My Chance to Win Big it said

I called Jimmy Poon. "Jimmy Poon, this is not fixed! Your AS engine is not working - maybe you should try ChatGPT instead..."

Then I heard sniffling.

Day 4 - Tuesday Aug 25, 2026

"Jimmy... are you crying?"

"No..." said Jimmy Poon. He was.

"I'll fix it right away."

I softened my tone after emitting a little elfin laugh just like Jimmy Poon's.

"Jimmy, there's no crying in blogging or computer science. Or gambling. Or baseball. At least, that's what you told me. Get busy, get this fixed, and it'll all be good. Thanks, pal."

Who would have that that AI would lead to tears? Jimmy said he'd fix it right away and he did. The new artwork arrived straight away.

I slept in again, and got busy with my room camping coffee and punishment pre-breakfast, and blogged yesterday's incredible fucking disaster.

But I was cheered. It was a new day, and I was primed and ready to take on a brand new incredible fucking disaster.

Just as I finished writing, Bobby and Mrs. G texted to say they were at the Market Street downstairs. I joined them and we had breakfast together.

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

We all had things to pursue - moving day for me - so we finished up and said our goodbyes. It was really wonderful to spend time with my good friends. Definitely worth the effort to time my visit to line up.

I packed up all my stuff and that left me a little less than an hour to have a last gasp at gambling at the Cal. The machines I wanted to play were occupied, so I started by cashing in $25 worth of points and playing it on Deuces.

That went nowhere, so I put a hundred in and scored a wild royal after a bit. And I did hit two natural quads, both Jacks, just to insult me. 20 credits each.

Head hung low, I rode the escalator of shame up to the Mezzanine, crossed the bridge of shame to Main Street, and did the walk of shame to the cage, where I tapped out my credit limit by taking another small marker.

I played $100 in the Loose Doose and got another wild royal for my efforts. But it all went away chasing those ducks.

Little did I know at the time that this would be the best hand I'd see all day. Kinda gave away the plot there, didn't I.

It was noon and time to get out. I emailed my host and asked him to take a look at my room charges and headed on out to the Club Fortune Casino, to take advantage of their 'first $100 in losses back' promotion.

I took the photo above on my way out, having lost $100, and then having lost the $100 that they gave me back. Bonus Deluxe, and then Keno.

Lunch? Yes please! I'd had a hankering for Asian food for some time and found myself (after purposefully driving there) at the Kung Fu restaurant on Spring Mountain, a place I've been to a time or twice.

They still have an amazing lunch special. For $10.75 you get soup, choice of main dish, a chicken wing, and a spring roll. Steamed or fried rice as well.

The Chicken Panang seemed like a good bet and it was. Everything was excellent. The wing was fresh and hot, as was the spring roll. And the panang was so good, I practically wanted to lick the last of the sauce out of the dish.

The same guy who sport-humped a million dollars found some decorum at this juncture and I restrained myself.

It was so good and so reasonable, don't be surprised if I end up there again tomorrow for lunch.

My fortunate cookie said "Don't miss out on your chance to win big!". In retrospect, the lucky Keno numbers were right there.

It wasn't check-in time at Encore yet so I jumped back on I-15 and headed to South Point.

I tried to repeat my recent success at the Loose Doose in a previous trip, but it wasn't happening. Saw lots of hands with three deuces, but never four.

This hand is kind of interesting - hit it on the re-deal.

Other video poker sucked too. I did have a tiny success screwing around on White Orchid - my degenerate go-to vintage video slots. I won $30.

My room at Encore was ready (they said), so I grabbed some drinkin' stuff and some snacks from the gift shop at South Point, and headed north, stopping at Smith's for punishment dinner.

The express check-in thingy seemed to work, and I hauled all my crap up to the room.

In lieu of exciting tales of gambling, here's a photodump of my king Encore suite.

The intensity of the last four days had worn me down a bit and I had a couple of cocktails and just chilled in the quiet comfort of my room.

My punishment supper was pretty good. The hoagie was stuffed with meat, a good deal at $5.99. And the dill potato salad was excellent.

That's the one problem with Enwynn - when it comes to the restaurants, you pay through the nose. And I don't think cashiers like that very much.

I missed out on getting the free tickets for Awakenings and they are dark the next two nights, so I guess that's that.

Down in the casino, I ordered a mojito and went at it. My $100 Free Play went pretty well on Keno - I harvested almost all of it. But again, no 5 out of 5 hit was coming and I was down $100 cash. I should have taken the cookie's advice.

The next bit turned me. I got completely pissed off at quarter Double Super Times Pay. Triple Play Bonus Poker. Hand after hand of disappointment. Multipliers that paid nothing. Flushes not made. On and on, and I went on tilt, dumping quite a few hundies at it, stupidly believing that a quad had to be just around the corner.

And then it was over, and I hadn't have a proper quad all day long. Or a hit on Keno for that matter.

My lighter mood approach to this trip finally gave way to anger and frustration. I was pissed. This was not what I wanted, not what I was so looking forward to.

To try to drain some of the anger away, I took off on a fast walk, over to Wynn, all the way around it, and back to Encore, and then my room.

At least the bed is comfortable.

Let's turn this ship around tomorrow.

Cause I'm in trouble deep.