Main Street Spinner Station

Day 6 - It's Saturday in Vegas and that means... nothing in particular. Every day on vacation here feels kind of the same, with two exceptions. It is busier on weekends, and on Sundays there is more noise from sports bettors.

Another pretty good night, but a little short. I woke up and very first thing muttered to myself out loud, "Gamble?..."

I did all my morning things and was excited to head down to the Market Street Cafe for breakfast, sitting at the counter.

I ordered my usual two over hard with sausage, hash browns, and wheat toast. 

I suppose I could even re-use the same photo of breakfast over and over each day, it's always the same order.

One thing I did notice while eating - they've gotten rid of the plastic (Melmac?) coffee cups and replaced them with shiny white porcelain ones.

So maybe I do need to update the photo.

I charged breakfast to my room - I am kind of wondering if my host will be able to pick up any food charges at the end of my stay. Obviously, it depends on how much play I do.

And time to play it was. The morning started well, and a few quads on Double Double Bonus came easily. That first session often sets the tone for the day.

I cashed out up a decent amount from my $20 buy-in.

For old time sake, I bought a couple of rolls of dollar tokens, $40 worth, and played the coin droppers 9/6 Jacks machines that have been moved from the lobby to the South West corner of the casino.

These machines play the way they did in the early 90s. Around the time of our first trip in 1995, the idea of a 'credit' button was just coming in. With that engaged, any wins would be stored in the machine as credits, from which you could play until they were gone or you cashed out.

This particular machine was set up so that each and every win pang pang panged into the coin bin.

In the last year, so many machines have disappeared from the casino floor at the Cal, and it saddens me. You almost don't notice some of the changes unless you go looking for a specific machine.

There are now no slant tops upstairs in the Mezzanine. There used to be a progressive up there.

And just it took me a while to notice that the old bank of 50 cent progressive uprights are gone. Mrs. Flusher hit a royal on one of those once.

The bank with Shockwave near the lobby is gone.

And I notice changes in paytables as well, which are more insidious. Machines that I was sure paid 838 for 5/5 in Keno now pay 804 or 810 - but I have to check this.

And I noticed that the 9/6 Jacks on Flashy is now downgraded. That is a nickel and diming move.

The years go by and the changes are relentless, making Vegas less attractive to me. It's no wonder the number of visitors is down this year. For now, I'm still hanging on.

I thought I'd wander over to Main Street Station and see what was going on there.

I played $20 in the dollar a throw Keno progressive machines. You need to hit 8 out of 8 to win the progressive, which was thousands and thousands of dollars.

I did not win it. In fact, I didn't bother sitting down to play.

But you have to take a shot sometimes, right?

The bank of machines with the Loose Doose on them are still there... but I could have sworn they'd been shifted in position to the left. And there were three machines in the bank - didn't there used to be four?

No ducks were in the pond, so I played something else - 50 cent Bonus.

Main Street Station is still pretty quiet. It has never recovered from the stupid changes they made around the pandemic.

I looked around and noticed there were a lot more slant top video poker games missing, replaced with 'kiosks' of money sucking video slots.

In a way, these machines represent the worst of mankind's voracious appetite for loud, obnoxious, but vapid and heartless things.

I must be old.

Things in the North East corner of the casino have changed also. Gone are the nice, quiet full pay machines, replace with - wait, what? Fifty cent full pay Bonus progressive machines?

I'm in!

I could hear a chorus of video poker angels singing as I played, tapping the buttons most reverently. Or maybe it was a sausage patty making its way through my pancreas.

Regardless, I met with some more success, and cashed out ahead.

The morning was really going well - I was winning at the majority of things I played and was already up around $200 on the day.

I cruised the floor, checking a bunch of machines for 838 Keno paytables, including some that I knew had had them last trip. Downgraded.

While poking around one of the newer console machines, I noticed Double Double Bonus Double Super Slutty Sleazy Spinner Times Pay - in dimes. So I gave it a flip.

I lost the first $20, which can happen extremely quickly at $2.10 a pull. So, I put in $100. Give myself a fighting chance, I thought.

And it went pretty well. I dropped way down, close to going out - and then I hit a few things.

DOUBLE SUPER SLUTTY SLEAZY SPINNER POINTIES!

Quite often, this game will turn on you, and you can easily burn through $100 in credits. And at one point, I was watching the meter, thinking of cashing out if I should get down to $100 worth.

The meter hit 1004 dimes. I paused. Thought about it. But it's so hard to just cash out, isn't it. It's definitely a weak spot in my game. Gamble? Don't gamble? Why did you come to Vegas, to not gamble?

I played on.

On one particular hand, I was dealt an Ace, and the next card was a spinner. As the machine did it's little animation to determine what the multiplier would be, I started to think about what the possibilities could be. Maybe I could get a pair of Aces and hope for a quad. Or maybe dealt Aces. Naw, unlikely.

Shocked, I was dealt a flush - which was also four to a royal flush.

Oh man. Man oh man...

I snapped a photo (duh, it's right there ^^^) and thought for a few seconds about the possibilities.

But I didn't wait for too very long. Hit the button and hoped for the best, really, expecting to be disappointed.

Instead I was shocked as the Jack of Hearts appeared in the first line, giving me a royal flush. The second royal flush of the trip, the second in less than 24 hours, the second wearing the same (now lucky) shirt, and my very first royal flush with a multiplier. And a hand pay to boot.

20,000 dimes. That's a shitload of dimes.

The machine played music, and a slot dude was there right away. My ITIN card was in my gambling wallet, safely stored back in Flusherville... but I'd thought about this possibility and I have a photo of it on my phone.

I showed him the photo, he recorded the number, and took my ID while I enjoyed the new happy video poker orgasm music. The attendant at first wasn't very interested in including my ITIN on the paperwork, but I insisted, pointing out that I would need it to get the tax back.

Tax? Yup, as a Canuck, 30% tax is withheld on jackpots over $1200. I hear this amount is going to change in 2026 to $2000. But that wouldn't have made any difference - you have to be at least a penny under the threshold to avoid the tax man.

After about 10 minutes, Mr. Slot Attendant Dude counted out $1,400 in hundred dollar bills into my greasy paw. I tipped him $20, played a few more hands and cashed out when I got to just above $100 in the machine.

Holy Shit! What a trip this has been so far!!! Two royals including a multiplier royal, and a 6/6 in Keno. And a hand pay. And I was up on the trip, significantly.

I went back to the room to just chill out a bit and enjoy the moment - and to fill the safe with cash, of course.

A long time read of the blog and ardent supporter was in town and wanted a business card, so I went over to the Four Queens to meet him. I misunderestimated how cold it was out - nasty, and windy. A lot of the stale smoke was blown out of my (now lucky) shirt.

At first I sat at my throne seat with Richard to my right, but it was just too cold, so we moved to the Mike's bar, where Mike was in attendance.

We played video poker, had a few drinks, and talked about all kinds of things.

It was enjoyable, made even more so by virtue of the fact that I took the Four Queens for $200 - punishment for the fact that the card reader on my machine didn't work.

I wandered over to the Plaza, thinking I might play some Boner Deluxe, but in the end just got new player's cards and bought a burrito the size of my head at the Mexican place there.

This photo really doesn't do it justice. The thing was about 3 1/2" in diameter. It self destructs as soon as you take a single bite. About $11 and worth it, really delicious. I wouldn't hesitate to have another.

I regrouped a bit, grabbed a long hot shower and a shave and got ready to do battle again.

In the Cal casino, things started out all right... but after this I went on some kind of stupid tilt.

I hit a couple of quads but missed taking a photo of one of them - it was Jacks if you are interested. And who wouldn't be!

I went from machine to machine, losing, and swinging for the fences, increasing the denomination until I was playing dollars - and still losing.

Phooey

I should have just quit and gone to bed, but you know. At one point, I was losing at dollars, and reached for my phone - and it was gone. SHIT! I panicked, cashing out immediately and thinking, where had I been, where had I laid it down? I walked around, checking some of the machines I'd played. I didn't remember laying it down anywhere, certainly not at an upright.

I thought maybe I could use my watch to beep my phone? Would I be able to hear it in the din? I thought I better go to lost and found and pray that someone had turned it in. I got a notification on my watch and thought, how did I get a text when my phone is probably far away, out of reach from my watch? Maybe someone had found it and was... 

It was in my (now lucky) shirt pocket. My phone was in my shirt pocket. Good God man, have you not had enough thrills today without generating some needless ones? 

It was rather unfortunate after having such a stellar day. My last gasp was to play dollar Boner Deluxe. All it would take was one quad $400 quad - any quad - to make it mostly all right. 

$100 is enough for 20 hands of dollar video poker. I played and played, going up, going down. Somehow, somehow, I kept hitting enough to just keep going. I lazarused at least 15 times. I'd play the last five credits, get three of a kind. Once I played the last 5 credits four times in a row, winning enough for one more hand each time. And then a dealt straight.

It was a battle, and very exciting. In the end, I played 350 hands, going by the players club meter. So many three of a kinds that I couldn't complete - and in the end it never happened.

Such is gambling.

Yeah I was frustrated to a degree, but really, I was still ecstatic at the day. What a fantastic day in Vegas!

I did an accounting and I am up $1,800 on the trip. And that's not including the $600 tax withheld. If I eventually am able to file and get that back, it's $2,400.

Tomorrow is another day, and maybe another breakfast just like today. Or maybe a buffet, I could use some salad. So many possibilities! What will happen?

Keep reading tomorrow and find out!