Hello fellow Reno devotees. The following is a copy of the TR that I sent to my
private list friends, three of whom convinced me that it might be of interest to others . They suggested that I publish it on the board. I haven't been doing that in recent
months, as I thought that the an overabundance of my lengthy TRs might be a tad too repetitious.
So, you are forewarned. If you don't enjoy reading long, anectdotal TRs, which contain quite bit of off-topic chatter, please hit the delete key, and avoid further annoyance.
For those among you, who do like TRs, hopefully, you'll find this one to be a pleasant read.
EH and I are back home from our quickie three day Reno trip. We had some fun, a few transitory and fleeting winning moments, a wee bit of aggravation, and no financial gain.
At check-out in the VIP lounge, I inquired about our playing time. I was told that we had played a total of 24 hours in a little less than 3 days. We started play on a Wednesday in the late afternoon, played all day on Thursday (except for a four hour hiatus at Atlantis) all day Friday, and about 4 hours on Saturday morning.
I'm happy to report (at least I've been told, that the Peppermill, unlike the Silver Legacy, goes by "trip average" coin-in rather than "daily" coin-in. Therefore, it does not "lower your average" to play on "half-days" as we did the first and last days.
Our play was 99% VP, with 1% WOF and some other silly $1.00 bonus wheel slot machine. For the most part, whatever we played immediately took a hike to the wrong side of randomness.
Our final talley (due to some unexpected Friday night heroics) was down about $400.00, as a family. At least $300 of that belonged to me. Considering that we were fully comped, the hours played and the fun and laughs we had while playing, this is not too terrible a result!
Usually, EH plays BJ at least a third of the time. He didn't even play one hand at PEPP on this trip. He wouldn't even use a $25.00 Matchplay coupon at BJ. (He did utilize for a losing sports bet, however.) The reason: At lower limits, PEPP has gone from the best BJ game in Reno, to one of the worst. It's now green chip minimum for single deck play or doubling on any card except 10 or 11. If someone wishes to play two hands, with splitting and doubling, this can be quite an expensive game.
We did find a very good BJ game at the Atlantis, including a few nickle and dime tables, that had advantageous rules.
The next time we go to Reno together, we would consider staying at Atlantis. I checked out the VP inventory (in another losing effort) and determined that they have almost everything that can be found at PEPP, but what seemed to be a considerably smaller quantity of machines.
While I was at Atlantis I went into the VIP lounge, and introduced myself to a host, explaining my normal play. She was very receptive and friendly towards me, even offering to send us back to PEPP in a limo to pick up our stuff, and move us over to Atlantis for the last day and a hal of our visit. I thanked her, but told her that I couldn't do that to my longtime and extremely nice host at PEPP. I did tell her that I might call her sometime in the future.
The Peppermill experience was surprisingly disappointing, from beginning to end. Our room was sub-par, rather on the order of a slightly shabby (and I DON'T mean shabby chic!) 1980's Holiday Inn.
For some unknown reason we had been assigned a room in the old tower, which is badly in need of refurbishing. We stayed in this old tower previously, 15 or 20 years ago, and didn't think that it was terrific then. I think that they are still using the same bedspreads and drapes!
Since my host was not available, when we checked in, and the hotel was completely sold out because of a big weekend drawing, we didn't even try for a room change. We probably should have as neither of us became any more pleased with our accomodations.
EH told me that he was quite disappointed not to find a VP machine in our room. He insisted that, since he could find 3, 5, 10, 50 and even 100 play in the casino, he wanted to find foreplay in the room! What can I say. He still thinks like a teenager!
I did do a quick casino tour to see what might be missing since my last visit, just after the infamous deep-sixing of the 5 and10 coin .25c FPDW. Most everything that I had played in the past was still in place.
One notable exception was the absence of all the VP machines that previously ringed the bar/live entertainment area, where all the drawings are held. These machines, which included 9/6JOB and 8/5BP, have been replaced with noisy penny slot machines. Now, if one is hanging around that area for a drawing, there is not much to do but wait and listen for your name. I believe that this is a really dumb marketing decision, on the part of the Peppermill. We didn't see even one person playing the penny slots, during the drawing. At previous drawings, we had attended, the VP machines were actively played, even though the games were of the variety usually profitable for the casino.
I had read on the board that the 10/7DBprog. that was moved from the original location (where the Poker Room now stands) had been downgraded from 10/7 to
9/6. What I discovered was that, while the FL/FH pay was 9/6, that the machine
had been converted to DDB. Under those circumstances, not such a bad pay schedule after all. Particularly since there are prog. payoffs for all made hands from quad 2/3/4 through the RF. The SF was at $90.00+ and the RF was over $1100. Not too shabby IMO.
The 10/7DBprog. with same kind of prog. payoffs, is still available at the entrance to the coffee shop arcade. We played this bank a lot, with varying degrees of success. For some reason, EH became enamoured of a not FP Double Aces & Faces (shorted 5 coins on the ST to 20, and on the FL to 30) and lost several Bennies chasing the elusive
Aces. I told him not to, but he didn't listen. Since he was doing much better, overall, than I was, I wasn't too vehement in my protests.
There is also a .25c 10 coin 9/6 JOBprog. in the Cabaret Bar that has progs. from 4OAK, and up. This should be a smooth and fun play. It wasn't kind to us that day.
As to meals at the Peppermill, while Oceano and the Steakhouse were generally very good, we were less enthused by the buffet spreads, which we previously deemed to be excellent. We tried the Buffet for both breakfast and dinner. We thought that the quality and the variety of the food left much to be desired. IMO, the buffet at the Atlantis is much superior. Even the Silver Legacy buffet, which has never been great, has a better variety of food items.
For the most part, our VP play results ranged from mediocre to poor. The first afternoon, I ran through $200+ of freeplay in about 45 minutes on .25c and.50c FPDDW, and 10/6/40DDB. Since I then had to switch over to my own bankroll, it was all downhill from there. By bedtime on Thursday, I needed a royal to get close to break even! ) - :
We did have a couple of shining moments. One occured while we were playing 100 play nickles (9/6JOB) as partners. $25.00 per hand is WAY too strong a game for me, but EH talked me into the challenge. We did well initially, and cashed out quickly after doubling our $200 investment.
The Peppermill used to have 1c and 2c hundred play. I loved this play and put the three available machines to good use on my visit last summer. I was disappointed to see that 5c is now the minimum denom. on those machines, as well as on the 50 play inventory. Even with the fairly smooth ride that 100 play JOB usually provides, this can be a VERY costly game, unless you stick to a pre-determined and low loss limit!
The second nice session occured on Friday night when we were seated side by side, at a short pay .25c NSUD prog. On this bank, the FH and FL are each shorted one unit, but the prog. payoff is made from the WRF through the RF. It's a fun play. On this evening the RF prog. was at about $1500. We each hit the WRF several times (for various prog. amounts, ranging from $35.00 to $45.00) before I hit the Deuces for $325.00, then again about 5 minutes later for $258.00. Then, a while later, EH hit the Deuces for about $270.00. For one brief, shining moment, the Deuce God shone on our machines.
On a VERY crowded Fiday night, we also were lucky to find a pair of good 5 play quarter machines to play, while waiting for them NOT to call our number in the drawing. We each quickly turned a Hamiliton into a Benjamin on those machines, and were quite satisfied that our luck seemed to be on the upswing.
We felt that we actually had a chance, though a slim one, in the Friday night drawing, as each account holder was only given ONE ticket to throw in the bin. The Saturday and Sunday night drawings, were to be play based. The number of tickets one had in the drum was solely determined by the amount of coin-in generated. In drawings in which the number of tickets are based on play, drawings have little appeal to us. We are not high enough rollers to amass the enormous number of drawing tickets needed to be successful in endeavor.
In any event, we were not called to "spin the wheel". Of those 50 or so that did spin, a few won $1000 and the others pocketed amounts ranging from $100 to $500.
As for my old girlfriend, the Royal Flush Goddess, she must have been getting her hair done ! Outside of a few "RF scares," neither of us managed to catch all 5 pieces. My great 2006 string of consecutive RF wins has unfortunately ended.
Both of our non-stop flights, on American, were on time and efficient. It did seem though, that we spent too much time aloft, for the short time we were in Reno!
~Babe~
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