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Thread: Casino Road trip from Las Vegas

  1. #14


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    Quote Originally Posted by Midwest Player View Post
    First trip was in fall of 2015. Second and third trips were in 2016, and 4th trip was in spring of 2017. I'm still getting offers from the casinos there for free rooms and free play. I have turned down several comped flights
    I have been there much more recently than you. The best double deck cuts off a quarter deck and then cuts off another quarter deck and puts it in the discard tray. So while the penetration isn't awful it makes deck estimation difficult. The rules are hit 17 and double on 9 through 11 only with no resplit aces.

    The single-deck was three rounds dealt regardless of number of players. All were hit 17, and some were 6:5. No resplit aces and also no doubling on soft hands.

    The 6 deck was also not remarkable. Two decks cut off, hit 17, but you can resplit aces and you can double soft hands.

    Two casinos have full pay video poker, and for anyone who dabbles in other AP opportunities there AR less than 25 in that entire town.

    I would have left town sooner but all the car rental places close at 4 or 5, so I was stuck overnight.

    For the very little action that I gave them I am still getting offers for comped flights, room, board and FreePlay. I intend to take one of those comp flights at some point this year and rent a car for a cheap trip to Vegas.

  2. #15


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    The games have gone to shit in Laughlin. The only bonus is renting jet ski's on the river and 'best rack' at the Riverside on Thursday's (I think?). You might want to consider flying into SLC, hit wendover, Jackot, Elko, Battle Mountain, Winnemucca, Tahoe, Carson City, Reno....maybe Sacramento, then fly home.

  3. #16


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    Quote Originally Posted by 21forme View Post
    You can win at 6:5 SD where they deal one round and shuffle. Anything can happen short term. MWP seems to be short term results oriented lately. Very odd for someone playing over 20 years.
    Yeah, if I played more my results would probably have been even better.

  4. #17


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    Quote Originally Posted by RCJH View Post
    I have been there much more recently than you. The best double deck cuts off a quarter deck and then cuts off another quarter deck and puts it in the discard tray. So while the penetration isn't awful it makes deck estimation difficult. The rules are hit 17 and double on 9 through 11 only with no resplit aces.

    The single-deck was three rounds dealt regardless of number of players. All were hit 17, and some were 6:5. No resplit aces and also no doubling on soft hands.

    The 6 deck was also not remarkable. Two decks cut off, hit 17, but you can resplit aces and you can double soft hands.

    Two casinos have full pay video poker, and for anyone who dabbles in other AP opportunities there AR less than 25 in that entire town.

    I would have left town sooner but all the car rental places close at 4 or 5, so I was stuck overnight.

    For the very little action that I gave them I am still getting offers for comped flights, room, board and FreePlay. I intend to take one of those comp flights at some point this year and rent a car for a cheap trip to Vegas.
    On my trips to Laughlin I found CBJN to be very accurate. I just checked the April 2019 CBJN and it is reporting the April 2019 conditions for Laughlin as the same as when I was there 2 years ago. On double deck you could double on anything, but not DAS. The worst thing about Laughlin was some places would shuffle up if you triple your bet. You just have to be careful how you raise your bets.

    Here is a trip report on my second Laughlin trip. I don't think I saved the other reports.

    Trip Report: Did Even Better This Time (Long)

    Once again I made another very enjoyable trip to Laughlin. I enjoyed eating in the Riverside restaurant and watching the boats go up and down the clear blue waters of the Colorado River. I skipped the buffet at the Riverside entirely as last time I thought the food there was terrible. The Riverside restaurant had good food and all but my first meal was completely comped.

    Unlike my last visit to Laughlin where I played almost all of the casinos in Laughlin, this time I devoted all of my blackjack play to just four casinos. They were the Riverside, Aquarius, Tropicana, and the Nugget. The Riverside and Tropicana give good comps. The Aquarius gives terrible comps. It isn’t even worthwhile to play rated there. I never checked what kind of comps the Nugget gave me, but I did get $10 in free slot play for getting a card there.

    On this trip I managed to get 37 hours of blackjack play in. I believe, I was way above expected value for the trip. Everything went great the first day. I won all of my sessions at the four casinos I played and even broke even at video poker. I managed to put in 10.5 hours of blackjack play on my first day which is a lot considering my day began at 2:30 am my home time and didn’t end until 6:00 am the following day my home time.

    Day 2 was also good, but I had my first losing session on day two. I only got in 9.5 hours of blackjack play on day 2 since I had a late start after sleeping in. I also won my first session on day 3 and this marked the high point of my trip. At this point, I played a total of 10 sessions ranging from a low of 1.5 hours to a high of 4 hours for a session. At this mark in the trip, I only lost 1 out of the 10 sessions I played. Then I racked up some losses, and day 3 turned out to be the only losing day of the 4 days I played blackjack. For the entire trip I played 16 sessions of blackjack and only lost 4 of them. I had net wins at all the four casinos I played even taking into account my terrible loss I racked up at video poker.

    I had my largest win at the Aquarius casino, but the Aquarius is also where I had my largest loss so as far as net win goes the Aquarius casino was second best. Here is a tip for fellow red chippers on how to play the Aquarius two deck game. The Aquarius usually has only one two deck game open on a weekday. It is a $10 min game and it might be fairly crowded. However at the 6:00 pm shift change they raise the limit to $25. If you are already playing you are grand fathered in at $10 and since $25 is pretty much for most folks the game is often pretty dead shortly after shift change. You can play heads up at the $10 min or just with one or two other folks and they usually don’t stick around for long.

    One of my goals on this trip was to play enough to qualify for a comped flight. I thought it was best to add some video poker to the mix as a lot of folks with very little play were getting comped flights. I decided I would play $1 9/6 JOB, but could not find any such games. I did find 25 cent 9/5 JOB, but I found it boring and I wasn’t making many points. I wanted 9/6 JOB and went hunting again for the game. I finally found a few machines that were 9/6 JOB but they were $5 and $10 min. I decided to give the $5 9/6 JOB a try. At $25 a hand you can go up or down very quickly and the first 6 or 7 hands I played were all losers. $200 was blown in seconds. I gave up and went back to the 9/5 JOB. I figure for the trip I ran about $2,000 through the video poker machines and ended up losing about $300. That is a 15% loss but it was all due to getting losses on the $25 hands. I did play some video poker each day, but found it boring.

    At one of the more sweaty casinos I got my goose cooked. I was spreading only about 1 to 8 and losing most of my big bets. Then out of the blue the phone rings, and the pit critter looks up at me with a sly smile on his face and then comes over to our table and inputs some info into the machine on the table. A few minutes later he comes over to the table again and then asks me if I’m (my name). I say yes and ask why? He makes up some nonsense answer, but does not back me off. At this point I figure my goose is cooked, and I only played a little while longer. I figured I better go eat while I still have some comps left on my card. I do not know what he entered in the computer, but does everyone think if I make another trip in the future that I should just play unrated. I still have enough comps on my card for another free buffet so I don’t need to play rated.

    I did run into a card counter. At first I thought he was just another ploppy. He only bought in for a couple hundred dollars and you don’t last long at a $25 minimum table with just a couple hundred dollars, but when he busted out he bought in again. As he walked by me in the bathroom he said “I like your act.” I knew right away what he was talking about and answered “is it that obvious.” He was from the upper Midwest and we had a brief conversation about Hinckley and Danbury WI. He played unrated due to previous back offs and left just at the right time with a nice win. He said he came down from Vegas and plays blackjack for a living. He said he is not a member of BJ21 but does subscribe to CBJN. I told him to join green chip so maybe he will.

    I didn’t make any big bets at blackjack. My biggest bet was only $100 and I got a blackjack on it. A few $80 bets were made. Most places will call green action and checks play, but I really had no other trouble except for the one place where I got my goose cooked. It is really difficult to make a large spread at the Riverside because if you jump your bet 3 times they will shuffle up on you, but since your spread is weak it is more difficult to spot counters.

    And now here is why xxxxx is wrong about Laughlin. First let me say the effort and expense involved for me to get there is not excessive. In fact, if I can fly out of my local airport it is one of the easiest and cheapest places to get to. On this trip my total expenses except airfare was less than $60, and most of that was for a $25 dollar airport parking fee and the rest was tips on meals. Even on a local trip I usually spend close to $100. I should add a correction here because I gave many tips to the waitress for drinks but didn’t track them. They probably amounted to $30 or more for the entire trip, but they were just a dollar blackjack chip and maybe only a 50 cent piece depending if I got a lot of uneven bet blackjacks. I got so dehydrated on this trip that I hardly could pee at the airport before I got on the plane for the return trip home.

    Another reason is the blackjack games are better in Laughlin than my closest local casino and for me to get to any decent blackjack game it is a 5 hour drive. I just don’t like driving anymore. You have to remember one size does not fit all. I would say the pen on Laughlin’s two deck games is better than what is listed in CBJN as I seen one dealer giving close to .6 decks unseen which is a far cry from the one deck unseen at my local casino. However, the Nugget in Laughlin used a notch on the 2 deck discard tray to mark pen which was about .8 decks unseen as listed in CBJN.

    Okay, I did well on the two trips I made to Laughlin. We all know they could have been losing trips just as well, since only two trips mean nothing. I don’t care if I make a lot of money there as I consider myself just a red chip player anyway. However, anytime I’m on a blackjack trip and come home with more than a thousand dollars after all expenses I’m very satisfied. The average of both of my Laughlin trips netted more than a thousand after all expenses. I’m very happy.

    PS. I almost forgot. I did qualify for an entirely comped flight next time. It includes the flight and hotel and if I want to bring a guest that is comped too. For the benefit of xxxxx and anyone else who is interested this is what I did. I just about doubled my blackjack play from last time to around 13 hours and added some video poker to the mix. I don’t know the formula they use, but my play was enough for the free trip. Many other folks on this trip I knew or talked to, and a lot of them are getting free trips also. I also won a tee shirt at blackjack. Now I think I own a total of two shirts with short sleeves.
    Last edited by Midwest Player; 04-09-2019 at 10:28 PM.

  5. #18


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    The Mulligan and Heat at Tropicana Casino in Laughlin.

    Here is what happened to me the last time I used my players card at Tropicana casino in Laughlin.

    I got an offer in the mail for a free entry into Tropicana’s monthly $15,000 blackjack tournament. The offer included a free buffet, 3 free hotel nights which I didn't need or use, and a mulligan coupon which could be used at any regular blackjack table. The mulligan coupon had a max bet limit of $50.

    Friday evening was tournament registration and since I left my card at home I had to get another card at the players club. I noticed the clerk was reading something on the screen for a fairly long time, but I got the replacement card with no problem.

    I then went to tournament registration and signed up for the tournament. Again I noticed the clerk appearing to be reading the screen for a long time like he was reading notes, but again I registered with no problems. I asked a few questions about the tournament and then went to eat the free buffet.

    The next day I arrived about an hour before the tournament and went to play regular blackjack for about 45 minutes. When they asked for my player’s card I said I didn’t have one, and when she asked if I wanted one I said “not now.” No further questions were asked and I played without any heat what so ever and won $75.

    I then went to play in the blackjack tournament and busted out. At this point I decided I would not be coming the next day for the second round since the winners are based on total chip value of two rounds and I had zero after the first round. I wasn’t going to spend $50 to buy into additional rounds. However, I still had my mulligan coupon and decided I would use it.

    I went back to the regular blackjack table and gave them my card. About 20 seconds later the pit person was on the phone. She still had my card in her hand, but after a minute or so she came back to the table. I asked her if there was a problem and she said no. Several pit persons came to the table entering stuff into the table monitor.

    Then the same thing happened as last time. They called out my name to make sure they knew where I was sitting. I figured they were going to let me play to confirm their suspicions. I figured I would flat bet a few hands and when I got a high count I would use the mulligan coupon. I had a fairly high count and asked how to use the coupon. Immediately the pit boss was at the table and I put out the $50 bet. Dealer had a face showing and I had a total of 7. I used the mulligan and got my money back, and the dealer had another face in the hole. I played one more hand and then said I had enough after about 10 minutes of total play. I colored up for a $25 win at this $10 min DD game. The pit boss thanked me for playing and I headed to the bathroom. On the way out I put the card in the slot machine to check my balance and the card said “Restricted Balance $0”, but their was no balance on the card before I started and maybe 10 minutes wasn’t long enough to earn any points.

    I feel my card is toast for sure there now, and I won’t use it there anymore. I was never back-offed or told I couldn’t play. It will be interesting to see if comp offers stop coming in the mail.

    Does this look like a toast card to you?

  6. #19


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    Quote Originally Posted by albee View Post
    'best rack' at the Riverside on Thursday's
    Are you referring to a restaurant or a dealer?

  7. #20


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    Quote Originally Posted by Midwest Player View Post
    Yeah, I agree Laughlin is not the best, but it is not terrible either. If you qualify for a comped charter trip it can be a real inexpensive trip. It is really geared to the red chip level, and I must admit on my last two trips there I got "heat" at the red chip level.

    However, overall I have won there. I have made 4 lifetime trips to Laughlin and won on 3 out of the 4.
    Trip 1: 28.0 hrs won $1,300.
    Trip 2: 37.0 hrs won $2,098.
    Trip 3: 32.0 hrs lost $1,391.
    Trip 4: 26.5 hrs won $1,793.
    Totals 123.5 hrs won $3,800. or $30.77 per hour playing time.

    Zee, would have a rental car with him and most of the casinos are in walking distance. Hotels are dirt cheap and probably easy to get comped.

    Quote Originally Posted by Dbs6582 View Post
    Not necessarily. Have you read any of Midwest Player posts lately? He’s been on a hot streak for about two years. It could be he’s really lucky, or in AP jargon on the positive side of variance. Or he could be making it up. I don’t believe the last statement....just throwing it out there as a possibility.

    At any rate, as we all know short terms results don’t mean much.

    Dbs, you do not believe MWP last statement why is that? Who cares what you think anyway? Then you try to brush it all off with the short term result statement. MWP has been playing for a long time now successfully "red chip or not" and does not need to make up bullshit stories. He is just trying to help ZeeBabar find other areas to play.

  8. #21


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    albee wrote:

    "best rack' at the Riverside on Thursday's (I think?)."


    Quote Originally Posted by 21forme View Post
    Are you referring to a restaurant or a dealer?
    Possibly both? Could be worth the trip Zee.
    Last edited by BoSox; 04-10-2019 at 08:09 AM.

  9. #22


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    Quote Originally Posted by BoSox View Post
    albee wrote:

    "best rack' at the Riverside on Thursday's (I think?)."



    Possibly both? Could be worth the trip Zee.
    If you like eye candy that is over 65, Laughlin is the place to go. Very little young eye candy.

  10. #23


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    Quote Originally Posted by Midwest Player View Post
    If you like eye candy that is over 65, Laughlin is the place to go. Very little young eye candy.
    Funny. This reminds me of an observation I made in AC: The waitresses at Borgata are, for the most part, unbelievable. Their grandmothers are the waitresses at Ballys...

  11. #24


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    Quote Originally Posted by BoSox View Post
    albee wrote:

    "best rack' at the Riverside on Thursday's (I think?)."




    Possibly both? Could be worth the trip Zee.
    Plan to in May.

  12. #25


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    Quote Originally Posted by Midwest Player View Post
    If you like eye candy that is over 65, Laughlin is the place to go. Very little young eye candy.
    I think it's more like 85...

    I kept waiting for one of those elderly people with a walker, thier oxygen tank, and a cigarette to send the whole casino up in flames.

  13. #26


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    For some reason, the OP was gaffled (slang for stolen for those that don't get that word) over to that forum with all of the roulette and baccarat knuckleheads.

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