Ok time to finish this off. TBH I delayed because while the trip overall was more fun than I thought it would be and at our peak we were covering our expenses plus about a $400 profit. But the trip ended so badly I didn't even want to think about it for a few days.
So good morning Iowa! Had to get up early Tuesday as we had about a 3 hour drive to Harrahs North Kansas City, then play about 2 hours then 4 hour drive to St. Louis then play another 2 hours. Also we didn't know how long we would be waiting to get on a table.
We drove around back for a shot of the riverboat casino before leaving Council Bluffs.
Hello Harrahs North Kansas City!
As we feared, when we showed up around noon, there were two tables running and no seats. So I wandered downstairs to check out the craps table. Finally decided to place 6 and 8 and was about even when the floor came over looking for 'Rob'. The poker room had kindly called downstairs looking for me. I stayed until 8 hit again putting me up $5 and I pulled my chips and went upstairs.
As in my earlier post, my wife stacked me early with A high and then I went on a tear, recovering my losses.
This was about my peak. Notice empty seat to my right because I took all his chips on b2b hands.
Nice display of antique slot machines.
1-2nl
mmoose +$157
moose +$52 +$5 craps
While at the table we asked the dealers and players for recommendations for some good Kansas City bbq. This place was called Smokehouse and was awesome. It's a small chain in Kansas City so we picked one that was on our route out of town.
Lunch for two. $20 for this platter.
Food: $28
Ok on to Harrahs St. Louis. Pulled in just as the sun was setting.
A sunrise to sunset day of travelling and gambol.
Outside there were these weird birds, kind of like morning doves except they were twittering away like mad. Every tree had every branch covered with these things.
Ok on to poker on the inside.
Harrahs St. Louis has been sold to Hollywood Casino and the transfer over takes place in a few months. So the place kind of had this depressing air about it. The chips were completely grimy too. This started the bad run. Couldn't find a way to win at this place.
1-2nl
mmoose -$8
moose -$376
Fuel: $41.01, $3.699 ga, 625.6 km
This wiped out most of our profits on the trip. Ugh.
Ok goodbye St. Louis. Another tough drive today 3.5 hours to Harrahs Metropolis, no poker except on weekends so we have to stuff $125 ea in slot machines and hope for the best. Then 4 hours to Horseshoe Elizabeth to meet up with Courage from Chiptalk.
Hello Arch.
Did not see Chris Carpenter.
Goodbye St. Louis. On to Kentucky!
Harrahs Metropolis. Slot hell.
Slots suck. Only good thing was we were in and out of there in 20 min.
slots
mmoose -$71.25
moose -$72
food: $10.26
Ok time to reverse the flow of cash. Rungood Subway!
The mighty Ohio river. The riverboat was back there by the bridge, if you compare with the photo above.
Horseshoe Elizabeth, just across the river from Louisville, KY. Put on my UK shirt, specifically bought earlier that day to piss off the locals (ie Courage).
This was one of the nicest casinos and the best rooms of the trip. Only problem is that it is ridiculously far from the hotel to the casino. Security guard told us 0.5 mi! They have moving walkways and if you are lucky you can catch a security guard on a golf cart and get a ride. Once you reach the restaurant area, it is still another escalator down to get into the riverboat and then the poker room is another 4 levels down from there. Stupid far.
The hotel is still waaay to the right of this shot.
Bunch of turkeys out the back of the hotel.
Crappy ceramic chips. Dealers ranged from too nitty to too friendly. We had this totally drunk guy at our table who had to pick up his cards to see them. Dumb ass dealer warned him about exposing his cards to his neighbour and then called the floor immediately when the player spoke back to the dealer. Serious a-hole dealer.
Not going too well for me at 3-6 limit.
mmoose saved the night for us winning a monster pot. Now we had a dealer that was far too friendly. Was telling us how much a player had lost the night before and from his reactions was clearly indicating to the table that he knew that mmoose was holding the nuts in a hand. That seriously pissed me off. At least the locals were too stupid to notice the faces the dealer was making and they both paid her off on the river, after she flopped broadway. Seriously dealer, STFU.
The casino was only dropping $4 + jackpot. Each day has different promos. Thursday was splashed pot, which our table got twice, but we personally got none of.
Final day of gambol. 6.5 hours to Horseshoe Cleveland.
One of my favourite views in the US - crossing over from Kentucky into Cincinnati Ohio.
Good timing for us. Didn't know the Indians had a day game, which they won in 10 innings. Fortunately we pulled in about 4:30 pm and the game traffic had pretty much cleared, though most intersections downtown had cops still directing the traffic.
Embassy Suites hotel. Good sized suite overall but the layout was so cramped that you couldn't open the bathroom room door without hitting the toliet. WTF?
To save time, after getting approval for casinos in Ohio, Caesar's built it into an old downtown department store.
Awesome poker room. Just too freaking cold! Poker only on the entire floor.
Beautiful room. They just need some more organization and experience. Called mmoose 3x for her seat at 3-6, only the first two times she went to the table and there was no seat. For a huge room they do not have a big enough cage. Lines to get chips was stupid. As with the other Horseshoe casinos, there was a promo of earning 25 points to get a free buffet in Sept. 1.5 hours of poker will do it. Nice buffet. When we came back there was free sandwiches and salads for the players spread out at the desk. So this was the third day we had eaten for free - Hammond, Southern Indiana (Elizabeth) and Cleveland.
The dealers were pretty much terrible. I guess many of the dealers who opened the room had left already since we kept getting dealers with only a couple days experience. Useless. They didn't know the rules, and dealt horribly slow.
Ended up being another horrible day for us.
Capper to the night we when my KK when down to 5-2 that went 4 bets preflop. I had seen the guy do that before on another table from the button. Of course against me, it worked when he made trip 5s. Fuck me what a way to end the gambol.
3-6 (full kill)
mmoose: -$91
moose: -$122
Should note that all the Caesars properties drop a $1 jackpot. Rake varied from low $4 at Horseshoe SI to high $6 at Horseshoe Cleveland, which makes the 3-6 virtually unbeatable. All places allowed button straddle, except Cleveland. The 3-6 had either automatic kill (Hammond, Cleveland), optional kill (Council Bluffs) or no kill (SI).
Every place was playing 17 tier points per hour for 3-6, 1-2nl. There was comps too but unknown what each place paid specifically.
In order from L to R and T to B, the casino's we visited. Nothing from Metropolis, since we only played slots there. Horseshoe Hammond had the nicest chips, Horseshoe Cleveland had the newest but the fake shaped black inlays were annoying. Horseshoe SI was probably the nicest overall but why the crappy ceramics?
In order from L to R and T to B, the casino's we visited. Nothing from Metropolis, since we only played slots there. Horseshoe Hammond had the nicest chips, Horseshoe Cleveland had the newest but the fake shaped black inlays were annoying. Horseshoe SI was probably the nicest overall but why the crappy ceramics?
Comments
So good morning Iowa! Had to get up early Tuesday as we had about a 3 hour drive to Harrahs North Kansas City, then play about 2 hours then 4 hour drive to St. Louis then play another 2 hours. Also we didn't know how long we would be waiting to get on a table.
We drove around back for a shot of the riverboat casino before leaving Council Bluffs.
Hello Harrahs North Kansas City!
As we feared, when we showed up around noon, there were two tables running and no seats. So I wandered downstairs to check out the craps table. Finally decided to place 6 and 8 and was about even when the floor came over looking for 'Rob'. The poker room had kindly called downstairs looking for me. I stayed until 8 hit again putting me up $5 and I pulled my chips and went upstairs.
As in my earlier post, my wife stacked me early with A high and then I went on a tear, recovering my losses.
This was about my peak. Notice empty seat to my right because I took all his chips on b2b hands.
Nice display of antique slot machines.
1-2nl
mmoose +$157
moose +$52 +$5 craps
While at the table we asked the dealers and players for recommendations for some good Kansas City bbq. This place was called Smokehouse and was awesome. It's a small chain in Kansas City so we picked one that was on our route out of town.
Lunch for two. $20 for this platter.
Food: $28
Ok on to Harrahs St. Louis. Pulled in just as the sun was setting.
A sunrise to sunset day of travelling and gambol.
Outside there were these weird birds, kind of like morning doves except they were twittering away like mad. Every tree had every branch covered with these things.
Ok on to poker on the inside.
Harrahs St. Louis has been sold to Hollywood Casino and the transfer over takes place in a few months. So the place kind of had this depressing air about it. The chips were completely grimy too. This started the bad run. Couldn't find a way to win at this place.
1-2nl
mmoose -$8
moose -$376
Fuel: $41.01, $3.699 ga, 625.6 km
This wiped out most of our profits on the trip. Ugh.
Hello Arch.
Did not see Chris Carpenter.
Goodbye St. Louis. On to Kentucky!
Harrahs Metropolis. Slot hell.
Slots suck. Only good thing was we were in and out of there in 20 min.
slots
mmoose -$71.25
moose -$72
food: $10.26
Ok time to reverse the flow of cash. Rungood Subway!
The mighty Ohio river. The riverboat was back there by the bridge, if you compare with the photo above.
Horseshoe Elizabeth, just across the river from Louisville, KY. Put on my UK shirt, specifically bought earlier that day to piss off the locals (ie Courage).
This was one of the nicest casinos and the best rooms of the trip. Only problem is that it is ridiculously far from the hotel to the casino. Security guard told us 0.5 mi! They have moving walkways and if you are lucky you can catch a security guard on a golf cart and get a ride. Once you reach the restaurant area, it is still another escalator down to get into the riverboat and then the poker room is another 4 levels down from there. Stupid far.
The hotel is still waaay to the right of this shot.
Bunch of turkeys out the back of the hotel.
Crappy ceramic chips. Dealers ranged from too nitty to too friendly. We had this totally drunk guy at our table who had to pick up his cards to see them. Dumb ass dealer warned him about exposing his cards to his neighbour and then called the floor immediately when the player spoke back to the dealer. Serious a-hole dealer.
Not going too well for me at 3-6 limit.
mmoose saved the night for us winning a monster pot. Now we had a dealer that was far too friendly. Was telling us how much a player had lost the night before and from his reactions was clearly indicating to the table that he knew that mmoose was holding the nuts in a hand. That seriously pissed me off. At least the locals were too stupid to notice the faces the dealer was making and they both paid her off on the river, after she flopped broadway. Seriously dealer, STFU.
The casino was only dropping $4 + jackpot. Each day has different promos. Thursday was splashed pot, which our table got twice, but we personally got none of.
3-6
mmoose: $210
moose: -$191
Fuel: $43, $3.69/ga, 692.1 km
Hopefully she continues in Vegas and you (and I) turn our fortunes around...
One of my favourite views in the US - crossing over from Kentucky into Cincinnati Ohio.
Good timing for us. Didn't know the Indians had a day game, which they won in 10 innings. Fortunately we pulled in about 4:30 pm and the game traffic had pretty much cleared, though most intersections downtown had cops still directing the traffic.
Embassy Suites hotel. Good sized suite overall but the layout was so cramped that you couldn't open the bathroom room door without hitting the toliet. WTF?
To save time, after getting approval for casinos in Ohio, Caesar's built it into an old downtown department store.
Awesome poker room. Just too freaking cold! Poker only on the entire floor.
Beautiful room. They just need some more organization and experience. Called mmoose 3x for her seat at 3-6, only the first two times she went to the table and there was no seat. For a huge room they do not have a big enough cage. Lines to get chips was stupid. As with the other Horseshoe casinos, there was a promo of earning 25 points to get a free buffet in Sept. 1.5 hours of poker will do it. Nice buffet. When we came back there was free sandwiches and salads for the players spread out at the desk. So this was the third day we had eaten for free - Hammond, Southern Indiana (Elizabeth) and Cleveland.
The dealers were pretty much terrible. I guess many of the dealers who opened the room had left already since we kept getting dealers with only a couple days experience. Useless. They didn't know the rules, and dealt horribly slow.
Ended up being another horrible day for us.
Capper to the night we when my KK when down to 5-2 that went 4 bets preflop. I had seen the guy do that before on another table from the button. Of course against me, it worked when he made trip 5s. Fuck me what a way to end the gambol.
3-6 (full kill)
mmoose: -$91
moose: -$122
Should note that all the Caesars properties drop a $1 jackpot. Rake varied from low $4 at Horseshoe SI to high $6 at Horseshoe Cleveland, which makes the 3-6 virtually unbeatable. All places allowed button straddle, except Cleveland. The 3-6 had either automatic kill (Hammond, Cleveland), optional kill (Council Bluffs) or no kill (SI).
Every place was playing 17 tier points per hour for 3-6, 1-2nl. There was comps too but unknown what each place paid specifically.
Next day home to Ontario! 5.5 hours.
Fuel: $34, 3.699/ga, 592.2 km
Totals:
gambol:
mmoose: $250.75
moose: -$451
Food: $38.26
Gas: $207.01
Hotels: $198.41
Total: -$643.93
Almost half of the $1500 in comps we were earning on the trip.
Have yet to figure out how much in comps and tier points earned during trip.
Gotta give you some great stories to tell... Love to hear them...
Tier points earned: 383
RC Credits earned: -452 (-$4.52)
moose
Tier points earned: 380
RC Credits earned: 1568 ($15.68)
In order from L to R and T to B, the casino's we visited. Nothing from Metropolis, since we only played slots there. Horseshoe Hammond had the nicest chips, Horseshoe Cleveland had the newest but the fake shaped black inlays were annoying. Horseshoe SI was probably the nicest overall but why the crappy ceramics?
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