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Reno! June 6, 7, 8 - it's a long report!!

 
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LilyJDragonfly



Joined: 03 Mar 2009
Posts: 425

PostPosted: Jun Wed 09, 2010 8:32 am    Post subject: Reno! June 6, 7, 8 - it's a long report!! Reply with quote

So last summer, we had thought we would go to Reno, but instead wound up in Costa Rica for two weeks. We decided that WOULD NOT happen this summer and in support of this, the Circus Circus sent us comped rooms. Frankly, it was odd to get this offer from them because we had only gambled there once last fall and it was for less than two hours and they had not sent us ANYTHING in the previous months. Nonetheless, free rooms speak to my heart, so we booked for two nights.

The Dog and I don't like to carry huge amounts of cash and usually set up a line of credit if we're going to be at a casino for more than a day. I tried calling CC three times over two days to get a line of credit set up, but no one would call me back. I decided to also call Silver Legacy (being as how they're just right next door, but we had not gambled there) to set up a line and within 8 minutes, I was set up and SL promised they would have our players cards waiting at the credit office when we arrived - which they did.

We left Olivehurst, CA around 8am, made our way across the mountains and arrived at CC nice and early. They have a dedicated line for comped room guests (yay!) and while no complimentary upgrades were available, they did put us on the 17th floor, main tower (over the casino) with a view of the strip. The room was decent enough and what made it even better was that it was FREE.

We put our bags in the room and I headed down to VIP services to let them know about the problems getting someone to call me back. Julia (not my host - I don't have one there) listened and then offered to take me to the cage to set up a line and speak with the cage manager. "No," I told her. "I wanted YOU to know and you can do what you'd like with the information. Plus, it takes two to three days to set up a line and verify my accounts and it's Sunday." Obviously, CC does not specialize in catering to guests once they're in the door so The Dog and I did not feel too obligated to spend too much $$$ there, but we still dropped several hundred over the course of three days.

We gambled a few bucks in Goldfish, scoped out the poker room, grabbed the two-for-one buffets at CC (meh - just a buffet, nothing outstanding) and then played some more slots. We decided to get some cash from SL next door and let me just say - I really like SL. Friendly and lovely and I liked all the flashy-blinky parts. Also, they have the BEST casino slots chairs (CC's chairs are so bad, I had a backache!) The silver mining machine in the middle of the floor was kinda weird but cool. SL has this promo where you go to "The Mansion" and swipe your card and get a prize of some sort. Over the course of our trip, we scored two pens, two magnets, a free fancy coffee, and entries into some sort of Sunday tournament, which we will use next time we are there.

The Dog got his shoes shined by Milton The Shoeshine Man and I blew even more in the slots. SL was having a comedy show, so we got tickets ($22/each and it included a dinner buffet). James Goff and Joe L??? were hysterical. A really excellent show. The buffet at SL was delicious and beautiful. They even had lamb chops!

We gambled some more in the slots - I was up, The Dog was down, and finally around 9:30pm, we hit the sack (we had been up since 3:30am because we had to take people to the airport in Sacramento).

Bright and early, we got up Monday morning (like 5:00am), ready to go gamble and explore Reno. I picked up coffee and breakfast from Main St Deli at CC and we ate in the room, but were out on the floor by 6:30am. We gambled some at CC, then went to SL and spent a few coins, then walked outside to get to ElDo. (The Dog felt we needed some fresh air. I liked the Enterprise feel of not having to go out, yet have everything you need with the three casinos all linked.) (By the way, on the north?? side of ElDo, one of the glass doors is missing and stayed missing for our three days there...)

Player's Club at ElDo didn't open 'til 8am so we pondered the craps table - I really want to play craps, but still don't feel like I understand the betting enough. The Dog played craps later that day, but I chickened out and just stayed with slots. We got our cards, swiped them at ElDo's offer thing and got coups for 20% off one item in the gift shop. <eye roll here>

We didn't gamble at ElDo that morning, but instead went to Cal-Neva and lost our asses there. (side note: I LOVE the four-way crosswalk here on Virginia St - what a cool concept!!)

After a couple Bloody Marys at Cal-Neva and me continuing to ponder the craps tables, we went to Harrah's, signed up for cards, and got to gaming. The Dog went to the poker room (by the way, I hope SL dumps the Poker Pro computer poker stuff soon - we both hate it!) and started playing 1-2 Hold 'Em. I played a few hands, but wasn't focused enough to play, and I went to the slots.

So we were there for an hour or two and some guy from Harrah's walks up to me as I was playing Davinci Diamonds, addresses me by NAME, and offers me two buffets. Sure, I replied. He asked to see my player's card, wrote my card # on the buffet coup and wished me good luck. Apparently, I had hit their radar screen (or rather, computer screen where they track the players). Vance continued to play poker and I continued to burn $$$ in the slots. We broke for lunch around 1:30 to go eat at Kokopelli's Sushi at CC.

Kokopelli's offers a free carafe of sake or a free Tsingtao beer with the purchase of an all-you-can-eat sushi/sashimi on Sun, Mon, Tue, so we took advantage of that and got positively STUFFED on sushi. Instead of paying the listed menu price of $23/lunch/each, it was only $17/each. What a steal!!!!

The Dog decided to go take a nap after our Sushi Gorge Fest and I just had to keep playing. He planned to go to the Harrah's 6:00 poker tournament, so I stuck around SL and CC and just burned more $$ in the slots. Around 5pm, we strolled through SL and ElDo and swiped our cards (more crap offers and we still hadn't played at ElDo yet) and then back to Harrah's. I decided to screw around and play Keno a few times (had a $5 free coup with purchase of $5 in Keno at Harrah's) and then back to the slots where I continued to lose $$.

He got knocked out of the tournament near the end, so no money but he had fun playing and likes the dealers. We decided to finally go to ElDo - he did very well at blackjack and I kept losing the slots. We finally eased back to CC where he went to the blackjack tables and I went up to the room. Around 11pm, we decided we were finally hungry (didn't use our buffet comps from Harrah's) and went to The Nugget to try our the famous Awful-Awful. $6.25/each is the current price. Excellent burger - not the best I've ever eaten, but let it be said that I'm a foodie and eat many, many burgers - I love me a bleu cheese bacon burger! However, I do recommend the AA if you're in Reno....

Off to bed and up the next morning to check out of CC and head to Harrah's for the 10am poker tourney. The Dog went down to Harrah's and I checked us out. I stopped in to VIP services to see if they could do anything about our charges (we charged meals to our room, which they had already comped) and they offered to take off $6 - yup, SIX dollars. Unless they offer us a really sweet deal next time, we aren't going back to CC.

So I got the car from the valet, headed down to Harrah's and checked in at the player's club to see if I had earned the points to get the $15 in free play offer for new card holders. Oh yeah. I got that (75 points), plus the $20 in dining credit (200 points) and the free night at Harrah's (300 points). Ei-yi-yi.

The Dog was playing poker and I went back to the slots. About two hours in, a Harrah's employee again approached me by name, offered two buffets and wished me luck. I hadn't heard anything really great about Harrah's, but they obviously work hard to get their players and between them and SL, it's going to be a hard call as to who might be our "home" casino. We'll see who sends offers.... <grin>

The Dog got knocked out of the tournament, no one wanted to play regular Hold 'Em, so we blew more cash playing blackjack and pondered the free room offer. Instead, we decided we had lost enough and that we needed to go vote in the California primary, so we headed out the door and came home.

We're looking forward to going back really soon!!!
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mjames1229



Joined: 23 Dec 2009
Posts: 406

PostPosted: Jun Wed 09, 2010 11:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nice TR. Thank you. Having just been there a couple of weeks ago (I stayed at Harrah's... see trip report in this forum) I can clue you in a little to Harrah's.

They seem to distribute the "Two Free Buffet" coupons in some random fashion. My buddy was offered one each of three days and he is quite the slot player. I rarely play slots, and I was offered one at about 2:00 AM playing $5 VP. Another buddy played slots constantly and was never offered a buffet.

Harrah's may not send you offers via mail or E-mail, but log on to Harrah's Total Rewards site with your card number. Based on my play - which if you read my trip report, you can see that I didn't play nearly as much as I would have liked) I am comped at most Harrah's properties in Las Vegas for most of January thru April next year, and at Harrah's Reno for most weekdays for as long as I felt like looking.
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LilyJDragonfly



Joined: 03 Mar 2009
Posts: 425

PostPosted: Jun Wed 09, 2010 1:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I did scope your report before we left - there's always something good to learn from other people's adventures.... and given that we'd only been to Reno once before last fall (about two hours at CC and then spent the night and gambled at JA Nugget in Sparks), I wanted all the scoop I could get!

Per your suggestion, I signed up through the Harrah's website today and while I don't have any offers at this second, we did just get home yesterday and I guess they want to see if I'll be back today to drop more $$$. <grin>

So I guess this is a personal question, MJAMES, but have you hit the Platinum tier or, gulp, Diamond at Harrah's? Heck, has anyone reading this forum hit any of the levels beyond "player" at any of the Reno casinos?
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alphabeta



Joined: 14 Aug 2009
Posts: 33

PostPosted: Jun Wed 09, 2010 1:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you for sharing your trip report with us. I found it informative and entertaining.

It sounds like you got around. Notably missing were a couple of teeny, unimportant casinos on South Virginia. By design?

I visited Harrah's and the Eldo-SL-CC Siamese triplets on my first trip. I wasn't too impressed, but I'm glad you enjoyed yourself at some of them.
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mjames1229



Joined: 23 Dec 2009
Posts: 406

PostPosted: Jun Wed 09, 2010 2:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

LilyJDragonfly wrote:
So I guess this is a personal question, MJAMES, but have you hit the Platinum tier or, gulp, Diamond at Harrah's? Heck, has anyone reading this forum hit any of the levels beyond "player" at any of the Reno casinos?


I can't even hit the second tier of our local Indian casino. I only play low house-edge games (craps, poker, Pai Gow poker) so even though I am at my local place once a week, I am not even close to that next tier.
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mjames1229



Joined: 23 Dec 2009
Posts: 406

PostPosted: Jun Wed 09, 2010 2:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

LilyJDragonfly wrote:


Per your suggestion, I signed up through the Harrah's website today and while I don't have any offers at this second, we did just get home yesterday and I guess they want to see if I'll be back today to drop more $$$. <grin>


I have never seen an "offer" on Harrah's TR site. I find my comps by looking at the calendar in RESERVATIONS and finding the room rate for the lowest priced room. For example, I will enter parameters as "Reno/Tahoe", "All Reno/Tahoe Properties" and then enter a date and watch the word "COMP" appear!
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LilyJDragonfly



Joined: 03 Mar 2009
Posts: 425

PostPosted: Jun Wed 09, 2010 2:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Actually, we had wanted to go down to Atlantis/Peppermill while in town, but three days simply wasn't enough time! I wanted to gamble at The Nugget on the strip, but after eating the AA, we were too stuffed to see straight... <grin>

And I forgot to mention that JA Nugget had sent me $20 in freeplay, so before we went to CC to check in, we drove to JA Nugget. I blew through that $20 in FP and a bit more in less time than it took for the valet to go get our car back out of parking. Oy.

MJames - thanks for the tip on how to find the rooms on TR....
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remano



Joined: 20 Dec 2005
Posts: 717

PostPosted: Jun Wed 09, 2010 3:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for an entertaining TR. Two observations:

Craps - go ahead and play!! Craps players are the most superstitious people in the casino (pai gow poker players and pit bosses tied for second), and as a result some can be hard on newbies who violate a sacred ritual, but for the most part they are friendly. Many dealer crews are very helpful, especially at lower limit tables. They know they need more new craps players or their jobs are history.

Keep it simple to start. Only play pass and come bets at first. The other bets on the table have worse odds anyway (OK, don't pass/don't come bets are slightly better but one of those superstitions is that it's bad manners to hope somebody loses). Pass and come are essentially the same bets. A pass bet is placed just before the shooter throws his come out roll and your result is determined by the shooter's number. A pass bet can be made on any roll and your result depends upon the number the shooter rolls on the next roll after you place the bet. Don't worry about odds bets until you have become comfortable with basic play.

1/2 Hold 'em - this may not be as innocuous as it sounds. Every 1/2 game I have ever heard of is a no limit game, maybe occasionally pot limit. The blinds are kept low to get some action going, but things can get pretty wild after that. The lowest fixed limit games are usually 2/4 or 3/6. I can't imagine Harrah's, especially, offering bargain table limits.

Anyway, good report, thanks again.
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LilyJDragonfly



Joined: 03 Mar 2009
Posts: 425

PostPosted: Jun Wed 09, 2010 4:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

When we go to use our freebie night at Harrah's, I will play craps. I really like dice games anyway and it seems far more interactive and social than slots...

And it's true - Harrah's had 1-2 Hold 'Em - no limit, but all the players were being reasonable and not going all in on junk. Given it was a Monday morning (and they did it on Tuesday AM, too) and it was SLOW in there, I guess they figured they'd lure in a few folks, which they did. Almost a full table of friendly banter and gambling. The players were good players and hence, I stepped out and went back to losing at slots!
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mjames1229



Joined: 23 Dec 2009
Posts: 406

PostPosted: Jun Wed 09, 2010 6:12 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

remano wrote:
1/2 Hold 'em - this may not be as innocuous as it sounds. Every 1/2 game I have ever heard of is a no limit game, maybe occasionally pot limit. The blinds are kept low to get some action going, but things can get pretty wild after that. The lowest fixed limit games are usually 2/4 or 3/6. I can't imagine Harrah's, especially, offering bargain table limits.


When I was there in May, Harrah's live games were all 1/2 NL. Once in five days I found a 3/6 limit game, but it had a couple of players that were only there as they waited for a 1/2 NL seat.

The two times I played "Dodge the Pandhandler", I made it to the El Dorado and they had 3/6 limit games going both times.
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LilyJDragonfly



Joined: 03 Mar 2009
Posts: 425

PostPosted: Jun Wed 09, 2010 7:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah, I'd have to say the ElDo seemed to have a hoppin' poker room. We were in there at 8am on a Monday morning and they already had people signing in to get a game going at 3/6.

The Dog didn't play their poker room during this trip, but we do plan on playing there a bit more next trip.

Speaking of poker, any poker rooms we should check out next trip? We've been to Harrah's, Circus Circus, and that horror at SL.... Poker Pro is junk. The local Indian casino here (Thunder Valley in Lincoln, CA) installed it after not having any poker room at all and less than three months later, they decided they'd get real dealers.
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hawk



Joined: 17 Dec 2005
Posts: 508

PostPosted: Jun Sun 13, 2010 2:09 pm    Post subject: thanks for writing. Reply with quote

OK, Lily, thanks for updating us. Keep up the Reno trips. Best place to go.
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alphabeta



Joined: 14 Aug 2009
Posts: 33

PostPosted: Jun Mon 14, 2010 9:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

LilyJDragonfly wrote:
Actually, we had wanted to go down to Atlantis/Peppermill while in town, but three days simply wasn't enough time!


I hear ya. I'm sure they'll be ready for you when you're ready for them. As will the rest of Reno (with maybe one or two changes).
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