Rolling Low in Reno 2/10 - 2/15

The Trip
In just 48 hours I will be arriving in fabulous Las Vegas! Unfortunately, I'll only be there for about an hour before I catch my connecting flight to Not-Quite-As-Fabulous Reno!



Yeah, I ran out of hundies so I had to paperclip the last bill in a circle. Need I remind you, this is a low-roller trip report.

Now don't get me wrong, I love Reno. In fact, as far as gambling goes, I prefer it significantly over Las Vegas. I love the skywalk-adjoined downtown area, the sweaty Cal-Neva and Sands, and the wide array of people that they attract. But what Reno has in gambling it lacks in everything else that Las Vegas has to offer. But hey, I'll be in Vegas next month, so no worries.

This will be my second trip to Reno. I make my annual pilgrimage to Mecca's neighbor to the north exactly once a year to play in the world's largest cribbage tournament. I'll be honest though, if this tournament was in a non-gambling city, I probably would be more hesitant to go. I do enjoy playing cribbage, but ever since I discovered the Biggest Little City in the World last year I have been itching to come back.



The Hotels
Apart from the fantastic gambling options, the best part of Reno is the generous comps by almost every casino. While I play almost every game, I usually just roll with 25c VP, $10BJ, $25 Pai Gow tiles. The level of play that wouldn't even get me on the radar in Las Vegas was met with free rooms, dining credit, and free play at my choice of Eldorado, Harrah's, and Sands.

This trip I will be staying at Eldorado 2 nights comp, then Sands Regency for the next 3 days, 2 of which are comped. While I did have comped rooms at other places, there are several other people from my local grassroots cribbage organization who are all staying at the Sands, so it just made sense to stay there. I stayed at the Sands for 4 nights last year, and while it certainly wasn't any Vegas strip hotel room, it was very clean and had all of the necessary amenities.

The Gambling
I'm currently on a bit of a heater after the super bowl, winning my work's $5 winner-take-all NFL Fantasy Playoffs Pool for a cool $170 (remember, rolling low!). Coupled with my stash of two dollars bills and my REN° hundies pictured above, the gambling bankroll comes out to a cool $2k.

Being an all-around gambler, I am an absolute sucker for promotions. Like, any promotions. Last year, the Sands was running a promo where if you got 15 blackjacks, you received an 'I *heart* BJs' t-shirt. One of my life's biggest regrets was only getting 12 blackjacks at the Sands last year. I've found that these cheesy type of promotions don't always make it to the casino websites, so I will be keeping an eye out. I'll definitely be hitting up Circus Circus for a free pair of dice/deck of cards with any suited blackjack: http://www.circusreno.com/casino/win-a-friend.aspx. Apart from that, we will just see what comes up.

I'll be solo my first 2 days in Reno which will lend itself to proper degenning. My last 3 days there I'll be rooming with a poker dealer who I met at a previous cribbage tournament. I've heard good things about the poker rooms in Reno: low limits and non-NLHE games. Last year the only poker I played was some $2-$6 spread limit at the Sands. I'll see if I can't find an Omaha or Stud game going on while I there.

I'm also going to check out the William Hill online sports betting app. I saw a promo they're doing, and while I don't normally bet sports, I think the 10% bonus they provide seems like a good +EV opportunity to expand my horizons.



The Drinking
I am literally 5 minutes away from my local casino. It's a great casino. It has $5 3:2 blackjack, a large poker room with several games, 9/6JoB, $5 craps, and the best horse track in Iowa. But the drinks are not free, so I don't go.

Even though my wife doubts me every time I say it, my stack of freshly minted $1 bills are for one thing and for one thing only, tips for free drinks. I plan on doing some sleuthing around Reno to find where I can find a good comp beer selection. Lately I have been on an Imperial Stout kick. I liked Founders Breakfast Stout so much I decided to brew my own 5 gallon batch of it! I've been watching my carbs for 2 months now, but that is all going out the window for this trip. Get me a smooth cigar, an imperial stout, and 99.7%+ payback on bartop machines, and I'm good to go. I've gotten several good ideas from the What Are You Drinking thread here on VMB, and I intend to sample as much as I can on this trip.



I'll be trying my best to get some live updates going, and should have no problem posting some pictures my first few days there. Let me know if anyone has some good suggestions on VP bars and/or promos going on in Reno this week!

 

Have fun in northern nevada.
Lol at the REN...I did the same thing a while back..ran out of hundreds and so I only had REN...although $2000 is definitely sufficient bankroll for Reno (you could play dollar video poker and actually get some really good comps)
If you don't mind catching the bus (or uber) try out Grand Sierra Resort.

 

I noticed vpfree2 had 20 coin quarter machines. Any idea if 20 quarters is the same has 5 dollars for comp purposes?

 

It should be similar.

As for craft beer in Reno, I saw a pic on 2+2 poker's "beer connoisseur thread" of a guy in Reno drinking Rogue Farms 7 Hop IPA with 9/6 JoB in the background. I dunno which casino it is though.

Good luck! And score a 29!

 

Yup, same thing.
The BEST machines to play, are at Eldorado. They're by the double doors in the middle, that go out to Virginia Street. (They're a bank of 8 slant-tops; if you're sitting at them, your facing the poker room)
They have 9/6 JoB, 9/6 DDB (with a progressive + Sequential Royal), 8/5 Bonus Poker, 9/6 BPD...everything you could want...They don't accrue comps for shit, but they sure are fun.
If you've any questions, feel free to shoot me a PM. I'm the resident Reno expert.

 

So my flight weirdly changed so that my first leg to Vegas is 43 minutes faster than planned. I guess there must be a new wormhole over Nebraska or something. I was a little worried that the snow storm here in Iowa was going to delay my trip, but I guess this isn't the DSM airport's first rodeo. Extra 43 minutes of airport gambling!

 

Self proclaimed resident Reno expert?!? j/k lol

I've been going to Reno for years. First trip was in 1990 when I first moved to the SF Bay area. Going to Reno and/or Tahoe used to be EASY when it was a short drive. Only went once a year when moved back to Ohio in 03. The flights unless you got pretty lucky were VERY expensive!

Now that i am back in California, I hope to get up there more often.

You live out in the Modesto/Stockton area right?

 

Look fwd to your TR.

I enjoyed the one from last year you posted either here or elsewhere

 

Yeah, I (basically) lived in Reno from 2008-2012.

 

Practically Mayor of Reno.

Nick

 

I briefly considered moving there before i decided to move back to Ohio in 2003. Got some advice from friends who lived there at the time and decided against.

I enjoy visiting!

 

nah, Geno Martini had that role.

 

Landed in Vegas. Dropped $20 in triple play deuces wild. Got dealt three deuces and missed, and was one away from a wild royal a few different times.

I saw there was a flight to Reno about an hour earlier. I asked the gate if I could switch but then remembered I checked my luggage. Doh.

 

Please take lots of pictures in reno...I'm in rehab forth next 6 months..I need it!

 

Never been to Reno but looking forward.. agree with Tim more city pictures the better!

Good Luck Tex

 

Thanks wanker, and will do tim!

Checked in at ElDo on floor 19, which is the unluckiest number in cribbage. The hotel is very nice. High floor overlooking the sands. Time to gamble it up!

 

Really interesting fun book promo. Fine print on the back says to present the coupon at the beginning of the shoe. If I'm understanding this right, this is a whole shoe of 2 to 1 BJ!

 

I think it's VALID for a whole shoe...but only good for ONE...just have to use it before the shoe starts.
Hopefully I'm wrong though! Clarify it with the pit boss then pound em!

 

Gambling was up and down last night. Spent $100 on deuces wild in maybe half an hour. Couldn't find a seat at any 3:2 games at ElDo so I went over to silver legacy.

Silver legacy seems to have just about every combination of blackjack rules on earth. I started at single deck, double on 10/11 no DAS. Interesting story... dealer has A4 and hits an 8, hits a 4, then hits a 5. 21! she claims. Not only was it 22, but she hit a hard 17. It took several minutes of conversation to explain that it was 17 and she seemed reluctant to pay back the winning/pushing bets. She also seemed to take it personally as she quickly changed her conversational dealing to a very rigid passive deal.

Played craps for maybe 10 minutes. 3 PSO in a row, and then an amazing roll for 5 points. Unfortunately the ice cold table had me with my tail between my legs otherwise I could have cleaned up.

At one point I hired a masseuse while playing blackjack and drinking a baileys and coffee. If that isn't heaven then I don't know what is.