April 7, 2000
Welcome to the first installment of my online column. In “Frugal Fridays,” I plan to range all over the gambling layout: funny and weird casino happenings, last-minute promos, comp secrets, hidden slot club benefits, video poker tips. I’m going to present gambling just as I see it: not just the glowing smiles you see in the ads and brochures, but the seamy underside as well. I’ve traveled all over the gambling world looking for valuable information I can share, but the emphasis here will be on the epicenter—Vegas.
The info I plan to present will be helpful to the occasional vacationer, the frequent visitor, and the local. I’ve been all three. Local? Some of you might wonder, when did that happen? Well, my husband Brad and I finally have a place of our own in our favorite city. After 16 years of schlepping luggage all over town, from one comped room to the next, we decided our senior-citizen bodies deserved some well-needed rest. So we invested winnings from a couple of good video poker years in the “condo that positive expectation built.” We chose one within walking distance of several casinos, just west of the Orleans and not far from the Strip. It’s convenient and comfortable—and we’re enjoying the local life for the eight to nine months we escape from the weather in our home state of Indiana.
Now for some notes from recent casino experiences that I hope will be helpful to you.
It’s April 5th as I write this and my calendar is already filling up fast. Very early each month I have a date with my calendar. I list every casino promotion I’m aware of in every casino that there’s even the faintest possibility we might visit.
Here are my listings, so far, for this month. Every Tuesday and Thursday, the Fiesta has triple-point days. Also on Thursdays, I mark the 7 pm drawing at the Reserve; the Reserve also gives out quad points every Saturday and Sunday. Also on Tuesdays, Arizona Charlie’s awards triple points. On April 23, Easter Sunday, all the Coast properties (Barbary Coast, Gold Coast, and Orleans) are giving out triple points, while the Hard Rock offers 4x comp points. The coupons from Silverton’s coupon sheet are good on Wednesdays in April. On April 26 I note the 11 am “Liquor Store Raffle” that the Orleans sent us each (Brad and I) a ticket for. On the 24th we’re invited to a high-roller black-tie dinner at the Desert Inn, where we can mingle with Governor Guinn and Mayor Goodman and be in the running for a lot of money given away that evening in drawings to celebrate the DI’s 50th anniversary.
I could go on and on here, but the point is this: To be a successful gambler, you have to be organized. The more organized you are, the more you can stretch your gambling bankroll. For instance, will we play at the Fiesta this month on Saturday and play at the Reserve on Thursday? Most certainly not. We’ll play at the Reserve on Saturday because we will be getting quad points—.4% cashback instead of the regular skinny .1%. We often play 50¢ Triple Play there. At a brisk 600 hands per hour (putting $4,500 through the machine), we’ll each be making $13.50 an hour more on Saturdays than we would at the same play on Tuesdays. For $216 in sure-thing cashback for six hours of “work” whether we win or lose, we’ll “bother” with the 25-minute drive out to Henderson!
By playing at the Fiesta on Thursday, we’ll be able to earn more for our play—and do something we love to do to put more money in our pocket: Combine two promotions. We call it double dipping. First, we get three times the normal points for our play. And second, we can take advantage of a special (which is most convenient for the locals) for the month. You can earn cash-back for points accrued in April by going back on May 1-4 to collect the money. This appeals to us, because we’ve already stockpiled enough comp points (what the slot club system usually gives) to feed ourselves, our friends, and our families for a long time. (Brad says we can’t live long enough)
April 14, 2000
It’s in the casinos. I’ve played it. And it’s more fun than I’ve had outside a bedroom since I kicked out a slat in my crib 61 years ago. What is it? Fifty Play video poker. You thought Triple Play, then Five Play, then Ten Play gave you a rush? I was playing a quarter machine for 250 credits a hand-that’s $62.50 on every push of the Deal button. I experienced more emotional ups and downs than a middle-age woman in menopause.
Take a 20-credit “win,” for example. I’m playing 50 hands, where 250 credits is a push, and I get back only $5 of my $62.50! Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.
But then I’m dealt four to a royal and make TWO of them, plus a few miscellaneous paying hands, for a $2,187 payout-and a W-2G.
Watch out. This game is addicting. And the video poker drug lords have a Hundred Play machine in the works. Who knows, they may even have a Hundred-Million Play in mind. I always say that life is just one long video poker session. I may have to change that to life is just one long VP hand!
Briefs
Words I hate to read in a letter from a casino: “We’re improving our slot club.” I have NEVER, in 17 years of casino gambling, known the changes in a slot club to benefit me! Silverton sent us one of these dreaded letters this week. They’re making their comp points worth more, but cutting out cashback. I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, and wait to see just what we can use our comps for. They’ve given out some great vouchers- to Wal-Mart, Belz Outlet Mall, Hickory Farms, See’s Candies, and a local grocery store-in exchange for our comp points in the last few months. Maybe this will be the first positive slot club change for us. Maybe, but I’m not holding my breath!
Seen in a Sam’s Town ad in the local newspaper: “Friends don’t let friends sign up for comp-only slot clubs.” Wonder if they knew what Silverton had in the works?
Do you know that the Hard Rock has a Bikini-Cam poolside? Tell your friends to visit www.hardrockhotel.com and watch you cavort with the beautiful people.
It’s getting hot in Vegas. It’s supposed to creep into the 90s this week. But I don’t need a thermometer to tell me this. I’m already starting to renew old acquaintances in security at several casinos. You don’t understand? Well, here’s a little-publicized Vegas fact: The hotter it is outside, the colder the casino must be inside. By July, I’ll be wearing a heavy hooded sweatshirt and threatening to wear gloves, even if that makes playing video poker difficult. But right now, all I take along is a sweater, which I put on the back of the chair when the air is comfortable. Leaving the machine to go home, I forget about the sweater. Amazingly enough, I’ve never permanently lost a sweater this way-but all the security people at Lost and Found know me by name!
We’re off to Reno this weekend. Does taking a vacation from Vegas by going to Reno seem like carrying coals to Newcastle?
Come back next Friday and I’ll explain why I play a lot of video poker with my eyes shut.
Oh! Almost forgot. Brad says to tell you that he can’t give a complete jacket report until we go back to our home in Indy in May, where there are a couple more closets full of casino logo jackets. We only have 20 here in Vegas-jackets, not closets.
April 21, 2000
We just got back home to our Vegas condo after five days in Reno. Our trip was reminiscent of our “good old days” when we were visitors and lived in casinos. We played a lot more video poker in Reno than we do in Vegas –the difference between being “home” and on vacation. (People are often surprised at how little we gamble here. I average about two hours a day. Brad plays about three. Many days we don’t play at all.)
We hadn’t been to Reno for quite some time, so we needed to check out the VP at the various casinos we were visiting. For years I’ve been advising that if you’re a VP player who wants to play only the best machines and are in a new casino, you need to be a good scout. Here are some specific hints that will help you, as it did us, discover possible “hidden treasures.”
- Check all the machines in a bank, even if they all look the same at first glance. I’ve found varying schedules in side-by-side games.
- On multi-games, check all games on the machine menu. Don’t assume that just because one game is short-pay, they all are. And watch for machines that contain multiple games, even though the signage designates only one of the games.
- Watch out for the new multi-denomination machines, which may have varying pay schedules for the same games at the different denominations.
- Check all progressive machines. An unplayable base game may have a jackpot that will put it in positive territory. Also, not all progressives have large jackpot signs. Some multi-games and/or multi-line games have progressives that you can only read on the individual screens.
- Don’t forget to check the machines at the bars.
RENO BRIEFS
I don’t like slot machines that talk when no one is around who is interested in listening to them. Playing a few hours near a machine that blurts out “Wheel!… Of!… Fortune!…” or “Yahtzee!” or “Oh YEAH!” every few minutes can send a person round the bend.
Why is it that when you’re playing double bonus you hit four deuces and when you switch to deuces wild you hit four aces?
We aren’t overly thrilled with playing progressives. We like to play when we want to play; with progressives there’s the tendency to play when you’re tired and would rather just to go to bed.
On each table of the buffet at one casino, a sign promotes a special keno ticket you can play that pays out in meal comps and cash (though with the usual very low keno payback percentage, of course). The sign reads: Let Keno Pay for Your Meal. I’d hate to depend on keno for my meals! I’m afraid I would starve to death very quickly.
And finally, for all of you who have been waiting all week to find out how I play VP with my eyes closed — and why! — here it is. After looking at a video poker screen for more than two hours, my eyes get so tired I can hardly see the cards. So, after I hold the cards I’ve chosen from the dealt hand, I close my eyes while the machine is making up my new hand, rather than watching to see the cards as they come up.
It’s especially fun, when I’m playing a machine with the sound turned on, to listen to the credits racking up while my eyes are still closed. If the credits stop quickly, I know I didn’t get much of a hand, so my finger can press the Deal button, without even opening my tired eyes. However, on those rare occasions when I’m surprised by the credits continuing to click, I can open my eyes and savor the joy of a great hand.
Twice in the last couple of years, I’ve held a lone face card, then closed and rested my eyes, presuming that I wouldn’t make a very good hand with such a poor start. And twice I’ve been “awakened” with the sweetest sound — not of credits racking up, but of the music that accompanies a royal flush, one a large progressive!
Tune in next week for a discussion on the differences between a high roller and a low roller — and whether playing Fifty Play was a frugal thing for Brad and me to do.
April 27, 2000
Editor’s Note: Last week, Jean Scott spent a day taping a short segment for the television show “Extra” at the Fiesta. Within the first five minutes that the cameras were rolling at the double bonus video poker machine, Jean hit a four-of-a-kind—in queens. The Queen hit queens! What kind of love affair Jean Scott has with television cameras we can’t say, but while taping her much-broadcast segment for “Hard Copy,” she hit four deuces on a deuces wild machine, and with the “48 Hours” cameras trained on her at a Stardust drawing, she won a new Mercury Mystique. The “Extra” segment will air the Jean Scott story sometime during the first two weeks of May.
Now, here’s Jean.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about my experiences at a Fifty Play video poker machine. Subsequently, I got some “raised-eyebrow” emails from people telling me that they didn’t think playing $62.50 a hand was very frugal. Many people seem to think that being frugal is synonymous with being a low roller. Not true. Frugal means getting value for your money—at any level of play.
Now, what is a low roller? And at what point does a low roller cross a line into high rollerdom? That’s not easily answered. When we played only quarters, we considered ourselves low rollers—no question. When we went to dollars, we did so because we’d won enough playing quarters to build up our bankroll for dollars, not because our base income rose. (We’re retired, living on a fixed income.) So we still considered ourselves low rollers.
However, then we started making enough money playing dollars to jump to dollar Triple Play (risking $15, rather than $5, on each push of the Deal button). Well, our feelings changed a little. We still didn’t consider ourselves high rollers, because we had the higher bankroll from our dollar-play profit. But when we had $5,000-$7,000 LOSING days and realized that it was just the normal fluctuation for this level of play, we decided maybe we were getting a little closer to high-roller status, at least in attitude.
To further complicate matters, we still play quarters at times. So are we low rollers or high rollers?
The answer is: It’s all relative. For example, when we play at the New Frontier in Las Vegas, we feel like low rollers—no matter what denomination we play. When we feed machines across the street at the Desert Inn, we feel like high rollers. Another example. People who briefly take a shot at the $25 machines, although they really only have a long-term bankroll for $1 play—are they temporary high rollers who turn back into low rollers at the $1 machines? A nickel player probably feels pretty “high-rollerish” when he switches to quarters.
Most people judge the status of other gamblers by their own level of play and label it accordingly. A lot, too, depends on the amount you put into your “gambling bankroll” (i.e., how much you’re mentally prepared to lose) compared to your “total life” bankroll.
But the main thing to remember is that what you label yourself, or what other people label you, isn’t important. The question you should ask yourself is this: “Am I getting good (monetary or entertainment) value from my gambling bankroll?”
And if the answer is yes, then whether you’re a low roller or high roller, you’re truly frugal.