Day 12
Monday December 28, 2009
We slept in today and relaxed in the room for a few hours. I always like to have a day during the trip where I get to be lazy!

Today we had to run over to the Orleans to check in on an offer. This offer was for 2 nights and $10 in food. Normally I wouldn’t waste my time with an offer this weak but there’s a reason for accepting this room. Tomorrow night we are going to the midnight madness hockey game in the Orleans Arena and decided it would be nice to be able to just go right upstairs to the room after the game instead of driving back to the hotel. We also like to play here and have a few coupons to use.

On the way out I did a match play at the roulette table. I bet my normal black and #2 black and even showed up for a winner and taking us to 12 for 30. As we got near the car I realized I didn’t have any of my paperwork for the Orleans so I ran up to the room while Dee waited in the casino. On the way I noticed the Megabucks jackpot was at $10,004,000 and someone had hit just a little while ago. When I got back to the car I told Dee someone hit it and her reaction was “Fuck! That was supposed to be my jackpot!” I told her it was ok because it resets at 10 mil!

Check in at the Orleans was fast & painless and we were given room 1136. The rooms here are all pretty much the same. Ours had a king bed, dresser, TV, small sitting area and a view of the strip. The bathroom is split into 2 sections, one with the vanity and closet and one with the toilet and tub. These rooms also have the famous window in the shower!

After we looked over the room we hit the Courtyard Cafe for a bite to eat. I had the BBQ pork sandwich with Cajun fries and Dee had a turkey avocado wrap. We also played 5 games of Keno but had no luck on those today. The food was excellent and Dee liked her wrap. I paid for the bill with points and we left the Orleans and came back here to the Hilton.

When we got back we stopped off and played penny slots for a bit. Neither of us won anything so we ran to the box office to get our tickets to see Barry Manilow tonight. Everything was in order and our tickets were for Section 5, Row W, seats 51 & 52. I asked the lady at the box office how much those normally ran and she told me $99 and change so this was a nice $200 comp on top of the free rooms they already gave us.

I wanted to play more coupons but the casino was jammed so instead came up to the room and looked at all the photos we had taken so far this trip then just relaxed in the room until it was time to go downstairs to the show.

I’m not a huge fan of Barry but I do like some of his stuff. He does a little bit of talking and story telling during his show. I’d say his show was good and it ran about 90 minutes. I would go see it again when he moves to Paris if I were able to score free tickets. I did feel the ticket prices for this show are too high though but I’m clearly wrong about that because the show is pretty much packed so it’s obvious people are willing to pay these prices to see him.

When the show was over I hit the casino to try and burn a few more match plays. Sadly these expire at the end of the night and I’ve still got quite a few. Actually this trip I haven’t played nearly as many as I would have liked to play and in a few days I can see piles of them going in the trash. I hit an empty roulette wheel and played my usual black and hit it taking us to 13 for 31 on coupons.

Next up was a late dinner at the Paradise Café. I had the macaroni and cheese and Dee had a meatloaf dinner. Mine was rigatoni in a parmesan cheddar sauce with garlic toast. Hers was a few slabs of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and broccoli. My macaroni and cheese was outstanding and I had to control myself not to eat the entire oversized bowl of it!

When we finished eating we hit he Space Quest Casino for some nickel slots. We got quite a bit of play out of our money but eventually Dee lost. I hit a few bonus rounds and made $10. I took my $30 and we fed it into a stupid Megabucks machine. We got a few hits to keep us going but nothing major.

Dee was tired and came up to the room and I stayed in the casino. I went and played another match play on roulette since there was a new dealer on the table. I played black again and scored! We were now 14 for 32 on match plays. I wandered around and hit another pit with a coupon but this time at blackjack. I saw another player had one so I jumped in at the shuffle to play one too. The floor man came over and eyeballed it and asked if it came out of a book. I told him it did. Then he went and examined the other guy’s coupon too. I was dealt a 10 against a dealer 10, hit and drew 10 for 20. The dealer flipped over a 10 for 20 and a push. Next hand I was dealt 16 but it didn’t matter because the dealer flipped over a blackjack and we are now 14 for 33. I wanted to play more coupons but the tables were jammed here and sadly I was about to throw away a pile of Hilton match plays. Before bed I wanted to play a little bit of the tem play video poker but they were occupied so I wandered around and took a look at the baseball futures for the 2010 World Series. I’m a Yankee fan and they are listed at 3-1 to win it all next year and 3-2 to win the American League so I didn’t bother making a bet because the payoff blows.

Back up in the casino I was able to get on the video poker games I wanted. Things started off nicely with a quad on my first hand. A little bit later I was dealt a full house and flush back to back doubling up the original $100 I started with. Things were pretty even from here until I was dealt 3 to a royal and scored big on line 7 with my second royal of the trip. I played a few more hands and took the $1000 win to bed with me! Move over Dee, we've got company!

Total win/loss for the day $950
Total comps for the day $335