Harrah’s Cherokee Trip Report – Part 3

Okay. Time to give you the casino-play details for which you’ve been waiting.

All five in our family group hit the casino, but with various goals. Steve and Kaitlynn roamed around together, tracking down the penny slots that look like fun, playing one until they hit a fair-size jackpot, then going to another. Frugal Kaity, who is saving for her Appalachian Trail adventure, had budgeted $40 and she tried to stretch it out as long as possible by playing the minimum bet per hand. However, when her bankroll was gone, Steve financed their fun with his larger one.

Angela sometimes caught up with them in their hit-and-run slot activity, but she also liked to join me at the video poker machine, where we took turns playing. I kept a close watchful eye when she played, slowly; she wasn’t familiar with the strategy and we were playing at a high denomination on my bankroll!

The three of them spent a limited amount of time in the casino, mostly in the evenings. When it was warm and sunny in the daytime, they preferred to be outdoors enjoying recreational activities.

My goal was different from theirs. I also wanted to have fun, but my “fun” was going to be tackling advantage video poker, something I’d done for many years, but not for a while. I was definitely excited to be back to it.

I knew in advance that Brad would no longer be able to join me much in this endeavor. He is very frail and spends much of his time napping. He did enjoy Steve pushing him around the casino and watching slot play, but his cognitive skills are in just too much of a decline to process complex thoughts like video poker strategy. That said, one time he was able to sit at a VP machine with me and play for a short time. Although his short-term memory isn’t good at all, I was surprised how his long-term memory kicked in and how well he played, actually quite fast just like he used to. I only had to correct his holds a few times. But after about a half-hour, it seemed his brain got tired and he said he needed to go back to the room to take a nap. And he showed no interest in doing this again the rest of the trip. He seemed very happy to peacefully spend most of the time in his comfy hotel bed.

Since Harrah’s Cherokee is a CZR property, I decided to use their players club to organize my video poker game plan. Brad was in the Diamond Elite tier and was the one who got the comped room offer for this visit. Because of the way offers come – we didn’t always get the same one – we had played a good promotion heavily on his card the last time we had visited a CZR property. I was only Platinum, since I had less recent play. Knowing Brad wouldn’t be playing in the future and I might be, I played enough to get me to Diamond and probable better mail offers.

One advantage technique we’d used for years at CZR was timing our play to maximize their tier credit bonuses. You can find details about the tier levels and the benefits of each on their website, as well as the bonus information I have given below:

There are four levels of Tier Credits bonuses. These bonuses are based on the total number of Tier Credits you earn in one day.

1. Earn 500 Tier Credits and get an additional 125 Tier-Credit bonus
2.  Earn 1,000 Tier Credits and get an additional 1,000 Tier-Credit bonus
3. Earn 2,500 Tier Credits and get an additional 5,000 Tier-Credit bonus That earns Platinum status in one day!
4. Earn 5.000 Tier Credits and get an additional 10,000 Tier-Credit bonus That earns Diamond status in one day!

Since I chose to play a $5 VP game, at just a medium pace to be sure of best accuracy, I could earn 2,500 tier credits in about 2 hours. That’s what I did the first evening, since it was a travel day and I was tired. The next 2 days, I got 5,000 in about 4 hours each day. This gave me a total of 12,250 earned credits and the max allotment of 24,500 bonus credits. This totaled 36,750, which got me not just Diamond, but to the next higher, Diamond Plus, level.

I hear your questions already: Why did you play at such a high denomination?
Several reasons:

• I needed a denomination that would give me the maximum tier bonus each day and not tire me out. At 82, I don’t need to give an excuse for why I don’t have the energy to play for longer periods each day. 🙂
• Higher tier levels will bring better future benefits.
• I like the challenge of higher denominations.
• Because of long-time frugal careful play, I have the bankroll to comfortably support play at this level.
• And most importantly, this was the only denominational level where I could find the highest EV game – NSUD (Not-So-Ugly-Ducks) at 99.7%.

And the next question most of you want answered: Did you win?

Short answer: I lost, but I felt like a winner.

That’s an answer that takes a lot of explanation. In fact, I will need a whole post to describe my rollercoaster ride. While you’re waiting for that in Part 4 of this series, you might have some questions of your own you’d like me to answer about this trip. Put them in the “Comments” or shoot me an e-mail at [email protected]. I’ll be glad to answer them in future blogs.