Wandering back from Florida to be home again after a wintering as a snow bird, I stopped at Foxwoods/Mohegan Sun for a couple days. My wife jumped van in North Carolina to fly to Denver with her sister and comfort a dying family member there. Niece Nora hopped into my wife's seat and drove with me to Boston, where I dropped her for a conference, and I went to the Groton Inn and suites, using the HotelSaver coupons for a fine rate of $45 anight.
We left Durham NC at 7:15 AM and I arrived in Groton at 11:45 PM. It was the longest car ride I have had in recent years, but being in the company of this delightful young niece made the time zip by. She lives an exciting life and told tales of living in Bolivia, Geogia(country near Russia) and plenty of family stories I had not heard. She also listened to my stories, none of them as interesting as hers.
She is also very easy, mild mannered, good humored, and beautiful inside and out.
I think this is more time than I have had one on one with her in all the years I have known her.
We did not stop to eat. That was all travel time, except for bathroom stops. We caught one traffic jam near Washington and exited for bathroom and learned how to drive around it. From NYC to Boston we were not so lucky. Also, that stretch included two bridges with tolls of $13 each. Outrageous!! I better like our usual inland route with less traffic and fewer tolls.
So I slept well and on Friday headed to Foxwoods about noon. Once again they game me 10 points just to show up. They seem to always do that. It is a standard mailer. This amazes me because for the most part I only play live poker.
I like Foxwoods. This time I just played 2-4 limit and lost. Then I tried a DDB video poker (really bad 8-5 pay table) and lost the other half of my bankroll. I rolled in about midnight.
That Friday night I did not sleep as well, but woke at about 5AM. I wish I had headed to Mohegan then, but I did not suspect that games would still be happening. They have a new early morning promotion, so four hours of play would have given me a buffet coupon which could even be saved for supper. That is worth over $20.
I played a bit of video roulette, where I can play with just one zero. I quit at a dollar profit. I always play a dollar on black and a dollar on the third row. This decreases the volatility by giving me some action on almost all the numbers, and gives me a few spins for fun with usually little loss.
I don't think I get points for playing because single zero roulette has a low house advantage. They never let me play out my bus freeplay on those machines.
On Saturday I went to Mohegan Sun. I don't get to play much at Mohegan Sun as the Albany Yankee Trails heads mostly to Foxwoodsm and I rarely drive down there, the bus being such good value.
I like the poker room better at Mohegan Sun. It is bright and just off the casino rather than hidden in what feels like a dungeon (as happens to the limit players in Foxwood.)
However, I like the bad beat at Foxwoods better than the money for high hand awards at Mohegan. The high hand is the highest in 4 hours. When I arrived it already was four kings and then someone hit the royal. Compare that to the $500 every half hour on Saturdays at Ocala in North Florida. I don't know what they do with the rest of the promotion money. Pay out breakfast comps I guess.
At neither casino was the competition as soft as I have been playing in Florida. Mohegan did deal a 1-1 NL that I can play on my bankroll, but I did not feel rested enough. The 2-4 competition was very tough and I left before I thought I would on Saturday, having supper at the buffet on my way and getting home before dark. I'm going to miss Ocala this summer.
Also, compared to Vegas the other players were not as colorful as collects around a 2-4 at Flamingo or at the Golden Nugget. They are friendly enough but there is little chatter. There was at Foxwoods a bit of chatter around the Boston Red Sox playing the Toronto Bluejays. They just assumed everyone rooted for Boston, but I have a friend who is equipment manager for Toronto. Also, I'd seen a couple games in Florida spring training, and I was for the BlueJays. I am not much of a fan of any sports, but it was cool to see Cabrera hit after seeing him in Florida a couple weeks earlier. Anyway, who wants a sock on a hat when you can have a fine looking bird? I just wish they were the Toronto Bluegills.
The Bluejays lost that Friday game, but it was very close. I should have been watching on Saturday to see them win. Today the loss was a slaughter.
I could watch the game from my seat at Foxwoods on Friday, and so that was a bit more entertaining than just the poker and the mild tone of verbal exchanges, some of it a bit stuffy and critical of others. As if there were any way to really play 2-4.
At Mohegan on the second day I found a 9-5 DDB and tossed in a hundred. My reasoning is that given the poor pay tables, I'll play high volatility and either win or lose, grinding much less. Being short paid on Full houses and flushes, a high volatility game with quitting ahead or broke will limit the number of times I am short paid, since I risk less in a session.
I played before the Mohegan poker and cashed out $30 to find I'd miss my seat and had to wait. Then after live poker I put in the $30 and ran it up to almost $200 with three quads, one the them being 4-4-4-4 before drifting down again and quitting with a $50 profit. I was pleased to come from $70 behind and make $50.
I was up a bit on Wednesday in both VP and live poker, but not enough to offset my losses on Friday. Overall I lost $266.
Of the two buffets, the Mohegan Sun was superior, especially for my needs. They had many more vegetables and fully labeled sugar free foods. The strawberries were labeled as "no sugar added."
Mohegan Sun had brocollini, sauteed zuchinni, some mushrooms without sauce, and other salads and vegetables that add variety to the usual fare.
Only the mussels were better at Foxwoods. Crab was at Foxwoods too, but it was not as tasty, a bit overcooked, and nothing I'd go to eat. Of course, I am spoiled on fresh stone crab all winter in Florida, bought in large bags and cooked at home.
Mohegan Sun has a lightly battered haddock that was good. What they called "cod" was swai I think. They had a raw oyster/clam bar, but I'm not doing raw lately. They also had suichi.
I really liked the food and service better at Mohegan Sun.
It may be that I'm just bored with Foxwoods because I've had their buffet so many times on the bus trips.
I ate on my points at Foxwoods and paid half with my points at Mohegan so my meals for the two days cost $11.
The Foxwoods table server had ignored me so much that I skipped any tip, rare for me.
Rooms are outrageously expensive around any of the casinos, especially on the weekends. Groton is the place to find frugal beds. I've stayed there before and been satisfied, but I was surprised and very pleased at the Groton Inn. Saturday night would have cost me $65 plus tax, but Thursday and Friday were just $45. The clerks were very friendly. I called them from Boston about 10 PM asking what my chances were to walk in with a coupon and the girl was easy and friendly and encouraging. I figured that I could find someplace in Groton, but I did not want to shop around after that 17 hour car trip at midnight.
The place is right off I-95 and very easy to find. I was packed up with a van full of winter stuff, and this place seemed isolated enough that I did not worry about getting robbed overnight. I don't worry much anyway. Most of what is in the van is inexpensive and replaceable were it to be stolen, but it still must add up to about $1000 in value and Elizabeth's bike is worth $300.
My room was very large for a cheap room. There is no elevator, but I found the stairs easy to manage to the second floor. I can see how it might be noisy through thin walls, but it was very quiet and there were quite a few folks there. It is 8 miles from Foxwoods and 10 from Mohegan.
What I really liked was breakfast. This was a sit down breakfast in a restaurant with a waiter and the choices were great. I had a mushroom omlette one day and eggs over easy another, both day with grits. Coffee and juice come as well. It is included in the room. Now it is not all one can eat, but it was a fine breakfast and the coffee was good. The ambiance of the place is more upscale than most of these Super 8 type places.
Also, they had Turner Classic movies on the TV. That is the only station I watch.
The girl at the counter said that sometimes when things are slow, they offer a deal on Saturday night and I might call ahead and see. I liked staying Thursday and Friday as it gave me most of Saturday to gamble anyway. But if the third night was $45, I'd stay that Saturday night as well. It takes over 2 hours to drive back, so getting three days value out of one trip is good money management.
Overall, I had a fine time and I'd like to do that again. The Groton Inn and Suites makes that a reasonable possibility, especially if I get a poker buddy to share the room.