City: Palm Beach, Aruba
Casino: The Casino at the Ritz-Carlton
Today's chip of the day is from The Casino at the Ritz-Carlton in Palm Beach, Aruba. The Ritz was the last casino that I collected at in Aruba and it was one of the nicest. The casino has 300 slot machines and 17 table games. The limits were really high on BJ ($25 USD minimum) so I played $5 Let It Ride which I have only played a couple times in my life. I played the minimum with no bonus bet so the max I could lose was $5 per hand. I lost $56 at this casino between LIR and a couple slots that I was vulturing.
The chip is white with 6 dark blue edge inserts. The centre inlay is silver with what looks like DNA in the background. The casino name and location are black. The denomination is gold with a weird unidentified (at least by me) logo underneath it.
Quote: AyecarumbaWhy do so many casinos feel the need to lift the names and logos of American establishments? Do they actually fool anyone into thinking, "Oh, look at the sign... it must be just like the Tropicana in Las Vegas..."
In this case it’s because it’s owned or managed by same company that owns Tropicana Laughlin, Tropicana Evansville, and Tropicana AC, has nothing to do with Trop LV. Trip to Trop Aruba is or used to be a tier benefit in their slot club.
Quote: PokerGrinderThe denomination is gold with a weird unidentified (at least by me) logo underneath it.
I think that is the logo for Gemaco, the manufacturer of the chip.
Quote: DocI think that is the logo for Gemaco, the manufacturer of the chip.
It is. Usually those logos are hard to find, but it really stands out on the face of such an elegant and understated chip design.
City: Palm Beach, Aruba
Casino: Hyatt Regency
Today's chip of the day is from the Hyatt Regency Casino in Palm Beach, Aruba. I guess when I said in my last chip post that the Ritz chip was the last one that I collected in Aruba I bought myself a few days to be lazy without harassment from Doc. In reality, it was the last chip that I collected from Aruba but since I don't post my chips in any real order the last chip that I collected is actually the 5th last that I have to post. Hehe unintended deception is fun. Hyatt Casino has 221 slot machines and 13 table games. I played a few hands of $15 BJ and won $14, can anyone figure out where the 15th dollar went lol? I also won $11 of the free play that I got there. The casino was packed and it was hard to walk through the casino as it isn't very big.
The chip is grey 12 white edge inserts. There are 8 white rectangles around the inlay with a "1" between each pair. The centre inlay is white with the Hyatt logo in orange which is odd because all the pictures google shows me of their logo are purple/blue. The casino name is grey and the denomination is red.
Stay tuned for another chip sometime in the next week... just kidding... maybe.
City: Palm Beach, Aruba
Casino: Cool
Today's chip of the day is from Cool Casino in Palm Beach, Aruba. Cool Casino is one of the casinos in the Riu hotel in Aruba. The Cool Casino has 214 slot machines and 10 table games. When I was in there midday there was one guy playing BJ and about 5 playing slots. I played a few hands of $15 BJ and won $30 before heading on my way to the next casino. This casino wouldn't let me get a club card because of a really strange rule, they said I had to have both my passport and driver's license to get a card. I have been to over 800 casinos and I don't think I've ever needed to have both before. The other weird thing is that the other casino that they own next door gave me a card without my passport. Oh well they can keep their $10 in FP.
The chip is beige 12 white edge inserts. The centre inlay is black and burgundy with gold palm trees. The casino name, location and website are all gold while the denomination is white.
From my perspective, you're doing fine -- I have even tended to be slow updating the thread index.Quote: PokerGrinderI guess when I said in my last chip post that the Ritz chip was the last one that I collected in Aruba I bought myself a few days to be lazy without harassment from Doc.
Went into the hospital last Tuesday morning to pick up a new right hip. Yep, I'm now "running" on replacement parts. There were a few side issues that didn't go exactly as planned, but I only spent one extra day in the facility before they let me come home. Now I am taking 14 doses of various medications each day (plus a few others "as needed" that I have been avoiding) and trying (but failing) to maintain a tortuous exercise regimen. In-home physical therapy scheduled for three days a week (but only one of them held so far) to measure how much I have been cheating on that regimen. I think the hip itself is about the least of the issues. Mostly I just seem to be constantly exhausted even when I haven't been doing anything. And I can't sleep. It is now 4:23AM here, and I am posting to an internet forum. Just need to survive and progress in rehab so that I can join you folks at Spring Fling.
Quote: PokerGrinderToday's chip of the day is from Cool Casino in Palm Beach, Aruba.
Hmmm... I cannot connect to the internet site on the Cool Casino chip.
Yes, the URL shown on the chip does not seem to work, and another web site associated with the hotel seems to break down also. I suspect (just complete speculation) that this has something to do with their having multiple Cool Casino locations now.Quote: LuckyPhowHmmm... I cannot connect to the internet site on the Cool Casino chip.
Try https://www.coolcasinoaruba.com/ for one of their places in Aruba. PG mentioned "the other casino that they own next door", so I am not sure which casino is which.
City: Palm Beach, Aruba
Casino: Orchid
Today's chip of the day is from Orchid Casino in Palm Beach, Aruba. Orchid Casino is the other casino owned by the Riu hotel. Orchid Casino had around 150 slots and 10 table games based on my amazing (not) memory. I played $15 BJ for 5 hands and won $15 whole dollars plus $10 from the FP that they gave me. I was one of only 3 people in the casino during the middle of the day.
The chip is white with 4 grey edge inserts and the denomination around the inlay 4 times in grey. The centre inlay is orange and yellow with what I will take a wild guess to be orchids! The casino name is purple and the location is black.
City: Palm Beach, Aruba
Casino: The Casino
Today's chip of the day is from The Casino in Palm Beach Aruba and is the last chip that I have to post from my trip to South America. I visited this casino three times during my trip to Aruba. The first time I went was when I was collecting chips from all the casinos. When I arrived they were running bingo without a bingo hall which means that there were players EVERYWHERE! People were set up at slot machines, on the poker tables, all but 3 table games, random tables and drink carts. This was the oddest bingo takeover that I've ever seen. I won $30 playing $10 BJ and I also was given $10 in FP, I left to continue my chip journey.
I returned two more times to play poker at night. They run a juicy $2/$5 USD poker game with a mix of locals and tourists, most of whom were bad and some were just spewing money all over the table. I played 5 hours the first night and won just over $1000 including the high hand for $175 with quad 6's. The last two hours of the night a local guy was straddling (placing a non-mandatory blind) for $25 every hand. This made the game huge and allowed the players to spew some more which is great for me and the one other good player in the game. The next night I played for a few hours before my morning flight the next day and lost $260.
The casino uses different chips than the poker room but I only collected from the casino as they were nice chips and both were for the same casino.
The chip is white with 4 grey almost edge inserts. The denomination appears 4 times around the inlay in grey. The centre inlay is yellow with the casino name in grey and black, not sure if that is the original colour or not. The 4 card suits are present beside the casino name. The location and denomination are definitely black. You can see in the picture there are 4 engraved spades, they are hard to see while holding the chip but I can slightly feel them if I rub them with my finger.
Quote: AyecarumbaI don't think I've ever seen a chip with engraved details. I suspect it is a press of some sort (maybe a hot stamp?). Are there similar marks on the other side? Did the poker chips have the same marks?
Yes it is on both sides and it feels like an engraving not a hot stamp. I don't remember the poker chips having an engraving.
City: Cardiff, Wales
Casino: Rainbow Casino
Turns out I do have one more chip to post from a casino that I've never been to before. A friend of mine gave me this chip from his trip to England last year sometime and I am just getting around to posting it. I found the casino on MoGH and I think I have the correct one, I am however waiting on the confirmation text confirming that this is the casino he got the chip from.
So tentatively today's chip of the day is from Rainbow Casino in Birmingham, England. I wasn't able to find any information on how many table games or slots they have. Birmingham is about half way between London and Liverpool in England. I have done some research and I found nothing more to add to this post. Maybe one of you can find something interesting about this casino.
The chip is yellow with 3 red/blue/red edge inserts. Around the centre inlay is alternating "1's" and pairs of rectangles all in red. The centre inlay is white a large gold "R" sandwiched by a spade and a club. The casino name is under the "R" in silver.
Edit: I talked to my friend and it turns out this chip of the day is actually from Cardiff, Wales which is the capital of Wales. The casino has 20 slot machines and 10 table games
Quote: DocI'll let you guys worry/ponder about those casinos and chips. I've never visited northern California in my entire life. I think the extremes of my northward travels in that state are represented by San Francisco to the west and Truckee to the east. I've never even looked to see where the casinos are located. (I'm just a poorly-traveled southern boy.)
FWIW, this is south of that line - basically straight east of Stockton & south of Sacramento. See? Now you need to go, too! :-)
Quote: PokerGrinderSomeone just posted on the chip board that a place called Chicken Ranch Casino in California just got tables so I checked where in Cali it is. It is on my general spring fling route so I guess I’ll figure out where to add it to my itinerary when I get home.
You start the next adventure timorrow! Trip thread?
Quote: beachbumbabsYou start the next adventure timorrow! Trip thread?
I wasn’t planning on it but I guess I could throw something together if people want that?
So table games open up at 12:01 am on the 9th (They are having a soft open for VIP's on the 8th). I am staying in Reno the night before so if I can get to Wa She Shu Casino before I sleep in Reno which means getting to Wa She Shu to play before their tables close at midnight I can go to Chicken Ranch from Reno on the 9th... that was a very run on sentence. It adds 4 hours of driving which is pretty silly but... well I guess I will see.
Quote: PokerGrinderNow I am planning on doing something silly...
So table games open up at 12:01 am on the 9th (They are having a soft open for VIP's on the 8th). I am staying in Reno the night before so if I can get to Wa She Shu Casino before I sleep in Reno which means getting to Wa She Shu to play before their tables close at midnight I can go to Chicken Ranch from Reno on the 9th... that was a very run on sentence. It adds 4 hours of driving which is pretty silly but... well I guess I will see.
Chicken Ranch isn't the silly part of this plan?
Apparently some time ago I got it in my head that the Greektown Casino in Detroit was going to be renamed Jack Casino, and I added that one to my list of "Chips I might get", with a note to do that some time after the name change. Now I see that a few days ago Jack Entertainment sold the Greektown Casino to Penn National Gaming. I found one article that claims that there are no plans to change the name of the casino.
Is that information correct? If so, I can just delete this item from my to-do list, since I already have a Greektown souvenir chip.
As far as Penn I’m expecting a name change but they haven’t said much yet as the sale isn’t final.
Quote: PokerGrinder... as the sale isn’t final.
What will it take to make it final?
https://pennnationalgaming.gcs-web.com/news-releases/news-release-details/penn-national-gaming-completes-acquisition-greektown-casino
P.S. I am no closer to being ready to post said chips...
With regard to SugarHouse being converted to Rivers Philadelphia this fall, yes, if you don't have a SugarHouse chip yet, it appears that you need to make at least two trips to Philadelphia, one before and one after the change.
Here are two additional matters that might affect some of your planning:
(1) The casino that was originally planned/announced as "Live! Philadelphia" is now projected to open in (late?) 2020 but under the name "Stadium Casino."
(2) Apparently Pennsylvania has plans for something called category 4 casinos, also known as satellite casinos, and the Stadium Satellite Casino (or whatever the final name really will be) is planned for Derry, PA in the vicinity of Pittsburgh. The comments that I have read suggest that the satellite casino is likely to open before the main casino opens in Philadelphia, though I haven't seen specific dates suggested. It would be a shame for you to fly in/out of Pittsburgh and miss that opportunity.
I’m thinking after mapping out the casinos that it’s worth paying a tad more (in points anyways) to fly into Philadelphia instead. I know I’ll need to go back if and when the PA mini casinos open but I’m fine with that. My plan is to do Delaware. PA, Atlantic City for the 2 new ones and Maryland minus Rocky Gap.