Hi Gang:
Hedy and I recently returned from our five-night junket to Harrah's Laughlin
and we can describe our experience there in five simple words: We Absolutely
Loved The Place!!
And that, mind you, is after a $1,450 loss on a total coin-in of $155,000!
I'll begin at the beginning.
We arrived at Newark Airport last Wednesday night and boarded the chartered
Allegiant jet for what we thought was a non-stop flight to Bullhead City,
Arizona (just across the Colorado River from Laughlin). Instead, we were told
that we would be making a stop in Peoria, Illinois, to refuel. "Why can't we
just top off the tank here at Newark," a number of us asked, until one wise soul
onboard said, "obviously, because gas is a lot cheaper in Peoria!"
Anyway, we took off 45 minutes late and our expected 20-25 minute stop in
Peoria turned out to be almost an hour. We arrived in Bullhead City at around
midnight local time (3 a.m. to our bodies) so to say we were exhausted after an
almost seven-hour trip would be an understatement.
The two consolations were that we had bulkhead seats (lots of legroom) on
the plane and were assigned to a very nice, three-room suite at Harrah's,
although it didn't have a river view.
The next morning we began to familiarize ourselves with the property and
liked almost everything about it. We were in the tower whose elevators dropped
you off in the non-smoking casino and we found the bank of 50-play machines
there that offered 9/6 JOB in nickels and dimes without a problem. Our first
day of play was rather unproductive as we wound up losing $900 with our only
memorable hands being dealt quad eights on 50-play and Hedy hitting aces with a
kicker for $500 on DDB progressive.
We discovered their excellent buffet and found the Beach Cafe (their coffee
shop) much to our liking. We also were amazed by the size and quality of the
gift shop. It was very spacious and offered the largest variety of Life Is
Good merchandise we've ever seen.
We also found the Seven Stars/Diamond Lounge to be very nice and very
comfortable. It was a small room but had a terrace/patio overlooking the pool/beach
area and the Colorado River. We found it to be quite soothing to sit outside
on the terrace with a cup of coffee and watch the activity on the river and
the views of Arizona on the other side. The food offerings were not
spectacular (sandwiches, fruit and cheese, cookies etc. during the day and fried
shrimp and chicken wings at night) but it was more than adequate and much more
than we had expected.
We took the water taxi ride (free tickets for Seven Stars members) twice
during our stay, once stopping off to explore the Aquarius casino/hotel with
friends and the second time to stop and play full-pay deuces at the River Palms,
where we earned enough points to get $15 in free play each as new sign-ups.
Riding the water taxi was tons of fun as we took a lot of pictures of things
like the show-boat themed Colorado Belle and the moving-cowboy sign at the
Pioneer.
Our second day of gambling (Friday) was our worst of the trip as we saw
benji after benji get swallowed up in the 50-pay machines, resulting in a $2,100
loss on a coin-in of over 54K. We did get three nickel royals that day ($200
each) but they didn't do much to stem the flow of red ink. Our strategy of
racking up the base credits so we could keep our Seven Stars card was working,
but the $3,000 loss after two days of play was a bit disconcerting.
Our good buddies Joan Schneider and Tom Levinson drove in from Phoenix that
day to join us and we had dinner with them at the Range Steakhouse that night.
It was another excellent experience. We had a table right by the windows
overlooking the river and the views as the sun slowly set were spectacular. The
food was delicious, the service impeccable and the company terrific as we
totally enjoyed the night.
Saturday was our turnaround day. We decided to forego the 50-play machines
for awhile and instead tried our luck at 9/7/5 double bonus at the 50-cent
level. The result was amazing. Playing on the same side where the nickel
machines are but further down to the left, we settled in and wound up playing the
same machines most of the day. I hit aces for $400 four times, deuces twice for
$200, was dealt threes for $200 and got fours once for $200. Hedy had an
unbelievable run as well, getting fours FIVE times, twice dealt and once on a
redraw! She also had threes once and deuces twice. Strangely, she didn't get
aces one time. All this was in addition to a barrel-full of other non-bonus
quads. We finished the day winning $1,000 and felt good about turning around the
negative trend.
Our final day (Sunday) we again started off on the right foot playing 9/7
DB. Sitting next to Joan and Tom, I got aces three more times and Hedy got them
twice. We also hit small quads five times and broke for lunch ahead $800.
When we returned, however, our luck ran out and the profit from the morning all
went back and we found ourselves back at Square One. That afternoon we went
over to River Palms to play deuces and didn't have any luck.
When we returned to Harrah's we laid out by the pool for awhile then found a
couple of empty seats at a large bank of 9/5 DDB machines that had
progressives for the royal, aces, aces with a kicker and small quads with a kicker.
This, of course is right up Hedy's alley!
I couldn't do anything, but Hedy started to get some quads, then she hit
threes with a kicker for $208 and finally nailed the aces (no kicker) for $207.
Since we had to go to a Seven Stars banquet that night, she cashed out just
over $600 which made us $550 winners for the day.
So, after being down $3,000 after the first two days, we had gotten back
just over half and decided we were done gambling for the trip. Plus, we earned
$660 in comps and we'll be getting Cash in the Mailbox for our trip later on.
The banquet was very nice (we sat with Joan and Tom and Joyce and Al
Viviani, who we hadn't seen for years) and Tom even won one of the door prizes (a
Sony handycam). It was a very nice ending to an extremely enjoyable trip.
We're sure we'll be going back, possibly in the fall, but right now we're
getting ready for a two-night stay this weekend at Harrah's AC. We'll be seeing
Vanessa Williams Friday night and attending another Seven Stars party
Saturday.
Hopefully, we'll have as much fun as we had in Laughlin.
Regards,
CoachVee (Tom V) & Hedy
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