This ended up being quite a wild day. It started with a decent view and trying to find something for breakfast. A mission it turned out that was not going to go according to plan.

On the heels of last night’s amazing buffet, everyone was still in the mood for another buffet. It’s not like our breakfast options at the Hard Rock were terrible or anything like that. It just turns out one of the casinos we wanted to check out the Borgata has quite an amazing breakfast buffet from what I’ve been told.

So I looked through my phone trying to find where the car was parked. Turns out it’s a bit harder to find that photo once you've taken a few hundred photos. Thankfully the car was not lost and not that long later we were off on a short ride to Borgata in search of breakfast.

Borgata

All the plans we had for Borgata ended up going ajar. We were going to sign up for a new player's card and get free play. Eat at the buffet. Finally, the real reason I wanted to go here was I found online they use to have a slot one of the people we were with has been on the hunt for finding for quite some time.

Borgata itself was quite a breathtaking building to see from afar. I noticed it as we were coming into the city, as we were leaving the Golden Nugget since it was quite close by. There were also a few times I’d notice this place sticking out when we went around Atlantic City.

We went inside and right to the place they were supposed to have the breakfast buffet. It turns out there was some kind of rare occurrence that it was shut down. We don’t know why but they even had a printed sign that stated “Sorry buffet closed and listed the two dates that we could have made time to eat there.

That was in itself quite disappointing. When you think you are going have some amazing breakfast buffet and it’s closed. There is nothing else you can do. While there was another place we thought about eating at. It turns out we would not be eating at Borgata at all.

Next up we went to get some new player cards. While some casinos would give you free play upfront. Borgata had a points requirement before you could collect the free play. For some, I’m sure that would not have been an issue.

For me, however, since I’m a low roller and we only stayed here for a bit over an hour. I never earned enough points to get my free play. I did however have an amazing time. I got to play some machines I’ve wanted to for a while and won a bit.

Before I did any real gambling, however. I was on a secret mission. One of our party members has been wanting to play the original goldfish slot machine for quite a long time now. The casino they use to play it at had removed it many years ago.

I did a lot of online research and scrub through videos trying to find any casino that has one left. For this Atlantic City trip, I found some old videos from a couple of years back of someone playing the goldfish game at Borgata.

I left the main group I was in the smoking section of the casino. It was quite a nice section with a lot of fun slots, bathrooms, a drink lady, and they made it so you would have no reason to leave there. Expect, I did not see the machine I wanted.

I then started to search the casino floor. While I did not take any photos as I forgot. The casino floor is broken up into different wings. With a bit of walking between each wing. I failed to find the machine I was looking for in question.

In the end, I did end up asking someone if they knew anything about Borgata having the original goldfish machine. I was told “Sorry, we think they removed it about two years ago. Needless to say, I was a bit crushed as I had high hopes this was going to be the casino.

At this point, I had yet to gamble and I needed to start working on earning some points for my free play. walking back I found an Easy Money slot. I’ve been wanting to play this for a while and decided to play it on a one-line dollar denomination. I don’t know what it is with me this trip but I only put $20 into this slot machine since it was a dollar machine instead of my usual $40.

I ended up taking a few photos of this slot just because. I was not expecting to hit the bonus playing it on one line. Four spins in however I sure hit the bonus.

This is one of those bonuses where they show you a credit amount and you can either agree to accept it or decline and hope the next offer is better. In total, you can have up to four offers. However, once you select to take an offer that is what you get. Once you decline an offer you can’t get it back. So there is a bit of a risk to reward in trying to work out when you should accept an offer or not.

My first offer was 35 credits. For only being $4 into a slot a $35 win is not that bad. I however since it was the first offer declined it.

The next offer was 20 credits. At this point, I feel I have enough offers left to keep going.

The third offer I got was 60 credits or $60. Since I only had one offer left I accepted it. There was quite a great chance it would have been less than 60 credits if I tried again. The slot also did state that this was the “best play” to accept the offer.

I go rejoin the group I’m with and let them know I did not find the slot I was looking for. I then enjoyed some Huff N More Puff. No bonus games but hey a line hit on this slot can be decent. Just not as good as the original. I played it for a little while.

I end up playing a couple of other slots not having much luck. I however had been doing decent at this point. I was also in the mood to keep trying new things or games I rarely get to play.

At one point I get to this bit more of a strange game I never play. I don’t quite recall the game's name other than it has Coins as part of the title.

I end up getting the pick bonus. I more than expected to get the mini. I’m only betting 88 cents a spin so I’m not that shocked.

I get my $10.22 mini. It then said pick again. I was like WTF?!?!

So it let me keep going. The best part was I already found the mini. So I can only assume I can’t win the mini yet again. I was already one off from finding the minor for $30.01. Sure enough two coin picks later I got the minor.

I thought dang I was lucky. I kept playing for a few more spins I wanted to see what other kinds of bonus I could get on this slot. A couple of spins later I got the pick bonus again. I found the mini and yet again I got a second bonus pick and picked up the minor. This time around they were both less than my last pick bonus since they did not have any chance to build back up.

Needless to say, I ended up cashing out double on that slot. This turns out would not be the last time either I’d play a slot where I got a second pick chance in a pick bonus. That was however at a different casino.

Next up I decided since I’m already doing well enough I’d try one of the Cash Falls slot machines. I never go near these things since they just feel like a gambler's fallacy. It feels like it’s made to make you think just one more spin and you could be a winner. It seems like the kind of slot to just keep dragging you back in getting you to keep putting more money into.

I put in my usual $40 and I know I’m a tight enough player once that money is gone I won’t be cashing after anything. This game won’t be reeling me in. I also decided I’ll just play this on 50-cent spins. Nothing crazy.

I never won a dang thing on this thing before. I ended up landing a small $6.25 win on the first column. As you can see each spin you have a chance to land coins. As long as you keep landing a coin in a particular column it keeps resetting so you have further spins. If you don’t land anything the coins go away on the third spin.

This is why I stay away from this thing usually. The coins landing tend to block any line hits. I’ve seen far too many random players just keep shoving money into Cash Falls in the past. I was half tempted with my little win to just leave.

You however can see I had one spin remaining to try and land 1 more coin on the next column over. No shock my next 50-cent spin I did not get it. All those coins on that line went away.

A few spins later I’m back down on my balance. I started to fill up a lot of coins. I land another column of coins. This time however just a tiny $2.25 win. Like dang, I’m used to those kinds of wins. So no shock that's what I got. It was at least something.

All those other coins you see on the slot. Yep, I did not land any of them. Lost them all either that spin or a couple of spins later. This is what this slot will do for you!

Around half my balance is left and I’m just not landing any further coins. I then do what I never thought I would on this slot. I land the free spins bonus. In the bonus, the coins don’t reset you win everything you land. Even better if you land a full column in the bonus you spin a wheel to see how much you get to multiply that amount by!

So during the bonus of 10 free spins I did end up filling up the first two columns and only got a times two for both of them. I also got to collect all the other coins I landed. While it was only a $19.25 bonus. At this point, I feel I’ve seen everything this slot has to offer. I walked away up 90 cents on this slot.

After that, I go to check to see how close I am to getting some free play. I’m almost 50% of the way there. This is going to take a while it feels. Expect, well we are on a bit of a schedule. There is a limited amount of time for one of our party members to collect free play at a casino close by. Due to that amount, it was better to make sure they could get it in time.

I end up leaving Borgata failing every mission I had selected for this place. No buffet. No original goldfish slot. No free play was earned. I did at least walk away slightly up on this casino so at least I had that.

Golden Nugget

We hopped over to the golden nugget. At this point, I’m starving but everyone needs to go check what free play offers they can have and work on earning them. Another casino where they don’t always just give it to you. It seems some of these places are smart as they know people like us would just hop around for a free play.

I play a couple of slots without hitting any kind of bonus. I then sit down at a slot I’ve never played before. I use to love playing the normal Zeus. I’ve never played the Zeus Power Link.

I kid you not. I ended up getting eight bonuses on Zeus Power Link. Every single one of them was between $10 to $14. Now you would think with that many bonuses playing on a 50-cent bet I would have walked away up right? Heck no. I stopped down $20 because I could not stand another bad bonus.

I then went off to play Wizard of Oz Over The Rainbow. I got a single $36 bonus and at that point, I was willing to call it.

Thankfully shortly later everyone who could get a free play offer got it. It was time for us to eat and head back to Hard Rock. I left the Golden Nugget slightly down after over two hours of gambling.

Hard Rock

Now it would not feel right to not at least gamble at the casino we were staying at for the day. So we naturally did a bit more gambling there.

I sat down at Fu Dai for a short while and triggered a couple of bags. I got the red jackpot one but it paid poorly. I then got Prosperity and it paid even worse. You never are hoping for $15-$18 bonuses on Fu Dai but they can be a lot worse than that.

Since we are also back at the Hard Rock no more needing to look around for the drink lady. We could just order right from the slot machine.

Final Thoughts

I only played a couple more slots for the day. I did not win anything and just needed a bit of a break from gambling. Thankfully the boardwalk is right outside of the Hard Rock casino. So I went for a bit of a walk along the boardwalk and beach.

What a crazy day to go gambling at three different casinos. One of them I left up. The other two were as expected but I did not lose too much. Overall yet another fun day. I went out hoping to accomplish some things and it just did not work out that way.

Other Content

• Switching Worlds | Hard Rock Atlantic City Part 2

Information

Photos were taken and content was written by @Enjar about my personal experiences in the real world away from the computer at home.