As always, we enjoyed our visit to Harrah’s Tahoe. Although bad hips and arthritic joints keep us from the long outdoor walks we used to enjoy there, we could still soak up the beautiful atmosphere thanks to our corner-suite windows with the picture-postcard view of the peaceful lake and the snow-covered mountain forests around it. And the indoor pool and jacuzzi was available to warm up our old bones and relax muscles after hours of video poker.
Last week I had told you that a juicy promotional offer had changed our mind, at least temporarily, about stopping play at CZR properties. So, we decided to do this offer, albeit with some trepidation since it involved higher denominations that are no longer available for our usual play. No matter how good a percentage advantage, in the short term, results can be very negative – and going back to our regular positive but lower-denomination play can be a long discouraging journey to eventual long-term success. However, we were fortunate to end up on the up side of this short-term result range and came home with a nice profit.
But there were other benefits beyond financial ones – friendship and camaraderie. It seemed like the old days, when we would see many of our player friends whenever there was a tournament or drawing or special casino promotion. We chatted with old friends and made new ones, including some of those whom I had previously known only through this blog or internet forums. It is always good to finally connect a face with a name! We even met an elderly gambling gentleman that was two years older than Brad and, like him, still going strong – and found that we shared the common interest of faithfully watching the Lawrence Welk Show reruns on PBS.
Now back in Vegas, we can enjoy more good video poker opportunities in April than we have had here for a while. Stations have taken leave of their “up to” mystery multipliers and now have guaranteed their 10x/6x points: Fiesta casinos have multiplier days on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday; the rest of the Station properties (including the Palms) have them every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I love when casinos start competing. Gold Coast has gone wild and is offering 11x points every day Sundays through Thursdays for the rest of April. South Point is running a good earn-a-buffet offer.
Check Scot’s Bonus Point List for multiple-point days at other casinos, including some on Easter, April 21.
I’m one of the ones they “upgraded to “Sapphire from Ruby”. I’ll have the status until the end of 2019, however with their measly comps, no staycation offers (I like those) and tight vp machines, I really don’t see a reason to continue playing at Boyd.
I thought those that were Sapphire or above retained that status for this year. Maybe I read that wrong but that would mean in Kevin’s post if you were Ruby before you maintained Ruby. I do agree it’s crazy they excluded their entry tier from accruing comp points though. Just as bad as making 9/6 JOB worth around $100 a tier point for coin-in.
What you didn’t mention about the Boyd 11x multipliers is that they only apply to Sapphire and up, and the vast majority of us got blasted back to Ruby when the slot club was “improved.” It’s also fiendishly hard to claw your way back upward to Sapphire; I forget the exact numbers but I seem to recall that it took $750,000 coin-in on the good machines–which still have a -EV of about a quarter of a percent, meaning you have to lose (on average) about $1800 to regain the status that you–silly bunny!–thought you had earned before. Gonna take a lot of 11xing to make up for that!
I guess these places now feel that it is safe increase the frequency of multipliers after they’ve banned so many AP. I really wonder how they choose who to ban. With people who are less than secretive about being AP still being allowed to play, but so many others not…