Day 13 Thursday December 26, 2002

I slept in today and felt well rested. Today’s plan is to casino hop to a bunch of the locals casinos, and downtown to get chips and to play craps like I did on the strip earlier this week and down in Laughlin.

The 1st stop was Arizona Charlie’s Decatur. This place is dark and smokey but offers good gaming deals. They have a $2 game here. I didn’t want to spend too much time in here so just made 1 pass line bet then left. I lost the $4 here.

The next move was to the Rancho strip. There are 4 casinos up here and I started off with Texas Station. The table only had one other player at it but I got in and shot. I hit a few numbers and was up and down a bit. I finished with a $7 win and went next door to Fiesta Rancho.

Fiesta has a great $1 game with 10X odds just like their Henderson property. I shot ok here and a few others did well too. While I was shooting some guy on the other end of the table dropped a stack of red chips on the field. It looked like about $75. This is normally a bad bet but it’s very popular for some reason. Lucky for him I threw a 12 and he got triple pay on it. Turns out there was $85 on it. I walked out of here with a $21 win.

Santa Fe Station was next on the list. This was a $3 game with 10X odds. There was a great shooter here while I played but unfortunately I wasn’t taking the come bets with odds that I usually do so I didn’t cash in as much as I could have. I walked out of here with a whopping $9. I might have stayed longer but the guy next to me had pretty bad BO like he hadn’t washed in a few days. It was pretty nasty!

Back down Rancho I stopped at a small place called Wildfire. It’s a new place that opened within the last year and took the place of a dumpy little bar/slot house. The craps table was closed but they use $1 chips on the blackjack tables too. I sat in at a $3 game. I got lucky and won a few hands and got out of here with an extra $6. This place is pretty much a place where the real locals hang out and it doesn’t really have anything to offer.

I left Wildfire and went down Lake Mead to the Strip and stopped off at Jerry’s Nugget. I’ve never been to the place before and I was surprised that it’s not as dumpy as I thought it was going to be. It’s not in a great area though. They have a $1 game here but only double odds. I was the only one playing and dropped 2 bucks in here before I left.

The next area to cover was Fremont Street. I was planning on doing this last week but after that great run at the 4 Queens I didn’t get time that night. I parked at Main Street Station and started my tour of downtown. Main Street Station’s game was at $5 with 20X odds and it wasn’t good to me. I dropped $59 in no time and ran out of here.

I took the bridge over to the California and got on one of their games. All of their games were also $5 but only offer double odds. Things were up and down here and I left with a $21 win.

After the Cal it was over to the Las Vegas Club. This was a $3 game with 5X odds. The person next to me was shooting and never played before. They had that beginner’s luck going and hit quite a few points. I would have walked after their roll but it was my turn to shoot. This worked out well and I had the dice for about 30 minutes. I hadn’t shot well up to this point in the day and realized after a few minutes why I was so hot. There was some guy at the far end of the table betting greens on the don’t and taking full odds. People, I’ve said it before and I’m going to say it again. I’m not a great shooter but NEVER bet against me. This guy must have dropped a grand while everyone else at the game was making a bunch of money. I was again cheered after I finally sevened out. I stayed in for a few more shooters and then walked away with a $237 win.

The Golden Gate was next. This was a $3 game and the shooter made a few points right away and I ran out before I got to shoot with a $17 win.

The Fremont was my next stop and they had a $5 game with only double odds. I got ahead a little bit but it was my turn to shoot so I stayed on the game. This didn’t work out and I lost $42 here.

Fitzgerald’s was the next casino to play in. They had a $5 game with 10X odds. I didn’t shoot here and after just 2 shooters I left with $16. For some reason I don’t feel lucky here.

I walked past the waste of space known as Neonopolis and it was dead in there. This place isn’t going to make it. I’m going to go on record here and say this place won’t make it to it’s second anniversary about a year and a half from now. If it does I’ll be surprised. About the only good thing about this place being there is it makes the walk over to the El Cortez a little safer since you don’t have to walk through the deserted section of Fremont Street.

The El Cortez has a $1 game on tables that are very worn. There is also a great collection of characters in here to entertain you while you play. This table wasn’t good to me and I lost $10.

Back up Fremont Street I made a walk over to the Lady Luck. They only had a $5 game with 5X odds. This table wasn’t too good to me either and I dropped $41.

Back over to Fremont Street I went into Binion’s. I resisted the urge to play blackjack here like I used to and went to craps. I don’t like playing craps here because the dealers are a bunch of hustlers and do whatever it takes to get tips even if it means deceiving new players to make bets for them. I stayed for a few rolls and dropped $2. I know it’s only 2 bucks but just the thought of Becky getting it pisses me off.

Across the street at the Golden Nugget all they had was $5 games. I got in and for some reason played like I normally do making the come bets with odds. This didn’t work out and I lost $119. This was bad but it wasn’t a terrible thing.

The last stop downtown was the Plaza. When I walked in I noticed something was missing. It was the smell of stale piss that wasn’t present. They must have stopped using the cleaner with the fake lemon scent (or just stopped cleaning) that mixes with stale beer and smoke to create a scent reminiscent of piss. Instead of the piss smell it just smelled like 20-year-old stale cigarette smoke. I got on a game here and only made 1 pass line bet. I lost it and walked out down $6. On the way out I stopped at their little McDonald’s by the front door for a quick dinner of 2 Big ‘n Tasty burgers. This isn’t too bad of a deal for $2.

Now it was on to Boulder Highway. My first stop here was Castaways. The game was $2 and there was only 1 other player. Between the 2 of us neither of us could hit a point. I dropped $32 here and moved on.

Arizona Charlie’s Boulder was next up. It must have been cripple night here. At the craps table there were 4 people either with motorized wheel chairs or crutches. Nothing against them but I just found it strange there were so many at one game. This was a $2 game and I stayed only for 2 shooters. One made his point, the other didn’t. I lost 3 bucks here.

Next up was Sam’s Town and a $5 game with 20X odds. There was a great shooter here that made quite a few points and by the time he went out I was up $74 and ran out the door. It made me happy to take money from this place based on the way they changed their comp policies a few years ago and screwed their loyal customers. If you are a regular reader of my reports you know the story and might have noticed that this is the first time in 5 years that I didn’t stay there for my birthday.

Even though I hate the little dump next door I made a stop at Nevada Palace. They only have bathtub craps here for $1. I stayed for one shooter and he made his point and I took off with a $5 win.

I stopped off at Jokers Wild in Henderson but the table was packed and decided just to move on and stop back tomorrow and went up to the Hyatt Regency at Lake Las Vegas. This place is pretty much in the middle of nowhere in a really nice, but exclusive area surrounded by million dollar homes. They have a tiny casino here and it’s usually pretty slow. Their craps game was open with a $5 minimum and only double odds. One thing I never saw here was they put up a dividing wall on the table to make it only a little longer than half way. At first there was a stickman and a dealer but they took the stickman away and ran the game with just a dealer. The lady next me was shooting and never played before. She had that great beginner’s luck and hit quite a few points. I shot next and did well too. I was making all my points and most of them the hard way. There was a guy betting the hard ways but instead of taking the money he kept parlaying the wins and ended up losing. I guess hitting a hard way and winning $90 wasn’t enough so he had to bet the win. I finally sevened out and left with an $83 win.

After a long drive out of here I stopped in Henderson and the Eldorado. This was a quarter game with 10X odds. This place is pretty dumpy and for the most part the people in here are either down and out or local old people that use the place for social hour. It seemed like everyone knew each other. I was only betting quarters on the line with $1 odds and lost $4.

From here it was on to Green Valley Ranch. This place is really nice I like it here even though I don’t get up here much to play. They had $5 games tonight with 10X odds. It was up and down and I was going to leave but it was my turn to shoot and I ended up losing $44.

It was getting late and I still had a few places I needed to go to but I decided one more would do it for the night. I stopped at Palace Station and the tables were packed. It was after midnight now and I was hungry again. I went to the Palace Café and ordered the late night steak and eggs. It’s 3 eggs, any style, a small steak, toast and home fries for $2.99. This was one of the best late night steaks I’ve had in a while. It was tender and cooked perfectly. They also offer a 99-cent breakfast that has 2 eggs, toast, bacon, and home fries. I was at the counter and it was packed. The waitress was running around like a nutcase but was able to do a good job. She apologized for the wait (it wasn’t that long) and tried her best to keep everyone happy.

After I ate there was space at the craps table. This was a $5 game with 10X odds. It was pretty ugly here and I lost $35.

Now it was going on 2am and I was tired. I headed back up here to the Suncoast and after 15 hours and over 20 casinos I was up about $100. I was glad to come out ahead after this because in most cases when I had a loss it was pretty big compared to most of my wins. The Las Vegas Club, Hyatt, and Sam’s Town wins really helped me out here.

It’s now 3am and time to go to bed. Tomorrow is my last day in town.

Total win/loss for the day $100
Total comps for the day $78