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Sunday, March 3, 2013

The Singular Event

Reposted from the classic 2013 Victory Trip.


Mar 3, 2013 - There are some important singular events that occur here in the City of Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas.

I'm not talking about American Idol either.

There are those key moments that make or break a session, or a day. Like the other day on that Frying Sevens machine, I was either going to be down $400 on the day, or down just $100.

I'll get to a couple of those later in the day. But first, to set the scene, we're at the Friendly The Cal Hotel and Casino aka California.

With just two days to go, and up (for us) a bundle, we're thinking 'don't blow it!'. This in itself is probably a recipe for disaster because scared money usually doesn't win.

We did some of our usual morning futzing around, trying this and that. I did okay, hitting my first straight flush of the trip (!) and hitting a quad on Bonus, then playing down, putting another twenty in and hitting deuces on Double Double for $100 to keep me in it.

California Hotel and Casino Straight Flush

Quad Deuces
I wandered over to some other machines, trying to avoid a long drain session on any one machine. You know, just trying to surf the tops of the waves of good fortune...

Tried some Super Duper Aces machine and hit a quad for $62.50, okay that was nice, hit the Deal button and got another. Yes Back to Back quads. I didn't bother with a pic of the first one. One of these times I need to try that Shockwave poker where two quads within 10 hands pays 4000 credits...

Video Poker Four Deuces
It feels weird not to be going hard at it, pushing denominations up and chasing.

We had a new set of monthly free play at the Four Queens so we headed over to play that at the bar. The Mikes took great care of us as usual, and things (for some of us) got a bit sloppy.

The Quad Queen actually went over ahead of me while I blogged and showered and built a few lucky inukshuks in the room out of a case of toilet paper rolls I bagged off the maid's cart when she wasn't looking. A desperate scared gambler does what he has to does, right?

Anyway... the quarter progressive royals were up there and QQ was chasing that spade royal again. She played a solid 2 1/2 hours - actually, the full length of the Flyers/Sens game. She racked up 250 points (its 6 hands a point if I recall correctly) so 1,500 hands. And cashed out up $40.

Four Queens Slots

Mikes Bar at the Four Queens
I enjoyed my time at the bar also, ending up $80 on my $80 freeplay. Hit a few quads, nothing noteworthy.

Did you know that the Four Queens proudly and firmly serves delicious, refreshing Red Dicks Beer?

Four Queens Palace Bar
No, I have not tried one. But I have heard that some have 'experimented' with it in college. I just can't imagine shouting out "Gimme a pint of your Red Dicks, Mike!" Yikes.

One of the Mikes came over to me at one point and said I should go and give an Official Royal Flusher Business card to 'the lady over there'. Apparently she reads the blog and asked them if I really existed, or if I was just a figment of Chippy, my pretty smart DaneHuaHua's imagination.

He pointed me out and then let me know. So I got to go over and meet a very nice woman who favors Deuces (which for some reason I have stopped playing the last few trips). She found the blog through vpFREE and like any savvy gambler, reads it faithfully.

We had a nice chat. It's always great to know that all the little characters and words I string together on this niPad bring some enjoyment to people. Sadly, I forgot to ask her if she'd thought I would look like Victor Mature or not.

We wandered over to the El Cortez - something was going to be going on in the street, which was blocked off. And I finally saw the first first-hand of Zappos' presence downtown, which is going to be huge for the area.

Zappos Las Vegas
In fact, the block between the canopy and the ElCo is now pretty much completely rebuilt with a bunch of new establishments like the Commonwealth Bar, a pool and bar place, and a brand new pizza place (RCP).

To commemorate this regentrification, the El Cortez has proudly repainted their parking garage in Desert Hallucination Puque Moderne. Seriously. What the fuck are they thinking?

El Cortez Las Vegas
It looks like World War Two dazzle paint. Maybe that's good, because if the garage paintjob were camouflaged, maybe nobody would see it.

Video Poker at El Cortez

We played only $20 each at the ElCo because it was time to steer Mrs. F towards some food. I was hungry too, so it was wonderful Le Thai takeout for me, and a Cobb Salad from the 'Queens for her.

Le Thai

Waiting for the salad was painful because of a display of bad parenting that was cringeworthy. It culminated with Daddy arriving on the scene and bellowing from the casino up the half flight of stairs to Magnolia's at approximately 106 dB with a power of 200 watts (PMP, not RMS) the phrase that lets people know you are around and you are the boss: "WHAT THE FUCK IS YOU DOING????!!!!!"

I now wish to purge all that from my memory.

We carted our food to the Very Very end of the Very Very long hallway (it's 113 yards, I paced it out) into our stinkyroom and ate. And one of us crashed for two solid hours while I blogged away. (Not naming names of who was sluiced here. That would not be gentlemanly.)

Mrs. F. awoke and... she's kind of had it. She just wanted to rest up, watch trash TV and not gamble anymore. Huh????

So be it. I had a double, and poured a double traveller, and went down to play conservatively and see what I could do. I decided on Main St. Station.

And it went so well! I put $20 in quarter Bonus, played for a while, got a quad, played for a while, went to 50 cents, lost it. I put another $20 in, played for a while, got a quad on my Lazarus hand, got to 50 cents, got a quad, and cashed out $100.

Main Street Station Video Poker

Went to the Boar's Head Bar (to infamous Seat #1, avoiding Seat #2), ordered a vodka/cran and lost a $20. And then I lost another $20. I moved to another machine and got another quad and played along. It was great. I was just relaxed, playing nicely, not losing much if anything, getting the quads... no stress w or worry or chasing.

I decided (I know what you are going to think, faithful readers...), yes I decided (ducks) to try Black. Jack. Again.

I only bought in for $20 okay? About $500 lost in blackjack is enough for one trip.

Well, I lucked into a great table, with a great pit boss (Brenda) and a great dealer (Barry) and a really fun group who put up with such hijinx as me trying to cut the double decks with a Gordie Howe hockey card.

At one point, I hit a singular event. Bet a risky $10 (risky, when you are under-bankrolled) and had a double opportunity. Dealer had a bust card and the way it ended up, the only way I could win was to have an Ace undercard. And I did. So if I'd lost the hand, I'd have only $15 which could go in minutes. Win it and I'd have $55. That's quite a difference, and that one hand cemented my eventual win. I know its small potatoes but it illustrates the point.

I played for about two hours on that $20, had a bunch of Absoluts, and cashed out $50. And I'm up on the day some. A little, not a lot, but its nice to not be down $600 like the day before.

Time to cash in my scratch cards - three of 'em, two bucks each. I got my six bucks and thought, hmm, maybe I'll just play a single hand on dollar VP. Hey, I got a quad on dollar Boner Deluxe on my first hand once, I could do this. It could happen... sure it could. And grommets might fly out my ass.

I turned around and spied a lonely bank of dollar Double Double Bonus machines - sure why not. Pumped my five bucks in, hit deal. Couple of twos. No dinger. Okay, fine, hold the twos, in my mind I'm already on my way to the room to collect Mrs. F for some dinner. Hit Draw.

One Hand Four Deuces
I said curse words and smiled and grommets poured out of my ass. $400 quad on one $5 bill. And there's the second singular event of the day. One hand turned my marginally okay day into a fantastic one.

We ate at the coffee shop, in the back, near the mysterious reserved booth which always has a Frank Cannon era 'touch tone' handset nearby, for taking mysterious calls. I figure that booth is reserved for gangsters. Either gangsters or corporate bosses.

Market Street Cafe Phone Booth
The Stats

Royal Flusher, up on the day $470 (!!!!!), up on the trip $2,835.

Quad Queen, down on the day (only) $115, up on the trip $1,070.

Combined, just pushing 4K, up on the trip $3,905.

We really need a couple of Royals tomorrow to push this thing over the top and cement the Victory Trip.





    2 comments:

    1. Absolutely awesome. Have thoroughly enjoyed reading every entry. Keep it going, though please leave some for me this weekend!

      ReplyDelete
    2. Is that an extremely elusive photo of the RF himself? Now I know what to look for when I'm downtown - Santa Claus in a jersey!

      ReplyDelete

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