Railroad Pass was built some 90 years ago. Insofar as Las Vegas casinos go, that’s ancient. Railroad Pass isn’t actually in Las Vegas, of course. It’s in Henderson, almost to Boulder City. At the time this story happened, almost 20 years ago, they actually had a traffic signal in the middle of the 95 freeway to get into the place. In addition, it was owned by the MGM – Mirage corporation, although totally separate from that players club. Today that signal is gone, and MGM no longer owns a piece of the Pass.
A lot of the machines were coin-droppers. With a 0.25% slot club, I favored dollar 9/5 Triple Bonus Poker Plus (99.80%) on Wednesdays, which was 3x point day. I couldn’t get many dollars per hour through the machine. When credits on the machine exceeded 400, dollar coins fell into the hopper. Quad 2s, 3s, and 4s ($600) were a hand pay, as were four aces ($1,199). It was about a $20-per-hour play, but they had mailers and comps which added considerably.
In addition to using them for hotel rooms I didn’t need, comps could be spent at the coffee shop (not very impressive), buffet (dreadful), and the gourmet room (surprisingly good). I was married to Shirley at the time, we lived less than ten miles from Railroad Pass, and I could get food to go. I’d get two meal comps for however many comp dollars it cost, possibly 40 each, I don’t remember for sure, which usually included soup and salad. I’d eat both salads, both soups, possibly one lump crab cakes appetizer, and take everything else home.
Their desserts were outrageously big — perhaps one-fourth of a 10-inch round six-layer chocolate cake per serving — and those were included in the fixed price. Although I wasn’t as strict dietarily as I am today, I was usually smart enough to leave those behind. We liked a taste of that kind of thing occasionally, but one bite was normally enough.
One day I discovered they had dollar five-play 8-5 Bonus Wheel Poker. They had had it for a while, but this was not a game I knew about so it was off my radar. This is a 99.59% game, not nearly as high of a payout percentage-wise as the 99.80% return on TBPP, but this was a $30 per-hand game instead of the $5 per-hand TBPP. When you have a 0.75% slot club on Wednesdays, (plus comps to the gourmet room plus mailers), this was a much better play.
Wheel Poker gives you a wheel spin every time you received a natural quad. Playing for dollars, you were guaranteed $100 per spin, but 1-out-of-51 times you received $2,000. Most of the spins were in the $200-$500 range, but there were some higher and lower. They averaged $428 per spin. On a dealt quad, you’d get five spins. W-2Gs were common. You “paid for” these spins by betting six coins per line rather than five.
I had to develop my own strategy. Not too difficult. I used WinPoker and added 428 to each of the quad values. That is, four aces were now worth 828, four 2s-4s were worth 628, and the other ones were worth 553. Once I had changed these numbers on my software, I checked the hands that could change — perhaps from AAA44 you only hold the aces? — or from KQJTT, hold the tens instead of KQJT? — or maybe from a 4-flush versus a pair of 3s, do I hold the 3s or the 4-flush?
Once I made my choices, I used the wizardofodds.com strategy calculator to verify my analysis. While the WOO gives you a good strategy quickly, I like to figure this out myself. If I’m going to play this game for many, many hours (which was my plan), I need to wallow in the strategy to master it.
This casino didn’t attract too many strong players. I was basically the only one who was hammering these machines on Wednesdays. Playing multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars coin-in per month, I may have been the biggest player there.
I ran a little worse than average, until I was dealt a $20,000 royal — which put me considerably ahead. The next week, the machines were downgraded to 7-5 Bonus Wheel Poker (98.7%). Even with a 0.75% slot club one day a week, plus mailers and comps, this was no longer attractive.
I still had $7,000 in comp dollars. At $40 in comp dollars per meal in the gourmet room, that’s a lot of food. I checked the rules and so long as I earned at least one point every six months, it kept the comp dollars active.
My plan was to coast out the comps. I’d play the dollar TBPP enough so my account stayed active. I’d bring food home every two or three weeks. We had comps at other places as well, and no matter how good the food is, we wanted some variety.
This all changed when I received the post card. I’ll tell you about it next week.
Play there all the time now have 3000 in comps now!
Well that’s another interesting story by our videopoker master, Mr Bob Dancer. I like to read such experiences as they’re definetely reflecting the good old times of videopoker harvesting.
I was at the Railroad Pass a few times during my first trips to Laughlin. I never liked it much there. I think it’s a trucker stop-over place or so. The machines as well as the carpets insided reminded me of a old timer place that needed remodeling some 20 years ago but never found a manager to turn it into reality. That’s why I never played there much.
Compared to today’s situation of videopoker I think we are just about 5 or maybe 10 years away from the total end of this great game with all the additional bonusses to collect. Many casinos that used to have good games no longer do so. Even the clubs are cutting back with their offers. I wonder how deep it will go until it ends… These new generations of video slots are definetely a big thread and taking over the entire slot game…..
From Switzerland
Boris
Good cliffhanger 😉 Normally postcards from casinos are good (letters maybe not so much), but I guess there are always exceptions… looking forward to next week 🙂
Well with interest you must have over $100,000 in food comps. You treating LVA members to free food?
Go there all the time I do good and have over 3000 in comps and I eat there all the time they are very generous with comps gas and give aways last night went to a VIP dinner and won tickets for a Raiders game in a suite!
“Well with interest you must have over $100,000 in food comps. You treating LVA members to free food?”
Well, the first digit of your estimate is only off by one unit, but each of the last five digits are exactly correct! Five out of six isn’t bad! And yes, I’ll be happy to donate all of my remaining Railroad Pass food comps to any LVA member.
I truly enjoy ALL the stories from the “old school” Vegas gamblers including Bob and Anthony and everyone else who still values what Vegas has ALWAYS been about until the past 20-25 years….GOOD gambling, cheap food and drinks and simply a fun time. Its a real shame that Vegas has turned into a bunch of MALL LIKE shopping complexes with food courts and $300 rooms and $200 dinners. Give me some coin droppin 90 year old casino place with lots of free grub stories EVERY day!
Not so sure if it’s allowed to transfer food comps to other patrons. You would have to be accomanied by the actual “owner” of those comp dollars and eat in a party of two or so. Please correct me if I am wrong.
From Switzerland
Boris
I was kidding about donating comps. You havnt finished the story yet so I don’t know what happens but it is clear even if you were trying to hit a goal weight of getting up to 450 pounds, you’d never be able to eat $7,000 and counting worth of food there
“Not so sure if it’s allowed to transfer food comps to other patrons.”
Generally speaking you are correct, Boris. My earlier response was intended as a “clever” way of saying I had zero comp dollars left. And you can give whatever percentage of zero comp dollars away that you like.
Bob
some years back, I met a guy at Tuscany. He was a smart guy, probably a bit too smart. He was switching players cards and since I was sitting next to him I noticed what he was doing. I didn’t ask him what that was all about but of course I knew rightaway as I’ve seen it before. Then, a few days later, same scenario, and we got into conversation. That guy told me a bit about himself and how smart it was to use different cards as the more different cards he was using the more free play, mailers, comps, etc were coming his way. The only thing that was bit difficult for him was to turn in comps with different names on the slip and convince the guy in the coffee shop or the Tuscany Gardens that it was all ok. A double-tip probably helped convincing the waiter and the cashier.
Then, a few months later, same scenario, different location. Big steak party at the Hard Rock Casino steak house, and the M Steak house. Using up 5 different comps for the same dinner with the same party of two all the time seemed to be no problem at all. Until the day that guy was escorted out by security when attempting to enter the facility and play the same game again. It must have been very unpleasant but at least he was not arrested for doing what he was doing. Since then I haven’t heard from him but I take it a lot of people have tried that and used many different players cards in order to earn more free play and comps than they actually should have merited.
Today, one of the ways to “game the system” is to use different players cards during promotions where there are random seat drawings and where the free play goes automatically on the card. Not sure if the Tuscany draws names of all the players that are logged in the morning when they start such a promotion or if it’s only among the people playing with their card actively inserted and playing. I just noticed that my name has ever been called during that Senior Day drawing and I’ve played a lot. If other people are sitting on a machine playing 5 cents per round and holding 10 or 20 additional players cards in their pockets that are all activated for the random drawing then of course I have no chance. Let’s hope that Tuscany is smart enough to draw only among people that are actually playing and not among all players cards that have been activated in the morning.
From Switzerland
Boris
Disagree with one thing you said Bob. I thought the coffee shop was decent.