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Saturday, October 4, 2014

Business Class Pack-Rat

Day 13 - Tuesday July 29, 2014

It's weird when you are on a tilt bender dumper humper degen losing streak. Everywhere you turn, you see signs. Signs of the gambling gods. Are they feeling helpful? Are they ready to smite you a mighty blow in your bankroll? Are they going to cut you a break or crap down your neck?

Everywhere I turned there were clear and distinct signs.

Breakfast, the venerable Magnolia's favorite - country fried steak and eggs with plenty of Country Throw-up Gravy - and also some strawberries. Because comped.
That oughta settle the pre-flight jitters.
They overdid the whipped cream.
Kenny-style!
Or maybe not - after scoffing at the portion… I ate all of it.
At least my room and food were covered.
Time to get my cashback, bid the Seventies Stag Suite goodbye, and check out of the Four Queens.
Why is this hole in the marble top of the endtable?
I got $78 cashback and thought…. Just one little lucky twenty on dollar Jacks before I go.

I got two quads, and got to play for a while, another last gasp chance at a dollar Royal.


It wasn’t to be but I savvily cashed out at $100 - profiting $80 on the play. That was a good place to leave it at.



That’s why I played another lucky twenty at the Grand. And hey, I ended up playing for a full hour on 50 cent Bonus Poker.

Checked out of the Grand - the match play coupons were still nowhere to be found. I gassed up the rental on the way to the drop-off, dumped the car in Avis’ very efficient dump-off area. It’s about a one minute transaction and then you’re outta that hole and back up on the street.

Shuttle to the airport, check in, run the security gamut, etc. Pick up duty free. The usual. I played a few twenties at the airport in my usual last-gasp display of ultimate gambling desperation.

And then, finally, it was over. There was nothing left, no more play, no more chances. It was in the books, and I'd gotten my ass kicked all over Vegas, and did not get a Royal Flush on this trip.

The nice part of the day was business class for the trip to Toronto. At least I had that.
Bye bye Vegas...

The young woman next to me was one of those pack-rat people. She had about 67 different carry on bags, purses, shopping bags, a knapsack.
And she kept pulling out things to eat. Little crackers. Half a sandwich.

She turned her nose up at the meal provided - not to her liking. I said ‘hey that’s too bad’ and she said, not a problem. And honest to Jimmy Poon, she pulled out a pizza box from somewhere with half a pizza in it.

It was the damnedest thing. In any case, I greatly enjoyed my business class meal.
Welcome a Broad!

Toronto came and went, and then the recently restored and overhauled Reapertech Airstream II Cannonball Express Bi-Motor Switchcraft 44A etc. etc. etc. flight home to Flusherville.
No trip to Vegas is guaranteed to be a winner and no trip to Vegas is predictable in any way.

Every time I figure I learn something else about how to get more out of Vegas than it gets out of me. This time, I seemed to have forgotten all those lessons. Or I was unlucky. Or both.

In a sense, how you deal with the ups and down of gambling is a microcosm for how you approach life (and in some cases it supercedes it, for those gambling over their head, which I never do).

Are you going to look at the positives? Get stuck on the negatives? Stay optimistic or become depressed? Are you able to enjoy what life gives you in the moment regardless of what has happened up to this point in the trip? Think of that in the bigger sense, and it is like life itself - can you carp the diem and live today, not yesterday, not tomorrow?

That last night at the Grand, I found a way to just enjoy what I was doing, nevermind the dizzying losses I'd endured.

All these things keep it fascinating for me, and I keep going back over and over to try to get it 'right'. It's a beautiful puzzle that I never tire of.

This trip report was hard to write. I hope it was entertaining. Clearly, sometimes things don’t work out the way you want.

I decided I wouldn’t post any of the report until it was all written, because I didn’t much feel like writing parts of it. And that turned out to be a good strategy, because it took six weeks plus to bang this sucker out.

And having posted it all, and having had to review it all and paste the pictures in, I can see that actually, there were many happy moments offsetting the not so happy moments.

Now, Evel Knievel said after crashing, “I will never… ever…. do another motorcycle jump...” or words to that effect.

I now say, “I will never… ever… do another trip to Vegas.”

Evel did jump again though, in fact it didn't take long.

And I am sooo full of it.

Final

Royal Flusher: Day $-00 Trip $-4610
Q.Q. (by proxy): Trip: $-300


Financial Spin

And now for the financial spin that is a sad attempt to virtually reduce the loss of ridiculous amounts of gambling bankroll!

Comps
California 3 nights 150
California Meals 100
2nd Street Grille Comp 100
California Cashback 78
Encore one night free 109
Encore Freeplay 100
Encore Pointplay 25
Mandalay Bay 3 nights 300
Mandalay Bay Resort Credit 75
Mandalay Bay Meals 100
Four Queens Room 150
Four Queens Meals 300
Four Queens Freeplay 300
Downtown Grand Room n/a
Downtown Grand Room Freeplay 50
Downtown Grand Pointplay 20
Four Queens Cashback 78
Air FU Canada Rouge Business Class Upgrade 450
Total Comps $2,485

So, my gambling losses were offset by almost $2500 in comps. That leaves $2160 gambling losses, plus car ($300) plus airfare ($800) plus tips and miscellaneous ($300).

Total $3710 for 13 days, or $273 a day all in.

Man I must have had a good time!

What was wrong with Kenny Blankenship?

Poor Kenny picked up food poisoning the night before flying to Vegas. It manifested itself in an odd way, and I think this was compounded by dehydration. In fact, the dehydration probably caused the worst symptoms, which he had the last couple of days. Kenny tells me that he's had a prior episode similar to this - in Mexico of all places.

I felt just terrible for him all that time, and all our fun together went down the drain. Who knows, maybe there is a Kenny II trip coming someday.

The good news is, he is just fine and hasn't lost any body parts on the grommet line lately.

Will there ever be another Royal Flusher Trip Report?

The next trip will include the Quad Queen… for luck. I’ll see you then.

For now, it's back to the grind at Royal Canadian Veeblefetzer, cranking out those size 7 grommets. Make sure you tell your degen friends about the blog, and thanks for reading.

R.F.


Hey, we're not quite done... there's always the Cavalcade of Disappointment!


Jimmy Poon says: Did you enjoy the trip report? There are lots more here: Trip Report Index
 







    15 comments:

    1. Thank you Royal for sharing your latest Vegas trip! As always it was a lot of fun to read! It always gives me a nice little break of my day. Sorry you had a losing trip, but there is always next time. Greetings from Germany! M.

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    2. Thanks for taking the time to write your TR. I've read all of them, and always enjoy them :-) you have a talent for telling a story, sorry there's no happy ending this time. Stay Savvy!

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    3. RF,
      I enjoyed the trip report and I know that there is little comfort in our telling you, "been there, done that", but we trust you will back soon and kick some serious LV ass

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    4. Thank you for your trip report. I read it every day, and kept hoping you would be reporting on a big, winning day...but it wasn't meant to be. We've had trips like this too, and never shared them with anyone. I appreciate you doing it. I truly loved your last day....looking at the positives. Keep that attitude, and you're a winner, regardless of what the gambling losses happened to be. Can't wait until the next report.

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    5. As painful as it was to write, I appreciate the effort. I always enjoy your stories, both the good and the bad.

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    6. So sorry for your losses but grateful that you posted an honest report. I always enjoy following your antics and I do appreciate the honesty. That's how Vegas goes, the good, the bad and the ugly. Can't wait for the next trip!

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    7. As always, thanks for the entertaining report! Sorry it was a losing trip. A couple of questions:

      a) How did the Business Class upgrade happen? You have it on your comp list, so it was free somehow?

      b) Why did you book rooms concurrently at 4Q and DTG? 4Q offered lots of free play so I get that, but why also DTG?

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    8. Always enjoyable reading you're reports Royal. Still waiting for my first trip to Vegas, maybe if the volcano here in Iceland doesn't stop spewing i'll need to take a trip, one can only hope heheh. In the meantime these royal musings keep me occupied. K.

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    9. Better luck on the next trip, with Quad Queen. Has that been scheduled? How long do we have to wait for the sequel?

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    10. That airline meal looked pretty good! Just saying.

      Flush, this was tough to read. A real tanker, but fark it, you know? If you won every time you gambled, you wouldn't gamble.
      It's only money, there are a lot of people in the cemetery who would give anything to lose 3 and a half large in Vegas. Crank out the grommets and go back for more.
      Thanks for another great report. Class.

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    11. Anonymous in Iceland: I hope you will be able to make it to Vegas really soon! It's a long trip, but worth it.

      Regarding the Business Class Upgrade - this was mentioned obliquely in Defcon Chatty Grandma. http://www.royalflushervegas.com/2014/09/defcon-chatty-grandma.html I was able to sweet talk my way into a free upgrade for the return trip. Savvy, no?

      I booked the DTG at the same time as the Four Queens because I really like the rooms at the DTG, and I really like the coffee there. I have a great host, and like to stay and play there to keep our relationship strong. I've had some pretty worn-down rooms at the Four Queens in the last few trips and I'm kind of tired of it. The Flusher needs a bit of luxury!

      All you other Anonymouses, thanks for your comments. Much appreciated!

      Plump Thunder: It was a fine meal indeed. And you're right - every day above ground is a good day - especially in Vegas!

      R.F.

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    12. If you don't mind sayin'... Now that DTG has some decent VP... What sort of play level have you been giving DTG to get the nice free rooms? I'm looking to get another go-to place downtown and maybe DTG will be it(?) Currently using MSS but the offers there have been diminishing even though my play has been stable. Just trying to become savvy, like you.


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    13. I haven't been keeping careful track of my play at the Downtown Grand, but it has been a lot lower than other places. Now that the paytables are improved, they will see more play. One thing I need to talk to them about is mailed / email offers - I don't think they mailing outside of the U.S. I haven't gotten any offers yet. Americans are getting offers commensurate with their play which include freeplay. I talk directly to my host and she fixes me up.

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    14. Sorry for your losses but I soooo appreciate your time and effort to write such a wildly entertaining trip report! Can't wait til next time!

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    15. I think that may have been my favorite report of yours so far. The gambling was crappy (it does that sometimes), but the rest was brilliant on so many levels. One dollar royal would have changed that anyway, so should be expected when it doesn't happen, unless you only play quarter single line, than it would have been less, but that can get boring....

      I like how you made the microcosm of life with Vegas ups and downs. Point on. Something you didn't figure in your calculations was the joy one gets in planning, re-living and experiencing Vegas when not there. Not to mention the happiness folks like I get who can't be there right now. You're one of the only writers who isn't afraid of telling your real experiences, good or bad, it makes it real for those of us who can't go right now. Sierra

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