In last week’s article, available here, I explained how I happened to be playing for large stakes at the newly-opened SLS Casino on its opening weekend. I was down $34,000 after four hours of play. The story continues:
Shortly thereafter I hit $20,000 aces. While I was “in for” $56,000 at this point ($40,000 in markers plus $16,000 of cash I had fed into the machines), I had about $20,000 worth of tickets in my pocket and credits on both machines, so I “bought back” one of the markers.
Ten minutes later I hit a $10,000 set of threes, and shortly after that I hit a $20,000 set of fours with a kicker. I paid off the other marker, had credits on my machine and tickets in my pocket. I had been down $34,000 a half hour ago and now I was up a few thousand. Normal swings on these machines.
It took another hour or so of play before I hit a $100,000 royal flush. I tend to be blasĂ© about jackpots, but this one felt particularly sweet. While I used to play $25 machines regularly, I don’t play them much anymore and it’s been a couple of years since I hit a jackpot of that size. It was about two in the morning and I considered texting Bonnie with the good news, but I decided against it. She had a big day planned for Monday and needed the sleep. There would be time enough later to tell her.
For what it’s worth, I took some cash, some tickets, and a check for the rest of the royal flush. It took a half hour or so for a jackpot of that size to be processed, but it was not a problem for me. There were a total of four machines there and nobody else was playing, so moving over one spot was easy.
Four times during the evening, pros I recognized came by and checked out the pay schedules of the machines. Two of them didn’t say a word to me — one because we aren’t particularly close and the other because it’s often a good idea not to let the casino know that you are friends. If a casino were going to kick me out, for example, and I am particularly friendly with another player, the casino might well decide to kick that player out too. “Guilt by association” has been known to happen in Las Vegas.
The other two guys asked a few questions about the slot club and other conditions. I shared honest answers. They left. Nobody else played those machines that night.
Sometime after 5 a.m. I noticed that I had misplayed a hand. I was dealt Aâ™ Kâ™ Q♥ T♣ 4â™ and I held AK rather than AKQT. (AK would be correct if the 4â™ had been a 4♥.) This is a common penalty card situation in many games and I simply missed it. While it’s worth less than a penny to a 25 cent player, it’s a 75 cent error to a $25 player. If I’m making mistakes that big, it’s time to go home.
I had played $625,000 (5,000 hands) on the night. I was ahead more than the royal. As a routine procedure, before I left I cashed out all the accumulated cash back (actually $1,250 in free play) that I had earned. It could happen that I was going to be booted. It’s happened before to players hitting $100,000 jackpots and I certainly didn’t know the philosophy of this particular management team. If I was kicked out, my free play might end up being forfeited. I didn’t want that, so I downloaded it and cashed it out before I left.
After I cashed out all my tickets and picked up my W2G logs, I asked for a breakfast comp. The Griddle CafĂ© was the only place open. Due to the fact that all of their procedures were not quite worked out yet, it took more than a half hour before it was approved. Had I known this beforehand I would have simply driven home. I was more tired than hungry. I had a book with me, but I was fatigued after more than 9 hours of intense concentration followed by almost one hour of “doing nothing.” While I had napped Sunday afternoon so that I would be alert all night Sunday night, if these aren’t your regular hours it is hard to be alert at “off hours.” I have no recollection of what I ate at the Griddle CafĂ© or whether it was tasty.
On Tuesday night, a day and a half later, I decided to go see how many, if any, comps I had earned. So Bonnie and I invited a friend to join us and we all went to Bazaar Meats by Jose Andres at SLS. The comp was for $450.
A week later Bonnie and I took Richard Munchkin and his wife to Ku Noodle after the radio show. This was a $200 comp with no problem. If you ever make it there, try the Taiwanese shaved ice for dessert. This is a made-to-order experience where you choose several ingredients. This is an $8 or $9 dessert for two that is actually special enough that I’d consider paying retail for it. Those who know me understand why that is the highest compliment I ever give a restaurant.
My host contacted me and asked me when I was coming back to play again. I told her that I had other $2,500 mailers. Could I get that matched again? No such luck (no surprise.) I told her that I was probably done playing for a month and would wait to see what kind of mailers would be generated by my play. I told her that I know I got a lucky royal flush, but $625,000 coin-in should generate some top-of-the-line offers. She told me her bosses wanted to see more play out of me before they gave me any mailers. It didn’t make sense to me to play and lose $25,000 or so in order to get mailers for a couple of thousand dollars.
There was some talk over various Internet sites that I had hit one or more big jackpots at the SLS. Some people were suggesting that I had selfishly hit big jackpots and ruined SLS video poker for other players. I found those comments comical. I could easily have lost $70,000, and nobody (other than Bonnie) would have felt sorry for me. The fact that I ended up winning more than that was far from a foregone conclusion. Royals in that game happen every 41,000 or so hands. Hitting one with only 5,000 hands played was fortunate, offset by being under-royaled elsewhere.
Anyone who thinks I can pop a royal flush anytime I want doesn’t understand video poker, or perhaps has a very inflated idea of my skill set. I’m a better-than-average player, to be sure, but there’s no such thing in this game as someone being head-and-shoulders better than other skilled players. Playing perfectly is an obtainable goal for many players. Playing very well but not perfectly might have cost a player $100 in EV over the course of $625,000 coin-in. That’s almost irrelevant when my actual score was in excess of $100,000. It does require an adequate bankroll and a willingness to suffer losses to play at those stakes, but that hardly makes me unique.
In the more than two months since I played, I haven’t received a decent mailer. I did get a free room offer and an email saying that if I played again and lost, I would be reimbursed up to my first $100 in losses — which is an offer open to everybody. And I was invited to a slot tournament. I did receive a post card that was identical to the one Bonnie’s former husband received, and Fred has been dead three years! Those offers were not interesting. For $625,000 coin-in, I was expecting a mailer in the $3,000 or higher range. If it ever comes, I’ll be back. If not, I won’t. I’m not holding my breath.
Bonnie and I have returned to Ku Noodle with another friend. Eventually I was told they needed to see more play before they issued more food comps. Fair enough. It was only after my comps ran out that I considered publishing this article.
As I write this, I believe the best games in the high limit room are now 8/5 Bonus and 9/7 Double Bonus. Both games are in the 99.1% – 99.2% range. While “decent,” compared with many other casinos, it takes some significant incentives in order to make these games playable. They still, however, might have some 25 cent and lower machines with excellent returns. These games are unusual for Las Vegas Strip casinos. Perhaps they hope to compete with local casinos. That is another tough market in which to succeed.
I read that SLS has laid off a few hundred people. I hope this doesn’t continue. It’s a lovely place and I hope it succeeds. Clearly, their combination of games and marketing was way too loose at the opening. Clearly, to me at least, it’s now too tight. I’m hoping they can find a decent medium that’s attractive to players and still profitable for the house. If they can’t, they won’t last very long. That would be bad news for them, for players, and for the city of Las Vegas as a whole.