Massacre at Pechanga

[Tedlark]

Last weekend I went out to southern California for meetings Monday and Tuesday. Getting in on Sunday I decided to drive to Pechanga Casino for some play.

The casino itself is big and expansive. There were lots of slots to choose from but the video poker selection I saw was a bit weak. I didn't find too many new games and I was hooping to find some DreamCard but no such luck.

I brought 5k with me and decided to just go for 3 run home runs or better. I sat down at a 3/5 machine that was either $1.00 or $2.00 denomination and I began play at the $1.00 level playing 5 play TDB. Not hitting much I switched to Deuces Wild and I still wasn't hitting anything. A guy playing the machine next to me was playing SDDB and was dealt trip queens and nailed 2 of 5 hands for a nice handpay of just over $1,250.00.

I started switching denominations but I still wasn't hitting anything. I was hitting small quads here and there but no premium hands. The guy who hit the queens left so I jumped over to the machine he was playing because he did hit a couple more 4oaks. I thought maybe I'd finally hit something.

A man sat down right next to me at the machine I just left and he proceeded to begin 3 handed play at a $2.00 denomination. He was hitting some small quads and then, bam: dealt aces. He didn't catch any kickers and for a guy who was just about to be handed $4,800.00 he sure was doing quite a bit of complaining. I congratulated him and went on with my play.

I went to the bathroom and came back, right after he hit quad 2's with a 4, another hand pay of $4,000.00 for him. He stuck around to play out the "small change" as he called it that was left on the machine and he was gone.

I jumped back onto that machine and during the second time I was playing it I, again, didn't hit a darn premium quad. I hit a couple straight flushes and small quads at the 2 dollar level but the two machines beat me up pretty good.

I then decided to take my newly appointed slot host up on the offer of a comped buffet and I had some pretty good prime rib.

After eating I found some All Star II machines but they were taken. There was an open Ultimate X game sandwiched between the two All Star II machines so I decided to small play the Ultimate X, hoping to wait out for one of the All Star II machines. Playing 10 play TDB at .05 denomination I took the machine up to a nice little run up of about $700.00, mainly because I caught quad aces for 9,600 credits.

One of the All Star II machines opened up so I jumped on it. I started playing 10 hand TDB at the .25 denom. I did hit AWAK for 1k relatively quickly but that did little recoup what I had lost earlier in the day. After playing for a little while longer I did hit quad 2's with a kicker and quad 4's with a kicker for $500.00 each. I managed to dump about $500.00 back into the machine before deciding to quit that machine.

I walked around for a minute and I wanted another crack at the machine that wiped me out earlier in the day. I sat down and stuffed $500.00 in and began play, 5 hand TDB at $2.00 denom. My $500.00 started disappearing and after losing $300.00 I was mercifully given quad 2's with no kicker for $800.00. I decided to take the $300.00 profit and call it a night.

So, a losing session overall to the tune of $2,500.00. It could have been MUCH worse if I hadn't caught the AWAK on the .25 denom machine.

Much to my dismay, smoking was allowed in the casino and I wasn't happy to find that out the hard way. Oh well.....on to the next winning session.

[alpax]

Title sounded really scary to me like it was some gang activity going on. Thanks for sharing your trip report to this casino.

EDIT: Unfortunately the damage has been done already, I could have told you where to find single line Dreamcard had I known you were planning on making a trip there.

If you wanted a decent multiline TDB, it would have been Split Card Poker without the bonus feature enabled.

[FAA]

Sorry to hear. Half a bankroll remains and I suspect that you will have a break even trip. I couldn't handle a tenth of that loss. 

[DAAnMAAn]

Thanks for sharing the trip report. Sometimes we are the bug and sometimes we are the windshield. Never more true than in playing  video poker.Cheers

[olds442jetaway]

Bummer Ted. Just got back from one of those trips myself. Similar in amount and I hit 0 premium hands. I like Dan's bug and windshield analogy, but I wish we both were the windshield. The only heart thumper I had was on the DDS machine. Dealt 4 to a royal with ten quarters bet. If the last card were the king of hearts, ten grand would have been mine. Not to be. We'll get em next time I hope.

[Tedlark]

Yep Olds and FAA, at some point my emotions took charge and I was bound and determined to not let the machine beat me.

I've decided that if I'm there again I'd rather just add 2 hours drive time and go to Las Vegas instead of Pechanga. I kicked that around for that Sunday but because I would have been driving to Las Vegas at 11:00 am with arrival at possibly 2:00 pm, it wouldn't have given me much play time before I had to drive back.

Yep, we'll get 'em next time. Still up for the year though and quite happy about that.

[FAA]

I wouldn't return to the abandoned machine after it paid $8,800 to the next player. But we get possessed by emotional angst and become resigned to going down the rabbit hole. Massacre is the right word. But we simply must leave when it's not our day.

[onemoretry]

   Still up for the year though and quite happy about that.And, that's what matters the most, because despite the fact that a player knows what they're doing, and plays accurately, there are going to be days when not much good happens, and they suffer a severe beating.

It's good that you are still ahead, despite the $2500 kicking.

[Chicagoan]

Exactly. There have been many casino trips where a losing day hurt, but looking at your position YTD is the only way to go. Losing days are part of the price for a winning year.

[FAA]

Then I better have a winning fourth quarter. The first was great, the second middling, the third brutal.