Whiskey Pete's - Gold Spike

Cheapskate special. 3/29-4/1 Three nights. First night at Whiskey Pete's in Primm...second night at the Gold Spike downtown...back to Whiskey Pete's for the third Night.

1) Accomodations-

Whiskey Pete's- same as always, clean decent room. Has those connecting rooms, but we were lucky to get a quiet neighbor. We were dissapointed to get turned down for a late checkout. The clerk explained that since we were checking out friday and they were sold out that night we couldn't checkout late.

Gold Spike- The Room was nicer than the casino. No cable TV. Bars of soap but no shampoo. The room wasn't ready until 4 PM(on a Wednesday).
Don't think we will be staying there again. However I won't totally rule it out.

2) Gambling-

Tuesday-
Hit a Royal Flush at Buffalo Bill's for $1000 an hour after checking in at Whiskey Pete's and buying the kids Unlimited ride passes. 25c 8/5 bonus poker machine. Nice start!! Also caught 4 deuces on a deuces wild machine for $250 an hour after that. Not much luck later that night at Whiskey Pete's... My wife was losing on nickel slots at both places.

Wednesday-

Gold Spike- Lost at various nickel video poker games..none had a good pay table. Finally found a good paying pick'em video poker. Near the entrance to the Copper mine on a 5c multi game VP machine. Had a payoff of 10 coins per 5 bet for 9's or better and 55 coins per 5 bet for a straight. Lost at Blackjack. Barrick Gaming still hasn't put a players club at the Spike.

Lady Luck- Thought I would get a players card and pump some coin in to see if any room offers will be forthcoming. Got a fun book that had a 500 free point offer if you earn 500 points. There were several 25c 9/6 Jacks or Better machines with that annoying double up feature(slows things down). Did OK on them but it was obvious I wasn't going to earn 500 points without putting in some time. So, like an idiot I switched to a $1 8/5 Jacks or better machine. About $300 dollars later I finally got the 500 points. After reading the Players club rules, I could've earned it faster by playing slots. $4 per point for VP and $1 per point for slots.

My wife gambled only at the gold spike. Hit a jackpot in the penny area for 12,000 pennies.

Thursday-

Hit another Royal Flush for $1000 at Buffalo Bill's. 25c Aces bonus poker machine. WOW, I'm sure this will never happen again in my lifetime. 2 royal flushes on one trip.

3) Food-

Had a couple of decent Prime rib specials in Primm for $5.99 after several tough prime ribs.

Whiskey Pete's coffee shop closed around 11 PM so the only option between 11PM and 6AM was the Hot Dog at the bar. Patooey!

Lady Luck- $4.99 late night Rib eye staek and eggs. OK, but wouldn't go out of my way for it. The cook was real slow. The sourdough bread was excellent!

Binion's- $10.99 Steak and Lobster special. Pretty good! Smallish steak brushed with garlic and spices and OK sized lobster. I'd buy it again!

Main Street Station- Lunch Buffet. Excellent! Can't wait to try the dinner buffet. Enjoyed actually touching a piece of the Berlin Wall in the bathroom.

4) Drinks-

I tip a dollar a drink. Usually Beer or Virgin Mary's depending on if I have to drive or not.

Buffalo Bill's- Good drink service.

Whiskey Pete's- drink service brutally slow at times. Seems like a shortage of waitresses.

Lady Luck- No complaints.

Gold Spike- Ordered the 40 ounce draft. The waitress explained that the 40 ounce was no longer free for gamblers. I didn't want to be waiting for drinks so I paid for the first one,plus tip. There did seem to be fewer "interesting people" in the copper mine...perhaps due to the new rules on the 40 ounce draft.

Side Note: At the Gold Spike I was Playing the VP machine next to the side door. I liked it because it had one of those ash trays with sand in it. The girl who came to fix a slot machine remarked to the lady next to me about how she had been playing all day. She asked the lady if she had gotten a meal comp. The lady said no and the girl wrote out a comp.

Summary- Great gambling trip. Ate some decent food. I'm guessing between myself and my wife we put about 10,000 coin in at Primm. That should get us some nice offers in the mail. Will see if $2000 coin in video poker at Lady Luck gets any offers.

 

2 royals in 1 trip is awesome!! Congratulations!

I checked out Primm my last Vegas trip and took the monorail between the 3 properties. The place was packed on Sunday President's Day weekend, especially Buffalo Bill's. Nice way to spend an afternoon. The drive out on I 15 is pleasant.

I'm guessing you will get some nice mailers.

 

Are there no 24 hour restaurants in any of the 3 Primm resorts?

andrew, 25 days to go

 

Andrew,

The sign that said Whiskey Pete's coffee shop was closed, also said that the coffee shops at Primm Valley and Buffalo Bill's were 24 hours.

 

Thanks for the interesting trip report. After getting stuck in Primm due to snow on the freeway on my last trip, I was curious how things are there.

One question though... what does 1000 points get you at the Lady Luck?

 

Lady Luck brochure says 2000 bonus points = $14 cash. That is the minimum cash back redemtion.

It also has this paragraph ,which I don't quite understand.......

"Turn your bonus points into cash and earn comp dollars for use in the restaurants and gift shop. Redeeming bonus points does not affect comp dollars".

Best i can figure out the return is 0.175%. That puts the lady luck into a very average range.

Since it was next to where we were staying at the Gold Spike, I just gave it a try. Let's see if I get any room offers.

I may give the Golden Nugget a shot as according to VP free, their players club gives out about 0.33%

http://members.cox.net/vpfree/GolN.htm

 

Follow up.....

Have since received mailers from both Primm and the Lady Luck.

Lady Luck- They sent me a publication called "Lucky Times". The only offer is between May 1 and Sep. 1, 2005 you can call for a reservation and ask for the "cool summer rates". Says the rate can be used over and over again between those two dates. Rates as low as $12.95. No mention whether it's a manor or tower room.

Conclusion- I don't know if all the players club members get this mailing. Seems like the $2000 coin in was a waste. I suspect I may get a free room offer in December or some other "off season" time.

Primm- received a "Spring Forward Getaway" mailing. 2 free midweek nights in May and 2 free Midweek nights in June. Also $10 free gas in May and $10 free gas in June.

Conclusion- Seems similar to what I usually get so I don't know if the $10,000 coin in upgraded me at all. The last concert I see scheduled is Kenny Rogers in May so maybe all offers for that one have been sent out. Still Primm has sent me the best offers followed by the Gold Coast. I'll give the Silveron a shot and if they don't measure up I'll split my time between Primm and the Gold Coast.

 

Two royals wow I would definatly call that a good trip gambling wise!

 

Update.

Update on the comps situation....

Primm

Primm has since sent two offers for concerts and weekend free stays. Seems the $10,000 coin in did the trick. We took advantage of the John Michael Montgomery Concert. Tickets were seventh row on the floor! Included with the concert and free weekend rooms was $10 free at the concert snack bar. We got 2 beers and a water.

On that trip we were only able to pump about $4,000 through the machines. We haven't received a concert offer since. We did receive the customary 2 weekday nights free +$10 gas during July and August. Seems like $10K coin-in per trip might be the threshold to get the better offers.

Lady Luck

Received an offer for 2 free weekday nights good thru Sep 14th,2005. Doesn't say if it is tower room or Garden/manor room. So it seems the 2K coin in got something.

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Looks like we may do an August trip. We could do 2 nights free at Primm and 2 nights free at the Lady Luck, but me and the wife have decided that whatever we do, making 10K coin in at Primm is a must. The special treatment we got on that concert weekend was too good to pass up in the future.