M I S Q S

Sunday morning and only three of us are alive and kicking.  With nothing to do, we decide to head 14 miles south of the strip to the new The M Resort.  On I-15 South it takes right at 20 minutes to get there.

As we approach the resort it seems to be very nice.  Of course having only been opened for 6 months don't expect it to look rundown just yet.  We park the car in a lot that is mostly empty, pretty close to the side doors.  We enter the building and must take an escalator up to the main floor.  We walk toward the casino and are impressed with the over all look of the place.  It is as nice (if not nicer than) Bellagio, Wynn, Paris, Caesars.  We walk into the main reception/registration area and it is very impressive.  On the left (as we enter from the side entrance) is a bar area that overlooks the pool.  Very NICE!  We wonder further into the casino stopping at the players club to get a players card.  The staff are very friendly and point out all kinds of features of the player club (more than I can remember, good thing they gave us a pamphlet detailing everything they said).

We head for the nearest bar and sit down to play video poker and drink a little.  All of the video poker games are High Definition screens.  We ask the bartender which games he sees play the best.  He recommends the Bonus Poker Deluxe.  It seems to hit a ton of 3-of-a-kind hands that turn into 4-of-a-kind for 400 coins.  Uncle Dan and I play at the quarter level and Uncle D hits a 4-of-a-kind in a dozen hands or so.  He increases to fifty-cent bets and hits another 4-of-a-kind.  He increases bets to $1 and hits 4-of-a-kind again for a total of $600 in winnings so far.  He ups to $2 bets and waste $200 never hitting so goes back down to $1 and hits another 4-of-a-kind for $1,000 in winnings.

Uncle Dan's son plays different games and hits and misses a lot.  He moves to the Bonus Poker Deluxe and hits a 4-of-a-kind.  I play Bonus Poker Deluxe and hit a ton of 3-of-a-kinds but only 2 or 3 4-of-a-kinds.  I also play Double Bonus Poker and Double Double Bonus Poker hit another 4-of-a-kind and several Full House.  Overall I make a couple of hundred dollars. 

All the time we are playing the bartender keeps saying he knows us and asking us questions about where he might know us from.  Come to find out, he was a bartender at the El Cortez for years and now it dawns on us that yes we do know him since the Cortez is where we spend a lot of our time.  Also, while we are playing, one of the Casino Host comes by and points out a problem with the player card tracking on the video poker games.  Apparently, if you do not play for 5 minutes, the machine times out and logs off your card.  Even though the card is still inserted, you have to remove and reinsert it.  He warned that if you go off to the bathroom or take a phone call, to be sure and check it before playing.  It is one of the biggest problems that the Casino Host have with the system they use.

We end up moving over to a BlackJack table.  We do ok over 3-4 hours of play time but not great.  I take a break to go find Uncle Dan's son and grab a quick bite to eat.  I get a BBQ sandwhich that is surprisingly good.  Not Texas BBQ, but is good.

The casino host we meet earlier offered to show us a room and we take him up on the offer.  The room is sweet!  Very very nice.   Easily rivals Mandalay Bay, Monte Carlo, MGM, New York-New York, Treasure Island and Paris.  Plus the room rates are very reasonable $80 during the week and $120 on weekends.  Also, I noticed that comps accumulate a lot faster than at the main strip casinos.  Maybe not quite as fast as downtown, but pretty fast.  I will definitely be back to play more here and hopefully stay.

The casino host looks up our accounts and tells us that Uncle Dan could already have rooms comp'ed.  Uncle Dan's son and I would qualify after another hour or two of play time.  Figure, this will be the place in the future for me.  So what if it is a long way off from everything else.  May not need to go anywhere else with the way this resort is heading.  All I can say is I hope they keep up the fine job they have done so far.