Day 1
Hello all.
My flight to Reno landed
about 10PM, this time coming from Buffalo
NY after a week visiting my
MOM. Limo to Peppermill, check in at nearly deserted main front desk, got
a familiar corner suite on a high floor of the Peppermill Tower.
I got to gaming about 11:30PM. Activated my $750 freePlay at the promo desk and
headed for the WMS multilines to load it up and do a cycle or two of Bonus, NSUDeuces
and DDB.
I started out at 5 line 50c Bonus, spending all of $350 of
freePlay. Then 5 x 50c Deuces, which scored me a quad wild 2222 on one line for
$500. Up 800. Gave back 400 playing 5 x 50c DDB. Switched to
25c x 10 line BP. Got a dealt quad 5 for $312 on the hand and up 700 for the
day after 30 minutes of play. Content I was.
Then, the unthinkable.
I got dealt a Royal.
Holy frickin Jackpots.
TKQJA diamonds. Photo on vpFree
Machine holds all the dealt royal cards automagically. The
credits start cranking in the lower left part of the screen. It takes a long
time, about 30 sec per 1000 creds if you let them run, so I took a photo,
before that annoying Call Attendant window comes on. Just by pressing the
deal button, the creds got to 40000 in a second. More photos.
So, this is MY SECOND $10,000 score this year, in the first
hour of gaming on this trip.
I know I was stunned, again. The attendant showed up,
then came back with the money guy in another 5 min. I signed the tax form and
took my copy. Coughed up a big (for me) $50 tip. Pocketed the bundle and the
tax form. What a start of a week in town.
I did a tour of my fave machines for the rest of the night,
got another $500 quad wild ducks, an $800 AAAA on $1 DD A&F and two
$1000 AAAA’s playing 10 x 50c Super Aces Bonus.
Quit at 3AM, UP $11,400 for a bit over 3 hrs “labor”.
The beginning of a trip always has optimism, but you sort of
expect a long dreary march punctuated with a few highlight hands, but No Hwhay
could I have thought I’d get another dealt Royal on a ten line play in the next
ten years. I mean, it’s a one in 650,000 hand occurrence. My new nickname “Dealt
Royal Boy” is sticking.
Day 2
gaming about 1pm. couple $1000 quad aces with kickers on 50c
DDB put me up $1100 early on.
I piddled that away and went into the red for the day so I
decided to take on some food at the Milano cafe counter: belgian waffle and
well done link sausages. Came out to find my pals M&L playing on
“my” machines - they’d just arrived. Hovered near even, when,
just like me after one hour on the floor, L hit a dealt Royal on multi-line. I
won’t say the amount she scored but it was a good one plus it was on the one of
the three WMS multi-machines that I haven’t yet got a dealt Royal. She earned
the nickname Dealt Royal Girl until we fuhgetaboutit.
I was down a thousand so I headed to the Oceano doors
to play $1 DD Aces & Faces. A very lucrative session- three plain old quads
for $250 each and a Bonus quad QQQQ with K kicker for $800 got me a plus $1400
run and back in the black on the day; and I stayed plus profit for the rest of
the day.
two quad aces playing 50c super aces bonus for $1000 each
a $1000 quad A w/kicker on 50c DDB.
three quads on $2 DDA&F for $500 each: all led to nice
winning sessions.
Oh yeah- a quick room break reealed host came thru with a
huge vegetable & fruit platter, six big bottles of water and a bottle of
Baileys.
Dinner break with M&L: we all ordered Halibut at Oceano
and I dropped a lotta Benjamins toward the end of the day, but I remained UP
$1000 on the day for 12 hours gamin’, 73 jackpots over $100 today, and no royals
and no tax forms for me. UP $12,400 (!!) for the tour. Heady
stuff.
Stayed up til 0:dark:thirty again, writing trip report,
gotta sleep.
Day 3
played from Noon:15 until 2:30AM today, with breaks for
brunch at the Milano cafe counter and dinner at Oceano: chicken Picatta: yum
The day started promising, about 2:00 I hit a Royal Flush
for $2000 & a tax form playing 50c x 10 line Super Aces Bonus. Photo on
vpFree. I held a lone Ace and was hoping for quad aces as they pay $1000, so
they are the focus in SAB. Proof that if you are going to spend mental energy
on hoping for a draw, you may as well hope for the top hand possible.
I also scored three quad 3s for 200 each in this long
session, finished it up 1400. Up 800 on the day at this point.
I joined M & L for some Pai Gow - just the 3 of us
filled the table playing two hands a piece, which could have been a lot of fun
because it was like having a private table, but we weren’t winning much at all.
My $300 in chips disappeared in about half an hour and I wasn’t game for more
torture. L got a six-card straight flush for $250 which earned the other five
hands $20 each in “envy”. A seven card SF would have been a monster payoff, but, hey, “Nice
Hand” L.
I went back to our new fave bank of three WMS multi-lines
and 50c x 10 DDB kicked my ass for down 800.
A long session of $2 DD A&F got me down 300, despite
four quads and a SF for 500 each.
Upped my denom to $1 x 3 line deuces and hit quad wild 2222
for $1000.
up only 300 on that session …
I made a pig-headed long losing run on $1 x 5 line Bonus
poker for down 1500.
Despite two nice jackpots, I emptied my pocket of $2300 of
my $12,400 day 1 & 2 profit stash when I stopped for dinner at 6PM.
I had a great session after dinner on the $1 DDB with suited
progressive Royal meters (hearts & spades near $7000) in high limit, with
quad 3’s with a kicker and quad Aces for 800 each. UP 1400 on the session
and hopes for a comeback on the day.
But, losing sessions outpaced winning sessions for the rest
of the evening 8-to-4. Highlight hands were mid-size: on 50c denom,
two wild 2222 for 500 ea. plus two bonus quads in DDB for 400 ea.; a bonus quad
on $1 DDB for 400; a SF for 500 and a bonus quad for 400 on $2 ACE$BP is all I
got to report. Nothing even worth a photo.
12 hrs play, 45 jackpots of $100 or more, DOWN 3200 for
the day.
I’m into the 10K bundle for 900 and tomorrow’s starting
stake. Ouchie.
Day 4
caught up on my sleep, slept til 2PM. got to gaming at 3:00.
I was in high limit and I heard the shift manager call for
an attendant to go to the Fireside lounge. My first thought: M or L getting a
handpay. I finished my session and headed to the Fireside, one of M & L’s
haunts on the bartop machines. Sure enough, there’s L getting a handpay. Found
out it was her 7th of the day. She had a good day Sunday with a dealt three-line
Royal and again today with 8 quad aces plus kicker (!!) I’m not the only one
having a great trip. They love to play
$1 & $2 DDB.
couple of pretty ones for me: Bonus quad QQQQ with the Jake
kicker for 800 on $1 DD A&F:
then, $625 for a dealt Wild Royal on 50c deuces ten line.
when you are dealt three wild ducks, you always want to hold
just the 222, but with a wild RF, it’s clearly the best option to hold them
all. Now quints, well, I ain’t no strict Dancer-style player, but the rank of the quints each have
different Expected Value due to WRF penalty cards. But I also consider my money
situation before deciding whether or not to hold or toss a pair when it comes with
three dealt wild 222. But that’s a whole ‘nuther tangent discussion….
down 900 on the day before dinner at Bimini steakhouse with
M&L. I went for the RibEye.
long losing sessions after dinner, on the multi’s. suddenly
I’m down 3500 on the day. I find myself in high limit playing single lines $2
ACE$Bonus, dropped 200 but scored three quads for 250 each, one was dealt.
I switched to $2 Deuces and this one hand about 10 hands
into the session reversed my balance sheet for the day in one fell swoop-
Dealt 8K RF Dealt Royal Boy is
back in the hunt. Note picture shows Payout message is missing two zeros after
the decimal point. weird. I’m glad it’s not considered a machine malfunction. Because
we all know the rule: Machine Malfunction Voids All Pays. RoyalFlusher posted a
photo of a quad that paid only for trips in a recent trip report from Las Vegas.
Now I gots me a $5K and a $10K bundle. Luckily I am wearing
long cargo pants with lots of pockets. The 5K bundle has a BLACK wrapper, by
the way. Returned to the multi’s and gave back 1200 until calling it a night at
midnight, early for me. With only 7 hrs gaming, I’m UP 3000 today, UP 12,200
for the trip.
Girlfriend (GF) arrives tomorrow eve. YAY.
Day 5
up befo’ noon today, found M&L at the Squashed display multi’s
which are are now in a big alcove west of the Peppermill sportsbook. I proceeded to lose all day, $1000 at a time,
until I started to dip into my $5000 bundle. That hurt. I even piddled away my
750 freeplay which I’d promised to GF. I DID remember to eat- a counter Pepp
breakfast at the Milano cafe.
GF’s flight was delayed an hour, so I used the extra time to
do a little gaming, no surprise.
But there was a surprise. Down 4600 for the day, I’m playing
$1 x 3 line Bonus poker (BP). Dealt 4 to the Royal.
Surprise! 4K RF same machine I hit the
dealt RF on Sunday. Puts me “up” to DOWN 600 for the day to here.
Kudos to host for setting up a Limo pickup for GF the day
before. I met GF outside as she’s getting out of the limo. she shared the ride
with a big ex-NFL player who’s in town for a celebrity golf tournament.
GF gets unpacked and we head to promo desk where she scored
her freeplay and hit a quad wild 2222 for 1000 creds before I did about 20 min
later, both playing 3 line. We played about 3 hrs overall, GF found some of her
fave slot machines. I dropped 700 more, with only a couple $200 bonus quads of
note. DOWN 1300 for the day. UP 10,900 for the trip. 13 Royals is the current
count.
We check out tomorrow then limo to Silver Legacy at 3:00. My
host at Silver scored us tickets to a 7:30 concert: “Celtic Woman”
featuring a virtuoso violinist. We’ll see if he got us VIP seats. Only the
third time I’ve attended a show on comped tickets in almost 15 years coming to Reno. I get offers in
mailers and e-mail for any show I want to go to. I like live shows, but it has to be something
I really wanna see to interrupt my gaming. The other two were Boston (rate it “A”) and Blue Man Group (rate
it D).
Part
2 June at Silver Legacy (day 6 thru Day 9 + Summary) on separate post.
~Mark My Words