Dressed, Brushed, Whizzed, and Somewhat Ready

That afternoon into evening flight is a killer. I usually sleep badly (yup), sleep too short (yup - 5 hours, it's VEGAS byotch), and feel like I've had a sound beating by the Gate Master. This was no different.

When I decided to wake, I sat up and just stared off into space for 5 minutes trying to decide what to do. Out of it.

The Man himself. And what a man!

I left home at 2:00 EDT, got delayed some at Flusherville Regional Aerodrome (which was ok, I spent some time sitting in the sun), and then on to Pearson in Toronto.

The flight out of there left at 9:30pm and I landed at McCarran at 1:45am EDT. So by the time I got my room, and had some minor shenanigans, I didn't get to bed till 4:30am EDT.

So there I was, trying to figure out which sock to put on first, stumbling around the room wondering how to eat at Luxor/Excalibur/Mandalay on $100 for 3 days. And actually, it was only 2 days and possibly a morning, because night 1 of 3 had already passed (with a never-ending THUMP-THUMP-THUMP).

A plan came to mind. It was a good plan, an evil savvy cheap bastard plan.

Dressed, brushed, whizzed, and somewhat ready, I headed out of the room and straight to the cage, where I cashed my Scrounged $60 CAD hockey pool winnings in for $43 US dollars.

My day's gambling stake was secure. Next stop, no not the casino... the buffet! Ah yes, the MORE! buffet with a million tasty delights to fondle the taste buds.

For today, Day 2, I would buy the buffet pass, which would entitle me to All I Could Eat (as opposed to all I should eat) at not one, but two shitty buffets - the Luxor More buffet, and the Excalibur Buffet. It used to be called the Round Table buffet, but all the tables are now square.

So $43 got me a wristband and all the crap food I could eat, and what I couldn't eat, they'd feed to the hogs at that pig farm. Net effect, not much different.

Enslaved by the Buffet Man.

One great thing about this plan was that it solved the coffee dilemma for now. I was determined not to spend $18 a day on three flat whites or lattes at StarBuckers. I'd brought some instant coffee (StarBucker's VIA thingies) and some k-cups, and had this idea that I'd get a kettle - from the lost and found. But I had not had time to put that penny-pinching plan into effect.

(I'd looked everywhere for Penny, but could not find her.)

The buffet was sort of what you'd expect, although it was leaning into 'brunch' territory. If you make smart decisions at a buffet, you can generally find things that are decent to eat. Salad stuff and fruit is a winner, as they don't have to actually do much to it. The more they do things to food, the more likely they are to fuck it up. And of course, an omelette is ideal, because it's exactly the way you want it, and cooked fresh and hot.

I'll have some o' the red....

And some of the Country Throw-up Gravy.

That rolled up thing is a cheese blintz, and up until now I'd never had a bad one at the various buffets. This one sucked. It's insides were dry and pasty with little granules in and didn't taste good. I threw it over my shoulder, Little John style.

Enough of this culinary screwing around though, let's get gambling!

I was looking for low volatility games, in quarters. My plan was to play the 9/5 Jacks Spin Poker in the high limit room (not a bad place to be), a single line at a time.

I played $20 and used up $35 of the freeplay. (You play a hand for $1.25 and then they add back $1.25 on top of whatever you've won.) I didn't do too well with it, netting $40. So you could say I turned my $35 freeplay into just $20 cash.

I played, and it was fun! It went okay I guess, didn't hit any quads, but played for 40 minutes or so on the $40. At one point I got down as far as $7.50 but when I worked back up to $40, I thought that would be a good place to take a breather. I cashed out even. So far so good, I guess.

With my miniscule budget, I knew I was going to have to be extremely boring conservative. But twelve days is a very long time on $1000.

It's true, I had a few boosters to my budget by executing my savvy scroungy wiles. I had $80 in Silver Strikes, the $60 hockey money, and a bunch of free play with offers. And just before leaving, I'd casually mentioned to the Quad Queen that I had no Canadian cash - she gave me $100 in twenties. It was strictly for Canadian expenses though - its not smart not to have cash in the airport in case things go sour, travel-wise.

I felt good though, I'd played almost an hour, had not touched my bankroll, had broken even, and still had half my Luxor freeplay in reserve. I had my day's meals covered and over half my resort credits left. And I had my LVA coupon book, which should net some cash and freeplay. I wouldn't pick up the car until Day 3 though, so that part of the plan was on the back burner.

What could go wrong, there were only 12 hours left in the day!

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The $1K Scrounge Trip - June 2016: All Posts

Planning the $1K Scrounge Trip - June 2016

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