Life Is A Five Dollar Scratch Card

Sunday Nov 6, 2016 - Day 16

I still had a few Express Comp dollars on my MILF account, so I burned them having two breakfasts at the Pyramid Cafe. It was excessive. But hey - free.

We packed up and high-tailed it back to home base - the California Casino and Hotel in beautiful downtown Las Vegas. This was where we would make our final stand.



We checked in and our room was ready to go - same floor as the room two weeks previous, but across the hall.

We played some, and ate at the buffet, a fine third breakfast including some sort of amazing caramely pudding.

How can this only be a flush???

Once that was done, it was time to take the car back to the McCarran Rental Car Facility. I whipped down there and dumped the car.

Avis (and probably the other companies) have things absolutely wired now. You can pick up a car in a minute and drop it off in 30 seconds using an account and their app.

I strolled down to the Uber / Lyft pick-up location and hailed me a ride. My driver was many things - a driver, an ex-dealer, and a script writer.

I got dropped off at the Cal and commenced to rejoin the Quad Queen in the casino environs and promptly lose $360 in the first 40 minutes.

Clearly a different approach was needed.

By this point, I had taken too many beatings on the trip. It's incredible how a large number of unrelated events, like hands of video poker, can fall into general trends that run over multiple days.

We walked over to Main Street Station and I thought, well, what would make a difference in the trip? What had the potential to start to make a dent in my losses?

Answer - 50 cent Double Double Bonus. I had avoided this game for most of the trip because of its high volatility. But we were now in 'last ditch' territory.

I started on quarters actually, while having that convo in my head, and switched it up to 50 cents. I really like the idea of Aces Kicker on 50 cent DDB - a cool $1000, no tax hassles. A royal would be welcome too, I sure wouldn't turn it down because of the paperwork.

I got four 6s, which gave me some elbow room.

 Oopsies - is that a straight flush??? Not quite.

 I played for two solid hours. Pound pound pound. And then it came in. Something I'd waited for all trip long - a decent sized win. Aces Kicker for $1000. I pounded my fists on the padded rail at the front of the machine and bellowed for joy.

Isn't that beautiful?

I played down to $1000 even and cashed out.

But I wasn't done yet!

I pulled another $300 out of that sweet, sweet machine.

Other happenings:

Quad Queen and her damned dealt nickel Aces again!

We made a pit-stop at the bar to celebrate. I keep asking Jose if he knows my pal Squidward and he never admits it. He just looks to the side a bit and changes the subject.

We saw a really cool family doing some group pulls on dollar Wheel of Meat Fortune - the Oshio Family Reunion 2016. They looked like they were having a blast, and sounded it too. I asked them to adopt me.

Hey I can get dealt quads too.

Rare sighting of the $5 scratch card.

We played some more and then had dinner at the Redwood Steakhouse. It was faburama as usual.

Love those crab balls!

One thing about the remodel - I wasn't at all keen on the idea of there being windows onto the casino. Not sure why, but something about it gave me the willies.

Meet the Willies.

 There needs to be mirrored glass or something, maybe a curtain. The line-up for Market Street Cafe now snakes down by the windows of the Redwood.

"Hi, my name is Dotty. I design ugly lampshades."

Crab, anyone?

That's a pretty terrible picture of crab. I blame the Fun-blow 0.15 reading.

Here's one summary I won't mind writing up:

RF: Day +$490 Trip: -$5055
QQ: Day -$400 Trip: -$1250