Day 8 Wednesday August 14, 2002

I slept late today and when I finally got up I had to head up to the Fiesta in Henderson to meet Gary for lunch. We went to the coffee shop here. I had a comp I got in the mail good for $20 here. I had my favorite meal here again, the Feel Good Wonton soup. I followed that up with a big serving of ice cream.

After lunch Gary had to leave but I stayed for a while and played craps. It looks like today’s gaming day is going to continue where yesterday’s left off. The table was cold and I lost at everything I tried here. There was one good shooter that brought back some of the money but a few shooters later it was all gone again. This trip is starting to turn into a nightmare like the last 2 were.

I left the Fiesta and went back downtown to my room at the 4 Queens to rest for a while. I took a walk through Fremont Street to pass some time. I also checked out Neonopolis. This place is a total joke. I can’t believe all of the hype there was around the place opening. Most of the stores are still empty and I’d like to meet the jerk that decided an outdoor mall would be a good idea in Las Vegas. Personally I think this space could have been better used for a new hotel casino. After touring this waste of space I went back to the 4 Queens to start to play again. I started with craps and it was a decent table at first but then that all went to shit. What a surprise it was when I lost again. From here it was over to VP. The same crap is still happening. Insert $20 and get $25 in play. I’m still thinking someone is playing a cruel joke on me. There is no way I should be losing so fast when I play. I moved to one machine and thought maybe things were going to start to change. I was playing bonus poker and on my second hand was dealt quad 3’s. Then 4 hands later held a pair of 3’s and pulled the other 2 again. Unfortunately this is where the short run of luck ended and the 400 credits I won disappeared as quick as I got them.

I thought this would be a good time to go upstairs to my room and take it easy for a while and calm down. I caught a few light shows while I was up there and watched TV for a while. I saw a few more light shows I haven’t seen before but one of them just seemed like a remake of an older one. All of the lights were different but the music was the same.

After seeing the light shows I went back to the casino to the slot club. I had some coupons I was going to redeem. Of course when I was standing in line I realized I didn’t have them with me and they were up in the car. After making the 12-mile run up to the car and back I was set. The first coupon I had was for free dinner in the coffee shop when you earn 200 points ($1,000 coin in). This coupon was actually part of the ticket you get when you pull into the parking garage. Then other coupons I had were for free drawing tickets and a free bear with the 4 Queens logo on it for earning 400 points. They are also running a promo where if you earned 200 points you get a free 50-flavor box of Jelly Belly jellybeans. The great part about all of these offers is none of the points are deducted from your account. I also collected my cash back of $59. Some of this cash was in my account from the day I signed up for the card back in 1996. Other than on my last trip I think it had been about 3 years since I was actually in the 4 Queens to play.

When I got to Magnolias for my comped meal I was seated right away. I was given this table that was tucked into a small corner. I felt like a little kid that was bad and had to eat alone in the corner. I ordered the pork chops. They came with soup, which was Louisiana Gumbo, vegetables, applesauce, and a baked potato. The meal was good but the pork chops were a bit on the overcooked side.

After dinner I caught one more light show and then grabbed all of my junk from out of the room and headed back up to the Gold Coast to go to bed and call it a day. My hopes at this point are to put the last 2 days behind me and hope tomorrow will bring a little better luck since I’m getting into a deep hole and getting out of it will be tough.

Total win/loss for the day -$300
Total comps for the day $154