Reno Trip Report

My recent casino visit to Reno was definitely a trip down memory lane. Although I’d never played or stayed at the Silver Legacy before, Brad and I had made many trips to the city, especially back in the mid-’80s when we were playing blackjack. We stayed at Circus Circus, the Peppermill, Atlantis, and the now-closed Harrah’s Reno. The latter was the scene of one unforgettable event in my past when I was barred from the blackjack tables.

“You can play any other game in the casino.” Suits smiling nicely.

“But I’m losing!” I protested in my poor-little-innocent-woman voice. They just walked away, still smiling.

Funny, they didn’t stop at the next table where Brad was killing them with his card counting. This was very early in our casino career, 1986, and we hadn’t yet discovered video poker; I could probably have been tearing them up at a machine and it wouldn’t have mattered if my lips moved when I was concentrating! Anyway, the day had a happy ending; I moved to the blackjack tables at the nearby Ramada and won a bundle.

By 1990, we’d discovered video poker and gradually left blackjack behind to concentrate on the great VP opportunities in Vegas. However, in 1998, we planned a cross-country train adventure, an Amtrak package where we could choose three stops between Indianapolis and the west coast. We chose San Louis Obispo and San Francisco, but the first one was Reno, with a specific non-gambling purpose: babysitting Deke Castleman’s two little boys while he and his wife took a vacation. Brad and I had become close friends with Deke due to our mutual affiliation with Anthony Curtis and the Las Vegas Advisor, and we were just starting out with our writer-editor relationship. Adam and Jonathan were seven and six at the time and we considered them our bonus grandchildren.

Well, on this recent Reno visit, I met with our “little boys,” now in their early 30s, at a new location for their juice and smoothie business. This brother partnership (with Deke as the CFO, the Chief Father Officer) has made jüs a popular place for healthy cold-pressed juice and other raw products since Adam launched the business 12 years ago when he was 19 years old!

Over one of their delicious acai bowls, we chatted about that long-ago visit, remembering how the boys got separated from us in the crowd at the Silver Legacy Casino and were “lost” for about 20 minutes. We thought they went back to the midway at Circus Circus where we’d been earlier, but notified security when we couldn’t spot them there. We all had a good laugh, and Brad and I a big feeling of relief, when we finally reunited at the Eldorado security office. If you’ve ever been to the three connected casinos (Circus, Eldorado, and Legacy, now appropriately called “The Row”) and traversed their multi-level design, you know how easy it is to get lost there!

Actually, this reunion wasn’t the only pleasurable connection with old friends on this trip. Dennis Conrad and his wife Becky invited my travel buddy Susan and me to join them for dinner one evening.  For many years, I was one of the speakers at Dennis’ frequent Raving Consulting casino seminars around the country. I also met several frugal fans as I played in the Silver Legacy high-limit room; one couple I hadn’t seen in 15 or so years.

Finally, the discovery of a long-ago host, Grant Wellington, now at The Row, comes with a story that still makes me giggle. Back in 2003, we flew from our new home in Vegas to Reno and stayed and played at the Reno Hilton (after many ownership changes, it is now the Grand Sierra) where Grant was our host. We soon found out through the grapevine about an “alternative-lifestyle” convention at the hotel at the same time we were there, one that included nude bowling. Brad and I casually walked by the alley, but the doors were shut and he commented that probably this wouldn’t be a pretty picture anyway. I still have that picture in my mind and snicker now, as I did then, about whether this was a dangerous activity for the male participants. When I met Grant this time, I mentioned this incident and he smiled at the 20-year-old memory.

This was a comped trip through Caesars Rewards Air. However, instead of a very easy short charter flight like Susan and I took to Atlantic City last summer, it was on a Southwest commercial flight, which had an inconvenient schedule of long layovers. But she and I are retired and didn’t have to be anywhere any certain time, so we didn’t complain too much. Besides, it was a $1,300 fare and five nights in the hotel for which we didn’t have to pay. And we both were ready for a fun getaway. Susan is adjusting to a new life since her husband passed away last year. And I was grateful for a short time free of caretaking, knowing Brad was being given loving care by Angela and Steve.

The gambling part of the trip went fairly routinely. The three-hour time difference from Georgia hit me hard and I could earn only 2,500 tier points the first day before the hotel bed demanded my presence. But that was okay, since that earned a max double bonus of 5,000 points. The next three days I earned my 5,000 points, with the max 10,000 bonus for each. So, I’m well on the way to my goal of renewing my Diamond Elite status for another year.  A plus was a multiplier-reward-credit spin on the last night. The 4x pumped up that balance, which will be waiting for me on my next CZR trip, since Grant, instead of first using our reward-credit balance as most properties do, comped our whole bill, not just the food, but gift shop purchases too.

Good thing I had a big win on my Tahoe trip last year, since Lady Luck barely showed her face this time. I love playing NSUDs, but if you can’t get the 4-deuce jackpot, much less a royal, it can be a bloodbath. I’m glad I can look at all my play through a very positive long-term lens and not be discouraged at any short-term view.

Susan knew in advance that this would be a “working trip” for me. She’s definitely not a risk-taker herself, so she knew she wouldn’t be gambling. She did say she had a $40 bankroll set aside in case she could find a Wonder Woman slot machine, which we loved on our Atlantic City trip. Well, to our surprise, there were five of those machines, a couple of old versions like in A.C., but also one new one. So, she and I put together $100 apiece for a Wonder Woman recreational bankroll when I took breaks from $5 and $10 video poker and we took turns playing short sessions, always sticking to a 50-cent minimum bet to stretch our relaxing fun time. That $200 bankroll took us through four days of on-and-off play, while Susan played by herself on her own mini bankroll. At the end of that fourth day, when I was finishing my play, Susan came to High Limit and proudly showed me her personal bankroll ticket she was about to cash in: $40.11!

Everyone can have their own goals when they visit a casino! And there is no price tag on happy success.

As usual, if you have any questions about this trip or on any other subject I write about, please feel free to put them here in the Comments or email me at [email protected].