Even with a 20K jackpot, that moon/sphere picture was the highlight of this report. Really cool.

Umm disagree completely but you're entitled to your opinion

Another great TR.... thanks for taking the time and sharing

I still can't get this thread to load...

Leon-SWEET as always!

Question-I’m staying at the Wynn for the first time, the first week of November. I’ve been to Sinatra and it was FANTASTIC. If you have to choose the best restaurant there that you go to which would you choose?

Maybe this is odd, but I don't think I'm the best person to ask. I've been to the restaurants too many times and am maybe too jaded? I dunno. Also, not paying for meals allows me to ignore the price, which obv should be factored in. I suppose my choice would primarily be influenced by what I was hungry for and what kind of atmosphere I was aiming for.

Good- Sinatra as you pointed out, Mizumi/SW/Wing Lei are all decent but nothing special IMO. You can find just as good Japanese/steak etc anywhere on the strip. Casa Playa is a little more unique, as is Delilah. So maybe one of those two?

Don't bother- Allegro, Lakeside (never been a huge fan of this place, the food is ok but for the price point not good enough).

Casual good- Red 8 and Wazuzu are both solid for a casual meal but I'm assuming that's not what you're looking for.

Honestly, the best place was Costa di Mare/Bartolotta, but alas it's been closed for years to make way for more luxury shops. Pretty stupid IMO.

Maybe best to walk next door to Venetian/Palazzo Restaurant Row then

Exactly what I was going to say.

‘Pound for pound’, Venetian/Palazzo restaurants are better than Wynn/Encore, ainec..

Agreed. I know I'm spoiled by having the Wynn many times (and not having to pay), but still... so many good restaurants at V/P.

leon, you mentioned F&B credit and lugging home good bourbon.

Do you do the schlepping home because the credit is only good for that one trip, and you're just maximizing it? Or does F&B carry over to next time if you have $ left?

The first reason exactly. If food/bev carried over you'd better believe I'd save it and be a lot more frugal with it. There have been plenty of times I'd like to treat more friends etc but with limited comp I can't go lighting it on fire.

It's kind of ironic bc if I could save food/bev comp, I might actually save the Wynn money in the long run. I'd just let it build up and be reasonable, every once in a while use a bunch, but I probably wouldn't use all of it, ever. As is, the Wynn is almost forcing me to use it up to "maximize value". Whatever- this is a war and I'll try and extract value any way I can

Leon, hi. I am a long ago low volume poster for LHE from around 2008-2010. In order to post this I had to sign up as a new user since the original account signup aol email is long gone.

And the impetus to re register is simply this:

I have spent the last week reading every one of your postings in all threads, in order, and I wanted to say thank you.

You obviously post for your own fun and maybe for a bit of history for your own sake. But I suspect you're also a regular human who enjoys a positive feedback loop now and then.

Your ability to have the reader vicariously enjoy your trips is the point of a TR. And yours are fantastic. I don't even play VP.

I have generated a list of questions but I will save those.

Hope you run good and get back for a trip before too long. Thank you for the years worth of entertainment that I am now caught up to.

Nice of you to say. You hit the nail on the head- I started this TR when I really thought I was going to go broke and it mostly was for preservation of the memories. Now it's something that I want to keep going, I do enjoy getting to share the highs and lows and of course receiving positive feedback is a powerful motivator to keep going

The superstitious part of me is also afraid to stop- I feel like if I ever have a trip and don't start intending to document the gods will find a way to punish me.

Feel free to fire away with questions- part of the reason I stretch the TRs out is to keep myself amused between Vegas trips. So logging in to the thread in any way also keeps me engaged.

Oct 19-22 TR

Just got back obv. I'm gonna probably type this up in more frequent, but smaller chunks bc my neck has really been bothering me (for years off and on, it's about 5 months on at this point. It's a disc issue and not the point of this post).

This was a solo trip for me. I knew that the > 3 mo break that would result from my last trip in Sept, to next one at some point in Dec, would be too long without another one in there somewhere. Told myself I'm not going in Nov bc of F1 and Thxsgiving, so that left this past weekend. I tried in vain to get any friends/family I could to go, knowing a solo trip COULD be a total unfun disaster if I run bad. Alas, I couldn't find anyone, and the only thing worse than bad Vegas is no Vegas, so...

Agenda- not much of one. I did try and arrange some non-gambling things ahead of time in case it's terrible. It's also my Bday month so I have 1k more free credit and 800 more food/bev comp than I usually get. Definitely take the FC, no way I use up all that food comp.

Thurs- get in, dinner at Sinatra
Fri- dinner at International Smoke at MGM, Piano bar at NYNY
Sat- dinner at Wing Lei
Sun- head home

Bankroll- 50k

Day 1

Get the standard delay notification while at home. Cancel my Lyft, reschedule another one, eat the cancellation fee, cue rolling Southwest "more, less, no more, no less" delay BS. I decide I'm just going to the airport with my new Lyft- I'm not eating another cancellation fee and if my flight gets cancelled... at least I'm already at the airport if I need to find a new flight. Good thing, bc I get to the airport and am greeted with this-



WTF.

Apparently all the SW kiosks are down. The app is intermittently working also. It doesn't really matter, bc I'm checking a bag and need the kiosk. I swear, domestic travel is just the F'ing nut low these days. There are zero good domestic airlines, there's only bad and worse. The only silver lining is that since my flight is so delayed, I probably will still make it through this line.

Eventually, I get my bag checked, and eventually, the plane takes off.



Never gets old.



I belly up to my usual, with a double of Stagg in hand. At least they've got that back in stock!





I played for a solid hr before I hit those two above. I believe the first got me even, I gave more back, and the second put me just slightly up. At least I'm not getting buried which is always my fear in a solo trip. Obv I never want to get buried, but it's the worst if I'm by myself bc I don't even have anyone to hang out with or do non-gambling things. I decide to change it up and switch to spin poker.





I'm hitting at least. The machine is definitely generally warm.



First 5 digit hit! 1 down, 2 to go to make a trip win a near-"guarantee" (as any frequent reader of these TRs knows).


Second five digit hit!!!! Man this machine is hot. I thought this one was particularly awesome. I didn't have a kicker to hold, but it's like I did because all the lines that mattered intersected with a kicker as well. So beautiful.

I decide to take a break and head up to the room. I'm starving and hopefully my free goodies have arrived. Also, I need to survive this weekend, my neck is killing me and I'm sure some stretching and PT would be better for me than more gambling.



They've changed their set up a bit. Visually more appealing, sandwiches are slightly worse though.

After a quick snack and stretch, I get changed for dinner and hit spin again. If it's hot, it's hot.



Jesus this machine is so hot. This last hit, almost same comments as the last 5 digit hit. No kicker to hold. Yet, I make quad premiums with a kicker on 2 of 3 lines!



What a frickin' run at spin. I was honestly unhappy when it was time to go to dinner. Obv I gave quite a bit back between those hits, and there was a ridiculous mini high limit/multiline session in there where I donked off 5k in like 3 min. Still, well up, and a very strong opening to the trip...

Day 1 so far- +20k

What a start!!!!

leon, have you tried flying alaska?
always solid in my experience

I know you've been jetsetting around the world recently, so you might have missed this little tidbit.

so avoid the flights operated by horizon

from my understanding, you need to tip every hand pay?

isn't that exhaustive/financially devastating given you play stakes where all big hits are going to be hand pays

You don’t have to tip every hand pay since you don’t actually get hand pays. Leon plays at the Wynn where it is automatically processed by the machine, nobody is involved. You just enter your pin and clear it.

Well, first of all you don't have to tip. Secondly, when I did it I averaged out to about 1% or less of the jackpot. My base tip was 10$ (less than 1% of 1200 min hand pay) and it would go down as jackpots went up. So when I hit 50 or 100k I'd give them 200-500 and definitely wasn't giving 1% of the big hits.

Lastly, for years now I've been on self/autopay at both my local and the Wynn. So I tip right at the beginning when I set it up, and then no more for the session unless I hit an absolute monster that requires the casino manager/staff to unlock haha. I'd love to have the opportunity to tip more lol.

Rest of Day 1

I'm eating dinner at Sinatra.



As I'm looking at the menu, I consciously tell myself, "don't order the same damn thing (veal parm and truffle pasta) AGAIN". The problem is, I see nothing else that really catches my eye except the wagyu combo. It's not the money- I've got plenty of food comp. But the Wagyu just doesn't sound good on its own. The waiter comes to tell me the specials- I'm expecting to hear the same truffle pasta, but lo and behold they've changed it up a bit! This one is a ricotta stuffed ravioli, with a soft cooked egg inside and... the white truffles. OK, that sounds interesting and something that might pair with the wagyu. So, I go for those two and accomplish something I haven't done in years at Sinatra- order something different.



Wagyu came with a side of potatoes, didn't need the extra carbs.



Just wanted to show the inside of the pasta. I realize it's not an appetizing pic.

Overall, wagyu was a 7/10. Not bad, nothing amazing and let's be honest, it's hard to mess up wagyu. The pasta was an 8/10- decent but a little too heavy to pair with the Wagyu. If I had to do it again, I'd get something green- way too much fat and zero vegetables.

After dinner, I head back to the Wynn, ready to see if things are still hot! I test out hi limit first.




Hi limit was definitely not hot, and I post a ?5k loss there. Head to UX, 10 lines, and dump another 5k really fast. So annoying. I drop to five lines, and OF COURSE get my first dealt quads of the trip.



HOLY F!

I briefly think "why can't this be at 10 lines??!" before I fully realize the value. Multipliers everywhere, 4x2000x5. 40k. It's quite a hit.

I'm now up about 50k for the day. Again move to 10 lines, again give back about 5k ultra fast. ARGH. Back to 5 lines.



Cruising along, second dealt quads of the day and trip!



Not nearly as good as the first.

Back to 10 lines.



Somehow, despite being up almost 50k, I manage to donk off 10k at 10 lines again. I'm getting a little tired and decide to take the (still) massive 1st day win.



View from the room

Day 1 result- +40k
dealt quads- 2, one premium with kicker!

Day 2

Wake up at my usual 5am. In some ways, I'm ok with not having a slot tourney/circus circus and kids/etc on the agenda today bc no matter what I have no excuse for not taking a nap. Start off at UX and it's cold, spin is also cold, I'm down 10k for the AM before I come to my senses and move to old school/"less variance".



JEEZ. Twice from a pair, but no kicker either time. At least I've moved to 2$ credits.





I'm somehow up again for the AM! I move to hi limit, hoping things have gotten better there. I play a little big and... get totally screwed. DOWN 10k for the AM again! Why is hi limit so cold? Back to spin, which was so hot yesterday.



OH. MY. As can be seen, spin was still hot. Plenty of pairs into premiums, etc.

What a nice AM run. I head to breakfast up 10k for the day, and 50k for the trip!

To be continued...

If you don't mind, how much do you tip at the beginning without knowing what will happen? Or do you also tip at the end when you pick up your W2G? Is the autopay something you have to setup every day? What happens if you don't pick up the W2G? They mail it to you? One per day for this too?

Great run so far, leon!

I give them 10$ for the initial paperwork. I do have to set up autopay every day, and I never pick up individual W2s, I get an itemized summary at the end of the year.