Brief recap of changes at Morongo (2nd Half 2016)

For personal reasons, I regret I had to cut back on the quantity of visits to the tribal casinos.

This will be just a post to quickly recap on a few things at Morongo Casino as I have not posted in a while. Pechanga looks to be relatively same over the span of my few visits, but they just opened up their new parking structure last week and that is about it.

I went to Morongo a few days ago and maybe 4 times the last 6 months before.

1. Changes in the Shuffle Master Table Game Progressive Bet and a Table Game

The Four Card Poker table got turned into Crazy 4 Poker. People really did not like the dealer getting the 6th card, but Four Card Poker has lower element of risk.

The change happened, though I do not know the exact reason, since it seems like Three Card Poker had the lowest variance between all of the ShuffleMaster games, it was able to hit the Royal Flush progressive more frequently than the other games. It never got higher than $160k after the 23-year old woman won $270k+.

Crazy 4 Poker and Mississippi Stud are still using the system, but the jackpot is down to the high $30k range right now. Not worth it.

Ultimate Texas Holdem has a running progressive at around the $7000 mark right now where a Royal Flush will win the progressive. If it is dealt on the community cards (Flop + Turn/River), each player wins $1000. If a player is holding at least one of the cards to make the Royal Flush, the person wins the Progressive.

Three Card Poker went back to its roots (I like this better).

A running progressive usually starts at $1500 when it resets. Saw it go as high as $16000, but normally it is at $4500-$6000.

Ace-King-Queen Straight Flush in Spades wins the progressive
Ace-King-Queen Straight Flush in Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs wins $500
All other Straight Flush wins $70 (it used to be $40 in the old days)
Three of a Kind wins $60 (it used to be $30 in the old days)
Straight wins $6

2. Super Aces nearly extinct

There is only two of them remaining behind the cashier. It was paved away for more video slots.

3. The Drum Room now open

This is just a high end bar/lounge with occasional performances. It is on the 26th floor right below the Cielo (the so called high end Steak restaurant).

http://www.morongocasinoresort.com/entertainment/drum

Never knew there was a demand for high end stuff, I always thought this casino catered to the low budget people first.

4. $5 denomination 9/6 Double Double Bonus Video Poker is now available

I was pleasantly surprised that there were brand new IGT Game King machines deployed on the casino floor as of a few days ago, 15 of them to the east side of the table game section and 5 more next to the cafe. The shock went away when I noticed the video poker games were atrocious.

It is for $1, $2, $5 denominations which surprised me. The $1/$2 denomination are in the 97% range. The $5 one is in the 98% range. The only decent thing to come out of these machines are the $5 denomination 9/6 Double Double Bonus. A quad will produce a W2G signer.

The Bonus Poker is the odd one for the $5 denomination, 8/5 but 30 for all quads. It is slightly better than the 8/6 Jacks or Better.

https://s5.postimg.org/es2by4quv/IMG...225_193926.jpg

What is also new is

9/6 Triple Double Bonus is available at $5 denomination, not in the high limit room.

A unique 6-coin game called Deuces Wild Double Double Bonus.

A player plays 6 coins a round on Deuces Wild (97.09% $1-$2 or 97.58% $5), but will also get paid for natural quads.

50 for 1 (250 credits) for 5s thru Kings
100 for 1 (not 80 for 1, 500 credits) for 3s and 4s
200 for 1 (1000 credits) for Aces
200 for 1 (1000 credits) for 3s,4s quad with Ace, 2, 3, 4
400 for 1 (3000 credits) for Aces with 2, 3, 4

The regular Deuces Wild pay as follows despite the 6 credit bet, you get shorted
800 for 1 (4000 credits) for Natural Royal Flush
200 for 1 (1000 creedits) for 4 Deuces
20 for 1 (100 credits) Wild Royals
12 for 1 (60 credits) 5 of a Kinds
9 for 1 ($1/$2) or 10 for 1 ($5) on Straight Flushes
4 for 1 (20 credits) on 4 of a Kind or full house
3 for 1 (15 credits) on Flush
2 for 1 (10 credits) on Straight
1.2 for 1 (6 credits) on Three of a Kind, only hand that is not shorted

I do not know what the payout for this unique game is.

If anyone is interested in Ultimate X games at Morongo - I've seen 6 only six dedicated machines there, and I haven't seen any videopoker.com multigames that contain it. It is not very much at all considering the size of the casino.

As far as Morongo itself... I've really come to dislike the overall experience. It is simply way too crowded compared to other casinos in Southern California. You will stand in line for E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. unless you you're playing at 3:45am on a weekday morning.

I'm guessing it is because they are an 18 year old+ casino so you have that entire market in addition. I mean, morongo was the first casino I ever gambled at 19 years old, but once I grew older and tried other casinos like Pechanga, I couldn't get myself to come back nearly as often.

They are slowly and sneakily converting most of their 3-2 blackjack games into 6-5, 3-2 games are limited to $25 minimums and higher. Pechanga always has $10 3-2 games, and their only 6-5 games seem to be single deck games.

If you are a low stakes player (AKA almost everyone) forget playing VP at Morongo. Go to pechanga and you will enjoy a $.25 9/6 Jacks or Better.

It's a shame because there still are a few things to like about Morongo, such as the good food, nearby outlet center, and not the worst location/drive compared to some other casinos. But the gaming itself... I would not recommend it to anyone there to primarily gamble.

Fair assessment of Morongo, I know you are relatively new here, I wanted to let you know that I did not think highly of their VP offerings in the past. The slots to VP ratio is probably the worst and not a good place for VP.

I did not mention they also have the new Ultimate X Bonus Streak game for nickels and quarters next to the cafe. That part is very very surprising to me. They converted the nickel multiline and wheel poker to Ultimate X, so now there is a bank of 10 of them in front of Tacos and Tequila.

I just like the Three Card Poker there and the dealers are usually enthusiastic and they try to remember their players. If the tables are full or if the progressive is not high enough, I just end up playing $1 9/6 DDB or $1 8/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe or $1 8/6 Jacks or Better for 2 hours and then head out.

On the original post, I forgot that they pay $250 for a straight flush on the progressive bet, forgot how much for a 4 of a Kind.

The DW DDB hybrid, it is 2000 credits for the 4 Aces with 2, 3, 4. A typo there.

Despite the lack of quality gaming, results-wise they've proved quantity is better than quality.

I found the time to go to Morongo on New Years Day to get the special free play allocation.

I double checked the Progressive Side Bet for Ultimate Texas Holdem

Royal Flush wins progressive (1 in 30940)
It is $1000 for a community royal flush (1 in 649740) => 0.15% of the expected value
It is $250 for a straight flush (1 in 3590.57) => 6.96% of the expected value
It is $75 for a 4 of a Kind (1 in 595) => 12.61% of the expected value
It is $10 for a Full House (1 in 38.5) => 25.96% of the expected value

The non-progressive prizes award 45.68% of the expected value, the progressive must make up the rest 54.32%

.5432 * 30940 = $16806.61

The Jackpot Progressive must be at $16806.61 in order for the side bet to have value


I took a picture of the DDB-DW hybrid

https://s5.postimg.org/gv40xostz/IMG...102_003624.jpg

The DDB element does improve the overall return when betting the 6th coin. One biggest thing people will kick themselves over is when they get natural quads while playing Deuces Wild and will only get 20 credits of it (25 for the full pay). They do not need to do so for this game, but they'll kick themselves for a natural straight flush, but that does not come out as often

Last month, Morongo has canned this new progressive side bet for Ultimate Texas Hold'em. Now they've reverted it back to the hole cards + flop 5 card outcome. Only 3 Card Poker has an unique progressive.

I am not sure if they think a jackpot outcome of about 1 in 30,900 on average is too frequent. I wish they've kept this even though I normally cannot afford to play.

I paid close attention to the meter growth on the $1 side bet when I was at the casino very late and a few players playing. For every $1 bet, only 25 cents of it goes towards the progressive meter. It only means that Morongo makes a ton off of this.

For the video poker inventory, they've replaced out all of the old video poker machines in the high limit slot room and relocated these new IGT machines from the Natural 9 / Serrano Cafe to there.

The $1 and $2 Bonus Poker on the new IGT machines were changed from the atrocious 35/6/5 to the standard 7/5, a sizable upgrade. The $5 Bonus Poker remains at 8/5 with 30 all quads.