NOLA in August...you think vegas is hot?

I pretend to not play short pay VP. That means I don' wanna. But I knew the chet hotel 'harrahs' had done right be my wife'n'me by coughing up both the diamond aspiration comp (inside joke) and the 2 room corner suite, 2 hundy for 3 weekend nights. Getting reservations to honor the offers was more trouble than it should have been. Fortunately I had days to wait out correspondence and some phone tag. For NOLA cognoscenti, the weekends are often very high; when I go alone, priceline has been much help getting good to great properties in the Quarter or warehouse/CBD, assuming it's not the 3 months leading up to Fat Tuesday.

So, our trip last weekend. I have a ten dollar coupie, and one! buffet. I have been going to NOLA years before Katrina (first big progressive score there in 2003) and scored a 50c progressive last year. So when I say if I ran the same coin in through slots, instead of VP, my free play would be three figures, I'm convinced.
And the video poker is dreadful. Two or three full pay job at 25c, one of which you have to play 6 coins. How's that full pay, exactly? The motivation, then was not gambling. I am happy to say this was one anniversary trip that went as planned.

If you're tempted by the ruth's chris outlet inside the hotel, be my guest. I have friends who desire only that style of steak/ambience. For our comp (plus a little I chipped in) we were totally overwhelmed by Besh's. Having said that, the comparison to Flay's steakhouse at Borgata swam in my head a while, with no clear winner. In the unlikely event I ever try, in order, again: oysters with crab, duck in the gumbo, a pound of porkchop then kill (I said it) my wife's tenderloin, I know I'd have a bad time. I skipped desert.

I should have eaten more and gambled less. I still stick to strict loss limits, meaning I was free a lot of the time. My unwise choice for short pay, chewing cash like Andouille sausage, was a newfangled console multiplay with a forgettable brand name. It promised $1199 for the royal (never happened) and 275 quarters for the SF WHICH NEVER HAPPENED. Need I say more?

We also had bar grub at Ernst. Yes, the funny symbols (from eastern mysticism) predate the 1930 german use of the symbol for a hate group. The floor announces to you it was built in 1902. So, forget the funny floor and eat your fried green tomatoes.

As I don't play other games, I wont be help to the ddb crowd. I like the city, the hotel, especially the corner suite, and hate their VP. If you've never read my warning about the city in year's past when members query about NOLA, simply put; you do not want to be at risk, alone, in any part of the downtown or many of the other areas, especially at night. Always been that way, likely always will. Good luck!

jm, you missed a bet by not going down Fulton St. and having dinner/supper at Grand Isle. Great oysters...raw, baked, or as you would have them.

The bartender at Ernst Café, Mike, makes a GREAT Hurricane! You need just one.

New Orleans is just a wonderful place...you just have to appreciate it for what it is.

Leonard

Hey JM,

There is a cost to the comps that you get, but the question is, are these comps worth what you are giving up in Video Poker return? That answer is up to you.

Now as for the 6 coin "Full Pay" JOB that you mention, using 6 coins makes it not full pay (unless I'm misunderstanding this). When you divide 4,000 coins by 6 (instead of 5), you get 666.66 coins versus 800 coins. And so the Royal Flush at 6 coins would be the equivalent of 3333.33 instead of 4,000. At that level, that would lower the game's return by about 0.33%, which would make a 99.54% game (with computer perfect play) go down to about 99.21%!

Now as for having Loss Limits, that is good, but playing on Short Pay machines can get quite costly. For me, I basically absolutely refuse to play multi-handed games, like 3 Play, 5 Play, 10 Play, etc. at any time, but most especially when it's multi-handed.

And even with a Royal paying $1,199, even basing it on 9/6 Jacks where the Royal Flush basically comprises about 2% of the game's entire return, that would add about 0.10% to the return. And as for a Straight Flush paying 275 coins Versus 250 coins, even with 9/6 Jacks Or Better, the Straight Flush comprises only about 0.50% of the game's entire return and so even with it paying 275 coins instead of 250, that also would not add much to the game's return. So, at least for me, I don't think that I would be interested in playing such stuff.

This is entirely up to you, but we choose our own poisons to deal with!

RecVPPlayer

thanks leonard, and david. I am aware david can do this math and, well, I won't. A lot of the dogma/drama is going out of me with age. I cant bark about resort fees any more. I just figure it in the cost of travel. I will only play full pay in vegas, of course, 'cause I didn't wake up an idiot. As for the grand Isle, I think the fulton street path is where the manning brothers did their video for a telcom ad, no? Good luck!

I am jealous!!! You recently went to NOLA and I went to Laughlin. LOL
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!