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The Great Northeast
Road Trip
(read part I
here) We are in the
early stages of a circuitous trip to some casinos in Southern Ontario, Quebec, Western New
York, Connecticut, Atlantic City, Windsor, Detroit and rural Michigan. Heres
what is currently on our tentative list: v Casino
Niagara in Niagara Falls, Ontario v Casino Rama
just outside of Orillia, Ontario v Casino du
Hull just outside of Canadas capital of Ottawa v Casino du
Montreal in Montreal, Quebec v Casino du
Charlevois in the Laurentian Mountains outside of Quebec City, Quebec v Turning Stone
Casino near Syracuse, New York We have some
friends in Lake Placid whom we plan to visit. Since
the snow conditions in the East have been poor for the ski-resort operators this year, we
havent included any skiing into our plans. This
may be the first winter since I have been six years old that skiing has not been a huge
part of my winter. From Lake Placid, our
intent is to travel the casinos on the east coast: v Foxwoods
Casino near Ledyard, Connecticut v Mohegan Sun
in Uncasville, Connecticut v Trump Marina
in Atlantic City v Harrahs
Atlantic City v Trump Taj
Mahal v Ballys
Wild, Wild West Casino v Ballys
Park Place v Caesars
Atlantic City v The Claridge v The Sands v The Tropicana
A/C v Resorts
Atlantic City v Hilton
Atlantic City v Harrahs
Showboat At this
point, we have pretty much decided to make the drive to Michigan, and play at: v MGM Grand in
Detroit v Greektown
Casino v MotorCity
Casino v Casino
Windsor in Windsor, Ontario If the mild
weather continues to hold we plan to give some light play to the following Indian/Native
casinos in Michigan: v Bay Mills
Resort and the Kings Club in Brimley, MI v Chip-Ins
Island Resort near Escanaba v The five
Kewadin Casinos in Musising, Sault Ste Marie, St. Ignace, Hessel, and Manistique v Lac Vieux
Desert Casino in Watersmeet v Leelanau
Sands on Suttons Bay v Little River
Casino in Manastee v The two
Ojibwa Casino Resorts in Baraga and Marquette v Soaring Eagle
Resort in Mount Pleasant v Turtle Creek
casino in Williamsburg Keep in mind
that we have commitments to be in Las Vegas for the first week of March for NASCAR racing
at LV Motor Speedway. Our plan is to complete
the grand-circuit before heading south. If we
have time, well add some Indiana, Illinois, Mississippi, and Louisiana casino-stops
along the way. Otherwise, we may make a mad
dash to Nevada from Michigan to get there in time for the Busch Grand National and Winston
Cup races at LVMS on March 2nd and 3rd. A number of
readers have asked for more details about my trips. Instead
of just hearing about the number of rolls or dollars won, they have asked for all of the
tiny details that just dont show up in any of my other reports. Those minutiae may not contribute anything towards
improving your game, but perhaps it will put the whole pursuit into a better perspective. Ill try to oblige you in this series of
articles, but I draw the line at the frequency of washroom breaks, miles-per-gallon or
love-making sessions per day. On the other
hand, Ill make sure that the rolls and profit info is included. Okay, so
saddle up and slide into the passenger seat. You
can be my virtual co-pilot. For this
particular trip, we decided to drive our 85 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur Centenary. Its one of only twenty-six that were
specially made to celebrate the 100,000th car made by R-R, and to commemorate
the 100th anniversary of motorized travel in Britian. It took Rolls-Royce 81 years to actually reach
that manufacturing hallmark in 1985, so they added some unique and unusual features that
make this a truly fine and distinctive motorcar. Weve
made several subsequent changes to it since acquiring it a number of years ago, including
a 10-disc CD-changer, 650 watts of Alpine audio system and upgraded Avon CR-228 w-rated
tires. Its
comfortable to ride in. With acre upon acre
of Connolly leather, yards of Wilton carpeting, and enough burl walnut to build a truly
large and outstanding cabinet. Its also
a pleasure to drive. Okay, there
are only two rules while you are in one of our vehicles; no smoking and keep your
freakin hands off of the sound system. This
last rule will probably confirm that I am indeed a control freak when it pertains to
certain things in my life. I like it that
way, and my music is one of them. Although my
tastes are wide and varied, Ill pick the music and the volume. Have I confirmed my lack of maturity on this
point yet? Our first
stop is Casino Niagara in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Ive
previously written about this joint in several other articles, particularly Master
Of All
Well
Slave To Some. We
had dinner at the Twenty-One Club, after playing two fairly short 40-minute,
one-shooting-opportunity sessions. We had
tasty slabs of prime Canadian beef and some maple-syrup laced sweet potatoes. Whew, no room for anything else but an
after-dinner coffee. One of the
neat aspects of Casino Niagaras Players Advantage Card is that you
usually dont have to ask for comps. The
card is automatically loaded and updated with comp credits.
To use it at any restaurant, you just swipe it and enter your P.I.N. number. That is all.
You can check balances by inserting it into any card-reader or any slot
machine. If you think that the comp will
exceed the value currently shown on your card; then you can ask for a manual comp from a
Pit Supervisor. It cuts down on the amount of
time that you would spend waiting for a comp to be issued.
I know that a number of other casinos throughout North America are going
this same route. You can go into Planet
Hollywood, Hardrock Café, any of their fast-food places, or any of their other
restaurants and pay for it with the comps that are on your players-card. As always,
the craps tables here were busy, and the cheapest $15 table was busiest of all. Waiting for a shooting opportunity can seem
e-n-d-l-e-s-s in this place. Cocktail service
(for water and cranberry juice) was slower than an Arctic glacier. The servers are great, but they are severely
overburdened with huge territories for each girl to cover.
On this particular evening, our waitress was serving seven craps tables, 40
blackjack tables, and 12 Let It Ride and/or Caribbean Stud layouts. Each table was full and thirsty. They managed to keep a smile of their faces as
most, but not all, of the staff here do.
Cold Table = Lay No-4
with Hard 4-Offset
Choppy Table = Modified Hedgehog method
Warm Table = $60 6 & 8, regressed to
$66-Inside
Hot Table = never did get to see one of those
over our four-hour visit. My own hands produced profitable, but not remarkable throws as
follows: §
Sessions:
4 §
Total Playing
Time:
2.5 hours §
My hands:
4
§
My Rolls:
9, 11, 8, 15 §
Sevens-Rolls-Ratio:
10.7:1 §
Total profit:
$172 §
Profit-per-Hour
$68.80 The
random-rollers were everywhere, and there were a few players setting the dice, then
hurling them down the table that produced roll-backs of 24 to 60 inches. There were setters who carefully fiddled with the
cubes until they were set perfectly; then they would shake them vigorously before chucking
them. I guess no one told them that the dice
were pre-shaken at the factory. In total, I
encountered zero Precision-Shooters. Even
though there are a few of them, I know that they avoid the busiest times here. Busy times here during the week is 6:30 pm to 3:30
am. On the weekends, it is busiest from
2:00pm to 5:00 am. That doesnt leave a
whole lot of off-hours to work with. There is one
more reason for you to have and use a Players Card, otherwise youll have to pay for
parking ($10 for self-parking and $5 for valet). Once
we finished play, we took a short drive to see the light-spectacular that is the great
Falls at night. From there, we
headed for Casino Rama in Orillia, Ontario. Fortunately for us, Southern Ontario has had a
milder winter than just about anyone else north of the Mason-Dixon Line. There was no snow at all, and the mid-winter
temperature was just below 50-degrees. In Part Three
of this article, Ill tell you how things went at our next couple of stops, and
Ill pass on a couple of useful tips that may put a little more cash into your
bankroll. Until then, Good Luck & Good Skill at the Tables
and in
Life. The Mad Professor
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