Local For A Week.

We had a super great time in Las Vegas last week. The weather was so great with highs in the 80's a lot of sun no wind just perfect. Didn't even have to wear a jacket at all.
The flights both coming and going were very good as we arrived both times early and never had any issues with our bags or anything else. However at the LV airport coming home they use those new scanning machines and I was pulled over for extra screening due to the machine showing "something" up my left leg. I told them it was probably my 12 inch plate in my leg. They rub up my leg and lo and behold felt a plate! " Oh I do feel it sir" was all they could say. Next time maybe I should wear a towel wrapped around my head and not shave and thus the P/C thing to do would be to let me through without incident!
Stayed at the Palace Station which is a local's casino about 2 miles from the strip behind Circus Circus. Since my father in law needed a way to get to the car show we rented a car out at the airport. In LV they charge a 47 percent tax on car rentals! Kid you not. The quoted price for our small Ford was about 140 but after the taxes and gas etc. it came to almost 300 dollars! Ouch.
The rooms at the Palace were in fact quite nice and good size. The hotel staff was nothing but nice at all locations that we visited. However the food at times was not so great. We ate mostly at the buffet because it was cheap and decent food much like a Furr's would be. However we also ate at the cafe which was horrible and very over priced with terrible service. My 10 dollar hamburger ( when I finally got it) tasted like a manhole cover. We also had a meal at their steakhouse. The prices were quite high with my steak about 32 bucks alone. The salad bar and clam chowder soup were quite good but the steak itself was quite dry and had a very plain taste to it. Plus they only had one waiter that night to attend to over 30 people! Add all this into the fact that my father-in-law got sick just before he was served his meal and had to go back to his room, and well you get the picture. Then the bill came to about 160 dollars with tip.
Gambling wise the Palace Station offered a lot in the VP area in which to play this is due to being a "locals place" I'm sure. We did go to a lot of the strip places this trip and their VP offerings were quite horrible to say the least. They can get away with this because most locals do not ever play at the Strip places just because of this fact. My gambling results were not great but not bad either. I hit 3's with a kicker once for 200 dollars and Aces on BP once for 100. I could only play at the quarter level ( sometimes 50c) due to my low bankroll for the trip. Ended up winning 240 overall which is not too bad. Had a amazing 24 4 to the Royal hands during my trip! Oh well we will get them next time.
My wife had a great first night as she hit 10 Quads and was up close to 400 dollars! However the next 3 days she went "Quad Dead" and slowly took her winnings. She ended up about 50 bucks.
Funny things that happened: Well let me introduce you to Frank. He is a local 83 years old and drives a 68 Mustang. He comes in and plays the bar-top video poker machines twice a week for hours on end. I saw him on Wednesday night at 10pm and he was still playing at 4pm on Thursday afternoon trying to hit the progressive Royal which had reached over 1600 dollars! The bartender told me that Frank does this about twice a week in which he will spend almost whole days there at the bar playing! What a hobby but hey it allows him to have something to do and he gets around real well for his age. He also loves to smoke cigarettes so when he asked me for a light I used the time to talk with him for awhile. He lives but only 2 miles away and said he hits about 2 to 3 Royals a month during on average during his normal play. He never plays anything but quarter VP and just loves living and playing in LV. Hey I just hope I have half of this guys energy when I reach his age.
The other interesting thing was I kept seeing this other guy playing VP at the bar all week long. I knew that I had seen this guy somewhere at sometime during my life but couldn't place him. Finally on my last night (Thursday) I looked up and saw him looking at me and could see he was thinking the same thing. He came over and asked me my name and then it hit both of us where we had met. We were both part of a bowling team in Dallas Texas back in '92 when I lived down there going to school! Small world indeed. He is now retired and moved to LV back in 2001. Like Frank he lives in the neighborhood and plays VP there every night. He loves living there too as he said the fact that the food is cheap and no income tax really helps him. Plus playing VP as a hobby keeps him young. Just wild that we would meet some 2000 miles away 18 years later.
Coming home from a LV trip is never fun and having to get up at 4am to reach our early morning flight out really is not too fun at all! This week at work has been very hard since all I want to do is sleep it seems. But all in all we had a super great trip, and the wife got to spend some time with her father who said he had a great time as well. Hey we got out of time, won a little money and meet some old and new friends... can't beat that. Our next trip out probably won't be until Feb. but by then the bankroll should be back up and ready to go. More later.

Happy Halloween!

Most people probably went out trick or treating last night but I'm thinking some will go out and party tonight. Looking at the kids outfits last night was fun and made me remember fondly of a time many many years ago when my friends and I would venture out for candy. It was fun then and I do hope that today's kids had fun as well as that is what it is all about. Times change I know and I do hate most of the changes but kids, Halloween, candy and fun should always remain and I hope it does.

Yesterday was spent in Tulsa with my wives family there and it was fun to see everyone and have a few laughs. We don't see them much throughout the year so when we do get the chance it seems like we always have a blast. We will all meet up on Thanksgiving which is something to really look forward to. Of course I learned a week ago that I have to work Thanksgiving Night which sucks but in this day and age we are all just pretty much happy to have a job. Which reminds me of the upcoming elections on Tuesday. It is so important for our country now and the future so I hope everyone gets out and votes. We all did our early voting on Friday and look forward to seeing the returns in LV this week. Can there be anything better than drinking some crisp brew playing videopoker and watching us take our country back?!

On the gambling practice front I'm more than ready. This morning I hit a Royal for 4K on the simulator putting me at + 5100 for my practice sessions. Hope this turns into a sort of omen for the upcoming trip. Today will be spent checking the message boards, cleaning and packing. I got up at 5am and have been going strong since. I already printed our SW boarding passes ( A of course) and I'm more than ready to get out of here and enjoy myself. I had two sets of friends in LV this past week and have not heard from either group. Usually this is a bad sign since all gamblers like to talk about there trips like little old ladies getting together. Hope their results were great and that they just had too much jet-lag to reach me as yet.

Let's see I already have gone to the bank, store and got the bags all out ready to be packed with clothes and goodies for the plane trip. We have to leave for the airport at 6am but I love arriving in LV early in the morning and then have a nice long day to ease yourself into the new time zone and of course the gambling and crazy encounters that always arise while one is there. Looking forward to everything. So the countdown has started as we are now talking hours rather than days or weeks to go. Doesn't get any better than this!

Pumped For Las Vegas!

Only 2 more days to go and I will be in the Big City trying my luck and watching all the sights and listening to all the crazy sounds that always go on there during a visit. I sort of wish we would be there for Halloween as it is always a special and crazy time but that will have to wait until next year. Of course the mid-term elections will be going on and this year it is huge in Nevada as they try to get rid of Harry Reid once and for all.

Let's wrap up what happened this week leading up to the big trip. First of all it always seems like the week before a vacation seems to drag on and on and this week it followed that pattern for sure. On Tuesday the wife was hit by a 84 year old women driving beside her in a non-lane and just took out her car! The car was towed away and the old lady was put in a police squad car and taken away too. Thank god she had insurance. The next day was spent dealing with her insurance agency and trying to get our car fixed and a rental car for the wife. After yelling and screaming and threats and many phone calls things were finally taken care of. However the wife then had to have a procedure done to her back on Thursday where they inject a jell like substance into her spine to take away the pain. Lovely way to get ready for a vacation trip! However the doctor assured her that within 4 days she should be pain free and ready for her trip. We will see but gosh she is really in alot of pain right now.

We also booked a room at Palace Station for ourselves and the first 3 nights were free with the last night having a rate of only 29 dollars. Why the Palace Station? Well since we have not been out there since April, the longest such time between trips in 15 years, this was the only free offer we had left. Plus my father in law is going for a convention and is staying there as well so this will make it easy for us to get together. Anyway the Palace Station is not too bad. It is off the strip but they offer a free shuttle to the strip every 30 minutes and pick you up and drop you off at the airport. The food is good and cheap and the gambling is very good do to it being considered a "locals casino". So all in all not too bad. It is not Mandalay Bay but hey it is not bad.

Today everyone wants to go up to Tulsa to see family and have a visit. Don't know yet if I will make the trip as I have a lot of things to do here to get ready for the trip and spending a day out of town may be a little too much. Plus my nephew's little kitten took a fall and hurt her hip and now has trouble getting around and probably needs someone here to watch her and give her pain pills to her etc.

On the gambling front I have had very little time to work on my VP strategy for this trip and I need to make some final adjustments to it and get ready. My bankroll has shrunk with having to use this money to take care of pain in the ass everyday problems that always seem to come around every payday! As it stands now I have enough to play only up to the 50c maybe (maybe) the dollar level but that would be pushing it. It really does not matter since this trip is really all about finding out once and for all if this VP strategy works or not and that can be seen at the 25c or 50c level.

As for the weather in LV during our trip we lucked out there as it is suppose to be in the high 80's with a lot of sun! Amazing for November and great for us. As it stands now no shows are planned but I'm sure we will probably see something during our stay. So much is to get done and planned in the next 48 hours. However with the work thing done it is time to start getting ready and prepared to kick some ass... More later.

Six Days To Go!

Well it has been awhile since my lost post but things here on the old homefront got very busy last week and I think I must have caught a cold or something in Reno as I have not felt well since we got back. Spent all of last week working on a new Video Poker Strategy to try out in Las Vegas next week. The problem for this trip is that due to other "life" things popping up, I have had to use part of my gambling bankroll on other things.... Ouch. Thus I will have a short bankroll for my upcoming trip and will probably only be able to play up to the 50c level or maybe dollars. Still I feel very good about where my game is right now and confident that this is going to be a very good trip gambling wise. Let's hope so.

Last week I practiced so much that my hand starting hurting and I had to cut back on the practice time. I have not been out to the Great City since April and this is the longest period of time between trips for me in the past 15 years! Thus I wanted to make sure I made the most of it and I believe I finally have came up with something that is less risk but still has a great chance to take home some of the casinos money.

After working last night I now only have 4 more work days before vacation and believe me I'm ready. Hope the weather out there holds up as it is in the 70's with lows in the 50's right now which is fine by me. We are staying at Palace Station with my father in law and I have been thinking that we should ask for the " O.J. Simpson suite when we check in. Yes this is the hotel where he got busted for trying to steal back his stuff that he had lost due to the lawsuit. Wonder if the suite comes with gloves, blood spots and pictures of a White Bronco etc.?

On the home front have not really done much of anything due to feeling tired and worn down. Did watch the season finale of Mad Men. Oh my Don is getting married again! Liked it much better early in the season when he was on his own. It ended with it being June of 1966 so next season should be the start of the war and peace movements, sit ins etc. If you haven't watched it do yourself a favor and take a look someday. Great show and won the award for " Best Drama" again this year. One of only 4 shows that I watch on tv anymore.

The rest of this week will be spent trying to feel better, start to decide what to pack for trip and also of course practicing VP on the computer. Really hard to decide what to pack this time of year when you go out there. In summer and spring you know it is going to be hot and the packing is easy but fall and winter can be tricky. Friends of mine just got done with that problem as they left this morning for a 7 day trip. Oh my this is their 10th trip out there this year already and if they have a good trip they are booked for Thanksgiving Week. Wish I had the chance to go as often as they do. Oh well maybe after I win the lottery or some long lost uncle remembers me in his will!

Now it is time to get some work done and something to eat before dragging my tired ass back down to work. Why is it that the week right before vacation always seems to drag on the longest?

Lazy Sunday

This weekend has been a lazy affair with not much going on and I sort of like it that way for a change. I'm now two weeks away from my Las Vegas trip and this is the time I usually check the weather reports there everyday hoping that everything holds up for my trip. I have been going out there the first week of November every year since 1996 and the weather has always been great, not too hot or too cold. There have been a couple of years where it rained and once it snowed on me out in Henderson and then cleared within 1 hour and shot back up into the 60's! That was really a strange day as we went into our favorite BBQ place, Lucille's and when we came out it was in the 40's and very overcast and I noticed white stuff coming down. Little kids were out running in it wearing shorts and t-shirts and we went into Green Valley Ranch to do some gambling. Everybody in the casino was talking about it and after a couple of hours we went back outside and it was sunny and 62 degrees! Love it when that happens.

I did spend about 6 hours practicing on my VP play yesterday so much so that my arm started hurting a little bit. I think I'm making some type of progress my need to tink with a few things and also let my mind get around the fact that I may have to play up to the 5 dollar level if I do decide to play this certain strategy. That is 25 dollars a hand... Ouch. Don't know if I can really go through with it but I will have to do so if I want to follow my code of "always doing what I said I was going to do". We will see but I have to get a lot more comfortable within in the next 2 weeks or will chicken out on the whole thing.

Today is being spent re-doing my DVR since Cox has felt the need to change everything around with a new software program. Why does it always seem that whenever these companies change their products to a "new and improve" deal the product always without fail seems to suck big time! Maybe I just don't like change in any form..LOL as I'm getting old you know. But I just always feel like we they change and "improve" these things it just goes downhill. We will see.

Once that is done I guess I will make lunch which will be pasta again which has become somewhat of a Sunday tradition here the past month or so. Then it will be nap time while I "watch" some NFL football. I have to go back into work tonight so I better rest up. I have a new co-worker starting on my shift tonight so I hope nothing major happens! Hope everyone enjoys their Sunday. More later.

Waking Up In Reno

Well the Reno trip is done and over with and what a blast I had. Meeting up with my dad was so great and the people of Reno are some of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. So let's go over the highlights of a very fine moment of time for me.

The weather in Reno had turned cold and wet. Two days before I arrived it was in the 90's and then when I got there it was in the 50's with heavy rain. Where my dad lives and was driving up from they had a freak snow storm of 5 inches and closed all of the passes into Reno/Tahoe area. What should have been a 2 or so hour drive for him turned into a 4 and one half hour nightmare each way.

The Harrahs charter was very good and smooth. The flights both out there and back went off without a hitch. The bus rides from and back to the airport went great as well and they even take care of your bags and drop them off in your room when you arrive. Can't give them anything but high marks for the whole operation and for under 200 bucks you can't beat it.

Our room at Harrahs was good size clean and ok. Nothing special but nothing bad either and for free it is quite alright. The casino and hotel area itself was somewhat of a maze in itself. I talked with a security guard and was informed that the complex itself is actually 10 different buildings chopped up and turned into one hotel! Yes it was a maze of confusion but towards the end of the week I was almost getting use to getting around.

The food was above average and free. That is right every meal but one there was taken care of. The only problem is that most eating places in all of the Reno hotels, were closed except for the weekends. Your choices were very limited during the week because of this. I'm a basic eater and the choices that I did have were good enough for me and I didn't go hungry at all.

The city of Reno itself is quite a charming place. It is not Las Vegas but then again it never tries to be. Everyone I met and I mean everyone was very very nice. Everybody I talked to that lives there just loves it and wouldn't leave for anything and why would they with all that that place has to offer. Within an hours drive you can be at Tahoe, Carson City, Virginia City, California or Pryamid Lake etc. All sorts of things to do and see in and around the city itself. They have a beautiful Riverwalk area with the Truckee River running right through the middle of the town. Shops eating places coffee houses and casinos line the streets of the Riverwalk. Very cool place that you can even raft down yourself if you wish too. Loved it myself and spent a couple of hours there twice while I was there.

The casinos are above average in Reno. The downtown casinos of which there are 9 remind me a lot of downtown Las Vegas. The Silver Legacy, Eldorado and Harrahs are nice the rest kind of run down and not so great. Fun to walk the streets and look in the little gift shops and walk under the "Biggest Little City In The World" sign. Only problem was the homeless and bums of which there are quite a lot running all over the downtown area. Also they have been hit hard by the current times as most mom and pop stores and eating places are all out of business and boarded up. Some big time places like Red Lobster and Olive Garden are out of business there as well. Very sad to see and makes you think about how bad times are in this country.

Seeing my dad was great but due to the weather driving and the fact that he is getting up there in age and has very bad knees lead to not being able to spend as much time with him as I would have liked. We were able to talk and have a great breakfast one day and took a drive up to and spend the day at Virginia City which is so cool. It is a old western town with shops and a Mark Twain office tour as well as some neat bars. It's location is above 6900 feet so the views and drive up there was so cool and I took a lot of pictures. At some points you are actually above the tree line and will look out and see houses built right into the mountains... very cool. We were going to go and check out Tahoe too but because of time and weather we decided to wait until another time and day to do that. We all had a wonderful dinner at Atlantis which is a beautiful hotel outside the downtown area. This place looks like it would be at place right in the middle of the Las Vegas strip. Our dinner was great as I had a fish dish with crab meat on top of it. Very nice. Soon however it was time for dad to head back home and we said our goodbyes and both had teary eye looks and empty stomach feelings as he drove off. His drive home was horrible as he met up with fog,rain,sleet and snow. All this in the first week of October! Side note here the day after we left the weather turned back to nice with sunny skies and highs in the 80's again. We just picked the wrong week to go.

Gambling wise all of the casinos had good to great Video poker games. As I said the Atlantis and Peppermill hotels were very very nice and rival the best hotels in Las Vegas. The strategy I used is based on getting Quads of which you should get at least once in every 400 hands and I can play over 600 hands an hour. So if you go almost 2 days without a Quad well you can probably tell how bad I was feeling. Also I didn't want to risk too much of my bankroll what with a Las Vegas trip only a couple of weeks off. At one point I was down almost 300 bucks and was ready to just give up take a losing trip and cut my losses and start preparing for my LV trip. Then I had a rush hitting Aces, bonus 4's twice and finished up hitting some smaller quads to bring myself all the way back and icked out a 125 dollar trip win. Heck I will take it after being down so much to start with. However I have just about decided to dump this strategy since any strategy that has the fact that Quads have to be made to win with it is just a little too risky I think because you can go into droughts like I did that just kill your whole thought pattern. I would rather play a safe strategy that grinds away little wins at a time and Quads are just a great bonus. That is what I'm spending the weekend on practicing and have been since 4am this morning. Still a lot of work to do on it though but I wanted to get this report out before I forgot about it or just decided to shuck the whole thing and this blog site altogether.

Final thoughts: Reno is a quaint little town with a lot going for it through location and beauty. The people are very very nice and are happy to be living there. The weather in the winter months would probably be way too much for me since I hit the white stuff so much. The gambling is good and of course regulated unlike Indian casinos so that makes it nice. Will I visit again? Probably yes as it is and was a nice place to take a vacation and a break from the wildness that can be Las Vegas at times. However LV is the Super Bowl of gambling and my favorite place on earth so my upcoming trip has got my so very pumped up! Have to know turn my attention to that and get ready! Thanks for reading.

Reno Baby!

Well the day has finally come for the Reno trip and later this afternoon I will be drinking a lot of beer and playing a lot of videopoker and winning a lot of money! At least let's hope so. I spent the weekend working on my plan of attack and the strategy I'm going to use and even though I feel very confident that I'm going to have a great trip, I finally realized I don't have the bankroll to play at the 1 dollar level this trip. When I factor in the fact that I will be in Las Vegas for another trip within 4 weeks then it is clear that I have to play within my means this trip. Thus I will be playing quarter, maybe half-dollar level this trip and that is fine with me. This way I won't have that added pressure of losing my bankroll when luck runs cold, and I can also see if this new strategy is indeed the one and will work in actual casino play.

The weather in Reno is going to be something else as it goes from 90's yesterday to 60's today with rain both today and tomorrow. Yuck! The rest of the week will be sunny with everyday in the 60's so at least no chance of snow for me this trip. However with this cold front out there my dad is concerned that he may very well hit some snow showers on his trip from California to meet up with me.

Spent the weekend looking up stuff on Reno and the area around it. Should be a beautiful place to take photos of and walk around the area. Hope to maybe do some fly fishing and of course eating some nice fresh trout too. I will be writing a report of the extra trip when I get back both the good and the bad. Let's just hope that everything falls into place for a very great trip that I can look back upon and remember forever with great thoughts!