Bowling for Dollars! Tunica Oct. 2014

[Vman96]

Saturday Oct. 25th:

Drive seemed like more of a grind this time as I didn't seemed as pumped to go down there. Not sure why I felt that way... Weather is a crazy 85+ degrees on the way down. Make it down there and check in to Gold Strike was great thanks to timing. We initially requested a king non-smoking with no adjoining door away from the elevator. Well apparently the guy that checked us in couldn't find a reg. room with an adjoining door, so he upgraded us to a Jr. suite! Would I pay extra for this? Nah, but the bigger room/bathroom was nice! Too bad that suite didn't have a jetted tub!

Our initial plans were to go to Resorts because it sounded like they had a hot seat promo. But once we got settled in, actually neither of us were feeling the gambling itch much. So we actually stayed in the room to watch Royals and Ole Miss and just relaxed. Both of those results were depressing, and the g/f was already asleep before the games ended. I just laid in bed for awhile. As time went on though, I started thinking, why the hell did we come here tonight if I wasn't going to see any of Tunica on Saturday night?

So at 1 am...lol...I finally leave the room. Get carded on very first attempt to enter at in the casino. I was initially going to play at Gold Strike bars, but they were packed. Play a little quarter 9/7 Double Bonus (99.11%) and hit and run it for $5. Move over to Horseshoe. The bar near the poker room offered nickel 9/6/4 Double Bonus w/Double Super Times Pay (96.86% w/DSTP) with Lazy Magnolia Southern Pecan Nut Brown Ale, which I actually hadn't had yet.   Not a huge fan of brown ales, but this one was very drinkable to me. Looking on their website, 4.39% ABV might help explain that...haha It's much milder than something like Newcastle.



Unfortunately I paid for the beers there as I couldn't get much of anything going. Quadless in a couple of hours, this one hit helped keep the beers within “retail”:



Wander back over to Gold Strike, grab a Bud and eventually make my way to their 8/5 DDB w/DSTP (97.27% w/DSTP) was able to hit this and some other things to help pad my win to $20 there:



The lady next to me also hit a 4X quad for $50 while playing 7 lines. Nice to see both of us winning. I end up $5 in play for the day when I go back to bed around 4:15am...oops.

Sunday Oct. 26th:

Today was centered on making our biggest attempt at a promo play in Tunica. Fitz had a “Wii Bowling Tournament” for those who earned 100 Points for the day ($500 coin-in slots/$1000 coin-in VP). Each week, they were giving away $7000 in Free Play. $1000 to the winner, and $25 or more that finished at least in the top 70.

Fitz has some good VP selections to try this promo, so I thought it would be worth it, especially if I practiced my “bowling” at home. Well, that previous Wednesday, I practiced so much, I pulled some muscles, yay. By Friday, not totally healed, I get a few more sessions in and bowl as high as 262. But was typically more in the 180s.

Now back to Sunday, we go to Fitz to have one of their nice Philly cheesesteaks for lunch. The cafe has been redone though. The Philly is still on the menu, but the price has went up by $2, dammit. Then we attempt to earn the points for at least one of us. I immediately go to the 100-play machine as they have 98.8% Bonus Deuces for nickels. I run like complete garbage, losing $20 very quickly. Deuces were scarce, and I saw many natural 3 of a kinds...ugh. I started to stabilize a bit later on, but I was still down $48 on the game with a little less than $200 coin-in. Not the Royals I want, but they'll have to do...



My g/f hit this while next to me.



I decide to move downstairs to the quarter coin-droppers with 9/6 Jacks (99.54%). Fortunately, my luck started to turn quickly on these things, getting dealt winners with ridiculous frequency. Many two pairs, and I converted to full houses better than average. During this, I was also able to pull this off:.



So now, I was $40 up on this unit. I wish I was the guy playing the 9/5 White Hot Aces (99.57%) game next to me though. He hits quad 4s and 8s for $212.50 total in about 4 hands. I was a little surprised the machine had enough quarters to pay him when he quit.   I keep playing. No more quads until I cash out, but I play for at least another hour on the machine and stay $40 up. But I am noticing it is taking awhile to earn points on this game since you have to refuse to “double up” every time. So I got the classic pleasure of hearing clink, clink, clink of $60 in quarters.

Now I'm 3/5th of the way done, and I'm thirsty.   Fitz drink service notoriously sucks, so I belly up to the bar for a brief session, while I get a drink. It was a good choice:



Two Quad Jacks in a row!! My first dealt quad in almost 6 months! A nice $62.50 padding! So after hitting that with a few more bricks, I cash out of that unit up $50. And head to the high limit room to actually play dollars. Me? Dollars? Well, the games are faster... and this is Fitz's JoB game at dollars: 500/9/6 JoB (98.88% for any bet)



Unfortunately, that's the best hand I could pull off, and lose $17, but I earn about another 17 points in the process. So go back to the quarter coin-dropper JoB machine, and unfortunately doesn't treat me as well as it was earlier. But with about 5 points to go, it all of a sudden decides to spit out this letting me leave the machine up ten.



So by the time it is all said and done, I'm up about $40. The g/f though didn't do nearly as well and was down $35. But now we have the entry at least!

Unfortunately, the way they organized it a mess. They promoted that it would be held in one place, but actually it wasn't and there were no signs redirecting you. And then we missed the registration booth after we went to where the tourney was actually held. So we wasted a little time watching others bowl. And saw one guy get a 256, I started to question what I was getting into...ugh

We finally find where to register, and we had to wait 90 minutes to play. So we go check-in at the Tunica Roadhouse where we were staying for the rest of the trip, and run a couple of other errands.

Get back to Fitz to bowl. I quickly realize with their setup, I can't spin the ball for anything. They had been letting people have a couple of practice frames if they wish, so I took that. On my restart, I keep trying to spin the ball for strikes again, nah, I can't do it. So now I have to adjust on the fly and mostly throw my much more straight delivery I use for spares. Fortunately, I get a a bit of a groove in the end and finish with a 186, not terrible since I had to switch styles on the fly. And with only 3 TVs max being used and 6 hours of tourney play, I was pretty sure this would be good enough for some money at least. We watched a few people bowl sub 100 in other games.

So we now run off to play in the Tunica Roadhouse free slot tourney. Fail. Go eat burgers at Sonic. Eventually end up back at Fitz because they also had a random drawing for all the participants. 10 names would be drawn to get anywhere from $150 to $500.

While waiting for the drawing, the g/f gets into the Jacks act:



Nope, wasn't called. But the dude who bowled 300 (and locked up $1000) got another $150 from the drawing...jeez.

So after that, it was a mess for them to post the scores. We learn the freeplay was good for a week. So we just plan to come back tomorrow.

So now we run off to Sam's Town to catch the tail end of the Royals game and Sunday night football since she likes that place better than Resorts. The Double Deuces progressive is the best thing I like about Resorts. But at least one of my favorite bartenders is there at Sam's, and they have 9/6 JoB at the bar. Sports were no good. Also by the way it sounds, I hear a yelp, and I think some other guy got a Royal...bleh. Not me. Wasn't doing so hot, until I hit this. The g/f was there, and I told her I bet I hit this before hitting the draw button (since we didn't go to Resorts), sure enough...



But at least I was up now, and she wanted to get going as the games were over. But I insisted on checking another Ultimate X machine I couldn't earlier. That was a good move as that added about another $20 to the tally. Was up about $30 at Sam's total.

G/f isn't feeling well, so she goes up to bed. I stay down at the Roadhouse for awhile to play 9/6/5 Double Bonus w/DSTP (98.30%). Got off to a good start:



And then 15 minutes later...yep, we should have really went to Resorts. But at least this felt like hitting 4 Deuces at Deuces Wild thanks to the multiplier.



And look at the cards I pulled at Sam's Town and the Roadhouse. Both the 2 of clubs and the 6 of spades! Lol

Unfortunately I cooled off pretty big after that, as this was the only other thing I could hit. One more Ace would have been nice...



A couple late night teases...





By the end, I think I was only up about $10 at the Roadhouse...pretty bad considering the start. For the day, up about $80.

Monday Oct. 27th:

Wake up to the damn fire alarm at 7:30am!!! If some jerk set this off, I want to punch him in the face. Eventually it gets silenced and we can reenter. I eventually go back to bed but it takes awhile.

Later go to town, eat Chili's and shop a bit. G/f can't win at Chili's, they overdo her fries three times... and server is slow. Go back to the Roadhouse for a bit. Do another free slot tourney. Fail. Go to Fitz to see how much slot play I got. I got 18th place which was good for $100 by a couple of pins! You had to get in the mid-130s to get $25. The guy we watched bowl 256 got 3rd for $400 maybe? I forget. In the future, I'll be hopefully trying again!

Before eating Fitz's $7 Monday buffet, we start to play off the freeplay. But first, I forgot I didn't have a PIN set up for this place! Long ago, we were stupid and had another employee get us cards. So get the PIN reset and hustle to the 100-play nickels (or pennies if I chose that to lower variance). See they also have 9/5 JoB for nickels and 9/6 TDB that videopoker.com member wanted me to try. Unfortunately, that game had an issue accepting free play. So I grind it off on various other nickel VP and some slots I like to dabble in from time to time.

At this point, we've played off $30, and holding our own, and I decide to try this new Star Trek machine. This time I get another error. This time, telling me I have exceeded my available balance of free play when I typed in $5 and only saw one 5 on the display. So I assume that was another screw up, and move on. Now my g/f wants to throw in $5 into a “Mr. Cashman” machine, and I say sure while I go back to nickel STP.

A minute later, she stands up and talks to me. She looks freaked out. Well apparently, this machine had a similar issue as the “Star Trek” machine and put extra 5s that she couldn't see, but this time she only input one extra 5, so it accepted a request for $55 of free play. She feels terrible, and sees if pulling the card out would possibly cancel the freeplay. Nope. We could possibly call someone to possibly fix it, but that also might be more hassle than it's worth. She feels terrible, and I'm not thrilled on the inside either, but I calmly tell her, “Let's just play it off.” So I finish my $5 at the STP cashing out $6.40 and move to sit next to her.

Early on she gets off to a good start, with a few $4 hits for a quarter. Since she pulled the card out and back in, the bonus counter went away, and us forgetting that we just needed 11 points to play through, we cash out winnings frequently instead just to play it once through. After the good start, the machine seems to cool off quite a bit, and now I am worried if we will even get half back at times. I was able to snag one Cashman bonus for $5 at least. And a couple more $4 bonuses followed near the end to help out. We took about an hour to play the $55 off. At this point, if I got the state minimum return of 80%, I was going to be happy. But fortunately, the many cashouts threw us off on how we were doing and we actually got $51.12 of $55 back (92.9%). I'll take it!!

I decide to take $5 of the last $15 of freeplay and put it in this:



That helps!

Now it was after 7:30 and we wanted to go the buffet. Pretty good, but they definitely spiced up random side dishes. They even spiced up Baked Ziti? That was too hot for the g/f. Finish eating, and play off the rest.   I was going to try 9/6 TDB too with my own money, but some lady was on it, and wasn't getting off it soon. Final Tally: $100.10. We profited a dime...lol

Even though Resorts has a 5X multiplier from 7-10p with all the deuces I hit, I pretty much figure I should stay away from Resorts. We go to Bally's instead and both get a Abita Jockamo IPA.



The VP highlight from Bally's? You guessed it. This time by my g/f though...would have been nice it was from me though as I was max betting like a snail.



But fortunately her 2 of clubs came with the 3 of diamonds instead and she was thrilled with a $40 bump with the “kicker”. I was planning to play Airport Deuces w/STP (99.19% w/STP) there, but both units were taken, and again, I dunno if we have any more deuces left in us!

So now we go back to Horseshoe because they have a minimum 10X slot multiplier and guaranteed 5X multiplier on VP that day. We both get carded this time, and for the first time ever, our Ids get scanned with a pocket scanner!!! I'm guessing Mississippi is trying to put the smack down on underage gaming.

She gets 12X on the slots and goes off to play those. With the Lazy Magnolia beer sitting there, I can't justify the slots. Maybe I should have though. I have no hits at the bar and lose about $20 She wins about $30 more at Horseshoe though at least.




She wants to play at Gold Strike for a bit, and I want to go to the Roadhouse. She loses $10 at Gold Strike. She plays a bit at the Roadhouse with me, and I was sitting next to a guy that is banging out 5 hands of nickels of 7/5 DDB w/DSTP (96.20% w/DSTP). He earns 1000 Tier Credits on that unit. He was obviously there before I was, but if he played nickels the whole time, I wonder how long that took.    He also wouldn't hold 2346...instead he would just hold a 2...what???

My g/f gets another garden variety quad, so she is able to play for awhile.



We also note there is a guy that is playing 10-line Ultimate X for quarters across the way, and I wanted to outlast him and his bored, watching wife. Speaking of bored ~wives, my g/f is about ready to conk out being up $5 at Roadhouse and playing past 1am. I want to keep playing of course. Should I have? No. I keep losing. Now I am down about $40 when Ultimate X guy leaves. That was a waste.

Then I see the 9/6 JoB penny progressive (2 units; max bet $1) has skyrocketed from $838 to $945 (99.93%) in about 30 hours (that's about $43k total coin-in). I really dunno how it's moved up so fast... And one seat is now open. The other seat looks to be occupied by the guy that probably helped jack up the meter by the way he was banging at it. I couldn't hit anything though. In my drunken haze, I think the other guy was also stupid enough to throw away AAA to go for 3 to a Royal on 7/5 Super Aces! Four Aces were worth $400 there!

Between this progressive and Double STP, I burn another $40 off before finally earning a pathetic 25 Tier Points or so for the day at CET properties. With only this annoying tease recorded.



Down about $110 outside of the promo grind for the day.

Tuesday Oct. 28th:

We had a BOGO buffet at Gold Strike available via myVegas, so we decide to eat that on the way out. The award just took off $27 the buffet price instead, so lunch actually was only $3 + tax for two! Unfortunately, I wasn't really feeling the buffet. I ate enough to be full, but I didn't love it this time. A few months ago for dinner was a lot better. Since I used my card, I felt like I should give one last stab. A few tier points later and $15 down, that was all she wrote. Luck is definitely no longer there. We have had our fill of gambling anyway, so it was time to go.

Had a good time as usual, but needing most of the promo play to cover my losses given my start was a bit of a bummer. In the end, I think my g/f did a bit better at the machines than I did. But I still want to go back sooner than later!

[Tedlark]

  Nice report Vman, I wish it could have been a bit better for you but all in all you had a nice trip. I'm kicking around the idea of going down to Memphis and spending some time with my sister and her family over the Thanksgiving weekend. If I do that I know I'll pop into Tunica.   Good luck.

[Vman96]

Yeah, if you go all the way to Memphis, you gotta go to Tunica...not that much farther.

Unfortunately, I think the only dreamcard games left are those five star games at Roadhouse that billyjoe played though. Fitz has decent TDB (98.15%) and Bonus Deuces (98.80%) on their 100-play nickels at least.

These games aren't super easy to find in Tunica though.

Double Deuces at the main bar at Resorts Tunica is good too (98.85% + prog.). Still kicking myself for not playing that given the quads I got this trip.

[alpax]

Good report and thanks for sharing, it sounds like you had a good time without breaking the break on those nickel machines. Seeing those quad deuces screenshots, I was thinking you were playing Phil's strategy with the 1 credit until I noticed it was DDB.

Some of those video poker machines look like antiques in terms of their screen, not sure if it came from the Vegas casinos in the past.

As the topic states, it is ironic that a casino offers a contest based on skill (Wii Bowling) when most of their games require none to play.

[Vman96]

Good report and thanks for sharing, it sounds like you had a good time without breaking the break on those nickel machines. Seeing those quad deuces screenshots, I was thinking you were playing Phil's strategy with the 1 credit until I noticed it was DDB.

Some of those video poker machines look like antiques in terms of their screen, not sure if it came from the Vegas casinos in the past.

As the topic states, it is ironic that a casino offers a contest based on skill (Wii Bowling) when most of their games require none to play.

Yeah, the g/f hates deuces...and hates wagering more than 25c + STP bets...lol She is pretty good about remembering the differences between DDB and JoB/Bonus at least.

Yeah the Wii bowling thing is interesting. I can't think of another skill-based promo I have seen. I'm sure they've existed somewhere, but definitely rare.

As for the age of the units, yeah, most of Tunica haven't updated their VP units in years. Only the CET properties (Horseshoe, Roadhouse) have made significant updates since they did it nationwide to help run up the credit card of course.