Tuesday, January 14, 2014

booking downtown

Here is a pretty good description of how I book downtown:

 Everything I have read says that the Golden Nugget  is the tightest (in downtown ) in giving comps and the machines are tighter. Certainly the VP is very poor.  So I skip the Golden Nugget.
I get comped at the Four Queens and then play poker at the Golden Nugget. Playing poker there will not get you any room comps, in fact, you are not even tracked. Four hours will get you a $10 food voucher that has to be used that day (or the next if it is very late in the night) They used to change dates if you missed using it, but now they don't. You just ask for this after you have been there 4 hours. You keep track of the time. They believe you.  If you are playing late at night, ask for the next day's date.  They usually accommodate.  Or play until after midnight.  Buffets are pricy on Saturday and Sunday, but weekdays the voucher will mean paying a dollar and change for breakfast.

as of January 2014

Weekday Hours:

  • Breakfast (7:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.) $10.99
  • Lunch (10:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.) $13.99
  • Dinner (3:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.) $19.99

Weekend Hours:

  • Friday through Sunday, enjoy the Seafood & More Dinner (3:30 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.) for just $23.99.
  • Saturday and Sunday Champagne Brunch (7:00 a.m. -
    3:30 p.m.) $19.99.   This is the worst deal, but any buffets on weekends have the prices raised.  There may be some reduction if you don't take champagne.
I eat there, expensive or not, when I am downtown because their food choices allow me to stay on my strict diet.  There are plenty of good fruits.  Salmon for breakfast makes the meal for me.  I used to love Main Street Station, but now nothing they serve is really on my diet.

The unusually nice thing about getting comped at the Four Queens is that they offer 3 nights and weekends are included. I get those from playing DB 10/7 which is full pay plus a progressive royal. Along with the rooms, play on these will earn some cashback and freeplay. Even the freeplay can be used on the player advantage 10/7 game. It must be the best mathematical deal downtown overall.
I also think their slots are looser. I don't play much slots. Once in a while I play a little Megabucks and I like to play their nickel single zero roulette just for fun. My slot play is not driving my offers. My VP drives them. Some trips I get 6 free nights that cover two of my weekends. There are two ways to do that.
The easiest is to plan a trip that overlaps a calendar month. So my last trip I had three free nights in October, went to the D, and then had the first three nights free in November. I don't know if you could book back to back.
Another way is to check to see when they have a slot tournament weekend. There too you can get three free nights, plus the free tournament which includes a little free food and usually a nice gift. You can book the tournament weekend and still book 3 free nights on your offer. Again, I have never tried to book back to back because I use the Four Queen freebies to cover weekends and fill inbetween with cheap weeknight rates at the D or out Boulder or at El Cortez on an ACG coupon.
I also like it that I can just call the Four Queens host office and anyone there will look up my mailed offers. Sometimes they know of them before I do. They are mailed fairly late, and that is frustrating for planning, but I don't have to actually get the mailing to book. I'm a snowbird in Florida, so I don't often get mailings in the winter.
By the way Binions will offer a poker rate at the Four Queens. If you take it and play poker at Binions BUT DO NOT put any money in machines at the Four Queens, your Four Queens daily average will not be affected by your Binions generated stay. So you could stay in the same room (or at least the same casino) for your entire stay.
I can't seem to win at Binions, so I put the Four Queens back to back with two for one offers from the D based on their Vue bar VP play (8/5 bonus with three progressives) It is an easy check in and check out then. In fact, it is so close that I don't have to carefully repack because I can easily make two trips.

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