Day 4
Saturday December 15, 2001

I slept in a little later today until almost 9. According to the local news it’s quite cold out today and the high will only be in the mid 40’s. Parts of the valley even got snow and ice last night and there were a number of roads that were actually closed. It is clear and sunny right now though.

After getting ready it was time to go over to Mandalay Bay for a meet that was organized on the Las Vegas Talk Discussion Board. Since it was cold out I walked over to Excalibur and used the indoor walkway that connects Excalibur to Luxor and then to Mandalay Bay, stopping at each to get some $1 chips at the cage. I also made a quick stop at Krispy Kreme for a quick snack of 2 jelly donuts. I still don’t get what all the hype is about.

The meet was at the Coral Reef Lounge. When I got there Cubbie was already there. Shortly after Frank the webmaster arrived. We didn’t know at the time but we were the only people that showed up.

After the meet I headed back over here to New York-New York and registered for the free slot tournament that came with my room. I have 2 sessions back to back tomorrow at 9:40am and 10am.

From here it was time to go downtown to make a withdrawal from the bank. Yup, it was time to play blackjack at Binion’s Horseshoe. I usually do very well here. For some reason though my personal ATM had been converted to a vacuum cleaner today. I couldn’t do a thing right. All my double downs I would pull a 4 or 5 on. That combined with the dealer making too many hands. There weren’t even any highlights during my sessions. One low point was when I had $105 bet on a hand and split aces and got a 3rd ace and had a 3-way split. I pulled 3 low cards on all of them against the dealer for. He then proceeded to wipe me out with an 18. Also while I was playing a guy comes up next to me and throws a pile of cash on the table and said money plays. He ended up busting his hand. The dealer counted out the cash and it was $2000. OUCH!

I went over to the Golden Nugget to see if I could do anything over there. It was pretty much the same here. The dealer was sitting on was too many 20’s and that makes it tough to win. One low point for another player at the table was a guy that had $200 bet on a hand. He got pair of 8’s and slit them. He was dealt another 8 and re-split. A 4th 8 followed this. He now had $800 riding on this hand. He had 2 18’s and 2 13’s. The dealer had an up card of 4 and proceeded to pull a 5 card 21.

I went back over to Binion’s and got a comp to the coffee shop. The coffee shop is still upstairs and isn’t s good s the downstairs coffee shop used to be. I had the beef stew. It was pretty good and came in a huge bowl. It was way more than I could even eat.

I left Binion’s and went back to New York-New York. For a Saturday night there was very little traffic on the strip. I’ve actually never seen it so empty. Just as I was thinking this to myself I hit a parking lot in the road just about at Boardwalk Casino. It took me 35 minutes to get from Boardwalk to New York-New York. I still don’t know why. When I pulled into the parking garage I was asked for photo ID again. I asked the guard why they were doing that and he said he didn’t know but his boss told him to do it or not to come in today. I told him his boss was a jerk and went on my way. I still don’t see what good checking a photo ID is going to do when people pull into the parking garage.

It was getting late so I decided just to go up to the room and hop into the Jacuzzi for a while. I made a quick stop at the Haagen Dazs ice cream. This place is a total rip off. The guy ahead of me got an ice cream cone that had a tiny scoop of ice cream on it. He was pissed about it and the high price and the clerk that hardly spoke any English just smiled. This pissed the guy off even more. I ordered 2 scoops and it was over $4. What a rip off it was. They actually weigh the ice cream before they give it to you to make sure you don’t get too much. Another one of those tacky practices that take place at a megaresort.

After relaxing in the tub or a while I was really tired so just called it a night and went to bed.

Total win/loss for the day -$500
Total comps for the day $122