Ongoing VP TR, PART 2!
Hi all, apparently my previous thread may have gotten so long that it's causing issues for the website. So, here is a new thread to keep this going, and it also gives me an opportunity to provide a quick recap of how I've gotten to that point.
Background-
- former poker player; got in pre-2003 boom, printed money online until about 2007 when games got harder/I started making decent money
- took poker roll and transitioned to straight casino degen. Went thru a blackjack and craps phase
- Dad played progressively bigger and more at various Vegas casinos starting around 2005, settled on Wynn and gave them all of his action. Massive comps and Chairman's club status for Dad resulted
- I started playing VP around 2013, 2014? knowing it was one of the best casino games on offer; slagged off of parent's comp for years
- as I played more and bigger, Dad's host became my host
- Circa 2019-2021, went on the most massive sun run, +500k over that time period; basically played bigger, kept winning, played bigger, kept winning, etc
- 2022-now- basically have run cold and am trying to sustain my VP for the long term
Game of choice-
- Triple double bonus, preferring multiline and ultimate X
- will play craps, more often with buddies
- despise blackjack
Typical TR features stays at the Wynn, good food, gambling, +/- other stuff (shows, family coming with, etc)
That's probably a decent synopsis!
a 2k 4, 300$ 5, 1200$ 6, 600$ 8, 700$ 9, and 1.2k 10! I left 6k out on the table when all was said and done
Congrats on the 18K, but that 6K would haunt me for a few days
Yes, but you can't win 18k (or more) without being willing to lose 6k. As D puts it, "my goal is always to leave table max out on the table". Wish we had that crystal ball to know when the roll is coming to an end...
Day 3 part 1
Despite going to bed after 1am, I wake up before 5! I toss and turn for a bit then decide to get up. I'm in that weird "dead tired yet can't fall back asleep" state that I'm sure a lot of people with insomnia deal with. I KNOW the play is just lay there- I'm booking a nice win now, but an early AM pummeling could seriously undo that. Plus, we've got a lot of slot tourney play today, there won't be a great spot for a nap... argh.
So I head downstairs, and of course get pummeled. I'm stuck about 6k when I hit this-
SWEET.
Give some back. My one complaint about the trip so far is I'm running far below expectation with trip aces- I think I was short at least 6-7 trip ace deals at this point. I'm obv way ahead in dealt quads, but ultimately I know pretty much all the things need to line up to have a monster trip. Plus just getting dealt trips is in itself no guarantee I'll make a hand, but if I don't even get the opportunities...
So, that said I think I'm even or maybe stuck just a touch when I hit-
SECOND 5 digit hit of the trip!
OK, NOW this is a good AM.
Again, I give a little back then I start texting D. We still have to get him to 25k pts- I want to go to hi limit to do that, but I need his card and I have no interest in donking back a significant portion of this win unless we're doing it for a reason. I play ultra-slow until he wakes up. Once he does, we head to hi limit.
Good 'ol premiums on the redeal. Sigh.
We get D almost to the finish line, but at the cost of 5k. We're still up 9k for the AM and have avoided the dreaded Sat AM implosion. We head to craps to get a session in before breakfast, nothing amazing but a solid 2k winner. I'll take it for sure.
Chip dump pre-breakfast. I don't believe I've ever had this much in chips on me before, could be wrong.
T and C are joining for breakfast which is cool- we're eating at Tableau. Unfortunately, they don't get us seated until 20min after our resv (Tableau has been a zoo and pretty bad with seating people IMO for the last few years), so we're legitimately rushed for breakfast. I've got my slot tourney rds at 10am and we're not ordering until 9:30. Since I was rushed I forgot to take pics. I could, of course, head over there early without the rest of the group, but I definitely want them there, both for the fun of it all and bc I figure if I'm going to ever run good in a tourney it's with my crew playing/rooting together. I end up heading over a bit early, and the rest of the group joins just as I'm about to start my first rd.
The MC, in his "winter wonderland" costume.
PLEASE be good to me machine.
Alas, I post a mediocre score to open. The plan is T plays my 2nd rd, C my 3rd, and wife plays the bonus/rebuy rd later in the day.
T, getting ready to play rd 2.
T does better than me (obv) and gets almost 70k. In my experience that's above avg, but we need an avg of 80k across 2 rds to have any shot at serious money. It looks like another tourney is slipping away from me. C, as a non-gambler/first time hanging with us, is MORTIFIED to play rd 3. He's scared of messing things up for us and we have to tell him multiple times, there's literally no skill, and nothing he can do short of not hitting the button that could be any worse. So, he reluctantly takes his seat for my 3rd rd...
And proceeds to just CRUSH. I swear, these were the most fun 5 min of the entire trip for me. C was hitting the buttons so hard the entire machine was shaking. AND, he was hitting winners left and right. My entire crew was just cheering and laughing at the comedy of it all. More than a few people were giving us looks we were so loud, and the MC at some point just smiled at us and shook his head... when all was said and done, C nets me 86k. I've never had a score that high. It's probably not enough to win, but with the 70k... I'm CLOSE to the avg of 80k? If everyone else does poorly, I might place higher than one would think is possible? Plus, I've still got my rebuy rd! Let's put it this way, I've never been in this good of shape before.
That was fun. Obv it could only happen with C in the driver's seat.
Now, it's D's rds. He starts ON FIRE. I believe he had 20k in the first min, meaning he was on track for a 100k rd. Then, of course the machine just died. His next 2 min were utter garbage. He actually had a good 4th min and a great last min and posts a score of near 70k as well. It was just disappointing that he didn't get more. Had his machine not died in the middle we were looking at a legit god round. T and wife play 2 and 3 for him, and unfortunately it's garbage. So right now we're pinning our hopes on me, but of course D still has his rebuy rd as well.
That was fun. D and I head back to the machines to grind him the rest of the way there.
Only hit of note. We give back another 5k, so we're only up 6k for the day now.
We reconvene in the early afternoon for the rebuy rd. This rd is SO important. Wife takes mine-
Spoiler
mediocre. I think she might have been just above my first rd.
Agh that is so disappointing. I would not have been happier than if wife had brought this thing all the way home. The hopeful part of me still thinks that if everyone else does poorly I could do well, but the realist knows sub-80k avg isn't going to get it done. Darn it. I've never had an 86k before and now it's been wasted.
D obv lets C play his rebuy. And thus ensues the second-most fun 5 min of the whole trip. Same everything except this machine was a little more stable than the other one- not quite as much shaking. Otherwise, it was a carbon-copy of his rd he played for me- AMAZING rd, much obnoxious cheering from us, and he nets D an 86k as well! For right now, D is WINNING the rebuy rd!
Man, this was fun. With a little luck, maybe D's score holds up. We all grab a snack from the free food for lunch.
Not pictured- the prime rib which was the only thing worth eating.
While we're grabbing pics outside (the Wynn had a cool station where they would create gifs for you), I sneak in to check out bonus rd 3... and see a 91k. FFFFFFF. Looks like no rebuy bink for D. Damn, I know it doesn't change anything but I really wish I hadn't seen that. I give D the bad news and we go inside to eat our food. They're now in the 4th rebuy rd- D sees both 100k and 96k! WTF. So now D CAN'T even take top 3 in the rebuy... looks like all of our dreams are going up in smoke. I'm kind of dejected now. I eat my food then head up for a nap.
After the nap, we've got a little time to kill until the awards presentation. Honestly, at this point it doesn't matter, we know we don't have a bink, but it does give us a way to kill some time and we COULD hit one of the 5 spots to the 5k buy in in March 2025. Brother has finally made it into town also. I head to the machines first.
I think in spite of these hits I lost? So I'm up 4k for the day or so?
Bro makes his way to the Wynn and we all head to the awards ceremony together. I explain to the uninitiated that we need a sweat. The way they always do things is, they'll say- "you needed a minimum score of X to be in this tier" and then as the places get higher and higher they'll say "in 5th, with a score of X..." and if you know your score, you DON'T want to hear a score higher than yours, obv.
So we show up just as the ceremony starts, and they don't even start announcing below top 15. AND... I don't even make the minimum. That sucks. So I surmise D and I got top 1/2 which is 1750 free credit each, but with two near 80k scores? Argh. This must have been a high scoring tourney. D says that he still has a sweat- he thinks he got near 80k on his rd, and with C's he's got over 80k avg! I tell him I don't think so, I would have remembered if you got 80k... but I could be wrong. So we're not even really paying attention until they announce D taking 7th! Guess his memory was better than mine! 7th is good for 7k cash- so between my 1750 FC, the free gifts, and the fact we were able to grind 50k pts for 5k free credit and not lose our ass, this is definitely a win!
Man, I can't believe D had an 83k avg and only took SEVENTH.
D and our host.
We don't get picked for the 5k tourney, but that was a nice surprise. We've a got a little more time before dinner- D and I plan to play off the free credit and settle all that up beforehand, so we know exactly where we stand for the rest of the trip. It's going to be a winner, but the only question is will it be a great trip, which it is currently, or a rather mediocre small win?
To be continued...
Boom - great write up.
I’ve read this thread for years without understanding the format of the tourneys. It’s basically identical machines, set time period, play as fast as possible and hope to bink as much as possible?
Boom - great write up.
I’ve read this thread for years without understanding the format of the tourneys. It’s basically identical machines, set time period, play as fast as possible and hope to bink as much as possible?
Yes. You don't even have to play fast bc as soon as the reels start spinning there's nothing to do but wait. Pushing more won't speed it up and it won't trigger again. I often just push to get the reels going and then rest, looking on in satisfaction at all these monkeys madly mashing the buttons as if it'll do anything. And proceed to watch them all rack up higher scores than me...
So yeah, I've become more of a button masher in the last few years 😀
Typically they take the top two of 3/4 scores and if you play enough you have a good sense of what's a great vs good vs meh score. It makes the sweat much more interesting when you have some idea of where you stand. And a meh score might as well be zero- from a paytable perspective there often is zero difference. Sort of like busting from a poker tourney just before the bubble or first- ultimately, who gives a sht?
Yes. You don't even have to play fast bc as soon as the reels start spinning there's nothing to do but wait. Pushing more won't speed it up and it won't trigger again. I often just push to get the reels going and then rest, looking on in satisfaction at all these monkeys madly mashing the buttons as if it'll do anything. And proceed to watch them all rack up higher scores than me...
So yeah, I've become more of a button masher in the last few years 😀
Typically they take the top two of 3/4 scores
Thanks for answering that, I was wondering the same thing.
I understand there is no skill involved, but do you mean there is nothing at all to it? Does everyone end up with the same number of spins in a round? Maybe it's a skill to "learn the rng timing" and hit the button exactly pi seconds after the last one finished.
Could you hit a super mega 200k jackpot on one spin and then just stare at the screen for 5 minutes? Are there negative results?
Thanks for answering that, I was wondering the same thing.
I understand there is no skill involved, but do you mean there is nothing at all to it? Does everyone end up with the same number of spins in a round? Maybe it's a skill to "learn the rng timing" and hit the button exactly pi seconds after the last one finished.
Could you hit a super mega 200k jackpot on one spin and then just stare at the screen for 5 minutes? Are there negative results?
All the ones I've played in seem to have a preset number of spins. There's only a 5k spread in value between the top combo and nothing, but when some combos give you 10 pts and another gives you 5k that's a huge difference obv. Pt values only go up, no cost to spin.
Rest of trip
D and I head to the machines to wash our free credit and settle up. Long story short, when we finish washing the free credit, we've done quite well (mostly bc we hit the first pic)-
I think this was basically 110% payback over all shared free credit.
D and I chop that up- it's pretty easy given he hit 7k cash which we're sharing- so we both got a little over 7k from this venture! I play on for a bit and give a little back; with the slot tourney result (minus the buy in), we're up 9k for the day!
We head to Delilah. D and I decide to treat everyone else bc a) we've got a decent amount of food comp left, and b) C came thru so huge for us in the tournament.
So, the food was 7-8/10. Music was too loud this time which made the experience a little painful. Service was... so so? They were really enforcing the "no cameras" rule for the first time and I had to sneak every one of these pics. Our waitress herself was cool, she told me to "wait until I can't stop you" to take pics, and we kept trying to remove the lamp in the middle of the table which was taking up too much room. We moved it to the side at first, she said we're technically not allowed to move it, even on the TABLE?! But then she said she's seen guests put the lamp on the floor next to the table before, and if she's not around to stop us, well... so we took the hint and waited, then put the lamp on the floor. It stayed there for about 5 min when another server came by, picked the lamp up, and put it back! We wait again, put it on the floor again, a server puts it back again... our waitress told me the lamps are a common complaint. Seems stupid, then, that they know a bunch of guests think they're in the way, but then the response is to make a rule forbidding moving them?
So our waitress was cool but otherwise it was annoying to eat at Delilah on this night... what do I give them? a 4?
After dinner, there's no question what we're doing. Dice, with everyone including my brother. We find an empty table at the Wynn pretty easily. I ducked out early from dinner to grab a cigarette, notice that "my" spin poker machine hasn't been removed, it's just been moved, and decide to give it a whirl. I'm still under-aced this trip- maybe that's bc spin has saved them up?
Spoiler
Not quite. I dump 2k instead.
Craps was decent. It wasn't good when all of us played, but no one got hurt too badly. At some point T, C and brother decide to leave, so wife D and I play on. It turns good and we all book a small win. Can't complain about that.
It's after midnight, but all of us are awake. D and wife decide to keep playing dice- I head to spin poker. And... proceed to lose 5k ultra fast. Goddamn this machine. That's an annoying end to what was otherwise a great day. D and wife won even more after I left, I believe wife is up 3k on craps now!
Day 3 result- +3k
Overall- +23k
Dealt quads- 4, 2 premium
5 digit hits- 2
Final Day
Get a REALLY shtty night of sleep. I head downstairs, knowing the play is to stay in bed. Only way to avoid a last day implosion is... don't play, but? Instead, I mentally tell myself that 8k is my limit. If I book a 15k+ win, I'll be happy. Any less and I'll be kind of pissed I gave so much back.
Finally making quad aces... but where are the kickers?
I dump 5k at hi limit really fast. Head to UX for one last hurrah.
I'm almost broke for the day when I hit this. Nice save! Now it's like I just got up 😉
The pics don't do this part justice. This was the most fun, draw heavy stretch of my entire trip. I must have gotten dealt trip aces at least 3x and premiums another 4-5. It was like the machine was trying to make up for all the lack of draws earlier. Obv I didn't hit one of them. That said, I did play 10 handed UX on turbo and the machine just kept letting me play. No massive hits, just a steady, upwards trend. Finally we got near the point where D and I were going to get one last craps session in and I decided to call it. +7k for the last AM. I'll definitely take that, since I have a tendency to give way too much back on the final day. Would have been nice to have hit any one of those big draws, though.
We play a last mini craps session, and it's mediocre. I decide to call it- I need to settle up all these chips and tickets anyways. When the smoke clears, I'm up 30k for the trip- until I pay D's share, which works out to just about 3k. 27k is still a great win, wife won almost 3k, D won 15k!!! which is just massive for him.
We grab a room service breakfast, and head back home! Until next time, Vegas!
Day 4 result- +7k
Overall- +27k
Thoughts- not much to say. Finally got that great craps run with D AND wife. Craps overall was great this trip. VP was overall good obv, but had I run anywhere near expectation with aces it could have been massive. I ran the numbers at the end and I was still short 5 dealt trip aces at the end, despite the flurry of the final session (and I didn't hit any of those). Slot tourney was fun, but also mildly disappointing that D and I put up great scores but couldn't find a way to bring it home. It was definitely a high scoring tourney- I've seen mid 80k avg WIN outright in the past. Oh well. At least there'll be a next time.
Thanks for reading!
Great result. Thanks for all your trip reports this year Leon. Have a Happy Christmas
And the good trips keep coming. More for 2025. Yay
The saga continues!
why would you not want this as the table centerpiece?
Spoiler
Really looking forward to 2025. No more ridiculously high estimated tax payments to make (2024 was a net loser for sure), SHOULD get a decent refund to replenish bankroll, 2021, 2023 were great and 2022, 2024 horrible... so obv the pattern will hold and I'll hit at least one 6 digit hit in 2025??! Making estimated tax in 2026 awful again, etc.
Pigs in a blanket?!
Thanks for all the TRs leon, Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!
How long can this last? (rhetorical)
Glad you could close out on a winner (assuming that's the last trip of the year lol)
this randomly popped up in my feed and thought the thread will hate it so i had to share
