NORTHEAST NEVADA TRIP REPORT
POSTED BY PERMISSION OF HENRY TAMBURIN,
PUBLISHER OF THE BLACKJACK INSIDER NEWSLETTER
http://www.bjinsider.com/newsletter.shtml
NORTHEAST NEVADA TRIP REPORT
By Scott Michaels
Blackjack Insider Newsletter, Feb. 2005, #61
Scott Michaels writes for Video Poker Player magazine (http://www.vpplayer.com/) and has been an advantage gambler since 1998. He specializes in video poker, live poker and blackjack. When playing blackjack, he uses the KO count. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to email Scott at
[email protected].
Editors Note: If you are not familiar with video poker terms, Michaels has a glossary at the end of the article.
Having never ventured out into the great unknown of the sparsely populated towns of northern Nevada, I decided to take a road trip to the casinos in the northeast region of the state to see what sort of stories and creatures I could dig up. Our tale begins in Twin Falls, Idaho.
Jackpot was going to be my home base while I was in this region, so I hopped a flight to Twin Falls, ID. I had to connect in Salt Lake City to a Delta Connection puddle jumper into Twin Falls. The flight was very brief and as we taxied to the "terminal" (I use this term loosely) I immediately observed that the Delta flight I was on was the ONLY commercial plane at the entire airport. A trip to the ticket counter while waiting for my bag confirmed this. The airport flight schedule listed five flights in, and five flights out of Twin Falls for the entire day. When the baggage claim door slowly opened and I saw the actual baggage handler tossing bags to the passengers, I got a good chuckle out of it. Twenty paces later, I was at the rental car counter and forty paces after that I was in my Dodge Neon (yes, I'm cheap and the Neon is easy on gas) and on my way to Jackpot.
JACKPOT
This was my first jaunt into the 'high desert' type of climate and I had an altitude headache by the time I reached Jackpot (altitude of approximately 6000 feet). The drive was very pleasant since I had never experienced high desert geography; lots of plateaus, canyons and, of course, rolling plots of desert. Upon cresting the final hill, I saw Jackpot dead ahead. "Wow", I thought, "Cactus Pete's (an Ameristar property) appears to be a nice place for literally being in the middle of nowhere." Turns out I was right; they have 300 rooms and are a 4 Diamond Mobil casino resort.
I checked into a nice Granite Range room, which was about 600 square feet with plenty of space in the living and bath area. The rooms were very well maintained and furnished nicely...especially for a property built in the 70's. It gets the thumbs up sign of approval.
I ate meals in all of their outlets and I highly recommend their steakhouse, Plateau. If you make it there, the stuffed Anaheim chile appetizer is an absolute must. It's a large chile stuffed with cream cheese, tenderloin, onions, garlic and sprinkled with asiago cheese. At the coffee shop, they serve a wonderful Mexican chicken tortilla soup. The room service menu promoted "Country French Toast" and described it as French Toast battered and dipped in slivered almonds and whole oats, then fried. It was, by far, the best French Toast I've ever eaten.
The casino area is about 60K sq feet and features three bar areas, live entertainment on the weekend and a sportsbook (operated by Leroy's). If you get a chance to stop by the sportsbook, be sure to offer a nasty comment to George, the most surly ticket writer with whom I've ever interacted.
Now, on to what you're interested in...the gambling! Well, it's not fabulous, but if you're wandering aimlessly in northern Nevada, it'll do. Their single deck game was all D9, H17, DOA. Rule of 6 was pretty standard among most dealers, but a few offered up RO7. I didn't get too wild on my spreads, pretty much 1 to 5 with a $10 base unit and I didn't encounter any heat on several brief (30 minutes, max) sessions.
The video poker offerings were noteworthy. I observed (3) 10 coin $0.05 FPDW in the northern section of the casino near the exit doors to the pool. Their second best play is the (3) .25 Pickem slant tops facing the sports book. Quarter players can also play a couple of NSUD uprights near the buffet. If you prefer higher stakes, there are slant top NSUD in the $1 denomination and 9/6 JOB for big nickels and $10 near the sportsbook bar. High rolling multi-line players can play $1 10play NSUD in the same bank near the sportsbook. The best progressive play I located was 12/8 Loose Deuces. I didn't test the various meter percentages, but they weren't set that high since I did not observe any progressive over $1600 over the few days I was there.
Cashback is a paltry 0.13%, but that's the best you'll find in town since no other casino offers a slot club (the Horseshu shares the Player's Club with Cactus Pete's). Points can also be used for comps at the rate of 0.167%. Discretionary comps were available, but I did not have an opportunity to investigate the details.
Cactus Pete's offers the only live poker room in town. About six tables offering $3-$6 and $4-$8 Hold-Em. On the weekends, the floor said they frequently open a NL game with $1/$2 blinds and a $200 max buy-in. The games were very loose, on average 60% of the players paid to see the flop. The NL game never opened, so I can't share any nuggets of info with you on that.
HORSESHU
Across the street from Cactus Pete's is the Horseshu, another Ameristar property. If you want to experience gambling in a sawdust-type environment, this is the place for you. Wooden floors, low ceilings, more smoke than a Marlboro factory, swinging doors into the saloon and a rowdy crowd on the weekends. If I didn't have to get up the next morning, I'd have fit in nicely here as I did my best to get as inebriated as their average patron.
If you still want to soak up the environment, have a seat at their single deck BJ games. There are a total of 4 tables and the two PB's I observed seemed rather indifferent on monitoring the action. It's double 9, 10, 11 only, but has a $3 minimum if you want some action at a cheap price. Penetration was Rule of 6 from several different dealers I observed. On one session, I noticed a bent card (sadly, it wasn't a ten value or ace), and neither the pit nor dealer paid any attention to this, which speaks volumes on the game protection at this place.
The entire casino is 7K sq ft, so the VP machines could be counted on your fingers and toes. The lone machine that was playable was (1) $0.05 NSUD with a bad screen immediately to the right after you enter the casino
BARTON'S CLUB 93
Next door to the 'Shu is Barton's Club 93. This joint is rather unimpressive and seems to exist as an overflow alternative from Cactus Pete's.
The blackjack game is definitely worth a look. They're all single deck; they don't offer insurance and only allow doubling on 9 through 11. The good news is its all single deck and, depending on the dealer, they'll deal about 40 cards from the deck. Heads up, 7 rounds was the norm and I occasionally got 8. I kept my spreads pretty conservative; from $5 to $25, so I don't know how they'd react to someone really firing away. LVBear, of BJ21.com, states that preferential shuffling is common when spreading higher amounts. If you ever sit in on one of their games, be sure to look closely at the dealers' nametags. Many appear to be wearing the same badges they received decades ago when they were hired. One dealer had a long black mullet in his photo and now sported a receding grey hairline. I think the years in this place had an effect on them. Two dealers (one male and one female) rambled on more than I've ever heard at a table; one was spouting one bizarre one liner after another (laughing at himself after each one, of course) and the second dealer was having a grand time with her rambling train-of-thought diatribes.
The VP offerings were about as dreary as the casino environment. The best you can do is nickel and quarter NSUD. Not sure why any high rollers would want to play here, but no worries, there is nothing to tempt you. There isn't a dollar play to be found here. They do not offer a slot club, but have installed readers, so it would seem a club is on the way.
If you want to watch a game at the bar, don't bother since they don't have a TV at the bar or anywhere in the casino. Beer is served in a can, which pretty much sums up this place.
FOUR JACKS and PONY EXPRESS CASINOS
The two remaining casinos in Jackpot are both locals-style slot houses; no table games to be found and FPVP is a chore to find. At the Four Jacks, I located a couple quarter FPDW and at the Pony Express there was .25 9/6 JOB and NSUD. Neither joint offers a slot club.
WELLS
4 WAY
There are four casinos in town, but don't make plans to travel here anytime soon since two of them have been shuttered for years. The 4Way and Flying J casinos remain open. My first stop in town was the 4Way. While I was surveying the casino, the dealer (yes, singular tense) and pit boss were scoping my every move. I smiled and said, "I bet you're wondering what I'm doing." The pit boss said, "Yeah, I reckon I was." I explained that I was writing an article for a blackjack newsletter and another for a video poker magazine on all the BJ &VP in northeast Nevada. Have you ever seen a deer in the headlights? Well, that's the look I received. I decided to break the ice and play a few hands of blackjack. The dealer was sitting at the table reading a newspaper and smoking a cigarette and greeted me by saying, "You wanna play, honey?" Well, not wanting to disappoint these folks, I slapped down a Jackson on the felt. The dealer, dressed in blue jeans and a regular shirt, called out, "Change $20" and I was in action. The dealer started shuffling and I noticed it was a double deck game. I asked when they deal a single deck game and the pit boss said, "It depends." I replied, "Later on tonight? (it was a Friday)" and received an answer of, "It depends." Ok, I saw where this conversation was going so I decided I was going to focus my BJ counting skills and make some money from these simple folk. One look at the table limit placard put those wishes to bed: $2-$25. Yes, a $25 table maximum. I chuckled and asked the pit boss, "$25 maximum?" and he said, "Yep, we deal a friendly game here. We're not trying to make any money." I thought to myself, "Well if you're not trying to make any money, than fire up a single deck table, give me some good rules and let me make sure you don't make any money." After observing the three Nevada Highway Patrol vehicles outside, I decided I'd maintain a lower profile and not risk getting backroomed in the middle of nowhere. I made $6, pocketed a red for a souvenir, tossed the dealer the single and went on my merry way.
If you want to brag to your friends about playing the table maximum at a Nevada casino, here's your chance.
I did a quick inventory of the VP and found (4) quarter Pickem bartops.
FLYING J
I wasn't expecting much in the way of VP or BJ at a truck stop, and I certainly wasn't disappointed. No BJ tables and the slot area totaled about 4K sq feet. Total time in the place was a whopping 2 minutes. Much to my surprise, I found some dollar Pick Em. No slot club here, so the best play is to try to win some gas money while waiting for the tank to fill. Well, I didn't win, and the price of fuel suddenly jumped to $5 per gallon.
Before leaving Wells, I decided to inspect the shuttered stores. Am I the only one intrigued by boarded up casinos? I satisfied this bizarre curiosity of mine and checked out the boarded up Chinatown and Ranch House casinos. Why a casino operator would name a casino Chinatown in a po-dunk town like this escapes me.
ELKO
After a short 45 minute drive west on I-80 from Wells, I arrived in Elko. The combination of altitude and dry air had taken its toll on my lips. A stop at the nearest department store was a must. Ah, a site for sore chapped lips: a K Mart. Chap Stick safely tucked in my pocket, I headed for the door. What's that? Video poker in a K-Mart? Like a moth to a light, I checked out the paytables. Much to my surprise, I found a couple .25 9/7 Double Bonus. Good news for the poor husband who is forced to a retail establishment by his spouse. Of course, you won't get rich playing those, but it beats trying to muscle a 7 year old off the Playstation demo console.
GOLD COUNTRY
With my new found peace of mind thanks to the Chap Stick, I resumed my pilgrimage across Northern Nevada. My first stop in Elko was the Gold Country casino (owned by the Red Lion). A scan of this slot house produced nothing. About to give up empty-handed, I noticed a bar progressive of $2758. Hmm, that looks interesting. This fearless reporter bellies up and hits the "Menu" button on the Gamemakers. 8/5 Jacks pops up and, yeppers, these are quarter machines. Now, this play isn't that interesting, I think...until I notice a sign on the wall advertising a "Happy Hour" bonus that is valid from 2-6PM. The current bonus is $1550. A four grand royal (with an EV of 109%+!) for a quarter game isn't something you see everyday. Unfortunately, it was only 10:30AM and I had more ground to cover, so I passed.
RED LION
Ok, I've seen junkets for this place advertised in my local paper numerous times, so I was interested to see what it had to offer. There were several BJ tables, one of which was a SD, DOA game, which yields a house edge of only 0.18%. I only watched a few shuffles and it was strictly one round to the full table. I tried my best to get on the table to get a good story to share, but it was stacked full with old timers. Knowing they wouldn't be going anywhere soon, I continued my inspection. I noticed a slot club, but after seeing the VP offerings, I didn't bother getting details. Please forgive me.
Onward, I pressed and soon spotted a Starbucks. After 200 miles and several hours of hard labor, I needed a latte. With caffeine beverage in hand, I decided to have a seat and take a load off. Shock! What's that? A computer monitor with the big "E" on the desktop. Could it be? In the middle of nowhere? Internet? A quick double-click and I was re-connected with civilization and learned that my Cardinals had acquired Mark Mulder. Woohoo! With caffeine racing through my veins, I decide to head back to the tempting single deck BJ table. A half hour later, the old timer 'rocks' were still firmly planted and appeared to be going nowhere. Since I don't normally drink coffee, I couldn't sit still, so my journey continued to "downtown" Elko.
Playable video poker consisted of a few $0.25 Pickem's.
STOCKMEN'S/COMMERCIAL
These two casinos appear to be owned by the same entity, separated by a parking lot.
The blackjack game at Stockmen's was pretty pathetic for this part of NV. DD, H17 and 60% penetration, at best. One glance at these conditions, and I was out the door. There aren't any table games at the Commercial.
While in town, I saw an advertisement for an Elko brothel which stated, "Behind Stockmen's." I'm not sure what kind of BJ they offered there, but my guess is that it's better than the double deck game with 60% penetration at Stockmen's.
I don't know what it is with Gamemakers machines in this part of Nevada, but they seem to be popular. Again, the best full pay I found was Pickem: in nickel and dime denominations at Stockmen's and dollar PE at the Commercial casino. A quick inventory of the multi-lines produced a discovery of some 9/6 Jacks and NSUD Triple Play in nickels and quarters. No slot club.
WENDOVER
Time was getting short, but I calculated that I had just enough time to make a trip back through Wells to Wendover and arrive in Jackpot before my evening deadline. Note to I-80 drivers in this part of the state: Watch your speed. I was very surprised at the presence of several NV Highway Patrol cars. About 130 miles later, I arrived in Wendover. 2nd note to drivers: Don't allow your tank to get below ½ as there are no gas stations on the drive. Since I had only gotten a few gallons of gas earlier in the day while at the Flying J in Wells, my tank only had about ¼ left and I was about 80 miles from Wendover. The combination of the caffeine and the possibility of running out of gas had me on edge. I opened the glove box to see how much fuel would be in the tank when the warning light came on. Ah, there's the page I'm looking for which states that info...but I read on and discover the fuel warning light is "when equipped". Considering this Neon had a cassette player, no cruise control, manual windows and doors I came to the conclusion that it wasn't likely that it "was equipped."...but I managed to coast into a gas station in Wendover. Curiously, the lowest grade of fuel was 85 octane, which I've never seen before. It was a rental, so it got a tank full of 85. 3rd note to readers: Another reason not to buy a rental.
I was surprised to see that there are five casinos in Wendover, so I quickly realized I would not have time to inventory the VP. Still wanting to get one chip (I collect chips from every casino I've been to), I made a quick stop in each casino.
My first stop was the Peppermill and I immediately had flashbacks of the Peppermill in Reno. As I said about the 'Mill, if you're a fan of neon, there is no better place. After popping into Montego Bay and the Rainbow, even a keno player could figure out who owned those places; both were neon city. The Nugget and Red Garter didn't leave much of an impression, so I think one of the three 'Mill-owned joints would be the place to stay.
Sadly, I was not able to determine any BJ conditions or VP inventories in Wendover...so that'll be a good excuse to return to northeast Nevada at some point in the future.
The VP in this part of the state isn't worth hopping on a plane for, but the scenery is nice, the blackjack games are beatable, and the people are courteous. It's a far cry from today's Las Vegas.
Glossary of terms
VP: Video Poker.
FPDW: Full pay deuces wild. Game returns 100.7% with optimum strategy.
NSUD: Not So Ugly Deuces wild. The second best paytable for video poker, returning 99.7% with optimum strategy.
9/6 JOB: The full pay version of Jacks or Better. The 9 refers to the payback for a full house with one coin bet and the 6 refers to the flush payback. This game returns 99.5% with optimum strategy.
