A beautiful, white and blue castle, home of the Slippery Fairy Princess. With jalapeno jack cheese.
It just so happened that the fries were just out of the hot oil, as fresh as is possible, and as such, they were delicious. There's nothing like super hot fries! The sliders were really good too, and I wolfed down the whole squadron of them.
Next stop, the D, where I cashed a $7 keno ticket from last trip. It represented a payback of some 9% on my investment, surely a winning strategy I could do well with if I could increase volume. I played the $7 and left for the Four Queens.
The Quad Queen's freeplay did well. $40 free play, into $40 cash, at my corner bar seat right on Fremont. It's a popular spot now, I usually can't get it.
At Binion's, I checked our cards for free play but there was none. However, I found a nice little isolated old slant top not far from the slot club booth that had 9/6 Double Double Bonus on it, so I threw a twenty at it. As I played I recalled the many times we'd done a hit and run just in this same area, and it seemed that the Quad Queen had a penchant for hitting some premium hand, and then cashing out and walking. I remember at least a couple of times in particular.
Three Aces dealt, holy crap, I got the fourth.
POINTIES!!!!!
No kicker, though.
What a turnaround since yesterday! I was doing very well indeed, up six or seven hundred.
Back at the Cal, I went to the slot club booth to get my free play loaded onto my card.
Astute, attentive, and loyal readers of this blog will recall that I had no end of trouble with one host, which I eventually fired, and started working with another, which I also eventually fired when Boyd changed the slot club rules, removing any advantage to play larger amounts of coin in like the $10K per day we were doing.
I just don't need a host anymore. I'm happy to book the corporate offers and use the host tip money to make up the food budget.
It just figures that BOTH of them were working in the booth, but otherwise occupied. So far I have a perfect record of shirking and avoiding any contact with previously fired hosts, and that record stands. I managed to get in and out of there without them noticing me.
What a fired host wimp I am!
I used my $20 free play on Bonus Poker on a slant top near the Holo Holo bar. It played well, but ultimately, I lost.
I tried a five dollar bill in Double Double, lost it, put in $20, and third hand after that hit four Kings.
And four hands later, I hit four Queens - dealt to me.
I cashed a $140 ticket and wandered around, setting on a shot at Triple Double Bonus near the cage. Things were going so well today, I thought I'd take a flyer or two.
Four more Kings came my way (sliding out of their White Castle no doubt) and I had about $70 on the meter. I decided to commit to going for a big score. I ended up with three Aces four different times, and almost hit a royal as well. Ultimately, though, I didn't.
For dinner, I ate at the coffee shop again, having the Korean Short Rib appetizer along with the salad bar. Just look - at the most amazing Korean Short Ribs yes? Let's get that right.
I tried a few machines like the 50 cent Bonus Poker progressive, and some Buffalo without anything useful happening.
Then, I wandered back to the alcove and sat down to play video keno. I decided to use some different numbers for a change, and set up my scheme of a bunch of overlapping 5-spot tickets and a six-spot. I'd actually meant to do 4-spots and a 5-spot, but I decided what the hell.
On the first three tickets, I bet only 1 nickel, and on the later ones I hit 2 by accident. It was only nickels so I upped the other cards to 2 nickels.
On the 6-spot, I put the maximum - 4 nickels.
The number of hits I have had on video keno is astonishing, and even more so that most of them have happened within a few spins. This one came on the third try.
Oh my goodness! A six out of six, and a bunch of five out of fives! I played until I had an even number on the meter and cashed - $382.
Looking back at this, I can see that I missed upping the bet on the first card. And, it looks like there was one combination of 5 spots that I didn't play! There are six ways to make five, and one way to make six out of six numbers.
Oopsies!
I'm not unhappy because I only intended to play 1 credit on the 5-spots in the first place.
After cashing my ticket, I approached a frail woman who was emptying garbage cans into a large bin and gave her a $20 tip. It seemed like the right thing to do.
"I had some luck so now you have some too. This is for you and your hard work."
She hugged me and I could feel her bones poking out of her skinny frame.
All this screwing around town and winning and stuff had got me tired out, and anyway, it was time to do a wallet dump into the safe, which was a nice change.
Back in the room, I did a quick accounting and found I was up quite a bit.
The bed looked inviting, so I crashed for about an hour. It was good to take some downtime. If you are going to do Vegas for anything over three days, you have to or you'll surely go insanity.
There is a machine under the escalators that is very loud and very fast, like the women in the Silver Dollar room were back when I worked at the refinery. But that was decades ago, they're not quite as fast now.
This machine has a better keno paytable than its neighbors. These machines are out there, you just have to keep hunting.
I decided to keep it simple and just play $20 on one 5-spot for 50 cents a spin. That should give me enough spins to get something, right?
Just a few spins and next thing I know all 5 numbers light up for $419.
Holy shit on a cracker with sprigs of parsley.
What a day I was having!!!
I texted the Quad Queen back home. "You're not going to believe this...."
Then I texted the photo.
Then I texted, "Do I have to give out more twenties???"
After a bit more messing about, I took the booty back to the room to add to the other booty. I'd started the day with $200 minus $20 into admin for tips and such so $180, minus $20 tipped to the janitor, so a stake of $160 gambling money.
I facetimed the QQ and did an accounting and I had $1,430. Holy crap. I'd made back everything I'd lost on the previous horrible day, and another $500 besides. One of those "I LOVE VEGAS" moments...
We had a long catchup on the facetime dealy, and then I went back at it.
This time, $100 at blackjack. But that went badly. I could sort of sense that my streak was ending, so I was cautious. I lasted only 35 minutes and didn't buy in for more.
I had six or seven twenties on me (and that's all - money management) and played here and there but never managed to win anything further. That was certainly all right with me, and I called it quits and came up to the room for a nightcap and a final count.
I finished up $1040 on the day. That gets me to minus $460 for the trip. This is more than acceptable.
It's really cool the support I got after yesterday. I think it helps to be able to voice the despair. In particular, a shout-out to T.H. who provided a boost at the right moment.
YES, VEGAS YES!!!!
I noticed that for today I'd taken only pictures of gambling wins, tickets, food, and precious little else. So I took a couple of shots out the window. I'll do better next time.
Do you never play craps?
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