Mirage, March 10 - 12, 2017

Mirage, March 10 - 12, 2017

This was an added trip to go hang out with a friend from another state who I might not see for a while. She was staying at Harrah's, so I booked at Mirage to make it easy.

Offer: $125k slot tournament. Guaranteed to pay $125. When I called to book, VIP put me through to a host who put me in a Tower Deluxe room on the 24th floor with a view of the volcano, VIP check in, and gave me $200 food & beverage credit.

Friday, March 10
I washed my hair the night before, got up at 3am and was out of the house by 4am. No traffic issues at all, so I made it to Mirage at 7:30am. Since I haven't been playing in the MGM system for a couple of years I was only Pearl, so I parked in self parking to avoid the $18 per day Valet charge. (Thanks to everyone for their instructions. It was super simple.) I actually forgot and went to the front desk, but the guy walked me into VIP and had me check in there. The host had also put me in for last night, so the room was ready for me this early in the morning. I got my keys, grabbed a coke from the fridge, and then got settled in the room. The room is nothing special, but it's nice to have the bigger bathroom than in the regular rooms here.

I went to the players club and got cards and then started playing.

Kitty Glitter $1 - $9 a spin won $75.00
Cleopatra II .05 - $3 a spin lost $288.90
Video Poker $1 single line lost $800.00
Buffalo Gold .01 $3 a spin won $3.25
Lock It Link Diamonds .01 $2.50 a spin won $201.40
Lock It Link Night Life .01 $2.50 a spin won $71.00

BUFFALO GOLD


My friend, D, came over from Harrah's and we went to Cravings for breakfast. I used the Las Vegas Advisor 2 for 1 coupon and charged the balance to the room ($20.54). We had pretty standard breakfast foods -- the omelets were cooked perfectly, though.

We went to the tournament area and got my machine numbers and then did my first session. I had an absolutely terrible first session score of 6046. They had the tournament area set up nicely with a bar and breakfast snacks out, but we had just eaten, so we didn't have anything.
We went and checked out the high limit area and I put $200 in Jade Monkey and played $9 a spin and lost $195 very quickly. After checking out the room, D went out to the pool and I went back to playing until it was time for my next slot tourney session at 12:30pm.

Wonder 4 Jackpots .01 $4 a spin lost $196.40
Buffalo Grand .01 $3 a spin won $61.48
Golden Egypt .01 $2.25 a spin won $80.10
Ruby Slippers .01 $4.80 a spin lost $198.35
Flintstones .01 $3 a spin lost $198.02
Bier Haus 200 .01 $2.40 a spin lost $98.44
Buffalo .01 $2 a spin lost $199.45
All That Glitters .05 $3 a spin won $51.75
$1 single line VP lost $300.00

We met up and went to my second slot session and I got an even worse score -- 5298 points! I did, however, win 50,000 Holiday Gift Shoppe points during this session. My friend went back to Harrah's to get cleaned up after the pool and get a little play in over there and I went back to the machines at Mirage.

Lock It Link Diamonds .01 $2.50/spin lost $397.80
Buffalo Gold .01 $3 a spin lost $298.40
Lock It Link Diamonds .01 $2.50/spin won $100.20
Lock It Link Night Life .01 $2.50/spin won $150.75
Buffalo Gold .01 $3 a spin lost $299.05

I went to my last slot session at 2pm and got 9219 points. I knew I was in the bottom rung and would end up with the $125 free play.

I went back to playing again before dinner.
.
25 triple/five play video poker lost $620.00
$1 single line video poker lost $460.00
$1 single line video poker lost $400.00
Buffalo Grand .01 $3 a spin lost $139.05

D came over and we went to Carnegie Deli for dinner. I redeemed both the 2 for 1 and the free cheesecake MyVegas rewards. She got the corned beef sandwich and I got the pastrami. We got an order of french fries to share and a couple sodas. We also got the free cheesecake. They took $17.99 off of the bill for the free sandwich and $12 for the free cheesecake, the remaining $34.03 was charged to the room to use up more of the $200 dining credit. The sandwiches sure looked impressive when they brought them out, but I thought the pastrami was pretty bad. It tasted nothing like pastrami I used to eat. The fries were good and the cheesecake was good, but we left a ton of food behind (including most of the cheesecake!). I doubt I would go back to Carnegie. We talked for quite a while and then D went back to Harrah's to continue her play and I went back to playing at Mirage.

DaVinci Diamonds .05 $3 a spin won $60.00
Buffalo Gold .01 $3 a spin lost $49.90
Wonder 4 Jackpots .01 $4 a spin won $1.70
$1 single line video poker won $3,300
Lightning Link Magic Pearl .01 $2.50 won $13.05
Lightning Link Sahara Gold .01 $2.50 won $115.35
Lightning Link Happy Lantern same lost $99.10
Lightning Link Magic Pearl .01 $2.50 lost $100.00
Lock It Link Diamonds .01 $2.50/spin won $1.50
Buffalo Gold .01 $1.80 a spin lost $224.49

KICKER ACES


I was down over $4k when I hit the kicker Aces, so I was never a winner, but I was very thankful for that jackpot!

I didn't keep track of coin in as I was playing, but I ended the days play with 84,272 tier credits. (Won't have to worry about paying Valet fees now if I decide to go back to any MGM property.)

I made it back to the room at almost 5am.

Saturday, March 11
I got up about 8:15am and got ready for the day and then went out to the casino to play. My plan was to keep it very low today.

Quick Hit Platinum .01 $1.50 a spin lost $99.22
Jade Monkey .01 $2 a spin lost $128.10

D found me at Jade Monkey and then we went to Cravings for breakfast again. Weekend brunch prices were $28.99 per person, so I charged the $62.71 to the room to use up more of the $200 credit. The omelet wasn't as good today, but we enjoyed our food and conversation and talked for quite a while. D went to the pool for a little bit and I went back to the machines.

Dragon's Law .01 $2.25 a spin won $51.30
China Shores .01 $1.50 a spin lost $90.15
Ocean Pearl .01 $4 a spin won $535.60

OCEAN PEARL


Buffalo Gold Class .01 $2.20 a spin lost $98.11
Dragon's Law .01 $2.25 a spin lost $74.35

D came back from the pool and then went back to Harrah's to get cleaned up and get some play in and I went to the awards presentation being held at Portofino. They had an open bar, but no snacks. I waited for them to call the winners and tell us when our free play would be on the cards and then went back to the casino.

Kitty Glitter .01 $2.10 a spin lost $174.85
Lock It Link Diamonds .01 $2.50/spin lost $162.63
Buffalo Gold .01 $1.80 a spin lost $122.40
Titanic .01 $2.50 a spin lost $398.56
Ultimate X Bonus Streak .25 3/play lost $93.75
Wheel Poker Deluxe .25 3/play lost $87.50
Walking Dead .01 $3 a spin lost $37.26
$1 single line video poker lost $600.00 (and my $125 free play)

I only earned 24,147 tier credits today. It was a brutal day and I was just done with the losing and it was only 5pm. I went up to the room for a while and relaxed and then D came over and we went to dinner at Cravings. Weekend dinner prices are $32.99 per person, so we charged the $71.36 to the room, putting me at $188.64 in charges (I had a coke in the room from the mini bar that added another $5 or $6 to it). I almost used all of the credit. We talked until after 8pm and then D went back to finish her play and I went to the room to relax and get to bed so I could make the drive home early the next day. I went to bed at 10pm, which was really 11pm since the clocks would change at 2am for Daylight Savings Time.

Sunday, March 12
My iPhone alarm woke me up at 6:30am. I took a quick shower, packed up, ate the cookie I snagged at the buffet last night for breakfast, checked out on the TV, and dragged my luggage through the casino to self parking. I stopped for gas and was on the freeway at 7:30am and in my driveway at 11am.

Trip totals:
Coin in: $57,030.65
Loss: $2,855.70
Theo: $3,485
Tier credits earned: 108,419
Point Play earned: 116.96 (didn't use)
Express Comps earned: $113.75
Free play earned in slot tourney: $125 (used)
Holiday Gift Shoppe points earned: $11,375 + 50,000 in slot tourney

I came home and had to catch up with work -- processed all of the paperwork from the jobs done on Friday and Saturday, did new work orders, did payroll for the guys and then was the victim of a telephone scam!
I got a call on my cell phone that said NO CALLER ID and picked it up. It was a Mexican gang sounding guy claiming that my brother had gotten into a car accident with his brother and wrecked his brothers brand new BMW. The guy said that his brother is wanted for murder and told my brother not to get the police involved, but that my brother started to call 911 on his cell, so they took the phone away from him and broke his head open with a gun. He said my brother was hurt really bad and his brother brought him to their house and was going to kill him, but his nephew is in the house so he stopped his brother.

He said my brother gave him my number for help. He wanted me to pay to fix the BMW or they were going to kill my brother. He told me not to call anyone, don't get the police involved, and don't try to call my brothers cell phone -- if they see his phone ring they will shoot him in the head right now. I was trying to stall and find out more information asking questions and he was yelling at me that he already told me and then was saying this is my last chance and other shit. He was yelling this whole time. I can't possibly relay how terrifying this phone call was. If my brother wasn't an alcoholic with a volatile personality I wouldn't have bought into this at all, but since he is I couldn't just dismiss it.

Scott had just gone upstairs to take a nap, and I walked upstairs and had my cell on speaker so Scott could hear what was going on. He thought it was total bullshit and said "Fuck You" out loud and then the guy started yelling at me about me talking to someone, etc... Scott took the phone from me and was yelling back and forth with the guy who eventually hung up on him.

During that time I had come downstairs and gotten the number for the police department in the town my brother lives in and told them what was going on. They said they would do a welfare check on my brother and told me I needed to call 911 in my own town and report what happened. The 911 girl I spoke with asked if they asked me to wire the $2000 they were asking for, but I said it never got that far (Scott took the phone before he could tell me how to pay -- I hadn't agreed to pay at that point anyway -- I was still trying to get more info). She said she had never heard of a one like this with them threatening to kill a family member, but that there are a lot of scams on phone calls like this where they're saying a family member is really hurt or has gotten arrested and they need money to help the family member, etc...

The welfare check on my brother found him at home in his backyard totally fine, thank goodness, but this was a terrifying experience.

I still can't believe this happened. The guy never said MY name or my brothers name and never said where they were, so those things are what gave me the doubt I had, making me ask questions. It was possible, but not plausible, but I kept picturing my brother really hurt and begging for his life. I still can't get that stuff out of my head. This was terrifying!
I spoke with my sister and she said that her 84 year old client had something like this happen. Someone called claiming they were her grandson and he had gotten arrested. He put his lawyer on the phone and the lawyer said he needed $2000 to bail him out of jail and they wanted her to go to Walmart and buy $2000 in iTunes gift cards and they would call her back in an hour. I guess that's how these assholes get money, they just call back and get the people to read the codes for the cards to them. Really messed up. But this lady went to Walmart and a manager was came over to help her and she told the manager what happened. The manager told her it was a hoax and she knew it because other people had come in to buy the cards, too.
Crazy, huh?! I had never heard about these telephone scams. Ever. I've since spoken with several people with stories, so I guess I must have been living under a rock or something!

 

Thank goodness for those kicker Aces! It was brutal in the casino, but I still had fun!

Thanks! I think that phone call is going to stick with me for a long time. I don't think I've ever experienced anything that stressful before.

 

Thanks. I'm doing my best to shake it off.

Yes! I'm so happy those kicker aces showed up for me. It would have been awful had they not!

I don't have a set ANYTHING when it comes to slots yet. I'm so new at playing them that I'm winging it. I fed Ruby Slippers $500 trying to get the Ruby Slipper feature and never got it, so when I hit a bonus that gave me back some of my money I played just a little bit longer and then cashed out. Buffalo Gold is still hard for me not to feed. I really enjoyed the game, but lately it seems like it's harder than hell to bonus and when I do they're SO small! The only exception this trip was the one picture.

How do you decide when to cash out a game?

 

I think I'm just the opposite (at least right now). I feed too long trying to get a bonus and it's really hard to walk away without getting one. Of course, rarely does the bonus put me in the black!

It's easier for me to play something, get a bonus, and cash out and move on to something else (except when it comes to Buffalo Gold!).

 

Thanks for the comments and sympathy for that unbelievably scary phone call, everyone!

Work has gotten crazy around here today. Every time I come on to respond I get interrupted, so sorry for the short response.

 

I went in the next day to grab a water and coke. They needed to restock the sodas (only 3 cans left). They had beer, but I didn't pay attention to what kind. Sorry. I was told they also put out red and white wine -- I think around noon? Can't remember. The only alcohol I drank for the trip was about five gin & tonics with lemon -- one from the tournament area, one at Portofino when they were announcing the slot tourney winners, and 3 on the floor.

Yes! The trip would have been a major sucky one without those kicker Aces!

I totally agree. I lose faith in humans more and more every day.