Day 528

June 14, 2019

I was out of the room around 6 AM and headed downstairs.  I took a shot at another crown game with the crown and a teddy right on the edge.  Once again, the feature wouldn’t trigger and I was down almost $40 when I caught a bonus on the regular game that came with 45 spins.  When it was over I had won $60 (the base game was 45-cents, so that was pretty damn good).  Being now up, I gave up and cashed out and headed to the Zeus game, now my favorite.  I play this until I catch a feature of a bonus.  It wasn’t long until I caught a feature and having added the extra power ups, I caught four of them during the round and cashed out up $30.  So far so good for the day.  

It was back to the bank of 8/5s.  The VP gods weren’t so good to me this session.  Of the five machines with the 8/5 BP, I tried every one hoping for some good luck but it just never came as quads and full houses refused to appear.  I gave up after two hundred disappeared.  I met Terry and Louise at the D Grill upstairs and used the remaining food vouchers and some of my point comps to pay for breakfast. 

Terry and Louise had to still pack up and check out, so they headed back to the Golden Gate and I made one more shot at the 8/5 progressives (I don’t know how many points I put on but I’m sure I’m close of over 200—not sure if I hurt my “daily average” but not sure they even use that here).  On the third hand, I hit a gut shot straight flush.  This was an okay session and end up cashing a $50 profit. 

I picked them up at the Golden Gate and we made a stop at the Henderson Costco for gas before heading off to Laughlin at 11 AM.  The temperature fluctuated between 88 and 100 throughout the drive and we arrived just after noon.  Once again, Terry checked in at the VIP area and was able to get me checked in there as well.  Our rooms are on 17^th floor, mine the first from the elevators with a nice river view.  Whereas his was comped, I’m paying $39+ for the two nights.  I could have had free rooms at the Edgewater or Colorado Belle, but am happy to pay the extra for the far better room. 

It didn’t take long to unpack and all three of us were at the only three triple play machines facing the river (home of my two royals last trip).  We sat there for the next two and a half hours forging away at these fuckers.  They can be such a roller coaster.  Terry decided to keep track of all of our quads.  He and Louise both were dealt a quads—not me.  After we had called it quits here are my quads: 6s. 10s, 8s, 5s, As, 8s, 8s, 6s, 4s, 5s, 5s.  I also was dealt full houses twice and straights twice.  One would think with ALL those quads (included the Aces) I’d have a great result—nope—I ended the session down $100.  Terry broke even and Louise was down $40.  Consider all the play, the results were okay with all of us.  Let’s face it, you catch a Royal and walk away a winner or you don’t.  Terry was on the only one dealt four to it, but no good. 

Though it sucks to catch that many quads and still lose, I am not deterred.  I so prefer playing triple play—it’s simply more exciting as we all know, single line can get right down too mechanical and boring.  Of course, having my $3,000 cushion from the last trip certainly changes my outlook.  We’re going back after it tomorrow. 

We had dinner at Peking Palace (I think that’s the name) and Terry and I walked down to the Belle to play some poker.  We both got into a game right away.  There were three regular game tables and later three tournament tables going.  After the fifth hand of sitting down, Terry had mixed Aces cracked for $50 and on the VERY NEXT HAND he had red Aces cracked!  Now that’s one way to start a poker session with a $150 win.  I, on the other hand, did not win my first hand for almost two hours—honestly, not one hand.  I was in for $140 and told Terry that when I felted, I’d was going to call it quits. 

I went all in twice and won them both and after five hours of play (after 9 PM and I was falling asleep), I had clawed back and end up cashing in $63 for a $77 loss—damn damn good considering.  Here is the news with the new slot club (the same club TRUE used at Aquarius and all the PT pubs).  The conversion is complete at Edgewater and the Belle.  How they could do it so fast compared to others is a mystery.  So, now the old cards are no more and you use your TRUE card.  There is good news here for poker players. 

Before you play each day, you slide your card and spin a wheel for a multiplier.  They higher your card rank, the higher the multipliers.  I had 2X or 3X possibilities, Terry had 3X and 4X.  Of course, I got the 2X and Terry the 3X.  Poker players are given 300 points ($1 in comps) per hour but the multiplier counts!  So, Terry got $3 per hour and I got $2 per hour.  There was one guy at our table getting $4 per hour.  That’s pretty damn good.  The comps did transfer and with my Aquarius play, as of last night I have over $100 in comps. 

Slots are $1 = 1 point.  VP $2 = 1 point; full pay $8 = 1 point.  The machines facing the river are still $2 = 1 point.  Also on a side note:  So many people complained when the club changed over that they returned the two free buffets per day for Terry’s card level…so complaining does help.

The day was full of ups and downs and I am now down $100 for the trip (perfectly fine with me).