Reno/Tahoe 1/20-1/22. . . promos galore!!!!

Well, I'm at the mercy of the weather. I'm flying up tomorrow night into Reno airport, and the plan is to drive to Tahoe Friday night.

I have the following promos to attend:

1) $350 in promo chips at Harrahs Tahoe
2) $240 in promo chips at Harrahs Reno
3) Free play at Atlantis
4) Free play at GSR Grand
5) Bedding promo at Hard Rock Tahoe
6) Vacuum cleaner promo at Harrahs Tahoe

The main activity will be "converting" $4300 in promo chips into hard cash $2400 at Tahoe, and $1900 at Reno.

FBC is all taken care of, I have $400 in comp cash at Atlantis, $60 food voucher in Tahoe, and $125 food voucher in Reno.

So, I should be all set IF I can get up there. If the plane is cancelled, I still have the option to drive to Tahoe, so I booked a rental car at the Oakland airport just in case.

Wish me luck!!!

 

Following along should be a awesome TR!!
Btw what is exactly promo chips? Is it like free play but in chips???

 

Yes, they are play them until you lose them. I have been "accumulating them since October. You can take promo chips Instead of Free Play.

 

Well good luck that's good amount!!' Do well!!!

 

Good luck DaiLun! And Happy Birthday!

I usually get "birthday" month promos from Harrah's. This year it is 85,000 in Reward credits. Make sure you do not miss anything you are entitled to.

I never drove from Reno to Lake Tahoe when there was much snow, will you need chains this weekend? If so, it looks like a hassle to buy chains for a rental car.

May the variance be ever in your favor.

FAB

 

85,000?????? Wow!. You must be a real "Big Boss". I am going up on the birthday promotion but only received 13,000 RC and $200FP . . . .

I have a set of "rental car" cables that I carry with me, and make sure that the car I rent can "take 'em" It is remotely possible that I will need cables going from Reno to Tahoe, but I may opt for a 4WD with snow tires.

 

Good luck Dai Lun - hope you go on a hot streak. The last time I had these they were really lucky, the "play em till you lose" is really nice if you can get on a win streak.

Hope the weather co-operates also. Will watch this thread for updates.

 

Sorry. I mistyped. I only have 8,500 in TR Credits offered, plus $125 in extra free play. Your B-Day offer is much better than mine. So YOU are the "Big Boss." Looks like you cannot bring xiao long bao to the host this trip.

Go get 'em. I love your reports because you explain what happens, warts and all.

 

Yes, no XLB this trip, I'm hoping that my Silver American Eagles get delivered today so I have at least "lay see" to give to my hosts.

 

Well, the trip hasn't even started yet.

The plane is delayed by 90 minutes, which now puts me into Reno at 11:45PM, However, the roads are clear, but I am NOT in a hurry.

 

That's the one thing I don't miss about going to reno every weekend..those fucking chain controls and snow covered passes

 

Hi Tim:

No kidding. My particular pet peeve is California drivers who drive like it is summer It sometimes is like driving around a minefield. While I am all for the drought being quenched, the series of storms have taken my mojo away to tackle the Sierras. I hope driving is OK Superbowl weekend.

 

I received the same "vacuum cleaner" promotion at harrahs Lake Tahoe. That didn't seem too enticing for me, but I don't know much about vacuum cleaners.

 

So how did the trip go?

 

I'll have a TR up shortly. Bottom lines are:

1)Did one 2500TC day
2)"Converted" $4300 in promo chips into a $3700 bankroll for NO (minus expenses for the 2500TC day)
3)Driving was really effed up
4)Failed to make either promotion

 

OK, here's the TR

Well, my flight was delayed for an hour and a half, Plane took off at 10:45PM. It's only a 20 minute flight, and we touched down at 11:30PM.

At the car rental desk, they told me that chains were required over 580 getting to Tahoe, and I asked about an upgrade. She said that I'd have to ask when I picked up the car.

Out at the car rental area, the guy told me that he had one 4WD pickup that the upcharge was $10/day, vs. an SUV, where the upcharge was $100/day. I told him to sign me up for the pickup, because even though I was carrying tire cables, I didn't want to have to have them put on.

It was a very nice Nissan Frontier. I took off towards Tahoe, and sure enough, I started slipping going up 580, so I put it in 4WD HI and she quickly settled down.

Got into Harrahs Tahoe at 1:00AM.

Got the slip for the vacuum cleaner promotion and foung out that the "check-in" was at 10AM on Sunday! That sucked because I had planned to be long gone since my flight was at 9:20AM on Sunday. Oh well, I guess I didn't need a vacuum cleaner "that bad". I would mention this to my host and/or complain to Management afterwards in the survey and see if anything could be done. Checked into the room at 1:10AM, and found out that my CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine was on the "fritz". I have verified that the problem was with the new power supply that I had just bought as a "spare". It works without a load, but once the CPAP machine is loaded it shuts down. As anyone who uses a CPAP knows, this made for two "uncomfortable" sleeping nights.

Woke up at 7AM and went downstairs to start my chip conversion. I decided to play a flat $75 a hand, and boy my luck was horrible. I must've lost 5 of the first 7 or 6 of the first 8 hands. As I was playing, one of the pit bosses came over, looked at my stack and said "Wow! That's a lot of promo chips". I told him "Yeah, I've been accumulating them since October!"

Eventually, they play straightened itself out and I ended up with this much

Turned this:



Into this



Then I remembered that I hadn't cashed in my trip promos of $350, so I went back upstairs, got those coupons, and cashed them in, and went back to the table. I turned $350 in promo ships into $225 in "real money". Final total for Tahoe Blackjack

$2435 in promo chips = $1920 in real money. Hope that I do a little better with my $2000 in Reno.

My next objective was to earn some points for a Las Vegas friend who is participating in the Quest for rewards, so quickly across the street to get 25TC at Harveys and 25TC in Harrahs, and 25 in Reno later in the day.

Ate a quick breakfast at the California Grand Cafe, and checked in with Les, my BFF. We are traveling to New Orleans later this week, and he knew what my strategy was for this weekend.

So, I amde my way to the valet after returning to the room and putting my chips in the room safe, and getting my to do list for Reno. I passed by the VIP office and dropped off the Lay See envelope for my Tahoe host and checked in on the lift tickets, a 7* local promotion in which you get two (used to be four) lift tickets to a local ski resort. I was told that they were handled at the cashier's cage this year. Note to myself to pick them up. Those go to Les.

One of the things I wanted to do on my way to Reno was to time the trip for my departure on Sunday. I had a 9:20 AM flight. There was snow all the way from Reno to Tahoe, and 2WD needed chains. There were some knuckleheads trying to drive without 'em, and I made sure to steer clear from them.

There was no snow sticking by the time I got to Carson City, and 2WD from there into Reno.' Went over to GSR Grand to get my birthday "gifts" as it turns out, I got a $25 dining credit as well as $50 FP. Made $13 off of the $50, and decided to use my dining credit at the GSR Grand Buffet.

The lunch buffet is $17.99 with tax, and as I classify buffets, "life sustaining +" nothing special, either good or bad.

Lunch taken care of, my next stop was Atlantis. I was in and out in about 15 minutes. Didn't even use the valet. Got $50 in FP, which I converted into $11 hard cash, and $50 in comp points (I now have about $400 in comp points for Atlantis Reno). And on to my final stop in Reno, Harrahs.

Got my Promo Chips in Reno and sat down at a $25 DD Blackjack table. I confided to the dealer what my strategy was for this trip (as I did to the Tahoe dealer). And I played the $1890 off, and came out with this:



So, my Reno total was:

$1890 in Promo chips = $1845 in real cash. So, $3765 total for New Orleans.

I figured to give Reno a 500TC day, and Tahoe the remaining 500TC.

As I sat in the HL Slot area at Harrahs Reno, and my host come over to visit me. I gave Lay See envelope (for Chinese New Year) to him and his boss. He asked me about the invitation (for two) to the Chinese New Year Coronation Ball in San Francisco and I politely declined. (I don't need a free dinner THAT bad).

Went upstairs to a Buffalo Grand machine and got the bonus, Minor x10



$26.90 x10 = $269.30 Oh well, at least it's something.

Put in 25TC for my Las Vegas friend and moved my Reno tier credits up to 500. Reno slot play cost me about $400, but I was about $1900 "up" in Tahoe, so there wasn't much "sting" to it.

Reno done, it was back to Tahoe. Drove through downtown Carson City instead of driving around it on I-580. Passed by the Nugget but didn't stop in. Maybe in March.

Got back to Tahoe at 3:15PM, time to go over to Hard Rock Tahoe for the "bedding promotion". Went by the 7* cashier, cashed in my chips, picked up the lift tickets, and over to Hard Rock

As I wandered over to Hard Rock, through Harveys, I hit for $200, and I hit another $400 at Hard Rock. Now, I'm up a little for the trip.

Now, I hadn't mentioned the power problems that Tahoe had been experiencing over the weekend, due to the snow. At 8AM there was a momentary blackout in Harrahs that affected the entire casino, and I had noticed that there was an outage in the hotel room overnight.

At Hard Rock, they had it worse. When I walked in I saw that slot machines were still rebooting. I went over to the kisok and got my birthday "gifts", $45 in dinner at the Oyster Bar, $25 FP, and a birthday pin. They also had 6 power "glitches" in the 30 minutes I was there.

Birthday pin



The bedding promotion was:

Hard Rock Casino Tahoe was giving away 4 pieces of bedding:

1)4 pillows
2)Sheets
3)conforter
4)Something else (I can't remember)

I (it varied by your level) got two of the items for free, and with 750 points (HR Tahoe is $1/point), you got one additional item. The "gotcha" here was that they didn't ship the item, you had to carry it home. So, I told myself, I didn't need bedding THAT BAD, since I was flying and didn't want to check a box full of bedding, I passed. Since they were having power glitches and I didn't want to be "stuck" I left with a $5 TITO.

Back through Harveys, cashed out my TITO, and back to the room at Harrahs. 4PM, and I'm effectively "done" for the trip. Power was out in the room, but the casino still had lights on, and I was going to go downstairs and play to make the remaining 500TC. Oops. Elevators not working. Didn't feel like walking down 15 flights of stairs, so went back to the room and started on my TR. currently up about $200 for the trip, minus the promo chip conversion) At 4:50PM the lights came back on in the room, and I counted my pennies, put most of my cash (all of the conversion cash) in the safe, and went downstairs to play.

I made my 500TC in about 1/2 hour, so here it was a little after 5:30PM. It was snowing, so I didn't want to drive, Hard Rock Casino was having power problems, so WTF??? And, since my CPAP machine was effed up, I couldn't even lie down for a good "nap".

So, since I was "up" my money for the NO trip, and I had originally planned for that to be a 500 TC/day trip, since GGWU points weren't earned on that trip. (We'll see how THAT goes), I figured it would'nt hurt to play some more and "build" back up my ADT at Tahoe. It has suffered through the short play trips that I had used to accumulate the $2300 in promo chips, but has been showing signs of healing since my march offers were increasing. I would break for dinner at7PM or so, and then hit the sack early, right? WRONG.

So I ended up playing and taking a break at 7PM for dinner. My host came by before dinner and we had a chat. I told her about the vacuum cleaner promo and why they couldn't allow me to check in earlier. She took down a note and I told her that it wasn't the end of the world if I didn't get it, so she didn't have to try hard to get it (I got $200FP, $130 in RC, $60 in food and two nights anyway)It appears that they don't have budget for a San Francisco 7* Asian Marketing dinner like they did last year, but will have the November dinner.

Went to the buffet and ate, and then went back downstairs. My regular waitress was off that evening. I checked my TC balance, which was at about 1600TC. Oh f**k. 900TC away from 2500. It had cost me about $700 to make it that far, and I was now "into" my New Orleans money. But, the lure an temptation of the 2500TC day was too much for me.

Finally made 2510TC by 10PM. Sat down with a nice couple at the Wonder 4 Tower bank of 3 slots. Played there for about 90 minutes, no handpays, but for 6 Wicked Ladies once.



towards the end (after spending about another $500-700), I hit 3 Ravens-2 Ravens-Three Ladies which Paid $450, and allowed me to make my 2500TC day without too much "pain".

Went to the gift shop, bought a small bottle of Jägermeister and went back to the room. Jägermeister is on my bucket list of things to drink. I am not normally an alcohol drinker, but I will occasionally have one drink before bed. I crossed Soju (Korean Rice Wine) off of my "alcohol bucket list" recently. I was still wound up, and the Jägermeister bottle said "serve ice cold", so I put it in the refrigerator and tried to go to sleep.

Had a poor sleeping night without my CPAP. Woke up at 5AM and the alarm was set for 5:45AM. Gave me plenty of time to pack my stuff. It was snowing from the time I left Tahoe until Reno. Snow was sticking in Carson City, and even in Reno when I got there.



Had breakfast at Atlantis, and they "got me" for $100 as I was walking out playing a machine I had never seen before and probably won't ever play again.

Got to Reno Airport, got on the plane for a quick 40 minute flight home. Got home and verified that it was the power supply that was defective. Plugged in my normal power supply and everything worked.

I made a 2500TC day, and by the end of January, I should have made Diamond for 2018, and cruising towards DAL2, which I'm trying to get by the end of Q2 to cover arirfare for the Atlantic City 7* event in July.

So, for New Orleans this week, I still have about $2500, not including $200 free play at Harrahs New Orleans and Harrahs Gulf Coast, and about $850 in RCs. Lots more pictures of Food in New Orleans, and hopefully some slot porn.

Thanks for reading.

 

Great trip report, as usual. So, did you end up drinking the jaegermeister ? It's definitely an acquired taste.
Happy birthday and good luck in New Orleans

 

Nah, I'm going to save it for New Orleans. It's still in my suitcase.

 

I used to drink Jagermeister, a peppermint flavored drink, when I was in college. Our joke was the great thing about Jager is that even after you vomit, your breath is still fresh.

Thanks for the report DaiLun. $75 a hand for BJ looks like a bigger wager than I would have put in but I guess your result was within the scope of expected results. Have a blast in "Narlins" ! At least you won't have to fight the snows at the Big Easy. I love the seafood there. Make sure to stop by the "Palm Room" (the Harrah's diamond lounge). The food is prepared to order there and Seven Stars get more portions and drinks. But you might have a line on busy nights.

Cheers.

 

FAB-I think you're confusing Jager with Goldschlagger, because Jager is not pepperminty at all. It's black out juice for me

Great TR, thanks for sharing!!!