Hit ‘em All Nevada – Day 7
Today after packing everything up and taking care of the other morning duties, I was back in the car and headed back to Las Vegas for the next five days. I needed to make a couple of stops along the way. The Hacienda Hotel and Casino is located in Boulder, NV and is located just a couple of miles from the dam. Milly (my GPS) made a mistake and put me at an Albertson’s in downtown, Boulder. However, being the only casino in the town, I knew it had to be close to the dam, so I followed along Hwy 93 until I found it.
Signs advertising rooms for $29 and free for truckers along the way doesn’t say much for what the quality of rooms might be, but I will say that the casino itself is quite nice. The inventory is fairly modern and the video poker schedules have full pay Bonus Poker and 8/6 Deluxe. Oddly enough, this casino has something against Jacks or Better because I couldn’t find this game in any of the machines. There was no one playing blackjack and though there were two dealers waiting at the tables, knowing I’m only going to play one hand, I don’t want to have a dealer shuffle and go through all the mechanics they have to do to get a game started. There was one couple playing craps (on a half-table where only one stickman is needed to run the game). I put $5 on the line and the lady threw an 8 and I laid the $5 odds. Two throws later, she tossed an 8 and I took my $11 win to the cashier.
Back on the road and the next stop before getting into Henderson is the Railroad Pass Casino, which is also on the 93 but just before the turnoff to Searchlight. It’s not as nice as The Hacienda as it has the run-down type of look. I’ve stopped here before so I knew the layout. I played blackjack, but my dealt 17 lost to the dealer’s 18.
I’m thinking that considering I’m staying at Sam’s Town, which is Henderson, I’d hit all the casinos west of the Strip. Unlike when I was making the casino runs on the Strip and Downtown, most of these casinos can only be reached by car. So instead of walking from one casino to another, it’s going to be tedious finding a parking spot, get out and walk into the casino, walk around to check it out for this report, grab a picture that gets most of the casino building in it, walk back to the car and drive to next one. However, I fully expected this when I set out on this journey. The casinos west of the Strip are scattered all over the place.
My first stop in Henderson is an old friend now called the Fiesta Henderson. This used to be a favorite casino of mine years ago when it was called The Reserve (I still have a few of their logo shirts). The comps were easy and plentiful and they had the best coffee shop in town. When Station Casinos took it over, they did a complete remodel and extension. The great coffee shop was tuned into a Denny’s (good grief!). As much as I don’t like change, they did a very nice job here in the casino. Like most of Station’s properties, there are a few banks of full pay video poker games (though the slot points for 4x the requirements for slot machines). I played and won my ten dollar blackjack bet.
As I drove towards Boulder Highway, I took a right into the downtown area of Henderson, which most people don’t even know is here. The city incorporated in 1953 after supplying the World War II effort with mined magnesium. Most tourists only know of the large casinos and hotels in Henderson, but the downtown area itself is small, quaint, and has a real small town atmosphere. The downtown area is clean and all the store fronts are full of small, independent businesses. There are three casinos here in the downtown area here.
First is the Emerald Island Casino. This is a slot house with no table games. There’s a café and a small bar. What sets this place apart is that the entire inventory of machines is 1/2/5 cents only. Row after row after row of machines with the really small play—there were no dollar machines at all. There was no play for me here.
The next casino across the street was a very clean but dark casino called the Rainbow Club. It had a lot of modern inventory and a nice sports book. The darkness of the casino with a neon interior made a lot more sense to me when I found out it is owned by the Peppermill casino company. Anyone familiar with this company knows that their signature is neon everywhere. To my knowledge, this is the only Peppermill property in the Las Vegas basin. However, once again there were no tables. I did choose to make the $10 video poker bet, but I made a stupid rookie mistake. I found a 9/6 Jacks dollar machine, which is full pay, put in my $10 and hit max coins—the goof?—I didn’t realize it was a ten coin machine; therefore, I only got one bet and that dealt hand only had a jack and queen to hold, and nothing came in.
Neglected to take a pic of the Rainbow Club - my apoligies
The final casino is the largest and oldest casino of the three, the Eldorado. Everything about this place screams old school. The place is a little dingy, the carpet is worn, and the dealers all look they started when the place opened. There are a lot of homeless types just hanging out at the Keno area looking to escape the heat. There are only three blackjack tables here and they are covered and won’t be open until 5 PM. There isn’t any good video poker here to play as well, so I’ve skipped it.
I pass Boulder Hwy and go straight to Las Vegas Lakes where the Montelago casino has recently re-opened. Not as far as most people think, the Las Vegas Lakes region is a beautiful, affluent area that at one time boasted three major hotel brands and very high real estate. As the recession took its grip, it simply killed this area. Gone are the Ritz Carleton, the casino closed, and the real estate dropped so far that I made a recent check of condos in the area, and I found a one-bedroom condo in a beautiful complex selling for $45,000 (down from $225,000). I was pleased to read that the Montelago was purchased and re-opened. As I descended the escalator, it still looked like the old place except there were some machines taken out and a couple sections were walled off, which took away about a third of what it used to be. The old high limit area is now a new slot club, which I joined and was given a six-pack of diet coke and some coupons for joining. They don’t have table games here but do have the roulette table with an actual wheel, but you make your bet on an automated station around it. I but in my ten and played black. When you first make your bet, it’s automatically a dollar and you keep hitting it to increase it at fifty cents a time. I kept punching it but only reached $9 when it wouldn’t take any more bets. Black 26 came up, which means I won $9 instead of my usual ten. One nice little addition is that there’s a small deli cart selling hot dogs for $.75 and the soft drinks are free. I did a little walk around the Village, which is still only half full of merchants and on this day there were only three people walking around, me and a German couple.
Inside of the newly remodeled Montelago
My final casino stop is a place along the Boulder Hwy called Joker’s Wild. This is an old casino that caters to locals. It’s run my Sam’s Town and owned by the Coast properties, but they aren’t members of the Connected B slot club and keep their own card. I’ve played craps here many times years ago—they still have a $2 minimum—and it has a popular little coffee shop. I have an interested memory of this place. When 50-play video poker machines first came out, they were still a novelty. They had a couple here and I was playing full coin (which most the locals here were afraid to do), and I was dealt four-to-the-royal. I soon had a slew of people around me waiting for me to hit the re-deal button to see how many royals I get. I hit the button and not only did I not get any royals, I didn’t even get a flush. I only got a few high pair. There was collective sigh from the crowd around me as they all walked away. It was time to play the blackjack for my trip and lost again holding a 17 to the dealer’s 18.
I got back in my car ready to drive down and register at Sam’s Town when I had a strange thought. I got out my agenda, and sure enough, I’m not supposed to be at Sam’s Town yet. My next stop is Bally’s with Sam’s Town on Friday. Whew, I’m glad I checked. I drove to Bally’s and valet parked the car. I like Bally’s for a lot of reasons: the valet is easy and convenient. The hotel is right on a major Strip corner. And I know the rooms given for diamond players (they have entire floors designated only for diamond members) are always nice. I used my corporate free two night offer for this. As I walked into the registration area, the line at the registration desk looked like the line waiting to get on Space Mountain. I was very happy to be able to use the diamond registration, which had no one in line at all—one of the few remaining perks I really appreciate.
A different angle
Not the best view this time around at Ballys
The clerk gave me a room in the North Tower, the same one I’ve stayed in many times, but this time my view was of the Paris and if you crane your head around to the right, you can see the Bellagio fountains, which are easy to know when the show is going on because of the numerous pops you can hear as the water cannons go off. After unpacking, it was dinner time, but I really wasn’t all that hungry and thought perhaps I’d just go to the diamond lounge, have a beer (no more mudslides) and have some of their wings or whatever. I walked in and the place was jammed with members and the line for the food was almost to the door.
I decided to walk across the street to Planet Hollywood. Their diamond lounge is twice as large and few people know it even exists. Sure enough, there were only about ten people in the place. I ordered a Corona, stacked up my plate with wings and appetizer burritos, and sat and enjoyed watching the Indians beating the Yankees. As I watched the game, which was taking place in Cleveland, I had a flashback. Last summer during my national casino run, one of my stops and pics was of this stadium. It was nice remembering taking the picture and all the surrounding spots there. I even remembered that after taking the picture of accidently running a red light I didn’t notice until I looked back.
After filling up with my diet busting food and walking out of the lounge into the convention area, there were groups or teams of girls in costumes going though routines. I was curious and walked into the convention area and finally into a theater where there was some sort of national competition of dance teams going on. One team after another would take the stage; perform a short routine to some current song all in front of a panel of judges. All the teams were girls from about 12 to 17 and the entire center was packed. There was no charge so I sat down and watched a few of the routines for a while. It reminded me of cheer competitions, but these were just dance teams. When I got there, team 551 was performing, so I suppose this was some big deal for these kids to be in Vegas and performing on a big, national stage.
I walked back to Bally’s, lost playing some video poker and got back to my room in time for SYTYCD with Carmen Electra as the guest judge (they really don’t need guest judges for this show). Tomorrow will mean lots of driving and running in and out of casinos, so it’s to bed early.
Trip Totals: Casinos visited 71; Bets balance: plus $19
(End up breaking even for the day thanks to the $11 win at craps and the $9 win at roulette)
More tomorrow
Today after packing everything up and taking care of the other morning duties, I was back in the car and headed back to Las Vegas for the next five days. I needed to make a couple of stops along the way. The Hacienda Hotel and Casino is located in Boulder, NV and is located just a couple of miles from the dam. Milly (my GPS) made a mistake and put me at an Albertson’s in downtown, Boulder. However, being the only casino in the town, I knew it had to be close to the dam, so I followed along Hwy 93 until I found it.
Signs advertising rooms for $29 and free for truckers along the way doesn’t say much for what the quality of rooms might be, but I will say that the casino itself is quite nice. The inventory is fairly modern and the video poker schedules have full pay Bonus Poker and 8/6 Deluxe. Oddly enough, this casino has something against Jacks or Better because I couldn’t find this game in any of the machines. There was no one playing blackjack and though there were two dealers waiting at the tables, knowing I’m only going to play one hand, I don’t want to have a dealer shuffle and go through all the mechanics they have to do to get a game started. There was one couple playing craps (on a half-table where only one stickman is needed to run the game). I put $5 on the line and the lady threw an 8 and I laid the $5 odds. Two throws later, she tossed an 8 and I took my $11 win to the cashier.
Back on the road and the next stop before getting into Henderson is the Railroad Pass Casino, which is also on the 93 but just before the turnoff to Searchlight. It’s not as nice as The Hacienda as it has the run-down type of look. I’ve stopped here before so I knew the layout. I played blackjack, but my dealt 17 lost to the dealer’s 18.
I’m thinking that considering I’m staying at Sam’s Town, which is Henderson, I’d hit all the casinos west of the Strip. Unlike when I was making the casino runs on the Strip and Downtown, most of these casinos can only be reached by car. So instead of walking from one casino to another, it’s going to be tedious finding a parking spot, get out and walk into the casino, walk around to check it out for this report, grab a picture that gets most of the casino building in it, walk back to the car and drive to next one. However, I fully expected this when I set out on this journey. The casinos west of the Strip are scattered all over the place.
My first stop in Henderson is an old friend now called the Fiesta Henderson. This used to be a favorite casino of mine years ago when it was called The Reserve (I still have a few of their logo shirts). The comps were easy and plentiful and they had the best coffee shop in town. When Station Casinos took it over, they did a complete remodel and extension. The great coffee shop was tuned into a Denny’s (good grief!). As much as I don’t like change, they did a very nice job here in the casino. Like most of Station’s properties, there are a few banks of full pay video poker games (though the slot points for 4x the requirements for slot machines). I played and won my ten dollar blackjack bet.
As I drove towards Boulder Highway, I took a right into the downtown area of Henderson, which most people don’t even know is here. The city incorporated in 1953 after supplying the World War II effort with mined magnesium. Most tourists only know of the large casinos and hotels in Henderson, but the downtown area itself is small, quaint, and has a real small town atmosphere. The downtown area is clean and all the store fronts are full of small, independent businesses. There are three casinos here in the downtown area here.
First is the Emerald Island Casino. This is a slot house with no table games. There’s a café and a small bar. What sets this place apart is that the entire inventory of machines is 1/2/5 cents only. Row after row after row of machines with the really small play—there were no dollar machines at all. There was no play for me here.
The next casino across the street was a very clean but dark casino called the Rainbow Club. It had a lot of modern inventory and a nice sports book. The darkness of the casino with a neon interior made a lot more sense to me when I found out it is owned by the Peppermill casino company. Anyone familiar with this company knows that their signature is neon everywhere. To my knowledge, this is the only Peppermill property in the Las Vegas basin. However, once again there were no tables. I did choose to make the $10 video poker bet, but I made a stupid rookie mistake. I found a 9/6 Jacks dollar machine, which is full pay, put in my $10 and hit max coins—the goof?—I didn’t realize it was a ten coin machine; therefore, I only got one bet and that dealt hand only had a jack and queen to hold, and nothing came in.
Neglected to take a pic of the Rainbow Club - my apoligies
The final casino is the largest and oldest casino of the three, the Eldorado. Everything about this place screams old school. The place is a little dingy, the carpet is worn, and the dealers all look they started when the place opened. There are a lot of homeless types just hanging out at the Keno area looking to escape the heat. There are only three blackjack tables here and they are covered and won’t be open until 5 PM. There isn’t any good video poker here to play as well, so I’ve skipped it.
I pass Boulder Hwy and go straight to Las Vegas Lakes where the Montelago casino has recently re-opened. Not as far as most people think, the Las Vegas Lakes region is a beautiful, affluent area that at one time boasted three major hotel brands and very high real estate. As the recession took its grip, it simply killed this area. Gone are the Ritz Carleton, the casino closed, and the real estate dropped so far that I made a recent check of condos in the area, and I found a one-bedroom condo in a beautiful complex selling for $45,000 (down from $225,000). I was pleased to read that the Montelago was purchased and re-opened. As I descended the escalator, it still looked like the old place except there were some machines taken out and a couple sections were walled off, which took away about a third of what it used to be. The old high limit area is now a new slot club, which I joined and was given a six-pack of diet coke and some coupons for joining. They don’t have table games here but do have the roulette table with an actual wheel, but you make your bet on an automated station around it. I but in my ten and played black. When you first make your bet, it’s automatically a dollar and you keep hitting it to increase it at fifty cents a time. I kept punching it but only reached $9 when it wouldn’t take any more bets. Black 26 came up, which means I won $9 instead of my usual ten. One nice little addition is that there’s a small deli cart selling hot dogs for $.75 and the soft drinks are free. I did a little walk around the Village, which is still only half full of merchants and on this day there were only three people walking around, me and a German couple.
Inside of the newly remodeled Montelago
My final casino stop is a place along the Boulder Hwy called Joker’s Wild. This is an old casino that caters to locals. It’s run my Sam’s Town and owned by the Coast properties, but they aren’t members of the Connected B slot club and keep their own card. I’ve played craps here many times years ago—they still have a $2 minimum—and it has a popular little coffee shop. I have an interested memory of this place. When 50-play video poker machines first came out, they were still a novelty. They had a couple here and I was playing full coin (which most the locals here were afraid to do), and I was dealt four-to-the-royal. I soon had a slew of people around me waiting for me to hit the re-deal button to see how many royals I get. I hit the button and not only did I not get any royals, I didn’t even get a flush. I only got a few high pair. There was collective sigh from the crowd around me as they all walked away. It was time to play the blackjack for my trip and lost again holding a 17 to the dealer’s 18.
I got back in my car ready to drive down and register at Sam’s Town when I had a strange thought. I got out my agenda, and sure enough, I’m not supposed to be at Sam’s Town yet. My next stop is Bally’s with Sam’s Town on Friday. Whew, I’m glad I checked. I drove to Bally’s and valet parked the car. I like Bally’s for a lot of reasons: the valet is easy and convenient. The hotel is right on a major Strip corner. And I know the rooms given for diamond players (they have entire floors designated only for diamond members) are always nice. I used my corporate free two night offer for this. As I walked into the registration area, the line at the registration desk looked like the line waiting to get on Space Mountain. I was very happy to be able to use the diamond registration, which had no one in line at all—one of the few remaining perks I really appreciate.
A different angle
Not the best view this time around at Ballys
The clerk gave me a room in the North Tower, the same one I’ve stayed in many times, but this time my view was of the Paris and if you crane your head around to the right, you can see the Bellagio fountains, which are easy to know when the show is going on because of the numerous pops you can hear as the water cannons go off. After unpacking, it was dinner time, but I really wasn’t all that hungry and thought perhaps I’d just go to the diamond lounge, have a beer (no more mudslides) and have some of their wings or whatever. I walked in and the place was jammed with members and the line for the food was almost to the door.
I decided to walk across the street to Planet Hollywood. Their diamond lounge is twice as large and few people know it even exists. Sure enough, there were only about ten people in the place. I ordered a Corona, stacked up my plate with wings and appetizer burritos, and sat and enjoyed watching the Indians beating the Yankees. As I watched the game, which was taking place in Cleveland, I had a flashback. Last summer during my national casino run, one of my stops and pics was of this stadium. It was nice remembering taking the picture and all the surrounding spots there. I even remembered that after taking the picture of accidently running a red light I didn’t notice until I looked back.
After filling up with my diet busting food and walking out of the lounge into the convention area, there were groups or teams of girls in costumes going though routines. I was curious and walked into the convention area and finally into a theater where there was some sort of national competition of dance teams going on. One team after another would take the stage; perform a short routine to some current song all in front of a panel of judges. All the teams were girls from about 12 to 17 and the entire center was packed. There was no charge so I sat down and watched a few of the routines for a while. It reminded me of cheer competitions, but these were just dance teams. When I got there, team 551 was performing, so I suppose this was some big deal for these kids to be in Vegas and performing on a big, national stage.
I walked back to Bally’s, lost playing some video poker and got back to my room in time for SYTYCD with Carmen Electra as the guest judge (they really don’t need guest judges for this show). Tomorrow will mean lots of driving and running in and out of casinos, so it’s to bed early.
Trip Totals: Casinos visited 71; Bets balance: plus $19
(End up breaking even for the day thanks to the $11 win at craps and the $9 win at roulette)
More tomorrow
