Royalty Seen At Hollywood!

[Vman96]

On Friday my g/f and I felt semi-obligated to go to Hollywood St. Louis and her player's card had not been played on in nearly six months and comps do expire after that time frame just like CET's do. Hollywood matched the comps we had from CET left from the former "Race to Rewards" and she had about $90 left at Hollywood. Huge for fleas like us.

On our way to get a reprint of her player's card. I noticed some lucky person hit the 20X dealt royal (1 in 9.74M odds) on Double STP on 10-play quarters for $200,000 in November on an advertisement...lucky SOB.

We typically don't go on Friday night, and we saw why. The place was really packed. They were having a promo giving away $100-1000 in FSP (avg ~$300) to ten people per hour. That probably helped fill those slot and VP seats. Tables were quite busy as well.

We typically ate our usual general tso's chicken at phat tai, using those comps of course. While waiting for our food, I saw two new "hot roll" VP machines. I wanted to try the game and check the paytables.

The gist of the game is you pay an extra 5 credits per line for a 1 in 6 opportunity to get a "dice roll" which yields a multiplier of 2 to 12X based on your dice roll. Unlike the slot version of "hot roll" though, the dice are rolled for you to speed the game up I guess. :( And unlike some games like STP, the dice roll doesn't add anything to the return unfortunately; it just jacks the variance up a lot.   

Hot Roll Poker Media Sheet


Paytables are decent for nickels as igt decided to make the payback range to be 96.38%-99.96%. Bucking the recent trend of not allowing 99% VP on new games. Did hollywood offer 99%? Hell no! But they did offer 98.8% bonus deuces for 25c-50c, better than I expected. Since I'm poor I played the best nickel option 8/5 Bonus Deluxe (97.4%) for 30 nickels per round.

My first dice roll... a 2.

Then a got a more respectable 6. And finally an 8 with a dealt high pair to run away one dollar up. I thought it was a nice alternative to ultimate x, and strategy doesn't get altered.

When I get back, food is ready and was great as it usually is. Then we run around the casino to play a bit but we struggled to get on games we like. They were all taken. So the g/f apparently started trying new slots to her because they were open. While I wonder thru the VP area, which they actually expanded slightly! I also grab an O'Fallon 5 Day IPA, my go-to beer there. Find one good play on ultimate x so I'm slightly up.

Meet back up with the g/f and the new slots (including Batman) don't let her win. She's willing to play $5 more in nickel video poker and that's it for the night.

So we go find a bank with nickels that wasn't packed to the gills. We play 6/5 Super DDB (97.69%), the best option there for nickels. Before sitting down, she wants to change seats with me because some person before hit four aces on their last hand from just holding one. I shrug and comply, and I'm glad I did.

We play for maybe 10 minutes and she gets AQT of diamonds with a pair of tens. I'm pretty she sure she knows the right hold but asks me anyway. I think she asked because she really didn't want to go for it as 3 to a royal often bricks. I confirm the correct play and she complies.

BAM!



I'm watching, clap my hands together, and say "You Got It!" way before she even realizes what happened! She wasn't even sure how much she won (4000 nickels = $200) as this was her first-ever Royal! With her confusion on how much she won, I think I was more excited than she was.

We play for a little bit longer, but nothing doing. And that hot roll game opened up, so I play it so maybe she could see a bonus. But it was running cold and sucking money up quick. Decide to run away a decent winner on the night. And I'm hoping I'm saving my Royal for Vegas, it's been awhile!          

[notes1]

Vman, you have a wonderful writing style, great reading. i like someone who calls themselves 'fleas'. i can identify with that more than the whales.congrats to g/f on her first RF!  

[Tedlark]

  Give your girlfriend another hug for the royal Doug. I'm guessing you  played the two hot roll machines that I mentioned to you when I was last there in December?

[Vman96]

Vman, you have a wonderful writing style, great reading. i like someone who calls themselves 'fleas'. i can identify with that more than the whales.congrats to g/f on her first RF!  

Thanks!

Give your girlfriend another hug for the royal Doug. I'm guessing you  played the two hot roll machines that I mentioned to you when I was last there in December?


Yeah, it's buried in the text wall. Nothing pic worthy though. First dice roll was snake eyes... If you get back there, you may want to give it a shot as most games are one notch below full-pay at 25c/50c. It's 98.8% Bonus Deuces and 9/6 TDB (98.15%) for those levels. I could be wrong, but I do think this game will be sticking around for awhile.

[DaBurglar]

Nice hitWhat was the beer you had again?  Ofallon's???   I honestly never heard of that one, I wish you had included a picture of it like you did in your vegas thread where certain really cool brews were shown by you via picture!Was the O fallons beer particularly tasty??   I have not had a micro brew in a very long time

[Vman96]

Nice hitWhat was the beer you had again?  Ofallon's???   I honestly never heard of that one, I wish you had included a picture of it like you did in your vegas thread where certain really cool brews were shown by you via picture!Was the O fallons beer particularly tasty??   I have not had a micro brew in a very long time



I like it for an India Pale Ale (IPA)...I would consider it above average for IPAs I've tried. But beeravocate.com and ratebeer.com seem to disagree with me on this one (not a very common occurrence for IPAs).

And you probably haven't heard of it because the brewery is only 20 miles from Hollywood St. Louis and they only currently distribute to 14 states, the closest to you being Pennsylvania.

Here is a generic pic from beer-taster.com



A vast majority of craft beers often have only regional distribution, so it can frustrating if you find a good one from out of town. I had a Sweetwater 420 Pale Ale (from Georgia) for the first time in 4 years when I went to Disney World in December. I'm also partially pumped about going back to Vegas next month to have some "comped" West Coast beers that do NOT distribute to Missouri or Illinois. This will also include some Dogfish Head beers from Delaware, which does distribute to Vegas, but not Missouri...

[Galeygoo]

Vman, you have a wonderful writing style, great read 

I agree. Always enjoyable to read... Congrats to my fave photographer on her 1st royal-I wish her many more to come....

[olds442jetaway]

Congrats to g/f on that really nice hit. Glad you got to celebrate with a good beer too. There are lots of really good folk beer brewers popping up around here. Sometime soon, I will post some stuff on some of them as I try them out. Will probably start a new or renewed thread just called beer. Again, wtg....the first one is almost always the best....

[alpax]

[QUOTE=notes1]

Vman, you have a wonderful writing style, great read 

I agree. Always enjoyable to read... Congrats to my fave photographer on her 1st royal-I wish her many more to come....[/QUOTE]

I also agree with these guys.

What a nice sight! Congrats! After all these trips you guys finally caught one. Photo print the picture and hang it on the wall!

[DaBurglar]

VMAN, is your name "Doug"???   I missed that detail somewhere before, but if it is, nice to meet you via cyberspace....Regarding "General Tso Chicken" (or also known as, depending on the ownership of the chinese eatery you frequent in specific parts of the country, "GENERAL GAU's CHICKEN",  "GENERAL CHING's Chickern",  or even just plain "GENERAL CHICKEN"!!):Is the one served in this particular restaurant the best you ever had, and if not, where is the BEST version you ever had?I can honestly say that I have had the absolute tastiest version of this AMERICANIZED-CHINESE dish  at the RESORTS-AC  restaurant known as East WInd CAFE.....The East Wind really has a thick and copious sauce they slather on the General Tso chicken they serve, and the chicken portions themselves are really plump and tender and all white meat (non of that awful DARK crapola a lot of restaurants simply deep fry and try to pass off as "good" quality meat)....the cook and the kitchen at EAst wind in Resorts is all out in the open so you can clearly see what is going on as your food is prepped (so you will never be wondering if what you are eating is simply a type of bird that could have been found on the boardwalk, or worse.....!)Any other "GENERAL CHICKEN" afficionadoes out there???EDITED TO ADD:  One time, I had a waiter in the chinese restaurant that is on the casino floor in BALLYS AC, and he asked me what I wanted:  I said in the most deadpan voice I could muster "I'll have an order of GENERAL chicken and a side of Lieutenant Colonel Mustard to dip it in, along with a pot of Field Marshal Green Tea!"