Kevin's Top Ten

This list isn't meant to replace LVA's Top Ten; rather, it's intended to provide a different perspective. I don't go to Vegas shows or concerts; I think they're horribly overpriced. And as a former local, I know there's great food everywhere in Vegas, so I shun fancy-ass foodie places. So, without further ado:

1. Arizona Charlie's Boulder and Decatur: meal deals. Can't beat the $4 breakfast.

2. South Point: player's club. The best in town by a wide margin, especially since everyone else has gutted theirs.

3. Emerald Island and Rainbow: high-return, low-denomination video poker with a raft of promos.

4. Ellis Island: the BBQ joint. I'd pay twice the price. And of course, LVA coupon!

5. Four Queens: excellent promos, very good VP. Generous slot club.

6. Ellis Island steak special. Long may it sizzle.

7. South Point: sports book. Lively place, lots of seating, and $1.25 dawgs.

8. Emerald Island and Rainbow coffee shops. Great prices, lots of specials, and really good!

9. Orleans: the poker room. Big room, good variety of games, player comps, lower rake than elsewhere.

10. The Fremont Street Experience. Noisy, garish, bizarre, and...free. The cheapest entertainment in Vegas.

That's good info.  I'm curious.....I am taking a trip to Boulder Highway this trip to do the $5.99 breakfast special at AZ Boulder.  You mention a $4 breakfast.  What is included in that and is it a better substitute than the LVA top ten breakfast shout out?

I would quibble only with the Orleans poker room. It's great that they have a hige number and variety of games at low limits. But the down side is putting up with cranky local players and dealers who obviously hate working there. Just not fun.

For the $4 breakfast, you get bacon or sausage (or half and half), two eggs, hash browns, and toast or a biscuit and gravy. For the $6 breakfast, you get a breakfast steak or a ham steak instead of the bacon or sausage. Both great deals, but the $4 is the better one IMHO. Eases the pain of having been stomped at the tables :)

As far as I'm aware, the specials run 24/7 at the Decatur location, but only until midnight at Boulder--so I'd call them first before making the trip.

These aren't chintzy breakfasts, either--they're substantial.

Well, poker players in general are pretty cranky--if I was stuck in a lifeboat full of poker players, I'd kill and eat all the fat ones and toss the skinny ones overboard. And as long as the dealers are competent, I don't really care if their hemorrhoids are acting up or they haven't gotten laid recently.

What I look for is good value and game selection. They comp back $1.25 an hour and their rake has always been $1 less than the other joints, so I'm saving money. And the game selection means that if I don't like the game at one lifeboat, er, table, I can quickly move to another one.

If you want a different vibe and don't mind paying extra for it, the play is to go to a Strip poker room and whomp on all the drunk, clueless tourists. I've choked down my Strip aversion at times to play at the MGM and Luxor, where the games have always been incredibly weak. TI and PH have been good in the past as well. I don't know the current status of those rooms, though.

I have experienced #1,2,4,5 & 7 and completely agree with Kevin. And a side note - 4Q has no resort fees.

Have not gone to #3,6,8 & 9.

#10 is is very true, especially at night.

Good list. 

The Southpoint after-midnight specials in Coronado Cafe are excellent as well.  

I haven't done a lot of 3,4,5,6,8 or any of it.  

The best poker in room is the one with the most fish.  I wouldn't think you would get very many fish at a locals place just a bunch of rocks.

Agreed.  I, like Kevin, pretty much despise the strip but the only reason I've gone there for gambling in the last 10 years is for poker.  50% know what they are doing and 50% are tourists looking to lose $100-$200 slower than anywhere else.  

Not necessarily. If the cost of playing is too high, that may offset, or more than offset, the added advantage you get from playing against the clueless. You'll pay $2 more per pot in rake in a Strip room.

The Orleans crowd has the same proportions of good/lousy players as anywhere else, including the Strip: 50/50. The difference is that the lousy 50% is old fossilzed rocks. Most of them are trying to drag out as many hours as they can in order to qualify for the monthly freeroll or whatever.

It turns out that a game full of those folks is very, very easy to beat: just don't give them any action. When they raise, fold your pocket queens with the speed of summer lightning. When they call, and an Ace flops, muck your hand. And so forth. It's like playing poker with furniture, albeit furniture that posts blinds and antes. A half-rocks table is basically the rake being paid by the furniture, and you against the remaining players four- or five-handed.

You can do better on a gross income basis when the bad-player half of the table is clueless tourists. But that comes with high variance and frustration, when Newbert Noob from New Jersey calls your preflop raise and beats your KK with his 85 soooted. At the Orleans, you can put it on cruise control and make money the old-fashioned way: drip drip drip drip drip. It's kinda like working at Starbucks, but it's a sure thing.

I put the Orleans on my list because it costs less to play poker there than anywhere else in Vegas, and the games are eminently beatable. I also like the fact that there are lots of good places in the casino to duck out and have a good meal--the two Chinese joints, the food court right next door, etc. (Damn damn damn that they killed the buffet.)