Traveling Around - Casinos - Two Night Stop In Tunica

We arrived in Tunica About 2:30 PM on Sunday from Ft. Smith. Planned on stopping at Sam's Town on the way to The Fitz so that I could get a free buffet (regular promo) and also see about birthday freebies. Got my certificate for the buffet from the Player's Club and played the birthday game on a kiosk.

As usual, I won a t-shirt. Had to go back to the Player's Club to redeem the print out from the kiosk for the t-shirt. Went to the buffet about 2:45, expecting to use the freebie and buy one but were told that we were almost at changeover from lunch to dinner time and the buffet wouldn't really be functional until 4 PM.

Off to the video poker machines. Couldn't find any machines that were really intriguing for my highway weary mind, but put my $5 free play (regular promo) into a 9/6 JOB quarter machine and played for a few minutes. Cashed out $5. Sharon put some cash into a machine and when I was done, she cashed out whatever it was she started with.

We wandered around and looked at the floor plan changes in the casino. Not sure how many tables they've taken out but there is one whole aisle of them that is gone. They've clustered the few tables that are left at the rear directly in front of the main entrance and filled the vacated space with slots.

Four o'clock finally rolled around and we were off to the buffet. My appetites keep changing and I'm usually satisfied with most anything. At Sam's Town, I particularly like the wine that comes with the meal. I loaded up on mostly vegetables that to me were cooked in some exotic fashion.

I truly enjoy Sam's Town buffet and wonder about the appetites of some of the naysayers I've read.

Probably was 5:30 by the time we got checked in at The Fitz. Tried to get the check in person to upgrade our room to no avail so it was a surprise that we got a river view. Even the upgraded rooms we've had in the past haven't had that. We were happy.

Sharon was completely out of steam but I headed downstairs. Wound around the tables a bit. They had several carnival games going and two $5 blackjack games that verged on carnival. Both of them were BJ plus 3 card poker and one of them had a "buster blackjack" bet on the table that saw lots of play. I had to watch for a few minutes before I figured it out. Didn't think it was a very good bet and the people I saw playing it probably agreed with me after they finished their playing. Basically you're betting the dealer is going to bust and the payoff is based on how many cards he takes. 3 and 4 card busts pay a minimum (2/1) and then they go up for each additional card. The dealer one time (while trying to hurry) proclaimed he had an 8 card bust which would have been a 50-1 payoff but realized he had miscounted at the 7th card and had a hard 17. The pit came over and backed up the play to a hard 17 and there were 4 very unhappy players at the table.

I sat there and played. The two special bets - which I never made - really slowed the game down. It was going at about six decks every 1/2 hour which was all right with me because I was simply passing time and while I enjoyed positive decks, I didn't worry too much about the negative ones. They probably weren't getting 50 hands an hour.

I played for three hours and decided to go up and watch television while I was $15 ahead. The pit gladly put a breakfast buffet on my card for Monday AM.

Monday morning I spent my time before breakfast casually playing low value video poker. They have a 100 play penny machine that has full pay bonus deuces on it. I played 5 hands of penny poker for a quarter outlay and had a lot of fun. It dealt me 5 threes once which was a great hand without much value. Sharon and I talked about it later. I should have played at the nickel level and only played one hand. That way, if I had hit a royal it would have been meaningful rather than $40. Anyway, I had a good time and lost maybe $5.

Sharon found me for breakfast. We enjoy the buffet at The Fitz and had our normal omelette with all kinds of stuff - good and bad - on it along with a sticky roll, bacon, and coffee. Both of us went back to the video poker area after breakfast and I played next to Sharon on a nickel machine that had a poor payback schedule. She got tired of it after about an hour and we cashed out. She went back up to the room and I headed for the blackjack table.

I sat down at the other $5 table and was glad that I did because it only had one side bet on it. It was the three card poker bet and I find it interesting. Only thing wrong with it is that I never bet it and when my hand hit a poker hand, everyone pointed it out to me. I survived, though, and played for some four hours. When Sharon came looking for me to have dinner (about 3 PM), I was $20 to the good and happy to sail away.

The Fitz buffet in the evening has changed some and the items that I like seem to be disappearing. I like fried bologna and there wasn't any. I like corn fritters and they had disappeared also. Had some good fried chicken and some good pork ribs and some good bread pudding. All that good stuff was more than I need and I waddled out of there.

Sharon wanted to check out the coin dropping full pay quarter machines so we headed for that corner of the casino. As usual, they were both busy. So, we went back up to the nickels where we had played earlier. She probably didn't last 1/2 hour before she decided she'd rather watch television. I decided that under those circumstances, I'd rather play blackjack. She went upstairs. I went downstairs.

The $5 game I was on earlier had an empty seat and I parked myself. Older (older than me????) fellow on my left kept a running commentary on the foolishness of a black chip players on my right. It almost looked like the black chipper would do things just to agitate the man on my left. Eventually the black chipper had enough losses and he left. Of course, the fellow on my left had a pretty good loss and he left shortly after. New players replenished the table and we played on till about 7:30. I was about even when I asked for a breakfast buffet for Tuesday (actually, the dealer usually asks me if I'd like some food) and was off to the room and Sharon for some evening TV.

It rained heavily through the night and had almost quit on Tuesday when we got to the car. Total gambling for the stay had me about even and I'm more than happy for my casino sojourns to end that way.

To me, gambling is for fun - not for profit.