MGM Grand - Detroit

Opening Day in Detroit was this past Friday. You might remember previous adventures of mine. This year was just as fun, although I'm still a little hazy on all of the details. Needless to say, the Tigers won, many beers were consumed, there were a handful of "whoops" and it was worth a million. Also, I got this chip from the MGM Grand Detroit. The casino was pretty full after the game and I thought I was pretty lucky to score a seat at a $15 table. Because I was operating with 20-25% alcohol in my bloodstream, I neglected to see the actual name of the game - "Double Exposure Blackjack." Oh boy. So, the dealer deals both of her cards face up. Cool, huh? You lose pushes. Not so cool. Three hands in, I get 21, the dealer gets 21 and she scoops my bet. I stand-up and yell something about stealing my money, before the pit boss comes over and tells me to learn the rules. Or something. Grrr. Not fun. I got wiped out in seconds. It was ugly. But I did get this new chip.
Now, I know what you are saying. You're saying "Hey, that looks just like the other house chip you have. Are you sure you didn't get a duplicate chip?" No, idiot. I didn't. Who do you think I am? Do you think I run a highly successful blog and can't even tell the difference between two chips? Of course not. Here they are side by side.

As you can see, the differences are very distinguishable. One has a second line under the MGM Grand in the middle. One's lion is a little bigger. The outer markings are different. Clearly two different chips. How did I know this whilst drunk enough to not even now what game I was playing? Ummm... lucky?

Maxim

Way before their was a Maxim Magazine, there was a Maxim Casino, just off the strip. I can't even remember if the old building is still standing, but I think it was sort of behind the Flamingo/IP. It stood decaying (or still stands decaying) for a long, long time. But I'm pretty sure it closed long before I could have gone there. And I'm too lazy to look up any facts.



Update!!

Blog reader Matthew H. (wait, that's too descriptive, let's go with M. Hoppe) has alerted me to the fact that the Maxim is still standing and still open... but as the Western Causarina. Which I have been to and have their house chip. It's kind of across from Bally's. Well, across from the Bally's Employment Center which is behind Bally's.

Aria

Got the new Aria chip as well. It's the casino in the new City Center. More importantly, it's where the famous people like to hang out.

Flamingo

Bought two new Flamingo chips online. One is an alternate house chip featuring flamingos on it. The other is one of their 60th anniversary chips.

The Pub

What a perfect name for a casino. Too bad it's closed and I'll never get to go.

Casino Monte Lago

Here's what I know about Casino Monte Lago. It celebrated its' first anniversary in May 2004. It's located in Henderson. It's no longer open. The first two facts I gleaned from the chips themselves. The last from Casino Death Watch. Because I like buying up chips from casinos that are no longer open, buying these two was a no-brainer.

Aruba, again

Because I had collected 14 chips while I was actually in Aruba and because my chip frames hold chips in rows of 9, I thought it was a good idea to procure 4 more Aruban chips from eBay, in order to give me 2 complete rows of Aruba chips. Mission Accomplished. But not in the George W. Bush way, I actually accomplished the mission. They are; the Seaport Casino, The Palm Casino, the Aruba Palm Beach Casino, and the Aruba Caribbean Casino. None were still open when I was there. In fact, I didn't even see old, bombed-out closed buildings that could have been them. But here they are anyway.