Thanks bro. Forgot to mention earlier, you have great discipline to only bring $80 BR into casino.I am holding on to Maxim Gold (not even platinum); last year and this year get 2 nights hotel for birthday month.
Actually I won't say the machines are super tight. It is more about timing and discipline. The problem with games like CC is that it is very volatile. In order to pay big wins, there will be many dead spins for the machines to achieve it's long term payout/profit. Thus it is not unusual to have 10-20 consecutive spins of NOTHING because a big win can pay up to over 500x of bet and CC has the potential to pay up to 20-40,000x the bet!
Thus in order to win you need to hit a big win fast and know when to RUN!
Not easy to maintain Maxim status, unless going often or bet big. I think need 2250 points? You must be on annual levy
Good luck and heng heng on your trips!