Bonnie and I regularly fly to Reno to play at Eldorado — which, along with Silver Legacy and Circus Circus, are called the ROW. While the casinos physically remain separate, they are connected on the second level by walkways passing over the streets that run between the casinos. All three ROW casinos run the same promotions, use the same slot tickets, are considered “one place,” and are part of the Caesars Rewards system.
The game we’ve been playing at Eldorado has been $10 Triple Bonus Poker Plus (TBPP). Although this game has cleaned my clock in 2024, I hit three royals in 45 days in 2023, and overall, my score has been reasonably close to expectations. The game has a variance very similar to Double Double Bonus, and as players of that game know, that game leads to heaven or hell results. Within the past year, they also removed $1 and $5 Super Aces Bonus (SAB) poker, which has a slightly higher return and a much higher variance than TBPP.
Without going into great detail about their promotions, suffice it to say that Bonnie and I regularly got on an airplane from Las Vegas to go play there.
Although the next loosest game is NSU Deuces Wild, I don’t believe the casino removed SAB and TBPP in order to have a tighter floor. They removed the games because those particular games were only found on decades-old IGT machines. The casino decided, correctly, I believe, that they needed to upgrade their floor with newer machines. For whatever reason, IGT has decided not to have those particular pay schedules on their newer machines.
Under the video poker management at IGT, many high paying video poker games have been removed from their inventory. And when new games are created, IGT has, at times, refused to release them with pay schedules looser than 99%. At more than one Global Gaming Expo trade show, the manager of IGT video poker told me he believes that very few, if any, slot directors mind that the games are tighter now. I’ve responded to him, fruitlessly, that some casinos choose to offer loose games some of the time. IGT’s refusal to supply those games is a slap in the face to players. I’m sure he at least listened to me, but then decided not to do as I requested.
So the loosest high limit Eldorado machines are a bit tighter than they used to be. This doesn’t affect many people, but it does affect Bonnie and me. However, we’ll still go and play there. While not as good as it used to be, that casino still offers a good enough “game plus promotions” combination for us to get on an airplane to go play it.
Comparing a game to what used to be and isn’t coming back is a fool’s game. You need to compare a game to games currently found elsewhere. And by that criterion, Reno here we come!
Great article
Just there last week the Eldorado has the best VP of the three casinos