Silver Sevens

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Likq's new 1-1 game coming in the reopened poker room

Near the end of August there will be a poker room once again at Linq.
They will try a 1-1 NL game.
Here is what I think about that game.


I'm not an expert and the variation in poker is largely a factor of who sits at the table.
That being said. 1-1 is basically a low stakes 1-2 game with a smaller minimum buy-in.
In some places the minimum is as little as $20 and the maximum $60. Linq advertises a minimum of $50. I don't know about max. I think in Vegas most 1-2 games have a minimum of $100. If the max is unlimited at Linq, then some of the advantage of the lower blinds goes away for frugal players.

In theory 1-1 should not play much differently than 1-2. In practice, I've found it attracts folks who don't aim to make a lot of money and don't play as well as 1-2 players, often loser players who are out to have fun. That might also be local rocks who play every day on small bankrolls and play for freerolls and food comps and the odd chance to find a table with 3 or less fish.
It might mean tourists who would play 2-4, but like no limit if the by-in is more affordable.
It attracts players who want a bit more action, who don't want to wait an hour for the playable hand.

Sometimes 1-1 becomes a flop game. It is almost an understanding at such times that no one makes preflop raises.
Almost every round the minimum of $1 is called until the flop.
Few preflop raises. Hardly any preflop reraises.
I am much happier with a flop game. That means it is more like 2-4 limit in play. In fact, if you best like playing after the flop, this no limit game offers a bargain because it always costs at least $2 to see the flop in any limit game. Here you might see the flop for just $1.

Folks will play more hands because it may only cost a $1. Those who don't like chasers won't like this game. Those who like permission to chase a bit and to play more hands will like it.

Button raises to see a free card (a common technique in limit poker) will often work in this case as well. So if you play J-Q on the button and make a small preflop raise (in some games even a min raise of a dollar,) you might get table respect even from those who have flopped two pair. They wait for you to bet again so they can raise. But you check and get a free card. So, if K-A comes on the flop, you can just check and see the turn for free. If this works on a particular table, it gives you permission to play even middle connectors or hands like K-X suited on the button. And if you catch, you are not limited when betting the turn/river as you are in limit poker.

It also means that you might see a lot of your blind hands for free. Both blinds are $1, so even the small blind sees the flop for free if there is no preflop raise. So you play more hands.

In this game tight players are less likely to get blinded to death. They have blind bet two hands out of 9/10 but they see the flop for free, so all of a sudden their 2-3 off suit has flopped the wheel.

Of course, what can be a rather tight game until the flop with some selection of players, can become a maniac game with players pushing all the time with another group. It depends on who sits down. What is a game requiring less bankroll to play, can become a game that it is easy to bully. I don't much like that game, and I won't play it. I generally watch a game before I take a seat. I leave a table if it evolves into a game of maniac bingo.

Bluffing power is reduced especially at a new table. Everyone has just $50. It is harder to bully with that.

It is hard to get a lose enough limit table to overcome the huge rakes the casinos now take. This game helps with that as well. Pots are generally bigger than 2-4. You generally won't end up passing around winning post while the house takes a third of the money out of each one.
That being said, if you get stuck at a short table with 6 rocks and see no pot every approaches a size to offer much of a profit and no one plays second or third best, then it is time to get up and leave. Join a loose 2-4 with all seats taken. Join a newly opened game. That happens at Mohegan. I move from 1-1 to 2-4 depending on how much action is at the table.

Finally, if you do have the best hand and accurately put your opponent on something less, you can more often get them to call their second or third best hand than you can in 1-2.

Again. Every table is different depending upon who sits down.
I play with a limited bankroll, so this 1-1 cuts my entry buy-in in half. I can more often play this game than 1-2. In Vegas I never play 1-2.

Also, the social aspect of the game may be better. NL is generally all about poker: poker faces, poker mathematics, poker macho attitudes, sun glasses, uptight and sometimes unhappy opponents.
2-4 in Vegas offers another value. It is like sitting down at a bar with strangers and striking up conversation. Serious poker players want nothing to do with talk or stories or joking banter.
2-4 players are just there for the fun.
1-1 is somewhere in the middle. However, those of us who appreciate the social/story aspect of the game may find that 1-1 attracts people who can have a discussion that isn't limited to "outs" and strategies. In a city where people come from all over the world, a poker table of storytellers is what I'm looking for.
And I like it when the pretty girls outnumber the old grumps

*************************************************

postscript added when a board poster liked the above information:

Just pay good attention to the other players before you sit down at a table. Look at their chips stacks. The 1-1 games I play have buy ins from $20 to $60 or $50 to $100. This one is $50 to $300. If players come and most buy in for $300 then it is just a 1-2 game with one lower blind and much farther from limit poker than the game might be had they limited maximum buy in to low roller amounts. I did not know the $300 MAX when I posted that long post you quoted. I'm sorry Linq went with that option.

That large MAX buy-in can fundamentally change the game, adding back in the bluffing and bullying aspects that don't come in those smaller MAX games. Hopefully, the dedicated no limit players will still be attracted to the 1-2 games where there is tighter play and less chasing, less preflop limping and more preflop options to push out low chipped guys. Many limit players hate playing at a table with many low chipped players because they can't read a $40 all-in bet, can't go over the top to push out.

Of course, some MAX buy-in players will still be hopping in and out of the 1-1 while they wait for seats at the games they really want to play, and they may hop with large buy-ins and destroy the low roller aspect of the 1-1. That happens in limit games. But limit is so much different that often good limit players have an advantage over the no limit players because of the amount of chips opponents have has much less importance in a limit game.

I suggest you watch the games a while. If you see little preflop raising (or only min raises) and see that chip stacks are fairly low, then it might be a good game for a limit player. Even if one player buys-in for the MAX, it won't be bad because you can stay away from that player.
However, this game won't be like the games where all-in losers have to start with low chip stacks and work their way up slowly with good play. If you see players losing all-in bets and rebuying for large amounts, go back to limit. If you buy-in for $50 and a good all-in bet doubles you up, but others are matching you by just pulling more dough from their pockets, then quit after you double up.

Oh, one other thing. Don't drink alcohol when playing this game. Drinking at a limit game, once you have a good feel for the game and sense of the table is not much a problem. In fact, at games filled with good tight players, free alcohol is perhaps the only way in a 2-4 to get enough value to overcome the rake. And if you are a good limit player, a bit of drink and acting out may give you a better table image than you could ever fake. I have often won more drunk because folks would call me and pay me. But drinking in no limit is suicide, especially if you are new to the nuances. You have to be attuned to so much more in no limit and the drink reduces those perceptions. And mistakes in NL are much more costly.

Another fun move out of limit poker with little $$ risk is to try those Plaza tournament games on the electronic tables for buy-ins from $5 to $15. Those are low roller dreams and will give you a sense of no limit, although tournament play is a bit different from no limit cash game play if you want to get in the money.
For some those games seem like internet poker, but I don't see any truth in that argument; there is not much comparison except that it is electronic. No one is home in their underwear. No one is playing while on the phone to a fellow player sharing information. No one is playing with some computer program that helps decide options. The entire ambiance of the casino is around. Pretty women pass. At the Plaza you may have live jazz just across the casino floor.
The social aspect is alive and well. No one is home alone.
There is still plenty of interaction with other players, often times more because there is no dealer to butt into every player conversation. Lower rake, no tip, no chance to bet out of turn, no difficulty in seeing how much opponents have, no misdeals, much less calling of the floor for arguments over who said/ did what and when, no prematurely revealed cards, no need to have a card protector, no dropping of chips, and no sharing of every live germ any player carries with them. ( Chips are the dirtiest bits in casinos.)    

A thread of thoughts on the Four Queens

Plenty of discussion of the new comp system at the Four Queens and my thoughts about moving on.


http://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?123038-4-Queens-Question/page4

Early check in fees are not at Mlife

Okay, I did get a chance to call the Luxor, and there is no early check in fee or late check out free (often you can extend an hour) It is based on availability. They did have a fee policy, but they discontinued it.
There is a fee if you want to arrange a guaranteed room check in early. That is $20 and that is what is listed on their internet site. But if you just stumble in from the airport at noon and they have a room, you are good to go to it early.
If you move from hotel to hotel in Vegas pack a small bag with medicine, VP strategy sheets, swimming trunks. Then if they can't check you in early, you can check your luggage and still do what you want.
Board friend Joe wrote about the Downtown Grand. They checked him in and said they would phone him when the room was ready. They did that, but at the time there was a line of 25 people just so he could get his key.
So, hope to check in early; if they  have available rooms at Mlife you get them.

I usually call and extend my checkout time an hour at no cost. That gives me less time to have my luggage with the bellman at the next spot. In fact, if I have any travel time between casinos, I check out at say 1PM  and am at the next place fairly close to check in time.
The rules at Mlife are not the same at CET.

 I know of a fellow, for example, who was staying for a convention at the Rio with his wife in an expensive upscale room and wanted to downgrade for a few more solo nights after she went home. The room was ready, but they wanted $20 for him to move his luggage to it. He talked them down to $10. 
Checking luggage with the bellman is great, but it does require a complete and careful packing up.
I've been booking the D and the Four Queens back to back most of my trips. It is a very short walk, so I walk over with no luggage and do the bed bug check.

Then I pack out some things, put them in the next room, and then go back for other things. There is no requirement for fitting everything in the suitcase perfectly. Often I make three trips. Both places will put me in as soon as the room is ready unless I want a particular room at the Four Queens.  In that case, I often do have to pack carefully and wait. Sometimes it is worth the wait for the room of my choice.
Once the D put me in at 9 AM. No issues. No fees.

That probably won't happen at Mlife places. Some report being charged before noon.  But noon or after they should pop us in an available room with not early check in fee.

Why I eat at buffets

Since I go to Vegas for 20 plus days each trip, savings add up, so I'll add the frugal notes.
Buffets are generally good value because they provide the drinks for free and the tipping is rarely the 20% I leave at a restaurant. 
Getting the lunch price is great.
Going into some at lunch time and just waiting for supper offerings is another frugal trip.
Buffets are a more easy comp.  The comp covers the entire bill and it is not compromised by having to leave an incredible tip.  If I score an upscale restaurant comp from gambling worth a decent amount of money, the tip is easily double the price of an entire buffet.
My last trip I ate on an average of $11 a day, eating generally one buffet a day ( not at the Orleans on senior day when two are free) and just having a bit of healthy food in the room,
There are more often specials focused on the buffet.  So on Veteran's Day I'll eat two buffets for free just with my DD-214 from long ago.  Last year I had breakfast where I stayed and lunch at Paris.  Call and ask if you are a Veteran.  Oh, and not one of those places actually examined my DD-214.  But don't lie about it, unless you want to run for public office.  However, if you don't have the form, just say you are a Veteran and it probably will work.
Personally, I am overweight and diabetic.  I control the diabetes only with diet.  The easiest place to do that is at the buffet.  Trying to figure what they will give me at a restaurant and bargaining the high carb sides for broccoli is an enormous pain.    The simplest foods of the cheaper buffets keep my sugar right around 100 in Vegas.  With the walking it is really a health spa for me.
Someone mentioned the sugar free desert.  These don't come in restaurants much.  In the buffet there is usually at least one thing I can eat that ai don't eat otherwise, even at home.  Otherwise I don't eat pie or cookies or pudding.
If I am worried about my sugar that day, a buffet can be an all I can eat lettuce, raddish, spinach onion event. 
Stop thinking you have to eat every you can to get full value.  You have value if what you pick would cost more ordered separately in a restaurant.  Two good salads and some soup make the buffet break even, and if you try the soup and hate it, you can take a different soup. 
This week my wife ordered a $30 plus fillet mignon and it was so terrible she sent it back.  The cook said it was fine.  They did not comp her meal.  She was not that hungry and she just took a bit from each of our plates.  Four of us.  Each ordered appetizers.  I disliked my pasta fasule.  None of this would happen at the buffet.
I also like the ability to combine foods as I want them.  I can make soup with all sorts of ingredients and flavors.  I can do what I do at home, mix up thinks, taste, add other things until I get the recipes just right.  I don't have the spice options.  Sometimes I bring my own hot sauce or cinnamon for coffee.
Certain buffets are better than others for certain diets.  The diabetes put me off my much loved Main Street Station buffet and into the Golden Nugget.  There I love making a breakfast of smoked salmon, capers, tomato.  That might be all I eat. 
I can make a hamburger with no bun on lettuce.
But even at Main Street station I can fill up on soul green collards topped with Hawaiian pulled pork and manage that in the diet.
I can more easily control portions in a buffet than in a restaurant, taking large portions of the right foods that are unlimited and getting perhaps just one small piece of potato that I never eat at home. 
My favorite is Red Rock.  There I had a wonderful meal because they had about four different kinds of roasted vegetables and I actually ate three deserts and did not affect my blood sugar.  That is a record.
I also travel solo and the buffets offer other opportunities.
At the Orleans, at my free breakfast, my first full day in Vegas I was in line and three women from Calgary and Alberta who were just behind me. Their talk was so perky and funny, I listened in and made some comment. They were so open and friendly that by the time we made the buffet, they had invited me to eat with them.
They asked about music.  I told them about the Nite Kings.  So we spent a few hours there together as well with some great talk and some dancing.
I have dined with a whole table of French folks, a fellow who did tax advice for a famous Japanese baseball players, a few teachers, a cute little Pilipino woman and her husband. 
Like the bus, the buffet line is a social event. 
Sometimes I have a free passes, so I ask if there is anyone in line who wants a free meal.
When I do stay solo, I pull out my journal and take trip report notes.  I am much more comfortable doing that in a buffet. than a restaurant.
Wine with the meal in a buffet can usually be brought in from where I last played.  At Eastside Cannery I have coupons for free wine at the bar and carry in two glasses to eat a free buffet on my voucher. 
Also, the poker and other gambling is the big draw for me to Vegas, and next the shows.  At home we go our to eat for recreation.  In Vegas I want to do something I don't do so much at home.
Finally, although some of the all day buffets are ridiculously prices,  the Orleans all day buffet is just $27 for the whole day (not 24 hours but all day)  You get a little bracelet and come and go without lines by using the VIP entrance.  So, you can go four or five times if you want, go just for coffee and fruit or just for a bowl of soup.  I would do this more often except I always book the Orleans for senior Wednesdays with an added $10 added to the comped rooms.  I liked it when I played poker there.  I could stay at the game and wander is for a bite and then go back.

What paying resort fees on 2 for 1 at the D did to my frugal thinking

At the D high level gamblers who get full comps pay no resort fees.
However, mid level to low rollers lost a comp this year.
Last year resort fees were waived on a 2 for 1 mailed offer. Now, they must be paid on the cash night portion. So, for low rollers, this was about a 50% reduction in comp. The D is still a decent deal most of the time, but I concentrate my play to preserve my bankroll over these 23 to 25 day trips and to get the most EV for my play.
I like to low roll somewhere and get decently comped.
The D's decision to toss in a hefty resort fee was in part to raise hotel rates for those who don't gamble. Now, they've decided to raise them just a bit more for those who gamble moderately.
Then too I loved that nickel drop full pay deuces and I'd play it for hours between the times when the 8/5 Vue bar Bonus progressives were not in a player friendly place. I was entertained, my mind challenged, at real nickel rates. No longer possible. That machine is gone.
Finally, some nights the D has rates as low as $16, so even with the resort fee, the 2 for 1 mailing is a great deal. However, the LIfe is Beautiful and other festivals push up room rates downtown. I only used 2 nights of the offer during this year's September time and the rates were $34 a night , so $56 with resort fee. $28 a night does not reflect much EV gained by gambling.
In fact, in November I booked 3 nights for $28 right across the street at the Fremont using the American Casino Guide coupon (buy 2 get one free, no resort fee, no gambling daily score to maintain)
There are similar coupons for other downtown properties.
My strategy for the next 2 day trip will be to cut back on play and see how little play at the D will still generate the 2 for 1 offer and to look for other places where moderate play might capture more comps.
Playing nickel triple play at the Orleans on senior Wednesday is probably the best bang for my buck.
The 9/7 with progressive DB is a more dependable VP than the D 8/5 Bonus.
I'm low rolling there with more entertainment for my risk. I get three lines for 75 cents a spin rather then one line for $1.25 a spin. I get two free buffets, reduced movie tickets, $10 free food added to my 2 free nights, drawings, The Nite Kings, a much nicer room, a heated pool ( my son and I braved the D pool last November and were pleased for the polar bear experience but it can't compare with the Orleans pool)
 Then last year right in the middle of the day Orleans gave out $5 to anyone with a player's card who stood in a short line.
And their elevators are efficient.
 And somehow my Orleans play must be affecting Gold Coast offers. Last year I got 2 free nights. This year I got a nice mailing with reduced rates. I don't play there except for a bit of diversion, $20 here or there. I don't worry about daily play averages. So why they cut in half the B Connected rates is well beyond me, but I'm glad that they did it when a family meetup (most of them staying at Bellagio) made the Gold Coast the only reasonable choice.
Also, points I earn with just a bit of play at Boyd casinos can be used so many places. D points can be used just at the D in the café. I love the café, but gambling more than I need for breakfast gives me points I won't use.
Since I figure my gambling bankroll as the difference between my other expenses in Vegas and what they might be in other places in the world, I want to reduce expenses as much as possible. In one sense, I want only to gamble with their money.
I know that my situation is a rare one, and that my low rolling seems ludicrous to many Vegas visitors. But to put room rates in perspective, last year in November I was in Vegas for 25 days (4 at the D) and spent $9.25 a night on average for room costs (resort fees, taxes, everything)
It was a losing trip. I lost $928 gambling.
However, by keeping expenses down it still is a lot of fun and a grand vacation for very little expense. Being retired I have much more time than money and I sit home some days when I'd like to travel because the money isn't there. But the money to travel to Vegas is always there for a low roller like me.
Details are herehttp://vegasbirthdaybash.blogspot.com/2014/11/tr-snippet-costs.html

Actually, when I budget in not using my car for 25 days, not going grocery shopping, etc even a losing trip to Vegas saves me money. Thanks Jean Scott.

El Cortez thoughts

There is more going on at the El Cortez.  They are closing the cafe and blending it into the Seigel upscale restaurant.  I think it will mean a return to the good upscale food, but an end to the good downscale prices.
http://lasvegasweekly.com/as-we-see-it/2015/may/27/el-cortez-restaurant-revamp-downtown-evolution/

Also, you can eat while you play
EL CORTEZ
From a news release: El Cortez players can enjoy the luxury of Gambling Gourmet, game-side dining, which allows guests to no longer worry about deciding between dinner and winning. Guests can enjoy the great food El Cortez has to offer without ever leaving the casino floor. Gambling Gourmet is available every day from 7:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.

The biggest personal loss for me was the closing of the poker room.  It was an interesting and very cheap spread limit game like no other and over the years I came to know the dealers well and some of the regulars. 
Although many of the regulars I enjoyed years ago were banned.
Action Jackson was one.
And some died.
Jackie came down every day and splashed the pot with his strange, loose play.  It was sad to see him go down hill over the years, but fun to be at a table with him.  I don't suppose that will come back. The room really was a playroom for old Jackie, a place for him to enjoy a game with folks who loved and respected him.
The last renovation of the café, a few years ago,  also took out a favorite of mine.  Since I go solo, I loved the old bar stools where I might end up eating with one of the fellows I had just played against at the poker game.  The renovation created islands where solos eat alone.  Now I guess it will be just tables of some sort and perhaps upscale.
I don't usually eat upscale, but I did like the Flame and often there were good deals.  So I'm looking forward to seeing what the new restaurant is like and how they blend that into the café menu.  I wonder if there will be any good restaurant.com deals.  I doubt it will be the cheap café prime rib that was served.
Every one of these Vegas renovations of late takes out the inexpensive deals and replaces them with good food at a higher price.  But for me personally, since the onset of diabetes, I tend to eat more at the Golden Nugget buffet because I can get foods that fit the diet.  Playing poker there, I get ten dollars off.
I am pretty easy on frugal rooms, but I've given the Pavillion rooms up.  It is hard to find room for the computer.  The noise from the wrap around walkways can wake me up, especially if napping in the morning when the maids shout at one another and run their carts along the concrete sounding  like little trains right outside my window.
Vintage rooms are cheaper than Pavillion, but are an acquired taste.  There is no elevator (although there is a way to take the elevator up to a certain Pavillion floor level and then go in an unmarked door and have just a few stairs down to the Vintage hallway. It is much easier than luggage carried up the huge staircase. Sorry, I can't remember the floor.    I was annoyed with dueling televisions on my last attempt to stay there and thin walls.  I'd call these rooms a taste of old Vegas.  
[url]http://vegasbirthdaybash.blogspot.com/2010/11/el-cortez-vintage-rooms.html[/url]
There are some large Vintage suites tucked in up there somewhere.  They are not offered in booking, but you can get them, sometimes for no money for upgrade.  Many have written liking these. Sorry I can't find details and I haven't stayed in one.  
I love the Cabana rooms, but not on the first floor street level where street noise from walking and talking people is right outside the window.  I guess sometimes there is noise from some bars nearby, but I have never been bothered.  I love the classy feel of these rooms, the wild green color, the refrigerator, the choices on the television, the free fruit in the lobby.  I don't see the walk outside as worrisome (there is always a guard) or long.  However, there are three levels of these rooms and many have found the cheaper levels very tiny for their needs.  Again, I am solo, so I don't care. There are some great deals on the smallest of the Cabana rooms every so often.
Now, some of my information may be dated, but here are some photos of the Cabana rooms from an old TRhttp://vegasbirthdaybash.blogspot.com/2011/05/tr-snippet-hotels-compared.html

Here is a more recent review
http://www.vegaschatter.com/story/2014/6/12/2120/92359/vegas-travel/You'll+Never+Believe+What+An+Extra+$10+Gets+You+At+El+Cortez

The Tower is quiet, comfortable, perhaps a bit dull.  The rooms are very much like Orleans rooms.  The bed mattresses are just great, huge and thick.  Also these are right in the casino.  Years back they still had small screen televisions.  If that matters to you, ask and see if that has changed.
Sometimes Tower does not cost more than Pavillion.  I booked three nights over upcoming Halloween weekend and the Tower offer was the same as the Pavillion offer.  I'm printing that out, however, as it was from a new discounter and I'm wondering if I will have difficulty on check in.  I read some negative reviews.
There is a daily resort fee of  $9 plustax.  There is also a fee if you book more than 7 nights in a row.  It is a strange unique fee.
The casino itself has some advantages.  I don't much like gambling there solo, but a group can have a great time.  Craps is some of the best in Vegas, often three dollars with ten times odds.   I just read they have fifty cent chips for paying off those 6/8 place bets,  Roulette was cheap.  There is not as much full pay video poker as there used to be when JOB 9/6 was everywhere.  Just before Dancer did a VP workshop there, they installed some full pay JOB at his insistence.  Just after he left, they pulled them out.
There are still some 10/7 DB and some other good plays.  There were still some coin droppers. 
I think there are decent Deuces, but they have in some cases odd pay tables.  Scroll down and see Mike actually write that he is not sure of what to call some of the El Cortez games.
[url]http://wizardofodds.com/games/video-poker/tables/loose-deuces/[/url]
There were also some penny slots that actually  took a bet of a penny.  When they pulled back on good booze at the poker game a few years ago, I played off ten dollars in freeplay at 3 cents a pull and drank four Myers rums for a profit of $6 at cashout.  I guess the American Casino Guide coupons from the El Cortez are no longer part of the book, but that $10 freeplay was one of the better deals.
Right next to the elevator going to Pavillion rooms is one of the most unique old fashioned slot experiences perhaps in the world. 
There are a few slots that actually work with slots inside, antiques.  They pay pretty well.  They take a coin like a silver dollar available at the cashier.  I play every trip just for the feel of olden days before even my time.  They do measure points and start the turning of the reels with electricity, but the results are based on actual slots catching the grooves inside as they spin. 
The Sinatra impersonator I saw last time in the upscale bar was just great.  If you like fancy drinks, I'm told these are done by a good mixologist and at reasonable prices compared to other fancy drink places.  I miss the old lounge where I could meet people and walk in with a comped drink from the poker room and find plenty of room to sit.  But I see how it is an upscale improvement.
The El Cortez would like to join that Freemont East revolution, but frankly I don't see too many young folks there.  I went once to a young folks gathering in the outside courtyard and it was packed with upscale youth.  I was perhaps the oldest guy there.  But in the casino were my peers.
They did have plans to have a pool, but I don't see those developing. 
There is more and more thematic reflection of the mob.  I'm not too nostalgic about the mob.  Today their tactics would be called terrorism.  But folks love them like they love pirates and wild west bandits. 
My poker buddy had a "talk like a pirate" poker game.  I came with a Somalian dictionary for some modern pirate talk.  However, if you are nostalgic about old Bugsy... this is the place to go.  In the really upscale, one of a kind, suites there is even one surrounded by desert scenes where you can sleep in safe luxury and imagine where the bodies are buried.
When I first started gambling, the El Cortez was one of my favorites with good comps and frugal deals.    It is not a place I invest in or seed for future trips.  I do that at the D and at the Four Queens.  There have been folks noting the loss of long time established comp patterns.  Some of my friends went there exclusively with a host, and that all backfired.  They don't go there now.
I do use them for cheap nights that I pay money for in between my comped nights downtown. 
It is a great place to park a rental car. 
And while it is not in the heart of the Fremont Experience, it is in right there for Fremont East, so especially for the young who like that scene, it now has good location.  I never minded the walk.  Now that is upscale as well.
 The biggest personal loss for me was the closing of the poker room.  It was an interesting and very cheap spread limit game like no other and over the years I came to know the dealers well and some of the regulars. 
Although many of the regulars I enjoyed years ago were banned.
Action Jackson was one.
And some died.
Jackie came down every day and splashed the pot with his strange, loose play.  It was sad to see him go down hill over the years, but fun to be at a table with him.  I don't suppose that will come back. The room really was a playroom for old Jackie, a place for him to enjoy a game with folks who loved and respected him.
The last renovation of the café, a few years ago,  also took out a favorite of mine.  Since I go solo, I loved the old bar stools where I might end up eating with one of the fellows I had just played against at the poker game.  The renovation created islands where solos eat alone.  Now I guess it will be just tables of some sort and perhaps upscale.
I don't usually eat upscale, but I did like the Flame and often there were good deals.  So I'm looking forward to seeing what the new restaurant is like and how they blend that into the café menu.  I wonder if there will be any good restaurant.com deals.  I doubt it will be the cheap café prime rib that was served.
Every one of these Vegas renovations of late takes out the inexpensive deals and replaces them with good food at a higher price.  But for me personally, since the onset of diabetes, I tend to eat more at the Golden Nugget buffet because I can get foods that fit the diet.  Playing poker there, I get ten dollars off.
I am pretty easy on frugal rooms, but I've given the Pavillion rooms up.  It is hard to find room for the computer.  The noise from the wrap around walkways can wake me up, especially if napping in the morning when the maids shout at one another and run their carts along the concrete sounding  like little trains right outside my window.
Vintage rooms are cheaper than Pavillion, but are an acquired taste.  There is no elevator (although there is a way to take the elevator up to a certain Pavillion floor level and then go in an unmarked door and have just a few stairs down to the Vintage hallway. It is much easier than luggage carried up the huge staircase. Sorry, I can't remember the floor.    I was annoyed with dueling televisions on my last attempt to stay there and thin walls.  I'd call these rooms a taste of old Vegas.  
http://vegasbirthdaybash.blogspot.com/2010/11/el-cortez-vintage-rooms.html
There are some large Vintage suites tucked in up there somewhere.  They are not offered in booking, but you can get them, sometimes for no money for upgrade.  Many have written liking these. Sorry I can't find details and I haven't stayed in one.  
I love the Cabana rooms, but not on the first floor street level where street noise from walking and talking people is right outside the window.  I guess sometimes there is noise from some bars nearby, but I have never been bothered.  I love the classy feel of these rooms, the wild green color, the refrigerator, the choices on the television, the free fruit in the lobby.  I don't see the walk outside as worrisome (there is always a guard) or long.  However, there are three levels of these rooms and many have found the cheaper levels very tiny for their needs.  Again, I am solo, so I don't care. There are some great deals on the smallest of the Cabana rooms every so often.
Now, some of my information may be dated, but here are some photos of the Cabana rooms from an old TRhttp://vegasbirthdaybash.blogspot.com/2011/05/tr-snippet-hotels-compared.html