7/6/2001
I’ve received some e-mails questioning the July Casino Player piece, the one with a picture of the author of The Frugal Gambler and a write-up about the “cookie-making gambling granny.”
Yes, I did say we lived in our Vegas condo two months before I knew whether the stove was gas or electric and that my cleaning gal said I had the only stove she had to dust instead of wash. But I do know how to cook — hey, I did it for 40 years. And yes, I do know how to bake cookies, even from scratch. Honest! But I’ve only baked cookies once in the last 19 years, since we started going to Vegas. And the reason for that time was that I had a coupon for a free package of cookie mix, so the grandkids and I did it as a fun project together. Casino restaurants have more cookies and sweets than our waistlines and cholesterol can take as it is!
So, Jeffrey Compton and others, don’t feel slighted that I have never brought you homemade cookies!
Jeff’s cookie complaint came in a post with a serious note included: “For those of us who live in Las Vegas and worry about our water supply, I question your advice (in last week’s Frugal Fridays) about turning on the shower before you go to bed to add humidity to the room. How long do you run it? All night? (You did say only five minutes, but that was talking about clothes.) Sure is easy to be unfrugal with other people’s resources!”
Having been part-time residents of Las Vegas for years and full-time by mid-July (when we hope our Indianapolis condo will be sold), we too are mindful of how precious water is in our desert area. I don’t know if the person I quoted meant to imply that she left the shower running all night; I was assuming that she meant for a short period of time. This would be the “greener” thing to do — and maybe some of the other ideas would be much better. But I just read in the July Advisor that Nevada made a deal with Arizona to store enough water to last through the year 2049, so maybe that’s a hopeful sign about “dwindling” resources.
The three-millionth wedding in Las Vegas history was performed this week, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor Authority. (This was an item in the daily Gaming Report, for people who are interested in keeping up with gaming stocks and the casino industry. You can get a complimentary trial subscription by e-mailing [email protected] — tell him the Frugal Gambler sent you.)
Thinking about moving up from quarter VP to the professional dollar level? Don’t even think about it until you read Bob Dancer’s excellent article on the subject at http://www.casinogaming.com/columnists/dancer/062601.html.
A false report on an Internet list that the quarter progressive full-pay deuces at the Frontier were gone — causing loud moaning, complaining, and gnashing of teeth until it was corrected that they were merely moved — reminded me of a good VP scouting hint. Always case a casino carefully if your favorite machine comes up missing. I’ve known machines to show up in other locations of the casino, usually immediately, but occasionally at a much later date. Casino executives have been known to change their minds, especially if enough players complain.
From my friend PokerLefty: Seen on the side of a Vegas Plumbing Truck: “”A Flush Beats a Full House Every Time.””
7/14/2001
Just got home from Grove City, PA, after attending my 45th high-school reunion, the first I was able to attend since the 10th. I’m feeling “lucky” today — out of the 154 in my class, 23 have already died. Although I specialize in writing about smart gambling, I like to emphasize occasionally that gambling is only a part of what’s important to Brad and me.
There are so many aspects that take precedence: our relationship, our family, our friends, and our spiritual life. And most of all we’re grateful for the good health that allows us to enjoy all other areas of our life — in and out of casinos. Gambling becomes a problem rather than a pleasure when it negatively impacts what’s most important.
Here’s an Internet rumor that I hope is just that — a rumor: Apparently, a particular casino is considering adding a small service charge to each food comp over $50. Charging for comps? An oxymoron that makes shivers go up and down my spine.
A hint for table players wanting to be rated for comps: Before you start playing, check with the pit boss as to what the minimum bet is you must make in order for your play to be tracked. Just noticed on the back of my Venetian player’s card that it’s their policy “to rate all table game players wagering a minimum of $25 per hand.”
A great report about Vacation Village from a very frugal Internet friend:
“Vacation Village is always my first stop in Las Vegas. Combining the following four offers always makes for a solid start: 1) airfare spin; 2) free funpack redemption (with voucher in free tourist magazines); 3) ‘Ride the Bus on us’ promo; and 4) Las Vegas Advisor double-pay-on-a-full house coupon.
“Go to the Promotions Booth with your airplane ticket and free funbook voucher. The nice lady will give you a whole mess of goodies. 1) The airfare promo gets you a little manila envelope full of matchplays and a free hot dog, not to mention the spin itself with an EV of $2+) The funpack gets you a coupon sheet with more matchplays and a deck of cards. If you want to extend the time from 12 hours to 24 hours to do the spin, this voucher is the one you need. 3) The “Ride the Bus” promo nets you even more matchplays, as well as $1.50 in bus fare. Just tell the lady you rode the bus (no receipt required) and you want to do the ‘bus promo.’ She’ll give you a different manila envelope (filled with more matchplays), which you take to the pit to have time stamped. One hour after you get it stamped (and have used all of your coupons), hand the envelope back to the pit boss, and he’ll stamp it again. Take the validated envelope to the cashier for your free $1.50.) With the LVA double-pay on the full house, play the 25¢ 10/7/80 Double Bonus machine for $12.50 extra on the full house.
“When combining all of these offers, you should have at least $30 in EV per person. My fiancee and I always start our trip there, and have averaged about $75 in total take each trip for one hour of gaming.”
This is for those who are keeping track of Brad’s casino-logo jacket collection. I got him to put 12 of the oldest ones in our garage sale here in Indy last week. It was a tough decision for him — but, hey, I got $2 apiece for them, in spite of them being 15-17 years old. Some of those Westward Ho satin ones were in prime condition! (I wonder, if we kept them a few years longer, if they wouldn’t have become collector’s items.)
7/20/2001
An invitation to any in the LVA family who will be in Las Vegas August 8th. A few people from the LVA Forums have organized a mini-get-together at 5:30 p.m. on that date at the Brewpub at Main Street Station downtown. You can eat and/or drink and/or chat — it’s definitely a drop-in do-your-own-thing informal affair. Brad and I plan to be there and would enjoy meeting more of the “family.”
For the column this week, while we’re driving back to Las Vegas from Indy, I’m going to have my good friend TomSki tell you, in his own words, about one of his many video poker “”adventures.” He has one of the best math minds in the field of advantage play today, developing the VP Strategy Master, one of the most useful software tools for video poker players. But this story illustrates that man is not influenced by math alone: We all bring our very human characteristics to a casino.
“”Video Poker For Blood,”” by TomSki.
The title refers to a Suncoast blood drive held recently. If you donated blood, they gave you 2,500 slot points, worth about $6.25 in cashback. I went in and donated for the first time — even though I hate needles. I had to wait about an hour, then I underwent a preliminary finger prick for a blood check. From there it was on to the donation chair. I overheard the person next to me say that the finger prick is worse than the needle in the arm. After awhile, it was time for the nurse to stick the needle into me. My worst fears were confirmed: It hurt!
The nurse came back after a few minutes and said the needle wasn’t in right as there was no flow. “”Oh, great!”” I thought to myself, just as the nurse unwrapped the tape and shoved the needle in deeper. Yikes!
Eight minutes later she had to do it again! All the while I’m thinking of a video poker player I knew who died at 56 in January after complications from a needle stick that punctured a vein and got infected. (He also had heart problems and suffered a stroke soon after the blood tests involving the needles).
Finally, after what seemed an eternity, I was done. Looking at the bag of blood, I wondered if I had any left in me! That sure seemed like a lot of blood to me (one pint). So I had some juice and cookies, then I was handed a free T-shirt and coupons for ice cream and my 2,500 points.
But I wasn’t done yet; the fine print said I had to earn one point to get the 2,500. So now I was afraid that I’d lose my whole $6.25 bonus trying to get a point! I played Deuces and lost $1.25 on the first hand. On the second hand, I was dealt a pair of 9s and drew a third nine. Phew — I’d only lose $1.25. But no! I misplayed the cards and held a queen instead of the second 9 and got a zero pay. It then took me two more hands to get my point. So I lost $3.75 getting the point instead of only $1.25. I was sure bummed about that! But so it goes. (End of story.)
Now TomSki knows better than I do that “”life is one long video poker session.”” He knew he was playing a positive-expectation game for a few hands and the results should be thrown into the “”long-term winning bucket”” and not analyzed, with conclusions drawn by themselves. But it’s very hard to ignore short-term results — especially when they aren’t as good as we’d hoped. Even “”math types”” are human!
It happens to Brad and me almost every time we lose a coupon play. For example, we often made a special trip each week to each use the Terrible’s $25 blackjack matchplay coupon. And many days we lost on both of them — at least $50, more if we split or doubled and lost. Especially if it was a hot day and we’d been busy running around to other casinos, we would look at each other and one of us would say a little sarcastically, “”Aren’t we glad we did this terrific promotion?”” Then we would remind ourselves about the hundreds of dollars in the coupon column of our gambling log at the end of each year.
Advantage players of all types must constantly remind themselves of winning long term, because we’re all human and i”
7/27/2001
Arrived back “home” in Las Vegas July 23 — and we’re scrambling to catch up on the 11 weeks of mail that awaited us. The casino stack is so high it’s falling off the desk. So many offers and promotions and bounce-back checks that have expired! But lots more that we’re busy scheduling on our rapidly filling calendar for the rest of July and the months thereafter.
BRIEFS
If you haven’t signed up for Viva Las Vegas, you’re missing a valuable Internet newsletter and access to an extremely long list of Vegas buys and coupons, like the following:
Internet Cafe has a $3 off coupon. Check your e-mail and surf the Internet for only $5 for a half-hour or $9 for one hour, with this coupon, while you’re in Las Vegas. Conveniently located on the Strip across the street from the Boardwalk, between the Aladdin and MGM Grand.
You need to sign up for the free newsletter first at [email protected], then you will have access to 14 pages of coupons and offers, many that I have not seen anywhere else. With Billhere’s more than 41,500 subscribers, he’s able to negotiate some very good offers for food, entertainment, and all things Las Vegas.
Be careful that you’re getting the correct number of slot points on your card at Terrible’s. There are numerous reports of a “corrupted slot club system that needs to be replaced,” and basic points and/or bonus points often are not credited accurately. Keep track of how your points are registering and see a slot supervisor who can manually adjust them if there has been a malfunction.
From the Internet: “I was reading that Station Casinos is developing remote gaming that will allow machines to be placed anywhere in the casino: rooms, restaurants, poolside, etc. You open an account, deposit money, then play anywhere with a hand-held device. It would differ from Internet gaming in that the system would use existing gaming software — only remotely. In other words, if you wanted to play IGT double bonus, then change to red white and blue, you could.” Technology is traveling so fast these days that I can’t even imagine what the casinos and gambling of the future might bring.
Also from the Internet, reminding me of a frugal car-rental technique we used before we had our own car in Vegas: “I just rebooked my Alamo car reservation for the fourth time. Rates for my weekly rental went from $191 to $128 to $116 to $105 (plus tax). It pays to recheck rates online at least weekly.” And remember that, unlike most airline reservations, there’s no penalty in canceling a car-rental reservation and making a new one.
I read this note in the summer issue of Gambling Times, a gaming magazine that’s back again after being in business for 14 years before disappearing in 1993:
“Attention past subscribers:
If you were a subscriber to Gambling Times’ successor, Win Magazine, and you still had some issues coming to you when we ceased publishing in 1994 (our offices were severely impacted by the Northridge earthquake), we will be sending you a complimentary 12-issue subscription. If this first issue did not reach you through the mail, send me a note at:
Gambling Times Attn: Rick Stoff
16140 B Valerio St.
Van Nuys, CA 91406
I will personally reinstate a 12-issue subscription in your name.
Rick Stoff, Publisher
As I write this on Wednesday July 25, I’m looking out the window and seeing it’s raining. As long as I have been coming to Vegas (19 years), I’m still “shocked” when it rains here in the desert. But it does — sometimes so much that it causes flooding. Yes, flooding in the desert!”