Buzzard Goes to Blackhawk.

Combining family business with pleasure. Have an adult granddaughter 25 in Denver. Phone calls to her Mom raise fears of drug use.
If only that was true SIGH.
Anyway short stop in Blackhawk. Penn National left town after selling Bullwhackers to Johnny Z. Riveria bailed and it's now Monarch.
Saratoga just moved table games to mezzanine, which was closed.

Here is breakdown on table games at The Isle, 400 rooms. Table games are in two areas. Front is open at all times. Rear just weekends and holidays. Here we go.

Front : 1 of each carnie game ... Let It Ride ...Bonus 6 ... 6 card poker .... Mississippi Stud... Ultimate Texas Hold'em...3 card Poker

1 BJ no side bet.... 2 BJ 21+3 side bet ...... 5 BJ Buffalo Bonus side bet

One Craps 10 x odds One Roulette

Rear One Craps 10 X odds One Roulette

1 of each Bonus 6 ........ 6 card poker Mississippi .......... Mississippi Stud

2 BJ no side bet ............ 1 BJ 21+3 side bet .................. 3 BJ Buffalo Bonus side bet

8:30 pm Wednesday 2 BJ tables open $5 and $10. Thats all folks except a few bored people at craps who never outnumbered
the crew.
9:15 am Thursday 2 BJ tables open both $10


Sasquatch still there, but vegan sandwich now gone. And still a good deal at .99 cents, but only half the size as giant croissants before.

That's right 23 card table games and only 1each ..... 3 card poker ..... Ultimate Texas Hold'em ........Let it Ride

Buzz. can't you just trap them idiots off in a poker game?

Does Blackhawk have free drinks?

Quote: Mission146

Does Blackhawk have free drinks?

The whole state should and is non-smoking. Also has a lot of NSUD for quarters. Sounds like a great place for me to play!

They have some pretty good poker games these days, 5-100 Holdem and 5-100 O8 at the Lodge, and 30-60 1/2 kill Holdem at Ameristar.

The Colorado Gaming Commission used to be kind of whacky. They were Christian types appointed by then Christian Governor Roy Roemer. In the summer of 97 I got drunk on Grand Marnier in Bronco Billy's. The "no visible intoxication on premesis" law was strictly enforced. I got thrown in the drunk tank for the night. I had my day pack with a change of clothes, toiletries, two books by Dan Paymar "Precision Play" and "The Best of Video Poker Times" and some strategy cards.

I was set to be released the next morning but one of the prison guards went through my pack and found the books and strategy cards. The idiot called Gaming. Gaming put a hold on me and conducted an investigation. They went looking though the Bronco Billy's surveillance film to see if I was using the books or cards at a machine. They couldn't find anything or they would have charged me. But they went through the books taking notes. They really thought my use of the books was cheating.

Quote: mickeycrimm

The Colorado Gaming Commission used to be kind of whacky. They were Christian types appointed by then Christian Governor Roy Roemer. In the summer of 97 I got drunk on Grand Marnier in Bronco Billy's. The "no visible intoxication on premesis" law was strictly enforced. I got thrown in the drunk tank for the night. I had my day pack with a change of clothes, toiletries, two books by Dan Paymar "Precision Play" and "The Best of Video Poker Times" and some strategy cards.

I was set to be released the next morning but one of the prison guards went through my pack and found the books and strategy cards. The idiot called Gaming. Gaming put a hold on me and conducted an investigation. They went looking though the Bronco Billy's surveillance film to see if I was using the books or cards at a machine. They couldn't find anything or they would have charged me. But they went through the books taking notes. They really thought my use of the books was cheating.

Wow that is insane. Just another chapter for your book :)

Buzz, is the max bet in CO still $100?

Quote: Mission146

Does Blackhawk have free drinks?

Yes, they do, but the times I remember, the drink service is horribly infrequent. Sometimes, I've just given up and ordered a beer at the bar. Another time, I put a few dollars into the VP at the bar and was given free drinks.

Quote: AcesAndEights

Buzz, is the max bet in CO still $100?

Yep. Better than the $5 it used to be.

Quote: AcesAndEights

Wow that is insane. Just another chapter for your book :)?

Yeah, a couple of years after my incident they actually arrested a $5 blackjack player in Blackhawk for using a strategy card at the table. It wasn't a professional strategy card. It was the kind they sell in the casino gift shops in Vegas. The cheating device law they charged him under was copycatted verbatim from the Nevada statute on cheating devices, which was written specifically to protect the blackjack games from electronic devices. Colorado Gaming had a different interpretation.

Arnold Snyder wrote an article about it. I never caught the outcome of the case. So a couple of years ago Arnold appeared on GWAE. I got Bob to ask Arnold about it. He said the case got thrown out of court. I imagine that ended Colorado Gaming's desire to go after players using strategy cards.

Note to self...don't actively use JB's strategy calculator on my phone in Colorado.

I was in Lilly Belle's one night when they barred a guy for counting. 6 deck shoe, $5 Min $5 max bet LOL
Mickey, they got a new poker room manager at Lodge a couple of years ago. Fired a few dealers and did away with comp program. And existing comps too. Some players had several hundred dollars worth of food comps. Would use them for birthdays, anniversaries, etc. That when Ameristar got their poker room going full tilt.
About 15 years ago Bullwhackers had best poker room. Always packed. Then Penn National bought them, bye bye all table games.
Bullwhacked re-opened SilverHawk and bought Bronco Billy's. Now Johnny Z, a local guy from Central City who treat his customers great as far as comps goes, bought Bullwhackers from Penn National. SilverHawk closed years ago and Bronco Billy's rented to Sasquatch.

Last year Saratogo Racino bought Fitzgeralds. Put in Ipod of Shfl tables. Whatever digital tables are called. Replaced Party pit, 8 BJ tables with Buffalo Bonus. 6 months ago they were gone and slots in party pit. 6 bj tables on main floor 1 3/2 and 5 6/5 . This visit Bj tables moved to mezzanine , which was closed. Years ago that mezzanine had free hot dogs, drink, incl OJ, all self serve. Bank of 10 10 nickle 6/5 VP that was always packed and about 50 penny slots, always jammed.

Then a bean counter did away with all that. Mezzanine got so dead they made it a players lounge. Several leather sofas recliners etc.

Hey Mickey, I used to play poker at Mile High Club, Pan Club, other illegal joints prior to 91 when gambling was legalized. Games were honest and players taken care of. After on-line poker went bust, I started seeing low lifes up on the hill, mostly the Lodge. Same guys that were barred most illegal joints. But maybe they got redemption, but I doubt it. It so much easier to cheat at poker in casinos, than neighborhood parlors. You did not need any proof. I sat on the dumpster lid more than once, till a guy got the message.

Quote: Buzzard

I was in Lilly Belle's one night when they barred a guy for counting. 6 deck shoe, $5 Min $5 max bet LOL
Mickey, they got a new poker room manager at Lodge a couple of years ago. Fired a few dealers and did away with comp program. And existing comps too. Some players had several hundred dollars worth of food comps. Would use them for birthdays, anniversaries, etc. That when Ameristar got their poker room going full tilt.
About 15 years ago Bullwhackers had best poker room. Always packed. Then Penn National bought them, bye bye all table games.
Bullwhacked re-opened SilverHawk and bought Bronco Billy's. Now Johnny Z, a local guy from Central City who treat his customers great as far as comps goes, bought Bullwhackers from Penn National. SilverHawk closed years ago and Bronco Billy's rented to Sasquatch.

Last year Saratogo Racino bought Fitzgeralds. Put in Ipod of Shfl tables. Whatever digital tables are called. Replaced Party pit, 8 BJ tables with Buffalo Bonus. 6 months ago they were gone and slots in party pit. 6 bj tables on main floor 1 3/2 and 5 6/5 . This visit Bj tables moved to mezzanine , which was closed. Years ago that mezzanine had free hot dogs, drink, incl OJ, all self serve. Bank of 10 10 nickle 6/5 VP that was always packed and about 50 penny slots, always jammed.

Then a bean counter did away with all that. Mezzanine got so dead they made it a players lounge. Several leather sofas recliners etc.

Hey Mickey, I used to play poker at Mile High Club, Pan Club, other illegal joints prior to 91 when gambling was legalized. Games were honest and players taken care of. After on-line poker went bust, I started seeing low lifes up on the hill, mostly the Lodge. Same guys that were barred most illegal joints. But maybe they got redemption, but I doubt it. It so much easier to cheat at poker in casinos, than neighborhood parlors. You did not need any proof. I sat on the dumpster lid more than once, till a guy got the message.

Buzz, I played Stud Hi Lo in Cripple Creek in 93 and 94 at the Phoenix House. They closed the poker room Christmas 94 and I went down to Albuquerque where Sandia had just opened their poker room. There was a couple of trips to Blackhawk in there too where I played poker at the Gilpin, Bullwhackers, and some place in Central City.

I remember a hitchhiking excursion where I landed in Idaho Springs on I-70 and they had a shuttle to Blackhawk. I was about broke and took the shuttle to credit hustle the place. There was a casino about half way between Blackhawk and Central City. I can't remember the name but their slot card was called the Wild Card. So I was cruising the joint hustling credits one morning and see a sign in the poker room about a $500 freeroll everyday at noon. I jumped in the tournament and won it which, between that win and the credit hustling, I had jumped started a mini-bankroll to play poker with.

The pigeon holes in Blackhawk/Central City were a goldmine for a credit hustler. The pigeon hole was the coin return underneath the bartop video poker machines. They were always loaded with coins. I got hillbilly rich off them.

I returned to Blackhawk in the summer of 97 with a legitimate bankroll. I played poker in the Gilpin. This hand came up that was supposed to be a bad beat. I started to explain that there was no bad beat but a prop player told me to STFU and I would get a table share. So I clammed up and they payed off the bad beat. The next day the games were full--the prop players have to give up their seats when a game fills up. So these three prop players were playing against each other on another table. No one else in the game. I thought to myself those guys are nuts-their just getting their wages raked off with no live ones in the game. I even asked one of them why they played head up. He told me they got bored. A few minutes later a bad beat got payed off on their table.

The next morning I walk into the Gilpin poker room and a suit security is there telling the poker dealers to put stud cards in the holdem games. Stud cards have much bigger indexes than holdem cards. In holdem you have to roll them up to high to see what you have. To easy for your opponent to see what you have. The dealers tried to explain this to the suit security. But the suit security told them that surveillance cameras couldn't read the holdem cards. LOL.

I worked at Eureka casino in Blackhawk. Slot tech quit and went next door to work for Blackhawk Station. Every weekend the bar
VP machines would get a jam in each one at least once. Why? He had a buddy, i never caught him or her, put a bent quarter in each machine. Bent just enough to be able to be inserted, but bent too much to travel up the tracks from the hopper to the pigeon hole.

In Ameristar, when under construction , the lighting was so bad they drew a chalk outline on table where dealers had to place the cards so camera could see them. That's all cameras could really see. When at Gilpin, ever walk next door to Fitzgeralds, go to mezzanine for free hotdogs , coffee, soda, even OJ after noon till 9 pm ?
A couple casinos had free bingo. Josie won $500 at Riviera. They even had free drinks and donuts. Otto's had same . Same with Harvey's Wagonwheel. Always the death bell for all but the Riviera, which is now Monarch. Pix of Frank and Rat pack seemed tacky there anyway

Interesting stories here... I'm going to Denver in a few weeks on a chip collecting trip and this is my plan of attack so far (airport>Lady Luck Thurs night, staying there 2 nights then down to Cripple Creek then back to Denver to stay before flying out).

Any casinos here's I'm missing? ** notates I've confirmed they have table games as on previous chip trips I've hit some slot only places..

FRI
Lady Luck**

Mardi Gras Casino**

Famous Bonanza Casino**
Century Casino**
Johnny Zs Casino**

Reserve Casino Hotel**

Saratoga Casino Black Hawk**
Fitzgeralds Black Hawk**
Gilpin Casino**
Canyon Casino**

Lodge Casino**
amerstar**
golden gates**
Golden Gulch
Golden Mardi Gras
Isle Hotel & Casino Black Hawk**
Riviera Casino**Riveria bailed and it's now Monarch?

Lady Luck


SAT
Lady Luck

2 hours 38 mins Big Jims**

10 mins Gold Rush Casino**
Century Casino Cripple Creek**
Bronco Billy's Casino**
BrassAss**
Midnight Rose Hotel & Casino**
Imperial Hotel & Restaurant**
Double Eagle Hotel & Casino**
Wildwood Casino-Cripple Creek**

I made a similar collecting trip in May 2013. Here is the list of casinos where I was able to get souvenir chips then, with the sequence in which I visited them:

Cripple Creek: Wildwood, Double Eagle, Brass Ass, Century, Billy's, Big Jim's. (There was one other with just poker, and I didn't play there.)

Central City: Famous Bonanza, Century, Johnny Z's, Reserve.

Black Hawk: Fitzgerald's, Gilpin, Canyon, Golden Gates, Lodge, Ameristar, Golden Mardi Gras, Isle, Riviera, Lady Luck.


I visited Cripple Creek on one day and both Central City and Black Hawk the next day. Shortly after my visit, Saratoga opened in place of Fitzgerald's. I'm not sure that you will be able to find both kinds of chips in play now. With the exception of the poker-only place in Cripple Creek, I don't think I missed any chip collecting opportunities that existed in those towns in May 2013.