Are those machines like ordinary slot machines? You put in money and punch one button? Or are there decisions to make, etc?

Leon your trip reports/photos are always great..thanks.

I know you deleted them this time, but please continue to show food pics in the future..especially the ones comped by Mr. Wynn..

Walking Dead and Sons of Anarchy are just normal slot machines

I figured. They just have a lot of noise and pictures and whatnot I guess. I've seen the Big Bang Theory slot, which I imagine is the same.

Yes, they are "those" types of games. Lots of bonus games, animation, etc to keep things interesting. Chance of meaningful score = likely near zero. We play them purely for the entertainment (in that sense, they're probably healthier than the VP machines, where I always think I can actually make a "score", probably should be playing those purely for the entertainment as well).

Thanks. Given how things ended I wish I hadn't deleted the pics, but I've got a few more for the final installment...

Day 4, con't

We go to lunch at the basic cafe as my wife and the nanny were hoping for healthy food, something like a salad. My dad is flush from his massive score and gives me 2k to play with- thanks, dad. I'll take anything at this point and the generosity is humbling. After a decent/basic meal, it's nap-time for the kids and my wife and I try to play Walking Dead again while the nanny stays with the kids. Finally, the machine is unoccupied. We play for a couple of hours and don't hit the grand jackpot for 660K LDO but we do end up 200$ ahead. So now there is more money for WD later that night (the final night).

The agenda for the late afternoon and evening = my parents and I will go to the Encore ballroom for the "final drawing" of an event the Wynn has been having all month. Essentially, for every 5k in pts you play, you get a ticket to be entered into this drawing, Sat 6pm. Must be present to win, no exceptions. First prize is 135k in cash, second is 75k in freeplay, and they award 10 spots. I know I don't have any real shot but any shot is better than none, and given my dad has been in LV all month (and can rack up points with the best of them) he's gotta have a ton of tickets. In fact, when my mom prints his out for him and we put them in the drawing drum, it appears by my rough estimation he's got about 15-20% of the tickets in play. No joke.

The build up to this- when I go to the booth to find out how many tickets I qualify for, I have... one. ONE WHOLE f'ing ticket from a few days' worth of play, getting raped for over 5 figures... Unbelievable. But hey! The lady says I'm "200 pts away" from another ticket and I have 1/2 hr to earn it! Well, that should be easy, right? My wife and I head to the VP machine to put in just enough play to get a second ticket. I assume this will only take a few pushes.

I knew the Wynn was stingy with their pts. I knew that I generally earn about 10k pts over a few days. What I didn't realize was just HOW LOW the pt payback is on full pay machines. As I, we were literally gaining 1/2 a pt per 25$ bet. At that rate I could pump another 1k into the machine trying to earn a few measly pts. I'm glad I realized this early on- solution: head back to Walking Dead. Playing penny slots made the pts shoot through the roof- I think we earned the outstanding points in about 10 min of play. So now I get my big 'ol second ticket and drop it in the drawing drum.

As we will be at the Encore already, and it's tough for my dad to get around, we decide to eat at Sinatra (Italian). I have been looking forward to this since we got to Vegas. Alas, they can't seat us until 9:30?! which obv won't do for the kids, so we go with Wazuzu, also at the Encore, basically Asian/fusion. My wife says "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm getting sick of Chinese food" and I actually agree with her. Oh well, what are you going to do?

The drawing

The ballroom is done up really nicely- full bar, lots of tables, lots of food stations. Think basically your typical wedding, with a center stage comprised of a drawing drum, the MC and a stage as opposed to the wedding parties' table LOL. There are quite a few people, by my estimate maybe 200 but you know a bunch are non-playing family members/friends so I'm sure we've got a shot!

Because you can only win one prize (which is a good way to do it), they draw from the top down- 1st first, then second, etc. If the drawn person is not there, they move on. So it's a little anti-climatic in the sense that the prizes keep getting less and less valuable. 1st... doesn't go to us. Of course. Nor 2nd. Nor 3rd. Every time we miss, I'm texting my wife "**** this some other donk". Miss 4th.

5th- they REDRAW the person who came in 1st. WTF. OK, she can't win again so draw again. The redraw the person who came in 2nd! WTF?!! How well can you people run?! They redraw again. Not us.

With each passing spot, the prizes are getting smaller and I'm getting more and more tilted with each miss. 8th-10th are only 5K in freeplay but obv we'll take anything at this point. Miss. Miss. Miss.

Wall of texts to my wife, all started with the word "****".

We head to dinner- I've got one last 2K bullet in my pocket but I am a defeated man.

Gotta stop for now- remainder of update coming soon...

Our entertainment as well.

so much this

Final night

I think I mentioned that we eat at Wazuzu since Sinatra couldn't get us in until it was too late for the kids. It's basically Asian fusion. The food is surprisingly good- we order Kalbi ribs, Panang curry, General Tso's chicken, some ramen noodle bowls, sushi, vegetables and black cod. I'd give the meal a general 7/10, bumped up to 8/10 bc I was surprised at how good things generally were.

Afterwards, we put the kids to bed and my mom agrees to watch them while my wife, the nanny and I go play. My wife wants to play WD so I hang out with her for a bit, then I suggest we fire my final VP bullet together- she pushes buttons, I correct any mistakes.

Not much time passes before we get dealt trip 3s with a kicker. She holds the cards, blithely pushes the "draw" button, and... the 4th one comes in! Well, that's a little too late, but at least we can play longer and I've got a shot of coming home with SOME money. She gets to hear the jackpot music and I finally show her the joys of receiving a stack of cash- with all the VP I've played, I can count on one hand the number of times she's played with me, and this is probably the first where she's been the one pushing/hitting the jackpot.

We play on. She gets trip 4's. I yell, "smash that 4th ****ing 4 one time" and she does, WITH the kicker. SWEET! We play for a bit more then she decides it's back to WD. I elect to stay, hoping against hope the machine has picked up, finally. We wish each other luck and I'm back in the driver's seat.

OK. If the machine's going to be good, it's now or never. Time for 2 dollar credits.

I get 3 aces, again. I draw and get-


Huh. Hit the 4th ace twice, no kicker either time, but it's 2$ credits and I'm stuck like a pig so SURE! I'll take the 3k.

It's on like a muthaphucka.



Obv I started taking pics again. Where was this run-good the previous few days? Whatever- let's keep going!

I fire 1k bullets at the machine, 200$ at a time. I cash out anytime I hit 400$ or more (so doubling what I put in). I just cannot lose- I lost track of the number of dealt fulls, dealt flushes, 3/5 two pair drawing turning into fulls, random non-premium quads, etc. Every 1k bullet I fired would turn into 1.2k, 1.5k, etc. I tell myself when I fire a completely dry 1k bullet I will re-eval, likely stop and go to bed. It's now past midnight and the wife and nanny have gone to bed, but I simply cannot stop now that I'm finally having fun and winning some money.

I believe I have about 3k left (with another 6k in ticket locked up) when I get dealt 3 aces again.



FINALLYONETIMEYOUSONOFABITCH!!!!

What a relief, to finally hit the top prize. I now have about 17k and am basically even- by my math, still down given my parents contributed some gambling money, but what a recovery. I fire another 1k bullet which turns into 500$, then another 1k bullet which is dry. OK, that's enough. Thank the flying spaghetti monster, I have survived another trip to LV!

Final AM/final goodbye

With 4 hrs of sleep, I wake up at 6:30am knowing I need to be up at 7 anyways. Might as well get some coffee. Maybe I can fire another bullet at the machines before we have to rush pack, join my parents for one last breakfast and head to the airport...

Feed 100$ in. Two 3's, 3 of which turn into trips and the 4th into a full house. OK, that's a good start. Might I still have run good from the night before? Second hand- two 3's again. I have this feeling the machine is trying to tell me 3's are awesome.



Yeah, 3's are awesome.

I plow 500$ into the machine total, and take my final 1500$ sendoff gift back upstairs. More good news- my wife hit WD for about 800$, so we're bringing home almost 20k as a family.

Final math- it's complicated, bc my parents gave me several k and independently also gave my wife about 1k to play with. I also gave my wife about 500$ and she finished with 2.3k. When all is said and done, we're stuck only 1k for the trip. I WILL PHUCKING TAKE THAT ANY DAY, especially given how things were for the majority.

Thanks again for reading- sorry for general lack of pics; you know the reason, and next time, win or lose, I won't quit on the pics knowing how things can turn around...

how were you able to sit at those machines for so long with that golden horseshoe up your ass?

So sick. Thanks for sharing!

Love the tr's, so glad you made a comeback!


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Haha, horseshoe was only there for the last few hrs or so.

I don't have the slightest clue of how VP works or anything but you really put on a great TR Leon. Well done. Very enjoyable read.


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Pretty easy really- feed bills in. Push buttons. Leave with less money than you came with. Easy game.

And you're damn good at it.

Always fun reading. Thanks Leon.

GFJ

Yet another Vegas trip! 2/2-2/7

Well friends, I just wrapped up another impromptu Vegas trip, which means another TR. I made sure to take pics (and keep them) this time to make up for the TR from the week before. Speaking of, how come another trip a few days after the last, you ask? Well-

a. Why not?
b. Parents still in town; they replaced their TV at their condo, but it's still perfectly good and they offered it to me. Downside- I need to drive out and get it. Upside- free 60in TV and an excuse to go to Vegas.
c. Main reason- spend time with my parents; given my dad's condition I'm not sure how many more gambling sessions we'll get in together. Plus when I'm there, I can take my dad to/from the Wynn, which in turn frees up my mom and puts a lot less burden on her.

So, the plan was to drive out morning of 2/2 and come back 2/7. Should miss all the traffic that way barring some unexpected accident. Brought 10k with me- not enough if I run bad, but given my near recovery last week (see previous TR) and the fact I'm trying not to give away as much this year, it'll have to do. If I donk off more than that I know I'll be really upset at myself. I'll be staying at my parents' condo with them- it will make going to the Wynn more of a pain, but ability to donk money off is greatly reduced. Good trade off, IMO.


Bankroll pic.

Thursday

I leave SD around 9:15am and make good time. Not much to say about the drive, other than it is long and boring. I can confirm peeing in a bottle while driving is harder than it sounds- I'm lucky I didn't have any sort of accident, automotive or otherwise. I got into Las Vegas shortly after 2pm.



Pic from the balcony of my parents' condo. The Riviera used to be where this giant parking lot is now. I'm not used to this view yet, probably will never been. South side of the strip is to the left.

I throw down some homemade curry (simply the best, my mom is an awesome cook and long ago perfected the recipe). Honestly I don't think any restaurant can compare. Forgot to take a pic of my mom's food, as home food is for eating, not for displaying

Afterwards, it's gamble time at the Wynn. I hope my run-good at 2$ credits can continue, and start off at those stakes. Alas, I get nothing and am 2K in the hole almost immediately. I then step down to 1$ credits and of course pick up some nice draws-







Of course even more standardly, all of them blank.

I'm down 3k and it's not even dinner. Not a good start. I decide to see how my dad is doing. He's in the hi-limit room, also losing. He tends to machine hop when he's losing and wants to move to another machine. I help him, and as I'm getting him situated I notice the machine says "triple double bonus" on Ultimate X, for 1$ credits. Huh- I thought the smallest denom was 5$. This is good! Let's check the paytable-

9/7. Full pay TDB on UX for 1$! WOW!

I convince my dad to play, and partner up with him for 20%. This is to be a recurring theme for us during this trip- we'll fire 2.5k bullets at the machine, with me contributing 500$ and getting 20% of all jackpots.

We get this early on-



Great pull, but unfortunately no multipliers. Any fan of UX can tell you if you don't make hands on multipliers it's ultimately not that big of a deal. This even goes for royals, etc. You're paying for the multipliers every hand so when you make something, you need it times 2, 3, 4... I get 400$ of this so my stake is essentially paid for.

Dinner is at Allegro. We're there mostly to satisfy hunger as opposed to have a really nice time, and it does that job adequately. I'd give the food a 6-7/10. I get the veal parm, mom gets the eggplant parm and dad gets the osso bucco.



Eggplant parm. A little salty but otherwise good.



Veal parm, side of spaghetti.



Osso Bucco with ribbon pasta. A little sweet.

After dinner, we play for a bit more. My dad and I partner up again but we don't hit anything. They decide to go home (we drove separate cars planning on this) and I decide to keep playing, semi-tilted from being about 4k down. I figure screw it, might as well make it half my stake or hit something before bed. I play UX on my own, knowing the 1k could go super fast.

With about 200$ left, I get dealt quads-



Which is worth-



So lucky to get dealt quads, and that of course is a nice score. Of course, knowing I had two 12x multipliers working and this is TDB... had those been aces, 2, 3, or 4s... oh man. I'm still thinking what could have been almost a week later.

So now I'm up. Of course I decide to keep playing. Of course I hit nothing. I stuff every bit of profit back into the machine until common sense kicks in- I've got a few days to go. I head back to my parents' dead even.

Day 1 result = 0.

Day 2 coming soon...

Big treat for us fanboys of yours that you have another trip report so soon!

Love the food pics, too.

Funny on those Quad 10's how you sent back the kicker..the few times I drew quads with a useless kicker I just keep all 5 cards..

This thread is an absolute 1st ballot inductee into the LVL Hall of Fame. Well done my good man... well done!!!


BTW: Do you happen to have a pic from your parents balcony when the Riviera was there? Would be interesting to see the before and after. They must have had a great view for the implosion!

Thank You Leon!

I mostly do it bc I want to hear "ding ding ding ding ding" as each card comes in, as opposed to one "doink" which is the sound it makes when you keep a pat hand