My 2017 March Break Las Vegas Trip

This year’s March Break trip to Las Vegas was structured a little differently. Air Canada and Westjet were charging 50-100% more for the good flights out of Toronto so my wife and I flew out of Buffalo, NY on Southwest instead. Thanks to member speedycrap for that tip. However this meant flying out on Saturday instead of Sunday and getting a hotel room for Saturday night. Our usual trip is Sunday to Thursday.

It’s just over two hours to travel to Buffalo for us whereas we can get to Pearson in 50 minutes door-to-door on the Sunday morning of March break. The drive down to Buffalo was long but uneventful, and getting through US Customs was fairly quick where we crossed -- at the Queenston Lewiston Bridge -- into the US. Signs were up saying the Fort Erie crossing was delayed 30-60 minutes probably due to all those people driving down to Florida for March Break. Our wait was only about 20 minutes.

Getting through Buffalo airport was quick. We checked two bags – a large suitcase and my golf clubs – then breezed through security. The whole process took no more than 25 minutes. We’ve never flown Southwest so the cattle call for seats was a first for us. We had B48 & 49 for boarding so getting two seats together was doable. I think I much prefer the assigned seating method after going through the process though. The flight took just under 5 hours and my wife and I both felt that the pilot throttled down as we hit the 4 hour mark. Maybe there wasn’t a slot for us to land or they wanted to save some fuel, but we did hit our advertised landing time.

We took the shuttle over to the Rental Car Centre and headed straight out to the outside counter as member Coilman pointed me to the Dollar Express service. This time I’d booked a luxury car as the price difference between a luxury vs. a compact car was all of $40 for the week and I had to bring along my golf clubs. When we got to the display outside it had my name, but a ‘TBA’ beside the number where my car would be parked. One of the counter attendants quickly pointed us over to our car as it hadn’t been parked in the regular area. We ended up with a nice 2016 Volvo S80 T5, but it had a cream interior and looked a little worse for wear as the light colour didn’t stand up to people with jeans sliding in and out on the leather seats as well as the floor mats having a lot of dingy gray on them from people’s shoes. My wife did comment that the car felt very girly and she liked the lines and the interior, but we both agreed that the ride wasn’t as comfortable as our Lincoln MKZ. Still a nice car though.

Wynn’s offer didn’t extend to the Saturday stay so I booked Treasure Island for our Saturday night stay. We checked in at the hotel by 5:30PM and given our long car and plane ride my wife made me agree to stay within the confines of the hotel despite my request to venture over to Casino Royale for some cheap craps.

We grabbed dinner at Phil’s Italian Steakhouse in TI. I had the Butter lettuce salad to start and my wife chose the lettuce wedge. My wife got her salad with red wine vinaigrette dressing and it was fantastic except there was a lot of raw garlic in the dressing. As a couple, just one of you cannot eat garlic and expect the other to be OK with it – both of you must enter the garlic death pact. This forced me to help finish her salad. I ordered the Veal Oscar and my wife had the Steakhouse Experience for our main meal. Both dishes included some shell fish in a béarnaise sauce topping the beef. We both enjoyed our main course, but my wife’s nose and face became very itchy. She’s eaten shellfish before and never had a problem, but it worried the both of us enough that we went straight over to the CVS in the corner of TI for some Benadryl. It took an hour for the itchiness to go away and she’s going to get tested to be sure she hasn’t developed an allergy to shellfish.

After supper, we signed up for the TI player’s card and the promotion they had on was that various point levels would get you into a lottery draw for up to $10,000 in free slot play, as well as, spins for free slot play, or a free TI T-shirt, etc. They have a TV above the slot club advertising their current promotions and games and one of the advertisements was that all multi-deck blackjack games at TI pay 3:2. I mentioned to my wife that gambling in Las Vegas has really gone to hell in a hand basket when casinos can advertise something like that.

With our new player’s cards in hand, we headed over to the $0.50 9/6 Jacks or better machines and proceeded to get destroyed. I got one flush and a few three of a kinds, and lots of high pairs, but hardly any two of a kinds which I found very odd. My wife had slightly better luck than I, but only marginally so. I left her at the machines to get in some craps at the tables right beside where we were playing. It was a $10 minimum and the way I start out on craps is to check with the stickman on if their birthday is odd or even. If it’s odd I start on the don’t pass and if even I start on the pass line. The stickman’s birthday was even so I started on the pass line. Here my luck was also terrible. The first three shooters including me failed to make a point. I briefly switched to don’t pass and immediately a 4 was thrown and made within 5 rolls. It wasn’t going to be my night.

I went back to my wife who was still playing Jacks or better, but not having much luck either. Between our play together on video poker plus my losses at craps we were down $310 right off the hop. Thinking that a change of game might help we wandered over to the $10 blackjack tables just down the way. We sat down at a table with a nice fellow from Oklahoma who was waiting for his family to join him. I got no blackjacks, splits, and just one double opportunity and lost 2 hands for every hand I won. The rest of the fellow’s family showed up to play and I was down another $150 so we walked away. We had just landed and in the first evening I’m down $460.

Sunday morning I showered up and headed out at 6AM to get in some craps while my wife slept in. Just to satisfy my curiosity, I wandered over through Casino Royale, Harrah’s, The Cromwell, Caesar’s Palace, and the Mirage to check their craps offerings. Casino Royale still has their morning table game shutdown but the time’s been extended from 3AM until 11AM. Harrah’s was a $10 minimum on x3-4-5 odds. The Cromwell did have x100 odds, but their minimum was $15. Caesars and Mirage were a $10 minimum as well. This led me back to TI to play at their $10 table since I might as well let them track me.

The stickman’s birthday was odd this time and I resolved to stick it out on the don’t pass. I actually made points against myself on 5 and 9. Then I had a 7-out on an 8 to soothe my losses. The next shooter hit a point of 4 so I rolled out a don’t come and ended up on the 8 again. He made the 8 in a few rolls before a 7-out on the 4. The other fellow takes a break at this point and the dice passed back to me and I again made points of 9 and then a 6 before a 7-out on a 10. I walk away down another $120 after a tip to the dealers and $580 overall. I’m thinking my gambling activities could be cut very short this trip if my luck didn’t change.

My wife was not that hungry in the morning given the big supper the night before so we grabbed Starbucks drinks and baked goods for breakfast. Then we checked our player’s cards at the TI slot club and my wife won $30 in free play on a spin and I won $25. We used the free play against the Jacks or better machines and actually had some luck this time. I managed to hit a full house, and my wife hit 4 of a kind off of the free play. That put us up $100 for the session and down $480 overall and I was starting to feel a little better about our prospects gambling this trip.

This was our transition day from TI over to the Wynn so we were going to be without a room for a while. We packed up and moved the bags into the car and checked out of TI by 10AM.

We were going to head to the Fashion Show Mall, but it doesn’t open until 11AM on Sunday so we stopped off for a few more hands of blackjack. This time I played the double deck game for $10 at TI and managed to lose $170 over four shuffles worth of hands. Again I didn’t have any blackjacks, splits, or doubles during my play. I gave back everything we’d managed to recover through the free play and more as we were now down $650.

We then headed over to the Fashion Show Mall to get a little shopping done and wait for our room at the Wynn. I shopped for a belt as well as some shirts and shorts for summer to replace a bunch of my old items. We grabbed lunch at the Fashion Show Mall at a place called Indian Masala Cuisine. We’ve got a number of good Indian restaurants at home and for mall food their offering was pretty good. I had Chicken Tikka Masala and my wife had Chicken Korma. Be warned, the dishes come with both rice and naan bread, and we couldn’t finish everything. Their naan was prepared nicely despite them not having a wood tandoor that gives the bread that nice flavour.

By this time it was almost 2:30PM and I figured the Wynn would have a room ready for us so we popped back over to TI and moved the car over to the Wynn. They did have our room ready so we unpacked everything and got settled in. We then went on the hunt for show tickets for our chosen show – Donnie and Marie. The show is dark on Sunday and Monday so our first opportunity to see the show would be Tuesday. The Tickets4Tonite booth said their tickets are $79 each and they get their allotment the morning of a show so they couldn’t say whether they’d have tickets or not. We then headed to the Flamingo box office to see what they could do. We ended up ordering seats from the box office on the main floor at one of the tables for $135 a piece including fees and taxes for the Tuesday show. That $15.50 per ticket fee from Ticketmaster is a killer.

We headed to the pool late Sunday afternoon as the high was 29C that afternoon and we wanted to take advantage of the nice weather. I boiled myself in the whirlpool and then cooled off in the main pool several times. I find it helps relax tight muscles. My wife stuck mainly to the whirlpool and then finished off in the main pool. We only stayed an hour as it was later in the afternoon and the pool closes at 5PM. With more decent weather forecast, we hoped to get by the pool again later during our stay.

We skipped supper since we ate late at the mall and I was keen to try my luck at the $1 Spin Poker “Not So Ugly Ducks” game in the high limit room at the Wynn that was listed in vpfree2.com. Unfortunately we didn’t discover the machines on our first quick look through the high limit room. Digging out the pay tables from those machines is pain as you have to get to the right game and denomination, get into the “Game Info” menu, and finally the “See Pays” section to see the pay table. We did end up finding a $1 9/6 Jacks or better Spin Poker machine by the Red 8 restaurant close to the high limit room. I stuck in $100 knowing that it could be a short trip, but actually came out even after about a half hour’s play. We then tried the 3/5-play $0.25 8/5 Jacks or better Super Times Pay machines just outside of the high limit room for old time’s sake as that’s where I hit our only Royal Flush to date. Nostalgia cost me $100 and now we were down $750.

My wife decided to rest in the room in the evening so I went to get in my first session of craps at the Wynn. The table was at a $10 minimum, and stickman’s birthday was even so I started out on the pass line. Unfortunately I had a quick 7-out on an 8 and the next shooter also failed to make their point. I switched over to don’t pass and the shooter made their point of 5 in four rolls. I held out on don’t pass and got a 7-out followed by the next shooter making two points in a row. I head to bed down $155 for the session and $905 overall and now I’m thinking I’m going to wash out completely before the trip is over.

Monday morning I again showered up and headed down to get in my early morning craps session. The table was empty and at a $10 minimum and stickman's birthday was odd so I started on the don't pass. I lost making a point of 5 and then rolled a 4 so I rolled out a Don't Come as well which landed on the 8. I made the point of 8 before a 7-out with the 4. The next shooter made two points in a row and so I switched to the pass line which cursed him and a 7-out happened within 4 rolls. I switched back and forth between pass and don't pass and nothing worked. I washed out down $150 in all of 20 minutes.

At this point, I’m resigned to my bad luck. I turned out to be wrong. The next thing I did was check back in the high limit room for that "Not So Ugly Ducklings" game and managed to find the game this time. It was on two Spin Poker machines closest to the aisle, but they face towards the main casino on the side with the host’s desk. I didn't play because I'd left the printout of the strategy in the room, but I figured we could give it a try later in the day.

It was still early so I hoped that a game of blackjack would help my luck. The Wynn had three 6-deck, hit soft 17 with blackjack paying 3:2 tables open that morning. The bad news was they were all at $25 minimum. I bought in for $300 with some trepidation given the high minimum and Rhonda, my dealer, started me off with a blackjack which was encouraging. Rhonda mentioned she'd cut her own deck that morning because when the pit boss makes the cut it kills her players. I asked her how long she'd been dealing blackjack and she said she'd been dealing for 25 years. I then asked her, "So retirement is on the horizon soon then?" to which she got a good laugh out of and responded, "Do I look that bad?” For the record, she did not. The first shoes was one of those dream shoes. I had a ton of hands of 18, 19, and 20. Rhonda busted a fair bit and I won 3 doubles and only lost one and won the only split I had. I didn't get any more blackjacks after the first one though. I cut the second shoe, and it was a little more challenging. I started getting more stiff hands – 12, 13, 14 -- against a 10. I moved to $30 per hand to keep blackjacks and surrender even and had to surrender 3 times in the second shoe, but managed to only give back a tad of my winnings. The third shoe was back to my good fortune and I got a couple more blackjacks, and ended with a double where I had 9 against a 3 and Rhonda had a 4 behind then pulled a 6 and then a 9 to bust. I coloured up with $560 and a ray of hope shone on my chances for a recovery only down $795.

I gathered up my wife for our now traditional breakfast at Denny’s and then after breakfast my wife was on the hunt for a new perfume to try. She’s worn Chanel No.5 for years, but she was looking to switch things up this time. The staff at the Macy’s counter was very helpful in her search and she said she must have tried 20 or more scents on those little cards before I got there. Luckily they had it down to two when I showed up. Both were Giorgio Armani, the first was Si and the other was Acqua Di Gioia. I liked the Acqua Di Gioia, but she ended up going with Si. It’s nice, but a little stronger than the other perfume she’d picked out.
We then headed to Red Rock Resort and Casino to play a little Jacks or better at the $0.25 level in the afternoon. I had good fortune here and managed 3 four of a kinds in the session with a good sprinkling of full houses, flushes, and straights too. I cashed out up $90 for the session. My wife had a tougher time, but still managed to eke out a small win of $20 when it was all said and done, but she went way down before a slow recovery. We did spend some time looking for a $0.25 3/5-play 9/5 Jacks or better Super Times Pay machine that was listed on vpfree2.com, but we never did find it. I was glad to see the slow recovery continuing and we were down $685.

From Red Rock, we headed over to Marche Bacchus as we had a dinner reservation. We got there early, but they had no trouble seating us. We spent probably 25 minutes in the wine shop browsing wine and it came down to a Louis Roederer champagne that we've had before or a funky looking California wine with a 3D label of an ancient greek-style fellow having a tipple. The 3D wine got a score of 93 from a review taped to the box. I was skeptical of the 3D wine, but the people in the shop said it was excellent and not to worry. The wine was called "Vin Perdu" and it was made by Amuse Bouche Wine out of the Napa Valley. The staff at Marche Bacchus didn't steer us wrong. The wine was excellent. We split a lettuce wedge salad and a charcuterie to go with our wine. The dressing on the lettuce wedge wasn't as good as the one from TI, but still tasty. The charcuterie was a perfect complement to the wine . For our entrees, I had the Beef Tenderloin and my wife had the roast chicken. Both were very good, but my wife's roast chicken didn't have the sauce from the last time she'd had it so it didn't quite live up to her expectation. For dessert, I had the creme brule and my wife had the panna cotta. My wife really enjoyed her dessert. After our meal, my wife said that if we lived in the area she'd force me to come to Marche Bacchus every week.

In the evening, I dragged my wife over to give that Not So Ugly Ducks game a try. Unfortunately my luck didn’t hold and I washed out $200 not getting anything better than a four of a kind. At this point, my wife headed back up to the room and I got in another session of craps at the Wynn.

There were two tables open and I picked the completely empty table with a $10 minimum. The dealer's birthday was even so I started on the pass line. I actually made a point of 9 to start and then had a seven out on a point of 6 so I switched to the don't pass and had a 7-out on a point of 4 and then 8. At this point, other people showed up, and I had a 7-out on a 5 and the dice passed so I switched to the pass line. It went point made then 7-out for the next 3 shooters and came back to me. I stuck it out on the pass line for my roll and made the next two points of 5 and then a 10. I then had a 7-out on an 8 and walked away. I'd rolled out a few place 6 or 8 bets as well, but I think out of 4 bets there only two paid once each to cut into my winnings from my pass/don't pass bets. I was up $150 from my buy-in and happy that I'd managed to successfully play both sides in a single session and come out ahead. Between the Not So Ugly Ducks and the craps I was down $735 overall.

Tuesday morning I was up early, but not for craps. I had made a tee time at Bali Hai Golf Club for 7:50AM. Thanks to member rainman and others for the recommendation. I showered up and got to the course just before 7:30AM and checked in at the pro shop. I was just a single so the course matched me up with a couple nice fellows from Texas. Unfortunately the two foresomes ahead of us were playing slow and the Marshall had to come around and hurry them up at around the 5th hole. Let me publicly apologize to my playing partners for my terrible play -- I shot 107 -- but hopefully I didn't mess up their game too badly. I did however win the betting hole. Bali Hai had set up one of the par-3's where you could bet any amount up to $200 and get that as a credit at the pro shop. If you hit the green they would double the amount you bet as a credit at the pro shop. I was having a terrible round which meant that I risked all of $10, but out of the three of us I was the only one to hit the green to double my bet. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn every now and then. The weather was fantastic and I was playing golf while that winter storm raged back East so overall I had little to complain about and despite the slow play I was driving back to the hotel by 12:15PM.

Early Tuesday afternoon we headed down to the pool. My wife wasn’t keen on going, but I was looking forward to it after golfing so I gave her an ultimatum. Either she swam at the pool or she could play blackjack along with me for the very first time. She chose playing blackjack. She’s played a single hand here or there before, but we’ve never played together at the same time. I got in my swim while she lounged around the pool area and then I changed and we headed over to TI for some $10 blackjack.

We got seats at one of the 6-deck hit soft 17 games and bought in for $100 each. I gave her the strategy card that I’ve used for years that I’d printed off from wizardofodds.com. She actually had a pretty easy time of it. She got a couple blackjacks and for her last hand she got a pair of 2’s against a dealer 3. I checked with the dealer and they do allow double after split. As a result, the split gave her a 5 and then a 10 for 17 on the first hand and then an 8 for 10 on the second and she doubled that and ended up with a 9 for 19. It didn’t matter because the dealer had a 2 behind and then drew two 10’s to bust. She ended up with $190 and I managed a small win of $40. She was very pleased and I might actually get her to play again next time as long as the stakes are low. She’d never play for $25 a hand. Our good fortune continued the recovery and now we were down $605 overall.

We didn't want to stray too far for supper as we had tickets to Donnie and Marie that night so we wandered up to Tacos El Gordo just north of the Wynn/Encore. Our timing was good and bad at the same time. It was good in the sense that we got in just before a big supper rush came in to fill the place, but bad in that the spicy pork station ran out just as we were second in line. Instead we jumped over and grabbed a couple steak tacos and a couple chorizo tacos. My wife got a steak tostada and a steak quesadilla as well. My wife ended up eating one of my steak tacos so I was left hungry. Still hankering for some spicy pork, I queued up to finish off my hunger. I always enjoy those tacos.

Tuesday night was Donnie and Marie. The table we were at had seats six and a nice family from Texas was seated with us. Mom and Dad and their son and daughter. They were on a family trip and had just come from camping at the bottom of the Grand Canyon and then drove over to Las Vegas to stay a couple days and catch the show. My wife was impressed that every time the kids addressed my wife they always addressed her as "Ma'am". The show wasn't what we were expecting. We both expected all old songs and nostalgia, but it turns out both Donnie and Marie have new albums out so they incorporated some new songs into the act. There was a fair amount of brother/sister teasing primarily centred around the fact that Donnie had won "Dancing with the Stars" and Marie had not. Donnie did a fair amount of dancing in his portions of the show and in one instance after Marie came out and they were sitting and chatting Marie observed that Donnie was really sweating. Donnie agreed and took his finger and wiped it across his brow and flicked his sweat onto the stage. Ick. The band seemed overly loud and came close to drowning out the singing, but overall each of them were good enough to overcome it. Despite both of them being in their late 50's they can still sing. I wouldn't put Donnie and Marie in the category of the best shows I've seen in Las Vegas. David Copperfield and Cirque du Soleil's 'O' are at the top of our list followed very closely by Matt Franco's magic show and Cirque du Soliel's Beatles:Love.

Wednesday morning dawned and I found myself at the Wynn's craps table. The stickman's birthday was even so I started on the pass line. There was a quick 7-out and it was my turn to shoot so I switched to don't pass. I rolled an 11 then a 7 followed by 9 and then my 7-out a few rolls after that. Then table went choppy -- point made followed by a 7-out -- for the next three shooters before the dice moved to the other end of the table. No one on the other end of the table could make a point and a fellow who'd bought in beside be just as the dice were headed to the other end tried to ride it out on the pass line. The dice came to me and he asked me what I was going to do. I told him my superstition was that I roll a lot of sevens so he joined me on the don't pass. I proceeded to get a 4 so I rolled out a don't come which landed on the 9 and then it was probably only 5 more rolls before my 7-out to collect both bets. I walked away from the table up a nice $150 for the session.

After craps, I popped over to that Not So Ugly Ducks game in the high limit room and managed to hold my own. I managed to hit a five of a kind in that session when I was down $100 to get back into things and I managed a few more smaller wins and got above water to the tune of $40 before washing back down to my buy-in and I decided to knock off.

Given my previous luck at $25 blackjack, I stopped and bought in for $300. This time I pretty much had all stiff hands against a dealer 8, 9, or 10. I didn't get any blackjacks and I came out even on splits and doubles. Easy come, easy go I guess and I walked away down $200 cancelling out the good fortune I'd had at the craps table. We were down $655 now, but give how low we’d sunk on the first 12 hours of the trip I was comfortable with where we were sitting, and we were heading out early on Thursday morning anyway.

For breakfast, I just grabbed some coffee and pastries at the Wynn Cafe which we ate in the room. After breakfast, I dragged my wife to the high limit room to see if her luck would help me out with the Not So Ugly Ducks machine. While I didn’t hit anything big the game went back and forth on me for over an hour and I finally knocked off down $100. After this session, my wife and I decided that Jacks or better is a more compelling game to play. There seem to be long stretches in the Not So Ugly Ducks game where you’re not really getting anywhere. Also I find holding two pair in that game frustrating as I think I hit one full house during all of my play on the game holding that. In the future, I’ll probably play a little more of that game or perhaps a full pay Deuces Wild game looking to hit the deuces just so I can say I’d done it, but I think my main video poker play will be with Jacks or better.

We then browsed the shops in the Venetian and Palazzo for a bit. We didn’t end up buying anything, but my wife enjoyed looking. One interesting shop was Bauman Rare Books and their copy of the Declaration of Independence which I could see the value in, but there were other items like signed first editions of the early “A Song of Ice and Fire” books by George R. R. Martin and similarly a signed set of “His Dark Materials” by Phillip Pullman that I couldn’t see value in. To each his own, I guess.

My wife still had a video poker itch to scratch and we never did find a decent $0.25 9/6 Jacks or better Super Times Pay machine to play so I jumped on vpfree2.com to see what I could find. I saw that there was a Multi-Strike STP for $0.25 at South Point. I didn’t realize what that meant unfortunately, but we’ve never been to South Point so we decided to travel down there to give it a try. It took a while to find the game because we were looking for a 3/5-play style machine and this was more like an old-style upright machine. I saw the configuration with the 1x,2x,4x,8x lines and vaguely recalled reading about it on wizardofodds.com, but to start we just played a single line for 6 coins. I then noticed that the Super Times Pay multipliers topped out at 5x instead of 10x and started to wonder so I got my wife to switch to active all four lines for 24 coins a hand. It was actually quite a fun game with 4 lines active, but it quickly became apparent that you should be holding things that will hit on lower lines to boost you up rather than play a standard strategy. I was chiding myself for not confirming a strategy before playing. Despite all that we had a lot of fun and managed to hold our own for quite a long time before washing out our $200.

My wife wanted to hit the washroom before we left so I stopped by the craps table to play a little. The table had a nice $5 minimum, but only 2x odds. I bought in for $160 and the stickman had an even birthday so I started on the pass line. The dice were two players to the right of the stickman and I was on his left. It turned out that the pass line was the place to be. Each player made 2 points before a 7-out including, to my surprise, me. The woman on my left then made 3 points and her husband 2. I rolled out a few place 6 and 8’s during the run and hit at least once on each and managed to press up on a few and hit on a couple of those too. My wife was back from the washroom about half-way through this run and after the husband’s 7-out I cashed out with $350. Given all the day’s shenanigans we were down $765 overall so I was feeling pretty good that the trip wasn’t going to be a total wash out.

We headed back to the Wynn as my wife wanted to rest in the room for a bit and download some Netflix shows to watch on the plane ride home. I left her around 2PM to get in a little more cheap craps at Casino Royale. She warned me not to be too late as we wanted to use up our free buffet at the Wynn for supper. We were hoping to go between 4-5PM to avoid the rush. I gave her the line from the movie “The Hangover” and said, “You never walk away from the table when you’re on a heater”.

The heater didn’t happen, but something equally bizarre did. Casino Royale had the $5 minimum on, and the table was packed when I got there. I had to wait for 10 minutes for a spot to open up because it was obvious that the table was on a heater prior to me getting there. The shooter was to the left of the stickman and he had a 7-out to clean the felt of all those chips that had built up from the good run. That gentleman left and I stepped up and bought in for $200 during a lull in the point of the next shooter. The gentleman to my left made his point and I felt the contrarian in me kick in. Too many times, I’ve walked up to a hot table and joined everyone on the pass line only to be killed. So after the point was made, I parked myself on the don’t pass line. We then had what I would call an anti-heater. The table was full – twelve people – and no one made a point until the dice passed to the gentleman to the right of the stickman. He made a single point and then a 7-out . I failed to make my point when I was shooting. A gentleman bought in beside me about three quarters of the way through the carnage and asks me “How’s the table going?” and I told him, “Ice cold. There hasn’t been a point made since the guy who’s spot you just took.” The players at my end all started talking about how ice cold the table was. All the points were represented during the run including a few points of 4 and 10 so I rolled out a few don’t come bets as well and hit of 3 out of 4 of those. After my roll, I told my end of the table that I would take my curse with me so they could play the pass line in peace and cashed out to the tune of $530 and now we were down just $435 overall.

We hit the Wynn buffet for supper at about 4:30PM and experienced something out of the ordinary for the Wynn. Our server didn’t come to take our drink order for over 10 minutes after we were seated. Service was fine after that, but that was a little out of keeping for the Wynn. The new chef brought on a couple years back has done a great job improving the Wynn buffet. The overall selections have been reduced, but each selection is of very good quality. We particularly like the latkes station and the pork belly that night and my wife is not a big fan of pork. I would say the food quality is equal to Caesars Bacchanal buffet and I like the seating area in the Wynn much better than Caesars bunch of open tables/food hall thing they’ve got going on.

After supper, we packed up as our flight out Thursday was at 8:45AM so we needed to get to the airport early. I then got in one last session of craps at the Wynn. This time I was the anti-heater. Whatever I was betting doing the opposite was the better bet. At one point, I was camped out on the don’t pass and I was shooting with a point of 10. The only other player at the table was betting pass line and also had the $2 each on the all, tall, and small bets and I managed to complete that for him during my roll by finishing myself off by making the 10. He was a happy fellow and gave me a fist bump, but no tip. Meanwhile I’d lost my buy-in of $200 so we were down $635 overall.

I then took a final crack at the Not So Ugly Ducks game in the high limit room and managed to wash out $200 in about 30 minutes not hitting anything more than a four of a kind. I’m down $835 overall and those washouts didn’t take a lot of time so I figured what the heck it’s the last night and I’ll squeeze in one last round of blackjack. All the Wynn tables with 3:2 blackjack were at a $50 minimum so I headed over to TI.

I found an empty 6-deck hit soft 17 table for a $10 minimum at TI and bought in for $200. I was quickly joined by one fellow waiting for his family to finish up in the gift shop and a nice couple from Australia who were on a month-long trip for their 25th wedding anniversary. They’d gotten to Toronto, New York, done a cruise, and were ending in Las Vegas prior to heading home. The first shoe was pretty good, but I didn’t get any blackjacks, splits or doubles and so was up a measly $40 from my buy-in. The next shoe was not as nice, but I held my own on a lot of stiff hands and only gave back $80. The last shoe was a good one though. On the first round, each of us had 3 or more cards in our hand and a couple 5’s had come out with no aces yet. Also the dealer had a 7 showing, but a 2 behind and proceeded to draw a 3, then a 4, and finally a 6 for 22. I thought to myself I’ll give the Wizard’s Ace-Five count a try. The count was 2 so I doubled my bet to $20. We went through three more hands and count climbed as high as 5 before an ace came out. I wasn’t as brave as the Ace-Five count dictated, but I did get to $30 a hand and then the aces started to come out near the end of the shoe. That resulted in a couple blackjacks for the dealer, but I also got a couple as well. I coloured up $485, congratulated the Australian couple on their 25th anniversary, and left down $550 overall. I was pleased with my first attempt at counting, but I’m not sure I would have the concentration to do it all the time.

We flew out Thursday morning and I felt good about our trip overall. The bloodbath on Saturday and Sunday had given way to a slow recovery of two steps forward with one step back on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We had great weather with a couple days of 30C temperatures and the other days being 28 or 29C while it was all snow and freezing temperatures back home. Normally the temperatures in Las Vegas are mid-to-low 20C during our stay with a single day at 25C so we felt fortunate with the weather. We had a great bottle of wine despite that 3D label and several nice meals at restaurants around Las Vegas. We’ll be back next year in March and we’ll give that Multi-Strike Super Times Pay machine at South Point a try with a proper strategy. I might drag my mother along next year. She just turned 80 so if she was ever going to go then now’s the time. Regardless if she comes or not we’ll be back next year.

Thank you so much for this trip report! I loved reading about your very full trip. Glad your luck got a little better as the week went on. I'm headed down to Vegas from Canada in a few weeks so this TR has me itching to get there. Thanks again.

Nice report!

There is a reason you didn't find 9/6 Jacks w/STP (99.82%) though. It no longer exists in Vegas. The best you can do is 8/5 Bonus w/STP (99.44%). South Point also has 8/5 Bonus w/Double STP (99.67%). And yeah, deuces is tough to win without a good run of wild royals or quints, or of course hitting the four deuces or the royal...which I still haven't done at quarters or higher. Bah.

Quote: tringlomane

Nice report!

There is a reason you didn't find 9/6 Jacks w/STP (99.82%) though. It no longer exists in Vegas. The best you can do is 8/5 Bonus w/STP (99.44%). South Point also has 8/5 Bonus w/Double STP (99.67%). And yeah, deuces is tough to win without a good run of wild royals or quints, or of course hitting the four deuces or the royal...which I still haven't done at quarters or higher. Bah.

I miss the 9/6 JoB STP Spin Poker Motorcity had. Got my first ever dealt royal on it (no multiplier :-( though) for $9000.

The Mirage had a 25¢ 9/5 JoB STP Spin Poker version. That was a couple years ago though.

Quote: tringlomane

Nice report!

There is a reason you didn't find 9/6 Jacks w/STP (99.82%) though. It no longer exists in Vegas. The best you can do is 8/5 Bonus w/STP (99.44%). South Point also has 8/5 Bonus w/Double STP (99.67%). And yeah, deuces is tough to win without a good run of wild royals or quints, or of course hitting the four deuces or the royal...which I still haven't done at quarters or higher. Bah.

Ahhh...that's too bad. I didn't realize that style of STP is gone from Las Vegas. 8-(

The Wynn/Encore have 9/5 JoB with Super Times Pay, but it's a the $1 level. I've played it, but not for very long. My wife and I like the Super Times Pay games a lot, but the 6-coin cost really kills you. It feels like you have to have a dealt winning hand with a multiplier to have any chance at getting above water.

If the NSUD game is still there next year I'll throw some money at it just to see where Lady Luck takes me, but I'll probably play more $1 or $0.50 9/6 JoB instead.

My bucket list includes a Royal Flush on a single line JoB machine and I've added Deuces to the list as well. Denomination doesn't matter per se as long as it's on a single line. I'll get there one day I'm sure.

--helpmespock

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

The Mirage had a 25¢ 9/5 JoB STP Spin Poker version. That was a couple years ago though.

vpfree2.com didn't list that machine, but I'll certainly poke around next time to see if it's there.

--helpmespock

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

I miss the 9/6 JoB STP Spin Poker Motorcity had. Got my first ever dealt royal on it (no multiplier :-( though) for $9000.

The Mirage had a 25¢ 9/5 JoB STP Spin Poker version. That was a couple years ago though.

Caesars Palace should have it at 9/5 for dollars in high limit still. I have a trip in the works next month and may also be staying at Mirage for a couple of days. I'll need to check that out. Unfortunately MLife has been pretty vigilant about VP downgrades in the last couple of years with regard to the "profit growth program". :(