Hit and Run at the Rio
My 2020 started off incredibly strong with a big win at an unlikely game in a place not particularly known for very good Video Poker; Terrible in fact. My play this weekend went like this.
My partner in life and person who bears the brunt of my VP induced mood swings, Tiffany, went out to California to visit family and take our kids to Disneyland. The week they were there happened to coincide with the opening round of Monster Energy Supercross. We are both big fans of the sport and our all time favorite rider, Chad Reed, happens to be retiring this year so Tiffany was hoping to add a Supercross round to her already busy week.
She badgered me insistently about going to the race and I kept ignoring her request to join her. The drive from Northern Utah to Southern California is a lengthy drive and I prefer to avoid it whenever i can. Finally, she broke me by late Thursday night after I was able to book an early flight out Saturday morning from SLC into Long Beach where she could pick me up and we could drive straight to the race just in time. Vital to my decision in paying retail for a last minute flight was I was able to book a room at the Rio in Las Vegas for Saturday night and they would also give me $400 in freeplay for my trouble which would more than cover the one way trip of my flight.
After the race was over around 10pm we packed up in the car and headed straight for Las Vegas from Angels Stadium. I am originally from Southern California and naturally I am a fan of In n Out burgers but we have plenty of them in Utah now so I had to make a stop at another SoCal favorite of mine, Bakers. We made it to Vegas in phenomenal time pulling into the Rio about 1:15am. Normally it would be get the kids to the room and before there shoes are off their feet I am already in the elevator on my way down to play. I decided to take a more measured approach this time with a very long day behind me, so to sleep I went.
I woke up eager the next morning and considered laying back down….who am I kidding I was in Vegas for 5 hours already and needed to go explore the Video Poker inventory! I am very familiar with the Rio and I’m certain that my lifetime earnings at this property have added a good portion to my yearly earnings. I went straight down and passed up a few dollar Progressives which weren’t yet playable. After checking those machines I went to the cashier to retrieve my freeplay vouchers. After getting the vouchers I slithered into the High Limit slot area and found one of my favorite machines. I sat down and put in $2,000 and choose an absolute MONSTER of a game. This was POT SHOT taking time. I hadn’t been to Vegas in almost 6 months and I was eager to hit $100k jackpot. I choose a game that could bankrupt a millionaire in a week, I choose $25 denomination Triple Double Bonus. This was only a 98.15% and I had less than 200 hands I could play before I would go negative EV on the game.
I connected with four 8’s pretty early on and the machine locked up for $6,250 at 7:00am. The slot attendants paid me very quickly and I was back at it and by 7:21am I started with two held 3’s and popped two more.. Damn! I missed a kicker and that “cost me” $40,000 but hey a $10,000 jackpot is a nice consolation prize. I stopped right there. About 20 minutes of play and I was up $11,020 on the trip and on the year. TDB will eat you up and spit you out at any denomination let alone $125 per hand. So If I get up early I’m done. What a day!
