Hit ‘em All Nevada – Day 14
I want to start off today’s journal to address some comments that I received. Every day after I post the day’s journal, I go through and read the comments from the Las Vegas Advice site, the LVA Vegas-free-for-all, and the member side Trip Report’s columns. You have been very supportive and helpful with this trip. A member familiar with the Reno area noted that I had missed the Bonanza Casino, which is located in the far north area, and without his help, I would have missed it, so I went there first thing today. Another member asked if I had missed the Cal-Nev Casino in downtown Reno. I didn’t miss it. As a matter of fact, that was on the same night as I hit all the downtown casinos. I remember very well losing my BJ there because the dealer was a bit surreally with me. What I did forget was to take a picture of that casino and report on it. I did, however, check and that bet was figured in my totals. But thank you for bringing it up. I’ll need to edit that day’s report. The Cal-Nev casino reminds me a lot of Binion’s in that it’s really old and show’s its age (and seems to like it that way), plus it has that grill counter on the bottom floor that reminds of Binion’s snack bar.
Another thing I feel I need to remind some is that though this is called Hit ‘em All Nevada, I very well know that there’s a very good chance I’m going to miss some along the way. My original intention was to walk in just full service casinos, which means casinos with table games. I knew I couldn’t go to every slot house in the state, there are simply too many of them and many of the franchises, like Dotty’s, are everywhere. However, I have gone into a few not knowing if they would have tables or not and since I visit them and take a pic, I include them in the casinos visited category. One member reported there was a good chance I missed a couple in Fernly, which might very well be the case (and I really appreciate the heads up). I’ve been using the American Casino Guide and some other research as my base for finding these places, and I have no doubt I’m going to miss one or two along the way. But I do believe the spirit of the title is valid. I’m doing everything within reason to “Hit ‘em All.”
Today, Milly sent me directly to the Bonanza Casino with no problem. The tables were closed so I put my $10 bet on a video roulette on black, and the ball fell on the green single 0. There’s nothing of particular note about this place except to say that it seems like a good local’s kind of place. I did have breakfast in their café, and the Spanish Omelet was excellent.
The Bonanza in North Reno
As I mentioned in yesterday’s report, I now need to drive BACK to Carson where I’m staying the night. Here is another blunder on my part. As you might remember from last year’s trip, I’ve developed a fondness for the Holiday Inn Express hotels, but for some reason I chose to stay at the City Center Motel in downtown, Carson. What was I thinking? This is truly a motel in the strictest sense of the word as you can see by the picture of the room. I can’t remember the last time I was given an actual key for my room. It’s okay for one night, but geez—what was I thinking?
Cool TV
My first stop was the Gold Dust West casino in downtown, Carson. This is a chain I’m a little familiar with as I visited one in Elko last year (and will be there again later). It’s a nice chain with very clean casinos and this is no exception. There is also a bowling alley attached to this casino (bowling alleys and casinos seem to make good partners). The tables were closed but there was a regular (not the big one with girls) video blackjack machine, which I could play my $10 bet. I was dealt a 14 to the dealer’s 10. I took a hit and got a 5, and the dealer down card was an 8 for win.
The next place is located on the intersection of US 395 and US 50 (which goes to Lake Tahoe). It’s called Bodines. It appears to be rather new. Everything inside was really well laid out and it had most of the newer penny games. There were no tables nor were there any machines with blackjack or roulette, so my play consisted of some video poker (lost) and a new Tarzan penny machine (won and covered my earlier loss). This was a nice place with a great sportsbook.
My next stop was a long way from Carson at a city called Minden. On the way along US 395 there was another one of these candy shops like the one in Beatty. I stopped again and took a look inside. This time, I picked up a bag and randomly put in different flavors of homemade taffy to take along on tomorrow’s long drive to Winnemucca. There is only one casino there called the Carson Valley Inn (odd considering it’s in Minden). They had one blackjack table open, but every seat was taken, so I put $10 in a regular video blackjack machine and lost—geez, all this way to lose ten bucks and go back—oh well.
This guy was was watching over the Chocolate Nugget, the candy store in Carson
It was back to Carson where I passed a place called the Carson Station Western Motel. It was a nice enough place (for a motel casino) and they have a different take on bingo here. If you’re a member of their club, you get free card and every hour, a lady calls out the bingo numbers as you play the machines or sit at the bar or whatever. Outside of that, it’s a regular bingo game. Someone yells “BINGO” and you wait for another hour. I’ve no idea what the price was. I played the video penny game, Playboy, and walk off with a nifty 35-cent profit.
The next casino is in the heart of downtown Carson. The downtown area of Carson, which is the state capital of Nevada, is a very nice place. It reminds me a lot of the small coastal towns like Newport Beach and Encinitas. There’s almost a hippie vibe to the place. For example, I took a picture of the Nevada Capitol Building standing across the street in front of a Hookah store.
The State Capitol Building of Nevada
The largest casino here is called (what else) The Nugget. What was different here was that there is a bank of nickel 9/6/5 double base coin droppers. The only place I’ve seen that still accepts nickel drops—and I turned all my change in except quarters into a change machine. Though most of their video poker machines are short pay, there’s one bank of machines that have all full pay—go figure. The blackjack was very good for me as I was once again dealt a blackjack for a $15 pick-up. I’ve certainly had my fair share of dealt blackjacks this trip.
Across from the Nugget are two small slot places. They share a small block, one on each end. The first, Cactus Jacks was a small place with a grill. They didn’t have any table games or video blackjack. However, I actually had some time to kill, so I played some ten cent Joker’s Wild. On my second hand, I held two eights and the other three popped. I took a picture of it simply because, though it was only a $100 win, five-of-a-kind in Joker’s is really difficult. Besides, it’s at least a jackpot of a type. Before I left the place, I took them for another twenty at spin poker.
On the other end of the block is the Horseshoe Club (interesting that Caesar’s, who owns the name Horseshoe hasn’t made them change it). This also is small place with a nice little restaurant. There were no tables, but I was happy to find a bank of Game Kings that had full pay Pick ‘em, a favorite game of mine for quarters. I put thirty dollars hoping to double it and I did in short order. When I hit the button to cash out, the music began playing and my $61.25 required a hand pay. Seems all the machines have to be hand paid here.
I picked up a sandwich and headed back to my motel room as it was going to be time for SYTYCD. It was a good day with a nifty little profit. I’m glad I got to look around Carson. I really like this place—even more than Reno, which is only 30 minutes away anyway.
Trip totals: Casinos visited: 136 Bets Balance: + $123
More tomorrow
I want to start off today’s journal to address some comments that I received. Every day after I post the day’s journal, I go through and read the comments from the Las Vegas Advice site, the LVA Vegas-free-for-all, and the member side Trip Report’s columns. You have been very supportive and helpful with this trip. A member familiar with the Reno area noted that I had missed the Bonanza Casino, which is located in the far north area, and without his help, I would have missed it, so I went there first thing today. Another member asked if I had missed the Cal-Nev Casino in downtown Reno. I didn’t miss it. As a matter of fact, that was on the same night as I hit all the downtown casinos. I remember very well losing my BJ there because the dealer was a bit surreally with me. What I did forget was to take a picture of that casino and report on it. I did, however, check and that bet was figured in my totals. But thank you for bringing it up. I’ll need to edit that day’s report. The Cal-Nev casino reminds me a lot of Binion’s in that it’s really old and show’s its age (and seems to like it that way), plus it has that grill counter on the bottom floor that reminds of Binion’s snack bar.
Another thing I feel I need to remind some is that though this is called Hit ‘em All Nevada, I very well know that there’s a very good chance I’m going to miss some along the way. My original intention was to walk in just full service casinos, which means casinos with table games. I knew I couldn’t go to every slot house in the state, there are simply too many of them and many of the franchises, like Dotty’s, are everywhere. However, I have gone into a few not knowing if they would have tables or not and since I visit them and take a pic, I include them in the casinos visited category. One member reported there was a good chance I missed a couple in Fernly, which might very well be the case (and I really appreciate the heads up). I’ve been using the American Casino Guide and some other research as my base for finding these places, and I have no doubt I’m going to miss one or two along the way. But I do believe the spirit of the title is valid. I’m doing everything within reason to “Hit ‘em All.”
Today, Milly sent me directly to the Bonanza Casino with no problem. The tables were closed so I put my $10 bet on a video roulette on black, and the ball fell on the green single 0. There’s nothing of particular note about this place except to say that it seems like a good local’s kind of place. I did have breakfast in their café, and the Spanish Omelet was excellent.
The Bonanza in North Reno
As I mentioned in yesterday’s report, I now need to drive BACK to Carson where I’m staying the night. Here is another blunder on my part. As you might remember from last year’s trip, I’ve developed a fondness for the Holiday Inn Express hotels, but for some reason I chose to stay at the City Center Motel in downtown, Carson. What was I thinking? This is truly a motel in the strictest sense of the word as you can see by the picture of the room. I can’t remember the last time I was given an actual key for my room. It’s okay for one night, but geez—what was I thinking?
Cool TV
My first stop was the Gold Dust West casino in downtown, Carson. This is a chain I’m a little familiar with as I visited one in Elko last year (and will be there again later). It’s a nice chain with very clean casinos and this is no exception. There is also a bowling alley attached to this casino (bowling alleys and casinos seem to make good partners). The tables were closed but there was a regular (not the big one with girls) video blackjack machine, which I could play my $10 bet. I was dealt a 14 to the dealer’s 10. I took a hit and got a 5, and the dealer down card was an 8 for win.
The next place is located on the intersection of US 395 and US 50 (which goes to Lake Tahoe). It’s called Bodines. It appears to be rather new. Everything inside was really well laid out and it had most of the newer penny games. There were no tables nor were there any machines with blackjack or roulette, so my play consisted of some video poker (lost) and a new Tarzan penny machine (won and covered my earlier loss). This was a nice place with a great sportsbook.
My next stop was a long way from Carson at a city called Minden. On the way along US 395 there was another one of these candy shops like the one in Beatty. I stopped again and took a look inside. This time, I picked up a bag and randomly put in different flavors of homemade taffy to take along on tomorrow’s long drive to Winnemucca. There is only one casino there called the Carson Valley Inn (odd considering it’s in Minden). They had one blackjack table open, but every seat was taken, so I put $10 in a regular video blackjack machine and lost—geez, all this way to lose ten bucks and go back—oh well.
This guy was was watching over the Chocolate Nugget, the candy store in Carson
It was back to Carson where I passed a place called the Carson Station Western Motel. It was a nice enough place (for a motel casino) and they have a different take on bingo here. If you’re a member of their club, you get free card and every hour, a lady calls out the bingo numbers as you play the machines or sit at the bar or whatever. Outside of that, it’s a regular bingo game. Someone yells “BINGO” and you wait for another hour. I’ve no idea what the price was. I played the video penny game, Playboy, and walk off with a nifty 35-cent profit.
The next casino is in the heart of downtown Carson. The downtown area of Carson, which is the state capital of Nevada, is a very nice place. It reminds me a lot of the small coastal towns like Newport Beach and Encinitas. There’s almost a hippie vibe to the place. For example, I took a picture of the Nevada Capitol Building standing across the street in front of a Hookah store.
The State Capitol Building of Nevada
The largest casino here is called (what else) The Nugget. What was different here was that there is a bank of nickel 9/6/5 double base coin droppers. The only place I’ve seen that still accepts nickel drops—and I turned all my change in except quarters into a change machine. Though most of their video poker machines are short pay, there’s one bank of machines that have all full pay—go figure. The blackjack was very good for me as I was once again dealt a blackjack for a $15 pick-up. I’ve certainly had my fair share of dealt blackjacks this trip.
Across from the Nugget are two small slot places. They share a small block, one on each end. The first, Cactus Jacks was a small place with a grill. They didn’t have any table games or video blackjack. However, I actually had some time to kill, so I played some ten cent Joker’s Wild. On my second hand, I held two eights and the other three popped. I took a picture of it simply because, though it was only a $100 win, five-of-a-kind in Joker’s is really difficult. Besides, it’s at least a jackpot of a type. Before I left the place, I took them for another twenty at spin poker.
On the other end of the block is the Horseshoe Club (interesting that Caesar’s, who owns the name Horseshoe hasn’t made them change it). This also is small place with a nice little restaurant. There were no tables, but I was happy to find a bank of Game Kings that had full pay Pick ‘em, a favorite game of mine for quarters. I put thirty dollars hoping to double it and I did in short order. When I hit the button to cash out, the music began playing and my $61.25 required a hand pay. Seems all the machines have to be hand paid here.
I picked up a sandwich and headed back to my motel room as it was going to be time for SYTYCD. It was a good day with a nifty little profit. I’m glad I got to look around Carson. I really like this place—even more than Reno, which is only 30 minutes away anyway.
Trip totals: Casinos visited: 136 Bets Balance: + $123
More tomorrow
