TIMSPEED's Blog

Reno 4/27-4/29-12

Yet another exciting weekend in paradise, LOL.
Friday night I picked up my buddy in Roseville, cuz he wanted to go and be a balla' too.
We had to get up their early on friday night because the Engleburt Humperdink concert was to start at 8pm (It was my granma's 76th birthday present; free tix of course)
So we slid in at like 7:30 and I stopped off at VIP to get my hotel key...but I was told my room wasn't ready (WTF?! It's 7:30pm and it's not ready!)..OK, So I told the girl at the desk to just check me in when it was ready and I'd come back after the show to get my roomkey...well apparently I WAS in a 1200sqft suite (usual room) but the people that were in their BEFORE me, had left all their stuff in the room and not left...so I get bumped to a 3rd floor "suite" in the other tower...OK, whatever...so we got over their and it was a SMOKING room, and the jacuzzi still had bubbles (foam) in it! WTF?! I know that shit doesn't last more than probably an hour, so SOMEONE was in this room just recently...and not only that, we SPECIFIED we needed 2Queen/2Queen and this was 1King/1King!
So by this time VIP was closed and so I had to go deal with the retards at the regular front desk, so I DEMANDED a supervisor and in talking to him, apparently since the volleyball players were STILL there AND humperdink was packing in the old folks, the ENTIRE HOTEL was sold out (they had 15 rooms LEFT) and NONE of them were near each other and only a FEW were non-smoking 2Queens...so we took what they had (East Tower, Club Level, mom/granma on the 28th, me and my buddy on the 27th floor)
By this time it was damn near 12am and we just said FUCK IT and went to bed (rather than play at all)
Got up at like noon on saturday and went down to the hottub and pool (amazingly wasn't crowded with all they volleyball girls) and then as usual breakfast buffet.
After that, it was probably close to 2:30pm and we had RSVP at the steakhouse at 5pm (to burn up another $50 dining credit) so we just piddled around at JANugget until then....I dumped $200 playing 5c Triple-Play SuperTimesPay...but I had quite a few drinks, hahaha.
So we go over and have the steakhouse (my buddy's first time having it; he said it was pretty good) and then headed over to Eldorado to play some Shoot-To-Win craps...ended up losing $300 there (actually, mom, granma, and me all lost $100 each) So I decided to go play REAL craps there at Eldorado...err wrong! I ended up losing another $200 and my mom lost another $200 (we played different tables to see if any could get hot)
So by this point, me and my buddy were WELL LIT, but we decided we hadn't had enough yet (we were bound to get BLACK OUT drunk)
So we went back to JANugget to play grave craps (the CM on grave likes me; gives me good comps) We bought in for $200 each and played for probably 2 more hours (we got there at 1am). By 3am, we were both BLITZED, and we decided to go pass out, LOL.
Amazingly, we got up sunday without too much of a hangover...I got up first, at like 10am and went down to the hottub for a little while then showered and was bound and determined to make some of my money back...Headed over to the usual single liner 10/6DDB machines...but I wasn't going for THAT volatile..I started off playing $ 9/6 JoB...I was doing OK...up/down/up/down/up/down/EVEN, so I cashed out and tried the machine next to it...but I figured I was due for a quad, so I played 8/5 Aces&Faces...I actually got UP $100, but then went back down to even (DOH!) then I was down $5 and I got AAA...YES!.....NO! missed it, lol..BUT, the very NEXT hand I had AA and thought nothing of it and held it..up popped AA for Quad Aces! +400 SCORE! So I stopped right then and cashed out...But no one else was awake yet to see my good hit, so I just swiched over to 5c Caveman Keno to waste time..well, I hit immediately 5/6 for $35, so I switched over to dimes and hit it AGAIN for $70..SWEET! ANOTHER $105 up! So I went back to 5c and just piddled around on $25.
Finally everyone else came and I showed them what I hit..SWEEEET! So I cashed out at +$480 for that session and we went over and got a small bite to each at Gabe's Deli (we were planning on the Lobster Buffet at Boomtown later; free coupons)
So after Gabe's, we all sat down and played on the $80 to just waste time really...didn't really lose or win on that..
We left out at 3pm and went over to Boomtown to get the Lobster Buffet (ehh...ALLLRIGHT, but DEFINITELY not worth the $31 they charge for it!)
So all in all, I left $800 up there...but I've got it coming back to me in rebates ($400 next weekend, then $400 on the last weekend of the month) So I really only lost THEIR money (and really I only lost at Eldorado, really badly)
This coming weekend in Cinco De Mayo and Kentucky Derby...so it should be fun!

Side Note: Man, it was nice to hit those $400 aces...but it would have been WILD to hit a $ royal! ($4000...WHAAAAAT?!?)

Reno 4/20-4/22

So this weekend was a H-O-T weekend!
The A/C (read: It's actually SWAMP COOLERS) at JANugget apparently wasn't being used...as on the casino floor it was an easy 80º-85° on saturday...
I stayed away from the tables games...and it was a wild ride...I went up to pickup my $400...
However, on the $200 slot play, i was only able to suck out $150; of course the chips are always a guranteed $200.
We played a lot more than we SHOULD have this weekend (we played all the $350 back to them; but ran through $11k coin-in and garnered like $33 in comps)
Friday night we got killed on the $150 slot play (we gave it back to them entirely) then just before heading to bed, my mom put a $20 in a 1c Buffalo slot machine and hit a bonus round and got $150. So we called it a night with the starting money back...
Saturday morning we got up and went to the usual breakfast buffet.
After breakfast our plan was to just lounge around the pool since it was so damn hot...WRONG!
Apparently there was a National Volleyball tournament in town for teenage girls...and JANugget was LOADED with them...when there are so many kids at JANugget, they usually close the pool (my spin on it is; they've got them IN the hotel with the promise of an indoor pool...but then they want to shake their parents down in the casino so they force the kids to go back to the room and the parents to go down to the casino floor)
In any case, it didn't much work, because the casino was empty as usual...We played all day saturday on the $350 but ultimately lost it...
So about 7pm, we go eat at John's Oyster Bar (which is UNBAREBLY hot!) and decide to GTFO of JAN and head down to Eldorado to play the Aruze Shoot-To-Win craps machine...I take $60 out of my bank, so that gives us each a $20 to play on...we played for about 4 hours (9am-1am) and didn't lose a fucking PENNY, all the while slogging PREMIUM booze (Gold Bless Cinnamon Whiskey; aka: Fireball!)
Sunday, we got up and it was a LITTLE cooler at JAN (I think the WEATHER actually cooled off)..had the breakfast buffet as usual...same deal with the pool..CLOSED...so we go back down to Eldorado to play a while...we played for probably 2 hours sunday and then went down and had the sunday buffet at Eldorado ($11 each with a Gold card or better and we had $33 in comp; so it was free...DEFINITELY a good buffet!)
So...in the end, we gave them back their money..but none of our own; and earned ~$33 in comps doing it (and keeping up our offers)
Until next weekend!

SanDiego/Casino Barona Trip/Review

Date: 4/13-4/15/2012

So this weekend we went down to San Diego to visit my cousin and also because we got a comped weekend at Casino Barona (long story short, we went there for this cousins wedding in Februrary and I dropped $500 playing craps and so a host contacted me, yadda yadda yadda)

We left out friday at 9am from Modesto...OMG! It was literally POURING rain the ENTIRE FUCKING TIME! From the time we left Modesto until we got into Barona I had the wipers on HIGH! EIGHT HOURS STRAIGHT!! (It's usually only like 6½ hours...but because of the rain the traffic on I5 through LA was TERRIBLE!)
So we finally get there at 5pm, and I go to the Hotel desk to check in...OK it's all comp'd...HOWEVER there was NO WAY to get around a MANDATORY $100 deposit via CreditCard...Now, I actually have a small credit card JUST for this purpose with EXACTLY $100 on it..However they said it was DECLINED..I was a little ticked off because this is the SAME DAMN credit card I use specifically FOR these occassions. OK, so I gave them my debit card (which I know was going to lock up $100 of my money) Minor annoyance, but not too terrible.
So we take our luggage to the room and unwind a little bit and then head to get some food...Decent enough restaraunt (Sage Cafe)..Has a "Build-Your-Own" Burger for $7..so we each got that...
After dinner it was about 7, so I go over to VIP Services to see if I can't get in contact with my host (to say hello and let him know I'm there). He was actually there, so I said Hi and AMAZINGLY he handed me a "Platinum" welcome pack, (Second Highest Card Tier, $10k coin-in per month) and two buffet comps ($36 worth really; which with a platinum almost pays for THREE). I was really surprised because I didn't think I had earned "Platinum" status yet ("Gold" status, yes, and after this trip, I would be "Plat", I guess he was just thinking ahead.)
So I got my new cards and gave one to granma to play vP (I set her up on 25c 9/6 JoB with $100) and mom and I set off to go play craps...
I bought in for $500 and was playing $5 DP with $30 odds and getting rated for $35...I was actually doing well (a lot of crappy $20 buy-in type shooters) but then one kid..OMG! He freakin rolled for an HOUR!! LUCKILY I bet $5 Horn-High 12 and he hit it quite a few times (Even hit one for $10!)
So to make a long story short...I finally cashed out at 2am (shift change) with $520 (and I had tipped the beverage servers and dealers a LOT; The hour shooter, the dealers had $22 inside and CLEANED UP on it!)
Now when I cashed out, I asked the PitBoss for a buffet comp which she graciously obliged (another $36 slip; they're very generous with discretionary's here)
So, considering all I lost was $80 (granma went bust, as usual, LOL) and I had about $80 worth of comp slips, I was quite pleased.
I must mention this now..but the rooms at Barona are absolutely SPEC-FUCKING-TACULAR! Every room has a balcony/patio and the bathrooms have a separate shower AND tub (rather than the usual combined thing) and the beds are HEAVEN! I went to bed at 2am on friday and I slept like a fuggin ROCK until 10am on saturday. I woke up very rested.
We got up and decided to do the buffet since they don't have "food times", it's just the same from 10am-12am (yes, 12am!) So I go down and use my comp slip and show my Platinum card (fully expecting to only have to pay ~$3 out of pocket) Stupid broad hands me the receipt and I look at it and it only says TWO...I told her "Uhh..I need three" (I think it was quite obvious as I had TWO people with me; mom and granma and NO ONE else was around us) So she says "Well I already closed out that comp slip so you'll have to pay the full price of $15" Wait..WHAT? "I have a Plat card, I get $10 buffets...you just used a comp slip for two, I want to use my Plat card to pay for the other"..."I can't do that, I used your discount on the comp slip" At this point mom and granma could tell I was getting PISSED, but I just shoved the $15 to her and didn't say another word.
OK Barona, this is Strike TWO for incompetent people (The hotel desk HAVING to charge $100 deposit on a COMPLIMENTARY room was the first)
So we go in and eat the buffet (it's actually quite good!) After which, we head out for Downtown (Where my cousin lives)...We spent from 2pm-10pm with the family walking around Gaslamp and PetCo Park (Padre's stadium).
Got back to Barona and knew that I had to show some action for saturday, as my host has been gracious enough to give me rooms/food/Platinum Status...
Granma says she's tired and just wants to go back to the room, OK...Mom and I head out to crap table...at 10pm, BOTH their crap tables were absolutely PACKED...and I mean NOT EVEN ELBOW IN ROOM PACKED! So we walked around to see if I we could wong the table playing a nearby vP machine..NOPE!
So we stood for probably 30 minutes waiting to get in...FINALLY ONE person left and mom squeezed in (Like I said, she likes to cause trouble; I don't like to push in to a crap table) She threw my Plat card and $500 and the PB looked up and I waved my hand to signify that it was ME that was really buying in...OK..Finally a spot opens up at the other end of the crap table, so I take $300 of moms (mine) chips and go down to the other end..
From the moment I bought in, I absolutely got BEATEN (this guy apparently was straight BUM status, but he couldn't fuckin MISS a point!) I started at $5/$30, went to $10/60, and then $20/$120 (Luckily I hit a horn-High 12 in there for $57) But on his third point, which was a FOUR..the stickman called a 5-1 (They use dice at Barona, but they have cards on the table that the dice correspond to, to make the official "roll") and the boxman says "Eight, easy Eight" when he CLEARLY had his hands on a 4 & 3 (The 1 on the dice equaled a 4 and the 5 equaled a 3) I spoke up loudly "Hold on their sir, take a look again at those cards!"...He came back at me with "SIR, THE ROLL WAS AN EIGHT!"...I came back JUST as hard "LOOK DOWN AT THE TABLE WHERE YOUR HANDS ARE AT!"...he looks down...gave me a fuggin DIRTY look "The roll is a 7-out." OK!
Yes, I know I'm the ONLY one on the DP, but the people on the PASS were $5-Frankies (ONLY a $5 chip on the pass and nothing else!) And the shooter had already hit TWO points, so I didn't feel terrible at all...
Not only did the stupid Boxman act completely incompetent/unprofessional...my base dealer turns and says "Thanks for that...the entire table thanks you for pointing that out." WOW...TOTALLY unprofessional!
So the next shooter comes up and I stay on the Don't and I mean it's again the POINT POINT POINT game...and I'm just getting slaughtered (not upping my bet like I probably should have been)..another shooter and then my mom is up to roll...so I stay off the dont (she's actually lucky at dice) and place bet 6/8 for $12 each, hit a $2 Ace-Deuce for $30...Now while my mom is rolling, the stupid PB goes over to my mom and tells her "Do you have a card with us?"...Uhh..She came in on my card and cash and you're just NOW figuring things out...apparently he goes on to KEEP talking to her WHILE she's shooting, saying "I'm sorry we can't put your play on his card." (They had absolutely NO problem with this the previous night!) At that point, I've told my base dealer to cut my 6/8 in half (from $24 action to $12 action)..told him like FOUR times and then the fifth I just scream at him "ALL MY BETS DOWN!!" and the dice come flying and of course SEEEVEN OUT.
At that point, my mom and I are both TOTALLY DONE! STRIKE THREE BARONA, you are OUT! We color up and we're short $150...FUCK! I really didn't want to lose money to THESE assholes...
So we go over and cash in and I told my mom that we should try playing some BonusPokerDeluxe, because if we can strike a quad that'll be $100 and at least we'd only be down $50 which is manageable...well, I didn't know how right I was!
We go over and sit down at a BPD 25c machine..(9/6, so it's 99.6% payback) and start playing...I put in $100 and I got down to $86.25 and WHAM, 7777! +$100! NICE! So I switched and let my mom play and told her to just play it to $150 or $200...well, she comes back and hits ANOTHER 7777 right away! ANOTHER +$100! WTF?! Now we're pretty much only down what granma lost the previous night...ok, just play it to an even amount...WHAM, Quad 10's! +$100 AGAIN!! So I immediately said CASH OUT!! I got back to the room and counted and I had exactly $1000 (the amount I took down there with me and we had to pay for friday's food and then the buffet saturday and also for food/drinks in Downtown San Diego earlier that day) NICE!! I didn't lose a RED CENT to these bastards...I mean, I feel bad that I didn't show that much play, but I'm definitely going to email my host and let him know WHY I didn't show much action on saturday.
So we get in bed about 1am this time (I had a good relaxing soak in my tub since it was it's OWN rather than a shower combo)
Up at 10am on Sunday (11am checkout; plus it's a LONG drive home) and at the buffet at 11am...This time, the cashier was a little more intelligent...I only had to pay $3 out of my pocket (same value comp slip as yesterday!).
So all in all, the only expenses I had was the gas to get down there (About $150) and the meals on the road (Fast food, $50)
I wished I would have WON some money..but I'm SURE glad I didn't leave DOWN $250 in the casino PLUS the travel expenses!
I'm not sure my host will offer me anything else...but truthfully, with as incompetent employees as they have their...SHEESH I don't know if it's any fucking different than going to Reno!!
However, here's a small recap
Hotel Quality is DEFINITELY A+ (They're winners of the AAA 4-Diamond Award 2011 AND 2012!)
Everything is CLEAN, very attractive views out of the Balcony's, GREAT beds/linens, "Rain" Showerhead, Gilchrist & Soames bathproducts, Mini-Fridge, Keurig Coffee Maker, Safe, 32" HDTV, Free WiFi
Casino Quality is A+ ALSO
Absolutely NO reeking smoke smell...they come around constantly for beverages as well as "snacks" (trailmix and pretzels), They offer quite a bit of fullpay vP at the $1+ level (and a couple banks with 25c/50c denom on it)
Players Club is probably what you'd expect for this type of property (Their Highest is "Diamond", which LOOKS like it doesn't really offer good value considering it's 5x as much as "Platinum" and the only difference is instead of 50% off of everything, you get it FREE once a day {free buffet once a day, free round of golf once a day, really the only REAL values})
So for $20k coin-in per month, you can keep "Platinum" status which will keep you in rooms as well as 50% food and golf when you are there...
FWIW, this is what I give JANugget per month and I get $400 cashback PLUS a continual weekend suite and pretty much enough comp to pay for all my meals...
But truthfully, if I only lived an hour or two away from Barona..It'd definitely be my home casino!

Reno Easter Whirlwind!

NOTE: This is long! Scroll down to bottom for Cliff-Notes
So I'll blog about my latest adventure into Renoland...
Started out thursday night 4/5/12...left out of Modesto at around 6pm (Originally had planned to go up Friday morning, but figured I'd rather just get the driving out of the way now and sleep in the next day, haha)
The drive up wasn't bad at all, no incliment weather what-so-ever.
So we get there on thursday night and VIP is closed, so I had to check-in with all the unwashed masses (LOL; actually, no one was there)
Get up to the room and drop off all the luggage (we were staying from Thursday night until Monday afternoon), go down and play video poker for a little while...didn't hit anything remarkable or lose anything remarkable; we were really just waiting until midnight to do the $5 Steak & Eggs special (amazingly, it's a really decent piece of New York Strip). So came midnight and we ate the late night special and headed for bed.
Woke up Friday about noon, and headed down and had the lunch buffet (yes, Saturday and Sunday it's a "brunch", but on friday it's called a "lunch"'; and it's only $6 on friday, w00t!), however something odd had happened...when I went to bed Thursday night, I had $62 worth of comp...yet when I went to pay for my buffet on friday, I had -$79 (Yes, NEGATIVE!) I knew immediately what had happened...the stupid person at the regular hotel check-in had made a booboo when checking me in, and charged the room to my comp (Apparently on a per night basis...) So because they know me, they let me go in anyway and I told them I'd go down and talk to my host and come back and settle it up...
So I went down to VIP services and had one of the desk girls look up my account to see what had posted...sure enough Hotel desk error...I didn't even need to speak to my host to get it corrected, but I still stopped in and spoke with my host.
OK, so not the best way to start out a day, but we're over it now...on to gambling...Like I said previously, I had pretty much decided to NOT play craps anymore because it's SUCH a losing game (at least at JANugget it is)...however I still get promo chips that I must convert over to cash (I get $400 worth of $25 chips; I just put $200 on the do, and $200 on the dont and get a guranteed $200 CASH) So I go get my chips and get that taken care of right quick. I also get $200 worth of slot play that I must play out, so I go and play that out on a 25c 9/6 JoB...I think I got like $175 on the 160 hands I played, but I continued to play a little bit until it got up to exactly $200, to which I cashed out and put all my $400 together and went over to my usual machines (that have 8/5 Aces&Faces and comp at .335%) and began playing...I actually did pretty good as I played for a few hours and I managed to not be up or down at all (I think I hit a few quads, and I know I hit quad Aces once)
After we played a while (I went with my mom and granma) we decided to take a break and go up to the pool/hottub (as I've said before they have a really nice indoor atrium pool area); After the soak, we went down and had a light dinner at Gabe's Deli (they actually had fried shrimp for the special that day, which are really good for $5).
After dinner, we went back to the usual machines and played some more...nothing memorable, however I DO remember hitting a straight flush during the friday night session..
Funny thing...JANugget had a REALLY good promotion going on over the Easter Weekend...aside from the USUAL monthly mailer of free play, over the Easter Weekend you got a DOUBLE mailer (in other words, you got your usual free play amount over the weekend ALSO; which means I got an ADDITIONAL $800), funny because it's been SO dead there lately, however this weekend it was PACKED with all the familar faces (which I haven't seen since probably NYE). The crap table was absolutely PACKED with the heavy hitters (green and black action; usually a white and red chip action house!) Of course I stayed AWAY from the crap table as I KNEW what was happening (I spoke to a few of them who told me that so&so was getting absolutely MURDERED; but they all said that about each other, lol)
Called it an early night (turning over a new leaf I guess, haha) at midnight on friday.
Saturday morning, same deal as usual...brunch buffet...after that we actually got out and went shopping (Went to Ross and JCPenney Outlet store) Came back and Hottubbed a while and went down and did the usual promo chip doey/dont dance and then over to the 9/6 JoB that we use to suck out the free slot play. Again, pulled out $200 (I think I was actually a little AHEAD of $200 this time, but nothing significant)
Back over to the usual spot to play with .335% comp however, saturday proved to be a kinda crappy day as we lost back the $200 we had just sucked out in free play
So we took a dinner break and went to eat at Orozko's...we had intened on using a $50 dining credit (as the fancy restaraunts there are pretty much the only way you can spend $50 for food)...well, as we later found out, the dining credit didn't start until SUNDAY, so that burned up $50 in comp dollars (which I contacted my host about, who I'm sure will fix the mistake and just void my dining credit and reimburse me the $50 comp dollars)
After dinner, we walked around the entire JANugget complex, as we were absolutely STUFFED from eating.
When we came back in, I figured I'd be a railbird at the crap table watching the heavy hitters get mowed down and shoot for just a minimum line bet when it came my turn...sure enough, it was an absolute bloodbath and by 11pm the high-rollers had been cleared of their chips...so with nothing to entertain me, I decided to just go over to the bar and people watch...they have actually pretty good games at The Horseshoe bar...one of which being 8/5 BP SuperTimesPay (But they only have it in Triple Play and at 5c/10c/25c) I figured I'd see if I could make a good run at it since I was down $200 on the day..and sure enough, I got it up to $195...but wouldn't you know it, chasing that fucking $5 I lost back $95...still made a $100 profit (I was playing 25c). I decided to call it a night with only a $100 loss on the day (not REALLY a loss since it WAS free play that I was using, but I consider that my loss rebate so it IS my money)
HOWEVER...after getting up to the room and soaking in my oversize tub in my room...I wasn't really all that tired, so I put my sweats on (didn't really feel like getting dressed again) and headed down to see what was happening (it WAS 1am after all) Well, a couple guys I know were playing craps...I'd say they're both addicts, however, at two different ends of the spectrum I guess...one of them always plays the pass line and only $5 with 2x odds and $16/$17/$22 inside (basically covers all the inside numbers) He never does any good because he JUST KEEPS PLAYING NO MATTER WHAT...On the other end is another guy I know who is a STAUNCH darkside player...usually $25 flat with max lay (However, he'll go to $50 flat and even $100 flat if he's losing or losing BADLY; double up catch up right? haha)
Well, I watch for a while...this guy playing the DO is making a pass but not really hitting a lot of other numbers, so HE'S losing...but on the same token since he's making that pass the darksider is ALSO losing...then apparently the table gets lukewarm and the guy makes a few passes, absolutely DESTROYING the darksider (I literally watched him go through $4000 before just walking away looking PHYSICALLY ill) So when darksider left, I decided to FINALLY call it a night as it was just Bob left playing at the table (and I knew if he was by himself he'd just burn through his bankroll faster and quit); lol, when I got up to the room it was 3:30am, yikes!
Sunday morning, got up a little earlier because it was Easter and we were going to go have the "Easter Brunch" (Which was ABSOLUTELY no different than the usual sunday brunch, except it was $3 a person more, haha) Had to wait in line about 30 minutes before getting a table....I'd comment about it, but like I said, it was no different than usual, so I just HAD my usual (omelette with everything in it and hashbrowns)...Now here's where it gets ugly...I'm not sure WHY (as we had no freeplay or anything to pickup sunday) but we decided to play through the day again...absolute ass-kicking on videopoker (Shit and even videokeno wouldn't hit!) We started the day with $700 (remember I was already down $100 on the free $800) and after losing $300 we decided to take a dinner break (Looking back, I guess that's not BAD; $100 per person considering we were all three playing 25c poker; still upsetting that not ONE of us could make a hit!) HOWEVER, while they were ordering the food at The Noodle Hut, I walked over to The Horseshoe Bar and thought I could have another lucky run at the 25c SuperTimesPay...ERRR! WRONG! I dropped $100 in SHORT fucking order, and followed it with another $100 in attempts to JUST RECOVER THE FIRST! WRONG! I mean...the second $100 lasted a little bit longer, but playing 18 quarters a pop bites quick when you're not hitting ANYTHING...so I sulk over and meet with Mom and granma and tell them "Let's go up to the room and eat."
Now...I don't know what possessed me to do this...but after we ate upstairs...I decided that I'd go see who was playing craps...Sure enough, all the heavy hitters were back (a couple of them I haven't since in almost a year! Again...don't ask me why, but I bought in with my last $200...thinking I'd just play light ($5 pass with $5 odds) to support these guys and see what we could do...What a huge mistake that turned out to be...after I bought in, the table LITERALLY went 8 shooters in a ROW with no points made...the last three I decided to take bigger odds because I said "There's no WAY they can miss AGAIN...and AGAIN...and AGAIN" I was so wrong it wasn't funny...All the while these heavy hitters were getting absolutely SLAUGHTERED (Think $200 a shooter LOSS, and there was like five of them at the table)The dice finally came to me (When I bought in, the dice were next to me; doh!) and I had $30!!! left ARGH!
So I said FUCK IT and put $10 on the Don't and $5 Horn High Aces...BAM aces the call! SWEET, $57 coming my way...next roll FIVE NO FIELD...I asked the dealer "What's the UGLIEST lay I can make?"...the dealer on the other side laughed and said "$25.50" The stick and my base dealer looked at him and said "Sheesh, leave it to you to come up with that." But actually the payout is clean ($17) So I said LET'S DO IT! I handed the dealer a green and a white and he set it up...BOOM, SEEEEVEN out..ALLRIGHT! Another $27 coming my way...Now, I SHIT YOU NOT, but for the next THREE HOURS there was absolutely NOT ONE POINT MADE (ok maybe an exaggeration, but you get the idea)...I turned that bottom $30 I was down to...into $600!! (I know, I should have made WAAAY more, but you have to remember, I was only betting $10 flat & probably like $20-some-odd lays) Somewhere in the beginning of that cold streak, the heavy hitting darksider came over and ALSO played the dont with me and he not only made back his $4000, but he made an additional $2000 (He doesn't PRESS when he's winning, so he was only betting $25 & max, and he didn't play the entire time)...I absolutely couldn't believe (and the dealers really couldn't either!) that I made THAT much of a comeback! It's actually funny, because at one point, I actually colored up $400 (Had my $200 buyin PLUS $200, so I was ECSTATIC) and had like $25 left...and basically the same progression happened...$10 flat (which I kept the whole time) and $5 high aces..BOOM aces..so this gave me a few more reds, and my mom happened to be shooting (she done this one before; she shot 14 P-S-O's in a ROW) she literally hit SIX in a ROW P-S-O's and I took $60 odds on all of them!! So I looked down again, and I had my 4 blacks PLUS a shitload of reds...I quickly cut it into $100 sections to see exactly where I was at..FUCK almost ANOTHER $300...So I told my mom to keep shooting..well, as luck would have it the dice turned QUICK (she shot a few come-out 7's to kill $40 QUICK, then made a pass to kill another $60) at which point I said COLOR UP! with ANOTHER two blacks (getting me my $600)
I just absolutely couldn't BELIEVE my luck...going down to my LAST $30 and coming up to $600!!
So then monday we get up and get our stuff packed up...go down to Gabe's Deli and have lunch (decent Lasagna special for $5)...mom and granma go over to get haircuts, and I decided to just poke around at the bar and play nickles and people watch...I didn't do TERRIBLE, but I did manage to lose $20..at which point I wandered over to the dice table (It looked like it was getting cold as it WAS crowded and people were slowly trickling away)
Here's an odd story...this one particular dealer just absolutely is a miserable person (I've asked the other dealers about him and only one really knows him and he gave me a weird reply "He's doing VERY WELL....his entire family is in the Nevada Penal system...and I mean wearing orange." Also, this particular dealer is PHYSICALLY grotesque as he has a LARGE tumor in his abdomen (Apparently it's a HERNIA and not a tuma') but it is SO pronounced it just makes you want to vomit (He's like 60, 6'4" and probably 200lbs and looks like a BOWLING BALL in his stomache) Now, this particular dealer also HATES me because I got his boss (who I dunno why he liked; as NO ONE else did) fired (Like I said, NO ONE liked this miserable prick, so my complaint finally broke the camels back and got his ass canned) But SINCE THEN, the human tuma' has had it out for me...now usually I'll avoid playing his particular shift ALL TOGETHER because I don't want any trouble...but today I figured I'd just make ONE bet, win or lose, and leave (He was the base dealer on the OTHER side of the table)...SO I walked up, bought in for the $580 and it was SEVVEN OUT, so I was up to shoot...cool, I put $10 on the DP and came out on a five (ha, what luck that's what started it LAST night) OK, so I know the base dealer on my side isn't the sharpest tool in the shed (Her name is SIGN for Christ sake!) so I laid down $25.50 and said "Lay $25.50...it pays $17...$24 gets me $16 and $1.50 gets me $1...She sets it up and just kinda looks up (as if to calculate it in her head; like I said, not the sharpest tool)...IMMEDIATELY tuma' SCREAMS, "DON'T BOOK THAT BET!!" I replied calmly with "Excuse me, let's ask the Floor; $25.50 pays $17, it's a clean payout."..The floor comes over and sides with tuma' (of course) So at that point I tell Sign, "OK, please color me up and make my lay look like $15" (Yes I know it's not proper etiquette to color up in the middle of a roll..but it was MY OWN ROLL and I was on the DP so I didn't give a rip) She colored me up and I threw the dice a couple more times before making the 5 (figures)
About the time I make that 5, my mom walks up as I'm walking away, asking me what happened (she could tell I was pissed) and I told her "Don't bother going to that table, they won't book bets you want to make." She still wanted to go play (she LIKES to cause trouble), she asked me how much I was DOWN and I told her only $45...which didn't really apply, as I went and sat down at a keno machine close by and immediately hit $25, haha.
So I sat and played my keno machine watching the table...finally my mom left the table and we went to the hot tub to relax...in doing so, she told me that she overhead all the floor supervisors talking about how much trouble I cause and how they wanna "86" me, LOL! Hearing this, I IMMEDIATELY emailed me host (who is off sunday-tuesday) and let her know the situation and that I will NOT be continuing my play with JANugget UNLESS this particular dealer is no longer employed (Like I said, He ALWAYS causes trouble for me NO MATTER WHAT)
I feel really BAD for everyone else...because all the usual heavy-hitters at the crap table know me and know I play craps (I get the same amount of promo chips as they do) and they'd ask me everytime I came up to the table "So how are you doing this weekend?" and everytime my answer would be "I'm UP $800...but I've stayed AWAAAY from the table" (which they usually gave me a dirty look, lol) But like I said...these poor bastards all CAME up to get their DOUBLE free play..and on top of LOSING that, they all lost their OWN money too! I honestly think I'm the ONLY ONE who came up to get money and took most of it HOME.
I'm still mad that I gave back $200 of it...but I've punched the numbers and we went through $45k coin-in on $200 loss (which I calculated because we earned $150 in comp dollars over the trip and they're $300 coin-in per dollar) so that's NOT too terrible (lost $200 but they basically gave me straight up $150 back)
On a related note...on friday when we got our first batch of free play, it was day shift (this particular dealers shift) and like I said we USUALLY don't play it since we don't want any trouble...but I needed to get my promo chips converted, so we had to do the doey/dont dance (my mom takes $200 and I take $200; opposite ends of the table as to not be so obvious)...now, NO OTHER SHIFT has any problem with us doing this, HOWEVER the day shift ALWAYS flips out...case in point, Tuma' IMMEDIATELY told the boxman as soon as our chips hit the felt who IMMEDIATELY jumped up and ran over and got the pitboss, who came over and I could TELL they were REALLY hashing things out (I really figured the pitboss would say something to me; in which I'd of said Eff Off since it's TWO SEPARATE BETS...but like the Wiz said, in Nevada, there's NO regulations on dice)
Like I said before, I should have PROBABLY just stayed away from table games all together..but after taking $30 into $600, it was hard not to try to do it again!
Like I told my host, I think I'm just going to take my play elsewhere (seriously, at JANugget they have the most INCOMPETENT employee's with hard-luck stories; but then again, NO OTHER casino in Reno pays as low as they do...so you get what you pay for I guess, haha)


CLIFF NOTES:
Went to Reno to collect $800 worth of freeplay..roller coasted for 4 days/$45k coin-in and ended up taking home $600 and getting in a situation with a dealer who either will get fired or I will quit playing at JANugget.

Reno in the SNOW!

So this weekend (3/31-4/1) I took the usual trip to Reno...but not in the usual way...
We actually didn't leave on friday night, as usual...because we had planned on NOT going to Reno this weekend (no money, so no real reason)
Well, I KNEW Saturday was going to be shitty weather, so I was going to go friday or NOT go...well, that didn't work out too well...
We left the house about 2:30, but we stopped off to grab some fast food (lol, I know, I know) and make a bathroom break before hitting the Sierra.
We decided to go Highway 50 via Lake Tahoe -> Carson City -> Reno, because during the snow I actually like driving Highway 50 BETTER, because it's only one lane, so there's no one pushing you off the road for not driving fast enough (On I-80 I always feel like I'm getting pushed off the road in the snow when I'm doing 30mph)
So actually it wasn't bad..Chain Controls were at Placerville (2100')...However I was driving my 4x4 Tahoe (with BFG All-Terrains) so I just wizzed right through the checkpoint and I didn't even put it in 4wd until we got to Kyburz (4000')...then we did 30mph (was doing 50mph previously, cuz the roads were NOT snowy, just slushy) until we got JUUUUST to Echo Summit (the summit, which is 7200') which we sat for a fricken' HOUR because some jackass had gone too fast and crashed...
Funny because the roads were actually WORSE once we got into Lake Tahoe (They had got a FOOT at lake level, as I took a picture at McDonalds of the outside table) because the roads were VERY icy/slushy (It was like driving through deep MUD, but frozen)
So we finally get into JANugget at 9pm...
I didn't really intend on playing much...because well, it was just a spur-of-the-moment thing...but looking back, I played quite a bit of vP at the 25c level...
Once again...I dug myself a $300 hole playing vP..then MIRACULOUSLY I hit the SAME THING I usually hit on Caveman Keno....6/7x4 for $540. ZOOOM, I'm up $240
I finish playing the $40 down on 10/6 DDB vP...which I didn't hit CRAP...so I went and played $100 on random slots (Buffalo, Sun&Moon, Super Hot-Hot ReSpin) to no avail, and I call it a night..
Sunday morning usual breakfast buffet and over to the same bank of 10/6 DDB...except I just stuck to 9/6 JoB...again, we were down $200 playing vP and caveman keno (hey, it can happen AGAIN can't it?? lol)
So finally I said screw it, I'll take my $200 loss and just leave...ohh no, let me sit at the bar for a second and play some 25c Triple Play Bonus Poker Super Times Pay...was actually going OK..couple quads..then BAM, SPADE-SPADE-SPADE-8x multiplier....SPADE-SPADE!!! Dealt flush for 600 quarters (aka: $150) I think I played like one or two more hands that were really unremarkable, but it got me back to EXACTLY even.
Funny how I stayed A-W-A-Y from table games, and I did GOOOOD! More funny because the place was absolutely PACKED (They had a Ukele Fest going on) yet the casino wasn't that busy and at 1am, it DIED! (and as usual no one played craps)
I'll post up the picture of the snow here in just a second...