TR SNIPPET THE GAMBLING

This trip I really reevaluated the places with the best plays for me in Vegas.  Live poker really changed.  Flamingo had me pretty well lock in, and now I just go for occasional nostalgia or to introduce a companion to a limit game or perhaps because I just happen to be there.

My new key games are the 2-4 at the Golden Nugget and the 2-6 spread at Sam’s Town.  I tried and discarded thoughts of Binions, Palms, or any thoughts of no limit unless Club Fortune fits a future schedule.

Much more details on live poker are here:

http://vegasbirthdaybash.blogspot.com/2013/05/tr-snippet-live-poker.html

 

VIDEO POKER


The video poker did not go well this trip.  I guess it went about the same as last trip, only two royals at the end of the trip last time bailed out my losses.
I did not hit any quarter royals this trip.
My best session was on the 9/7 triple play nickels at the Orleans. 
The Orleans has changed the Young at Heart senior day, but it still drew Wild Bill and I one Tuesday.  The plan was to cut back on gambling and see a free movie with just a bit of time spent on some of my favorite nickel triple play machines, a bank of triple play 9/7 Double Bonus machines near the buffet.  Each line has a separate progressive royal payout and there is another payout for hitting all lines and so it is a pretty good play.  At only 75 cents a pull, it is also a good low roller gamble.  Locals love it. 
Well, we got so absorbed in the game that we waited too long to check out the movie schedule and no movies were left that intrigued Wild Bill.  We stayed for the Young at Heart drawing and missed that and Wild Bill ended up losing money.
Before lunch I was down over a hundred dollars, but I went back to play a bit after lunch and just hit quad after quad, straight flush, and then the smallest of the royals for $234.  The other royals were very slow to be hit and they just kept getting larger, so I kept playing and I kept hitting.  When I got up to $500 I decided that I would cash out after playing off anything above that amount.  However, every time I got lost my dprofit over $500 and got near cashing out, I hit another quad and I was back playing.  So I kept playing and my score went up and down and up and down until finally at about nine PM the royal I had hit was hit again, and then the one that was over $600 was hit and I cashed out for $542 and started back to the casino.  I guess this in one of the longest video poker sessions I ever enjoyed.  The profit put me ahead $209 at that point in my trip and I sure racked up a ton of points.  I wished that it was a point multiplier day, but they have moved the point multiplier to Monday.  They do have a drawing but we did not win.  The last Tuesday of the month is the better drawing because rather than pulling just 4 names, they pull names until every missed award rolled over from each week of the month is claimed.  Winners have just 3 minutes to come up and claim the prize.
I left that day having built up a fine amount of points and certainly seeded myself for a couple free nights. 
On another day there I had quad deuces dealt to me.  That is a fine catch on a triple play Double Bonus game.
Sadly, I think I am dropping the Orleans from my itinerary because it is just too long a bus ride with luggage.  However, if other expected offers don’t come, I may fall back on this place.
I liked the full pay Deuces in nickels at Sam’s Town.  It is really a dime game because the max bet is 10.  That is my favorite betting level, enough to stretch out my small bankroll, stack up points for possible offers, and still not lose too much when the game goes against me.
I only hit the Deuces once and ironically those were dealt to me.  That session paid for other losses at Sam’s, the poker tournament and some live game losses so I left dead even.
However, it was frustrating.  In the VP Deuces play I hit six natural quads and one natural straight flush.  The day before I had played at the Vue Bar D Bonus poker game and the progressive straight flush was up to $140 instead of the usual $62.50.  And those quads would have given me some profit.  I left Sam’s Town Deuces dead even and went directly to the Eastside Cannery to play 10/7 Double Bonus and dump in $300 without a single quad.  Such irony.

 

So the VP did not pay me this trip.  I lost at the great Double Bonus game at the Four Queens even with the $60 freeplay and $40 table game promo chips that went with my free room offer.  It was the worst casino loss of my trip.  Nothing seemed to redeem me.

 

THE D VUE BAR

 

I kept my love of the Vue Bar 8/5 Bonus with Royal, Straight Flush, and quad progressives.  The quads were never up very high. I missed the other two.  I did like the oldies music in the mornings and even liked to some extent the bartenders all trying to learn to juggle.  Sometimes it seemed a distraction.  There too is the full pay coin dropping nickel Deuces Wild game.

 
While playing at the bar the bartenders  were juggling bottles and the steel mixing cups.  They were not polished, but still entertaining. 
Rumor is that the Vue bar will be “renovated” into an upscale bar or perhaps a sports bar similar to what is downstairs.  The vintage flavor my be retained, but I suspect those fine Bonus progressives will be replaces with poor paying machines and the D will no longer be a place for me to play.
Perhaps the full pay Deuces coin dropper will stay and that might give me a few hours of pleasure and perhaps enough play to keep 2 for 1 offers. 
That nickel play was a bit noisy.  The Sigma Derby machine kept up the sound of running horses and there is one slot machine there that is loud enough to be heard downstairs.  But I could still make out the oldies on the music station. 
From the Vue bar the music is very easy to hear and it is all the old and sometimes odd sounds of my youth.  I like the place.  I’ll be sorry to see it change. 
MAIN STREET STATION

I like Main Street Station Boars Head bar, but I don’t play enough for rooms, so I just really play when I can have a Black Chip porter or two.  Frustrating was that it took 15 minutes to get a scratch card when I hit a quad.  However, I did manage a second beer without any extra play.  After all….what could I do…I was just waiting.  And it was reasonable for me to cash out when I got the ticket because it was unreasonable that I’d want to wait 15 minutes for my next scratch card. The bartender said it was a pattern now driven by the casino putting just one person on the floor who does not get any credit for passing out scratch cards at the bar, so is basically unmotivated, with attitude if called repeatedly.

 

FOUR QUEENS

I kept my love the Four Queens 10/7 DB, the best of its kind in the world even before the cashback, the $100 in freeplay, the 3 free weekend nights that comes with my play.

Add to that a single zero roulette video game in nickles that gives points.  Very rare.  I don’t know of another like that in Vegas.  It is a great game to play when the bankroll is gone for the day and you just want a few drinks.  If you want low volatility, make one bet on black and another on the third column.  You will cover almost all the numbers, break even on blacks not in the third row, and make a small profit if the third column goes nuts.  Fun.  Cheap.

SAM’S TOWN

The full pay Deuces at Sam’s Town were moved, expanded, and include now a nickel game.  Well, actually, a dime game as the max bet is 10 nickles.  I love that one.  I love playing dimes.  I just broke even on it, but I sure built up points.

Last visit I pumped a lot of quarters in the Deuces at Sam’s.  I got some good 2 for 1 rates on rooms.  This visit I pumped more, so perhaps I’ll get more.  It may be hard for me to build up much of an average because whether I play or not, I go every Thursday to the Toast of the Town show so they know I’m there.  That may water down my average.

A new goal is to patch together freebies from Sam’s Town and the Eastside Cannery.  This is part of my large goal to have easier check in check out luggage issues.  I can roll my luggage between these two places and even taking the HDX from or to downtown is not bad with luggage.

I’m no longer going to stay on the strip.

 

EASTSIDE CANNERY

I seeded the Eastside Cannery full pay machines which include 10/6 DDB, 10/7 DB, and a very rare 9/6 JOB with 90 for the straight flush, bringing the EV up to 100%.  Again I played and lost.  So maybe free rooms there are in the future cards. 

I lost enough everywhere this past trip.  I ought to have plenty of choices in offers by my next trip whether it is this year or next year.

I did very well on the Kentucky Derby.  A dealer game me a horse and I was set to bet $5 across the board, but I waited to long.  The horse lost.  That was one of my better gambling choices of the month.

FREEPLAY

The most generous freeplay offers I get are from the Four Queens.  The worst are those earned in play Webpass on line for the Eastside Cannery.

Here is a note on the Orleans freeplay.  There is freeplay attached to comped room offers and then some in coupons on the B Connected site.

But only one $10 freeplay can be used each month.  So if you have a room with an offer, use that one.

Most of you probably know this, but for a Saphire level card 1000 points is equal to a dollar in cashback while 600 points is equal to a dollar in food.  It pays to eat points.

Young at Heart senior promotions on Tuesday at each Boyd casino do not include a point multiplier, just the movie, the buffet deal and some drawings connected to earned points.  Points are multiplied on other days.

 

ELLIS ISLAND FREEPLAY

I get overtired in Vegas and disorganized and disoriented and that advances my normally dysfunction.  I’m ashamed to admit that although I am  a great aficionado of coupons, I have missed actually getting my American Casino Guide $10 of freeplay at Ellis Island for the last two years.

This year I was determined that would change, but I think it changed more because of serendipity than determination.  My three poker buddies and I went up one day for a meal, and I took that time to play some video poker to qualify for the coupon freeplay and then get the coupon registered with the Player’s Club.  Both those things have to happen in the same day. Ellis then takes 24 hours to post the freeplay, so to use it, I needed to make a second tip to the casino.

A week later I was exhausted after a senior day at the Orleans with Wild Bill playing video poker, seeing the movie 42 ??link and picking up the tab for the 2 for 1 lunch buffet.  Wild Bill and I made a side bet on who could get the most full houses.  At first I was way ahead, but just like the horses he bets, Wild Bill sprinted from behind in the last few minutes of the play to win the race. 

So I had to pay for lunch.

I wanted to head back to the room and do quiet things and then sleep.  The shuttle from the Orleans to the Gold Coast first stops way, way in the back of Bally’s and from there it is a very short walk to Ellis Island, a walk even a dysfunctional person might manage.  So it would be a perfect time to play off my freeplay and go completely off my healthy diet and supper on the steak special.

At Ellis I then played the kiosk game.  Everything you want to do at Ellis Island now has a line as part of it.  The last trip I had to stand in line to change my pin number (no pins can have a zero anymore) and then in a kiosk line to swipe for a $1 coupon off my salad and then in another line to register my freeplay coupon after I played my qualifying $10.  Oh, how much easier it was back in the days of blackjack matchplays even with old Pete in the pit wanting to see the entire ACG book before letting the coupon be gambled. 

Oh well… the more lines I stand in, the less money I lose gambling. 

And I like the challenge.  The casinos put up roadblocks, hoping to get me in the place with a coupon advertisement, but count on my dysfunction precluding their actually having to give me coupon value. 

It is just another competition with the casino, one that this year I was determined to win.

I went to where I knew there was a Jacks or Better game with a 9/6 pay table and started playing. 

Only I did not pick JOB because I am this tired and dysfunctional guy.  I just punched in max play on one of the games the last dysfunctional guy had played, Deuces Wild.

I knew it was Deuces immediately because I was dealt a deuce and three 3’s as my first hand.  I held those four and up came ……..another deuce!  I had one of the better hands in Deuces, five of a kind, so I would make money on this freeplay. Sometimes dysfunction can be just grand! Sometimes randomness takes care of the stupid.

I switched back to JOB and played off the freeplay, ending with a profit from my $10 freeplay of $23. 

Nice. 

I played a bit of cash money, lost, won, played when I went back to even, and then I quit and headed back to the hotel.

Now, outside I had to make another bet.  I had the choice of the city bus or the shuttle.  The shuttle was a longer walk, but really I wanted the one that would be the first to come.

So, I watched.

I decided to head to the shuttle because there were not people at the 202 stop and I figured the 202 had just left.  I am supposed to have a copy of the schedule in my pocket as I advise everyone, but remember I may have good ideas but I am dysfunctional executing them.

When I got right across the street from the 202 I saw two things.  The Gold Coast shuttle was there loading and the 202 was approaching.  I would miss both if I obeyed the law and went back to the light to cross.

So, I jay walked.  There was not much traffic and there was an elevated place to stand in the center so I could do on half of the busy road, wait and then do the other.

Winner again!!  I caught the 202 and saved twenty minutes of waiting.

SLOTS

My slot play consisted of the roulette mentioned and $60 dropped in Megabucks at the Four Queens.  On the $60 I did not get a single hit, not even a cherry.
Then waiting for Elsa and Scio5153 at the Spice Market Buffet, I recklessly lost $5 in penny slots, playing 3 cents a pull and seeing some pretty cool bonus rounds.  I did not get a drink there.  The free alcohol would have made this a value wash, so I lose because I am somewhat dry just now.