Tunica...It's More Exciting when You Win!

Well, my g/f and I hit up Tunica for the latter part of Columbus Day weekend for a little getaway. Fairly uneventful drive and stay at the Quality Inn Saturday night near Resorts/Hollywood/Sam's Town because I'm cheap.

Day 1:

I am poor and usually play nickels unless the game is > 99%, but I seem to have better luck when the game is <99%. After a 5+ hour drive, I mostly wanted some beer and and watch the baseball game. I was going to play Double Deuces Wild (98.85% + prog) at the main bar, but it was packed for "Karaoke night". So I decided to move to the other bar where the best offering 7/5 Super Double Double Bonus (98.61% + prog). Royal Flusher loving calls this game "Super Double Triple Overtime Desperation Hail Mary Bonus Poker, by IGT". :evillaugh With the $1100 prog, I decide it's good enough to slowly bet for free booze. I probably hit these first three hands in less than 200 hands tops. Considering what I hit though, playing DDW would have been a bit nicer.







Up $320 for the day. Second biggest one-day total in my life. Still waiting on that quarter Royal...

Day 2:

Hit Sam's Town early to take advantage of a 10X multiplier. Played 9/6 Jacks at the bar for a bit. Nothing pretty, but stayed afloat. ~-$15

Went to Fitzgeralds to have a bite to eat. Sit at the bar to gain a beer and a water. Shortplay because paytable sucks (6/5 Super Aces is best choice available). Get AK clubs maybe 20 hands in, and since I was shortplaying, I did hit the right miracle draw at least. One in 16,215 shot for either a Royal or 4 Aces.



Get back to the casino we are staying at, Tunica Roadhouse. And I am downing more beer and playing for "fun". g/f is trying to drag me upstairs...hit this right before quitting for the night.



Up $95 for the day.

Day 3:

Didn't do so well this day, but I still lowrolled because I was happy to lock up my biggest casino win of the year.

Went to Harrahs, max bet quarters at pickem poker for a bit just because I haven't played that game in a long while and it's their best quarter game (98.74%). Well, I couldn't even get a 3 of a kind, so that was a $20 mistake.

Hit Sam's Town briefly for another promo. I got garbage, but she got a $10 food credit at least. We used it to eat the buffet on the way out.

Go back to Fitzgeralds for their $7 buffet on Mondays. We see that the line is a bit long, so we decide to do a "video poker challenge". It's a bit of a tradition of ours even if it's sad and pathetic to any real gambler. We both get $1 and play for either 20 min. or the other one goes broke. We both got a comped drink in the process. Needless to say, I won this time.



After this went back to the Roadhouse and had a pretty big quad drought. But I did still have a few picture worthy hits.

While struggling, I watch this lady next to me playing 3-play 9/6 DDB w/STP for quarters (99.26% max). I noticed her balance jump $1000 while occasionally staring. Would later learn it was a Royal. She also got 4 Aces. Probably up over a grand there, but she admitted she was down for the trip.

I also got 4 Aces that night for my first quad, but...dammit



Straight Flush again?!?! First time I have hit 2 SFs in a day (excluding deuces wild obv)



I also got what many Double STP players hearts will skip a beat for. A 10X...followed by a 10X!! I actually have hit this twice now. The first time was at Flamingo on July 1st of last year. I didn't hit a winner, so I didn't bother to take a picture of it. Once I did the math, I was kicking myself that I didn't do it. It should occur about 1 in 532,387 rounds of play and will be a dealt Royal 5.46% of the time when it happens. Figured I'd be lucky if I ever see it again, and damn better be sure I would snap a pic of it, but where was the dealt Royal?



At least I got a winner I guess...

My g/f walked back from Gold Strike and showed me her new little friend.



Later, I played this Texas Tea slot at the bar in his honor, but apparently he was worth only 20 cents! :Þ



Eventually, the lady playing quarters left her machine, so I planned to take another $20 crack at it for a single line max bet. Nada.

So I am still quadless and about $50 in the hole and back playing Double STP for cheap. I was mostly just playing one hand and licking my wounds and getting wasted. This trip I have occasionally played more hands when certain songs game up. My g/f had long went to bed before this, but she likes Shania Twain. She went to see her in Vegas while I sneaked off to play mix game poker. So "I'm Gonna Getcha Good!" plays in the casino. So I decide wtf and bump up one more hand and start playing. While playing, I hear...de doo de de doo de de de doo doo de de de doo doo doo doo...doo...doo...ka-ching! Play my hand, hit draw...hear it again. Lose or marginally win. Start the very next hand. De doo de de doo de de de doo doo de de de doo doo doo doo...doo...doo...ka-ching! Three multipliers in a row and this one was 5X. Hold my hand, mildly excited it was three Jacks, hit draw. De doo de de doo de de de doo doo de de de doo doo doo doo...doo...doo...ka-ching! Four multipliers in a row with another 5X to make 10X total. Then the very next card revealed is the last Jack!



Played for another hour of two mostly losing a bit, ended up losing $10 at the Roadhouse. -$30 for the day. Was one of the last 10 people in the casino at about 4 am. On the way out, hand her the keys because I woke up still drunk. Also peek at the Horseshoe temp poker room which had just moved to the Roadhouse early that morning right after I went to bed. Not bad for a temp room. They said that they hoped to have the remodel done by December. Had that Sam's Town buffet, pretty good, and had about 4 Mt. Dews, which help sober me up a little and I leave the cottonfields with a big smile on my face. :evillaugh

 

congratulations on winning

im in tunica once or twice a month and i disagree with you because tunica is not more exciting when you win, it is only exciting when you win! i lost last down there last weekend and left early because there was nothing else to do.

 

Yeah, I read you didn't do so hot in another thread. I know the feeling though, and you definitely don't want to be broke there. When Roadhouse had 99.96% Deuces Wild last year, which they don't anymore, jerks, I blew about $200 one night playing quarters on a trip celebrating my birthday. Happy Birthday to me! But then again, the 7 Star next to me was playing the same game for dollars and also couldn't find those deuces! I think he was down close to a grand during that time frame...

 

i usually go to horseshoe or harrahs, sometimes roadhouse and gold strike. a couple of my buddies like craps at gold strike better. i dont know if they have good vp at horseshoe because i play tables and just a little bartop vp while i drink some cold ones. but i know what you mean because even on quarters its easy to loose a lot of money fast on vp. when the bartops have video blackjack i play that instead.

 

What are the best games in the Caesars Tunica properties these days?

 

I was thinking you were playing dollars that whole time. Finally on the last one I noticed it didn't say hand pay.

 

I am pretty sure the TA Truckstop could be exciting if you are winning :evillaugh

 

I wish it was dollars the whole time! I would likely be destitute if I played that high though.

All of these are at Roadhouse from quarters to $5. There are only two units left though in the whole casino. There used to be dozens of these... They offer...

99.94% Super Aces 8/5
99.92% 2 Pair Joker Poker
99.92% Triple Deuces Wild
99.8% Triple Bonus Plus 9/5
99.69% Super Double Double Bonus 8/5
99.69% Super Double Bonus 9/5
99.58% Triple Double Bonus 9/7
99.54% Jacks or Better 9/6
99.45% Bonus Deuces Wild
99.17% Bonus Poker 8/5
99.11% Double Bonus 9/7/5
98.98% Double Double Bonus 9/6

They also have 2 units that offer 9/6 JoB with a progressive with a 100 penny bet. The last two trips before this one, I took a stab at it because the Royal pushed it over 100% return.

They added a bunch of new Game Kings, but the best they offer was 9/7/5 DB and 9/6 DDB for dollars. Harrah's added the same new units with the exact same paytables.

Best games at Harrah's are 9/6 JoB or 99.55% Shockwave for 50c or higher.

Best game at Horseshoe is 9/6 DDB 5-play Build-A-Wheel for 5c, 10c, 25c. I think Horseshoe is also prepping to add a bunch of new Game Kings as well, but they weren't installed yet when I was there.

And went to Hollywood St. Louis tonight to try to "play for comps" a bit. Missed two 4 to a Royal draws... Starting with the "worst" hand in poker for the 2nd time tonight (75432) and got another diamond "steel wheel"! That makes 5 Straight Flushes in my last 5 gaming days as I hit one more SF right before going to Tunica. Wow...now I just need the Royal!!

 

Solo trip to Tunica this weekend. Hope I have some of your luck

 

Hope you did well!

I am tentatively going back there this weekend. Would love to have a repeat! :evillaugh

 

No luck at all. Don't think I will be going back for quite awhile. Tried Harrahs, Horseshoe and Roadhouse. At least roadhouse I was able to play video poker a few hours without losing much. Can't say that for the other two places. Just could not seem to get quads.

Seemed like nothing went right the whole trip except my son made an unexpected trip to Tunica to spend a day with me. That was the best part.

 

Blah, that sucks about the results. Cool that your son visited though. My very first trip to Tunica was similar to that gambling wise. Played a lot of 98.91% Deuces at the old Harrah's (now Resorts) and lost about $200 on that alone while often physically feeding quarters in it to slow me down since the machines weren't TITO. Took $40 to a blackjack table...lost it all in 10 $5 hands... went 0-8-2. All in one day and left...meh.

Took 5 years and a discount voucher through my g/f's former work in Atlanta, but I gave the place another shot, and glad I did. I am still not a net winner lifetime, but I am having a lot more fun there. Maybe have visited about a dozen times since, "free" beer also seems to help that...:evillaugh I'll do my best to recover some of the money you lost this weekend.

 

Kill 'em in Tunics Doug!
I convinced the wife to let me go this weekend to Reno (after promising to not go again until Vegas!)

 

Went back to Tunica this past weekend, and had a whirlwind of a 4-day trip.

Friday:

On the way down, there were multiple cars/SUVs that had "tiger tails" on their vehicles since Mizzou (my alma mater) was playing at Mississippi that weekend. We didn't have tickets to the game, and my jealousy built while driving down. We first stopped at Isle of Capri Cape Girardeau to check it out. Nice place, but unsurprisingly tiny. Most VP sucked, but they did have 2c Ultimate X with 6/5 Bonus, so I diddled around on that for a bit. Getting the first quad of the trip in the process.

Get to Tunica, check-in at Harrah's and then go to Hollywood to eat at the snackbar on our points. Food was decent, and afterward, we briefly played bubble craps. $1 minimum there, so that was great for us. My g/f "pushed the button" maybe 10 times before she sevened out.

We were still a bit hungry though, so we decided to go to Resorts to get some popcorn and play a bit. Nothing special on the play, but the damn ticket printer failed, and it took them 30 minutes to pay me. I wanted to go to Sam's Town to do a promo where you got a kiosk prize for 1,000 points, and play 9/6 JoB at the bar, but it was 10pm when we got there, and said promo ended at 10. Oops. My luck with Sam's Town that weekend; it was probably a good thing.

Saturday:
Tickets are still available for the game, and we keep an eye on Stubhub as we go to Southaven to eat/shop and was prepared to go to Oxford from there. They were $85/ea, and then the dude jumped them to $125... . Eventually he dropped them down again to $75/ea (face value), and I snapped them up. I should have waited longer though as I could have saved even more.

A not so warm welcome. Seriously, it was near freezing.


Biggest Tailgate I have ever seen.


Mizzou flag crew. Truman the Tiger is a a blur because I am a newb with texting gloves.


Mississippi state flag. Tradition or racist past? You be the judge.


Mizzou PAT with less blur!


Also this local dad was with his ~four year old son watching the game. Early on the 4-yr old apparently greeted me with an Ole Miss greeting of "Hotty Toddy" and I just smiled because I didn't know what it meant. Later in the game, a happy Mizzou drunk was gradually trying to convert the kid to be a Mizzou fan. But in the middle of the 3rd Qtr. the kid had enough and yelled "I LIKE OLE MISS" at him. My g/f and I got a good laugh out of that one. We left after Mizzou was up 14 with 5 minutes left. Defense was great!

Leaving early helped us not get stuck after the game, and we head to Fitz to get a Philly Cheesesteak. My g/f left her purse in the car on accident, and of course she gets carded. She was not pleased. She grabbed her ID, we ate, and got back to the room around 2am.

Sunday:
Check out of Harrah's. Gamble at Harrah's to earn 20 Tier points, so we could get a "free" buffet which railroaded Paula Deen. We work on her card first. I scan video poker, and it's mostly a wasteland unless you want to play dollars. There are two old banks left with FP games, and one old Ultimate X unit left. The rest of the casino is a bunch of new, crap machines. I decide on 5c Ult X since they had 8/5 JoB. Hit these.


Even with these hits, I'm down $5 after about earning 15 points. My g/f is down $20. :-\

Go to Sam's Town for the tail-end of the Rams/Bears game and to play a free kiosk game. G/f gets crap; I get a t-shirt, meh. I play 9/6 JoB slowwwwwwwly while watching the game, I get nowhere fast.
Checkin to the Roadhouse and play free slot tourney. We both brick. Go back to Harrah's to play 20 more points and lost about $10 more between us, meh. One more hit:


As for the buffet, I thought it was passable, but it's definitely no Paula Deen. My g/f really didn't like it. She struggled to find things she actually wanted to eat! We won't be going back anytime soon.

Get back to the Roadhouse, and decide to start gambling about 10:30pm. My g/f conks out real early, and I make this my "binge night". I was also curious this whole trip about what they did to the machines at Roadhouse. Like I feared, they trashed most of them. No games above 9/6 JoB anymore! And no 9/6 DDB w/STP for quarters! They also tinkered with my beloved 2c Double STP game, changing the paytables, and getting rid the 2c option. DDB went from 9/5 to 7/5 now, but they added some other games.

Most paytables sucked, but they did have 6/5 Bonus, and 9/6/5 DB. Ugh, I hate DB, but that game is only 0.07% lower than 9/5 DDB, so c'est la vie. I learned to hold onto Ace-low straight draws pretty quickly I guess. :-\
Play for about 90 minutes with total garbage (I don't think I had even a boat yet), and then I hit this:

Note the kicker, of course. So this keeps me afloat, and I get two more quads in about 2 more hours of play. Even with the Aces, still was down $20 that night, but I was nice and toasty. Double STP is definitely a fickle temptress.

Monday:
Wake up about 9:30 and it's cold and drizzling. We begrudgingly drag ourselves to Resorts because if you show up before noon, you can get a free spin of 3 credits on a Double Diamond dollar slot. Whatever you hit, you win in freeplay. I say if she doesn't want to walk out in the cold rain, we could just go to Sam's Town, which has a garage. She still wants to go to Resorts first. So we do, watch someone hit a cherry for $6, so there is some hope. She picks the other machine than him. She gets a Bar...okay...Double Diamond...better...and another Double Diamond to highlight the trip!! I obviously got nothing.



So in a much better mood, we go to Sam's Town to eat the buffet (decent for $10), and play at "Penny Lane". These are a set of penny machines that give you extra bonus games for playing. Well, the problem was it took about $100 coin-in to get one of these. Took us $40 (me -$25) and over an hour to complete. Never do this. Our reward 500 points ($0.50 comps...fml).

So now we go back to Resorts to play off the $120 of freeplay. And we mostly pick random slots to play since she likes slots more than VP. We got off to a good start, but later on, tailed off. She gave me $20 to devote to VP, and I immediately play the best quarter game there (15/10 Double Deuces w/prog 98.86%+). The progressive was at $1340 (99.48%), not bad since it was about $1020 on Fri. night when we first got to town. I can't do any better than a Straight. $20 in. $7.50 out. By the time it was all said and done, we got $70 of $120 back, g/f was majorly bummed.

Take a quick break, go over to the $7 Fitz buffet on Mondays. The stir-fry station was good as usual, and we run off to the Memphis Grizzlies game. We make a wrong turn on a detour and end up seeing tons of cops. One of them shine a light in our car. Sorry bud, your fugitive isn't in our car. :Þ Fortunately, we don't get shot, go to the game, nothing exciting, and drove home along I-55 instead.

Go to the Shoe to play a little because they had a 10X Slot/5X VP multiplier. Play a little slots, have small wins. Get bored, move over to STP. Play best game available, 6/5 Bonus. Hit this:


Where were you 8 hours ago when hitting that would be worth $500?!?!? Play a little bit at Roadhouse, lose what I won at Horseshoe. Call it an early night.

Tuesday: Wake up early, can't fall back asleep. So I go down and play for a bit at 730am. Didn't hit much, $20 in the hole at Double STP. Only decent hit:

Take $15 over to the 100-penny progressive unit and take a chance. Wanted to play Boner Deluxe for a bit this trip and settled for 8/6 since they got rid of 9/6 on the floor. Nothing good, so switch to 9/6 JoB, more losing, so now down $35 by 9am.

So all in all for the trip I lost about $100 playing mostly nickels...meh. With the free play win, my g/f came home about a $30 winner. Not as good luck this time, but still had a good time.

Had better luck at Hollywood on Thanksgiving up about $90.




Hit this one when the Village People were singing "YMCA". Four Queens! :evillaugh


Up about $40, and wanted to slow down my play while waiting around for others. A discussion on videopoker.com earlier this week about Double Bonus Deuces Wild made me want to play the game. Glad I did.
One of these days, I'll hit one of these on quarters...



And almostttt the Royal:


Definitely a welcome rebound!

 

Nice hits! And LOL at the Village People / 4 queens reference