Here is a picture of Brad being transferred from the military hospital at Fort Benning to a civilian one in Columbus, the latter one having a better cardiac department.

Brad is still a little weak, but with strong meds kicking in and the help of a walker (and a wheelchair which is complimentary at the casino), he feels he is up to a short 4 ½-hour road trip from Columbus, GA to Harrah’s Cherokee, with Angela and me and tough ex-Ranger Steve as his “nursing assistants.”

This trip is my Harrah’s 7* retreat that we had to cancel for last weekend.  So, for those of you on property this weekend who might want to stop and chat, we will be on the casino floor or at the buffet or the Laurel Lounge (Formerly called the Diamond Lounge) on this Friday evening (20^th), off and on all day Saturday, and Sunday until early afternoon when we will be driving back to Columbus.

I don’t want to clutter up this blog with personal details but if you want to follow more of our “real life,” as opposed to our casino one, you can join us on my Jean Scott Facebook page for updated news.  I’ll be happy to friend you if you are not there already.

Now for some details for those who don’t know much about this beautiful Indian casino, managed by Harrah’s.  We have visited here once or twice a year for many years.  In my opinion it is located in one of the prettiest areas of the U.S, the Smoky Mountains.  (Tied with Lake Tahoe at the top of our casino favorites.) We especially like to visit in the fall to see the leaf-changing spectacular – something we miss in Las Vegas.  And it is always a good place to take the family, with many non-gambling options, like sightseeing, hiking, and fishing.  It also has our very favorite casino buffet, bar none.

Cherokee has many advantages for those in the Harrah’s 7* players club tier.  Unlimited comped movies.  Free Internet access for 5 devices.  Large selection of free beverages at check-in.  Opt out of daily housekeeping and get $20 free play per night stay.  A special set-aside room in the Laurel Lounge, with additional food selections.  And very valuable, you can get cash instead of free play when you cash in your Reward Credits.  If you are on your 7* retreat, you can use your $500 folio money in the many shops, not just for food and beverage.

A friend recently sent me this good hint, one which I didn’t know:

You can use Celebration “vouchers” for room service.  Before we used ours, I checked at the Rewards Center and was told that I could use the voucher for room service, but I needed to tell the room service people when I placed our order.  I did and it worked perfectly.

Perhaps this will work at other CZR properties?  You could check.

If you want more hints about this property and extra benefits, go to the Seven Star Insider,  where you will find tons of very detailed information about Cherokee and all other CZR properties.  Although this website zeroes in on 7* benefits, there is much information that would help lower-tier players maximize the value of their play.

The main drawback for many VP players is that there are not good paytables at the lower denominations.  The best ones are at the $5 machines.

——-

If Brad continues to gain his strength back, we plan to return to Vegas on September 28th – and I can be back here with more Las Vegas casino frugal information.

First, I want to thank everyone who gave greetings on our recent birthdays – Brad’s #86 and my #79.  Don’t worry if you missed mine – I plan to stick with celebrating #79 on December 29 every year for many years to come.  The seventies just sound so young these days!

Next, some comments about the “Comment” section here on my blog page.  Although I welcome many different viewpoints and encourage details from players from all denomination levels and varied goals, I do occasionally have to refrain from “approving” a comment and it will not appear.  I will not tolerate uncivil discussion.  I do often approve remarks with which I do not fully agree –  and readers must remember that they are the opinions of the commenters and not necessarily mine – when I feel they will generate some helpful information from others.  I cannot approve comments of an extreme political or religious nature since they often would plunge us into a chaotic argument that takes us far away from the spirit and purpose of this blog.

Now on to your questions.  Frequently someone will ask, “Why do you play at XXX casino; I can’t find anything good to play there?”  I have addressed this issue many times down through the years, emphasizing that not every casino gives every customer the opportunity for a “good” – that is, an advantage play.  Perhaps these good plays are at higher denominations that would not fit a lower-level player’s bankroll.  Or alternatively, good lower denomination inventory may not be attractive for those who can find options for higher level play with the potential for bigger profits.  Location plays a big part in choosing good VP plays; many serious players must travel far and wide if there are no good options locally.  And sometimes – actually almost always – much of the EV (expected value) of a play is made up of extra benefits and you rarely know how much a player is getting just by a casual look at “what they play.”  You don’t know how much coin they play through, how much free play they get in their mailers, or what special-promotion invitations they receive.

A related question Brad and I get: “Why don’t you play at XXX casino; they have good games there.”  Some of the explanation in the above paragraph applies.  But there is a bigger factor here for us.  We just don’t have the energy to “scramble” as much as we used to.  We are most comfortable with a casino schedule that includes several “days off” a week. Right now we play regularly in only 3-4 local Vegas casinos, all off the Strip and fairly close to where we live.  There may be other good plays in far-away areas of town, but unless we lose some of the nearby ones, we choose to avoid the horrendous time-consuming Vegas traffic whenever possible.

And related to the above discussion, there is one question I have been avoiding answering: “You said you were going to write a book containing yours and Brad’s personal life story.  When is that going to come out?”

I really did have a firm plan for this and actually had spent many days and weeks gathering and organizing years of notes.  But a couple months ago I suddenly “woke up” with the realization that I was tired of being on a never stopping merry-go-round, with another deadline looming when I finally met the previous one.  I love to write and will continue to do short pieces – like for this blog.  However, a book is a major project and tends to monopolize and overwhelm the author’s whole life, seeping into every spare hour and pushing out even more-loved druthers.

So, this planned book is now on my not-to-be shelf.  But don’t worry missing stories about our personal experiences, both in and outside the casino world.  I will continue to include them, as I always have, here in this blog.  Some of you will remember the 17-part series I wrote several years ago, telling the story of Brad’s gambling path that began when he was 5 years old.  If you are a newer blog reader, you can go back in the archives (Search “Brad Stories” under “Category” on the right side of the blog home page) and find that.  Actually, those archives go clear back to April, 2000, with the first article I wrote for “Frugal Fridays” and then continue every year until it morphed into the “Frugal Vegas” blog, telling of our gambling journey over the last 17+ years plus some personal details of our pre-casino life.  (You need to sometimes click on “continue reading” to get to all the articles for one particular month.)

In future blogs I will continue to talk about current subjects but occasionally I will reach into my notes and dig out some of the stories that go back 75-85 years, ones that I haven’t shared before.  Did you know I heard the word “discount” on the day I was born?  That will be the beginning of one story I am anxious to share!

———–

A couple of weeks ago, Brad and I were doing a bounce-back collection run on the east side of the Strip, going around the block to pick up our rewards at Ellis Island, Tuscany, and the Hard Rock. I hadn’t been feeling well that week, so our plan was to head straight back to our condo without playing anywhere.

However, I suddenly realized that the Frugal Van was in need of gas and we were going right past Terrible’s casino where, using a coupon that we keep in the vehicle for just such last-minute change of plans, we could play for about a half-hour and get a comp for $25 worth of gas at a Terrible’s gas station. So we pulled into the casino parking lot.

We often play at Terrible’s, since they have very good promotions. I don’t know exactly how to put this politely — how about, Terrible’s isn’t exactly the Mirage! — but we enjoy being with the colorful group of gamblers in their customer mix, all seeming to have such a good time. Hey, we’re all a little eccentric at times! And I like a place where I can fit in when I’m in grunge mode. Brad can wear anything he pleases without checking with me to see if it’s “looks right.”

Anyway, we got out of the van in the parking lot and immediately met up with a panhandler. Brad is always a sucker in this circumstance, so I wasn’t surprised when he pulled out a roll of small bills (careful not to make a mistake and pull out the roll of big bills he usually keeps in the other pocket) and peeled off a single to donate. I’ve quit trying to convert him to the idea that it’s better to give money to charitable organizations so they can give longer-lasting help to the down-and-out. He doesn’t think that’s a bad idea and we send a check to the Salvation Army frequently. However, he also believes in crisis management – this guy probably really needs a drink or a cigarette right now!

But this time, I didn’t chide Brad for being an enabler. I really felt sorry for this person, who might’ve been the dumbest beggar in Las Vegas. The majority of the customers at Terrible’s are nickel bettors; quarter players are considered high rollers. We play $1 and $2 denominations and feel like whales. The pickin’s were probably pretty slim for this panhandler, so I felt uncharacteristically cheerful about Brad’s donation and agreed with him that it might do some good — maybe even help us break out of our recent losing streak.

We entered the casino and picked our machines. Brad reached in his big-bills pocket, looked at me, shook his head, and said, “I didn’t think we were going to play tonight, so I didn’t bring our regular gambling bankroll.” At which point, we both searched our pockets and billfolds and came up with a little over $600. We usually play $2 VP, but with this little bit of money, it would’ve been touch and go to last until we got the necessary points for $25 worth of gas. So we decided to play dollars and hope for the best.

I know many of you are thinking, “What’s wrong with this picture? Why would anyone risk $600, or even $100, to get $25 worth of gas? Why not just buy the gas and not risk any money? Wouldn’t that be a wiser move?”

The explanation for this involves a long discussion of the various personalities and goals of gamblers, something I talk about at length in More Frugal Gambling. But most of all, it gives a concrete example of our acceptance and use of the mathematically correct concept of “long-term” advantage gambling. We know that anything can happen in any one session or series of sessions. Skilled players can lose, and seat-of-the-pants players can get lucky and win. However, we believe strongly — and have proved the concept in actual experience — that if you gamble only when you have some kind of an edge, the longer you play the closer you will get to the long-term profit that the EV (expected theoretical return) holds out to you.

Therefore, we say to ourselves on any play, like this play at Terrible’s, “We will not look at one session loss to judge whether this was a good play.” It was, of course. The game return was less than 100%, but slot club points for gas put it well into positive territory and a promotion giving a bonus on a royal gave it extra value. So, although it’s never as much fun to lose as it is to win, we’re never surprised if we have a loss, even a big one, in any one session. We’ve experienced them many times and actually joked when we started playing at Terrible’s, “Well, how much is our $25 worth of gas going to cost us tonight?” But we were only joking, for we knew that this night’s play would just be tossed in the big bucket that holds the results of every session since we started casino gambling almost 20 years ago, a bucket that has been full of our original bankroll and overflowing with profit since 19 years ago.

So much for math talk and down to the rest of the story. We managed to play almost to where we would have had enough points for our $25 coupon for gas. But our $600 was almost gone and we were nervous. Would our smaller-than-usual in-our-pocket bankroll stretch long enough, even though we were playing a dollar game instead of our usual $2 one? Up to that point, Brad’s belief that helping the down-and-outer would reap some good wasn’t even helping us get one set of quads to assure we could get over the hump.

But suddenly, in the nick of time, his belief came through like a trooper and I hit a royal for $4,000 and was also given the $2,000 bonus.

Was this skill? Yes. By playing a good game, we would lose less in our numerous losing sessions, so when we did hit the royal, it would put us in profit territory and not just cover some of our previous losses.

Was this luck? Yes. You could say we were lucky that we hit a royal this particular session, since a royal comes around only about every 80 or so hours on average.

Did karma make us lucky that day? There’s no mathematical answer to this question. You decide what’s the “right” answer!

The thing that has stood out as I review my past writings is that, despite all the changes in the casino environment, so much has also remained the same. This entry from August 4, 2000, the first year I wrote “Frugal Fridays” (which ran for 7 years before morphing into “Frugal Vegas”) is a super example, with current comments in [ ].

AUGUST 4, 2000 “Frugal Fridays”

Because too many casinos are guilty of planning or changing promotions at the last minute, here is my first-of-the-month report, which will probably become a regular feature. [Still going 17 years later] This list of August changes from published information has been verified by me, either by phone checks, reading casino advertising in the local newspaper, or visiting the casinos personally.

The Orleans is awarding double points on Wednesday from MIDNIGHT to 6 p.m.

Arizona Charlie’s East (ACE) does NOT exclude multi-line video poker from triple points on Tuesdays from midnight to 8 a.m. or double points all day Wednesday. Check on this at Charlie’s West before you start playing, since some multi-line and large-denomination machines ARE excluded there. [Checking promotion details has always been of prime importance – and always will.]

The Hard Rock is giving FOUR times comp points from Sunday noon until Friday noon.

And speaking of the Hard Rock, they’ve done it again. They’re changing their slot club program. I’ve just recovered from the big change at the beginning of the year! Everyone knows what I think about slot club changes — I hate them. [Still do!]  Why? They rarely say they’re changing; instead, they’re almost always “improving.” Most of the time, however, the only thing improved is the casino’s bottom line. Only once in a long while do I see some improvement for the player. Well, although the Hard Rock doesn’t say they’re “improving” the club, they do say they’re “excited” about the new program. I read the details and I wasn’t excited.

It isn’t the worse change I’ve ever seen. The Cash Back Program has been replaced with the Free Play Program. You’ll still get “paid” for your play at the same rate you did before, .5% for reels and .25% for video poker. However, you get this “pay” in the form of cardboard “credit cards,” which you insert in the same slot where you insert your slot club card. Your “cashback” is then put on your machine in the form of credits, WHICH YOU MUST PLAY OFF!       Casinos have always hoped that you’d redeem your cashback and put it back into the machines. But the Hard Rock has stopped hoping and devised a system to force you to do it. I have hopes too — that this system will not spread!  [Now there was a hope that was futile.] However, there’s no profit in complaining about changes. The Hard Rock will not completely switch over to this system until Sept. 1. Next week I’ll give you some hints on how to survive this change and make the new system work the best possible way.

In past Frugal Fridays I’ve given you several recommendations for valuable online sources for Las Vegas and gambling information and here are more…. [All long gone now, replaced many times.]

Brad wanted to contribute an “ouch” ending to this week’s column. It was reported in a couple of places that there was an unfortunate accident during one of the rehearsals for Melinda, The First Lady of Magic, a show that is opening soon at the Venetian. It seems that one of Melinda’s male assistants was impaled during the sword trick. The man was supposed to levitate over three swords, but the middle sword was not secured. In the words of Kate Maddox, columnist at the Las Vegas Sun, “The sword went right through his, oh, how to say this, family jewels?” Brad says for you not to worry, though. According to subsequent reports, the accident victim is doing fine, although he won’t be “in action” for a while.

[Brad still contributes a lot of material for me to write about although he prefers to remain mostly an “unnamed source.”]

The Westin

Max Casino at this casino is closing June 30.  Scot Krause’s article in “Gaming Today” gives all the details.

TUSCANY

The 20% senior discount moves to the Pub e65 for the whole month of July.

RAMPART

They are advertising that their newly-named senior “50 Plus PARTY Tuesdays” is “new and improved, offering more benefits.” See the details here.

SOUTH POINT

From a press release: Beginning Monday, July 3, South Point Hotel will introduce “Prime Time Mondays” for our Casino Club Card holders age 50 and older. Prime Time Mondays will offer a $5,000 Free Slot Tournament from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The tournament’s first place winner will receive a $1,000 cash prize and additional places will be rewarded with free play.  In addition, guests who pay with their points will receive half point dining all day at all restaurants (Primarily Prime Rib & Baja Miguel’s are closed on Monday) and half point bingo all day. Movies will also be offered at a discounted rate of just $4 all day (additional fee for 3D & XD). This promotion is not valid on holidays or during special bingo events.

PALMS

The last day for their buffet before they close it for major changes is July 30. The new 24-hour coffee shop, the Lucky Penny, will open to the public on Saturday morning, July 1. I saw it today as it was practicing a soft opening with invited guests. Fancy-dancy!

Watch for machines to disappear or be moved around as they continue to replace carpeting. Hopefully our favorite ones will re-appear and intact.

New parking passes are available at the players club. The old ones expired on June 30.

No plans to put in the check-cashing program available at other Station casinos until after the cage area is renovated. Proposed time for that to start is late summer.

———–

If you get to missing my gambling chatter here while we are on vacation, you can listen to me talk about gambling and casinos in a couple recent interviews:

1. A podcast from the “House of Cards” radio show

2. An American Casino Guide YouTube video

And if you want to read a funny little story about Brad, it is buried in the middle of a recent long Review-Journal article about casino chairs.  

“Well hello, kid,” the driver grinned as the young man dropped his nickel fare into the coin box, “It’s only noon; are you playing hooky from school this afternoon?”

“No, Butch, I’m not going back there anymore. Today is my 17^th birthday and I’m off to see the world.”

“Well, this bus will take you downtown.” Butch was laughing now, “That’s about all I can do for a world traveler.”

“Well, that’s all I need to get to the Greyhound Station, catch a bus to Richmond, walk into the recruiting office, and join the Marines.”

A few hours later, a dejected young man was riding the bus home. Much to the painful disappointment of the adventurer, he would not be able to realize his dream that day, one that he had kept in his head since he commanded an army of tin soldiers in his backyard sandbox – the Marines had a temporary freeze on enlistments. Back home it was tedious waiting time, holding on to the promise made by the recruiter that as soon as the freeze was lifted, they would call him and he would be sent overseas very soon thereafter.

Connected with his desire to be a soldier so he could travel was his belief that a military life would give unlimited opportunities for gambling, a passion he had pursued, influenced by two much older brothers, since he was a preschooler. So during this wait to be called by the Marines, he became more impatient as he heard all the exciting military gambling stories told by the veterans at the card tables in the pool halls and cigar stores where he continued to hone his gambling skills.

In June, he gave up on the Marines, who still hadn’t called.   He went to the Army recruiting office, took his test, and was ready to sign on the dotted line when the Air Force recruiter in the same office offered a deal to the Army recruiter. “How about a trade? I have a recruit here but he didn’t achieve the higher test score the Air Force requires but it is good enough for the Army. Let me trade for your guy since he had a higher score.”

The Army recruiter looked at his enthusiastic wannabe soldier, “What do you think of this idea?

The Air Force recruiter looked at him and saw by his face that he would need some persuading, “In the Air Force you won’t eat meals off a tin tray. They’ll be served on tables with white tablecloths.”

And that is how this adventurer ended up in the Air Force, started his world travel by being stationed in Japan, and was put in charge of base supply where he could run a daily blackjack game in the back room behind his office.

Happy 85^th birthday, Brad, from your loving traveling and gambling companion who joined your adventure for these last 31 years.

———————

As I have written about for many years, not all promotions are good for all players. People often ask me which ones Brad and doing and I really don’t like to give specifics since they might think because we are doing a certain one that it would be a good one for them. However, sometimes I can give some general details that might guide them in their choices.

A current example is the pull-tab promotion running at Silverton this month on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Not all pull-tab promotions are “good” ones. Sometimes the value of the tabs is overall so low that they aren’t worth a special trip to a casino. But we have found from past experience that the value of Silverton tabs tend to make this a pretty good promotion for many players. We like that there are increasing earning levels where the tabs will increase in value.

———————

We noticed with interest a March casino-wide progressive jackpot promotion running at the South Point. This is the sort of promotion for which we wouldn’t make a special trip to play at that casino since it is a definite long-shot. But if we were going to play there anyway, it would provide a little extra excitement. And it brought back a fun memory from several years ago. Brad and I were visiting the Atlantis in Reno and we had not noticed the signs around the casino advertising this casino-wide jackpot. (I hadn’t taken my own advice that when you are in a new casino, you should always look for promotional signage!) Brad and I usually play side-by-side, but we couldn’t find two of our favorite machines together so we were on two banks a few feet from each other.

Suddenly I saw – and heard – Brad banging on his machine. I called over to him, “You are going to break the glass; what is the problem?”

“My machine froze up!” he called back.

“Oh, someone must have hit the big jackpot because I just got $25 put on my machine like everyone playing in the casino will get. Didn’t you get that $25.”

“No, and I can’t play this darn machine either.”

“Well, put on your light and call a floorperson – and be sure you tell him/her that you didn’t get any $25.” (I’m always watching to correct casino mistakes and machine malfunctions.)

I saw the floor person come over but he couldn’t seem to figure out why Brad’s machine was frozen. A few minutes passed and then several suits came over to Brad smiling, “What seems to be the problem here?”

Brad explains he wants to play this machine.

“Well,” one explained, “first we will have to pay you $27,749!”

Best promotion we ever did without knowing about it!

1.  It is too long.  Don’t copy long passages from other sources.  And try to stick to the subject of the original blog entry and avoid rambling around to many other subjects.

2. It contains personal attacks on other posters or groups. You can disagree strongly with a message without attacking the messenger.

——–

Yes, some casino restaurants (including Caesars Palace buffet) are still adding an automatic tip (often 18%) for large parties, usually 8 or more diners, even though the IRS ruled several years ago that this was not permitted.  There is one loophole.  If they call this a “service charge,” then that rule does not apply.  However, I am still seeing this automatic gratuity added when it is NOT labeled as a service charge.

—-

Yes, I did the Downtown Grand (former Lady Luck) loss rebate program for new players club members.  Brad and I and a friend went together and had a blast at the slot machines, something different from our disciplined video poker play. (VP machines are disqualified for the initial part of this promotion although you CAN use the loss rebate on them later.)  The friend hit a big jackpot rather quickly so quit with her $700 profit.  Brad was up a couple hundred dollars right at the first but decided to play longer to see if he could hit something bigger.  He slowly went downhill but then hit a medium jackpot, got back up, and decided to quit with a $250 jackpot.  I couldn’t hit anything good so I lost my $1000 and have to go back three times to collect my rebate.  I’ve done one of the go-backs and collected $500 plus a $200 profit.  So Brad and I will score a win for this promotion no matter how badly I do running through the $500 I will pick up in the next two visits.

As usual with loss rebates, you need to read the details in the brochure you can get at the players club desk.   (No details online.) There are different procedures for out-of-town visitors and locals but both require multiple visits to collect the full rebate.  And if you want to be sure to get in on this, you need to do it rather quickly.  They said it could end at any time, so before you make a special trip, call to verify  that this promotion is still running.

————

Yes, if you saw a red Mercedes convertible with the license plate “FRUGAL” on a Vegas street,  you can correctly assume that is Brad driving .  Honk if you pass us!

Anyway, we didn’t suffer too much because the Hammond Horseshoe casino was nice and warm and the video poker machines were HOT!  I had written previously that we had been enduring a severe losing streak since the first of the year, with a major royal flush drought, but we had continued to soldier on.  Well, the video poker machines at the Horseshoe must have taken pity on us, because they handed out many many jackpots, enough to get us even for the year.

Some people tell us that they don’t like deuce games.  And I understand this, particularly if they have a limited bankroll, because they are more volatile than games like JoB or Bonus Poker.  However, we love deuces, and we have learned to survive the swings.  Classic Deuces was one of the first games we ever learned and it was our core game for many years.  When it became scarce and we were looking to go up in denomination, we embraced Not-So-Ugly-Deuces (NSUD), which we still choose whenever we can find it with extras that make it a good play.

So when we discovered a few years ago a good deuce game at the Hammond Horseshoe, in a multi-line format that always increases our enjoyment, we have become happy campers there a couple of times a year.  No, we don’t always win – experienced gamblers know that isn’t possible no matter how skilled you are – but it is a good play and it is probably the play that is the most fun for us, even when we lose.

One of the main things we like about deuce games is that there is a mini-jackpot (four deuces) that can give you a winning session without hitting a royal.  And if you are playing multi-line, whatever the game, good dealt hands can be even better than a single-line royal.  At the Shoe we were on a dollar Fifty Play machine, which in the past we loaded up to play all fifty hands.  However, more recently we dropped down to forty hands to decrease the paperwork – and thus the downtime – for W-2G’s.  So in that case, being dealt a dirty royal ($5000) was better than getting a royal on one line ($4,000).  Much to our delight, this trip we were dealt a lot of good pat hands as well as getting three single-line royals.  (Play multi-line if you want to end a royal drought – although that doesn’t always translate into a win.  We’ve played quarter Hundred Play and got several single-line royals and still had a losing session!)

But the high point of our play – and what helped get us out of our deep hole this year – was this beauty that came up on Brad’s machine:

Brad sends a big “Thank You” for all the birthday wishes. He had a great day, with lots of phone calls, Facebook messages, and in-person greetings as we made our usual Friday casino rounds.  We cashed checks and did our free Megabucks pulls at the Palms.  We collected bounce-back cash or free play at four casinos and played some video poker at two of them. Finally we attended a drawing – in which our names were NOT drawn.  

By then we were hungry. We had already eschewed all the invitations from several hosts who had made birthday calls to Brad that morning offering us a nice gourmet dinner.  We had comps all over town for food – fancy or fast.  But we were tired – and suddenly sitting at home watching TV sounded invitingly warm and relaxing.  So we stopped at the Taco Bell to take home for dinner two Mexican pizzas, one of our favorite meal treats.  Brad declared this was the perfect end of a perfect birthday!

Brad and our “guard pony,” Lucky