Royal Pointies

Day 5 - moving day, from the frenetic high-intensity Strip to the frenetic high-intensity California!

We had quite a bit of crap to pack up, and I had blogging and Little Mini Giant coffee to consume, so it was a busy morning with no gambling - for shame!

The room folio thingy on the tv showed I'd indeed been charged for parking, the General Tso chicken had indeed been removed from the room service charge, and the $50 resort credit had not been applied.

With the soon-to-be-award-winning posts out, I humped some of our tactical room camping equipment to the rental Malibu. ("Flushah! You dink dis is a faycation?? Get your geahh - we're moving OUT!")

Then I scooted over to the MGM Rewards booth (it was a sight to see, me scooting). I pleaded my case to Boothling Judge Judy, got the parking charges removed (and that's all) and got shiny new Pearl cards. My 

What an achievement. I'm proud. So proud. Pearl proud. Sigh.

Back in the room, the folio showed the parking gone. I had to make another call to get the stupid resort credit applied. I am now certain this is standard nickle-and-diming operating procedure for MGM hotels. They make you fetch the dangled freeplay and they make you jump through hoops to get the promised resort credit.

I shouldn't have to be an auditor on vacation! Another check of the folio showed that the resort credit had been applied, but the $39 in MGM Fun-bux we'd earned pounding the buttons had not been applied, even though Boothling Judge Judy had told the desk to do that.

The grand total was $315 for the four nights, about $80 a night. Fairly reasonable in today's world for a 'comped' room in a better hotel. And I have $40 to spend on three bottles of water or something.

After checking the room 90 times for stuff we'd left behind, we were outta there!

I drove north, stopping at Walgreens for antihistamine, peanut butter cups, and a six-pack of Four Loco to leave for Licorice Petey and the boys under a special tree down by the tracks.

I've had brutal allergies all week, sneezing and runny nose. Annoying! Doubling up on the little pills takes care of it.

We arrived a the Cal pretty much dead on noon. I'm excited to report that the resort fee covers the 'in room refrigerator'. The same one that's been in your room for the past 20 years. Fortunately, I'm on a host comp, so completely covered room, no fees.

At least some things are still humane at the Cal - I got a room right away, no early check-in bullshit charge. I hope the bean counters never get wind of this.

The Quad Queen was having a hell of a trip with two Royals in two days. I was on a really bad downward bend having dumped all my winnings and then some - about a $1400 slump over multiple days since a decent win of any sort or a winning session.

One odd thing that has happened over the years is that the QQ gets Royals when I am elsewhere. Walk away to go to the bathroom, she gets a royal when I'm 10 steps away (Red Rock). Go and take a nap, the phone rings, she's got a royal just as I drop off. It's uncanny.

At Bellagio, I was playing 40 feet away, she gets a Royal. At Jerry's Nugget, I'm playing 40 feet away on BUFFFFALLLLLO!!!! she gets a Royal.

The other weird thing is she is having trouble getting quads and is very frustrated by this. I don't blame her.

Things sorted in the room, we went down to the casino and got busy.

We played a bit, couldn't hit much, and I got hungry and headed to Binion's for a burger (on points) while the QQ continued the hunt.

After two experiences with said burger, we have concluded it has gone downhill from a few years back. Maybe your experience is better.

 I got back to the Cal and the Quad Queen had finally broken the ice.

We played around for a bit but I just wasn't feeling it. The pace, the excitement, the short sleeps, the long hours, the booze, the pills, the broads, the uppers, downers, the wiffs and snap-grablers, the woozle wuzzles and the hooooooooors on seventh avenue - it all had me beat down and worn out.

I went up to the room to rest, but couldn't unwind. A short while later, QQ joined me and I went back down to the casino, but still was beat down and worn out. I went back up to the room, determined to stay off the phone and keno results and nap.

And I drifted off in blissful, restful sleep - for all of seven minutes.

The piPhone 3.14 jolted me awake - Quad Queen on Facetime. Maybe she wanted my Christmas cake recipe. Or maybe...

Yup, she done it!!! She done hired the Hitmaker, Bernard 'Pretty' Purdie for her latest Motown release.

And more than that, she gone done hit Royal Flush number three for the trip!!! Three Royals in three days!!!! That's more than Camilla Parker-Bowles!

Incredible!!!

Mrs. F. now had her sights on Shockwave poker but wasn't feeling it. She changed machines to some slant tops right by the east elevators. I trailed along, hoping some of the good luck would rub off on me, as I was now down a couple, as usual.

Triple Double Bonus seemed like a good idea. Early on I was dealt 33322 and happy with a dealt full house, held it, stupidly. The correct hold is 3332x, similar to the one that brought me $500 at Bellagio. Had I missed my chance?

Just a few minutes later, I hit paydirt. Dealt three Aces and a kicker.

And just like that - BOOM - I was back in it with Pointies Kicker for $1000! I cashed the ticket and started again.

Meanwhile, the Quad Queen was hell bent for leather trying to get quads. Big quads. Big big high volatility quads.

And I'm sad to say, the struggle continued for the most part all of the rest of the day. The momentum seemed to have shifted again.

BUFFFFFALLLLLLOOOO!!!! was okay I guess. I broke even. Had one decent screen, and one really, really shitty bonus.

We tried some Boner Deluxe and had a bit of luck on that, but QQ parlayed and didn't cash any winnings.

What next? I'd go wherever QQ wanted to go. We wandered around and spied Pinchy and Flashy, those uprights that have been so good to us at times.

Well, one fun thing was that we got simu-quads.

I was playing Super Double Bonus, which has an odd paytable with the JQK quads being premium and the Aces super premium.

Playing at 50 cents, the four Jacks were $300!!! I was shocked!

The Quad Queen had a couple in there...

...but she was still swinging for the fences and bleeding cash.

We played on and ten hands later, I let out a "HOLY SHIT!!!!". Appropriate for dealt Pointies for $400!!!

What was going on???!!!

I cashed out the $900 ticket and restarted, back to Triple Double Bonus poker.

Held Ace Queen suited and oh my. A third set of Pointies!

Just like that, all my trip losses had been recouped, and then some!

When it was over, I smooched Flashy right on her little chrome frame. I wanted to call this post 'I kissed a machine and I liked it' but obviously didn't.

For dinner, we thought we'd get take-out from the Triple Seven over at Main Street Station. We walked over and the place was as sad and forlorn as I've ever seen it, except for the restaurant.

They don't do take-out so we got a table and ordered. The prime rib was 'okay' and the pizza was excellent.

I'd really played enough for the day, satisfied, but the QQ kept at it, trying Double Double Bonus, Loose Deuces, anything. It all drained and I floated along, even.

I did get one more quad on dollar Bonus to recoup my buy-in, but forgot the photo.

The last laugh was that same old four-to-a-royal with the nine. I would have loved to get the royal, but I had to chuckle.

Any way you slice it, this was a stellar day. We both had an absolute blast. What an incredibly lucky series of hands we hit!

Maybe tomorrow will bring Royal number four!

QQ day -$260 (!!!) trip +$200

RF day +$1650 (!!!!!!!) trip +$910

Combined we are up $1110 on the trip. It's all good!!!! And more to come.