Tunica

Spent some time in Tunica last weekend. I stayed at Sam's Town and visited Hollywood, Resorts and Gold Strike.

I pretty much focus on video poker, so here's my take on it...

Sam's Town.... no progressives, one bar of video poker. Pay tables weren't horrible.. in the 98% range. Saw 9/6 JoB at the $1 level. Not a lot of selection and the VP is pretty much all by itself in a corner. Rooms seemed a bit run down to me.

Hollywood... one progressive at the bar, with a crappy pay table. A bit more in selection than Sam's Town, but again, all VP in one corner of the casino.

Resorts... a few banks of progressive machines, not a great deal of selection. Progressive at the bar was over $2000 for quarters, so the it was just barely negative expectation with the crappy paytable. Bar is right in front of a stage, and they had a terrific band playing when I was there.

Gold Strike... not a lot of progressives, but a good selection. I saw a $25 machine in the High Limit area with a JoB paytable of 8/5!!!! Non-smoking area upstairs was nice.

Tunica is a unique place for sure. I don't play video poker so I know nothing about pay tables. GoldStrike has a lot nicer rooms than Sam's Town and it is very easy to get a room comped during the week at GoldStrike.

How where the crowds during your visit? I went a few weeks back and the crowds where considerably lighter than I have ever seen in the past.

I really had nothing to compare to since I've never been before. But casinos were definitely busy on the Friday and Saturday night, not so much on Sunday night.

I did notice that it appears that Harrah's closed down, so that may very well be in line with your thoughts about lighter crowds.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/03/27/harrahs-to-close-casino-in-miss/6945389/

this might explain things a bit

The Immokalee Poker Players Breakfast Club in Florida still reports that Tunica is a place to squeek, squeek, squeek if you want anything oiled in the way of comp. They don't always give in Tunica but they do seem to always want to you ask for meal comps, deli comps and room comps. Even midweek room comps are ask and ye shall receive.

And I did ask for a comp for Twain's (steakhouse at Sam's Town). They offered me less than I thought they would given my play, but it was enough to completely cover the meal, so no complaints.

The meal was delicious. A large restaurant and I was one of maybe 3 tables being served in the place on a Sunday night.

Quote: rsactuary

Resorts... a few banks of progressive machines, not a great deal of selection. Progressive at the bar was over $2000 for quarters, so the it was just barely negative expectation with the crappy paytable. Bar is right in front of a stage, and they had a terrific band playing when I was there.

Negative EV at $2k? Not if i was playing it. ;) Best I've seen at Resorts was $2500. I think it is an 0.8% meter. Didn't hit it though of course. :(

And i hope 9/6 JoB is still at Sam's Town bars for quarters too. I hit that every trip. Maybe you meant the average game payout at the bars was 98% there, i hope?

I did not see 9/6 J0B at quarters.. but maybe I just missed it.

It seemed to me a lot of the games were set in the low 97 to high 98 range.. that's why I said about 98%.

I was surprised to see the paytables on the couple $5 games they had were lower than the $1 paytables!

Yeah, when I saw the $25 machine at resorts, my jaw just about hit the floor.

I figured once Harrahs closed down it would drive more business to GoldStrike and Horseshoe. I didn't step inside horseshoe on my trip but GoldStrike had a smaller crowd than I have ever seen there. Several of the dealer I spoke with said they didn't seem to pick up any after Harrahs closed. That kind of shocked me a bit.

Tunica is still a low rollers paradise, in terms of comps received. Anyone can get a weekday comp and anyone can get comps to the buffet.