Great Loop Day 049 Oct 16, 2016, Alton Marina, Illinois. Layover Day 1

Alton Marina, Illinois. Layover Day 1

Feb 26, 2023

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Day 49 Sunday, Oct 16, 2016. Cleaning day. Found some mold in the starboard quarter food bin. Items in cardboard containers are not a good idea. Threw out some mac and cheese boxes and a box of spaghetti. Cleaned out the bin and bleached the entire area. Even threw out the wicker baskets holding my pots and pans. Glad I bought that large Ikea bag. Put clothes from one of the storage bins in the bag and now I'm using that storage bin for cooking items.

Tomorrow's weather is forecasted to be hot, near 90. Decided to stay another night here at Alton Marina and get the rugs and some clothes washed, do a little more cleaning in the V- berth, get groceries, especially fruit, and veggies, and pay bills online, then I'm going to reward myself by spending a few hours at the Argosy Casino right next door! Speaking of the casino, you should see the Captain's Table Buffet! Heard the casino is running a promotion, buy a buffet and get 15 dollars to play slots. I learned many years ago to take advantage of casino players' Comp Cards. Even when playing for a night. Sign up at the service desk, and get a plastic card you slide into each slot machine you play to collect points. Playing small as I do, the promotion doesn't amount to much. But in the event I hit it big, I will play with the casino winnings and may get some promotional gifts.

I got lucky from the start today. A promotion flyer said to swipe the newly acquired card at the service desk and the casino may reward you. I got there before the buffet opened swiped my card and received 8000 bonus points. That amounts to 20 dollars on any slot machine and can be played in increments of 5 dollars at a time.

Yea, the buffet is now open. I climbed the stairs to the Captain's Table paid my $19.49, received a signed receipt I take to the Service Desk, and get 15 dollars added to my card account. So I got 35 dollars to play with and a delicious $19.49 all-you-can-eat buffet! It's 4 pm and not crowded. Time to chow down. I start at the salad bar. Load up on my veggies then get a new plate and hit the prime rib. Generous portion please, as the server cuts a large slice and places it on my plate. Down the line, I go finding a good selection of food to pile up; mashed potatoes, hot green beans, peanut chicken, baked beans, popcorn shrimp, some kind of pasta dish, glazed sweet potatoes, hush puppies, roll, and that was just the first round. Sat down and my sweetened iced tea was there on the table. Cut up a piece of the prime rib and it melts in my mouth. Everything was so delicious. Back for round 2, rice pilaf, Italian sausage, onion rings, more potatoes, and broccoli and cheese. Beginning to feel full and there was still the dessert to sample. Chocolate and vanilla Ice cream, melons and pineapples, strawberries, and now to check out the cakes and pies. But alas no cheesecake. Settled for what I think might be poppy seed cake if there is such a thing. Scrumptious with the strawberry glaze on top. Did everything but lick the plate. Left the drink server a substantial tip as all the servers were so polite and happy. It sure adds to the enjoyment of a meal. All the employees here have been doing an outstanding job in making customers happy. In fact, The guy in front of me in the buffet line was given a free buffet ticket cause his player's card was malfunctioning in a slot machine.

Security is everywhere. Friday I witnessed 3 security guards escorting an obviously intoxicated patron out the door. The guy was a little belligerent but cooperated in the end. Does that count as the floor show?

So now I had 35 dollars of the casino’s money to play with. I do a lot of walking here. These slot machines are all new to me. I take time to read the minimum bet figures and it can be intimidating at first. I had an awkward moment in Las Vegas once. I walked over to a large wall-sized 3 Stooges theme gaming slot there. Put in 20 dollars and not understanding the buttons found I played the $20 on one pull. Lost it just like that. Never again. The simplest is the 3 real machines. I avoid all the progressive machines like the plague. In fact, I rarely play any machine that is 2 stories high and has a zillion lights on it. Those machines cost a lot of money to operate and guess where the financing comes from? Yep, from your kind donations.

Quarter credits are most common, play one, 2, or three credits. (Casinos call them credits because it's much easier to forget you are using real money) Rumor has it the odds are a little better when playing maximum credits but found that's not always true. The odds are the same based on the computer chipset of the casino. The proportional payout may be higher at maximum credit if you win. Tight machines have a payout of around 95% and some casinos have payouts of 97- 98%. Those are the ones to play. If you know where they are.

I have a simple strategy: if no hits after a couple of dollars move on. But my favorite at the moment is the video poker machines. Play the one credit and if it's winning move up to 2 credits and so on. Stats for video poker can be slightly better than the other gaming machines and I get more bang for my buck. I only got a royal flush once in vegas. Those are extremely rare to get. But they are a lot of fun and you have some control over your hold cards. It was getting late and still had 5 dollars in casino cash to play. A machine I never played before where the minimum bet was 40 cents appeared to be getting hot when I won a minimum jackpot of 11 dollars.

You see, you can't just cash out any of the casino’s freebies, you have to play it or lose it. My experience with this situation is to cash out all my winnings (winnings you can keep) and walk away. It's way too easy to play it all back and you have nothing to show for all your effort. But that's just me. The bottom line here is good money management and financial discipline. Now go out and have a good time.

Well time to get back to Mickey in the cabin. He needs a good walk around the deck. So to all Fair winds and gentle seas.

Comments from 2016:
David Myers Cool picture how is anyone going to Stop Henry

Hey, they named a street after me!