New Slot Club - Soaring Eagle has changed to a tiered slot club: These levels are based on 6 month periods (Jan-Jun & July-Dec) Classic 0 pts. Gold 16,000 pts. Platinum 96,000 pts. Diamond 480,000 pts. Gold level needed to get good mail (freeplay, discounted hotel, etc.) Platinum free tickets to events, tourney invites No cash back, all freeplay instead $1 Coin-in = 1 pt. Video Poker $1 Coin-in = 2 pts. Slots (and NSUD in error) 1000 pts. = $1 freeplay Comps similar to previous level

Soaring Eagle Resort in Mt. Pleasant, MI has added FP 9-6 JOB in nickels up to $5 to more than 300 machines, including lots of the new Bally HD machines. The same-day casback is miserly, but comps -- including their excellent hotel -- are easy. Decent play also will earn mail offers good for $20/week Freeplay. Finally, I've HEARD (but haven't personally confirmed) that playing "play money" games online at their website results in Freeplay coupons that you can print at home and redeem at the casino.

There are (12) 9-6-5 DB poker in quarters with progressives on all the quads.

Soaring Eagle is advertising that they have over 350 vp machines with "full pay" 9/6 Jacks or better from 5c to $10. I can confirm that they have 25c and I think they were always available on $. 9/6 DDB is available in the Slot Palace in 25c. CB in the form of free play (they call it Premium Play) is 0.1 percent on vp  0.2 on slots. Comp dollar percentage is unknown.  Comp dollars still have not been figured out, but are four or five times point dollars.  They are redeemable dollar for dollar for goods and services and concerts at the casino and can be cashed for Premium Play dollars based on a  percentage  based on player rating. Points and comp dollar total show up on the card readers. One of the nice recent changes is that entries for drawing are accumulated electronically and can be read at a kiosk .   However, just inserting card registers you as having played that day, it is not necessary to swipe cards at the kiosk.

All of the full pay bar top machines they had on my last trip in

What a junkyard: First of all, let me preface this by saying that MT. Pleasant's Soaring Eagle is a beautiful facility. And I do mean that sincerely. However, other than that...... VP junkyard, indeed! There isn't a single playable machine in the joint, unless I missed something during all that time I had to wander around because there isn't anything worth playing. 7/5 JoB, 8/5 DDB, 9/6 DB. I found Pick-a-Pair (PickEm clone) with the diabolical payout changes to 10,000 for a Royal but the 3OAK dropped to 20 from 25. That comes out to roughly 97.5% from the fullpay version (at Greektown) of 99.95%. A very few dollar machines are gracious enough to boost the JoB to 8/5. Don't bother thinking they're going to give you a break for higher limits, either. Same crap, more money. I did see a few progressives in there, so I suppose there might occasionally be something worth shooting at, but it ain't worth the trip. And I'd say that if I lived across the street. Even the buffet was a massive disappointment. We intentionally went to the buffet about 20 minutes after the lunch "spread" was supposed to be out. Their idea of changing it over is to take half of the buffet's breakfast slop, pile it into like bins on the other half, then put out the lunch gruel. So you pay for lunch and half of it is leftover breakfast items. There is a huge bin of peel and eat shrimp, one of my favorites. However, it would have been even better if there were any freakin' shrimp in the thing. Big bin of ice. Hoo, boy, that was worth the trip all by itself!

*** MIA - *** $1 TB+,  25c NSUD and $1 JoB

were still there. These bar top machines have $1 9/6 Jacks or Better and $1 9/5 TB+. I counted 22 such machines at the main bar next to the buffet, 12 at the front bar nearest to the poker room, and 13 at the back bar. All these machines are TITO, MG/MD but only full pay at the top $1 denomination. Also, they still have NSUD quarter games at the Slot Palace across the road. Twelve MG/MD machines with 25 cent NSUD immediately inside the main entrance.

All of the .25 pickem machings are now MIA, there are none left. The 25c/50c/$1  9/6 DDB are also MIA.

*** MIA - *** 25c PKM Game Makers scattered around casino. 25c/50c/$1 9/6 DDB scattered around casino.

I was at Soaring Eagle this week, and I am sad to say they are becoming a VP wasteland. Almost all of the .25 pickem machines are gone. There are 6 left, but they will be gone very soon (a worker informed me). They used to have a bunch of full pay pickem, but they have all been replaced with new machines that have nothing but crap on them. The $1 pickem machines are also long gone. The .25 9/7 double bonus machines are also gone. There is pretty much nothing left to play there at all, so if you are planning to go up there, you might want to think again. The only thing left at the .25 level is NSUD in the old casino across the street.

*** MIA - *** (6) $1 PKM Game Makers. 25c/50c/$1 9/7 DB scattered around casino.

At the Soaring Eagle, Mt. Pleasant, MI, the upright Game Kings that had $9/7 DB in the non-smoking section are MIA, replaced by a bank of video slots. A quick tour of the casino found them nowhere. Also, all the MGMD slant-top Game Kings in the non-smoking area have been replaced with bright new upright Game Kings. Everything on them is short pay. The .25 9/7's by the post just outside the non-smoking area and the $ 9/7's by the snack bar remain.

The 1.2 percent was for comp but not cash back. It appears to be about one half of that now, but not sure as the display no longer counts down. Cashback used to be about .16 percent but appears to be about one tenth of that now, see above.

I was at Soaring Eagle last week and can confirm the bank of 6 $1 PKM (hit a straight flush just before leaving for $1199!!) as well as several .25 PKM. $1 JOB at the bar near the buffet entrance are TITO, but most other VP on the floor is not TITO. There is a bank of 12-14 .50 9/7 DB, but several have 9/6 DB and all have the double up feature turned on. Numerous requests to turn if off are denied. Comp $ are much slower to a accumulate than last spring, but you are shown your balance when you insert your card. I had $117 comps on my card, went to the players club to redeem them towards my room and they gave me a voucher for $89 which was 50% off the room. However, the front desk gave me credit for $130 off the room. Still can't get a straight answer on that one! Awful buffet, good drink service at the bars and very nice rooms in the hotel.