Day 5
Saturday March 31, 2001
More Video Poker at Gold Coast and an afternoon at Silverton
Got up around 9 today and got motivated and ready quite quickly. Today’s plan will be similar to yesterday’s and I’ll be spending most of my day here pounding away at the video poker machines. Hopefully I’ll get on a better run than I did yesterday. I wouldn’t want to have to go back to the bank again (remember Binion’s is my personal bank account).
I started off with some $1 Bonus Poker. I started with $100 and got all of the way down to $15 without hitting anything bigger than 2 pair. I cashed out those coins and fed them into the machine next to me. I got the meter up to $125 and played for a while. In the end I lost it all though. I moved over to another bank of $1 machines. I played some Deuces Wild where the 5 of a kind and wild royal are short pay. I was doing well here not winning and not losing. Then it happened. I was DEALT 4 deuces for a $1,000 win. The machine didn’t lock up though. Instead the credits rack up on the meter. I was up to almost $1,100. I decided I’d play down to $1,000 and cash out for my hand pay. I continued to do well and about an hour later I had a tray full of coins (they dropped out anytime I won a hand that would put me over $1,200 in credits.) and a machine with $1,000 in credits. I cashed out and took my hand pay.
After a short break I tried some of those new video nickel machines. I play all 9 lines with 1 coin. I played 2 different Munster’s machines and didn’t even hit the bonus round. That took $40 out of my winnings. Then I tried the Fortune Cookies game. This was a little more fun and I hit the bonus rounds a few times. This game seemed a little more entertaining to me. It could have just been because I was doing better. I eventually lost my $20 here too.
I had plans to meet my friend Anne over at Silverton at 3:00 and I still had a while before I had to leave. I figured this would be a good time to go and meet my host here at the Gold Coast. She was nice and we talked a few minutes about play requirements for comps. She was helpful and told me next time that I wanted to stay here to give her a call.
It was getting near 3pm so I left and headed over to Silverton. I got there a little early and decided on craps to start with. They have a $1 table. I bought in for $20 and played for a while. I was just making $3 pass line bets with odds. Remember that Craps is new to me so I just play to learn more and to have some fun. It’s also a change of pace from blackjack and video poker. Anne got there and went to play video poker. I ended my session up by $1. Hey don’t knock it. A buck’s a buck! I moved over to video poker and lost $200 without even trying. They were offering 4X points this weekend for March Madness. Anne was still playing and cashed out with a win. My main goal was to hit a 4 of a kind so I could use the Las Vegas Advisor coupon for a 50 coin bonus. I never hit a quad but Anne did so I redeemed the coupon on her quad. This 1 coupon paid for the entire Las Vegas Advisor subscription.
We moved over to play some Blackjack. The only table that was open was a single deck game. They have the signs all over the casino bragging about “single deck blackjack is back”. Big deal though. The rules suck only allowing you to double down on 10 or 11. Anne and another player at the table lost but I did pretty good finishing ahead by $300.
We got a comp to the Fireside Café after playing. The food here is pretty inexpensive but good. I had a BBQ platter and she had a Chiliburger.
After we ate she played some more video poker and hit aces on a $2 bonus poker machine for $800. I went to play some more craps and Anne went home. I played for almost 2 hours but lost $65 this time.
I left Silverton at about 10pm and headed over to Terrible’s. I took the strip and that was a mistake considering it was a Saturday night. It took 15 minutes to get from the Tropicana to the Polo Towers. I saw an opportunity and was able to cut through the Polo Towers parking lot and take Harmon to Paradise to Terrible’s. I wasn’t here to play. I was just here to redeem 2 coupons. One was good for 1,000 points when you earn 1,000 (I earned 1,000 points earlier in the week) and the $5 in gas coupon for redeeming 500 points. It only took $100 in play to earn 500 points during the 5X points session. That’s a great deal. The only reason I came back tonight was because on Wednesday I forgot to use the coupons.
From Terrible’s I went over to Walgreen’s on Maryland Parkway and Flamingo to get some film for my camera. When I got back to the Gold Coast I grabbed my camera and went outside to take some pictures. I walked over to the Rio as well. I have not been here in a few years. It looks the same as it did back then but there seems to be a lot more people in there now. There were lines a mile long to get into the VooDoo Café and the nightclub. I don’t know what really goes on in these places since I’m not one of the “pretty people” that frequent places like this but, I can’t see standing in line for hours at a time just to get in.
After taking some pictures I went back over to the Gold Coast and stopped at the ice cream shop. I had a coupon from the Las Vegas Advisor that was good for 2 for 1 cones or cups. The girl seemed confused but took the coupon, got me 1 cup of ice cream and then thanked me and walked away. This was strange but since I was supposed to pay for 1 and get another free, I didn’t complain and took the one cup for free. This just made my Las Vegas Advisor subscription positive. I’m up $1.50 and only used 2 coupons from it!
I decided not to play anymore tonight and came up here to relax and pack up some of my stuff for tomorrow’s move. With the time change tonight and the loss of an hour morning is going to get here pretty quick. I’m about ready to call it a night and get to bed.
Total win/loss for the day $800
Total comps for the day $178