Bobby G - Always a Smooth Ride

Day 2 part 2 and now that I had a nice big fat bankroll, it was time to start blowing it at the Cal.

Hello, Bobby G!

I got on that forthwith.

Video Keno at a buck a throw yielded nothing.

Losing in progress.

That was almost $60 gone. I took a $10 ticket out and put it in some stupid reel slot and took out $50. That would turn out to be the highlight of the post-Royal period.

I wandered around, playing this, playing that. Some Buffallllllo!!!! all kinds of video poker a twenty at a time. Nothing was hitting.

My internal clock is completely bamboozled and confused as to what time it is, so I'm just trying to go with the flow. Tummy said "FEED ME", so I headed to the coffee shop to try the Chop Steak, as promised the night before.

Chop Steak, with fries instead of rice.

Well, the Chop Steak was steak-like beefomeat, chopped (imagine!) and stir fried with onions and peppers in a sweet-ish sauce. It was delicious! But again, the prices on things at Magnolia's and here have skyrocketed. The plate above was $13.99. I might as well eat at the airport, or on the Strip.

Pointless photo of the abandoned remains of the salad bar.

There was a Bonus Poker royal progressive that was nearing $1200 - it was around $1180 to be exact, so I hammered that with the idea of getting the royal before it triggered any paperwork or tax withholding.

An hour went by and no royal and almost nothing to show for it.

It's weird how you can have a stretch of wins, including incredible Royal luck, and then nothing, nothing, nothing, no matter what machine you play.

An observation about the Cal casino - they've gutted so much video poker, it isn't funny. As in removed. There must be 40 or 50 machines gone from the lower part of the casino alone.

Proudly in their place stand automated craps and roulette and other assorted costly and boring diversions.

Anyway, since returning to the Cal after my big win, I was down $200. Time for a rest interval in the sleeping cubicle, where my meagre belongings are stored.

I was ecstatic to find that my bed was no longer short-sheeted. My skank feet would now be protected from the previous 1000 pairs of skank feet whose ghostly spirit inhabited the mattress pad.

There were plans in the offing - post rest, I'd meet up with Bobby G of Bobby G's Gambling and Good Times (and Bobby G of the lucky goddamn socks I was wearing).

You should check out his Youtube channel and subscribe! Food reviews, video poker sessions, and other goodies await.

We met up at Main Street Station for a drink at the bar.

Main Street is a shell of its former self. All the interesting coin droppers are gone. VP has been mostly downgraded. The VP at the bar is almost as good as at the Golden Nugget. Scratch cards are gone. Even the pit has less than half the tables they had before.

It is incredibly sad to me.

And it reminds me, unbelievably, of what the Las Vegas Club was like when it was on life support. The worse things got, the fewer the machines there were.

Most of the people I knew on the floor are gone with the scratchcards. I wish them well, wherever they landed.

At least Jose is still around at the Boar's Head.

We decided to grab a pizza at the Triple 7. I insisted on a Bobby G photo spread, so here are the results.

This last photo is the best one of Bobby G.

We headed over to the Cal to play some video poker. What a great evening! Fun conversation, laughs, cocktail waitress banter, endless man-bonding which meant mostly telling each other intermittently to fuck off, drinks flowing, everything was good except the video poker for me. I managed but two quads, but Bobby had a pretty smooth ride, finishing up for the session when it was over, mostly due to his patented Full House Parlay technique.

It was just a really nice, fun evening spent with a good guy.

Bobby G Simu-quad.

Another issue with Boyd properties, one that many of you are well aware of - you can't earn any comps until you graduate from Ruby to Sapphire, and the formula for generating tier points is obfuscated. Starting from zero this trip, I'm at 151 points.

Only some 600 points before I'm lifted from useless Ruby cardboard status to useless paperboard Sapphire status.

Is this the end of my California stays?

Now to the numbers.

Day up $665
Trip up $705

I would be remiss without a shoutout to all the amazing folks who have supported the blog in the last little while, and particularly during the trip so far.

Thank you all for your support! It makes me feel really good about my degenerate self and writing in general.

Thank you to Casey Jones, Vinny, D&S, Funkhouser, Sparky, Vinny, BrashLimburg, Bob Joseph, Vinny, Bob Remillard, ko-fi supporter, Jate, 2Blue, Hotdog, tje, Mario F, JTiff, Matt F., sgaffrn, Texas Steph, Jeanie, DF, my niece Lamondo, Tom TWI, VegasFan1970 and Huck, Rich, and TK!

Here's how I met Bobby G.

Good Luck Bobby G. - Royal Flusher Vegas

And in closing, one last photo for those who remember.