I’d like to say I planned it this way from the very start – that I never set foot in Trump Marina because I knew someday they’d sell the place to Golden Nugget, which would do a promotion where new sign-ups could earn as much as $1000 in free slot play.
I’d like to say it, but I can’t. Simply put, I had zero desire to set a single small toe inside the Trump Marina. First, it was in the Marina and if I’m going to the Marina, I’m going to the Borgata. Second of all, the property did (and still does) look like a brown parking garage (one that now says ‘Rump Arina’ with an inverted golden triangle/waterfall on the main tower). And finally, as far as I can remember, they never had any promotions (either when they had their own card or when they introduced ‘Trump One’) for which I’d get off the jitney.
So when the slot club attendant called me over to his terminal so I could sign up for a card and asked me if I’d ever been there before “even when we were Trump”, I could truthfully say, “No”. I then proceeded to push a button that spun 3 reels on a slot machine behind him and couldn’t believe my eyes when “$100” appeared on all 3 on the center line!
At that point my gambling strategy changed considerably. Had I only won $5, I would’ve found a penny slot where I didn’t have to play too many lines at once and seen if I could quickly reach a bonus round. With $100, though, I figured Jacks or Better (even 8/5) was in order, mainly for ‘bankroll preservation’.
It took me longer than expected to find an 8/5 machine, which was odd b/c there isn’t much to the casino floor. GN hasn’t owned the property that long and there’s a definite ‘work in progress’ feel to the place, although to be fair I can only comment on what I saw between the parking garage and the casino floor – a couple of ‘temporary bars’ and some shops near the garage. The casino floor is ‘shotgun style’, meaning just a straight line of gambling opportunities (pit in the middle, machines surrounding the pit). I have to wonder if they’ve removed machines to save money just like some CZR properties have done.
I decided to put all my free play on one machine; I didn’t feel like having to fiddle with the keypad every so often. I played for a little bit and hit nothing of note, except for getting dealt four to a royal in spades and not getting the queen on the draw. Eventually I cashed ‘my’ money out and had about $40 of my own and about another $40 to go. So I played for what I thought was the same length of time, cashed out and still had free play to go. Lather, rinse, repeat a few more times and I finally used up all my free play. I put all the TITOs back in, saw I had $66.25, played one hand so a loss would bring me down to a nice, round number and it did, so I cashed out with $65. I should mention that in all this time (about 30 minutes), I never saw a cocktail waitress.
After paying my $5 for parking (on a Tuesday night? Boo!) and getting a transfer, I headed over to where I really wanted to go: the Borgata. I made my way through the crowds to the B Bar and found the one free machine on the quarter side. I soon realized why it was free: while all the machines got a good cleaning earlier in the day, someone must’ve already spilled a drink all over mine b/c the buttons, the touch screen AND the slot club keypad had very poor responsiveness. In retrospect, I should’ve just played enough hands to turn my $10 in free slot play into cash and then gone out onto the floor, but I wanted a soda and ended up burning through all of it plus my winnings (I got the machine to just above $20) before leaving. I put a $20 of my own in a machine outside the bar and played for a decent amount of time, hitting nothing of note. Somewhere in all this I ended up with 4 to a royal, again in spades. Finally, I saw it was 11:30 and since I had a 30 minute drive back to OC ahead of me, I cashed out when I got down to $10, leaving me with a total profit of $55. I think I said it last year, but it bears repeating: if you’re travelling between AC and OC after, oh, say, 10, take the Expressway and the Parkway. Any time before that and the local roads are just fine. Either way it’ll take about 30 minutes.
Just remember to bring coins for the tollbooths, which are unmanned at night. I through ten dimes in the basket and still didn’t get a green light so I blew my horn and continued on. If I get a ticket in the mail, well, at least I made some money!
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