The Gymnastic Pyro-Magic of The Flying Family Pucker

Day 6 - Part 3

Six times a charm? In this case, no.

I was now zero for six on match plays. What the flying fuck???

A lot of these were $25 ones, and they were taking a lot of dough out of the Flusher budget!

So we drank drinks, shot the shit, and had a great time at the table. We played mostly $10 a hand, and it went like this. I bought in for $100, lost with the match play right away, hung around $35, then got my first blackjack and used my other coupon for a 2:1 payoff.

"Does that count as a coupon win?" I asked meekly.

We agreed that it did, and psychologically, I needed that. I'd, sort of, won a coupon.

OK, I hit a bunch of winners in a row, and worked up to about $145, then down to $95. Should I cash out? I'd played about an hour and a quarter, had fun, and was only down $5. Color, right? Don't go for the even $100, right?

Err, well, a quick series of losses and unfortunate doubles and splits and next thing I knew I was down to $15. I pushed it all out. And somehow, I won that hand, and in the next five minutes, hit five blackjacks.

Dr. Raoul was long out of chips, but sat and cheered us on, and Gambletron had staged a stunning comeback himself from being felted at one point. He pushed his bets at the right time and had a decent stack in front of him.

I worked my up higher, a bit higher, and then popped over $150. I played another hand or two and when I hit $150 on the nose, we called it quits.

A winning session!!! And I was reallllly happy I hadn't dumped the $100. That would have been bad.

The plan was to have drinks, snacks, drinks, and drinks up in the Perch - the Golden Gate room right on Fremont Street that the Manitoba Boyz reserve for just this purpose - sitting, drinking, not losing in the casino, and looking out at the goings on under the canopy.

Tron counting the spoils, or figuring out how much he is down, not sure which.

We had a blast. It was cool to see the hotel, as I've never stayed there. Never been in one of the old rooms, either.

I love how this picture turned out. Those windows are single pane, very old. Maybe original?

We sat, cooled our heels, shot the shit, and had a great time. And actually, before this trip, I knew my cousin 'Tron fairly well, but Dr. Raoul, I'd only met a couple of times. It was fantastic to just sit and have a chance to really talk with these guys and get to know them better. We hashed out all kinds of family history, had a million laughs - it was a great way to spend the afternoon.

See all that stuff? It was the last time we'd see it too.

Not much action visible from the Perch.

It was well over 100 again, so we couldn't keep the windows open all the time. Needed us some air condish to keep the weenies cool.

This is what happened when the Boyz convertible top was down between Vegas and the Hoover Dam.

The Manitoba Boyz had tickets to see Las Vegas' hit show The Gymnastic Pyro-Magic of The Flying Family Pucker and their Roller Skating Musical Dancing Dogs Sphynxter and Rexum. Okay, so it's not a hit show. It's an  off- off- off- off- Strip show, but hey - 2 for 1 coupon, why not? Anyway, they took off to grab a bus down the Strip and I hauled ass for the Golden Nugget. On my feet. I would have driven them in the Poon Stang, but first of all, I was over the limit, and second of all, the Poon Stang only seats half of the Manitoba Boyz, which equals either 3/4 of 'Tron in the front seat and none of Dr. Raoul, or 1/4 of 'Tron in the back plus Dr. Raoul in the front seat.

I was down about $40 on the day, so I thought, hey, why not, and played $20 on dollar 9/5 Jacks at the Nugget. Seemed like a smart move. I'd hit a quad there before. Easy money, yeah? Cool move... got absolutely nothing.

No problem. Then I played $100. And in very short order, that was gone, gone, gone.

Oopsies.

Apparently, I threw the day's budget out the window in about 8 minutes of risky behavior.

I hadn't bothered with lunch (drinking) and it was just time for hap- hap- happy hour at various places around downtown, but in my case, and in particular, at the Grotto. It used to be called Frottage, but apparently, that rubbed people the wrong way.

Sure enough, they had very large desserts.

Gratuitous large dessert shot.

I grabbed a table in the bar area. Then I let go of that table, and sat down like a proper gentleman. And it was true, the overpriced $17 pizza was now like eight fifty. Perfect. It was pretty damn good too. I used Golden Nugget comp dollar points to cover it, so free.

After wolfing that down (yes I ate it allll) I managed to win $20 on a slot machine. And I went to the room and grabbed the last 4 Silver Strikes I had. And I went to the Four Queens and more reasonably, played some quarter Jacks or Better.

Hit one quad, as you can see. The card I left there was still there.

I tried to parlay a few times but in the end, they get it all. I played 40 minutes on the first $20 and 20 minutes on the next $40. You tell me if that makes sense.

I had a few dollars left, and for those dollars I bought the following: one great picture of Binions at dusk, and, a jackpot on a 9 cent machine.

Taken at 'magic time'. Dusk, when the lights come on.

Jackpot!!! 109 cents!!!

I'd had a fantastic day, really, so much fun.

But here's the thing.

Tomorrow would start the heavy coin-in 50 cent Jacks play at T.I. I aimed to do $8K coin in per day.

I was pretty sure that the health and success of the whole $1000 gambling budget challenge hinged on it. If I did well, I'd have enough budget to coast through the rest of the trip. If I managed to win or even hit a Royal, it would all be good. Especially if I hit a Royal. That would guarantee success.

But if I got blown out... I mean, I could easily go through the $400 freeplay on the first day and some of my cash. And then what??? I could be broke by day 2 and not even reach my goal. And be broke for the rest of the trip. Yeah I had the marker money, but that would be admitting huge defeat. Playing by the rules, I shouldn't even use it, but had it with me for safety's sake. Not good to be stone broke in Vegas.

Day: -$190
Trip: -$540
Bankroll left: $460

$460 bankroll plus $400 freeplay to do $16,000 coin in. I thought 'I'm screwed'.

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

Planning the $1K Scrounge Trip - June 2016

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