I figured a TR from Reno wouldn't be unwelcome here, given there's very little Vegas-specific discussion on here anyhow.
About 28 months ago, my 2 kids and I stayed one night at the GSR on the way back from a driving trip to Denver. Since then, they have continued to send me generous mailing offers and finally I decided not to ignore one. I, and my good friend Scott from Dallas, have typically gone to Vegas for 2-3 night getaways where we tune everything out except eating, drinking, gambling, and sports. Given the offer (3 nights, $250 in gambling credits, $100 food comp), we opted for Reno this time. Plus Alaska airlines was having a sale that allowed me to use miles and get my airfare for $11, and I knew that we would likely gamble enough that all our room charges would be comped, so the trip was essentially free except for the gambling money.
We both got to the Reno airport (which, other than the PDX airport, is my favorite), about 10:30am Wednesday. It's easy out of the airport and a quick 9$ cab ride to the hotel. It was only about 11am but the room (summit room which was extremely nice) was ready for us. Dropped our stuff in the room, and went downstairs to get down to business.
Now, our plan with the $250 in gambling money was to play exactly 10 hands on a $5 Jacks or Better machine, and then cash out and split the money. Big money, no whammies. So I sat at the machine and he counted. We cashed out exactly $200 after the 10 hands, which is pretty happy with. Took the cash and went to a Let-It-Ride table so we could both hold some cards in our hands and play a "no brains" game.
Now I should preface this next part by saying that I don't drink a lot, but when I do I drink a lot. What I mean is when I'm home, I never just "have a beer" or glass of wine and I can easily go 1-2 months without drinking anything. But if I'm having fun and I know I'm somewhere safe and don't have to drive, I don't keep track of how much I'm having.
I should also preface this next part by saying that our biggest mistake on this trip was not getting something to eat immediately when we got there.
So we actually had a great time at the LIR table. Enough small wins to keep us around for a while, and fun dealers and players. The crown and cokes (apparently) kept coming. At some point, Scott wanders away to go play craps, and I end up at one of the casino bars where the have VP that has Super Times Pay poker (my favorite). By this time it's probably 1:00am. About 1/2 hour after I sat down, I hit a royal flush for $1000k. It had been FOREVER since I'd hit a royal. And at this point I'm really drunk. Took the obligatory pictures for facebook, texted some friends, etc. Then went back to playing and drinking. Have NO idea about the timing of the rest of the evening, but I continued playing on that machine until all but $80 of that $1000 was back in the machine. Oops. Wandered up to the room (barely able to walk) and passed out. Scott was already in the room. I woke up about 1am and realized that the last food I had consumed was my protein shake at 7am the previous moring. I didn't eat the entire day. Oops. Went downstairs and ordered a Reuben from the 24-hour café which was surprisingly good (or maybe I was just that desparate). Played some more VP, went back up to the room to check on scott, he's still asleep so went BACK down and played some more, then finally returned to the room at 7am. So I never really slept other than those couple hours where I passed out in the room.
I get Scott up to hear his story. Apparently he played a LOOOONG time at the craps table and thinks he walked away with about $150 but has no idea what happened to the chips. He said he wandered the casino and threw up a couple different times, including once on the casino floor over by the racebook. I said that's pretty embarrassing. He said yeah. We decided not to talk about that anymore. I'll excuse all that by saying he has 4 sons who he is wonderful father to, has a pretty stressful corporate job, and generally doesn't do ANYTHING for himself. Me, I don't have an excuse.
So at about 7:30am he's eating his first meal (breakfast in the café) since 7am the previous morning. Not a good idea to skip an entire day of eating.....if you take nothing else away from this TR let it be that.
So we were pretty dead for the next few hours as we gambled slowly and tried to recount the evening. Ended up at the buffet about noon, because we were both craving salad and taco bar. Buffet is adequate, probably a 6 on 1-10 scale. It was serviceable.
Went back out to gamble, and found a nice back of VP machines in a good location. What I like about GSR is that many of their VP machines are the mulit-game type where you can basically pick any sort of game you want. I like Super Times Pay, and I realize these games aren't full-pay but I'm willing to overlook that. I typically played 3-line 10cent DDB. About 3 that afternoon, Scott got a royal ($400) that quite surprised him because he only held 2. I think that's only his 2nd royal, and he was pretty stoked. Literally 10 minutes after that, he got 4 ACES on the 8x multiplier for another $320. $720 in about ten minutes. So we were both feeling pretty good.
That night the Oregon Ducks were on TV, as well as the Thursday night NFL game. I really didn't feel like drinking, but we sat in the Sports book and had a beer or two and watched the game. It's a nice big open area, with great viewing on multiple screens.
When we'd had enough of what wasn't a particularly compelling game, we went to the up-scale Italian joint that's adjunct to the Charlie Palmer steak house. We were going to use our $100 comp (which had to be used at one time, in one location). Ordered snacks of meatballs, stuffed mushrooms, salads, shrimp fettucini alfredo, chicken parm, 2 sides of marscapone mashed potatoes, two glasses of wine. $98. nailed it. I'm not a food snob, but I thought it was a very well done meal and the service was impeccable. Left a $20tip and went back up to the room to let our stomachs settle and catch some of the Ducks game.
Well that Ducks game went triple OT and was pretty intense, and it was good that it took forvever because neither of us could move due to the 5000cal in our stomachs. I was also keeping track of the MLS playoff game between Kansas City and Portland because I'd sent my wife (her first match) and then went into an absolutely epic round of penalty kicks.
When all that ended, we played a little more, and then Scott gave up for the night.
About 3am, I got my second royal ($400) and called it good for the night.
Slept about 3 hours, then we both got up and hit the café again (I wasn't particularly hungry). Now it's Friday, and we're both flying home later in the afternoon. We both wandered around the casino trying different games. I got lucky on playing a 100-hand VP machine. I thought I had switched it to pennies but it was still on nickels.....so at 10 credits per hand I was playing $50 for one press. LUCKILY I immediately realized it and the one hand I played I was dealt three 9's so I cashed out for an extra $150. I switched to one-cent, and did pretty well, eventually getting dealt 4 to a royal and getting 2 out of 100 (for $40 each).
Scott's flight left a couple hours before mine did, but I decided to just head to the airport with him because frankly I was done gambling (was up for the day) and didn't want to put any back in.
I don't have a completely accurate idea of my winnings/losses, but I'd say I was pretty close to even, give or take $100. I know I had $600 in my pocket to put BACK in the bank when I got home. So given that, and that the hotel wrote off all of our room charges (including bowling....which was fun), the trip literally cost me nothing.
4 royals, for $1000, $400, and $40 (2). Pretty damn good.
Summary: You know the last 4 times Scott and I have gotten together we've gone to Southpoint in Vegas, which I really like. Honestly though, given the choice I would rather go to GSR in Reno. All we want to do is eat, drink, gamble, watch sports, and catch up on our lives. Getting to Reno is quicker, cheaper, and the airport is quick and easy to navigate. I like the casino floor better at GSR. It's very clean, well laid-out and has a great non-smoking area. Every game I would want to play (Southpoint doesn't have LIR, and they literally have ONE bank of 4 Supertimes Pay machines). Every dealer, cocktail girl, and food service person we had was friendly and efficient. My only complaint would be the lack of food choices during the day. They do have a Mexican restaurant which looked good, but during the week they don't open until 5pm. So if you want to eat in the middle of the day it's either the buffet, the 24-hour café, or the Johnny Rockets downstairs. Maybe have been one other small sandwich shop.
Given the amount we gambled, I can't imagine we won't be getting nice offers from them, and I intend to use them.
Good times with a good friend. All you can ask for
Blessings
C
About 28 months ago, my 2 kids and I stayed one night at the GSR on the way back from a driving trip to Denver. Since then, they have continued to send me generous mailing offers and finally I decided not to ignore one. I, and my good friend Scott from Dallas, have typically gone to Vegas for 2-3 night getaways where we tune everything out except eating, drinking, gambling, and sports. Given the offer (3 nights, $250 in gambling credits, $100 food comp), we opted for Reno this time. Plus Alaska airlines was having a sale that allowed me to use miles and get my airfare for $11, and I knew that we would likely gamble enough that all our room charges would be comped, so the trip was essentially free except for the gambling money.
We both got to the Reno airport (which, other than the PDX airport, is my favorite), about 10:30am Wednesday. It's easy out of the airport and a quick 9$ cab ride to the hotel. It was only about 11am but the room (summit room which was extremely nice) was ready for us. Dropped our stuff in the room, and went downstairs to get down to business.
Now, our plan with the $250 in gambling money was to play exactly 10 hands on a $5 Jacks or Better machine, and then cash out and split the money. Big money, no whammies. So I sat at the machine and he counted. We cashed out exactly $200 after the 10 hands, which is pretty happy with. Took the cash and went to a Let-It-Ride table so we could both hold some cards in our hands and play a "no brains" game.
Now I should preface this next part by saying that I don't drink a lot, but when I do I drink a lot. What I mean is when I'm home, I never just "have a beer" or glass of wine and I can easily go 1-2 months without drinking anything. But if I'm having fun and I know I'm somewhere safe and don't have to drive, I don't keep track of how much I'm having.
I should also preface this next part by saying that our biggest mistake on this trip was not getting something to eat immediately when we got there.
So we actually had a great time at the LIR table. Enough small wins to keep us around for a while, and fun dealers and players. The crown and cokes (apparently) kept coming. At some point, Scott wanders away to go play craps, and I end up at one of the casino bars where the have VP that has Super Times Pay poker (my favorite). By this time it's probably 1:00am. About 1/2 hour after I sat down, I hit a royal flush for $1000k. It had been FOREVER since I'd hit a royal. And at this point I'm really drunk. Took the obligatory pictures for facebook, texted some friends, etc. Then went back to playing and drinking. Have NO idea about the timing of the rest of the evening, but I continued playing on that machine until all but $80 of that $1000 was back in the machine. Oops. Wandered up to the room (barely able to walk) and passed out. Scott was already in the room. I woke up about 1am and realized that the last food I had consumed was my protein shake at 7am the previous moring. I didn't eat the entire day. Oops. Went downstairs and ordered a Reuben from the 24-hour café which was surprisingly good (or maybe I was just that desparate). Played some more VP, went back up to the room to check on scott, he's still asleep so went BACK down and played some more, then finally returned to the room at 7am. So I never really slept other than those couple hours where I passed out in the room.
I get Scott up to hear his story. Apparently he played a LOOOONG time at the craps table and thinks he walked away with about $150 but has no idea what happened to the chips. He said he wandered the casino and threw up a couple different times, including once on the casino floor over by the racebook. I said that's pretty embarrassing. He said yeah. We decided not to talk about that anymore. I'll excuse all that by saying he has 4 sons who he is wonderful father to, has a pretty stressful corporate job, and generally doesn't do ANYTHING for himself. Me, I don't have an excuse.
So at about 7:30am he's eating his first meal (breakfast in the café) since 7am the previous morning. Not a good idea to skip an entire day of eating.....if you take nothing else away from this TR let it be that.
So we were pretty dead for the next few hours as we gambled slowly and tried to recount the evening. Ended up at the buffet about noon, because we were both craving salad and taco bar. Buffet is adequate, probably a 6 on 1-10 scale. It was serviceable.
Went back out to gamble, and found a nice back of VP machines in a good location. What I like about GSR is that many of their VP machines are the mulit-game type where you can basically pick any sort of game you want. I like Super Times Pay, and I realize these games aren't full-pay but I'm willing to overlook that. I typically played 3-line 10cent DDB. About 3 that afternoon, Scott got a royal ($400) that quite surprised him because he only held 2. I think that's only his 2nd royal, and he was pretty stoked. Literally 10 minutes after that, he got 4 ACES on the 8x multiplier for another $320. $720 in about ten minutes. So we were both feeling pretty good.
That night the Oregon Ducks were on TV, as well as the Thursday night NFL game. I really didn't feel like drinking, but we sat in the Sports book and had a beer or two and watched the game. It's a nice big open area, with great viewing on multiple screens.
When we'd had enough of what wasn't a particularly compelling game, we went to the up-scale Italian joint that's adjunct to the Charlie Palmer steak house. We were going to use our $100 comp (which had to be used at one time, in one location). Ordered snacks of meatballs, stuffed mushrooms, salads, shrimp fettucini alfredo, chicken parm, 2 sides of marscapone mashed potatoes, two glasses of wine. $98. nailed it. I'm not a food snob, but I thought it was a very well done meal and the service was impeccable. Left a $20tip and went back up to the room to let our stomachs settle and catch some of the Ducks game.
Well that Ducks game went triple OT and was pretty intense, and it was good that it took forvever because neither of us could move due to the 5000cal in our stomachs. I was also keeping track of the MLS playoff game between Kansas City and Portland because I'd sent my wife (her first match) and then went into an absolutely epic round of penalty kicks.
When all that ended, we played a little more, and then Scott gave up for the night.
About 3am, I got my second royal ($400) and called it good for the night.
Slept about 3 hours, then we both got up and hit the café again (I wasn't particularly hungry). Now it's Friday, and we're both flying home later in the afternoon. We both wandered around the casino trying different games. I got lucky on playing a 100-hand VP machine. I thought I had switched it to pennies but it was still on nickels.....so at 10 credits per hand I was playing $50 for one press. LUCKILY I immediately realized it and the one hand I played I was dealt three 9's so I cashed out for an extra $150. I switched to one-cent, and did pretty well, eventually getting dealt 4 to a royal and getting 2 out of 100 (for $40 each).
Scott's flight left a couple hours before mine did, but I decided to just head to the airport with him because frankly I was done gambling (was up for the day) and didn't want to put any back in.
I don't have a completely accurate idea of my winnings/losses, but I'd say I was pretty close to even, give or take $100. I know I had $600 in my pocket to put BACK in the bank when I got home. So given that, and that the hotel wrote off all of our room charges (including bowling....which was fun), the trip literally cost me nothing.
4 royals, for $1000, $400, and $40 (2). Pretty damn good.
Summary: You know the last 4 times Scott and I have gotten together we've gone to Southpoint in Vegas, which I really like. Honestly though, given the choice I would rather go to GSR in Reno. All we want to do is eat, drink, gamble, watch sports, and catch up on our lives. Getting to Reno is quicker, cheaper, and the airport is quick and easy to navigate. I like the casino floor better at GSR. It's very clean, well laid-out and has a great non-smoking area. Every game I would want to play (Southpoint doesn't have LIR, and they literally have ONE bank of 4 Supertimes Pay machines). Every dealer, cocktail girl, and food service person we had was friendly and efficient. My only complaint would be the lack of food choices during the day. They do have a Mexican restaurant which looked good, but during the week they don't open until 5pm. So if you want to eat in the middle of the day it's either the buffet, the 24-hour café, or the Johnny Rockets downstairs. Maybe have been one other small sandwich shop.
Given the amount we gambled, I can't imagine we won't be getting nice offers from them, and I intend to use them.
Good times with a good friend. All you can ask for
Blessings
C
