Unbelievable.
Allison was bored tonight and went up to Arizona Charlies "just to check her point total" and see if the 5,000 bonus points for signing me up in August were on her card yet. While she's there....ahem....she looks for a "More for 4" nickel poker machine. They're all full, but she finds a quarter machine, figures "what the heck", dumps in a buck twenty five, and gets DEALT four Kings. Bam! An easy hundred bucks!
Not content to rest on her laurels, she cashes out and plays the Desperado nickel video slot. This machine takes up to 45 credits per spin, but it wouldn't accept her Charlie Card.
Oh well, the 3,200+ credits more than make up for not getting the $20 she put in credited to her comp total.
There may have been a nickel poker machine in there somewhere. I dunno. Grand total was $231. Wow.
August 5, 1999
We went out Thursday night with Keith and Annette to use some free buffet coupons I got for donating a dime a day to the United Way. The dinner buffet at the Mirage wasn't as good as lunch for some reason. Very glad it was free. It's interesting, though, to see the desserts when they are fresh, instead of seeing them in the helps' hall after they are past their prime. :) Then we went to The Orleans. We got new slot club cards, since we forgot ours and Keith and Annette had never had one. While I was waiting, I put $2 in a Double Double Bonus nickel video poker machine and hit four sixes within a couple of hands. So, I cashed out, gave the nickels to her and went over to join them playing Jokers Wild video poker.
After winning and losing back down to my original $10, I decided I didn't like Jokers Wild since you have to have three of a kind to win. So, I went back to my machine.
I wondered if it would be a good move on my part.
After feeding President Lincoln and a few friends to the formerly lucky machine and wasting about twenty hands, I held the king and queen of diamonds as bookends. Their friends ace, ten, and Jack were happy to join them with the next button push, so I hit my first Royal Flush! Payout was $221 with a bonus of 5,000 points on my Club Orleans card and six chances to win a new Chevy Blazer next Wednesday.
Keep your fingers crossed!
Allison was now playing beside me and Keith was finishing my credits while I stood in line to redeem my bonus points coupon. She hit four queens and he hit a couple of flushes to recoup my investment. Annette had to be at work at 4:30, so we called it a night soon after that. We weren't really tired, so we ended up back at Gold Coast for the midnight bingo session. I won $36 on one game there and almost paid for the three of us to play. Hopefully, that wasn't the end of the lucky streak. It's been a darn fun few days, though!
Only two more days until the video poker tournament!
August 4, 1999
We went to see South Park last night. Trey Parker wrote/produced/directed it. The man in a genius, plain and simple. I balked at $15.50 for tickets since I'm used to seeing matinees. Popcorn and a soda were $8. We almost had the theater to ourselves, but about ten other people showed up. The movie was hilarious. Definitely 100% not for kids, though. It's actually more a musical which he really knew how to put together. I found out later that he is a big, big fan of Les Miserables and it shows in his movie.
I even considered it to be worth the $15.50 to see it. On the way out, she asked me to teach her how to play video poker, so we sat down at a convenient nickel machine. I put in two dollars and within ten hands we hit four queens for a 600 credit payout. Bam! Free movie and snacks.
We'd never been to Sunset Station before so we looked around after cashing out. It's simply gorgeous. We meandered to the front desk area and I had to find a bathroom. I gave her $5 for a nickel slot, found there were no close bathrooms, and wondered back to watch. Thirty seconds later, the machine hit a three orange bar, a double diamond, and a triple diamond for 540 credits. It was two clicks away from being all diamonds which would've been $142, but we were happy with the $27. Ended up losing a few dollars of that on the way out, but came out way ahead. Their bingo room is really pretty, too.
We stopped at Smith's to buy some groceries on the way home. The total was $124.63 which seemed a tad high. When we got out to the car, she noticed that the computer rang up FORTY pounds of plantain bananas for a total of $60.81. Since I only bought two of them and didn't think they weighed that much, I went back inside to get a refund. Sure, fried plantains are good, but damn...at $30 a piece, no wonder! :)
August 3, 1999
We had a good night last night. Monday, I entered a free casino employee's video poker tournament at Arizona Charlies. Since it was my first one, I think I did well, but not good enough to win anything. Blazing through a thousand credits in fifteen minutes will certainly statiate your video poker craving for awhile (well, OK, a night as you'll see below). My total winnings were 1240 credits for 39 hands played. There were still 25 credits on the machine, but I did better than a lot of people. Now that I know how a VP tournament works, I'll get through all of them next time.
During the first show, I talked about it on headset. They also give you a coupon for free breakfast for you and a guest, two free drinks, free $5 bet match at blackjack, and a free $3 bingo pack. Not bad for just showing up and showing a casino ID card!
Well, the bingo pack got everyone talking about playing bingo and a group decided to go to the Gold Coast for their 2am session. Steve, Catherine, TJ, and Bingo Queen Michael showed up. Allison has had the bingo bug since she got here, so I came and picked her up after work. I've kinda liked bingo, but found it to be too frantic on certain games and did not enjoy the possibility of losing money because I forgot which pattern I should see.
Enter the world of big time bingo and T.E.D.: The Electronic Dauber!
It's an electronic keypad with a display and keeps track of everything for you. All of your game packs are loaded into it and you just type in the number. We bought two $12 packs, the cashball upgrade, and I rented a TED for $1. The sales literature is true. You really are tempted to buy more packs to load into that thing.
We both ended up hitting bingo on the same number in the same game! Hers was on the green card, so she got $50 and mine was on blue so I won $17.50. On the last coverall game, I was one away on one card and she was two away on a green card. Dunno what color mine was, but hers was on green and would've been $750 if she hit!
Allison was tired and her knee was bothering her, so we decided to split afterwards. On our way home, we couldn't pass up the Gamblers Late Night Special menu at Arizona Charlies since we were both a bit peckish. We each had scrambled eggs with ham, hashbrowns, toast, and biscuits and gravy. (Well, we didn't eat all of it!) After I used my coupon for the free breakfast, our bill was a whopping $1.65!
Afterwards, she played a nickel slot or two and I played nickel video poker. I put in two dollars for 40 credits and was staying about $2 ahead when I finally got a four of a kind for 400 credits. I cashed out with 450 credits after a couple more good hands. It was nice to turn $2 into $20 and change....for a change. :) Walking out with more money than when you entered is a definite plus!
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