Turning Point - The Quad King

Day 6 Monday Sept 8, 2024

Being up $24 with a couple of days of casino money-stirring to go, I knew today would be important - probably the turning point for the trip. I needed to win, or if losing, shut it down if I were to keep my $600 budget.

There was one wild card though. I had received a donation to the blog with specific instructions to go on a mission. Huge props to the donor - thank you!!!

When you're charged with a mission, you have to carry it out.

One nice thing about the dungeon room in the Excalibur Correctional Institution - it was very quiet, and receiving almost no sunlight, stayed fairly cool. I didn't need to run the window-mounted wood chipper during the night, and still slept just fine.

I have been making sure to be in the room between 2:37 pm and 2:46 pm when the sun would fall just right between the 8 story brick walls outside my pen and shine onto a 2 foot patch of the greasy carpet. 

Anyway, after doing my morning work and having my in-room coffee, I decided I'd had enough and asked to see the Warden.

Around 8:00 am, I headed out and went to the boofay. It was time to see if the Front Desk Sheila had actually done the needful or not and put 2 of 'em on my room. The instructions were to charge to my room, so actually, I guess I wouldn't find out until later. Either the boofay would appear on my folio... or it wouldn't.

Breakfast was good! I kept it simple and you can never go wrong with a gigantic, freshly made omelette.

I kind of feel bad for the staff. Back in the day, they'd get your drink orders for you, top up your coffee, as well as keep the table clean, removing your used plates. This warranted a tip.

Now, it's set up so not only do you get your own food, you get your own drinks too. The staff's only job is to remove dirty plates.

The strategy is to be extra chatty, and make a big deal about bringing you extra napkins. They hide the condiments after each guest has left, forcing an extra step for them to retrieve them.

It must suck to rely on being obsequious to shill for those tips.

I fall for it every time.

At the front desk, I was instructed to see the Warden around noon, when possibly a better cell might be available. What on earth was I going to do until then?...

I decided to try some triple play nickel video poker. And I was glad that I did! The quads started to come on in!

As you can see, I even bumped up to dimes in time to hit Pointies!

I played for ages - a little over two hours - and cashed out up about $50. An excellent start to the day.

The next hour or so were spent changing rooms. I'm now up high, and have the airport view I enjoy. Watching the planes is cheaper than gambling.

It is sad to see the venerable old Tropicana stripped bare 'n naked. She was a lovely old girl and it's hard to believe that the lush pool area with all it's greenery is nothing but a patch of sand.

Particularly poignant is this area - you can see where the theater was. Now it looks like a recently unearthed ruin at Pompeii.

This was the home of the Folies Bergere, one of the first opportunities in North America for men to see boobs. The show ran for 49 years and it's long gone.

I don't know what men will do now.

Time to plan my next move. The Mission.

The mission was pretty simple. I was directed to play at the Mikes bar at the Four Queens and hit Aces Kicker.

Did I really want to go all the way back downtown on the bus, in the heat? Did I really want to leave my now beloved triple play nickel video poker and ride the Deuce and get accosted by ranting potential killer men?

No sir or madam, I did not.

So I took a Lyft downtown instead.

My food expense have been significantly lower than what I budgeted for, so I figured I could absorb the expense.

It was a swift, easy, beautiful ride, and the driver didn't talk to me. Oddly, though, he had a fairly large towel on his right knee, which he would occasionally hold up to his mouth.

Are strange occurrences automatically attracted to me? Maybe he'd had a tooth pulled or a drooling problem. I don't know.

Mike was in attendance at the bar, and set me up with an Ultra, and a very large Jameson Irish Whiskey for the Quad Queen, and we had a mini-wake, remembering the oh so many good times we'd had at that bar.

I settled in and played away, and it was a good thing I was well bankrolled for the session.

After half an hour, I said to Mike, "It looks like Karen isn't drinking her Jameson. Is it okay if I help her out?"

So, I knocked that back, and it was replenished, this time to the brim. Hoo boy, I could see double trouble coming.

It was really good to be back at the bar, and I was having a blast. Just around the corner from me, on a side of the bar that was empty, sat a really attractive young woman. She played there alone for maybe ten minutes when a middle aged cookie-cutter southern man sat right beside her and started chatting her up. He had the full get up, foot long beard, scrawny, sunglasses, and apparently, an incredible wit, because in no time he had her laughing her ass off.

I had reason to laugh too, because thing started hitting for me too.

Fours kicker for $210 and change!!! Hayll Yeah!

And it didn't stop there. I was dealt three Aces, thus:

I thought about keeping the four, but didn't. That would have been the right move on Triple Double Bonus, but not Double Double.

I hit Draw and nailed the fourth Ace!

Pointies!!! No kicker, though.

POINTIES!!! For $210!

Oh man, I was GOLDEN. It felt incredible. I cashed and stashed, and started again with one of the last twenties.

This one turned out to be lucky as well.

I did another cash 'n stash, and started again.

This one ran out, so I added another $20.

And the quads kept coming. At some point I did a third cash 'n stash, and added the final $20.

I would say that even though I didn't get Aces Kicker, it was Mission Accomplished. What a haul!

Without that kick in the pants, I never would have gone and played at the Mikes bar. I'm so lucky I did!!!

It had been a crazy couple of hours and I slid off the seat. The southern man was off in the Men's room and as I wobbled by the very attractive young woman I gave her a huge smile and slurred, "Have fun with ZZ Top."

She's easily amused, I could hear her laughing as I weaved away.

I played cashed in the tickets, and played $20 in a weird slot that my cousin Dr. Shiboubou recommended, and $20 on Keno at the Kings bar. Neither yielded any results.

I would have played at my throne seat, but some mook occupied it, and he wasn't even playing.

I walked through the Smug Nugget and hid a business card. On my way out, looking at the doors, for some reason I thought "Got Nuts?"

Somehow, I ended up at the Plaza and no, no way was I taking the People's Limo back to the strip. My three day pass had expired anyway.

I took another Lyft and was swyftly deposited back at Excalibum.

Back in the room, I put some of my dough in the safe, and chilled for a while, enjoying the feeling of being well up on the day, and the trip.

Hunger made itself known, and I did the 1000 steps to Hussong's Cantina. Dinner was good (a burrito bowl) but not great. I think it lacked appeal because it was barely warm.

I've been getting a good number of steps in here in Vegas. This was the count at noon.

For my last gambling of the day, I played the triple play again on dimes, and some on quarters. Of course, the quarters went terribly, and I dumped $110 or something before quitting.

The Pointies, when they arrived, of course were on dimes.

The thing is, you gotta understand, I have not even pictured all of the quads I got today.

The grand total is 24 four-of-a-kinds. Today I am... the Quad King.

Budget

Today was inexpensive on the food front, but expensive on gambling.

I had a really enjoyable day, notwithstanding losing $220, and almost getting attacked at a bus stop.

Actual Total Expenses so far are $499.

Gambling Day +$320
Gambling Trip +$343

At this point, it's up to me. Completing the Cheap Magnificent Bastard trip on budget is within reach with one full day to go!