Hello folks, got the gift of babble this trip.
Well, it's routine now. Win or lose, I got this Reno
trip logistics down pat. Drive to the park n fly.
Shuttle over with my pre-printed Southwest Boarding pass, whiz
thru security, get to the gate 15 minutes before they
board (gotta get that down to 10), hail the limo
driver in the Reno airport who's standing there with
his "Mr. MARK" sign, check-in at the Front Desk
(VIP line if there's a queue-up), head to my Suite,
hang up a few shirts, stuff my pockets with the bare
essentials and get out to the casino floor where the
video poker machines are at! I'm usually sliding in
my first 20 or 100 within one hour of when the
airplane wheels touch the Reno runway.
My first shock this trip was that my favorite game,
.25 10/6 Dbl Dbl Bonus (DDB) was downgraded to 9/6
since my last visit in May. The high limit area still has multi denom $1 a=
nd up 10/6.
So, I had to change my game
plan, which was to play a lot of .25 DDB.
Another missing machine was the $1 coin Joker Wild
that I hit the Progressive Royal on in May. Replaced
by a fancy new machine, with exactly the same paytable
& prog Royal, so that was OK.
So, 1st hand I played was a dealt FH on $1 DDB, Yay.
Good omen, perhaps. I
enjoyed a healthy session, got Quad 10's for +$250,
but was down $200 after half hour.
A newish game called Five Aces is at the Peppermill -
2 machines. I got three $100 hands of Quad As on this
machine (funny - quad As show up more often - hmmm)
plus a Str8 Flush paying $125, but ended up
only even for a 2 hr session. This machine is super
new, beautiful large and clear graphics, and is super FAST: 1000
hands per hour my guess: just outside Oceano.
Broke for 3-4star dinner, Big Ribeye steak in a linen-tabled
classy joint, The Steak House,
after dinner, I tried the high limit DDB again.
Scored a Str8 Flush for +$250, but dropped another
$300 for the hour session before I headed for the
room, uncharacteristically early for me, 9:30. Got to
sleep around midnight after surfing the TV channels.
Down $750 Day 1.
Gaming at 8AM Day 2. I have never been awake at this
time of day on Tour, unless I've stayed up all night.
Felt good. Played some .50 9/6 DDB, dropped $300. Dropped
down to .25 machines, trying out some different games
to see how I did, looking for The Game to replace .25 10/6
DDB . Dropped a hundred on NSUD quarters, before attacking the $1 DDB in H=
igh
limit. Dropped $400 and fled. I tried 10-coin dollar coin Jacks or Better (=
JoB)- 4 old
machines - The
Progressive Royal starts at $9400 & got up to $10,000
while I was there. Dropped $200 on this one, despite
Quad 8s +250. Also went up to $1 NSUD as I felt quite
comfortable on this game and can play it fast. Dropped
200 on this despite a nice wild Royal for +125. I was
down 2/3 of my trip stake at this point. Panic of
sorts, but a familiar panic.
My new plan was to play a game hard with my remaining
cashola, a game I know well and a game with many
single hand paybacks that could recoup my loss amount.
So we're talkin' $1 coin or more. Even tho' I sensed a
stubbornness in the RNG (that's a joke dear reader)
and had lost about $1k on it
so far, I decided to return to the 10/6 $1 DDB in high
limit. I pounded that thing and I couldn't catch a
Quad. I logged 3 full houses, zero quads (REAL bad
stats) in a long session where I kept stuffin' in the
benjamins. I started thinkin' that these machines
where rigged with a new-fangled RNG chip to squash
people in short spells- a silly conspiracy theory, but
I was getting driven MAD! Plus I completely tapped out
of the cash I had brought for the trip. It's about 2PM
Saturday. I go home Tues night. Hmmm.
So, I head up to the room, grab some nice clothes and
empty my suitcase. I take them down outside the front
of the casino to see how much I can get for them. No,
wait, I can get cash out of the ATM! Yeah, that's
better. 5 benjamins to last me the rest of the day.
So, maybe it's a Zen thing. You must reach ground
zero, Grasshopper, before you will be "enriched". I
play .25 Triple play and pick DDB. I
practice at home on a triple play handheld, but I
rarely play it in the casino. About ten hands into it,
I score quad 7s for 250 (.25) creds +62.50. Then a
little later, holding AA, I score the 2nd highest
jackpot in this game: Quad As with a 2 kicker.
2000 cred +$500. Yay! I carry on,
figuring to stop play & cash out when I get to a nice
round number of credits, about ten hands later, I hold
QJ diamonds and score a ROYAL : 4000 creds +$1000. no
bells and whistles, just a credit total that is up
over $1500. I cash it out.
I don't go nuts now, I'm gonna make this treasure last.
I dabble again, looking for the game I can make gains
in. .25 Joker wild, $1 NSUD (hit 2 Wild RFs), .25 DDB
(the 9/6 version -hit 3 quads), stayed even in a short
return to $1 DDB (thinking, gotta get back on that
horse!) thanks to a Quad 9 for +250; .50 DDB and .25
Nevada bonus poker. All very short sessions up or down
$100 on each. Net: even. Room break at 4:20 with $2000
in my pocket.
Back for a session on Five Aces, I got 4 sets of Quad
aces, +$100 each (great for a $1.25 wager!) and one of
them was on the deal! Pretty exciting, drawing one
card hoping for the 5th Ace and a $1500 payoff. But it
was not to be.
Went for the Buffet dinner for expediency, comped of
course, but what a zoo. I shan't return. Food was
fine, but the people in the buffet area can get piggish and rude as it gets=
crowded , I
think I'm spoiled on the fine dining spots and I'd better stick to them.
After dinner, I played
until 10PM, spare you the details, nothing of note,
dropped $150, no biggie. But it took a little foray
into the Slot machine area to save me - I WAS down
more than that. $1 coin slot - I think I was only
playing one credit to make it last, but a DBL - 7 -
DBL netted me 320 dubloons. Cool. Oh yeah, Saturday
night I tried to sign up for the Live Hold'em
tournament held at 2PM Sunday. I was told to come back
at 11AM Sunday to sign up.
Day 3 -Sunday - I'm on the casino floor at 10AM,
feeling dapper and chipper. I drop 200 into .50 DDB
and play a good even session on .25 "18/7" Joker wild. I
hit the poker room at 11AM and about the 10th person
to sign-up for the Hold'em tournament, pay my $35
buy-in.
I get in mini-sessions on 8 different types of
machines, net about even. I do well at NSUD, plus
money meaning I hit a few Wild royals (WRF). ANother
thing I don't like about many of these "new" machines
is that you can bet up to 25 coins instead of the
usual 5 max. So, if you accidentally touch the "Bet
Max Credits" button, you are suddenly gambling a LOT
more of your session stake. I hit a WRF after doing
this on quarters, figured it out after my bankroll
went up $156.25, normally it would've gone up 125
(.25) creds: $31.25.
So at 2:00 I'm heading for the poker room, got my seat
assignment ("Table 5 Seat 8"). I sit in the wrong
chair 4 times, instantly giving me a "Dumbass" table
image. Perfect. But I'm on-time for the first deal.
I'm comfy here, having tried it in May. After folding
a few hands, scoping out the players, seems like a
friendly, family-pot type crowd. Either that or
they're sharks starting out cautious like me (not
likely). So, my on-line experience says to play the
opposite of the table to profit quickly.
<personal strategy expose' DELETED!>
I played this way
for the first hour, scooped big pots on 88 which
turned to trips on the river, an A2 under that matched
a flopped 2 and was big enough to WIN! (Lot of
mumbling from the players that dropped - "How could
this guy bet a pair of deuces?" and "I folded a pair
of __"...) Then another 22 under that won against two
opponents, I don't know why they stayed in without a
better hand - that's a crazy way to keep even a known
liar honest. Anyhow, early chip leader at my table,
and it's a different game when you are the chip
leader: you get to be a jerk, you can afford to stay
in for more flops, you can push short stacks around
with your extra chips. No matter what hand I hold, I
can push someone ALL IN, and they have to decide if
this is IT, THEIR last hand possibly. They usually
fold, and I steal the tiny pots, but the little people
at my table can ill afford to keep losing these tiny
pots. I can afford to.
So, there are 5 tables of 10 players and the house
dealer of course. My chip stack assures me of making
at least the last two tables. It's down to 17 players
at two tables when another big dog joins my table. He
and a few others pilfer some of my 11,500 in
tournament chips (we started at 400 !!), but I make it
to the final table of ten. A few players go out
within a few hands - they are shorter stacked than I,
but they all make noble double-ups from ALL-INs. I
quickly learn about the problem: Blinds are going up
(mandatory bets from the first two players left of the
rotating "dealer" button). And rather than go ALL-IN
when the blinds get to you, you have to pick a hand to
go ALL-IN on. Unless you are lucky, this is often
less than a hand you would typically play when the
blinds are lower.
So, top 7 finishers get cash: in order: $1120,
$720, $400, $240, $175, $145, $100. I make the final
7. Then final 6, then 5. I had to fold some good
hands, I was short-stacked and the chip leaders pushed
me off hands (like I would if I were King), probably
knowing I was playing a survival game to let others go
ALL-IN (and hopefully lose) before me, so I can finish
higher and get more money. Tournaments are really
different like this. But I have played so much
on-line, that I KNOW THIS MENTALITY and how to play
it, and that experience helped me tremendously for
this IRL tournament. I made my own nice
comebacks,putting somebody out when I put him all-in,
me holding QQ, he K9.
Then, a big dog put me all-in after the flop, me
playing J5 to make top pair with the J64 on the board,
to his 99 under. But, then I had to make my stand
with A6 suited, to which I called with about 2/3 of
my chips a big dog's big pre-flop raise. The flop was
QJ6, all 3 of a suit that was not my suit. I folded
after the next bet, crippled. My final hand was the
next one, I played a 6-9 of clubs, big dog called my
all-in with K-5 of clubs. No flushes from the board,
but he hit his K, I hit my 9. Good night, but what a
RUSH!. Collected $175 for placing 5th of 60 entrants
in my 2nd IRL (In Real Life as opposed to on-line)
No-limit Hold'em Tournament.
I had to cancel my 4PM dinner reso at the new fancy
seafood place, Oceano, because I placed so high in the
tournament. I VP-ed for another few hours, ended up
down 600 from the start of the day, but only -100 on
any type machine, times 6. TIME FOR a free dinner.
Back to steak house for the melt in your mouth 12-16
oz. Filet Mignon Grand with the killer Bernaise
sauce. After dinner, not too bloated, so I eased back
into "it" by playing quarters. Slow drain of a couple
hundred until midnite. Then I decided to play dollar
games, but I walked away if I dropped 200 on any one
game. $1 NSUD, Bonus, JW, $2 JoB - lost 200 on each.
with my last 300, I hit high limit for $1 DDB. Poof.
Just like at 2PM Day 2, I'm tapped. only
it's day 3 and it's 2:30 AM and I'm tired. I manage
to get to sleep quickly without thinking about my dire
straits.
I start day 4 by watching a moving ESPN biography of a
famous poker player named Stu Unger. He won the World
poker CDhampionship at Binions in 1986 (?) at a young
age in his early 20's. Super smart, steely-eyed,
aggressive. Even at the final tables with the best
seasoned pros in the world, he was described as a
hungry lion in a chicken farm. He was feared, became
incredibly wealthy quickly, millionaire many times
over, but fell into the vices of drugs & drink, nearly
killing himself many times. He seemed to survive
only because he had a daughter that he wanted to help
raise. The guy made a comeback in the early 90's and
won two more prestigious televised poker tournaments,
but he was totally emaciated. He died with $800 to his
name 7 months after entering his last tournament, a
tournament that he couldn't even sit down to the table
at as he was wasted in his hotel room and wouldn't
leave it. They showed an interview of the announcer
for the current Poker championships that's on the
Travel Channel. This guy gave the eulogy at Stu
Unger's funeral in 1993. The announcer broke down
during the interview. On the re-start, he said he
hoped Stu would be remembered for his amazing prowess
"on the green felt" and not his personal problems away
from the tables. Very moving segments.
So, I get to gaming about noon Monday. I have no money
(again), so First stop: cash machine for my $500. I
stick to quarters. My brief forays to $1 machines are
short, I quit when I'm up $50 or $100. I had one
poignant moment on $1 Joker wild. I'm up and down, I
get it back up $50 after hitting a wild royal for
$125. I hit the cash out button, take my ticket, spin
around to say something to the old lady playing a $1
machine a couple seats away. She senses me looking her
way and looks over. I say, " I think I lost my
nerve...." She says I know what you mean,... I tell
her I'm heading back to quarters.
Next I play .25 triple play, 3 lines, NSUD. a few
hands in I'm dealt (wild) 2 2 2 Q Q. This is a trick
hand in deuces wild. It's worth 80 credits to hold
all five. (times 3 for my 3 lines). But if you toss
the Q Q and are lucky enough to draw the 4th deuce,
that hand is worth 1000 creds. So, I KNOW the answer
is "I'm here to gamble", but I still take the time to
look it up on the cheat sheet. Quick plug, kudos to
my brother who made nice laminated cheat sheets for
joker wild, deuces wild (full-pay version, not NSUD)
and DDB. Great font and good cheat sheet with key
hands bolded, I used them often in May and this trip.
So, I look up under 3 deuces: a dealt Pat wild royal
is worth 25.000 per coin. Pat 5-of a kind is worth
15.000. [actually s/b 16.000 for NSUD !!] Just holding the three deuces is=
worth
14.940 [probably more in NSUD, I know, I know]. Even tho' it's worth slight=
ly less than
5 of a Kind, I hold the 3 deuces only and am rewarded
with a 4th deuce on line 2 for +$250. Yay. A little
later I am playing .25 Nevada Bonus, a game that pays
6-1 for trip Aces (normally 3-1) and pays 1000 for
quad Aces. I toss all five card and DRAW 4 Aces for +$250.
I play on, only gaming for 5 hours this Monday, day 4, and piddle away thi=
s
$500 win to finish down $200 on the day.
I have a nice Italian dinner in the Romanzo restaurant
inside the Peppermill. A great rich Fettucini
Carbonara, but the highlight is the baked Polenta
appetizer. Kind of a corn meal stuffing with Mediterranean
sausage, roasted peppers and garlic and mozzarella,
the top is crisped by baking and a tasty tomato sauce
surrounds it. Top notch, new food experince for me. I
head back to the room, summarize my gaming notes,
watch some TV, phone my brother: I
give him the long summary, stringing him along thru
the highlights and the low-lights. It's 10PM, I'm
tired and I only have $300. Rather than risk tapping
out, I decide to use that $300 (+ my day 5 cash ATM
w/d) for my final day "comeback". I crash.
I had set my alarm for 6:30AM Tues. I wake up but I lie there a while, sche=
ming on
which coin-level and which game will I be most omfortable on
for my 100% comeback effort. I decide to play $2 JoB, it has low-ish varian=
ce, PLUS
it has a Prog Royal near $10,000, which would net me a
tidy profit WHEN I HIT IT. I get my $500 from the ATM
& I am at the sports bar at 8AM. The casino is
frighteningly quiet and tidy. All the chairs on the
empty machines are pushed in neatly. There's not trash
nor people on the floor wandering
around aimlessly making noise. The silence is calming.
I order coffee from the lone bartender, and we chat
amiably as I am his only customer. Reminds me of Jack
Nicholson's bar visit in "The Shining". Surreal. I
guess it's not a holiday, and this is the way the
casino is during a normal weekday. I like it. This
early-morning world may be worth investigating. I
play a .25 (9/6) DDB at the bar and hit quad 7s for
+62 on the 3rd hand. Rather than cash it in, I am
enjoying the moments: I rarely play bar-top machines
and rarely chat with the bartender- they are always so
busy and the conversation seems so shallow. So, I
enjoy the shallowness of the conversation and drop the
$100 I fed into it initially. I realize THAT is not
in my plan for this last day's $800 stake comeback. I
move over to the $2 JoB.
I am on my 2nd hundred when I hit my first quad for
+250. I keep a cursory count of my full house hits
(10) as they are worth $90 each and I'd been counting
hits over $62. A 2nd quad puts me up $200 on this
machine. I cash out as I need a restroom break. I
make a quick visit as a change-of-pace on the .25 JW,
up $20, then back to my $2 JoB plan. A quick quad and
3 FH's puts me up $300, so I decide to cash it for
walkabout with that good old "profitting" spirit. I
make a visit to my nemesis $1 DDB in high limit. I'm
on my 6th $100 when I get dealt quad Jacks for +250,
then Quad 8s put me only down $150 for this DDB
session, so I cash it out. I scurry back to $2 JoB.
With only $100 IN on the JoB, I'm betting $10 a hand,
I hit 6 FH's and 6 quads over a happy couple hours. I
cash out up $600 for this session. Up $850 for the
day. Yay. Quick visit to my room to pack my bags and
check out, bags to Bell desk where I reserve my limo
for 6:45, 7:40 flight.
Maybe I could play this bank of $2 JoB for the rest of
my day, maybe not. They are somewhat slow and somewhat
uncomfortable uprights, meaning your arms have nothing
to lean on like the slant tops tha thave a padded
rail. It is a bit awkward and uncomfortable: less so
when you're winning of course. Anyhow, I seek out
un-crowded slant tops, win $50 of .25 Five Aces, drop
200 on $1 NSUD, drop 100 on .25 Nevada and JW. I
decide to hit the $1 JW like I have been hitting the
$2 JoB. Commit. This is the machine that has a Prog
Royal that is up to $5570. The older version of it I
hit on my last day in May, and I really like JW. I had
two long sessions down 400 but came back to cash out
even, followed by down 300 but come back to even. In
between these sessions, I piddled away 100 on .25
SLOTS.
So, it's time to dine at Oceano, the new
Seafood-themed restaurant. I had a certificate from VIP Promotions for $10=
0
there, and I gotta spend it by myself. So I have two
pricey glasses of Chardonnay - Reserve 2002 from
Sonoma and a Rombauer. I have tempura huge prawns
appetizer. Course 1 is a Yoshi roll Sushi: I order two
servings, mistake, each serving has about ten of these
things: asparagus, mango, salmon, & rice rolls, wrapped with spicy crab, t=
opped with
a sweet brown sauce sprinkled with
crushed macademia nuts. a little wasabe & ginger and
I used my chopsticks and ate both platters. NEVER
tasted sushi so good. So, the waiter thinks I've had
enough, but I answer his challenge by ordering a 2LB
boiled Maine lobster. Some people pay $35 for this
according to the menu, but I gots me a Certificate. He
recommends the "neat" serving, just tails and
claws/legs. Yep. But it is BIG. and I gotta do a
little cracking and scraping. I slog thru all but the
one smaller claw. I am stuffed like cow the day
before slaughter. I find the time is 6:30, so I head
to high limit area and throw $100 into the $5 slots.
nothing. I'm on the phone to the Bell desk for them to
check my flight departure status on their computer
internet screen. 1/2 hour late. great I say, I got one
more thing on my list: My nemesis. The $1 DDB. I put
in $100, about the 5th hand, I hold 44, I draw two
more plus a 3 kicker, for an $800 quad. CASH OUT. I'm
up $1200 for the day.
I get to the airport. The lady
at the gate scolds me for not checking in one hour
before the SCHEDULED departure. It's a full flight and
she has to take back my seat from a stand-by. I say
one hour before the CURRENT departure should be
enough, why would I want to sit and wait for an extra
hour? There's an "attitude" exchanged here, but no
more is spoken.
I profit $80 on the VP at the gate. While 90% of my
fellow travellers stand in line like good sheep, I'm
over playing VP. The pay tables are terrible, but if
you quit when you hit Quads, anyone CAN profit on any
paytable in the short term. But your flight might
leave without you if you hit a Jackpot over $1200 and
have to go thru the tax form paperwork. Always that
"risk". So, the gate airline lady turned out to
be our stewardess also. I'm glad I didn't argue with her at the gate. She h=
ip-checked
me a few times
during the flight, but this aisle seat was more
tolerable than sitting in the middle seat. Full airplane -ugh!
Anyhow, it was fun counting my loot 4 or 5 times, but
it was a net loss of just over $2K, so no re-joicing
in mudville.
So that's a long version, hope you enjoy it.
Cheers.
Mark