Second Vegas Super Bowl Royal Flush

Jan 29 to Feb 4 (On the Cheap) Trip

Air Fare / Hotels / Rental Car

The Southwest flight to Vegas from Cleveland cost us $10 total with the flights being free based on points earned on SW Visa credit card

The flight back from Vegas was free and paid with vouchers from SW from 2013 we received for a flight that was cancelled because of mechanical problems. The fights in and out were on time and early and the bags beat us to baggage claim on both flights. Maybe the best flights ever roundtrip for Vegas.

We paid $34 for Wednesday night at The Orleans and Thursday night was comp’d. Friday and Saturday were comp’d by the Suncoast. Sunday and Monday were comp’d by the Gold Coast. We like The Orleans and in general we like the Boyd properties to stay and gamble. The Suncoast room was very large and had a room refrigerator. The Gold Coast room was smaller but looks like it had been recently remodeled. We just like most things including the rooms at The Orleans.

We paid $181 for the week for a premium size rental car (2014 Chevy Impala) from Alamo using the 20% off and $20 off coupons from American Casino Guide (ACG) – and a little negotiation at the rental counter.


Entertainment and Food

We saw The Scintas at The D Thursday night on a coupon and paid $27 per ticket. We liked the show but wondered what it would be like if all the family performers were there. The daughter is out with strained vocal cords and the brother and co-lead is also out. They have a stand in lady singer that is good and the small club-like show area puts you close to the action.

Friday we saw Mac King at Harrah’s and that night we saw The Beatles Love Cirque du Solet at the Mirage. The tickets for Love cost us $71 each with the anniversary pricing deal we booked thru the Las Vegas Advisor (LVA) web site. The Mac King tickets were free with $18 drink tickets. This is probably the 3rd time we saw Mac King and still find his show entertaining. The Love show is the typical Cirque show with the massive production. The music definitely carries the show.

My wife and niece Monday went on an all day tour to Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. They left at 6:30 AM and did not get back until 10 PM. They had a 3 mile hike around the rim of the Grand Canyon – IN THE SNOW. The tour included meals. We paid $89 each for the tour based on a deal we found on Social Living. The ladies were dead tired but loved the adventure and they came back with great photos - Definitely worth the money.

Sunday the ladies had a two hour Spa – Swedish Massage and Facial Massage on a special for $99 at the Suncoast.

We try never to pay full price for food and almost never pay for drinks. This approach also makes us feel less guilty if we do not over-eat at a buffet. With promo, points and coupons food should never be a big expense in Vegas – our feelings.

We had buffets at The Silverton, Suncoast, SouthPoint, Rampart, Palace Station, and Gold Coast. All were either free or half price. Had Sunday lunch at the Rampart Cafe that honored a buffet coupon. We ate twice at Friday’s. Saturday they had drink specials and $6 appetizers which were more than enough to make a meal. We also tried to eat just twice a day – late breakfast and an evening meal to try to not over-eat. The only meal we were disappointed with was at The Palace Station.

Gambling

The ACG and LVA coupon books have a lot of free slot VP coupons that we take every advantage to use. There are also casino free play that we use. I suggest that if you go to Vegas twice a year you should order both the ACG and LVA coupon books as they will pay for themselves many times over. My unpaid endorsement.

Well, I learned the hard lesson again. NEVER GAMBLE ON THE STRIP.

Lost $100+ at Harrah’s and Caesar’s.

Lost at The Orleans – But I made up my mind to stop playing multiple line VP and go back to single line BP which turned my luck.

Broke even at The D.

Lost a little at The Plaza.

Had nice winnings at the bar at the Rampart and at the uprights VP on the way to the buffet. Hit several 4 of a kind.

Had nice winnings at The Suncoast at the bar. Hit several 4 of a kind.

Had nice winning at The Palm’s – We bought the $40 for $25 gambling coupons at Gambling Coupons web site. Had no issues using the coupons. Both the wife and I won on the coupon money.

AND NOW FOR THE ROYAL

We have tried to go to Vegas for Super Bowl for the past few years. In Feb 2010 I hit a heart royal flush for $1,000 at the Cantina Bar at The Orleans about 2 minutes before opening kickoff for the Steelers – Cardinals Super Bowl. The wife had won $1,000 plus the night before at the Orleans. So we got blasted sitting at the bar and really do not remember much about the game. Up to then, that was my one and only Royal.

Super Bowl Sunday we checked into the Gold Coast. I spent the 1st half of the game playing VP around the game tables and watching the overhead TV’s basically playing a machine until it paid off with 4 of a kind and then moving on to another machine. So I was up $200+ and decided to stop and watch the start of the 2nd half to see if the Broncos could get back in the game. I found several empty seats at the small bar at the back of the casino. When Seattle ran back the opening kickoff of the 2nd half for a TD, I decided the game was over and to go back to VP.

I have a system – a theory looking for the machine I want to play and I found what I was looking for. Maybe five minutes into the session up came the gut shot two card draw for a Straight Flush with the sounds of the Super Bowl playing in the background.

So the only two Straight Flush pays that I have played have been during a Super Bowl – 4 years apart. Crazy.

I usually look over the trip reports quite a bit before going to Vegas so I thought I would take the time to give our contribution to the reports. Low rollers on a frugal Vegas budget.

Great ending...nice TR!

Thanks for the report and yes, the Strip is not known for decent video poker pay schedules (at least not at a lower denomination level). And so I do not play there.

And congratulations on your Royal Flush!

As for multi-line games, I myself can not handle them (except maybe for two lines of Dime Multi-Strike) and it many times is the equivalent of playing at a much higher level unless you are using it on a lower denomination to be equal but spread out of a higher denomination level (such as Nickel 5 play versus Quarter Single Line Play -- but that should be done only if the games have the exact same pay schedule).

And I saw the Scintas many years ago at Rio (thanks to an LVA POV coupon) and they were good but I'm sure that the lineup was a bit different than what you ended up seeing.

RecVPPlayer

Thanks for the report. Way to go on the royal!!

RecVPPlayer

Thanks for your note. When I play multi-line VP I feel I chase the next pay streak too often rather than changing machines - the high pay peaks get the best of me. It seems I have better playing judgement on single line VP and have a better chance of walking away with more winnings.

I had some photos of the trip but could not figure out how to attach them to the report. Can you attach photos to trip reports?

T

You're very welcome! Now as for VP, I much prefer a smoother Roller Coaster ride rather than something that can end up being very wild and, at least for me, multi-line VP can get very wild very quickly because it then is all based on whatever hand you were initially dealt. And if that initially dealt hand is a bad one, that can make your money end up going down a lot quicker. And so since you say that you are a frugal low roller, I think that playing on multi-line games are not a good idea to either help to preserve your bankroll or to play "on the cheap."

It's one thing to be able to spread out your Variance (Volatility) with playing 5 lines on a multi-line Nickel (5 Cent) machine as opposed to playing on a Single-Line Quarter (25 Cent) machine as long as the pay schedules for both games are exactly the same but otherwise, you are not only playing on multiple amounts of your original bet, but the more volatile the game is, the worse off you can end up being. And so I think that your chasing the next pay streak is not a good thing since it can put out too much risk for the possible reward that you may get. I definitely do understand this temptation, but the question that people need to ask themselves is, "Is this (what I may end up getting) worth it to me?"

And so I think that it all depends on how conservative or aggressive we are when we play. If you want to be able to give yourself a better chance at having a longer playing session, then at least I think that Multi-Line is not a good way to go. And you also if you are going to play Multi-Line for a lower denomination but at the same time play with the same amount of Dollars And Cents as a Single-Line game, you have to be okay with the lower Royal Flush amount that you are going to get. What I mean by this is as long as you're okay with for example on one line having a Royal Flush at the Nickel level (which you would get $200 from) as opposed to getting $1,000 from a Single-Line Royal Flush. Again, with this comparison, both games' pay schedules must be exactly the same.

And so for example, since you mentioned Palms Casino, I know that they have Penny (1 Cent) 50 play machines with 9/6 Jacks Or Better. And so if you were to play 25 lines on it, it would spread out the variance as opposed to playing on a Single Line Quarter machine. But if you get a Royal Flush on any one line of the Penny machine, you will be paid $40 instead of the $1,000 that you'd get from the Quarter machine and you would get $1.25 from a single Four-Of-A-Kind on this Penny Machine as opposed to the $31.25 that you would be paid on a Quarter machine. And so the question that each person has to answer for him/herself is, "Am I okay with this?"

So the bottom line question that people need to be asking themselves is how much risk are they willing to be (and are comfortable with) taking? That answer is going to differ from person to person. If you want to be more conservative, then Single-Line play is the way to go. How badly you want to win and doing something to help yourself to end up winning (or to lose less) is an important factor in play.

And if you want to have less volatility overall, I encourage people to not play games where the Variance rate is much above 29. What I mean by this is whereas 9/6 Jacks Or Better has a Variance of about 19.5 and 10/7/5 Double Bonus Poker has a Variance of about 28, Double Double Bonus Poker has a Variance of about 42. For me, that is just too brutal. It also might be one thing if you are playing an already decent enough returning game that has some kind(s) of a Progressive Meter on it. Bonus Poker which you mentioned that you played, does have a lower Variance rate and so that certainly may be part of why your "luck" changed. The combination of pay schedules plus the Variance of the game that you are playing does matter in terms of what you get in return (which can at the very least cause you to end up having more playing time).

And finally, as for posting photos to reports, it can be done here (others have done it here) and so others here should be able to help you to do that. I seem to remember that there is some site called (I think) "Photobucket" which you use to post photos onto other websites.

RecVPPlayer

Thanks for the report.Congrats on the royal.Where did you get the coupon for the Schintas?
Thanks.

bbking

Thanks for your note. The Scintas coupon is in the 2014 LVA coupon book 2 for 1. Also, you can get a discount coupon at The D players club. We had three in our group and they gave us all 50% off which was a nice consideration.

You will like the show - comedy / music / good variety of music.

T