Day 5
Wednesday August 10, 2005
Trip to Laughlin:
The ride to Laughlin is a pretty long and boring and seems to take forever even thought it’s only about 90 miles from Las Vegas. Today was no exception. After a pretty boring ride I made my way down the mountain into Laughlin and headed up Casino Drive for Harrah*s. From a gas station out in front of Sam’s Town I made it to Harrah*s in just an hour and 15 minutes. I have no major plans here in Laughlin other than to just relax and get away from the high paced action of Vegas for a few days. It’s also a good opportunity to preserve bankroll with limited gaming “requirements” and the low limits available down here. I haven’t been here in a few years so it was a good opportunity to make my return since this is a longer trip.
Hotel:
After arriving at Harrah*s Laughlin I went to check in at the Diamond Room. I always love checking in at the VIP and special player areas of hotels because I don’t feel I’m that big a player to deserve it. My favorite part is the dirty looks I get from people when I scoot past them into the VIP area and am on my way to the room before they even get to the desk! These 2 nights are of course complimentary and were obtained just by entering my dates into the Harrah*s website. In just a few minutes I was on my way to room 32015 in tower 3. This room is a full suite with a separate living room and bedroom. It’s not plush, especially compared to some of the suites I’ve had in the past. The living room has a wet bar with refrigerator, sink and coffee maker. There is also console TV, sofa with pull out bed, and a small table and chairs.
The bedroom has a TV stand, full sized dresser, a king bed and nightstands. They also have robes for your use and near the windows are large sitting areas. According to the signs near them, they are not for sleeping but rather for your viewing pleasure! There is a partial view of the river because the other hotel tower blocks part of the view.
The bathroom is split into 2 rooms. The outer room has a long counter with 2 sinks and there is a large soaking tub. Oddly they have this huge tub with no jets in it so it’s pretty useless to me. The next room had the toilet an a very large tile shower stall.
After getting settled into the room I tried to nap but I kept being woken up by a banging noise. This room was behind the elevator banks and every time the elevators would get used I'd hear this. I tried for a room change but the guy at the diamond desk said they were sold out. He did look around for me but said he was booked up and I could try back in the morning.
Around midnight Yahtzee Mike rolled into town. I registered him as my guest and he’d be spending the night on the sofa bed in the living room.
Dining:
Before leaving Vegas I stopped off at the Hard Rock to use up a $30 food voucher I had. I went to Mr. Lucky’s 24/7 Café. I went with a bowl of chicken noodle soup and a turkey club with fries. I topped that off with a peach cobbler. All the food was really good and it was way too much to eat. I took ½ the sandwich with me and my bill was only $20 at this point. The waiter offered to get me something to go. I went with the standard “to go” item of chicken fingers because they are easy to keep. The bill came to just under $30 and I did my job maximizing this coupon. After watching the Yankees choke yet again against the White Sox I hit the craps table for while.
For dinner I decided not to go anywhere and I just went to the room and dined on those chicken fingers from earlier today as well as my sandwich.
Gaming:
After lunch at the Hard Rock I hit the craps table. I wasn’t planning on betting like a maniac today and only bought in for $300 cash instead of taking out a marker. The table was pretty cold but one good shooter made me some money so I got while the getting was good with a little over $300 profit. I didn’t even stay long enough to get the dice myself.
At Harrah*s Laughlin I started my night off with some jacks or better progressives. This bank has a different meter for each suit of cards. The progressives were high on 2 of the suits at $1900 and $1700 while the lower 2 were both over $1200. This game is 8/5 jacks rather than the standard 9/6 but I wanted a shot at those progressives. This machine sucked up $100 pretty quick and I of course didn’t hit the progressive.
Since I was up for the trip I took a shot with some $1 video poker. I went to the high limit room and played jacks or better. I was able to pull a straight flush on an inside draw or $250. Other than this I only hit 1 quad and finished the session up by $100 to balance out the earlier loss.
After Yahtzee Mike arrived we didn’t play anything but instead took a tour of the casinos here in Laughlin. It had been a long time since he’d been here and we checked out craps conditions around town and looked for the VP at places listed on VPFree to confirm it was there.
I called it a night at 3am and Mike went to the casino for a while here at Harrah*s for a while.
Total win/loss for the day: $300
Total comps for the day: $95