The Math Poindexters Weigh In

Day 8 - Part 1

I generally love dawn in Las Vegas, and I usually come at it from the morning side, and not the night side like many of you. Maybe it's because I am usually out of money by noon.

It looked like another hot one, and the sky shimmered blue and silver and orange. I did my ablutions and with no cheapskate coffee option, decided to go for a Starbucks with an extra shot. Seven bucks on my room. If I could hit my coin-in goal, maybe my host would comp it.

Kahunaville was in the process of being ripped to shreds, right down to the dirt. I never liked the place and I am hoping for some wonderful new option to take its place.

Just as I sat down at the machines, the Quad Queen let  me know the sad news that Gordie Howe had passed away. Gordie was my first sports hero. The kind of guy that inspired Wayne Gretzky. I got out my lucky Gordie card and displayed it proudly.

Since I'd burned my freeplay, I was going to use $400 cash to reach my coin-in goal. At least, it was there if I needed it. And I hoped I wouldn't need it. I slid $100 into my machine: sit, adjust, pray, attack.

Gordie brought me a quad, but didn't bring the Royal.

 I'd parlayed to dollars, too, and that was one time I did NOT want to see ole number 9 elbowing his way past the blue line. Unless it was part of a straight flush. Which it wasn't.

Wait, is that $365 on the meter? It certainly is! I'd started out with cash at 50 cents and after hitting the quad, let a few hands go by and then parlayed to dollars. The three loss parlay. But the three losses didn't come, instead flushes, straights and fulls house came. I got on a really nice dollar run and worked it up to $365 honestly.

The day was going pretty well so far, I had a really nice cushion to work with. And I'm not talking about my ass.

I burned about $50 in a stretch and decided to play it safe and drop back to 50 cents. I played for a while and quad 8s showed up. Sweet!

At my high point, I hit $425, which was just great. But it slowly dwindled down.

I hit $300 on the meter and thought it would be a good time for breakfast. I'd done a good portion of the play I needed - $4000 coin in - and I was up $200 so far. Halfway home. This was a huge, huge relief, considering I could have gone through my entire remaining trip bankroll on this pursuit, with five days left to go.

I remembered a 2-for-1 buffet coupon that I'd been carrying around in my luggage for about six trips now. It was a T.I. coupon, but the name and date area on it were blank. We never got around to using it. I swung by the buffet, which was just a stone's throw away from the High Limit area. I had an idea, from reading through the LVA coupons.

And the answer was 'Yes!' I could indeed use the 2-for-1 coupon for half price for one person. Wonderful. I tore upstairs to get it and found that it was specifically for dinner.

T.I. changing all the air filters. Good on ya, T.I.

Well, I guess I knew what I was doing for dinner.

I ate at the coffee shop, played $5 worth of Keno. Got nothing. Why do I play that stupid game? Why do I keep repeating that question?

View of the Keno board - check.

Single Lonely Diner table - check

Delish omelette with cheese and double ketchup for some reason - check.

It's such a drag seeing rip-off prices in Vegas, which used to be all about value. An example. The All-American Rah-Rah breakfast is $16. Add meat, $2.50. So that's $16 for eggs, toast, and hash browns. The food cost on that Las Vegas breakfast is about $0.60. Plus two things of ketchup, about $1.50 each. And I swear, I didn't eat all the ketchup.

Anyway, you're lookin' at $18.50 plus tax and tip for a basic bacon and eggs breakfast. Yikes. At least the omelette takes a little more work.

I put the breakfast on the room. Maybe my host would pick it up...

Back to the Jacks or Better. Just for fun, I slipped a lone $10 bill into a machine. And hey, I got on a nice little run and did $500 coin in on it. Only $3500 to go.

I played $100 and did okay for a while, but I ended up losing it all. Put another $100 in, same story. I was now even on the day and starting to get a bit worried.

I put a third benjy in and before long parlayed up to dollars. And I pounded them hard.

It looked really good. It looked like I would make it and have a decent amount to spare.

But in the last 10 or 15 minutes of play, things just went south. I saw a number of these kinds of swings in the last two days, it wasn't that unusual, but the timing was awful.

By the time I finished my goal, I was down $100 for the day. I'd done $8000 coin in on $100.

I'D MADE IT!!!! THE MATH POINDEXTERS WERE RIGHT!!! (In this case.)

And I'd done it on $400 free play and $130 of my own cash. The only thing was... no Royal. But I would likely continue to get good offers and so, I could keep trying until I did get one.

The best part was, I was just a few short hours from the thrill of Punishment Lunch!

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My thoughts on the great Gordie Howe.

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

Planning the $1K Scrounge Trip - June 2016

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