Extended Laughlin Trip Report (part 1)
Harris Del Rio-Free mardi gras beads with card signup, you also get a scratch card that got me $5 in slot play on certain low payout slots. After running that through I pulled out $1.50, that�s a half a unit at my level so I can�t complain. I saw quite a few CSMs and I believe D10, 11 only so we moved on.
Palms River- AKA: Gold River, Sam�s Town. They had a large poster out front that says rolling for the dough but the font they used made the g look like a c so it read �rolling for the douch�, not spelled correctly but it was pretty funny. Signed up for a card to receive a free buffet, sounded like a good idea at the time but the buffet was pretty bad and I�m glad I didn�t pay for it. There was a free 1:00 BJ tourney for entry into a cash prize tourney ($15 value), signup was supposed to be at noon but they opened it up at 11:30.
It was 20 rounds of DD play and you had to bet before the dealer decided to shuffle and wouldn�t let you change your bets. Anyway at the last few hands I was in second place trailing by quite a bit (start off with $500 in fake chips). The leader was an older Asian lady and she had played this tourney before and had a stack of black chips so I started betting more aggressively. Unfortunately it wasn�t aggressive enough. On the last hand I was down about $650 so I bet the $500 max, as did the lady. I drew a 12 against a 5 and the lady just about peed her pants when I doubled to 17. The dealer drew to 16 and thought it was 17 so he pushed my hand. I was still doing math to see if I could catch the leader, and I couldn�t so I didn�t pay it any attention.
When I realized what had happened it was too late but she would have still been $150 in the lead. All in all it was a lot of fun and a learning experience, since then I�ve ordered Casino Tournament Strategy so the next time I�ll be more prepared. Poor games here, though they did have $0.01 video slots that are kind of neat which I had never seen before in Laughlin. I would soon discover that penny slots have invaded Laughlin and can be found in several casinos.
Pioneer Club- $1 Breakfast Buffet with a comp card on Fridays, we didn�t know this till after we ate at the snack shop, you win some and lose some I guess. Went to get a comp card and they took my picture; it wasn�t printed on my card but it surely in their computer. This could be a way to keep you from using someone else�s comp card and to better keep track of card counters who go for the cards. They did offer bonuses if you got to a certain level of points in a 24 hour period but I lost that sheet. Anyway they were very prompt in awarding me points for table play and in the little over 1 � hours of red chip play I had over $11 in comps (and won both sessions there) which is a buffet and then some.
DA2, DAS really old table felts with many holes. Did well there so I�d play again early mornings. A little dingy there as it always has been as far as I�ve known, like an old shoe. Buffet waitress says they are going to renovate the restaurant and it should be nice. They had some silly miniature golf promotion that cut down on poolside parking but other than that it was fine.
Gold Nugget: Free thermal mug when signing up for comp card and bonuses if you get a certain level of points in 24 hours. Good rules and decent penetration, but I�ve never felt comfortable in that casino for some reason, played a bit but had no luck.
Colorado Bell: 6/5 tables all over the place, 6 deck Wheel of Madness, Bonanza Blackjack (glorified video blackjack played at a table). They do have penny draw poker though so if you were learning the game or wanted to kill time that could be one way to go. Decks of cards are 99cents buy one get one free and the deck I opened the ace of spades wasn�t canceled (they cancel with a marker and not corner clipping). These were great cards for play because they are easier to shuffle than the ones with clipped corners. I didn�t play cards here but I learned all about penny slots while my family tried to win a sweet looking Harley Davidson on quarter slots.
Edgewater: DA, DAS, H17, pen varied from 50% to about 85% depending on the dealer. I spent the most time here and found first hand that at a table with 2 or 3 people I�d make my big bets and I�d lose them with 5 or 6 people at the table, hmm I wonder what I�ll do next time. Sign up for the comp card (which is good at the Colorado Belle as well) and get a free cookie for being a smart cookie. That cookie was way better than the free buffet at the River Palms.
Flamingo: I remember looking at the tables and the rules were bad so I didn�t play or write things down, fun book comes with a comp card so that�s nice, didn�t use it though. Several daily food specials at off hours worth looking into, poker pit looked interesting and easy to see the action from the near by Dairy Queen. There was a band or something going to play and you could pay for seats (I think) or hear everything from the river walk, go figure.
Regency: No tables here but they have Flip It and Karaoke. I also told some guy they would let you double for more at the Regency, maybe he stayed for Karaoke??? Large posters all over for the buffet picturing a large breasted women with nice cleavage.
Riverside: Double any hand of two cards as long as it�s total is 10 or greater, I kept trying to double my A6 and argued that 17 was greater than 10 but they wouldn�t buy it. Played a little here but nothing to write home about. I did see a couple guys playing casino war and one guy was bragging about how easy it was and that he lost $800 in minutes. That�s not something I�d be bragging about.
Ramada Express: CSMs, no good BJ, there�s a tic-tac-toe playing chicken though. At the $20 and under store they have some really nice aloha shirts, cotton, matching pockets, coconut shell buttons. They didn�t have any with half naked women on them so I passed but they were a deal for sure, my dad bought one.
Everything was H17
Next installment will have session summaries and stories of the people I met and how I did.
