In this weeks video Anthony and Andrew talk EDC, the end of single deck blackjack, a 55 cent cocktail deal, and more.
LAS VEGAS ADVISOR WEEKLY UPDATE – EP 138
ESTIMATING THE RETURN OF PROGRESSIVE VIDEO POKER
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.
A.C. says:
What do you do when you run into a video poker game with what seems to be an inordinately high progressive meter? Maybe play it? Sure, but it’s difficult to make a spot decision about what the return percentage might be and whether or not you should play it relative to other options on the same machine. This article provides some guidance for assessing a progressive on the fly. It doesn’t give you everything you need to know, but the author makes that point and the shortcut advice provided is valuable. Print out the charts to consult or just commit the breakeven points to memory for the games addressed. Take the next step by applying the rules of thumb regarding the value of specific royal-flush-meter increases and you can make informed decisions in real time. Also, pay attention to the “Cautions” at the end of the article, which identify other important considerations. For the last word on playing progressives, check out The Secret World of Video Poker Progressives by Frank Kneeland, which goes beyond anything else currently in print on this subject.
This article was written by Jerry Stich in association with 888Casino.
ESTIMATING THE RETURN OF PROGRESSIVE VIDEO POKER
Progressive video poker offers benefits and challenges for players. One of the major challenges is determining the return at a specific level of the jackpot. This articles explores that aspects of the game.
In a progressive game, one or more lines of the pay table increases as the game is played. The most common pay line is the royal flush.
At reset value, the royal flush pays the same as a non-progressive – 4,000-for-5. As the game (or linked bank of games in a casino) is played, part of the amount bet goes towards increasing the amount paid when the jackpot is hit. Once a royal flush (or other progressive jackpot hand) is hit, the amount paid is returned to the reset value.
Tier Matching—an Excellent Advantage Play
In last month’s Las Vegas Advisor, we ran a “Reader Leader” describing a players club tier-match procedure involving the Mirage and Fontainebleau that netted a $100 meal comp at Fbleau, along with parking privileges at both casinos. The contributor of that Leader, Peter B. emailed this update.
1) Take your Fontainebleau Silver card to Wynn and they will upgrade you to Platinum. Good for free parking, $150 birthday-month dining credit, two comp master classes for two people (worth up to $250 per person), a $100 spa credit, and more goodies.
2) Then go back to the Fontainebleau and upgrade to Gold from Wynn Platinum for a $150 dining credit, $150 spa credit, comped self-parking and valet daily, comped ATM fees, and more. See
3) Upgrade Wynn Platinum to MGM Gold. No resort fee, free parking, and more, but this is good for 90 days only.
4) Club One at the Circa, D, and Golden Gate will upgrade to Maverick for free parking at all three Fremont Street casinos from MGM Gold, but it’s a once-in-a-lifetime match.
5) Caesars will upgrade to Diamond from Wynn Platinum, but only once for new members. Here, you get: dinner credit for $100, free self- and valet parking, priority access to the Bacchanal Buffet and restaurants, and two free tickets to the High Roller every month.
Non-Nevada residents have to start with Caesars Platinum from getting a no-annual-fee Caesars VISA card. Bring that to the Wynn for Platinum, then take the tour as above. Alternatively, take MGM Pearl, from getting a no-annual-fee MasterCard, to Fontainebleau for Silver.
Note that the Wynn Rewards Early Tier Upgrade Promotion ends May 31.
Buffet Update – June 2024
Bellagio – The Buffet at Bellagio: Seafood Brunch turned to Seafood Dinner. Saturday & Sunday, 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. for $79.99. Brunch was 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. for $66.99. A $13 difference.
Circus Circus – Circus Buffet: This week’s buffet schedule is: Breakfast Buffet was Friday only but now it changed to Monday only. Same time 7:30 – 11 a.m. for $19.95. Weekend brunch is Saturday & Sunday, 7 a.m.-2 p.m. for $24.95, and weekend dinner is Friday-Sunday, 4:30 p.m.-10 p.m. for $24.95.
Luxor – The Buffet at Luxor: Weekday and Weekend Brunch ends 1 hour sooner. From 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. now. Weekday brunch is still at $30.99 per person. While Weekend Brunch increased by three dollars to $36.99.
Westgate – Fresh Buffet: Brunch went up by two dollars to $30 per person. Crab Leg Brunch was added this month. It’s served Friday and Saturday starting at 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. for $37.
Otoro Robata Grill & Sushi (Mirage)
The Mirage is closing next month, so why are we reviewing Otoro Robata Grill now? Two reasons. First, we had a terrific meal there. Second, we figure lots of people will be heading over for a last look at the casino, so dinner at Otoro might work in well with that plan.
As the name indicates, this is robata cooking, which pretty much means skewers cooked over very hot charcoal. There’s also a full sushi/sashimi menu. The oysters in truffle ponzu with kizami and chives are a great starter if you don’t mind fading $39 for eight ($4.88 per). Sweet-and-sour calamari with wasabi vinaigrette ($18) is another winner.
A tall Kirin beer was $22 and a single Murai Nigori sake was $13.
The Skewers
Meat skewers are $10 (chicken) to $32 (baby lamb chop), seafood is $10 (salmon) to $28 (lobster), and vegetable is $6-$10. Trying all three categories, we went with Togarashiu sirloin steak, lamb chop, Chilean sea bass, and shishito peppers. We haven’t reviewed many robata restaurants, so we don’t have a lot to compare to, but the Otoro skewers were as good as any we’ve had. They’re not the teeny skewers you get at the Japanese Izakaya’s; instead, they’re substantial and three to four per person are enough.
The Sushi
Sushi and skewers make a good combo. There’s nigiri, rolls, and sashimi. The nigiri comes two pieces to an order, most selections priced $10-$14 ($21 for uni, $38 for bluefin tuna belly). We had several, including akimi tuna and a spicy yellowtail hand roll. Although the robata cooking is the main focus, the restaurant’s name comes from otoro bluefiin tuna, so the sushi is also a priority.
The Verdict
Everything we tried was good. It’s ironic that we’d have the best meal we’ve ever had at the Mirage (except for some buffet visits when it was there) just as the casino is about to close. It’s not cheap—the bill was $263 for two, including $55 for drinks—but you can get the experience for less during the Fri.-Tues. happy hour (see ENTERTAINMENT), which might fit in even better on a farewell visit to the Mirage. Check out the full menu here.
Xiao Long Dumpling
This place opened in Chinatown (4275 Spring Mountain Rd.) in late 2021 with a ton of hype and high expectations, given that the restaurant’s name is its purported specialty, xiao long bao soup dumplings. We were impressed at the start — big room, plenty of customers, interesting menu — and it was looking like another good play in Chinatown. But it didn’t hold up. We tried several items—wonton in chili sauce, scallion pancake, beef chow fun, sauteed green beans, and, of course, the soup dumplings. Odd as it may sound, the best dish was the green beans. Price isn’t a problem; most of the dishes we had were $10 and under, with the chow fun most expensive at $14.95. A tall Asahi beer was $12. Our bill for two with two beers was $97 and we had a lot to take out.
Peanut Butter Wontons?
One dish did stand out, but not in a good way. The spicy wontons are served in a peanut sauce that tastes a lot like peanut butter (the wontons are at the bottom). It’s a strange mix of flavors that we found interesting at first, but then too strange to keep eating. Think wontons mashed in with a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.
The Soup Dumplings
The dumplings were good. The pastry is very delicate, so you have to eat them with a spoon. It was a minor annoyance that they stuck to the paper they were served on, so some were punctured in the process of getting them out of the basket. Overall, we’d rank them below others we’ve sampled, e.g., China Mama or Shanghai Taste.
The Verdict
Hours are 11:30 am to 10 pm daily. Located in the Chinatown Plaza, Xiao Long Dumpling is easy to find and and get to, but there are too many other good options in the area to make it a priority, unless you just gotta try those Reese’s wontons. Click here to check out the full menu.
Big rebound for Vegas; The woman who said no
Hardly the cruelest month, April made up for some recent and discouraging numbers for Las Vegas in particular and Nevada in general. Gambling receipts on the Las Vegas Strip tallied $666 million (the Mark of the Beast?), a 6.5% improvement over 2023 and 38% higher than May 2019. Locals casinos fared up even better, being up 16% overall, to $270 million. Table game hold was up on the Strip and baccarat was much tighter as well. Wagering at the tables (+20%) and slots (+43%) eclipsed 2019 figures. Baccarat winnings vaulted 80% from last year (when, to be fair, hold was very loose) and non-baccarat table games nosed up a percentage point. The one-armed bandits saw a 4% decline in coin-in.
Continue reading Big rebound for Vegas; The woman who said noChicago Brewing Company at the Four Queens
A Reader Leader alerted us to the great scene and good affordable food at the venerable Chicago Brewing Company in the back of Four Queens. Though we’ve had drinks and watched games at this venue’s bar many times since it opened in 1999, we couldn’t recall eating there and a search of the archives turned up no review. Given the attention that Terry Caudill, the owner of Four Queens and Binion’s, has given us over the years with coupons (plus a recent two-part Question of the Day interview), we were happpy to give it a try.
In the far corner of the casino, you walk up a short staircase and enter the bar. With its brick walls and picture windows overlooking the slots, it’s a classic brew-pub and sports-bar scene, with numerous screens filling the walls, all showing sports.
It’s open 24/7, serves breakfast all hours, and boasts a non-smoking taproom. Cigars are available for the smoking section. The beer brewed on the premises has won awards at the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup. Ales include golden, brown, and pale; you’ll also find American amber, Bavarian wheat, and Irish stout, among other small batches and specials.
The food, as our LVA correspondent insisted, is good at great prices from a big menu.
Appetizers start at $6 for garlic knots and include meatballs, quesadillas, fries, chicken tenders and jumbo wings, calamari, and shrimp cocktail ($8-$16). Soup, chili, and side salads are $5-$6. Numerous sandwiches and burgers (including filet mignon sliders) go for $10-$15. Thin crust and deep-dish Chicago-style (natch) pizzas come in 9-, 10-, and 16-inch pies from $10 to $15 with various toppings at $1, $2, and $3 extra. Desserts are $4-$6. As you’d expect from the same casino with Magnolia’s and Hugo’s Cellar, it’s big food at reasonable prices. There’s also a happy hour Sun.- Thurs. 3-6 p.m. and 11 p.m.-1 a.m. with $2 off drafts and 50% off house wines and well drinks.
We tried the raspberry-pear-almond salad and chicken club with onion rings, both excellent and filling.
Best of all, we had the pleasure of lunch with our very old and dear friend and best-selling author Jean Scott. It was appropriate that we ate at Chicago Brewing with her; this reviewer first met Jean and her husband Brad in a room upstairs (comped, of course) way back in 1992. She was here on a visit from Georgia to play in a mahjong tournament, her new passion. We’re happy to report that she’s still as vital, frugal, and, as you can see from the photo beautiful, inside and out, as she was 32 years ago.
One Casino
Online, I read one person (I’ll assume a male) who said he lives across the street from a casino, and he plays to win. That’s all I know about him. He may live in Las Vegas where there are 20 or more additional casinos within a relatively few miles. He may live in a place where the next closest casino is 60 or more miles away. I’m going to address the latter situation, whether it applies to this particular player or not.
For a period of time when I had a “real job,” I used to walk to work — which I found beneficial for a number of reasons. I’d get exercise and have more useful time to spend than did others in the office who drove an hour or more each way to work. Some of those benefits apply to a casino being right across the street. But there are major differences.
Texas Hold’Em and other poker players sometimes refer to “outs,” which can refer to the number of unseen cards in the deck that can lead to that player winning. Sometimes it’s one card only (such as it must be the K♠); sometimes it can be many cards (e.g., any heart, any four or any nine). The more outs you have, the better your chances are of winning.
Similarly, sports bettors know that if you can only bet at one sportsbook, your chances for winning are very slim. If you can bet at any of 10 sportsbooks, and carefully pick and choose among them on the best price for a given game, your chances of coming out ahead are much better. Plus, if you win too much at one, you can stay away from it for some period of time. Many sportsbooks restrict winning players.
For video poker players, casinos themselves can be considered “outs.” The more outs you have, the better your chances are for winning.
Many casinos, of course, are basically unbeatable at video poker. Period. The best games there return less than 98% and the slot club and promotions don’t return nearly enough to make up for that. Possibly there are progressives that are sometimes positive. Sometimes there are variations of Ultimate X which can yield a return of more than 100% if the previous player left it in that condition. But those are short plays that don’t happen with dependable regularity.
A few other casinos, think South Point, for example, but there are others, have slightly positive games 24/7 which become even more positive during certain promotions. But these casinos usually restrict players who consistently win and/or only play during the juiciest promotions.
The “best” circumstance for players is to know of several such casinos and play among them according to which one has the best deals currently. If one casino has 10x points on Mondays and has beatable games, play there on Mondays. If another one has good drawings on Saturday nights, plan your life around playing enough to earn drawing entries and showing up there most Saturday nights. Until you win a few times. Then take a few months off. If one casino gives you a big bonus for the first $20,000 coin-in you play in a month, and nothing additional thereafter, it makes little sense to camp out there every day.
It also helps if you have more games than just video poker that you know how to beat. In keeping with the theme of this blog, each additional game you can beat can be thought of as an out. Although casinos can be quick to kick out successful blackjack players, winning at many other games in a casino is tolerated. For me, my fallback game is slots. Other players are good at poker. Still others have table games they know how to beat. Most games in a casino can be beaten under the right conditions — but knowing those conditions and finding them isn’t trivial. And there might be many other knowledgeable players who are also scouting for those conditions, meaning they don’t last long when they arise.
For me, while I still play a lot in Las Vegas, I also know of good games out of town. Some are “fragile,” meaning if I tell my readers under which conditions I go to play my out-of-town secret games, the casinos would adjust and change either the games or the conditions that make them positive. But I do share the information with a few people who in the past have shared valuable information with me. Sometimes I have paid “finders fees” to players who let me know of good opportunities.
When one lists the secrets to success at video poker, such things as outs and being networked to players who help you are not usually listed. But to me, they are important.
Virgin loses it
A fearsomely slow news week ends with the clamor of dueling accusations by Virgin Las Vegas and the Culinary Union, acrimony that makes a prolonged strike at the troubled property (now with 100% less Mohegan Entertainment) seem inevitable. To hear both sides tell it, talks for a new labor contract have broken down … and the accord ends there.
Continue reading Virgin loses it