Cross country (and chip collecting) trip

Yay my first thread! Sorry I'm not offering info/advice on my first thread, but instead I'm soliciting it.

A few months back I mentioned in the chip of the day thread I will be doing a cross country road trip soon. Well, that time is arriving soon and I will be driving from NorCal to DC in April. So, I need all the help you can offer me with your collective knowledge and experienced chip collectors to "chip in" with their advice/knowledge.

I have 9 days to complete the trip so it won't be too rushed, but I have to keep moving east at a decent pace. I did a trip to Chicago a few years back before I started collecting so I don't have any chips east of Reno/Sparks. If I miss something starting from Reno please let me know. Other than a detour to Jackpot NV, I would prefer not to deviate too much from my direction of travel. I don't have to collect everything that's on the way, it's more of a secondary goal of this trip where I collect as many chips as I can that's convenient. Also if there is any must try food please let me know too! That'll be double rewarding.

My planned route is to go on I-80 all the way to Salt Lake City then stay on I-70 all the way to DC.

The places I'm planning to stop by are as follows:

Fernley and Fallon (except I won't wait until 11pm for headquarters bar). According to an Oct 2012 post by rdw4potus the Fallon Nugget table opens at 5pm. Googling Fernley I did not find indication of table games at any of the 3 casinos there. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

(?) means I googled it but still don't know if there are tables


After this will be:

*** NEVADA ***

Winnemucca:
Winners Inn Casino
Model T Casino

Battle Mountain:
Nothing?

Elko:
Red Lion
Stockmen's
Gold Dust West Elko
(?) Gold Country Inn & Casino

Jackpot:
Barton's Club 93
Cactus Petes Resort Casino
Horseshu
(?) Four Jacks Hotel and Casino
(?) Pony Express
(?) West Star

West Wendover:
Red Garter
Peppermill
Rainbow
Montego Bay
Nugget


Then... I will pass on Ely, I can't justify making a 150 miles detour for 1 chip. Then... Salt Lake City, Grand Junction... then...


*** COLORADO ***

Central City/Blackhawk, then Cripple Creek...
Everything there, I'll try not to miss any... Well, I should copy the list of casinos in Colorado

from the CotD thread so I can check em off as I go...


*** KANSAS ***
Prairie Band Casino

Hollywood at Speedway


*** MISSOURI ***

Kansas City:
Argosy
Isle of Capri
Harrah's
Ameristar

Boonville:
Isle of Capri

St Louis / STL area:
Ameristar
Hollywood ... down to...
River City ... back up to...
Lumiere
Casino Queen (seems like Doc and rdw4potus both have bad memories at this place)
Argosy Alton


I'm already feeling a bit stressful thinking of all the places I will stop by. Am I too ambitious??? I know I might start skipping properties in particular cities when they're too spread out and I start to feel like pooping out the further east I go. I know I'll probably regret it later too hahaha.


Well next will be

Indianapolis:
Probably no chips since it's egame and organic table?


, Columbus, Pittsburgh, detour to Lady Luck Nemacolin, Rocky Gap, and the finish line.


Any input is well appreciated.

Battle mountain as of May 2014: Nevada hotel, tables closed Sunday-Wednesday, open at 5 pm Thursday-Saturday.

Quote: Konbu

Yay my first thread! Sorry I'm not offering info/advice on my first thread, but instead I'm soliciting it.

A few months back I mentioned in the chip of the day thread I will be doing a cross country road trip soon. Well, that time is arriving soon and I will be driving from NorCal to DC in April. So, I need all the help you can offer me with your collective knowledge and experienced chip collectors to "chip in" with their advice/knowledge.

I have 9 days to complete the trip so it won't be too rushed, but I have to keep moving east at a decent pace. I did a trip to Chicago a few years back before I started collecting so I don't have any chips east of Reno/Sparks. If I miss something starting from Reno please let me know. Other than a detour to Jackpot NV, I would prefer not to deviate too much from my direction of travel. I don't have to collect everything that's on the way, it's more of a secondary goal of this trip where I collect as many chips as I can that's convenient. Also if there is any must try food please let me know too! That'll be double rewarding.

My planned route is to go on I-80 all the way to Salt Lake City then stay on I-70 all the way to DC.

The places I'm planning to stop by are as follows:

Fernley and Fallon (except I won't wait until 11pm for headquarters bar). According to an Oct 2012 post by rdw4potus the Fallon Nugget table opens at 5pm. Googling Fernley I did not find indication of table games at any of the 3 casinos there. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

(?) means I googled it but still don't know if there are tables


After this will be:

*** NEVADA ***

Winnemucca:
Winners Inn Casino
Model T Casino

Battle Mountain:
Nothing?

Elko:
Red Lion
Stockmen's
Gold Dust West Elko
(?) Gold Country Inn & Casino

Jackpot:
Barton's Club 93
Cactus Petes Resort Casino
Horseshu
(?) Four Jacks Hotel and Casino
(?) Pony Express
(?) West Star

West Wendover:
Red Garter
Peppermill
Rainbow
Montego Bay
Nugget


Then... I will pass on Ely, I can't justify making a 150 miles detour for 1 chip. Then... Salt Lake City, Grand Junction... then...


*** COLORADO ***

Central City/Blackhawk, then Cripple Creek...
Everything there, I'll try not to miss any... Well, I should copy the list of casinos in Colorado

from the CotD thread so I can check em off as I go...


*** KANSAS ***
Prairie Band Casino

Hollywood at Speedway


*** MISSOURI ***

Kansas City:
Argosy
Isle of Capri
Harrah's
Ameristar

Boonville:
Isle of Capri

St Louis / STL area:
Ameristar
Hollywood ... down to...
River City ... back up to...
Lumiere
Casino Queen (seems like Doc and rdw4potus both have bad memories at this place)
Argosy Alton


I'm already feeling a bit stressful thinking of all the places I will stop by. Am I too ambitious??? I know I might start skipping properties in particular cities when they're too spread out and I start to feel like pooping out the further east I go. I know I'll probably regret it later too hahaha.


Well next will be

Indianapolis:
Probably no chips since it's egame and organic table?


, Columbus, Pittsburgh, detour to Lady Luck Nemacolin, Rocky Gap, and the finish line.


Any input is well appreciated.

No real advice but in my experience I have had good luck selling special Hard Rock chips at a profit.

Quote: Konbu

Googling Fernley I did not find indication of table games at any of the 3 casinos there. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Well, rdw4potus and I have both posted chips from the Fernley Nugget. His was posted here, and mine (which I had forgotten to post earlier) is a couple of posts below that.

Unless things have changed, you should be able to get a chip there. There are limited hours for the table games, but you could use the method I described in my post.

Quote:

Jackpot:
Barton's Club 93
Cactus Petes Resort Casino
Horseshu
(?) Four Jacks Hotel and Casino
(?) Pony Express
(?) West Star

I was in Jackpot last summer and wrote a blog entry about it. I can confirm the first three casinos had table games at the time I was there. However, the Current Blackjack Newsletter says the Horseshu no longer has blackjack, which means they probably no longer have any table games. Nevertheless, I bet if you asked nicely somebody would sell you an old chip. I can confirm the three with question marks do NOT have table games.

You might invest in one issue of the Current Blackjack Newsletter, which lists blackjack conditions in every casino in America. Sometimes the rules are outdated but they seem to know about every rink-a-dink casino in every backwater town.

I'm sure several people will say this, but a lot of small casinos only open their tables in the evenings. I wouldn't be surprised if some even limit them to weekends. The Current Blackjack Newsletter has information about open hours. So, you may wish to time your visits to small venues to the evenings.

Quote: Konbu

Yay my first thread! Sorry I'm not offering info/advice on my first thread, but instead I'm soliciting it.

A few months back I mentioned in the chip of the day thread I will be doing a cross country road trip soon. Well, that time is arriving soon and I will be driving from NorCal to DC in April. So, I need all the help you can offer me with your collective knowledge and experienced chip collectors to "chip in" with their advice/knowledge.

I have 9 days to complete the trip so it won't be too rushed, but I have to keep moving east at a decent pace. I did a trip to Chicago a few years back before I started collecting so I don't have any chips east of Reno/Sparks. If I miss something starting from Reno please let me know. Other than a detour to Jackpot NV, I would prefer not to deviate too much from my direction of travel. I don't have to collect everything that's on the way, it's more of a secondary goal of this trip where I collect as many chips as I can that's convenient. Also if there is any must try food please let me know too! That'll be double rewarding.

My planned route is to go on I-80 all the way to Salt Lake City then stay on I-70 all the way to DC.

The places I'm planning to stop by are as follows:

Fernley and Fallon (except I won't wait until 11pm for headquarters bar). According to an Oct 2012 post by rdw4potus the Fallon Nugget table opens at 5pm. Googling Fernley I did not find indication of table games at any of the 3 casinos there. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

(?) means I googled it but still don't know if there are tables


After this will be:

*** NEVADA ***

Winnemucca:
Winners Inn Casino
Model T Casino

Battle Mountain:
Nothing?

Elko:
Red Lion
Stockmen's
Gold Dust West Elko
(?) Gold Country Inn & Casino

Jackpot:
Barton's Club 93
Cactus Petes Resort Casino
Horseshu
(?) Four Jacks Hotel and Casino
(?) Pony Express
(?) West Star

West Wendover:
Red Garter
Peppermill
Rainbow
Montego Bay
Nugget


Then... I will pass on Ely, I can't justify making a 150 miles detour for 1 chip. Then... Salt Lake City, Grand Junction... then...


*** COLORADO ***

Central City/Blackhawk, then Cripple Creek...
Everything there, I'll try not to miss any... Well, I should copy the list of casinos in Colorado

from the CotD thread so I can check em off as I go...


*** KANSAS ***
Prairie Band Casino

Hollywood at Speedway


*** MISSOURI ***

Kansas City:
Argosy
Isle of Capri
Harrah's
Ameristar

Boonville:
Isle of Capri

St Louis / STL area:
Ameristar
Hollywood ... down to...
River City ... back up to...
Lumiere
Casino Queen (seems like Doc and rdw4potus both have bad memories at this place)
Argosy Alton


I'm already feeling a bit stressful thinking of all the places I will stop by. Am I too ambitious??? I know I might start skipping properties in particular cities when they're too spread out and I start to feel like pooping out the further east I go. I know I'll probably regret it later too hahaha.


Well next will be

Indianapolis:
Probably no chips since it's egame and organic table?


, Columbus, Pittsburgh, detour to Lady Luck Nemacolin, Rocky Gap, and the finish line.


Any input is well appreciated.

Thoughts:

There's a poker game and BJ table at Fernley Nugget. Hours are limited.

Fallon Nugget and Headquarters are neighbors with shared dealers. You might be able to find a headquarters chip in the tray at the Nugget (not sure if that counts for your collecting purposes or not).

Hotel Nevada in Battle Creek has a blackjack table.

Cripple Creek is beautiful and fun, but also tough to get to. From Colorado Springs, you need to kind of wind around Pike's Peak to get to Cripple Creek.

If you really have 9 days, maybe take a look at taking 64 out of Saint Louis, and then 71 out of Louisville to get back up to 70 in Columbus. There are no chips in Indianapolis, and that'd allow you to visit casinos in southern IN and OH that you'd miss if you stuck to I-70.

As far as pooping out goes, I think its good that your route happens to put the majority of casinos in the first half to 2/3 of the drive time. If you can hold the line and do those visits, the rest may come more easily than you think - you'll want breaks from driving anyway.

Just noticed that you only have Prairie Band and Speedway listed in KS. From Prairie Band, it's about 20 miles straight up US75 to get to Sac & Fox and Golden Eagle (they're about 5 miles apart). You could either then backtrack down to Topeka and continue to KC on I-70, or you could take US36 to Saint Joseph & visit the Frontier Casino. From there, it's an easy drive down I-29 to get to Speedway and re-connect with I-70.

If you were to take I-64/I-71 (instead of I-70) between St. Louis and Columbus, you could hit a handful of casinos along the Ohio River. According to Google, this would only add an hour of drive time (not counting detours to the casinos themselves).

I know there is the Horseshoe outside of Louisville, and the Belterra southwest of Cincy. Looks like Google is showing a Tropicana in Evansville, and the Rising Star, Hollywood, and another Horseshoe and Belterra in the Cincinnati area, though I have no first-hand knowledge of these.

Unfortunately, it looks like only a few of these would be easy on/off the interstate.

Thank you all for your advice. I'm back from Asia. Wanted to get a chip from the Paradise Incheon, Korea but sadly did not have enough time.

Many years ago (when I was younger) I tried to visit all the casinos in Northern Nevada (for chip collecting purposes) so did the I-80 run. Having done most of Reno (incl Boomtown) the previous day, I left Reno about 5am, and gradually managed to get to Jackpot (didn't get to McDermitt) by the evening. fwiw the following day I did Wendover and Ely, before starting back along Rte-50 towards Fallon, Hawthorne, Minden etc. completing the loop back to Reno by the end of the week.

I guess you might want to include Fallon as a diversion (google lists quite a few casinos there), if so you might be struggling to do Reno to Jackpot in a long day (ignores McDermitt). Also if you're going down to I70, then via Wendover, Ely is an idea.

I found creating a spreadsheet (distances, times, schedules) was very useful, especially once when doing a casino run from San Diego, round to Denver, Las Vegas, LA., for keeping the trip on target and planning stopovers.

Wheeling island, WV is right on 70.

The Meadows in Washington PA, is about 15 min north of 70.

Again, thanks for all your advice. My trip is underway and I skipped both Fernley and Fallon Nugget because tables weren't opening until late in the afternoon. I got Elko, Jackpot, Wendover, Black Hawk, Cripple Creek so far. Big Jim, Gold Creek, and Gold Rush are closed in Cripple Creek. As for Black Hawk, Fitzgerald's is now Saratoga, and Riviera is closed. Pretty soon it will be Kansas...

Quote: Konbu

Thank you all for your advice. I'm back from Asia. Wanted to get a chip from the Paradise Incheon, Korea but sadly did not have enough time.

Welcome back! Trip report?

Thanks for the update, Konbu! Are you playing much or just collecting? Best of luck on the rest of your trip.

No sorry did not have enough time to go to the Incheon Paradise...

And thanks to rdw4potus for the info on sac fox, etc but I did not even detour from I-70 for Prairie Band. I had a mind numbing 500+ miles drive from CO to Kansas City and just wanted to get to the hotel first ASAP.

I also find myself wanting to play longer when winning but then that's eating into my road/bed time... so at a few places I've had to buy in at Roulette for $11 or $15 and do a $10/$14 bet on dozen or column and run and go.

I'm happy to report in 8 days I drove 3100+ miles and visited and collected chips from 50 casinos. I did skip some but that was best for my health/sanity. I also luckily missed the snow in Vail which is a good thing since I didn't have chains. I lost at all 6 casinos I visited yesterday total of $355 but won $427.50 today, mostly at the Rocky Gap when someone hit ATS in craps and I had $1,1,1 on it, and at the Lady Luck Nemacolin when my parlayed $10 roulette column bet won for a $80 win. My total for the trip is +$102.54 (yes odd number I did have to play some penny slot in Black Hawk CO since I bought a chip at the cage).

Tip: Definitely try to entice a friend to come along for a cross country drive. Tell them how great it's gonna be. I've done it four time already, twice alone. This is the third time alone.

Wow, that's some mileage. I note the number of closed casinos mentioned. We're they out of business, or just not open at the time you visited?

Closed for good. Cripple Creek is pretty slow according to at least 2 dealers I asked. I think Laughlin is bustling in comparison. Well, when the Wildwood in Cripple Creek, which is the largest property there, has $1 craps with 25x odds all day you just know it's a slow town. Maybe busier on weekends, I don't know.

beachbumbabs wrote an excellent report about Downstream Casino in Kansas - perhaps you can collect a chip from there (unless, of course, babs is willing to just mail you one of hers (if she has one))

Quote: Konbu

Closed for good. Cripple Creek is pretty slow according to at least 2 dealers I asked. I think Laughlin is bustling in comparison. Well, when the Wildwood in Cripple Creek, which is the largest property there, has $1 craps with 25x odds all day you just know it's a slow town. Maybe busier on weekends, I don't know.

Oh wow. I was there on the night of January 1st, and on Jan 2nd. That was slow, but I thought it was just because those were holiday recovery days. but, craps sure wasn't $1 then. So things must really have slipped. That's a shame - Cripple Creek is a very cute little town, and casinos fill/filled all of downtown. Without the casinos, it'll get pretty depressing pretty fast.

Quote: aceofspades

beachbumbabs wrote an excellent report about Downstream Casino in Kansas - perhaps you can collect a chip from there (unless, of course, babs is willing to just mail you one of hers (if she has one))

Ahh maybe some other time. It would have been another 160 mi drive straight down from Kansas city. I'm now in VA and just glad to return above water for the whole trip. I think I scratched my gambling itch and dice throwing for a while.

Quote: Konbu

Well, when the Wildwood in Cripple Creek, which is the largest property there, has $1 craps with 25x odds all day you just know it's a slow town.

Oh, that is delicious. Did you play max odds?

No, only 10x and sometimes 15-20x on 6&8. Sounds so cool to say I played 20x odds hehehe

$1 minimum can be fun, but I have often seen even money payouts on 6/8 place bets unless the individual bet is at least $6.
What was the max bet? $50?

Max is $100. Surprisingly at the Wildwood one can do place bets at "half price" with $2.50 win $3.50/$4.50 and $3 win $3.50. I kept a blue 50 cents chipco chip. My $100 buy in lasted a looong time. Had the table to myself for over a hour.

I found playing Craps was the fastest way to get $1 chip - you bought in for $20 and made a $6 bet. Wait for the result and cash out. If there was a $2.50 one, then that wasn't so easy, but BJ dealers seemed happy to sell them.

I find the fastest way is to buy in at Roulette for $6 or $11 and bet a column/dozen and parlay the winnings once/twice. No trying to squeeze into a craps game or possibly getting snide comments/evil eye for buying in midgame. If I lose I just run and if I win it makes it more worthwhile going to the cage.