Day 1
Saturday June 15, 2019
Today starts off with the alarm clock going off at the unreasonable hour of 3am. I got ready and headed out to the rental car I picked up at the local airport yesterday. I booked this with Avis using a discount code through work back in January for the rate of $60 base & $80 all in. They gave me a Ford Escape with 28,000 miles on it. The car had some damage over the driver side rear wheel. Lynn the lot attendant noted it for me and I was hoping not to have any issues when I returned it.

I loaded up the car and took the drive down to Newark. I opted not to gas up the car because I was doing under 75 miles and they have a program where they charge you a flat fee. The fee is usually reasonable. The ride was uneventful at this hour of the morning.

Returning the car was quick but they don't do the flat rate with the gas on 75 miles any more. I paid $13 for gas which was probably about double what I actually used. Not a big deal as it saved time. I was on my way to terminal C via the monorail after getting my receipt. No mention of the damage so all was well.

Today's flight is on United and checking in was cluster fuck. People just don't know how to use a kiosk to check in, print boarding passes and luggage tags. To make it worse asshole United feels the need to make people stand in line to get to a kiosk, then go to another line to drop off the bags. They really could make life easier if they did it all with 1 person and one line. I booked this flight using miles so other than the security fee was totally free. Checking the bag was also free thanks to the United credit card.

Next up was security. Things here were pretty good but there is always the clown that can't follow simple instruction.

I made my way to the gate and waited for the flight to board. The boarding process just sucked. People still to this day can't follow simple instruction for how to board either.

This is flight 1753 non stop from Newark to Las Vegas scheduled to leave at 6:30am and arrive in Las Vegas at 8:44am with a flight time of 5 hours and 14 minutes. The captain came over the PA and said it would take 4:58 because they were routing us on a southern path to avoid storms in the Midwest.

We took off right on time and the flight was quite smooth. They did turn on the seat belt sign a few times but it wasn't on long. For some reason a group of old bags felt the seat belt sign didn't apply to them so continued to stand and wander about the cabin. It's a shame when someone of that age needs to continually be told comply with the rules.

I passed the time by sleeping and watching entertainment on my phone most of the flight.

We landed at exactly 8:44am and taxied for a while before getting to our gate. Once I was off the plane I made the traditional stop to the can and then off to baggage claim.

The suitcase was out when I got there and I was off to the rental car shuttle.

Originally I had booked with Dollar in April for $61 base and $97 all in for a 3 day rental of a mid sized. Checking rates every day usually gets me a better rate but for some reason this time around the rates have been quite high. I did finally get a small price drop on 4/29/19. This drop was with Budget and a base rate of $49 and all in for $80 for a full size.

I have their preferred service and my car was in spot F – 12. I was assigned a Toyota Camry with 25,000 miles on it. It was in great condition. I gave it a quick inspection and was on my way to security and then on my way,

I haven't gotten here this early in many years. I decided since it was so early and there was no way I would be getting checked in I'd stop off at South Point. They are running a promo where $50 gas cards are being offered for $25 worth of points. This was going to come in handy because I noticed when I got here that gas is in the $3.50/gal range.

When I got there I started off with Quick Quads. Nothing to really talk about other than hitting 2 quick quads on one hand and scaring the shit out of the guy next to me when the guy yelled “Quick Quads”.

I took a break after only $500 in action and a $2 win because I was starving. I went to the Coronado Cafe. I ordered the cup of soup and ˝ sandwich. Today the soup was chicken noodle and I had a roast beef sandwich with American cheese and potato chips. The food was good and reasonably priced at $8.95. What wasn't reasonable was the iced tea that was $3.45. I think South Point forgot they aren't on the strip.

Back to the machines and I tried Super Triple Play with 10/5 bonus ten play. It wasn't a good session with few quads. I don't really know how I was able to hold on for so long and run 8k and only lose $291.

I went to the players club cashed in my points for a voucher and then off to the cage to get the card. I left with a net loss of $239. That's one expensive tank of gas and lunch!

It was still early so I took a drive over to the Pinball Hall of Fame. This is one of my favorite stops in town. I have to say though that Tim can't seem to keep up with repairing the machines. Many of the games were off and a good number of the machines I played needed some help.

Next up was the ride out to Summerlin and JW Marriott where I'll be checking in for the next 3 nights. I booked this through my host using my mail offer of 3 nights, $20 food and $525 free play. Checking in here is always pretty quick. My room wasn't ready yet (it was after 4pm) so I took a walk to the casino. Of course not 5 minutes after I got there they texted my room was ready.

I was given room 4244. This is a one bedroom suite with a large living room. There is a large entry area and a powder room to the left. It has a work desk, entertainment center with TV, a couch, chairs, coffee table and a view of the parking lot. There is also a wet bar area with fridge and a dining room table that seats 6.

The bedroom has a king bed with night stands, a chair, chaise lounge and entertainment center with TV.

The bathroom is larger with a toilet room with a bidet, standing shower stall, dual vanity sinks and a jetted tub.

I threw my stuff into the room and stopped by to see my host. He got my free play loaded and everything was all set.

I decided before I played to go to dinner. I chose Spiedini tonight. I got right in with no reservation. I started with the beef carpaccio appetizer. It looked like someone spilled the Parmesan cheese on it. There was a lot. That's not a bad thing. For my entree I went with one of the specials of Prosciutto wrapped pork tenderloin. This came with spinach and garlic mashed potatoes. The meal was excellent but I would have called it pork Marsala instead.

With dinner over with I hit the players club to have them add $50 free play I won in a contest online then it was time to play.

I chose 8/5 bonus for 10 play. I wasn't going to do my normal play tonight because other than about 20 minutes on the flight I've been up since 3am eastern, midnight Las Vegas time. I'd make that up tomorrow when they are offering 2x points on VP.

The session for the most part sucked. Very few quads and only one bonus quad. I did get a fair amount of dealt full houses, flushes and straights to keep me going but the lack of quads killed me. I dropped almost $500 on just 9k in action.

Next I ran my free play through dime airport deuces turning the $225 into $200. I decided to continue to play but this was as bad as bonus poker was. I dropped that $200 as well.

I was going to go to bed but we were 15 minutes away from the final drawing for $250 free play tonight and they were drawing 10 winners. I plopped down at a penny slot to slow play and kill time. I hit a few small bonus rounds but nothing noteworthy. I didn't get called for the drawing and cashed out at the slot with a 14˘ victory.

I came up to the room and I think I was asleep a few seconds after my head hit the pillow.

Total Coin In for the day $19,376
Total win/loss for the day - $734 (Includes $50 gas card as cash)
Total Comps for the day $447
Room $175
Cash/Free Play $225
Food $47