Visitreno

[Mammothgambler]

Hi, hope everyone is doing well! Just back from another overnighter in Reno and once again, all my favorite machines pulled through for me, and I returned home with another W2G - that's a total of 5 within the past month! Hope it keeps up…

Due to my recent play activity at Harrah's, I was rewarded last week with a whopping $200 of free play per WEEK mailer between Reno and Tahoe for the entire month of April. I'm still trying to figure out why they keep sending me the bulk of it for Tahoe, when Reno gets the most play. It would be awesome if I could figure out how to get that switched, but the Total Rewards center keeps telling me that my home casino is Reno. I've mentioned it before, but I have yet to figure out how they work their system! I will say that the 4x multiplier days for Platinum players they've been honoring this period on Mondays has gotten my rewards credit balance skyrocketed, and they gave me 1000 reward credits for this month's "free gift," in addition to a leather planner/organizer for my birthday gift. If only I had something to plan for!

Got to Reno at about 12 noon on Monday, and although $55 of my free play for this week was for Tahoe, I decided to pass up the second bus ride and head downtown - I think I'm trying not to get stuck in Tahoe for too long so I don't play away that Quick Hit jackpot from last month. I was comped a west tower room on the 22nd floor at Harrah's Reno, and this one actually had an awesome balcony overlooking the Freight House District and stadium. The front desk attendant was telling me that there are only a few of these in the hotel, so I really didn't know they were there. I was one of the first in line at the dinner buffet at Carvings, so everything was really fresh. Looks like they finally got their prime rib dialed in. My $25 of free play went in about 10 seconds, but I was able to round up a few $200 mixed $1 Blazing 7s hits between Harrah's and the Silver Legacy with a minimal amount of cash.











Headed down to the Peppermill and had no luck on my $30 of free play. Went to the Atlantis from there, but just took a quick look around, as they told me my $15 of free play there wasn't valid until midnight.

From that afternoon until about midnight, there were no major wins and I was down about $800. That's when I usually stop playing, chill out for a bit, and wait for a new day to start and new luck to roll in, so at 12:02 am, I was back downstairs!

I decided to head back over to the Silver Legacy, as most of the machines I play at Harrah's had winning symbols on the boards and most likely recently paid out. Right before leaving, I stopped in the high limit room and got a $600 hit on a $5 Wheel of Fortune - a Wheel of Fortune symbol and 2 double bars. I also saw a man hit a $4500 jackpot on one of the new $1 models - he actually lined up the 2x3x4x Lucky symbols! Good knowing people are winning on something besides the bonus wheel spin - I haven't had much luck doing anything else on them.

After meandering around the Silver Legacy for a bit, with a few bonus wheel spins on the $1 Wheel of Fortunes, I went back over to the carousel of $1 Blazing 7s. The players club just notified me that I got bumped up and am now at Celebrity level. A few spins on each machine, "going around the circle" like I call it, and I wound up right next to the machine I hit the jackpot on a couple weeks back. About 12 spins in, I hit another progressive! $1513! I was cracking up because this time around, the Muzak came on and boomed, "Ladies and gentlemen, we have another jackpot winner here at the Silver Legacy! Where the stars play!" I don't recall that happening last time, or maybe I just didn't hear it. Click the first pic to view the video clip. The music and ching-ching noise that plays when the Jackpot Call Attendant sign flashes really keeps things interesting.







Back at Harrah's, I checked out the kiosk of $1 Double Diamond progressives in the Virginia Street casino, which I've passed by several times, but never played. It's a good mix of the Double Diamond Deluxe (the ones with nudge reels), the regular Double Diamond, and the Double Diamond Haywire. Looked like the progressive was right around $2000, and I was actually pretty amazed at the frequency of the smaller paybacks. No major wins, but when I looked up I realized I was playing them for about 4 hours straight with no major losses. Stepped over to the Cal-Neva, played $100 on a $1 Diamond Line Frenzy, and I think I finally called it quits at about 5 am, with a few more $200 mixed 7s hits along the way.









After checking out of Harrah's, I headed back down to the Peppermill. Got a $200 hit on the $1 2 coin Double Ten Times Pay, and that was about it, so I went back to the Atlantis to check on that $15 of free play. I'm not sure if there was a special event going on or if lots of people were just hungry, but I happened to notice that the lunch buffet lines at the both the Peppermill and the Atlantis were snaking several hundreds of feet through the casinos - more packed than I've seen them on holiday weekends.

Turns out that I wasn't able to find a decent machine at the Atlantis that would honor the free play, so I tried out one of the $1, 3 reel, 5 line Quick Hit machines that I'm so fond of. I finally found two more along the wall in the dollar area at the Atlantis - only other place I've seen them yet besides Harrah's Reno. On the very first spin, I got 3 free games symbols, 15 free spins, and about $178. For you Quick Hit and free games fans out there - isn't it a pisser when you get to that bonus round, and all of your free spins yield nothing - especially when spending a lot of money with no luck? I guess I got semi-lucky this time. My worst on that machine type has been 25 free spins with a 3 times multiplier and a 4 times retrigger - with absolutely nothing in return.

Got back to Mammoth yesterday just in time for a new snowstorm. Late winters are better than nothing I guess, especially when there's lots of free time to snowboard! I'll see where next week's free play gets me.

Mammothgambler

[NCISFan]

Good run of luck you are having. I hope I can have the same next month.

[Mammothgambler]

best of luck, enjoy your trip to Reno!

Mammothgambler

[LilyJDragonfly]

[Shooty]

Robert Manz, who invented several influential slot machines, including Blazing 7s for Ballys, died Saturday in an auto accident in Las Vegas. He was 65.

[BC Dave]

Thanks for the link Shooty. Makes me think about all the people behind the scenes of the industry that put Reno and Vegas on the map. (Not to mention created this fantasy land we love to patronize!)

I didn't realize Blazing Sevens had been around since '87. Here's to you, Robert Manz! I'll be sure to drop a few coins in the next Blazing Sevens machine I see.

[Mammothgambler]

Wow, tragic loss. Thanks for the info guys, I'll have to pay respect and hit up my machines in Reno and Tahoe next week!

Mammothgambler