Circa Canada Vegas At Par

Day 6 and this seems like the perfect day to do a walkabout downtown, check out the Major Multipliers game, and do the Circa Canada - Vegas at Par promotion.

It's a beauty promo! Circa, Golden Gate or the D will take your ravaged $500 in Canadian currency (or maybe that old wad of Canadian Tire money stashed in your sock drawer?) and give you $500 USD in play.

It seems simple but there are a lot of conditions - see the details here.

It was a very late night for yours truly on Day 5 - I was up till 3:30 Eastern time and I was feeling it this morning.

We headed out on a rainy, dreary, cold morning to Magnolia's for breakfast.

The omelettes were good and we brought them with us to the El Cortez, post consumption.

A few people have mentioned this Major Multiplier video poker game. If you get dealt a pair, two pairs, or three of a kind, random multipliers up to 100x appear next to the various possible paying hands.

It was a lot of fun and ate $100.

Once that was done with, we headed to Circa.

I went to the Club One desk and showed my Canadian ID and got a voucher for the promotion.

I took the voucher to the cage and gave the Cage Sheila $500 USD (which seems odd for a CAD at par promo) but the point was that I received, based on the current exchange rate $685 in promo play, which was loaded onto my card.

Roughly, the rules are you can't use them on video poker, you have 72 hours to play them all, you can move from slot machine to slot machine, you can only cash out your winnings (if any) and you can't play on any wide area progressive slots.

And with that, I was off and running! I started with $50 in BUFFFALO!!!! and cashed out $47 or so.

Fair enough, I tried it again. $50 of slot play netted $7 and change.

This was not good. I thought I heard Bobby G whimper a bit on my behalf, and it was not out of place.

Next, I tried a Double Top Dollar machine, and this went a bit better.

That kind of made up for the bum BUFFFFFFALO!!!! sesh.

It was extremely exciting knowing I could play any machine I wanted - and in fact, knowing that I had to play.

I tried out this reel slot, 9 quarters a spin, and hit paydirt.

Holy crap, a win of $271.50???! It was starting to look like this was going to end all right.

Next on the agenda, one of those lucky flaming balls machines (aka Golden Century Lucky Flaming Balls). I played $2.50 a spin.

As I was going through the various games, I was calculating roughly how many spins it would take to play through whatever amount I'd loaded onto the game.

In this case, $100 meant that after 40 spins I could cash out. Great. Or maybe not so great - after 19 spins I had exactly won pretty much nothing. Spin number 20 turned out to be a beauty.

I hit the bonus round (three red flags?) and within that bonus round got the Lucky Flaming Golden Balls of Death round. And within my balls was a MINI jackpot, which a quick look up ascertained was worth... $250?!!!!!!!

We screamed like little girls on the baby ferris wheel set up in the corner of the supermarket parking lot.

By the time the bonus round was over, I knew I was going to at least break even on the promotion.

The total win for the bonus was $414. Sweet!

Bobby G went off to play some video poker and I futzed around on various slots, using up the rest of the $685.

Then it was time for an accounting.

My $500 investment had netted a total of $998. I killed it.

I took a break, grabbed a shower and a nap, and did the blogging. We would reconvene for dinner.

Bobby G had a hankering to hit Jerry's Nugget to do some Freeplay he had there, and we decided to have dinner there as well.

I'd love to rave about the food, but it was only so-so. There was certainly plenty of it.

We played a bit in the casino and I fooled around on some video Keno, and then Boner Deluxe.

Peek-a-Bobby-Boo!

Back at Main Street, we split up. Bobby had some business at the Four Queens and I had business trying to win more money.

The Double Super Slutty Spewing Times Pay was fun for a bit. But then I tried the 10-play version of it. And that did not go well at all.

Roughly $200 went for no good.

Next stop, the Loose Doose, and playing quarters went very nicely, netting me three wild royals in quick succession.

I was up $50 or so, and then I made the major blunder.

I switched up to 50 cents. And of course, the whole thing went crashing down.

And sadly, this turned into a Flying Hundies Death March. I wandered from machine to machine, trying this, trying that, always with no win, and that sick feeling growing in my stomach as I could see my wonderful day going off the rails.

Bobby G came back and he was suffering the same fate. The machines at Main Street simply would not pay.

By 9:00 pm I'd had enough - I'd burned through $600 or so.

We had an early start planned - Bobby G's flight was at 6:00 am and I was going to get up at 3:30 am to drive him to the airport at 4:00 am.

I went to bed frustrated, down $200 on the day and now $1000 on the trip. Still, we had had a ton of fun all day long, even if the result wasn't what we hoped for.

Biting the SPAM that Feeds You

Day 5 part 2 - The messages from Bobby G notated an airline shitshow of colossal magnitude. Frontier clearly didn't know what they were doing.

The plane was there, but the flight was delayed - weather? Bobby G was waiting. But other flights were still taking off as the snow came down.

Finally they started boarding, but partway through the line stopped for 10 minutes. What was going on?

And then Bobby G was in his seat. And they waited. The pilot said something about the landing gear being iced up. And they waited.

After a long wait, a really bad sign - everybody was to get off the aircraft. We both figured this indicated that the plane had problems and the flight would be canceled.

I watched the estimated time of departure (and arrival) get later and later as time went by.

Shockingly, 20 minutes later, they did re-board the plane. It looked like departure would be soon, so I went down to dabble in the casino.

I fucked around with 10 play nickel Triple Double Bonus for a bit. It was fun but cost me $100. I tried the Loose Doose, hoping for another comeback miracle.

No deuces, but I came close - three ducks and a wild royal on the re-deal, which is pretty unusual.

I'd put in a hundred and cashed out a hundred. And then I headed for 10 cent Super Slutty Times Pay - the machine I'd hit $2K on last trip.

Bobby G's plane was finally on the move to get de-iced. It started to look like he would actually get here.

I managed to breathe a bit of life into my day. I was in for $600 on the day, but hit a few things and managed to claw back $200, putting me at $400 down.

How I wished for a multiplier!

Boy did it feel good to cash out a win! I threw $5 into the Loose Doose just to see...

And I cashed that out! $35. I was clawing my way back.

And Bobby G managed to get a message out that he was in the air! I hopped in the Cletus and headed for the airport.

Finally, finally, finally after about a 13 hour trip, Mr. G was in Vegas. He'd been through hell and I really, really appreciated that he would go through all that just to hang out with me. We hadn't seen each other in a year and a half, and it was a very happy reunion indeed!

Back at Main Street, he checked in and got a room on my floor. We sat and had a visit and shared a couple of shots of Slane Irish Whisky. In a manner that I won't divulge, he had managed to store a flask full of the good stuff here in Vegas where it could be retrieved. Brilliant!

We were both hungry and headed to the coffee shop at the Cal for a meal. I had the Hawaiian Hamburger Steak, and he had the plate lunch Wednesday special, which featured chicken, Portuguese sausage, and of course, SPAM.

I forgot to photograph the calories, but I don't think it is a big loss.

And then it was on to the casino, where he fired up 50 cent Double Double Bonus, and I opted for 50 cent Bonus Poker. I was kind of wondering how my night was going to go and whether I was going to end up in good shape or down $700 or $800.

The Maker's rocks appeared and my first $100 disappeared in scant minutes. It was disastrous.

And then a whoop from Bobby G and he'd hit Aces Kicker for $1000 - DEALT to him. I was very happy for Mr. G and that's my story. OK I admit I was more than a little jealous.

Bobby G's Savvy Dealt Aces Kicker - $1000!

The drinks and the jokes and stories flowed and we had a blast. I ended up on quarter Triple Double Bonus and got a quad.

And then, I scored a big one for myself!!! Got the kicker too!

Four 4s with the Ace for $500. What a huge fucking relief!!! The comeback I'd been hoping for! We played on and I hit a few more quads. Bobby G got as close as you can get to a Royal without getting it.

Trust me, I made no mistake this time. When I got to an even 2000 credits I cashed out the $500. It was 3:30am on my Eastern time body clock, and I wobbled off to bed, down only $100 for the day, down only $800 for the trip, and one loyal friend to the good.

Let's All Go To The Lobby

Day 5 and time to get out of the Excalibum hellscape and move to where I am wanted and recognized - the Downtown hellscape.

Everything is chugging along well. My coffee setup continues to work perfectly. Snacks are on point. Haven't lost too much money. Lots of play!

I did my morning routine and didn't play at Excalibur except for burning $30 in point play. Nothing came of it but 3 minutes of fun, just like an Elko brothel.

Speaking of which, my buddy Bobby G was enroute to spend a day with me in Vegas, which is something, considering he was just here last week.

His trip started with nothing but stress, watching a storm move through the mountains the last couple of days, making it unsure what the trip to Salt Lake City would be like, where he would catch a flight to Vegas.

And sure enough, at 6:00 am, he was hitting the road after the biggest snowfall Elko has seen this season - 6" of the white crap dumped overnight. But he was on the road and making good enough time.

I packed up all my stuff, taking my time, had a shower, and finally checked out of the King's Shingles. My 'comped' stay was $285. Four resort fees at $45 per, and four days of parking at $20, plus taxes on all of that. One wonders, don't one.

It was still cold and windy in Vegas, and our own mountains had received a dusting of the evil fluffy shit.

I got to Main Street Station around 10:30 and checked in. I could get my room early - for a fee of $25. I really didn't want to leave all my stuff in the Honda Cletus until 3:00 pm.

"I'll do it!" I said, hoping in the back of my mind that maybe my host would pick up the charge at the end of my stay.

The room is... okay. At least, I got the sunny south side, which is noisy, as opposed to the north side, which is noisy.

The last time I'd stayed at Main Street was with the Quad Queen, some years ago. It brought back lots of memories. Main Street was our go-to before we shifted to the Cal.

As I punched the 'L' elevator button, I heard a voice in my head, singing, something I haven't thought about in ages. The Quad Queen used to torment me by planting the movie  earworm song "Let's all go to the lobby, let's all go to the lobby, let's all go to the lobby, and get ourselves some snacks."

There I was, tormented once again from the beyond. I smiled.

At the Cal, I took a selfie for YoLeven in front of the doors of what used to be the Maile conference room, site of the only place in Vegas I've been thrown out of. (See Curse of the Single Lonely Diner Table).

I needed a pre-gambling meal, and Loco Moco at the Market Street Cafe in the Cal hit the spot.

The updates from Bobby G were coming in occasionally - he'd made it through the worst of the weather and was looking good to make Salt Lake City on time.

I embarked on a gambling spree that begs the question: "Will I ever learn?"

These lessons come hard and you would think I could corral the degenerate in me a little better by now. I'm getting ahead of the events though, so let's take a look.

The game, Jacks or Better. I lost $100, and put in another $100, and finally I hit a quad on 50 cents. No, I wasn't bitter about it being Deuces with a kicker - that wasn't the game I intended to play. I was looking for longevity and maybe a trip to Dollar Land.

A couple more quads came my way. Nice!

It was time to employ the Strict Rules of Parlay and switch up to dollars.

And so I did. And boy, the hits kept on coming! It was a thrilling run!

I ran that sucker up as high as $580, trying to hit $600, where I would cash out, I reckoned.

In a situation like this, I almost always employ a strategy where I cash out a ticket, and put back $100 cash to continue the play. That limits how much I can lose back, because I know my tendency to chase when the meter is dropping down.

For some reason, I just forgot to do this and it cost me dearly. There's no cutesy way to say it, I blew it all back. Lesson learned. Yet again.

I'd taken a situation where I was up $380 to where I was down $200. Well done, Flushiepants!

Yikes. Angrily, I pulled my card and started walking. Anywhere.

Meanwhile, Bobby G had made the airport, gotten through security (with some glitches), and was waiting to board the plane. And it was snowing in Salt Lake.

So the flight was delayed.

I found myself over at Main Street Station and lost a couple of hundred more. This was not looking good. I was down $400 already on the day, and the trip total was looking like making it a winner was out of reach.

I cooled off in the room for a while and pondered how I was going to turn this around.