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My GPS took me on a winding route through little neighborhoods of houses beat up by the hurricane. The GPS routes are certainly ways I would never experience with a map and directions. In fact, with a map and directions I doubt I would have located this little casino.As it was the GPS said I had reached my destination and all I could see was deserted waterfront and the remnants of an old waterslide. So I called the Silver Slipper.
"Well, you are right near us, can't you see us." "Do you have a large balloon like bubble over the top of the casino?" "No, not really. Look, just take that road along the Gulf to the end and you will get to us."
So I did. Turns out they do have such a bubble, but it is not part of the casino, just a storage tank set back from the casino.
This route along the water is like no other road to any casino I have visited. There were some beaches and then I could be driving inches from deep Gulf water. I could have fished right off the side of the road.
Facing the water would be a stretch of wiped out house and then some workman rebuilding and then some finished beauty of a house all new and shiny and then some older place that somehow had missed damage.
The casino itself was right on the water. They did not need any fake pools at this place and the water was much more accessible than at Biloxi. You could walk from the casino parking lot to the shore and feel like you were off on a deserted island.
I came because they offered a great sign up bonus and advertised $3 rake for live poker. $3 is the best in that neck of the woods and beats all the rakes from Lake Charles, LA and up the Mississippi River to Caruthersville, Missouri.
The first free deal was free brignets and coffee in a little cafe. They were just as good as anything I had in the French Quarter of New Orleans. So I munched a while, and then headed over to the little poker room.
Well, I was too early. Not enough players for a game. They did have some little promotions. I believe they had aces cracked at certain times. But the good rake would go away soon.The poker room person told me they just did not make up in more people what they lost in revenue on a reduced rake. Too bad. You'd think that poker players would get the math of this, get it that it can mean up to $20 in their pocket every time they play. No, no, but they will all flock to the bingo bonus bad beat where instead of getting a buck or two back on each winning hand as you do with a $3 rake, they hand over a buck for a lottery like bet. A dollar and a dream. Just the poker is not enough for folks, they gotta have the big win in their fantasy lives.
Well, the casino was delightful. There was no good VP under the dollar level, but the place was friendly and small and I entertained myself with the freeplay while I waited for the buffet to open.
A reduced price buffet was also part of the free signup bonus. I expected something small and average like those small buffets in Vegas, but this was delightful with finely prepared dishes including some of the better catfish I have eaten. That made the trip.
They don't yet have a hotel which is ironic because they have to be far from any other hotel as well. I could see myself wandering back here to play poker and fish and just be by the water. I suppose in good weather more folks gather on the beaches than the handful I saw, but even so it would be a delightful spot.
For my signup I got a fine black Silver Slipper T shirt. The poker boys here inAlbany NY won't have one like that.
And then I needed to head out to Lake Charles and meet up with Louisiana Mudgiff Aligator Dan, the Silver Striking man, for a lesson in the correct way to peel boiled crawfish. But that is another story.
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