Day 7
December 19, 1999
Got up a bit late today. By the time I was packed and ready to go it was after 1pm. (Check out was at noon-Oh well, another late checkout for me). Threw everything out into the car and went back in to the slot club to cash in my points. I had 12,800 points. At the Frontier they are worth a penny a piece so got $128 cash back. They were also running a promotion where you got a Beanie Baby for every 1,000 points earned up to 5 so I earned 5 of those too.
Went down to the Flamingo to check-in on a 3 complimentary 3-night stay. When I got to the lobby it was packed. The line ran all of the way through the lobby and out into the casino. Not wanting to wait in line for 2 hours I went over to the Barbary Coast. They are running double points all month so I found a full pay deuces wild machine and began to play. Got over an hour of play on a $20 bill before losing it. I put another $20 in and lost it in about 5 minutes this time. I tried a third and after about 2 more hours of play hit quad deuces for $250. Cashed out with about a $200 win.
Walked back over to the Flamingo and the line to check-in was still a mile long. I took a walk over to O’Sheas to check out their video poker inventory. It was not very good. Many of the good machines they had were now gone. As I was walking around I walked past a quarter Top Dollar machine. Now I’m not much of a slot player but I popped a $10 bill into it with the hopes I could get to the bonus round. On the third spin I got to the bonus round. In the bonus round you are given an offer of a certain amount of coins. You can take the win and return to play or you can try again. My first offer was for 20 coins. I decided to try again. This time I was offered 30 coins. I decided to try again. The third offer was for 50 coins that I was about to take but decided what the hell. Let’s go for it. There was a chance that the 4th and final offer would be less than that but I took a shot at it anyway. It was worth it since I hit it for 175 coins. As if this wasn’t good enough a few spins later I hit a triple diamond symbol and 2 7’s for 600 coins. I played a bit more and cashed out for 700 coins.
Back to the Flamingo and the line was much shorter so I decided to wait. About 15 minutes later I was at the counter. The girl at the desk informed me I had a nice room. It was a mini suite on the 10th floor. So far so good on being upgraded for my birthday visit. I got up to room 10001 and had a view of the pool area, Harrah*s, Imperial Palace and some of the north end of the strip. I could even see the Plaza downtown if I leaned just right. The room living area had a couch, coffee table, 2 chairs and an end table. There was also a cabinet that had a light in it and shelves like a bar would have. There was another table in the entry area. The bedroom half of the room had a desk, 2 nightstands and a TV cabinet dresser combo with a 19-inch TV. The bathroom was kind of small though. The rest of the room was huge and I never will understand why they don’t use some of that space to make the bathroom larger. The bathroom had a hair drier and a lighted make up mirror and there was an iron and ironing board in the closet. A few things I thought this room was lacking for being a suite was a coffee maker and a refrigerator. This was mainly just a larger room with a living area in it. It really wasn’t all that special. I also thought there was a bit of a lack in quality for this being a Hilton. One of the electrical outlets worked some of the time and the chair at the desk had paint peeling off of it. This is stuff I’d expect from a lower quality property but not a Hilton.
After getting settled in room tried my luck on double deck blackjack. It was up and down for a while but I couldn’t catch a break on any of my larger bets or doubles. Lost about $400 in an hour. After this I met up with my friend Anne and her mother. Anne’s mother played slots and we grabbed something to eat at Bugsy’s Deli. The food was good but the service really sucked. It also didn’t help that most people didn’t know what they wanted to order when they got up to register. After eating Anne wanted to play $1 bonus poker. I was willing to play but all the machines were 7/5 so I sat there and watched and advised her on some of the plays to make. She hit a few quads right away including deuces for $200. After a while of playing she wanted me to play for a few minutes while she took a break. Not really wanting to I did anyway. I warned her I play a lot faster than she does and all of her credits would end up disappearing in no time. I was doing ok hitting straights and flushes and a few full houses too. Then I was dealt 3 aces and said “yeah like I’m going to pull the 4th one” but as luck would have it I did. We ended up cashing the machine out with $600.
After this we went to play some blackjack. She wanted to play a shoe game, which I really don’t like to play, but still did. I should have known better. The players at this table were just awful. They wouldn’t double down, were hitting 14’s and 15’s against a dealers 6. Another guy wouldn’t hit a soft total if the dealer had a break card. I know that bad plays balance out in the long run and they kind of did in this game too. I ended up losing $300 during this session but Anne won $200. After this we found Anne’s mother. She was doing quite well on some blazing 7’s machines. It was getting late so they decided to leave and I went up to bed.
Total win/loss for the day $0
Total comps for the day $187