I'm a teacher and it was Spring Break last week so my buddy and I made one of our twice-yearly pilgrimages up to Reno from San Jose.
The town is still alive. Barely. He took a daytrip trip in February and couldn't believe how dead it was. We arrived on Wednesday night and it was extremely quiet. It was also the worst weather they've seen in ages for this time of year. The low on Wednesday night was 34 degrees. It was sleeting from the moment we arrived until Friday morning. I was unprepared for the cold and got stares for wearing shorts as I ran from casino to casino.
I split my money between Deuces Wild and the Craps table. My buddy is Craps only.
Non-Gaming Stuff:
ELDORADO.
Stayed Wed and Thu using the e-mail promotion of $39 for two nights. Asked for tower upgrade and it was empty enough for them to give it to us. My first stay there. I have been loyal to the Siena for more than five years, even when they made poor business decision after poor business decision. They took out the craps and put in a "party pit" using young scantily clad women to deal blackjack. I continued to stay there. They tried their hand at an ultra-lounge, I continued to stay there. The offers were hard to beat and a coupon flyer came in the mail every month. I liked the smallness, the fact that I didn't feel like I was overreaching when I talked with the VIP hostess. I loved the small coffee shop and its $3 breakfast and $5 specials each night. I even used coupons to go to wine tastings in the basement which included free appetizers. I loved the comfy beds, the free fridge, the orange-scented soaps, the turndown service, the river view, laptop safes and free wireless. But the best we could do mid-week this time was $70 a night. See you later, Siena. The Eldorado had none of these extra things. No laptop safe, wireless was $10, if you jostled the fridge you were charged for the minibar. On the other hand, it was $20 a night and I didn't have to make the dangerous "after midnight sprint across the river" to get back home after a night of gambling and cocktails.
Gaming Stuff in Geographical Order:
CIRCUS CIRCUS: Wed night dead, Thu night the $3 craps table was at capacity with bowlers in from Ohio. Neither of us did well, but it was nice to have a game. Pit boss was surprised by my player's card which I must have gotten in Vegas and not at their Reno property. Fancy raised numbers, I'm told.
SILVER LEGACY: On our Wed walk-through, was amazed that just a single player was at the craps table. The other two or three tables (which are usually full no matter what odds and minimums) were locked down. The FPDW machines, by the door appear to still be there.
ELDORADO: It might be time for a new promotion. Swiped our cards at the "Treasure" place, which uses graphics last seen in an Atari videogame from 1981. My "prize": a midweek price of $69. No thank you. Thursday night it was pretty crowded. Played no VP nor Craps here. Thanks for the room, guys.
FITZGERALD'S: I just mention it because, though I never gambled there, I still miss it. The sign proclaims "Closed for Renovation." Take your time. I also want the VPFree Admin to take this casino off the list.
CAL-NEVA: I've spent dozens of hours at this craps table. $3 minimum, 3/4/5x odds. That certain smell that can only mean Cal-Neva. Dead on Wed, barely alive on Thu.
SIENA: On the last trip we added our names to the loud chorus of those angry with the missing craps (10x odds and $2 minimumgood times) and we were told that the table would be back in 2010. The empty area where it had been was a depressing reminder of the managerial incompetence. On this trip, the Craps table was back and though the sign says $3 minimum and 3/4/5x odds, if you read further, in small print it says 10x odds. After asking the dealers what that meant, he told us that we could get 10x odds up to $100 (which is way, way out of our price range.) But unfortunately, the many locals who used to love playing craps on a seemingly daily basis there have yet to return. We spied three people playing, none of them the old favorites that we've nicknamed on past trips. I wonder where they've all gone. The entire staff and pit bosses also seemed to be new. At midnight on Thu, the table was locked up. Sad.
The good news of the tentative return of that craps table was tempered somewhat by the disappearance of my favorite bank of 10 Tito 50cent/$1 slant top NSUD outside the coffee shop. Not only are they gone, but nothing has replaced them. The space is big and empty. I asked a slot host for info and he said they were gone, not moved, but gone. They were beginning to populate the floor with those double-wide electronic multi-games with Keno/Slots/and VP and where you can see your expected return rate move as you change your coin-in levels. They also have something I've never seen inside a casinothere are individual clocks on each screen and if you press a few buttons you can see your coin in and return rate. The screens tilt and raise and lower with the touch of a button. There is also a way to play VP, at a 1% lower return rate whereby the computer will tell you which cards to keep using optimum play strategy. I didn't trust it, of course, but each time I consulted my strategy cards, the machine agreed with them. They have completely taken the thought process out of VP. And made it even less social than it was before.
We had some time so we took a drive to check out some far-away casinos which had low, low table minimums according to a seldom-updated website.
BALDINI'S SPORTS CASINO: Ouch. By "Sports" casino, they must mean that they have a single TV with ESPN on it. No table games of any kind. We lasted three minutes inside this tiny casino.
WESTERN VILLAGE: Expecting the worst (it's right next to a truck stop on I-80), we went in. And were incredibly pleasantly surprised. Craps for a buck, a decorating scheme stolen from the Peppermill (actually they're owned by the same people) including those HD travel shots, and bright mirrored lights. As I surveyed the VP, I was amazed to find individual machines with individual progressives. One quarter machine had $1250 for a Royal, and the one next to it had $400 for 4 deuces. As I stood staring at the rest of the paytable and trying to figure out the math, a kindly slot hostess came by to ask if we had questions. After assuring me that the progressives were correct, she signed us up for their "player's club", which doesn't use a card, but requires that you check in once a day with a hostess who then (allegedly) tracks your play somehow. Between the two of us, we were given $35 in food for signing up, which though we tried, we couldn't spend at one sitting in their coffee shop. That one huge dinner (steak, eggrolls, bloody mary, pot of coffee, chicken cordon blue, potatoes, free deserts) proved to be the best non-Awful-Awful meal of the trip.
So while my buddy played the $1 craps, I set about finding the best Deuces Wild machine in the place. I was drawn to a $1 machine with a paytable of 5847/1341/226/80/65/20/15/10/10/5. Damned if I didn't forget my software to figure out that return while on the trip. After I got back I came up with a 102.92%. I am usually at quarter guy, once in awhile a 50 cent guy, so I felt like a whale as I played $5 a hand.
I also played a bank of three quarter machines which shared a progressive which was in the neighborhood of $2400 for a Royal. My numbers (after I got home) put this bank at around 101.6%
I must say that playing WITHOUT a card in a machine was a new experience. No one was watching as I put hundreds in the machine and won and lost and took a break and came back. Just the one daily check-in. I'll be interested to see if any offers show up in the mail. The hotel appears to be at the Motel 6 level, so I'm not sure that'd be a selling point.
I probably played VP at Western Village for ten total hours. I lost in the several hundred dollar range. But everyone on staff we came into contact with was friendly and old-school and small-time. The place was clean, the food was pretty good, the drinks were strong. I'll be back again.
Database changes:
--take FITZGERALD'S OFF
--Siena NSUD 50/$1 bank of ten is MIA
--Western Village has VP all over the place with pretty healthy progressives.