Day 9
Friday December 25, 2009
Today is Christmas & My Birthday! To start the day we made a bunch of phone calls & texts to family. We decided not to exchange gifts this year and the trip was enough but Dee got me a few birthday gifts. I opened those and then we got ready to head out for the day.
On the way out we stopped off at the roulette table to play a couple of match plays. This time we were both winners as Dee hit her odd bet and I won my black bet. This took us to 7 for 15 on coupons and we were now back into positive territory.
Today we went over to the Gold Coast to play some video poker. They were offering 5X points on video poker and 7X points on slots. When we got there we hit the roulette wheel and lost 2 more match plays. The numbers came up just the opposite of what we needed as we dropped to 7 for 17.
For our video poker action we hit the triple/five play machines. I chose 5 play and Dee went with triple play. Dee was doing well and I was on fire hitting aces twice on 1 hand when I was dealt 3 of them. I managed to hit numerous other quads and a straight flush to the king (ugh! again). We were getting hungry so we both cashed out. Dee was up $100 and I was up $200 so it was a good morning so far.
For lunch we wanted to go to the Noodle Exchange but they weren’t open yet so Dee played a penny slot. She got lots of play but in the end lost her $20.
The Noodle Exchange opened and we took seats at the end of the counter. Dee ordered some shrimp egg rolls and we both got a noodle soup that had noodles, shrimp, pork, chicken, & bok choy. The food was tasty and would hold us over until dinner later tonight.
Next up was a second session of video poker. I was getting my butt kicked and Dee was holding steady for the most part. I was feeding in bill after bill and eventually not only was my $200 in winnings gone but I was now down $200. I switched over to DDB looking for a quick quad and hit a few standard quads and the deuces with a kicker. Now I was about even and switched back to regular bonus. Things got really good here as I hit two more sets of aces on one hand and a few other sets later on. I also got dealt an open ended straight flush and filled it with the same card on two lines for a 500 coin hit. I also ended up hitting a 6th set of aces for the day and got a bunch of dealt full houses. I cashed out with another $200 win taking me up $400 for the day. Unfortunately Dee lost the $100 she won earlier.
Before we let we stopped at a roulette table to play 2 more coupons. Dee won hers but I lost mine so we were 8 for 19 now.
On the way out Dee saw a progressive that was maxed out at $999,999.99 and wanted to play because 9 is her lucky number. She popped a $20 bill in but it went quickly.
Our next stop was Suncoast out in Summerlin. I haven’t played here in years and thought we’d take a drive up there for their 7X points on video poker and 9X points on slots. Since my last visit it seems they have yanked all of the video poker in the multi-line machines. The best I could find was 7/5 bonus so instead of that I chose 8/6 jacks with 130 coins for quads. Dee got whacked pretty quickly and I was doing ok. I had the meter down to my last hand and got a dealt full house. Then I inched my ay back to even but didn’t quit, and lost the whole thing. Next up we played a variety of penny slots and I didn’t do well here and neither did Dee. We ran out of the Suncoast in search of better luck and food.
The original plan was to go to Fuego at Fiesta Henderson but we forgot to make a reservation. I figured since things were so slow out here were could probably just walk up so we made the long drive from Summerlin to Henderson. When we got to Fuego the hostess said the soonest we could get in was 7:15 which was about a 90 minute wait. We were already starving but I took the reservation and we hit the gift shop for a quick snack of Cool Ranch Doritos to hold us over.
During our wait we hit the triple play machines with individual progressives for the royals. I hit my 7th set of aces for the day right off the top and continued to hit quads and get dealt winners. I had the meter up over 1100 coins and cashed out with 800 for a $100 win. Dee’s luck wasn’t so good. During our play they were running a promo where free play was being given every minute to a random player. I hit for $5 but then Dee hit for $25. That was fun to win something.
It as time for dinner and we were seated right away. I ordered the filet mignon and Dee had the Christmas Turkey special. We both chose the soup tonight which was cream of asparagus and was very good and rich. The meals were great like they always are and what I like best about this place is the meal includes all the sides for one price. For dessert Dee had the apple pie with vanilla ice cream and got a slab of pie that was huge. I got a free birthday dessert and this year it turned out to be cheesecake with a strawberry drizzle on it. Everything as tasty and I used points to cover the bill as I still have hundreds of thousands of points on my card from when I used to play heavily here on multi point days.
After dinner Dee had about $20 left on her ticket and wanted to play penny slots. We started off with Goldfish and we both hit a few bonus rounds. Dee got up and left and I asked why and then saw she was getting smoked out by a rude smoker that thought it was ok to hold her cigarette about 8 inches from Dee’s face. We moved to another bank of games Dee liked and she was doing well. I wasn’t so moved to Da Vinci Diamonds machine behind her. I hit a few bonus rounds and took a shot at a higher bet and got 5 Mona Lisa pictures for a 20,000 coin hit! A few minutes later I had some hits for 2, 3, & 4,000 coins and then a bonus round. I cashed out with a $200 win and a $300 win for the evening making this a pretty happy birthday, although not quite as happy as last year when I hit a $4,000 royal.
The ride back to the Hilton was uneventful and I played a match play on roulette when we got back but lost when a red 12 came up taking us to 8 for 20 on coupons.
Dee took another shot at Megabucks and had more hits tonight than all of the other tires combined. At one point she had even tripled up but alas, lost it all. If anyone I know is ever going to hit this game, it will be her!
Total win/loss for the day $500
Total comps for the day $233