Trip Report – Harrah’s Cherokee – Part 2

Continuing the report on our Harrah’s Cherokee visit in early October. (You can read Part 1 at https://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/frugal-vegas/?p=3670 .)

Since we were staying at Harrah’s Cherokee on a weekend, Angela and Steve enjoyed having a wide choice of venues to watch the games – bars, lounges, and in the Diamond/Seven Star lounge – where they could also chow down on party food.   They entered one football contest and much to their surprise won the “grand” prize – a canopy tent.  Good thing they were going home in their truck.  The casino also offered some unexpected fun non-gambling entertainment:  a Sunday morning jazz session in Starbucks and a cornhole game set up right on the gambling floor.  (Bet you didn’t know that I’m pretty good at that game IF I have some practice time before Steve challenges me!)

Some additional information for Seven Star players: Companion Total Rewards slot cards were useful here – Angela and Steve could get into the Diamond/Seven Star lounge without us along.  Also, this is one of the few Harrah’s properties that still have cameras to take your picture to put on your players card.  (Southern California Harrha’s – formerly called Rincon – has cameras that work “sometimes.”)  Having your picture on your players card comes in handy when you hit a W2-G jackpot.  In this casino they require two forms of ID and this picture card will serve as one of them.

Now for what you are waiting for perhaps – the gambling part! The casino is huge.  They have live table games:  blackjack, craps, and roulette. Their Web site says they have over 600 slot games, but it seemed like we saw more than that number of slot machines – just a sea of bright flashing lights as far as you could see.  We knew this casino, like many Indian casinos which are in an area with little or no competition, would have set their slots extra “tight,” so we were not surprised that our small just-for-fun slots bankroll (set aside when the 4 of us can play together) was not giving us much entertainment time so we quit that activity fast and went back to video poker.

Of course, our primary interest is always video poker. I am so glad we checked the VP inventory at vpFREE2.com  before we left home.  It would have taken us hours to check every game at every denomination on every video poker machine in this sprawling casino.   The vpFREE2 database, which tries to stay current but must depend on player input, listed a few 98.91% games at the $2 level, none at the $1 level, and for quarters the best was 98.48%. But we wanted the highest EV available, and finding these were only offered at the $5 and above level, we headed for the High Limit room.  There we were overjoyed to find our beloved Deuces, with the 16/10 version (99.7%) commonly called NSUD – Not-So-Ugly-Ducks.

We rarely play single-line $5 anymore.  We are more apt to find good plays at $1 or $2.  And we really prefer – when we can find good plays – multi-lines at lower denominations, i.e., $1 Ten Play or quarter 100-play.  But single-line $5 was all that was available here and we really like a good-EV deuce game, so it made for fun sessions, especially when Brad and I each hit the 5k four-deuce jackpot.  As any experienced deuce player knows, getting one of those secondary jackpots gives you “traveling money,” but may not – probably won’t – make you a session winner.  But just when it looked like we wouldn’t be able to keep much of that second jackpot either, Brad held a Jack and a Ten and the rest of the royal cards popped up.   Although we still hit our share of royals these days, of course more numerous ones on multi-line, they are usually in the 1k-8k range.  We hadn’t hit a 20k since January of 2011, so this was an exciting surprise!

Of course the big royal was memorable, but it was merely the cherry on top of a wonderful 10-day vacation “dessert.”   The few hours we spent at a video poker machine were enjoyable, of course.   However, holding a new great-grandbaby for the first time, spending quality time with family, being able to share comps – these were the important things that took up the major part of our time and interest.

We can’t wait to go back to this area next summer. Hopefully many in our family will be able to join us.  There are so many fun outdoor activities available, especially when the weather is warmer:  rafting, fishing, zip lining, hiking.  And we might have two casinos to choose from where we would have CZR comps to share.  We could go back to Harrah’s Cherokee where we stayed this time.  Or, the tribe has already broken ground on another casino about an hour southwest, near Murphy, North Carolina.  Harrah’s Cherokee Valley River Casino and Hotel may be open by then and we might want to check that out.

 

 

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5 Responses to Trip Report – Harrah’s Cherokee – Part 2

  1. Karlene T says:

    Good report and congrats on the 20k win for Brad. Glad you enjoyed your trip.
    I love that casino, headed there next week as a matter of fact. The scenery in the area is fantastic, and service at the casino/hotel rivals any I have been to. It’s a shame they don’t loosen the slots just a bit and put at least a few higher EV poker machines at the quarter and dollar level – they actually used to have some decent ones ‘back in the day’ before it became a resort – but we just budget carefully when we go there and occasionally get lucky and come out ahead.

  2. ken orgera says:

    Good report, glad you enjoyed your trip.

  3. Kevin Lewis says:

    I’d be willing to lay 5-1 that your having hit the $20K royal on the NSUD will cause those machines to be downgraded within a week. Slot managers–being only slightly brighter than the average houseplant–react in horror when someone actually hits a royal on a high-denom machine (that’s not supposed to happen!!). They then scurry about, like the Red Queen, looking for someone to behead.
    NSUD is a funny game. You have to learn it because frequently, it’s the only decent game available, and as in, for example, playing at Coasts in Vegas, it’s usually your only chance to play even slightly +EV. Of course, one should always play FPDW instead if it’s available (even at a lower denomination), but that’s a rare bird these days. The trouble with NSUD is that it’s a slow death, due to getting shorted on every four of a kind–once every sixteen hands! Then the quad deuces keep you alive…if they come in time…you hope…
    It’s a pity that Harrah’s/Caesar’s doesn’t offer even semi-decent games unless you crank it up to the $1 level and above (if then). Their properties might be worth visiting if it was possible to play quarters and/or decent low-denom multiline. As it is, we small-bankroll scum have to either play 97% VP or keep our filthy selves out of there altogether.

  4. William Clark says:

    It sounds like you had a wonderful time while in North Carolina. Maybe the Indian Tribes in Florida will get the message and open up these good games here.

  5. Terry Haile says:

    Sounds like a great trip overall. I was in Las Vegas at the end of Sept. and was hoping to perhaps run into you and Brad this time at the Palms but alas you were elsewhere. I’m still hoping that someday I may meet you in person but my trips to LV are getting fewer and fewer by each passing year. I was happy to hear that you like the 99.7% DW game as it’s one of my favorites. I know there are full pay quarter Deuces at the the Palms but I much prefer the fifty cent NSUD game that is there also. Well glad you had a good trip with some decent wins and made it home safely. Thanks for all the interesting updates and my best to you and Brad, Terry Haile Post Falls, Id

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