Hittin' the Shoe in the face and running

So I'm in Chi-town for a couple of days on business. I've never been to any mid-west casinos so I decided to check out the Horseshoe Hammond since that casino seems to be one of the most recommended in the area.

I am not a CET player (I am lowly Gold), so I set up a CL in advance and two days later I called and they said I was approved.



So I get to Chicago today and do some work stuff and then catch the shuttle that comes by the downtown Hyatt Regency (every two hours or so) at 4:20pm.

I was a little worried about transportation back downtown, but knew I could figure it out. I didn't reach out to a host in advance. I was going to play and then see if they would comp dinner at the steakhouse that I've heard good things about.

The trip to the Shoe was only 30 minutes from downtown Chicago, even in rush hour traffic.



When I arrived at the Horseshoe Hammond on the shuttle, they made me go to the Total Rewards desk to get my return shuttle ticket back. You have to stay a minimum of 3 hours and you can take a later shuttle. Last shuttle to downtown Chicago hotels is 11:35pm.



After I got my return shuttle ticket, I went to the HL table cashier cage to sign for my CL. After a few minutes the cage manager comes back with a credit app that was missing half of the info I submitted online on the original app. I had to look up my bank address and phone number, verify my bank account info, fill in my income, assets, and liabilities again. The cage manager leaves for another 15 minutes and then comes back and tells me it's ready to use. I'm not sure how half of my information was missing or if they had to re-approve my credit line, but with a small bit of hassle it was worked out.

There were three BJ tables in the HL room that were open. Limits here are impressive. In the HL room the limits are $50 to $25,000 (no mid-Shoe entry). On the main floor the limits are $15 to $10,000 (I didn't see any signs that forbid mid-shoe entry on the main floor).

All three BJ tables in the HL area already had players. I normally like to play alone, but didn't really have a choice so I chose a table with one player on it and the dealer was shuffling. So I sat down and asked for a $5k marker.

Now let me tell you something, if you are used to getting a marker in Vegas where the pit boss quickly looks up your available credit and gives the dealer a lammer so he can give you your chips, and then prints the marker slip and has you sign it five minutes later.... this is a whole new experience. It took over five minutes for the pit boss to get the slip printed, have me sign it, have the dealer sign and initial the paperwork, and THEN I finally got my chips.

In the meantime, before I got my chips and while we just sat there, we had another player join the table. So we finally get dealt some cards and I lost the first few hands and quickly find myself down $4500. I put the last $500 into the betting circle and finally win my first hand! So I stack it up and bet $1000 on the next hand and win again! So of course I have to stack it up to $2000 and get a pair of 2's against a 4. I don't have any more money to split so I ask for a table marker. Apparently they didn't know what that was so I just asked for another $5k marker. Here is where it was annoying that it was so slow to get my chips from the marker. Play was stopped for another five minutes. So I finally get my second $5k marker and split the 2's. On the first card I get a face card for a 12. On other 2 I get another 2 so I have to split again. So I've used $4k out of the $5k marker I just got. The next card was an 8, so I have to double with my 10 against a 4. The problem is I only had $1k left of that second $5k marker. I considered doubling for less just to get the game moving along, but luckily the other two guys at the table were cool so we waited another five minutes for my third $5k marker. I think I pulled a 4 on the double for a crap hand and the third 2 that I split got a face card for a 12. So I have $8k on the table with crap hands and the dealer flips over a 7 to go with his 4 for an 11. He then draws a 3 and then a face!! Fist bumps all the way around! So now I'm up around $5k!

 

Technically I was in Indiana! But just saw @jenblase had a VERY nice major jackpot win! Congrats to her!

 

Thanks. Next update will disappoint....

Next hand $6k loser. Hand after that another $5k loser. Now back down $6k ☹️

 

So I think I lost a couple more hands and was down to betting $2k/hand. Finally won a hand or two and started the betting progression again. Got up to a $4k bet and won a double. Got a couple BJ's at $6k each a few hands apart. Finally bumped my bet up to $8k and lost. Made that my last hand and colored up for $46,700. Paid back the $15k in markers at the cage and had $31,700 in profit. I asked for a check and was surprised to get a hand written check. Never seen that before.



I asked for my stats and pit boss said my stats were $6k avg for 45 minutes. I asked for a host and after about 15 minutes had one come over. I asked for a comp for the steakhouse. She informed me that the steakhouse is closed on Monday and Tuesday. I asked her what the other options were and she said the Noodle Bar or the Buffet. I opted for the Noodle Bar and was given a comp for $28. LOL. It did cover two entrees and a drink. The Kung pao shrimp was ok but I didn't care for the Korean seafood Noodle dish so I hardly ate any of it.

I decided to COMP MYSELF back in Chicago!





Before I left the casino I checked my points and I earned $52 in comps/RC's? (5200 points?). I also got 200+ entries in some car drawing for this Saturday, and made it to Platinum tier.

I did catch the first shuttle I could back to Chicago at 7:35pm so was only there really for two and a half hours. Like the title says, I punched them in the face and RAN!

 

I haven't seen that digital marker system anywhere but Vegas is fast enough for me with their use of the lammers. I can get the chips from my marker and lose them before I sign for them in Vegas. I've also paid off markers before I've signed for them in Vegas! LOL.

 

So if I earned 5200 tier credits in one day do I get the 10k tier credit bonus for diamond in a day??

 

Forgot the chip porn pic from yesterday.... here is what I cashed in after I paid off the markers

 

Thanks @Riders! Have a safe flight!