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High Livin' as a low roller....2/17-2/19

 
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RenoLady



Joined: 23 Feb 2006
Posts: 316

PostPosted: Feb Tue 20, 2007 3:49 pm    Post subject: High Livin' as a low roller....2/17-2/19 Reply with quote

While in Carson City this last weekend, I thought about whether I would write up a trip report on this little adventure. I’d just been to Reno the week before, and had written about that already. It had been a winning trip, this was more average. But then I realized this is actually what MOST trips are like, and deserved its moment, so here goes.

We had come home winners on Monday, Feb 12th, and decided to take some of those winnings back the next weekend, after all, we had 3 days off with President’s weekend and some unused comps. Let’s go! Since traffic can be pretty ugly on these long weekends, we decided to wait and go up Saturday morning. While we could have used a comp/discounted weekend at the Fitz, we wanted to stay out of Reno for the holiday, our last few President’s weekends up there have been brutal. So, we went to our ole standby, the City Center Inn in Carson City. The Nugget owns/subsidies it, as they have no hotel on property. A little on this property:

We’ve been going here since the 90’s. The package used to be $43 and has only risen to the grand price of $49, this includes tax. When you check-in, they give you a little card to be redeemed at the player’s club at the Nugget. There they give you coupons for free stuff: 2 vouchers for $7 dining at any of their restaurants (since most of their food is around $5, quite the value); 4 drink coupons; 4 keno coupons; and $4 cash. The room is fine. Old, clean, dependable.

The Nugget Casino competes with the Fandango casino, directly. When one starts double points on Monday, the other makes it triple. This is a small town of locals and they make their rounds. However, they are nothing alike. Nugget is old school with a smoky room, aging cocktail waitresses, real coin machines, $3 blackjack and 99 cent breakfast specials. Fandango is all about the penny slots, neon lights, young (forgetful) cocktail waitresses and tito. Their food is EXPENSIVE! We spend our time between the two.

We checked into our room around noon on Saturday, dropped our bag, and headed to the Nugget. We make sure and “activate” the little card on the day they give it to us. They give you one each day, and waiting and doing them on the same day sends the system into a panic, necessitating management oversight and a pissy player’s club host. So don’t do that. About the only time I use the free drink tokes is when we first walk in the door and haven’t established a drinking/playing zone. I don’t like waiting for a drink while losing, so since I can’t control the losing, I try and always control having a drink in front of me, (even if it’s water). It’s rare to have a problem with the drink tokes, but this weekend when we used them twice, we got this twice: “uh-that’s not a domestic beer, so I’ll need another drink toke”….okay…I end up throwing them away anyway. But sheesh, it was just a Corona, AND they were fine with my Sierra Pale Ale (a much more superior beer to my husband’s lame Corona in my opinion.) Then the next day they said Bailey’s and Coffee was a premium drink and needed another coupon. Come on, we both know you’re not using Bailey’s, the one above the bar has dust on it, that’s Carolyn’s. The Nugget is remodeling. They’re adding a non-smoking section, and some other areas. It needs it to compete with Fandango. However, I might send a letter about the balking at the drink tokes, either upgrade them or get rid of them, player’s don’t want that kind of silliness when they can immediately walk over playing ANY level of game and get top shelf. Stupid.

We played through a beer, er, losing session, and moved. The next area was winning, but the guy next to R and I was beating up his machine. Really, slappin’ it silly and cussing, he was also loud! Our Joker Poker was giving us a lot of 4 of a kinds, but we were really thinking of leaving. His wife came up and asked if he was ready to go, so he turned and started slapping her, well, not really, but he yelled at her and that can hurt as much. He runs out of money, much to R, mine and the wife’s delight and he grumbles off. We sigh and continue winning. After a few peaceful moments, the “slapper” comes back, alone, and with more money. Arg!!!! You hate this machine! Remember? He didn’t, so we left for Fandango, down a few bucks.

Fandango had sent us a birthday comp for R for 2 free buffet lunches, or buy one/get one for dinner. It was not good for Sunday brunch. It included a birthday cake. (We need a birthday cake at a buffet?!) As it was now about 1:30 PM, and the lunch quit at 2 PM, we decided to wait for dinner, and pay the difference with our slot points. We settled into our usual area, the “storm” area. It’s really pretty, and worth a stop in. You sit at slant tops around a large rectangle. The rectangle is a little pond, really pretty, and every so often erupts into a storm. At this time, whoever hit their button at precisely this preset moment in time, get’s the jackpot. Somewhere between $10 and $50. The more folks play, the quicker it goes up. I’ve seen it go off every couple of moments. The usual is about 15 minutes. We’ve found that if you bet higher amounts when it gets over $40, you’re more apt to get it, as long as others are not doing the same thing, of course. R won it a couple of times this day, I did not.

We played up and down, within about $100 each all afternoon. We decided to stop and eat around 5 PM. So we head to the player’s club to exchange the comp, and are told there’s something wrong with the kitchen’s, no power or something, they’re all closed. Huh? Its okay here….I don’t understand, we waited too long to eat, and now there is no food? I have this coupon in my hand see, it’s only good today….She looked sympathetically at me, shaking her head, all the while sending me on my way. Fine! Let’s go play more. So we did, and won some! Within a ½ hour, folks started buzzing all was well now with the kitchens, and line-up’s began!

Wow, this buffet is really something, it should be, its $22 each. They had all the usual suspects, cooked in small quantities, hot, that included: steak, mussels, clams, oysters, crab legs, shrimp, and sushi. Paying with player’s points its $16, with the buy one/get one comp, that covers both of us. I asked for the cake at the end of the meal, not because I was hungry, I never even visited the dessert area, but hey, I got this comp that says cake, and I want it. Knowing it was a buffet and you can’t carry out, I was wondering what was going to happen next, would they come out with a full-on cake, singing servers, and candles blazing? Nah, it was a plastic to-go box with one slice of cake. No choices, in flavor, singing, nothing. Yes I took it, it was R’s birthday cake! We carried it around all night and then threw most of it away the next morning.

I don’t go on too much with buffets. Even high quality ones like this, because R and I have found that eating too much of too many things is an evening killer. So we are in and out of buffets, 15 minutes, tops, one plate, no dessert. Oh, by the way, Fandango will bring you wonderful glasses of Kendal Jackson wine (chardonnay in this case), while playing. (So does Atlantis in Reno). This is a big deal. When I go to Nevada, it used to be a dead zone for good coffee, good beer, and good wine, unless you were willing to really look and to PAY! In the last 10 years, most Nevada casino’s now have Sierra Pale ale, though not my fav beer, I like them even more hoppy, they’ll do. But wine? Usually comes in the four corners variety, I don’t care what casino you order from. When the Venetian first opened in Vegas, I told R, now this place will have some good wine. No-o-o-o, it was rock-gut, but they served it nicely, so most were fooled, but I checked out from what they were pouring. So KJ wine in a casino has me happy. Since casino restaurant’s not only don’t care if you carry a drink in, don’t forget to order this to begin your meal. You’re welcome.

After dinner, we were done in. We had waited too long to eat, and then ate a little too much when we did, now we only wanted to stop the pain. We were in bed early, which, explains the 6:30 AM rising the next day.

That’s okay, aren’t mornings in casinos great? Few are out and about. The ones up are cheerful, their bankroll is still intact, yesterday’s losses are well, yesterday. It’s the one time of day the casino might smell clean, and you can actually hear the music! Bring on a cup of coffee, okay, okay, a little Bailey’s, eh, Carolyn’s please. We still had our two $7 vouchers, and since our plan that day was to eat somewhere else for dinner, we better start spending! I opened the menu, R wanted the bacon and egg special with sausage (yup, that’s right, more meat) 2 eggs, hashbrowns and toast. $3 something. Hmm….this wasn’t going to be easy, we had $14 to spend! Alright, give me the steak and eggs, and today I’ll have coffee (even though I was about coffee-ed out). Must spend comp! Breakfast was fine.

Our plan was to go into Reno today for R to go to a convention across from Atlantis, I on the other hand, would take my seat in our usual video poker area in Atlantis. I settled in to play, lost most plays, and moved to a neighboring seat. R shows up within an hour and joins the game. In the next hour we hit for 5 bonus 4 of a kinds. The amount only brought us up to even for the trip, as they didn’t include the extra kicker like last week, had they have done that, well, let’s just say that if my aunt had $%#’s she’d be my uncle. However, even is good, AND the nice cocktail waitress brought me a KJ chardonnay. Time to go eat in the Oyster bar. The player’s club gave me $30 for a comp, and off we went. Since we were fine with the bar, we were seated immediately, while others were told an hour and a ½.

We order the Seafarer’s for two (something like that). It has cold fresh seafood, piled high, that makes everyone rubberneck, gawk and comment on. It has 4 oysters on the half shell, 2 lobster claws, 5 large shrimp, and a pound or more of crab. They serve bread (we declined-gotta keep moving) and we dug in. See what I’m talking about, high rollin’ on minimum play. Here I am, drinking Kendall Jackson (retail: ~20 bottle) chardonnay, cracking crab, looking out at the sunset, all on Atlantis’s dime. What do I give in return? Maybe about 2-4 hours of play, on 3 different trips, at about $1.25 a pull. AND the last few times, we’ve won. After dinner, we decide we didn’t play at Fandango as long as we would have liked the night before, and we were not full, so we’re still feeling pretty good, so we headed back.

We were willing to spend $100 each this night. Sounds pretty good? Well, you know that’s nothing when the gambling gods are laughing at you. Gone in 1 hour after really moving around, trying to find our machine. The whole time, this fellow was playing a money storm at max play and just tearing up the jackpot around that water rectangle area thing. It got so bad that when it went off, we had to go see if yes, he did indeed win. You can tell if you are playing around or near the thing, they post the winner, but we actually had to go check. Obsessing much?

We couldn’t stand it! We had to take it away from him. Well, $100 later, we did, ha! We showed him. I think we won $45. So, down $250 for the trip, we called it quits and headed back. We would be leaving in the morning, it was President’s day and we must get out before everyone else, or stay over. Work would not have been happy at that, so early it was! We were home in good time.

Did we lose, yeah, a little. But my family went to non gaming sites this holiday, spent hundreds on food and lodging, and never had a chance to come home with more than they left with. Rationalizing you say? Certainly, more apt than not, we’ll come home with a loss. But no way could I dine in restaurants of the quality we had this weekend, drink KJ wine, even stay at 2 star motels on a holiday weekend in California, and come out less than this trip. But I guess you have to like gaming for 10 hours a day too.

The next trip is April. We’re taking some Spokane folks, a Kansas City folk, and maybe a few Californians with us to the Fitz. That’s 2 months away. We’ll see if we make it that long……
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JD



Joined: 18 Dec 2005
Posts: 956

PostPosted: Feb Tue 20, 2007 4:00 pm    Post subject: CC Trip report Reply with quote

Great Trip Report. I've bought that Nugget package...it really is a good deal. Thanks for the reminder.

JD
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mustangmike



Joined: 21 Dec 2005
Posts: 76

PostPosted: Feb Tue 20, 2007 6:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks Renolady for the interesting review and the tip about the City Center and Fandango! We've never stayed the night in Carson City, but this sounds interesting for a fellow low roller.

Mike
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Dave



Joined: 18 Dec 2005
Posts: 212

PostPosted: Feb Wed 21, 2007 12:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great trip reports as usual Renolady! Thanks for taking the time to write it.
Very Happy You guys always have a good time.
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RenoLady



Joined: 23 Feb 2006
Posts: 316

PostPosted: Feb Wed 21, 2007 8:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for the nice comments guys.

Nugget is a flash from the past. You can still hear the coins clanging in the pan in some of the machines. I believe craps is a buck minimum, and they always seem to have $3 games (with good rules). Their Oyster Bar will feature 5 specials, and some of them are $2.95! Until recently they had a play room for kids you could leave them in for free. I think that's gone now, maybe just during the remodel? Yes, I'm a Nugget fan, but the lure of the neon and all the penny games beckon from Fandango.

I had stopped by the Nugget player's desk for something, two ladies working, and they notice my water bottle, it says Fandango on it. They yelled "Fandango!" how dare you! The sad part was, they really meant it, they were hurt. Imagine any strip place in Vegas or Reno, noticing you had another casino's water.....
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