Day 4
Friday March 30, 2001
Video poker at Gold Coast, and Blackjack at Binion’s Horseshoe
I slept a little later today because the late nights and early mornings were catching up to me. Oddly I found the sponge-like mattress to be quite comfortable. Right now it’s about 10am and the plan is to stay here at the Gold Coast and get some play in. Right now it’s time to get motivated and get to those video poker machines.
I started off by having to get a new slot card because they have changed their system since the last time I was here. I started off by playing some FPDW with no luck. The deuces just weren’t showing up. I wondered around for a while and tried some of the newer video poker games. It’s hard to describe them but one of them I liked and the other I didn’t. I tried them in nickels but didn’t win much. I got pretty lucky and played for a while on the second game though. After I tried those games with no luck I tried my luck at some 50-play video poker again with no luck. To follow the theme for the day I tried some short pay Deuces Wild in dollars. I played for a while but lost again.
Getting bored with losing I went up to the room to take a break and grab a snack and watch a little TV. During this break I ended up falling asleep for about an hour. I guess I still needed to catch up a little bit.
Getting really sick of losing I went back up to the room to relax and to decide what I wanted to do for the rest of the night. I decided to head downtown to the place that I call my personal bank. That being Binion’s Horseshoe. I’ve had some bad losses here but for the most part this place is like an ATM. When I first arrived I couldn’t get to a table but as soon as the next show on the Fremont Street Experience started I got a seat. It was tough here. I started out playing 2 hands at $25 each. The losing theme seemed to be continuing. I dropped down to 1 hand at $50 and then things started to happen. I was winning my double down hands and beating the dealer on points. Just as things were getting good they changed the cards. This usually kills me but not tonight. Things stayed pretty good. While I was playing a host came over to me and introduced himself. His name was Nick. He told me if I needed anything to let him know and if I wanted to stay there on my next trip to give him a call. Each time we got a new dealer things got better. The third dealer that came to the table was Lila. I must have won or pushed 20 hands in a row. The only thing I wasn’t getting was blackjacks. At this point I had only 2 while the guy next to me was playing 2 hands getting one after another. I didn’t mind though because I was winning all my double down hands. Lila went to break and Yung took over. Yung was even better than Lila was. She was busting just about every hand and when she didn’t she usually only had a 17 or 18. I bumped up my bets to $75 and then $100 each. After about 2 ½ hours I was up $1,800. I took a few more shots with some big bets but lost. I finished the session with a $1,500 win.
After I cashed out I got a comp to the coffee shop for dinner. There was a pretty long line since it was seafood night at the buffet. The buffet and coffee shop are in the same place and you can either order off the menu or have the buffet. The best part of the night came when I got to enter the comped player’s line and bypass the long line. I love the evil looks I get from the people that have been standing there waiting when I get seated in less than 2 minutes and they have to wait even longer! I ordered a hot open roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes. It was one of the worst meals I’ve ever eaten in Las Vegas (or anywhere else). The meat was tough and dry and flavorless. The service sucked and no one came to refill my drink until I was done eating. I also ordered a slice of chocolate cake. This had to be the worst cake I ever had. It was as dry as cardboard and tasted like the refrigerator. I was really disappointed in this meal and if it wasn’t already comped I think I would have complained.
After eating I went out to Fremont Street and just started walking. I don’t know what made me do this but I wondered into the Golden Gate and played some low limits Craps. I just started playing Craps for the first time back on my December trip. This was a $3 table. Things were up and down here and I wasn’t making any money but I wasn’t losing either. Playing downtown is always an experience because of the strange factor that some people possess. The guy near me looked like Beetle Juice from the Howard Stern show, just taller. He was making field bets and winning like crazy. For those that don’t know, the field bet is one of the worst bets in Craps. To make things even stranger when he’d win a few bets he’d walk over to the cashier cage and then come back with cash and buy in again. I played here for over an hour and a half on $10 losing only $8.50. Not a bad price for the entertainment value I got not only from the game but also from the Beetle Juice look-a-like.
After leaving the Golden Gate I went back over to the Golden Nugget where I parked the car and headed back over here to the Gold Coast. Right now it’s about 1:30am and I’m heading to bed. Tomorrow is another day and I’m planning to play some more video poker here and to earn more double points.
Total win/loss for the day +$1000
Total comps for the day $111