IM received: "thinking about going to casino this weekend"

That's really all the enablement I needed to blow off a play I already paid for, borrow money, and plunge into slotland spanning two blue states.

I responded with an affirmative after checking out a poker tournament that we'd be in time for.

IM received: "get ready for a casino gambling adventure"

A friend and I braved Chicago-to-Michigan weekend rush hour and, realizing we'd be late for the poker tourney, made a detour to Blue Chip casino in Indiana, owned by Boyd Gaming.

Picked up a new 'B' player's card and consolidated Vegas play (Fremont, Sam's Town, The Orleans... other Boyd properties where I've played weren't listed). Had to pick a home casino, so went with Fremont in downtown Vegas, though I never play there except when I'm meeting up with mamagrub.

Did a syndicate $100 each on the new Rawhide 5-reel mechanical slots. Familiar with the video version of Rawhide, I first played the stepper reels in August at Sam's Town and swear that the game was different -- for one, the bonus seemed easier to get into. For another, you could also get into the bonus by getting 5 top award symbols.

Because of different regulators around the country, a slot manufacturer would prefer to follow the rules of all of them to not have to create different versions of games for different markets. I'm thinking Konami must have changed the game specifically for Las Vegas. Same look, slightly different math.

Lasted awhile until busto, then went to the new Fire Island 5-reel mechanical slots. I'm still more a fan of video slots, but mech games are getting better. In Fire Island, you trigger the bonus with 5 or more symbols, which awards at least one random pick of a credit value. Then during free spins, every time that symbol appears, you receive those credits picked. I hit 8 symbols and the wheel picked 3 credit values. Unfortunately they were low values. But oh the potential.

Moved to trusty Mr. Cashman -- Jail Bird. Being nickel denom, it cost 5 times as much. And seemingly, my horrid run had Mr. Cashman 5 times less likely to appear.

Jackpot Stampede Deluxe was a fun 3-reel mechanical progressive, even if I didn't win. Betting max, I was guaranteed to win one of the progressives in free spins. An unlimited amount of spins and any time a colored cow appeared on the reels, I was that much closer to winning that color progressive.

A woman next to me said, "Hey you won $100." I didn't tell her that that was the credit meter, and I had started with $100.

Then played King of the Wild, a game where paylines wrap-around, able to begin on any of the 5 reels instead of just reel 1. This was the only game I won on (or the only one I had the sense to cash out), being up $15.

I didn't step foot into the poker room, but it looks like Oct. 15 begins their wheel, which can be spun on any 4-of-a-kind or better. The concept was lifted from Excalibur, which around the slow time in December would also offer up two spins on the wheel. Half the fun of the Excal was this wheel, which is now gone because they went all e-tables.

My friend paid for the dinner buffet, which I rated a 4, earning +1 for having good bread pudding and a chocolate fountain for fondue.

He asked me what I'd rate a 10 -- I said Wynn Las Vegas. Bellagio? 9. Then I threw in my fondness for Sunset Station, coming in at an 8 because of price, serving stations, and international dishes they'd change daily. And also because it was close to my apartment and I could cut to the front of the line with my player's card.

Sunset Station's buffet had a serving station with chicken picatta. Blue Chip had a serving station of a gourmet salad. To get things like gourmet lettuce and gourmet tomatoes and gourmet croutons, you had to ask them to prepare it.

This led to chat about buffets in general, then to Mandalay Bay.

When I lived in Vegas, I went to Mandalay often. Whether for poker or for work at the radio station, I was there at least four times a week. I know these casinos inside and out, and running through Mandalay in my mind, I couldn't place a buffet.

Not all Vegas casinos have buffets. The Venetian and The Palazzo don't.

MGM Mirage owns Mandalay Bay and also owns New York New York, which doesn't have a buffet. So there's precedent at an MGM property.

I felt reasonably confident, except that I rarely went down the corridor toward the Shark Reef.

We made a $10 bet.

The first Google search on my iPhone said "Best Las Vegas Buffet -- Mandalay Bay." It even had a name -- Bayside Buffet.

My buffet IQ was rattled, and the $10 owed would later grow into much more.

Next stop was Four Winds casino in New Buffalo, Michigan.

Played a bunch of games and lost. As much as I lost, my friend lost more. But that'll happen, as even I'm not crazy enough to play Gusher at $30 per spin.

On my last $200, I said I'd be at the poker room trying to win my money back.

I never made it, stopping at Hot Hot Penny -- Star of India. Normally I do well on this game, but $100 went quick when at nickel denom it's actually Hot Hot Nickel.

I was then entranced by the Happy Days slots.

Happy Days has a free spin progressive, where at random times you win a number of free spins instead of a progressive value. The Diamond level was at 84 spins and the Platinum level was at 47 spins. Both were the highest I'd ever seen. Like Big Event, the game has a multiplier for the more you play and the faster you play.

I first played Happy Days at The Palms, and had a miserable experience. Of all the games I've ever played, it's the one I lost the most in the least amount of time. $800 in 20 minutes.

I figured EV was higher than The Palms if I could get into the free spins at Diamond or Platinum with a huge multiplier.

Other players must've thought the same thing, as they weren't budging from their seats. And there were players waiting to play. Some company should come up with a catheter on a gaming device, to prevent wet seats.

I sat down at a video poker machine, getting in the queue for some Happy Days play.

My friend arrived looking defeated. Gusher had crushed him, and he sat at Count Money for a few spins. He got into the bonus, then picked two Garlic symbols to end the bonus with just a 1x consolation win. His luck was worse than mine.

Then he hit the bonus again, and this time kept picking credits. By the time he Garliced out, he hit a W-2G for a bit above $1200. If he hadn't made that last pick, he would've had less than $1200 (and hence no IRS paperwork).

A crowd gathered to congratulate him, and he brushed them off. When you're down and $1200 doesn't put you back to even, the last thing you want is people touching you for luck.

The Four Winds crew was fast in arriving to take down his information. When they came back to pay him out, he had hit another jackpot on Count Money, this time with the Mystery Wild feature that throws out a random number of Wild symbols. He hit multiple top awards in one spin for $2800.

They paid him for his first jackpot and said they'd be back. Could he win another jackpot within that time?

He did. He switched to video poker and hit quad 5s that paid out $2500.

Now there was a spot on Happy Days. Knowing I was waiting, a woman motioned me over before cashing out so I could take her seat.

This was a nice gesture, and I made a mental note to give her $20 if I hit the Diamond.

I began banging away, driving up my multiplier to 56x.

Hit the Gold progressive for 17 spins at 56x, which paid $300.

The casino had removed the top button, so I couldn't play the maximum. But for some reason, I could get around this by pressing the Max Bet button on the screen. This is probably how the Cambodians were playing Indiana Jones -- they can't play minimum from the mechanical buttons, but they can switch to a minimum bet via the screen. Sneaky Cambodians.

I was soon up to 70x and every time I was near to busting out, I borrowed another $100 from my friend.

The Diamond was now up to 99 spins. 99 spins at 70x. If I could hit this, all the ducks were lined up to collect my first W-2G.

It was hard keeping the multiplier at a steady 70x without it dropping down. I had to constantly slap the buttons like a slot tournament.

Then I heard, "grub, I just hit for $40,000."

I looked over and I saw my friend at the video poker machine I was sitting at while waiting for a spot at Happy Days. It was the machine next to the one where he had just won $2500.

He looked like he was in shock.

My multiplier dropped to 60x.

He came over, high-fived, and he ran his fingers through his hair, looking incredulous. Almost every time I've been to a casino with him, he's won a W-2G-worthy jackpot, but I'd never seen him this excited.

I was torn, wanting to go over to look at his machine and congratulate him, but at the same time the Happy Days progressive felt so close to triggering.

He later said that's what he would remember of the evening, of him hitting a royal flush for $40,000 and me not being bothered to come over because I was too focused on Happy Days.

But hey, Happy Days isn't your normal slot machine where you can just walk away. You have to keep up your multiplier and you're in competition with other players, because they could hit it at any time too.

He gave me a free $100, which as lucky money goes, I played through on Happy Days until I busted, then went over to his machine to take some photos. The largest win I've seen was a woman hitting a progressive at Excalibur for over $2 million, then a guy in the Luxor high-limit area hitting for thousands of dollars per spin (although he was betting as much too, with a woman next to him who dutifully marked down each time it was over $1199 for tax purposes). But this was the largest win from someone I know.


This time, he didn't mind people coming up to him to shake his hand and touch him for luck and tell him other winning stories. A host arrived and asked if there was anything she could get us like a room (because they didn't want all of the money leaving the casino). If only it weren't 2 a.m., we could've enjoyed a nice free steak dinner. But certainly he'll be getting future offers.

He avoided a big check with photo for their wall, but smartly asked for a regular check so he wouldn't be tempted into blowing a chunk of it on other games.

And then he sat at my Happy Days machine, with his multiplier also at the top 70x.

I thought if anyone could hit the Diamond, he could. But the game defeated both of us.

Diamond was at 103 spins when we left.

When leaving Blue Chip, I picked up a 4-pack of Vitamin Water, which was the promotion for signing up to the casino. They were the small 12 oz. ones and were all Power-C Dragonfruit flavored.


Tallying my losses at Blue Chip and Four Winds, as well as the $10 bet on the Mandalay Bay buffet, each bottle cost me $392.50 (not counting the play I blew off).

Kind of a high price to pay for a gambling adventure, but I'm glad I was there to see my friend's biggest win.