Posts by: queen of comps

7/3/2000

A couple of weeks ago, I suggested that readers visit the Suncoast Web site and bone up on their planned slot club, Club Denaro. I also suggested that while there, you sign their guestbook to be notified when you can join the slot club online. That way, you’ll be given special bonuses for people who join up before the casino opens.

It’s always a good idea to check the Web sites of casinos being built. It usually gets you on their mailing list and I’m constantly surprised and delighted by the flood of discounts and freebies my mail brings because we are on so many lists. Don’t be put off by the “”fancy”” nature of a new resort casino and figure you could never afford to stay there. New casinos — even the most luxurious — have to scramble to fill rooms their first year before they’ve established themselves in the marketplace. I was amazed how many people who had played at very low levels at the Venetian when it first opened were getting generous room offers for such upscale suites.

Speaking of slot clubs, I just heard about a good idea at New York-New York. They have a “”Follow Me Countdown Program”” that allows you to move from machine to machine without losing any point credit. In many casinos, if you’re only part way to earning a point and remove your card, the countdown starts over on that machine, as well as on any other machine you move to, so you lose that earlier part-point credit.

Briefs
Hint for a nervous or new blackjack player: don’t sit at 3rd base, the “”last”” seat on the dealer’s right. Although what the 3rd base player does, hitting or standing, correctly or incorrectly, does not change the odds of the game over the long term, many uninformed players think the 34d baser is responsible for the dealer’s hand results. And even if you play absolutely correctly and hit a 12 against a dealer’s 2, when you “”take”” the dealer’s face card, the one that would have made him bust instead of making the 21 that beat everyone, well, you will often be nominated Villain of the Year by the whole table. You don’t need that pressure!”
7/7/2000

 

A post by a good friend of ours made me start thinking about the subject of speed in video poker play. He wrote, “”If you’re ever playing a Game Maker that takes forever to add up your credits when you make a hit (quads, for example), just hit the Bet One button on the left-hand side and your credits will be added to your total immediately. Since someone let us in on this hint, it’s been saving us tons of time.

By the way, hitting the Max Bet button will do the same.

On IGT multi-line video poker machines, you can make the credits rack up faster by hitting the Draw/Deal button. I automatically do this on every hand, because I like to play fast. Why? Well, if I hold good starting hands (especially four to a royal) and they turn out poorly, I don’t have time to cry. If I’m losing, I figure I’ll get to the winning long-term faster. And if I’m winning, well, Brad says I just do everything fast.

Brad isn’t as concerned with speed. He hits the buttons quickly, but he likes to study the results, particularly on multi-line. I think he probably gets more enjoyment out of Ten Play machines than I do. He loves to sit and analyze the ten hands, comparing the short-term results on any one play to the long-term math odds of that particular play. The fun for me is racking up slot club points (translate that as sure cash) as fast as possible.

Briefs
One of the strangest casino stories I have heard for awhile: A 36-year-old woman was carded twice by security while in a casino and on the same day was offered an “”over 50″” discount at the buffet!

If you want to play a casino game where the casino is not your “”enemy,”” take up live poker. Although you “”pay”” the casino a small amount for the privilege of playing in their game (through the “”rake””), your real foe is the other players, who are determined to get your money.

Want a real slot machine in your house? Brad always did, but we lived in Indiana where it’s illegal to own one. Now that we have a condo in Vegas, Brad is the happy owner of a beautiful antique Golden Nugget “”Golden Girl”” slot machine. It takes only one quarter at a time and is a hit with our grandkids and all our visitors. We call it our Salvation Army machine, because all profits are donated to our favorite charity. If you want to buy one, check the Las Vegas Yellow Pages and then shop around, by phone and in person. Prices vary considerably. And any store that sells slot machines can tell you if there are restrictions on owning one in your home state. This is highly regulated by Nevada and the store has to fill out paperwork on each one they sell. They will not ship one to a state where it is illegal.

One of my favorite sayings: The only sure thing about gambling is that it will be streaky.

7/14/2000

 

I had another column already written for this week’s Frugal Friday, but there are so many changes going on in Vegas that I’m putting it in storage and replacing it with some important updates. I know how frustrating it is to read about a promotion and make a special effort to take advantage of it, then realize that the information was not accurate or up to date. “Paper publishers” must contend with the problem of advance deadlines. Even the LVA, which prides itself (and rightly so) on extremely accurate information, faces this problem month in and month out.

However, Frugal Fridays is a perfect example of the beauty of online publishing, as I can give you real-time information that’s as up to date as humanly possible. Tune in weekly — I’m going to emphasize updates more in my future columns — to save you unnecessary travel and wasted time.

Here is corrected information for Arizona Charlie’s East (ACE) and West. Bonus-point days for July are as follows.
• Tuesdays — triple points from midnight to 8 a.m. ONLY
• Wednesdays — double points all day

From a very reliable source: Your comp points from the old Sam’s Town slot club system will “go away” when the new club switches over the middle of this month. Use them as soon as you can.
The Desert Inn has posted a sign at the slot club desk that all slot club cash points must be redeemed by July 21. If you have cash coupons to redeem here, do it ASAP— the rumor is that the DI will be closed long before the official Aug. 30 date because so many employees will be leaving sooner. I’m guessing it will be history by the end of July. I know that the slot host staff will be gone right after the last invitational slot tournament, which takes place July 13-15.

(By the way, most or all of the DI host staff is going to Harrah’s, and they have promised us that we will be on their Number One List to invite to tournaments and promotions there. This is a great custom in Vegas and probably in every casino area, although it usually flies against company policy. Hosts take their cherished customer lists with them!)

I saw on the marquee at the Fiesta that they’re giving 5X points on Sundays in July. This is in addition to the previously published information that only mentioned 3X points on Mondays.
Here is corrected info for the slot machine giveaway at Reserve. They give away three video poker machines at 10 p.m. each Friday, Sat., and Sun. night in July. Machine players get one drawing ticket for each 100 points they earn on THAT day until 8 p.m. (You cannot stockpile entries over several days’ play; each day has its own color-coded ticket!) If you’re a keno or table player, you can participate; ask an employee how you can earn tickets. One person can only win once. You MUST have a Nevada ID to qualify; no exceptions allowed, since these video poker machines were actually on the floor of the Reserve at one time and the Nevada Gaming Commission has very rigid rules to track where each machine goes when it leaves the floor.

Brad and I really want to win one of these machines. They’re modern machines, either full-pay deuces wild or a deuce variation with a kicker called Acey-Deucey. We had a tall stack of entries the first day we entered this drawing (playing 50-cent Triple Play generates a lot of points) and it took us most of the time between 8 and 10 p.m. filling in our name and slot club number. However, despite the big proportion of the tickets in the drum being ours – we didn’t win! But look for us the rest of July — we haven’t given up!

Although this information is correct as of Thursday, July 13, I must advise you to always call a casino before you make a special trip for a specific promotion. Casinos are notorious for changing and discontinuing promotions. You know the fine print on all of their material: “We can change our minds about this coupon or promotion anytime we want to, for any reason or for no reason, and there’s not a thing you can do about it. So there
7/21/2000

 

I woke up this morning (Thursday) to the Las Vegas Review-Journal headline, “Station Agrees to Buy Fiesta.” I felt like going back to bed, pulling the covers over my head, and having a good cry. The Fiesta has some of the best video poker opportunities in town, while the Stations’ trains have been steadily chugging away from good video poker for years. And now they seem determined to see that no good stops are owned by competing railroads along the way. The Sante Fe and Fiesta can be remodeled into video poker wastelands, well camouflaged by heavy advertising of showy promotions, non-gambling activities, and endless eating and drinking places.

Am I sounding like Chicken Little? Well, the sky’s not falling. Brad and I will survive, and so will you. There are still lots of places in Vegas to play winning video poker. The intense casino competition will see to that for many many years. A player just has to be more flexible these days.

The lesson here is: Do not “marry” one casino. I do suggest that new Las Vegas visitors choose one core casino where they can find the games they like and establish a playing history that makes it easy to get comped rooms. However, I also suggest that you play the field. Add other casinos to your repertoire as quickly as possible. You never know when your favorite haunt will be the next implosion special on TV!

BRIEFS
Speaking of stations, a slot club has finally been launched at the downtown Plaza casino, formerly called the Union Plaza, which was Las Vegas’ train station for many years and may become so again if/when the “”bullet”” train from L.A. becomes a reality. The No. 1 Main Club has .2% cashback, and that will please the quarter players who like the good video poker selection. You get 2,500 points (worth $5) as a signing bonus. There doesn’t seem to be a clear comp feature to this club–at least not yet–since they’re still issuing food comps under the old clubless policy of giving a dinner for two at the Center Stage restaurant to anyone who hits a jackpot of $200 or more.

I call this a “”like-father, like-son”” slot club, since points are added on coin-out rather than coin-in, just like at the Coast properties. Who owns the Plaza? Jackie Gaughan, father of the Coast properties’ owner, Michael Gaughan. I’m surprised they used this system, which many people don’t like; they think they aren’t getting any slot club credit when they have a losing session. See my May 19th and June 23rd Frugal Fridays columns in the archives to learn the not-so-bad truth about a coin-out system.

Are you not only a gambler, but also an investor who is interested in gaming stocks? I’ve found a Web site that could be very helpful to you: http://www.gaminginvestments.com. It has some free features, such as a message board and gaming news updates. You can also subscribe and receive a couple of good newsletters, with frequent updates on gaming stocks and news that could be important to your investment decisions. The publisher, Frank Fantini, has an entertaining writing style that keeps the newsletters from putting you to sleep with too much technical jargon.
Finally, the more you study, the “luckier” you’ll be — that’s what I write when I autograph all copies of The Frugal Gambler.”

June 2, 2000

I don’t have to be in Vegas to be a frugal gambler. Whenever I enter a casino  in the U.S. (or the world, for that matter), I’m always looking for an edge. I’m always  looking for some game or promotion that will be to our advantage. And the most important tool I have at my disposal in this quest is that small but strong word I preach about so often: “”ask.” Last week, again, the word “”ask”” came through today like the trooper it is  and has always been. I thought I’d done every kind of casino couponing possible, but today  I achieved something that I had never done before: I got paid for a coupon that was not  only expired, but that I didn’t have in my possession.

Let me explain. Based on our play last fall, the Empress, in Joliet, Illinois, sent Brad and me each two $50 bounce-back coupons. One set expired May 12 and the other set expired May 24. But in the process of changing our address from Indianapolis to Vegas, my coupon got lost in the mail (Brad got his, which is how we knew about it).

We took Brad’s good coupon for $50 (the one that hadn’t expired yet) to the slot club desk, where he got a crisp $50 bill. I then mentioned to the clerk that Brad had another coupon that had expired May 12, and that I hadn’t received any. I explained that we had just returned home from Las Vegas and hurried up to Joliet as fast as we could. I did the usual polite, humble, and round-about inquiry that I employ in delicate circumstances such as this, saying, “”I don’t suppose there’s anything that can be done about the expired coupons, but I wonder if you have a record that the unexpired one was sent to me.”

The slot club clerk checked in the computer and said, “”Oh, it came back. We didn’t have a good address for you.”” After checking with a supervisor, she was pleased to announce, “”Yes, we can pay you a hundred dollars for the two coupons, and I can give Brad fifty dollars more, for his expired coupon.”” I’m here to tell you we were pretty pleased to hear it. A hundred and fifty dollars added to our trip bankroll just for asking nicely and properly.

BRIEFS
From the Video Poker Whine Department: You know your luck is bad when you’re playing a deuces wild machine and it takes three deuces to make 4-of-a-kind. Money you don’t lose in a casino because of smarter play? I count that as money won.

Brad and I went to a buffet in Reno recently that cost $50 for two. I never thought I’d see the day! This isn’t your father’s Reno — or Las Vegas. Sure, we were comped — you didn’t think a frugal queen would actually pay that much for a buffet, did you? But a lot of people were paying it! Where are the Bargain Cities of yesteryear? Well, they’re still around, but you have to look a little harder than back in the good old days. I remember when you could get a decent buffet for $3.95 and the restaurants weren’t owned by world-renowned chefs and populated by the beautiful people. Sometimes I wonder if this is a sign of old age. And the final straw. They’re going to tear down Silver City and put up a Walgreens! Did you come to the center Strip in Las Vegas to shop at Walgreens? There’s already one on the toney south endof the Strip. But next to the El Morocco? Is nothing sacred anymore!

 

June 9, 2000
When I was much younger, I used to get a little impatient with the senior citizens in the casinos, blocking my passage with their wheelchairs, tottering along behind their walkers, pulling their oxygen tanks along with them. Wouldn’t it be easier for them to stay in their condos or assisted-living apartments or convenient nursing-home rooms? I’m not so young now. And every time I see a senior citizen struggle to get to a slot machine or blackjack table, I give him or her a big smile — and a helping hand, if needed. Maybe I’m in denial about the realities of growing older, but I can’t imagine anything short of a coma that would keep me out of a casino.

But whether you’re a bit wobbly or not, as soon as you cross a certain age line (anywhere from 50 to 65, depending on the casino), you’re courted aggressively by the joints. Las Vegas, especially, is really starting to market to those of us in our golden years. Only a few years ago I wanted to write an article about senior-citizen benefits in a casino, and I had to give up. There just wasn’t enough material. Back then, the casinos seemed to figure that everything was so cheap anyway that they didn’t need to have any special program for the oldsters.

Well, have things changed! (I love competition.) The more big and fancy casino resorts that are built in Vegas, the more the established ones have to scramble for customers. And all of them are starting to realize that seniors are the ones with two important things a casino wants in a customer: lots of leisure time to gamble and lots of discretionary income to gamble with. Senior programs and discounts are sprouting up all over town.

So from time to time, I plan to include a senior tip in Frugal Fridays. You youngsters can either skip them or file them in a corner of your brain. You might be surprised how time flies and how soon you start needing senior tips!

The senior tip for today: When you sign up for a new slot club card, always ask if there are any special programs for seniors. And carefully read all the literature you receive from the clubs you already belong to; they may be starting new senior programs, or you may have overlooked the information if you only recently crossed that magical age line.

BRIEFS
I wish just once someone would win a life-changing jackpot and say, “”Hell no, I’m not going back to my stinkin’ job and my Simon Legree boss. And I’m not going to help the homeless — let them work hard their whole life like I did. And I’m not going to buy any of my lazy kids a house or a new car — they can get up off their butts and work for what they want like I did when I was young. I never expected my parents to support me after I was eighteen and able to go to work and even though I just won ten million, not a penny goes to them!”

Something to thing about: “”The creators of video poker did something that no other gambling-game developer has been able to do. They made a push, which is a tie, seem like a win.”” LVA publisher, Anthony Curtis, in an article for Casino Player.

Something else to think about: “”When you belong to a slot club, a push is a win. That’s because every coin you send through the machine counts toward something of value later on.” Jeffrey Compton, author of The Las Vegas Advisor Guide to Slot Clubs.

 

June 16, 2000

I love it when I’m proved wrong -– especially when it concerns my statement that “changes in slot clubs never better things for me personally.” Well, I’m still unimpressed by the changes wrought by the Silverton slot club, but those at some other casinos have pleased me mightily. The Four Queens increased the cashback for video poker to the same higher level of reel slots (.5%); not only that, but they so far haven’t taken out any of the good games or reduced comps to compensate for higher cashback. Bally’s/Paris has decided to come out of the dark closet that Jeff Compton calls “don’t-ask won’t-tell” and now tells you their exact cashback formula.

But the best news comes from the Gold Coast. Those pesky (for me, anyway) merchandise points are now gone, replaced with good hard cashback. The new slot club system shares the same fundamental characteristic with all Coast properties — points based on coin-out rather than the usual coin-in –- but the formula is different from the one at the Orleans and Barbary Coast, which gives .2% cashback and .1% in comps. The Gold Coast has a cash or comps system, with .25% if taken in cashback and a higher .3% if taken in comps.

How you compare the two systems to figure out best play on any given day depends on individual preferences. They all have good video poker machines, i.e., with pay schedules of 100+%. Do you like the restaurants at the Gold Coast? Do you have all the food comps you need elsewhere and prefer to take the cash? Locals and out-of-towners might have difference needs/wants here. But remember, on triple-point days at the Orleans and Barbary Coast, only the cashback points are tripled, not the comp ones.

Brad and I haven’t played at the Gold Coast under the new system yet. It was just put into operation (after several delays) and we’re still back home in Indiana. However, I’ve heard from several reliable sources who have played there. One friend had earned a large point balance under the old system and it was readily converted into cashback. Comps earned under the old system “may” be honored –- check as soon as possible at the slot club desk or with your host.

As long as we’re talking about Coast properties, I strongly urge everyone to go to http://www.suncoastlasvegas.com/club_denaro/index.html, the site of the Suncoast, a new Coast property opening in the fall. There they explain their planned slot club, Club Denaro, in detail. They’ll be using the same formula for comps and cashback as the new one at the Gold Coast. They list one interesting detail: You can earn points playing bingo, betting in the race and sports book, and playing at the table games. It looks as if they’re going in the right direction and combining table and machine play for a totally integrated casino-wide system. Good move!

When you’re at the site, be sure to sign the guestbook. They’ll notify you when you can join the slot club online. They list many perks you will have by becoming a charter member – bonus points and discounts in many areas among them. I remember that becoming a charter member when the Orleans first opened was a very frugal thing. For the first year you received a 10% discount at all restaurants, and this included meals for which you were using comps, thus allowing our comp “bank” to build up faster.

There have still been some questions about how the Coast properties’ coin-out system works, even though I wrote about this May 19 (see Archives), explaining it really isn’t that big of a difference. Next week I will explain the system in detail for those of you who are still confused.

Remember this Sunday is Father’s Day. I’m sure your father would approve of our taking advantage of one of the numerous frugal promotions available on this day. If you and he are in Vegas, you could take him to the Gourmet Feast Buffet at Boulder Station and treat him to a free brunch or dinner. The fine print says one meal must be purchased at regular price to get the free one, so if you

 

June 23, 2000

 

Now for the explanation I promised you last week. Most casinos base their slot club point system on coin-in (meaning how many coins you put into or through the machine). But at the Coast properties in Vegas (the Orleans, Gold Coast, and Barbary Coast, and the soon-to-open Suncoast), you collect points on your coin-out (meaning your “wins”). This confuses many people, who think they don’t get any points if they have a losing session. Not so. You get a point for every dollar you win on any winning hand and in this case a “tie” is counted as a win.

Let me give an extreme example to make it clearer. You put a $5 bill in a dollar 9/6 jacks or better VP machine. You now have 5 credits. You play those 5 credits and get a pair of jacks, which returns your bet, paying $5 racked up as 5 credits. You just earned 5 points because you “won” $5. (See how the tie is counted as a win?) You can cash out the 5 credits and then feed the machine the 5 dollar coins or you can just play the 5 credits — it doesn’t matter. If you get another high pair that hand, you will get another 5 points for that $5 win. Now you have a total of 10 points. If you play 100 hands and get a high pair every hand, you’ll have 500 points, although you invested only $5. Now, say you finally lose the $5 on hand 101 and quit. You’ve had a losing session, but you’ve earned 500 slot club points.

The system is pretty straightforward on the newer multi-line machines, where you’re credited with your points immediately after each winning hand.

However, coin-out gets a little complicated to explain on the older machines, especially when you put in a large bill, start winning on the first hand, and never use all of your original investment. The machine doesn’t rack up each win in this case until your original investment is gone or you cash out. So here’s a caution for these properties: Do not remove your card when you’re cashing out and coins are dropping, because you may be racking up points as the coins come out of the machine. Also hand-pays for jackpots sometimes do not show up on your card reader, but are posted to your account later. This complicated system does cause problems sometimes, because it’s not easy to ascertain whether you’re getting the correct number of points. And card readers have been known to malfunction. Computers are not mistake-proof.

Briefs
Read recently in the freebie magazine What’s On: “Very sparkly, very twinkly.” That’s the description of the Las Vegas skyline given by the autistic character, Raymond, in the entertaining 1988 movie Rainman. I never cease to be in awe when I arrive by plane in Vegas at night.

Senior Travel Tip: I’ve rarely found a cheaper price on the Internet to beat the senior fares given when you book airline reservations with a travel agent or the airline direct. I no longer surf the Web for airfares; it’s faster for me to call the airlines direct, choose the best bargain fare I can find, then ask for the usual 10% senior discount that can be applied to almost any fare category. I tried the Internet route but it was just too time-consuming. I can give the airline clerk a choice of several days on which we can travel and ask for the cheapest fare. On so many Web sites, you must give an exact day and even time of day you want to fly, and it’s hard to find when there might be a cheaper fare if you’re flexible.

May 5, 2000

 

A question from one of my readers: “I’m in a terrible losing streak. What’s the longest losing streak you’ve ever had?”
Good question! People sometimes think Brad and I win all the time; they think anyone who writes a gambling book or articles about video poker must be an expert, and a gambling expert must know how to win. Well, that’s right  and wrong. We ARE winners. The bottom line is that we win more than we lose over the years.
However, when I looked through the gambling logs we keep for each year (our IRS evidence), I found that since l997, we’ve had at least one losing video poker quarter (three-month period) per year, and sometimes two. Although you’ll lose, on average, in two video poker sessions out of three, a losing quarter is three months of play with A LOT more losing sessions than winning ones.
What’s more, right now we’re in the worst losing streak in our 17 years of gambling. We’ve had three losing quarters in a row. We’re also working on number four — if this present one doesn’t turn around fast! And this is for playing nothing but 100+% video poker schedules.
Obviously, this losing streak is not nearly as much fun as our winning streaks of the past. But we try to take it stoically, knowing we’re still “ahead of the game” over the long run. We know that the longer we play, the closer we’ll come to the statistical win that can be achieved by choosing the right games and playing the right strategies.
There is one factor that mitigates the pain of a long losing streak.  Cashback! There have been many times when slot club benefits, promotional bonuses, and mailed coupons have made up for a big percentage of our video poker losses or even completely wiped out the red ink on the ledgers.
Also, we no longer even count the value of comps. We consider our free rooms, meals, and extras gravy, but if we did factor them into the win-loss equation, we would never have a very long losing streak.
When I’m trying to convince someone to switch to positive-expectation games, I like to say, “You can’t beat the math; if you play long enough on the negative games and you’ll lose over the long run.” Brad and I turn this around and comfort each other when we’re in a bad losing streak, “When you play positive games correctly, you’ll win over the long term.”
In negative-expectation games, math is your enemy. In positive-expectation games, math is your friend. Because we play only positive expectation games, math is our friend. But it can be an exasperating friend, because it can be so patient and work so slowly!

Briefs
I’m constantly amazed that there are casino customers who can think up tricks that are more frugal than mine, even though Brad often calls me the Queen of Cheap. I love these new ideas. The latest, from the ever-inventive group on Skip’s VP  (http://www.video-poker.com) is for those of you who order bottles of water and want to take them home, but the cocktail waitress removes the cap. No problem. Simply tuck a couple of extra caps in your pocket or purse before you go casino-hopping!
Last week I mentioned some of the resources I think are valuable for planning your Vegas trip. Another one is the website of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the morning daily newspaper. I use it heavily when I’m not in town and don’t have it delivered to my door each morning. An especially good section is Neon, the Las Vegas Guide to Entertainment, which comes out every Friday. You’ll find it at http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/neon/. It has reviews (including price, time, phone numbers, etc.) on shows, restaurants, buffets, coming attractions, and recreational listings. Always check out The Player’s Edge, by Jeff Compton and Bob Dancer, which gives the latest scoop on slot clubs, promotions, and bonus-point days.
Until next week, ponder this: A popular item for vending machines in casino bathrooms is aspirin.

 

May 5, 2000

 

Editor’s Note: Jean Scott has been busy shooting a segment for “Dateline.” She worked hard (for what will be about five minutes of air time), so we granted her a day’s delay on her Frugal Friday’s piece. We’ll post it by Saturday. In the meantime, here’s a little peek into what went on with “Dateline.”

The entire shoot took two full days. Jean and Brad took the “Dateline” crew, including anchor Bob McKeown, around Las Vegas, following a five-hour opening stint and interview at their condo. Jean described it as “the most extensive shoot we have ever been involved with—it made “48 Hours” seem like the local news in a very small city! The four camera-crew guys had 38 pieces of luggage on the airplane!”
During the casino shoots, all the action was authentic (nothing staged for the camera). First stop was the Hard Rock, then the Venetian, and finally the Fiesta.
One amazing thing happened. Jean was coaching Bob McKeown on a 9/6 jacks or better $5 Triple Play video poker machine (the best game at the Venetian). He was playing with $1,000 of NBC’s money (and her slot club card–of course!). That’s $75 a hand. They were dealt 9h 9c, 8c, 6c, and 5c. Bob saw the pair of nines and wanted to hold them. Jean pointed out the 4-card straight flush and explained that it had a higher expected value, even though it was a long-shot. Conceding that they were likely to lose $75 on the play, Bob held the inside SF and hit the button.
He pulled a flush on the bottom line, zilch on the top line, and the 7C on the middle line. The hand paid $1,400. Amazing.
Final cash-out: $1,650 winners (which went to charity)—and on national television, no less.
We’ll tell you more later. Stay tuned.

 

May 16, 2000

 

Mother’s Day is this Sunday and a quick look at my casino-promotions calendar tells me that Hallmark isn’t the only company that expects to cash in on this holiday. Actually, casinos key promotions to any holiday that comes along: candy for bonus hands on Valentine’s Day, free green beer on St. Patrick’s Day; turkey drawings on Thanksgiving, and extra payouts for four-of-a-kind kings on Father’s Day, four fives on Cinco De Mayo, and, of course, a four queens on Mother’s Day.
Although holiday times often see higher airfares, the casinos sponsor such strong holiday promotions that they should influence your trip planning. We especially like the bonus slot club points many Las Vegas casinos give on holidays. The Coast properties (Orleans, Gold Coast, Barbary Coast, and, most likely, the soon-to-open Sun Coast) usually award triple points on holidays. (If you want to find us on a holiday when we’re in Las Vegas, check at the Orleans!) Cashback of .6% (instead of .2%) on top of 100%+ games is a strong draw. Playing 600 hands an hour at full coin on a dollar video poker machine, the bonus averages out to $18 an hour ($3,000 through the machine an hour X .006) for each of us — even if we only break even on the game itself. Brad and I usually play side by side and we think $36 an hour is good “pay” for having fun together on a holiday!
Speaking of slot clubs, here are a few reasons for getting a slot club card the very first time you enter a particular casino — even if you aren’t planing to play at that casino at that time.
• You might unexpectedly come upon a “must-play” machine, for example, a high progressive, that you want to grab and play immediately. Or you might have an unexpected wait — at a restaurant, to see a show, or waiting for a late friend to show up.
• Sometimes by just showing your card you get discounts on shows, in restaurants, or for rooms.
• Sometimes there’s a special (shorter) line for cardholders.
• Some casinos send out free or discounted offers (rooms, shows, food) to everyone in their database, regardless of the level of play — or lack thereof. Brad and I have received great offers (like a room for three nights) from casinos where we’ve never dropped a nickel in a machine, but did sign up for the slot club one time.
• Some casinos have a special room-reservation phone line for slot club members. You won’t get a free room if you show no play, but you might get the casino rate. Or you might snare a room when the regular reservation agent claims the hotel is “full.” This works best if you give them a good reason why you didn’t play when you applied for the card: You were meeting friends at a restaurant there and were on a tight schedule, for example, but you liked the casino, planned to come back, and, of course, you will play there this trip!

Briefs

I feel honored. Last Sunday (May 6), there was a fairly long write-up in the gossipy “Norm! — Vegas Confidential” column in the Las Vegas Review-Journal about the Queen of Comps and the “Dateline” shoot.

From The Dealers News: When the MGM Grand opened in 1993, it took 12
armored cars two full days to fill all their quarter slot and video poker machines with $3.5 million worth of quarters.

The Four Queens is running ads in the local newspaper touting the new
change to their slot club: Equal Pay for Video Poker Play. Sounds like a good premise: Video poker players will no longer earn fewer points for their play than slot players. I’ve written passionately in Frugal Fridays about the fact that slot club changes NEVER benefit me. I’ll check this one out and report back; with any luck I might have to finally modify that statement.

From the I-Didn’t-Know-That Department: Anthony Curtis, in a recent newspaper story in the Review-Journal about blackjack, talked about the casino’s right to eject, or “86” card counters. He explained that the phrase “to 86” someone came from the frontier days when saloons served 100-proof

 

May 19, 2000

By the time you read this, Brad and I will be back in Indianapolis. After nearly seven months in Las Vegas, we’re taking a well-deserved vacation—at home! Someone just gave us a photo-journalism book called Vegas—The Success of Excess. That’s the way we feel a lot of the time. We love Las Vegas, but it is such an intense lifestyle for us. Although Indianapolis is not the backwater town they used to make fun of with the nickname “Indy-no-place,” it’s a much quieter life.
Of course, we won’t exactly be idle. Brad will replace the condo carpeting and install new kitchen cabinets and counters, and I’ll do some serious work on the sequel to The Frugal Gambler, the book I’ve promised to so many for so long.

Update
A couple of weeks ago, I discussed the coin-out system on which the Coast properties (Gold Coast, Barbary Coast, and the Orleans) award their slot club points. Some don’t like the system, even though they understand the long-term advantage to those who play positive games. They feel it’s a double-whammy          when they have a losing session: losing at the game and getting fewer slot club points to boot.
A good Internet friend of mine sent me the following post, which shows the math that perhaps will keep you from worrying needlessly whether a slot club bases its award system on coin-in or coin-out.
“The only reason I don’t like the coin-out system is that it’s harder to make sure you’re getting the proper amount of points credited by the machine.
“But you really shouldn’t be that concerned about dry spells and being penalized during losing sessions. There isn’t that much difference. For example, say you play six hours of 25¢ full-pay deuces wild and you average 600 hands per hour. You’d have put $4,500 through the machine. At $1 equals one point, you’d have earned 4,500 points with a coin-in system.
“Now, let’s assume you didn’t hit quad deuces or a royal, and you lost about $40 an hour, which is about your expected average loss. With in a coin-out system, you would only be penalized six (hours) times 40 (points), or 240 points altogether. You’d still have earned 4,260 points for the session.
“Not the major calamity that people seem to have in mind for losing sessions using a coin-out system.”

Briefs
From The Dealer’s News: The $5,000 chips at Bellagio are red, white, and blue and are called “flags.”
If you see a red light flashing at the top of the Mirage volcano, you know that there will not be any eruptions until the light goes off, usually the next evening. Sometimes the eruptions are postponed due to technical difficulties, but usually it’s the result of bad weather, often the high winds that Las Vegas is notorious for.
From the It-Really-Happened Department: A novice video poker player was dealt three queens. She turned to her friend who was helping her learn, and asked, “This is a jacks or better machine, so should I just hold two queens? It’s a winning hand. Is it fair to try for more?”

 

May 28, 2000

 

Just because we aren’t in Vegas doesn’t mean we’re taking a vacation from casinos. I’m writing this in the Joliet Empress Hotel, looking across the large parking lot to the Empress I + II, two boats that never sail — at least not for the foreseeable future. Illinois has changed its gambling rules so that casino riverboats do not have to actually leave the dock. This reminds me of a puzzle that I just can’t figure out: Why is gambling more “moral” on the water than on land? Mississippi is a wonderful example. There you don’t have to even see the water, such as being docked on a river or bay as is the rule in Illinois, Missouri, and elsewhere. In Mississippi, you can build your casino on dry land as long as there are inlets underground!

Briefs
Afternoon shows in Las Vegas are a terrific bargain and give you a lot of entertainment value for a small ticket price. Check out the freebie magazines for coupons. There are several good little shows that you can see for the price of one drink. If you’re on a tight budget, but want to go to a show in the evening, go to a comedy club; they’re much cheaper than production or headliner shows.
Best name for a show I’ve heard in a long time:  “Work That Skirt” —  a music and dance jitterbug celebration at the Reno Hilton.
The Michael Jackson impersonator in “Splash” at the Riviera is a semipro football player in his leisure time.
Don’t judge whether you played a video poker hand correctly by the results on any one play. Correct strategy will give you the best results over the long haul, but it may not “turn out right” on EACH hand. Sure, on jacks or better I have “correctly” kept a high pair over three to a royal — and the two  cards needed to complete the royal came up as the first two cards on the redraw. That’s why I play fast and never waste time stewing over what might have been.  I keep playing — with  no “what-if” mind games. That way I’ll get to the long haul faster!
Never pay for a bus trip from Vegas to Laughlin, Primm at the state line, Mesquite. There’s often a coupon for a free trip in your travel agent package. Or, look in the Yellow Pages and freebie magazines for ads that list complimentary trips. Most of these free trips include not only the round-trip bus transportation, but funbooks and often a free buffet.  The age requirement is almost always 21, but  occasionally younger people will be allowed on the trip if they pay their way. And remember, there’s no requirement that you gamble,  although the host casino is hoping that you do! You could take a riverboat ride in Laughlin, or shop at the Outlet Mall in Primm, or play golf in Mesquite.
And finally, the Casino Logo Jacket Report from Brad! He reports that he has 20 at our condo in Las Vegas, 16 at our condo in Indianapolis, for a grand total (drum roll, please) of 36 casino logo jackets, every one of them won in a promotion.
(Casino Logo Jacket Threat from Jean: A minimum of 10 are going to Goodwill!)

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.