Cindy wanted to go to a quilt show in St. Louis that was ending on May 26. I wanted to be at the new Harrahs grand opening in Tunica on the 23rd so planning this thing was tricky. We decided to leave on Tuesday and go home on Friday. First stop was for a free lunch at Harrahs Metropolis thanks to a Casino Player coupon. Only change there was that there is a new rack of roulettes but since no one was playing roulette at 11 AM on a Tuesday and they had 2 critters working the table there was no chance to grab few. They now have 2 tables with chips from table 1 and 4 on them.

Next stop was our St. Louis hotel at Casino Queen across the river. I still can't believe that the best casino rate in the St. Louis area was $85 per nite. That is waaay high for me. Anyway they had 4 sets of dice that I needed plus a new rack of roulettes. I made a casino run that nite and first stop was at Argosy in Alton. Absolutely nothing new there. Of course they are getting a whole new rack in June but that news didn't help me at all. But wait it gets better later. Next stop was Ameristar in St. Charles where I got a few pair of dice and they also have a new rack of roulettes. Next was Harrahs in Maryland Heights where I didn't see any new chips but I did get some roulettes I needed and a pair of dice. Back to Casino Queen to pick up a few of those new roulettes and play some BJ. Wednesday we went to the quilt show, had lunch in a bar that served a very nice hamburger and hit the antique stores. Unsucessfully. At night it was a trip to Luminere Place (the Beau Rivage of the midwest!) and President which is owned by the same company. I wonder how long they are going to keep the Mickey Mouse antique boat President around with that fabulous place a block away? Got blown out of a Poker tournament at Lumiere when my A-8 got taken out by A-9 when only a 7 came out on the river. GEEEEZ! I screwed up by checking the flop instead of going all in at that point. Once he bet and was pot committed he had to stay in. I couldn't get any dice at President or Lumiere Place and would be interested in getting some from there. Back to Casino Queen for another nite at the tables.

Thursday we left for Tunica. On the way I see a sign for Casino Aztar in Carruthersville, MO. Never been there before so why not stop? Got some very nice blue and green dice from there as well as info that they were sold to Isle of Capri and will be rebranded using the old Lady Luck name that Isle got when they bought out Lady Luck a few years ago. New name and new rack starting June 9th. GEEZ! Talk about bad timing. The old rack of chips had some $1 and $.50 chips in very nice shape so I picked up a few since they will soon be obsolete. Only to find out that they are a new order variation with no security marks like the old ones had. GEEEZ!

Just feeling the need to visit some antique stores and Cape Girardeau comes to mind. I remembered that Jerry Birl did a story on illegal clubs in the area a few years ago so maybe there is something in the antique stores. First store I go into I ask about any chips and the guy is a fountain of knowledge about the illegal clubs there. He also showed me the only chips he had including 2 previously unknown (to me at least) illegal club chips. One is a very nice arodie mold $25 chip from Frog City and the other is a TK mold chip from Club 18. Both local joints. I am hoping to get some duplicates of the chips from the dealer but it may be a few days if ever. Stopped at a few other antique stores in town and found some chips marked USA that were obviously used in a club somewhere.

Last stop was at Southland Park where I got the new $5 chip. My $10 free table play coupon lost as well as 2 other hands at $10 each but Cindy turned her $7 slot card sign on bounus into $16 at a video poker machine. On to Tunica where Harrahs jumped the gun by a day or two and already had the new chips on the tables as well as all of their signage changed. Picked up what I thought would be easily enough chips to sell but ran out of some after the first 5 or 6 emails. Fortunately my son in law is there today and going to pick up more chips for me so everyone will be taken care of. The new Harrahs is the old Grand casino and this will be the third Harrahs branded casino in Tunica. The first was a very small boat, the second was a decent new building but they just couldn't get the casino floor designed correctly. Over a 2 years period I think they redesigned the casino 5 times. That property was sold when they bought Caesars. By the way, the now privately held Harrahs Entertainment is being renamed Caesars Entertainment in the near future.

I have made other posts about things for sale but this scan is of some other chips I picked up. $.50 chips are $2, $1 chips are $3, $5 chips are $7.50 and that is delivered price. The chip in the lower right is the new $5 chip from Southland.