Day 14 Friday December 27, 2002
Today is my last day in town. I can’t believe it’s already over. Today’s plan is to hit the last few casinos for chips and then meet Yahtzee up at Fiesta Henderson. It’s 5X points today and we are planing on playing some video poker and hitting the $1 craps table.
My first stop was right next door at the Rampart Casino at the Resort at Summerlin. This place has had more names in the few years that it’s been open than any other place I town that I can think of. They had a $3 game in here with 3X, 4X, and 5X odds. It was only me and one other player. Both of us shot pretty well and if I were betting more than the pass line I would have made a good chunk of money. Instead I won $15.
The next stop I made was on the strip at the Stratosphere. The main goal here was to some chips. There were a few craps tables open all with $5 minimums with the exception of that stupid crapless craps game that was $3. I got on a $5 game with 10X odds and only made pass line bets. There were no other players and I had the game to myself. There’s not much excitement playing alone but you can’t blame anyone but yourself for losing!
I shot well here and 10 seemed to be the number of the day. I had 10 as my point and brought it right back for a winner. On the next come out the point was once again 10. Again I brought it right back on the next roll. As if 4 tens in a row isn’t good enough I made 10 my point once more and followed right back with it again. For those keeping score that’s 6 10’s in a row. My next point wasn’t 10 but the roll after it was. Playing alone I had the dice for about 10 minutes. That doesn’t seem long but you can throw the dice quite a few times in 10 minutes. I only sevened out once and took the money and ran with a $135 profit. If I had been making come bets with odds I probably would have walked off with $1,000 but I wasn’t so we won’t discuss it!
I had to make one more stop in Henderson before going to the Fiesta. This was a return to Jokers Wild for some chips. Traffic was miserable this afternoon and you could tell it was the weekend. It took 30 minutes to get from the Stratosphere to Jokers Wild. I couldn’t get in the craps game so I just got the chips at the cage.
From here it was on to Fiesta. I found Yahtzee at the 10-coin FPDW machines. He was ready to hit he craps table but I needed to eat first. I went to the coffee shop and NO, I didn’t get the soup! I just needed something to hold me over until dinner so I had some toast and an order of bacon. Now I’m set to play craps.
I went back to Yahtzee’s machine and he cashed out. Of course he needed a hopper fill with only 2 coins left to spit out. The fill came pretty quickly and we were off to the craps table. The first shooter pretty much sucked and after setting a point and shooting 2 more numbers which I had come bets on he 7’d out. From here it got much better though. There were some great shooters and most of them were grumbling that there was a don’t bettor on the other end of the table. Well too bad for him that everyone that shot wiped him out. Yahtzee and me quit before the dice ever made it to us. I cashed out with a $145 win here. After we cashed out I met a few hosts upstairs. It had been a long time since I dealt with a host here and it’s good to have someone to go through when looking for room comps. The hosts here are friendly and seem like they’ll be helpful when the time comes to need their help.
I left the Fiesta and met my friend Anne and her mother. We went to Sunset Station to play and eat. We ate at Capri on a full comp. We had 2 appetizers. Both were of the cheese variety. One was the provolone with pepperoni breaded and deep-fried. The other was the mozzarella. Both of these are way over priced at about $7 a piece. I ordered the Chicken Florentine. The food was great and too much to eat. I finished off with a chocolate covered spumoni. In other words a chocolate covered scoop of ice cream. This was a nice treat and I cracked up when the check came and these little things were 6 bucks a piece. It’s a good thing these were comped or I would have been pissed.
After dinner we played some video poker. I went to the bank of optimum pay machines and played deuces wild. Anne played DDB. She lost and moved to a different part of the casino. I was doing ok and was up as much as $17 and as low as $15. Then the machine went into vacuum mode. I was down $65 and getting a little aggravated that I wasn’t hitting anything at all. That’s when I held 3 cards to a heart royal and filled it for my second royal of the trip. I was shocked when I heard the music start playing.
I found Anne and her mother playing VP in a different part of the casino. Anne was doing ok and hit a few quads playing $2 games. We were going to play some blackjack even though after the last few trips it’s been a terrible game for me. The place was packed tonight and all they had with open seats was games with continuous shuffle machines, single deck 21 with 6-5 blackjacks, and those stupid no bust and super fun games. Anne played the no bust game and I stood there and watched. It was ugly and I was glad I wasn’t in the game.
I went over to the craps tables and they had a $2 game with 10X odds. This was a pretty good table and shooters were making their points and hitting numbers. I was making come bets with odds and got up about $150. Things were going great until some asshole throws $10 out into the table and yells big red (betting a 7 will roll). Sure as shit the shooter sevened out. The same thing happened on my last trip when I played here when a guy did that in the middle of the roll. I was pissed and hoped that I would wipe this guy out when it was my turn to shoot. It didn’t happen though because I went out right after establishing a point. He tried this little stunt a few times after but luckily he lost each time he did it. The table remained good and I was going to cash out but it was my turn to shoot again. Unfortunately I sucked this time too and it was an instant replay of the first time I shot. I cashed out after this with a $70 win.
I went and found Anne and her mother and they were still playing VP. Things weren’t as good as they were but not terrible. A little while after I found them we decided it was getting late and time to go. I thought it was a pretty good night considering the craps wins and the royal. We said our good byes and I was on my way back to the Suncoast. As I was pulling out of the parking lot I realized I hadn’t stopped into the Rio or Gold Coast for chips. I was going to play a few minutes at the Rio but all of the tables were packed and had $10 minimums so I just went to the cage and got what I needed. While I was walking through there it was good to see that the cocktail waitresses still run around with their asses hanging out!
One more stop across the street to the Gold Coast and then it would be all over. I bought in on the craps game with $2 minimums and Coasts famous double odds. The table was up and down but it was my turn to shoot when I was going to leave so I hung around. It worked out and I got everything back that I lost before I shot. I stayed for one shooter after I went out and he sucked. He had a small cast on one of his fingers and couldn’t shoot the dice well at all. Most of his rolls were only going about 1/3 of the way across the table. He kept getting yelled at by the dealers but wouldn’t switch hands. The table was getting aggravated by him because of this not to mention he was a don’t bettor. Even when he was shooting he was on the don’t. He made the right choice though because he went out before making his point. I walked out after this and realized I was a big winner even though I thought I was even. Yes, I was the winner of a big dollar!
Since it’s my last night in town I thought I’d drive down the strip one last time and check out the lights. I went through downtown one more time too before I got on the freeway back up here to the Suncoast. It’s now 3am and I need to get to bed so I can get up in the morning and pack my stuff up for the flight home.
Total win/loss for the day +$1300
Total comps for the day $157