Saturday, May 2, 2009 – Day Nine of Eleven

[This is part nine of an eleven part trip report.  If you want to start at the beginning, go here.]

This morning the Race For the Cure is going on outside on Fremont Street.   This depresses me to no end.  Having a mother die of Cancer will do that to you.

I’m awake at Fitzgeralds at 8:00 and out at 9:00.  Fremont Street is such a mess of people right now.

I play a little bit in Fitzgeralds.  Lose $10 on nickel Double Double Bonus video poker and turn $10 into $15 on a penny 25-hand video poker machine by hitting threes with a kicker.

I walked over to the El Cortez, a big mistake on my part since I eventually plan to go to the Strip.  I should have just went straight there as Las Vegas Boulevard is now closed because of the race.  Not to mention that there are a bazillion people over here.

Anyway.

I lose $10 on Invaders From the Planet Moolah and stop for breakfast at Cafe Cortez.

I am down a lot at this point in my trip, which means my note taking gets way more detailed.

I play nickel Double Double Bonus video poker and end my session up $25.

As I’m sitting there playing, a woman nearby is playing Lobstermania, which was my mother’s favorite game.  Between this and the Race For the Cure going on outside, I just want to go back to bed.

But I don’t.

I walk over to the Golden Gate and again I try to hit the progressive on  a Vibrant 7’s slot and instead I just lose $20.  Same on a Diamond Spinner slot machine.

I walk over to the shared bus stop for the Deuce and 108, knowing I can take either one.  Of course they are both pulling away before I can get across the street.

Deuce comes again; I take this to the Sahara.  I play Lobstermania when I enter and lose $5.  I walk past a machine called “Voyages of Sinbad” and I note there are five credits in the machine – FIVE PENNIES!  And I play it because I take it to mean good luck and oh hey NO it’s not and I lose my $5.

I stop at the player’s club booth to get my daily free pull that the Sahara offers to anyone with a slot card.  I win $5 free play and I am told I also have $15 cash so I grab that too.

I want to play either Invaders From the Planet Moolah or nickel Double Double Bonus video poker, but they are all filled. I lose the free play in a triple line nickel video poker game and get the hell out of there.

I take off down the strip on foot; it’s faster than the Deuce.  No joke.

Fontainebleau:

I stop at Slots a Fun to get my free Diet Pepsi, courtesy of the Las Vegas Advisor coupon book.  It’s the little things in life that I enjoy most.

From there, I walk past all the waste of space that used to be the Stardust and the Frontier.

From there to Encore.  Both theirs and Wynn’s marquee signs are honoring Danny Gans, who was found dead yesterday.  His theater was located inside Encore.

I play in Encore for my first time.  I lost.  I walk over to Wynn and I find a game called Maggie and the Martians and on my first spin I get a $28.70 line pay.

This justifies me giving the machine another $5 but it gets me nothing.

Encore:

Palazzo construction:

 I walk over to Treasure Island and stop for some pictures.

Into Treasure Island to play some Slingo.  Someone is on my preferred machine.  When I sat down, she had over $200.  I watched her get up past $400 and mostly held strong at around $350.  She got bonuses nonstop.  I had the machine next to her and lost $15.

I take the tram to Mirage and lose $5 in Invaders From the Planet Moolah, and then find Slingo.  My first $5 gets me $10; my second gets me $25.  I cash out planning to leave with my winnings but then I spot a Slingo machine I’ve never seen before as I’m on my way out so I lose my wins in there.

Over to the Barbary Coast (don’t make me).  I walk around a bit trying to find something to play.  I see a woman hit $156 on a Wizard of Oz machine; she is only playing one credit per line.  She is my inspiration.

I play Wizard of Oz Wicked Riches for the first time.  I get a bonus for $20, followed by a bonus for $9.40.  I turn my $5 into $30 and then lose ten bucks.  So I’m up a whopping $15.  Remember earlier in the trip when I was playing quarter Supertimes Pay?  I do.

Walked over to Ballys intending to eat at the Sidewalk Cafe, I have a $5 off coupon but it’s closed.  Eff you.

Over to Paris – Le Cafe.  I’ve actually never eaten here before.  I have about $15 left in reward credits and oh hey – a burger will bring me down to zero!  I’m in!

I had to wait foreverrrrrrrrr to be served.  Then once I was, the waiter vanished and I didn’t see him again until about 15 minutes after I was done eating.  I had finished my soda long before that wanted another one very badly.   I had basically just walked from the Sahara to Paris in 90+ degree weather, I was thirsty.

I got tired of waiting and gave myself a refill from the Diet Pepsi in my backpack.  I had an “outside” table facing the gift shop.  I knew I was going to have to stop in that gift shop and spend $3 to replace my Diet Pepsi and I took this into consideration when I left my tip.

Leaving Paris, I congratulated myself on using all my reward credits (now I’m home and I see I have 20, where did those come from?) and now I don’t have to visit a Harrahs property ever again.  Not that I HAD to before, but ya know.

Over to Planet Hollywood where I want to use the Las Vegas Advisor $25 free play coupon.

I leave here up $40.  It’s 9:00 and I need to be at Fitzgerald’s at 10:00 for theirSaturday night drawing.

I head over to the Golden Gate and lose $20 but I make enough to get a scratch card, which gets me $5 free play.

I put that in an Outback Jack slot (why) and lose it.

Over to Fitzgeralds I go….

I have about five minutes to kill so I put a $10 in a Happy Days slot.  It looks like I’m going to lose and then I get back up to my $10.  It’s time for the drawing so I cash out since Fitzgeralds only allows you like 30 seconds to claim your prize.  But this stupid game has that thing where you can’t cash out if you have time left on the meter counting down your eligibility for the Mystery Spin bonus.  As I’m waiting to cash out, the bonus kicks in.  No.  Noooooooooo.  I have to GOOOOOOOO.

I finish in time and I don’t win the drawing.

I walk back to the Golden Gate.  Lose $30 on that stupid Diamonds machine.  But it gets me another scratch card, which gets me $10 free play. I’m doing great at these scratch cards. Why oh WHY couldn’t they have them when I first got here?

I walk back to Fitzgeralds and decide to claim my free steak that I won a few days ago by getting a four of a kind on their promotional video poker games.  It was okay, it was free.  When I’m leaving, my server gives me a coupon for 20% off at Don B’s Steakhouse.  But even with that, it seems useless for me being that you have to spend $50 in order to get the 20% off.  If I want to spend $40 on a meal…wait…let’s stop that right there.  I don’t want to spend $40 on a meal ever.

It’s now 11:20 and I am completely exhausted.

I put my last allotted $30 into an Eye of the Ancients slot machine and lose it.  Time for bed.  Oh but wait, not until I go degenerate again.  I blew $45 walking back to my room.  Sigh.

In bed at 1:00 am.

Want to read more?  You can find the next chapters here: nine, ten and eleven!