Day 8
Tuesday April 3, 2001
Reserve lunch, Suncoast gambling, and a great late night deal

Woke up late today to a ringing phone. It was VG from Gary’s News and Views calling to reschedule lunch from yesterday. We are going to meet at the Reserve at 12 noon. That’s quite a ride from out here but I have coupon for some cash out there and enough points to feed a small army, so I think it’ll be worth it!

When I got to the Reserve VG was already there waiting. After cashing in my coupon for $15 I sent a comp to the coffee shop. I ordered a hot roast beef sandwich and Gary got a burger. This is actually the way a hot open sandwich should be. The meat was good, tender and had taste unlike that shitty sandwich I had at Binion’s a few days ago. I finished off lunch with a brownie sundae, most of which, was left because the ice cream was like a milk shake by the time I got it.

After lunch we played some of those 5-cent slots with no luck. First was Monopoly Chairman of the Board and then I tried Fortune Cookies. Gary tried Munsters and Texas Tea with no luck. After these I tried some low limit craps. The dice were like ice here just like yesterday when I was playing. I lost $35 on the table as well as the free $15 they gave me.

We both left the Reserve after this loss and I went over to the Laundromat to drop off my dirty clothes. I headed back to the Suncoast from here. Traffic was pretty bad but it was rush hour so I expected it. When I got back to the room there was a message on the voice mail. It was my friend Anne saying she was going to come out to the Suncoast tonight.

Right now I’m going to relax for a little while and then head down to the casino for some video poker action. Hopefully the machines will cooperate better tonight than they did yesterday.

When Anne got here we played video poker. I played some quarters and she played dollars and $2. I did good for a while but lost. She was getting beat up too. After video poker we played some craps. Anne got beat here to and went to play blackjack. I stayed at the craps table but ended up losing $200. I found Anne at the blackjack table and she was doing better. She cashed out up a bit and then we moved to more video poker. I tried some $1 NSUD. Keeping with the theme here at the Suncoast, I lost. Anne lost too! After that Anne left and I went to play some more quarter video poker. I tried some FPDW and lost. Things just aren’t going well with video poker here. As I was walking around I found a bank of multi-game, multi-denomination games with half-dollars as a choice. I played NSUD and after a few minutes I was DEALT 4 deuces for a $500 win. I played for a while longer and finished the session up $250. It was now time to play some Blackjack. I bought in for $200 and was staying even but then I lost 3 double down hands in a row. That was enough to make me leave. I was down $110 and took the other $90 to the craps table. This table was the best one I had been at since I started playing on this trip. People were making their points and rolling numbers for a while before they would seven out. I won $120 here in about an hour. It was the first time I ever won during a craps session.

It was getting late and I was hungry so I went to the coffee shop, Café Siena. They don’t have any specials posted outside but a look through the menu found a few great deals. They have a few graveyard specials. They include 2 eggs, bacon or sausage, toast and breakfast potatoes or pancakes with bacon or sausage. The price tag on this deal is under a dollar at 99 cents. They also have a steak and eggs deal that also comes with toast and breakfast potatoes for $1.95. These are some of the best deals in town. I chose the bacon and eggs. The food was good but I thought the potatoes kind of tasted like cardboard. They weren’t terrible though. Nothing a little salt and pepper didn’t cover up! The price on this was so low I didn’t even bother to charge it to the room. I just used some pocket change and paid cash for it. After eating I came up to the room and that’s the part I am at right now. It’s getting late and I’m tired so I’m off to bed.

Total win/loss for the day -$150
Total comps for the day $79