My trip last week was one for the records books (my book, anyway). I arrived on Tuesday and played video poker two nights at Riviera, losing gradually as often happens, and left down about half a royal-flush. I transferred to Wynn Las Vegas to have a try at their Saturday night ticket drawing. As before, I continued emptying my pockets for two days, finally hitting a Royal Flush Friday night on a $5 Double Bonus machine (9/7). It made me feel a little better to be about even again and I continued playing for drawing tickets... the more points you got, the more tickets you got to drop in the drum. I was able to get about 90 tickets to drop in the slot of a very full drum. There were 250 players in the drawing on Saturday, and my ticket won first place for $35K!

I took the prize in free play and played the first $25K on the VP machine, ending with about $24K of the prize left to cash out. Had a nice dinner on SteveW at Alex restaurant, and returned to play for a bit. By then, the remaining $10K of the prize free-play was on my card, and continued on a 10-play VP machine. After about half an hour, I was dealt a club flush, A,K,Q,J, and a 3. I studied the screen for a bit, and checked my strategy card to be sure I should discard the 3, as I had a sure set of 10 flushes. However, playing for the Royal is the way to go, so kept the 4 high cards and dealt. I hit two of the hands for Royals. I have never hit 2 RF's on one play before, and the total was about $42K on this one spin!

Wound up my play for the night at about midnight and took a very nice check home the following morning. I know, there are still three months left in 2009, but maybe I can keep at least some of this week's play to split with the tax man next year [g].

By the way, if you ever get a sizeable sweepstake prize, you might consider asking for the prize in free-play rather than in cash. The cash payment requires the casino to issue you a 1099 tax form, and this prize can NOT be reduced by gambling losses for tax purposes. For some reason, the free play is consdered a gift, kind of like free play for your players' club points, and they don't have to report it. Just something to consider if you plan to play more at that casino anyway.