Every year since I’ve become a professional gambler, I’ve taken the leisurely 800 mile drive up to the Reno/Lake Tahoe area four or five times. There’s at least a half dozen casinos that I really like, and besides, it’s home to my favorite spot on this planet: The Hyatt at Incline Village on the North Shore of the most beautiful lake in the world.

I think it was February when I was last at Harrah’s in Reno, and I played a session of my Advanced Romp-Thru-Town strategy. I sat at the bar next to Sammy’s Showroom where they have a number of 3-level $1/$2/$5 machines and two $5/$10 games. The session lasted about two hours, which is a very long time for what I do.

As is usually the case, most of my time was spent on the top level ($10 here) playing DDB. I hit numerous quads but every single one of them were of the non-special variety, and they all came at the tail end of my play. In layman’s terms, that meant none of them were capable of getting me out of the hole. I lost $6000.

All was not really lost, however, as I played another similar session up the road at Atlantis, and a $10,000 winner gave me a slight overall profit for my Northern Nevada visit. And in my world, ANY win is better than ANY loss. It is as simple as it gets.

There is a serious problem going on in the casino business right now. The gaming business in this country is heading for a “correction” of sorts, and based on the amazing offers I’ve been receiving for my amount of play, their marketing departments have been ordered by the suits to get gamblers in.

I’ve never spoken to a casino host at Harrah’s at any of their properties. There is no reason to do so since the computer-generated offers are always FAR superior than anything a human will concede, and to do so only flags you for the remainder of the relationship. But one of them called me at home, and I listened to what she had to say.

I was asked when I’d be coming up to their property again, and I had a quick response. I said “When you send me tickets and book me a suite with all expenses paid throughout my stay”. What I was curious about was the rapid reply of “Done - when would you like to visit?” That told me right there how serious the problems are becoming in the industry.

Well, I just returned from that visit, and I can’t think of when my wife and I have had a more enjoyable stay. No, we didn’t spend the entire time at Harrah’s Reno….Please. But we mixed a whole lot of activities in with my romp, we had great meals, and we even extended our stay. It was a classic visit to Northern Nevada.

I’m not a fan of airports or air travel any longer as I spent my entire career virtually living in airplanes all over the world. I thought travel was tedious back then, but compared to today it was a piece of cake. Taking off shoes, maximum 3.4 oz. of liquids that have to go through separate from your carry-on, removing belts, long lines of anxious people looking around to see if there’s any Muslims on their flight, in-depth security routines at every turn, etc. etc. It’s really why I drive most of the time.

But this was all courtesy of Harrah’s, and I was not on some customer-driven business trip like so many of my fellow travelers were. When we arrived at the comparatively calm (compared to Phoenix) Reno airport, we got our rental car and it took all of ten minutes to get to Harrah’s. That sounds fast...except for the fact that it was now 5pm, and we left our house at 11 for the short flight. There’s something very inefficient about all that.

Once at Harrah’s I did not intend to play because of the working over I took there on my last visit. But we were both hungry so we changed our plans a little and went to the Steakhouse right away for a great dinner. Afterwards, Cindy went upstairs to rest while I stayed downstairs waiting for a friend to arrive from California.

While waiting, I decided to take on that same bar near the showroom, but instead of playing a session I chose to do something that’s been very successful lately: look for machines that might be starting to show a pattern, then shift up the denomination and hope for a big hit. On the first three $1/$2/$5 machines I blew through a quick $3000 with nothing.

Then I found the machine I was looking for. I immediately spotted a pattern (described in previous articles - write to me if you want to know more about this) while playing dollars so I shifted it up to the $5 level. No big hit came, but I received four quads in 15 minutes on DDB Poker. I was ahead $500 overall just like that.

Then my friend called and said he was playing a session at one of the very few 25c/50c/$1/$2 machines that even I didn’t know they had. So I left my “exposed” machine and sat near him where I played losing ARTT video poker to the tune of $1200. I was now $700 in the red, so I told him to come on over to the machine where I found an interesting pattern forming earlier so I could make the loss back.

Sure enough and to his amazement, the machine kept spitting out quads, and in maybe 30 minutes time I had won another $1300, putting me $600 ahead at Harrah’s for the night. I would play no more there on this trip, so I had one casino under my belt so far.

In the morning Cindy and I went out to watch the Reno Rodeo parade as it strolled down Virginia Street. Then we went into the Silver Legacy where I grabbed a fast $50 profit before heading into Brews Brothers Brewery at the Eldorado. While we each tried a sampling of their excellent beers, I won $125. Beer Bucks 101.

From there we drove up to Atlantis to play the $100 in free-play that I was sent. I turned that into $140 and we left. Next stop – the Hyatt on the north shore. We checked in, had dinner lakeside at the Lone Eagle Grille, Cindy went to bed and I stayed up for a few hours playing ARTT on their 25c - $2 machines. By the end of my play and after finally hitting four Aces on $2 SDBP, I went to the room up another $700.

But I wasn’t through yet. After a relaxing breakfast at the Sierra Café we went for a long walk all around the area. There are lots of woods nearby the Hyatt, and for visitors from Phoenix that’s always a welcome treat. There’s also the lake, and I can’t tell you how tough it was leaving our comfortable spot and the cool breeze it generated when it was time to go.

Onto the Peppermill, but a stop at Casino Fandango on the way netted a $320 profit. When we did arrive at the Peppermill we were simply going to check in, get my $50 in free-play, then leave for the airport. But when we got to the room we found we were put in one of the new tower suites, so we decided to extend our tickets and rental car until Monday at a cost of $140. Peanuts really, in the world of professional gaming.

After another fine dinner in Oceano I played another ARTT at their sports bar and on $5 BP (actually, 25 credits of dollars on their machines) I hit four Aces for a $2000 W2G. I also forgot to play my free-play earlier, and I turned that into $90 afterwards. But I wasn’t done yet. Even at the airport - a venue I've not played at since my optimal-strategy only days - I played a short session and hit four 2’s on dollar a 6/5 DB game for a $335 profit.

The final tally was 8-0 at the casinos I played at, and I came home with an extra $3300 – and that’s after every expense was deducted, including the ridiculous $75 parking fee at the airport in Phoenix. I’m finding ways to win folks, and while I agree many of you are having a difficult time of it this year, my play strategies and searching for patterns to exploit are what’s doing it for me.