Potawatomi Casino Milwaukee 2022

It has been a few years since we headed up to Milwaukee for anything. We used to hit the Potawatomi casino, lovingly called "The Pot" at least a couple times each year. Its a good hour drive from Chicago, but an easy one to make right up I94.

The Pot sort of fell from our rotation after a while. Pandemic related mostly, as we did not get out much for a couple years. My offers with them fell to the wayside, and after a spell they just stopped sending me anything.

Until a few weeks ago, I got a "We Miss You" mailer. $275 in free play, 2 nights comped in a suite & $100 in gas cards. The kids are on Spring Break as it is, so why not revisit The Pot?

I book the stay for Sunday and Monday night. The plan is, to head to the big mall in Gurnee IL on the way up Sunday. Gamble and crash at the Pot that night. Hit up the Milwaukee Public Museum on Monday, and head home after traffic dies down come Tuesday morning.

Check in was smooth sailing, and the lobby looked just like I left it back in 2018.

Their elevator set up is way cool. Not practical, for a bigger hotel. But you can't access any buttons up or down. You need to press your room key, and then you can go up to your floor. They have a voice that announces your elevator, that no one but you can hop in, and it takes you right to your floor.

I am going to assume this change was to make the place a bit safer. As I heard it has been hit hard by crime lately. Which is a shame, as the resort itself is really nice. More on this in a bit...

Up to the room, and its a good space! Nice living room, with a bar, microwave, mini fridge and all the creature comforts you'd need for a few nights.

The shitter had a few sets of clever pocket doors. That allowed you to block off certain sections, or gain access from different points in the room.

The shower did have a tub inside it, but unlike the same area in Aria that stunk of mildew, no such issues here.

We were near the top floor, with commanding views of downtown Milwaukee. Or as Alice Cooper said in Wayne's World "Actually, it's pronounced "mill-e-wah-que" which is Algonquin for "the good land."

The Pot is the biggest tourist attraction in Milwaukee. With over 6MIL visitors a year, which is twice as many people as the #2 site sees, that being Miller Park home of the Brewers.

The place was once set up as an all encompassing resort. Today? Not so much...

The gift shop has been closed and sits empty. As does the former largest Poker Room in WI. The Food Court? Walled off and shut down. The Buffet? That's a goner too. The big Bingo Hall? Nope, it sits abandoned as does the 2nd floor casino, which had a bunch of great older games. Now all dead.

The entire second floor, which many of those places were located, is now a ghost town. Bella Italian, the big Italian restaurant that would greet you when you came in from the sky bridge, now gone as well.

I don't think there is anything to see or do on that entire floor now. And it is not like they have yet to reopen due to COVID. Those spaces are completely empty, which is just sad.

As of right now, April 2022, you have a noodle shop, Ruyi. A quick service place in the casino, The Fire Pit Sports Bar & Grill. And a tiny cafe, with super limited hours, Canal Street Cafe. That's it. It seems like their only focus now, is on gambling. And that is what I am here to do anyway, so Fuck It.

I grab my players club card, and my $100 gas cards, and head to the casino.

I grind out my $275 in free play, into $250 playing Deuces Wild. I was ttthhhiiiissssssss close to $4,000 on the first game I played. Stupid missing Club Ace.

Still, I'm pretty happy nearly converting their money into my money. And I sit down at this Leprechaun game. I thought I just won $3,243! 3 Wilds, but I needed a special rainbow symbol for the $3K. Instead, it was 1,000 quarters. Which is fine, as $250 is nothing to sneeze at.

Within 30 minutes of playing, I am now up $500. What could go wrong?

I took that $500 ticket to this weird 9 line $1 denom game, which was a good call as I landed a bonus for $200. I took that $656 ticket over to another 9 line $1 game, and hit that bonus for $176.

Now I have nearly $800, and I am just getting started! Sure, both bonus games were only 20X my bet. But if they come fast enough, who cares?

More 9 line $1 games...

These were the same game I played in Vegas earlier in the year, and was able to grind up a ton of coin-in at New York New York on. Once again, even in Wisconsin, they did not disappoint.

No bonus, which is super hard to get. But a $140 & $257 line it, and I cash out over $900. Remember, this is all on the converted Free Play. I have yet to toss any of my money into anything. No Jinx!

That $900 TITO lasted me for a while. But I was chewing it up bit by bit.

By the time I made my way to this new (to me) Wheel of Fortune game, I was down to $161 left on it, before I got the bonus wheel for $250. Which, BTW, was one of the better wedges, even with my $8.00 bet. I'd be furious if I landed the $25.00 next to it, for a whopping 4X bonus.

I cashed out that $400 TITO, and started with a new $100 bill. I have fucked this up so many times in the past, I figured its best to play it safe, and bank something. I head over to Wild Wolf, which is among just a handful of older IGT games left in here.

It was the right move, as I wolfed the shit out of it for $525 and once more for $258.75! Just like that, $750 ticket once more, and I am now up a grand.

The wife texted me, asking me to bring them up something to drink. I didn't want to explain the heater I was on, and how she will most likely fuck me by pulling me away in the middle of it.

I play good Dad/Husband, and load up some drinks to bring up to them. With my hands full of pop, it wasn't easy to fuck with my key card and the Ipad Elevators.

I get back to the room, and its like Lord of the Flies in there. The kids are running around in their undies. The wife is laid out alone in the tub. I put the drinks on the bar, tell the kids to tell Mom I was here, and I left em as I found them, in total chaos.

By the time I got back to the casino, sure as shit, heater was dead. That $750 TITO was slipping fast. $100 lost here, another $100 lost there.

I was down to $133, before I hit for $100 on this Toad game I have been meaning to play. I had that down to $128 on yet another 9 line $1 game, but hit a solid bonus of $328 to inch my way back.

But I pissed most of that away playing other $9.00 bet games, with a super shitty bonus of $105 on the below my only pic worthy hit.

I limp my way into the High Limit room, with my heater nearly all but dead by now. No more up $1,000, but I am still up some still.

$110 & $100 bonus games on the below helped a little. But I am just treading water in the winners pool by now.

I was all the way down to $25 left on my "still up" money, and hit a $170 bonus on the $25,000 Pyramid. Moved that over to The Price is Right, with a $260 line up. Back up $400 now, and the Heater part 2 is setting in.

I end up playing 9 line $1 denom Casper, and score a line hit of $232. Unlike most of the other 9 line games I have been playing, this one has a 2 and 3 times multiplier to your bet. If I had manned up, and played at $18 per spin, I would have won twice as much. $27 a spin, and I'd be right back to my peak!

So, I do what any degenerate would, I upped my bet. It's getting late, for me anyway, and I start playing at $18 per spin. Almost right away, Casper Wild Blue 7 Blue 7 X 5 and Boom! $1,700! With my $542 credit in the machine, I am now up over $2,200 now!

Slot Attendant comes by pretty fast, and clears my game so I can keep playing while she gets my money. I cash out, and sit on a $5 denom Top Dollar slot instead, and I didn't win on it.

I get paid, tipped her some money, and headed back off to see this heater out!

I lose a little here and there, before getting a bonus spin below on a $7.50 bet. $105 was nearly the shittest I could have done.

Some fleeting luck on Lucky Larry 4 below, and I was just on a downward spiral by now.

Still, I cut my losses. I still have my entire bankroll, and I am now up just over $2,000 on the day.You cant bitch about that! All told, I did nearly $9,000 coin in, which should keep the offers coming. As long as I don't fuck up tomorrow, I should be golden.

Speaking of Fuck Ups, here is a bit more on the crime thing. The Pot reopened as a smoke free resort. No smoking any where on property. They shoo you outside, which I am used to as that is how Illinois casinos work.

But they have security checkpoints set up at any conceivable entrance, which look like the below. I would like to say this made me feel safer, but it didn't. Most of the time security was just dicking with each other and not paying attention, or they would stop to check someones purse, and a flood of people would just walk through the scanners so they couldn't see much of anything.

These are not metal detectors. They are scanners, like at the airport. They do not make a noise, and if you aren't watching the screen who knows what actually gets through.

I'm a tough Chicago guy, and I look the part. But that didn't stop a thug from trying to sell me drugs in the casino. Or once when I was smoking outside the lobby, a car pulled up and someone asked me if I wanted to make $1,000. I told him "I'm Good" but he kept pushing, and trying to talk me into something while yelling out to me from his car window.

No clue what the scam was, but I high tailed it back into the lobby before he could get out of his car.

The next morning, I fan out my wad of cash and my kids were not all that impressed...

While they were getting ready for breakfast, I headed back down to the casino.

I was still on fire! $610 win on Wizard of Oz, but I slowly shit that away waiting for them.

An OK hit of a hundo on yet another Leprechaun game, and this heater never really started. I ended up dropping what I won from the Wizard.

We ate in the lobby at Canal Street Cafe. The service was friendly, the prices were a bit high and the food was just OK. With no other options in the entire resort, it was the best we could do.

The Milwaukee Public Museum is just 5 minutes from here by car. The place is great, don't get me wrong, I just didn't remember it being this expensive the last time. For the four of us, it was like $100 with parking. Good thing I was up!

I know the masks ruin these pictures, but here are the girls side by side from the last time were were here a few years ago. They grow up so fast!

The museum is great, it is well laid out and the displays are top notch. Weird that they are looking for a new space, as this place is well built and huge as it is. But what do I know? Its not like I am a curator.

I waited in line for nearly 30 minutes, just to get in to their butterfly garden. As it turns out, my 6 year old is scared shitless of giant winged insects.

Any time one would come near her, she would scream and hide. It only took once for my 8 year old to pick up on this, and start to touch her sisters ears and yell "There is a bug on you"!

I ended up taking her out of there, while the other 2 were able to bask in the majesty of all those butterflies.

From the streets of yesterday, to bugs and Dinos, this place has a great assortment of shit to see and do.

I wont go on much more about it. It's not like you read this shitty blog for museum updates. But there is a lot to do around the Pot, to make a mini vacation out of things. If the weather was better, we would have hit the Public Zoo as well.

All in, we spent a good 4 hours here. For a Monday afternoon, there were quite a few people in here. I guess we weren't the only ones looking for something to do with kids on Spring Break.

Back to the hotel, with plans to eat at Canal Street Cafe for dinner. But it turns out, they close at 3PM. What the Fuck? You only have 3 places to eat as it is, and you close one down before dinner? Dummies.

We end up dining in the room, with food bought at the Sports Bar. It was typical of food you would expect to get from a bar in Wisconsin.

I'm still up $2K, and the night is still young. I ditch the ladies and head back down to try my luck.

I lost, and I lost and I lost some more. I gave myself a Grand to piss away. That way, I would still go home up $2K with double the money I came here with.

And it was getting close to ending the trip report with that!

I do a bit better on Little Shop of Horrors, with a $165 bonus. Play around, and end up at this Genie game, and a $278 bonus. Which took way too much money to get, as the bonus is random.

I was $125 into the below, before winning $125. No harm no foul.

I do not usually play these older Aristocrat games, and I only sat down on them to grind through some points to not completely fuck up my future offers.

Bonus games of $161 & $164, and I ended up cashing out pretty much the same $350 I started playing them on.

And then, I hit the skids. I lost that money, and and a couple hundred more. This same game below fucked me a few times when I played it at the Cosmo in Vegas. I had one good session on it, in Atlantic City, and I have been chasing that Dragon ever since!

I started off betting $5.00 per spin. And got a decent line hit of $115. Played that all the way down betting $7.50 a spin, before I finally got a bonus. You pick one of 5 coins (I think its 5) and I picked the best one, for the Mega Free Games. I could just feel it, here is that big hit! $105 bonus? Are you shitting me?

This was the last game I was going to play, before heading back to the room nursing my $2,000 win from last night. As that $1K bankroll I gave myself today, was all but gone.

I didn't even have enough money left in the machine, for one more $7.50 spin, when it started freaking out on me. I thought the spoiler would just be another bonus round, and probably a bonus like it just fucked me with earlier.

Nope! Dragon City, all the way through, with a 2X Multiplier. 48,400 nickles. That is Hand Pay #2 of the trip, and this one is $2,420!

Yup, I gambled myself out of the abyss once more. Instead of going home up $2K, if I stopped now, I would be going home up almost $4,500! Same as last night, the Slot Attendant was on me fast. He asked me how I wanted it, and I told him in nickles. He didn't find that funny at all. Hundreds I guess, which he did. And I still tipped him, even though he didn't like my jokes.

The night is still young! Surely this must be another heater! How could I go to bed, and not find out? I would never forgive myself. I can always make more money. But you simply cannot buy yourself a heater!

I bank $2K of that handy, with the $2K I banked last night. No matter what, I am going home up $4,000 now.

Back to the same games as last night, and I start building my bankroll yet again. $100 here and $205 there...

I end up poaching the multipliers left behind on these Wheel of Fortune machines. Bonus Spin of $312 and a 16X line hit for $180. I capped that off, with another Spin for $128.

Clutching a $650 TITO, I start getting ballsy. $27 spin bets were not hitting. Nether were my $10 or $15 swings. I make one last lap around the casino, looking for my final stand.

And I went out, not with a bang but with a whimper. $120 line hit on the below was all I could muster.

Still, it was worth a shot! All told, after 2 nights here, I ran through nearly $20,000 of coin in. I took $4,000 off of them, plus my free room and $100 in gas cards.

I really like the casino at the Pot. Its big, with a good variety of games. But not many single line older $1 denom games I typically play. Certainly more than enough to keep me occupied though. I mean, they have thousands upon thousands of games in this place.

The rooms are nice, the dining is shit and there are plenty of Riff Raff around. Don't get me wrong, the place has warts. But winning certainly helps your perspective! And this winning trips like this don't come along often.