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.
Here’s what is currently on our tentative list:
- Casino Niagara in Niagara Falls, Ontario
- Casino Rama just outside of Orillia, Ontario
- Casino du Hull just outside of Canada’s capital of Ottawa
- Casino du Montreal in Montreal, Quebec
- Casino du Charlevois in the Laurentian Mountains outside of Quebec City, Quebec
From there, we plan to cross into New York State, and play at:
- 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 haven’t 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:
- Foxwoods Casino near Ledyard, Connecticut
- Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut
- Trump Marina in Atlantic City
- Harrah’s Atlantic City
- Trump Taj Mahal
- Bally’s Wild, Wild West Casino
- Bally’s Park Place
- Caesars Atlantic City
- The Claridge
- The Sands
- The Tropicana A/C
- Resorts Atlantic City
- Hilton Atlantic City
- Harrah’s Showboat
At this point, we have pretty much decided to make the drive to Michigan, and play at:
- MGM Grand in Detroit
- Greektown Casino
- MotorCity Casino
- 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:
- Bay Mills Resort and the King’s Club in Brimley, MI
- Chip-Ins Island Resort near Escanaba
- The five Kewadin Casinos in Musising, Sault Ste Marie, St. Ignace, Hessel, and Manistique
- Lac Vieux Desert Casino in Watersmeet
- Leelanau Sands on Sutton’s Bay
- Little River Casino in Manastee
- The two Ojibwa Casino Resorts in Baraga and Marquette
- Soaring Eagle Resort in Mount Pleasant
- 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, we’ll 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 don’t 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. I’ll 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, I’ll 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. It’s 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. We’ve 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.
It’s 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. It’s 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, I’ll 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. I’ve 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 Niagara’s Players “Advantage” Card is that you usually don’t 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.
My table “loiter” time was spent by using the following methods:
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 doesn’t 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 you’ll 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, I’ll tell you how things went at our next couple of stops, and I’ll 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
