Day 11
Saturday December 22, 2001
I got up a little earlier than normal today. I wanted to get out make a few stops in the early part of that day and then at 2pm there is a meet at Main Street Station that was organized on the Las Vegas Advisor message boards. From what was posted on the boards there is going be quite a few people there.
I left the Suncoast with plenty of time to make my stops, including a stop at the Post Office to mail a letter. Of course all I had was a $20 bill and had to wait on line for a stamp. When I got to the counter and handed the clerk the $20 she looked at me and said forget it, it’s on me. My very first comp from the Post Office!
From here I was going to go up to the Reserve for lunch but I didn’t think I would have enough time to make it to the meet on time so I decided on fast food. I know - I don’t pay for food in Las Vegas but I needed something fast. I made a stop at Arby’s on Boulder Highway across from Sam’s Town. The service here was so slow I probably could have and should have gone to the Reserve.
Next stop was the meet at Main Street Station. It was held at the 777 Brewpub. There was quite a turnout for this meet once again including The Queen of Comps Jean Scott and Brad. Jean made her way around the meet talking about her VP experiences giving tips to people and even told the group of her recent face lift! What ever brought that on is beyond me but she seemed pretty proud of it. When she announced it, it kind of caught everyone off guard. I think everyone was expecting some hot video poker tip and out she came with that! The meet lasted for about an hour and a half. Jean was the first to leave because she said her and Brad had a bunch of coupons to start using before they expired next week.
After the meet I walked through the downtown area stopping at each casino to pick up some chips and take some pictures. I even ventured over to the El Cortez. As scary as this might seem it wasn’t really that bad. This was my first ever visit to the El and the casino wasn’t as nasty as I was expecting. From the El I headed back up to Fremont Street to a few more casinos. Then as I entered the Lady Luck who did I practically walk right over? Jean Scott sorting through her match plays and free ace coupons. She asked if I had any coupons for the Lady Luck, which I did and she said well, join us in some couponing. We found a $5 blackjack table and played some coupons. I played my free ace first. I didn’t get a blackjack but did get a 19 for a winner. On the next hand I used a $5 match play from the LVA and lost. I played a few hands without a coupon and then used my last match play. I lost that one too. Jean did pretty well with her coupons even getting a blackjack with one of her free ace coupons and pulling a 21 with a match play. I quit while I was ahead $5. I talked with Jean a little longer about video poker and the comps at Suncoast before we parted ways. From the Lady Luck I made my way back up Fremont Street to Main Street Station to get my car and go back up to the Suncoast.
When I got back to the Suncoast I decided I would try some triple play video poker since it was pretty good to me yesterday. I was barely started when what do I pull? Four deuces on the top line! This was one of the few hits I actually had and I quickly was down $50 even with the 200 coin win. I still had $50 left on the credit meter and decided to bump up to half-dollars. This worked out well as I hit 4 aces for 400 coins. As if that wasn’t enough, less than 10 minutes later I was DEALT 4 aces for a nice 1200 coin, $600 win. Could it be my terrible luck of the last 10 days was changing? Well it wasn’t over yet because shortly after I was able to pull 4 aces again on the middle line. That was pretty much it with quads from here on. I played for a while longer and cashed out $1,000 for a nice and well needed $900 win!
After cashing out I was able to track down superhost Donna Sinclair. We talked for a few minutes and I got a comp from her for Café Siena. I told her how it’s tough to find her and I hear her constantly being paged and they could use another host. She said they have plans of expanding the casino by over 1,000 machines and adding 3 more restaurants. I asked if they would be adding any more hosts and she said that she didn’t think so.
Dinner at Café Siena was fully comped so it was time to go overboard. I started with my usual chicken finger appetizer and chose the filet mignon as my entrée. This also comes with soup or salad and dinner rolls. The food was great and the service was pretty attentive. Every time my glass was half empty someone was there to fill it back up. I topped off everything with some chocolate fudge cake. I certainly couldn’t finish all the food I ordered so I packed up the chicken fingers and half of the cake and brought it back up here to the room. Those items will come in handy later tonight when I get back to the room.
Right now it’s about time to get moving down to the strip. I have plans on meeting VG and CC at 10:30 at the Sahara to see Crazy Ray perform at the Casbar Lounge with a group called Smooth. Some of you may remember from my previous reports that Crazy Ray is the former lead man of Funnesse and Madhouse.
My first stop at the Sahara was to get my members only fun book. This book has some great coupons including 100 points if you earn 100 making those 100 points worth 1% cash back. There is also a $50 for $40 buy in coupon and a free ace. Most of the others were junk. The club attendant also told me that I had $85 cash back in my account. Next move was to the Casbar Lounge where I found Gary, CC and Ray talking. Shortly after Smooth went on. They were good and had some humor thrown in.
After the show we played some 8/5-bonus video poker. My goal was to play long enough to earn 100 points ($1000 coin in) to get the best use of that coupon. I was hitting quads frequently and keeping ahead. I finally cashed out at $75 for a $55 profit. VG and CC left about ½ way through my play.
Even though it was almost 2:30 my next move was to use the $50 for $40 buy in coupon and try to make some money on the blackjack tables. The way it works is you get $50 in non-negotiable chips for $40. You have to play the chips and if you win you are paid in regular chips. The non-negotiable chips stay in play until they are lost. I didn’t do well here and when the funny chips were gone I only had $30 in real ones. I used my ace and actually got a blackjack with it. I played the remaining chips out for about the next ½ hour and lost everything. My total profit at the Sahara was a whopping $15. I was going to cash out my points but the booth was closed. I’ll have to do that next week sometime since there is now nearly 100 bucks in there. I don’t normally leave that kind of cash in my slot accounts.
At 3am I drove back up to the Suncoast. After a quick snack (remember that chicken and cake from earlier?) and off to bed. Hopefully I don’t sleep all day tomorrow!
Total win/loss for the day $900
Total comps for the day $125