Top it up Jack, we’re savvy gamblers and we’re thirsty!

Day 4 - part 2

The Quad Queen was still not doing well in Vegas and more than likely, she was a little jealous of all my winning.

“It’s natural to be jealous of me,” I said lovingly.

“Get bent,” she replied, and set herself up with some consolation treats.

Consolation treats.

We had a light lunch of junk we’d bought at Walgreen’s - yogurt and nuts and cereal and the like - savvy power gambling food, if you ask me.

“You take a rest. I’ll go make reservation for a nice dinner on my way down to win more money,” I said, pocketing a $500 stake and headed down to the Chart House.

Chart House image stolen courtesy of Golden Nugget

I made my reservation and the lovely hostess asked me a number of times if it was a special occasion.

“Nope, nothing special.”

“Anniversary or… “

“Nope. Nothing.”

“Not a birthday or….”

Finally I clued in.

“Did I mention it’s my birthday?”

She said she’d throw in a free dessert. Lovely hostesses can spot winning gamblers a mile away.

Taking the bull by the horns, I ventured into the High Limit area - back to the machines we’d lost about $500 on in five minutes just three weeks ago.

This time I got out of there with a $140 loss in about 3 minutes. No worries. I’d just make a killing at the craps table.

I bought in for $200 on a $10 table. And it was one of those brutal sessions. I think I won some chips once. Every fiber of my body (except my ears) was screaming “GET OUT! GET OUT OF THERE!”. And the fibers in my ears were busy screaming “BUY IN FOR MORE! BUY IN FOR MORE!”.

I managed to escape without throwing more dollars at the table and limped off to a table in the new blackjack pit along side the revamped Rush lounge. I had $12 left.

Not enough. I bought in for a hundred and sat down.

I was a bit bummed out. This was my first losing streak of the trip.
I started playing and didn’t dip into the $100 in reds at all, initially. I worked my way up to $185 but then ground down and got felted.

I threw another $20 on the table and soon ended up in a double situation where I had to buy in for another $20. Played a few more hands and said fuck it, and pushed all in - $17 in chips into the betting circle. I was kind of tired of screwing around.

Well, it worked, I won that hand and kept going, all the way up to $275 at one point.

The dealer was a cute young thing, and she’d only been to dealer school for a couple of months before landing the Nugget job. Nice place to break in.

She was very careful and you could tell she was new, but she was also pretty darn good for the most part.

On one hand I took a hit, and then another.

“Seventeen.” she said, so I waved a savvy hand to stay.

The guy next to me was about to take a card and then looked over and said, “Are you sure that’s 17?’

We looked at it and it was indeed only 16. I took another card - a nice, lucky 3. And the little dealer was very embarrassed.

Next hand was coming out of the shoe and I told her not to worry about it. She dealt me a Jack and a seven.

I looked up at her.

“How many is that?”

“Seventeen.”

“Are you sure?”

…

The break dealer was very interesting and I sensed something about her which was soon confirmed. She dealt very fast, was funny, and had a bit of an attitude. On one messed up hand she dealt a guy a long string of small cards and then dealt six two herself to make 21. She actually laughed at the guy. He didn’t take offense, we were all laughing.

I found myself the only player at the table at one point, and I had a double situation. The cards came out fast and I thought I’d lost. To my surprise I must have miscounted, because I got paid and the cards went away fast.

She was a very good dealer, very fast on the math. We had lots of banter and I put out lots of tips for her and the crew.

She also helped me when I wasn’t sure of the play. I’m still not that great at the soft hands.

In the end… they get it all and I lost back the $275 but had a great three hour session.

Back up at the suite, we had a couple of drinks and then headed down to the Chart House for dinner.

Clam chowder, lobster bisque, and gazpacho.

It was excellent, as always. I had something called the Menage a Soups.

All the soups tasted excellent. They were packed with flavor and you could take the tiniest amount and have a mouthful of flavor. Unfortunately, as I informed the waiter, the gazpacho, although flavorful, was cold. In fact, it was so cold, they couldn’t have gotten it colder if it had been meant to have been served that way. I told him the chef should pay more attention, as this was a fine dining restaurant.

I had some kind of seafood selection plate, the star of which was a ginger-soy salmon. I hate fish, but I loved this.

Salmon, shrimp, crab cake and Jolly Roger asparagus.

The Quad Queen at a lobster tail, and had started with some sort of lawnmower salad, which looked pretty good, and very well chopped.

We shared a bottle of red that the guy said had a velvety finish - and you know what? It actually did!

The waiter gave me the cork as a souvenir before he poured the wine. The first glass was super tiny. There was like a thimbleful in my glass.

“Top it up Jack, we’re savvy gamblers and we’re thirsty!”

Vigil for 'Swimmy' and 'Pinchy' from the aquarium, whom we ate for dinner.

That got him moving. Next time they should just give me a coffee mug full like I have at home out of the tetrapak.

The bill came to $222.11 with tip - a full house. Lucky?

Sadly, we forgot the fake birthday rigamarole and I never did get my free dessert. And also sadly, I never got around to getting my free pizza at Chicago Brewing Company.

One more bash at the machines after dinner saw Mrs. F hit a few things - Aces on Bonus, actually - for a glimmer of possible future redemption.

But today, like yesterday, was all mine.

Quad Queen -$420 on the day, -$1520 on the trip
Royal Flusher +$800 on the day, +$3800 on the trip