Vegas TR 6/13-6/15 (MikeW)

Hi all,

I'm starting up a thread for my upcoming trip. I arrive in LV early Monday. Each morning, I'll post pics and the day's report.

Me and 36 other lucky souls will be HQ'd at The D. We'll do a lot of downtown and strip play, but also plan to hit Santa Fe Station. Should be a blast. I'll keep ya posted!

Thanks for all the exciting posts recently from Cosmo_Slot_Vice_President, Evoni, Irish Dave, and VegasChic. Those posts helped me get ready for the trip. Appreciate it!

--mike

 

Wanted to hit a locals, plus big slot floor. Big crew...tell me about it. I did the booking.

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Yep, bit of a pain. But once everyone gets there, THEY are in charge of their own happiness. So feeling pretty good now.

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Decent rates for the D, somewhere around 65 a night once you add resort and tax.


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Monday was a long day with a lot of exploration but not much slot play to crow about.

I was up at 4am to make a 630am flight from Austin to Las Vegas. We have 37 people on this trip. The 1st half were on the morning flight. The 2nd half came in the afternoon. To my surprise, no one missed the AM flight (but boy, did they look tired).

Got to our hotel by 730AM PST. We're staying at the D on Fremont street. The casino floor is great for its size, and I like the VP and the bars. Great staff. It's a fun place to hang out. For the price, it's been a good stay so far. My only complaint is the expected Fremont Street Experience noise when trying to sleep. Thankfully, the overbearing A/C unit helped muffle the racket. I'm still internally debating the savings vs. comfort of staying on the strip versus here.

My plan for the day was to hit a bunch of the downtown spots that I've missed on previous trips: Downtown Grand, California and Main Street Station.

I started the day at Downtown Grand. Small floor, but nice open layout. Played Buffalo Gold, Sun & Moon, Game of Thrones, that huge 5L Big Bang Theory and Bally's Action Bank. Small wins on each. Nothing big. Left ahead. I'll have to go back in the evening sometime to see if the vibe is more upbeat at DG. Don't think most folks were up and playing that early--kinda dead.

I moved on to California. They had a good mix of games. I saw many new titles, including our Jackpot Inferno games--incidentally, that was my biggest win on the floor ~$120 on a 50c bet. I tried out the new Austin Powers, Sky Rider 2, and Chili Chili Fire. I bet I'll play CCF again and again. The faded reels feature was nice. I only wish that cabinet had a flatter and more open arm rest. There was no place to put my phone or drink. Kinda odd. Still, really liked that game. I'm sure that one will stay around. Sky Rider 2 was also fun and beautiful, but I think I lean to a more gambler style paytable. I couldn't believe I won a pay of .01c on that game.





I have nothing to say about Main Street. Ok, one thing, it's probably good for VP. I think I aged 10 years just walking into there.

From there, it was a sunny walk to the Plaza. I checked out Buffalo Grand. Put a hundy in and lost it quick. I like the other versions of Buffalo better and will stick to those.

In the afternoon, I traveled to the Caesar's Palace. I had heard about Wild Sapphires, an older IGT 3 reel mech that is an IRS beater. Decided to check it out. They have one in their HL room. It's $25 a pull, which is a complete rush--not usually my thing. I put in $500 and gave it a try. Half way through the BR, I hit a 7s pay that triggered the bonus spins. Each spin is credited separately so I netted $1250 over 4 bonus spins without getting a form. Pretty awesome. Since no individual win looks big, I didn't take any pics. I have this paytable shot though that explains the feature. Epic game.



And...that's when I shoulda stopped for the day. Instead, I went to Bellagio. I played 10 cent 100 bet Cleo II. Worked out ok for a while, floated and then dropped like a brick. I kept feeding it but no luck. I videoed the one bonus I got into--10 free spins. Total bust, so not posting. Then, I took a couple shots at $5 3 coin Top Dollar. No luck there either. Got some drinks to feel better and spent an hour at Ultimate X VP. That was more fun, but still nothing to take home.

The rest of the night was a blur, casino hopping but stretching the day's BR.

Today is a new day. Heading to Santa Fe Station. Hoping my luck will change. It's been a while since I've done a TR. I'll be sure to get more photos today.

Thanks for reading!
--Mike

 

On Tuesday, our group went to Santa Fe Station to play. We got in at 10AM and the place was deserted. It felt like walking into a library and not a casino--a very odd feeling. I liked the floor. It had a good mix of new stuff but was largely a VP room. I played various slots for an hour. Then, I wandered into the HL room. Tried $100 on 2c $5 Double Diamond Deluxe. Never had the symbols nudge right. Played another $100 on a 3x4x5x game to lose out again. They only had three video titles in the HL area: Sun & Moon, Buffalo and Cats. Buffalo and Cats were fun. I liked Cats the best and had a couple good spins. My base game spins netted more than the two free spin bonuses I won.





I tried Bonus Spin Poker for the first time. It took me a while to grok it. Playing spin poker was a nice change up from Ultimate X and Game King poker. While I never got ahead at SFS (I blame an awful run at House of Cards), I had a good time. I definitely prefer Red Rock over SFS. So I doubt I'll be back at SFS for quite a while.

After lunch, the group returned back to the D. We milled about, watching Euro Cup at the Longbar and playing Sigma Derby for laughs. A couple of us went dinner at Andrea's in the Encore. It was an excellent meal. Someone ordered the ridiculous volcano dessert--it could have fed 20 people. Needless to say, I left stuffed. We walked off the food, making pit stops to play at Wynn, Palazzo and Venetian. I was bummed that they had removed Sic Bo tables from Palazzo and Venetian. I enjoy killing time at Sic Bo and wanted to show others how to play. I swear, Sic Bo comes and goes from the strip. I had thought with the focus on Asian games of late that it'd still be around. Oh well.

I peeled off from the group at Venetian to meet up with a friend I hadn't seen in over 20 years. Time flew and bourbon did it's work as we chatted for hours. I knew it was time to leave when the working girls started to pop out of the woodwork. "Oh crap, it must be late!" We parted ways after that and I had a quick cab ride back to the D. It was a nice end to the day and my trip.

 

Only at SFS, usually folks are breaking out into groups of 4-6

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