mike arrived. It was about 5 minutes later I was dealt 4 to a royal and caught one on line 4. I also caught 2 flushes for a total hand pay of $1012.50 and they paid me $1013, and then hovered for a tip. I don’t think so. I was impressed that only 20 minutes into gambling for the trip and I’ve already royalled! We played for a while and both cashed out. I cashed out with my initial $100 buy in and went to the slot club to buy some gift cards with my points. I played enough to get five $10 cards for Wal-Mart. Now this is the way promos are supposed to work and once again the Cannery was my personal ATM today.

When we left the Cannery we went over to Fiesta Rancho for lunch at their buffet. Mike had a 2 for 1 coupon and I used points to cover the difference. Between the coupon, my player’s club discount and points, this was a $20 savings. The buffet here is average but was tasty. My favorite item for the day was the orange chicken at the Chinese station.

As we were about to leave the Fiesta we ran into Ms. VP Fae from the VP Free site. We talked with her for a while then we all went our separate ways.

I came back here to Circus – Circus to take a short break and then went to get my $330 in free play activated. This is normally a quick process but today I had the boothling from hell. First she wouldn’t believe I had a room, and then wouldn’t believe I had a room number that was 5 digits long. What a pain in the ass she was. Then she had to talk to me like I was 3 years old when explaining how to use free play. Finally I got away from the booth and got to play. I tried for a quick hit and the fastest way to run this play through the machines so I tried the $1 triple play machines with 8/5 bonus. I played the minimum amount of hands needed to be able to cash out the free play and turned the $330 into $400. I was happy with those results and went over to Slots – A Fun to play the quarter 5 play machine with 9/6 jacks or better.

This machine was tough and took $100 in less than 10 minutes. It got better though and I was hitting quads quite often. My problem today was getting the dealt winners you need to keep alive. On one hand I was dealt trip 4’s and pulled the quad on 2 lines. This was extra special because 4 was also the card of the day so I got an extra $10 for each of those. After about 90 minutes I had dropped almost $300.

I went back over to Circus – Circus to try the $1 triple plays again and on the first hand was dealt trip jacks and hit the 4th on the top line. I got on a little run but then ended up cashing out up $100 and went back over to Slots – A Fun for more of quarter five play. This time I got about ½ as much action as I did last time and still lost another $300. It wasn’t a good day here at Slots – A Fun!

I had enough Video poker for the day so I went back over to Circus – Circus and looked for some blackjack to play for a while. I sat at a $25 double deck game. This table was choppy from the get go. That’s not a terrible thing though. I wasn’t getting many double down opportunities and when I did I wasn’t winning them. I was also being blackjack deprived until about the last 15 minutes of play when I was dealt 5 or 6 in about 10 hands. I cashed out the session with a $25 win which I split with the dealers.

It was now going on 1am and I hadn’t eaten since the lunch buffet earlier today so I hit the Casino Café (formerly the Pink Pony). In here I had a bowl of chicken noodle soup and the pulled pork sandwich. The food was good but neither of the items I ordered were very hot.

At 1:30am I got back up here to the room and filled up the Jacuzzi to relax for a while before going to bed.

Total win/loss for the day $950
Total comps for the day $500