Day 5
December 17, 1999
Slept in a little late and decided to head off to North Las Vegas to the Fiesta for a comped lunch buffet. This was an offer sent to me in the mail so I figured I’d give it a shot. I’ve always heard how good this buffet was and today I’d see for myself. There was no line for the buffet so I got right in. This surprised me since it was right in the middle of lunchtime. The food was pretty good here and there was a great selection to choose from. I found the typical problems that I usually find with buffets though. Foods are not usually hot enough and some of the slower moving items get dried out sitting in the steam table under the French fry lights. Other than that everything was great.
After lunch tried my luck at Blackjack. Started off using the Las Vegas Advisor $5 match play coupon. I got a blackjack on my hand. The only problem was the dealer did too. I ended up losing the next hand with a 20. Played for about 2 hours turning $50 into $250 and quit.
After cashing out went out to the Santa Fe. I’ve heard a lot about this place but never went there before. It is way out in the middle of nowhere a few miles past the Fiesta and Texas Station. I had never been here before so the first thing I did was sign up for a slot card. I was also given some drawing tickets to win a 27-inch TV. I had the $75 for $50 coupon from Casino Player so started my luck with some blackjack. Things were pretty good here. I turned the original $50 into another $250 in less than 30 minutes and quit. Moved over to the progressive full pay deuces wild machines. Had no luck here. Hit a few wild royals but not much else. Lost $100 and gave up. It was almost time for the 5pm drawing for the TV so I stayed around. There was quite a big crowd gathering since you need to be present to win. As I was walking through the crowd a man told his wife he was heading to the bathroom real quick before the drawing. She got mad at him and told him he didn’t have time. He said sure he did and left. A few minutes later they pulled a name out of the drum and guess who came running over to the area. Yup, it was the guy that ran to the bathroom. He made it back with plenty of time to claim his prize. I bet his wife would have killed him if he didn’t make it back in time.
Went back to the New Frontier and grabbed a quickie “dinner” at Panda Express. I wasn’t that hungry since I really over ate at the Fiesta buffet earlier that day. After eating tried my luck once again at the progressive deuces wild machines. Lost $100 in less than 15 minutes. This was rough but I decided to try one more time. Exactly one hour later I hit 4 deuces. Played for a total of 5 hours but ended up losing $50 for the session. I wasn’t really tired but after 5 non-stop hours of video poker my eyes felt like they were going to pop out of my head so I called it a night.
Total win/loss for the day $ 250
Total comps for the day $121