I field many questions about where to play now that casinos are cutting benefits and paytables right and left. I use this blog to help players cope with the new conditions, often citing my own experiences. However, I don’t get around to every casino, and I am happy when I can share information from fellow players.
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 2nd 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 4th 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!
Anyone a Sapphire at Boyd and NOT receiving a monthly brochure. They have not been able to tell me since I finally made it in May. Due to some computer glitch I cannot make an online acct either.
What pay schedules should I be looking for in Ultimate Times Poker? We normally stay at South Point, M Resort or Main Street Station.
Four Queens June promo is in it’s 3rd year. Worth extra 1.25% on $8 a point games and 0.625% on $16 a point games up to $400 this year. Previous year was up to $200. It was promoted on FB and Twitter but only once.
Your brain will never get tired!
Richard, 100 play, or 10 play, or 63 billion play, should be played the exact same way as single line. The right play for a given game (such as 9/6 JOB or NSUD) is the same regardless of the number of hands–which is logical, when you think about it. So you don’t need any additional training materials if you want to play multi-line.
Insofar as figuring out a “crazy paytable,” I use shorthand. I know the -EV effects of the most common changes to paytables, such as the flush and full house payoffs in JOB or the four of a kind payoff in Deuces, so I can usually cobble together a rough estimate of what an unusual paytable and/or promotion should return. If you know how often a given hand should occur, that helps. So let’s say that tonight only, you get 100 extra coins for getting four sevens. That will happen roughly once in 5,000 hands, and 100 coins is 20 bets, so that’s 20 extra bets for every 5,000 hands, or 0.4%. That would not be enough to justify, for example, playing Airport Deuces or 9/6 DDB. But it would push some games into positive territory.
I’m looking for a good pamphlet/card that explains the hands in 100 play video poker.