Laughlin – May ‘16
I decided to take a quick trip to Laughlin for four nights on a couple of offers. The Riverside gave me three free nights and two buffets and the Tropicana three free nights. The plan is to book both and stay at each property two nights each. As long as the winnings allow, I pretty much plan to go to either Laughlin or Las Vegas once a month barring any circumstances when I can’t.
Monday
The five hour drive from San Diego was uneventful (just how I like it) and The Riverside is good about accepting early check-ins as long as a room is available and at 9AM, I had my room on the 23rd floor facing the Colorado River—nice!
The Riverside in Laughlin
The view from my room at the Riverside.
The plan for all four days is to play live poker at the Colorado Belle and give enough machine play at the two properties I’m staying at to keep the offers coming. I drove over to the Belle but there was a wait already because one of the daily promotions is a high hand bonus the first hour, and locals tend to monopolize it, so I decided to come back later. I usually catch up on movies when I come here and will do so later, but today, I simply wasn’t in the mood and decided to drive over to Bullhead. I not only needed to pick up a few things at the Target store but to also check out where they have open Pickleball.
At home, I looked online to see if Pickleball was available and to my surprise found that the Bullhead Community Center was offering it every weekday morning from 9 until 12. I had no problem locating it and the game was already in progress. Arizona does not observe Daylights Savings Time and so it’s an hour ahead of Nevada. It’s pretty funny because the clock in my car says 9:32 AM in Laughlin, and I’ll cross the bridge over the river and as soon as I arrive into Arizona, the clock changes to 10:32—magic! I spoke with a player waiting his turn and he told me that Pickleball is very popular here. Even in such a small town as Bullhead, they average about 20 to 30 players a day who share three available courts. There’s a rack to place your paddle until it’s your turn. Every court has four players and the winning team (your partner is whoever’s paddle was next to yours on the rack) stays on the court for one more game (no more than two games to 11 at a time) and then take your place at the back of the line. It’s all on the honor system. You place $2 in a bucket at the front desk each day.
Pickleball at the Bullhead Community Center
I drove on to Target to pick up a few goodies and decided to wait on filling up the tank until Thursday. Gas in Bullhead: $1.95 per gallon—SO much cheaper than San Diego. El Nino has caused some unusual weather patterns this year and today, though it’s a little cloudy and windy here in Laughlin; Las Vegas, just 75 miles away is having rainstorms and even snow flurries on Mt. Charleston—in May! I drove back to the Belle to see if a table had opened up and there was a spot at the 2/4 game.
There’s not much to report here. I bought in for $60 and played for the next six hours. I didn’t catch any bonuses, though I was dealt pocket Aces once, I won the hand. I like this game at this casino because there are SO many bonuses: $500 for Royals, $200 for straight flushes, $100 for suited cracked Aces, $50 for unsuited cracked Aces; and one of my favorites, $50 for the first three different suits won by a flush, and another $100 for the fourth suit). There’s also two Bad Beat bonuses, the small one Aces full cracked by a higher hand and the big one for $40,000 which is quad 10s or higher beat by a larger hand. Today at the table, the dealer was telling us that it’s been so long that no one has hit the big one, that in the next week or so, they’re going to look for ways to break up that jackpot (Nevada gaming laws state that any jackpot must be hit before you can discontinue it).
On this day, during the entire six hours I did not win ONE hand with a flush. One guy in the #2 seat of my table won a bunch: two quads, all four flushes, and a straight flush. I finally lost my buy in. As I told the player next to me when I finally lost my all-in hand, I lost $60 but I played and had a great time for six hours—in the casino, I can lose $60 at a machine in less than five minutes. Win or lose, poker is a great way to spend your time; it just wasn’t my day.
I drove back to the Riverside. It was time to play some games here. I want to keep my free room offers coming, so I sat down at the Quick Quads video poker machine and played for quite awhile. Though I managed a lot of play, I eventually lost. Then I tried some assorted penny games, all of them were losers as well. Some days are simply not your days, and I finally gave up gambling. I picked up a hamburger at Fatburger located in the back of the casino and took it to my room to watch Dancing with the Stars and called it a night.
Tuesday
I woke up late (not surprising considering I only had four hours of sleep the night before as I like drive in the early mornings) and it was too late to get in some Pickleball. I used one of my comp tickets for the breakfast buffet and headed back to the Colorado Belle hoping maybe today I can catch a bonus or two on the 2/4 poker table. There were two seats available at the same table I was at yesterday and one of them was seat #2, which was so lucky yesterday. I sat down and won the first two hands. Across the table in seat #7 was Tom, the player who won so many bonuses yesterday. I asked why he didn’t sit in this same seat. Tom is a regular and says he doesn’t pay attention to things like that. For the next couple of hours, I was holding my own but was getting pretty low, I was going to quit, but decided to buy in for another $20. On the very next hand, I had pocket unsuited Aces and lost to two pair. That gave me a $50 bonus. Super, now I’m set to play for awhile longer.
Here we go: At 12:45, Tom gets up, leaving his chips, to go get some lunch (he’ll come back after lunch). I’m dealt a nothing hand and fold, Rene, the player on my left raises and three players call. The flop is 10h, Qd, Ad. All three players bet. I’m looking at my phone playing Words with Friends not paying that much attention. The turn is a Ks, one player drops out, one player goes all in leaving two players still betting: Rene next to me and John in seat #5. The river is Kd. Suddenly these two players are raising each other over and over again. What’s going on? John says, let’s stop, I thing we both know what’s going on here. Finally the betting tops out and both turn over their hands. Rene has four Kings, and John has a Royal Flush. The table erupts! We just won the high Bad Beat for $40,000! I say “we” because under the rules, the losing player, Rene with quad kings, wins 40% ($16,000), the winning player wins 20% ($8,000) and the remaining active players in the room (only our table was playing) split the remaining 40% ($16,000). There were seven of us at the table when it hit (Yes, Tom who went to lunch doesn’t qualify), so we each received $2,285. Just yesterday, we were all talking about it not being hit for so long and here we are waiting to get paid.
After we hit this, the sign was taken down for good.
There were two pots because the third player had gone all in so there was a side pot.
The royal flush hand
At this point, everything freezes. The dealer, Mike (who had just started dealing here a couple of weeks ago) counts out the cards in the deck for the “eye in the sky” to take pictures. All of us at the table are given tax forms to be filled out and driver’s IDs were given to be photocopied. All the money is paid out in cash, so after the casino manager comes and confirms everything, the cashier has to set up all the different payments. To make things a little more time consuming, one of the players is a Canadian and his tax amount is kept by the casino to be sent to Canada. The rest of us are paid in full. There were also pictures to be taken by the casino (with our permission, one player declined) for promotional purposes. The entire process took almost an hour.
Rene getting paid his $16,000
In the grand scheme of things, $40K being won in a casino is not that big of a deal; however, that Bad Beat had been sitting there so long and the screaming we all made when it was hit drew everyone to the poker room. Managers and dealers were calling their friends; all of us players suddenly knew each other by name. Everyone shaking hands, everyone taking pictures—it was quite a scene. And there…sitting at an empty table waiting for all the fuss to end, was Tom—having returned from lunch knowing he had just missed out. Of course, had he been there, the cards would have been dealt differently and it would never have hit, but that’s little consolation. He took it well and smiled. Mike, the newly hired dealer was very happy. Tips for him were varied, many of us gave him $85, a couple gave him a $100, one regular gave him $200, John who had the Royal gave $300, and Rene the big winner gave him $500. So, it was a very good day for him as well and his smile was wide and he shook each of our hands in thanks.
In my casino experience, I’ve won more than $2K on a few occasions; however, this was something different. The shared experience was something special and certainly made for a great poker story to be told for years. Finally, things went back to normal, Tom sat back down and we began to play again. It just wasn’t the same. Three of the players (including Rene, whose wife he had called came down and was in tears) left and after about twenty minutes, I got up as well. Had I not won the $2200, I would have lost $40 for the day, but it was certainly great fun and I’ll be back trying to scratch out a bonus or two tomorrow. I certainly hope seat #2 will be available when I do.
Wednesday
It’s moving day. I was up early, worked on this report, had a small breakfast using my last free coupon, and drove over to play Pickleball. I played for a couple of hours. Like everywhere I’ve played, the other players were inviting and generous. I’ve learned that wherever I go, the skill level always varies but almost everyone is very close making for fun, competitive games. Almost everyone is over 50 and women are just as talented as the men. It’s was nice little workout for the morning.
I headed back to the Riverside to pack up and move over to the Tropicana, which I already registered yesterday though I didn’t stay, but will be there the next two nights.
The Tropicana Express, Laughlin
The view from my room at the Tropicana
Honestly, not much to report today. I played poker at the Belle from 9AM to 5PM. Getting enough players today to fill even one table never happened. Twice, the table broke up and started later. There were no bonus hands for anyone (the only reason to play at a 2/4 table) at all the entire day. I managed only one flush these past three days, so if it wasn’t for the bad beat yesterday, poker has been like running in place. I had dinner (using points) at the Belle’s micro-brewery. Their $15.99 T-bone steak special was okay. The steak was on the thin side but cooked properly and the fries and salad were good. I walked back to the Tropicana. I needed to play some as I want to keep the free room offers coming. The only VP to play is two All-American triple plays in the high limit room that has quarter 8/5 bonus poker. No luck with them. I tried some of the penny slots but no wins there as well. Finally gave up and headed up to the room and called it a night.
The Colorado Belle, Laughlin
Thursday
The day started off on a bad note. Walking around the room, I stubbed my baby left toe and broke the damn thing. The entire toe is a dark black and blue and completely numb. This is the SECOND time I have broken a toe in Laughlin. Of course, there’s nothing I can do about it and will just have to limp around until it mends. There’s no chance of playing Pickleball this morning, so I just had some breakfast downstairs.
I played some more video poker and again, no luck. And then I played a few penny machines and everything was a loser. It hasn’t been a good trip for gaming. I headed over to the Belle to get into the poker game and there were only six people at the table. Within just a few minutes, two of them left, so we shut down the game. I figured I’d walk down to the Golden Nugget as I have a little free play. I tried a few games and paid one of the new Flintstones machines. Things worked a little better and I walked away with a modest profit.
View from the patio of the Pioneer casino. It’s a beautiful day in Laughlin
I headed back to the Belle and there still wasn’t anyone playing poker. I decided to walk across the street and see a movie at the Outlet Center. I reported last month that things might be going bad for the theaters there as they’ve instituted all seats, all day only $6. Now there’s a banner in the front of the theater that Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays are Family Days and all seats are free for the G and PG movies. What? I spoke with the attendant at the snack bar and she said they’re bringing in good movies for the whole family, and yes, there will be no charge. It’s their hope people will want to escape the heat and buy things at the snack bar.
I saw KEANU, and I was the only person in the theater watching the movie, which was not at all what I expected. There were a few laughs, but over all—not too good of a movie—too much silliness, violence and language for me. I finally walked back to the Belle and now the table was full and there was a waiting list. Jeez! As it turns out, that was serendipitous as I played some nickel Keno while waiting and caught a 6 for 6 for a couple hundred dollars win. I needed that.
I finally got on the table, and for the next two hours only won four hands and no bonuses. Once my stake was gone, so was I. I picked up a Cuban sandwich to go at the brewery and took it back to the room. This short trip was a terrible gambling trip as I lost most everything I played. Fortunately, the Bad Beat on Tuesday guarantees me a win for the trip, so I will be back again in June or July to give it another shot.
More later…
I decided to take a quick trip to Laughlin for four nights on a couple of offers. The Riverside gave me three free nights and two buffets and the Tropicana three free nights. The plan is to book both and stay at each property two nights each. As long as the winnings allow, I pretty much plan to go to either Laughlin or Las Vegas once a month barring any circumstances when I can’t.
Monday
The five hour drive from San Diego was uneventful (just how I like it) and The Riverside is good about accepting early check-ins as long as a room is available and at 9AM, I had my room on the 23rd floor facing the Colorado River—nice!
The Riverside in Laughlin
The view from my room at the Riverside.
The plan for all four days is to play live poker at the Colorado Belle and give enough machine play at the two properties I’m staying at to keep the offers coming. I drove over to the Belle but there was a wait already because one of the daily promotions is a high hand bonus the first hour, and locals tend to monopolize it, so I decided to come back later. I usually catch up on movies when I come here and will do so later, but today, I simply wasn’t in the mood and decided to drive over to Bullhead. I not only needed to pick up a few things at the Target store but to also check out where they have open Pickleball.
At home, I looked online to see if Pickleball was available and to my surprise found that the Bullhead Community Center was offering it every weekday morning from 9 until 12. I had no problem locating it and the game was already in progress. Arizona does not observe Daylights Savings Time and so it’s an hour ahead of Nevada. It’s pretty funny because the clock in my car says 9:32 AM in Laughlin, and I’ll cross the bridge over the river and as soon as I arrive into Arizona, the clock changes to 10:32—magic! I spoke with a player waiting his turn and he told me that Pickleball is very popular here. Even in such a small town as Bullhead, they average about 20 to 30 players a day who share three available courts. There’s a rack to place your paddle until it’s your turn. Every court has four players and the winning team (your partner is whoever’s paddle was next to yours on the rack) stays on the court for one more game (no more than two games to 11 at a time) and then take your place at the back of the line. It’s all on the honor system. You place $2 in a bucket at the front desk each day.
Pickleball at the Bullhead Community Center
I drove on to Target to pick up a few goodies and decided to wait on filling up the tank until Thursday. Gas in Bullhead: $1.95 per gallon—SO much cheaper than San Diego. El Nino has caused some unusual weather patterns this year and today, though it’s a little cloudy and windy here in Laughlin; Las Vegas, just 75 miles away is having rainstorms and even snow flurries on Mt. Charleston—in May! I drove back to the Belle to see if a table had opened up and there was a spot at the 2/4 game.
There’s not much to report here. I bought in for $60 and played for the next six hours. I didn’t catch any bonuses, though I was dealt pocket Aces once, I won the hand. I like this game at this casino because there are SO many bonuses: $500 for Royals, $200 for straight flushes, $100 for suited cracked Aces, $50 for unsuited cracked Aces; and one of my favorites, $50 for the first three different suits won by a flush, and another $100 for the fourth suit). There’s also two Bad Beat bonuses, the small one Aces full cracked by a higher hand and the big one for $40,000 which is quad 10s or higher beat by a larger hand. Today at the table, the dealer was telling us that it’s been so long that no one has hit the big one, that in the next week or so, they’re going to look for ways to break up that jackpot (Nevada gaming laws state that any jackpot must be hit before you can discontinue it).
On this day, during the entire six hours I did not win ONE hand with a flush. One guy in the #2 seat of my table won a bunch: two quads, all four flushes, and a straight flush. I finally lost my buy in. As I told the player next to me when I finally lost my all-in hand, I lost $60 but I played and had a great time for six hours—in the casino, I can lose $60 at a machine in less than five minutes. Win or lose, poker is a great way to spend your time; it just wasn’t my day.
I drove back to the Riverside. It was time to play some games here. I want to keep my free room offers coming, so I sat down at the Quick Quads video poker machine and played for quite awhile. Though I managed a lot of play, I eventually lost. Then I tried some assorted penny games, all of them were losers as well. Some days are simply not your days, and I finally gave up gambling. I picked up a hamburger at Fatburger located in the back of the casino and took it to my room to watch Dancing with the Stars and called it a night.
Tuesday
I woke up late (not surprising considering I only had four hours of sleep the night before as I like drive in the early mornings) and it was too late to get in some Pickleball. I used one of my comp tickets for the breakfast buffet and headed back to the Colorado Belle hoping maybe today I can catch a bonus or two on the 2/4 poker table. There were two seats available at the same table I was at yesterday and one of them was seat #2, which was so lucky yesterday. I sat down and won the first two hands. Across the table in seat #7 was Tom, the player who won so many bonuses yesterday. I asked why he didn’t sit in this same seat. Tom is a regular and says he doesn’t pay attention to things like that. For the next couple of hours, I was holding my own but was getting pretty low, I was going to quit, but decided to buy in for another $20. On the very next hand, I had pocket unsuited Aces and lost to two pair. That gave me a $50 bonus. Super, now I’m set to play for awhile longer.
Here we go: At 12:45, Tom gets up, leaving his chips, to go get some lunch (he’ll come back after lunch). I’m dealt a nothing hand and fold, Rene, the player on my left raises and three players call. The flop is 10h, Qd, Ad. All three players bet. I’m looking at my phone playing Words with Friends not paying that much attention. The turn is a Ks, one player drops out, one player goes all in leaving two players still betting: Rene next to me and John in seat #5. The river is Kd. Suddenly these two players are raising each other over and over again. What’s going on? John says, let’s stop, I thing we both know what’s going on here. Finally the betting tops out and both turn over their hands. Rene has four Kings, and John has a Royal Flush. The table erupts! We just won the high Bad Beat for $40,000! I say “we” because under the rules, the losing player, Rene with quad kings, wins 40% ($16,000), the winning player wins 20% ($8,000) and the remaining active players in the room (only our table was playing) split the remaining 40% ($16,000). There were seven of us at the table when it hit (Yes, Tom who went to lunch doesn’t qualify), so we each received $2,285. Just yesterday, we were all talking about it not being hit for so long and here we are waiting to get paid.
After we hit this, the sign was taken down for good.
There were two pots because the third player had gone all in so there was a side pot.
The royal flush hand
At this point, everything freezes. The dealer, Mike (who had just started dealing here a couple of weeks ago) counts out the cards in the deck for the “eye in the sky” to take pictures. All of us at the table are given tax forms to be filled out and driver’s IDs were given to be photocopied. All the money is paid out in cash, so after the casino manager comes and confirms everything, the cashier has to set up all the different payments. To make things a little more time consuming, one of the players is a Canadian and his tax amount is kept by the casino to be sent to Canada. The rest of us are paid in full. There were also pictures to be taken by the casino (with our permission, one player declined) for promotional purposes. The entire process took almost an hour.
Rene getting paid his $16,000
In the grand scheme of things, $40K being won in a casino is not that big of a deal; however, that Bad Beat had been sitting there so long and the screaming we all made when it was hit drew everyone to the poker room. Managers and dealers were calling their friends; all of us players suddenly knew each other by name. Everyone shaking hands, everyone taking pictures—it was quite a scene. And there…sitting at an empty table waiting for all the fuss to end, was Tom—having returned from lunch knowing he had just missed out. Of course, had he been there, the cards would have been dealt differently and it would never have hit, but that’s little consolation. He took it well and smiled. Mike, the newly hired dealer was very happy. Tips for him were varied, many of us gave him $85, a couple gave him a $100, one regular gave him $200, John who had the Royal gave $300, and Rene the big winner gave him $500. So, it was a very good day for him as well and his smile was wide and he shook each of our hands in thanks.
In my casino experience, I’ve won more than $2K on a few occasions; however, this was something different. The shared experience was something special and certainly made for a great poker story to be told for years. Finally, things went back to normal, Tom sat back down and we began to play again. It just wasn’t the same. Three of the players (including Rene, whose wife he had called came down and was in tears) left and after about twenty minutes, I got up as well. Had I not won the $2200, I would have lost $40 for the day, but it was certainly great fun and I’ll be back trying to scratch out a bonus or two tomorrow. I certainly hope seat #2 will be available when I do.
Wednesday
It’s moving day. I was up early, worked on this report, had a small breakfast using my last free coupon, and drove over to play Pickleball. I played for a couple of hours. Like everywhere I’ve played, the other players were inviting and generous. I’ve learned that wherever I go, the skill level always varies but almost everyone is very close making for fun, competitive games. Almost everyone is over 50 and women are just as talented as the men. It’s was nice little workout for the morning.
I headed back to the Riverside to pack up and move over to the Tropicana, which I already registered yesterday though I didn’t stay, but will be there the next two nights.
The Tropicana Express, Laughlin
The view from my room at the Tropicana
Honestly, not much to report today. I played poker at the Belle from 9AM to 5PM. Getting enough players today to fill even one table never happened. Twice, the table broke up and started later. There were no bonus hands for anyone (the only reason to play at a 2/4 table) at all the entire day. I managed only one flush these past three days, so if it wasn’t for the bad beat yesterday, poker has been like running in place. I had dinner (using points) at the Belle’s micro-brewery. Their $15.99 T-bone steak special was okay. The steak was on the thin side but cooked properly and the fries and salad were good. I walked back to the Tropicana. I needed to play some as I want to keep the free room offers coming. The only VP to play is two All-American triple plays in the high limit room that has quarter 8/5 bonus poker. No luck with them. I tried some of the penny slots but no wins there as well. Finally gave up and headed up to the room and called it a night.
The Colorado Belle, Laughlin
Thursday
The day started off on a bad note. Walking around the room, I stubbed my baby left toe and broke the damn thing. The entire toe is a dark black and blue and completely numb. This is the SECOND time I have broken a toe in Laughlin. Of course, there’s nothing I can do about it and will just have to limp around until it mends. There’s no chance of playing Pickleball this morning, so I just had some breakfast downstairs.
I played some more video poker and again, no luck. And then I played a few penny machines and everything was a loser. It hasn’t been a good trip for gaming. I headed over to the Belle to get into the poker game and there were only six people at the table. Within just a few minutes, two of them left, so we shut down the game. I figured I’d walk down to the Golden Nugget as I have a little free play. I tried a few games and paid one of the new Flintstones machines. Things worked a little better and I walked away with a modest profit.
View from the patio of the Pioneer casino. It’s a beautiful day in Laughlin
I headed back to the Belle and there still wasn’t anyone playing poker. I decided to walk across the street and see a movie at the Outlet Center. I reported last month that things might be going bad for the theaters there as they’ve instituted all seats, all day only $6. Now there’s a banner in the front of the theater that Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays are Family Days and all seats are free for the G and PG movies. What? I spoke with the attendant at the snack bar and she said they’re bringing in good movies for the whole family, and yes, there will be no charge. It’s their hope people will want to escape the heat and buy things at the snack bar.
I saw KEANU, and I was the only person in the theater watching the movie, which was not at all what I expected. There were a few laughs, but over all—not too good of a movie—too much silliness, violence and language for me. I finally walked back to the Belle and now the table was full and there was a waiting list. Jeez! As it turns out, that was serendipitous as I played some nickel Keno while waiting and caught a 6 for 6 for a couple hundred dollars win. I needed that.
I finally got on the table, and for the next two hours only won four hands and no bonuses. Once my stake was gone, so was I. I picked up a Cuban sandwich to go at the brewery and took it back to the room. This short trip was a terrible gambling trip as I lost most everything I played. Fortunately, the Bad Beat on Tuesday guarantees me a win for the trip, so I will be back again in June or July to give it another shot.
More later…
