Shockwave Mode: The Stench of Desperation

Day 4 Part 2 Fri May 31, 2024 

How the hell could I play video poker for 2 hours and 10 minutes on $100? Well, I'd have to hit something, I thought.

I picked quarter Shockwave from the menu and started playing.

Within just a couple of minutes I was down to $80. Oh God. I started making contingency plans. Surely this would be over in no time and I'd be sitting doing nothing for the better part of 2 hours.

Maybe I'd cash out at the halfway point and switch to Keno, 25 cents a game.

My credits drifted a little lower and then I hit a full house, and then a flush and a few hands later, another full house. I was back to almost even again. Hmmm. Keep going.

After about 15 minutes, I hit a quad! Four 9s. (I was so excited, I forgot to take a photo, but I did roll on my back, spread my legs, and wee like a Chihuahua.)

Shockwave mode!!! The excitement! The flashing colors on the screen! The stench of desperation!

Well, I didn't hit it, but the quad win put me above $100.

Maria brought me a cold Ultra and I soldiered on. In one stretch, I went perilously low in credits - down to maybe $30? and I was thinking uh oh, this is it. But some of the good hands showed up and I built my balance right back up.

Twenty minutes later, I hit a second quad!

On the final Shockwave hand, I had to break up a full house (worth 50 credits) to hold 3 of a kind and try to get the $1000 quad. An easy decision, actually, but aggravating.

What to do, what to do...

Held the 8s, didn't get it.

Somehow, somehow, I managed to play the entire 2 hours and 10 minutes and I cashed out with $30 left.

I showed up at the check-in desk at 1:00 pm on the dot, hurling f-bombs, t-bombs, as well as a few c-bombs, d-bombs, b-bombs, y-bombs, and h-bombs just to show them.

I got my room keys but no meal book was coded on my reservation. I headed to the slot club booth where my host was on duty. He greeted me very warmly and we chatted a bit. He made a phone call to the desk to set up the meal book and I hauled my luggage up to the room.

The ankle was hurting and I felt just beat. Vegas can be very intense, emotionally, physically, and financially. I flopped on the bed with the TV on and crashed for an hour and a half.

Next, I had to formulate a plan. I was pretty much out of cash. I was hungry. So, I thought I'd head to Fremont and try something from one of the food court places that takes meal book coupons, then I'd go to the Bank of America (WITH my ATM card this time) and the on to the D where I'd cash the meagre winnings of my Keno ticket.

I really wanted to keep the steps down, but I also really wanted to lose more money. So off I went.

Food court at Fremont - the only option there closed at 3:00 and it was 4:00. Back to Lanai Express.

Dear God it was shitty. It was so shitty. And it was barely warm - unsafe, in my opinion. The rice was so old it was dry and crunchy.

Well, 95% of this went in the bin. I used to enjoy Lanai Express, but it's off my list. Bugger.

Did I mention it was hot in Vegas? 102 degrees.

A perfect time to schlep to the Bank and back on a bad ankle.

I got my money and headed back to Fremont, to the D. My $100 Keno ticket 'won' $20. Oh joy.

I'd played a new straight 5 spot ticket at 40 cents a game. For this next round, I cobbled up a different strategy employing six numbers at 10 cents a way.

I marked six numbers (six lucky numbers) and circled a group of three, and then circled the other three individual numbers. Out of these, I bet on three groups of four, three groups of five, and one group of six, ten cents a game on each of these. If all six numbers hit, I'd win some $700 or something. Hey, it could happen.

With these groupings, it's just as 'fun' to watch, and should be less volatile than the straight ticket.

I bet $120, for 172 games, re-investing the 'profit' from the previous ticket, plus $100. Oh how quickly it goes.

Keno is a terrible game, and I don't recommend it.

Then it was back to the Cal, where I played and played, and lost and lost. I just couldn't hit a thing.

It was pushing 7:00 and I was really hungry, so I headed for the coffee shop, thinking I'd have the Oxtail Stew, which they have on Fridays. (Not the soup, the stew.)

But there was a sign out in front that shocked me.

My Aloha meal coupons were good at the buffet at Main Street on Fridays and Saturdays with no additional cash charge, as is customary.

Holy crap, they actually did something nice for players???

I limped over to the buffet and sure enough, it was true.

I figure that maybe they are doing this to draw people back to Main Street Station. The Hawaiians have been sticking to the Cal since the pandemic and the coffee shop there is often overloaded, a second reason to do this.

And it's working, Main Street was the busiest I've seen it in four years. The pit is half the size it used to be, and the table games are open only on weekends, but yeah, there were a lot more people there.

The dinner buffet rang in at about $32 so this was quite a deal. It's nice to have a bunch of choices and eat as much as you care to force down your gullet. In my case, this included BBQ ribs, a piece of fried chicken, some salad items, meatballs, more ribs, and two pieces of sugar free banana cream pie, which were the high point of my day, quads notwithstanding.

And yes, there are Single Lonely Diner tables at the buffet, too.  A small table, right next to the buffet, right on an aisle so that there is a constant stream of people walking by. I was given this same table twice.

I think there is a worse table though, pictured below.

To wrap up a pretty tough day, I risked $20 on the Loose Doose (nothing) and then one more hundy on fifty cent Bonus Poker, on the Quad Queen's and my old machines, where we'd spent hours and hours playing.

It went okay, and then I hit a quad, which was a nice surprise. That put me over my buy-in by a little bit, and I cashed out even. To me, this was a victory.

By now, my ankle was on fire. The 8,000 steps today hadn't done it any favors. I headed back to the room, took a bunch of medications that might or might not help, and went to bed, a loser again.

My ankle was hurting quite a bit, and it took a while to get to sleep.

But that said, the day was very engaging, and fun at times. It wasn't without it's high points. It was so different from what I've been up to at home, and as a vacation day, it did its job.

Maybe this last session is a turning point. We'll see!