Visitreno

[Mammothgambler]

Greetings friends!

Here's my trip report for this week that actually covers two separate road trips to Reno. It was awesome being able to get a few more smaller wins in this week, but my experiences at the casinos with rude people on Saturday were recordbreaking.

I set out on the first road trip on Wednesday, June 6, with a couple of neighbors and a comped room at the Grand Sierra Resort. The free play lineup for this trip was $20 at Harrah's on Wednesday, $110 at Harrah's on Thursday, and $100 at the Grand Sierra available anytime. I'm actually going through an experiment with the them right now - I think I mentioned that my first official trip there was back in March, and I hadn't been in there since it was the Reno Hilton. I played through roughly $400 on that first trip, and since then, I've been upgraded to Gold Level, and am receiving offers for 2 free nights and $100 of free play every two weeks. As of right now, I have these offers upcoming until the end of August. Unbelievable on the quick compensation, but I think they might be trying to lure me in as a newcomer and I'm sure it won't last forever. In my three trips there, I've spent about $600 of my own money, and I'm definitely not too satisfied with their slots, so I decided to keep going and just utilize the free play only to see if I can get any of the actual money I've spent there back. Not sure what it is, but all of the old standbys there like the Double Diamond, Ten Times Pay, Red White & Blue, etc. are all progressive vs. fixed pay models with crazy, outrageously huge top jackpots, and everything, old and new, seems incredibly tight - like, tighter than a bad day downtown or at the Peppermill. Not to mention this was the second trip where half the machines in the casino were unplugged and out of service due to all the remodeling.

The free play lineup for this trip was $20 at Harrah's on Wednesday, $110 at Harrah's on Thursday, and $100 at the Grand Sierra Resort available anytime. The room we were given was tons nicer than the one I had a couple of weeks back, and our friend's room had a completely different layout and included a refrigerator and microwave. I think it's kind of varied over there right now until they get all the remodeling done. My $100 of free play went within about the first hour, but I was able to clear about $36 off of it among a few different machines. Unfortunately, GSR doesn't allow free play use on their Wheel of Fortune machines (not sure why, everyone else does!), but with some spare change, I was able to get a $40 hit later on in the evening on a Double 2x3x4x5x Pay model. Although a small win, this was a milestone for me, as I think it's the only thing I've ever cleared off of a Wheel of Fortune besides a spin bonus…



A quick trip over to Harrah's got me a whopping $6 off of my $20 express play coupon. Oh well, better than nothing…

Back to the Grand Sierra an hour later. I think it's time to invest in some bowling shoes, because although their rates are awesome even if you're paying full price, shoe rentals are a whopping $4 and some change per session - yikes! Ate dinner at The Lodge buffet at a slightly discounted rate thanks to a friend's coupon, and gotta admit, it's definitely one of the better buffets I've been to in Reno. Huge seafood selection included at no additional cost (I'm allergic, so I always bum about not being to able to try anything!), and they've got an awesome special with unlimited beer and wine for an additional $3.99.

The next morning, it was back at Harrah's for only about half an hour. I left with $3.75 off of my $110 express play coupon. Like I said, better than nothing!

Back at the GSR. Super cheap $6 lunch buffet at Round Table Pizza, and an awesome 4 hour pool and hot tub session at The Beach. I witnessed a waitress unfortunately drop a whole tray of drinks out there, which rolled into the pool one by one - followed by an ink pen, the customer's credit card, and credit card slip. A couple of people dove into the pool to help her retrieve everything. Classic! Back to Mammoth down only about $35 of my own funds. I kind of felt sorry for my friends, as they were each down well over a grand. There's something going on with that electronic craps machine and cheap beer at the Grand Sierra where they just can't seem to get up! haha

I thought that was it for the road trips this week, but I got completely surprised on Saturday afternoon when I was at my massage therapist friend's house for a treatment - her boyfriend and our other friend walked in, and said they were Reno bound to watch the fight, just for the evening! Massage. Sauna. Hot tub. Beer. And back on the road 2 hours later - gotta love it!

Along the way, I realized I had no free play, so I requested we play downtown until the fight started, as my friends were planning on watching it at the Grand Sierra and I didn't want to risk playing any of my own funds there. Upon arriving downtown, I noticed it was packed - the streets were closed, bands were playing, booths were set up, and many hot rods and muscle cars were parked everywhere. For a second I thought Hot August Nights had come early, but it turns out it was the Rock 'N' Roll Revival that I had completely forgotten about.

We started out at Harrah's, and I was a bit disappointed to see that every machine in the $1 Blazing 7s kiosk was reserved for VIPs, with the exception of two: the one I hit a few months ago, and another one that just hit the jackpot last week. Enter the first incident with a rude, greedy slot player! I was checking out the carousel of Double Blazing 7s and went to the machine that's had a looming progressive jackpot for the past couple of months that's now up to just over $5900. The machine was not marked with a reserved sign, or marked as reserved, period, with no players card inserted, and nobody playing it. Right when I was getting ready to insert a bill, a very rude older man came running up and said, "Hey, that's my machine!" I apologized, but explained that there was no reserved sign, nor was anybody around the area that was playing or reserving the machine. He kept insisting that he wasn't a VIP, was able to do whatever he wanted, that it was just HIS machine, and didn't need to reserve anything! WHATEVER! Rather than complaining, I got up and moved to the next machine. Ten seconds later, his wife appeared, they kept alternating playing the machine, and that's when they decided to truly keep their machine "reserved" by actually staying on it. About ten seconds later, I got a mixed 7s $200 hit!



It gets better. These people were just plain downright mean, and when I got that hit, the man's wife jumped up, looked over at my machine, and gave me the stink eye! I got up, collected my ticket, did my lucky hand wave over the reels on her machine, and said, "That's what you get for making me move! A pox on your RESERVED machine, and best of luck!" I hate rude people!

Next stop: The Silver Legacy. A few spins on each $1 Blazing 7s machine, and I was able to snag another $200 and $300 hit. I often look at these pictures afterward and wish I could hit these things back to back to back, instead of playing through them a bit to get there, but that's gambling for you, right? The $300 hit was generated on a machine in the middle of the kiosk on the right hand side of the casino that I've affectionately titled "Dirty Reels" - the interior glass is caked with dust and needs a good cleaning. Gotta admit though, this is the third time ole' "Dirty Reels" has pulled through for me since March! A card slide at the Mansion yielded another free buy one, get one free coffee. Yay!





It was finally time to go over to the Grand Sierra for the fight, and since I was armed with only cash and no free play, it was good I was up about $250 upon arrival. As if downtown wasn't bad enough with the crowds, it only got ten times worse at the Grand Sierra - throngs and throngs of people in the casino, simply sitting at machines everywhere, making no efforts to play them whatsoever and catching a big attitude when real players were coming up wanting to play the machines. I hit up the kiosks of nickel and quarter Double Jackpot Triple Blazing 7s - the cheapest machines I've found over there to utilize when I don't want to spend a lot of money. Between those, a couple of random Quick Hits and Wheel of Fortunes, and I was back over to the main kiosk of $1 Blazing 7s. After having to ask three different people if they were actually playing the machines they were sitting at (one man was actually sprawled out drunk, laying across three chairs and three machines!), and politely asking them to get up when the answer was no, and I was able to get two more $200 mixed 7s hits.





Enter the next episode with rude, lingering people: A very elderly lady was walking around and wanted to sit down and play at a penny Quick Hit machine, which was occupied by a lady who had been sitting there for hours, not playing it, and not moving, period. Long story short, they got into a verbal altercation when the elderly lady simply asked the other woman to leave. Ten seconds later, she called security, who finally came and whisked the loitering statue away. A few people sitting around the area were literally clapping! I bought her a shot of Jack Daniels, thanked her for taking action as I had dealt with a few idiots myself that day, and wished her good luck.

By the time the fight was over, I was up about $400. At least I have a little faith now in the Grand Sierra with their machines actually being able to hit, but I have a feeling I'm still going to pursue my original plan of not utilizing any of my own funds there moving forward - I think it was just temporary good luck. I forget sometimes that in reality, that's what slots are.

After locating my friends, we met up with another friend who's a Reno local, and she suggested we eat at what's now one of my favorite places on the planet - Pie Face Pizza Co. on 2nd Street, located next to the El Cortez hotel, just a couple of blocks down from the casinos. I had never heard of it, and had actually never walked down that far past the casinos. Learn something new every day, and this place is awesome - very good stuff, huge variety of toppings available, and they have a very unique knotted-up pizza crust.

By this time, it was about midnight, and we probably should've just gone with our original plan of hitting the road to go home, but we all came to the agreement that we weren't done playing yet…and that we were back downtown! Five minutes later, I was on the iPhone booking a comped room at Harrah's.

Like I mentioned, we probably just should've gone home as planned, because in reality, that evening and morning yielded no further wins and about a $150 playback on my part, but definitely glad we stayed.

Next morning, I was up and out on the street to take some photos of the action. 9 am and the bands were doing sound checks and vendors were assembling their stations. Lots of local businesses had street booths, and I noticed the crew at Renown Health even broke out their collection of old-skool ambulances for the occasion.


















A quick stop at the Atlantis on the way out of the town so my friend could play his last $26 at the craps tables yielded him no results. I checked my point balance and it looks like a comped buffet is in the lineup for my next trip. As mentioned - a $1500 or so jackpot there would be nice, as I've unsuccessfully blown about that much over the past several years there without winning a red cent. Maybe someday.

Back in Mammoth still up about $200. What a crazy week! Next trip is in about a week, next Tuesday thru Thursday, where I'm comped two nights in a Spa Suite at the Peppermill. No free play for this upcoming trip with the exception of another $100 at the GSR next Thursday, but I have food comps at 4 different places, so I have a feeling I'll do most of my playing downtown. Has anyone ever tried the buffet at the Eldorado? I'm noticing the lunch buffet seems incredibly cheap at $7.99 for Gold members and above, so I think I'm going to give it a try. I was a bit too hung over to get my mashed potato burger at the Hash House, so saving that for next week as well!

Mammothgambler

[john]

Thanks for another fun and detailed report. Good to hear from the winners. We rarely read reports mentioning the Grand Sierra Resort on this board. It's almost like it doesn't exist. I hope you do as well or even better next trip.

[LilyJDragonfly]

The ElDo buffet is the best one downtown.... low-lighting, great selections, and pleasant staff... not to mention the price is outrageously cheap!

And I love that you tossed a pox on those rude players!

[BC Dave]

Good trip report and loved the pics. Glad you had enough luck to keep you going. John's right about the GSR - Good too hear it's doing some business and the food's good. And Lily's right about the Eldo's buffet - can't be beat! Good luck next week!