rdw4potus
Posted by rdw4potus
Dec 10, 2011

Mike Ditka, Tim Tebow, and idiot travelers

I flew from Minneapolis to Saint Louis and back today, connecting through O'Hare. I was in Saint Louis for about 3 hours, and visited Harrah's and Ameristar. I took the trip because I needed 4 more segments to cross the next frequent flier threshold on United, and because the value of my December offers ($175) was more than the cost of the flight ($116 + fees, about $140). As it turned out, I had really awful luck and only got $115 out of the $175 in free play. Oh, well. At least I also got a story or two out of the trip:

1. I ran into Mike Ditka at O'Hare on the way to Saint Louis. For the most part people left him alone. Except for one guy who went for a little Bill Swerski schtick and said "hey, Coach. Tim Tebow or da Bears, who wins?" To which Ditka simply raised his bottled water and responded "da Bears!"

2. I'm a big fan of Notalwaysright.com. I might submit this one, though I'm not sure they take submissions from other customers. I'm particular about my seats on airplanes. I'm 6'4 and my legs are long for my height, so I usually try to get an aisle seat either in the exit row or in the first row of coach. All that really matters here is that I know damn well what my seat is...

I'm flying on an airbus A320 from MSP to ORD. Coach seats are arranged ABC/aisle/DEF, and my seat is 7C. I've boarded the plane and sat down, as has the passenger in 7A. A woman walks up and says "Sir, you're in my seat." I say "no, I'm not." She says "That's my seat!" I say "7C?" She says "7B!" I say "that's the middle seat." She says "but I prefer the aisle." I say "so do I, and this is my seat." She says "you're in my seat!" I say "7c??" She says "no, 7B!!" I say, "that's not this seat. That's the middle seat. Your seat is the middle seat." She says "but I prefer the aisle..."

It was a lot like this exchange from the Kentucky Fried Movie:
The Architect: What are you saying?
The Nurse: Leave her... come back to Montana with me.
The Architect: I could no sooner run away from her than myself.
The Nurse: I'm not asking you to run, I'm asking you to face reality!
The Architect: Whose reality, yours or mine?
The Nurse: My reality AND yours, that's whose!
The Architect: What are you saying?
The Nurse: Leave her! Come back to Montana with me!
The Architect: I could no sooner run away from her than myself!
The Nurse: I'm not asking you to run, I'm asking you to face reality!
The Architect: Whose reality, yours or mine?
The Nurse: My reality AND yours, that's whose!
The Architect: What are you saying?

Comments

progrocker
progrocker Dec 10, 2011

An American woman displaying her sense of entitlement for all to see. Always love that. How'd it end up?

Nareed
Nareed Dec 11, 2011

Not always tight will take customer quotes, just specify the roles involved.

rdw4potus
Posted by rdw4potus
Oct 13, 2011

Tour De Harrah's, part two

I never did hear back from Caesars Entertainment about my plan to visit all of their properties in calendar year 2011. I can't help but notice that my plan was very similar to the Great Race to Total Rewards promotion that they ran. At any rate, I managed to visit every single CET property in North America between 7/23/11 and 10/2/11. I even have the (linked) crappy cellphone pictures to prove it.

Kansas City:
Visited: 7/23/11
Harrah's North Kansas City

Council Bluffs:
Visited: 7/24/11
Harrah's
Horseshoe' rel='nofollow' target='_blank'>http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee403/rdweber/HorseshoeCouncilBluffs.jpg]Horseshoe

Harrah's Council Bluffs is very proud of their fitness center...


Hammond, IN:
Visited: 8/7/11
Hammond' rel='nofollow' target='_blank'>http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/paul_blart_mall_cop/pictures/#5]Hammond Horseshoe

Joliet:
Visited: 8/7/11
Harrah's Joliet

Southern Indiana:
Visited: 8/8/11
' rel='nofollow' target='_blank'>http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee403/rdweber/HorseshoeSouthernIndiana.jpg] Horseshoe Southern Indiana

Saint Louis:
Visited: 8/20/11
Harrah's Saint Louis

Metropolis:
Visited: 8/20/11
Harrah's Metropolis

Leaping tall buildings is easy when you're 14 feet tall.

Phoenix:
Visited: 8/31/11
Harrah's Phoenix Ak-Chin

San Diego:
Visited: 9/2/11
Harrah's Rincon San Diego

Someone tried very hard to keep me from getting from San Diego back to Vegas. This fire closed I-15, so I had to take I-10. I blame Fantasy Springs.

Vegas:
Visited: 9/1/11
Caesars Palace
Planet Hollywood
Rio
Harrah's
Paris
Imperial Palace
Flamingo
Bally's
Bill's
O'Shea's

Laughlin:
Visited: 9/2/11
Harrah's Laughlin

Chester:
Visited: 9/4/11
Harrah's Chester

AC:
Visited: 9/4/11
Harrah's
Caesars Palace
Showboat
Bally's
Wild Wild West

Windsor:
Visited: 9/5/11
Caesars' rel='nofollow' target='_blank'>http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee403/rdweber/CaesarsWindsor1.jpg]Caesars Windsor

This was my view for most of the crossing of Lake Michigan on the way from Detroit to O'Hare.

Cherokee, NC:
Visited: 9/10/11
Harrah's Cherokee

Tahoe:
Visited: 9/18/11
Harrah's Lake Tahoe
Harvey's Lake Tahoe

Reno
Visited: 9/19/11
Harrah's Reno

New Orleans:
Visited: 9/29/11
Harrah's New Orleans

Bossier:
Visited: 9/29/11
Harrah's Louisiana Downs
Horseshoe' rel='nofollow' target='_blank'>http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee403/rdweber/BossierHorseshoe.jpg]Horseshoe Bossier City

Tunica:
Visited: 9/30/11
Harrah's
Horseshoe' rel='nofollow' target='_blank'>http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee403/rdweber/TunicaHorseshoe.jpg]Horseshoe
Roadhouse' rel='nofollow' target='_blank'>http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee403/rdweber/roadhouse.jpg]Roadhouse

Biloxi:
Visited: 10/2/11
Grand' rel='nofollow' target='_blank'>http://i1226.photobucket.com/albums/ee403/rdweber/Grand.jpg]Grand Biloxi

At first, I was trying to put myself in the pictures, and made a point to always wear the same shirt. Then Hammond Horseshoe threw me out for taking pictures, and Harrah's Joliet wouldn't let me do anything either. I couldn't find anywhere worth photographing at Hammond as I was leaving, but I did take one protest pic on the roof of the garage at Joliet. So I more-or-less abandoned that and just took pictures of the properties from there forward.

Some of the travel was more intense than I'd anticipated during this event. I went from Phoenix to Vegas to San Diego to Laughlin to Vegas to Philly to AC to Windsor in one 5 day period. I was almost strip searched by the Canadians at the tunnel crossing in Detroit. It did *not* help when I said "yeah, I'm just going to Caesars. But I was in AC yesterday, and Vegas the day before that, and San Diego before that." Later, I went from New Orleans to Bossier to Tunica to Biloxi to New Orleans in 4 days.

Comments

dm
dm Oct 14, 2011

So, H Horseshoe is NOT very proud of their facility. So dumb - they spent more effort throwing you out than just taking the picture for you as you desired without showing any other customers in it. That's the only valid reason to forbid it. Guess they just hadn't pissed enough people off that day.

rdw4potus
rdw4potus Oct 14, 2011

I guess so, DM. I was trying to take a picture by the water feature at the entrance to the high-limit area, because it's the only distinctive part of the casino. Security pretty much lost it on me. If my camera wasn't also my phone, I think they'd have confiscated the camera.

Tiltpoul
Tiltpoul Oct 14, 2011

Great visit there! I have stayed at Harrah's Council Bluffs NUMEROUS times, and never once noticed the Fitness Center thing twice on the elevator. I'm trying to remember if they had a pool at one point, but I don't recall that they ever did. (Harrah's NKC DID, but closed it shortly after I moved to Kansas City).



I'm not surprised about the picture thing at Joliet, since Illinois gaming law is really strange anyways... I am surprised by Hammond though. Usually, Horseshoes are pretty cool, and I've taken pictures at HSI and never been confronted... maybe they just didn't catch me.



I do laugh at the Canada comment too. When I crossed (before you needed a passport), I said I was going to Casino Windsor. They were very inquisitive as to why I would want to go there instead of staying in America. I said I just wanted to see what it was like. Ironically, getting back to America took a while, but really didn't get questioned at all.

Ayecarumba
Ayecarumba Oct 14, 2011

Wow. True dedication to the pursuit.



I'm curious, what properties you would rate at the top, and which would you put at the bottom?

rdw4potus
rdw4potus Oct 14, 2011

I would say that the Caesars properties really were the nicest properties. Harrah's Rincon, Harrah's North KC, Bally's AC (bally's tower only), and Harrah's New Orleans were very nice properties and still gave me free rooms. I thought the Lake Tahoe properties didn't live up to their hype, thought they were still above average. I wish I'd stayed at Harrah's Cherokee. The casino was nice, but the hotel looked outstanding. I was least impressed with the Grand Biloxi, Harrah's Joliet, and Tunica Roadhouse. Roadhouse has what I assume is a fake wood smell that is overpowering.



I was struck by the difference in Diamond Lounges across the properties. I didn't stop in to all of the lounges, because it didn't work with the time of my visit in some cases. Still, it was odd that some lounges served a full meal, while others offered only finger foods even at dinner time.

bigfoot66
bigfoot66 Oct 15, 2011

It's funny that the fire on the 15 changed your plans to get from SoCal to Vegas, that same shut down made me take the 10 to get home from my Tour De Harrah's. I went from SoCal to Ak-Chin, to Laughlin, and then the fire rerouted me on the way home.

rdw4potus
Posted by rdw4potus
Aug 15, 2011

Rivers Casino review (Des Plaines, IL)

I spent Sunday 8/7 in the Chicago area, and I was at the newly-opened Rivers Casino for about 4 hours during the afternoon.

Rivers is very conveniently located in Des Plaines, IL. The casino is approximately 5 miles from O'Hare International Airport. It is very close to the Hyatt, Westin, and Marriott Suites hotels on River Road. If you've ever had a flight cancelled at O'Hare, the odds are pretty good that you've stayed at one of those hotels. The casino itself does not have a shuttle to the airport, but it would be very easy to hop on the Hyatt or Westin shuttle and walk the 2 or 3 blocks (respectively) to the casino.

The Rivers Casino has 1050 slots and 48 table games spread out over 43,000 square feet. Unlike most other Chicagoland casinos, the Rivers' machines are in clusters and not rows. I think that will be very nice long-term. There are many more end machines, and it seems that very few people actually want to play mid-row. In the short term, this poses some major traffic flow issues. I would estimate that there were maybe 2000 people at the casino while I was there. With fewer than 1300 seats, there were very many people standing around and the choke points that come with clusters of slots were painfully difficult to navigate.

I had a rental car for the day, since I was also visiting Hammond Horseshoe and Harrah's Joliet on my quest to visit every Caesars' Entertainment property in North America before October 3rd. So I parked my car in the garage at Rivers. The garage structure may have been the highlight of my trip. It was logically laid out, and easy to navigate. Those were rare and appreciated in and of themselves, but the garage also had maybe the coolest feature I've ever seen: parking spot availability lights. Above each parking stall, there is a sensor that determines if the stall is occupied. If it is, the light is red. If the stall is empty, the light is green. So, it's easy to see from the head of a row (or across the lot) whether there are any open spots in the area. I really don't know why more covered lots don't use this system. It made parking about 1000% easier than it was in Hammond or Joliet.

The table games at Rivers featured high limits and comfy chairs. BJ was $15/$25/$50/$100 on the floor, and all seats were taken. In fact, the only open seat I could find at any card-based table game was at a $10 Mississippi Stud table. There was a very nice craps/roulette pit. Craps mins were $10/$15/$20, Roulette mins looked to be $10. Those limits all struck me as high for a sunday afternoon. Slots were mostly of the multi-denom video variety. VP looked to top out at 8/5 JOB. I can't believe they wouldn't have a better game, but of the terminals that I managed to sit at that was the best I could find at any denomination. The player card information area on the machines includes a little TV video screen. There were a few places where the actual TVs were hard to see, so I could see how this would be nice on gameday.

Rivers has several dining options. All of the food at Rivers is laughably expensive. The Buffet bills itself as a bargain at "only" $20 for lunch and $26 for dinner. The burger place, Flipt, runs $10-$20 for a meal. The steakhouse, Hugo Frogs, runs $20-$80. Even the coffee shop is overpriced. I ate at Flipt and at the coffee shop. Flipt cost about $18 for a burger, onion rings, and a soda. The food was very good, but that's about double what it was worth. At the coffee shop, I ordered a fruit tart and a soda. the kid at the counter looked at me and said apologetically "the fruit tart is $6." He didn't move to get it. I had to say "I do want one. That's ok. I mean, that's CRAZY, but whatever, you know?" before he would go get one for me. The total for 1 fruit tart and one soda was $10.50 after tax. Holy. Crap.

I played MS stud for about 2.5 hours during my visit. At a $10 ante, I figure my average bet was about $25. I had amazing luck, and finished up $500. The value of my comps for that 150 minutes of play was about $3. The dealers at the table were excellent. Maybe a little green, but hardworking and good. Sadly, the floorpeople were both incompetent and uppity. One tool in particular berated the dealers so badly that I thought the girl at the next table was going to cry. For a very nice casino, that was just so far out of place that I'm not even sure what to say about it.

Note: Usually when I know I'll be writing a review like this, I bring a little pad and take notes. That way, I get the info right for games that i don't play myself. Unfortunately, the hyper-vigilent security folks at Rivers decided to thwart my effort to write a thorough and positive review and confiscated my notepad. Hopefully I'm mostly right on the slot and craps/roulette info...

Comments

Gabes22
Gabes22 Aug 17, 2011

Thanks for reviewing that place. I live about 20 minutes from there and haven't gotten the chance to go there. I have been to other Hugo's Frog Bar establishments in the area. There is one in the triangle area on Rush Street, and one in Naperville that I know of. I know they have a partnership with Gibson's and serve Gibson's steaks, which is never a bad thing.



I think that is a great location for a Chicago area casino, although Rosemont may have been better where you have the convention center and Rosemont Theatre, but defintely a place I have been wanting to visit since it opened, although I will probably wait until the novelty wears off a bit and they get their act together a little more.

rdw4potus
Posted by rdw4potus
Jul 06, 2011

IA/SD trip review

I was going to write a full trip report to document my recent trip to IA and SD, but honestly nothing much happened.

I visited:
Ameristar, Horseshoe, and Harrah's in Council Bluffs, IA. The water was very high, but they were open and operating.

Argosy in Sioux City. As you can see, the water was a little high there. I was told to stop taking pictures as I walked toward the facility, so I didn't get one of the inside of the ramp. They've fashioned a runner and stairs and laid them down inside the walkway from the boat to shore. Also, the ramp going down into the water is labeled "employee entrance."


I tried to visit Casino Omaha and Winnevegas on the way from Council Bluffs to Sioux Falls. They were both closed and flooded. Here is a picture of some other would-be Winnevegas patrons. The half-covered building in the background is the casino...


I visited and was impressed by the new Grand Falls resort just outside of Sioux Falls. It was smaller than expected, but very well done.

Emmetsburg, IA is home to the Wild Rose Casino, and to some of the nicest people I've ever met anywhere. The security guard said "hey! nice to see you today." and shook my hand. The cashier took time to find me a "nice" $20 when I cashed out. Coming off a trip to Vegas the week before, it was like being in the twilight zone.

I also visited Royal River in SD, the Isle of Capri near Waterloo, Riverside Casino, Meskwaki Casino, and Terribles Lakeside and Prairie Meadows near Des Moines. They were some of the most unremarkable casinos I've ever seen. Terribles has a Texas Shootout table. Prairie Meadows has very low ceilings and is quite smokey. I was stuck in Prairie Meadows for about 2 hours while a storm blew through. I think that is the first time I've been forced to stay in a casino against my will.

Comments

Tiltpoul
Tiltpoul Jul 06, 2011

I just commented on your KC trip, but my mother and family are from the Omaha/Iowa area, so I have been to those casinos many times.



Harrah's is probably an underrated casino. They have the hotel, and realistically, that's the only reason they keep that license going. Horseshoe took most of that traffic... when it was Bluff's Run (still owned by Harrah's), they didn't have table games. Now that they do, Harrah's is secondary. However, in attempting to steal people from slightly closer and more convenient Ameristar, they offer some FANTASTIC promotions, like all-you-can-eat pancakes for 3.99!! And they are flippin' good pancakes. The Pai Gow Poker games at both Harrah's and the Shoe have some of the most favorable rules (bank every other time heads up, envy bonuses if you play other people's bonus hands). However, Harrah's has smaller action so you can easily bank even with three people playing. Harrah's is less snooty too... the dealers there have the party personality, and they will be the first to admit that they like dealing at Harrah's more than the Shoe, even though tokes are probably much higher at Horseshoe.



As stated in the MO post, my mom is exclusively an Ameristar player. They have the nicest pavillion around, and the buffet is quite good. The gaming options at Ameristar are varied, and they usually have the next big game before ANYBODY (see EZ Paigow, Texas Shootout, Four Card Poker... they all got their start at Ameristar CB). My mother said that the water is so high right now that they had to bulid an expensive ramp to get on the boat. Any higher and they may actually have to shut down. My complaint about Ameristar is the low, very low ceilings on the third deck where the PokerPro tables are. The rake is a bit high on the table as well, although not as high as Horseshoe.



You didn't miss anything by not going to CasinOmaha. My grandma lived about 5 miles away in Onawa. If they still have the 6 tables there, they were rarely open. The gas station used to have ultra-cheap gas though. WinnaVegas will always have a special place in my heart, as it was an 18+ casino, so it was the first place I ever played. My grandma and I used to play BJ and Spanish 21 there. It's probably one of the few casinos where dealers box there own tips. That was really special, as most the dealers knew my grandma by name. I went up once after she died, and the dealer remembered me and asked where my grandma had been. He was genuinely sad to learn she had died three years earlier. Nice people in a dump of a casino...



Thanks for the post.

teddys
teddys Jul 07, 2011

I believe CasinOmaha is closed.



I liked Riverside. Did you see that weird fountain show in the center? You're right about Meskwaki -- very blah.

rdw4potus
rdw4potus Jul 07, 2011

Casino Omaha closed in November, reopened in February (if I'm reading the varied and vague internet postings correctly) and is now hopelessly underwater. There's a great news story where a guy from WinneVegas was mocking the Casino Omaha folks for being ill-prepared and having to close in early June. WinneVegas closed a week later when the county closed the road in my pic above. A week after that, the water had breached the temporary barriers at WinneVegas and reached the casino itself. I guess it's true what they say about Karma...

rdw4potus
Posted by rdw4potus
May 24, 2011

Juuuust sit right back... (MN/SD trip report)

...and I'll tell a tale. A tale of a fateful trip...a 3 hour tour...a 3 hour tour.

Casinos visited: Prairie's Edge, Granite Falls, MN; Dakota Magic, Hankinson, ND; Dakota Sioux Casino, Watertown, SD

I was bored on Sunday, and decided to visit some casinos. I ran down to Treasure Island (MN) and Mystic Lake to cash out some free play. I did very well, and netted $250. Flush with my newfound cash, and bored sitting around at Mystic Lake, I decided to drive out to Prairie's Edge. It's about 100 miles from Mystic to Prairie's Edge, and the drive would have taken 3 hours round trip if I'd stuck to that plan (hence the references above). The casino is small and rural, but relatively nice. I'd put it a half-notch above Jackpot Junction, which is larger and ever-so-slightly more urban (in a city of 6,000 instead of a city of 3,000) and about 30 miles away. I made a trip out to Jackpot a couple months ago, but didn't include Prairie's edge in that trip, so this was my first visit to the property. I arrived at about 3pm. It was very dead. Very Very dead. I was one of 3 table games players in the entire casino, and only one BJ table was open. There were also felts for 3 card poker and Phil-em-up poker, but only BJ was open. Prairie's Edge has what I think is the best BJ game currently offered in MN: 4 decks, hand shuffled and 85% penetrated, DAS, RSA, S17 (only S17 table I've seen in MN), .28% HE. I think I still prefer the game in the high-limit room at Mystic Lake (H17, but late surrender, and unlimited free food, other rules the same), but this was a very good game - especially in an area with no competition. The dealer was great. She's going to see McCartney in Vegas, and more than just a little excited. The other players and I chatted with her about Beatles trivia the whole time we played. I wound down my session at about 4:30, and didn't feel like driving home yet. I decided to head to SD to visit the Dakota Sioux casino in Watertown.

It took a little longer than I'd hoped to get from Granite Falls to Watertown, and I arrived at about 6pm. The casino was extremely nice. Freakishly nice. Out-of-place nice. I joined the players club, got $5, lost $5, and went to find the table games. Similar to Prairie's Edge, options were limited. Only two tables were open: 1 BJ table, and 1 Silverado Stud table. I'm a sucker for new games, so I picked Silverado Stud. It's like 4 card poker, 3 card poker, and mississippi stud rolled into one game. At first, I felt like I was in that How I Met Your Mother episode where Barney is playing that utterly insane game with the Chinese guys in AC. When I got the hang of the game, it was fun. I still think the HE is probably closer to that of MS Stud than it is to UTH or the more favorable poker based games. I won't butcher all of the rules here, but the basic idea is that the player receives 4 cards, and discards one. Then the 3 card hand is added to the 2 community cards to create a 5 card poker hand. The discard is added to the 2 community cards and paid according to a separate paytable. I'd imagine that the strategy would be fairly complex, where keeping two high cards together would be better than keeping a small pair (like MS stud, only high pairs pay). After about 45 minutes, I decided I'd had enough and colored up. I thought I was down, but I'd actually won $20. Rather than drive south back to US 212, I decided to drive north and go home on US 12.

But, then on the way to US 12, I realized that it was only a little farther to get to the casino in Hankinson ND. It was just so unlikely that I'd ever return to that particular part of the middle of nowhere, it seemed like a real shame that I'd fail to visit that casino. So I continued north up I-29 to Hankinson. I arrived at around 8 PM. The Dakota Magic casino in Hankinson was bigger than the other two casinos that I'd visited, but slightly dirtier. Not badly so, just not spotless like the others. The table games at DM were much more crowded than at the other properties. There was craps in addition to BJ (different than MN and SD), but the craps and BJ tables were packed. After looking around for a bit, I found a seat at a Phil-em-up table. That game is also very odd - like MS Stud and pai gow poker in one game. It's played with 53 cards, including 1 partially wild joker. Each player receives 2 cards, and 3 community cards are dealt. After 2 of the community cards are exposed, the player has the option to double down on his bet. Wins are paid out according to a paytable similar to the one used in MS stud. There's also a somewhat compulsory side bet that is similar to the pair plus bet in 3 card poker that pays based on the value of the community cards. I asked if that bet was required, and I was told no, but then the same dealer stopped play so I could "make that neccessary bet." Right before I was about to leave, the board hit a natural 3 card straight flush, and I completed the 5 card version with the joker and jack of spades. I was about even before that, and won about $180 total on that hand. I plplayed 3 more hands, and tried to play a bet for the dealer. I didn't win anything the rest of the way out, so I just tipped the whites that were left over when I colored up ($3 table...) It was about 9:30 PM when I walked out the door.

This is where the problem part of the evening started. Hankinson is about 250 miles from home, and I had to work on Monday morning. The farther I drove, the more tired I got. The more I stopped, the later it got, and the more tired I got. I had to keep stopping along the way to walk around and re-caffeinate, but it's like I got addicted to it and needed to do it more and more often. By the time I reached the north suburbs, I really didn't think I could stay awake to drive to my house in Saint Paul. I seriously almost rented a hotel room 30 miles from home. I finally made it home at about 2:30.

Summary: These were all much better casinos than I'd expected. Prairie's edge has an associated gas station that is in a separate building. The non-smoking casino is in the same building as the gas station (it's separately licensed). If I played slots and/or if VP in Minnesota wasn't laughably bad, I'd have really loved this feature. The poker variants (Silverado Stud and Phil-em-up poker) were very fun, but confusing. Based on table performance (and the math of others on here) I think they also have highish house edges. I'll probably return to Prairie's Edge for the BJ, but I doubt I'll ever make it out to the other casinos again. Unless I'm already in Granite Falls and bored...ahhhh, crap...