Day 6
Monday October 27, 2008
I slept in today since last night was a late one! By the time I got motivated it was time to head out and swap rental cars. I mentioned earlier that I had 2 free days with Avis and additional days were too expensive therefore a swap was in order. I had to make a quick stop to top off the gas tank and now that gas prices are coming down, it’s not quite as painful to do this. It was nice to be able to pull into the rental car facility and not have to worry about unloading luggage and going to the airport. Returning the car to Avis was a breeze and I headed across the facility to the Dollar area and the Dollar Express booth. They had my paperwork ready and I picked out a Dodge Charger in the lot with 4800 miles on it. While it was pretty new it wasn’t the same car I had last week with 2 miles on it. It also didn’t have as many features but for the 2 days I would have it and for under $17 a day ($30 cheaper than Avis wanted) it’s a great car.

When I left the rental car facility my plan was to hit Fiesta Henderson. The plan here was to eat lunch, and use some coupons they sent me in the mail good for 3X points, a $5 match play, and a free gift for earning 500 points. First thing was lunch since I was starving. I went to the Baja Beach Café and sat at the counter. A server came over and the conversation went like this:
Server: Do you need a menu?
Me: No, I’m ready to order.
Server: What would you like?
Me: I’ll take the Feel Good Soup Fried Wontons, no mushrooms
Server: (with scared look on his face) We don’t have that
Me: What?
Server: We don’t have that
Me: What do you mean?
Server: We have the Emperor’s Wonton now (gets a new menu since my last visit to show me)
Me: Oh, that sucks. I’ve been getting that for years. It’s really good.
Server: Yeah, I used to get it sometimes
Me: Shit, give me a minute to look over this new menu

So I ended up ordering the Emperor’s Wonton. It’s wonton, pork, shrimp, & Veggies. It’s good but it’s no Feel Good Soup. I text Dee about this after I placed my order and told her I was about to cry. My long time favorite, her short time favorite was no longer on the menu. It’s a sad day at Fiesta Henderson. The food was good and after I ate I hit the casino.

Since I had a 3X coupon I wanted to maximize a little bit even though I’ve got a ton of points at the Fiestas. I chose $1 8/5 bonus triple play. This machine was being pretty good to me giving me lots of dealt winner and a few quads of the bonus variety. I ran a little over 3k through the machine and cashed out ahead by just over $200. Then I played a variety of penny slots and for didn’t do very well. I ended up dropping about $100 on various games and decided to at least walk out with some profit.

I went to the slot club to turn in my coupon for a free gift. I had a choice between a semi-circle glass picture frame and a poker chip set, neither of which I need. I chose the poker chips because they pack easier to go home with. They are cheap plastic crap but what the hell. They were free.

On the way out the door I played my $5 match play on black at roulette. When I placed this coupon down the dealer looked at it like I was trying to rob the casino cage. She stared at it, read it 3-4 times, looked at me and then asked where I got it. I told her they mailed it to me. Then she called the floor person over who eyeballed it and then told her to let it play. I mean holy shit people. Inform your dealers that you mailed these things out so they have a clue. Let’s not even mention the fact it was for five effing dollars. Anyway, she finally spun the wheel and I lost again. This put me at 1 for 3 on match plays so far.

When I left Fiesta Henderson I went downtown. The plan here was to hit the 4 Queens for some free play they sent me and to meet up with Yahtzee Mike and Dana. I parked over at Main Street Station and walked over to the 4 Queens where my first stop was the slot club booth to activate $80 in free play they sent me. I used this on the 9/5 Jacks or better 50 play machines playing 10 lines for quarters. I was lucky enough to turn this into $6 with very little play. Next up was some single deck blackjack. I played 2 hands at $25 a hand. Things were choppy at first with me winning one hand and losing the other. The killer here was not winning any of my double down hands. That hurt. Things turned around a bit and I got ahead a little. Then it was like someone turned a switch. The dealer was beating both my hands every round and I was busted out in a matter of minutes. I lost $275 here and hit the penny slots for a while. I had a few nice hits but nothing substantial. All in all I lost about $80 more bucks doing this.

I left the 4 Queens and was on my way over to Main Street Station when Mike called. He and Dana were on their way to the 4 Queens themselves. I met them in the middle of Fremont Street and we decided they would skip the 4 Queens and we’d go get something to eat at the Cal Coffee shop with his Hawaiian Book that he got at Main Street Station when he checked in. When we got to the Cal the line was a mile long so we went over to Main Street Station. Mike scored a comp for 3 to the buffet at the slot club. We also talked to Gloria about the merging of all the clubs in the Coasts/B – Connected system. I think she’s as uniformed as most of the players were. Simply put, no one seems to know what combining these clubs is going to do or how to combine all the existing accounts. She said once everything is up and running correctly they are going to run a program that sorts out each player’s account in each of the casinos (Sam’s Town, Coasts, and the downtown Boyd properties) and automatically merge them. Well all I know is I’m glad I had a good boothling at Sam’s Town that took care of all that for me last week.

There were no lines at the buffet so we didn’t get the perk of cutting in front of them. The food here was good as it usually is but I still have to say that over the years the quality isn’t what it used to be. Then again find me a buffet that is. Thanks to Mike for getting me comped here.

After dinner we all played the triple/five play machines with 8/5 bonus. I was doing well at first and even hit quad aces. I wasn’t getting many dealt hands and that was draining me. I managed to pull quite a few full houses that kept me going but in the end I only hit 4 quads and even with hitting aces dropped $75 on this machine.

When we were done playing video poker we all played BJ at a $5 double deck game. This game didn’t have the greatest rules (do double after split) but for $5 it did pay 3-2 on a BJ. I played 2 hands at $10 each. This table was tough from the beginning. The dealer was pulling 20’s and 21’s on 3 & 4 card draws. I was getting good hands but pushed and lost with 20 more times than I care to remember. We did get to play a long time and eventually Mike and Dana got busted out. I stayed a little bit longer almost getting back to even. Then I got whacked on a 4 way split (the 3rd time I got one of those tonight) and that was the beginning of the end. I dropped $160 here but did get quite a bit of play. Losing sucks though no matter how much action you got!!

When I cashed in I saw bartender Bob was over at the Boar Bar so I went over to see him and play some jacks or better at the bar. This machine sucked up my money so fast it wasn’t funny. On a $100 buy in I only got $400 in action. I moved from the bar back to the casino and played a 10-play machine. I was getting killed here too but a few dealt winners kept me in the action. I was just about down to my loss limit and decided to try one last $100 on DDB. I hit a few quads and then pulled aces with a kicker on one of the lines. This got me back to “only” being down $100 for the session. During the day I ran over 10k through the machines and combined with my action at Sam’s last week I was upgraded to the Sapphire level of the Coast/B- Connected Card.

I got back to the Hard Rock around 3am and couldn’t wait to get to bed!

Total win/loss for the day -$700
Total comps for the day $259