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Atomic Golf


Atomic Golf is the $75 million 100,000-square-foot four story golf-entertainment mega venue that opened in March next to the STRAT. It’s an ambitious undertaking, with 101 golfing bays spread from one end of the four floors to the other, all using the 216-yard driving range. Each has a video box that you face as you play, loaded with seven proprietary games; you can battle aliens or another team’s space ship, play blackjack by hitting cards, aim for a bull’s-eye or the longest distance, or just practicing your swing.

There’s also a “putting district” with eight bays, mini-golf meets video games, where the clubs and the ceiling use sensors to track where the golf ball goes. The central Astrocade watch-party area features a 40-foot LED screen, a DJ spinning very loud music, and games such as cornhole. Six bars include the exclusive Tap Room on the third floor and a full menu of drinks and sports bar food is delivered to your bay by waitresses. Bays are $60 to rent.

Atomic Golf has experienced well-publicized problems since it opened. The driving range faces west, so when the sun is setting, it not only gets very very hot, but you’re looking straight into it as you play; portable a/c fans and misters provide little relief. The lack of early business forced the venue to lay off 33% of its workforce.

But on a Thursday night in late July when we visited, the place was jam packed with golfer-partyers drinking, eating, and slicing, hooking, shanking, and whiffing golf balls all over the range. The parking lot was full, so we had to park at the STRAT (covered elsewhere in the newsletter).


Frankly, we didn’t play. We were just there to see one of the two drone shows performed on Thursday nights at 9 and 11 p.m. After dark, the sun wasn’t in anyone’s faces, though it was good and toasty in the open 100-degree air and the kids retreated to stand in front of the fans from time to time to get some relief.

But the golfers were having a blast, people were watching the big screen in the Astrocade, and when the drone show started at 9:01 p.m., no one noticed. They barely knew to look out at it over the fence posts. That’s the best advertisement we can imagine for the place.

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Buffet Update – August 2024

buffet, fries

Circus CircusCircus Buffet: This week’s buffet schedule is: Weekend Brunch is Friday, 7 a.m.-2 p.m. for $24.95. Weekend Dinner is Friday-Sunday, 4:30 p.m.-10 p.m. for $24.95.

LuxorThe Buffet at Luxor: Brunch buffet prices went up $1. Weekday Brunch is Wed & Thurs, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. for $31.99. Weekend Brunch is Fri-Sun, 8 a.m.-2 p.m. for $37.99.

PalmsA.Y.C.E. Buffet: New times and prices expected by early August.

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Palms A.Y.C.E. Brunch Buffet

The validation at Club Serrano took five minutes. The wait to get into the weekday brunch buffet (served 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., 1 p.m. on Wed. and Thurs.) also took five minutes — plus an hour.

The line wasn’t especially long, but it moved in fits and starts, stalling when people waiting for a table backed up to the cashier. Yes, it was a drudge, especially looking into the room and seeing half the tables empty, but dirty. Eventually, however, you pay (more on that below), get seated, fill your plate and then your face, and all is forgiven and forgotten — unless you have to write a review.

Filling your plate is easy. The good stuff: steamed snow crab (worth the wait alone), six-ounce steak (grilled to perfection), carved bone-in ham, pork loin, and chicken breast, dill salmon, medium peeled shrimp, bagels and lox, cooked-to-order eggs, and two types of Benedicts. You’ll also be tempted by Middle Eastern choices (baba ghanoush, Fattoush salad, falafel/tzatziki), scrambled eggs and Tex-Mex scramble, bacon, sausage, several potato dishes, hot and cold cereal, parfait bar, melons, salads, lobster roll, fajitas, tamales, several pizzas, and chicken and waffles.

For dessert, there’s scooped sorbet, soft-serve, and assorted pastries cakes, and pies.

As you eat, you’re secure in the knowledge that with our MRO coupon, you’re getting the best buffet deal in town, without a doubt, and one of the best deals in town overall. With the 50%-for-one option, you pay $21.50, for two $42.99. (The brunch buffet price was raised $10 on August 12; dinner Sat.-Tues. is $46.99, an increase of $10. Snow crab and prime rib on Fridays is now $52.99, up $10 and the all-you-can-eat lobster dinner on Wed. and Thurs. is $79.99, up from $64.99.) With a $5 toke, a couple is out of there for $50.

As we say, this deal is so strong, it erases the memory of standing around for an hour.

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Toasted Gastrobrunch

Wow. How is it that we never even heard of this place until Yelp named it the number-one brunch restaurant in the entire country? Talk about under the radar.

In May, Yelp compiled its annual list of the 100 top brunch restaurants in the U.S. based on reviews on the site. Though California had the most brunches at 15, followed by Florida (11) and Texas (9), Las Vegas had the number-one-ranked restaurant. Toasted Gastrobrunch moved into the top spot after being ranked #22 last year.

It’s been in business in Las Vegas for five years and has two locations, both out in the western valley near the Beltway (9516 W. Flamingo right at the Beltway and 7345 Arroyo Crossing Parkway just south of the Beltway a bit west of Buffalo), plus three in San Diego.

With that kind of recommendation, we ran out to the one on Flamingo to see what all the fuss was about. We saw!

To start with, it’s an Interesting place, full of farm-animal decor.

The brander/decorator also has a distinct sense of humor.

It also has a seven-seat counter, outdoor patios on two sides, and plenty of tables inside, but the word is out. When we arrived at 11:30 on a Monday morning, Toasted was less than half full, but by the time we left at 12:15, every inside table was taken (the counter had availability).

The menu is extensive and creative to the point of innovative, no mean feat for breakfast/brunch.

Eggs start with the Plain Jane — two eggs, bacon or Portuguese sausage, truffle potatoes, and a roasted half-tomato ($17) — then go off on flights of fancy all the way to Eggs in Purgatory, a sunnyside egg in a sourdough bowl with shakshuka sauce, scallions, and mint ($18). They also come with smoked brisket, veggie, or ABC (avocado, pork belly, and cheddar) hash, steak ($28), just the whites, omelet, and scrambles. Benedict fans (like us) choose from short ribs, fried chicken, regular bacon, and veggie with nut-free pesto hollandaise ($17-$19.50). Then there are four French toasts ($12-$18), four south-of-the-border breakfasts, three toasts including salmon and lobster ($17-$18), plus sandwiches, burgers, and desserts.

The drink menu features eight mimosas, including a four-drink flight ($22), three Bellinis ($11), cocktails, wine, beer, flaming coffees, and all the lattes, capuccinos, and espressos you’d expect.

We went for the regular bacon Benny. The bacon was thick (good), the asparagus was thin (better), the eggs runny (perfect), the English muffins crisp (they barely got soggy throughout the meal), the hollandaise creamy (beautiful), and the roasted half-tomato with parmesan juicy (excellent). It also came with a big bowl of truffle potatos, similar to tater tots, but round, with a stainless-steel cup of ketchup. Trust us when we tell you that it was an astounding meal, both in quality and quantity, and we had to consciously stop ourselves from moaning in culinary rapture from start to finish.

Speaking of finish, we couldn’t. It was a ridiculous amount of food, especially for the price ($18). All the dishes we spied at tables around us were the same. It seems that it doesn’t matter what you order or how big an appetite you have, you probably won’t be able to eat your entire meal.

We can easily see how Yelpers rated Toasted Gastrobrunch the nation’s number one.

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Boyd controversial; Sands shortfall

Much better than a quarter ago,” J.P. Morgan analyst Joseph Greff said of Boyd Gaming‘s second-quarter numbers. The company had arguably shocked Wall Street with its 1Q24 underperformance, so this week’s news was salutary. While Greff, for one, didn’t move off his “Neutral” rating, he did add a dollar to his $67/share price target. “Importantly, its Las Vegas Locals properties showed better/less-bad results,” he wrote of Boyd, adding that Downtown was trending nicely and even the Midwest/South casinos outperformed his estimates … with a last-minute boost from crazy-busy Treasure Chest, whose new iteration debuted in June.

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WHAT IS RETURN IN VIDEO POKER & HOW CAN IT BE CALCULATED?

This post is syndicated by the Las Vegas Advisor for the 888 casino group. Anthony Curtis comments on the 888 article introduced and linked to on this page.

AC says:

If you’re interested in figuring out what the return percentage was for a particular playing session or period of time, this article gives you the correct formula to do that. However, I’m not sure what the value is in doing so. Players like to whine about losses, so calculating that you just played for three hours with a return of 68.5% provides good ammunition for the woe-is-me tale, but it doesn’t give you information you can act on to improve future results. In fact, letting a bad session on a good game dissuade you from playing it again is a big mistake. Far more important is knowing going in what the long-term return percentages are for the games you have to choose from, then, in most cases, playing the game with the highest return. 

This article was written by Jerry Stich in association with 888Casino.

WHAT IS RETURN IN VIDEO POKER & HOW CAN IT BE CALCULATED?

Most serious video poker players understand what elements define a good game. These elements include return, variance, and strategy complexity. For most serious players, return is the main element considered when choosing a video poker game to play.

Many video poker players understand what return is. Fewer understand how video poker return varies during play. Fewer still know how to calculate their actual return for a session, day, trip, or year. This article addresses these topics.

Keep reading …

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Junior’s Cheesecake, Resorts World

Junior's Cheesecake, Resorts World

Junior’s Cheesecake was founded in 1950 in the heart of Brooklyn on Flatbush Avenue (and DeKalb). The original restaurant remains in place 74 years later; Junior’s has four other locations: two in Times Square, one at Foxwoods, and the 300-seat venue that opened at Resorts World in late February in the space formerly occupied by the Kitchen. Junior’s is, essentially, Resorts World’s new coffee shop.

Junior’s is renowned for the best cheesecake in New York City and beyond, with 25 varieties, plus rich and fancy cakes and pies, along with pastries, brownies, cookies, and more.

It’s also a full-service deli and New York-style diner, with a huge menu of breakfast items and soups, salads, sandwiches, steaks, seafood, barbecue, and chef’s specialties.

On our visit, we opted for the cup of soup and half-sandwich ($19.95), in order to try the matzo ball and corned beef. But the half-san comes on a roll (on the menu, it’s actually called a “plain roll”) and you can’t substitute for bread.

We weren’t about to have a Jewish-style-deli corned-beef sandwich on a hamburger bun (it’s against our religion), so we got the full sandwich (also $19.95, with the soup at $7.95).

We snuck a photo of the half-san on a bun from the table next to ours. Pretty weak.

The sandwich was big, as expected, but not among the better corned beefs we’ve known and loved — dry and tasteless. It comes on marbled rye (so much for good Jewish caraway-seeded rye, let alone double baked) and the house-brand mustard was bland. Likewise, the matzo ball was big and light, but the soup was really salty, indicating the lack of chicken-soup finesse. And the $29.15 (before tax and tip) left us even more unimpressed.

We also got a slice of cheesecake to bring back to the office. That did live up to its reputation. Everyone agreed: rich, creamy, sweet with a little tang, firm rather than full of air, with a soft crust. Redemption!

We’ll probably give Junior’s another chance in the breakfast or all-day-dining department, but so far, we’re considering it go-to place for a decadent dessert.

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Station triumphant; Notes from Virginia

It was a great sign for investors in Station Casinos when the company accelerated its 2Q24 earnings report to yesterday. Station execs were clearly bursting with good news. As Truist Securities analyst Barry Jonas summarized, Durango Resort continues to be boffo, with same-store results at most other Station properties stable and cannibalization of former flagship Red Rock Resort no worse than expected. A hastened Phase II enlargement of Durango was formally announced this afternoon but it was the worst-kept secret in Las Vegas for quite some time.

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Bobby Vegas: My Mirage Memories Are Many and Good

Bobby Vegas: Friends Don’t Let Friends Play Triple-Zero Roulette

Shim Lin. Simply incredible. Glad he relocated. I went with Mr. H who loves magic and we were both dumbfounded. Shim stands there stock still, sleeves rolled up, palms out, and cards appear and disappear. No props, just magic. It’s amazing.

Then there was The Beatles Love. Three times. Last year I took clients and warned them, “Guys, this will totally blow your minds.” “Yeah yeah, Bobby. C’mon, let’s get a drink.” We were up close. And all they could say was, “OMG!” I took Hector, in his 20s, and he was stunned that I knew the words to every song. “Hector … it’s THE BEATLES.”

The Secret Garden was Vegas’ best-kept secret. I begged people to go and watch the baby dolphins swimming with their parents and the white tigers. What a great respite from the frenzy of the Strip. Few took me up on it, though anyone who did thanked me profusely.

I had a nice suite compliments of Laurence Scott when we were working on my Non-Linear Dynamics Recurrence Theory Roulette project together.

And I really miss the Carnegie Deli. Pastrami and latkes, oh my.

Finally, the grand slam. Well, more of a hole in one.

With one of my lighting manufacturers, Charlie and I had landed a really nice deal with Guy who lived in Vegas. We wanted to do something special. So Guy suggested they play a round at Shadow Creek, Steve Wynn’s ultra-exclusive high-roller golf course. At the time, the only way was to stay at a Wynn property and it was still $500 each to play. So Charlie and I flew in and were staying at the Mirage. I got there first and the receptionist said, “I see you’re playing at Shadow Creek. Oh dear, we seem to have a problem. I need to put you on the 24th floor.”

I didn’t know what that meant until I opened the double doors to a suite that was literally larger than my condo back in DC. Old school, with the TV rising from the foot of the bed.

Anyway, I don’t play golf, so it was just Charlie and Guy. They had an early tee time and we agreed to meet afterwards. They had major grins on their faces.

“So how was it? How was your game?”

They looked at each other, broke out in giggles like two stoned schoolkids, and exclaimed, “We met Michael Jordan! In the locker room!”

“We were changing after our round and he walked in asked us how our game went!” And they started laughing again.

“So? How was your game?”

“Who cares? we met Michael Jordan!”

All I could say was, “One question. Since you were changing, what was it? Boxers or briefs?”