Next Trip

Hello World,

Well things have been quite on the gaming front. Had a really good trip up to Blackhawk in July. Hope some of you liked the twitter updates as I went through my day. I really liked it, it not only was fun to tweet while playing, it seemed to make my money and day last longer.

Thoughts from the trip:

1. I really like Viva Monopoly. Love the bonus rounds execpt for the craps bonus since im not a craps player.

2. Lucky Meerkats is a very nice follow-up to Lucky Lemmings

3. Star Trek is fun if you win, but then again what slot isnt fun if you are winning.

4. Finnally I love the fact that the Casino's are now open 24 hours.

Next trip will be Sept 6th and my wife will actually be joining me for the 1st time in about 2 years.

Join my Twitter site: casinoreview4 for more updates and to follow my Sept 6th trip.

Happy Gaming,
JMB

Update

Wow how the world changes. I was already to write a mega trip report from my birthday trip in February, but when I came home I was so deflated that I didn't want to even think about the trip.

I lost a little more than I planned but not more than was in my means by any manner. I got a little bit of extra money for my birthday and just decided to have some fun.

It wasn't the trip that deflated me it was more the fact that I was putting money in the same old machines and when those didn't pay out it was just, I hate to even say it, Boring.

I discovered that the years that I was complaining about not being able to go to the casino more often, I was actually doing myself a favor. By going every other month or so I was able to let new games cycle into the Colorado casinos and was always finding something new to play while only relying on my old favorites as stand byes.

I have since talked to a few friends who realized that same thing. If you don't live near a gambling mega center like Reno, AC, or Vegas, the games don't change much and once a month while fun doesn't really give it much time to switch things up.

It took almost a month before I even wanted to think about my favorite gaming sites or this blog but I think I'm over it for now and back to the gaming sites I used to love.

Well that's my rant. Whats new, Twitter. The greatest thing ever for a blogger like me. There are times when wrighting a blog about something so little seems so trivial that I wouldn't write anything but with twitter I can do a quick update and seems to give out just as much information as a full blog.

With the ability to text updates to twitter via my phone and also post pictures via twitpic from my phone. I can just imagine my next trip report, live coverage via twitter. follow me from machine to machine, casino to casino. I will have to upgrade my plan and add the texting package but it just sounds like fun to me to be twitting my progress.

That's it for now. So be on the lookout for my Twitter updates. Next possible Trip will be June 1st, the day the new expand hours and betting limits start in Colorado, I might just have to play some Blackjack and Roulette just because.

Happy Gaming,
J

Trip Report Black Hawk 1/18/09

Black Hawk Colorado Sunday January 18th, 2009

Planning:

The goal for today is to play the Happy Days game. I found, by surfing casino websites, that the game was listed at Bullwhackers Casino so I will start my day there. No mailer or coupons to spend this month so I'm free to visit wherever I want.

Actual:

I didn’t get much sleep, as always, spent most of the night tossing and turning or dreaming of winning big. I wish my dreams would come true….

I finally got out of bed at 6 am. As I written a lot lately on my blog, a new law will go into effect on July 1st 2009 that will not only increase the gambling limits for Colorado but also allow the casinos to become a 24 hour operation. Now with this new law the question for me will be, when I'm tossing and turning all night waiting to get up in the morning and go to the casino, will I now just get up and go at 4 am when I can’t wait anymore? Guess we will see. I do plan on going up July 1st just to see how many people are there at 3 AM. I'm betting the hotel occupancy skyrockets.

I tiptoe around the house for awhile wasting time but finally head out about 645. It’s only a 30-40 minute drive but I wanted to save time for getting gas, going to the bank, and getting some pre-dawn photos of the sunrise on the mountains.

The drive was uneventful and I did get a few shoots of the mountains. (will post later) I arrived in Black Hawk around 740. I was the second car to be parked in the Bullwhackers parking lot. The other driver was reading the paper in her car. Since the Casino’s don’t open till 8am the doors are locked which is just funny to me.

I walked around and took pictures of some of the buildings and sculptures that are scattered throughout the town and just wasted some time. There were a couple other people doing the same thing or hanging out in the bus shelter because there is one heat lamp in there. It was maybe in the 30 outside.

At 8 am I joined a group of maybe 10 people waiting for security to open the door to Bullwhackers. These people were pro’s and ran to either the players club or their favorite machines. I immediately saw the Fonze staring at me from the other side of the casino so I headed right over and sat down for my first game of the day.

The Cunningham’s Go Wild. I liked seeing the familiar characters and some of the symbols were classic looking phones and dress, along with Mr. And Mrs. Cunningham and Jonni. I experience the first bonus when you get a Go Wild symbol it rotates through all the symbols stopping on one random one and makes all the matching symbols wild. It had some good pays and some bad ones but was kind of fun. The second bonus was a random bonus activated by game play. Giving you a high multiplier if you play faster between 2 x and 4x. I got this bonus the first time while looking at the pay menu. It was funny, I was sitting there trying to figure out how to get into the bonus and boom, I'm in the bonus. I wish that happened every time. The Fonze gets on and does a little speech and then a icon on the top box lights up with different levels of the free spin bonus. The icons are records and range in free spins valued from Vinyl 7 spins to Diamond 51 spins. During my play I got 2 Vinyl bonuses and 1 Platinum 21 spins. The game itself was fun and I walked away up a few bucks but I never was able to matchup 3 face characters. I was wondering if they had sound bits of the characters or anything. Have to play again next time.

Just on the other side of the bank of machines I found the other Happy Days game, Richie’s Big Night. This one is themed toward a date night for Richie, Mouth, and Pottsie. This one also offered the random free spin bonus but had a locket bonus. When you get 3 or more lockets you select one to get a bonus point award. I got 1 Vinyl bonus and 3 locket bonuses. 1 of the locket bonuses I got while in the vinyl bonus and it did pay out more because I was in the bonus. Of the two machines I like the Go Wild version better as I'm not a fan of pick box bonuses.

I walked away and found Monopoly Up ,Up, and Away. I’ve never made it to the bonus on this one before and was finally able to get in this time. On the top box I got the Fireworks bonus. Nothing else going but it was fun to finally get into the bonus.

From here I found Indiana Jones and the Well of Souls. This one has a mystery bonus also that says you it can activate anytime for 15 seconds after a spin but I couldn’t find a countdown clock anywhere on my screen or top box? Never got in the bonus and I was the only one playing on the bank of machines so I had no one to compare things too. Lost quickly and ran.

Bullwhackers has 3 floors and at this point I had played everything I wanted to play on the 2nd (main) floor so I went to the basement and found a Village People Party game. Noda.

Moved over to Deal or No Deal The Show. I did my normal and forgot which button to push for repeat bet, so I pushed the max bet button and of course didn’t hit anything. Do it every time. One the minimum bid I did get into the bonus and was given a double award, so top prize 10000 credits. Picked case 10 as always, it my wife and I’s anniversary date, September 10th. 1st pick 10000, there goes that one. Went a couple rounds. 1st offer 1748, 2nd offer 1724 knocked out the 6000, 3rd offer 2234. Still have the 1000, 2000, 4000, and 8000 with bottom 130. I'm chicken, took the deal. I'm not sure If I would like the option of knowing what was in my case or not. I think it would be cool if it was small but I would be pissed if it was the big one. Owe well.

At the end of the bank was a The Game of Life Getting Paid game I had wanted to try and someone had just left so I cashed out and headed down. Few seconds later I was leaving.

I played everything I wanted to play here so I left and crossed the street to Fitzgerald’s. I like how they have added a new building that is very nice and airy. I sat down at Dean Martin’s Wild Party and played for a while. Supposedly there is 3 ways to get into the bonus round. None of which I found but the game is highly volatile. You can go forever without a win and then hit something for a few hundred credits , this continued for a while and I decided to try another Dean machine along the bank. Still no bonus and I was done. Not sure how I feel about the line structure. Seems if you don’t get matching symbols in the first 2 boxes it doesn’t nothing and when you do finally match it pays off pretty good. I guess it’s just a waiting game that I don’t have the patience for.

Walked around the new area some and didn’t find anything that was calling to me, so I heading into the old building and found a couple Star Trek Games. I had seen this game while on a trip to Oregon but it was so busy I wasn’t able to play. One thing that I can’t seem to understand is this game has the ability to track you progress along a journey in the game. Giving you the option to pass multiple levels and do different mission along the way. It doesn’t change the payout but just makes it feel more like a computer game than a slot machine. This would be fine if it didn’t take so long to log onto the machine to keep up with your progress. So every time someone is finally do with a machine it’s another few minutes till they are done login their progress and move on. It’s just a little annoying for those who are waiting to play. Of course I do nothing on the machine and don’t waste mine or anyone else’s time to make a profile and track the progress of me getting nowhere.

I moved on to Monopoly Jackpot Station and hit 3 bonus symbols within the first few spins. I was give 2 rolls of the dice. 1st roll of 4,3 for seven spaces and landed on chance which gave me 3 spins and then a 6 giving me another 4 spins. Lots of 10x multiples, no full line wilds and got a minimal payout but it’s always fun to play that bonus and it can be a big payer.

I then went upstairs in the old building and found a Super Jackpot Party machine. I got into the bonus once but chose the wrong corner to start. I always just choose a section and pick from there instead of jumping all over the board, just my style. 1st pick credits, second pick multiplier, 3rd pick pooper, 4th pick poker, party hat saver, credits, and I'm out. Moving on.

Getting nervously close to the end of my bank roll so I continued down the mountain to The Gilpin Hotel/Casino. I sat down on Invaders from Planet Moolah. I really like this game, it’s just a fun game. I’m not a real fan of collapsing wins and with this one to get to the bonus round you have to have 4 collapsing wins in a row. I would get 3 but couldn’t get that 4th one and then after a spin the little meter thing at the bottom of the screen filled up to 7 free spins and began the bonus round. I didn’t know that there was a mystery bonus. Didn’t win much but it was a nice surprise.

Next I bellied up to Wizard of Oz, hoping for some lucky from Glenda, Dorthy, or for a flying monkey to come out my……machine. Well no visits from any of said characters and I'm down to my last five.

Walked around for a little bit to find that last machine calling my name. I settled on Monopoly Grand Hotel. Must have been calling someone else because it didn’t like me.

So that’s a wrap. Total playing time around 2 hours. Machines played 15. Not bad and had a fun time doing it.

Final Observations:

When I arrived there was 10 or so people waiting to get in and I was the second car in the lot. When I left just after 10 am there were maybe 15 cars in the lot. The lot is normally pretty full by this time of the day. I had not paid much attention but it hit me that the casinos were very empty. I guess the economy really is taking a bite out of the gaming industry.

I will be back next month on Sunday Feb 22nd, the day after my 29th birthday. Till then……..

J

PS. Post picture soon

Trip Report Black Hawk Colorado 11/08/08

Trip Report
November 8th , 2008
Black Hawk Colorado

Quick Version of Trip Report
Mardi Gras Casino
Wizard Of OZ
Deal or No Deal Play It
Monopoly Grand Hotel
Whales of Cash
Sally Shrimp
Ghost Hunter
Super Jackpot Party
Super Jackpot Party
Where’s The Gold
Day and Night
Deal Or No Deal Play it
Deal or No Deal Play it
Wizard of Oz

The Lodge
Survivor
Moolah Invaders (Cow Space Ship Game)
Monopoly Train Bonus
Wales of Cash


Wow, sorry it’s taken me over a week to write this but I’ve been busy as heck.
Got up at 530 AM. I can never sleep in the night before going to the casino’s. I'm always up early and since the casinos in Colorado, currently, don’t open till 8 am, it does me no good to be up before 7.

I went down stairs as quietly as possible so not to disturb my lovely wife or wake me sleeping daughter. Got on the computer to work on a little hard drive issue I had been having, and checked the blogs for something to do to waste time.

I Ate a quick bite of toast when I heard my little princess start crying so I went up to check on her. I took her into her mother and kissed them both goodbye and I was out the door by 7:!0

Stop to get some gas. 1.95 A Gallon and was on my way. No traffic at 7 on a Sunday and it was a very nice drive as always. Driving up I-70 this time of year is so beautiful. The leaves are still changing and there is snow on the higher mountains. I don’t have to drive throw the snow but can enjoy the views.



(View from Central City Parkway)






(The Casino Front)

(Statue outside of Golden Mardi Gras Casino)

My first stop today was the Golden Mardi Gras Casino. I had planned this trip around a mailer I had received from the Golden Casino Group. It was a earn 200 points in a day and receive $5.00 coupon. Also being Sunday it was a double point day so I figured I would be able to hit my number easier than normal.

My first game was one of my new favorites “Wizard of OZ” 2 seconds later it was on to “Deal or No Deal” Play it addition. I guess I chose the don’t play it addition since I didn’t get anything in my spins.

Next, Monopoly Grand Hotel. I love the Monopoly slot machine series. The only jackpot I have every won was on the original “Money Grab” Monopoly Game. 5 Monopoly symbols on the 9th line thing, I cried. Unfortunately, I wasn’t so lucky on this one either.

So far I had been in the casino for less than 15 minutes and hadn’t won a thing. Worst of all my bankroll was already half gone. It was looking like it would be a very short day.

I went to my old standby machine, Whales of Cash. This machine seems to help me out everyonce and a while so I always hope for the best. Again nothing.

At this point I'm pretty down. Not wanting to spend more time driving to the casino than playing in it wasn’t a fun thought.

I went looking for a penny machine with 9 lines so I could extend my day at least. I stumbled upon Sally shrimp mania slot machine. Fun little game and the first of the day I actually got to play on for a while. Hit the Shrimping bonus and a few 5 symbol hits and finally was able to leave a machine a little ahead for the first time in the day.

Just around the corner I found another .01 cent 9 line game called “Ghost Island” I spent back what I left the shrimp with.

At this point I'm down to my last 10 bucks. Ive wasted a little more time but the day has still gone by way to fast.

I found a Super Jackpot Party game and decided to chance it. I have never done well on this game but crossed my fingers anyway. After the second spin I hit the party bonus. Why does this game or any select a box game make me so dang nervous. I selected a couple boxes and then hit the Dance bonus. My little John Travolta look-a-like character starts dancing his little head off. Ends up winning me 15.00 bucks by the time he finally got all tuckered out. I played for a while long and figure it was done paying so I went to another SJP on the bank and got right into the bonus again. No big win this time but did cashed out the same as I cashed in.

I took a quick picture of the box top so I could add it to the post. As soon as I did, host staff started to pop up everywhere. Guess they don’t like photos in this casino.



I sat down at “Where’s The Gold,” it was the one where you need 3 dynamite symbols to get in the bonus round where you chose a character who mines for spins and bonus symbols, that one. When I got nothing again., I was down to my last $5.00 bucks.

I debated how to spend it for a while and decided to just sit down on the machine a couple done that I hadn’t played before. It was a “Night and Day” machine. Something about getting matching symbols that represented night and day, then there was this box that would appear in line 2 that would be covered at first then reveal a random symbol, didn’t understand it but I figure like they all do it would tell me if I won.

It was just a few spins in when I hit 5 of the bonus day/night symbols for 50 free spins. On my minimum but when all was said and done I was back to my starting bankroll number. I cashed out and ran.

It was at this point I realized after an 1 and a half of play and on a double point day I was still almost a hundred points short of getting my 5.00 coupon. How hard is it to get $5.00. wow.
With a new bank roll I started my tour over again. Stopping at “Deal or No Deal” again with the same results as earlier on two different machines.

Then over to Wizard of Oz for a second try. This time I actually got to play for a while. I was visited by Linda the Good White quite a bit but never helped much. Played the Flying Monkey Bonus for the first time and that actually paid off pretty nicely. Visited the yellow brick road a few times but never got to select a character at the end. Did have a shot at the scare crow and chose the wrong box. Bummer.

It was after a lot of up and down play on WOZ that I finally reach my 200 points. 2 hours and 2 bank rolls later, I was ready to cash in my coupon. I get to the window, hand the guy my card and my coupon and he tells me I have only earned 124 points. Double points don’t count toward your coupons. I was very upset. I wouldn’t have wasted so much time in one place had I know I wouldn’t even get to use my coupon. I did raise my player total to over the 1000 point mark so I was able to cash in on my regular points for $5.00 bucks but after that I was out the door.

I walked across the street to The Lodge Casino. By now the floor was a lot more active but still plenty of machines open. I found the same slot games on the lower level of the lodge as were across the street so I headed right up stairs.

I found the “Survivor” game based on the TV show. It had Rupert as a symbol and he was one of my favorite characters so that was cool. The actual game was pretty boring though and the bonus round was not very exciting either. You pick an icon which represents one of 4 seasons of Survivor and it reveals a pay level . then you choose icons from that level. It does show you what you could have chosen at the end which is a feature I both love and hate.

Next I played the cows from outer space game with dropping reels. If it gets 4 or more drops in a row you get free games. I went to the bonus once but didn’t have much luck.

I then sat down at the Monopoly Jackpot Station. I really like this game when I get into the bonus round. Unfortunately I got the chance bonus about 5 times and never was able to select a good card. Always got a symbol that never gave me much.

The day was again at a close with my last $5.00 bucks in hand. I chose to let my day hinge with my old faithful Whales of Cash. But again it wasn’t my day with those whales.

All and all not a bad day, started really rough but got a nice boost from the Day/Night game. I was very upset about Mardi Gras coupon situation but it’s a lesson learned. If it’s not a free coupon I'm not going.

Have a great day and Happy Gaming,
J