New to this forum

My bride and I moved to LV three years ago and (after finishing our house and surviving some health issues), I am finally ready to get more serious about my video poker play. I am retired, so I have plenty of time to study and improve my game. Just wanted to say hello! 

Welcome, Neal! 

I love it when a guy refers to his better half as "my bride."   

Good luck in your quest for VP success!

Candy

Welcome! Since you have time, I suggest you use the resources available here and elsewhere to become a VP expert. Fully 99.5 percent of the video poker in Vegas is not worth playing (and you will lose your butt if you do play it), so you need to acquire two separate but equally important skills: knowing where the good games are and knowing how to play them. In addition to that, you need to master players' clubs and promotions.

Sounds like fun? Maybe not! But if you're going to gamble on a regular basis, this is what you need to survive. The good news is that LVA is the best source of info out there!

Thanks for the responses. I am reading everything I can get my hands on and I can already see that most games are a losing proposition. I have joined LVA and will be looking under every rock for usable information. 

While often not up to date, VpFree2 is the best source for game location. I also sort of recommend videopoker.com as a platform to practice some of the more funky games, like Double Triple Super Whizbang Ultimate Bonus Bonus With Whipped Cream Poker.

Oh, and go to EVERY non-Strip casino, sign up for the players' club, and run $20 through a machine--any machine. That can trigger offers that are disproportionately good. Even now, the cumulative offers of free play and comped/discounted food can be worth several hundred dollars a month (back in the glory days, hundreds of Vegas locals made a living from that alone). The key is that the offers you get from that point on will be in inverse proportion to the amount/level of your play. Play heavily at one joint, they'll figure they've got you, and your next offer will be 50 cents free play and a stale bagel. Play lightly or not at all, and they'll dangle good stuff to entice you to come in and dump your paycheck, like the gods intended.

All good intel. Thank you! I am building up quite a collection of player's club cards --- we will see what that gets me. I live close to Red Rock, Suncoast and Rampart so those are the most convenient venues but it remains to be seen if they are good places to play. 

Red Rock has a few--a very, very few--decent machines, but you earn no points when you play them. the halfway-decent machines--of which there are also very, very few--award a measly one-twentieth of one percent (0.05%). Suncoast is a Boydbrain property, so you earn NO points until you've dumped in, I think it's $250,000--I don't know what their current rules are, since I've avoided the entire franchise ever since they destroyed my Emerald status. Rampart has nothing but shit VP (8/5 Bonus, and much worse), but they do have decent promos now and then. They, like Stations, give you a rotten 0.05% in points for playing.

I remember the "good old days" when at least, the vultures gave you a tenth of one percent. Sheesh!

Therefore...give each of these joints a LEEEEETLE bit of action. Do it on their shit machines--mathematically, it won't make that much difference. I recommend no more than $100 of coin-in at any one location. Then don't come back, even if the place looks all sparkly. Wait for the mail (or email) to arrive. Remember, you're putting on the hat of Just Another Local Sucker. You will, of course, disillusion them, but they don't know that. Cash in whatever offers they give you. Then ignore them completely. Wait for the offers to die out. At that point, you should revisit them--to dribble in another $100. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

At no time should you play the few good machines at these joints. Doing so will automatically trigger your placement on their no-fly list. Of course, it would be safe to play them without your players' card.

Quite frankly, the only locals' joints I know of that give you a fair shake these days are all in downtown Henderson, and perhaps Arizona Chuckie's Decatur, which is, I imagine, within striking distance for you. So I recommend that you take the long drive someday soon and visit Emerald Island and Rainbow, LVA book clutched in your sweaty fist. What they give you, on the spot and in the mail, just might make you say the hell with Stations, Boyd et al. and make a habit of going there instead. Plus...they have really good video poker.

I recently earned enough points to get two free meals every day, just by playing NSUD and 10/6 DDB at about 90 cents a hand. Plus, I got either $10 or $20 cashback per day. There really is no comparison with anyplace else. I quite frankly expect them to ratchet down the goodies soon--maybe drastically--since they changed ownership in February. But so far, no real changes.

Oh, and having put in $30,000 coin-in, I reached Sapphire level, which gets you $45 a week in food comps. And you can also use points to buy stuff at other downtown Henderson businesses. The food is excellent at both EI and Rainbow. And we all know that comped steak dinners just taste better. 

The Suncoast seems to give the better comps by far.   The Rampart has cut back quite a bit.  Also check out The Martini for yhe 6 oz filet dinner on sundays all day at the corner of charleston and  rampart.  Great non smoking bar with good food and good wine and decent machines.  Very clean

Kevin is pretty spot on with most of that.  

One thing I was going to mention is I really don't find it very hard to drive all around Vegas.  Maybe I'm used to just driving to and from work but for me to go from Red Rock to Henderson is really not that big of a deal as long as it is not during rush hour.  So I'd try some Henderson and some downtown locations like 4 Queens for video poker like he suggests.

I crushed Vegas in the early 2000's in VP and I'm just an out of towner maybe coming 4-5x a year.  I'd play at Palms, Gold Coast, Barbary, Caesars, Red Rock and Southpoint with lots of multiplier coupons at some.  I'm talking like $50K profit and lots of very frugal, cheap and fun vacations but that is all gone now.  You are basically playing very small expected value these days.  I look at it as playing at even money for some room offers nowadays.  I play 75% poker these days and 25% video poker just for the rooms.  But to each his own.  I can beat poker these days just because players are mainly that bad.  

Jerry - I do agree about driving around LV. We have lived in much bigger cities and it is amazing to be able to get from one end of this town to the other in a half hour. Yes, I know traffic is much worse than it was 30 years ago but one quick trip to L.A. puts it all in perspective.