Hit ‘em All Nevada – Day 20
I had a rough night sleeping. You might remember that I had boasted that the Nevada Club’s old rooms did have a nice flat screen TV on the wall, which was great; however, the room next to me where my head lies, also had this and the people there must be the type that like to have the TV on all night (a couple of friends of mine do this). Well, I tried my best to not let it keep me awake, but it did. They really didn’t have it loud at all, just on. So with only about four hours of sleep, I got up, took care of the morning duties, packed and headed for my next destination, Mesquite, NV.
Aside from the Vegas to Reno drive, this was going to be the longest of the trip. It will take about four hours, and again, most of it very straight desert scenery, though towards the last hour there were a couple of lakes, and some great rock formations. I left Ely at 6:30 AM and arrived in Mesquite at 10:15, most of the drive having a 75 MPH speed limit.
Mesquite is in Clark County and only 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Its population is just under 10,000 and is located in the Virgin River Valley. It was settled by Mormon pioneers in the 1800s and originally called Mesquite Flat. It was incorporated in 1984 as Mesquite. The casinos are what drive the economy today. My first stop was at the Casa Blanca Casino. This is a full scale, beautiful casino that’s in a large circle reminding me a bit of the Mohegan Sun. Even though it’s a Tuesday, the place is humming. There’s a junior boxing convention going on with lots of young men with their convention t-shirts walking around.
Inside the Casa Blanca
A very nice pool area at the Casa Blanca
I stopped by the slot booth and picked up a slot card, which afforded me $5 in free play as long as I start things off with a point on the card. Not far from the booth was one of those Buffalo machines that I did so well on last night. Though I know lightning rarely strikes twice, I put in a $20 and began playing at the minimum level, 40-cents. After I reached one point on the card, I downloaded the $5 free play and kept going. I soon hit a bonus, which retriggered three times, and low and behold, the bonus netted me over $200. I jumped it up to 80-cents and hit another bonus for another $100 win. At this point my $20 buy in is worth $379. I make the decision to keep playing until it gets down to $300 and if I hit another big bonus, adjust accordingly. I hit two more bonuses, but they didn’t catch anything and I cashed out $300.
A nice little jackpot win with a 40-cent bet
Just minutes later after upping the bet to 80 cents
I then played some Lord of the Rings and netted another $40. I was going to leave, but I passed a hot dog cart (I hadn’t eaten all day) with 75-cent dogs and bought a couple. I walked around and saw a penny 100-play machines. To my surprise, they had 9/5 Jacks; 7/5 Bonus; and Ugly Deuces. I mention this because these are close to full pay schedules and hundred plays’ schedules are usually brutal. So, I’m ahead and figure, I’ll put $60 ($5 per hand), and play deuces. It didn’t take long and I was dealt a wild royal ($125 in pennies). I cashed that out and put in another $60. I was dealt three to a royal and caught one (my first royal of the trip albeit only $40). I cashed out another $100 and put in yet another $60 and finally lost that. So, my little stop at the Casa Blanca Casino allowed me to walk out of it with $500 more than I walked into it. If only that would happen more often.
It was now past noon and I headed to the casino next door, the Oasis casino. Today, it’s 112 degrees (the hottest of the trip so far) and I was glad to see that the Oasis had a parking garage across the street with a covered walkway over the street. I parked on the bottom floor of the parking garage, and started looking for that walkway. The first thing I noticed was just how filthy these stairs were. I got to an elevator, got in and hit the “casino” button. It took me up a floor. I went to the door to the walkway and it was locked—huh? It was then that I looked out across the street at the Oasis and realized there were no cars over there, it was closed. I turned to take the elevator back down to the first floor, and there was a sign that the elevator is not working. Holy cow! I took the stairs back down to my car and headed out.
My hotel, the Eureka, is located just off the I-15 off ramp. The hotel is across the street from the casino and they’re not attached. If you want, they have a golf cart someone will shuttle you over to the casino. I asked if it was okay to check in early, and I was told there would be no problem. I was actually expecting something on the order of the place in Ely, but I was happily surprised to see that this hotel is very, very nice. My room is wonderful and even the room coffee maker is one of those gourmet Keurig machines. Though my room is at the end of the hall again, it is a corner room that overlooks the pool area.
Room at the Eureka - the mattress was excellent
View from my room at Eureka Hotel
After getting all my things settled, I walked across the way to the casino. This is also a nice casino with all the latest machines and games. The first thing I did was go to the slot club and sign up because after making the reservation I received an email saying I had $10 in free play when I sign up. After getting that loaded on my card, the boothling also handed me a nice ceramic cup for joining. There was a promotion going on this month for more gifts with the amount of points you put on your card in any given eight hour period. The very first thing I did was play the virtual blackjack machine for my $10 trip bet, which I won.
I went around checking for a Buffalo machine to see if lightning could strike three times. There was only one Buffalo machine in the entire place and someone was playing it. Judging on there being over $300 on the machine, this person was going nowhere fast. After walking around a little a playing a Lord of the Rings game where I profited $20, I began my usual checking video poker schedules. I came across their 100-play machines and was pleasantly surprised that they had some full pay schedules for pennies, 2-cent, and nickels (even better than the Casa Blanca). There were 9/6 Jacks and 8/5 Bonus, NSUD, and 9/6 DDB. I put in a hundred and played NSUD for pennies. Nothing much was happening so I switched to Bonus Poker. Not long and I was dealt quad 4s for a $200 win. I continued to play for a good two hours going up and down and hitting single royals four more times for a total of four royal flushes ($40 each playing pennies) for the day. I end up cashing out a $250 profit having put 1250 points on my card ($10 per point). I went back to the booth to see what kind of swag I had earned and she told to me pick one gift from each of three shelves. The gifts were the usual promotional products like hats and t-shirts and a lot of golf stuff (I don’t play golf), so I picked a bottle of Jack Daniels, an MP3 player speaker thing, and a George Foreman Grill. Along with that, I had also accumulated $15 cash back. Wow!
Swag from the Eureka
It was almost 7 PM, and I still had one more casino to visit, get dinner, and head back to the room (with four hours of sleep, I’m bushed). The final casino to visit in Mesquite is called the Virgin River, which is across the street from Eureka. This is also a well-appointed casino and is also owned by the same people as the Casa Blanca as they use the same slot card. This casino seemed a bit more claustrophobic than the other two places. The machines are very close together and it has a low ceiling. I thought I’d mix it up and play roulette this time for my ten dollar bet. There was no one else playing and the dealer was really nice. I gave her my $10 and asked for it all on black. She put the two red chips on the black, then took two more red chips and put it under the marker saying she was sure I’d win as here were my winnings. She was right as the ball fell on 2-black. I thanked her and cashed it in. Mesquite, NV (3-0).
This casino had plenty of the Buffalo machines and after giving two different ones $20 each and coming up with zilch, I called it day, drove over to a Subway, got a sandwich and returned to my room. It was quite a good day for me. Not only did I win all my $10 bets today, but I came out ahead gambling almost $600—very much needed. This concludes my trip outside of the Las Vegas area as I return to Las Vegas tomorrow to take on all those casinos that are west of the Strip, so I’m far from finished.
The Virgin River Casino
Trip Totals: Casinos visited 162; bets balance +$133.
More tomorrow
I had a rough night sleeping. You might remember that I had boasted that the Nevada Club’s old rooms did have a nice flat screen TV on the wall, which was great; however, the room next to me where my head lies, also had this and the people there must be the type that like to have the TV on all night (a couple of friends of mine do this). Well, I tried my best to not let it keep me awake, but it did. They really didn’t have it loud at all, just on. So with only about four hours of sleep, I got up, took care of the morning duties, packed and headed for my next destination, Mesquite, NV.
Aside from the Vegas to Reno drive, this was going to be the longest of the trip. It will take about four hours, and again, most of it very straight desert scenery, though towards the last hour there were a couple of lakes, and some great rock formations. I left Ely at 6:30 AM and arrived in Mesquite at 10:15, most of the drive having a 75 MPH speed limit.
Mesquite is in Clark County and only 80 miles northeast of Las Vegas. Its population is just under 10,000 and is located in the Virgin River Valley. It was settled by Mormon pioneers in the 1800s and originally called Mesquite Flat. It was incorporated in 1984 as Mesquite. The casinos are what drive the economy today. My first stop was at the Casa Blanca Casino. This is a full scale, beautiful casino that’s in a large circle reminding me a bit of the Mohegan Sun. Even though it’s a Tuesday, the place is humming. There’s a junior boxing convention going on with lots of young men with their convention t-shirts walking around.
Inside the Casa Blanca
A very nice pool area at the Casa Blanca
I stopped by the slot booth and picked up a slot card, which afforded me $5 in free play as long as I start things off with a point on the card. Not far from the booth was one of those Buffalo machines that I did so well on last night. Though I know lightning rarely strikes twice, I put in a $20 and began playing at the minimum level, 40-cents. After I reached one point on the card, I downloaded the $5 free play and kept going. I soon hit a bonus, which retriggered three times, and low and behold, the bonus netted me over $200. I jumped it up to 80-cents and hit another bonus for another $100 win. At this point my $20 buy in is worth $379. I make the decision to keep playing until it gets down to $300 and if I hit another big bonus, adjust accordingly. I hit two more bonuses, but they didn’t catch anything and I cashed out $300.
A nice little jackpot win with a 40-cent bet
Just minutes later after upping the bet to 80 cents
I then played some Lord of the Rings and netted another $40. I was going to leave, but I passed a hot dog cart (I hadn’t eaten all day) with 75-cent dogs and bought a couple. I walked around and saw a penny 100-play machines. To my surprise, they had 9/5 Jacks; 7/5 Bonus; and Ugly Deuces. I mention this because these are close to full pay schedules and hundred plays’ schedules are usually brutal. So, I’m ahead and figure, I’ll put $60 ($5 per hand), and play deuces. It didn’t take long and I was dealt a wild royal ($125 in pennies). I cashed that out and put in another $60. I was dealt three to a royal and caught one (my first royal of the trip albeit only $40). I cashed out another $100 and put in yet another $60 and finally lost that. So, my little stop at the Casa Blanca Casino allowed me to walk out of it with $500 more than I walked into it. If only that would happen more often.
It was now past noon and I headed to the casino next door, the Oasis casino. Today, it’s 112 degrees (the hottest of the trip so far) and I was glad to see that the Oasis had a parking garage across the street with a covered walkway over the street. I parked on the bottom floor of the parking garage, and started looking for that walkway. The first thing I noticed was just how filthy these stairs were. I got to an elevator, got in and hit the “casino” button. It took me up a floor. I went to the door to the walkway and it was locked—huh? It was then that I looked out across the street at the Oasis and realized there were no cars over there, it was closed. I turned to take the elevator back down to the first floor, and there was a sign that the elevator is not working. Holy cow! I took the stairs back down to my car and headed out.
My hotel, the Eureka, is located just off the I-15 off ramp. The hotel is across the street from the casino and they’re not attached. If you want, they have a golf cart someone will shuttle you over to the casino. I asked if it was okay to check in early, and I was told there would be no problem. I was actually expecting something on the order of the place in Ely, but I was happily surprised to see that this hotel is very, very nice. My room is wonderful and even the room coffee maker is one of those gourmet Keurig machines. Though my room is at the end of the hall again, it is a corner room that overlooks the pool area.
Room at the Eureka - the mattress was excellent
View from my room at Eureka Hotel
After getting all my things settled, I walked across the way to the casino. This is also a nice casino with all the latest machines and games. The first thing I did was go to the slot club and sign up because after making the reservation I received an email saying I had $10 in free play when I sign up. After getting that loaded on my card, the boothling also handed me a nice ceramic cup for joining. There was a promotion going on this month for more gifts with the amount of points you put on your card in any given eight hour period. The very first thing I did was play the virtual blackjack machine for my $10 trip bet, which I won.
I went around checking for a Buffalo machine to see if lightning could strike three times. There was only one Buffalo machine in the entire place and someone was playing it. Judging on there being over $300 on the machine, this person was going nowhere fast. After walking around a little a playing a Lord of the Rings game where I profited $20, I began my usual checking video poker schedules. I came across their 100-play machines and was pleasantly surprised that they had some full pay schedules for pennies, 2-cent, and nickels (even better than the Casa Blanca). There were 9/6 Jacks and 8/5 Bonus, NSUD, and 9/6 DDB. I put in a hundred and played NSUD for pennies. Nothing much was happening so I switched to Bonus Poker. Not long and I was dealt quad 4s for a $200 win. I continued to play for a good two hours going up and down and hitting single royals four more times for a total of four royal flushes ($40 each playing pennies) for the day. I end up cashing out a $250 profit having put 1250 points on my card ($10 per point). I went back to the booth to see what kind of swag I had earned and she told to me pick one gift from each of three shelves. The gifts were the usual promotional products like hats and t-shirts and a lot of golf stuff (I don’t play golf), so I picked a bottle of Jack Daniels, an MP3 player speaker thing, and a George Foreman Grill. Along with that, I had also accumulated $15 cash back. Wow!
Swag from the Eureka
It was almost 7 PM, and I still had one more casino to visit, get dinner, and head back to the room (with four hours of sleep, I’m bushed). The final casino to visit in Mesquite is called the Virgin River, which is across the street from Eureka. This is also a well-appointed casino and is also owned by the same people as the Casa Blanca as they use the same slot card. This casino seemed a bit more claustrophobic than the other two places. The machines are very close together and it has a low ceiling. I thought I’d mix it up and play roulette this time for my ten dollar bet. There was no one else playing and the dealer was really nice. I gave her my $10 and asked for it all on black. She put the two red chips on the black, then took two more red chips and put it under the marker saying she was sure I’d win as here were my winnings. She was right as the ball fell on 2-black. I thanked her and cashed it in. Mesquite, NV (3-0).
This casino had plenty of the Buffalo machines and after giving two different ones $20 each and coming up with zilch, I called it day, drove over to a Subway, got a sandwich and returned to my room. It was quite a good day for me. Not only did I win all my $10 bets today, but I came out ahead gambling almost $600—very much needed. This concludes my trip outside of the Las Vegas area as I return to Las Vegas tomorrow to take on all those casinos that are west of the Strip, so I’m far from finished.
The Virgin River Casino
Trip Totals: Casinos visited 162; bets balance +$133.
More tomorrow
