Hi there! You may remember me from such posts as ';My first TR: Showboat 8/30-9/1'; and ';I could be in AC now but...';.
Last Saturday, I finally got together with one of the two guys I was supposed to meet up with a couple weekends ago and
here%26#39;s what happened, with a few exaggerations thrown in for spice!
I have to admit, I had a bad feeling leading up to this trip. Without getting into details, I felt I
had built up some bad karma in the days leading up to Saturday. Early Saturday AM did nothing to convince me otherwise.
For starters, while eating breakfast with my wife, I politely asked her if she wanted the last bit of my bacon and she
said yes! I mean, yeah, she%26#39;s pregnant and all, but COME ON!!!! Who%26#39;s going to AC and who%26#39;s staying home? Huh??!!
Then, going over the Ben Franklin Br. I didn%26#39;t bear right enough to stay on 676 and ended up on the other side of the
fork. Ok, no biggie, I%26#39;ll get off at the first exit and turn around. Oh, look, the sign even says ';U and Left Turns';!
Yeah, the sign LIED! I got a nice little tour of Camden trying to find a place to semi-legally turn around. And then,
of course, getting back to 676 wasn%26#39;t so cut and dried, but I eventually did.
Got to AC and my first stop was Harrah%26#39;s to take advantage of their free parking coupon and $10 in bonus cash. No problems
with either. Then outside to the jitney stop, where they need to add a new game: bet on where the jitney will stop
relative to the sign and how many people he%26#39;ll let on! What a mess that was. At least I built up some good karma by
letting a senior get on when the guy could only take 1. But the running joke became ';if there were 3 people in front of
me he could take 3, if there were 2, he could take 2';. Finally I got on and headed for the Borgata.
Approaching the Borg, the driver asked ';anyone for Borgata?'; Umm... a better question would be ';who is NOT going to the
Borgata?'; I mean why wouldn%26#39;t you want to go to this beautiful place where the ceilings are high, the gaming is fair
and the drinks come in bottles and real glasses? Also, doesn%26#39;t he have to check for pick-ups anyway?
Was he going to skip the Borg if no one piped up? I got
off the jitney, found the B Bar, wandered over to the 25 cent VP side, put in my card, activated my $10 free play, ordered
a 7 and 7 and began playing. Notice I didn%26#39;t say ';sat down';; either there weren%26#39;t enough stools to start with or
non-players had commandeered them to watch their spouses play. Grrrr.... Anyway, the 9/6 paytable helped me immensely
as I believe I hit two full-houses and a flush before Charlie showed up. He almost went right past me so I said ';over here
idiot'; and he went to take a swing at me before he realized who I was (okay, not really). Charlie%26#39;s not big into VP but
he said he%26#39;d play
a bit. We couldn%26#39;t get two machines together in the bar so we went onto the floor to %26#39;slum%26#39; at 8/5 machines. I hit a 4OAK
and maybe 1 full house. Eventually we saw they were going to open more $10 BJ tables. I cashed out up $35 (incl. the free
play) and proceeded to go wait and wait and wait by one of the to-be-opened tables. I think they checked each card in
the 6 card shoe about 5 times! I went to the bathroom and was very impressed with it; all it needed was one
of those Japanese toilets from that Simpsons episode that says ';I would be honored to accept your waste';! Finally we
started playing and I had a bad feeling from the start. A couple of morons were at 1st base; hitting 13 against a dealer
6 and other foolishness. Still, I held my own until I made a dumb play and it was all downhill from there. I was on tilt,
the two idiots were still idiots so we eventually left (I was down 20). On our way to the cage I rather loudly exclaimed
to Charlie that the couple at first were idiots and then I saw them kinda walking next to me! Oops. Well, they must not
have heard me or thought I was talking about the idiots standing behind them (there were none, but these idiots couldn%26#39;t
have known that). We went downstairs to Tony Luke%26#39;s b/c you can%26#39;t get a good cheesesteak where Charlie%26#39;s from in
Central NJ. I got the italian pork sandwich and cheesefries. Both were good; sandwich was a little salty though and I
couldn%26#39;t finish the fries. Considered bringing them with us but they would have to sit in Charlie%26#39;s mom%26#39;s new Mercedes
for the rest of the day and I didn%26#39;t think she%26#39;d appreciate her new car smell being replaced with the smell of cheese
fries. Women! *rolls eyes* So in the trash they went and we were off to the boardwalk!
Stopped at Bally%26#39;s to get my $8 in bonus cash. But wait! Bally%26#39;s TR kiosks don%26#39;t know my TR PIN so I have to stand in
line for one! WTF? I get my $ and we walk north on the boards. We hit Steel Pier and Charlie turns into %26#39;the great white
hunter%26#39; at the crossbow game, winning a white tiger pelt. Leaving the pier, we see the Taj in front of us and I tell
Charlie I%26#39;ve heard that it%26#39;s unsafe and we should stay out of there. But Charlie is all Captain Testosterone and he tells
me to quit my bitchin%26#39;, slaps me in the face and yammers something about ';the eye of the tiger';. Emboldened, we kick down the
front door (which is odd b/c you%26#39;re supposed to PULL them open), openly mock the timeshare hawkers and flip off a
security camera before heading over to the Taj Card desk to enter the football pick %26#39;em game. At this point Charlie realizes
he needs gum and so we learn casinos don%26#39;t sell gum b/c it usually ends up on the carpet. So we head south on the boards,
looking for gum. ';do you sell gum?'; ';no, but the next store down does'; ';LIAR!'; (okay I made the last part up, but we went
through this about 5 times!).
Finally we get to the Caesar%26#39;s Pier and make our way up to Game On where we get a booth. We order a couple beers and figure
we should probably order some food. The menu was kinda slim pickin%26#39;s, though. I guess when you%26#39;ve got 90 HD screens you
don%26#39;t need food as a draw. Or beers on tap for that matter (just Yuengling and Coors light). Charlie got the chowder,
I got the baked alaska (the merangue was a bit too sweet and the cherry vanilla ice cream was a bit too frozen but it was
all right). We stayed till the end of the Tigers game to confirm that yes, indeed, the Yanks suck. Then we realized we
haven%26#39;t gambled for a while and went to Caesar%26#39;s. At this point it%26#39;s around 7:30 and minimums are going up. Charlie
apparently finds a $15 BJ game and I head over to the 9/6 JOB machines by the Toga Bar. I find one open machine,
quickly lose about $25 and Charlie%26#39;s already done with BJ b/c the min went up to $25. On a serious note, I was rather
disappointed with Caesar%26#39;s. It felt old and tired.
We head down to the Trop and at this point, if you%26#39;re keeping score (which I wasn%26#39;t) you%26#39;ll notice I%26#39;m up a whopping $8
and that%26#39;s b/c of the Bally%26#39;s cash. We find a $10 BJ table that has yet to go to $15 and we wedge ourselves in. We grind
it out for a while and then the min goes to $15. Like a cheapskate I consider leaving but I take one for the table and
keep playing. More grinding for me, a bit more losing for Charlie and the rest. Charlie starts
treating pushes like wins since the wins aren%26#39;t coming. Ditto the others. A woman sits down and says she left the last
table b/c everyone was losing; Charlie tells her she%26#39;ll fit right in here! We wonder aloud if we can start making side
bets on if the dealer will turn over a 10. I try to turn the tide by placing bets for the
dealer but it doesn%26#39;t work. Then someone has an idea: just tip the dealer outright! Okay, why not? I think that%26#39;s when
our luck started to change. My personal highlight was going on a mini-run which let me up my bets and then catching 3
21s in a row! On the fourth hand, I either won or pushed but I didn%26#39;t like the cards the dealer drew so I pulled back to
the minimum and that was smart b/c the tide swung the other way, with the lowlight being 3 dealer 21s in a row followed
by a fourth hand where she DREW to 21! Charlie and I decide to finish up the shoe, I win my last hand and I color up
to $380 (my buy in was $100). We cash out and head for The Quarter b/c I read at whoot.com that Red Square becomes an
80s/90s dance club with no cover around 11 on Saturdays. Well, it was just 11 when we got there and I guess they hadn%26#39;t
changed over yet since it was still techno. But now the Mets are playing so we check that out. It was 7-5 and we watch
them tack on an insurance run and leave. We head out past Hooters and Charlie drops two pieces of knowledge: 1) he%26#39;s never
been to a Hooters and 2) he has a cousin who may work at this one. So we go in and he finds her and she gets us a table. We
check out the talent and notice a pregnant Hooters girl. I%26#39;d love to comment on this but I%26#39;ll probably F it up and offend
someone, so I won%26#39;t. I begin to wish I had a hot girl cousin but then I stop b/c what good would that do me? We get some
wings but Charlie isn%26#39;t impressed so I pay the bill and keep the rest for myself. Now it%26#39;s about 12:30 and we begin the
walk back to Bally%26#39;s for the car. Pay with a coupon I got along with the $8 (I%26#39;m cheap, sue me) and we head to Harrah%26#39;s
so I can get my car. I leave the parking deck at 1 am without paying b/c only one booth was open and it was
unmanned. Wooo hooo! I get on the AC Expressway and make it home around 2:30 am without incident nor detours.
Still reading? Thanks!!! We plan on going again in November after some bounce-back offers arive, so you haven%26#39;t heard the
last of me!
TR: Three hundy by 11 pm (long)
Crud, sorry about the line breaks. I wrote this in notepad and just pasted it in here.
makeup trends
