Killing the Goose that Laid the Golden Gate

Today's Vegas Song Of The Day is Waking Up in Vegas by Katy Perry.

I brought a little sound ball speaker with me so I could fill my life and my world with music, sweet, tinny staticy distorted music. To start my day, I punched up Katy Perry and imagined her big round eyes bouncing around the room with me.

Slept like crap. Always do the first night. Body aching from travel, noise, booze, broads, pills, uppers, downers, hop, gripe-water, big J juice, la-di-dah powder, tinkles, grunties, Cindy-Ellen, and not enough internet time.

Got up and at it, playing a good session of Bonus Poker while a cocktail waitress that I'm familiar with brought me delicious Bunn Drip-o-matic coffee. She had been newly enhanced. It was jaw-droppingly obvious.

I resisted the urge to pay her cleavage a compliment, but I did notice and appreciate the fine workmanship and top quality materials and finish.

I ordered my standard breakfast - Country fried steak (with country throw-up on it) and eggs, hash browns, sourdough toast and strawberry jam. It tasted absolutely horrid for some reason. Maybe it's because you should not eat this meal twice in a 7 hour period. The coating kept coming off the country fried steak, and there was too much country throw-up. I ended up getting it on my hands and cutlery and shirt, and the shirt of the guy next to me, a little.

Fortunately, he doesn't know it.

My next chore was to head to Main St. Station to pay off a marker. They don't seem to know how to hook up with the Canadian banking system and their attempts to get their money failed. Three times. So I paid it off in cash.

The beautiful weather was hot, sunny, and perfect for wandering from casino to casino.

I stopped by at Golden Nugget on the way and threw a 20 at Bonus Poker on the machine I've had two Royals, on even though it is short pay now - got nada.

Stopped by at Binions on the way and threw a 20 at Double Double - nada.

Stopped at the Cal on the way and thew 20 in dollar Treasure Chest - nada.

Next, I headed over to the Plaza to check out the changes there. Looks nice in there, but there's nothing super compelling about it to me. They'd have to have some pretty hot paytables to get me interested in spending time there.

On a whim, I checked out my account and WOOHOO signed a voucher for $3.00 of free play. Hey, three bucks is three bucks. Got nada.

Took a look at the changes at the Golden Gate.

They have officially killed whatever spirit was left of the Golden Gate except for one thing - the decor in the old part of Du-Pars.

They even ripped out the best mens room in downtown Las Vegas. That john had everything.

Cracked mirrors, so you look normal when you're drunk. Selection of free cigarette butts in the urinals, steeped in their own goodness for days at a time. Choice of two stalls, one with a door that doesn't close, and one with a door that doesn't lock. A non-functioning old-style mechanical slot machine. Cracked tile floors, to keep you tipped forward when you are stumbling hammered. Soap?

This is the best in 'roughing it' mens room style, we don't need soap.

All that wonderful ambiance is gone and in its place is a raised, carpeted high limit room (which, I'm told by one of the staff at Du-Pars, has received no play since it went in.)

The snack bar is gone gone gone. The lobby is changed up and probably an improvement.

Golden Gate is just another carpeted, slick joint with the latest big-screen screaming penny machines and nothing playable. At least craps and BJ are still solid there.

I hit the bar at the Four Queens for some drinks and Double Double and hit three quads there, but no biggies. Took a rest for a while after that, thought I was tired, lay down for like 7 minutes, and then thought, "You're in Vegas dumbass, be tired some other time!" and got my ass back into the action.

Waking up in Vegas once was enough for the day.

I had a nice session of play trying to win Free Meat at the D. It's getting hot in Vegas, and it's dry, and it was nice to settle down at an old-school slant top and have a few beers and push the buttons.

Some guy sat  down next to me, and start playing Double Double. We played for a while.

You know how sometimes when you are playing, you notice someone has kind of stopped playing or broken their rhythm. I'm not sure exactly what made me look but I glanced over and he was looking at his screen.

I checked it out.

I don't like to involve myself with other people's business (except for generally telling them what to do). And I don't give gambling advice, other than "Plan your trip. Trip your plan."

So I took a look and in a minor version of horrified and said, "You sure you want to do that???"

Just as I said that he is toggled the Hold button on the last card, the 9 of Diamonds. The other cards were the Ace, King, Jack and Ten of Diamonds. He had got four to a Royal Flush and also a dealt flush.

The guy clearly was just having one of those moments where you look at something and it's not quite right and you get it sorted. Okay, so he's wasn't going to hold the 9 of Diamonds.

Long story short, he didn't get the Royal. But he was a nice guy, and we had an interesting chat. He and his wife have been coming to Vegas since 1965 and he confirmed what I always figured - I probably would have liked it better in the 1960s. Only problem is, as a 7 year old, I would have had trouble seeing the craps layout.

The fellow's name was Romeo, from Texas. I enjoyed meeting his wife and spending half an hour or so drinking beer, looking for free meat and shooting the shit.

Romeo got a quad, by the way, and FREE MEAT, but I didn't. And the budget was starting to get pretty low. I had dreams of making that free play last the whole trip by hitting some big hands. But it looked like it wasn't gonna quite happen that way.