(This is from a brief trip I took in June.)
Eureka is a locals' casino that has just slots/VP and a restaurant--no hotel or anything else besides the casino itself. LVA has a 2/1 entree coupon for Fat Choy and an earn 1,000 points get $25 slot play coupon.
I researched VPFree2 and saw that they have a number of decent games, including NSUD. I was intrigued to see MultiStrike for .05 9/6 JOB. That game is almost extinct; it's a lot of fun, but you'll get liquidated in short order if you don't alter your strategy. Fortunately, the Wizard's page on the game is still up.
The players' club returns a pathetic two one-hundredths of one percent. It takes $5K coin-in to earn the 1,000 points on the coupon. So, basically, the coupon covers the house advantage if you play JOB (it's worth 1/2 of 1 percent). The very low base point earn is compensated for by the many multipliers and bonuses offered almost every day. They apparently have generous weekly free play for frequent players.
Fat Choy is a combo Chinese/American coffee shop-style restaurant. They have some killer deals, including steak/country fried steak and eggs for $8 every morning from 8 to 11. They also have a lunch special every day that if you purchase it, you get $10 free play.
I walked in there about 10 am and found, to my delight, that the machine listed in VpFree2 was still there. I played for $1 a hand (four hands, nickel denom) and enjoyed trying to calculate the needed strategy variations. I was down about $50 when I hit 8888 on the top line (8 x 125 coins). This made me exactly even, so it was obviously lunchtime.
The Fat Choy lunch/free play special was a cheesesteak hoagie, which would have been essentially free, but I wasn't in the mood. I decided to use the LVA coupon to get two entrees: lo mein with cabbage, carrots, and sesame dressing, and steamed rice with pork belly, green onions, and gochujang sauce. The prices were $10 and $9, respectively, so this was going to be a $10 lunch. It became apparent when the food arrived with a thunderous crash that I may have miscalculated. The lo mein bowl was huge. The rice bowl was huge. This was enough food for two people, easily. But how good was it? Having eaten this sort of meal many, many times, in many, many locations all over the world, I have to say this was...simple and perfect. You'd get charged twice as much for this sort of meal elsewhere in Vegas.
The server was very, very nice and attentive. All in all, a super lunch (and dinner later, since I took home half of it). Ten bucks.
I went back to war with the Multi-Strike machine and kept losing and winning and winning and losing, hovering around even--until I noticed that I'd earned the 1,000 points. I played for another few minutes and hit a couple more quads. I was +$40 and cashed in my free play coupon. That netted $26.
This was reminiscent of the day when the LVA coupon drew me out to Emerald Island. I would NEVER have set foot in Eureka otherwise; but now, I'll be back. Definitely.
