Visitreno

[dfens]

Don’t be alarmed by my long report! Before you think I was heading to Reno and made a wrong turn to crazy town, I want to assure you that the following is four trip reports consolidated into one thread. I’ve been super busy lately, so I’m taking an opportunity to catch up.

Trip 1: Feb ski trip and near Martingale disaster
Trip 2: Short April trip including my visit to Boomtown
Trip 3: 1st May trip on Mothers Day weekend including my Cal Neva poo bed and my biggest one day gambling loss
Trip 4: 2nd May trip where I scored my biggest one day win

[dfens]

My wife and I found some time to make a Reno run in February. Our Reno trips are dependent on how the clear the freeway passes are of snow.
On Saturday we called Siena and they confirmed they would could our weekend rooms. We are starting to stay more at Siena as their comp rooms are pretty nice and don’t require heavy play to keep getting offers. Between my wife and, we get four free days a month. We have also been finding that they don’t blackout many days including Fridays and Saturdays.

Our first night included some gambling. I didn’t want to play that much but my wife my wife had a different idea. We went walked over the electronic roulette machine (by Organic) at Circus Circus. It’s a horrible roulette machine (double 00 wheel and no comp points earned on the machine).

My wife getting intimate at Circus Circus


Mathematically, any progressive betting systems are crap especially the Martingale. I’m not proud of this, but since I wasn’t going to play that much I took my bankroll ($600) and risked it for small wins. My thinking was that if I lost the $600 I wasn’t going to gamble anymore. If I won a decent amount I would use the winning for the rest of the trip.

I can now say that like every other degenerate gambler, I tried the Martingale system and nearly had a heart attack. When my wife left the machine, I ran a modified version, and got to almost $100 worth of small wins. I shouldn’t have stopped at around $50, but I got too greedy. At one point I lost, and lost, and lost. And then I sat sitting there with most of my bankroll at risk with a $340 bet on the progression (meaning I already had $340 in losses on that progression) with only a 44.7% chance to win.

Organic Electronic Roulette Machine ($1 minimum)


So I clicked on a$340 bet on black. I remember there were other people at the table to witness my face turn white as the ball started spinning on the machine. The ball spun, and spun, and spun. I felt the feeling of dread, excitement and time slowing down in my head. Then the ball started to slow down and bounce around the diamonds…and then click…. BLACK! I won!!!!!! I immediately cashed out, took the ticket to the redemption machine and thanked my lucky starts.

My wife also found a system on the machine that helps her pick roulette numbers. It’s physics based that she uses to predict where the roulette balls will hit. (it’s not a progressive betting system that I used) She’s bets very small amounts so there’s not much at risk. My wife has played this machine on our previous trips and twice on this one, and she won each time (though some wins were small). It’s a small sample size and her wins are due to luck. Yet watching her make her winning bets makes the typically boring roulette very exciting.

We then played craps at Circus Circus and then at the Eldorado. Though the Circus Circus table minimum was only $3 and the table had a nice solid feel to it, the clientele continues to ruin the game. Poor etiquette players, fleas getting pissy at losing and just a miserable feel with the dealers is enough for us to not ever play there again.

The craps at the Eldorado is way more fun. The dealers are more professional, the patrons are nicer and the drinks come fast and furious. We had great time there even if we went down a few bucks but it was worth the entertainment.

Sunday night’s dinner was at Sushi Saga in the Siena. They have an offer for buy two get one meal 50% off so we got the all-you-can-eat deal. We were skeptical that a Reno sushi restaurant could be good but it was awesome. We ate a ton of rolls, watched the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary “Broke” (about professional athletes losing all their money) and had a great time. There were only two other people in the restaurant which looked like two UNR students. It was apparent that they were going to get their money’s worth as they kept ordering a massive amount of rolls which the chef happily made. Not to be outdone, we also ordered a good amount of food but those two guys were committed. At closing time, they were intent on sitting on their chairs and order more sushi rolls! Kudos to the chef and server who encouraged the two UNR students to relax and take their time eating even when the restaurant was closed.

On Monday, my wife and I decided head to Mt. Rose. Though we’ve been together for over 5 years, we never had gone skiing/snowboarding together. We made the short 30 minute drive and the place was empty which was surprising as it’s the closest to Reno and super inexpensive to ski there.

My wife is a skier and I’m a snowboarder. We had a lot fun at the mountain as there was no wait at the lifts. We also had some decently priced drinks at the lodge which was really fun.
Here are some pics of the mountain

Almost empty parking lot. We parked next to the lodge


Lifts had no wait


My wife skiing at the empty slopes (double click to watch)


Wife showing off


We got hammered at the lodge bar




After the trip Mt. Rose we had dinner at Hash House. I’ve posted numerous times about how this is our favorite meal and we took advantage of their Groupon deal. We also scared the hell out of our waitress when we finished our huge meals.

Monday night, I gambled mostly at Siena. In February, the Siena offered double points on Mondays. On top of that, they offered $10 of freeplay for every 500 points earned (it was also a double points multiplier day so it was really 250 points for $10). This was an offer I couldn’t refuse. Unfortunately, the Siena no longer has my wife’s favorite slot machine (The IGT Breakfast at Tiffany’s slot) so my wife played a lot less than what she usually does. On the other hand, the Siena still has one IGT Hangover Slot machine left and I went hog wild on it. I proceeded to play over 2 hours on the machine and my wife joined me. I would let her play my bonus rounds which were coming often. At midnight, the promotion was over. The net result was that I was down $50 on the machine but earned $20 freeplay, a crap ton of drinks and a couple hours of listening to Flo Rida.

Tuesday morning I woke up early and headed to Cal Neva. I had $70 in bonus action chips to use so I stupidly went back to the unluckiest craps table ever. Even playing $3 pass line with the bonus chips as my odds resulted in barely any numbers hitting and losing the bonus chips quickly.
I then went over to an empty Pai Gow Poker table. The dealer was super nice but at one point I lost 6 hands in a row. Other people started to play at the table which made me worry as I slowed down the game as the dealer help set my hands. When the table was full I went over to an empty single deck blackjack table. The dealer was super friendly was set to play only shuffles. The change of scenery was exactly what I needed as I won nearly every hand.

I may be a downer when It comes to the Cal Neva I have to say the bj dealer impressed me. When he had an Ace up he looked at the mirror and he thought he didn’t a blackjack. I played out the he hand getting an 18. When the dealer flipped over his card we realized it was a face card. Some casinos will make you an automatic loser and most casinos will stop the game until a pit boss looks over the hand. The dealer just said he didn’t see it and pushed the hand then continued to deal. I wish more casinos would do that.

When I finally went to the cage I was right exactly at breakeven though that breakeven included a loss of all my bonus chips (but also included tokes given to dealers/waitresses).

Our last meal was breakfast at the Riverview Café in Siena using their $10 food coupons. It was a good meal and basically free.

In March, we visited Portland and played at the nearby Indian casinos (Chinook Winds and Spirit Mountain) and had a great time. But I still prefer Reno as getting drunk while gambling is that much more fun!

[dfens]

All good things have to come to an end. Well at least it’s not Reno. I live in an apartment in San Francisco and the building is for sale. Though we pay a premium for living in the city, having a garage, hardwood floors and a building that allows pets, our place is really like living in a dorm. It’s small, the walls are then and our neighbors are entertaining.

On Sunday, the building had an open house. My wife and I had to sit guard in our apartment as the crazies, lookie lous, and nosy people in the city would converge on our building. Luckily, I learned from my previous apartment open house and plastered signs and tape across the dressers, closets, and cabinets for people to not sift through them unless we were present. The only thing that kept our sanity during that long 2 hours was my wife and I discussing if we should go to Reno after the open house. And of course, we thought we deserved it after the whole open house fiasco.

The weather made for a terrifying drive to Reno. There was snow at Donner Pass so we drove carefully. I got behind a large truck which helped crush and clear the snow in front of us. We were really scared of black ice especially at night and hit only one patch of snow where we felt the tires slip. Luckily, I purchased my car in Washington State. The car model I own has only a two wheel drive and a back-up camera option in California. In Washington, it doesn’t have a back-up camera but an All-Wheel Drive option. The AWD definitely saved us during this trip.
When we arrived in Siena the desk agent was really nice. He took my reservation for our comp rooms over the phone and wondering if we were going to be able to make it that night.

Our gaming was pretty uneventful. We played some at slots and craps. The only significant event was at the Eldo craps table. An asian guy named “Billy” walks up to the table and has no idea how to play. He asks the crew and they tell him to set a chip on the pass line which then he puts up a $25 chip. He then is told to throw the dice which he does and sets the point. He then asks what he should do so the dealer tells him to put a chip behind his pass line bet.

What Billy doesn’t know is that his first experience at the table was going to be amazing. He hits point after point. He then starts to take his winnings and put multiple green chips on the pass line and odds and wins them. His chips start to change to black and the table goes crazy. Billy has no idea how to throw the dice so he tries to shake them in both his hands near his ear where the dealers and boxman would reprimand him. I see him do this and start shouting, “Don’t change a thing Billy, keep it up!”. This may be the only time where I’ve seen the dealers a bit more lax on how a person can take the dice a bit off the table to shake them but he was doing it while making a killing. We rode out his roll and I scored a good win off his rolls.

But our highlight of this trip was watching the March Madness finals at Sushi Saga (in Siena). They put the game on both big screens and there’s nothing better than cheering on the teams with the server and chef. We had a great time watching the game, eating good sushi and cheering with the chef.

I’m don’t think I’m a gambling degenerate, but we’ve been making it out to Reno a bit lately. My wife and I are amazed, but people can get familiar with you in a small town like Reno. Here’s some of the things that scares me:

-The night craps crew at Eldorado know us. Not just one, nearly the entire rotating crew. They know my wife’s work, our last visit, etc… One of the super nice dealers also will say, “hey guys, don’t you need to go xxxx” when the table is getting cold. It’s his hint that it might be a good time to go when the table goes cold. Obviously, if we knew when tables are hot/cold we’d be millionaires but it’s a nice gesture.

-Some of the Cal Neva craps dealers remember us. In fact, sometimes we’ll use Cal Neva as a shortcut from the core to Siena. We walked past the craps table and one of the dealer shouts out, “hey no hello or wave”. He also made fun of me because I’ll call my wife “honey” at the table. Ironically in May, my wife was playing a slot machine at the Siena when she hears, “hello honey” from someone behind her. It was the Cal Neva dealer using the Siena as a shortcut and then we waved at my wife on his way out. Her mind exploded at the irony.

The infamous S. Virginia entrance to Cal Neva aka "The scene of the crime"


-A cocktail waitress will say hi and ask me if I want my regular drink. Yikes, it’s not only bad enough that the dealers may remember me but apparently I drink so much that a cocktail waitress remembers my drink when my visits are typically a month apart.
-Well you can add eating too much on our Reno list too. When we were walking though the Siena we saw the sushi chef and he recognized us. That’s pretty shameful!

-Lastly, in May I checked into the Siena. The front desk said something like, “I’d ask you if you had any questions about the hotel, but you’re been a few times and probably know the place as well as I do”.

This is why I love Reno. We’ve been pushing back our Las Vegas trip to go to Reno. The gambling in Reno may be the best in the United States when it comes to slot machine holds, low table minimums, and players rewards programs. The dealers are also more patient and nice in Reno and appreciate their tips, even if it’s a $1 toke. On the LV Strip, some dealers won’t even acknowledge a $5 tip. The meals in Reno are cheap and we don’t have to wait in a long line to get a table. Lastly, we get comp rooms for minimal play in Reno. And outside gambling there’s the Riverwalk, Truckee River, running trails, climbing walls, Lake Tahoe, Virginia City, and other activities to do at a bargain cost. The only thing Las Vegas has going for it the shows and ridiculous sight-seeing if you have the patience to talk miles on the Strip.

At the end of our trip, I have a ritual where I pretend to whine about hitting up casinos as we drive out of town. Well, my wife surprised me by swerving off the freeway as I made my whine as we passed Boomtown. She started to giggle and she said she wanted to check it out too!
I walked into Boomtown and the first thing that surprised me was the huge amount of parking nearby. It’s an open air parking lot that seems to go for acres.

Boomtown!


This place is huge


We walked into the casino the floor is pretty big. What surprised me was the super low ceilings that made the dark casino seem darker. Maybe I’m spoiled by Caesar’s, but the low ceilings didn’t feel right especially with the dim lighting. The second thing that surprised me was that the casino floor seems to be broken into small rooms. This combination of smallish sections and low ceiling made me feel claustrophobic. Also, the casino inside is fairly plain. I don’t required crazy pirate/circus/paris themes, but the plainness of the casino was a bit underwhelming. The look of boredom on the dealers faces was a turnoff too. We ended up passing on the gambling there.

But we did visit the amusement center. It was pretty entertaining with some small rides. I did see the miniature golf and decided to give it a try. You just put in a few dollars into a machine to get ball and then you grab a golf club. There’s no attendant to deal with which is good and bad. The good is that you can keep playing and the course isn’t crowded. The bad is that the course is not well kept and crazy unwatched kids roam throughout the amusement center and mini golf course I was surprised by the number of unsupervised children roaming the center. Shades of Mammoth Gamblers review about the two kids he met near Xmas.

Mini Golf


Overall, I left a few dollars down from gambling but it was pretty small compared to the amount of time I went gambling. It was a great trip.

[dfens]

My mother-in-law came to visit us from Portland. My mother –in-law is awesome and will visit Indian Casinos near her home. We decided to take her to Reno on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday mother’s day celebration.

Our first problem was getting rooms. The Siena and Eldo had blackout dates that weekend. Surprisingly, I was able to get a comp room at Cal Neva. I wanted to get something nice for my mother-in-law near the downtown core so we went to hotwire. If you go to biddingfortravel or other travel websites, they’ll tell you what hotels are available on hotwire and priceline. By using the star ratings and amenities you can tell what the likely hotel is from the unpublished name. The only four star hotel downtown is Silver Legacy which we were able to get a decent price and well below the Silver Legacy website rate.

My wife was excited because we never stayed at Silver Legacy before. We liked the rooms thought we had problems with the television. Like the Eldo, security requires a key check to get into the hotel elevators which is nice.

On the other hand, this would be the first time I stayed at the Cal Neva hotel. I’ve actually reserved a room at Cal Neva a few months ago but didn’t stay there. I just checked in, looked at the room and walked straight out and didn’t return until I checked out two days later. I just had to reserve the room to get a $200 bonus chip offer at the casino.

Well, the Cal Neva didn’t disappoint. The front desk staff and housekeeping were very nice. In fact, I don’t like my room serviced during my stay so I typically will find housekeeping in the morning to exchange towels and leave a tip. When I left the tip at the housekeepers cart, she exclaimed, “you tip even when I don’t service your room!”.

The Cal Neva room was on a level below my “low” standard of Motel 6. I reserved a king bed room but the front desk warned that the room was by the elevator which was fine with me. Then she asked if I was going to use the free wifi, because the rooms near the elevator have a weak signal. So I switched to a double bed room which was fine with me. The room itself was pretty shabby.

Here’s the highlights:

THE BAD

-I’m pretty sure this was a poo stain on the bed. It was pretty large and I have no idea why someone would wipe their butt on the side of the bed. Anyways, after a large amount of toilet paper, soap, and dry heaving I was able to get it off. Unfortunately, I couldn’t wipe the poo stain from my memory when I slept in the bed.

Boo for Poo stains


-The towels are not only rough but super small. It barely covered me. I tried to put this in perspective with but I don’t think the photo depicts how small those towels are.


-At one point there was irons in the rooms. They must have all gotten stolen as there is no longer any irons or ironing board.


-The elevators are slow as hell. There’ s a youtube video of someone who thinks they are the scariest elevators he’s encountered: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvcVykj16po

-The ceilings are very low in the bathroom. I’m 6’ tall and my head nearly hit the fire sprinkler near the shower

-The walls are paper thin. I could hear the ring of the elevator from my room even though I had an end room.

-Even the pen at the Cal Neva had a long hard life. Look at how dusty the pen is


THE GOOD

-Other than the poo stain, the bed was quite comfortable


-The wifi was decent

-Rarely a line to the front desk. And since there’s no room service, checkout is a breeze since no credit card deposit was required

-The TV was quite large

Old School phone and matching old school tv remote


During my stay, I was waited for a long while for the elevator. When the elevator finally came, a man who looked homeless was lying on a stretcher with paramedics helping him. It put the whole Cal Neva stay in perspective.

We did a little gambling on the first night. My mother-in-law went to the Siena Casino to play their $200 loss rebate promotion. Well, there was no need to redeem the loss rebate as she played the five reel Quick Hits machine for some big wins! She went up nearly $500 that night.

Mother-in-law Mothers Day jackpot!


We then went back to the Silver Legacy buffet for a Saturday Night dinner. They had a short line for the Seafood Dinner night but we were seated within 15 minutes. I think it was about $24-27 per person. The food was good with the highlights being crabs, shrimp, meats, and desserts.

The next day my wife and I visited the Starbucks in Silver Legacy. We’ve been looking forward to it since typically we had to go to Harrah’s to get Starbucks. Before you think I’m some suburban scum, I have lived in Seattle and still like Starbucks over most coffee shops.

The Starbucks in Silver Legacy is one of the most ornately decorated Starbucks I’ve ever seen. They have a few tables and comfortable chairs. They are a corporate location so they take Starbucks cards and you earn reward drinks there. They also offer wifi so my wife and I like killing some hours there catching up on work emails, news, and other time-killing stuff. The one negative is the increased drink prices at this location. But considering how much money we’re saving by hanging out and drinking coffee rather than hitting the slot machines, it’s not a bad deal.

SL Starbucks Ceiling


SL Starbucks on the Casino Floor


We decided to take my mother-in-law outside the core to Atlantis and Peppermill. I’ve never been there so we signed up for players cards there. I checked VPfree, and saw some decent 9/6 Jacks of Better video poker. Being locked on a casino floor for more than 5 hours is a bad combination for me. I played some dollar/quarter 9/6 JOB an craps at Peppermill and went down almost $200. The Peppermill craps table had a $5 minimum on a Saturday afternoon. The table was a 14-16 footer and manned with two dealers, stick, and boxperson. The table seemed solid (not plywood) and they were quick to warn players to toss the dice hard at the back wall. I wasn’t very impressed by the dealers as they started to gossip among themselves and didn’t pay much attention to the players or the game. I hate when dealers don’t pay attention to the game so after about 20 minutes I colored up and left.

The Peppermill was pretty impressive in design. I liked the elaborate décor and drink service was decent. I didn’t dine there but I can see why people love to stay there. The gaming floor is huge. I also enjoy that you can walk up to a machine to check the points and offers on the players card. Overall, I loved the experience outside the craps table.

The Atlantis was nice too. The gaming floor is gigantic. The décor is also very elaborate. VPfree listed a good offering of video poker machines. It was my first time playing a 3 and 10 play 9/6 JOB offered from nickel to dollar denomination. I had fun but went down again nearly $200.

The only notable moment was when I attempted to place a dollar on top of the video poker machine so I could quickly hand it to cocktail waitress for a drink. Unfortunately, the bill fell into a crack in the machine. It appeared that someone in the past was angry at the machine and slammed their fist on it and made a huge separation on top of the machine. The crack was not being enough for my hands to fit through so I took out two players cards to try to fish it out. I also turned to the person next to me to tell them what happened and to vouch for me when security showed up.

Within 20 seconds of me trying to fish out the dollar I see from the corner of my eye a large gentleman in a suit and earpiece running towards me. I turned to the player next to me and tell him it’s time to vouch for me. Luckily, after a short explanation and a quick peek by security to see the fallen dollar, I wasn’t back roomed or thrown out the door. I then hit the slot attendant button which was probably the thing I should have done in the first place. That was a lot of trouble to get back a measly dollar. And I needed that dollar because I went down $200 on the video poker machines.

Afterwards, we headed back to the downtown core and had a great meal at Hash House in Harrahs. My mother-in-law is awesome and we talked about how she owned/operated a farm in Virginia. We then played a bit more slots and video poker. I should have just punched myself in the balls because at the end of the day I suffered my biggest one day loss.
Sunday was Mother’s Day. In the morning I tried to run the Riverwalk trail. At mile2, I ran into a Mother’s Day breast cancer run. The race markers showed that the runners should have followed the route on the road, but I literally ran smacked into a herd of runners who preferred the River trail. I didn’t want to be a jerk and attempt to run upstream so I cut my run short and turned around.

At 10am, we went to the Eldo Mother’s Day buffet. We got there one hour after opening and it was a solid 30+ minute wait in a huge line. But it was worth it as we had plenty of good food and mimosas. Our server also sang a Spanish song to a table nearby which was great. One of the other employees explained that he a singer in a Mariachi Band.

My mother-in-law wanted to lock up her winnings so we ended up taking her to the airport. The Reno airport looked pretty empty and it was an easy drop off. We were sad to see my mother-in-law off but we had a great time together.

My wife and I stayed in comp rooms at Siena on Sunday and Monday night. On Monday, I used Siena workout room. It’s not a big fitness room but it was empty so I was able to enjoy a 6 mile treadmill run and some work with the free weights. The only complaint I had with their fitness room was that it isn’t ventilated like a fitness room should be so it got really warm inside.

Siena fitness room


The Siena outdoor pool was finally open. But it was horrible when the pool towels are kept in the spa which was not open. Other guests walked to the pool, couldn’t find towels then walked out. I went to housekeeping and asked them for towels for the guests at the pool. She said she had only one which made me suspect than she thought I was trying to steal some crappy hotel towels. So I asked her if she could contact someone to get the pool towels locked in the spa for the other guests at the pool which she responded with a blank stare and an “okay”. I wasn’t surprised when the pool towels never came.

Siena Pool (pool towels not included)


We ate at Siena’s Sushi Saga on Monday night and the RIverwalk Café (with our food vouchers) on Tuesday morning. Overall, it was a great trip even with my large gambling loss.

[john]

Thanks for the report on your Reno trip, dfens. I'm in agreement with you about the way Siena treats their customers. They send me offers monthly, mostly food discounts and drawing tickets, which I never use. Their free play is a little thin, but when I'm in the area, I'll go use it. By "use it", I mean give it back. Everyone who works there is friendly and helpful, and the food isn't bad, but DaVinci's could use some help.

Thanks again, and keep us posted on your other adventures.

[dfens]

My wife had another long weekend off after our Mother’s Day Reno trip. We talked about going back to Reno but I didn’t think it was a good idea with less than 4 days after the last trip. On Sunday morning, my wife woke up late and took a shower. After she showed I asked her if she wanted to still go to Reno which she replied, “I already started packing”.

I am someone who is dedicated to planning and logistics at work. But I appreciate spur of the moment road trips. We gave ourselves less than 20 minutes to pack. We hit the road and had a great conversation on our 4 hour drive to Reno.

We again used our comp rooms at Siena. My wife was near double diamond status at Siena so we decide to earn the last remaining points on the 2x points multiplier day on Monday. I calculated nearly $3,000 of coin would be needed which could cost around $300-$600 loss. I don’t like playing for comps but we would have probably played this amount but spread over a few casinos. So we made a pact to not gamble on Sunday so we could focus our play on Monday.

I looked on Yelp.com and found out that the Ole Bridge Pub offers shuffleboard and good drinks. It’s located by the Riverwalk not far from the downtown core. Surprisingly, they offer free shuffleboard though the table is awkwardly located behind sit down tables which makes it hard to get from one side to another. The table was also missing one puck so we had to play with only four. There was four large screen televisions on sports channels. The drinks were good. We got sufficiently hammered off their good pour of specialty drinks. The bar was mostly empty but they had a good patio area overlooking the river. It was a great way to spend a nongambling afternoon.



We decided to eat at Cal Neva on Sunday night. There was a short wait for dinner so we decided to get some outrageous meals. I went with the 2lb burrito and my wife go the short stack of pancakes. Her pancakes were surprisingly fluffy and good. My 2lb burrito was a challenge to put down but I hammered it out.

Try at your own risk


Short stack and 2lb burrito


Aftermath


I’m not going to go into depth on how I felt after the meal, but it wasn’t good.

We also slightly broke our pledge on gambling and I put some dollars to play keno at dinner. I spent $6 and earned back $2 on my wife’s game. It was pretty fun cheering on the numbers over a meal.

When Monday rolled around I could feel the energy surging in my body. This was going to be the day! I hit the Siena gym to work off some energy and then went on my laptop to kill time while my wife slept in. Again, the wifi at Siena was solid and I was able to get some work done.

Finally, it was the moment. My wife and I hit the slots at Siena. We play Quick Hits where she goes up a bit and I go down. Then we play the Mystic Lamp slots. We’re able to earn the $3,000 of coin in after a few hours of button mashing. The best part was that we hit a few jackpots and went up slightly on our play!

Afterwards, we hit the Eldo craps table. It went choppy for a while. My typically craps play is to bet the pass line and put at least 1x odds behind it. Then I’ll either

-Place the inside numbers. After some hits (typically two) I’ll take them down. (good for a warm table, but a PSO will cost me nearly $30)

-Place the inside numbers. Use a come bet to offset a potential 7 and keep a few come bets up (only works when the table is hot or else I’m putting about $50 at risk)

-Don’t come bet with lay odds. Use the don’t come as a hedge then place the inside numbers. After a few hits, start using the come bet and odds (good for a choppy table but risky as I can lose my don’t come bet then 7 out right away).

The table was choppy and cold and I noticed the players racks were going cold. I was holding with by don’t come hedge but not hitting points was a slow bleed. My wife and I contemplated leaving when I told her to at least stay for a few shooters until after our rolls. My wife finally rolled without much momentum.

Then an asian man to her left started rolling. I played the inside place bets and he immediately hits the point. He then hits more inside numbers and another point. I start come betting with my place bets. He keeps hitting more place numbers which makes me pocket some winnings then I start getting aggressive. The table gets louder, soon I have all the points loaded with 2x odds. I start betting hardways and a few hit. My rail starts filling up with chips and the dealer is paying me off in greens as I’m winning more bets and my rail is filling up in chips. Soon, I’m up to 3x odds on all my beds then go to 4x odds inside. A few more inside numbers hits and the table goes crazy.

My wife never saw me get so aggressive at the craps table so she gets really excited! When the shooter finally sevens out I’m looking at a $300+ win! We stay for two more shooters but the table goes cold and the dealer starts hinting that it may be time to go. We we’re looking to eat so we leave.

We then walk over to Harrah’s laughing about the win. I used the facebook coupon that MrJames mentioned in his post in the “Reno Comments” section for a 2-for-1 offer. They accept it so my wife and I try something different. She gets the duck breasts dinner which was great. I order the pork tenderloin which is massive. I can only eat half of it before I put up the white flag.

Hash House Duck Breast and Pork Tenderloin meal.. Thanks to MrJames!


We go back to Siena to finish playing the points multiplier day. My wife and I play the slots for a while which we both go up a bit. I then switch it up to video poker.

The Siena’s best video poker is the 9/6 JOB offered at the $1 or $2 denomination level. This is not competitive at all since Cal Neva offers 9/6 JOB at $0.50 cents while the Eldo offers is at $0.25. Factor in that the Siena has the worst drink service this side of the Bonanza Casino and it’s really not a good place for video poker players.

Nonetheless, with my prior wins I decide that my bankroll is large enough to play at least a bit at the $1 level ($5 max bet per play, playing at least 600 hand per hour = $3,000 at risk per hour). Since it’s 9/6 JOB the return is 99.54% but typically you won’t hit the royal flush or straight flush so it’s more like a $100 loss per hour (more if you don’t get some 4 of a kinds (4OAK). Also, at the Siena the rate of points earned at video poker is about a tenth the rate of slot points.

One thing at Siena is that you have to be careful on the video poker payouts. The video poker machines near the television returns are 97% near the television. This was the first machine I sat at. I played for a minute until I hit a full house and then noticed that the straight flush was a short pay.



In comparison this is the machine next to it. Notice it is a fully pay 9/6 JOB at the same denomination.



So I sit down and immediately start hitting a slew of 3oak, fullhouses and 4oak. My bankroll starts building so I get aggressive. If I get a few wins in a row I start moving to $2 denominations ($10 per spin) for a bit. I hit a couple 4oak at the $2 level too. I start cheering. My wife is sitting at a slot machine a few aisles away but is laughing as she sees me raise my hands over and over again. The cocktail waitress notices this as well as she warns me when she’s behind me whenever she delivers a drink.

I try to slow my play whenever I play video pokers, slot or other gambling games. With video poker, I’ll change machines about every 20 minutes or even walk around the casino to take a break. I also sometimes take photos of my wins. That night, my phone ran out of power as I was getting videos of some slot wins and photos of video poker wins. Here’s some of them:







For some reason I kept winning at video poker. When I eventually hit a $1200 ticket and tried to switch machines but they wouldn’t take the ticket. I had to stop by the cage to cash it in. I stopped by to show my wife who freaked out by how much I was winning.

I then went to the Siena craps table. I played with two drunks but the table went cold and the only thing that kept me playing with some don’t come hedges. I went down about $150. When it’s late, I always tell the dealers that I can leave the table if they wanted and early out or to close the table. They didn’t mention anything but eventually when I left at 11:30pm, they immediately shut down the table.

I went back to the slots and started to button mash before midnight when the multiplier day would be over. Though I never played in a slot tournament, I imagine the manically pressing of the button is similar to how a tourney player hits buttons. I ended up down $20 during that button mashing experience, but it gave my wife a good laugh and I earned a slew of points. In retrospect, I should have lost way more money doing something as dumb as that. But it was funny and I can say I tried it.

Button mashing jackpot


At midnight, I went back to video poker. It went up and down but I ended up adding a bit more to my win. At 1:30am, we called it quits. The tally at the end of the day was right under a $1200 win. That is definitely my biggest one day take win at gambling.

The next day, I woke up at 8:30 to the Riverwalk trail. The forecast was for an upper 80 degree day and it got really hot. My body wasn’t used to the warm temperature but I kept going. In fact, I didn’t want to lose back my previous night’s win so increased my scheduled run from 6 to 8 miles. I saw a lot of runners in the morning. It was pretty nice until a runner started pacing himself behind me. When running, it’s courteous to either make a quick pass or slow back a bit but the runner was intent on click his heels right behind mine. Since, I was already a bit annoyed by the warm weather, I decided to increase the pace from 9:10 minute mile pace to 8:30 mile pace (I use a gps watch and heart monitor to pace myself). Well he increased his pace too which annoyed me as it conclusive proof that he was pacing me instead of just passing. So I go to a 8:00 pace which finally caused some separation then pushed a 7:30 pace to finish at Siena. The good thing was that I had a great workout and this killed a lot of time in the morning.

I only had a few hours left to play, so I went over to Cal Neva to redeem some slot chips. I immediately jumped on the $3 Cal Neva craps table which only had one other player. I think the table may have a plywood base because the dice are super bouncy there. I was spreading my place bets and some don’t come bets. The table was semi warm (which doesn’t happen at Cal Neva much, it’s typically cold) and finally colored up nearly $100 up. I went over the video poker for my free play and ended up playing some 9/6 JOB video poker at $0.50. Unfortunately, I got only one 4OAK and played my $100 craps win leaving me only $20 up.

Cal Neva 4OAK


My last stop was to the Eldo to swipe for their “Treasures of the Eldorado” game. I had about 30 minutes to kill so I sat down at the Eldo Shoot To Win bubble craps machines which has only a $1 minimum which is perfect to kill time. There was a bunch of guys in a group playing who made faces and haws so make it known that they didn’t enjoy that I sat down at the bubble craps machine. Two locals also were sitting next to me complaining from everything from the Reno, Obama to the lack of advancement in garage door technology. I didn’t like the vibe, but I played anyways.

The machine was cold but luckily I was putting down a lot of don’t come bets which were paying off. The big group whined the entire time and finally quit. I was only betting $1 pass/come/don’t’ come bets and secretly winning. The two locals kept playing, and I finally got to shoot where all my bets paid off. I finished my Reno trip winning $30 on a $1 bubble craps machine!

I picked up the car at Eldo. I prefer to park there because the Eldo security is solid (or over cautious as Mammoth Gambler found out), the parking is covered and it’s free. At Siena, the parking is sketchy and the security presence is nearly non-existent. Also, on our prior trip my wife had her Eldo players card start melting in the visor of the car when we left it in the uncovered Siena parking lot for an hour. Luckily, the plastic card didn’t melt onto the fabric of the car but I’m going to try to avoid parking in an uncovered lot in Reno until the weather cools down.

The drive home went quickly as we were still excited about our big wins!
We will likely have at least one planned trip to Reno in June. It’s our one year wedding anniversary which we originally planned to head to Vegas but we’re going to push it back. We then are heading to Portland and then might make another trip Reno at the end of June if we haven’t busted our bankroll.

Been super busy so catching up on all the posts have been fun! Thanks again!

Questions:

-Has anyone used those bike cart people usually riding around Eldo/SL/Cal Neva who offer to give you a ride? I overhead them talking about giving rides for tips only? If you done it how was the ride, where did you go and how much did you tip them?

-Has anyone taken the tour of the Mustang Ranch? I'm not talking about partaking in the features.. I mean the actual tour where they just show you around. Is it worthwhile?

-I noticed the hot dog cart vendors out on the weekends in May. I saw one between Commrow and Eldo and another right across the street in front of Harrah's. Is this new or do they open during spring/summer?

[dfens]

Thanks John! I've never been into DaVinci's but Siena always advertises their $18 prime rib. I do like Sushi Saga and pigging out on the rolls.

After our coin-in at Siena in May, we did get a pretty decent freeplay mailer. The one thing that is that Siena has siphoned off our Eldo and Cal Neva play to the point where Cal Neva is giving me very small freeplay offers.

I've been told that the JA Nugget has the best freeplay offer but I've never played there before. Does anyone have any experience with the JA Nugget rewards programs? Does it beat GSR/Pep/Atlantis?

[JD]

That was a GREAT trip report. Dfens.

Did you play Siena VP at the bar or on the floor?

I always get good drink service but usually sit at the bar. Any live music?

But I am going to have a hard time forgetting the poo review.

You should be getting a Siena flier with a "TWO FREE NIGHTS" coupon.

If the planets align, You can parlay two free (end of month) with two free first of following month back to back. Get a river view room.

Great report, thanks.

[Zydeco]

Defens,

Great trip report, I dig the photos mixed with tales of food, gaming, drinks, etc.

No on the bike carts (though read about a company doing it for a wine tour).

However, YES to the Mustang Ranch.

I was alone the first time and just curious. Heard they offered free museum tours and had some time to kill before picking up a pal at the airport. It was so interesting and not what I expected. I enjoyed a beer, took a tour, heard some history and then sat and shot the shit with staff and working women. No services. Just a great adventure and eye-opening. Very cool.

Last time was this January with my regular crew of Reno Travelers (n=6). We headed out for lunch and were met by the nicest bartender and security guy. The food was reasonably priced and tasty! Really, really good!

We asked for a tour and spent the next hour or so walking the property. Some great Reno history out there! We visited the rooms, saw the museum pieces, saw the beautiful decor and changes. Did you know they moved the main house via helicopter?

No services, but again great food, cool people, super history lesson. Oh and towards the end of our visit, Madame Susan Austin joined us with another round of history and laughter. She was great and clearly knows what she is doing. More than once I heard praise for her from staff and contractors.
Once my guests "got over themselves", we had a great time and learned so much.

If you do decide to go, head out during their slow times (don't do a Fri or Sat night), don't be obnoxious, recognize that this is a tax-paying business with hard-working folks, tip the women who give a tour, and be open-minded.

Like I said, it was an adventure and one I'd do again.

[LilyJDragonfly]

Man, D, you and the wife seem just like The Dog and I... "eh, we're not really doing anything tonight, let's go hit Reno!" Grab a bag, order up the neighbor kid to take care of the pets, and get on the road... now that The Dog is living in North Dakota, compliments of the US Air Force, our trips are curtailed. <sigh>

"from the Reno, Obama to the lack of advancement in garage door technology." Mint!

And I think The Dog and I did one of those bike things - I seem to recall he gave us a rate of like $10 to get from SL down to the Cal-Neva. Perhaps that was New Orleans. I really can't remember.

I have to agree with you in re: Las Vegas. We went two summers ago and it was meh. I went last fall with a girlfriend but she doesn't gamble so it was really meh. Enough. Reno all the way!

[Mammothgambler]

Dfens, excellent series of trip reports, I think you should get an award of some type!

A few questions/comments:

Did they do ANYTHING to compensate you for the poo bed incident? If they were a pet-friendly hotel it might be a different story, where these things sometimes happen, but jeez, I've never even seen something like that even at the Motel 6s here...the motor lodges might be a different story, but that's just plain, uh, gnarly!

Good to see you all had fun at Mt. Rose. Although it's nothing as grand as Mammoth and some of the Tahoe resorts, it's pretty happening for being where it is, the lift ticket prices are decent, and you can get to it from just about every casino here free of charge on the shuttle!

Great shots and videos on the wins! I love it when the penny Quick Hits turn on like that and spit out a bonus round over $300. It's actually only happened to me about three times.

Thanks for the lowdown on the Top Deck. Gotta mosey up there soon to check it out, as I ate at the Casino Grill for FOUR straight days in a row last week...time to try something new...

It's so funny you mentioned the bike carts and the hot dog cart - since the job scene around here is so screwed and time is running out for me with unemployment benefits, I actually asked these guys a couple weeks back if they were hiring and what the process is like. Here's what I found out (jeez, talk about doing some gambling without actually gambling!!!):

For the bike carts, the fare usually is determined by the driver who provides their own bike (owner owns the carts), and all tips are split 50/50 with the owner (who's name is Rex and has a supposed "office" down on West 4th by the Rancho 777 motel down the alley somewhere) in addition to the drivers having to pay the owner a service fee. So, if tips are bad, one could be stuck literally being in the hole after these fees are paid. Sounded exactly like how alot of the cab companies operate around here. I bumped into one guy at the bus station who's actually out there every weekend shift and he mentioned the most he ever cleared in one night was around $27 after all was said and done!

For the hot dog cart (which is excellent, by the way!), the person was looking for someone to take over the route because of too much wear and tear on the personal SUV. A separate vending license is also required. Being in the specific area and scenario both these companies are in, gotta give em big compliments...I can't imagine the amount of BS they gotta go through.

So, if there are any generous tippers out there, hit these folks up first!

Good hearing your player's card didn't completely melt. I had to replace a whole stack (and the backpack they were in) on one of my first trips to Vegas way back when. The desert sun, north or south, don't play...

Regarding the JA Nugget, I've found the John's Club to be very fair so far. Just three visits since February have gotten me 2 free nites a month with only major holidays being blacked out, about $15 in freeplay each week, and about $45 in food credit about three days out of each month. Automatic half price buffet if paying with comp dollars too. Definitely no complaints - and yes, they have welcomed my MEAN ASS DOG with open arms!

Keep the great reports coming!

Mammothgambler

[mjames1229]

[dfens]

JD - I do use the Siena coupons for the comp rooms, meals and free play. I was playing video poker away from the bar when I got a slew of 4oaks. I been to Siena when they've had live singers but I don't like most live music. Sadly, I prefer the constant repeat of 80's songs they play at Eldorado (Taylor Dane, Aretha Franklin, etc...)

Zydeco - Thanks for the info on the Mustang Ranch. I also read a blog about someone who visited and it seems really interesting. http://adventurepaul.com/world-famous-mustang-ranch/ I like the description about how they take out a UV light and do a close inspection of the patrons to find out if they have a STD before "getting down to business" I'm going to try to convince my wife to take a tour.

Lily - I miss your trip reports! I'm not sure what Benjamin is going to do without your business!

Mammoth - I didn't mention the poo bed to the front desk. In retrospect I probably should have but I figured it was a free room and I took care of it. Then again, for over two years I slept on a flimsy urine stained mattress on a ship. *bleech*

Thank for the lowdown on the bike carts. Maybe I'll try to convince a bike cart driver for a hourly rate. So if you see a drunk guy, waving glow sticks and screaming while on a bike cart on Virginia St, you'll know who it is.

I've heard really good things about the JA Nugget, especially about their slot rewards program. I'm going to try to make a visit soon.

MJames - My wife really liked the tenderloin too. We would probably be 500lbs if they opened up a Hash House in our city. Btw.. I also got another 2-for-1 mailer from Hash House for my birthday!

[stan_allen]

Now that's some Reno trippin', there...it's so nice how you and the wife can spontaneously take off and go have a rip-roaring good time - it's an inspiration to us all!

Great job, all around - special kudos for those massive meals - I never noticed that "Over a Pound served with each meal!" histrionic before - that's some serious food; I've gotta try it...

Agreed that Boomtown is underwhelming, which is too bad - decent-size facility, room for lots of gaming...it really should be better than it is, even though it's got a lot going for it...can't quite put my finger on why it has such a decrepit feel to it.

Never imagined that the Siena outdoor pool would be so attractive, at least from the picture...not surprising about the lack of towels, but whattaya gonna do?

And last but not least, AGREED that Reno trumps Vegas any day of the week! Think about it: what's the actual advantage of going to Vegas? If you're into hifalutin glitz and little else, then that's about it. Overpriced EVERYTHING, little availability of anything desirable, and the feeling of being a peon if you're not a whale. Let the pompous, pretentious, in-from-L.A. crowd have their bloodsucking and bloodletting ten-dollar drinks, fifteen-dollar table minimums, and condescending sneers from every staff person on site. Reno RULES, once again!

Let the good times roll, and continue to keep us posted!

[mycran]

Thanks for the great trip report,sounds like you have a great mother in law.When mine was still alive I could do no wrong,any argument or tiff was always my wifes fault according to her. She let my wife have it if I came home and she was not there with dinner ready.Even if I knew in advance she had plans . Old school all the way. Keep up with the reports , got me to start mentally planning my next one soon.