Day 11 Tuesday December 24, 2002

I got up at 9am today and packed up the little I had out and headed down to the valet to get my car. The ride back was as boring as the ride down with one exception. I was moving along at quite a high speed and a car came flying by me like I was going at a snail’s pace. Little did he know that when he passed me (at about 100mph, and that's no exaggeration) that the car coming at him in the opposite direction was a state trooper. He pulled over and turned around right in the middle of the road and made chase. I lost sight of them and saw them again in Searchlight (the dinky little town between Vegas and Laughlin).

I got back to Henderson in good time and went out to Boulder City to the Hacienda to grab some chips. The craps game was closed so I just went to the cage and bought them. It’s a long drive out here from the strip but it’s not too bad when you’re already up in Henderson.

From the Hacienda I went back down to Henderson with a short stop at Railroad pass. They have a quarter craps game with 10X odds. This was the table from hell. Every single shooter would make a point, throw 1-2 numbers and seven out. I dropped about $40 here and ran out the door.

From here it was back to the laundromat to pick up my clothes from yesterday and the over to Fiesta Henderson for lunch. I had the usual and then left for the long journey to the Suncoast. It’s about a half an hour to get from the Fiesta to Suncoast but today it took over an hour. There was an accident on the 95 and it jammed the road up. I of course was in the left lane and couldn’t get over to get off and take the surface streets. Just after the spaghetti bowl traffic was cleared and it was smooth sailing up here.

As always there was no line at check in. In minutes I was up in room 920. This is the first time in a year that I haven’t been in a suite here. I’m not sure if it’s because my play has dropped off (it has but not too much) or if the cut backs I’ve been reading about. It’s really no big deal. The suites are so huge and the space goes to waste since it’s just me. Besides the regular rooms here are better than some suites I’ve stayed in at other hotels.

After getting settled in for what will be the last time of the trip I took a short break, grabbed a snack and then went to the casino. They are running double points here until the 26th (.5% cash back) so it’s a pretty good deal considering I’d be playing whether they has the 2X points or not.

Just before I left the room I got a call from Yahtzee. He was on his way over. When he got here we played FPDW for a while until he had to leave. I didn’t do well here and lost $100. I tried my luck with some triple play and dropped $300 here without getting 1 quad.

I took a break for a while and then played craps. They have a $2 game here but with lame double odds. The table started out tough but it got a little better. I got to play for 2 hours and won $5.

After craps I went back to the deuces machines. While I was there Yahtzee and his wife showed up. I was hitting some decent hands and got ahead by over $100. Things were working out well here but then the machine went in to vacuum mode and I lost everything. It was now 4am and time to get up to bed. It wasn’t a great gaming day with my biggest loss of the trip.

Total win/loss for the day -$600
Total comps for the day $75