Harrah's Cherokee Valley River -- 1st visit

Finally made it this weekend to the 2nd casino to open in North Carolina. In truth, we visited 100% of the state’s casinos in less than 24 hours.

I had been wanting to check out the new place ever since it opened, then I got a note from rdw4potus suggesting that my wife and I join him and his fiancée for a weekend visit to both Harrah’s Cherokee Casino in the town of Cherokee and Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River Casino about an hour down the road in Murphy.

Great idea! Except that while he had been able to get a room at the original Cherokee casino’s hotel for Saturday night, the place gave me the complete brushoff. And most of the hotels in that part of the state were either sold out or grossly overpriced due to the fall foliage tourism. I eventually found a place in Andrews, NC, about ¾ of the way from Cherokee to Murphy.

We drove up from our place north of Charlotte Saturday morning, and rdw4potus and fiancée drove up from Columbia, with us arriving in Cherokee within seconds of each other. I love it when a plan comes together. It’s amazing how well nerds can coordinate their activities. We had lunch off-site, during which the new young lady of our acquaintance let it slip that this was all really a birthday celebration weekend for the big guy, and the Mrs. and I just had the opportunity to join in on the fun! (I later inquired about which birthday and established that I am almost exactly twice his age. Why would nice young folks invite geezers to join them for a celebration?)

After lunch, we headed over to the Harrah’s property. As we entered the casino, rdw4potus and I headed for the tables while the ladies found better ways to spend their time. We quickly saw a couple of craps tables with minimums of $25, and I suggested that we circle the area to see what else might be available. The next table offered $15 minimum, which was better but still not really all that attractive to me.

The table after that had a wide spot open around stick right 2 and 3, so we went over to see what was available. Turned out to be a $10 table, which was the best we could ever hope for at that casino on a Saturday. We asked other players what the story was about that vacancy at a low-limit table, and they said two players had just left, so rdw4potus and I stepped right up. It turned out that the dice had just moved to the guy at stick right 1, and the two departed guys had just packed up and left after getting their turns with the dice. Worked out just fine for us. As I said before, I love it when a plan comes together!

The plan didn’t completely come together the way we would have liked. Over the next two hours, we proved just how easy it is for two players with different craps “strategies” and “dice setting” styles to both lose their total buy-ins at the lowest-limit table in the pit. Bummer on that one.

We took a break, searched for and eventually located the ladies. The two who had sufficient status to merit a room went to gather their stuff from the car then check in to their room. The ladies had already scouted out for dinner plans at the Brio Tuscan Grill and learned that the place already had all the reservations they would accept, all the way from 3pm to 8pm, and we had plans for the Illusionists show at 7:30. As the rdw4potus party took care of check-in, my wife and I put our names on the wait list at Brio to see whether we could get squeezed in between folks who had made dinner reservations well in advance.
All worked out well, and a table was ready for us just moments after rdw & Co. got there. (Did I mention loving it when a plan comes together?)

After dinner, we went over to the hotel lobby area and sat around the fireplace for a while before the show, giving my wife and me more of a chance to get to know the fiancée. She is amazingly nice, and I never did figure out what rdw4potus could have done to deserve this.

The Illusionists show, with maybe six magicians rotating through their acts, was pretty good, though at one point I started to think they were doing multiple variations of the same disappearing/reappearing girl trick over and over.

After the show, we all agreed that there was no need to head back to the gaming area (where craps minimums had probably grown to $25 and up on a crowded Saturday night) just to prove how quickly we could lose again. We made plans to meet up again at 11:00 on Sunday morning in Murphy, and my wife and I hit the road over to Andrews for the night.

The two of us arrived at the new Valley River Casino about 10:15 the next morning. The pit has at least four craps tables, and two were in operation with $5 minimums. That was more my style, so I got a head start on the losing for the day, liquefying/vaporizing my buy-in in just half an hour before our friends could even get there.

Turned out that they must have driven right past the hidden-in-the-woods-over-on-the-other-side-of-the-hill casino and had to loop back. They didn’t join us until noon. By that time, two other craps tables had opened with minimums of $25 and $15. Right as rdw4potus got there and we stepped up to the cheap tables, they told us that the minimum had been raised to $10 at both tables, even though the signs had not yet been changed. They didn’t let that little tid-bit influence their attitude, and we eventually let them have their way.

It was a fun game, except that our weekend success rate continued its pattern throughout. The dealers were quite friendly, but it was clear that several of them were extremely inexperienced and struggling. If you are the type of “AP” who would take shots at a weak dealer and you have a technique for that at craps, I suspect this place could be a fertile hunting ground for you for the next few months.

I did pick up a souvenir chip for my collection, but I haven’t yet definitely decided whether to post it in the Casino Chip of the Day thread. If you haven’t seen it, here is my rant on that topic.

While waiting for rdw to arrive, I wandered around a little to check out the other games, but I didn’t play any of them, and I really didn’t do much of a survey. I saw several $25-minimum BJ tables, at least one set up as 21+3. I didn’t look for other side bets, and I didn’t see any BJ table below $25. There were several Mississippi Stud tables operating at both $5 and $10 minimums and I saw at least one 3CP table at $10. All of those minimums reflect conditions prior to noon on Sunday (when the craps minimums went up), and I didn’t check for later changes.

After rdw and I once again had our butts handed to us in exchange for our buy-ins, we all headed over for lunch in the food court. Fortunately, it is a pretty decent food court, because that seems to be the only food available in the place.

After lunch, it was time to get the group photo of the outing, before we got on the roads back toward our respective homes. We started looking for some suitable place for a photo op, but even after asking the employees we could not find any place that actually identified where we were other than a sign at the entrance to the parking lot. And that setting had plenty of shortcomings. (I hate it when a plan basically stumbles into a let’s-take-what-we-can-get configuration.)

The photo is shown below with rdw4potus to the left, the future Mrs. rdw4potus next, then Mrs. Doc, followed by yours truly. There is a little story that would probably be amusing to some of you, explaining why the photo quality is poor, why I am standing in an awkward position, and why the other three folks are looking so bored. And this was the third try at getting the shot. I don’t think I’ll bother telling the story.

Big laugh, actually a couple of them, and a holler out to you Doc!
Good report, wish you had a bit bettor (better) luck, but that's the way the dice land if you cannot control them. I thought I was going to beat you to there last weekend but had the wife and the kids with me and we never got closer than the NOC to watch the National's.

I had already read your comments (rant) about the changes to editing. I suspect the powers at be will figure out something that works for you, and for the most meaningful long lasting thread on these forums. God speed to you and your quests! Humbly, 2F

Quote: Doc

After dinner, we went over to the hotel lobby area and sat around the fireplace for a while before the show, giving my wife and me more of a chance to get to know the fiancée. She is amazingly nice, and I never did figure out what rdw4potus could have done to deserve this.

OMG! Shush! She's not supposed to figure out that I don't deserve her until after the wedding...:-)

I got so lost on the way to Valley River. Really, considering that it's right on the highway, I don't even have a particularly good excuse. I was so busy looking for a giant billboard that said "hey! The new casino is over ----->Here!" that I drove right past the casino. Instead of my anticipated signage, there were little DOT-style roadsigns that just said Casino. And, oddly, those signs are green. I thought signage for attractions was universally brown. Anyway, I wound up driving past the casino, through Murphy, pulling over at a roadside shop, and consulting Google Maps. Doc had warned me that Google put the casino in a place where it didn't appear possible for it to be, but I followed Google's map back across town nonetheless. Google directed me to turn approximately 1/2 mile closer to Murphy than where the casino was. That road was obviously not the right one, so I continued down the highway and encountered one of the DOT's signs. All you can see from the road is the employee, RV, and overflow parking lot, so more signage would be very helpful (maybe with more leaves down, the hotel tower would also be visible?).

I was surprised by how non-busy it was at Valley River. As Doc mentioned, the craps table limits were $10 at noon on a sunday. They stayed at $10 (and they stayed 2/3-3/4 full) until I left at about 4pm. For reference, at 7am at Cherokee, I couldn't squeeze into a $15 game & played BJ instead (The one $10 game was shoulder-to-shoulder). And, Valley River didn't bother with any old/classic/standard slots at all. Everything was a new machine of the newest version of every game. My fiancee really liked that.

Valley River's VP was garbage - no shock there. There were 4 UltX machines that I counted, so maybe there's some opportunity in that one area. And, one of the new slot games was Aruze's Sinbad. That's a pretty beatable game (with a small payout) for someone with patience.

The Docs joined my Fiancee and I at a Masters of Illusion show at Cherokee on Saturday night. I thought that show was OK. Ticket prices were modest, and the comedy portions of the show were entertaining. Also, the scene change distractions were cute. But, the "magic" was kind of sad. Several different magicians cut several different assistants in half using different colored boxes and blades. That was, pretty much, the only trick performed. A dozen times. in 90 minutes.

You definitely stole 2 Feathers' thunder by getting to the new place first!

Quote: odiousgambit

You definitely stole 2 Feathers' thunder by getting to the new place first!

I could have gotten there first. After careful consideration I left it for Doc, and guests.
Not really ( laughing ), just worked out that way.
I should have been in Murphy, Cherokee River Valley, NC 'cause they took my scalp in Cherokee ;-(

This is an edit, no change to the above post, just wanted to do an edit while I could do an edit ;-)

So Doc and RDW are confirming what the Cherokee dealers told me a couple of weeks ago, that the new casino was not costing them many players. I was at Cherokee on a Mon and Tuesday morning, and Cherokee was pretty much dead.
I may stop in at River Valley on the way to Biloxi to see for myself how dead it may be on a Thursday.

Off the topic of the Cherokee casinos but on the topic of this thread itself:

I can compose and preview my replies to existing posts in a thread with almost no problem, other than the fact that the text in the preview block does not really look the same as it will in the final post. I can deal with that OK.

However, this is the first new thread I have started since 3/15/15, more than seven months ago. I'm fairly sure that was prior to the re-design of this site, and it was a very different experience this time. When I created Post #1 of this thread and tried to preview it for editing, that was basically impossible. The preview block showed up, but the "Recommended Online Casinos" ad was right on top of my draft post. I tried resizing the window, enlarging and shrinking the font size, and everything else I could think of. No matter what I tried, the add blocked my view of the text I had written.

Is that now the case for every new thread that someone creates? Has someone found a way around this? All I could come up with was going ahead and hitting "Post" then reading and editing what I could finally see before the newly-impost time limit for editing expired. Not a very friendly preview experience.

I would like to edit my post above to say Valley River, instead of the incorrect River Valley...... :-(

Quote: RaleighCraps

I would like to edit my post above to say Valley River, instead of the incorrect River Valley...... :-(

Of course it is 'Cherokee Valley River', not Cherokee River Valley as I posted. If I still can, I will edit my post(s).
Cheers! 2F

Quote: Doc

Off the topic of the Cherokee casinos but on the topic of this thread itself:

I can compose and preview my replies to existing posts in a thread with almost no problem, other than the fact that the text in the preview block does not really look the same as it will in the final post. I can deal with that OK.

However, this is the first new thread I have started since 3/15/15, more than seven months ago. I'm fairly sure that was prior to the re-design of this site, and it was a very different experience this time. When I created Post #1 of this thread and tried to preview it for editing, that was basically impossible. The preview block showed up, but the "Recommended Online Casinos" ad was right on top of my draft post. I tried resizing the window, enlarging and shrinking the font size, and everything else I could think of. No matter what I tried, the add blocked my view of the text I had written.

Is that now the case for every new thread that someone creates? Has someone found a way around this? All I could come up with was going ahead and hitting "Post" then reading and editing what I could finally see before the newly-impost time limit for editing expired. Not a very friendly preview experience.

News to me Doc, I have not had the same problem you describe. I almost always post, reply or new thread, from a tablet. Not a smartphone or a real computer, I just post from a tablet ( Apple product ). I am assuming you are using some other method/platform to interface with these Forums. So we get different results? Talk to the tech guys, beats me. Good luck with the tech thing, and the gaming thing, and the Chip of the Day thing. 2F

Without starting a new thread, since this is a thread about a new casino, let me invite you all to greater Biloxi, when the new casino and hotel, "Scarlet Pearl", opens up, in theory, mid December! Across the back bay from IP, the town named is D'Iberville, after the great French explorer! (Yup, never heard of him either!)

http://www.wlox.com/story/30249982/diberville-businesses-hopeful-about-scarlet-pearl-opening

Yes, DeMango, I plan to visit Biloxi again and check out the Scarlet Pearl. I have that place on my list of chips to get, but I don’t know how soon we might make it back down that way.

Speaking of chips, it appears that the “crisis” related to maintaining the CCotD thread index has been resolved, so I’m in a little more pleasant mood than last night or this morning. As a result, I think I am willing to tell the story behind that photo at the Valley River Casino parking lot.

A series of challenges made the photo op a bit difficult. First, we wanted all members of our group to be in the photo, which left no one to handle the camera. That’s not an unusual situation, and many of the group photos I have posted in this forum involved putting the camera on a tripod, activating the 10-second time-delayed shutter release, and hopping over into position with the rest of the group.

Second was the location of that parking lot entrance sign. There is a road running immediately in front of those four folks you can see in the photo, and because it is an entrance/intersection area, with a concrete lane divider, it’s a fairly wide street. That meant there was really no good, nearby position for the camera.

Third, I had failed to bring a decent tripod and had nothing with me but a little 9” flexible-leg tripod, sometimes known as a gorilla-grip. I couldn’t find anything (post, handrail, etc.) suitable to twist the legs around, and I didn’t like the idea of standing it with my camera on the divider in the middle of traffic. The best solution I could come up with was to park my car in the lot across the street and stand the tripod on the hood.

Fourth, of course that put the camera so far from the subjects that I had to change to my 70-300mm lens. On the Nikon D3200 digital camera, this lens is equivalent to using a 105-450mm zoom lens on a 35mm camera, so it’s really intended for long shots while mounted on a serious tripod. Also, I purchased this lens for an earlier Nikon, and it isn’t really completely compatible with the D3200.

Fifth …

Well, I’ll just let you try to imagine the situation. Long distance from the camera and tripod on the car hood all the way across the street to the subjects’ position, a ten-second delay available from the time of pressing the shutter button until it clicks, and a fat geezer trying to waddle quickly from the car/camera to where he is supposed to be when the shutter does its thing. Took three tries. First time, I made it barely over half way across the street. Second time, I got almost there but hadn’t gotten turned around – back still to the camera.

Third and final time, I ran lickety-split all-out, meaning that if I had been able to keep up that pace, I perhaps could have finished a 100-yd. dash in sub-minute time. Yep. I did get to the other side, but I clearly wasn’t set.

By that third try, the rest of the group was disgusted with what they had had to watch and really wanted to be somewhere else. I suspect that rdw4potus was thinking, "Is it conceivable that I will be moving that way when I am just twice as old as I am now?" I didn’t have the heart/guts to make them stand there any longer, and I wasn’t completely sure that attempt #4 wouldn’t lead to me being collapsed in the gutter.







After that, I accepted what I posted at the top of the thread. Pathetic. Both the photography and the "running."

I am glad to hear that the "crisis" was fixed. I am just catching up now. What was the solution that was decided if I may ask?

doc, save those pics and show other people just how *fascinated* everyone gets when you show and tell how you dodged all those tacklers in your football days and scored the big touchdown!

The last time I was on a real-enough football team that we wore uniforms and pads, it was an "Under 100-lbs" category team. That was in the fall of 1958. I'm much "huskier" now.