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Parm Famous Italian

The original Parm Famous Italian casual eatery opened in Little Italy in Manhattan in 2011, a spinoff of the famed restaurant Carbone. The Las Vegas version of Carbone opened at Aria in late 2015, so it was a natural fit for Parm to occupy the space at Aria’s Proper Eats Food Hall that was vacated by the failed Shalom Y’All. Parm opened in May.

Parm is touted as “a great way to get a taste of Carbone’s acclaimed recipes if you can’t nab a reservation at the signature restaurant.” We could grab a reservation, but we aren’t anxious to pay $19 for broccoli, $20 for a bowl of minestrone, $36 for tortellini, $40 for clams, or $84 for veal parmesan.

Like all the outlets at Proper Eats (and the other Vegas food halls), the choices at Parm are limited. Appetizers include buffalo cucumbers ($7), meatballs ($10) and mozzarella sticks ($12). There’s one salad, a Caesar ($15). The pair of pasta dishes are spicy rotini and spaghetti and meatballs ($19) and the four sandwiches are a five-meat Italian combo, meatball parm, chicken parm, and roast beef (all $18).

None of the choices is particularly inspiring, at least to us. But to get even an inkling of the fare at Carbone and knowing that Parm has spread to six locations in New York, one in Boston, and all the way out to Las Vegas, we figured we’d give it a try.

We went for what’s described as the most popular and signature item, the chicken parm sandwich. It’s a breaded cutlet coated with tomato sauce and awash in melted cheese in a seeded Italian hero roll. Perhaps you can tell from the photo that we were underwhelmed at best. The cutlet was dry and tasteless, the sauce and cheese were average at best; what we liked most were the sesame seeds on the bun. Suffice it to say that we had trouble giving away the half-sandwich we didn’t want. To add insult to injury, the total bill, with tax and a $1.50 tip, came to $21.01. For that price, we could get a whole best-in-U.S. pie at Double Zero Pizza.

So this review is better spent reexamining the digital-ordering process on the Proper Eats kiosk screens in case you missed our original coverage (LVA May 2023). Here it is in photos.

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Life Is a Gamble Podcast — Elihu Feustel

In this latest Life Is a Gamble podcast, Munchkin talks with Elihu Feustel, is a professional gambler and former insurance lawyer for 10 years until he began sports betting full time. He was also an oddsmaker and consultant for Pinnacle Sports and has written and co-written a number of books about gambling and fantasy sports. He’s on the podcast to talk about his new book, Beyond The Odds. You can listen to the 50 minute interview here.

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Knowing More Than One Video Poker Game

Bob Dancer

Presumably, the vast majority of my readers have a favorite video poker game. Or at least a “go to” video poker game that they play the most. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t spend their time reading a blog behind a paywall which primarily addresses video poker.

The reasons for knowing more than one game are multi-fold. In no particular order:

  1. Casinos change their inventory of games periodically. Always have. Always will. If your favorite game goes away, you’ll be in a lot better position to keep playing video poker if you have a back-up game.
  1. The conditions on the game you usually play might be less than ideal. There might be smokers, or sticky buttons, or chatterboxes, or something else that you’d rather avoid. If you only know one game, it’s sometimes a matter of putting up with bad conditions or going home.
  1. There are sometimes more players desiring a particular game than there are machines. This is especially true if you’re playing the loosest game in the house and there’s a special event going on bringing in more players than usual.
  1. Promotions affect games differently. If it’s some sort kind of a 4-of-a-kind promotion, deuces wild variants do not perform as well as games without wild cards.
  1. Different casinos have different game mixes. While to some degree “all casinos are the same,” they really aren’t. Each has its own restaurants, for example, and you probably prefer some more than others — plus however good any particular restaurant is, variety is nice. Some casinos include movie theaters, bowling, childcare, shuttles to get you there, or perhaps are nearer to shopping. If you have one or more travel companions when you go to casinos, some of these things might be important to whomever you’re traveling with.
  1. The more games you know and practice, the more you stay mentally sharp at playing the game. I’m a believer that to keep your brain sharp, you have to use it. Regularly. I’m not an expert in brain health, but I’ve heard that adage repeated enough that it’s gospel to me. While at age 77 my brain is not as sharp as it was when I was younger, I attribute the sharpness that remains to the regular use to which I put it.
  1. Video poker is a very repetitious game. You’re dealt two pair. You hold two pair. For many people, playing the same repetitious game over and over again gets boring. 
  1. Your financial conditions might change, and not all pay schedules are available in all denominations.
  1. There might be better games on Triple Play or some other format you prefer more than single line games.
  1. You might prefer slant top machines to uprights. Or maybe adjustable chairs. Or distance from the sound effects of a particularly obnoxious slot machine.
  2. Playing multiple games allows you to meet more people. While a lot of us, including me, prefer to play without chatting, a valuable source of information about games and/or promotions at the current casino and others will be your fellow players. Just as in “real life,” the more networking you do the more you’ll succeed.
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Pop Stroke at Town Square

This isn’t your old-time Disneyland kid’s miniature golf by any stretch of the imagination. You won’t find drawbridges, windmills, castles, clown heads, or log tunnels at Las Vegas’ newest miniature-golf course, Pop Stroke. What you will find is a serious putters’ challenge, with all kinds of sand traps and roughs, contouring from gentle to wild with all kinds of banks, humps, turns, and waves, and different grades of synthetic surfaces. Which is appropriate for a mini-golf company in which Tiger Woods and Taylor Made Golf are partners.

Pop Stroke was founded all of six years ago and now has 16 locations in six states; the one at Town Square near the junction of I-15 and the 215 Beltway, which opened in April, is the only location in Nevada.

Pop Stroke features two 18-hole courses, one easier than the other. You can bring your own putter or pick one of Pop Strokes’ based on your height; the balls come in different colors and you get to keep the one you play with. You can download the app to keep score and order drinks from the three bars and food from the sports bar, which the staff delivers to you on the course. Shareables include chicken tenders, hummus platter, nachos, wings, and tuna tartare ($12-$21), while tacos, sandwiches, burgers, wraps, and steak are $13-$24.

There’s also an ice cream counter, with 25 flavors (1/2/3 scoops $6/$8/$10) and a variety of toppings ($1 each), plus floats and milkshakes ($9-$12).

An outdoor play area offers a couple of foosball tables, ping pong, and cornhole. There’s a warm-up green for practicing, but it’s not really necessary; admission is good for all day, so you can play as long as you like, hang around the game area or bar and start up again, or even leave and come back.

Being barely six months old, Pop Stroke’s palm trees are young and provide little shade. We were there during the heat wave in July when it was 115 out and it was sizzling out on the greens. But plenty of water, wet towels, fans, and misters are stationed around the property that help to keep things if not exactly cool, at least not roasting.

This place is very popular. There’s plenty of free parking, but the lot does get full. And depending on the size of the group/groups in front of yours, you might have to stand around and wait for everyone to take a turn. We saw a group of eight take 15 minutes on a hole.

We also watched couples and groups of three and four bypass them to the next hole. Since you can play all day, unless you’re intent on competing and the score really matters, anything basically goes. From our observations, groups of two to four seem to be the best size.

All in all, Pop Stroke puts a new spin, so to speak, on mini-golf and in clement weather or at night, it’s a very fun outdoor activity. It’s open 9 a.m. to midnight Sun.-Thurs., till 1 a.m. on Fri-Saturday. Summer pricing is Mon.-Thurs. $35, Fri,-Sat. $40 per person, locals $30/$35. Kids 3-12 are 40% off, seniors/military/twilight (two hours prior to closing) 20%. Special events happen almost every day: Mondays senior day, Tuesdays kids day, Wednesday college day, Thursday ladies night. And there’s a happy hour Mon.-Thurs. 3-6 p.m. with 50% off drinks and a discounted food menu.

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Durango, California power Station

Station Casinos executives traveled to New York CIty recently for two days of meetings with Deutsche Bank analysts. Lead boffin Carlo Santarelli concluded afterward that Station was “being a relative winner” but that a “choppy” third quarter was complicating matters. He nonetheless maintained a “Buy” rating on Station stock and a $65 per share price target. Shares of Station (which trades as Red Rock Resorts) were $54.22 per share at the time.

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Sodomy at Caesars

It has been revealed who the Daddy Warbucks behind the latest anti-gambling campaign in Missouri is … and it’s Caesars Entertainment. Yes, the Roman Empire has been sleeping with the enemy. Indeed, with $4 million of skin in this game, Caesars is the enemy. Last week, the company was exposed as the deep pockets behind ad campaigns which seek to defeat sports betting in the November election. If there’s going to be sports wagering in the Show-Me State, voters will have to pass it. The Lege is hopelessly dysfunctional on the issue, having deadlocked time and again. However …

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Staying in the Groove

Bob Dancer

I’ve been playing NSU Deuces Wild for more than 20 years. It’s a simple game to play at the 99% accuracy level. It’s easier than most other video poker games to play at the 99.9% accuracy level. But it’s virtually impossible to play 100% accurately. The appendices to the Dancer/Daily Winners Guide to NSU Deuces Wild contain hundreds of exceptions to the basic strategy. Even the basic strategy has some real toughies in it. 

Consider the following nine pairs of hands. In none of the pairs are the two hands played identically. Do you know which is which? As difficult as this test is, it is much simpler when you have the clue that the two hands are played differently, than it is when you face any of these while playing. 

As is my custom, a W stands for a deuce. In the answers, bold italics means the cards are suited with each other. 

Test: 

  1. W 4♠ 5♠ K♠ T♥ versus W 4♠ 5♠ K♠ J♥
  1. W 4♥ 5♥ Q♥ K♣ versus W 4♥ 5♥ Q♥ J♣
  1. W 6♦ 7♣ 8♥ K♥ versus W 6♦ 7♣ 8♥ K♠
  1. W 4♣ 5♣ 3♥ J♦ versus W 4♣ 5♣ 3♥ Q♦
  1.  K♦ T♦ 6♦ A♠ 9♥ versus K♦ T♦ 6♦ A♠ 9♠ 
  1. K♠ T♠ 5♠ A♦ 3♦ versus K♠ T♠ 5♠ Q♦ 3♦
  1. 8♥ 9♥ Q♠ A♣ 4♣ versus 8♥ 9♥ Q♠ A♣ 3♣
  1. A♣ T♣ 9♥ 7♠ 5♦ versus A♣ T♣ 9♥ 7♠ 5♠
  1. W A♦ K♦ T♠ 8♠ versus W A♦ K♦ J♠ 9♠

Answers:

  1. W45 and W
  2. W and W45
  3. W and W678
  4. W45 and W
  5. KT and draw 5
  6. KT and draw 5
  7. 89 and draw 5
  8. AT and draw 5
  9. WT8 and WAK

Don’t fret too much if you didn’t score well. The test was my way of supporting my statement that it was virtually impossible to play this game perfectly. Each of these nine examples have a lot of similar hands to learn. Learning these particular 18 hands still leaves you with several hundred different tough hands to struggle with.

As it happens, until some casinos change their inventory, I’ll be playing NSU Deuces Wild more, dollar-wise, than all the other video poker games I play. So even though each of these distinctions are worth fractions of a penny if you play for quarters, I’m playing enough hands for large enough stakes that it makes sense, to me anyway, if I spend time mastering them.

I could have an exact list of hands in a PDF that I could carry with me on my smart phone. In addition to it being illegal in Nevada and some other states to use cell phones to help you make gambling decisions in a casino, I find this tedious. I’m playing games where I have the advantage, everything considered, and taking 15 seconds to make sure I have the correct play by a tenth of a penny makes no financial sense.

It may surprise you, but I would not have aced the test I presented today. In question 5, I would have drawn five new cards both times, in question 6 I would have held KT both times, and in question 7, I would have drawn five new cards both times. The other six hands I would have aced.

So, what gives? Why would I play these hands incorrectly?

I have worked out a strategy that is “good enough.” I have the Level 4 strategy completely memorized, and for the appendix material, I use the shortcuts provided there. These shortcuts are relatively easy to memorize and get me close enough. I don’t have the tools to accurately measure how accurate my “simplified” strategy is, but I suspect it’s well over 99.99% of what is possible. And I can play it relatively fast.

It’s a far bigger risk to make mistakes by oversight. I know the right play, but maybe I don’t see it, or maybe I get momentarily confused. This happens to me more as a senior citizen than it did a few decades ago.

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Atlantic City and other good news

Even as casino barons moan gloom and doom, and rend their garments, Atlantic City has another good month. August saw gambling halls up 5% from last year and 3% higher than in 2019. The overall gross was $294 million, boosted by slots (+5%) and table games (+4%) alike. Shocklingly (not), Borgata was out front with $74 million, up 1.5%. Its staying power is truly remarkable. Hard Rock Atlantic City climbed 9% to $55.5 million and Ocean Casino Resort leapt 11.5% to $44 million. So the top tier was really kicking ass.

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Smoking & mirrors

God bless the New Jersey Republican Party. It is stepping up where Democrats in the Assembly have failed (or at least proven spineless). This week, the GOP’s caucus announced—without equivocation—that it would provide the votes to get smoking in Atlantic City casinos banned. Already 13 GOPers have signed onto the proposed ban. Now, if the Dems can just force a vote, the revocation of Atlantic City’s smelly special status will be over and done.

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