Gambling at South Park

Day 8 part 2 and I found myself behind the wheel of a large automobile, rolling thunder towards South Park.

Make that South Point. And why?

Acres of full pay video poker, that's why.

Plus I like a change of scene.

Gambling can be so weird. I had $300 with me, down $100 on the day. I went at it hard, delighted to find triple play 8/5 Bonus Poker, which is near impossible to find on the Strip or Downtown. The paytable is always 7/5 or worse.

It played really nicely, for a while. And then the slow descent to nothingnews... after 15 minutes I was down to $2.50 in the machine. Not enough for a full spin. Disgusted, I cashed out.

Behind me was a bank of single line machines. I stuffed the ticket in and played a hand. I didn't put my card in or sit down. No reason to.

Lost the first hand. One hand left. Got a pair. Got a pair. Got two pairs. Lost a hand. Held two nines.

Just like that, I was made whole. I wouldn't repeat the mistake of going below my stake again!

I walked around, bought an espresso, and two $1.50 hotdogs for lunch. What a deal!

Then, I settled in for a session of Boner Deluxe and went way below my stake. Yeah.

It was sort of a repeat of what happened at the Plaza the other day. I played for almost an hour with no quads, and was almost out of money, i.e. almost down $400 for the day. Ulp!

Finally, thankfully, the quads came, although kind of in an annoying fashion.

I'd planned to switch to dollar Bonus Poker for a few hands. I made the switch and played three hands, and on the fourth I realized it was quarters, not dollars. I held the single ace and hit my first set of Pointies for the trip. Oh well.

Pointies!!!

I wandered around a bit, tried some video keno (nada) and decided to play some Double Double, as I haven't played much of that.

I dropped down a fair bit and hit my first straight flush of the trip (notwithstanding the Royal Flush, which is also a straight flush).

I played a bit longer and got in touch with Funkhouser, who was getting pounded at Bally's at the time. He told me some 80-1 longshot had won the Derby and he hadn't bet on that horse.

I really wanted to get to even and just when it was time to leave, I did.

All in all I played at South Park for about three hours and broke even. A fine afternoon, if you ask me.

I headed north up the Strip, and deked right at Reno, and then swung around the big corner onto Koval. At Flamingo, I hung a left, and then a left into a side lot at Bally's where Funk stood waiting.

We rolled back to Mandalay Bay where we used his Gold card to park. And then I realized that I'd need the same card to get out of the lot again, unless the Wizards showed me mercy again. But we'll sort that out, we have some ideas for Sunday.

Both of us needing refreshment, we headed to my room and killed the last of the cheap emergency punishment bourbon, sitting in armchairs, looking out over the airport and the valley. We talked for a couple of hours, a nice way to relax in Vegas.

For dinner, we headed over to Excalibur and had some Italian at Buca di Beppo and I'll be surprised if I got the name right.

It was very good indeed, and Funk's comps covered it yet again.

"I'd take care of the tip, Funk," I said when the bill came, "but all I have is hundies. Next time?"

I'm not sure how long I can keep this up, especially since he is a loyal reader of the blog.

We played a bit in the Excalibur casino, which is an aural shitshow of pounding, mindless, urban music. It might as well have been a chorus of circular saws.

On the way back to the 'Bay, we played a bit in the Luxor casino, which is an aural shitshow of pounding, mindless, urban music that might as well have been a chorus of reciprocating saws.

Good God I was tired, and called it a night.

Day down $160

Trip down $710