UFC President Dana White is finally making a useful contribution to society. The brawl baron has importuned his BFF Donald Trump to do something to reverse the recent tax imposition on gambling losses. You will recall that not only are 100% of winnings taxable, now 10% of losses are too. We can thank Sen. Mike Crapo (R) for that financial sodomization of players, snuck through a sleepy Congress. (White’s well-reasoned letter can be found here.)
Continue reading A Friend in High Places
Casino revenues hopped 6% in April in the Free State. It was driven by a 19.5% surge in table winnings, as slots were flat. MGM National Harbor led the way with $74 million, up 8%. Horseshoe Baltimore slipped 3% to the mediocre $15 million per month that is this misbegotten casino’s destiny. Maryland Live was up 7.5% to $63 million. Ocean Downs gained 5.5% to $8 million but Hollywood Perryville ceded 4.5% to $7.5 million. Rocky Gap Resort continued to turn it around, up 7% to $4.5 million.
Continue reading Regional Casinos Remain Potent
A few weeks ago, I published a colorful chart (originally created by Jimmy Jazz) about how to hold the 4-card straight hands W567-WQJT in NSU Deuces Wild. The chart I created in Word didn’t translate to the program used for the column, but the information on the chart was correct.
Strangely, holding the 4-card straight every time is worth exactly $5 to the five-coin dollar player. Of the 47 possible draws, 9 give you your money back exactly, 19 give you a straight worth $10, and 19 give you five cards that do not return anything.
If you just hold the deuce, the hand is worth between about $4.97 and $5.03, depending on the rank and suit of the 47 remaining cards.
A now-deceased friend of mine, Annie Fried (sometimes she used Annie Lefton, or Annie Fried Lefton), decided she didn’t like memorizing the rather complicated rules and always held the deuce in these hands. She justified this in numerous ways:
I understood her logic, but I always tried to play the strategy exactly correctly. I was using video poker for my livelihood, and my rule of thumb was to play as accurately as possible.
There was a casino we played at where the best two games (for considerably higher stakes than dollars) were 8/5 Bonus Poker (99.16%) and 9/6 Double Double Bonus (98.98%). I played BP because it was higher EV. Annie played DDB because the bigger jackpots were more fun for her.
So far as I was concerned, the two decisions were consistent with each other. I was a “nit” looking for every little edge and Annie was looking for fun as she gambled. We understood the position of the other, talked about it some, but didn’t dwell on the subject repeatedly.
The reason I bring this up now, is that in the chat following my column on categorizing hands, a poster named Bradley Davis said he always held the deuce on these hands. His “reasons” were very close to some of Annie’s. He took some flack for presenting this opinion from somebody who didn’t understand the point he was making — welcome to my world!
Turns out I know Bradley Davis and we’re friends. Some 35 years ago he wrote a book called “Mastering Joker Wild Video Poker.” The strategies in the book were much more accurate than those published by other video poker writers of the day — most prominently Dan Paymar and Lenny Frome.
I met him in the mid-nineties at an Atlantic City function sponsored by Casino Player magazine. A bunch of gambling writers from around the country were invited to speak. It might have been my first teaching gig. At the time, I had three self-published booklets on video poker I was peddling for $10 apiece.
Davis used a laser pointer in his presentation. I had not seen one before, commented on it, and he gave his to me! We’ve kept in touch over the years and sometimes meet up when he comes to Vegas.
Anyway, while I continue to play as a nit, I’m not critical of those who play for fun. I don’t know Davis’s exact bankroll by any means, but I believe he’s a senior citizen with enough money to last him “for the duration.”
So far, Wynn Resorts has been unscathed by chaotic situation in the Persian Gulf and the Straits of Hormuz. Until now. Last week, Wynn bowed to the inevitable and postponed the opening of Wynn Al Marjan (pictured), its Mideast pleasure palace. Building a casino megaresort in the middle of a war isn’t for the foolhardy. To try and open one during hostilities would reek of hubris or insanity. Meantime, Wynn is going to double down on Macao, which is rarely a bad idea. It has slated construction of The Enclave, a 432-room hotel adjunct to Wynn Palace. The $950 million project should be ready by the end of 2028, or at least in time for Chinese New Year soon afterwards.
Continue reading War & Wynn
This week Anthony and Andrew give you the Vegas monthly update.
I was playing $5 NSU at Harrah’s Cherokee sometime last year. A man I didn’t know, who said his name was Archie, sat down next to me and started playing the $1 version of deuces wild on the same bank of machines.
He was dealt WWQJ3, where the W indicates a wild card (i.e., a deuce) and the bold italics indicate that all the cards were suited with each other. He looked at me and asked if he should hold all five cards (a flush) or maybe throw away the 3 and go for the wild royal flush. I told him I didn’t know for sure. I had never played that game before.
“Anybody who plays $5 deuces wild can play $1 deuces wild,” was his reply.
“It has nothing to do with denomination,” I told him. “At this casino, the $1 deuces wild pays 100 coins for wild royals and 60 coins for 5-of-a-kinds. The $5 deuces wild pays 125 coins and 80 coins for those same two pay schedule categories. The $1 version is more than 2% tighter and many hands are played differently between the two games.
“The return on 5-of-a-kind isn’t a factor on this hand, but the return on the wild royal definitely is.
“I’d need to study the $1 game to know how to play each hand,” I continued, “and since the game pays so little, I know I’m never going to play it in a casino. Why should I bother to study a game I’m not going to play?”
“But I don’t know how to play this hand,” Archie continued.
“Not my problem,” I told him. “I’m here to play my own game. I didn’t come to the casino today to help you play a terrible game.”
Five minutes later, he asked me about another hand. And then another a few minutes after that. After telling him twice more that I wasn’t there to help him, I didn’t even acknowledge his further questions. I cashed out and went to play on the opposite side of the bank of machines. If he followed, there were other $5 NSU machines elsewhere in the casino.
Later that day, Archie came back near me, but this time he had a couple of buddies with him. One of them had obtained a deuces wild strategy card and they were using that card to tell them how to play the hands. This was fine with me. They were not asking for my assistance.
The thing was, the deuces wild strategy card they were using must have been for a game called full pay deuces wild. This is a game where the pay schedule categories, from wild royals to flushes, pay 25, 15, 9, 5, 3, and 2. The machine they were on paid 20, 12, 10, 4, 4, and 3 for the same pay schedule categories. Nothing matched up! I’m guessing more than 20% of the hands were played differently between the two games. I didn’t actually see the card they were using. It might have been one they bought from me!
In addition, they had trouble figuring out how to read the card. The right number of gaps with straight flush draws takes some time to get correctly. These guys were trying to figure it out on the fly — and their results were predictable.
Using the wrong strategy card turned a 97.6% game into one that might have paid 96%, although this was probably better than not having the card and guessing all of the time. Plus using the card for every hand slowed them down so they weren’t playing many hands — which meant they weren’t losing quite so fast.
I didn’t say a thing to them. I could have told them they were using the wrong card, but from earlier experience with Archie I believed that saying anything would give him permission to start asking a lot of questions again. And I didn’t want that.
I don’t know how much they lost — but it’s certain that they did lose. Even with good pay schedules of deuces wild played well, if you don’t hit four deuces or a royal today, you’re going to have a losing session. And with only 100 coins for a wild royal and 60 coins for 5-of-a-kind, your score is going to be even worse. A royal would have locked the machine up and these guys would have whooped and hollered if they connected on four deuces. They didn’t.
The lessons were clear — at least to me. Play better games, use the correct strategy, and practice before you get to the casino. Still, if they guys were once-every-two-years players, and the money lost was small change for them, perhaps they went about it the right way. Studying might have ruined the fun for them, and studying makes more sense if you’re a more frequent player.
Coming in slighty ahead of Wall Street‘s expectations, Caesars Entertainment delivered cash flow of $887 million in the first quarter. (The Street anticipated $883 million.) J.P. Morgan analyst Daniel Politzer attributed the beat to “modest upside,” both online and in vexed Las Vegas. Caesars’ bread and butter, its regional casinos, were merely in line with forecasts. And management was keeping mum on the possibility of a Tilman Ferttita takeover or an insider LBO.
Continue reading The Big Boys: Caesars, MGM & Station
Three of the best restaurants on the Las Vegas Strip are within five minutes of each other near Aria and CityCenter. All three have verified happy hours. None of them require a reservation. And if you time it right, you can hit all three in a single afternoon for about $57 — including food and drinks at each stop.
This is the Aria area happy hour tour. Happy Hour Vegas mapped it, verified the menus, and did the math. Here’s how to run it. 🍸
The Tour at a Glance
🕒 3 stops · 3 PM–7 PM · ~5 min walk between stops · No reservation required · Verified by Happy Hour Vegas
👉 See all Happy Hour Tour Guides at Happy Hour Vegas →
63 CityCenter · Happy Hour: Mon–Fri 3–6 PM
Ocean Prime is a national upscale steakhouse and seafood brand — the kind of restaurant most people save for a special occasion. The happy hour menu does not know that. The Sakura Wagyu Cheeseburger is $12. That’s a wagyu beef burger at a white-tablecloth steakhouse for twelve dollars. Pair it with the Blackberry Club cocktail at $10 and you’ve opened the afternoon with one of the best $22 moves on the Strip.
What to order: Sakura Wagyu Cheeseburger $12 · Blackberry Club cocktail $10
Stop total: $22
👉 Full menu & hours at Happy Hour Vegas · 📸 @oceanprimelv
🚶 Walk to Stop 2: Exit Ocean Prime toward CityCenter and follow the covered walkway into the Shops at Crystals. Toca Madera is inside the mall — approximately 5 minutes on foot.
The Shops at Crystals, Aria · Happy Hour: Mon–Fri 4–6 PM
Toca Madera is a modern Mexican concept with serious culinary credentials sitting inside one of the most expensive malls on the planet. The happy hour menu makes absolutely no sense at these prices — and that’s the point. The Al Pastor Taqueria is $10. Add a Mexican beer at $5 and you’re at $15 inside a restaurant where dinner for two runs well north of $100. Don’t overthink it. Just order the tacos.
What to order: Al Pastor Taqueria $10 · Mexican beer $5
Stop total: $15
👉 Full menu & hours at Happy Hour Vegas · 📸 @tocamadera
🗝️ Three stops. One afternoon. The math has been done for you — and there are two more on this tour. Get finds like this in your inbox every week → Free signup here
🚶 Walk to Stop 3: Exit Toca Madera from the front entrance toward Aria. Pass the Aria lobby and stay left on the casino floor. Take the escalator up to the second floor promenade level. Turn right at the top — Brasserie Bardot is on your right. About 5 minutes.
Aria Resort, 2nd Floor · Happy Hour: Tue–Sat 5–7 PM + 9–10 PM
Brasserie Bardot is a French brasserie on the Aria restaurant row — gorgeous room, serious wine program, the kind of place that feels like a splurge the moment you walk in. The happy hour menu is four deviled eggs and a glass of sparkling wine for $20 combined. That’s it. That’s the move. End the afternoon here, take your time, and let the room do the rest.
What to order: Deviled eggs (4) $8 · Sparkling wine $12
Stop total: $20
👉 Full menu & hours at Happy Hour Vegas · 📸 @bardot_lv
🕒 3 PM · Ocean Prime · Wagyu Cheeseburger + Blackberry Club · $22
🕓 4:30 PM · Toca Madera · Al Pastor Taqueria + Mexican beer · $15
🕔 5:30 PM · Brasserie Bardot · Deviled eggs + Sparkling wine · $20
3 restaurants · 3 drinks · 3 courses · No reservation · Total: $57
A full afternoon at three of the best restaurants near the Strip. Each of these venues has a full happy hour menu with enough selection that you may find it genuinely difficult to leave on schedule. That’s fine. These are regular happy hours, not one-time promotions. Come back any time.
👉 Browse the full Las Vegas Advisor Happy Hours directory — 500+ verified happy hours, updated menus, and current prices.
The Happy Hour Vegas newsletter is free. No fluff or filler. just curated deals, updated menus, and new finds from the team tracking 500+ happy hours across the valley. New Happy hours and top-picks every week.
My wife and I have a flight from Las Vegas to Detroit on June 2. The original fee was 22,500 miles each. My wife was looking at the flight and discovered we could rebook the same flight at 15,500 miles, each saving 7,000 miles. With SWA points worth 1.4 to 1.5 cents, that’s a $98-$105 difference for each of us.
We happened to see another flight that was a little less convenient, but was another 9,000 miles cheaper. We took that one and saved 16,000 miles each. Quite the savings.
Rebooking was a breeze. We managed the entire process online in about 10 minutes. Unfortunately, I tried to add my wife’s job title (RN) and it ended up in the last-name slot. I couldn’t edit the last name online. But instead of rebooking, I called the 800 number. After a four-minute wait on hold, the agent took care of the issue in a few minutes.
Say what you want about Southwest and its assigned seating, reduced flights, etc., but every time I’ve had to call them, they were polite, professional and very helpful.
So, if you fly Southwest to Las Vegas (or anywhere), check the cost of your flight a couple of times before you leave. A small effort can offer a big reward.
Here’s a quick AI overview of Southwest points.
Southwest Rapid Rewards points are primarily used to book any available seat on Southwest Airlines flights with no blackout dates, typically valued around 1.3–1.5 cents each. Points can also be redeemed for international flights via partners, hotel stays, rental cars, gift cards, merchandise, and purchase, transfer, or donate points.
Southwest points, even those refunded from a changed or canceled flight, do not expire.
