Harrah’s Cherokee
First, a short report on our 7* visit to Harrah’s Cherokee. Still our favorite location for a casino; you can’t beat the Smoky Mountains for a fall trip. We were a little early for the full-blown leaf color change, but after living in the desert for the last 20 years, miles and miles of nature green is a welcome sight.
Although we love this casino, this might be our last trip there. The main reason for us choosing it is the availability of NSUD machines, the only ones left in the Caesars kingdom. But even with the high EV of 99.7% and the fact that we love deuces, we found playing them this time was “work” and not “fun.” Bad maintenance with mostly sticky buttons that slowed down our play to a crawl, having to check every hand carefully that the machine was holding the cards we had chosen. One doesn’t want to make even one mistake when you are playing $25 a hand. Fortunately, we hit one set of 5K deuces to pull out a nice win for our swan song.
For years Brad and I had both reached Harrah’s 7* status, but as the benefits have drastically been reduced, we decided this year to play just enough to keep me at this tier level and be able to have the one retreat trip for family visits. Most of our play has been or will be in Harrah’s Tahoe, our 2nd favorite casino location, and hopefully it will keep the 9/6 JoB machines that are disappearing in so many places.
One perk we enjoyed in Cherokee was the ability to opt out of daily housekeeping and receive a $20 free-play voucher. We teased the grandkids that they could clean up the three rooms we had and they could split the $120 in vouchers to add to their gambling bankroll! This is becoming a more frequent casino policy but sometimes isn’t widely publicized. So, if you are interested, be sure and ask when you check into a hotel if there is such a program in effect.
Caesars Palace Buffet
They are no longer serving a separate breakfast and lunch schedule. Instead they offer brunch 7 days a week. Most frugal option is to go on a weekday, just before brunch ends at 3 p.m. You will pay the lowest price available at this venue, $39.99, and then can enjoy the expanded dinner selections that start at 3 p.m. – without paying the higher dinner price. Prices go up on the weekends but you always save if you enter and pay before the changeover from brunch to dinner.
This is one of the best money-saving techniques all over town you can use when a buffet does not close between meal changeovers. Related to that is the hint that when a restaurant serves both lunch and dinner, the lunch menu is almost always lower in price! And sometimes there is a reduced early-bird budget dinner option. It pays to check out restaurant time schedules if you want to save money!
Switching Games
My friend Henry Tamburin, a long-time BJ player, wrote an interesting article about how he made the switch to mostly VP in later years. He tells about how Lenny Frome, the pioneer VP guru, got him interested in this new game choice, but then he said, “But what pushed me over the edge was Jean Scott.”
Once in awhile I’ve had people say I’ve gone a little “far out” on some frugal gambling techniques, but I guess Henry was complimenting me here! 😊
Ahhhhh, so I was not the only person to notice the sticky buttons on the video poker machines. That was a few years back when I went to see Billy Idol at Cherokee. And the buttons are still conveniently sticky??
Sometimes you gotta call them out on stuff like this. I say this because Cherokee is a very spiffy place — extraordinarily clean, many brand spanking new machines, everything is well maintained. This is not the El Cortez.
So how do they manage to have just their best video poker machines plagued with sticky buttons? Hmmmmmm. Must be that vp players are clumsy with their Cokes, eh?
I think not.
My hubby and I have decided to play only my card at CET, just for the diamond benefits. We had done the 7 Star thing a few years, but it changed so much we quit worrying about going for it. Then they changed the diamond status too, just trying to get rid of all the gamblers, so they can get the young people who buy the expensive drinks and stand around one player 6 deep watching them play a dollar at a time. I guess they must be doing ok as they are losing more and more real gamblers. So many other casinos offer much better VP and they have better benefits now than CET. Never thought I would say that, as the majority of our funds went to CET, but alas no longer.
Left CET 7 stars years ago once this Long Islander couldn’t find any decent play in Vegas CET properties. Unfortunately, many posters who complain about the demise of playable VP have helped feed the “beast ” by being content in playing 9/6 DDB.
And so the “massacre “continues .
Not sure how much longer my wife and I will play at Caesars properties. No full pay vp at all that we can find. Even in the high limit area on a $25 machine, no full pay. We will continue to play more and more at Station casinos, where you can still find good plays.
Scott Dunlap
Hi Jean,
I have a lot of Lenny’s books. We can’t forget Stanford Wong”s books on Vp and live BJ. My first VP program was on a floppy disk. Sold by Wong and made by
Villa Crespo . I remember analyzing a game would take a few hours to get get answer of 98,54% as in JOB. Had a feature to change payables to get number
for progressive plays. His first book I bought was Professional Video Poker playing progressives. Not sure of exact title. Back then not unusual to find $1 progressives $ 9000 and more. 6 coin quarter progressives were my favorite at Frontier, my home base. My best, $6096 while surrounded by team players. Not bad for a quarter play. Team players were angry that an out of towner won. I was at Mirage when $12,500 went, but not on my game. Great times.
Wong was a BJ player and “famous” for “Wonging In” . He could stand near BJ table and count cards and join game when advantageous to play. That’s before house didn’t, allow players to join play in middle of deck. Wong was his player writer name and I’m too lazy to look up his real name.
Times change, times flying……Cheers, Wayne
Copy that. I would add Harrah’s Laughlin as a #3 on their point multiplier days playing 8/5 BP, closer than Tahoe.
George