Grand Cascades Lodge @ Crystal Springs Resort

This is possibly the first trip I've taken in I don't know how many years that a casino either wasn't the final destination, nor was any gambling involved.  So what is this blog posting doing under my Gambling Heading?  Well, it was 100% of my luckiness that got us here and I'll tell you how it happened!

Last September, Mike and I again played in the Imus Ranch Fund Raiser golf tournament (which, by the way, is a very worthwhile charity and you can check them out HERE).  One of the fundraising elements is a raffle -- they obtain a bunch of prizes from donors and you can buy chances at 25 bucks a pop to win a prize.  Although the prizes are generally very nice, they are not usually something that I am excited about winning....however, I did see one that looked quite appealing:  a round of golf for 2 at one of the Crystal Springs Resort courses.  We bought a ticket that morning.


Later that night, during dinner, the emcee announced that they would start awarding the prize winners.  I pulled out our one ticket and noticed that all around us the other attendees pulled out strings of tickets.  "Great" I thought to myself, "there go our odds!"  Not only do we have only one chance out of thousands, but we'd have to have our one little ticket drawn at the exact moment that they were awarding the golf prize.  After the prize winners for a year's worth of gourmet jams and a custom designed tote bag were drawn, they announced that the next prize was the Crystal Springs golf.  I informed my table mates that I was about to win this - the only thing I wanted.  Unbelievably, my ticket number matched the one called!  Jumping up out of my seat, I must have created quite a spectacle running through the sedate crowd of sophisticated professionals to claim my prize.  In fact, I know they were all surprised at my excitement because later that night, Rob Bartlett asked the "crazy lady in orange" to come back up to the podium and they gave me a golf wedge "just because of my enthusiasm"!  My notoriety lasted for a couple of weeks as my "performance" was featured on the WABC Radio website but luckily nobody I knew saw that.

In any event, when I got back to my table clutching the golf certificate, I opened it up and realized that not only had I won two rounds of golf but it also included a 2 night weekend stay at the Resort PLUS $1000 in food, beverage and spa credit!


My luck held out even further when I finally was able to book the actual trip -- they put us up in a one bedroom Vista suite in the exclusive Grand Cascades Lodge (their most luxurious property)!


At this point you might be thinking, "well, Linda, you AND Mike were at the tournament last year so how do you know it was YOUR luck and not HIS that caused the win?".  To that I would say - Mike has NO luck!  Here's the evidence:


This year I was unable to accompany him to the fund raiser so I sent him off on his own.  Once again there was an opportunity to win a golf trip to Crystal Springs but the difference this year was instead of a random raffle, you had to buy a chance to sink a difficult putt.  A max of 10 winners would be permitted so the odds of winning the trip would be no more than 1 in 10.  Mike bought a chance to try and sunk the putt!  Then he bought another chance, and sunk the putt again!  Wow....the worst we could do is have a one in five chance of winning.  By the end of the contest, only one other person had sunk one putt so there were only three tickets in the drawing -- and Mike had two of them!  The only downside:  I wasn't there to hold the tickets!  When they reached in and drew out the winning ticket, however, it didn't have Mike's name on it :-(   See what I mean?


Anyway, we enjoyed our trip to Grand Cascades Lodge so much that we plan to return.  They offer a wide range of activities, tons of great restaurants, and the suites are so beautiful you could just stay in your room the whole time!

Ocean Tower

My trip this week to Caesars was a far cry better than my previous one.  In the first place, I didn't experience any of the service issues that I encountered last month with the unhappy employees.  In the second place, Sabiha at the hotel front desk hooked me up with a SWEEEEET suite in the Ocean Tower that was far superior to my last two trip accommodations.

We arrived on Sunday morning, a little before noon, and were able to have a room available.  The Ocean Tower is especially nice in the summer if you plan to visit the pool (it closes after Labor Day) and/or the spa which are both in this tower.  Our suite had a large marble tiled foyer leading into a living/dining area with a wet bar.  There was a couch and side chair which I used at the dining table because the dining chairs were too low for me to reach the table (man, I really wish I had the chance to get taller!).  The obligatory TV in the living room was smaller than the one in my bedroom at home, and not a flat screen, but that didn't affect my stay although it did surprise me.  The separate bedroom boasted an unGodly comfortable king size bed and another one of those older model TVs.  The bathroom was divided into 3 separate sections -- a vanity/wall-to-wall closet area, then a glass enclosed shower stall and jacuzzi spa tub area, with the final area consisting of a sink/counter and a separate water closet.  The toilet area was the only one with a door so if you are planning a jacuzzi, be prepared to be naked in front of whoever you are rooming with.

I didn't hit a Royal Flush on this trip (hmmm, what's THAT all about) but I was almost able to achieve another gambling fantasy:  a screen full of lions on the 50 Lions slot machine.  As it was I got 10-10-10 on the upper rows of the first 3 columns and then the rest of the screen were all lions.  Very, very exciting!!!   $801 on a $1.25 bet.  I took a picture with my phone but don't know how to upload it here, so here is a similar picture from someone else's win in case you don't know which game I'm talking about. 
I did get a bunch of 4 of a kind hands on video poker and Jean got the 4 Aces with a low kicker so we were able to play A LOT!

We tried some different food options this trip:  the Waterfront Buffet at Harrah's was very good.  I don't know if they have it all the time because we went on a Sunday, but the steak was one of the best I have ever had in Atlantic City.... Morton's quality (really!) but of course much smaller.  I also ordered room service for breakfast one morning just to enjoy my wonderful room and it came promptly, albeit costly  (tea, coffee, omelet, 2 eggs, short stack = $56)


One other thing... oh, no two other things..... Diamond Lounge now has an admission fee and it's per person.  So you have to pay for you AND a guest.  Not a big deal I guess if you are going in there to hang out for a while, but I generally just used the Diamond Lounge to pop in and grab a drink if the service on the floor was bad and now you have to pay every time you go in so that won't be worthwhile anymore.  The other thing is that you can no longer use reward credits to pay for internet usage in your room which I think is one of the stupidest things ever -- the internet isn't costing them anything more than they already pay so to gig you $15 when you are dropping thousands downstairs seems a little ridiculous, but, whatever!


We hit up the beach on Monday which was a gloriously sunny day.  There were no lounge chairs (they also go away after Labor Day) so we sat on towels, soaking up the sun and even went into the water which was brisk but refreshing.


All in all it was a very good trip!

Whining About Wine and Lack of Food at the AC Food & Wine Festival

If you are reading my blog, then you probably already know me and know that cooking is the farthest thing from my mind....ALWAYS!  But for the uninitiated, let me just say that I don't cook, I don't care anything about cooking, I have never watched the Food Network and wouldn't even know of its existence if it weren't for my daughter (Sara) who is a major foodie.  I think the trouble began specifically because this was something for her and not for always lucky, things always work out for me.  But let's begin at the beginning....

As a VIP with Caesars Casino/Hotel Group, I am always receiving offers, tickets to events, etc.  Recently I received an offer to attend the AC Food and Wine Festival as a VIP guest and when I read the names of the celebrity chefs to Sara she was totally psyched for a mother/daughter food & wine induced week end of partying!  I booked my room for three nights and was provided tickets to the Grand Market and Italian Village on Friday night and a private dinner and cooking demonstration on Saturday night.  Sara heard about a Food Network kick-off party on Thursday night starting at 10pm so I called my casino host (sending love out as always to Cathy Cudoni) and she got me tickets for that as well.

My flight was scheduled to arrive at Newark at 7pm which would put us in AC around 9:30 -- plenty of time to check in, change into our party frocks and head to the Pool at Harrah's for the party.  First snafu occurred when the flight was delayed due to there not being an actual plane available to get me to Newark as scheduled;  still not worrying because the party was going on until 1am and arriving fashionably late is de rigueur.  The plane landed at 8:11 and then there was another half hour wait until a tram could tow us to the gate (don't ask me what that was all about, I have no idea) but I FINALLY got in the car at around 9pm which meant we wouldn't be hitting AC until 11.  Okay, no sweat, let me just call Caesars and find out if the tickets are waiting for me at Caesars front desk or if I can just go straight to Harrah's and pick them up there or maybe my name is on some kind of guest list at the door?  This is of course my first time at the festival so I don't have the "lay of the land" down pat.  Going right to the party will save us some time and we can do a quick change in the car.  Unfortunately, the woman on the phone informs me that the tickets to the event are waiting for me at Caesars front desk so that is where we go, arriving at 11:37.  After a considerable wait for the only available clerk I go through the standard check in procedures and ask her where my tickets are for the party (at this point we figure we can still catch the last hour and if the party is really good maybe it will go on later!)  She suggests that the tickets must be at Harrah's -- but she doesn't really know anything about it.  Great!  I tell her that I called and was told that the tickets were "here" at which point she disappears behind the wall to go find out if anyone knows anything.  The clock is ticking, and at this point we're thinking about giving up on the whole party, but at 11:49 she comes back and says that the tickets are definitely at Harrah's.  Now we have to make a decision.  By the time we get to the room, change, get back to the car and drive to Harrah's it will be 12:30 giving us only a half hour to party.  We decide to skip it, figuring that we will have lots more opportunities to meet the celebrity chefs this weekend.  I jokingly tell Sara she is a jinx.


 We spend the evening (morning really because it is, after all, after midnight) gambling at Caesars and then decide to grab a bite to eat at the only place open at 4am which is the Cafe Roma.  Our waiter, John, is possibly one of the worst waiters I have encountered anywhere:  surly, forgetful, brusk, inattentive.  Sara's coffee is a cup of light brown liquid, the color of tea maybe but she doesn't get a chance to say anything because John's only other visit was to deliver our food which was also incorrect (especially strange due to the fact that he made such a big deal of saying that there would be an extra charge for chili on the fries -- okay, when isn't there? -- and then delivered her a plate of plain fries).  Anyway, as soon as she mentioned the lack of chili he took off to bring a bowl of chili on the side that she could dip them in.  Never even apologizing for the gaffe, he was gone like a flash and the coffee issue was still on the table (pun intended).  We could have brought it up at the point in the meal when the waiter usually stops by to see how everything is going and if anyone needs drink refills -- but apparently John is unfamiliar with the workings of a restaurant meal.  To be fair, John did have ONE other table he was tending to at this time so maybe it was too much for him?  Hmmph!   At least the food was good and he was the first inept/unsociable Caesars employee I had ever encountered so I put it down to a one-off.  When I finally was able to track him down at the end of our meal to request a check, he brought it over and then was put out when I told him I was charging it to our room.  Is this some new thing?  You have to tell the waiter in advance how you're paying?  It's not like I was using some kind of buy one-get one free coupon!  It's a HOTEL FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!


Our next scheduled event was Friday night from 6pm - 10pm at the Grand Market at Bally's.  We spent the day gambling and at the beach (Caesars does provide beach chairs, towels and an umbrella for Diamond VIPS which is a really nice touch even though the beach itself is a poor, pitiful comparison to my lovely MB and Surfside) before getting ready to attend the Grand Market/Italian Village and finally get to meet some of those TV chefs!  Signage at Bally's was sparse, but I was able to ask some employees for information and we found ourselves aboard a very crowded elevator heading to the 6th floor to pick up our tickets by 6:30.  Thank God we were late and the lines were shorter....I can only imagine what they were like an hour before that!  We were given all access wrist bands and a very nice tote bag containing a souvenir wine glass for the tastings and a roll of Reynolds non-stick aluminum foil.  There might be other stuff in the bag -- I haven't looked -- but I was happy to see the Reynolds because just recently I've seen a lot of commercials showing some guy taking salmon or some other fish off the cooking sheet and it doesn't stick at all.  Of course I don't cook and even if I did, you can be sure I'd never be cooking fish!  But the commercial guy looks so pleased that every time I see the commercial I think to myself "I would buy that"  Back to the Grand Market....


the woman who gave us our tote bags said we should start at the Italian Village but using the Disneyland Tips (always go to the left when you enter, most people go right) I said we should head to the Market and save the Village for last.  The crowd of people waiting to get in gave us pause (hell, no!) but having the wristband gave us VIP access so we strolled right in and were surprised...alarmed...dismayed at the sight before us.  Wall to wall people!  At a convention!  I'm not sure what Sara thought it was going to be, but I had kind of expected like a "Marketplace" with all little food and wine stalls.  This thing was the East Coast trade show without bowling balls.  There were tons and tons of booths serving wine (lots and lots of wine booths) that you couldn't buy and then some booths offering kitchen knives, plates, aprons, cookbooks, etc. all of which you could buy.  Where was the food???   There were a few booths that had small sample tastings but they were offering things like slivers of chocolate, slivers of cheese, a blob of crab meat, a Ritz mini cracker you could dip in some salsa..... certainly not enough to soak up the alcohol that was about to be consumed!  And the people....masses of them....like sheep all walking in a row....are you kidding me?  It would take until later than 10pm to get everyone in at that pace!  Has nobody else ever been to a trade show/convention?  Anyway, I spent the next hour and a half trying to find a place that wasn't overrun with people.  Unsuccessful at that.  But we did get to try some amazing wines (too bad we can't buy them without driving 3 hours) and then found our favorite booth of all -- SKYY Vodka who had an assortment of cocktails they were serving.  Yummy!  Unable to take the crowds any longer, we stepped out and into the smoking lounge (nice touch!) where we proceeded to gripe with all the other smokers who were as disenfranchised as we were.  But, then we remembered we still hadn't been to the Italian Village so maybe some pasta and meatballs were going to be available to go along with some nice Italian wines?  Alas, it was not to be!  There was a food distributor with a rather large booth with some food samples but the lines for that were wrapped around the room so in the words of Cee Lo Green F[orget] You!  10 minutes later we realized that this was the same shtick as the Grand Market and instead headed to the Diamond Lounge where we could get some real food and drinks (not that we needed any more alcohol at that point).   As an aside, surprisingly, Bally's Diamond Lounge is much more elaborate and sophisticated than is Caesar's.  Our waitress, however, was only fair and I was starting to wonder if maybe something was going on on a corporate level because the cocktail waitresses on the floor the last two days also hadn't been too friendly.  It just seemed like everyone we encountered wasn't too happy in their jobs.


Okay, so we had struck out at 2 of the 3 Food & Wine Festival events but Saturday's exclusive VIP Invitation Only Dinner & Demo had to be good, right?  After all, it wasn't advertised, you couldn't buy tickets, so it must be something special!


Headed back to Cafe Roma for Breakfast Saturday morning, assuming that John wouldn't be working that shift and was happy that my Diamond status would allow me to avoid the long line of people waiting to be seated.  Unfortunately, after 10 minutes, the hostess still had not come back to the podium from wherever he/she was so we decided to forgo any further wait and went to sit at the counter.  There was only one other gentleman there and he was done with his meal so we were pretty confident that the service would be exemplary.  We were wrong.  And I was planning to speak with the restaurant manager before I left that day to talk about both visits.  But here's where it gets interesting:  as we were sitting at the counter a gentleman came to the counter and asked our server "how much is a cup of coffee"  I don't think Mostafo understood him.  The gentleman was clearly exasperated and was explaining that he was sitting at a table over there (which he pointed to) and was apparently having a hard time getting service so all he wanted to do was buy a cup of coffee while they waited on a waiter.  During this exchange, a woman in a suit came out from the kitchen and observed what was going on.  Sara and I both assumed she would either pour the poor guy a cup of coffee or direct Mostafo to do so.  Neither of which happened!  The customer threw up his arms in disgust and went back to his table, unhappy.  The suit-lady asked Mostafo what that was all about and when he told her, she just went back into the kitchen.  I asked Mostafo if she was the manager and he said she is the shift manager.  Now I'm not claiming to know the first thing about Restaurant management; but I do know a little something about customer service and really all she had to do was hand the guy a cup of coffee or at least ask him what the problem was or if there was something he needed!


Spent the afternoon gambling at Caesars (I finally hit a Royal Flush but it was on the nickel Super Times Pay so only $200 and not the $1400-$1600 I had planned on!) before checking out to head to Harrah's for our VIP Dinner.  Sara was reservedly anticipating the event, even hoping that all the celebs would be there but would be happy if it was Guy Fieri or Robert Irvine.  The only ones she didn't care about were Pat & Gina Neely because she doesn't watch their show.


As I expected, getting there at 6:30 rather than the 6pm starting time was the smart move because everyone else was already inside and seated.  (If we had seen another crowd I'm sure we would have skipped the dinner entirely).  We got our requisite wristbands and seating assignments and then entered.....a wedding hall.  That's basically what it was.  5 or 6 thousand people seated at tables of 10.  There was a stage set up at the front center of one of the walls but from our viewpoint anyone standing on it would have looked like an ant.  They did have large flat screen tvs set up all around the room so you could see what was going on -- but for that, you could just be in your own living room watching tv!  Salads were already on every table, as were rolls and butter.  We were told a waitress came by to take drink orders but she never came back so I just went to the bar myself.  When I returned, dinners were being served.  Everyone got the same thing:  filet mignon with mushrooms, some kind of fish (halibut?), asparagus wrapped in a carrot and a little puff of something that someone thought was potato but I am pretty sure it was risotto.  I ditched the fish but the filet was rather good and I was especially impressed that they were able to make 6000 dinners come out tasting like they had just cooked one so Kudos to the chefs at Harrah's because the celeb chefs weren't there yet.  25 minutes had passed.  That's right -- it wasn't even 7pm and we were already done with the meal except for dessert which was on its way.  Someone put a bullet in my head, please!  I commandeered the waitress as she was removing our plates and asked if she happened to know which celebrity was coming to the dinner.  After thinking for a minute, she said "yes the name is Neely".  OF COURSE it is!  Sara you are like a big black cloud!  There was no reason to suffer through this any longer unless a magnificent dessert was coming.....but when the waitress said it was some kind of blueberry tart we said in unison to our table mates "we're outta here" to which 4 of the other 6 responded "we're right behind ya!"


Downstairs at Harrah's a circuitous journey brought us to the smoking area where we played slots for an hour or so before heading back up the Parkway to home.


All in all it was a great weekend because Sara and I got to spend it together but the Food and Wine Festival is a super dud and I feel sorry for anyone who spent a penny to attend any of the events we did.  Maybe some of the other events were better....who knows?  I did see the line for Guy Fieri's Cheese Steak battle and if all the events had admission lines like that I give credit to the people who have the time to stand around waiting.  Maybe when I was in my 20's.......


Also, I'm still pretty sure that something is going on at Caesar's with the management because of all the disorganized and disgruntled employees but I didn't have any interactions with any employees at Bally's or Harrah's so I don't know if it's a "property" issue or a "chain-wide" issue.  Maybe I'm more critical because I just spent a week in Vegas at a non-Caesar's property and a few days upstate at Turning Stone....both places at which the employees at least pretended to love their jobs and their customers even if they didn't really.  But I think I can tell when a company's employees like coming to work and this attitude, albeit new since my last visit, is pervasive throughout the casino and hotel.
 

Vegas Revisited

My son, Mickey, is employed as a Regional Sales Manager by the best company in the world:  Storm Bowling Products.  Seriously -- they are the best! Not that that has anything to do with this blog....I just wanted to point that out.  Any hoooooo......

This year, Mickey was assigned to work the T-A-T which is a bowling tournament that is sponsored by Storm/Roto Grip and held at the Orleans Casino Hotel in Las Vegas.  Being the loving and caring mother that I am, there was no possible way I was about to send my son to "Sin City" on his own so I used my FF miles to hop on the same plane.

Naturally there were only two real things that could occupy my time for the week:  gambling and watching the Casey Anthony trial.  I won't go into what transpired with the trial since there probably isn't anyone able to read who doesn't already know what happened.  (and if you can't read, what are you doing trying to read this blog?)  So gambling it would be.

Unfortunately, having been laid off just a mere 6 weeks before departure, the funds available for gambling were quite low.  On top of that, I already had plans to fly from Vegas to Myrtle Beach for our annual family vacation once the Vegas Vacation was complete, and I knew I'd need money for that.  Needless to say, I approached my first video poker machine with trepidation.

The first couple of hours started off pretty good with a few low card four-of-a-kinds and I had a few hundred more than I started.  Aaaaaah, I though to myself, this is going to be a great week.  NOT!  By the time I went to bed, I had spent all of the money I planned to use for 4 days!

Day 2 was more of the same and I was starting to wonder how the hell I was going to make it through an entire week.  I was also starting to wonder why anyone would consider this a good local's casino.  Finally, I was starting to wonder how all of these progressive video poker royals were being hit and I wasn't even getting a sniff!

On the third day, after they were finished working, Mickey's co-worker Ernest drove us all downtown to visit a pawn shop that is the site of the tv show Pawn Stars.  Although I had never seen the show, I went along just to get out of the casino for a while.  In case you're wondering, yes, it's sort of cool but I guess you would appreciate it more if you actually watched the show and no, we didn't see "the old guy" whoever that is but that seems to be the most popular question people asked us.   Returning to the casino from the parking garage, I spotted a bank of progressive penny video poker machine  (100 coin max bet) and decided to sit down for a smoke.  Sticking in a twenty, I hit the Royal on my second spin for $819.  Very exciting and it was really funny, too when I found out later that Ernest had gone to get change and sat at my machine just a couple of minutes later and the guy next to him said "oh, some woman just hit the royal on that one"

That Royal must have been the ice breaker because suddenly all of the machines started to loosen up and though I wasn't hitting any royal flushes, I was hitting lots and lots of 4-of-a-kind (even some being dealt on triple play machines which is always exciting!)  I was finally on the upswing....able to put some hundreds in my suitcase and still have plenty to play with.

Finally, on my second to last day, I hit a progressive royal for $1222 on a triple play machine.  It wasn't dealt to me -- that would have made my jackpot over $10k -- but it was nice to pull one since I hadn't even been getting any straights or straight flushes.

All in all, it was a positive trip financially and I really did like the Orleans quite a bit more than Sam's Town.  Definitely, cleaner rooms and cleaner casino area.... I give this trip a resounding two thumbs up!

Back to Reno

The offers just kept on coming....either someone really, really likes me or there just aren't any people gambling in Reno.  Whichever the reason, I got a sh*tload of offers to fly me and a guest back out to Reno for some more gambling fun.


Having already taken a very expensive luxury cruise in January, I was reluctant to spend any more money on travel this spring...but the enticement was there, and we had had so much fun this past fall,  so finally Mike and I selected a long weekend to get away.


Things started off not too well.  First of all, we were being flown on a different airline (not Southwest) and we had crappy seats on a crowded plane.  But then that was cancelled out by the skycap not charging us for luggage so we were back to "even".  Arriving in Reno I had hoped for a private transport to the hotel -- no such luck!  I hopped on the first shuttle bus to the hotel with Mike staying behind to grab his golf bag and suitcase (smartly I had packed only a small carry-on!) and then catching the next shuttle.  At the hotel, I got checked in immediately and was given a stunning corner suite.  It's only a shame that the room is wasted on me since I spend so little time in it!


Mike had a horrendous ride on the shuttle to the hotel and was in a horrific mood when he finally arrived -- well, I did tell him he wouldn't need a FULL suitcase for a long weekend but it's not as if he ever listens to me anyway!


The casino was exactly the same as our last trip and we quickly found our way to our favorite machines.  I had some small wins early on, after a series of losses.  No royal flush jackpots -- but I was dealt four 4's with a deuce on a triple play double double bonus for $600 -- and more hands like that so I was playing.


Meanwhile, Mike was not planning on doing much gambling and, in fact, left the hotel to walk down to the bowling stadium to meet up with some friends soon after we arrived.


We decided to have an early dinner at the buffet -- courtesy of Harrah's -- and though we got to use the Diamond Express Line, the server forgot to give us linen rather than paper napkins and almost sat us in the "general populace" section.  Oh, the horror!!!  Strangely enough it was Mike who spoke up, before I did, to inform said hostess that we belonged in the OTHER section.  He must not have gotten the memo:  "we're big shots!"  LOL


The next day dawned sunny and semi-mild and Mike headed off to Wolf Run for some golf.  I didn't join him, electing instead to stay behind and seek fame and fortune at the video poker machines.


Later that day, we spent some time in the Diamond Lounge before dinner at a nice restaurant (again, courtesy of Harrah's) and then hung out at our favorite bar playing video poker.  Again, still no royal flush but I still believe one is in my future.  I am, however, making plenty of small wins so I have more than enough to play with and I end up playing a lot of dollar video poker at $5 a hand and triple play quarters at either $3.75 a hand or super times pay triple at $4.50 a hand.  The royal flush eludes me and I head up to bed around 2am, snuggled next to Mike who has been there since 9 or so.


The ringing of the phone awakens me at 6am.  Groggily I answer it, after having to roll waaaaaaaaaay across the huge empty bed (seriously this is living, but your bedroom would have to be at least 25 x 25 to put this thing in it).  The first thing I hear is a woman with an accent saying, "we're calling about your husband..."   Now, my heart starts beating a staccato triple time because at 6am it feels like the middle of the night and no good can ever come from a middle of the night phone call.  Oh, my God, I'm thinking heart attack? mugging? arrest?  what can it possibly be????


But she has gone on to tell me that my beloved has hit a jackpot and has no i.d.!!!  Where is he, I croak out?  Where else, but in the high roller room!  That means he has been playing FIFTEEN DOLLARS a hand on the triple play machines there!  I'm gonna kill him!  And yet, I'm so happy that he has hit yet another royal flush this year -- except he made me give them my i.d. and tax info so now this is going to show up on my earnings for the year!


I'd love to say that we now had four grand to spend on a kitchenette for the Myrtle Beach house, or something else like, oh, groceries! gas!  But, no, alas without my supervision he gambled it away over the next two days.  Gotta love that guy!

In Search of 10,000 dollars and 10,000 laughs

Three times a year, Oneida Indian Nation @ Turning Stone holds a High Stakes Bingo game.  For the past I can't say how many years, my friend Donna and I have attended the events in October and April (we never can seem to get our schedules to work for the July games).  It is sometimes just the two of us, but more often than not other friends of ours also join us.  This year we were most fortunate to be joined by the irreverently funny Annette who made this trip memorable in more ways than one.

Planning for the trip began in earnest about a month ago and as the departure date drew nearer, the anticipation grew higher.  Humorous e-mails flew back and forth last week and by the time Saturday rolled around, we were all ready to have a great weekend.

Having called "shotgun" 6 weeks ago, I hopped into the front seat when we all met in Newburgh and Annette took control of the snack bags in the back while Donna drove.  The first leg of our journey was spent mostly talking about how great it would be to win, how little money we had available to spend on gambling (Annette is recently laid-off and I am going to be laid-off in a few weeks), how ridiculously high the hotel room is costing, etc.  Annette had never been to Turning Stone and was not sure what to expect, but was looking forward to seeing "Dorothy and her Ruby Red Slippers"  (she is in love with the Wizard of Oz slot machines).  After a short time, we decided to play Tri-Bond which was sophomorically easy for the brain trust trio to master but it did make the time go by quickly and before we knew it we had arrived.

Donna went to pick up our pre-paid bingo tickets, while I escorted Annette to the Diamond Card Registration booth (you use a debit-type card for all gaming at Turning Stone). It was just a short wait on the bingo line until we had our admission tickets and since we were going to be using TEDs (formally known as The Electronic Dabber, these mini computers do all the work for you) we didn't need any prep time.  We dropped our bags off at our pre-assigned seats, met our table mate and then took off for the casino. 

When we came back to the bingo hall in time for the Early Bird Warm Ups, we met the rest of our table mates who all seemed rather nice.  Good thing, too, because whoever gets to sit with us is most definitely going to get free entertainment with their admission price so it's nice when they can appreciate it!

As we always do, we had agreed beforehand to play as partners to increase our chances of winning  (27 cards vs. 9) and to share the wealth.  Last time we won only $100 and that was split with 2 other players so our partnership take was $33....hardly sharing the "wealth" but a bingo is a bingo.  But as usual we were optimistic!  Strangely enough none of us were even waiting any of the games....someone in the hall would yell BINGO and we'd all still need 3 or 4 numbers.  It wasn't very exciting and with the computer playing for us there wasn't much going on except for some snacks and a newspaper that we passed back and forth.  That was until the Eiffel Tower pattern......  Annette needed only 5 numbers when the rest of us were still in double digits.  Then she needed four....then three......and here came another one of the numbers in her pattern and suddenly the only thing standing between us and the $10,000 was O-69.  Three more numbers were called and Donna began the mantra "nobody yell...nobody yell....nobody yell..."  At first I was thinking "why is she saying that?  IF O 69 comes out we're gonna be yelling like crazy!"  But then I realized she was sending out a message to the crowd that nobody should get bingo on any of the numbers that were being called!  Meanwhile, Annette had lost most of the color in her face and was suffering from palpitations.  When the yellow ball popped up on the tv screen we held our breath and when the caller turned it around so we could see that it was in fact O-69 we were all like "oh my God!"  It seemed forever until the caller announced the number at which time we were free to yell B I N G O and yell we did.  In fact, we yelled so loud that we didn't hear that someone else also had bingo (bummer) so our prize was $5k rather than $10k but it was still the most any of us had ever won so it was mind blowing!

We only waited two other times the rest of the day, once for O 72 and once for I 29, but to no avail.  After we paid for the hotel room and gas/tolls, our net was about $1500 each so a great weekend suddenly became a PHENOMENALLY great weekend with the pressure off and we could play all the games we wanted to without worrying about what we'd do with our time once we ran out of money.  Of course, we were all super savvy and took plenty of the winnings home with us!


Having only 4 hours of sleep two nights in a row made us a little punchy and the car ride home was a 3 hour laugh fest although I can't even say what was so funny.  The only thing I know is by the time we got back to Newburgh I had gone through a small pile of napkins that I had used to wipe the tears streaming out of my eyes, I had a belly ache and could barely catch my breath from all the laughter.


Winning was awesome, but having these amazing friends is priceless!!!!

The Diamond Lounge and other perks

Harrahs (now Caesars) Entertainment is where I spend most of my gambling dollars because they have so many properties and my play is combined at all of the properties to determine my player status.

There are four player levels (not counting, I'm sure, the high rollers "whales" and such):  Gold Players are pretty much everyone who sets foot in one of their casinos -- as soon as you sign up you are a Gold Player and maintain that level until you have a higher yearly coin in.  Spend $40,000 (video poker) in a year and you become Platinum;  spend $110,000 in a year and you are accorded Diamond status.  Seven Stars is the highest but they don't advertise how much you have to spend to get that level.

The "spending" levels listed are for video poker players which is what I play primarily; slot machine players need to only have half that amount spent in a year.  

Keep in mind that the machines are tracking COIN IN which is naturally much higher than what a person is physically taking out of their wallet.  For example, if I put a $20 bill in a 25 cent video poker machine, I have paid for 16 hands (at $1.25 per hand).  However, during those 16 hands I will have won or broken even on about 95% of them so for $20 I might be able to play 30, 40 or even more hands (especially if I hit a 4 of a kind or some other high paying win).  Assuming I keep playing until I lose the original $20 I could realistically run through $100-$200 which all counts toward your player score but is still just the $20 I initially put into the machine.

Okay, so back to my status.  For a long time I was platinum which was good enough for me because it was better than my pals had (LOL!) and it pretty much guaranteed me a comp room any time I wanted to visit AC.  

But then somehow I got an offer to be flown out for a 4 day weekend at Harrahs Reno.  We thought it would be pretty cool to do that since we hadn't been there together since 1984ish so I RSVPd Yes.  In the meantime, between the RSVP and the actual arrival in Reno, I hit Diamond status!  So my first time as a Diamond player would be in Reno and I didn't really know what to expect from that but I thought it would be pretty cool and I was right!

At check in the guy told me the hours of the Diamond Lounge and I wasn't overly impressed because once before a long time ago I got a Free Pass to go to the Diamond Lounge (or whatever they called it) at the Tropicana and when I went in it was just a private gambling salon with machines I couldn't afford to play anyway.  But I figured I would show Mike the lounge when we got a chance.  

Of course our first order of business, (after taking care of other business ;) was to find a cocktail waitress and a loose machine.  After playing for a little while a floor worker came over, "Linda?  Here is a voucher for the two of you to have dinner at the buffet"  Okay, cool, free food for the diamond player, I'm not complaining!  So I found Mike and when we went to the buffet I discovered that even better than the free food was the Diamond Player line pass!  That meant that no matter how many people were on line for the buffet, as soon as I came to the Diamond Line, they would immediately come over to me, grab a set up from a different area (linen napkins for the diamonds!) and escort us to a private dining area inside the buffet itself.  Diamonds also have their choice of cocktails inside their private area!  Very, very cool and the food was very, very good!

That first night, coming out of the buffet, I noticed a partially hidden door on the side wall with a small placard stating "Diamond Club".  I said to Mike, let me show you what I mean about the high limit slot room.  Boo-ya I was totally off the mark.  The Diamond Lounge here is a small, intimate space with soft couches, low lighting, club and pub tables, a roaring fireplace, cozy bar, tuxedo'd host and a small snack buffet.  Basically a place to get away from it all.  Very very nice!  We ended up spending part of every day/night here just chilling with drinks, watching tv or reading the newspapers, etc.

For breakfast/lunch we decided to try the generic cafe and here, too, there was a separate entrance for Diamonds with a dedicated host to guarantee no wait, and a separate room for dining.  

Meanwhile, every day a casino floor clerk would come to find me, "Linda?  Here is a voucher for the two of you to visit the buffet for dinner"  It was really nice to be treated so royally!  So on the last night, when the casino floor clerk came over "Linda....." I basically waved him off nicely, hardly taking my eyes off my machine, "oh, thanks anyway but we're leaving in the morning so we won't be here to eat tomorrow"  The gentleman replied, "I'm the Casino Host"  That is when I realized he wasn't a generic casino worker.  Basically what had happened was that since I was Platinum when I booked, and then turned Diamond before I got there, nobody had alerted him that I was there so he was falling all over himself apologizing for not having done anything for me!!  I'm telling him not to worry about it, everything was perfect, but he's trying to figure out how he can make it up to me now that it's midnight and we're leaving in like 6 hours :P  So he's offering to have some midnight snack delivered to my room?!?!  No, thanks anyway but I won't be in my room LOL.  So then he says, well at the very least I'm going to have a limo pick you up and bring you to the airport in the morning.  Very very cool!!!

Mike's not into the frills but I totally loved being a Diamond in Reno!

Now, I get back home and my first visit to AC as a Diamond occurs in December when I went down with Jean.  The whole car ride down I'm telling her about all the Diamond perks and how great it is being a diamond and how much fun we're going to have getting the "treatment"...... wow, was I sadly mistaken!

Apparently there isn't much $$$ in Reno where being a Diamond means you are big fish in a small bowl....in AC everyone and their mother is a diamond!!  There are no line passes because the lines for Diamond Players are longer than any other.  In fact, when I went to check in at the hotel, there was NOBODY on the "regular patron" line, but 8 people in front of me on the Diamond Line!!  Where's the benefit there??  

So I said to Jean, well we'll at least get to visit the Diamond Lounge - wait til you see how cool this place is.  NOT!  The Diamond Lounge here is the size of a school cafeteria and yes there is more food choices than just the snacky-snacks in Reno, it is a huge cavernous space with regular dining tables like a restaurant, loud, lots of wait staff, hustle/bustle, bright, takes a while to get a drink, that sort of thing.  Hmmmmm....well at least the food was free and the tables by the front windows had a very nice view overlooking the boardwalk and ocean.  But not quite the elite status I experienced in Reno.

Oh, well, apparently in Atlantic City you're nobody until you carry Seven Stars status....I'll be glad to visit Reno again in a couple of weeks!

Mike Breaks The Streak

As most of our friends already know, Mike is less than "lucky" when it comes to the casino.  In fact, I usually bring him along and then set him up in the spa for the day to chill out listening to his I-pod, hanging around in his robe, soaking in the calderium or frigidarium, while munching on some fruit and sipping some flavored tea.  He's my manly man!

Anyway, Mike does like to play video poker, BUT he only likes winning.  Now, of course, everyone WANTS to win...but some people, like yours truly, get gratification just from playing and the win is a bonus.  Mike, on the other hand, gets no joy from playing but is looking for the big kahuna.  In addition, he has decided that single hand video poker just doesn't give him enough of a "rush" so he has been playing triple hand video poker.  This means that instead of losing $1.25 a hand, he is losing $3.75!  Put another way, he loses his money three times as quickly!  I try to convince him to play nickels or dimes when playing 3 hands but he counters that the win wouldn't mean as much. (So true...but the loss would take longer!)

Okay, so bottom line is that he doesn't get the chance to gamble very often but I got another one of those "Mystery Envelope" invitations recently and since he is always my first choice for a traveling companion I asked him if he'd like to come along.  Cathy booked me a room at Caesars and upon arrival I set him up with a spa day (using my comps) figuring that would keep him occupied and out of the casino.

And it did....until he got tired of lounging around..... and went in search of a video poker machine he'd "like".   

Now, even though Mike doesn't gamble very often, he has gambled quite a bit in the almost 30 years we've been together and he has only once hit the elusive big daddy of all poker hands:  the Royal Flush.  A fact of which he reminds me constantly; to which I reply, "well at least your not Donna".  Donna who is one of my oldest and dearest friends has been playing video poker as long as I have and the poor thing has never even hit one!

So, it's Saturday night and we have enjoyed a light dinner in the Diamond Lounge (more about that in the next post).  It is now around 8pm and I want to head downstairs to try my luck at the progressive video poker bank that I like (it was over $1300 yesterday when it was hit by someone - not me -  and now it has climbed back up to the $1200 mark).  Mike tells me he is going to finish his glass of wine and then go up to bed.  I head downstairs, find a machine and then remember that I left my cell phone in the room so I figure I better run up and tell Mike not to try calling me.  Back up to the Diamond Lounge and Mike isn't there!!  Hmmmm, he must've drank that wine pretty quickly, right?  Wrong!  Coming out of the Diamond Lounge I see him at a bank of Super Times Pay machines!!!  Yikes!  If you think the triple play machines make you go through your money quickly, these Super Times Pay machines are even worse.  They are fun to play, but you have to bet 6 coins per hand - minimum 18 coins because you have to play at least 3 hands.  The pays are the same so even if you get a three of a kind it still only pays 15 so you lose 3 coins on a hand you'd normally triple your bet on.  The beauty of these machines is that there is a wild multiplier card that sometimes comes up and you have the chance to win 2, 3, 5, 8 or even 10 times the regular pay.  That is what you are paying the extra coins for.  Volatile??  You bet!


And here is my darling husband, drinking wine, betting $4.50 a hand....and you just know he is going to be steaming mad when he loses his money!


I remind him that we are leaving early in the morning, that he is already tired, that he should go to bed, yada yada yada...and I head back downstairs to my progressive video poker machines.


Time goes by, as it always does in the casino, and I feel someone touching the back of my head -- it's Mike!  Oh, no, I say "is it morning already?  is it time to leave?"  He's laughing, "no, I haven't been to bed yet!"   WHAT???  My husband never stays up later than 11 and that's only in a very extreme circumstance.  If he's awake at 9pm he's hours past his bedtime!!!  Well, it turns out he has finally broken his "can't get a royal streak" because he has hit not one but TWO royals on the same machine within an hour!!!


Insane that he stayed up all night -- but way to go Mike!

By the way, I hit one also,  jackpot of $1362 on the same machine that I hit in December.  This time it was a sequential Royal flush in spades (too bad it wasn't on the $25,000 sequential machine) which surprised me because although I was pretty sure I was going to hit one, I thought it would be in clubs for some reason so when I got dealt the center J-Q-K I didn't expect the 10 and Ace to pop up.

Had the $10k spent already!

Caesars has become my favorite boardwalk location casino.  For a long time it was Showboat, but my last couple of times at Showboat weren't so hot and the room was just "meh" so I've gotten used to Caesars and find that everything I need is right there.  They don't do such a great job of cleaning around the slot/video machine areas, and it can sometimes be a while before you get a drink....but they have a decent assortment of the machines I like so I have taken to requesting that property when I contact my lovely player representative (Cathy Cudoni) for a room.

Okay, so anyway, in December I invited Jean to accompany me on an overnight to Caesars when they were having a mystery envelope drawing.  This particular promotion is my favorite because the minimum I am guaranteed to win is $100 with a chance of my prize being as high as $10,000!!!!!   For this event, my prize was the minimum $100 which was kind of a bummer because all around me people were winning $300, $500, $200....but it was a free (relatively speaking) hundred bucks so I wasn't about to complain.  Although I was kind of surprised because I really did have this feeling that I was going to win.  


As an aside, I have to point out that a number of thoughts were going through my head when I got the Mystery Envelope invitation.  Thoughts like: "how can I go to AC the week before Christmas?  I am already spending so much $$$ on Christmas am I crazy to spend money gambling?  We're leaving on our big cruise in a few weeks and that's going to be another expense...." thoughts like that.  So I had invited Jean, and I had gotten the room, but I kept looking for signs that said I shouldn't go.  Instead I kept getting signs every day that said I SHOULD go.  Stupid things like I would say to myself, "oh you can't be away you have a group coming in this weekend" and then BAM! the next day I got a phone call from the group asking to reschedule.  Then I said to myself, "okay take your coin jar to the bank and if you don't have at least $100 in coins you shouldn't go" so off I go to the bank and BAM!  I had $138 in coins!   The day I was planning to leave I stopped at the post office, "if I have any bills in my po box I'll call to cancel my room" and BAM!  no bills but a check for $2.75 from a class action settlement.  So, like I said, stupid things but they all seemed to be pointing me in an AC direction and I could only assume this meant I was destined to win $10,000.


Okay, so we now know I didn't win $10,000 but I had $100 of their money plus $138 of my laundry money (that would be the coins from my coin jar that I have collected from the washer/dryer and not, certainly, laundry money that I need to go to a laundromat and wash clothes -- just in case anyone who is reading this doesn't know me and thinks I would take the family's laundry money to a casino!)


Back to my story....

On this trip, I came across a bank of progressive video poker machines that were as close to full pay as you're ever going to find in Atlantic City and the royal flush prize was over $1400.  So I plopped right down and started to play, and play, and play, and play.  Hours and hours of video poker, hopping from machine to machine in the bank.  Sporadically I took a break and went to the Super Times Pay machines (terrible odds but I can't help myself, I love them!) and the Ultimate X machines (even worse odds and have NEVER won but again they are fun to play).  Both of those novelty games suck my money up faster than a....well I don't know what to compare them to; but they sure do suck my money up!  This is why I only play them if I am AHEAD -- kind of like a little treat to myself.

So, off and on for that night, the next day and the next night I played to win the progressive Royal Flush -- pretty sure that I was going to hit it, it was just a matter of when and on which machine.  Finally, at 5:08am (after staying up all night LOL!) on 12/18, I hit the jackpot for $1881.

I think it was clubs but it might have been diamonds!