Day 6
Sunday April 1, 2001
A visit to a new casino, the Suncoast

Welcome to daylight savings time and April fools day. Let’s hope the casinos don’t make a fool out of me today. Today is moving day so it’s time to finish packing up, check out and head on over to the Suncoast.

After I got all packed up I went to the slot club and cashed out my points and got a comp to the coffee shop. I got $64 cash back and an $8 comp to the Monterey Room.

After getting my cash at the main cage I went to breakfast. I ordered the deuces wild special. It is 2 pancakes, 2 bacon strips, 2 sausage links, and 2 eggs. The food was good and after eating I was on my way.

I left the Gold Coast and headed out to Summerlin to the Suncoast. I’ve never been here before and I was looking forward to staying here. I’ve heard good things about the place and now it was time to see for myself. I will be staying here for the next 4 nights. I e-mailed their host here a few weeks ago and she agreed to give me casino rate up front. The casino rate is $40 per night. She said based on my play she would be able to comp the room.

I had never been out this way before and it’s really nice out here. When I got off the exit the first thing you see is the Regent Las Vegas. Looks pretty dead there as far as I can see. Over here at the Suncoast though things were different. The parking lot was jammed and there were people everywhere. I ended up having to drive out back and parking in the garage. I usually valet park but I had a bunch of stuff in the car I wanted to carry up myself instead of having the bellman do it.

When I got into the casino I liked it right away. It’s roomy and clean and there is tons of good video poker. When I got to the front desk there was no line. It was early so I asked if I could check in. The clerk asked for my name, which I gave her. She said I was all set and my room was ready. I was pre assigned a room and in less than 2 minutes I was on the way up to my room. I am in room 811. This room overlooks a golf course and on the other side of the golf course is the Regent Las Vegas.

The room is very large and very nice. As you walk in there is a short hallway with a large closet on the left and the bathroom on the right. As you enter the bedroom area there is a desk on the left with a telephone. On the right there is a king bed with nightstands on each side one with a telephone and one with an alarm clock/radio. There is a TV cabinet/dresser unit. On the far side of the room there is a small table with 3 chairs and a small sofa. A small wall separates the sofa and the bed area and has 2 pillars on it. The room also has floor to ceiling windows. One other thing I noticed was the bed was similar to the beds at the Gold Coast and had that 3-inch thick sponge-like mattress on them.

The bathroom is large with a counter that is about 10 feet long. It has 2 sinks installed in it. There is also a hair dryer. The toilet and shower are in a separate room. The door that separates the 2 parts of the bathroom is a sliding door that slides into the wall that keeps the door from taking up space. There is also another telephone next to the toilet for a total of 3 in the room. The bathroom is one of the largest I’ve ever had in a hotel here in Las Vegas, including some of the suites I’ve stayed in. This is a standard room here but many places in town would call this a mini suite.

Just as I got done exploring the room I got a phone call. It was the host here checking to see if I was happy with the room and to welcome me here. I thought that was a nice touch.

After getting off the phone I went up to the car to get my suitcase and other assorted junk and came back to the room. I got settled in and went down to the casino. My first stop was the Club Denaro booth to get a slot card. I had signed up on line for this card quite a while ago so even though I had never been here before I already had an account. I was given my charter member card and a T-shirt. I would also be getting 5,000 bonus points as soon as I put play on my card. The lady at the booth also pointed out Donna Sinclair, the casino host as she walked by and told me if I needed anything she was the person to see. I told her I actually did need to see her since we hadn’t met yet in person but had talked on the phone and through e-mail. Donna came out and gave me a brief run down of the hotel and the way it was set up. After our quick meeting I was off to play some video poker. They are offering double points for all of April here and Triple points on Easter Sunday. It’s a shame I won’t be here for that.

I made the mistake of trying to play the 50-play machines. I got hardly any play on these and dumped $300. After this I moved over to some standard FPDW. I played here for quite a while, nearly 2 hours but lost another $100 here. After this I wandered around a while and played some of the newer nickel slots just for a change of pace. I tried a $20 bill in the I Dream of Jeannie machine. Jeannie was a bitch though and made my money disappear.

I returned to video poker after Jeannie took my money and tried Bonus Poker this time. I was up and down here. The quads just weren’t hitting. Of course the guy playing next to me hit at least 4 in about 15 minutes. I cashed out even at this machine after about an hour. I moved to a Triple Play machine and tried to hit some quads there with no luck. I hit a few but they weren’t enough to get very far. The lack of dealt winners made this a losing session and another $200 was down the tubes.

I was getting hungry now but there was a long line at the coffee shop. I went and played some more Deuces Wild. This machine was terrible. It seemed like the deuces were removed from the deck. I wasn’t even hitting any quads on this game and without them on Deuces Wild you will die fast. I got down to my last 3 bets and was able to stay alive for quite a while. I got the credit meter almost up to the $100 I started with. I was going to cash out even but I never got there. I ended up all of the way down to $1.25 and my last hand. A few smaller hits and a wild royal got me back into the game and a few minutes later I popped the 4 deuces. I played for a while more cashing out at $250.

The line was gone at the coffee shop (an hour and a half later) so I went in. When I got here earlier today I walked by here and smelled Chinese food. I decided that’s what I’d have tonight. I ordered a bowl of Wor Won Ton soup. It was wontons, vegetables, chicken, pork, shrimp and scallops. I ordered it without the scallops. It was good and filling. I didn’t think it was as good as the soup I get at the Reserve though. Since this meal wasn’t comped up front (I could have used points) I charged it to the room. I normally don’t like to do this but I already have over 21,000 (5,000 for sign up bonus, and 16,000 from play equal to $8,000 coin out.) points on my card and if Donna for some reason won’t comp it, I can use the points.

After I ate I wandered around the casino a little and put a $5 bill into a Munster’s machine. This was a 25 line, 125 coin machine. It was available in pennies though. I played 1 coin on each line for 25 cents per spin. I still didn’t get to play the bonus round and this was the 3rd time I tried this game. I was tired so I decide it was time to come up here and get to work on this report and then get to bed. On my way through the casino I saw a guy playing 50-play video poker for quarters. That’s $62.50 per hand. He must have been doing ok though because he had about $1,600 in credits. As I walked past the tables there was another guy betting purples ($500 chips) on Blackjack. I don’t know if he was winning or not but he had about $15,000 in chips sitting in front of him.

That brings up to right now. It’s about 1:30am and I’m tired so it’s bedtime.

Total win/loss or the day -$450
Total comps for the day $126