Hey Now!
AC Nov 8-11 2014
11.08.2014 South to get east to get north yet again...
Once again, welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. My Sweet Ti went west to the mountains of VA for a Spiritual retreat, and Yarma, Stretch and I went the other 3 directions for a Gamboling retreat. Made great time due to the ludicrous hour.
Found a killer parking spot right next to the elevators on the 1st floor. Got to Resorts about 11:30 a.m. First stop was to the player's club to sign up for today's slot tourney. Next I loaded up $50 of free play into my Emergency Backup VP Machine. $1 BP. Cashed out $50. Good start. Walked over to the $1 Top Dollar and inserted said ticket. No offers. Time to check-in. I walk right up and Maggie calls me by name and calls me up. We chat as she is typing away. Room 4519, Rendezvous Tower. Sweet.
I call my Sweet Ti to let her know I made it safely, and ferry up my stuff from Yarma. Time for battle.....
I head for my regular haunt only to find it occupied by the dreaded local dude once again. This is getting old. So I instead choose the machine on the opposite side of the mirrored column. I load up another $65 in free play. I try some Triple Boner. Barney Fife! I insert a hundy and switch over to .50 BP. Doesn't take long for this to happen......
A dude sits down next to me, and we strike up a conversation. His name is Ken, and he lives in Margate. Home of Lucy the Elephant. Pretty soon our talk turns to comps here at Resorts. Ken proceeds to bring out a bunch of paperwork and spreadsheets on the subject. I ask if he's an accountant. Nope. He reminds me of Lou at Ziggy's Bar in Vegas. He figures the cash back rate at Resorts on video poker is around .28% $600 in equals $1 in comp dollars. Last January the rates changed. Sounds about right. I hit one more and headed for the tourney.
Well this proves to be interesting. They have taken over a group of newer machines between the self park and the food court in the rear of the store. Sweet Ti and I found these on our last sojourn. Around 20 have been programmed to Tourney Mode. 2 minute sessions. Not only do you have to hit the button with your right hand, you also have to touch the screen and pop the balloons as soon as they randomly appear on the screen. Pretty confounding. I scored 65k points. 5th in my group of 20. In other words- out of the duckies. Back upstairs, I order up some food from the Burger Bar. I ask for a Blackjack Burger, but Javier claims ignorance. So I get a bacon cheeseburger. Maybe. Meanwhile I went out to the hall and grabbed some extra goodies from-
Minuben?
By the time I made the long walk to the Burger Bar, Javier was just walking out with my foodstuffs. I tipped him a trio of $2 bills.
Much to my chagrin, there was a severe lack of bacon on my burger. As in none. And the fries were cold. Not up to the usual standards.
Tsk.
Well, the good news is that the ol' standby Deuces Wild machine is thankfully empty. I insert coin and am soon joined by a dude who introduces himself as Trevor. Now Trevor quickly realizes that although he is pretty good in the Poker Room playing Hold 'Em, he is almost clueless when it comes to Bonus Poker. So I show him a strategy card, and we have a great time watching each other play.
Trev is soon off in search of his posse and I, being a bit ahead at this point and feeling frisky, deftly switch to .50 Triple Boner.
That worked! Cashed out that puppy and went back to some BP, but at a bit higher stakes...
I have a system, at least in theory. As my inserted cash diminishes, so should my stakes. So soon it was back to .50..
And with that I called it a night.
11.09.2014 Morning Trips and Evening Drips...
Up around the time the DJ's are just gettin' their groove on wherever they still have left to get their groove on around here. I did my SSS, had my Breakfast of Champions (Raisin Bran), hopped into a very chilly Yarma, and tripped over to da Borg.
I made my way to the stand up machines that offer Super Double Bonus and inserted coin. Way too much volatility for my piddly BR- unless you are lucky enough to hit a 4OAK fairly quickly. I didn't. But I did find an interesting new machine here...
Well, I'm a pretty Hyper Bonus type dude, so I checked out the payouts, they were offering .10 7/5 BP. I inserted leftover coin. The way this thing works is you pay a 5 coin premium per hand in addition to the normal 5 coins. If you are dealt a winning hand on your first 5 cards, it triggers a random bonus on all hands. Anywhere from 1x to 10x. From my observations, it seemed like the first hand mostly got 1x or 2x, and the second or third got mostly between 2x and 4x. I only played for about twenty minutes. The Wizard of Odds lists the game odds and strategies HERE. Onward, I just have to stop by the Multi-Strike. I've got one more hundy to invest, so I select .24 9/6 JoB and insert coin. I last 25 hands. Never made it past the 3rd level, despite having several free ride hands. Tough crowd. Yarma and I sheepishly go back across town. Aloft I watch some CBS Sunday Morning and chat with my Sweet Ti. Then it's out once again to the Trop this time to take care of some business.
Back to home base, I settle in for an extended session at my usual spot and am this time joined by a dude who introduces himself as Al. Coach Al. 82 years old and still coaches varsity high school football. He's here with his wife, and has been playing for a while on a single $20 bill. Playing .25 Deuces Wild. One credit at a time. But he needs help. He's clueless. I suggest Bonus Poker, and he switches over. He even ups his bet and hits a couple of full boats. His wife stops by, she's gone thru her bankroll, and he's up to $24.00. Noice! They decide to grab a bite to eat and we say our farewells. Great couple. I went back to the task at hand..
I take a break and stroll over to Ruby's Diner and order up a real Bacon Cheeseburger. As in I can keep an eye on the chef. And slip him a couple of $2 bills to boot. Needless to say, I had PLENTY of bacon this time. Hell y'all- I'm a Virginian, and we loves us some pigmeat!!
Time for an evening session. The place is fairly empty, they get quite a few busses coming through during the day. You can always tell when they are trying to round up the stragglers- they start calling out names on the intercom. I proceed to my usual machine. Insert coin.
Tough evening. Well, at this point I'm down a bit- one more day to go.....zzzzzzzzzz.........
11.10.2014 Getting double time.
Up once again at 3:30. I shower and eat my gruel, give my Sweet Ti her wake up call, and head down for battle.
About this time Mignon strolls by, and we bring each other up to date about our lives. They have recently adopted a rescue doggie, Ellie. She shows me some pictures of her. She is a beagle mix. A real cutie! Pretty soon she was called away for business, so I got back to my business. But the 4OAK's didn't appear, so I took a break in the action and walked around. I really warmed up outside. Nice day.
Yet another session gets underway. Even though it's officially a holiday, the place is rather deserted. No sign of buslings.
Turkey Time. Today's giveaway is a small stuffed turkey. I choose one from the aluminum turkey tray gaggle o' turkeys I am presented with at the booth. He even makes a sort of electronic gobble when you squeeze him. Cute. Oh- and he came with $5 in free play, which I take to the Top Dollar machine and put with my $60 free play for today. Once again, Deputy Fife rules...
I take a walk on the boardwalk and decide to do a bit of shopping. I need to pick up something for my Sweet Ti as she is home working while I'm here. Y'all do realize that I have the best wife in the whole wide world......
I ended up getting her a couple of scarves from Marshall Russo and a box of Fralinger's Peanut Chews from Lick. Gotta love comps. Back to work, I notice an older dude is sitting at my machine, so I sat down next to him. As usual, we started talking. He's Hank from NYC. As in lives within sight of Central Park. He's full of really bad dirty jokes. But as far as video poker- hopelessly clueless. Noticing a pattern here??? So I give yet another class in VP 101. But we had a great time.
I have a $75 meal comp for tonight, and seeing as Capproccio's is closed, I made a reservation for Gallagher's. I went up and asked to sit over by the bar, as Gary was tending. I am seated, and Gary brings me a bottle of still water and some bread to start me out. There's a few people at the bar. There's a couple of kids at one of the other booths near me. Their parents were seated at the bar. In the main dining area across from us there is a large party of middle aged men. Celebrating. Loudly. Reminded me of the Sopranos. "Fuck you Paulie" "No fuck you Tony!!!" The hostess finally had to ask them to keep it down. I ordered the Porterhouse with Medley of Mushrooms and Onion Straws. Pretty fucking good Paulie...
Urp. I ended up with about a pound of steak to bring home. I went up to stash my grub, and called Sweet Ti for her tuck into bed. Back down for a final session. I change things up with a trip tp Hollyrock Hills. I had Humble Pie for dessert. Time for my other old standby.
Cue da Dog
I got up and cashed out. I walked over to Top Dollar with that ticket and on the 5th spin I got the bonus, took a $50 offer. I cashed out. Upstairs to pack, loaded up Yarma and crashed. Got up early, checked out and hauled ass back to VA. Made killer time. Total damage for the trip: ended up bringing home 2/3 of my bankroll. Thanks for the ride, lady.
Next up Vega$ Jan 15-23 2015