Day 17
Friday December 28, 2001
Since I went to bed so early last night I was expecting to wake up somewhat early today. I did wake up at 5:45am but that was a little too early for me. I rolled over and the next time I woke up it was almost 10am. I just can’t seem to get up early anymore.

After getting ready my first move was to make reservations for Billy Bob’s for tonight. Since I canceled my reservations for my Christmas dinner there I thought I’d still get one in here.

My next stop was breakfast at the Fresh Harvest Café. I had the corned beef hash and that came with 3 eggs, hash browns and toast. It was very good but the service here at the coffee shop has been really bad the last 2 days. When I arrived I was waiting in the comp line. The guy that was doing the seating went around the corner and asked if there were any large parties in line. A guy I that line yelled to him if he got the dirty tables cleaned there wouldn’t be a line. As I was being seated I walked past 8 tables that needed cleaning. This doesn’t count what was on the other side of the room that I couldn’t see. To me it’s unacceptable to have a line full of hungry customers and have that many dirty tables and no one cleaning them. Part of the problem with the coffee shop being so busy is the closing of the diner upstairs but it’s still no excuse for tables not being cleared.

After breakfast I played some single line quarter 8/5-bonus poker. They are running a special today and tomorrow that offers a T-shirt for every four of a kind you hit. I was lucky enough to hit 5 quads but still unlucky enough to lose $100 in about 2 ½ hours. Let’s see $100 divided by 5 T-shirts equals $20 per T-shirt. Oh well, at least I got something for my money.

Where I was playing there is a bank of Joker Poker penny machines that take up to 100 coins and have a progressive jackpot for a royal without a joker. Some lady hit the royal when she dumped all 5 cards. The royal came up on the flop for a $1300 jackpot. I bet no one ever dreamed they would end up getting a W2G playing penny machines!

After I was finished playing I grabbed a quick snack at Java in the Park. Java in the Park is a little coffee stand in the atrium that also sells pastry and cakes. It’s a little bit pricey (an eclair was $3) but since this is covered on my gold card I didn’t really care. Normally I would have passed though! I took my snack up to the room to rest for a while before heading to dinner and back to the casino to play some more video poker.

After taking a break I went down to the casino to collect my 5 shirts. There was a huge line at the slot club but there was actually a lady outside the booth that was distributing the shirts to the people with coupons. This made things a lot easier for everyone and I thought it was a good move on their part.

When I got back to the room with my shirts I got a call from my friend Anne and she’d be coming out here. Not sure if Terry would be coming yet though. I switched my reservations at Billy Bob’s with no problems and now dinner is at 8 instead of 7.

Dinner at Billy Bob’s was good. I ordered the 18oz porterhouse. It was cooked perfectly and was huge. From Billy Bob’s it was time to play some more video poker. The first machine I sat at wasn’t very good. It sucked up $100 in no time at all. I moved to another bank of games and this machine was much better. I was getting good hands and a fair share of quads. Anne’s machine wasn’t as good. She didn’t do well and moved to the blackjack tables. I stayed at my machine and played for a few hours. I finally cashed out ahead by $100 getting my money back from the first machine. I also had racked up 7 more T-shirts. This puts me up to 12 shirts for the day. One bad thing about the shirts though is when I cashed in my 7 coupons the lady at the booth only gave me 6 shirts. What a rip off! That was my fault though for not counting them when she gave them to me! No big deal though. I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the 11 I already have.

After putting my shirts up in the room I went down to the bowling center for a while. Tonight was extreme bowling where they play music and have lights and smoke. I took the lane for an hour instead of paying per game. I was able to get in 8 games. It is now around 2am and I am beat so it’s bedtime.

Total win/loss for the day –$100
Total comps for the day $158