September 2016 Trip Report - Killer Weekend at Sam's, the Gaming Expo, and my First Blackjack Tournament

I'll start with my normal disclaimer.   If you are looking for a detailed gambling trip report with picture of wins, or near wins, and detailed discussion of them, you probably want to skip reading this report.   When I look back at a trip years later, the least interesting thing to me would be to look back at when I hit four 4's in double bonus for a 400 coin "win" while having a 500 coin loss for the day, or even with a 1000 coin win for the day.   What instead is noteworthy to me are the encounters with people, and observations of new and different things on the trip, so this is what I like to include in my reports.

I haven't done a trip report for a few trips.  I started a couple of drafts on the last two trips, but it does take a lot of time to really do a complete one, which I've finally done this time.

As always, you can click on any picture for a larger view.

Pre trip report

The one big change this trip is that the increase in the car rental prices have reached levels double that of just a few years ago.    I paid $250 (net after $30 gift card) using my Costco membership, for a 7 day rental.   I booked this rental the day I purchased the airfare, and the car rental prices didn't fall, but instead rose after that day, significantly.   Had I waited a week or two to book this trip, I would have paid around $320 for the rental with the Costco rate.  Without the Costco rate, it would have been around $400!  It's getting to the point where instead of looking for an airfare sale to start the trip planning process, it might change to finding a decent car rental rate first before booking the airline!

For a change, we booked JetBlue for our flights.   We had been flying on Jetblue quite often 5-10 years ago, but their fares weren't competitive enough for a while.  Lately, they seem to have the best fares, so we are back to JetBlue.   It is nice to get the free wifi and free in seat satellite TV, not to mention, the seating spacing is more roomy than many other airlines, like Southwest for example.   This means for the first time we will be coming into the new terminal 3 in Las Vegas, so I am looking forward to seeing that for the first time.

One nice perk for this trip is an offer I received from the Golden Nugget Laughlin.  It was one of those, "we missed you" offers.  The key was that this offer would match my freeplay from any other casino (not just a Laughlin casino)!   I have no intention of being a Golden Nugget player/guest, as their Video Poker has poor pay schedules, their casino is smokey, which is made worse by having an 8 foot ceiling, and many of their rooms are musty and loud.   I am not going to stiff them by playing my freeplay through once and then cash out, but I am not going to give them a lot of play.   I'll probably play about a half hour.

The Trip

Our flight was going to leave on time, yet our expected arrival was going to be 45 minutes late!  I figured that would only be possible if this would be the worst ever headwinds, but it turned out that there was a line of storms in the midwest that went from Minnesota to Louisiana, and apparently they were so strong and high that airlines were flying around this line of storms to avoid them.   This meant that we had to fly north, practically to Montreal, and then head West through Canada, not turning South until we were in North Dakota!   Practically a tour of North America!

We landed at Terminal 3 in McCarran airport, and although some aspects of it were nicer than Terminal 1, I was surprised that the car rental shuttle had to make an extra stop to load passengers at the International arrivals section of the terminal.  In addition, the location meant that it was a much longer drive to the rental center.   It took about an extra 15 minutes to get to the center (including the time to load international passengers) vs Terminal 1.

Golden Nugget Blackjack Tournament

I played in a Blackjack Tournament for the first time this trip, as it was part of an offer I received from the Golden Nugget.   I read up a bit on tournament strategy in advance, and it is very involved, much more than I imagined.  One example is the concept of the free hit which in some cases is not an obvious concept

The format was 4 rounds, each with the top two chip leaders at the end of each 20 hand round at each table advancing to the next round.

In round 1, I stayed within range just a few thousand below second place towards the end of the round, despite my opponents getting better hands than me most of the time.  During the last 5 or so hands, of the 20 hand tournament round, the strategy gets more involved.    I had to make a move, so on hand 16 with the card count getting very positive, I doubled down my 2,000 chip maximum bet while after being dealt an 8,and won the hand.

This left me about 1,500 from second place for the table.   For the last and most important hand, the rotating order of play meant that I had to be the first to show my bet before the hand, and first to play my hand, which is the worst position to be in, a significant disadvantage.  I bet the max, 2,000, which meant the person in second place would bet a bit less than that, having the information of my bet size now, so that if we both won the hand, or both lost the hand, he would stay ahead of me and finish second.    I was dealt a 12 against the dealers 7, and knew my only chance to jump ahead of the other player was to double down on my 12.   This shows the importance of position, as if the second place player had to act before me, he would have likely stood on his 13, and then a winning double down by me would allow me to win, but here I had to act first with him seeing my hand and my decision first.   My double down resulted in me being dealt a 6, for an 18,  which was a pretty good card.  Since the most likely outcome for the dealer would be a 17, my double down meant I had a good chance to steal second place.  This forced the second place player to also then double down on his hand, a 13, as he was worried that I would beat his score, he doubled down on his 14.   He was dealt a 10 for a bust, so I won, right? No, it wasn't over.

Before the tournament, each player was given a chance to buy a "mulligan" for $50 cash, and this player did so.  The mulligan entitled the player to one time throw out a single dealt card for another.   So, he used the mulligan and received an alternate double down card, a 4, to give him 17.    I was still in pretty good shape, because if the dealer turned over a 10 for a 17 total, the second place player would push his bet, while I would win my double down max bet and jump ahead of him into second.   After all this jockeying and having to deal with his mulligan, I was still in really good shape to win and very satisfied with my strategy. The dealer turned over her down card.   It was a small card, not the hoped for 10, and then she proceeded to bust, which meant both of us won our bets, leaving him still in second place.   And so, I was eliminated in the first round.

They did have a nice complimentary continental breakfast before the tournament, including some nice egg McMuffin type sandwiches, yogurts, and some of the best quality orange juice and coffee that I've ever had in town.

In reading the tournament rules I was disappointed to read some of them.   There were rules that said management had the right to pre-determine that some players (no number specified) would be able to skip the first 1,or 2 rounds of the tournament to give them an advantage over other players.  You could also buy your way into the second round for $3,000, or into the semi finals for $6,000. Can you imagine starting the tournament at the quarter finals?  The $6,000 is a steep price because in order to come out ahead, you would have to finish in the top 4 places.  4th place payed $7,000.  This skipping rounds privilege would be complimentary for specific high rollers as a reward for their play.   For this reason I don't understand why/how they could charge $500 for entries to this tournament to the general public.   I actually witnessed a woman ahead of me at the registration pony up $500 to enter this tournament even with these rules that make the game not a level playing field.

Video Poker highlights

For years and years of playing VP I must have held King-Ten suited thousands of times without hitting a royal flush with it.   I never doubted when it was the right strategy, but I always seemed that it was hurting me more than helping me, at least in my results.   Well that finally changed when I turned a King-Ten suited into a royal flush on the first day of the trip! 

The next day, I had my losing VP session "rudely" interrupted by a dealt royal flush!  This was my third dealt royal flush ever, two in the past 2 years.  Of course, it was totally unexpected.   After about an entire year of playing without a single royal flush, I now had two in two days.  Feast or famine!   After these two royals, I started a campaign with a motto, saying this would be the "a royal a day trip".   Of course, the streak ended at two despite the great efforts of my slogan.

The rest of the week was a chore to just avoid losing too much, as except for one day, I lost each day.  Thankfully the two royals made it likely that I would have a winning trip, which I did.

I wasn't nearly as lucky as the woman playing near me, who hit a royal flush, and 4 aces twice in double bonus, all in 15 minutes!   I'd like to experience that once!

Harrah's Laughlin experiences

Waiting on line at the Harrah's Laughlin Diamond Lounge we saw some interesting people.   The first was a retired man in his 80's from Nebraska who I nicknamed "Mr Question", as he proceed to pepper people near him with question after question about their backgrounds.    One of the people he questioned was a very well dressed woman in her mid 80's who was alone.   She told of how she and another premium player (they were both 7-Stars players level) were driven to the prior night's Hank Williams Jr concert with a host in a limo.   Obviously this signaled that she was a pretty high roller.  She then described how after about 3 songs they asked the host to take them back to the casino because the music was too loud.  Mr Question then asked her which games and denominations did she play to get such recognition, and wanted to know how anyone could possibly earn so many points to become a Seven Stars level player. She informed him that she plays $25 slot machines.   Mr Question put on his judging "hat" and told her that no one from Nebraska (where he resides) would even think at playing at such a high denomination.   Mr Question did not reveal what gave him these powers to speak for an entire state.   The woman said she worked in banking and her husband, who is now deceased, was a former Hollywood stunt man.   When she hit a big slot win, she would often donate the winnings to charity.

Then she spoke more about her husband, who as it turned out had a serious stroke while playing a slot machine at Harrah's Laughlin, which after some time eventually lead to his death.    A hush came over the 20 or so people on line as they heard her describe this.  Since the high roller room has only about ten $25 slot machines in it, I was wondering how she was able to handle playing so often in a casino, just feet away from the spot which may have been where her husband had the last quality moments of his life.   Of course, unlike Mr Question, I would not have posed that to her, but was just wondering how she was able to get around that reminder each time she played. Maybe she just didn't think of it that way.

View from outdoor section of the Diamond Lounge

To digress for a minute, I learned that here there are some new rules for Diamond Level lounge patrons.   Who knows if this will spread to other properties.  First, Diamond card holders are now limited to one visit a day.   More visits will result in a $10 a person comp charge for each person.   Also, Diamond card holders can no longer specific premium liquor in their drinks, only Seven Stars patrons can have that.   Seven Star players now can have a made to order hot appetizer served to them, once a day.  There is a small menu that they get to choose from.

It was a bit saddening once we all got inside, to see the $25 slot lady sitting alone at a table in the Seven Stars portion of the Diamond Lounge.  No doubt she would have been able to tell some great stories about her husband working with old time Hollywood stars which would have made a nice addition to this blog.  We thought about inviting her to our table, but she was sitting in the Seven Star area of the lounge, and she wouldn't be able to get her Seven Star privileges in our lowly Diamond section of the lounge.

Along those lines, I was playing at Sam's Town later in the trip when I heard a regular there, an older man, talking to the cocktail waitresses and slot attendants about his wife's health.   He informed them that she was currently in the hospital, in a coma.  This while he played video poker.  Maybe it allowed him to escape from his situation for a while. 

Sam's Town and the Killers

Our visit to Sam's Town just preceded what for them was a very big event, a two night exclusive concert at Sam's Town Live showroom, which normally seats 900 people, by the Killers, a band that originated in Las Vegas.  Brandon Flowers, the lead singer, lived near Sam's Town before they became famous.  Their second album, which is now 10 years old, is titled "Sam's Town".   I don't recall any cross promotion of between Sam's and the Killers around that time, but something happened now behind the scenes and they decided to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of that album with two nights of shows at Sam's.    Sam's was going all in for this event.  There were special blackjack table felt tops and casino chips (see below) with the Killers logo on them.  Sam's also was closing half of their gift shop for the weekend and opening in that space was a Killer's shop for concert T-shirts, logo items, CD's etc.

The day before the first show we happened to be around the pool area which is right next to the Sam's Town Live showroom, when we heard what was some kind of sound check.  At first even the fans that were outside with us were wondering if the sound we heard through the walls was actually the band or instead instrument technicians standing in for a preliminary sound check.   But, after a few instrumental only run throughs, during the next song Brandon Flowers distinctive soaring voice could be heard loud and clear in front of the band.  Yes, this was the full band doing a full sound check.  Since the crew was still busy setting up the equipment for the show loading in from a truck behind the pool, the side door would open time to time giving us a pretty complete audio of the sound check from the band.   There were a dozen or so fans who somehow knew about this sound check and were also parked outside the walls of the showroom, which were booming with bass as they sat by the pool listening as well.  The tiny venue could barely contain the sound.

Near the pool, outside, there was a small stage set up, and the crew was working on that as well.  I was wondering if there was going to be some kind of surprise outdoor show going to be put on by the pool.  Turns out there was an short scaled down acoustic type show before each of the two concerts for those who bought an expensive VIP package.   For those of you that don't know the Sam's Town pool area, it is not like the huge pool areas at strip resorts, it's quite small.   There are typically about a two to three dozen lounge chairs around the pool.

The stage was approximately in the same location as where this photo was taken from, but facing to the right, not towards the pool.

In the videos below, you can see the palm trees that are in the pool area when the band walks on stage.  I would think fire safety rules would limit this area to 150 or so people to be allowed at this show due to the size of the area.   

Talk about an intimate venue!

Here are videos of these pool side events that were posted on youtube

In between songs in the video below he tells the crowd that the lyrics which talk about the sunset on the East side is talking about watching the sunset from the Sam's Town area of East Las Vegas.

On the day of the show, the casino sound system played nothing but Killers music, and the typical geriatric clientele of Sam's Town was now being infiltrated by hoards of mostly 20 something, mostly female, Killers fans.   I overheard some stories of ticket holders flying in from places like New Jersey and Washington state, just to see the show and booking rooms at Sam's which was of course sold out for the weekend.   It was really hard to believe that the most exclusive venue in town for a concert was not some hip casino like the Palms, or a high end one like Caesars, but instead, for those two nights, it was good old little Sam's Town, miles away from the strip.

I took a look at some of the youtube videos of the main Sam's Town Live Theater concerts that weekend, and I picked this one to include since it gives a good idea of how small the showroom is, with the entire audience general admission, with no seating, and captures the high energy of the show. The video looks better if you click the full screen icon on the bottom.

Lastly, Rolling Stone did a really thorough article on these shows heavily mentioning Sam's Town.  It also talks about seeing members of Imagine Dragons walking through the casino after the show.   Rolling Stone - Killers Show at Sam's Town article

This was our first visit to the new restaurant at Sam's Town, the Angry Butcher, which replaced Billy Bob's steakhouse which was one of our favorite places of all time.   Billy Bob's was one of my top three quality value restaurants in all of Las Vegas.   We started going years ago when the Filet Mignon complete dinner was $16 complete with a salad, some vegetables, and choice of potato the size of which could feed a family of four alone.  This was no limited hours special or off the menu special, it was part of the regular menu.  Over time, it became $18, then $20, and on and on until it was most recently $27, but now without veggies included.  It was still a good value, but not the insane value that it once was.

So moving on, now we have the newly opened Angry Butcher steakhouse, the replacement.   First, now there are nice white tablecloths, and unlike Billy Bob's which had dining hall quality silverware, the AB had heavy top quality silverware.   But now of course the menu is a la carte, and it the filet mignon now costs $32.   So if you want a similar dinner to Billy Bob's you'd have to order a potato for $7 and a house salad for $6 for a total of $45 for what had cost $27 just months ago at Billy Bob's!   That's about a 50% increase!  I thought that maybe the steaks would be of a higher quality, but after eating one here there was not a significant difference in the quality.  They were maybe a little better than Billy Bob's steaks   The potato was the same as served in the old restaurant.   The salad was a big improvement over the one that came with the dinner before.   To summarize, we have a definitely better salad, and nicer silverware and tablecloths, but for this, a 50% increase?   Sorry, but I'd take Billy Bob's back even with its deficiencies any day over the Angry Butcher.

The other new restaurant, the Big Mess BBQ, is still being constructed.  Signs said "opening in October" but they had a lot of work to do from what I could see, so late October would be the earliest I can see them opening.

I'm always floored when an employee remembers us from prior trips, since we only take 2 or 3 maximum trips a year.   At the Angry Butcher, the hostess greeted me by my first name as we arrived (she was the hostess at the former Billy Bob's there).   I thought out loud, "oh am I the last of the 7pm reservations to check in?", thinking that she figured out who I was through the process of elimination.   But no, she remembered me from prior visits, and after a little conversation, sat us at the premier table in the middle of the park section of the restaurant!

Global Gaming Expo Convention

After seeing these yearly Gaming Conventions in Las Vegas, we finally managed to be there the week it was held, and were able to make time to attend.   Some website had a link for free attendee tickets to the convention, so we signed up.    I knew this was a big convention, but it was bigger than I had even thought.   Thousands upon thousands of people, mostly casino business people, were in attendance at this convention in the Sands Expo center, connected to the Palazzo.  The hallways approaching the conference were a mass of people walking, wall to wall, looking like a scene from Manhattan sidewalks at rush hour.  We did spend some time at the IGT and other slot makers exhibits.   We saw a number of new games, table games, slots and video poker.  There is a new Seinfeld slot machine which was on display.   The Soup Nazi character from the show, who apparently is the only cast member to appear in custom shot videos on the display, was due to make an appearance each afternoon.   We picked up a few little freebies, like nice chocolates, and USB drives promoting some of the vendors products.

 

 Miscellaneous

We got a kick out of seeing the worlds smallest hotel alarm clock at the Westgate, shown next to a pen.   I wonder how much they saved by going with this model?

In what I think is a first for Las Vegas, Sam's Town buffet charges extra for buffet meals if you are with a large party!   I've seen many buffets where a mandatory 17% gratuity is charged for large groups (including Sam's Town, if I remember correctly), but this is the first time I have seen the cost of the buffet change with the group size.   Did Sam's find that larger groups eat more at buffets?  This extra fee should add a few million dollars a year to their bottom line!  ;-)

How about going in with two parties of 9, just to make their day?

In Laughlin, I was entertained by this "stairway to nowhere" which was behind a sidewalk railing along the Riverwalk.  There were no visible signs of a doorway ever being above the stairway.

While walking by the Pioneer Casino Hotel in Laughlin, we came across these two rooms.  No word on how many days it took for this "decor display" to be "created".   It looks like room 302 had the lead vs room 303..... so far.

Playing Mystery Slots?

We walked by a man sitting at a slot machine, and managed to notice a piece of cardboard over the slot reels display area.   I didn't think much of it, as I figured it was a machine that somehow had its front glass broken, and cardboard was put over it to protect customers until it was removed from service.   But, an hour or two later, when we walked by, the same man was sitting at the same machine, with the cardboard still in place, and he was hitting the spin button with credits in the machine.   In other words, HE WAS PURPOSELY PLAYING AT A SLOT MACHINE THAT HE HAD COVERED HIMSELF WITH CARDBOARD!   I thought I've seen it all with superstitions at casinos, but this guy set a new standard.   Apparently, he decided he didn't want to see the results of his play, so he covered up the machine, and would play the whole time that way!

Prediction - "The Market" on Fremont St in Downtown LV will close

I believe I was the first to document and post pictures of the The Market mini supermarket, after it opened a few years ago.   Around that time, many people commented that it was something they thought was really needed, and that they would shop there.   Well, it looks to me that not enough people are shopping there, as each time we stop back there, there is less and less selection in the store.   This time we noticed the rack of about 20 different nuts and grains self dispenser was no longer being filled.   Here below is a picture of one the main display cases at the counter, which used to contain freshly made to go cooked foods, baked items, and salads.   Even the milk case had only about 1/3 of the varieties of milk that they had in prior years.   It is just a matter of time, but all signs tell me that they will close this store within the next year or so.

In contrast, here is the same area two years ago, from an old blog entry of mine.

The Westgate is going downhill

The Westgate, formerly the LVH and LV Hilton, appears to be going downhill.   Yes, the remodeled sportsbook is amazing, but the clientele in the hotel/casino based on this visit, was not.   It used to be that this hotel was a heavy convention hotel, with most guests being well dressed business men/women attending conventions.   So, they were pretty pleasant to be around.  Okay, this visit was on a Saturday, so maybe that accounted for this much of a change, but even the last few visits I noticed the same trend.   Many of the guests looked like they were college students on spring break, and one person checking in had two cases of beer with him.   We entered the elevator and the other couple inside reeked of pot, and were clearly high.  When we were leaving there was a group of young men, maybe 21 years of age at the most, wheeling out a cooler into the elevator.  As we were driving away, a young woman who was about 75 pounds overweight walked by wearing a thong and a totally sheer skirt over it.  I'm still trying to un-see that image.

We ate at their newer Italian restaurant at Westgate, and since we planned to dine at 6:30 Saturday, we made a reservation.   We learned that we had the ONLY reservation at that restaurant that night, a Saturday night.   There were about 6 tables seated when we came in.  By the time we left more than half the tables were seated, but still, it was almost spooky on a Saturday night to see a restaurant in a large hotel like this.   The service inside was just as bad.   The salads we ordered had "overnight tomatoes" featured as part of the salad (which we had and enjoyed on a prior visit) yet there wasn't a single tomato in our salads!  We had to send it back to have them added! The Westgate is a 3,000 room hotel, and yet only has about 4 sit down restaurants.  One would think that if just 20% of the guests ate at the hotel that night that the restaurant it would be more than half full.

The M Resort is still a favorite

I'll try to balance the negatives with the positive report, about maybe our favorite hotel/casino, the M Resort. It has to us perfect balance of upscale-ness, newness, classy clientele, varied clientele (both old and young),  well trained, friendly employees, decent games to play, decent promotions, and top notch standard hotel rooms, which are comped with marketing offers.   Add to that what maybe is the best value buffet in all of LV, which is easily comped (without spending points) with just a hour to two of quarter slot play.  And for those who pay for rooms, no daily resort fee!   They have a free shuttle the runs to the airport and strip.   If you are renting a car, the location really isn't even a negative.   Since it is right off I15, you can get to Tropicana and the strip in just about 15-20 minutes, surely less time to get there than it would take from Sam's Town.

The obligatory Bellagio conservatory pics - Fall edition

The End

Well we enjoyed another of our typical trips, where every meal we ate was fully comped, as well as every hotel night.  This, plus we enjoyed free play at the casinos we played at.   The weather was pretty nice, in the very low 90's for highs.  Couple that with a cash win for the trip, some fun new memories, and what more could you ask for?