Day 14
Tuesday July 25, 2000
Well this is actually the day I arrived home. Sad to say since I was supposed to be in Vegas for a few more days!

Total win/loss for the day $0
Total comps for the day $0

Final Thoughts

• Renting with Alamo went well. There was no waiting when I arrived but it was late at night. There was no pressure to buy insurance or an upgrade either.
• I’ve noticed that service has declined quite a bit in the last few visits I’ve made. This is particularly true in restaurants but applies to every area of service I came across during my trip from the rental car agents, airline employees, hotel employees and even casino personnel. Not all employees provided bad service though. Some did a good job.
• The weather was really hot. It was 112 degrees on a few days. Very low humidity though. It’s a dry heat but it’s still really hot, especially in the sun. (Duh!)
• The armless-legless guy still sits in front of the Imperial Palace. This guy is a fixture there and if he ever goes away I will wonder where he went.
• The Mega Dog at the Westward Ho is just totally nasty from the size of it right to the taste of it.
• Arizona Charlie’s East looks like it has potential but the motel style rooms could be part of its downfall. The casino also seemed pretty slow while I was there.
• 50-play video poker is quite fun. Streaks can be deadly if you’re not hitting any big hands but can produce huge wins if you are being dealt good hands. Unfortunately I was never dealt any quads. The best hand I was ever dealt was a full house. One other bad thing about these machines is in most casinos they are terribly short pay. I think at $12.50 a hand (yes, even at the nickel level it’s expensive) the casinos need to loosen up the pay tables a little bit. After all, a 50-play nickel player is wagering more that a single line $2 player.
• With multiple points days it’s very easy to rack up more points than you can ever use. I really like these machines for that.
• Another good thing about them is you can really cycle some coin through these. Now even nickel players should be able to get RFB at some of the smaller hotels.
• I was easily able to run over $10,000 through these in a session.
• The Coffee Shop at Binion’s Horseshoe is closed. From what I overheard while I was there we shouldn’t expect it to re-open any time soon.
• The guys on the streets with the hooker books seem to be growing. I think I saw more of them this trip than ever before. I don’t think they are too smart though. On one night there were about 10 of them lined up near O’Sheas. I walked past the first 2 or 3 of them without taking their books but yet the other 7 or 8 of them still try to push these things into my hands. The sidewalks are crowded enough as it is. These guys need to get out of the way.
• Blackjack was really good to me for the first week. I can’t remember the last time I had such good runs at this game. On the other hand on the last few days were terrible. I also can’t remember the last time I had such a terrible run of bad luck either.
• Video poker was really good to me this trip too. I got quite a bit of play without losing too much.
• Traffic continues to get worse every time I am in town.
• The pedestrian bridges are a big help to ease some of the traffic at the major intersections. Hopefully they’ll keep adding more.
• Most (not all) people walking on the strip are among some of the stupidest asses I’ve ever seen. WHAT PART OF A DON’T WALK SIGN DO YOU PEOPLE NOT UNDERSTAND? I constantly saw people walking across busy intersections when they had don’t walk signs. The best part of that is they wonder why cars almost hit them.
• I played almost 300,000 hands of video poker for $74,000 coin-in on nickels. Over 27,000 hands at the quarter level for almost $35,000 coin-in, and about 2,000 hands at the dollar and half-dollar level. All together I played about 330,000 hands and had about $120,000 coin-in.
• I hit 16 royal flushes. 15 of them were at the nickel level and one was at the dime level. I wasn’t lucky enough to get any at the quarter level this trip.
• Kids were running wild at some places. I don’t really blame the kids for this though. I blame the parents that allow their kids to run around like animals. Too many parents are more interested in dropping coins into slot machines than watching and controlling their kids.
• This trip was my 8th winning trip in a row. My Las Vegas record now stands at 8 wins, 3 losses and one trip where I broke even.
• I attended my 10th meet that was organized on the Las Vegas Talk discussion board. It’s pretty cool meeting the people in person that I’ve been communicating with on-line.
• I’ve noticed a steady rise in prices on my last few trips and fewer great deals. While I know nothing goes down in price there seems to have been a rapid increase, particularly in food and room rates. Buffets aren’t nearly as low priced as they were in the past but, now that most of the major buffets are serving crab legs and shrimp it’s expected to see the prices rise.
• My next trip is in December. While it seems so far away right now it will be here before I know it.

Total win/loss for the trip $3000
Total comps for the trip $1511