PepperMill - Its been kind to me over the years with its blinding Neon lights. I hit my first Nevadan dollar royal here on the bank of 8 full pay dollar deuces they used to have. In recent days, I've been lured by the lights coming from across the street, The Atlantis, a great hotel - but I have a horrible bottom line there.
Check-in: This one was easy. The clerk told me their computers were going up and down and the only Grand Suite they had was on the third floor. I quickly took it , and good thing. The computers went down for good, and most guests had to wait until 4PM to get their room key, as the computers were scrapped and they went to a pen and pencil system. There are 2 elevator systems to the 3rd floor, one gets you to the front desk, the other gets you to 2nd floor gaming/ slot area.
Restaurants -
Oceano - Excellent Sea food, but designer portions. The Mahi tuna was great. Its expensive, but high quality LA cuisine. Coupon paid for this one
Romanza - Over the top Italian dining, great food too
Coffee Shop - Its always been good. Play Keno while there.
Promos: -
The free play was super generous. They gave me $225 as part of the offer, and on Thurs - added an extra $200 to my account for $425 in free play total. The free play does not work on the 50C deuces.
Match millions - not my favorite promo, I managed about $35 in free play , plus a 40% off a gift shop item ( did not use it btw ).
Gambling:
WEDS-
9/6 double double aces with faces. I played this 99.4 game, simply because its the highest paying aces with faces I have ever seen. Its on the same machines as the full pay deuces: -$300
10C/25C NSUD and 9/5 super double multi-strike: no luck again: -$600
Keno in the coffee shop - they have some great keno at the Mill, but slow - don't play more than 2 games ( 20 minutes ): Even
25C 10/7 DB progressive: +$200
10/6 DDB 50C/$1 ( note SF pays only 40, and at $1 level $4300 RF ) : -$300
5C/10C Super times pay with 9/6 jacks and 9/6 ddb: -$300
-THURS-
50C Deuces - no luck on these , no ducks either: -$700
5C 5 play 10/6 DDB multistrike - had some moderate success including a 3000 coin round: +$400. ( note there are 2 of these in seperate locations )
5C/10C NSUD spin poker/deluxe - not much luck: -$300
1C 90 penny- 5 reel double diamond slot with $26,000 progressive. Not sure, but its next to impossible to get a seat on these cause locals were telling me its due to hit "any second" and was the highest its been. Played 1 hour on a lousy $40, but ended up with zero - fun, fun , more fun. They are upstairs: -$40
5C 2nd floor , 16/13 deuces progressive. At the time it was a positive play as the royal was over $800, and 4 ducks $150. I should have played longer, for I quit for dinner , but after dinner the 2 top prizes were taken down, and the machines were mucho negative again: +$100
- FRI -
This was my last day at the Mill, and I was down $1500 , Go figure, I'm in VP Heaven playing nothing but full pay games! I started out at 7:30AM, playing the super times pay - which had a seat open ( There are 3 machines , almost always taken by the "penny pushers" ). The guy next to me was playing 2 machines at once , both penny 3 play jacks. On a big score , he showed me he had actually won 1000 coins ( $10 ) and said "now , were cooking". I thought to myself, I need 150 of those to break out even here - penny play is no help. So, I played the 5C/10C jacks 10 play and hit absolutely nothing - and wasted $400. Discouraged , I walked over to the Oceano bar , where they had the best play in the house - the $1 10/7 DB progressive. Wasted $200 playing it, getting nowhere. Bad morning so far, In 1 hour I had managed to blow 600 more dollars, playing games with average EV over 100% ! The nature of gambling - is to take risks, Certainly there is a cash machine nearby and a $200 extra investment in 10/7 is still worthwhile ? - but let me change machines first - observing the machine serial numbers and using numerology to select one ( don't try this at home kids ! ). After about 10 minutes on my "new" machine, I held the worlds crappiest 3 card RF hold , the ugly ATK of hearts and voilaI hit the $1 10/7 progressive at the Oceano bar for a $5268 hand pay! The pro at the machine next to me , snarled at me in disgust as if my name was 'Rob A. Royal' ! They took my picture, and I gave the attendants a generous $80 tip. An amazing thing happened on my way back to the room. I put in $20 to a "fort Knox" dummy slot. I got lucky and cashed out a winner .... $37.50 ! I then proceeded to parlay the money into a more "reasonable" machine, the stingy
10/6 DDB 50C/$1 machines. I played the 50C and got the Knox money up to $60. At that point I had to check out in 1/2 hour, so in do-or-die fashion I
switched to $1 DDB. Getting it up to $150 , I decided to quit should it reach $200. As luck would have it 2 hands later I drew to 2 aces...AA3 ...
for a $2000 hand pay. Quite amazing , but in the course of 1 hour, I had just won $7268 in jackpots! Saved by the bell - thank you Peppermill for making this Reno trip a profitable one.
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