Recently I heard from one reader who told about a good June promotion at the Vegas downtown Four Queens Casino.  Unfortunately, they don’t put details of their promos on their website, but you could have found them if you had regularly checked this Vegas Values one I highly recommend.   The Four Queens is not a fancy place, but a top choice if you are looking for reasonable room rates, with NO resort fee; some good restaurants, including the classic Hugo’s Cellar; a nice selection of good VP; and free parking for hotel guests and free validation parking for players and restaurant customers.  Here at the LVA website, it is one of their TOP TEN bargains – and very high on my frugal list.

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Q:  Jean, have you taken advantage of the Atlantis Resort trip that Caesars offers to customers in their 3 top tiers.  I hear things are pretty expensive down in the Bahamas.

A:  Brad and I haven’t done this trip and all I know about it is from the Caesars website.   But I did hear from a reader who was looking for frugal hints.

The most common tip I hear is to find a cab from a good company and pick up lots of groceries on the ride from the airport to store in the fridge. I also saw some tips on how to cook on the room iron, but I don’t think we will go that far…

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Q:  I’d like to get to the higher tier levels at Stations Casinos, like President or even Chairman, but I am losing too much money playing at the higher-level machines to get more points faster.  Any suggestions?

A:  I strongly discourage playing beyond your bankroll or comfort level just to achieve a higher tier level.  In almost all cases it would be cheaper to just pay for those higher-level benefits.  However, during your normal play you could choose to play on multiple-point days.  These extra points don’t up your tier score (which is based on “base” points) but you can redeem them for cash or free play which will cover some of your losses.  And here is one player suggestion on how to get to the higher tiers faster and have a vacation at the same time:

Your spending on rooms at Stations are 50X, cocktails at bars 30X, food at restaurants ranges between 10X at the cafe/buffet and 20X at steakhouses. That can add up fast. So, for every $100 you spend on rooms you earn 5000 base points. A nice $100 steak dinner, 3000 base points. That can get you to President quickly without putting a single dime in a machine. Use a staycation to boost your points and get some well-deserved rest.

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Q:  Hi, as an out of towner coming to Vegas in July/Aug, I was wondering what newspaper and day I would look to see if there were any Boyd dining coupons that you mentioned for that time. Thanks.

A:  There is now only one newspaper in town – since The Sun is now a section in the Review-Journal.  But I can’t answer your 2^nd question, since coupons flyers are slipped into the newspaper on no regular schedule.  In fact, I can’t count on checking casino ads on any particular day.  Most often they are in the front section of the newspaper on Sundays, particularly early in the month, but I never can depend on that.  And, as I have mentioned before, sometimes an ad with a new promotion will pop up mid-month!

If you want casino coupons, your best bet is to subscribe to the “Las Vegas Advisor” here at my blog home and you will get a whole book of coupons free.  You can also buy the American Casino Guide which has 182 coupons for casinos all over the U.S, including over 100 for Vegas.

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Not a question, but a comment.  A couple blogs ago I mentioned a July 4^th promotion coming up at South Point.  I had given the details (which are still correct) but stated these differed from past multiple-point days.  Scot Krause, who is always on the ball about promotions, said this one had always had the same details.  I think my 80-year-old brain may be getting a little tired!!!! 

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I hope readers here regularly go to another part of my blog home – the popular QOD (“Question of the Day”).  That’s another place to get your burning questions answered – and sometimes the QOD guru asks for my input. As sometimes happens with all casino information, there are a lot of details and, in trying to summarize in a brief manner, we might miss some of them that would make the answer more complete.  That happened in a recent answer to a question about “crazy VP paytables.”  We mentioned my “Frugal Video Poker Scouting Guide” as a great resource to find the EV of almost 200 of the most common VP paytables.  I – and many other knowledgeable students of the game – won’t ever go to a casino without this small booklet in a purse or pocket.  But it should be mentioned that this booklet is not the only resource you need.  You might occasionally run into an unusual or rare “crazy” schedule that doesn’t appear in the “Scouting Guide.”  Then you need a second important resource – a software program that allows you to modify paytables AND, very importantly, provides a strategy chart so you can play any schedule accurately.

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Down through the years I have tried to answer all of the questions players ask me, whether these questions are posed in the “Comments” at the end of each blog, in private e-mails, or in person.  Sometimes my answers will come to you in an individual e-mail or on an Internet forum.  And occasionally you will find answers in the QOD or in a blog like today’s!

Jean, I received an e-mail promotion from Total Rewards (CZR) that your readers might find interesting. If you’re an Emerald at Boyd, Total Rewards will upgrade you from Platinum to Diamond. I believe they will do it for other card holders from other properties, but I’m only high-tiered at Boyd’s.

Good info, since this frugal trick is sometimes usable at other casinos than those mentioned above. If you have reached a high tier at any one casino, it pays to check at the players club at other casinos to see if they have a matching program. Although you probably won’t immediately get all the benefits of that higher tier at a new casino until you have put in the requisite play requirements, you will usually be able to enjoy some of the perks right away, i.e., VIP lines or discounted food comps.

We generally try to find a bar-top video blackjack machine to play our free play through once. It’s a much lower variance play than any VP game, and you can generally get a free drink in the process.

This won’t work for all players in all casinos, but might be an option you want to remember.

Q: Free play isn’t worth its full value because you usually have to play it through on a game that has an under-100% payback, am I not right?

A: You are right. So to keep the free play value as high as possible you look to play it through on the highest EV machine you can find. Playing it on slots will reduce its value significantly because of the high house edge there. So to keep more of it many will choose a VP game, looking for the highest EV paytable.  However, you will need to consider your bankroll so you might have to choose a lower-EV video poker choice at the lower denomination you can handle. And many consider volatility for short-term play and would choose a lower-EV game that has lower volatility – like 9/6 JoB (99.5%) – instead of, for example, NSUDs (99.7%), that is more volatile. However, players who look at gambling with a long-term view often choose the highest EV, knowing all those short-term plays blend together for the higher long-term results.

Q: Did I understand correctly from one of your previous blogs that if my wife and I each received free room offers from the same downtown casino/hotel it is possible for each of us to individually reserve a room and allow other family members (who did not receive the free room offer) to use the second room? This without risking our status with the casino/hotel?

A: As with almost all casino subjects, this answer must be qualified with a “usually.” You can usually do this with no problem, but you need to register at check-in for each room under the invited player’s name; you can add non-playing family names to the room as needed so they could be given keys. Then who sleeps where is a private matter. You definitely would need to do play under both names to continue getting invitations in both names. We do this all the time where we both play at high levels and have a long-term relationship with a host who can arrange for adjoining rooms. If you play at a lower level and are uncomfortable about this situation, you and your wife might want to check in at different times and thus avoid any questions. But in any case, you are not doing anything illegal or even unethical, and I have never heard of this being against any casino policy if you give enough play to cover the comps for each room.

I don’t believe in luck — I  believe in preparation. 

Bobby Knight, former Indiana basketball coach

A favorite quote of mine.

Las Vegas is sort of like how God would do it if he had money. –Steve Wynn

Breaking even, compared to losing, is winning.

The only sure thing about gambling is that it will be streaky.

Money you don’t lose in a casino is money won.

(Those three I’m not sure of the source – maybe I’m quoting myself?)

Being told that Warren Buffet’s license plate is “THRIFTY,” Brad remarked, “Hey, that’s almost as good as our ‘FRUGAL’.”

Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.  —Abraham Lincoln

(I think this last one is really my favorite and kind of sums up what makes gambling successful for us.)

You know you’ve played a lot of video poker when your car odometer reaches 20,333 and you think: hold the 3’s.

Some people like my advice so much that they frame it upon the wall instead of using it. —Gordon R. Dickson, American author

The winner’s edge is not in a gifted birth, a high IQ, or in talent. The winner’s edge is all in the attitude, not aptitude. Attitude is the criterion for success. –Denis Waitley

Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.  –Stephen Hawking, British theoretical physicist and cosmologist

An apropos anagram (a word or phrase whose letters are
 rearranged to spell something else):  Slot Machines: Cash… Lost in’ em

Many things are lost for want of asking.  —Old English Proverb   (New translation – Just ask! —Jean Scott)

It takes a lot of unspectacular preparation to produce spectacular results.                                             

The cheerful loser is a sort of winner. –William Howard Taft

And a personal favorite comment given to me:  I think you’ve provided an amazing Steve Irwin-like service to those who want to wrestle the crocs of the casino world.

Did you know that General Dwight Eisenhower quit playing poker during World War II when he realized that he was winning too much money from junior officers who couldn’t afford it.

Did you know that the sum of numbers on a roulette wheel is 666?

Did you know that when Circus-Circus in Las Vegas first opened, you were charged a small entrance to cover the cost of the “free” circus acts?

Did you know that in 2004  Mattel announced the breakup of Barbie and Ken after 43 years together?  In relationships, as in all gambling, there is no “sure thing.”

From a reader:  I just read a report from Fidelity Investments that 66% of the people in this country are now suffering from frugal fatigue – that is,  they are tired of pinching pennies to exist. I believe this could give a whole new meaning to The FRUGAL GAMBLER.

Here are some quotes, brought to my attention by VP Pappy, the master collector of gambling/casino-related quotes.  It is always interesting how concepts in other areas can be wisely applied to gambling.

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
–Winston Churchill

 “The stock market is a huge casino, larger by factors of magnitude than all the casinos of the world combined.”
–Ion Saliu

 “Speed can change a minor house edge into a major loss, just like speed can change a minor fender-bender into a major full-scale car crash.”
–Frank Scoblete, 109 Ways To Beat The Casinos

 “The root of all superstitions is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.”
–Sir Frances Bacon