smoothgrh's Blog

Black Oak Casino 2010

I was going through my earliest sent emails and came across this one to my friend on June 25, 2010. Apparently, I was getting ready to write trip reports for wizardofvegas.com, and practiced by writing one for my friend. Thankfully, I tend to write them more concisely now, because this is even more information than I care to remember (some personal info is altered):

My family's latest Casino Adventures took us into the heart of California's Gold Country on a visit to Black Oak Casino. (By the way, it took me 3 sessions to write this!)

Location
It's an easy, less-than-3-hour drive from the South Bay to Tuolumne City that takes you through towns such as Manteca (home of the drive-thru Panda Express), Escalon, and Oakdale. Once you're there, you're less than 15 minutes away from other High Sierra vacation towns, such as Sonora and Twain Harte. You're also close to attractions such as the Railtown 1897 state park in Jamestown, and the Gold Rush boomtown in Columbia.

Parking
It's easy going from the main road into the parking garage. On Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon, we were able to find spaces close to the "Skywalk" entrance.

Smoke-free casino
The entrance to the casino from the garage is the smoke-free "Skywalk" casino, though a faint smell of cigarette smoke is apparent upon entrance. The casino claims to have the largest smoke-free casino area in California, and while it's larger than Red Hawk Casino's smoke-free area, it's still a relatively small casino space.

An IGT Triple Towers Virtual Horse Racing machine (a high-tech version of the old Sigma Derby horse racing game) is here. There's a bank of 4 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade machines, and 4 Star Wars machines (2 Duel at Mustafar machines, and 2 Jabba's Palace machines).

The Poker Room used to be located in this area, but the poker tables have been moved to the main floor and replaced by regular slots.

There are no table games in the smoke-free area, but there is an espresso bar and sandwich shop.

Floor space
Overall, this casino is relatively small. It has about 1,050 gaming machines, which makes it comparable to River Rock Casino (with 1,300). It's slightly smaller than Tachi Palace. The machines are spaced out enough so that it doesn't feel crowded when walking through the aisles. The casino is all on one main level (the second floor).

Family center
Downstairs, on the first floor, is the 24-lane bowling center, arcade, Kingpins "fast food" restaurant, and The Mill, which is a sports bar restaurant. Everything is very clean and new.

The bowling center has electronic scoring, lockers, and a pro shop. The lanes are PBA-certified, but are very oily, which would be expected of a kid-friendly place. They have automatic gutter rails that raise and lower based on bowler preferences. While we were bowling, a server came by to check if we would like to order food. Bowling costs $2.50/game during the daytime on weekdays. Shoe rental is $2.50 for adults, $1 for kids. I actually bought a nice pair of Etonic bowling shoes for $31 at the pro shop to replace my worn-out ones. There is no sales tax. The pro shop guy says the pro shop and bowling center is owned by the casino, and he also says the center is the only one in the area, now that the other family-run center closed recently after operating for 50 years. He says it closed due to "mismanagement."

The arcade is relatively small, with half video games and half redemption games that operate on tokens. There are no "bonus" tokens when you buy-in using larger denominations of bills. However, Fridays are "double ticket" days, so whatever number of tickets you win on a Friday are doubled (you must use the tickets the same day you win them). The "popcorn" redemption game spits out noticeably fewer ping pong balls than the one at Harrah's South Lake Tahoe.
There is a Deal or No Deal game, which can either be 4 tokens (for a maximum win of 200 tickets), or 8 tokens (max 400 tickets). The kid hit the "Deal" button (against our wishes) when we were offered 38 tickets with 3 cases left, and we had the 200-ticket case!

I noticed some games seem to give different amounts of tickets than what's posted. The "popcorn" game gave out 2 tickets when it was supposed to only give 1, which is good because it was really difficult to catch enough ping pong balls to make it to the next ticket tier. Also, in the "drop a ball" game, we were lucky enough to have the ball land in the 50-ticket hole, but the machine gave us 100 tickets!

The arcade has older games, including House of the Dead, Star Wars Trilogy, Big Game Hunter, etc. The newest game was Fast and the Furious. There was a couple basketball-shooting games, and a football-throwing game. There were no "classic" video games, and there were no pinball machines.

I didn't go into the Kingpins restaurant, but they apparently have burger/hot dog/pizza items on the menu. The Mill is a very nice-looking restaurant and bar, but appeared empty on Friday afternoon. The Mrs. said there was a pork chop entree for about $8.

There are bathrooms on both ends of the floor, one near the arcade, and one on the far end of the bowling center. There is a changing table in the men's room, and the Mrs. reports the women's bathroom includes a nursing room.


Blackjack

The Mrs. reports the blackjack having a $10 minimum on Friday that pays 3-2 on blackjacks, with tables using a continuous shuffler machine. She won $105 in only 5 minutes on Friday, but gave back $20 on Sunday.

Slots
There's a mix of newer and older slots. Indiana Jones costs 40 cents minimum to play, with 40-cent increments up to 200. Star Wars costs 75 cents to play, with 50-cent increments. I played eBay slots (50 cents minimum, with 50-cent increments), alternating between 50 cents and $1. I put in $20, and was down nearly to $10 when the "community bonus" hit. Unfortunately, I had played only 50 cents, and the bonus was 1200 credits ($12), otherwise I would have won $24 had I played $1 when the bonus hit. I finished up $2.35.

Video poker
I looked at a couple video poker machines in the smoke-free area: they accepted 25 cents, 50 cents or $1 per credit, and paid "8-5" on 25-cent Jacks or Better games, which has 97.2% payback. Better than most Indian Casinos, which offer pathetic "7-5" pay tables, but also not close to "9-6" pay tables at bigger Reno casinos. Remember, you have to play 5 credits to get full payment on a royal flush.

Poker
The casino does not offer live dealers in their poker games, but rather electronic Poker Pro tables, which are common now on cruise ships and at the Excalibur in Las Vegas. On Thursdays and Sundays, they offer a $10 tournament (that's right, $10!) with unlimited re-buys in the first hour. When I was there on Sunday, there were about 16 players. The poker host said they usually offer no-limit hold'em games with either $1/$1 blinds or $1/$2 blinds, which seems unusual, but I suppose it's partly due to the fast nature of the electronically dealt game. The rake is relatively good: $1/hand for 4 players; $2 for 5-6 players; and $3 for 7 or more players when a flop is dealt. But again, hands are dealt more frequently.

Restaurants
The coffee shop (open 24 hours only on weekends) and the buffet are in the same restaurant space (just like River Rock Casino). There was no waiting for Sunday Champagne Brunch ($14.99) on Father's Day. Because I had a huge breakfast, I opted not to get the buffet, but the Mrs. did.

I ordered a chile relleno chicken sandwich ($6.77) from their special $7.77 or less menu. The sandwich was very disappointing when I ate the first half. I was out on the casino floor for about 15-20 minutes, and when I returned to the table, the sandwich still hadn't arrived. It took some time after I returned before it was brought to my table. I'm wondering if the waitress decided not to bring it to the table until I returned, and then just didn't see me until about 5-10 minutes after I returned.

Anyway, I had read a Yelp review that described the food as "tasteless," and that very well described my sandwich. It seemed loaded with ingredients, but did not taste a mix of flavors. I even pulled out a piece of bacon, and did not taste much bacon flavor individually! Part of the problem was probably that the sandwich was sitting, and had gotten cold. (Which led me to my waitress-waiting-for-me-to-return hypothesis.) I even thought there was no chile relleno in it, just diced chiles.

It turned out, when I got home and microwaved the second half of the sandwich, it was immensely better. I could taste the flavor of everything! The chicken tasted grilled again, I could taste the salty bacon flavor, and I could taste the cheese and chile relleno complementing each other. Yes, the chile relleno was there all along! The flavor of the rustic artisan bread also came through when warmed up and moistened. One thing that did not work on the sandwich was the alfalfa sprouts. I picked them out. Avocado would have worked much better.

I sampled some of her buffet food. The prime rib was satisfactory: moist, though not particularly flavorful. The orange chicken nuggets were pretty good. I finished her mimosa, and that was very tasty. She loved the two desserts she picked: yellow cake with strawberry filling, and a chocolate marble cake. I like the yellow cake more (fresh cream, sweet but not overly sweet filling), but thought the chocolate marble was a little on the dry side.

The meal did not have sales tax, and you pay at the front. Earlier, two waitresses (one of whom was Asian) walked by and stopped to gush at the baby. My guess is they don't see too many Asian babies there. The clientele seems to be 90% caucasian.

Players Club
There's the obligatory Players Club, but I wasn't planning on wagering for a long time, so I didn't sign up. The line was huge on Sunday morning, for some reason.

Summary
It's a fun little casino, though I probably wouldn't spend too much time here gambling aside from the cheap poker tournament (the likes of which I love). It's a great place to bring the kids for a few hours. The atmosphere is nice, and I'm willing to give the other restaurants a try. I would definitely come back if I'm sightseeing in the area. The area is beautiful - very woodsy - and there are lot of fun places, including Pinecrest Lake, about 30-40 minutes north of here.

Next stop: Twin Pine Casino near Middletown. (I just hope a DeLorean doesn't run over one of the pines back in the 1950s.)

Nov 1996: Fourth Vegas Visit

I was enjoying Las Vegas so much in 1996 that I went a third time — my last visit of the year was during Thanksgiving week.

This trip was unusual because my memory of it has a lot of gaps. I don’t even remember where I stayed!

I do remember some key details, though. The Thanksgiving timeframe was very specific because I met my parents at their Hacienda Resort hotel room at one point. Somehow, they booked their trip for the same timeframe as me, but I didn’t know about their plans — we took different flights.

I went to the hotel and was aghast at how trashy and outdated (and not in a good way) it looked. It was also overrun by high school-age basketball players. I distinctly remember thinking it must have been a tournament week. I put two-and-two together and realized the room rates must have been extremely cheap for traveling kids and my parents to decide to stay there. I later learned the hotel closed on December 1, so my parents were there literally on the resort’s final week. The Hacienda was imploded on Dec. 31, 1996 and replaced by the Mandalay Bay.

Another detail was that I was Vegas with my high school friend and her husband. However, we weren’t constantly together like when I was with my college friends. One thing we did together was see a dinner show at the Rio Casino. I knew about the San Francisco Chinatown dinner shows in the 1950s, and had always wanted to experience that. This show was what I expected — lots of singing and dancing, including performers dressed like forks and spoons who sang, danced, and brought out my salad. It was like a real-life “Be Our Guest” number from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.



I don’t have any memorabilia from this trip (that I can find), but thanks to an eBay search result, the show was called “¡Conga! A Dining Show Adventure” — maybe I’ll buy the postcard being sold. My friend says she also doesn’t remember anything from the trip except the dinner show. I do remember leaving Vegas before them, and telling them that renting a car was extremely cheap, like $30/day, and they confirmed afterward that I was correct.

I’m not sure if my friends stayed at Excalibur, but I do remember being near the hotel elevators and seeing a Sigma Derby machine with the playfield depicting jousting horses instead of a traditional horse race.

One other thing that I don’t remember from 1996 is playing video poker. Now that I’m in the video poker/video slots collectors’ community, I’m trying to find any information about machines from this era. I really didn’t pay any attention to video poker back then, but now I find this period of machines (going from coin-droppers to bill acceptors) fascinating.

A lot has changed in my life in the 25 years since I made these glorious trips to Las Vegas. They represented being a young, single, working adult who could decide what to do for fun. And now, my wife and kids call me “old man.”

1991 Vegas trip photos

I found some photos from my first Las Vegas visit in 1991.

I remember standing in front to the hotel sign for several minutes waiting for the messages to cycle so I could get a shot of "Las Vegas Collegiate Invitational" — the bowling tournament that was the reason I was visiting Vegas.

The Excalibur, only 18 months old, looked quite shiny and pristine.

1997 receipt

I probably won't blog about my 1997 Las Vegas visit until next year, but I found one of my receipts from that trip.

It's from the Smith's across the street from the Ethel M Chocolate Factory in Henderson. I'm guessing I completed my film roll, then went to their one-hour photo.

I wonder if I got "double prints."

July 1996: Third Vegas Visit

I had so much fun in Las Vegas with my college friends that I decided I had to take my parents. They fostered my love for casinos by taking me on summer vacation trips to Reno-Tahoe. And they probably hadn't visited Vegas since the early 1960s — after their first visit on their 1954 honeymoon.

We stayed in July 1996 at the Monte Carlo Resort & Casino, which was less than a month old. My parents were always frugal, and we always stayed at motels or budget hotels, so to them (and me) the lavishly decorated lobby upon entering seemed like luxury. Of course, the Monte Carlo was always a mid-priced resort — but to us, it was so new and elegant.

At the time, the hype about the Monte Carlo was its European-style single-zero roulette wheel, but we weren't roulette players.

I took them to most of the same spots that I had visited a few months earlier: the new Chinatown, Ethel M Chocolate Factory, and the downtown Gambler's General Store.

I figured they'd love the Backstage Tour for the Tropicana's Folies Bergere show — they did, and they also loved the actual show that we saw afterward. My mom once told me that she and my dad went with his parents in the late '50s to see the shows that featured topless showgirls. She had sort of a side-eye tone describing it, but I do think she enjoyed it as well.

We also visited the Debbie Reynolds Hollywood Hotel and Movie Museum. My mom knew all about the drama with Ms. Reynolds and Eddie Fisher and Elizabeth Taylor back in the day. We examined the memorabilia and artifacts, but for this visit, I also got tickets to see Ms. Reynolds' show. We all loved it. It was a cabaret-style show with songs from the Great American Songbook, Singin' in the Rain, Tammy, and other movies. It was the kind of show where they make it seem like it's the first time she and the band had done it, but they've of course rehearsed and performed it hundreds of times. Afterwards, she posed for pictures with audience members and signed autographs. What a class act and an amazing experience for her fans!

We walked around Downtown and wandered into the Horseshoe Casino. My dad and I had taught ourselves how to play craps, and we were amazed at how many craps tables we saw. There must have been a dozen! The most we had ever seen in a casino was three, maybe four. So we played, of course. I remember sweating my double-odds on a 10 point, but it hit! We all took a picture with the famous $1,000,000 in $10,000 bills.

Our other craps story is that we found ourselves at one of the Stations casinos (I can't remember which one). They still were using 25-cent denomination chips for craps, which surprised me. So we had to play! Though it seemed like we were playing for small potatoes, I loved the novelty of it. I wish I had kept some of those chips.

The Stratosphere Casino had opened less than 2 months before our visit, so it was one of our stops. I remember walking up a long incline ramp to get to the elevators. I have not returned after all these years! We took lots of pictures, including some great views of all the Las Vegas Strip construction. It was an exciting period for Vegas, and we would return three times in the next four years.