rdw4potus's Blog

Tour De Harrah's

As of this moment, I have yet to hear back from Caesars Entertainment about my plan to visit all of their properties in calendar year 2011. I thought they'd have more interest in at least knowing about the quest. Hopefully, they'll get back to me eventually...

Vegas:
Visited: 6/16/11
Caesars Palace
Planet Hollywood
Rio
Harrah's
Paris
Imperial Palace
Flamingo
Bally's
Bill's
O'Shea's

AC:
Visited: 3/30/11
Harrah's
Caesars Palace
Showboat
Bally's

Reno/Tahoe:
Anticipated visit: 9/17/11
Harrah's Reno
Harrah's Lake Tahoe
Harvey's Lake Tahoe

Tunica:
Anticipated visit: 9/30/11
Harrah's
Horseshoe
Roadhouse

New Orleans/Biloxi:
Anticipated visit: 9/29/11
Harrah's New Orleans
Grand Biloxi

Council Bluffs:
Visited: 6/26/11
Harrah's
Horseshoe

Bossier:
Visited: 6/7/11
Harrah's Louisiana Downs
Horseshoe Bossier City

Caesars Windsor
Visited: 6/18/11

Harrah's Laughlin
Visited: 6/12/11

Harrah's Joliet
Visited: 6/19/11

Harrah's Metropolis
Visited: 4/9/11

Harrah's North Kansas City
Visited: 5/13/11

Harrah's Saint Louis
Visited: 4/8/11

Horseshoe Southern Indiana
Visited: 5/18/11

Hammond Horseshoe
Visited: 6/19/11

Harrah's Chester
Visited: 3/30/11

Harrah's Phoenix Ak-Chin
Anticipated visit: TBD

Harrah's Rincon San Diego
Visited: 6/13/11

Harrah's Cherokee
Anticipated visit: 9/10/11

*edit* Visited properties are bolded.

KC area (and Boot Hill) trip review: 5/13-5/15

Casinos Visited:
MO - Argosy, Isle of Capri, Ameristar, Harrah's, Terribles Frontier
KS: Casino White Cloud, Prairie Band Casino, Sac & Fox, Golden Eagle, Boot Hill

I stayed at Harrah's North Kansas City from 5/13 to 5/15. My room was in the Las Vegas tower, and was very nice. I would put it on par with a room at a nice Courtyard by Marriott or the like - not bad for a comped room. I was going back and forth about whether or not to take this trip. I had free car and airfare vouchers from a trip-gone-bad earlier this spring, so it all really came down to the hotel room. When I originally started looking at this trip, I was a platinum and Saturday was listed at $129. That made me think twice about booking. Then I was upgraded to diamond, and I checked again on this trip. Saturday's rate had been moved to complimentary, so I decided to make the trip.

I flew from Minneapolis to KC on friday the 13th. I was supposed to leave MSP at 2, connect through ORD, and arrive at MCI at 730. Between the date and everything that was happening in the world, I had a little more travel apprehension than usual. That problem was exaccerbated by the fact that my flight (United) from MSP to ORD was delayed through the departure for my flight from ORD to MCI. The United gate agent was very helpful and booked me on a direct Delta flight, departing at 9pm. I was able to standby and fly on a flight leaving at 3pm, arriving at 430. So, the issues with UAL's flights actually resulted in me arriving early in KC.

The only car that Hertz had available was a Chevy HHR. I don't fit in an HHR very well (the ceiling is too short), but there were no other options. I'd specifically reserved a Camry hybrid, and I did it by clicking a link that literally read "Reserve this exact model!" but that didn't stop Hertz from giving away my damn car. So I took the HHR and headed off to Harrah's. I got to Harrah's at about 6, put my bags in my room, and headed up to St. Joseph to visit the Terribles there. I would say that this is the nicest Terrible's facility I've ever been in. It was clean, only minimally rundown, and featured a good variety of games. I grabbed a burger, played Texas Shootout for about 30 minutes, and headed over to Casino White Cloud.

The American Casino Guide says that White Cloud has blackjack and three card poker tables. THERE ARE NO TABLE GAMES AT CASINO WHITE CLOUD. I think there used to be, but there are now only Shufflemaster machines. Casino White Cloud does feature a relatively good buffet, and the largest bingo hall I've ever personally seen. I'd say the bingo hall was approximately twice as large as the casino floor. And the buffet was small, but very good. You'd have to like what they were serving (I did) in order for it to be worthwhile, but it was also reasonably priced @ $7,99. I joined the players club, but there were no freebies. All in all, I was unhappy with my visit to White Cloud. ACG lied to me about the blackjack, the players club was stingy, the route from St. Joseph put me through Nebraska, and I generally wasted about 90 minutes of prime gambling time.

After calming down and leaving White Cloud, I headed southwest across northeastern KS toward the Sac & Fox casino. White Cloud was so far out of the way (I really can't stress that enough) that I ended up coming at Sac & Fox from the back. Sac & Fox is nominally in Powhattan, KS, but is a ways out of town. This proved to be a challenge for me when the casino's address didn't appear in my GPS's list of points of interest. I told it to send me to 100 main street in Powhattan, and assumed that from there I could just look for the big neon building. That method failed, so I had to wander through town until I found the highway which featured a giant "to casino" sign. For a Friday night, Sac & Fox was pretty dead. I joined the players club, spun through my $5 free play (netted $3.75 playing JoB), and went to play BJ. The table had a permanent $5-$300 sign, so I guess there's no raising the limits at peak times. I played through a couple shoes, and headed out to find the Golden Eagle casino in Mayetta.

The Golden Eagle is a little bigger and a little nicer than the Sac & Fox, which was a little bigger and nicer than the White Cloud. I joined the players club at Golden Eagle, and received $10 in free play (netted $1.25. damnit!) I found a $5 BJ table, and played 1 shoe. I'd have stayed longer, but the casino had maybe the worst band I'd ever heard. Calling it a band is too kind. The casino had the worst dude with a guitar and chick on keyboard that I've ever heard. Neither of them was skilled at their instrument, and neither of them could sing. at all. If karaoke also allowed people to play instruments, and then the same two people hogged the stage all night, that'd be these two. Anyway, my ears started bleeding so I had to run to the exit.

Without any other information, I'd expected the Prairie Band casino to be small and drab. After all, they barely bothered to name the place. But I was pleasantly surprised. The casino was both large and nice. It's in Mayetta, which is quite close to Topeka. From the looks of the crowd, they get a lot of University business. I joined the players club, and got $25 in free play. After turning the free play into $90, I went looking for a BJ table. All of the tables were posted at $15, but several were empty. I couldn't talk anyone into lowering the limit for me, so I begrudgingly played 1 shoe at the $15 limit. I don't think I lost a hand during the shoe. I definitely pushed a lot, but I don't think there was one net loss (I split 8s and chopped once). I cashed out up $260, thanked the floor supervisor for not letting me play for $5, and headed to the cashier.

On saturday the 14th, I drove over to Boot Hill. The drive, while long (5 hours one way), was prettier than I'd expected. The ACG shows Boot Hill straight south of KC, along the MO border. I didn't have any reason to doubt that, so I was a little surprised when I learned that it's actually across the state near Garden City. I left KC at about 10am, and arrived at boot hill at 330. I was very surprised by how small the casino was. It's new, and it's nice. I poked around the convention center, and it was impressive. The casino is in a relatively rural area, away from anything approaching a major airport or metro hub. Hopefully, that convention center will get some use. I joined the players club, got nothing, and played BJ. I wanted to eat at boot hill, but the deli was having some sort of cleaning issue and it was mid-afternoon so the buffet was down for the changeover heading into dinner. I went into Dodge Center and just ran through Wendy's on my way back to KC. I arrived back at Harrah's at about 11pm. I intended to go to sleep, but decided that I wasn't done gambling yet and headed to Isle of Capri.

Isle of Capri was pretty much as expected, not anywhere as nice as Harrah's, but not really bad, either. Just soulless, poorly themed, and kind of just "there." The casino was plenty busy (it was midnight saturday), and I had a hard time finding parking. On the walk in from the lot, I very nearly got run over by a stretch yellow hummer limo. Somehow, that vehicle fit right in... Isle of Capri has a Texas Shootout table, and I really liked that game at Terribles the night before, so I sat down there. I had a very odd experience at this table. It was full, no seats were reserved, and I sat next to a middle-aged woman. If we were playing tee-ball, I'd have been at the infield position between short and third base. After about 10 minutes, her husband walked up and said "thats my wife" I responded with "ummm...congratulations?" the dealer said "yeah, he wants your seat." I said "whaaaaaa?" and the dealer said "let him sit by his wife." I said "there are no other open seats," and the dealer said "that's not my problem." I thought about saying "it's not mine either" but instead just left to go to Argosy. I think this is the only time I've ever failed to color up when leaving the table. I carried $135 in red to the cage with me.

Argosy and Ameristar were very very similar. I don't even see a reason to comment on them separately. Both are relatively nice, both are relatively convenient. Both have a variety of games, including Texas Shootout. I guess it's a regional thing?

I spent sunday morning and afternoon at Harrah's. I do think I liked it best out of all of the casinos, and I think that's not just because it's where my bed was. The smallish, two level layout was a bit odd, but Harrah's was the nicest of the casinos that I visited. I know, that's kind of a sad statement... Harrah's also has Texas Shootout, but it's played slightly differently. In a misguided attempt at game protection, each player is required to place his cards face UP in front of him. Anyone willing to wait and act last would be able to count this game relatively effectively. After several hours, I got bored with the Shootout and took a little walk. I found a very interesting bank of slots. The base game was played on a different physical facing than the bonus game or bonus resolution screen. So, the face of the machine physically rotates as you play. I did not spend much time (or money) investigating this game, but it was an interesting idea.

Summary:

I drove 1023 miles in 3 days. United can't fly on time, Hertz just gives whatever the hell car it wants, Harrah's KC has nice rooms, Dodge City is a LONG way from KC, there are no table games at Casino White Cloud, and the American Casino Guide is lacking for accuracy. The KC area is a fun place to play, with the corporate casinos in MO being a better locale than the indian casinos in KS. The indian casinos did have nicer sign-up offers. Texas Shootout seems to be a regional favorite.

Foxwoods Vs Mohegan Sun

I spent Friday, April 15th, in CT following a business trip to New England. I visited both Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun on Friday night. This was my first trip to both properties.

Foxwoods:

Holy crap!! No matter how many people told me how huge Foxwoods was, I still wasn't prepared for it. I was a little confused by the layout at first, but found my way around pretty well by the end of my 3 hour visit. I played BJ at MGM, and PGP at Foxwoods proper. Foxwoods allows player banking, and the right to bank rotates counter-clockwise. Any player who wants to bank may do so, and if a player declines to bank, the button moves to the next player. This is the most liberal form of banking policy, and is much appreciated. For the 20 minutes I played alone against the dealer (out of about 90 minutes of total play) we traded the banker button every-other hand.

Foxwoods gave me $10 in freeplay for joining their players club. I had a hard time getting the slip to be accepted in a machine. Finally, after 5 minutes of trying various machines, it worked in a Beijing Bonanza slot. I decided to play the max and get it over with as soon as possible. Very luckily, a bonus hit during my freeplay. In the bonus free spins, 4 wilds was hit and my multiplier was 20x. That was about a $500 hit:)

Mohegan Sun:

I kind of wish I hadn't gone to Foxwoods first. Mohegan Sun is very nice. It's big, and fancy, and fun. There are lots of tables, lots of slots, dining options, and lots of parking. But it's not as big or varied or fun as Foxwoods. From a play perspective, Mohegan Sun was good to me. I met a couple folks in line at the (a) bar, and played slots with them for a bit. It was one of those fishing things with linked progressives. I hit the bonus, and caught one of the larger fish. Net, that was a $350ish win.

General Gripe:

I noticed in PA and now in MA that the turnpikes have one booth for both directions. You pay, then turn the direction you want to go. In both states, I had the same problem: as a cash payer, I was forced all the way to one side. Then, I wound up wanting to turn the other way, and couldn't get over in time. With no u turns and limited exits, that cost me about 20 miles round trip in PA and 35 miles round trip in MA. In MA, it almost cost me the ability to make my flight back out of Manchester.

NJ/PA/DE trip report

I spent the week from 3/27-4/1 in Philly for work. I also found some time to visit casinos during that time. Here is my report of that trip:

Sunday, March 27th:

Casinos Visited:
Borgata
Harrahs AC
Trump Marina
Showboat
Trump Taj Mahal
Resorts
Bally's (where I stayed)

This was a sunday night. It was busier than I'd expected it to be. I also was not prepared for the paid garage situation. I thought the attendant at Borgata was going to kill me when the only cash I had on me were the $100s that I'd taken out of their ATM. Of these casinos, I thought Borgata and Taj were the nicest. Borgata had the highest minimum stakes on their games, and even their average slot/VP denominations were higher than at other placest. For reference, there is a $.05 Sex and the City slot machine on the floor at Borgata. That game is almost always $.01 denominated. There's a $.02 version in the high limit room at Horseshoe Southern Indiana. Harrah's and Resorts seemed to be a nice middle level, and Showboat and Marina were what I'd consider to be lower end casinos. The players club welcome bonus at Trump Marina ($20) was the nicest I received this day.

My Play:
I played a lot of Ultimate Texas Holdem/Texas Holdem Bonus on this trip. I use a $100 buy in and a double up/bust out system for each session. I was 2-4 on this evening ($200 down).

Gripe of the day:
I stayed at Bally's because Totalrewards.com let me reserve a comped Bally's Tower room. When I arrived, they put me in the Claridge Tower. It kind of sucked. The elevators were slow and unreliable. The room was small and tired. And, I'm pretty sure there was more dust than filling in the comforter.

Monday, March 28th:

Casinos Visited:
Harrah's Chester
Dover Downs
Harrington casino
Delaware Park


I really enjoyed the trip down into Delaware. My GPS didn't do me any favors in helping to find Dover Downs or Harrington Casino, but they were fun places. Dover Downs just sent me a very good offer, which I'm half-tempted to actually use. $150 in free play on each of 2 consecutive weeks, with a free night's stay. The free hotel room is available on the bubble day between the two weeks (I could stay for 1 day and use the free play twice). I only played there for about 20 minutes, and I only lost $100 to them. I'm not sure why they think I'm that valuable.

Harrah's Chester was borderline scary to drive to, but the property itself was very nice. I liked it so much, I returned later in the week. Limits and games were varied, and the food is good and cheap.

My Play:
I had a good day. I was 3-1 on my double-up method, and I hit a full house along the way. So I was up about $250 for the day.

Tuesday, March 29th:

Casinos Visited:
Hilton AC
Tropicana AC
Bally's/Claridge/Wild Wild West
Trump Plaza
Caesars

AC Hilton has a very nice view up the boardwalk from the buffet entrance, but was otherwise depressing. The Trop would be a fun place to play if more people were there. I wish I'd visited on Sunday or Friday and not on tuesday. The Plaza was nice, but soulless. Caesars was fun, and well laid out. I played THB and bet $5 on the bonus for the dealer. Got A-J suited (20:1). She was pretty happy. The hand won as well, and put me over my $100 mark for the session.

Bally's (actually, Wild Wild West) is the only place I played a different game. I couldn't resist trying Pai Gow Mania. It was pretty fun, but sloooooooooow. The game involves a 3 card bet, 7 card bonus bet, and 7 card regular Pai Gow Poker bet. The slowness comes from the time it takes to deal 3 cards, have a bet resolution, then deal 4 more cards. I probably wouldn't play again, but those 10 hands sure were a fun way to fill 90 minutes.

My Play: went 2-2 on the hold-em games, lost $100 on pai gow mania at Bally's.

Wednesday, March 30th:

Casinos visited:
Bethlehem Sands
Parx
Sugar House

I checked out of Bally's and moved to the Comfort Suites in King of Prussia for the remainder of the week. Comfort Suites is a value chain, but it's about 10 times nicer than the Claridge tower at Bally's. Also, shame on Caesars Entertainment for not allowing rewards points to be used to pay for resort fees or taxes.

There were a lot of random things that happened on this trip, and I'll list some of them later. I definitely had a lot of fun at Parx, where the randomness abounded. Sugarhouse was sort of a surreal place. Almost post-modern, which isn't really what you want to go for in a casino. I don't know if Philly is an especially Douchy place, but it seems like that's the Sugar House target market. I thought the sands was very nice. Moreso than the other northeastern PA casinos.

My play: 0 for 3. Damnation. At least the play was fun.

Thursday, March 31st:

Casinos visited:
Hollywood Penn National
Mount Airy
Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs

I was only at Hollywood for maaaaybe 5 minutes. I stopped in on my way to a business lunch in Chambersburg, and I mis-judged how long the drive over from Philly would take. It struck me as being nicely upscale, but poorly laid out. It's kind of doughnut shaped, and is the only casino I can recall being in where the cashier's cage is far from the table games pit.

After lunch, I headed up to Mohegan Sun. The drive up there was quick and easy, but the casino was under-whelming. Maybe it's just that the Mohegan sun in CT is so nice, but I didn't see what I wanted to at Pocono Downs.

On the way from Pocono Downs to Mount Airy I experienced something I've never seen before. It was like simultaneous fog and white-out snow. I literally couldn't see the front of my own car. What do you do in that situation? Pulling over isnt an option (can't see the edge of the road), and continuing to drive is crazy. But you cant really stop in the middle of the highway either. That was some intense shit, and probably cost me about 2 hours in drive time (and 2 months off of the end of my life).

My play: I was 1-1 at Pocono and Mt. Airy, and down $5 from the short time I played at Penn National. I flopped 4 to the royal at Mt. Airy, 10-K, but couldn't complete the hand.

Friday, April 1:

Returned to Harrahs Chester, hung out for about 6 hours before my flight back to MN. Did nothing but bleed money.



General randomness:

I think I've mentioned before that I've kind of befriended a group of slot-squatters here in MN. They're harmless guys, who hangout drinking free soda and waiting for people to leave accumulating slots in high states (green stamps, etc). Anyway, at Mount Airy, I was walking past the Golden Monkey machines and I hear this "Hello, my friend. My Friend!!" And it's one of those guys! Apparently, they travel to slot-squat so that they don't draw too much attention in one area.

At Parx, on the revolving door, there's a sticker that details what not to do in it. In addition to leaning on the door, or crowding into one compartment, its apparently a bad idea to play soccer in the door (sorry, guys!).

The Harrington Casino has the best casino buffet in the DelMarVa area. I know that because they told me. Of course, Dover Downs is the only other casino in the area, and being the best of two is kind of lame...

I played with the same guy at 5 of the AC casinos over 3 days. With no planning. I guess the Bally's, Caesars, Plaza combo is maybe not so special since they're so close. But adding in Hilton and the Trop was just surreal.

I think that with this trip, the St Louis trip, and my trip to CT last week, I've now been to 164 casinos in the last 8 months. With trips to Denver, KC, Omaha, and reno planned before Sept, and maybe Biloxi/Tunica/LA in October, I should be over 200 in 12 months (not counting repeats in LV at WovCon).

1060 miles!! (St. Louis area trip report)

On April 8th-10th, I spent some time gambling in and around the Saint Louis area.

I visited:

Friday, April 8th:
Harrah's Saint Louis
Ameristar
Casino Queen
Argosy

Saturday, April 9th:
Harrah's Metropolis
Lady Luck Caruthersville
Isle of Capri Boonville
Terrible's Mark Twain Casino La Grange

Sunday:
River City
Lumiere Place


I was going to write up a full trip report, but the more I thought about things the more I realized that only 4 interesting things happened:
1. Hertz failed to actually reserve the vehicle I wanted. I ended up with a regular full size car, which was OK but not ideal. I asked for a full size hybrid, and reserved 10 weeks in advance. I arrived within 3 minutes of my estimated arrival. I'm still a little upset that they screwed me out of ~$70 (one tank of gas).
2. Even on Friday and Saturday nights, limits were very low at Harrahs, Ameristar, Isle of Capri, and Terribles. Tables were full, but limits rarely hit $15 on BJ, $10 on UTH/THB, and were still at $5 on LIR/TCP/MS Stud. Limits were higher in Illinois at Argosy and Casino Queen. Are the lower limits legislated in Missouri? If not, the larger and nicer properties are very much losing out by not raising limits in crowded casinos during peak times...
3. I tried to go to Lumiere Place on Saturday night. I couldn't find parking within 5 blocks of the casino, gave up, and went across the river to the Casino Queen. I have to think that the lack of parking availability hurts the casino and hotels in the Lumiere complex downtown.
4. The guy at Hertz who processed my return could not fathom how I'd driven 1060 miles in 2 days. Then I told him that 800 miles of it was on saturday (STL to Metropolis to Caruthersville to Boonville to La Grange to STL). He offered to see if they could refund me some of the extra fuel expense that was incurred as a result of their inability to give me the car I'd reserved. I'm waiting to hear how that turns out.