Jan/Feb 2021 100% EV Trip Report

 Note: Clicking on a picture expands it to full size.

The plan and trip out   

I bought a $99 round trip cross country air ticket, for late January, a while ago.   As the Nevada Covid-19 cases skyrocketed around the holidays, I said it would be unwise to head out there in the middle of this.   I could only hope that somehow, someway, there would be a quick drastic drop in cases.  Unlikely.  But, it happened.  As the end of January approached, Nevada cases fell almost to the level of our late October trip, and likely would continue to fall even lower, during my trip, so this trip was a go!

Wow, people are taking masking a lot more seriously now than in October.   Many many people at my departure airport were double masked, and quite a few had faceguards over their masks.   It was good to see people are more serious about following recommendations now!    As it is, my flight is just about full.

For my car, I ended up reserving an economy class, which was 1/3 cheaper than the standard class.  I hadn't gone this low before, but figured it was worth a shot being solo.  Well I got a Nissan Versa and was totally fine with it.  I didn't miss having a larger class at all, and it felt safe and not underpowered.  10-20 years ago the economy class rental cars were garbage and underpowered.  Trip costs were $99 airfare, $88 rental car, $41 airport parking.  Zero for hotel, meals, and zero evil "resort" fees.

I played at 5 different casinos on this trip.  They all had something in common.... marketing offers with free play that would make the expected value of my play from 100% to 101%, not including comp meals/rooms.   This kind of thing is becoming more rare, and this is what led me to book this trip.   Well, that and the $99 roundtrip cross country airfare, that I snagged!

CAESARS PALACE

Caesars has some pretty crappy VP, but their Covid-era marketing offers make up for most of the shortfall, so I booked a stay there as part of this trip.   Since it was a weekday, the food choices stunk, and I didn't like the idea of spending $120 on a "to go" meal for one, to eat in my room, so my idea was to later in the day, play at the D, where I'd have dinner.    

This was my first time in a while being a Diamond Plus at Caesars.   I printed out my 4 $20 drink vouchers, in lieu of the Laurel lounge, but since I was going to drive shortly and spend the mid afternoon to evening playing at the D, I had no need for a drink.   I looked at the menu at the bar near the check in area, and had the idea to use my empty water bottles to store some decent quality wine, to have the next day.   I ordered two glasses of a $18-$19/glass wine and the bartender probably was experienced with this kind of thing, as she asked if I wanted two glasses or have both "glasses" in a plastic cup.   I chose the latter.   She used a glass to size up the tiny pour size, and poured both into a plastic cup.   Outside the bar, I poured this into a small 8 ounce empty water bottle.  Welcome to Caesars Resorts my friends, what you are looking at here is $38 worth of wine!  Here's to you, Eldorado!

This was probably the best view of the Bellagio fountains, from my room at Caesars, that I've ever had!

My room had no shampoo and so I called down to have some brought up, no rush.   When I returned to the room, hours later, I saw that they did this, to avoid entering the room.  Nice to see none of my neighbors swiped this before I could get to it.

Shampoo "jackpot" (non-taxable)!

I actually made a small profit playing VP at Caesars, mainly by getting a dealt four of a kind on a triple play, and a straight flush on a draw.  I usually do so poorly there.   I almost stopped playing when a mask around the chin guy sat relatively close to me, but lucky for me he just played a bill through until he lost, and then left.

Asking me to do the impossible?

Let's say a "unique" dress, and some heavy looking shoes!

Sadelle’s at Bellagio

So amazingly (to me) I was able to finish my Caesar's play, completely, by noon, before I even checked in!   I then headed to the LVA office, to renew and pick up my coupons.   I got there 5 minutes after noon, and learned that they close for lunch hour, so I instead went to Ellis Island for a quick stop and had a glass of Eggnog to go, before their holiday supply ran out.  I then stopped in the Orleans to keep my Boyd point alive with a minimal amount of play.   Back to the LVA, got my coupons, and headed to the D, where I could use my free play offer along with match play, and use my food credit for dinner at Andiamo.   

THE D

Before starting play at the D, I went over to Circa, asking if I could use my freeplay there instead of at the D.   They had next to zero interest in allowing me to do this.  What a got is a bit of "we're too premium to cater to D customers'', which is odd considering they are part of the same company.  I also got some excuses that the gaming board hadn't allowed them clearance to do match play, and excuses like that.   Oh well, I tried.  I kind of would like to see them not do so well, so they would have to "lower" themselves to have to cater a bit more to bring in lowly customers like me.

An 8am view at Circa

I put the first LVA coupon to use, using my extra freeplay coupon at the D slot club desk.   I was there for about 15 minutes, getting my monthly free play, plus my Southwest match play (he did check that the arrival time was within 24 hours), and setting up the LVA coupon.  I settled in for a long painful session at the upstairs D bar, playing bonus poker, with the best hand being four 2's, just once.   This was my worst session of the trip, by far, a 93% return on my play.  Later, since I was dining solo, I had some freedom to spend more at dinner at Andiamo.  Since I had no lunch, after eating at Magnolia's for breakfast, I was a bit hungry, and ordered calamari as an appetizer, along with a salad and Osso Buco.   Well the calamari portion was probably more than 2x the portion served at the Chicago Brewery at the Four Queens.   I took a picture here AFTER I had finished eating probably just over half the portion.

  One of the staff saw me struggling and brought me a to-go container, which I loaded up.  Now the Osso Buco was coming and I was full already.   I managed to eat about 40% of it, and added the rest to my to-go bag.   The waiter then came by and complimented me on finishing my portion.  He had a good laugh when I told him, "Well, I cheated", and pointed to the bag of leftovers sitting on the chair across from me.  

I did manage to win 2/3rds of my Blackjack play at the D with the various matchplays,  ending up winning about $150!

I went back to the slot club desk at the D after I finished play, to have the LVA extra free play loaded to my account, and found a VP machine that allowed freeplay.   Now I had my one bright moment of the D session, where I hit a straight flush on the freeplay, which made a small but definite dent in my losses.

FOUR QUEENS

7:15am weekday view from Magnolia's table

Beef Wellington with potato au-gratin at Hugo's

My "Bette Davis Eyes" streak, has ended, I am sad to report.   I've prided myself on documenting hearing this song at the Four Queens, on every day of play there, but it came to an end this trip.  Who knows, it could have easily been played while I was at dinner at Hugo's.   The rest of the "regular" songs there were in the regular rotation, including Come on Eileen, 867-5309, Who Can It Be Now,  and The Look of Love.  If I were blindfolded, I would be able to identify I was in the Four Queens, after a half hour of listening to their playlist.

I picked up the free "collectable" Year of the Ox figure, after earning the required points, and I can say it is the most hideous of the 5 years of figures that I have assembled.

The Four Queens Chinese New Year "crew", new Ox on the right.

I am still going through withdrawal, in no longer having the Magnolia's cookies at the cashier, which are in hiatis since the pandemic.

LAUGHLIN

The next day I headed out relatively early to Laughlin, after first stopping at Panera Bread on Flamingo to get a "free" coffee on my 3 month free subscription.  They had run out of large size cups, and so compensated me for their shortcoming by giving me a medium size instead  ;-)

95 South, Just after exiting I-11  Almost looking like Death Valley

This was a day trip to Laughlin, in part to enjoy the 72 degree day there, while a storm hit the northeast.   I sat out on the Riverwalk, and the sun even felt a bit warm on my skin midday!   I took a break to sit out near the river, and relaxed in the sunshine, one the rare moments of pure relaxation on my solo trips.   As much as you can like LV, you don't get to do this on the strip, or downtown, just steps from your machine inside.

The view from the Cove Bar at the Aquarius is 180 from the typical "don't let them look outside" Las Vegas casino design approach.   There behind the bar are windows, and outside is the Colorado River and mountains in the distance.  To add to the plusses, the nearby sportsbook as well at the Cove Bar are non smoking.  Literally a breath of fresh air.

  I had a free play offer that got me to 100% EV, which these days is nothing to sneeze at.  The closure of most restaurants midweek is an issue here too.   They seem to cater the "Outback crowd", as now this is in effect their high end restaurant.   Grrrr!  I tried to avoid it, but once ate there, and was disappointed.   I actually spent the day, this time, only having a snack during the day, after feasting on some chilled leftovers from Andiamo!   Their security did a really good job in patrolling people not wearing their masks correctly, which was nice to see.

Optimum Play bank at Aquarius

VP bar at the Riverside Casino

High roller slot area at Riverside.

A detailed day of Double Bonus play

I started playing very early in the morning. I typically buy in with around 400-500 credits.  Half an hour after my first buy in, I was down to zero credits, and I had to reload the machine with cash.  Not unusual, and not very unlucky, but not a good start.   After 40 total minutes of play, after passing over one cycle of hands towards a four of a kind, I hit four 10's, Quad 1.   Some relief there.  

I took a break for breakfast,  and then, 5 minutes after resuming, I was awarded, with no drama, four dealt 4's, Quad 2, which I quickly held, before the machine had a chance to change its mind!  I was now slightly up for the session.  A half hour later, I had four 8's, Quad 3, but bringing me again, just over even for the day.  Just 20 minutes later, it took four Queens, Quad 4, to get just short of even.  That's right, in less than 20 minutes, the prior quad was more than burned off, in losses.  Not unusual.

Exactly 10 minutes later, I held two and drew the other two 9's, for Quad 5, to put me only slightly up for the day!     To summarize, I now had just 2.5 hours of play, 5 quads, one of them a semi premium one, yet just barely ahead.   And to think some sessions can go this long with just one quad.

A half hour later, four 5's brought me once again, just back to even, but after another half hour, the VP god's were kind, dealing me four 3's as Quad 7.  I don't mind not having to "work" to get the quads!  Guess what?  Now I am again barely ahead for the day.   

45 minutes later, and if felt a lot longer than that, holding 3 Aces, I nailed the 4th, and now I was a bit more solidly ahead for the day.  Just 4-5 hands later, holding two 3's got me two more, for Quad 9, and now for the first time, solidly ahead for the day.  Summary now is about 3.5 hours of play, 9 quads, including 3 semi premium and Aces once.  That kind of run is what it takes to finally feel that I am up for the day.

That's not enough, as 3 hands later, holding two 9's, I pulled two more!  That's 3 quads in under 5 minutes.

I had a "long" dry spell, of 6 more minutes, before getting two plus two 7's.  Now 4 quads in 10 minutes, 11 quads in 3 hours 45 minutes of play, and I'm now up 1/4 of a royal.

That was all followed by a relatively dry spell, 45 quadless minutes, pushing me back down to even!  Repeat, now back to even, after 11 double bonus quads in 4.5 hours!  Sick!

I broke the mini drought holding three Kings to get the 4th. Next, an even longer mini drought, of just over an hour, to hit four 10's, and guess what?  Even after the credits roll up, I am now slightly down for the day!!!!!!  This is 5.5 hours of play, and 13 quads, but in the red!  Sobering!

A few hands later, my alphabetic best friends arrived again, adding an Ace to the three I held.  A relief to be up again.

Three (3!) minutes later, they returned for an encore, holding three to get the fourth, for my 3rd quad Aces of the day.  Now I'm up over 1/4 of a royal flush.  About 5.75 hours of play, and 15 quads.

15 minutes later for Kings, and time for a lunch break in the action, up over 1/4 a royal.

About 15 minutes after my break, I held two 2's to pull the other two, and now I am at my high for the day.  And 20 minutes later, deja vu all over again with the 2's, and this is now getting good, with 18 quads!

20 minutes later 5's, and then the quads took a break.   I then had one of the most unreal hour or so period of draws that I can remember in a long time.

If you play double or double double bonus, you know that typically after hitting a nice quad, you end up giving most of it back in a half hour or so, unless you hit another one.  It is hard to stay even, with a half hour of play, without a quad.   Well I was able to do it.   I proceeded to hit full houses holding 2 pair, flushes holding 3 or 4 to a flush, and straights holding 4 straight, over and over again, about 50% of the time.   I even hit 3 of 6 inside straight attempts.   It was amusing being able to be so confident while playing.  "Inside straight?  Sure, no problem, ca-ching.  As this went on, I was even a bit ahead for this hour + of play despite not having a quad in this period.   It was so ridiculous that it felt like something supernatural was going on, like the machine was working for me, and someone from the casino was going to tap me on the shoulder to question me about what was happening.  

Then, almost an hour after the last quad, I drew a straight flush, holding 3.   25 minutes later, a good 1:20 since my last quad, four 6's showed up.   This still left me decently lower than my highs of the day, earlier.

Momentum came back, with four 10's, 10 minutes later.  And they too had a repeat performance, for the 22nd quad of the day, 7 minutes later.   I was back in reach of highs for the day, and a great time for a dinner break.   

Total play at Double Bonus was almost 9 hours, with a win of over 1/4 of a royal flush.   While that is certainly a great day, most of the gains were due to my luck in hitting Aces, as really, playing at almost 1000 hands an hour, I should average just over two quads an hour, and I did just very slightly better than that.  The five quad 2's,3's,4's, were very close to expectations for 22 quads.  What this highlights to me is how unlucky I have been in the past 3 years or so of Double Bonus play, as I have had many significant losing sessions.    This day felt so "lucky" to me, but in reality, my gains for the day were mainly getting just a quad or two above expectations for the entire day, and the result of getting Aces 3 times, which is double what the expectation would be for this amount of play

I needed to get some more play in after dinner, and wanted to preserve my gains, so I switched to Jacks or Better, for the evening, and after about two hours of additional play, I held my gains, which was great, and maybe even just as impressive of an accomplishment, but with much less drama.

Conclusion

That winning day of double bonus play, along with adding in the generous cashback of my various offers resulted in that day taking me, cash wise, from down for the short trip, to nicely ahead!   For once it seemed I had a trip close to expected value, which was a rare!   And the other noteworthy aspect is that this was a rare winning trip taking place without a royal flush.  In a way, these are my favorite outcomes of a trip.

In speaking to some hosts, several properties have had runs of hosts getting ill with Covid-19, likely from some of their less careful customers.   It's not right that they have to deal with this!

For sure, dealing with the risks of getting Covid-19 on the trip/plane and dealing with the 75% closed restaurants, closed Laurel Lounges, missing coffee in the VIP check-in, etc, are significant negatives to a trip.   However, I like the other aspects of the situation.   I rather not deal with crowds, lines, and I like being able to get to sleep relatively early without club/FSE band noise weeknights at 1am.  And obviously, the higher free play with the room offers is welcome.  Still,  I am hoping that by the next trip things will, at least partially, be getting back to more normalcy.

February 2020 Trip Report - Bally's, Four Queens, The Front Yard, and more

No More CNY Wallets at Cosmo

Chinese New Year display at Cosmopolitan

I thought this was a good picture to start the report with, although I didn't spend much time at the Cosmopolitan.   I went in search of the Chinese New Year $2 bill wallets that the Cosmo was "selling" at face value.   $100 in $2 bills plus your choice of red or purple wallets, for $100.   I tried to purchase one, but the wallets were sold out.

These are no longer available, so don't bother trying to purchase one!

Roomy Accommodations at Bally's

Keeping my Caesars Diamond card is now something I have to weigh each year, now that even half decent VP seems to be disappearing at Caesars Resorts.  But, I had an offer that added about .4% to my play there.  Still not great, but maybe worth playing, in part due to the offer, as well as the February double Tier points promotion.   I booked a room at Bally's, and like a few others have recently reported, I found the rooms to be far superior to those at Paris, which are typically harder to book as comps as compared to Bally's.  This Bally's room was probably close to twice the size of the standard room in Paris.

Bally's Room

View of Ellis Island from my room at Bally's

Beat the Clock Happy Hour Tacos

My flight landed just about 15 minutes late in the late afternoon, not too bad, but timing was very tight, as I was trying to catch a happy hour, ending at 5pm, at Bally's Mexican Restaurant, Tequila Taqueria Bar & Grill, plus visit the Paris Diamond lounge before they stopped serving hot food at 6pm.   I checked in at Bally's, dropped my bag in the room, and immediately headed down to the restaurant bar to have some happy hour tacos.  $3 each.  Two pork, and two chicken.   The pork were fine, the chicken were excellent.  

Happy Hour Menu Pdf Link

Caesars Beats Paris, No Contest!

After reading some reports where people said that they preferred Paris' Laurel (Diamond) Lounge over the lounge at Caesars,  I was looking forward to trying it out, as I've been a 100% Caesars Lounge person up to now.   Well, I was disappointed.   After waiting 20 minutes to be seated, I got to the hot food before it closed down only to find the number of food items to be significantly less than I usually found at Caesars.   The food area itself looked like a bomb hit it, with drips and scraps all over the buffet area.   The room was tight and crowded, with tables squeezed closer together than Caesars.    The server came by for a drink order.   Then, I waited about 10-15 minutes to be served.  When I tasted my drink, it wasn't at all like the same drink was at Caesars.  In fact, I didn't even want to drink it.   The servers were doubling as bus people, clearing off tables in their very nice waiter outfits, and overworked.   I tried to find my server to order another drink, but I couldn't see her anywhere.   I then went to ask the bartender for a simple drink, just to get something quickly.   He told me if I was at a table that I needed to ask my server.  That was all for me!   I left, after a few soggy chicken wings, and two sips out of one drink that I didn't have more than an ounce of.   I'll head over to Caesars Laurel Lounge again next time, as the service there is always excellent, and they are well staffed!

I played much of the first night at Bally's hitting the coin in goals that I had set, and had only a very small loss at the end of the night, despite playing their pretty crappy VP.   I didn't note any noteworthy hands or experiences in my play.   I just grinded it out mostly on non bonus games.

Last Nog of the Season

One of my goals for this trip was to again have a taste of Ellis Island's holiday egg nog, which I have been fortunate to have a few times before.  This year, they still had some bottles remaining in February, and they advertised a cut in price by the glass, and by the bottle, to finish off this year's supply.

Ellis Island Egg Nog

Ellis Island Scoop?

Now I have what I consider a scoop on the Ellis Island addition, the "Front Yard".   Maybe this has been mentioned elsewhere, but if it has, I haven't read about it in any article, trip report, or post that I have seen!

This started when I entered the Front Yard in the mid morning, just after it opened.   It was a very cool morning.   As I entered, there were stationary gas heaters running, and the whole area felt about the same temperature as outside.   It was freezing in there!  I looked up and saw that there the area between the roof and the walls had significant open air sections.   This was not an enclosed building!   I asked the bartender, noting the A/C ventilation pipes inside.   Is this place really not enclosed?  No, it wasn't, he replied, that's why it's so cold inside.   I pointed to the A/C pipes and asked.  Do you mean that on 110 degree days in the summer, that they will be running the A/C, with much of the cold air escaping through the open areas to the outside?   Yes, he said!   I can't wait to hear the first daytime reports in June-September about how the A/C probably won't keep the room cool enough.

What about rain?   They get wind blow rain in the desert.  When that happens, many times it's going to end up blowing rain into the room!  It should be interesting.

The arched area above the far wall, and under the roof, has no glass, and is open to outside!

I have to wonder if there is some reason that they didn't fully enclose the place because it seems so silly to build such a nice addition, yet not enclose it.  Tax benefits?  My bet would be zoning regulations, since the Front Yard replaced what was a formerly a tent in that area, where BBQ was served at tables.   I'll guess that by this room not being enclosed, it qualifies as a non enclosed structure, like the tent did.   This is just my guess.

Anyway, I'll go on record right now, that the idea of building this place without enclosing it, in such a climate like Las Vegas is ridiculous.   As it was, on the day I was there, no one would be wanting to spend time in the sub 50 degree room temperature, even with the space heaters running!   With those heaters running, I felt both hot and cold at the same time (if that makes sense).  Yes, on the many mild days, it will feel great in the Front Yard, but how about the rest of the year?

Coupon/Kiosk Mania!

This was my coupon run day, made much easier having a rental car.   The entire next section was done in a few hours in one day.  First, I used my American Casino Guide freeplay coupon at Ellis, and at the kiosk, instead of getting the typical $10 freeplay, I scored $20!   Big news!  I waited to see if they were going to require a technician to verify my "jackpot", but apparently they let this big payout go without checking to see if it was legitimate. 

I then won on the ACG matchplay there playing blackjack.

After heading to Huntington Press to pick up my Member Rewards coupon book, I drove downtown and headed to El Cortez with my Southwest Boarding Pass, to qualify for their kiosk free play promotion.  I received the minimum free play reward in this case.  I won on the matchplay here with a dealt 20.   Why can't that happen more often?

I then stopped at the D to qualify for their Southwest boarding pass $50 matchplay promo.  I explained a scenario at the OneClub desk. "I'm here to redeem the Southwest offer within 24 hours of my arrival, but I am not playing at the D today, although I plan to play here later in the trip. Is it going to impact my average play per day figures by you swiping my card for this offer today without any play today?" No, she said, and she sounded pretty confident of that answer (for what it is worth). Since I ended up not playing at all the D this trip (although I planned to), then I can say that if my offer levels in May change, the only explanation would be that redeeming this offer with no play on that day impacted my average play rating. We will see.

They do log some info manually when giving out the chips, but they do swipe your card and mark that you got this offer on their system there too.

I won one of the two matchplays, which was better than last trip, when I lost three matchplays on single hand that ended up with a split and double.

For the last stop of the coupon/kiosk tour, I checked in for one night at the California casino hotel.  There was a kiosk promotion that I totally forgot about.  When I went to the BConnected desk to have my freeplay activated, the attendant said, "swipe at the kiosk".   I figured I had to do that to activate the freeplay, but instead a kiosk spin promo came up, and then I remembered this promo was another reason I had booked the Cal for this date!   As the wheel on the monitor spun, I saw there were a few "free buffet" spots on the wheel.   I had no interest in having a Main St Station buffet for dinner, so I was just hoping I won anything but that.  What I wanted was any amount of dining credit. 

Well, the wheel stopped on a dining credit, and I had snagged the top prize, a $100 Dining Credit!   My first reaction was to laugh, as I was dining alone, but of course with today's restaurant pricing, even $100 is very easy to spend for one person.  At the Redwood Steakhouse, at the Cal, I merely had a glass of wine, Caesar salad, king crab legs, apple dumpling and cappuccino for dessert, which with tax, rang up just over $95.

Quiz time!

What's the most unique thing you see in the photo below?  (not really a difficult find)   The Quiz answer appears later in the report.

Hand of the Trip

My favorite hand of the trip was when I decided to play a multi-line machine.  I usually avoid these because they tend to have lesser payscales, but in this case I played an 8/5 Bonus 5 play machine.   For the day, I got destroyed playing this game,  I was shocked how few four of a kinds I managed to get while holding a pair.   Holding a pair, I was hitting as many four of a kinds on these 5-plays as I would expect from a single line game!  But this one particular lucky hand was special enough to single out.   Of course, being dealt a straight flush is a rare event, and even better on a multi-line machine.   But, what made this hand even more personally entertaining is that there is a trip report blog that I follow where the writer, for some reason, refers to this hand as the "ultra dreaded Ace-low straight flush".  Of course, what makes that comment comical is that any straight flush is the second most rare hand, and in many cases, the second highest paying hand in the game.   Why anyone would refer an Ace low version of it to be "ultra dreaded" is beyond me.  So, I had a good laugh having this hand dealt to me on a 5 play!

This was the trip of straight flushes..... and losses.   I had at least two times as many straight flushes this trip than I had on even the best prior trip, but it didn't help me enough.   I had three dealt straight flushes on the trip, including this multi-line one!  And, I held 4 to a straight flush and TWICE in one day actually pulled two straight flushes out of five hands on a five play!  Another unexpected pull was when holding a 4-flush, I landed a flush on 4 out of the 5 hands!

Golden Nugget Restaurant Changes

I was interested to see in person the restaurant changes at the Golden Nugget, and most interested in the seeing the unnecessary new version of the Grotto, as they moved it from a prime location, to a low rent district in the back near the Carson tower.   Well, the Grotto bar has half the seating now vs the new one, and in fact the entire restaurant seating is probably half the capacity of the old one.  The only feature of the new version which might be an improvement is that there are now big screen TV's at the bar.  Besides that there no change in the Grotto that can even be considered an improvement over the prior version of it.

The Starbucks in that area looks nice after the makeover, and right behind it is the Chick-Fil-A

Four Queens Day

This story probably wouldn't have made the cut, but since another trip report mentioned seeing the likely the same person on the same day, I'll mention this.   Apparently the same girl that was extremely drunk and vomiting at the D, made it over to the Four Queens a bit later, late afternoon.   I walked by and saw her sitting very slumped on a stool in a slot machine area, surrounded by no friends, but instead, about 5 EMT workers.   I figured this was an overdose situation, but when I walked by a second time, minutes later, the EMT workers were checking their shoes and the carpet as if she had just vomited again.   I don't think she could even speak.   She was just sitting there, totally out of it.   I didn't stand and gawk so I don't know, but I would imagine they would have needed to take her to the hospital.

My comments on the cookies sold at Magnolias on a prior report surprisingly seemed to get the most interest, so this time I made sure to get a photo of the supply at the cashier.   I purchased (with comp dollars) my complement of white chocolate macadamia, peanut butter, and this time had a chocolate chip thrown in.   I should have taken a picture of a cookie cut in half, as the amazing part is that they are about a half inch in thickness!   The white chocolate macadamia variety took first prize.

A Rat to the Rescue?

Well it was the last day of the trip, each of them losing, including this last day at the Four Queens.   Last February, at the end of the day there, I redeemed my offer for a free jeweled Chinese New Year Jeweled Pig, and proceeded to hit 6 royal flushes (including 2 in the next 2 days) in the next 5 trips to various casino locations, and I gave credit to the Pig, until after about 6 months, when the luck of the pig apparently wore off.

So, this time, as soon as I qualified for it, I redeemed my offer for a free jeweled Rat for this Chinese New Year, hoping that with the bit of play I had left in the day, the Rat would perform the same magic as the Pig did last year.  Well, unfortunately the Rat was no help at all.   This means the Rat will not be travelling with me on future trips, unlike the Pig which was a mandatory packing item for most of the year.

My Reputation at Stake

There was a big concern building throughout the day.   In a prior report I said I challenged anyone to spend an entire day in the Four Queens without hearing the song "Bette Davis Eyes" over the casino sound system at least once.   https://deamonlv.blogspot.com/2019/06/may-2019-trip-report-featuring-testing.html#Bette  Comically, on my next visit, I heard the song after spending just 10 minutes in the casino.  Yet, on this day, as of late afternoon, I hadn't yet heard the song.   I was now risking my reputation if even I could spend a day there without hearing this damn song.   I was concerned that by going to Hugo's for dinner that I might be missing it being played during dinner.   But, I couldn't go that far to skip a nice dinner just to keep my Bette streak alive.

I had set my alarm for 3:45am for my flight home, so I was going to sleep relatively early this last night.   I stood in the middle of the casino and took my last look around before heading upstairs.  I cashed in the freeplay that I had run through for a small profit.  Then, just as I started heading to the elevators, I heard some hand clapping over music in the distance.... Was it?  Could it?    I stopped to listen more closely!   It was!  Bette Davis Eyes was playing in the Four Queens!   Life could now continue in proper fashion, and the Earth could now continue to spin, as nature's Bette cycle was now complete.   I could now rest and safely return home in the morning, knowing the world was still safe, for at least one more day!

71 million views? Really?   My favorite YouTube comment on this video that I saw is "This was way too 80s...even for the 80s".

Quiz Answer:

Kudos to the California Hotel and Casino for maybe being the only hotel that I know of that is built as part of a casino and which has a 13th floor!   This aversion to "unlucky numbers" gets silly (I lost in the casino because my room was on the 13th floor?  Really?), and in the Wynn/Encore, not only is the 13th floor omitted, but also, most/all floors with 4's in them, so there are no floors in the 40's there!   And yes, here, in addition to the pool and gym, there are hotel rooms on the 13th floor at the Cal.

Keep in mind, the 13th floor is still the 13th floor, even if the casino labels it the 14th!

The flight home stunk!

This next tidbit is disgusting.  Skip it if you don't want to read it, but I had to live and endure it, which is worse than reading it.   After having a B4 Southwest seating assignment for my first leg of my trip home, that went out the window after that flight was cancelled.   I was assigned C57 for the flight I was assigned to, meaning a sure middle seat.

Shortly after taking off, sitting in a middle seat, I caught an odor that at first I thought was someone opening some Mexican food near me.   But, after getting about 4 episodes, about 10-15 minutes apart, I started doubting that.   I am 90% sure the man next to me was passing gas.   It was awful each time for a few minutes.    I looked to the other side of me and that man showed no signs of smelling something bad.   This was a totally full flight, so there was no place to be reseated.   I doubt the flight attendants could do anything about it.  I thought about confronting him, but what would that accomplish?  Plus I was only 90% sure it was coming from the man to the left.    It was so awful that I could only cope one way.   I had a furry lining in my light jacket, so I pushed my nose down into it each time the odor returned.   Later, I put my head down on the seat back tray, face into the jacket, and while sort of trying to sleep, I was mainly using the jacket as a filter.   This flight was a 3 hour leg, and this kept up for much of the 3 hours.   I probably have taken 200 or more flights in my life and never experienced anything close to this, and hopefully never will again!

Short Foxwoods Chinese New Year Trip Report

After only heading to Foxwoods twice in three years, we've managed to have reason to head there about twice a year lately.   We had a one night, one day stay, on the Chinese New Year.

In one of the retail walkways, they had vendors set up with tables, selling Chinese related items as part of the new year celebration.    I stopped a bit at one, marveling at the huge sizes of soy sauce they were selling.   The salesman saw my apparent interest and gave me a bit of a sales pitch.   He said the brand he was selling, Lee Kum Lee, was the Chinese brand equivalent of Campbell's Soup.   Yes, the sizes were mostly restaurant size.  He claimed they were selling the items at prices less than wholesale, but interestingly there were no price signs anywhere near the products.   I didn't see much interest, even from Chinese customers.

A different food vendor below.

Another vendor was selling ornate folding paper cards.  I have no idea if these are machine or hand cut, but they were very impressive.

We expected to see the Foxwoods Chinese restaurant jammed for the New Year celebration, but amazingly, around 6-7pm,  the tables were only about 15% full!



While playing Video Poker, I heard a couple give a bit of a shout.  I turned to see what kind of jackpot they had hit and I immediately saw they had hit a dealt Royal Flush...... on a multi-play machine!

The machine did not lock immediately (as far as displaying the total jackpot), but instead counted, and counted, and counted up the credits.   Eventually it stopped at $4,000, and then fully locked up for the hand pay.

Later I looked back at this.  The $4,000 made sense for a dime ten play machine, but if you note, they had ten coins in per hand.  This means the jackpot was half the size it would be if it were hit on a 10 cent, 10 coin, 10 play machine!

This machine was a "Hot Roll" multiplier machine, and to qualify for the multiplier, you have to play 10 coins instead of 5 per hand, which they did.   However, they did not get a multiplier on this hand.  Had they hit the top one, 12x, this would have been a $48,000 hand!

https://wizardofodds.com/games/video-poker/tables/hot-roll/


My luck started out pretty poorly!  My pre breakfast session was awful, and I started to wonder if I brought enough cash with me, which gave me that sick feeling inside.  Later, things turned around, starting with dealt four 4's in Double Bonus.  Later, good luck continued, as I hit a straight flush.  I set a personal record in getting four dealt four-of-a-kinds on one day!  And to top this all off, I hit a plain old, non multiplier, single line Royal Flush!   A great start to the new year in VP!

Walking around the huge venue, we peeked in and saw the cavernous bingo hall, which was jammed.  I'm guessing there was some kind of special promotion for the Chinese New Year.  Shown here is only about 40% of the room!  Hundreds and hundreds of bingo players!

December 2019 Trip Report - Two Dozen Nights in Downtown Las Vegas... Minus 22

I figured I'd base my title on wasilla's last report with my own twist.   Like his, mine is heavy on play, but unlike his, it's just for 2 days.

On a different note, I don't know how those that do daily detailed reports to it.  For me, it's an effort doing any kind of detail, even after the fact.   I'm only getting into this detail level because it was a two day trip.  I can't imagine spending the time it took me to put this together for even a four day trip.   And doing this while on the trip is simply out of the question for me.  I don't even spend enough time doing enough leisurely things that I want to do during the trip, like visit the downtown outlet center, or visit Luv It Custard.   So, I'm certainly not going to spend a half hour a day typing up this level of detail when I barely have time to do what I want to do for fun!  To those that do, do it, hats off to you!  I don't know how you do it!

The Trip

I didn't know if this trip would be worth the travel time coming from the east coast for just two days of play.    Why would I consider such a thing, flying 5 hours (not to mention an over 2 hour drive to the airport?).  A $50 cross country roundtrip airfare with Frontier, that's why!   At least the flight was non stop, which made it more doable, saving a few hours of travel vs a layover/connection.   This was a solo trip, and I was resigned to enduring hours in a middle seat.   My origin airport parking/tolls/gas are the largest expense of the trip.  Since this is only two days, downtown, I went without a rental car.

I was prepared mentally for an uncomfortable first trip on Frontier.  I decide to gamble on not reserving a seat, which if I had, would have cost as much at the original airfare!   I lucked out by getting an aisle seat way up front.    Then, something happened that in my 100 plus flights I have never encountered before.   The pilot announced the due to strong headwinds, they had to fill up with extra fuel.   Since the fuel tanks in the wing are towards the front of the aircraft, they needed to balance out the plane by moving passengers from the front of the plain to the rear.   They needed 8 volunteers!   They offered no compensation (not expecting free flights, but how about free beverages and/or food?).    We wouldn't be pulling out of the gate until they got 8 of us to move.   One by one, a few people volunteered.  After about 10 minutes, the 7th person opted to move.  They needed one more, but not one was budging.   Finally the pilot announced that they calculated that the 7 people ended up being enough to make the plane safe to fly.  The bonus was the man in the middle seat next to me, volunteered to move.   So, without paying for a reserved seat, I had a single digit row aisle seat, with an open seat next to me!   I didn't find the seats to be uncomfortable, although they definitely were less padded than your average seats on other airlines.

After I landed, I decided to take the WAX bus downtown.  This was the first time taking it from Terminal 3.   I did some research as to where the bus stop was located, but I ended up only having about 8 minutes to catch the bus once I exited the plane.   I made one wrong turn in trying to get up to the arrivals level and that was enough to miss the bus.   I caught the next one, an hour later, which was more like 40 minutes later once I finally located the bus stop.  Since I was only planning to check in and get right to sleep, the extra wait wasn't a big deal.

Since I was staying at Main St Station, and after looking at the bus route, I had this idea that getting off on 4th and Stewart would much less of a walk than the prior stop, 4th and Carson.   Well, it would have been if it actually stopped at Stewart.   What I learned is the Stewart stop is a few hundred feet PAST Stewart, almost to the point of being under the freeway underpass!    Now, it's close to midnight, no one is around, and here I am walking a path that was totally deserted, cutting across empty lots, trying to get to a lighted area quickly.   I made it to MSS, checked in and settled into the room.

I have been in town before during this time of year, where the NFR dominates.   Since the cowboy type is so foreign to those of us on the East coast, I like to refer to the attendees as "The Hats", since obviously, many of them wear cowboy/western hats.  

Especially on a short trip like this one, I try to stay close to east coast time, so I am up and out at 6am.   I stepped out to walk a bit, and was shocked to see/hear this scene outside, which took place about 100 feet from some of the bedroom windows in the Four Queens!  

 At the very same time (just before the video was taken) another crew was on a cherry picker, power washing the canopy of the Four Queens, just under the lowest floor windows!   There were well into their work, so they had started earlier than 6am!  Can you imagine, waking up at 6am and looking out, seeing and hearing water blasting the canopy just under you, while enduring jack hammering on concrete less than 100 feet away, at the same time?

To rub salt in the wound, the next morning at 6am they were at it again with the jack hammer!  I get it, there are less people out and about at 5-6am, but being this is so close to many hotel rooms, you would think they could have started this at say 8am or so, and would be able to get the job done.


I was there for the downtown Christmas Tree lighting.   Not very exciting, and the tree isn't really that impressive, but here is the video of it.   They ran a snowflake video on the FSE canopy around this time.

Playing Santa

I brought some small gifts, with a good idea of who I was going to give them to.  Gifts like these are much more appreciated by casino staff that don't typically get gifts (non hosts).   My favorite front desk attendant, and a restaurant employee were the recipients, and seeing their surprised reactions was one of the highlights of the trip.   

The Play

I started the trip playing Double Bonus, and after the first 10 minutes, I was dealt four Queens.  About 7 minutes later I had quad 6's.  Four minutes later I drew to 3 queens and hit the fourth.  I never get excited about a good start, as some of my worst days of play started with good starts.  After cooling off for about 45 minutes, I took a break for breakfast.   

I had a breakfast at Main Street Station buffet, which I do about once every 2 years.   They were running a promotion that on weekdays, after earning 10 or 15 tier credits, you get a free breakfast buffet.   I played just a bit at non double bonus games to earn the tier points.    I was disappointed in that it appeared there were around 1/3 less food items than the last time I ate breakfast there.   If you want an omelet, you are in good shape, but besides that, the pickings are slim and of not high quality (mushy bacon, possibly powdered scrambled eggs, french toast sitting under a lamp for 45 minutes, etc).  Strangely although it was almost all breakfast foods, they had pizza!

Upon resuming play, I had played about 90 minutes since my queens, which drove me down to about 100 coins (losing all the prior gains plus more) then, I hit another four of a kind, with four 3s.   I was now just over even.

About 50 minutes later, I was feeding more cash into the machine.  So much for my good start!   Within 2 minutes I hit 2's.  3 minutes later, four 5's, and I was back to even.   Half an hour later, four Jacks boost me, but I'm still a bit in the red.   20 minutes later, 6's and now slightly in the black.

At the point where I had a few dollars over $1,000 coin in on a full pay double bonus machine, I got up and checked my BConnected Tier points on the kiosk.  The results, not surprisingly were that I had earned zero tier points for that play!

I moved to play some 9/6 jacks for a bit, as after a bathroom break the machines I was playing were occupied.   I lost just a bit while hitting 2 quads there.

When I got back to double bonus, with my target coin in being about 90 minutes away, I hit that dreaded end of day drought.    Most of the day, for hours, I was around even, or down and then quickly coming back.  But now the machine felt so dead.  I wasn't hitting full houses, not even flushes.   Before long, I was significantly down for the day.  Frustrating!   I had about another 20 minutes of play to go when I hit deal and saw the white payline jump up.   I was dealt four Aces, now giving me a small win for the day!  I locked them up, cashed out, and played the last half hour back on Jacks or Better, preserving my very small win.   I had reached my coin in target here, and had the whole evening for couponing and playing elsewhere.

I started by losing both Boyd matchplays at blackjack.

Then, I went to play the matchplays at the D which I received on my prior trip with Southwest boarding pass deal.   I had three $25 match play chips with me.    I like the idea that if I won 2 of out 3 of these match plays, I'd have the whole trip's costs just about paid for.   But, I don't have a good history with luck in blackjack, despite being a pretty decent level 2 card counter.   

So, I placed my first $25 bet with matchplay down and got dealt two 9's against a dealer 6.  Of course, I split, and the dealer tells me I can play another matchplay along with my $25, on the split hand.  I knew exactly what was coming next, a 2!   I reached into my pocket and pulled out the other match play chip plus another regular green chip, and double down.   I get a 3.   No big deal as a dealer bust is still the most likely outcome here.   On the other hand I get an 8, for 17.   This will probably be either a $150 win or a $75 loss.   Here we go!   Dealer turns over a 5, then a 9, and bam,  a $75 cash loss while losing $75 in match play chips.   I shrug my shoulders, as I could tell you a hundred stories just like this one where I lost on the one big hand that mattered in a session.

I went upstairs to the bar at the D to play some bonus poker, looking to continue to seed this place aiming for some Circa comp rooms when it opens in a year.    A man sits down next to me, and within 2 minutes I hear him say whoa!    I look over and he has a dealt straight flush.   He tells me that he thinks this is the first straight flush that he has ever had.  The 25 cent straight flush progressive that he hit was up to $175 at the time, vs the $62.50 standard payout.    In my probably close to 18 hours of play in two days, I did not score even a single straight flush, anywhere, on this trip!    I held my own at the upstairs D bar though, hitting quite a few quads, and leaving with a small gain.

For dinner, I used a partial comp, and saved comp dollars from my years of play when Boyd was actually a great place to play, to eat at Second Street Grill.

Second Street Grill gets Boyded

Second Street Grill at the Fremont is the last of the quality, high value, Boyd restaurants.   Given what they did with their other similar restaurants (Pasta Pirate, Redwood Grill, Billy Bob's etc), I knew something would change soon.  What they did is remove the salads from being included with the entree offerings.  Since the salads are $13 or so, this in effect raised the price of all entrees by $13 without raising the prices on the menu.  Well done Boyd!   Rather than spend $13 on a salad, I spent $15 on their wonderful crab cakes.   

Crab cakes

Blackened Tuna

Day 2

The second day was Four Queens day.   My original, generous VP buy in was gone in a half hour.   I loaded up again for more punishment.  15 minutes later, playing double bonus, down to 40 credits, I was dealt four ten's.   That didn't last long, as just 10 minutes later, yes, 10 minutes, I was busted and had to push more bills into the machine.   15 minutes later, four queens came to stem the bleeding.  Half an hour later I hit 8's, and 20 minutes after than, four 8's again, but still, way down for the day.  

Breakfast at Magnolia's

I took a breakfast break, and then back at the machines, after about 25 minutes of play since the 8's, I was reaching into my pocket again to load the machine!   Less than 10 minutes later, after holding two, I pulled four Aces, to make a big dent in my losses.   Then, just about a half hour after that, once gain, four Aces after drawing to two.    I was still down for the day though!

40 minutes later I hit four 4's.   An hour later, and four Aces again, and finally I was up for the day.  See that?  All it took was 3 sets of Ace quads in just over an hour to put me just barely ahead for the day!  That's all!

I had my traditional appetizer lunch at the Chicago Brewery bar.   Just like every time I seem to go, the staff there is overwhelmed, and it is hard to get their attention, aside from when first being seated.  It is an effort to flag a server down to order, to get your check, and to pay your check.   I find that I practically have to stand up, wave my arms, and shout, in order for one of them to even look my way.   Apparently others must know this too, as a local seated next to me insisted on settling up her check immediately while they were serving her.   I'll do that next time.   It wasn't even that crazy crowded, its just that the two of them are so busy that they they appear overwhelmed.

I went to the gift shop and inquired about the calendars that wasilla purchased there.  The cashier looked at me with a blank stare.  She knew nothing about ever having them, but pointed me to the area that they would be if they had any.   Nothing was there.

I tried my best to get my cookies from Magnolias at the Four Queens.   They get a limited selection of cookies each day, that they sell at the cashier station.  I've come to really enjoy them, and in the Wasilla Oct-Nov "Two Dozen Days" trip report, I found that others felt the same way about them, and also found that they too found their favorite varieties were many times sold out during their visit.  So,  I went the evening before to scout, and asked them what time the cookies arrived each day.   I was told 9am, and so I made sure that my next day breakfast would be around 930.   Of course, when I arrived for breakfast at 930, there was one cookie left, which was gone by the time I finished eating.   This lady told me that the cookies arrive around 11am.  Okay fine, I'll come back.  Just before noon, I stopped in again and there were no cookies.   The third answer I got for when the cookies arrive is "anytime really"!   

I went back around 2-3pm and they had a full plate of all cookie varieties.   I picked up a couple of peanut butter and macadamia nut cookies, but boy, I had to work for them!

Four Queens Cashier area

I took a break and then headed back for some more play.   My one hour of good luck was far, far behind me, and in just over an hour of play after that, I had lost back the equivalent of 2 of the Ace quads!   Hitting four queens again broke the drought.  Then, just a minute later, four 3's for another 400 coin win.  Ten minutes later, 9's.   I made up for the next hour of losses with four 5's.  Ten minutes later, four 8's were back to greet me again.   All these ups and downs left me down half my buy in still though!

Five minutes later, two 4's became four, and breaking even was in sight!  Half an hour later, the 4's were back, but they only kept me at the same level that I was after the prior 4's.   It took me 50 minutes to hit four 2's, so I was falling deeper into the red.   I broke for dinner, and then after dinner played another two hours or so, without a single four of a kind!

So there you go, 3 sets of double bonus Ace quads, and several sets of 2,3,4's in a day, and yet, I would have needed two more sets of quad Aces to put me ahead for the day!   This is one of several reasons why I think posting pictures of hands is pointless!   Should I take and post pictures of the Aces so readers can compliment my "lucky hands" which were part of a significantly losing, bad day of play?  (this is a rhetorical question to make a point, I'm not looking for responses).

So all in all, a small gain in day 1, followed by a unpleasant but not ridiculous loss in day 2.   Not what I was hoping for, but hey, it's part of the game!

Return Trip

I had an early next morning as I had to be on my way back to the airport by 6am.   I figured I would try out the Trip to Strip RTC service, since the first WAX bus would get me to the airport a bit too early, while the next one probably a bit too tight.    I posted about this experience in another thread here......  https://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/index.php?threads/rtc-trip-to-strip-is-going-to-be-zipped-on-12-31.169020/

I had to endure a middle seat on the Frontier non stop flight back.   It didn't really bother me.   I had my tablet filled with downloaded Netflix content to keep me occupied.

Lucky Pig "retired"

I will note that for the last time I decided to bring my "lucky" pig with me for one more chance to rediscover her early 2019 glory days, but, just like the last few trips, she didn't help me!   It's over.  She's staying home for all future trips!

BONUS Coverage:

Atlantic City:

Shortly after this LV trip, we headed to Borgata in Atlantic City for one night, the first trip since very early 2019 without my pig!   I had a not too great session, but, like quite a few times before, was coming close to a royal very often.   Whenever this happens, I tend to hit a royal eventually.   Sure enough, later,  holding 3, I fill in the royal flush for my 7th and last royal flush for the year!   And more importantly, this was without the help of my pig!