9/1/2000
Attention serious video poker players who have a computer. You can’t do without Tomski’s Video Poker Strategy Master (VPSM). This miracle—that’s what I call it because it saved my math-challenged life—will give you, in mere seconds, the strategy for almost any video poker game you will ever run across. Just type in the pay schedule and up pops the correct strategy. You can buy this software from Huntington Press’ www.greatstuff4gamblers.com or at the Gambler’s Book Club in downtown Las Vegas.
With so many new video poker games being introduced all the time, it’s hard for the studious player to keep up. Plus, if you want to play progressives accurately, changing your strategies as the jackpot builds, this program is a necessity. Many people buy the video poker tutorial software, such as the excellent WinPoker, but they don’t realize that they also need a strategy chart to show them where they’re making mistakes. You can get good strategy charts from many sources, but they’re only for a few of the most common games. That is sufficient if you’re just a recreational video poker player or a beginning video poker student.
However, if you want a tool that will help you from your first halting steps to the time you become a very experienced player, this is it. You have your choice of a basic or advanced strategy for each game and you can print out your schedule in “organized color,” making your own strategy cards.
How strongly do I feel about this? I probably would give up my coupon file before I would let someone take away my VPSM. If you know me at all, you know we are talking serious here! Best of all, it’s a frugal bargain at $29.95.
BRIEFS
“Slot Candles Light Your Way” and “How To Read a Slot Machine” are a couple of interesting articles at http://casinogambling.about.com/hobbies/casinogambling.
From the Hope-It-Ain’t-True Department: There’s a rumor circulating around various newsgroups that Mandalay Resort properties are doing away with the casino rate, and will offer only “”comped”” rooms to qualified players. These properties include: Monte Carlo, Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, and Circus Circus. I’m not sure whether that makes me glad or sad we sold our Mandalay Resort Group stock, but it certainly would make a lot of my low-roller friends sad when they’re looking for a room bargain in Vegas.
A reader wrote and asked why he couldn’t get comped rooms at a number of casinos where he played. I answered: “I’m wondering if you are spreading your play around a little too much. To get established at one casino, we always played mostly at that one casino until we qualified for full comps. Then we picked up a second one, and so on.”
What’s in a name? Terrible’s Hotel and Casino will open in Vegas in a few months on the former site of the Continental Hotel. It’s being developed by the Herbst family, well-known locally for their Terrible gas stations and car washes all over the Vegas valley. They say they plan to cater to both locals and tourists. Hummmmm. Locals, okay: They’re used to filling up their tank at Terrible’s. But tourists? Can’t you see Mr. and Mrs. Out-of-Town Visitor going home and raving over their trip. “I stayed at the Terrible Hotel and played blackjack at the Terrible Casino.” I would hate to be their Director of Public Relations.”
9/8/2000
It’s the time of month when I provide the corrections, changes, and additions that will save a smart gambler time, energy, freeway hassle, and frustration while chasing the wrong promotions and missing the good ones. Hold on — it’s a long ride this month.
Orleans: The bad news is it’s not double points all September, as has been published all over the place. But the good news is that Monday Night Football bonus time is back again: double points on Monday night from 6 pm until midnight at all Coast properties. This will probably continue throughout football season as it did last year — but I can’t guarantee any casino promotion!
More Orleans: Running all month is a double-on-second-royal promotion. Hit a second royal in 24 hours after your first and you get paid double. The tricks you might think of usually aren’t allowed: i.e., playing nickels to get the first royal, then switching to the $100 machine to go for the second, or playing a wild card game. The royal has to be natural, so you’ll actually get slightly fewer royals on a wild-card game. You used to be able to play multi-line games — even Fifty Play — to increase your chance of getting a royal. However, the Orleans has put all multi-line games off-limits for this promotion; other casinos are beginning to tinker with their rules, as well. For example, the Fiesta counts only bottom-line royals on multi-line machines, to make it fairer for all machine players. As with all promotions, go to the slot club and read the details, including the fine print, before you sit down to play!
Hard Rock: You get 4X comp points Sunday noon until Friday noon, through Sept. 24 when the 4-of-a-kind promotions ends. After that, it may be double points, but you need to check to be sure.
Mahoney’s: The E-mail Buddy offers have changed in the last few weeks. You still have your choice of three offers, but as always, just one per day. Here they are. 1) The bingo offer is $40 in cards for $20, except on Saturday at 8 pm, when it takes $30 to buy $50 in cards. 2) They no longer just match your $20 when you first sit down at a machine. On video poker you have to hit a natural 4-of-a-kind, then they’ll put $20 in your machine. On slot/keno machines, you have to score a $15 win on one play before they’ll deposit the $20. 3) We now like the 21 Pit Offer best — buy in for $20 and get $20 in matchplay chips; the $2 minimum allows Brad and me to almost always play long enough so that together, we make a profit.
Go to http://www.strip76.com/, where you can print out a coupon for $5 worth of gas with a $10 gas purchase. The station is at 3758 S. Las Vegas Blvd. (at the south end of the Strip). The coupon expires 11/31/00, but you can register at their Web site and they promise future specials and coupons.
Another gas play: Hit any natural 4-of-a-kind at Silverton on Fridays in September on any 10-cent machine or above and get a $10 gas certificate. (Note: The certificate is $5 only for nickel machines.)
Bob Dancer is starting his free video poker classes at ACE (Arizona Charlie’ s East) on Tuesday Sept. 12. Each class will have a beginner’s session from 11 am to 12 noon and an advanced session from 12:30-1:30 pm. The September 12 class will cover jacks or better; Sept. 19 will be on joker wild. There will be no classes on September 26, but they’ll continue after that every Tuesday, covering one game each day, including standard deuces wild, NSUDs (a lower-paying deuces game), double bonus, and Super Aces Bonus.
Miss being in Vegas for all the football contests? Go to http://app.sportsrocket.com/lvrj/fb-pickem00, and play the free online contest. Weekly and season prizes are offered by the Coast casinos. Or miss being in your hometown bar during the football games while you’re in Vegas? Go to http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/2000/Aug-27-Sun-2000/lifestyles/14123757.html and see if your favorite team is on the list of local Vegas bars that cater to the fans of a specific team. Remember”
9/15/2000
An interesting site on the Internet for getting information about shows playing in Vegas is www.showvegas.com. You enter your trip dates and it gives you all the details about the shows that are on during that time period: times, prices, age restrictions, and whether the show is sold out. You can also book the tickets there, though the fee seems high. I would try the toll-free number of the casino first and ask to be connected to the ticket office where you might be able to buy tickets with no fee or a lower one.
Some tips for getting show tickets. If you’re a dollar-plus machine player at a casino, you can almost always get show tickets, even for a “sold-out” show, by talking to your host, who has access to the tickets that are held back for comps. Quarter players who play long hours (out-of-towners) and/or regulars (locals) can usually get show comps for all but the top-rated shows. Table players can ask the pit boss for a show comp (the betting required depends on the level set by the casino).
However, almost all gamblers, even low-rollers, can use the following technique to get comped to a show that’s not selling out every night. Wait until 30-45 minutes before showtime and talk to a slot host or a pit boss. Performers do not like to see a lot of empty seats — so the hosts and pit bosses often have last-minute tickets that they can give out to anyone they consider a “good” customer. To get one at the tables, you should be playing when you ask, unless you’re known by the pit boss. If you’re a machine player, you should be able to show some play on your slot club card.
BRIEFS
Mahoney’s E-mail Buddy weekly offers now say that you can use only ONE offer per week, instead of the old rules that allowed you to use all three offers as long as you used only one per day.
Hard Rock Update: Brad and I just got letters in the mail stating that 4X comp points will continue through September, and they will offer 3X points in October. As usual, these bonus times run from Sunday noon until Friday noon. The mailing also included a bonus of $50 each, paid as the “credit card” that I’ve discussed (complained about?) in past Frugal Fridays. If they continue sending these bonuses, I may have to “eat” my complaints. Hey, I might even learn to love (gasp!) a slot club change!
Want to play full-coin Fifty Play video poker and not worry about losing? Go to www.videopoker.com and play for free — just for fun. Or, for the least amount of risk in an actual casino, try the penny Fifty Plays at Joker’s Wild, a little casino in Henderson. They’re in the multi-denomination machines. Remember, however, that it’s still $2.50 to play full-coin pennies on all 50 lines, TWICE as much as you play per hand on a QUARTER single-liner. Be sure your bankroll will handle it!
Good bonus for NEW Bellagio slot club members: Earn 150 points and get a comp for two at Bellagio’s top-rated buffet. See a slot host.
The downtown Plaza has discontinued giving dinner coupons to players who hit a royal.
Frugal travel tip: Are you in possession of a restricted United Airlines ticket on which you want to change the travel times or dates? Ask the telephone agent if you can change and have the fee waived. This worked for us the other day when we changed the day of our flight back to Vegas, mentioning that we’d read in the newspaper that they were doing this to make up for all the delays and inconvenience their passengers had to put up with all summer. I’m not sure how long United will be in this “Please Forgive Us” mode. But remember — it never hurts to ask!”
9/22/2000 ” Nothing ever stays the same — especially if you’re talking about casinos. That’s one reason why I feel the need to write a sequel to The Frugal Gambler. So much has changed so quickly in the last few years. For example, about getting comps for machine play, I used to say, “It doesn’t matter whether you win or lose or what game you play, casinos give you comps based on the money you risk — in other words, your coin-in.”
That was then; this is now. More and more casinos are taking other factors into consideration. I know — because a lot of players complain about it to me! A host will tell them, “I can’t give you such-and-such comp because you’re a big winner.” No host would have ever said that a few years ago. And even if some still don’t say it (in so many words), their inconsistent decisions seem to be based, at least somewhat, on the win/lose factor.
Then there’s the new comp system I’m hearing about more and more, one that’s based on a “theoretical loss” that varies by machine. Each machine is assigned a percentage, based on its average player loss. The casino comps players a percentage of that loss. Now machine selection is the key factor. Someone who plays slots that have a huge casino edge will earn a lot more comps than those who play the equivalent coin-in on a video poker machine with a small, or no, casino edge.
Remember, this is based on the average OVERALL loss on that machine, not whether you personally win or lose in any particular session. It’s not based on whether or not you play the game skillfully. Some VP machines have a pay schedule that, if played with correct strategy, will give a player a profit and the casino a loss over the long term. However, playing these machines doesn’t mean that you won’t earn comps. Even these machines have a theoretical win for the casino over the long term, because the average player doesn’t use proper strategy. If a certain machine gets played only by pros, you’ll see that machine disappear or its pay schedule changed!
BRIEFS
Did you know that Vegas has the fastest growing Jewish community in North America? Go to http://www.lvlife.com/aug2000/features/story01.html for this interesting story. Las Vegas Life, where this article appears, is a controversial weekly newspaper, one you might love and hate at the same time. But you’ll get some Vegas information there that you won’t see anywhere else. Be sure, however, to keep a questioning mind and don’t think that just because you read something in print that this makes it a fact!
From the Fantini Gaming Report at http://www.gaminginvestments.com: Park Place has become the latest casino company to open a registration desk at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas. Arriving passengers can now get their hotel room assignments and keys for Paris, Bally’s, Caesars, and the Flamingo Las Vegas (the Flamingo’s new official name) before ever leaving the airport. Already in place with this same service is Harrah’s and the Rio with National Airlines. MGM also has an airport registration desk and you can check-in there for NY-NY, too. Look for the addition of the former Mirage resorts now that they have been added to the MGM stable.
In addition to the classes I’ve mentioned before, at Arizona Charlie’s East (ACE) and the Fiesta, Bob Dancer will also be teaching a series of free video poker classes at the Reserve on Wednesday evenings. All classes have a beginner session from 7 to 8 and an advanced session from 8:30 to 9:30 Here is the schedule: October 4 — Deuces Wild; October 11 — 16/10 (NSU) Deuces Wild; October 18 — Secrets of a Video Poker Winner.
The Desert Inn is just a memory now, but the Megabucks slot machine that hit there in January for a record $35 million jackpot will not disappear. The machine will be converted into a display-only model and given to jackpot winner Cynthia Jay of Las Vegas as a gift at the request of Jay’s husband. At last report, this most lucky-turned-unlucky l
9/29/2000
Steve Wynn once said, explaining his plans for the luxurious Bellagio, “Rich people like to hang around with rich people. Poor people like to hang around with rich people. No one likes to hang around with poor people.”
If you’re a low-roller, don’ t be shy about going in and checking out the exclusive high-stakes/high-roller gambling areas in a casino. According to Nevada gaming regulations, no gambling can be private in a casino; all gambling areas must be accessible to the public. This makes it easier to keep the games honest.
However, use some common sense to avoid feeling uncomfortable. If you’re able to sit down and play at the high-minimum games, you can dress any way you want. Casinos don’ t have dress standards for taking your money. But I would not feel comfortable “just moseying around,” looking like a homeless person, and I imagine security would become very “active” if someone in this conditions lingered very long. Even dressed appropriately, you should not stop and watch one table for longer than a few seconds. If there’s a security guard posted at ANY table, you know that this is a “whale” or a famous person playing. Do not even stop — casinos strictly guard these customers’ privacy.
This open-access policy does NOT apply to special VIP rooms where no gambling occurs. Many of the bigger casinos have luxurious lounges where designated players are pampered with drinks, food, and comfort amenities. Casinos usually restrict entry into these places of special perks, often by special cards issued to eligible gamblers. Playing regularly at the dollar level will give you this special status; occasionally, at the swankiest rooms you need to be playing at least $5 machines. However, some of these lounges are not “guarded,” and no one will ever question whether you “deserve” to be there. Have a slot card that shows some play, dress halfway decently, use good manners, act self-assured, and no one will question your status as a VIP.
BRIEFS
Do you know why it’s getting harder to get food comps these days, especially at the new Vegas megaresorts? The casinos do not themselves own many of the restaurants, so they have to put out hard cash to pay the restaurant for the comped meals. They can still comp you to these restaurants, but it takes a little higher play than it used to.
LATE NEWS FLASH! Sorry I didn’t get this exciting news in earlier, so that you out-of-towners could arrange your vacation time, airfare, and lingerie shopping. The “”Rocky Horror Picture Show”” Fan Club will be coming to Las Vegas on Oct. 13-14 to celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary. Their convention headquarters is Circus Circus — I’ m still trying to figure out if this is the best or worst choice I could imagine.
If you’ve never seen the film, you won’ t understand this: But I have cleared my busy calendar to watch the parade from Circus Circus to the Hard Rock (where the anniversary party will be held) and have stocked up on squirt guns, candles, and rice. I won’ t be in costume, but you can bet the 500 or so paraders WILL be — so leave the kiddies at home. Take my word on that one!”