Ongoing VP TR, PART 2!

Leon we'll all follow you to a new thread, and your first post can be a link to your first two sets. Just a thought.

Just saw the report and the latest updates. I'll drop a message in the mod forum and ask for help.

Here we go. I found the culprit- a pretty cool pic that unfortunately was over 10mb itself.

We walk here to play some craps-

I love the Bellagio from poker playing days, always will. The goal now is buy 5 and 9, pick up some flags, ? cranberries.

D and I play for over an hr and never really get anything going. We win and lose, mostly lose, and finish the session down 1.5k. We're both kind of tired and decide head back. I grab a gyro on the way- best "cheap" meal I've had in a while.

The end of the walk is in sight...

More later. Just wanted to get these up there.

Excellent. Where did you get the gyro?

Sounds like the place I got mine in September. Name also escapes me I'm afraid.

I got one from that place last year. For gyro it was pretty damn good for a cheap meal. Looking at Google I believe it is this one

Rest of Day 2

D and I get back to the Wynn and I decide to play a short session. I initially go down, but end up in the black-

That's 2 good days in a row. Sure would be nice to cap this trip off with a tourney bink! We've got the cash arm coming up tomorrow, everything is reset and we've got just as good of a chance as anyone...

Day 2 result- +11k (won back in the late evening what we lost on the craps walk)
Overall- +24k
5 digit hits- 2

Day 3

Get a reasonable amount of sleep. Goal for today- coast as best I can. I've used up more free credit than I wanted to at this stage (wanted to use none LDO), but I've got more left, figure we've got 3.5k maybe more from yesterday's tourney, and we've got some from whatever host got us playing in "his" tourney. The results are in, we just don't know what they are and they won't credit us with anything until after the awards ceremony tonight.

This is the only thing I hit before breakfast. Got absolutely pummeled, I think down 8k?

Breakfast is at Tableau.

After breakfast, it's more machines. I get drilled again and soon enough find myself using up free credit. ARGH!

Start and result. Really crappy again, ~ 60% payback.

I think I'm now down at least 11k for the day and have no free credit left (until the payout tonight). God this sucks. We head to the tourney and I have an impending sense of doom...

Desserts with German words on them. That makes it German, right?

I'm the lead off hitter this time. I post garbage, D gets a solid 75k which keeps us in the hunt, and I take a 65k for the last round. So once again, we're looking at an above avg score heading into the bonus round. It's not the worst for sure, but COME ON! We're playing for a podium spot and this isn't going to cut it at all. We decide D will take the bonus rd since he's consistently gotten us the best score in each arm. Meanwhile, we have a couple of hours to kill, so we walk out onto the floor of Encore.

Only machine worth playing at the Encore. We lose 1k here overall.

Back to the tourney, trying to preserve bankroll at all costs. We grab food.

While eating, we share a table with an elderly couple who my mom befriended a long time ago. They ask about her and we exchange pleasantries. The woman mentions she's been playing in these things for 20 yrs and has never won once. I tell her best I've done is 4th, ask her how she did yesterday. She says "just ok" and doesn't look particularly happy. Well folks, I'm not spoiling anything when I tell you she BINKED the free credit side. 150k. I took a pic and sent it to my mom and my mom said verbatim "good for her! She's been waiting 20 yrs". SO-

- It can happen
- good for her (since it wasn't going to be me)
- WTF she did "just ok". Gimme a break. She had to know at that point she had a legit shot and in her shoes I would have been giddy with anticipation. 3rd? 2nd??? Maybe I bink????

Anyways, eventually the bonus round comes along and to precisely ZERO of followers of this thread's surprise, we run like garbage, post a 40k and just like that... we've got another mediocre result slot tourney in the books.

Let's pause for a moment. SIGH

OK, where are the bright spots? Well, one is host texts me and tells me he took second in the host tourney, good for 3.5k for ALL his guests! Wow, ok that's cool. My host is basically the most senior host at the Wynn, he's got a lot of clients. I'm assuming senior management was rooting for him to do poorly LOL. The host who took 1st got 5k for her one, as in singular guest at the tourney. Shocking. Not rigged at all 😀

D and I head down to play craps and the session is both awful and tilting. I rage walk back to Wynn while D elects to stay for more abuse. I'm down 14k for the day now. I decide to take a break and use up my food comp on bourbon. I do the math and we'll have enough for food tonight, and we're leaving relatively early tomorrow. Have to extract value wherever I can.

This is 1k of food comp here. The Stagg was 1/2 the Little Book, I would have gotten only Stagg if they had more. Way better value. After I drop those in the room, it's back to the machine.

Is anyone shocked that the hand AFTER the dealt full was garbage?

We head back to the awards ceremony. We actually didn't even crack top 1/2 in the free credit portion, so that's 3.5k free credit there. 3.5k from host. We took 16th? in cash arm... still only good for a slightly better than min payout, 2.8k. We immediately run to the cashier before it fills up to grab the cash.

OK, yeah that's right. D gets 50%. Kinda regretting that just now. I give him 1/2 the cash, we elect to wait until after dinner to play the FC off.

We're eating at Safta 1964, the Mediterranean pop up place that D and I have been to once before. I wasn't super impressed last time, but again I will give most places at least two tries.

Best thing on the menu, lamb "kebobs".

Again... just underwhelming of a place. I'd say 6/10 overall. I doubt I'll be back.

We somehow turn this into 4k. SO ANNOYING. My FC conversion has been really abysmal this trip. And, I've got to give D his share too. All hope is now gone, I've got to hang on for dear life to preserve this win.

"dealt" regular quads on the redeal. Bc of course.

I give back a few more K before I go to bed, frustrated and worried about tomorrow.

Day 3 result- -18k
Overall- +6k
5 digit hits- 2

Final Day

I wake up around 6am pretty tired. I KNOW I SHOULD STAY IN BED. But, we're leaving for the airport in a few hrs and I don't have another trip lined up. Technically I'm up right now. Haven't been dealt quads once this trip. OK, let's play.

Not much to say here. It was overall a sht morning. Just losing slowly... finally gave back 5k and said "a win is a win". Took the huge 1k trip win and went upstairs for room service. D and I eat and both are REALLY happy we're getting out of here. He's esp happy bc he's coming back next WEEKEND for a show for wife and REALLY has to preserve his funds. Once I pay him his share I'm not even booking a 1k win, I'm up like 500$. He's barely down (losing thousands in craps can be easily overcome when you get 1.4k and 2k from the tourney) so we're both ok with the result, I guess?

We took our shot and missed but didn't die. Oh well.

Day 4 result- -5k
Overall- +500$

Thoughts- not many although I will say this was more disappointing than the result would suggest. Maybe it was seeing someone I know bink the whole thing. Maybe it was really having so much value going in (FC + min tourney payout + host FC) and still somehow barely eke-ing out a win. Or starting so well on Day 1 and 2 then crashing. Or doing everything I could to save money, walk the strip, etc...

Argh. Frustrating. At least I'm able to see the upsides once I get home- I got 2 hi quality bottles of bourbon out of it, DID book a winner, played controlled (for me) and stuck to my plan of finding breaks/minimizing big loss opportunities... As D put it, "we're not supposed to win". He's right. So I guess that's fine. Live to fight another day, I suppose. Thanks for reading!

During my most recent trip I was at the same table with a young girl. She was there with his boyfriend, flew in from LA 2 days ago. She explains that the guy plays slots at MGM property outside of vegas, can’t remember which one. And that they invited them because he has a slot tournament, something something invitational. Anyway guys first time playing and he ends up winning the thing for $50 000 cash and $50 000 free play.

I asked her how she will covert it, saying VP would be best but they will just go completely degen for the rest of the free play and burn it on slots and hoping to win something big. Crazy stuff…

Keep up the positive thoughts! Winning anything in Vegas is good, especially the games you guys play 😉 You had good company, good food, good drink, good bourbon for the win (I live in Kentucky)!

Don't know if you saw my KY bourbon TR from March of this year; when I went to a bourbon bar in Lexington, I was literally blown away by the sheer volume of amazing bourbon. Stuff I'd never heard of. Bottles and bottles of stuff you can't even find in CA at all, and if you did it would be 10-20x more expensive.

I'll take living in CA all things considered but man, KY is the pure nuts when it comes to bourbon.

I'll recap when my buddy and I went to a college (not bourbon) bar later on that trip. I asked them what bourbon they had and the bartender started digging around a shelf UNDER the bar. I saw a bottle of Stagg and asked how much per pour. He didn't even know and had to look it up. 10$!! Poured it for me in a plastic cup LOL. In CA, IF the bar had Stagg at all, it a) wouldn't be kept below eye level, b) bartender would know to the PENNY how much it is, c) no plastic cup, and most importantly d) you wouldn't find it in a college bar. Ever. Here, when you ask for the bourbon selection the first answer is often, "well, we've got Jack Daniels..." 😡

Well, yeah... of course... who would've ever guessed that? Thanks again for the TRs

Please link to the Bourbon TR. Thanks.

IDK how to link a specific post, but it's #505 in this thread.

Thanks. Found it. Great read. Fun seeing someone else's perspective of a city you live near / work in (Lexington). I recognize all the places. Louisville has its spots/areas, but I can see how people think it's run down. That's how I feel about Cincinnati, but I don't know the town well except the casino. My stepdaughter and her husband live in a beautiful area of Louisville (Cherokee Park) near a hopping bar/restaurant scene (Bardstown Road), so that's the area I know.

LOL obv I knew it going in, but it's one thing to know and another to experience. Like, "so this is what looking at perfection is like".

Not to introduce politics (ugh), but we really need to start a blue/red state exchange program. Trade vacations, visit for a week, whatever. Obv there are crazy people out there, but I have to believe the vast majority of Americans still love their country AND their fellow men. And women. It's the only way we're going to survive the next 4 yrs.

For my part, when we stayed in Lexington several hotel employees were FLAMINGLY gay. We were treated very politely by someone with a MAGA hat. When we were in Louisville, the B+B we stayed at was owned by a gay, multiracial couple (part of the reason we stayed there). We can make this work, F-ing politicians with their outrage politics and F'ing crazy people.

Leon for someone who’s a total noob at bourbons what would you recommend I try my next trip? I have a couple of places where I can get a pretty good selection of bourbon. Not top shelf, probably just midrange. I am a big fan of whisky but my experience is limited to Irish or Japanese.

Do you have any input with these places you get the bottles of bourbon from, to say something like "my next trip will be in 2 months, it sure would be nice if I could spend some food comps on this (insert expensive bottle here)? Can you order this from your supplier?"

That'd be cool

twenty-nine dollar menu price for a head of roasted cauliflower is a titanic wedge into sides of annual salinas valley iceburg lettuce sale opinions
what's next, broker chopped broccoli options for fifty?

Win's a win...are either of those bottles special releases? Looks like Little Book Chapter 7 and Stagg Single Barrel? Just trying to get a handle on how outrageously marked up they are

If you're asking WHAT to try, I'd get a basic one such as Buffalo Trace, Woodford Reserve, Old Forester or Maker's Mark. Try alongside a barrel strength/cask strength such as Booker's or any of the big lines that also have a cask strength line. You shouldn't be paying more than 20-30$ per pour for any of these, the basics honestly should be 10-20$. That way, you can start comparing flavor profiles. For instance, I think Maker's is too sweet but for a basic bourbon it's fine.

Don't even worry about age, single barrel, bottled in bond, etc- all modifiers that really have little/nothing to do with the flavor in a way you'll be able to meaningfully care about. For instance, many bourbons are a blend of barrels to average out differences and produce a uniform flavor. So let's say you find a single barrel bourbon you like- are you willing to remember the exact year/distillery/everything that came from, esp knowing next year or any other barrel is going to be different? Rye vs bourbon matters- some people like it, I find it makes for a spicier "harsher" feel, but just know Rye whiskey technically isn't bourbon.

I have no input and I'm sure if I requested something like you suggest above they'd probably do the opposite and NOT make it available to me. Zero chance they would encourage me using up all my food comp each trip. In fact, I assume I'm already on someone's radar bc it sure seems like I get less food comp these days than before.

Special only insofar as Chap 7 is unique (compared to previous Chapters) and the Stagg is a Wynn reserve barrel, so theoretically it's different than any other Stagg out there. I actually enjoy the Wynn barrel slightly less than any other Stagg I've had, there's an edge in there that's hard to describe but not ideal. Pricing was 700$ and 320$ respectively. The Little Book is just LOL expensive WTF

Maybe a daft question, but when you say stuff like "I have to hang on for dear life and preserve this win", can you simply not play?

Have you not already exceeded playing expectations by this point>?

LOL

Absolutely baffles me that people eat cauliflower voluntarily at any stage in their lives, but to actually spend booze money on a burnt one is mindblowing :p

Thanks, will add them to the list! Now that I think about it, I actually already had Woodford Reserve at Bavettes the last trip. We had two actually, one on the rocks and one as a whiskey sour: