Day 12
Tuesday December 26, 2000
Blackjack Sucks!
(Warning, I wrote this immediately after a bad loss so it's strong with words! Read on at your own risk. {It's really not that bad})

I slept in pretty late today. I made plans with my friend Anne to go to Sunset Station. I met her and her brother there at about 1:30. When I got there they were already playing blackjack. I joined in the game. Things weren't good here. The dealer wasn't breaking and the players were getting shitty hands like 14 and 16. When this happens there is no way to win. We took a break and Anne played some VP. She lost and I watched since I didn't really want to play anymore. We all decided to play some more blackjack at another table. The same bullshit was happening here as the first table. Double down and get a 2 and the dealer will pull a friggen 20 every time. We all got killed here today. After the loss Anne and her brother got a comped lunch at Viva Salsa, the small Mexican place near the table games. I left and came back here to Sam's Town. I have reservations at 5:30 for Billy Bob's, the steakhouse at Sam's Town.

When about 5:30 rolled around I went to the slot club to get a comp. I took $40 out of my account and the lady there informed me of the $450 I still had in the account. I told her I would be using them for future room reservations. She thought that it was a good idea and to see a host about that.

Billy Bob's is in the back of the Mystic Falls Park, behind the actual falls. This place has a Western theme and is really dark inside. They bring a loaf of crusty bread when you first sit down to get you started. I started my order with a chicken finger appetizer. It was 5 chicken fingers and these were more the size of fingers than most places. I ate 2 of them and saved the rest. The dinner came with soup or salad. Today's soup was chicken gumbo. It was really rich and had some zip to it. The entree followed the soup. I ordered a cowboy cut of filet mignon. This was the largest filet I've had since I got to town. I ordered it medium rare, which wasn't enough since it was so large. I liked it though. Very tender as it should be and very tasty. The meal also came with a baked potato and corn on the cob. For dessert I ordered what they called Grand Canyon Cake. This piece of cake was huge. It was 6 layers of chocolate cake with fudge in each later and chocolate sauce all over it and a white frosting. The white frosting was more like Crisco and sugar and had no taste at all. This slice of cake was about 10 inches long, 4 inches wide and 6 inches high. I've bought full cakes before that weren't this big. I ended up taking most of it with me. It was an $8 slice of cake. The bill came to $37. The prices here are pretty reasonable for a steakhouse. A meal here could actually cost much less if I hadn't ordered the large filet.

After dinner I toyed with the thought of going to Binion's to play some blackjack. I really didn't know if I should since out of the $4,000 royal I hit on my first night, I only had $2,000 of it left and really wanted to take that home with me. I went downtown anyway though.

I sat at a table and things were pretty good here. I wasn't getting too many chances to double but when I did I won them. I got up about $500 but like a jerk off I still played more. I ended up losing the $500 I was up and the $500 I bought in for. The cards changed and more of the same bullshit started happening that was going on the last 3 or 4 days.

I moved to another table and tried again. Things were slow here. Winning one losing one. Then things went to shit at this table. I was playing with a couple of folks that would turn out to be Ginny and Larry from OK that frequent the Las Vegas Talk Discussion Board. I didn't know this at the time though. The same friggen crap over and over. I lost my buy in here and now I only have $1,100 of my $4,000. At this point I'm really pissed off not only at the luck and the way the cards went, but also at myself for being a dick.

I left Binion's and headed back to Sam's Town. On my way back I was still pissed off and punched the armrest. This ended up being a mistake since there was a half-full can of soda. When I punched it the soda went flying and I wore most of it on my pants. Now, I'm pissed off about losing and I am soaked with orange soda. This is turning out to be a horrible night. It's my own fault though.

When I returned to Sam's I went upstairs to change my clothes. Then I went down stairs and played some video poker. More bad luck here. I couldn't get a hand better than a 3 of a kind. All I'm thinking at this point is what a loser I am today. This was by far the worst day of my trip. I eventually hit one quad but it wasn't enough to keep me going though. I lost my last $100 playing video poker and didn't even get $500 worth of play out of it.

It was getting late and the ice cream shop was closed so I went up to Mary's Diner and got some ice cream there. I grabbed some milk too so I could drink it with my cake in the morning. I put that on ice so it will keep until morning. Right now I am sitting here looking at the lights in the park outside my room and eating my ice cream. Tomorrow is my last day. My flight leaves at 11:42pm. Not much planned for tomorrow other than to get packed up.

Total win/loss for the day -$1600
Total comps for the day $ 102