Day 2 Saturday July 10, 2004

Rental Car:
After my tournament session I had to return the rental car that I picked up yesterday for the 1-day rental and pick up the new one today. This one is reserved for a week and I got a rate of $14.99 per day for a full size. That works out to $104.93 for the week before the bullshit taxes. I used the discount code CTI for this rental too for $15 off. Based on reports I’ve read on various Internet boards many people seem to be getting $15 off per day with this code and have been getting some very cheap rentals. I’m hoping this happens for me when I return the car next week. That would make my rental FREE except for the customer facility charge and some taxes. Even if the code doesn’t work out it’s still a great price for a weekly rate.

Dawn and Rich were going to come for the ride but Rich was still recovering from last night so only Dawn made it.

I didn’t drive the first car very much and the gas gauge was still reading full so I took a chance and didn’t fill up before returning. When I got to the lot the girl said the computer wasn’t accepting my car so I had to go inside. After getting all of this straightened out (and getting away without filling the tank) I told the agent that I had another reservation with fastlane. He told me to go pick a car out of row k and head to the guard shack.

When we got to the row there was a good assortment of cars. Of course I grabbed the biggest and best car I could find, a Chrysler 300 with only 4500 miles. After getting my contract at the guard shack and seeing that the CTI code really was giving me $15 off per day I left the lot thrilled! Basically this car is costing me $14.99 per day but I have a discount of $15 per day. That means they are actually paying me 7 cents to drive this car. No wonder Dollar is in turmoil. If it wasn’t for this new $3 per day facility charge this rental would have been totally free although I’m not complaining about having to pay $30 for a week long rental of a Luxury car!

Dining:
After getting back from playing the rental car game me and Dawn had lunch at the Triple 7. I had the filet mignon sandwich and an iced tea. It was good like usual and hit the spot.

For dinner we went over to the Fremont to the Paradise Café. I tried out the Wor Wonton Soup. It had chicken, pork, and shrimp with Chinese vegetables in it. It was pretty good but there were too many veggies in it and not enough meat. I don’t think I’d get it again.

For a late night snack at the bar Dawn ordered a pizza from the Triple 7. The pizza here is decent but nothing like pizza from back home.

Gaming:
Oddly I had no trouble getting up for my session this morning. The tournament started right on time and I went a little aggressive right off the top. I got burned going $220 inside after the point was established by the second shooter when he went out right away. Things didn’t get any better after this either. For the last 2 rolls I had a total of $70 left. After seeing other players totals I took the only shot I had to get back into the game and bet $60 on high-low and my $10 pass line bet. It didn’t work out and I finished my session with $10. Not nearly enough to make the top 3 players in order to make the finals. It wasn’t a total loss though and I wasn’t totally out of the game yet because there is a second chance drawing at 1:45pm for 2 wild card spots at the final table.

After lunch we all went to the casino and Rich was up and already banging away at VP. I played some 8/5 bonus aces with little luck. I cashed out only down $20 though because I had to go to the wild card drawing for the finals of the tournament. I don’t usually do well in drawings and stuff like that but since I was here I figured I’d go and see what happens. They called a number for the first spot and it was way off from my number but the second number WAS my number. I was in the finals of the tournament. All players were guaranteed money just for making it this far. Last place was just $50 though so my goal was to finish above those 2 spots to win at least $100.

I was in spot 3 so that meant I would probably get a chance to shoot. A few aggressive bettors got a quick lead off of the first 2 shooters. I was laying low with my bets and I know this sounds odd but I was really rooting for the shooter to 7 out to wipe out these aggressive players. When it was my turn to shoot my goal was to 7 out right away. I had 3 different players that each had $300-500 place bets on the 6 & 8. Going out right away would kill these guys. Unfortunately I made quite a few rolls and made my point twice.

When the final betting was made I had the disadvantage of betting 3rd. I was in the middle of the scores at this point and the safest way to get a decent prize was to throw some money in the field.

On the final roll the call was 3 and the field won. Quite a few players made this bet so I wondered where I’d fall. After all of the money was tallied I finished in 7th place beating out the 8th place guy by $5. The difference in prize money between the 2 places was $50 and I took $300 in prize money. This was the first time I ever won anything in a tournament.

After the craps session we played some more video poker. I did pretty well this session hitting aces on bonus poker and then later on hitting a straight flush on an inside draw. The only problem was the machine was killing me after this and I only cashed out with a $60 win.

Before taking an afternoon break or some naptime I played my slot tournament session. In this session you get 20 minutes to make as many spins as you can on a triple diamond machine. I couldn’t seem to hit much of anything other than mixed bars. I heard the director saying you needed 20,000 points to be in the money today. I was no where near making that. I finally hit 3 triple diamond symbols with about 1 minute to go but it wasn’t going to help. I finished with just over 12,000 points.

After dinner it was time for more VP. I took a shot with $100 playing DDB hoping to hit a few quick quads. I don’t usually play this game though because of the volatility. I didn’t hit shit and lost the whole $100. I switched to 9/6 jacks or better and popped in another $100. I got about 2 hours of play but eventually lost this $100 too.

We hung out at the bar for a while and me and Rich went to talk to one of the hosts about our rating. Things aren’t pretty here at MSS like they used to be and those of you that are used to getting silver and gold cards can pretty much forget about getting them any more, especially if you’re video poker players.

After our conversation at the slot booth I tried a little triple play video poker. Things weren’t going well here and I was getting way too many hands with no winners at all. I did manage to pull a few quads to keep me in the game though. The wait for scratch cards tonight was unacceptable. I was waiting for over 15 minutes for one scratch card and 10 for another. All that waiting around and they were only $2 each. I got on a little hot streak and cashed out of this session even.

Total win/loss for the day $150
Total comps for the day $153