Half Day Trip to Harrah's Cherokee and Harrah's Cherokee Valley River

Mini TR of a day trip to both Harrah’s Cherokee (HC) and Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River (HCVR) casinos.


Yesterday I logged into Total Rewards to check my RC for an upcoming Dec Vegas trip (trying to figure how many comped meals we could have), and saw on the front page that I had a new offer for HCVR. Curious, I pulled all up both HCVR and HC offers, and found that I had a total of $400 in free Slot Play (SP) between both (HC: $90 + $50 / HCVR: $110 + $150) valid for today. *I also had $50 in Food Credit (FC) at HCVR.


There is no way that I was going to let the free SP go to waste, but the GF and I had plans to go to her parents house for Thanksgiving in the afternoon, so I wasn't optimistic she would be on board. *Fortunately for me she is pretty rad, and agreed to the following plan.


Leave Atlanta at 7 am, head straight to HC (2 ½ hrs), arriving by 10 am. *Run in, play the $110 SP on $1 Dueces Wild, and hopefully convert 90% or so to cash. *Leave HC by 11, head to HCVR (1 ½ hrs), grab some lunch with the $50 in FC, play the $260 in SP on $1 Dueces Wild, and also hopefully convert 90% or so to cash. *Leave HCVR by 2:00 - 2:30, head straight to Ball Ground (1 ½ hrs), arriving in time for dinner with no one the wiser, and hopefully an extra $300 in cash that we'll take to Vegas in Dec.


All in all i think it was a pretty solid plan.


We got up at 6, showered, dressed, filled up the bubbas with coffee, and we're out the door by 7. *So far a good start. *Had an issue finding a gas station that had gas in my neighborhood (don't ask), and when we did, it pumped so slowly that I had to make the call to stop it at 2 gallons and to get the rest at a QT in the burbs on the way. *Stopped at the aforementioned QT 30 min into the drive, filled up on gas, monsters, and some snacks, and we're back on the road.


The rest of the drive was pleasant and uneventful. *GF fell asleep immediately after QT, *so I entertained myself with an audio book (gotta love Audible) and time flew by.


Pulled into the HC parking garage a few minutes before ten, found a spot on the second floor right in front of the entrance, and headed inside. *We headed over to some Game King machines in the non smoking section (there are a few there I have gotten lucky on before), picked one we felt good about, and fed our coupons in. *The GF pushed the buttons while I counted the hands played and advised on strategy. *It didn't take long to play 28 hands of $1 Dueces Wild, so about five - ten minutes after we sat down, we collected a ticket for $130, cashed it in, and were heading back to the car. *All in I think we were there maybe 30 min.

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The drive from HC to HCVR was a real treat, as it takes you through the Nantahala national forest along the Nantahala river. I'm glad we got to enjoy the scenery and need to make it a point to head back during rafting season. *


Rolled up on HCVR a few minutes after noon, parked the car, and headed straight for the food court.


I've never been here before, and was pretty shocked how small the casino floor was… or rather how small it felt anyways. *One thing i really like about it are the large windows and amount of natural light they let in. *It also did not seem that smokey at all.

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We ordered a couple of sandwiches from Earl of Sandwich, got our sandwiches and check for $15, and fortunately realized before getting to the register that if we didn't use all of our $50 FC coupon we would lose it. *So we went to the cooler and grabbed three wraps, two containers of potato salad, and a four pack of cupcakes… That should do it. *Our total came to 52.50! So we got lunch for today, extra sides and desserts for tonight's dinner, *and lunch for tomorrow for only 2.50! *Score! Ran the leftovers out to the car, tossed them in the cooler, and headed back in to convert the last of the SP to cash.

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After printing out our SP from the kiosks (I like this system so much better than having to bring your mailed coupons with you), we headed over the the VP section. *After a couple of failed attempts of trying to insert the tickets into the machine, we headed over to the cashier only to learn that they weren't good for VP, only for slot machines… doh! *There goes the plan…


So we make a lap around the floor, searching for some inspiration, when GF points out a Haunted Forest Wizard of Oz machine... the same kind I won $700 on at The D a few weeks back. *I was a little apprehensive at first, but decided what the hell. *Fed in the $150 voucher, hit max bet, and crossed my fingers. *Wasn't getting much at first (a couple ‘bet backs’), and was really starting to get nervous as I watched the credits slowly disappear. *After I got down to $60 ish I got the Winged Monkey feature and won almost $50… finally! *Hit spin a couple more times and got the same feature again, this time for $232! *Yes!!! *Cashed out for a total of $303! *Thanks HCVR!! *At this point we are up a total of $433 and still have the other voucher for $110!







Time for GF to pick a winner and play her ticket. *She really likes the Wonder Woman game, so we head over to a bank of those, she sits down, and feeds in her ticket. *We have 22 spins to make some money… Cmon! *For her first four spins she gets nothing, is starting to get a little nervous she made a mistake, and then boom! *Stacked wilds for $266! *Thanks again HCVR!! *She plays the remaining $75 in promotional credits down and cashes out an additional $80.60! *







At this point we're both ecstatic. *We took $260 in free SP and turned it into $650!! Total cash for the trip, $780!! It is just past 1pm at this point, so we decide to take the 80, split it between us, and kill an hour playing till we have to leave at 2. *I realize this is something we said we wouldn't do (give any of it back), but be honest, would anyone here do any differently?







GF ended up losing most of her $40 by 2, but i managed to run mine up to $98! Total cash won from HC and HCVR on $400 in SP = $805!!! Not bad for less than $20 in gas



Needless to say we are super glad we made the trip, and thrilled we have an extra 800 to bring to Vegas in Dec.

 

Well played!

 

I love it when gambling trips come out just as planned! Congrats on the win.

 

Nice hit and run! Unfortunately I don't think all your attachments work.

And glad you were able to stick it to them at the slots after they said no VP on Free Play at Valley River. Seems like another short-sighted move. I have heard Valley River's paytables aren't very good anyway.

 

They were pretty bad indeed. Should have snapped a pic, but below is what they were for Dueces Wild ($1)

250/200/20/12/10/4/4/3/2/1

Returns: 97.59%

Ouch!

Thanks for the heads up on the pics, I'll repost in a sec.

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Thanks!

 

Thanks! It really was nice that everything came together.

Definitely not how things usually go for me when I'm at Cherokee, in fact, I'm pretty sure they still owe me a few bucks...

 

Yeah, there is a big issue with "common" Deuces paytables too for IGT machines. The next better paytable generally used is 25/15/9/4/4/3 (aka "Airport Deuces") and that pays back a healthy 98.91%! So nearly all the time, the 20/12/10/4/4/3 game is the best you'll get from CET. But of course I say this and Cromwell is testing out the next paytable higher than "Airport", 25/16/10/4/4/3 (aka "Not So Ugly Ducks" = 99.73%) at $50/TC right now. :confused2:

Edit: VPFree2 says that both casinos have 9/6 Double Double Aces and Faces (99.46%) at the $5 level, your dad might like that game. But I bet he probably just rather visit you in Vegas.

And I hate to say it, but I think Valley River looks pretty ugly from those pics. Looks like even a cheaper version of SLS.

I'm also shocked that they put an Earl of Sandwich in there. I know they're expanding, but still fairly hard to find.

 

Hey just realized you did a mini TR. Thanks for keeping us up to date on your trip as we were slaving away on turkey dinner. It helped get through the work and got me wishing I was that close to a Harrahs.

 

Sounds like our Bossier City Trips with cooler to haul back all the food we get on food credits. Always an extra steak or two.

 

Very nice! I was tempted to divert over to HC driving back from FL via I-75 and Atlanta, GA but blew thru way too much money at the Milf Kingdom with wifey.
Anxious to check out Cherokee since they did major updates, unfortunately no weekend comp rooms.

 

And that's how it's done! Very well played, nice report.

 

Nice TR

Good to see you win some. I haven't had a winning trip to Cherokee in 6 trips or so.

 

I have used all my free play at HCRV on $1 DDBP so thats very odd

 

Hi. Also from Atl. Did you happen to notice if craps limit at the valley was lower than the usual $15 at Cherokee?

 

They have $5craps during slow weekdays and progress as business dictates

 

Yeah played for $5 and $10 many times in cherokee