Day 10
December 22, 1999
It was moving day again so I started my day off by packing up once again for my move over to Harrah*s. I got up late again and didn’t leave this room on time either. It was near 1pm by the time I was actually out of there. After I finally left I went up to Henderson to drop off some clothes at the Laundromat and to make a stop at the Reserve for some blackjack and to see my host. After a quick meet with my host I headed over to the blackjack tables again. Things were terrible here and at one point a lady took a hit. She drew an 8 and then hit again. This time drew a 10. She flipped her cards over revealing she had originally had a 16 (the dealer had an 8 showing so hitting was correct). The thing here is she broke by getting the 8 with the first hit but hit again. She hit a 24 making it a 34. The dealer turned over a 6 and then drew another 6. She took the dealers break card and I was wiped out. Things were bad enough at this table then this happened. I know this bad play could have ended up helping me but it didn’t. It’s bad enough losing but this actually pissed me off and I left after dropping $500 in about 20 minutes. I’m not usually a violent person but I just wanted to punch her in the mouth for doing something so stupid.

After calming down I headed back to the Strip to check-in at Harrah*s. There was no line here so I got right up to the counter. I asked what the chances were of getting upgraded to a suite for my birthday and was told slim to none since they were going to be pretty full the next few days. I did get a newer room in the carnival tower facing the strip though. It was on the 26th floor. Room number 2627. It had a view of the Mirage volcano and waterfalls, and Treasure Island. It had 2 double beds with a work desk in the middle, a small table and chairs over by the window and a dresser, closet, TV cabinet combo with an iron and ironing board.

It was now time to start heading down to the Luxor and the meet that was planned there on the Las Vegas Talk message board. Instead of fighting traffic driving down there I decided I’d walk over to Bally’s and take the monorail to the MGM. This ended up being a mistake. Only one of the 2 monorails was operating and the wait was about 15 minutes. It was also packed like a can of sardines. I could have made it faster if I had walked the whole way. Finally I made it to the MGM and walked over to the Excalibur and took the moving walkway to the Luxor, which ends up right outside Nefertiti's lounge where the meet was being held. When I got there the meet was already started. Kay Irwin and her husband, Dmitry and the world famous VG from Gary’s News and views and VG Enterprises were all there. A few minutes later Frank the Webmaster from Las Vegas On-Line arrived. The meet lasted for a little over an hour and then we had a picture taken before we all went our own ways.

I took a few more pictures down at the South end of the strip then headed back to the MGM Grand to catch the monorail back to Bally’s. Before going to the monorail I made a quick detour to the food court at the MGM and grabbed an order of fried rice at Hamada Orient Express. Again there was a long wait for the monorail but it wasn’t as bad as the earlier wait.

Got back to Harrah*s and finally got settled into the room and rested for a little while before heading over to the Barbary Coast for some deuces wild. Things didn’t work out very well tonight as I lost $200 in a little over an hour. Shortly after I got there I was looking for a cocktail waitress so I could get a drink. Well finally 45 minutes later one showed up. I ordered a cranberry juice. After another 10-15 minutes she came back with my drink. A diet coke. I told her I ordered a cranberry juice and she said yeah, you did. I’ll be right back. Well another 10 minutes goes by and she finally arrived with the proper drink. Then she had the balls to stand there and hover waiting for a tip. She must have stood there for at least a minute while I started playing what few credits I had left. She finally got the hint that she wasn’t getting anything and left. A few minutes later I left too since all my credits were gone. I took my drink with me though. I figured I waited an hour for it so I’m taking it!

Went over to the Mirage again to play a little double deck blackjack. Started off by playing 2 hands at $25/each. Things were up and down here but I eventually ended up getting ahead a few hundred. One of the players asked the floor person for a comp to the buffet and she actually wrote everyone at the table comps for the buffet. I thought that was pretty cool since we didn’t even ask. I played for about 4 hours and finished off by winning $100. It was now after 3am and time to get some sleep.

Total win/loss for the day -$600
Total comps for the day $ 55