How far is Pala from like Pechanga? I'm about 35-40 miles west from Pechanga

Nope. There is EDF in hi limit but the paytable isn't great and they don't have TDB. Hot roll I think I've seen on precisely one, lower limit machine on the floor and I didn't even bother checking the paytable b/c I know it'll be crap (ALL of their 25c machines are terrible).

Its never really bothered me but this year, its got me a bit bummed, gotta shake that **** off and get my ass to the gym. Being in the best shape you can be is the only thing that could be construed as a fountain of youth imho

Yes, it sounds very likely we've played against each other.

Remember how baller it felt to carry your chips up to the slightly raised section? Or sitting next to table 1 with Doyle et al?

I can't believe the CPK has basically outlasted the poker room (I don't count the current version as surviving)...

That CPK is Goooooot!! (try that Thai pizza if you haven't already)

I only made it to the top section a few times, but I did feel like I had bravely entered the jungle until the lions ripped me to shreds and I ran off like the skerd little nit that I was (am).

I distinctly remember Mike Matasow, Karina Jett (wasn't Jett back then), D Negreanu, Doyle roaming the place.

During my brief duration of trying to go pro (only game, except for the occasional 7 stud, was limit holdem) and I heard about a bad beat jackpot at Sams Town, so I went down there and played thinking I might get lucky. It was depressing, everyone seemed 3x my age and the games were tight, pots were small but I think they were playing spread limit, so you could bet anywhere from 2-12 dollars. Anyway, I'm sitting there when this loud guy talking on his cell phone takes the seat in front of me and proceeds to raise every pot and completely roll over the table. It seemed like he won $500 in no time and I was in awe wondering how he pulled that off.

A few years later I'm watching TV and I see that guy at one of the final tables of one of the poker tournies.

Hazard a guess who it was?

Day 3

I manage to sleep in slightly later... until 6:15 am. The overall plan for the day is- room service breakfast in my parents' room, New York New York's arcade for the kids, lunch at Red 8, pool (I don't want to go, but I owe the kids), then my mom takes the kids for a room service dinner while me, my dad, wife and the manny go to the drawing for a new car! After the drawing, it'll be a late showing of Le Reve (9:30pm, the early showing would have conflicted with the car drawing)... got a long day ahead of us.

More about the drawing- basically from May 1-June 10, 1000 pts earned gets you 1 ticket. You have to be invited to participate in the event; my dad obv got an invitation but I got a formal invite this time around as well, similar to the last event we attended together (when I got a whopping 2 tickets, I think that time it was 10k pts for 1 ticket). I must be coining in enough on my own LOL. Anyways, so my parents have basically been in town that whole time earning tickets, and my last TR was beginning of May so I'll have a fair amount of tickets too. Prize structure-
1st-3rd: your choice of luxury car or 90k cash. I think they had an Audi, a BMW and a Porsche, not that I would take anything other than the cash.
4th: 25k free credit
5th: 10k free credit
6, 7th: 5k free credit
8-10th: 2.5k free credit

They usually have food at these things, and you have to be present to win. The drawing is at 7pm which is exactly when the early show of Le Reve is, hence we have to see the late showing, and that's also why my mom has agreed to watch the kids- they get room service for dinner, we eat whatever is at this event.

OK, back to the story. I go for my pre-breakfast session. The ice continues- I think I lost another 2k. I become even more demoralized and basically at that point figure I'm not even going to bother taking any more pics for the trip. And yep, the machine next to me is still locked up by the donk...

Back up to the room to grab my wife and kids, then down the elevators, to the tower suites, up a different set of elevators to my parents' room- the process is getting old. We got the usual smattering of breakfast food; the highlight to me are definitely the croissants- just huge, flaky and delicious.

After breakfast, I decide to take the kids with the nanny to NYNY. My wife still needs to get a bit of work done so I give her the break. The arcade was reasonably fun given I've been there several times now and half the machines are those rigged-ass claw games which I've finally managed to convince my kids are rip-offs. Early AM is a good time to go- the casino and the arcade itself were both pretty empty.

Back to the Wynn and it's time for lunch at Red 8. The usual assortment of Chinese food was had, 7/10 overall. You can probably go back to any of my old TR's and look at the pics if you want to see the food The kids are pretty tired from lack of sleep and eating like crap, and my nanny is stuck badly too and just wants to nap, so he takes my kids.

My wife and I play Walking Dead and hold about even, then I figure I'll fire the last 3k on me. Basically at this point I need to make a score to survive until Sunday anyways, and I'm pinning a ridiculous amount of hope on the drawing to robusto me. So why not?

Another 1k goes into my usual machine; result:


The donk is there playing- now he's telling me how this place loves him bc all he does is eat, sleep, gamble, and he gambles a lot. He explains how he stayed up all night last night playing, hit 10k, put 8k back in, blah blah blah. I don't want to listen to him but am not capable of being completely rude to someone when they're not giving me an obvious reason. Then he explains that last trip, there was a night when he lost 5k in a machine bc he "fell asleep". He fell asleep at the machine, and when he woke up he knew he had 5k in there prior to falling asleep, but now it's gone? He asked management to review the tape and in fact he did fall asleep, with his finger stuck on the "deal/draw" button. So basically he played hand after hand, never holding anything and redrawing until he busto'd the 5k. He may have been dealt 4 aces, 4 to a royal, etc- who knows. Just deal, hold nothing, draw. Deal, hold nothing, draw.

He tells me management laughed their asses off at him BUT refunded him his money. I can't believe it but it seems like the Wynn will go some way towards keeping this guy happy. Of course the story tilts me even more. I can't handle it and decide I have to play ANYTHING other than my usual machine or UX just to get away.

I head to the Spin Poker, full pay TDB machine which gave me 3x royals last May for 12k. I sink in 500$ before...



Man, that was a nice surprise! I'm back up to 5.5k and at least can say I've hit a top prize ONCE this trip. Maybe that's the ticket- playing different machines!

I stuff another 1.5k back into this machine testing this "theory". Nope. OK, hi limit it is. I look for my dad but he's taking a nap. I head to the machines he and I usually play UX on, looking to fire a 2k bullet myself and hope for a real home run ball. There's a greasy looking guy on the end of a bank of 4 machines, call it machine 4. The ones I want are either machine 1 or 2. I go to sit... and he tells me he's playing that one as well. WTF. I look- no card, no money in. I ask about machine 2- yep, he's "playing" that one as well. WTFWTFWTF.

The slot attendant looks at me and sheepishly apologizes. Thanks for the apology, but by her giving me one she is basically implying this guy has a right to do that. WTF. I am so annoyed by this *******. It's just rude. I don't care how much money you have, try and be a decent human being. ****ing guy can't even physically reach 4 machines, there's no need to tie them ALL up. Between this guy and the donk locking down the other machine I have had it up to here with rich jerk offs this trip. I head out to the only full pay UX machine on the floor- it doesn't have sound so I typically avoid it, but I have no choice at this point.

I funnel 1k in and hit nothing- down to 3.5k. I did get dealt 3 3's with 9x multipliers across the board but disappointingly-blanked. Pump in another 1k and it is nearly gone when I get 3 3's again...



So now I'm back to 6.5k. I meet up with my wife and ask her if she wants to play craps- she actually doesn't feel like it. I can understand, since she hasn't played in years the inertia of relearning the game, feeling like a noob, etc... I'm a little disappointed but since at this point I had stopped taking pics and wasn't even sure if I was going to do a TR I figured no biggie. So no craps this TR, sorry boys.

Back to spin poker- dump 1k. I keep expecting to be called by my nanny saying the kids are up, but no call- they MUST be tired. Back to UX- dump 1.5k. I can't believe I started the day with 5k, have hit 8k in jackpot and STILL somehow only have 4k on me. I decide to pump the brakes, and now the kids are up anyways. The 5 of us all head to the pool.

The pool, and seeing my kids have fun was a nice break from getting pummeled gambling. We only stay for about 1hr bc I need to cash in my tickets for the drawing. The rest of the family gets ready while I head down to hi limit.

Jesus, there is a LONG line to redeem the tickets. The guy in front of me tied up the ticket printer for at least 10 min, he had so many (I think he had over 700). I personally have 44 tickets, and I know my dad has about 500. Whatever- it'll have to do. I drop mine in the drum and head upstairs...

I mean, I head to my usual machine since I still have time. Nope- there's a nice lady who I've played next to before on mine, the other is of course locked up. Damn. OK, I go to UX. Drop another 1k. WTF am I thinking??! This time I leave for real and get showered up.

We drop my kids off with my mom and head to the drawing. The set up is the usual nice, ballroom type set up. As you walk in, there's a girl hanging upside down from a tree-like structure pouring champagne; kind of cheesy and kind of interesting all at the same time. I wish I'd taken pics of the cars for you all- apologies. AND... there's no FOOD!

Thus begins the saga of trying to look up the room service menu online so my mom can place an order for us as well. We ultimately fail and decide to just get steaks. My wife finishes two glasses of champagne, and I decide what I need is a GREYHOUND IMMEDIATELY. Screw it, make it TWO greyhounds the way this trip is going. Gotta bink that 90k one time!

The drawing starts at 7pm sharp. We've already got this "planned" out- hopefully my dad binks one car, and I bink another. I'd also be happy with any of the 5 figures of free credit, and obv wouldn't even turn down the 10th prize. OK, here we go-

Car drawing 1- miss.
Car drawing 2- miss.
Car drawing 3...








OK, that's fine. We still have the big free credit prizes.

4th...

5th...


OK, I'm getting really annoyed now.

I believe 6th and 7th both had TWO duplicate tickets, for a grand total of 6 duplicate people drawn for the event. Are you F'ing kidding me. We miss both 6 and 7 and we're down to the final 3, "just" 2.5k in credit.



I cannot begin to describe to you how soul-crushing the walk back to my parents' room was. I knew intellectually that the chance of winning was low, but one can only take so much pummeling... and the 90k was really the only shot of booking a winner this trip, let alone a monster. So now all hope has evaporated.

Dinner was alright for room service steak. Honestly, I wasn't very hungry given the state of affairs. Eventually the time rolls around for the show. Our host has set us up with some great seats which also happen to make it very easy for my dad/his scooter. The VIP seats are at the top of the theater so he can drive right in, no stairs or elevator needed. They have these cool screens where they end up showing what is going on behind the scenes- it was interesting to watch the performers getting their harnesses on, breathing from air tanks under the water, etc.

I've seen the show twice, my wife and nanny once. They changed it between when I saw it the first and second time and I thought the newer version was better. It turns out, they've changed it again- overall, I thought it was a wash. There was more "artsy fartsy" stuff where the music was nice but they were basically just acting out a scene, but there was the addition of a really cool light/water show at the end. Overall, it was a good show, I'd say 6/10 and certainly not as good as Love. My eldest stayed awake for the whole thing and he liked it but not as much as Love, and my youngest fell asleep which I can understand.

Afterwards, we take the kids to bed and my wife and I come down to play again. It's late but I don't expect to play long and this is my last night in Vegas. We chance leaving the kids in the room alone, figuring it'll be ok (spoiler- it was). We start with Walking Dead- my wife is still up 200$ for the trip. Nothing much happens so I go to play VP. Immediately after I leave, I start getting texts from her...

"5 Ricks- 300$"
"Bonus"
"Mini"
"Another Mini"
"ANOTHER Bonus"

etc. I keep hoping for one that says "AND... We're millionaires!!" but it doesn't come. Meanwhile, I lose 2k and decide to call it quits. I have 1k left on me which I need to save for tomorrow. My wife is up 600$ for the trip, all from Walking Dead.

Day 3 result- -4k.
Overall- -14k.

Because this post has been devoid of pics, enjoy these pics of hits from my ONLY trip to my local casino where I played Double Super Times pay, 50c credits and actually did ok...



This was nice, quads coming in twice with a 5x multiplier.



Sorry for blurriness. MMMMM. 10x multiplier.



This was a fun hand. Got dealt a pair of 2s, no multiplier. Held them, hit draw, then the "draw multiplier" came out- 4x. Whatever, still probably not going to do anything. Regular hand sounds- ding, ding, ding then all of the sudden the sweet sound when you make a premium hand. HANDPAY.

To be continued...

Leon are you down or up 14k at this point in the trip? I'm confused by the dashes :/

Leon,

Crossing my fingers for a miracle finish!

Have you been following along? Kidding. STUCK 14k!

Edit: never mind, I see I forgot to put the negative sign in front of the 14k in my earlier post.

lol exactly that's why I was confused I thought I may or missed some big hit somewhere or you pre-counted something from day 4 that hadn't been told in the story yet . It's a brutal trip through 3 days.

Really cool you get to take the kids to more stuff - I honestly thought your kids were older based on your approx age but they are munchkins!

+1!!!!

Thanks for posting these reports, I love living vicariously through you as you do something I'm simply too tight to ever attempt.

This last report had some real gems in it that had me cracking up. The way you described the pace and frustrations of the day reminded me of the scene in Good Fellas where Henry is coked up and paranoid thinking he's being followed by helicopters as he drives all over town dealing with a variety of frustrations (missed jackpots, slow raffle tickets) and idiots (guys locking up the machines, duplicate winners)

Pala's probably about 10 miles away from Pechanga? Just south on the 15, and then east on highway 76. I always like to stop by at the streetside produce vendors - those avocados are tasty!

Anyway, I actually prefer Pala to Pechanga. It just feels more comfortable to me - Pechanga seems too huge.

Is it possible to request a video poker game with better pay tables? Obv the casino wouldn't give you any +EV pay tables, but maybe slightly lesser -EV games?

I would assume it is possible, since you can request different games why can't one request "9/6 JOB" or something like that. I've encouraged my dad to do that but thus far he hasn't. I've even suggested I'm willing to write out a list of requests which would make things less -EV but as someone who's never really learned the math of poker, VP or gambling in general I don't think he can be bothered.

It's a theme that does come up in my TR's occasionally. He's more than willing to sit at a terrible pay table while I can't even watch him play on one, let alone put my own money in...

Day 4

Agenda for the day- we're supposed to meet for room service breakfast at 8am again, check out at some point before noon, then hang at my parents' condo so my mom can pack up etc after being in Vegas for over a month, and finally all take a limo to the airport. I ended up going to bed somewhat late and am exhausted from the cumulative sleep deprivation, but unfortunately the breakfast timing is based around when my dad needs to take his meds.

So knowing we're eating at 8am, I wake up naturally at 7am tired as hell but unable to fall back asleep. If we didn't have anything cooking I swear I could have slept until noon. So I force myself out of bed, grab a coffee and go for one final morning session- maybe one final session period, as I only have 1k left.

I put about 500$ in the machine- the other machine is STILL locked by the donk. While I'm playing, a lady who is a regular (she and I have played next to each other many times) comes over and we start talking about the locked machine. She's really upset too and is complaining in an elderly lady sort of way- clearly bitter, but with a certain amount of class too and no swearing. I say, "he's an *******. That's the word for it". And she says, "you know what? He IS an *******". Haha. She also tells me she was dealt a royal on 10 play, 1$ credits so 40k on Fri. She's desperately trying not to put too much back in. I'm happy for her obv but also very jealous as you imagine. Anyways, she leaves, I lose slowly when I get dealt first 3 3's...



Then, 3 aces for maybe the third time the entire trip-



I lose the 500$ and have 500$ left. My nanny finds me- he's stuck badly too. It's close to 8am, so I let my wife know to just meet me in my parents' room and I head up there.

Breakfast is fine, but given how buried I am nothing tastes good. The plan is my dad is going to play until checkout and I'll hang with him. The kids want to go to the M+M store/Coke store near the the MGM, and my wife and nanny are willing to take them. My mom wants to head back to the condo now so she can start her chores, and she'll come back at noon and we'll all grab food. So I have a few hrs with my dad but basically no money. I decide I'm just going to pocket my last 500$ so I don't come home with ZERO.

My dad hasn't been doing well this trip either. Given he's been here a month he's held his own, but my guess is he's stuck 60k. I don't know exactly and don't want to ask, but from what I'm inferring from the info I have it's at least that much. Anyways, I think my dad takes pity on me and offers me 1k to team up with him. Sure, why not?

We team up 1k each. I suggest UX as to me that basically represents the only chance of really hitting a home run, and he agrees.

We play for about 30 min before...



And I'm tapped out (except for the 500$ I have). I technically owe 5k to my mom and 1k to my dad, although I know they were gifts. My dad wants to keep going- he's going to fire another 1k. I say screw it, you only live once and what difference will 500$ make? I go all in, and will get 1/3 of anything we hit.

So we have 1500$ in the machine, and go down to 1k, up to 1600, down to 1200, back to 1600. We're staying alive and getting some play but not much else. Then, we get dealt-



4 aces w/ kicker. DEALT. I caught the machine dealing it out, 1 2 3 4 5 then it locked up, made the typical bink sound of ANY dealt hand (eg, straight, flush) and the machine started ringing up credits, all while my conscious brain started processing the magic of what just happened. I start yelling and am shaking my dad who is happy but I'm trying to get him to GO CRAZY!!!!

So that's a 4x multiplier on 1 spot for 16k, a 2x on one for 8k, then 4 + 4 + 4 = 36k total. My share is 12k.

You can all imagine how I feel at this point, just on top of the world. Sure, I'm STILL stuck for the trip, but not much anymore. I might as well have just won a million, plus I got to share the experience with my dad. I'm never going to forget it.

At this point, my dad wants to terminate the partnership so he can "play crazy" as he puts it- I jokingly say, "wait, you're getting rid of me?" but I get it- he wants to step up credits, something like that so he can try and make another score. OK, no prob- I get my 550$ out from the partnership (we were still UP on the initial 1.5k haha) and play UX next to him, 100% of my own action.

About 10 min later I make 4 4's on a 12x, good for 4800$! BANG! Man, I'll take it but bring the multiplier in for 24k!

I'm now at 16k or so- basically even for the trip. I stuff 2k in and am completely willing to lose that given how things have been, but no more. I'm down to 1k or so when I hit-



From one ace to 4, where have you been all trip?! No problem, keep bringing it in!!!!

I'm now UP 7k, when 1 hr ago I was stuck over 15k. THIS is how they get us- I could get buried 100 times after this but I'll always have memories of this come back that will keep me going. So now that we're at this point, I'm not ashamed to admit the 36k hit completely resurrected the TR. I had already deleted all the pics I took and as I mentioned had stopped taking them at some point, but once I hit that I recovered the pics. So you all have that hit to thank for this TR...

Anyways, put another 1k in. It's only 10:30! No result. Fire another 2k- no result. Fire another 2k-



Back up 4k. Put 1k back as the texts from the family start to roll in-
"we're about 5 min away..."
"back at the Wynn..."
"We're meeting at Wazuzu, right?"
"need to check out"

OK. Done. UP FOR THE TRIP!

I head over to meet my mom and my family. The nanny and I move all of our bags to valet while my wife, kids and dad head to Wazuzu at the Encore. I am SO FRICKIN EXCITED but haven't said anything yet and am trying to keep my best poker face. I want to let them know at lunch.

We sit down and I repay my dad his 1k and my mom her 5k with a flourish, then we start explaining what happened, show the pics, etc. Let me tell you, that was the BEST meal I've had in a long time. No pics, but we got multiple rounds of curry, Korean ribs (Kalbi), Chinese BBQ pork, vegetables, noodles. Probably 7/10 overall but I swear everything was a 10/10 that day.

And we're NOT done! My wife and nanny want to play a bit, and my mom is totally cool with taking the kids to the condo. So those two head out to play first, while I help my parents to the car with my boys. We have about 1 hr to play before we have to cab it to the condo.

I find my nanny, and he's playing 5c UX with terrible pay tables, but he has no other option and as I mentioned is pretty stuck. My wife is holding her own at Walking Dead, and I'm willing to fire one last 2k bullet at the hero for this trip, UX. I head to hi limit...

The ******* who was tying up the bank of 4 machines is there. He's on one UX machine. I try to sit at the other one right next to him. He has no card, no money in again, but when I try to sit a slot attendant tells me "I think he's got money in there". I double check and say, "no, there's no money" to which he responds "I'm playing that one too". I say, you're playing both machines, even though you don't have money in this one? And he says yes. I can't take it anymore- I look directly at him, shake my head, and say "*******". Then I turn and leave to play on the one on the floor with no sound. What a dick- I know it's wrong but part of me hoped he'd die in some random grease fire.

So now I'm at a full pay TDB UX machine but on the floor. My wife has been texting me- she's up another 800 on Walking Dead. Meanwhile my nanny is busto. I put all 2k in the machine and lose pretty fast. My wife has switched to Sons of Anarchy and is now up 1k on THAT machine, while my nanny was watching her. So I think she's up over 2k on penny slots this trip and has not booked a losing session! Good for her! I think she felt bad for our nanny so she gives him 200$ to play with, which he quickly donks off.

Meanwhile, I have 1k left in the machine. Then 800. Then 600. My wife and nanny are done and are going to get ice cream- do I want any? Hell no, we've got 10 min left and I still am in action! 400 left. 200. Then, I get dealt 3 3's with a 9x multiplier in one spot...

I immediately hold the right cards and wait. This is literally going to be my last draw this trip, so I'm going to make it count. I wait for the two of them, and text them to "hurry up" and come back to the machine. And wait. And wait. The suspense is killing me but I know waiting is not going to hurt anything. When they arrive, I explain the situation, and how catching the 4th 3 w/kicker in any spot would be 2k, but on the 9x... 18K!

Once they're fully up to speed, I take a deep breath, and mash the "draw" button... and hear a jackpot noise-



So now we have to wait for one final handpay. I tell the slot attendants to step on it. While we're waiting, I realize I had max bet that hand, and thus have multipliers for the next hand which of course have to be used. So I tell them that the NEXT hand after they unlock will be the last one- maybe I can get dealt 4 aces w/kicker and we'll miss our flight for SURE.

They come back, pay, and unlock. I dial in 5 instead of 10 credits and hit deal...



Cash out ticket. Run to ticket redemption machine, then to cab. From condo to airport, tired as hell but happy. Flight is on time, and we make it home safely. Until next time, Vegas, and there WILL be a next time!

Day 4 result- +19k
Overall result- +3k. Paid mom back her 5k, dad his 1k, left original 10k stake in Vegas for next time and returning home with the white meat.

What a wild ride. Thanks for reading!

Legendary

Another legendary Vegas trip Leon! Great comeback on your last day. The Wynn should just pay you for playing on their property. You have made a lot of us wanting to try TDB and Ultimate X machines because we want to be like Leon when we grow up :-)

Awesome Day 4, Leon. In my mind, I picture you and your dad making the comeback and looking like this.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Leon,

Awesome, I kinda had a feeling something like that was coming simply because I couldn't imagine you wanting to type out such a lengthy trip report that ended in "and that's how I lost 20k, twice my limit for the trip."

Amazing that the desperation go over budget last ATM pull (or parents "loan" in your case) actually worked out. It never does!

Looking forward to the next trip report!

Awesome - beyond awesome.

I'm trying to get a mental picture of the donk, so I can throw mental darts at it.

The magic question is whether this guy carries more weight than your dad. What was your sense? What do you think the Wynn would do if two whales on relatively equal footing got into it with each other and asked them to take a side. I guess they try to delicately walk that tightrope, but how? But boy oh boy if there ever was someone who needed a taste of his own medicine it's that guy.

Easy game.

Seriously, I was getting depressed after Day 3..happy you had a massive ending to your trip..

Awesome, happy for you!

I'm a sucker for happy endings - good job! My video poker vegas trip just this week was a lot like your trip report. Except for the last day turnaround. Oh, and like 10 billion times lower stakes too.

But as for the donk (I guess, 2nd donk?) - the one who was 'playing' 2 machines but didn't even have a card or money in one of them, what if you just said f*ck it, and just sat down, put your money in, and started playing? Would casino security have come over and made you cash out?

I was basically Rocky minus the outfit Unfortunately I tried to get my dad to pull Apollo but got only a minor fist pump out of him!

I didn't want to ruin the ending, but tried to give an account exactly as it unfolded. The first three days were pretty miserable which I hope I conveyed accurately. One thing I learned from this TR and the one, I think back in August that was awful, I deleted all my pics then made a comeback the final night- I just need to commit myself one way or the other. Win or lose if I'm going to do it, do it. Hope never dies, and posting losses will be inevitable...