Annual Potawatomi Trip 2024

For the past few years, we have made the 90 minute hike from Chicago up to the Potawatomi Casino in downtown Milwaukee. Of all the casinos within a couple hours from Chicago, this would be my favorite one.

It is big, has plenty of games (well over 3,000 slots) and I generally do well here. My last 3 trips, were all winning ones. And a handpay each time. I feel like these Injuns give me a fair shake. Which is inline with my "isolated locals" theory. That being, any casino overly reliant on repeat local action. Just cant afford to hold too much, and lose their shoppers. 

Day 1

We get here about 5PM on a Friday. The room is ready, and I dump the wife and kids in it. As I run back down to play. The casino was unrecognizable from my last visit. As they turned the 3rd floor, from what was convention space, a food hall and Bingo Parlor. Into a full fledged casino. Even more changes were in store for me this time it seemed. 

Normally I'd flip my free play into real money, by grinding some video poker. But the VP here at the Pot is both hard to find. And somewhat insulting when it comes to their paytables. The few VP machines they have, are mostly the carnival sort. That being Dreamhand, Ultimate X and what have you. With odds pretty close to dollar slots.

So, I decided to swing for the fences, and play some higher limit slots and see what happens. I only had $250 in free play here any way. Turns out, after a $406 bonus, it was the right move. I had some smaller $50ish wins prior to this as well. By the time I cashed out of Persian Fortunes below. I had a Milwaukee Fortune of about $600 of their money!

But, I pissed some away in their High Limit room. I had an OK line hit for a hundo on the below. But then lost that in some various games. 

That $700 TITO I once had on Persians. Was down to $60 after my high limit debacle. But a $237 bonus got me half back. I was way too invested in Shrimpmania here, before finally getting a decent hit of $165. That got me back to the $300 mark, and up once more. But I was down to just $50. Before I finally landed a bonus on Desert Hawk. 

The Pot is doing what the Pot has always done for me. It is giving me some play. The players club here is pretty straight forward. $2 coin in = 1 point. 1 point = 1 penny. It doesn't matter if you use that penny in the gift shop, to eat with or convert to free play. $10 through the slots = a nickle you can use however you want. The only caveat on the free play, is it must be in $5 increments.

Compare that to Caesars Rewards. Which would be most of my immediate locals casinos. And for a typical player, $10 coin in gets you 2 pennies. And if you wanted to use those  2 pennies as free play, you have to forfeit half of them. $10 coin for 1 penny of slot play, is just insulting. 

Back to the report, and they still have my Casper! I spoke lovingly of this stupid slot in may last Vegas trip report. This is the place where I got a few big wins on it, including a handy. This time, I only hit for $200. But I take it and run! I had never seen this Pink Diamond before, so I took a stab at it. $173 in a random bonus is OK. But considering the $6.75 max bet, I was hoping for better. Still, I am building back up my bankroll. 

All of the above was in the old "new" section of the casino. Many moons ago, the Pot doubled its casino space. And added an entirely new wing. It was just a bland modern design. Which was in stark comparison to the original casino, which had your typical Native motif of trees, dream catchers and other over the top tribal imagery. 

Now the old new casino, is just the older (not oldest) of the 3 (keep up). As the third floor (already mentioned) is the new, new casino. As if that wasn't enough double talk. The original (oldest) casino, has been gutted of everything that made it special. Even the leaves on the trees were ripped off. And most all of the native motif has been removed. 

Not sure what they are putting in the middle of the space. Its just construction walls now. But still kinda sad, considering we have been coming here since the late 90's. Its like losing an old friend. And if that wasn't enough salt in the wounds, I lost at least $700 on the handful of machines left in this area!

I did manage to find a new NFL slot I hadn't played before. And almost immediately my Bears got me a $240 hit! But I pissed that away trying to get a wheel spin. 

Back up to the room, to see what the girls are doing. While I take some time to reset myself after going on tilt. 

The answer? Nothing. I had a fancy suite here once, many years ago. But they only give me a standard room now. I assume since I only come out on the weekends, when things are in high demand. Or I am just a small fish at this place. No complaints, as even the basic rooms are very nice. Just not much space for 4 people over a couple nights. But we will manage. As long as there is WIFI for the kids. 

By now I have gambled through $7,000 and it cost me just over $700 to do. Which is respectable, and a good 90% return. Which is fair IMO.

I went on a mini heater below. In succession, my $100 buy-in had me up to almost $300 after I picked the shit out of this Snoop Dogg bonus. Had that down to under a hundo, before getting a shitty (on a $7.20 bet) bonus on this Treasure Lock game I had never played before. And all the way up to $442 on Red Riders. After a good $187.50 line hit on that. 

But I eventuality  pissed that $442 away. Got lucky on the Shamrock game below. I assumed $9 max bet, as that is what most of these games are. I slapped Max bet, before I realized it was $27! First spin 777 all the way through. But only good for $210. Still, I'll take it! Money Frog bonus for $178. And $130 on this Cleo. 

My luck up here on the second floor seems spotty at best. I did manage $9,000 coin in total so far. But it cost me just over a grand to do so. I was going to lick my wounds, and head back up for the night. Time well spent, I had fun and played some games I have only ever seen here. But I still took a hit in doing so. Not the end of the world. I have done worse!  

But then I saw my Roaring Riches, that I roasted the last time I was here. A hard game to find too. I love these older Ainsworth slots. What's one more hundo? $850 bonus, that's what! And just like that, nearly all my money back! I only regret not betting more. $10 max bet, and something I would normally do. But I still had a whole nother day to gamble, and I set my loss limit at a grand. $6 was where I felt OK. But I still cheated myself out of a handpay. 

Bed? Who's going to bed? I'm rich, rich I tells ya!

The very next game, betting $11.25 max bet. Bang, bonus.. I spin for a double wheel set. Wheel #1, $112.50. Boo! Then the machine freaks out, as it starts spin #2. Multicolored diamonds start shitting out of the LED screens all around me. And it lands on the Emerald Progressive for $1,126.64 more! $1,239.14 total win, and my 4th Pot Handy in as many trips.!

I went from down a grand to up a grand in 5 minutes! Gambling! Gambling! Gambling!

My last 3 handpays were all done in record time here. I am already in their system, and from the machine lock to money in my hand, it was always under 10 minutes. But not today. I sat here for 10 minutes waiting on the attendant. And then it took at least 20 more, for her to come back with money. I told her "I thought you forgot about me". She blamed the WIFI for some reason. But hey, cooling my jets might have been good for me. 

I give myself $600 to play with. After my wallet count while waiting to be paid, and knowing how much after tip I'd have on top of what I have now. -$600 would still leave me up +$500 if I blew it. 

Pissed away $100 right away. But got half of that back, on All that Cash. I was actually up even more, after a Dragon Fire win for $175. But gave all of that to the Dollar Chief, while only managing a couple $100 wins. 

I had some signs of life on whatever the fuck this game was. 

But was almost down to nothing, before a $201 bonus on 88 Fortunes. Don't worry, I pissed that away as well. I ended up with $12K coin in, and up +$500 on the day. I am pretty happy with that!

Day 2

6AM, and I am up as normal. The casino was a madhouse last night, when I left it around 10PM. I am looking forward to having some space this morning.

*Insert more Grid in the Grid Report here*

Ahh, that is more like it!

I head into the middle floor casino. Which is just this hole in the wall they call the Solstice Casino. It is the only place you can smoke inside. I think it was just a small meeting space at one time. But when they flipped the property to nonsmoking, post COVID, this is what we were left with if you wanted to smoke. Or in my case, vape.

It is a sad space, with low ceilings, and it always stinks in here. Still, they have some cool games not out on the general floors. Including this In the Money. A game I play every time I find one. I was thissssss close to killing it! 5 Bar pays 5X with any other bars. Three 5 Bar is $1,000. I got two, for a 25 X multiplier! But only landed double bars with it. At least I didn't waste it, and that $375 hit gets me back most of my money from earlier today. 

I say the middle section for the Solstice Casino, since in some places the "new" casino is straight up to the second floor. While in other, its on the 3rd floor. Since the Pot grew in fits and spurts, it gets complicated. I take the escalator up to the second (I guess third?) floor casino, so I can get some free pop for breakfast. They have a few Pepsi machines scattered around in different nooks. 

Turns out, the second floor casino was a huge mistake this round. Everything I touched, turned to shit. I had one OK hit below on American Gold. But outside of that, I dropped a grand this morning. So, from +500 last night. To -$500 right now. Boo!

I get the wife text, that they are getting their shoes on. And will meet me in the lobby. I play just one more game right outside the hotel. And get back half of my losses on the trip. $242 on Straight Cash. A game I have only seen here. I cash that $319 out, and run to greet them. 

The wife finds a restaurant in downtown, that "should" be gluten free. At least from her online research. She likes to research shit online. It doesn't matter what it is. Its like a sick fetish she has, to learn way too much about something typically trivial. She will spend days comparing different ant baits. Hours looking up chemical ingredients in my Mountain Dew Zero Sugar.  And weeks to see who makes the best yarn for her cross stitch hobby.

None of this is to say finding a GF friendly restaurant isn't important. If you recall from some of my past reports, my youngest has more rules when it comes to food than a fucking Gremlin. But instead of turning from an adorable Mogwai into a green monster. She just gets the shits, a headache and a tummy problems.

We end up at some hole in the wall called Toast. I guess their theme is weed. They all dress like Hippies and the menu is marijuana themed. "Rolled up" for wraps. "I'm holding" for sandwiches etc. Cute, I guess. But kinda weird with kids. Her research said they had GF pancakes. But what we didn't know until we got there, was that they make them on the same griddle as normal wheat ones. Cross contaminated. In our face! Still, breakfast is easy for her. And they can use a clean pan for eggs. 

Toast was fine. Pricing was somewhat reasonable. About $65 for the 4 of us. But the food itself was basically something you can make at home. And unremarkable. We wont be back. 

Today's Non-Casino adventure is the Milwaukee Public Museum. Which is now a standard stop for Fathers Day for us. Sadly, it will be closing for good soon. As they move to a different location. And many of the exhibits cannot be moved. So they will be destroyed. I think I said the same thing last year. And its still here. So who knows. 

Admission for the 4 of us would be $84. Kinda steep IMO. As we typically only spend 2-3 hours here. But a family membership is $135, and half off with a coupon the guy at the ticket booth gives us. Pay $84 + full price for parking today? Or, pay $67 and get discounted parking with a membership. That also gets us in free at over 300 other museums across the US? Hmmm. That's a tough one! 

We are now members. Random photo dump here.

It was fun, as always. But honestly, it is good for a once a year stop. Just not enough to see and do otherwise. But we will be using our new museum pass, to hit up the Field and Museum & Museum of Science and Industry back home in Chicago. 

We opt for an early dinner today, and bring casino food for the kids back up to the room. Decent sized 10" personal pizzas are like 12 bucks. And they even have GF buns for burgers here. Which are pretty hard to find in casino outlets. 

Back to the show! I was a few hundred bucks deep into the below, before getting an awesome line hit of $467!

Which lasted me awhile, as I played that up and down for a good hour. $235 here. $143 there. $126. ETC. Nothing huge, but still holding my own. 

Eventually, I lost it. And some more. I went from up $1K at one point late into day one. To giving that all back, plus $2K more out of pocket. I was going to just call it a night. As losing $3,000 in one day kinda stings. Plus, they are having a major Snoop Dogg concert here tonight. And even though you cant smoke in the casino, everything smells like ganja just from the crowds who must have smoked up before getting here. The place is packed once more.

Just one more game, before calling it a night. And bam! $384 line hit. That last $100 I gave myself, is now a $565 TITO. I check my points, and I have enough for $125 in point play. That means I ran through $25,000 over 2 nights. Not too shabby! For only a $1500 bankroll loss. 

My plan is to convert that $125 on my "In the Money" game, back up in the smoking casino. 

And it was the right move! 25 X single bars for $254. And on the very next spin, the last $5 of my point play. In the Money for $50 more. I cash out that $832 ticket, and call it a trip. Down about a grand, and that isn't bad for me!

View back down from the Solstice casino. And a peak behind the curtains. Compare this shot, to the old new casino. Which is still a nice space. 

Day 3

Nothing to do today, but pack up and head straight home. A good trip in the books. Sure, I would have rather won some money. But $25K worth of play, for just $1K out of pocket is manageable. Plus the $250 in free play they gave me. Plus the $125 in point play. Plus the room, which believe it or not goes for $515 a night on Friday and Saturday. And I came out on top of this deal!

Well, not straight home. You cant drive to Wisconsin and not buy some cheese. 

They were giving out free stuff for Fathers Day. Between food, clothes, school, toys and all the other money sucks these two cost me every year. I think a free paper crown and balloons makes it even. Sometimes being a Dad has its benefits.