In Las Vegas blackjack circles, the El Cortez in downtown Las Vegas is well-known for having a decent single-deck game — aside from the fact that they are extremely quick to pull the trigger on kicking players out. Several blackjack teams send their new players to play there, knowing they’ll be kicked out fairly quickly, just to get the first barring out of the way.
About ten years ago, I played some on a dollar Kings or Better Joker Wild machine — which was worth 100.65% before the slot club. (That game is long gone now, as is most other decent video poker there.) As luck would have it, I hit a $4,000 royal flush after playing maybe 500 hands. The game has a royal cycle of 41,214 hands, so nobody was more surprised than I was. There were some bonuses with jackpots (maybe $10 free play and a Dove bar?), which I collected. Elsewhere at that time, I was playing mostly dollar multi-line, as well as $5 and $25 games, and was somewhat embarrassed to be seen hitting a royal on such a small machine. (Today, I’m not welcome to play the games I’d prefer to play, so you may well find me playing dollar single-line somewhere.)
It was not a small machine insofar as the El Cortez management was concerned. A $4,000 jackpot was something to sweat! I heard through the grapevine that I was almost kicked out for that one jackpot! For a new player, I found the good machines immediately, lived in a zip code more than 15 miles away, and had the nerve to hit a royal flush. That added up in their mind to being close to a “kick the SOB out” decision. They didn’t at the time, but it was close. They were, and are, extremely quick to pull the plug on players they deem a threat.
I had no more play there until earlier this year. In passing, I had seen a television news show scanning that casino, and I noticed two Ultimate X Gold machines in the scan. I’ve been studying that game a little and I thought I’d go in and look at them.
There were only the two machines I saw on television. They came in 1¢, 2¢, 5¢, 10¢, and 25¢ denominations — and each of these in Triple Play, Five Play, and Ten Play. Each of these offered eight different games, Jacks or Better, Double Bonus, Deuces Wild, etc. It takes ten coins per line to play.
I never looked at the penny or two-penny games. For the nickel games, I’d look at the Ten Play version ($5 per play). I’d look at all of those, plus all the ones for dimes and quarters. Quarter Ten Play in this game is $25 per play. I was actually using these machines to practice my UXG skills so I could play bigger-denomination games elsewhere.
All UX games involve multipliers, and UXG is a game where multipliers build up and remain until they are hit. Without going into explicit detail, a competent player looks for games where there are enough multipliers that are high enough. If a game doesn’t meet your criteria, you skip it and go on to the next one. As these machines were configured, I had 56 different individual games to check on each of the two machines. This takes some time.
There were usually a few plays on each of the machines. I assume if I looked at the penny and two-penny games I’d find a lot more plays because there’s a better chance that players at those denominations have less of an understanding of how the game should be played and hence leave juicy multipliers all the time. But playing games for such miniscule stakes is of no interest to me.
I played once every two or three weeks. I have other plays downtown so I’m “in the area” fairly frequently. Remembering how trigger-happy they were a decade previously, I figured if I became known as a “regular” on those machines, especially if I managed to win, I’d be toast there once I became recognized. I assume management there was generally aware that these games were exploitable, even if they couldn’t personally do it. The casino has some exploitable slots as well, so I’d check them out while I was there.
I’m not sure how much it takes to earn a slot club point on these machines, but if you earn 300 points in a day you get a wheel spin at the kiosk. Sometimes it is $10 in free play. Sometimes it is $10 food. Usually, it is 100 free drawing tickets — which are absolutely worthless to me. They have regular small drawings that aren’t worth the effort to go down there, in my opinion.
On maybe my 15th visit, the general manager came up to me while I was playing UXG and told me I wasn’t welcome to play there anymore. I hadn’t hit any W-2Gs or had big wins. He didn’t recognize me as Bob Dancer. He just didn’t want players coming in and checking multipliers on the UXG machines.
It was civil enough. No security officers were involved, I was paid for my accumulated slot club points, and I left without incident. I wasn’t officially trespassed, and I assume that if I want to go into their restaurant and pay retail for food that I can do so.
Insofar as barrings go, this one made me smile more than anything else. It was never going to be a major stop for me and the games were marginally profitable to me at best.
I would have preferred not to have been barred, of course, but in no way was this a traumatic experience.
It is getting to the point now that if one wishes to play video poker as an advantage player, one must resort to playing just like advantage playing blackjack players play. I personally believe that casinos are focusing in upon elderly video poker and black jack players as ones to bar – meanwhile they allow and encourage younger gamblers to play for the “entertainment” the games provide. The young do not know of how good Vegas gambling used to be – all they know are the newer games that only increase the casinos bottom line. There will come a time when any decent video poker will be a thing of the past everywhere. Ever since Jackie Gaughan passed and the El Cortez was sold, the gaming there has gotten worse – apparently the bean counters and ownership were not making enough money to satisfy them. Downtown is looking more like the strip every day.
For many many years I’ve been a loyal and recurring customer at the El Cortez Casino in Downtown Las Vegas. I have noticed the changes that took place, from the time the E-C did the remodeling, the sad times when Mr J.Gaughan passed away but before then when he was regularly playing low limit poker in the small poker room, until the times when Mr Epstein and his management crew took over.
The E-C is one of the true and last resorts that shows us what Las Vegas used to be. The golden times of videopoker have slowly come to an end and the E-C is not a place that continued this old tradition. While Station and Boyd obviously don’t make it look like they’re willing to offer more multiplier days and bring back some of the good old games, so are other places, just like the E-C.
And still, I like the El Cortez for many reasons. They treat me good there and there is no other casino in Nevada that has more coin-operated machines like the E-C. The fact is, they reduced the club value to the point that you can’t get over 100 per cent, no matter how you look at it. But it’s fine with me. There are still some good machines left and playing 99.61 per cent videopoker is always better than playing 98.90 per cent games with a 5x multiplier.
I have understood that the casinos are there to make money, and not to give away money. If you want to win money in a casino you have to either beat the odds, be luckier than others or play better than others. There are some casinos in Las Vegas that give you a chance to win money, and if you’re a great poker player then probably you still ahve a good chance to make a living gambling poker. However, it’s like walking on dire straits and you know exactly that perhaps 5 per cent of all gamblers are successful in what they’re doing. A majority of gamblers needs a 2nd source of income to finance their hobby (gambling). Even some top professional poker players have other courses of income besides of what they’re making at the tables, because it’s just too risky.
If I was a casino manager, I would have done it the same way like Mr Epstein did with his gaming managers. And there’s nothing wrong about. Give the players a fair shot at the money is fair. Give them over 100 per cent and you’re actually not smart. I perfectly understand that they cut the club value at the E-C just the way they did at most other places in Las Vegas. However, I will still return to that place because I love it there. They treat me good and I give them some of my money. It’s a give and take. I feel a bit sorry about these clubs with its extremely loud music being played at nights, all around the E-C which makes it hard for the hotel guestst o find sleep before the early morning hours. And the permanent increase of homeless that can bee seen in Downtown. It’s affecting the business to some degree and probably not much you can do about However, The El Cortez will remain on my top priority list of places to visit. I really hope that it will stay on the road map for many many more years.
From Switzerland
Boris
Boris
I know you’re a visitor at Southpoint which is owned by Michael Gaughan, Jackie’s son. Michael learned from an “oldtimer” and has transformed his property into the best place in the US, IMO, for the masses to play video poker.
In your reply, you state “Give them over 100 per cent and you’re actually not smart.” You telling me that Michael, whose slot club pays .3%, has monthly promotions almost every month, and has a casino full of NSUD paying 99.73% is not smart? Not in a million years.
I understand being loyal to the EC, no problem with being treated nice and getting a little old Vegas vibe. But giving a gambler a fair chance is how the Gaughan family made it’s name. If they’re not smart in your book, I’d like to be that kind of “not smart.”
I am actually a little amazed that Mr. Epstein and his management team are doing this. Wondering if the bottom line (net) was actually higher when Jackie was alive. The people in the videos on The El Cortez You Tube are all experienced managers. My wife (who is not a gambler) has always said that you don’t need to bar blackjack counters. There are things a good competent management team can do to even out and balance the odds. Burn a card between hands, use a random number for first position dealt etc.. Another way is to add a promo, win something or a car based on you and the dealer both having blackjack. The increase in the drop would more than pay for the prize. I remember the past with owners like Benny Binion, Major Riddle, Paul Lowden. You can only play 1 place and with the right marketing your blackjack tables would be always full, even during slow times.
Hello Neil
Thanks for your reply and comments. If you visit the Southpoint on any given day you see that there’s a big difference now between what’s going on there and at other places such as Green Valley Ranch or other major Boyd operated casinos. I think you know all that.
At Soutzpoint, although the NSUD games are among the best you can find, I did not see many players playing 99.73 per cent deuces wild while I was there last time. I saw a few old timers playing the 2 dollar games (10 dollars per round) and they knew what they were doing. A lot of other players prefer other games that have a little lower return average and then you price in the mistake percentage and the calculation works out for the casino.
So the majority of all players at Southpoint is probably under 98.50 per cent , perhaps you have to deduct more by pricing in the mistakes that are being done every hour per player. Perhaps it’s even less than 98 per cent overall, I don’t know. With the monthly promotions, gifts, comps, making it still one of the best places that I have ever played and I take it the Southpoint under today’s conditions is one of the most successful casinos in Las Vegas. And one that ranges among the places with the highest occupancy rates overall.
In the poker room, I had a few conversations with locals that strictly play poker and nothing but that. (At least that was what they said…) I was very impressed about the way they run Southpoint, and it shows. Probably many players take that for “normal”. I think it’s not necessarily default what they give you at Southpoint. It’s pointless to go too much into detail but the people I spoke to have their personal opinion about all other games being offered, obviously disregarding that without all those slot players and revenues from the regular pit games there would never be a poker room of that size filled with locals going for the promotions , freerolls, comps etc. Also a buffet that such competiive pricing is had to finance if the casino would not have such a high volume of gaming every single day. It would simply not work out.
From Switzerland
Boris
p.s. on the other hand…I was shocked when I saw that they charge at the Starbucks café. It looks like to them the sky’s the limit.
Avoid the bald manger if checking slots.
Boris – what I find shocking is that people actually pay those atrocious prices for coffee at Starbucks – after all, it is just coffee.
David
They really did jack up their prices to a degree that I find it too much. (another company that has shocking new prices is Dunkin Donuts, but that’s a different story…).
Starbucks has begun to pull back from certain Eiuropean markets because many people are no longer willing to pay these prices. I find it a bit extreme that 2 speciality coffees with 2 muffins cost somelthing between 25 and 28 dollars. And then there is a tip box next to the cashier. Don’t forget…Starbucks is one of the companies that knows how to shove around their sales figures until the money arrives in a country where they hardly play any taxes…..
I was barred from playing blackjack at the El Cortez in 1989 and was devastated by the experience. The pit boss told me that no one would play my hands the way I did unless they were a card counter and I could no longer play blackjack there but I was welcome to play any of their slot machines.
Shortly after this experience I discovered that I could beat their kings or better joker wild machines and ended up taking out more money from the El Cortez playing video poker than I ever did playing blackjack. I felt that I had my revenge.
About 10 years later (I think) I had a personal meeting with Jackie Gohn to see if I could get reinstated playing blackjack. He told me that he knew nothing of the circumstances, but as far as he was concerned, I could play again. I really had no interest in playing blackjack there again, but I felt I needed to take care of unfinished business. Perhaps I was one of the very few players that was actually reinstated as a card counter.
Starbucks does overcharge. And in my opinion their coffee sucks.
Speaking of coffee and El Cortez, the Bugsy’s 1941 is offering a coffee of extremely good quality. Last time when I was there it cost about 3.95 , but it’s worth it anytime. The brew tastes fresh and really good. I think it can always take on with Starbucks’ brew of the day. And they give you free refills at the E-C.
From Switzerland
Boris
> There were some bonuses with jackpots (maybe $10 free play and a Dove bar?)
It was a Klondike bar. Then at some point they switched to, in my opinion, a much lower quality ice cream.
(On the bright side, you now get the coupons for them from the kiosks, rather than having to wait 5 minutes trying to flag down a slot attendant.)
I think the threshold to play the kiosk game is fairly liberal. Given the fact that it takes not much coin-in to receive a 10 dollar free play or coffee shop discount, that value has to be priced into the overall return. I never saw anybody getting a 100 dollar free play although there is this marketing guy talking every 15 minutes or so during the music interruption, saying that you can win up to 100 dollars in free play, every day. It sounds too good to be true but perhaps high limit slot players get higher rewards. I think this would make sense.
Too bad they also stopped videopoker multipliers although that’s the true bread-and-butter for us…..
From Switzerland
Boris