Casino Chip of the Day

State: Colorado
City: Central City
Casino: Reserve

Today's chip of the day comes from the Reserve casino in Central City, CO. The Reserve is on Gregory Street. It's away from downtown a few blocks, on the way to Black Hawk (edited). I walked from Johnny Z's to the Reserve and back again. Between the cold and a very substantial hill, that was not a walk that I'd take again. The Reserve is a big casino by Colorado standards - it has a 30,000 sqft floor, 680 machines, and 20 tables.

I collected my chip by playing BJ. Not counting the 3 card poker session at Johnny Z's, which was played because of the EV, this was my longest session of the trip. I played for about 2 hours at Reserve, and won $115. I thought I was doing good by hanging out and warming up. And the monetary result was good. But, I think spending that much time probably just made the walk back uphill in the cold that much worse.

Here's a picture of the Reserve:



My chip from the Reserve is an Icon product. The center has an intentionally blurred and antiqued effect, which the camera had a hard time focusing on. It's kind of funny - the crystal clear and absolutely perfect edge of the chip diminishes the power of that effect. If ever there was an idea made for a Chipco product, this was it and the casino bucked the trend in CO and didn't use Chipco as their vendor.

Quote: rdw4potus

It's away from downtown a few blocks, on the way to Central City. I walked from Johnny Z's to the Reserve and back again. Between the cold and a very substantial hill, that was not a walk that I'd take again.

Minor error: if you are going "away from downtown a few blocks", then the Reserve is on the way to Black Hawk, not Central City. In my case, I am far too lazy ever to have considered walking from Johnny Z's to the Reserve. I walked instead the annoying downhill/uphill route from Johnny Z's to the parking lot (where both rdw & I parked on our visits) and drove to the Reserve then on to Black Hawk.

The Reserve used to be called the Fortune Valley Casino. I don't know just when that closed and when it re-opened as the Reserve. Does anyone have chips from the Fortune Valley?

Outside of the Reserve Casino, they have an old train on display. It has a steam locomotive, tender, and one passenger car from the Colorado and Southern Railroad. I was aware of the train before my visit (saw it on GoogleMaps StreetView), and I would like to have checked it out closely, but I just drove past it to the parking garage and never walked back to it. From the garage on the hill behind the casino, I took the elevator down to the casino floor and promptly forgot which level I had parked on. I hate it when senility gets in my way.

I played $3 craps for just 15 minutes and won $115. It was one of the sessions that made my overall results positive for the trip to Colorado.

My souvenir $1 chip has that same fuzzy image as rdw's $5 chip. I'm not really sure whether my photo is in focus or not!

State: Colorado
City: Black Hawk
Casino: Riviera

Today's chip of the day comes from the Riviera casino in Black Hawk, CO. The Riviera is at the southern end of the string of casinos on Main Street in Black Hawk. The strip of casinos in Blackhawk is quite compact, but Riviera is somewhat alone at the south end of the strip. Isle is nearby, but it mostly faces the other way. According to CasinoCity, Riviera has a 32,000 sqft gaming floor with 700 machines and 10 table games.

I collected my chip by playing BJ. It was a pretty brutal session. I'd wanted to play for a bit before hiking back up to rescue my car from the lot at Fitzgeralds, but the Riv just took my money too quickly. I won my share of hands, but I lost every hand with extra money on the table. It was pretty demoralizing. Nice casino, fun place, beautiful building, but baaaaaad variance.

Here's a picture of the Riviera:



My chip from the Riviera is a Chipco product. It's somewhat similar to the Reserve's chip from yesterday in that it has an antiqued texture in the chip's center. There's a bit of wear typical of a Chipco chip, but the chip is mostly in good shape. Unlike the Reserve chip's image, my camera was able to grab and focus on the $5 on each face here - I think that means that the intentionally fuzzy image on the center of the chip's face is actually in-focus here.

Quote: rdw4potus

I'd wanted to play for a bit before hiking back up to rescue my car from the lot at Fitzgeralds....

The day that my wife and I visited Black Hawk, I parked at three different casino garages in the town as I worked my way down Main Street. Yes, I felt that I was just too lazy to park and walk all the way down to the end of town and back to my starting point, even though (if I checked the math) I might have walked the same total distance as it turned out. In any case, at the end of the day it was a short trip back to the car and the trip back to the hotel.

That last parking spot was at the Isle. I played there to get my chip, then we started looking for a place to get something to eat. We didn't want a big enough meal to justify the high-end restaurant at the Isle, and the lower-tier places were exposed to the same extreme noise as the casino floor, and we didn't feel we could eat in that environment. It was really bad.

We wound up walking across the street to a little deli right off the valet parking drop-off at the Riviera. After we ate, I played 35 minutes of $5 craps to win $55 and a souvenir $1 chip. From there, it was up to the Lady Luck for a final session, then back to the car and our exit from town.

My souvenir chip is also from Chipco (the CI logo is at the 6:00 position on just one side of my chip and rdw's), and it has the same basic pattern as rdw's $5 chip, except the colors, denomination marks, the pattern of the imitation edge inserts, and the size/direction of the six little triangles positioned between the denomination marks. And yes, my chip shows a good bit of wear. I don't know whether that red glow around the center of the big R is intentional or is a fading of the colors. The really odd thing is that I think I can see a similar red glow on the other side of the chip, where there doesn't seem to be any intentionally-red image. Strange.

Quote: Doc

I don't know whether that red glow around the center of the big R is intentional or is a fading of the colors. The really odd thing is that I think I can see a similar red glow on the other side of the chip, where there doesn't seem to be any intentionally-red image. Strange.

I think our chips have identical center sections - both have red + white makes pink patterning in the center circle on both sides (including on/around/under the Win at the Riv logo). My chip is much less red than it looks in the images - the pictures are super-saturated idue to an odd color correction issue with MS photo editor.

State: Colorado
City: Cripple Creek
Casino: Wildwood

Today's chip of the day is from the Wildwood casino in Cripple Creek, CO. Wildwood is on Carbonate Street in Cripple Creek. According to Casino City, it has 508 machines and 13 tables. Like many casinos in Cripple Creek, Wildwood is in a very charming storefront. Wildwood is different from other casinos in Cripple Creek in that it's in a modern building. Here's a picture:



I collected my chip at Wildwood by playing blackjack. It was a very lively atmosphere, which was both good and surprising. When I got to Wildwood, I was freezing cold and also very tired. Playing in such a fun and active pit helped to both warm and energize me. Unfortunately, I paid a small fee for the revitalization and left down $20 after 3 shoes on the table. Wildwood has a 2 table poker room. I didn't play, but I watched for a while. I've never seen anything like it - two cash games, with everyone running around and watching the action on both tables. If a drunken 2 table home tourney was moved into a casino, that would maybe approximate this action. All 20 guys (well, maybe 18 or 19 of them) cheering and oohing on every pot.

Wildwood is the last casino in my Colorado collection. Perhaps fittingly, it is another chipco chip. Both sides have some wear, but this chip was much much better than some of the others in the tray.




I have not yet decided what state to start tomorrow. I will likely do a state where I am unlikely to add to my collection in the near future. That would mean one of the Dakotas, MN or OK. I don't have all of the chips from any of those places, but I would prefer to wait on states like CA, IA, and MI in the hopes that I'll have additional chips to show in those states soon.

Quote: rdw4potus

State: Colorado
City: Cripple Creek
Casino: Wildwood

Wildwood is on Bennett Street in Cripple Creek. According to Casino City, it has 508 machines and 13 tables. Like many casinos in Cripple Creek, Wildwood is in a very charming storefront. Here's a picture:

Whoa! Whoa! Whooooooaaaaa! We have a big problem this time.

#1. The Wildwood is NOT on Bennett Street, or even Bennett Avenue. It is on Carhanate Street and is the only currently-operating casino (I think) in Cripple Creek that is not on Bennett Avenue. It's around the corner from the east end of the string of other casinos and a few short blocks up the hill.

#2. The casino shown in the photo is blurrily identified as Womack's Casino, the establishment that is now the Cripple Creek edition of the Century Casino.

I can only guess that rdw4potus had a long, hard day before preparing his post.

Here is my photo of the genuine Wildwood Casino:



Here's another photo I took there. Look at it a moment before reading any further and see whether you can convince yourself what you are looking at:



Does it look a bit like a pretty nice hand at some game in the casino? Surely, its an image of the top of a gaming table, right? Nope. That's the carpeting in the Wildwood Casino. I thought it was pretty clever. Except I can't decide what it is supposed to represent. What kind of game has a situation in which there are four cards face up with chips on top of them? I know there are a lot of games that I'm not familiar with, but I'm not at all sure what this very nice carpet image is supposed to represent.

In any case, the Wildwood was my first stop in Cripple Creek. I played $1 craps for fifteen minutes and left while up by $10. My souvenir $1 chip is the same design as rdw4potus's $5 chip but with different imitation edge inserts. The Chipco CI logo appears on one side of our chips, right under the larger denomination mark.

Quote: Doc

Whoa! Whoa! Whooooooaaaaa! We have a big problem this time.

#1. The Wildwood is NOT on Bennett Street, or even Bennett Avenue. It is on Carhanate Street and is the only currently-operating casino (I think) in Cripple Creek that is not on Bennet Avenue. It's around the corner from the east end of the string of other casinos and a few short blocks up the hill.

#2. The casino shown in the photo is blurrily identified as Womack's Casino, the establishment that is now the Cripple Creek edition of the Century Casino.

I can only guess that rdw4potus had a long, hard day before preparing his post.

Lol! Well, yes, yesterday was a long hard day. Also, sources in this industry leave a lot to be desired. I got both that image and the Bennett Street bit from coloradocasinos.net. I probably should have dual sourced that info from themogh or casinocity, and I did have both pages open while I was writing my post. I'll edit my post momentarily...

So, on the flimsy assumption that this thread has not yet dwindled to a two-person conversation, can anyone tell me what game/situation the 4-Aces image that I included in my previous post is supposed to represent? It really puzzled me as to when four cards would appear face up with chips on top of them.

Quote: Doc

So, on the flimsy assumption that this thread has not yet dwindled to a two-person conversation, can anyone tell me what game/situation the 4-Aces image that I included in my previous post is supposed to represent? It really puzzled me as to when four cards would appear face up with chips on top of them.

I've seen a similar setup on a 4 card poker table when the dealer was trying to indicate to the cameras how much was bet, and how much was owed on the bonus. But that game has a 5th card, and it's odd to put the chips on top of the cards like that. Plus, Wildwood doesn't have that game. So maybe this is just a pretty design?

edit: I do realize that this post does nothing to disprove the suggestion that only two of us remain interested in this thread.

deleted

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

I read it and although I don't collect chips, I do like hearing about these casinos.

Same here. When you get to Washington , I'll even be able to contribute. I have a few chips laying around here somewhere.

Aww were still here guys. Just hard to comment on places you have never been. They remind me of Carson City which I enjoyed when I was there. Even have been trying to figure how to work in a trip to Colorado.

Quote: kenarman

Even have been trying to figure how to work in a trip to Colorado.

If you want to visit all of their casinos like a nutty chip collector, then it takes two trips, unless you like driving a lot more than I do. The two casinos whose chips I posted back in March are a long way from the ones in Cripple Creek, Central City, and Black Hawk. And if you dislike driving in ice and snow as much as I do (er, ... would), then you shouldn't schedule your visit(s) to Colorado the way rdw4potus did.

Quote: rdw4potus

I have not yet decided what state to start tomorrow. I will likely do a state where I am unlikely to add to my collection in the near future. That would mean one of the Dakotas, MN or OK. I don't have all of the chips from any of those places, but I would prefer to wait on states like CA, IA, and MI in the hopes that I'll have additional chips to show in those states soon.

This time, I can't really make a useful suggestion. I have once again exhausted my supply of chip images to post, so I won't have chip-decorated replies to post no matter what state you choose.

I plan to collect the Maryland chips and a couple of new ones from Atlantic City on a trip later this month, so I will have them to post when you get to those casinos. Then in September I will collect the ones I am missing from Reno and Sparks and will post them some place, since you have already presented your chips from those casinos.

Quote: Doc

Then in September I will collect the ones I am missing from Reno and Sparks and Elko and Jackpot and Wendover and will post them some place, since you have already presented your chips from those casinos.

Fixed that for you:-)

Quote: Doc

If you want to visit all of their casinos like a nutty chip collector, then it takes two trips, unless you like driving a lot more than I do. The two casinos whose chips I posted back in March are a long way from the ones in Cripple Creek, Central City, and Black Hawk. And if you dislike driving in ice and snow as much as I do (er, ... would), then you shouldn't schedule your visit(s) to Colorado the way rdw4potus did.

Winter driving is the norm for me so that doesn't much bother me. I would sooner deal with snow than summer traffic. I just liked the look of the store fronts and mostly smaller casinos.

Quote: kenarman

Quote: Doc

If you want to visit all of their casinos like a nutty chip collector, then it takes two trips, unless you like driving a lot more than I do. The two casinos whose chips I posted back in March are a long way from the ones in Cripple Creek, Central City, and Black Hawk. And if you dislike driving in ice and snow as much as I do (er, ... would), then you shouldn't schedule your visit(s) to Colorado the way rdw4potus did.

Winter driving is the norm for me so that doesn't much bother me. I would sooner deal with snow than summer traffic. I just liked the look of the store fronts and mostly smaller casinos.

They're very charming venues. I wish I'd spent more time in Cripple Creek especially. Nice people, fun games, cute town. It's just good all around.

State: North Dakota
City: Bismarck
Casino: Bismarck Mandan Convention and Visitors Bureau

I really have no idea how to categorize today's chip (sorry Doc...). It is from the Bismarck Mandan Convention and Visitors Bureau and I think I received it by playing at the Ramkota hotel in Bismarck. If not the Ramkota, then at Peacock Alley American Bar and Grill. They both use the same chips, and I don't exactly remember which stop was the one where I actually pocketed my chip. I suspect it was Ramkota, as I stopped there first.

In addition to having several tribal casinos, North Dakota also has "charity" BJ in many bars. This chip is from one of those "charities" though I'm not sure what it says exactly when the visitors bureau needs funding from gambling in bars. The setup is similar but not identical at each bar. There's a table, and a dealer, and usually a pulltab stand. Sometimes the pulltab stand is staffed separately from the BJ table, sometimes that person rotates in and out with the BJ dealer, sometimes the dealer leaves to staff the pulltab stand on an on-demand basis. There is surveillance at every table, and there's a roving supervisor person who manages the chip, cash, and pulltab inventories. I kind of wonder how much of a problem my $5 chip snag caused.

I've now played in Bismarck a handful if times. The first two times (when I collected this chip) were 3 weeks apart in August and September of 2008. I stayed at the Ramkota for a conference, and played in their bar/lounge/casino on my last night. There's a door with a bouncer/guard, and it was a pretty ominous entrance. The door says "casino" but the room itself is 90% bar and 10% 2 BJ tables. Rules are pretty standard - 6 deck H17 DA2 DAS RSA. There's no surrender, and the limits are $2 to $25. From what I understand, those rules are standard across the state for bar BJ.

The conference was one of those with a golf event attached to it. During my round, I witnessed one of the funnier things I've ever seen. They were cementing the cart paths at the course, and various places had either gravel or cement, depending on whether the transition had yet been made in that area. As we approached the 6th green, my groupmate drove his cart into an unmarked freshly poured section of cement, and then just sat there as the wheels slowly sunk in. With the alarmed/perplexed look on his face, it was like something out of a cartoon. Later, the grounds crew guys returned and tried to tear into my groupmate. Turns out that both guys had ridden back together to pick up the "wet cement" signs that they'd forgotten at the clubhouse. We quickly pointed out that this wasn't a task that took two people, especially since the course was filled with tournament players and it would have been pretty great if one dude could have stayed behind momentarily to keep people from driving on the wet cement.

The second trip that year was also memorable. A coworker and I had a short meeting in town, so we tried to fly in and out on the same day and utterly failed. Our return flight was cancelled, and we were stuck in town for a night with no notice (and no extra clothes or toiletries). It was the first week of hunting season, so we also couldn't get a rental car. We cabbed it to the Radisson. After a brief delay where they tried to give two coworkers a single queen room, we checked in and walked across the street to Peacock Alley. The bar was hopping. We sat at the BJ table partly because it was quieter than the rest of the room. For the most part, we played played 3 handed with this blond guy. Blondie was memorable for 4 reasons. First, he was plastered when we arrived and had 10 more beers during the 3 hours we were there. Second, he knew everybody in the bar, and everybody who came into the bar, and they all knew him. Third, he correctly guessed the dealer's downcard about 10 times in a row. I don't know the actual number, but I know I lost $16 to my coworker betting $1 double or nothing starting after a few correct times, so he was right at least 8 times in a row. Fourth, his girlfriend had died the day before in some kind of freak accident. I guess this was his way of coping. He seemed pretty happy, but I suppose that's a side effect of trying extremely hard to forget...

My chip from the Bismarck Mandan Convention and Visitors Bureau is a Bud Jones product. It has 6 suit images on each face. Two each of the black suits, 1 heart, and 1 diamond. The inserts are rotated about 33% from each other - when the suits are lined up, the faces are askew by about 1/3 of a rotation. I'm surprised that isn't more standardized in the manufacturing process.

Not only have I never been to any of the casinos in North Dakota, I've never even been to the state at all. Or to its southern neighbor. All I can visualize are scenes from the film Fargo. My warped brain thinks that the name Fargo means that the place is just too far to go, and Bismarck is another three hours or so drive beyond that! I guess you just haven't done much to convince me I need to visit the area. Maybe that's a common enough feeling that it explains a bit about why a convention and visitors bureau needs funding from a charity casino.

Your "six suits" chip has the "left-over-right" pattern for the diamond pip, though I don't even know whether this pattern offered a right-over-left design. I'll let you look for that variant on your next visit. ;-)

Quote: rdw4potus

Fixed that for you:-)

Nice try, but, ... uh ... no.

State: North Dakota
City: Hankinson
Casino: Dakota Magic

Today's chip of the day comes from the Dakota Magic casino in Hankinson, ND. Dakota Magic is actually quite a ways from the city of Hankinson - this is one of those situations where the address has to have a city/town/township, and this was the closest/best one. The casino is almost exacty on the ND/SD border, on I-29 halfway between Sisseton, SD and Wahpeton, ND. Dakota Magic opened in 1996, and has 1000 gaming machines and 12 tables on a 95,000 sqft gaming floor. Of the casinos on the I-29 corridor between Brookings and Fargo, this is the farthest north and also the largest.

I visited Dakota Magic in May of 2011. I hadn't planned on visiting Dakota Magic that day (or even visiting ND or SD), but I kind of just kept driving. That actually got me in a bit of trouble as I would up being too far from home too late in the evening. I collected my chip by playing a game called phil-em-up poker. It's an odd game - like Pai Gow Poker, Mississippi Stud, and three card poker all mixed together. I was about even for my session, then I hit a 3 card straight flush that filled out to the full 5 card version. After that, I left up about $180.

Dakota Magic is big, basic, and a touch rundown. It's pretty much the stereotypical rural midwestern casino. Here's a picture:



My chip from Dakota Magic is a Paulson RHC. It's one of those Paulson chips where the center image is larger than the designated area, so that the image extends up to and over the circle of hats and canes.

Quote: Doc

Not only have I never been to any of the casinos in North Dakota, I've never even been to the state at all. Or to its southern neighbor. All I can visualize are scenes from the film Fargo. My warped brain thinks that the name Fargo means that the place is just too far to go, and Bismarck is another three hours or so drive beyond that! I guess you just haven't done much to convince me I need to visit the area. Maybe that's a common enough feeling that it explains a bit about why a convention and visitors bureau needs funding from a charity casino.

North Dakota has a couple absolutely world class public golf courses, some interesting military sites, and Devil's Lake. Not enough to make any non-midwesterners visit. South Dakota is more interesting - Badlands, Black Hills, Rushmore, Wall Drug, etc. Plus, dozens and dozens of casinos in Deadwood. But, even then, I haven't been to western South Dakota since I was a child.

Quote: rdw4potus

Today's chip of the day comes from the Dakota Magic casino in Hankinson, ND. Dakota Magic is actually quite a ways from the city of Hankinson - this is one of those situations where the address has to have a city/town/township, and this was the closest/best one.

I suppose advertising itself as being located "in the middle of nowhere" won't entice many visitors.

On the other hand, it is in North Dakota ;)

Hmmm.... While I'll allow that there might be some interesting Bad Lands to see (given good weather), I still haven't felt a strong urge to make the rounds of Dakota casinos. Never having been there, I do indeed have that mindset that it's in the middle of nowhere.

On the other hand, we need to figure some way to rebuild interest and participation in this thread. If you/we could get it to average just five posts/comments per day, then by the end of August it would be the longest thread in the forum. Unfortunately, I don't have any chip images to post.

Quote: Doc

On the other hand, we need to figure some way to rebuild interest and participation in this thread. If you/we could get it to average just five posts/comments per day, then by the end of August it would be the longest thread in the forum. Unfortunately, I don't have any chip images to post.

I could make another AP joke, but maybe that's not what you'd want ;)

Well, no, I'm not really looking for a lot of drama and conflict in this thread. Fortunately, perhaps, most of the high-drama folks seem to have blocked this thread.

Suprised you can resist the lure of Deadwood, SD Doc. 29 casinos in one small town, can't get easier collecting than that. ;-)

One day or two there might be fun. But I have trouble thinking in terms of either flying from NC to Rapid City (with an airline fare about twice what it costs to fly to Vegas) and then renting a car for the rest of the trip or the alternative of driving the whole 1,700 miles each way.

At one time, my wife and I were thinking about buying a travel trailer and making extended trips around the U.S. and Canada. If we had done that, I'm sure that we would have eventually covered I-90 with a stop at Mount Rushmore, along the way either to or from Yellowstone. On such a trip, Deadwood would be an obvious stopping point. But (without living the RV life), I'm skeptical that I will get around to scheduling a trip from here to Deadwood and environs.

Too bad you didn't have more time and/or energy when you were Colorado this spring. It is only a long days drive to Deadwood from Denver.

Quote: kenarman

Too bad you didn't have more time and/or energy when you were Colorado this spring. It is only a long days drive to Deadwood from Denver.

There could have been some risk to life and limb if I had tried that. On that trip I had already played 30 sessions in 27 different casinos in Las Vegas, Cripple Creek, Central City, and Black Hawk, adding 23 new chips to my collection. If I had suggested to my wife that we needed to visit 29 more before heading home, folks might have felt the tremor several time zones away.



And as a side note, we have already exceeded that target of five posts today.   ;-)

Quote: Doc

There could have been some risk to life and limb if I had tried that. On that trip I had already played 30 sessions in 27 different casinos in Las Vegas, Cripple Creek, Central City, and Black Hawk, adding 23 new chips to my collection. If I had suggested to my wife that we needed to visit 29 more before heading home, folks might have felt the tremor several time zones away.



And as a side note, we have already exceeded that target of five posts today.   ;-)

For all the grief I give you...I tried last summer to get the fiancee to join me on a trip (from Minneapolis) to Rapid city via Omaha, north to Williston, over to Fargo, up to Winnipeg, over to Thunder Bay, and back to Minneapolis. I figured it'd be a fun week, she told me there were easier ways to break up with her...

Quote: Doc

Well, no, I'm not really looking for a lot of drama and conflict in this thread. Fortunately, perhaps, most of the high-drama folks seem to have blocked this thread.

Aren't you dying to know how many APs does it take to screw-in a light bulb??

But just so this won't be another gratuitous addition to the post count: would it be ok to post a chip, once the two of you are done, which is not part of a collection? that is, I had it but I don't collect chips. I don't have it any longer.

Quote: Ibeatyouraces

I read it and although I don't collect chips, I do like hearing about these casinos.

Same here. It's a great thread with interesting information that you can't get in the brochures. I appreciate that it stays on topic for the most part despite one person using it to take swipes at APs. Keep up the good good work everyone!

Quote: Nareed

... would it be ok to post a chip, once the two of you are done, which is not part of a collection? that is, I had it but I don't collect chips. I don't have it any longer.

Of course. I just prefer that we coordinate things a bit rather than having different folks posting multiple chips as the "Chip of the Day." Perhaps rdw4potus will let us know in advance if there is going to be some point where he won't be able to post -- the way I did when I was taking extended trips and asked him to cover as temporary lead for the thread. If such a situation occurs, then we can try to fit in any chips that you or others might wish to post during his absence from the lead role. Of course, some day he will eventually run out of chips to post, and someone else will need to take over the lead. Until then, I will only be posting reply chips, as I did for the Colorado casinos, and chips that I acquire from casinos that have already been covered in the thread, as I expect to do in September when I get back to Reno.

At the beginning of this thread, I said I preferred that people not post chip images that they had found elsewhere on the web unless there was some specific justification. I wanted folks to post chips that they actually own. If you had it at one time but decided not to keep it, your image of it would be fine to put in this thread. I have done that once, for the Harrah's Cherokee chips. I only keep one $1 chip in my collection, but at the time I was getting ready to post it, I had recently been back to the casiono and had a couple of leftover chips in my pocket when I got home. They were different from the ones rdw and I have in our collections, so I posted those images even though I later took the "extra" chips back to the casino to play them.

By the way, my wife and I will be spending this Wednesday night at Harrah's Cherokee.

State: South Dakota
City: Watertown
Casino: Dakota Sioux

Today's chip of the day comes from the Dakota Sioux casino in Watertown, SD. The casino is small - 8,700 sqft, 365 machines, and 11 tables. It's odd - this casino is only a bit out of Watertown (population 22,000) and it's little. Dakota Magic is in rural Hankinson (population 850) and it's 11 times larger. From the outside, Dakota Sioux looks like a typical small rural midwestern casino. On the inside, it's probably the most immaculately well-kept casino I've ever seen. It was a little more upscale than it appeared, but mostly it was just incredibly clean. Seriously, I've been to casinos on opening weekend that were dirtier than this place.

Here's a picture of the outside of the casino:



I played Silverado Stud when I collected my chip. I'm a sucker for new games, and I was happy to try this one out. The dealer was good enough, but the game itself was pretty time consuming. Each player receives 4 cards and discards 1. Then 2 community cards are revealed. Then the 5 card hands are compared to a paytable. Then there's a 6 card bonus that incorporates the discarded card. That's a lot of back and forth on each hand. Even with a very good dealer, I don't think we were even getting 20 hands/hour. The Phil-em-up game at Dakota Magic was slightly faster, but not as fun. While I personally would gladly play either game again, I can't see either game catching on. Certainly not when other similar games are just stronger and with better footing as well - UTH, THB, even Wild 6 card Poker and Texas Shootout.

My chip from Dakota Sioux is a Chipco product. Similar to my chip from the Isle in Black Hawk, the edge markings on the two faces line up, but the markings around the rim don't align with those marks.

Mildly interesting that the photo shows all of the flags at half staff. Wonder what the occasion was.

Silverado Stud reminds me of the dealer's choice games I used to play with some of my work friends on a social evening once or twice a month. We were wagering chips valued as small coins: high Chicago, low Chicago, hi-low split, etc. Even one they called 3-card Monte, but not the same as that carnival shell game that goes by that same name.

Quote: Doc

Silverado Stud reminds me of the dealer's choice games I used to play with some of my work friends on a social evening once or twice a month.

Oh, when I played poker with friends, I tried to confuse them with odd choices for wild cards. The best, by far, was "pairs are wild." Most of the others didn't know what to make of it. Essentially if you had three deuces, proper strategy was to discard one. Or say you had 2,2,2,10,10. If you throw away one deuce, you draw an instant straight flush! If you drew an ace, king, queen or jack, that was a royal flush!

Quote: Nareed

Oh, when I played poker with friends, I tried to confuse them with odd choices for wild cards. The best, by far, was "pairs are wild." Most of the others didn't know what to make of it. Essentially if you had three deuces, proper strategy was to discard one. Or say you had 2,2,2,10,10. If you throw away one deuce, you draw an instant straight flush! If you drew an ace, king, queen or jack, that was a royal flush!

Nareed your strategy for the 2,2,2,10,10 has you throwing away 5 of a kind 2's. 5 of a kind is better than a royal flush unless you had house rules that set it up different.

Quote: kenarman

Nareed your strategy for the 2,2,2,10,10 has you throwing away 5 of a kind 2's. 5 of a kind is better than a royal flush unless you had house rules that set it up different.

The way we played, often using wildcards, a straight flush and a royal beat any 4 or 5 of a kind.

This discussion could lead to an interesting math problem -- one that either has a quick answer or might warrant its own thread. The question would be something like this:

What kinds of wild card designations/rules would make 5 of a kind a higher-probability hand than a straight flush? That is, in what games should the straight/royal flush beat the 5 of a kind?

I think it might require some rule like Nareed's "pairs are wild", implying that trips are not wild, or something equally bizarre.





BTW, that's five posts for 8/5. See how easy it is to maintain/exceed that daily rate in a thread?    ;-)

State: South Dakota
City: Flandreau
Casino: Royal River

Today's chip of the day comes from the Royal River casino in Flandreau, SD. Now, before anyone else goes and makes a mistake that I may or may not have made, that is FLAN-droo like Andrew, but with an "fl" on the front. There's none of that fancy Frenchy stuff in South Dakota. The Royal River has a 17,000 sqft gaming floor with 350 machines and 11 tables. The casino is about half way between Brookings and Sioux Falls, directly west of Pipestone, MN. Both Brookings and Sioux Falls are college towns (and Sioux Falls has a permanent population of about 160,000) and this is among the closest casinos to both towns. It was very busy when I visited.

Royal River and Dakota Sioux are only about 80 miles apart, but I visited them as parts of separate trips. Royal River was the northernmost casino that I visited on a trip based in Omaha. I visited the casino in the late evening of July 1, 2011 after a pretty long day of driving and walking in and around flooded areas. I was hoping to relax and unwind in a small rural casino, but it was NOT a quiet and relaxing atmosphere at Royal River (it WAS Friday night). I collected my chip by playing BJ. There were a bunch of guys at the table when I sat down I'm not sure if they were doing a bit, or if they were just the type, but they sounded a lot like the guys in this "song" by Adam Sandler. It started out amusing, but got old very quickly. I was happy to leave after a couple shoes and retreat to the hotel for the night. I don't have a record of my session result, but the difference between the sum of my other results on the trip and the total trip result is 0. So it seems likely that the session result was $0.

The casino is pretty much just a big box, and looks the part inside and out. But the entrance is interesting:



My Royal River chip is a Chipco product. It has a satin finish, and an intentional white circle around the edge. There is minimal additional wear.

Flandreau? Brookings? Pipestone?

At least I've heard of Omaha and Sioux Falls.     :-)

Quote: Doc

Flandreau? Brookings? Pipestone?

At least I've heard of Omaha and Sioux Falls.     :-)

Sounds like you are getting ichy feet Doc ;-)

LOL! I think a visit to Cherokee tomorrow night will ease my casino urges until I can make it to the Maryland and Atlantic City joints later this month.

Quote: Doc

At least I've heard of Omaha and Sioux Falls.     :-)

I've heard of Sioux City and South Sioux City. One is in Iowa and one in Nebraska, but right now I can't recall which is which.

Quote: Doc

Flandreau? Brookings? Pipestone?

At least I've heard of Omaha and Sioux Falls.     :-)

Hey now! There's a pretty good land-grant university in Brookings! Also, lots of fireworks stores who don't mind selling any/everything to 16 year old Minnesotans:-)

I was just confessing to having an abundance of ignorance about that part of our country. I have never been to Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, or Oregon. That's a huge swath of territory. I think I've at least passed through each of the other 41 states, but those nine are completely foreign to me.

I mentioned that I will be at Harrah's Cherokee tomorrow night and then MD and NJ places later this month. After that, my next casino visit will be when we get to the Reno/Sparks/Tahoe area in September. I just got a note from our old friend TIMSPEED suggesting the possibility of meeting up during that trip. Hope we can work that out -- should be a blast.

Would love to roll some dice with Doc for cheap cheap at Western Village. $1 craps!

State: Ohio
City: Toledo
Casino: Hollywood

Today's chip of the day comes from the Hollywood casino in Toledo, OH. Hollywood opened on Memorial Day weekend last year. The casino has 2000 machines and 80 tables on its 125,000 sqft gaming floor. It has the usual Hollywood theme, the usual Hollywood sub-par games, and the usual Hollywood customer service. It's almost depressing how Hollywood(s) can be both well-themed and soulless at the same time.

Here's a picture of the property:



I visited Hollywood when I drove my car from MN to PA when I moved last summer. I was almost a full day behind schedule by the time that I got to Hollywood, so I didn't look around much or spend any significant time at the property. I arrived at around 11pm, and I was out by about midnight. I collected my chip by playing BJ. I won $15 during my session.

My chip from Hollywood is a Paulson H&C RHC. The casino had only been open for a couple months when I grabbed my chip, and it's in very good shape. This is one of the very most perfect Paulsons in my collection.

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