Day 14
Tuesday December 25, 2001
Merry Christmas
After being awake most of the night with this cold or whatever I have, I ended up sleeping until after noon today. What a great way to spend Christmas and my birthday.

I eventually got my but motivated and went out for a while. My first stop was around the corner to Walgreen’s to get some medicine and some soda. From here I decided it would be a good change of pace to check out some of the real local’s casinos. I know places like Sam’s Town, Stations, and Fiesta call themselves local’s places, but I’m talking about the real local’s places. I drove around the Henderson area and made some stops at places like Joker’s Wild, Magic Star, Skyline, Klondike Sunset, Eldorado, and the Rainbow Club. These places in my opinion aren’t worth the time or effort to get to. None of them have slot clubs but the Magic Star, but they had the worst video poker. If you like low limit tables like 50-cent craps, quarter and dime roulette, and $2 blackjack, then maybe they might be worth a stop. Most of these places aren’t well kept, and are full of undesirables very similar to many downtown casinos. While I was in the Skyline I don’t think it was possible to even count a full set of teeth between all the people in there. On my way out I realized there was a trailer park out back. No doubt the Skyline has it’s own clientele living right out back!

While I was making my way back from Magic Star I saw huge puff of black smoke in the air. As I got closer to it a place called Camper World looked like it was on fire. As I got closer I could see it was actually a motor home that was engulfed in flames. Just as I was driving by the fire trucks arrived.

After making the rounds to these dumpy places I thought it would be a good time to go check out the Green Valley Ranch. The place was packed. I was hoping the new opening crowds would be a little lighter since it was Christmas but that wasn’t the case. I made my way to a craps table. I have yet to have a real win playing this game and after today’s session I’m still waiting for that win to come. After dumping $200 I was on my way. This place is really nice.

I went over to Fiesta Henderson to have something to eat. I hadn’t eaten anything since yesterday afternoon since I am sick but now I was getting hungry. The service really sucked here tonight and I sat for about 20 minutes before my order was taken. I finally ordered my favorite feel good wonton soup. Now it’s bad enough when it takes forever to have someone take my order but what pisses me off more than anything is when I see my food sitting on the counter under the heat lamps for 10 minutes before it’s brought to me. When I finally got my soup it was as good as always. After this I tried another shot at craps. I couldn’t seem to do a thing here either. Seems like every time I got the board loaded up with come bets and odds, the shooters would 7 out. So yet there is another game that turns to crap when I touch it this trip.

I left the Fiesta and went back to Sam’s to rest. This cold is really kicking my ass and I am beat. After a short break I wandered through the casino and made a stop at the bowling center. I bowled a few games and then went back up to the casino. I didn’t play anything than some spare pocket change. I was able to hit the silver strike machine for 3 strikes on one hit though.

Still feeling tired and worn out I decided to quit early tonight and get some rest. Not exactly how I planned to spend my birthday and Christmas, but I was actually looking forward to bed tonight!

Total win/loss for the day -$250
Total comps for the day $48