1st time visit to St Louis, for work, and I stayed at Harrah's two
nights: May 4/5. I got in about 12 hrs VP play total, 6 hrs each night.
Coming off a profitable Reno trip the week before (thanks in part to
my $2K Airport Royal on 50c coin ACE$ Bonus), I had the proper
bankroll, I think.
Thanks to scouting the vpFree Database, I thought I'd be playing
25c/50c/$1 9/6 JoB, but I never found the lone "draw Poker" MD machine
on the Island side of the casino. I'd have to say this machine was
MIA, as I got some very specific directions on it's location via posts
in vpFree_StLouis and I checked every machine in the area around the
noodle bar and never found it. I settled for a lone Island side 25c
8/5 Bonus poker machine for much of my 25c play. I also never found
the single machine(s) that contained $1 10/6 DDB nor the (1) $1 NSUD
machine. These were on the Mardi Gras side and I must admit my search
on that side was not exhaustive. I was content to play $1 BP on the
island side. The Mardi gras was much more chaotic and there were a lot
more machines I would have had to search, many of which were occupied.
Some other games I played were:
5c 5-play "(fake) Bonus poker" the 10-8-5-3-1-1 variety with separate
Royal progs for each line. These were a steady drain of 20's until I
got dealt a 4-card Royal and hit the Royal on one line for $216.
25c 9/5 DDB with a Prog for the sequential Royal that was over
$15,700. I assumed it started at $12,500. I held two in the sequence
and drew, alas, "only" two more in the right sequence. That was an
excited "stop and stare, thinking what might have been" moment.
I got less than average quads playing BP, so my bankroll was steadily
drained throughout my playing time. I never got quad As and only one
bonus quad 2,3,or 4s. The 25c BP was an upright, the $1 BP was a
slant top. I saw two folks get Royals on the $1 machines.
As far as the $500 play limit over two hour periods: here's how it
worked. The two hour periods were on the even hours: 4-6PM, 6-8PM etc.
The amount you'd put in during that period was displayed on each
machine when you first insert your Harrah's card. Any given X-dollar
bill that you then inserted that put you over $400 froze you out of
putting in any more bills. I assume that is because your next bill
could have been a hundred dollar bill which would put you over the
$500 limit. This happened to me twice and it was right near the end
of the 2-hour period, so it wasn't much bother to wait for the next
period to start. Someone told me that I could go to the cashier's cage
to get some sort of over-ride to play whatever increment of my last
$100 was left, but the one set of cashier cage windows always seemed
to have a line and I never bothered.
Another trap I fell into was during my last play period: I was up
about $50 on a machine, so I cashed out my balance and took the ticket
to a machine to get the cash. I then went to another VP machine and
tried to insert $100, but my total was already over $400, so I was
frozen out. Had I NOT cashed in the ticket and instead used the ticket
to start playing the new machine, it would have recognized this as my
original ($100) buy-in and not added it to my total. The $500 is total
NEW money that I introduce, U.S. Currency, and tickets do not count.
I'm not 100% certain how tickets carried over from one period to the
next worked, so best to have someone explain it (here or at Harrahs),
which I didn't do.
So, I lost about $100 per hour and racked up 1700 points. This was my
first time at any Harrahs. In St Louis, the next slot card level was
platinum I believe, and I was told that I'd move up after 4000 points.
I already got website offers for free stays and cash back ($35).
Oh- and there are automated same-day (low %)cash-back machines that
spit you out a ticket cashable at the cashier. I got $17 on that.
One more strange thing happened: As I was in the midst of a session on
the $1 BP machines, an attendant with a headset and a phone and
clipboard in his hand came up to me and said, "Mark?" I say "Yes?" He
says we want to give you some money. I say sounds good, he verifies my
ID and my slot card and writes up a slip for $15 that I cash at the
cashiers. Maybe this was because I was a first time card holder, kind
of nice, but a little disturbing in hindsight that I was trackable
real-time by a machine in the back room.
Anyhow, nice place, not great VP paytables, fast and modern machines,
good service, nice hotel, I'd stay and play there again, but I'd play
it a little more tight with my bankroll. There was self-service free
soda pop and water stands, one lone walk-up bar for alcohol (nothing
alcoholic was free) and cocktail waitresses circulating who usually
had trays full of pop and water bottles and would take alcohol drink
orders. There was a new gaming area and a bar just opening up the day
I left in the center area of the Island side.
I had one very good meal at Gitto's. A little pricey, but within my
company's allowable per diem for trips. Great steak and toasted
ravioli appetizer. Thanks also to "hockeystL" for suggestions via e-
mail.
~Mark