Visitreno

[dfens]

Happy holidays everyone! I hope 2013 brings everyone more trips to Reno and bigger jackpot wins!

Early Dec, my wife and I had four days off and nothing to do. We looked at each other, our eyes lit up and I immediately went to the shelf that we collect our casino offers. We sifted through our mailers like crazed maniacs tossing them over our shoulders in the search for something new to do. We found a mailer from Siena and we got excited because we never stayed there. I called the front desk and luckily they were gracious enough to allow us to use our comp offers on a Sat and Sunday.

This was our first time staying at Siena. Some notes on the property:

-The casino parking lot is free and uncovered. Posters in other forums advised to stay on the west side of the parking lot as random people tend to hangout on the east side which is surrounded by shady buildings. I took one look at the loosely fenced lot with minimal security and decided to park in the Eldo lot after check in.

-Siena only has 9 floors. This means barely a wait at check-in because there’s literally no one there and the elevators are fast.

-We stayed in the deluxe king room. I read that the rooms are small but the deluxe room was spacious and we had a great view of the Truckee River and downtown.

-No resort fee and free wifi which was fast!

-Check in is at 3pm and check out is at noon. I checked out without a problem. There is no tv checkout so we had to go to the counter on our last day.

-We noticed that the Siena was trying to make their rooms really swank. They had a good sized refrigerator, new carpet, nice flat screen tv, new furniture and large paintings. But it was apparent they just missed being awesome as there was rust in the sink, the bathroom door still hand huge holes where mirrors were once placed and the tub drain was slow. Overall we were really pleased with the room and may start staying there on our future trips.





-Siena has some good promotions on their restaurants. They have a $5 1/2lb cheeseburger/gfries and an amazing breakfast deal ($5 eggs/bacon/pancake, $5 omelettes and $7 steak and eggs) advertised in the elevators. But these deals are not advertised in the restaurant so you have to ask for them.

So we checked in and fueled up at Hash House. I had the Sage Fried Chicken Benedict which is basically a brick of food.



Then the gaming was on!

Siena had a 4x points on Saturday. My wife loves the Breakfast at Tiffany’s slot at Siena so we went bonkers. Bonkers isn’t the real story because she went on a wild winning streak in the 6 hours of gaming that night. In fact she hit two progressives at once during a bonus round. She ended up pressing that max button like a madwoman in the middle of a slot tournament.

A few videos of the Breafast at Tiffany's bonus round. Click the photos to see the video

$140 winner


Just a $40 winner


Not close at all


She was hitting so many jackpots I started noticing that people watching her play. I saw one couple take a seat at a video poker machine and just watched my wife repeatedly hitting bonus rounds. It was incredible.

I played some $1 9/6 jacks or better video poker and stayed even for few hours. Then I started playing the Hangover slot machine. I’m not a slot machine fan but I hit some jackpots right away and those bonus rounds were freaking hilarious. The Hangover slot music is ridiculous and loud though I was disappointed that they edited out same nudity and bad words. In retrospect, maybe it was good they blurred Ken Jeong’s naked rear end when he jumps out of the trunk because I didn’t want nightmares on vacation.

Hangover bonus round. I didn't find Doug but still hit $110


When it was nearly midnight my wife came over to play the Hangover slot with me. Though she put in a $800 ticket it required a hand pay when she tried to cash out her $800 ticket. Even though it was pointless because she didn’t win at the machine it was her first hand pay experience.

Damnit! Unnecessary hand pay!


It was epic night of wins. With all the Kahlua and Coffees I ordered and the adrenaline flowing, I hard time sleeping. Between our play we were up $900 though almost all of it was from my wife’s winnings. Incredibly, all the wins were from slot machines!

I woke up early in the morning to use the treadmill in the Siena fitness room. It was an extremely small fitness room with only two running treadmills and two step machines and a rowing one. There is also a weight machines and free weights scattered about. The worst thing is that there’s no ventilation in there but they did install one huge flatscreen tv so that some of the people could watch some TV during their workout. Some machines also overlook the Truckee River and Downtown.

The pool and hot tub were closed for the season. On the website the pool is listed as a lap pool and looks huge. But in retrospect, they pool photo on the website uses a trick angle to make the look big. But I assure you. unless you’re a midget the pool is way too small to get a real swim in. The pool area is also very small though it may be adequate considering it's a tiny hotel.

I also intended to make my first sport book bet Sunday morning. I had a plan to bet $40 on the Pats, $30 on the 49ers, $20 on Indy and a $10 parlay bet. But when I went to the sports book the line was long so I couldn’t make the bets in time. I conceded the footballs bets and settled on putting up my first sports bet by putting $22 for a Lakers/Magic over 200 points rather than going for the Lakers -13. I was lucky because the Pats didn’t cover and the 49ers lost meaning I would have lost $50 on those games plus the Lakers lost to the Magic. But I was lucky because the game went well over 200 points which marked my first win!

Unfortunately, that was the only win I'd hit on Sunday. It was a 3x points promotion at Siena so we started on the slots again and nothing hit. We then went to the Eldo champagne brunch to stuff ourselves and get sloshed. I then went to Cal-Neva to redeem my free play chips. Not even $55 of free action chips were enough to overcome the cold craps table.

We went back to Siena where my wife hit the slots and I tried to take up time playing video poker. That was good because when we finally hit the blackjack table I hand a long run of bad hands. I then decided to go to the Eldo to play their video poker. My wife never has played video poker but wanted to watch me play which was exactly worst run of luck I have ever had on 9/6 jacks or better. 7 times I had a four to a flush and never hit a single one. I had so many open straights and nothing hit. I’ve spent plenty of time on video poker trainers and memorizing strategy but nothing was going to save me when lady luck abandoned me.

We then went back to the Siena where my wife wasn’t hitting anything on the slots either. At midnight the Sunday 3x points promotion was over and we called it quits to put an end to our ass kicking.

We loved the Holiday themes in the casinos. It was also nice to see the skating rink open though when we wanted to skate on Saturday it was closed because it had rained during the night and it was too wet.

Decorations at the fountain between the Eldo and Silver Legacy


Decorations at Siena


Monday morning we decided to use our mail comps at the RIverwalk Café at Siena. They have four indoors booths that overlook the Truckee River and a few outdoor tables (though those were useless in the rain). We were surprised by how small the café was as we counted less than 20 tables. They have some super good and cheap specials like a $5 breakfast and $8 sandwiches. My wife opted for the Monte Crisco and it was really good. Unfortunately, I ordered the nachos with shredded beef. It was huge but fairly nasty with horrible canned queso and the shredded beef was the type that is appropriate for nachos (though perfect for a sandwich). I’m not one to complain about free food though so I didn’t mind it and I’m a quantity over quality type guy so overall I liked the restaurant.

The lack of flavor on the nachos was made up by quantity


The Monte Cristo was amazing


We checked out of Siena and I wanted to play craps one more time so we went to the Bonanza Casino. There I played solo $1 craps which was super fun. I couldn’t hit anything and I lost $50 at a $1 craps table. I didn’t mind as it would have been around a $200 loss if I was playing at a $5 table (ie..$5 pass line with $10 odds versus $1 pass line with $2.50 odds).

We contemplated staying one more night but it was a sunny Monday and the forecast showed possible rain/snow on Tuesday. We had to drive over Donner Pass so we didn’t want to risk getting snowed in. It was a really fun trip and our Saturday jackpots were definitely an experience we won’t forget.

We are planning a Vegas trip in Jan/February though we are considering scuttling Vegas for Reno. Reno has definitely spoiled us with low minimums, better table games, great comps and lower slot holds. I think it’ll end up on what offers we get from Reno versus Vegas. My wife is dying to go back to the Wicked Spoon buffet in the Cosmo and we might need a change of scenery from all our Reno trips and the snow on Donner Pass might make it impossible for us to visit Reno in the next few months.

[BC Dave]

Wow, sounds like you two had a great time! Congratulations on your slot victories! Although I had no luck last year at the Siena, I enjoyed the place a great deal. John and I had a couple of comped meals there that were top notch. I like the way you included the links to the short videos. I'm not sure how that's done but I'll figure it out.

[dfens]

Thanks Dave! We might be switching from Eldo to Siena for our downtown hotel. Between my wife and I we're getting 4 days of room comps each month. The only drawback is that the walk from Siena to Eldo/SL at night is too shifty for my wife.

To get video onto the post I uploaded the video to photobucket.com and then link the url for the photobucket video on the forum.

Also, my wife proposed that we use our tax return for 2012 as our bankroll for Reno/Vegas trips in 2013. I nearly had a heart attack for wasting so much money. I mean, if we're going to really going to throw thousands of dollars in the toilet I'd rather put it in the stock market where everything is bound to tank!

[stan_allen]

Awesome! Quite a roller-coaster ride, there, but it sounds like you had a blast...

Nice work on all the details of the Siena; I still haven't even wandered in since the latest revamp...

Keep 'em coming!

[spdmrcht]

I think the first time I was in the place it was called the
Holiday or something like that. I took a Bus charter and
that was where we spent the night. That was in the 80s.

[remano]

Good TR. Thanks for taking the time to keep us informed and entertained.

I'm glad to hear you liked the Siena. We had a great dinner at daVinci's Restaurant there a while back. I hope they succeed but the location is a real handicap. On the bright side there has been a lot of improvement lately in the area south of there in what they call Midtown. Among other things there are a couple new restaurants, a new microbrewery, a local theater group, new construction called the Sticks Project which will have something like five new businesses and restaurants, and just this week the main Post Office closed and will be taken over by a development group that has big plans for a makeover. That can only help the Siena.

Here's more:

http://www.downtownmakeover.com/SoDo/default.asp

[dfens]

Stan - Thanks for reading. If you're downtown the 2 block walk past the Cal-Neva is worth it to visit Siena. I am sure Siena would be one the more popular casinos if they were closer to the Eldo/SL core.

Spdmrcht - 80s! Nice! I visited once in the 80s and stayed at the Circus Circus!

Remano - you're right about the location! At least it's not the worrisome walk to Sands but still the Siena is located far enough where my wife won't walk it alone at night. I hope the midtown businesses work out. When the urban renewal projects work out it can be really lucrative to the businesses and property owners that stayed (I think of Belltown in Seattle as one of the recent success projects)



We just looked at our calendar. We have a trip to LA mid Jan but might be able to do a "cheap" Reno trip at the end of Jan to use some of the freeplay offers and free rooms. If we did make the Reno run we'd keep the gaming at a minimum as we want a bigger bankroll for our upcoming Vegas trip in Feb/Mar.

[Mammothgambler]

Great trip report and congrats on all the wins! Those newer machines like the Hangover are really something. I actually got a free keychain during a $10 freeplay promo at Harrah's on the new Michael Jackson machine and was blown away how the seats thump. Like being on a rollercoaster or something!

I really need to get over to the Siena more - they are sending lots of free food and bar offers and seem to have a lot of promotions. The Blazing 7s in there are the fixed vs. progressive ones - what a sin! But the cafe looks good. I was actually just notified of that burger special you were mentioning.

What? VEGAS? Aaaw, come on !

Mammothgambler