This is the very subjective report of my recent trip to LV. In all instances, I played single line, .25 denom machines. These are my opinions and observations only, and I expect that some of you may disagree with me on certain issues.
Monday morning, January 24th: Off to LV on United Airlines, on time, despite the blizzard that raged in the Chicago area, all weekend. I was concerned that I would be cancelled again, as we had been, a few weeks earlier, when we were scheduled to fly in to LV for the CES.
This time I am flying solo. My husband is only willing to brave LV if there is another activity that he can participate in, at least part time. The flight is uneventful, and we arrive a few minutes early. I phone my pre-arranged ride and the chauffeur picks me up w/i a few minutes of landing.
I am whisked off to the ever elegant El Cortez, my favorite downtown abode.........I know, I KNOW!......but it's always been my LUCKY place!!! I'm in my spacious room within minutes (completely remodeled last year, and quite tastefully decorated and furnished) and down to the casino to do a fast survey of the vp changes since my last visit in September.
Alas......a few more of those marvelous downtown deuces, have bit the dust. There are still a few left though. There are 2 near the rear exit Lady's Room, and 2 near what used to be the Ice cream parlor (before the car crashed through the wall and demolished it), There are also a few in the area near the coffee shop. They are VERY popular with everyone (tourists and locals) and it is not always possible to find an open one, particularly during prime hours. Since I retire early, and rise very early, I'm often in the casino before 6:00am. At that hour, I can usually play DTD to my hearts content.
Unfortunately for my bankroll, the casino is quite empty and DTD ARE available on Monday afternoon. This very unusual happenstance costs me a over $200 when the Deuces take a hiatus, and refuse to return. This certainly seems most unfair and discriminatory to me, since every 5 minutes, an obnoxious blabbermouth, on the loud speaker, announces that some other individual snared that lovely $500 that should have been mine. My frustration is compounded by surrepetiously watching an elderly lady, at the other deuces machine, slowly feeding in quarters, playing one at time, using JoB strategy, and hitting everything in sight.
I give up my machine and move on to one of several 10/7DB, available in both MG and single versions. These are all quite slow coin-droppers, but I find them relaxing fun to play A decided improvement, as I quickly hit quad jacks, and then quad Aces. I'm now back to even for the afternoon.
On then to some FPJW, available all over the casino in MG & single game versions, IF you can find a machine to play. I have never seen so many "saved" seats and buckets over the coin feed slot. It seems as if half the JW machines are not being played, but not available either. I speak to a slot suprrvisor about this, and he says they permit their regular players to "hold" 2 machines, even if they are not playing playing one most of the time. I voice my opinion of this, to no avail.
Some of the most popular JW machines , have a "non-credit" option, for the old-timers who enjoy hearing the coins drop with every win. To me this is a noisy nuisance, and I always turn the credit option on. I finally find an open machine. The jokers appear quite regularly, and this becomes another profitable session. I am now winning a couple of Bennies, and feeling much better.
My slot host has comped Roberta's for dinner. There is a new menu and new chef in Roberta's, a decided improvement over the old regime. The food is sort of pricey (if you're actually PAYING for it) especially for a so-called grind joint like the El Cortez. However, the quality of the food is very good. The beef is rare, juicy and tender, the fresh fish is prepared expertly, the appetizers and desserts are delicious, the wine list is adequate, if not sophisticated, and the coffee is strong and good. I would rate the meal as very good even if I was a paying customer in a non-casino restaurant. I also have a great waitress in Roberta's, who has taken care of me for years. I always sit at her station, and she has never disappointed me. Of course, I always tip generously for her outstanding service.
Fully satiated now, I move on to 9/6DDB. Please hold the lecture. I'm fully aware, but just love the game. Of course, I would rather play 10/6DDB, but it is not available downtown. Again I am lucky. I hit 2 sets of quads, & guad 3's with a kicker. Now I'm in the winning mode. I continue in this good streak the rest of the evening, mostly with small wins, but winding up about $500 positive for the day. I'm dead tired at about 9:00pm, and retire for the night.
Tuesday morning, January 25th, I awake at 3:30am, an ungodly hour even for me, with my midwest time clock. I can't fall back to sleep, so, after taking the longest shower in history, I finally get dressed, and am back in the casino by 5:30am. I head back to the 10/7DB that was so kind to me on Monday, and hit it again; 2 sets of quads, and then the Aces, and my early day is starting nicely. I play several JW machines, and basically win between $40.00 and $80.00 on every one of them. I know this going to be a GOOD day.
I decide that I'm hungry at about 8:30, and go to Careful Kitty's coffee shop for breakfast. The bacon/eggs/juice/coffee etc., are all O.K., but, as usual, the service leaves a lot to be desired. The waitress has so little English, that I literally cannot understand what she's saying. Finally, the hostess came over and translated, and everything was fine. I wasn't interested in walking down to the other end of Fremont Street, and eating in a different casino, for two reasons. One, all my meals are comped at the EC. Two, I had selected Tuesday as my "Triple Points Day", so I wanted to do most of my playing there.
After breakfast, I called our office, and spoke to my husband. Of course, he asked me how I was doing. I told him I was up about $700 and Ihoped to continue in that vein all day. Talking about it (perhaps, bragging a little) turned out to be a VERY bad idea.! I never had another winning session for the rest of Tuesday! I did, however, rack up about 25,000 points on my Jackie's Club card. LOL !
I had again had dinner at Roberta's, which was also very satisfactory, played a little more, lost a little more, and retired early, down about $500 for the day, but still up overall, almost $200.
The next morning, Wednesday, January 26th, I was in the casino by 6:00am, absolutely pumped and convinced that I was going to win. I "invested" $200 in a DTD machine, that I was positive was going to hit. Despite showing me trip deuces many times, it never coughed up the the 4th one. My 1st $100 lasted over 2 hours. The 2nd $100 was inhaled in about 25 minutes. I was nonplussed by this turn of events, but still sure it was a temporary abberation and I'd soon be winning again.
I think I went to every part of the casino, trying to escape from the awful part of the bell curve, that was huanting me. It was useless. I was bleeding Bennies every hour, and I still had many more hours to play. I considered calling my husband, to ask him to exorcise the demons that had been invoked by my first call, but after careful consideration, decided that, not only would he be convinced that I had turned into a major head case, but that it could possibly make things even worse. Not that I'm superstitious, you understand 
but how could this be happening to me when I was wearing the lucky crystal pendant that my mom had given me years before?
I decided to take the 4 block walk down Fremont Street, to the Plaza, hoping that a change of scenery would lead me to a better machine. No such luck! I tried 10/7DB, FPDW, 9/6JoB and lost on every one. Across the street, at the Vegas Club, I tried DTD & FPJW with the same result. It seemed as if I couldn't even complete a straight, flush or FH, no less find quads. Back to the El Cortez, for more punishment.
By the time that I was ready to tackle dinner at Roberta's again, I had lost back all of my winnings. It is unusual for me, since I am normally a good money manager while playimg vp, to continue to play heavily durimg such a bad cycle. Of course, I finally began to steam, and make dumb mistakes. I really do know better than that, and usually exercise better control. Normally, if I am doing poorly for several hours, I take a break, go for a walk, watch TV, and stop playing for ahile. This time, for some unknown reason, I just kept playing and losing. It was not a pretty picture, and I was becoming very irritated, mostly at myself.
After another nice dinner, I played a very fast upright FPJW TITO, which was a BIG mistake. Now my money was disappearing at an even faster rate. Bedtime was early Wednesday night. Now I was down about $300 for the trip.
Thursday morning, January 27th, my last full day in LV. I was up very early, and in the casino, playing, by 6:00am. The deuces were calling me again. I listened to their siren song, and quickly lost another Benjamin. This was truly getting tiresome.
I headed for breakfast, determined to get out of the El Cortez as soon as possible. I was sure that this time things would turn more favorable in another casino. As I approached the door to make my exit. I saw people carryimg umbrellas. It was raining quite hard. I debated whether it was worth trying to dodge raindrops, by walking, or calling a cab to drive me the few blocks, and decided that this was an omen, telling me to stay put. 3 hours later, having lost another $250, I decided to brave the rain. I tried the CAL, the Golden Nugget, Binions and the Fremont. Zilch, Nada, Zero. Although other players, right next to me, were hitting like crazy, I couldn't make a hand. Gone was another $200. I decided I really wasn't enjoying this experience too much ) - : and walked back to the El Cortez in the rain. The weather matched my mood perfectly. I felt like that unlucky cartoon character who walked around with a black cloud over his head.
I was meeting a friend for dinner at Roberta's at 5:00, and went up to my room to dry my wet hair, and watch TV for an hour. I went down to the casino again at about 4:00pm, and while walking past the alcove, opposite Roberta's noticed a brand new bank of TITO uprights, just installed that day. On closer inspection, I noted 10 new machines, back to back. One side was alternating machines featuring FPJW and sub-par DW. The other side were MG machines featuring FPJW, 10/7DB & 9/6BDXL. among other games. I sat down to play Jokers, feeding in one of my rapidily dwindling suppy of Bennies. Because these babies were lighting fast, I was down to my last $1.25, in about 20 minutes. With my last play, I hit a SF. Then the Joker began to appear and I hit a few quads. When I got back up to my original $100 stake, I cashed out, relieved to finally leave a machine with some money.
Since it was only 4:30, I decided to see if my fortune was on the upswing, and walked over to a slow, coin-dropper 9/6DDB. I quickly hit quad Kings, then 4's with a kicker. After playing a while longer without any additional wins, I was able to cash out $300, by far my best play over most of the last two days, It was now time to meet my friend, at Roberta's. I barely had time to wash the black stains from my hands. I do LOVE TITO !!
We had a lovely dinner of excellent shrimp cocktails, nice tossed salads, crunchy hot bread, Filet for me, fresh fish for her, creamed spinach, baked potato, wine, dessert and coffee. We both enjoyed the food and the conversation. After dinner I showed her the new machines, and we both played for a couple of hours, side-by-side. She lost $90 at 10/7DB and I lost $200 at FPJW. This was getting boring!
My friend left and I still wanted to play a little more, hoping that things would change. They didn't. By the time I went upstairs, I had dropped another $200.
Friday, January 28th. The last morning! Downstairs at 6:00am. Losing, losing, losing. I couldn't do anything right. For once, I wasn't sorry to be going home. This wasn't too much fun......more like slow torture!
I decided to make one more attempt to snare the DTD. $500 would put a partial dent in my losses. I began to look for an unoccupied machine. One of the banks, where the deuces machines were located, was completely taken over by a chain-smoking, gum cracking female, who looked as if she had been there all night. I decided to look elsewhere. For some reason, maybe because the weekend crowd from California had descended, there were no open DTD to be had. I went back to the fast TITO FPJW and lost another $150.
After breakfast, I made my last attempt at recouping some of my losses, to no avail. For awhile I wandered around the casino, watching other people WIN. Usually I LOVE to see everyone win, but today it was quite frustrating to me. I took out one final $100 that I was willing to risk, telling myself that I would quit if I lost again. I did lose it quickly, but I didn't quit. Not sticking to the deal I made with myself, I continued to play and lose. Every machine I played turned as cold as ice. It was almost comical how I couldn't make a hand.
Having reached my level of frustration, I called United to see if I could stand-by for an earlier flight, but all their flights to Chicago were oversold for the day. I went upstairs and watched CNN for an hour, before going back to the casino and parting with yet another $100 bill. I was really NOT having much fun.
Finally, it was time to be driven to the airport. Throughly crestfallen, I departed the hotel,
down a bunch. This is the first time, in a long while that I haven't scored a nice hit before leaving LV. The odd thing is that each time I approached a new machine, I was sure that it would give me something good, but it never happened. I guess hope springs eternal.......
Anyway, I'm going to try again next month, with, I hope, much better results.
My comments on the following downtown hotels, at which I played on this stay, will be of the most interest to the low/mid roller, who mainly plays .25 denom. vp, utilizing the best possible pay schedules. I am also assuming that most players expect a strong card club, reasonably liberal comps and pleasant hosts. If I don't mention a downtown casino in this report, it's because I didn't get there on this trip.
GOLDEN NUGGET: still has Royal Mania (actually 9/7DB with a large prog. jackpot for a sequential RF). They also have 8/5BP. That is ALL that I considered playable (for me) at .25 denom. IMO, their 8/5Job game, with double payoffs for Flush/SF/RF, in the suit of your selection, is not good enough to play. Their wild games have inferior paytables. However, being downtown has the decided advantage of having many casinos w/i shortwalking distance. Across the street at the Las Vegas Club (now just The Vegas Club, I guess) you can still find the wonderful and almost extinct Downtown Deuces as well as FPJW. The GN also has 1.00 denom 9/6 JoB. The nice .05 10/7DB are no more. The BEST thing about the GN is the GN ITSELF ! As far as decor/rooms/restaurants/casino ambiance are concerned, the GN is so far the class of downtown that no other nearby casinos can be mentioned in the same breath. So, if you are staying downtown, and gracious accomodations are your main
motivation in selecting a hotel/casino, perhaps the GN is the best place to stay. I can also tell you, from personal experience (having just booked a comped future stay) that the GN also has excellent, friendly and cooperative hosts.
BINIONS: IMO, this was never vp heaven, and nothing has changed. At the .25 level, they still have 8/5Aces& Faces (which I actually prefer over BP). 9/7DB , 9/6 DDB and some short pay deuces and Jokers. The casino, itself is old, smoky, and in need of refurbishing. Their coffee shop, which used to have a world class breakfast for $2.99, is more expensive, and not nearly as good, as in the past. It is relatively easy to score a food comp w/o a lot of play. The hotel still looks "seedy" to me. I wouldn't think (though I don't know) that the rooms have had any renovation since the new ownership took over.I have no experience with their hosts, but don't care much for the slot club personnel. They do have GOOD BJ, if that is of interest.
FOUR QUEENS: I can't believe what has happened to their vp inventory. at the .25 level, all I could find that was playable, was one bank of 10/7DB with a prog .(these machines have been changed from the old coin-droppers, to fast TITO) and a few 8/5BP. Most of their pay tables have been downgraded since I was there last, in September. I believe that their CB has also taken a hit. The casino is nothing special in the way of ambiance and I doubt that the new ownership did anything to spruce up the dowdy rooms. Outside of Hugos, I don't care much for their other eateries. I used to stay at the 4 Queeens regularly, on a comped basis. I quit them 5 or 6 years ago, when they downgraded most of their vp. I had a decidedly unpleasant encounter with a boothling at their card club, and have about written them off.
PLAZA: Still has some .25 10/7DB and 9/6DDB (interspersed with 9/5DDB...BEWARE!) They also have at least 2 coin-dropping, slow as molasses, FPDW, in the bar next to the Keno. They have to be hand-fed with coins as there are no bill acceptors. I guess their thinking is that no advantage players would waste their time with this slow game, so they can afford to keep the FPDW. I don't think that the Plaza casino has much ambiance. They have offered me room comps, from time to time, (for VERY LITTLE PLAY, perhaps because I hit a couple of royals there) but I've never accepted the offer, so can't comment on their rooms. I'm not fond of any of their restaurants. Since the new ownership (Barrick) took over, I've stopped receiving any mail from them. I suspect it's because I would only play a few hours on triple points days. My own fault, of course, if I wanted to continue to get coupons.
FREMONT: 8/5BP, 9/7DB, 9/6DDB, and a few 9/6JoB, is about it for .25 vp. I don't know anything about their rooms. I don't care for their restaurants, and had a disatrous meal at Tony Roma's last year. The food quality and the service were so poor, that the manager comped our largely uneaten meal. This one would be close to the bottom of my list of downtown hotels, in which I'd want to stay.
CALIFORNIA: I found one FPDW that was being played continously by a father and son. The other 2 FPDW that I am aware of were "out-of-service" the day I was there. Maybe they were about to go MIA. They have lots of 10/7DB and 9/6DDB, as well as old coin-droppers 9/6 JoB. I have no knowledge of their restaurants or hosts.
VEGAS CLUB: DTD, FPJW, 10/7DB and 9/6DDB. Very much like the El Cortez, but smaller with less vp. Even though Barrick owns the VC now, they have left the old machines in place. I understand from others, that comps are easy to come by here. I'm not familiar with their rooms. I found their coffee shop to be rather ordinary.
I hope this report was of some interest to anyone who bothered to read it until the end. At least it made me feel better, to write about it and possibly purge it from my thoughts.
Cheers,
Babe
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