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Mini Report - Winstar World Casino (OK) Saturday Morning

Discussion in 'Non-Vegas Trip Reports' started by progrocker2112, Dec 6, 2014.

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  1. progrocker2112

    progrocker2112 Watch out for this guy

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    My Trip Report

    Okay, so the first two trips to Winstar after discovering they had full pay VP did not go so well. I went on tilt and lost 500+ dollars each time (the ATM run plus whatever I had on me). So when they send me 75 dollars in freeplay for December, cleverly broken up in 25 dollar chunks good for each third of the month, I was pretty down on it. However after thinking about it I came up with a strict plan: First, run the freeplay through once, ticket out. At the 50 cent level this is ten hands. Then since I'm there and it takes me an hour each way to get there I'll do a little gambling, but I will risk only 200 dollars, twenty at a time in a parlay. Insert bill, play at 50 cent level, if I get to 80 credits switch to dollars and try to get that to 80 credits, ticket out. Twenty bucks is only 8 hands at the 50 cent level and although it's possible to have 8 losers in a row it's also possible (though less likely) to hit two full boats in a row for an instant quadruple up.

    Anyways, here's how the plan worked out: Freeplay, ten hands, nothing of note except for a couple of 2 pairs and maybe a trips, but end up turning it into 27.50 of real money. Ticket out.

    First twenty...this is the one that lasted longest and was eventually turned into a ticket. I hit a boat on the first or second hand, so was quickly switching to dollars and hung around there (I will drop back down a level if I go under 40 bucks) for quite a while. I think I even got it up to 70-75 for a couple of minutes before it turned downwards. At 35 credits I switch back to 50 cents, lose one more hand and then hit this:
    [​IMG]
    Would have been a lot nicer a few hands ago, but ticket out. I feel good knowing that this trip will be a slight loser at worst. Anyways, on to twenties 2-4...nothing really going on with these. I never lost 8 straight in a row but I never really got anywhere either, may have hovered around the parlay point a few times but could never get that big hand after switching to dollars before switching back down and eventually running dry.

    Fifth twenty was very similar, except I did manage to hit quad kings, switched up to dollars and was at 77.5 credits. First hand at the dollar level was 2 pairs. Bam, cashed out. No picture of the quad, sorry. I'd like to say that the sixth through tenth twenty dollar bills did anything, but nope. After about 45 minutes total I've got three tickets, up 67.50.
    [​IMG]
    The ride was an hour each way and my old Cavalier gets decent highway MPG, so probably used about 10 bucks of gas (which is running around 2.20-2.40 for regular here and has been fluctuating there for a couple of months). Was this worth it? For a lazy Saturday with no plans and good traffic (although 35 Northbound in Denton looked terrible as I was heading back south to home, was perfect both ways for me).

    I had woken up at 9:30 this morning and was on the road by 10:30, stopping only at quick trip for a Dr. Pepper and a donut. It's around 12:15 so I decide to hit Cracker Barrel in Gainseville (just inside the Texas border) for a victory lunch. As always they give you a very high calorie per dollar meal.
    [​IMG]
    Chicken and dumplings platter with three sides and bread and another DP for 11.99, left an even 15. The staff at this Cracker Barrel is young and attractive and competent, not what I am used to compared to the north Fort Worth location, although they usually are the last of those three things as well. Anyways, it threw me for a loop since this location was in 'the boonies'.

    A few last things on Winstar:
    -This place is huge. They say it's the biggest casino in the world and I don't doubt that, but it's damn near 90% slot machines. VP is hard to find and good VP harder, but the 'Rome Bar' has good games at fifty cents. Although it seems they started to upgrade some of them to the multigame machines that the 'London Bar' has, so I hope the pay tables on those aren't downgraded.
    -If you weren't aware, table games in OK have a fifty cent tax per hand collected so it pretty much makes playing at low limits impossible. No dice allowed, but they have a card version of craps. No thanks. I haven't played one table game here.
    -Since I started going, both previous trips were in October, I easily got free rooms offered but haven't taken them up on it. Maybe the weekend after Xmas.
    -No free booze = no drinking. Perfect anyways since I'm driving, but if I stay for the night I may bring up liquor from home to pour into their self service soft drinks.
    -I've gotten nearly as many straight flushes (two) here as I have quads (four). WTF. I never get straight flushes in Vegas. I'm positive they're using class III VP, so I'll just chalk it up to variance along with that I'm much better at recognizing three to a SF now than I used to be (thanks VP.com app).
     
  2. Dweller

    Dweller Low-Roller

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    I almost visited this casino once while visiting Dallas. I heard it was an easy day trip from there. You said you dont play table games because of the tax but do you know what the limits are like? Do they let you play high limits over 1000 per hand? Is there are high limit room and do you think they would give a lot of heat to someone playing those amounts?
     
  3. progrocker2112

    progrocker2112 Watch out for this guy

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    Don't think I can answer those except for confirming the existence of a high limit room, in which I don't even know if there's tables in there or just high dollar slots/vp. I don't even play higher than greens in Vegas.

    Choctaw Resort may be easier to get to from Dallas depending on where exactly you are. WinStar is off of I35 in Thackerville and Choctaw is off of US75 in Durant, so it's more directly north, where as for WinStar you have to take 35E to meet up with 35W in Denton, which is northwest before turning due north. From downtown Dallas it's probably not too much off a difference but if you're in Richardson, East Plano, etc. it would be much easier to get to Choctaw. I live in North Fort Worth about a mile off of 35W, it's a cinch for me to get to WinStar.
     
  4. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Good stuff!

    Finding good service at Cracker Barrel is always a win. It seems to be one notch above Steak n Shake most of the time in my book.

    Always nice to see "newish" machines have "full-pay" VP (SLS is a nice recent example). To the best of my knowledge Winstar is class III, but OK is one of those states where casinos where a significant entity before getting a compact approved, so some games (especially older ones) could be class II. But if they would be class II, you should see a bingo card on display somewhere, and I'm guessing you didn't see those.

    And yeah, straight flush occurrences are pretty rare and streaky too. If one would never hold a 3 card SF draw it lowers the 9/6 Jacks return 0.20%, and the probability of making a SF drops to 1 in 12,966 from 1 in 9148, so it definitely does help to hold those 3 card SFs, but it's not do or die either. Ever since I got my latest smartphone in Sept. 2013 (aka internet and VP documentation device) I've had 7 straight flushes (none of them being the one I want though..:grrr:). None since May and only 2 this year, but 5 came in Oct. 2013. Overall, on four of them held 3, three of them held 4.
     
  5. TIMSPEED

    TIMSPEED Money’s on the way, with CashNetUSA

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    Tell me about the straight flushes!
    Ever since REALLY learning/playing 100% perfect jacks/bonus,we've hit a significant amount of straight flushes, as opposed to the ROYAL flush! (Its literally been like a 20:1 ratio in 2014!)
     
  6. progrocker2112

    progrocker2112 Watch out for this guy

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    2nd round of my freeplay trips didn't go as well. I turned the 25 dollars free play into 25 real dollars, but on all ten of my twenty dollar bills I failed to hit a big hand, or even make it to stage two of the parlay. One full house and one flush were the best hands I saw.

    I still haven't figured out their coin-in formula for FP video poker...points accumulate SLOW, and it takes 50 to get $1 of comps. I don't know if this play will be enough to keep getting the offers that my initial two bloodbaths got me.

    Anyways, with my December free play/parlay strategy I'm down around $105 so far. Going to go one more time, probably after Christmas, and maybe even stay a night out there on them so I can give a room report.

    The good part of the trip this morning was it is a beautiful day out, and the drive goes through some nice stretches of rolling plains. Gas was only 2.16 a gallon and I checked the mileage of this trip at 124. I was able to cruise at 75-80 for most of the trip with just a bit of a slowdown coming south back to Denton right before the I-35 split. The entire excursion today lasted only two and a half hours, I was in the casino for 40-45 minutes.
     
  7. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Yeah VPFree2 says it's $50 coin-in a point. So that's 0.04% coin-in back on your player's card. Ouch. Most places are at least 0.1% and higher. Really depends on future mailers for the overall value as the player's club points look to be insignificant. Do you have any idea what kind of coin-in you did when you lost the $500+ on each the first two trips?

    http://www.vpfree2.com/casino/winstar-world-casino/club
     
  8. TXactuarial

    TXactuarial VIP Whale

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    WinStar has really capitalized on its location. Yeah it sucks that there's a 50 cent rake on table games and comps suck, but your best alternative is a 3 hour drive to a swamp.
     
  9. progrocker2112

    progrocker2112 Watch out for this guy

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    Yeah, and that $50 per point is definitely not correct for the VP I was playing. I got like 10 points yesterday so that would imply I only got 500 coin in on my 200 bucks. I didn't do great, but it wasn't that bad. I imagine it's actually twice that, as I played for 40-45 minutes so it was likely around 400 hands @ 2.50/hand = 1000 coin in. So cut that 0.04 in half if you're going to play the full pay VP tables.

    I still plan on going once more this month, but think I'll skip January and see what kind of mailers I get for February once they've adjusted to my normal level of play, then I can decide if returned patronage is worth it or not. It's probably not unless they start giving me food credit that isn't tied to checking into the hotel. I ate at their Italian place in October and the service was great and the food was okay and not too overpriced.
     
  10. Johnzimbo

    Johnzimbo VIP Whale

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    Beware that parts of 35 are 65 and parts are 75. Several months ago we were heading to Winstar for a concert and I got pulled over doing about 75 in the 65 zone. Luckily got off with a warning...and literally less than a mile North of where I got stopped the limit jumped to 75.
     
    Annual me and Pete
  11. sarah9nascar

    sarah9nascar VIP Whale

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    We are spending two free nights at Winstar Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I always seem to run through money fast there so we will see.
     
    Sema Show
  12. progrocker2112

    progrocker2112 Watch out for this guy

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    Oh yeah, I'm definitely careful in Northlake (35W by TMS), Denton (I think it's even 55 for a while between the 35 split and the loop 288/Denton outlets) and north of Sanger (where you describe). I did see Texas State Highway around the latter spot on my first trip out there, and Northlake PD was out this past Saturday. I actually can't believe it stays at 75 through Gainesville because there are a lot of curves and elevation changes (that are a blast to drive if you don't have to worry about other cars around you messing them up).
     
  13. GVR

    GVR Tourist

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    The ante/rake is even higher when you bet more on those table games. Think it's a buck when you jump to $100. I don't remember exactly, I usually just go to the poker room there
     
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