Tired of paying $250 a night (plus resort fee)?
Tired of paying $25 to park?
Tired of $25 minimum 6:5 blackjack?
Tired of being ripped off, nickel-and-dimed to death, and forced to pay for everything except the air you're breathing?
Tired of being strangled in traffic jams caused by greedy corporations, like the F-U fiasco?
Tired of tight slots and lousy video poker?
Tired of 117 degree days (or weeks)?
RENO!!!
Quite the dead on description of the Strip. I avoid it as much as possible. Luckily I get comped rooms at The Plaza, free assigned parking, $15 3:2 blackjack (except during MM or special weekends), a decent array of less volatile slots..but that's downtown Fremont.
I think I could find a cheaper and faster flight to Paris including layovers versus getting to Reno! Kind of a tough destination from where I'm at.
But I hear the town is quite pretty and much cooler.
Originally posted by: Inigo Montoya
Quite the dead on description of the Strip. I avoid it as much as possible. Luckily I get comped rooms at The Plaza, free assigned parking, $15 3:2 blackjack (except during MM or special weekends), a decent array of less volatile slots..but that's downtown Fremont.
I think I could find a cheaper and faster flight to Paris including layovers versus getting to Reno! Kind of a tough destination from where I'm at.
But I hear the town is quite pretty and much cooler.
The "hack" is to fly to Vegas and then transfer to Southwest. A zillion flights a day between LAS and RNO. Of course, if you can originate Southwest from your location, so much the better, though you would probably still have to change planes.
If you balk at paying an additional airfare, you might investigate Southwest's Vacation Packages. They have deals pretty much everywhere they go that combine hotel, rental car, airfare, etc.
My last Reno visit was in August. I paid $54 total/day (resort fee included) to stay at the Golden Nugget (actually in Sparks, not Reno) during the week and $79 total to stay at Western Village over the weekend, with two nights out of three comped. The cost per night for walk-ins would have been $79 plus a resort fee of something like $29.
There was plenty of 3:2 blackjack available. The dust joints had $5 minimums (a couple were $3!), while the fancier places had $10 minimums. I never saw a $15 casino-wide minimum, though some individual tables were at that minimum. There is a lingering bad Reno blackjack rule, which is that you can only double on 10 or 11. But I found lots of Vegas-rules games (dealer hits soft 17).
I had no trouble finding 99.5%+ video poker at .05 and .25 denoms, though +EV VP is extinct. But the slot clubs, which are much more generous than those in Vegas, except of course for the properties owned by the megaliths like CET. frequently offer promos that you can use to push into positive territory.
Food in Reno is MUCH, MUCH cheaper than, and just as good as, that you find in Vegas. It's also easier to leave the casinos and look around actual civilization for eating options/other diversions, as unlike Vegas, Reno was an actual city long before gambling was introduced. The best Chinese food I've ever had, and very close to the best Thai food, were in restaurants within two blocks of the downtown (Virginia St.) casino cluster.
And as you mentioned, the weather in Reno is much, much, much more pleasant. particularly in summer. You do get snowed on occasionally during the winter, but the Sierra Nevada range intercepts most of the storms' power and moisture. That's why the skiing is so good there. About an hour, hour and a half to a dozen different ski resorts.
And finally...Vegas, whatever else it may be, is an ugly, blighted, desert sun-blasted shithole. Reno is in a beautiful setting, and Lake Tahoe is an hour+ away. No comparison!
*Oh, and the people are much nicer in Reno. In particular, I really enjoy playing blackjack with personable dealers, who don't regard you when you sit down as if you had just run over their poodle. A warm greeting and a smile rather than the blank expression of a robot goes a long way toward enjoyment of the gambling experience.
Originally posted by: Kevin Lewis
The "hack" is to fly to Vegas and then transfer to Southwest. A zillion flights a day between LAS and RNO. Of course, if you can originate Southwest from your location, so much the better, though you would probably still have to change planes.
If you balk at paying an additional airfare, you might investigate Southwest's Vacation Packages. They have deals pretty much everywhere they go that combine hotel, rental car, airfare, etc.
My last Reno visit was in August. I paid $54 total/day (resort fee included) to stay at the Golden Nugget (actually in Sparks, not Reno) during the week and $79 total to stay at Western Village over the weekend, with two nights out of three comped. The cost per night for walk-ins would have been $79 plus a resort fee of something like $29.
There was plenty of 3:2 blackjack available. The dust joints had $5 minimums (a couple were $3!), while the fancier places had $10 minimums. I never saw a $15 casino-wide minimum, though some individual tables were at that minimum. There is a lingering bad Reno blackjack rule, which is that you can only double on 10 or 11. But I found lots of Vegas-rules games (dealer hits soft 17).
I had no trouble finding 99.5%+ video poker at .05 and .25 denoms, though +EV VP is extinct. But the slot clubs, which are much more generous than those in Vegas, except of course for the properties owned by the megaliths like CET. frequently offer promos that you can use to push into positive territory.
Food in Reno is MUCH, MUCH cheaper than, and just as good as, that you find in Vegas. It's also easier to leave the casinos and look around actual civilization for eating options/other diversions, as unlike Vegas, Reno was an actual city long before gambling was introduced. The best Chinese food I've ever had, and very close to the best Thai food, were in restaurants within two blocks of the downtown (Virginia St.) casino cluster.
And as you mentioned, the weather in Reno is much, much, much more pleasant. particularly in summer. You do get snowed on occasionally during the winter, but the Sierra Nevada range intercepts most of the storms' power and moisture. That's why the skiing is so good there. About an hour, hour and a half to a dozen different ski resorts.
And finally...Vegas, whatever else it may be, is an ugly, blighted, desert sun-blasted shithole. Reno is in a beautiful setting, and Lake Tahoe is an hour+ away. No comparison!
*Oh, and the people are much nicer in Reno. In particular, I really enjoy playing blackjack with personable dealers, who don't regard you when you sit down as if you had just run over their poodle. A warm greeting and a smile rather than the blank expression of a robot goes a long way toward enjoyment of the gambling experience.
Hmm, I wonder what edge the casino gets with the 10,11 rule?
Sounds nice, and wine country is a short 2-3 hours away if someone did a drive and overnight.
Originally posted by: Inigo Montoya
Hmm, I wonder what edge the casino gets with the 10,11 rule?
Sounds nice, and wine country is a short 2-3 hours away if someone did a drive and overnight.
Not as much as you'd think! And of course, the answer is buried deep in LVA's very own archives:
https://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/gambling-with-an-edge/the-house-edge-at-blackjack/?srsltid=AfmBOoogF3fS_A0WgSmjIfWPL79aZG72HGfa_BXPU7siJ9Enh-c3ISjk
-0.26 for one deck (ha!), -0.21 for double deck, and -0.18 for a shoe game. This is less than the difference between a double-deck game and a 6- or 8-deck game, so all other things being equal, a double deck double on 10 or 11 game is better than a shoe/double on any two cards game.
I remember when I was first learning to count and trying to memorize the soft double index numbers, and reflecting that soft doubling risks your having to stop dead when if you hadn't doubled, you would have taken another card no matter what, like if you double on a soft 13 (A-2) and get a 3. So soft doubling does reduce your win percentage (but the doubled bet makes up for that, of course).
But the basic strategy player isn't losing out that dramatically by not being allowed to soft double. A good rule, like dealer stands on soft 17, can negate that disadvantage. Stuff like double after splits can make up for it, too. That's why it's a good idea to memorize all the pluses and minuses of BJ rule variations. The LVA article I linked to spells it all out.
It would take more like 4 hours to get to the wine country from Reno, but it's a gorgeous drive.
Work schedule permitting, I am hopeful to visit Reno/Tahoe for the first time President's Day week. Are you willing to share affordable food options? Might there be some specials similar to LVA Top 10 inclusions?
Originally posted by: Brian Gardner
Work schedule permitting, I am hopeful to visit Reno/Tahoe for the first time President's Day week. Are you willing to share affordable food options? Might there be some specials similar to LVA Top 10 inclusions?
Oh, definitely--though I can't say exactly what will be available two months from now. Are you interested in eating inside casinos or elsewhere, and will you have a car?
Planning to rent a car to explore some of Reno and South Tahoe. Welcome all affordable dining recommendations in and out of casinos in efforts to stretch bankroll as far as possible. Reno low roller video poker does appear attractive
The irony - I find it rather amazing that an entity that reports about and promotes Las Vegas should stand idly by while a "favored" son expresses nothing but negative views about Vegas while extolling the virtues of another city. - and I guess referring to Vegas as - an ugly, blighted, desert sun-blasted shithole, is acceptable
This thread is about Reno as an alternative to Las Vegas. Please stay on topic and add anything of value. Previous comments have been civil. Thank you.
