Author: Bobby Vegas

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Prepping for the Fabulous Fremont Coupon Run

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Scufflers, advantage couponers! Sharpen your … oh heck, no one uses pencils anymore. But now that it’s the end of the year, those coupons are expiring. So let use ’em! Never forget, a coupon is money in another form — until you cash it. Then it’s real money, your money, money in your pocket.

Why are coupons important? Time is money. And time is most often your enemy when gambling. Using coupons allows you to play on their dime as much as possible. That’s the why of a coupon run. It’s gaming the game, tilting the odds, squeezing as much good gamble out of your time as possible. And winning is much more fun than losing.

This will be a multi-part presentation consisting of the 6 P’s: Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance (actually, that’s a guiding principle for every great gaming trip) and eight tools:

  1. LVA’s Member Rewards Book (MRB)
  2. other coupons (ACG, etc.)
  3. www.VPfree2.com (very strong VIP tool)
  4. swag bag (like Zack G in Hangover, “It’s a satchel”)
  5. bankroll (cash no cards)
  6. Frugal Video Poker Scouting Guide by Jean Scott
  7. pocket notebook and pen
  8. good shoes

Then I’ll review exactly where to go and what to do and give you my personal Gives Good Gamble awards for best Fremont casino.

We can start from either end (the Plaza or El Cortez) of Fremont, though I prefer starting at the Plaza and you’ll see why.

First, a word about the MRB. For years, I tore out the Vegas coupon section of the American Casino Guide and grumble, as the MRB’s slim profile was so easy to slip in a pocket. Since the printed ACG book is no more, LVA’s MRB is our big play.

I’d also like to give a shoutout to www.WizardofOdds.com. Whenever I have a question about a game I can’t answer, particularly strategy, Michael Shackleford is king.

To prepare, always visit the casino websites at least two and preferably four weeks before you go on your trip. Sign up for a players card if allowed and to receive their newsletter. Also look for special events, slot and VP tournaments, and point promos for the dates of your stay. These are huge additions to your coupon run.

Stay tuned for the coupon run and Gives Good Gamble awards.

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I Don’t Like To Gamble

Bobby Vegas: Friends Don’t Let Friends Play Triple-Zero Roulette

A gambler is in it for being in action. The risk, the thrill, the roll of the dice, the turn of a card where fate is suspended and luck hopefully prevails.

Me, I don’t like to gamble. I like to win money. Those are completely different desires and goals.

I like researching new opportunities, practicing games, learning to play correctly or even bringing my strategy cards. I like building my gambling bank from different strategies at home and from earned funds in Vegas. When I don’t know the answer, I like to contemplate and figure it out. That’s why I like VP. I can stop and start when I want. It’s not a fastest-wins game.

When I come to town on a free flight earned with points and stay in a nice resort-casino at a very low rate or on a comp, I’m already ahead $750 to $1,000.

My average out of pocket for a five-day stay is $500 to $750. And that includes airfare, rental car, hotel room, restaurant meals, a show or two, and 20 to 30 hours of advantage play.

I like to learn, plan, and take advantage of all edges — coupons, come-back offers, sign-up bonuses, bonus-points play, etc. I execute, analyze and adjust. I set win goals and loss limits. When I win it’s satisfying, a confirmation. When I lose, I either examine my play or stop.

Attitude and intention are everything. If you come to Las Vegas expecting to lose, you will. If you play to win you have a better than average chance of doing just that.

And the proof is in the wallets of you, me, and legends like Bob Dancer, Jean Scott, Anthony Curtis, and many more.

I was once told, “If you want what I have, do as I do.”

And if in the end you don’t win, you’ve had a great time and spent a quarter of what others did.

As we head into the end of the year when all those juicy LVA MRB coupons expire, I’m going to focus on ways to maximize their value in play and outline one of my favorite plays, the Fremont Street coupon run, the chance to hit as many casinos as possible in a few hours and walk away with a pile of cash. It will take more than one blog post to cover the whole run, as well as the techniques used, so hang in here. I also have a lovely Christmas coupon-karma story to end the year.

Finally, here’s to Jean Scott, who’s decided after a legendary run to step back. I in no way feel I’m filling her shoes, but I sure am grateful to be following in her footsteps. Happy trails, Jean!

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Is That F1 or FU?

Giving Good Gamble

“If you build it, they will come.”

So whispered the voices of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other baseball players in the baseball diamond in the sky (in Field of Dreams), and come they did. But that was the movies.

This is Vegas. Build it they did. And boy, did we come.

And for decades, Vegas has created one more outrageous chart-topping spectacle after another: stars, tigers, stars with tigers, volcanos, pyramids, dancing fountains, the Eiffel Tower, jumping off 1,000-foot-tall buildings, shooting machine guns, men and women in all states of undress, $10,000 drinks, magicians, Allegiant, and now … Formula 1.

My only question is, have they gone too far this time? Did they maybe bite off more than we could chew, let alone swallow?

Well, they sure fouled up the traffic and for an auto-race event, that seems … kind of auspicious, just not in a good way.

Okay, forget for a moment the incredible disruption to anything near the Strip for the past months and look, I was excited too! I mean, did you see the movie Grand Turismo? On IMAX? I did. Amazing. Incredible race action, the camera work is Oscar worthy. Incredible true story, too, about a young gamer, the best in the world, who becomes an F1 driver and places third at LeMans in his first year.

And maybe $30 with the popcorn.

But today from Vegas, I got an offer for a free room at the Mirage during F1. Wow!

Wait. What? I need to buy two $4,000 (plus “fees”) tickets to the Mirage F1 VIP experience to get my “free” room? Um … I’ll pass. In the slow lane.

Sometimes even Vegas overestimates the disposable income of a large group of people. There is a word for this: “greed.”

Yes, I want to see F1, but you won’t find me ponying up $10K for a weekend. And I don’t know about you, but to me, it seems like the rush to be a part of this history isn’t exactly roaring down Las Vegas Boulevard. In fact, we’re stuck in traffic for an hour on the Strip while they try to construct the track and grandstands so they can drive hundreds of miles an hour. A double order of irony, anyone?

Really, F1, I wish you well. I hope I’m wrong and once again you’ve found another spectacle to draw in the folks. Well, maybe not “ folks,” but like the type of people for whom spending $10,000 on a weekend is no big deal. But excuse me if I add that the Sphere, the one that’s not rolling or going anywhere, has got you beat. By a mile. By a mile.

Sphere: Five Stars.

F1: TBD.

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Bobby Vegas: Friends Don’t Let Friends Play Triple-Zero Roulette

Bobby Vegas: Friends Don’t Let Friends Play Triple-Zero Roulette

Though roulette is considered a fools game in the world of advantage play, its centuries- long allure is undeniable.

Whether it’s a cavalier James Bond tossing planks like candy, a European trust-fund baby dispassionately tossing daddy’s money away at the Wynn, just your average Vegas-$1,000-till-it’s-gone Joe, or Bobby Vegas T-shirts that say “Friends Don’t Let Friends Play Triple Zero Roulette” (available at BobbyVegas.com), many have succumbed to the wheel’s siren call.

Basically, it’s fun — if you like throwing your money away, that is.

And the casinos love the 20%-plus average hold even more than the 5.2% edge. Of course, as we know, the casinos weren’t satisfied with that enormous edge.

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Book the Super Bowl NOW

Book the Super Bowl NOW

First is the Super Bowl, one of the greatest sports, cultural, and marketing spectacles ever.

Then there’s experiencing the Super Bowl in Vegas: sports betting to the moon, celebrities, whales, celebrity whales, best of the best getting down, awesome parties everywhere, prices through the roof.

Then there’s experiencing the Super Bowl, actually happening in Vegas, at Allegiant Stadium.

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A Whale of a Story

A Whale of a Story

We gamblers and advantage players. We’re complicated.

We’re smart, obsessive, and we make great stories. The greatest of all was Kerry Packer.

I know it’s ironic: A coupon scuffler let’s-get-it-for-free guy like me is fascinated by the biggest whale of all time. Sure, it’s goofy, but the question remains, what can we learn from them?

When Packer’s father died in 1974, Kerry inherited a $100 million Australian media and casino empire. He was apparently dyslexic, a poor student in some ways and clearly brilliant in others.

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