Monday:
Thunder boomed and lightning flashed at 5:00 am, when my alarm clock woke me.
As I Dressed, I ruminated on the likelihood of an on-time departure from O'Hare during this raging rainstorm. Not wanting to disturb my EH (Excellent husband) at this ungodly hour, to drive me to the airport in a deluge, I phoned for a taxi.
The cab arrived 25 minutes late, as I was nervously pacing near the opened door of my garage. However, despite the weather, the trip to the airport went quickly. Having downloaded my boarding pass at home, and then whizzed through the "preferred" security line, I was at the departure gate just 35 minutes after leaving my house.
All passengers were aboard the non-stop "TED" flight to LV, by 7:45. The flight was due to leave at 8:00. The plane pushed back from the gate, and on to the tarmac. Then we sat. And sat, and sat. Finally, at 8:45, the captain deigned to get on the loudspeaker and inform us that, due to the storm (which had now subsided slightly) many earlier flights had been delayed. We were now 33rd in line for take-off ! Since the control tower alloted 3 three minutes for each plane to be airborn, we were going to be sitting there for quite some time. The crew did turn off the seatbelt sign, and okayed the use of cellphones. But not even a plastic cup of water was offered to the passengers.
I called my chauffeur/friend, who always picks me up in LV, to let him know that I would touch down at around noon, rather than at 10:00. He said that this was not a problem. He would be there.
After arriving at McCarran over 2 hours late, I was quickly picked up and driven to the El Cortez. Although this has usually been my "lucky" place, the last time that I stayed there, in January, I suffered through one of my worst ever VP beatings. I was curious
to check out which machines had been removed/replaced or just relocated since that visit.
Of course my room was not ready, so after stowing my wheelie with the bellman, and locking my bankroll in a safe deposit box, I did a slow stroll around the casino.
The VP looked very much as it had in January. I didn't notice any further shrinkage in the good paytables that I've come to expect at EC.
In the area that management has labeled the "Classic Slot Area", at the far back end of the casino, can be found a lot of the EC's great old coin-droppers, in the .25 denom. There are
several MG machines which contain the following fullpay games: KBJW, DDW, DB, NBP as well as short-pay 9/5DDB (which people near me play constantly despite the profusion of 9/6DDB in the SAME area). There are many stand-alone FPKBJW machines which can be played with or without the coins dropping after each winning hand. The rest of the inventory includes the last few (either 3 or 4) "downtown deuces", several DDW, many 9/6DDB, and a few 10/7DB and 8/5BP.
Quite a few LESS than fullpay machines, also abound. There are 8/6BPD, KBJW with a 4700 coin RF, paying 17 coins for quads, and a couple of KBJW & DDB progs. which occasionally go positive, but usually are not. Hardly anyone seems to to play the JW prog. until the meter goes above $2K. However, the extremely doggy 8/5DDB prog. always has several pigeons intently plugging away.
In this area of the casino. are found the old (in patronage if not chronological age) EC patrons. They are mostly local folks who pop in for a few hours of play. Some of the younger players arrive in the wee hours, to get in some play before trotting off to work. I've found that most of the people playing in this area are friendly and easy-going. Of course, as with all segments of the population, there are always exceptions to this. Their favorite topics of conversation are "which machines will go MIA by next week", "how much will the comps/CB be slashed" and "how much longer will "Jackie" continue to live at the EC, and the Gaughn family retain ownership, before some evil empire takes over and kills the rest of the good inventory".
Also in this back area are the newly opened (since January) Subway Sandwich Shop and Ice Cream parlor. Some of you may remember that the old Ice Cream Parlor/Sandwich Shop was demolished last year, by a runaway car which crashed through the outside wall of the hotel. Some very nasty people on the board accused Don, The Dentist of doing this deed ( -: ( because the EC had trespassed him) but I always thought that was a bum rap!
I found the sandwiches at Subway to be reasonably priced, of generous proportion, and quite tasty. I enjoyed part of one for lunch.
Having determined that nothing had changed for the worst in the "Classic" area, I continued to stroll through the casino, from the very back towards the Fremont street exit. Past the newly refurbished bar, check-in area and entrance, now fancified in the inimitable EC fashion i.e "make it look as good as possible, with the least dollars expended". Suits will be suits wherever they exist! Walking past the the talking, sqawking rows of annoying slot machines, which so recently replaced the rows of positive .25, .50 & 1.00 VP machines, I could hardly keep from sobbing. The good old days........... gone but not forgotten.
Continuing on past the new Player's Center, Sport's Book & BJ tables, all which had replaced even more of the great VP of past years, I took a slight detour into the alcove opposite Roberta's (the EC's answer to Bellagio's Picasso). ( - : I was gratified to find the TITO MG/MD machines that had been installed in January. These included several "stand-alone" FP KBJW & FP NSUD.
The FPJW's all have a permanent tag on the front of the machine, advising players that "$3 coin-in was required for one Jackie's Club point" ( the same as the stand-alone JW "Classic" coin-droppers.) All other vp & slot machines require only $1 coin-in for each one point accrued.
In the center of the alcove, there was one bank of MG/MD machines that awarded one point for each $1 of coin-in. These machines included (at the quarter level) the following FP games: KBJW, NSUD, 10/7DB, 8/5BP, 9/6BPD, DWB & SDB. Why, I wondered, did so many players seem to prefer the old coin-droppers and even the new stand-alone TITO JW machines, when they could play the MG machines, with an IDENTICAL paytable, and receive 3X as many points?
Most of the TITO machines in this alcove play VERY quickly. If you are on the wrong side of the curve, you can lose a lot of money in a short period of time. Though I love TITO and hate the "black-hand syndrome" caused by the coin-droppers, if I am having a really bad day, I try to to stay away from those machines. Playing quarters, I've had them inhale a Bennie in 10 minutes. I like to enjoy more play than that for my money. I suppose that I could be the master of the machine, rather than the slave, and play at my own speed. However, I really like playing fast, and soon get in sync with machine's speed even as I watch my bankroll evaporate.
While awaiting a page indicating that my room was available, I walked to the "T" shaped section of the EC that parallels Fremont Street. There, I quickly observed that the same
fullpay .25, & .50 coin-droppers are still where I left them in January. Ducking into the "High Limit" Slot area, I verified that 1.00 machine inventory is also intact. These are the same good pay tables and old machines as those in the "Classic" area. A mix of FP JW, DDW, 10/DB & 9/6DDB. These machines are very slooooowwwww, particularly the 1.00 denom., and constantly need fills.
If you play in this area, directly after playing the fast TITO's, you can almost be lulled into a hypnotic state bordering on open-eyed sleep! I started to think that I must be getting awfully hard to please. Here is a vast array of positive vp, and I am fixating on whether the machines are too fast or too slow.
I decided to tackle one of the "slow-playing" .25 M/G in this area, for my first play of the day. Selecting the JW game from the menu, I slip a $20 into the bill acceptor, and draw the first
hand. Up comes a pair of jacks + the joker. Drawing 2 cards, I popped the other 2 jacks,
for a sweet 5OAK. A great start! I played this friendly machine for a few more minutes, until I heard my name called over the intercom.
Before leaving for my room, I walked down to the furthest corner of the "T" and looked the new Chinese Buffet restaurant, which I had heard being promoted every few minutes by loud speaker. I reviewed the menu for the regular buffet, and it appeared to be OK, but not really special. At $8.95 (HALF price if you pay by club points) it was probably not a bad deal. The Friday night Chinese seafood buffet was pricier at $14.95. Since I enjoy really good Chinese cuisine, I checked with a few local players to get their opinion. W/O exception, they all suggested that I would be much happier with the menu at Roberta's.
My room had finally been cleaned and was ready for occupancy. My wheelie had already been left there by a friendly bellman who had been at the EC as long as I could remember. He was VERY easy to remember since he could have been the twin brother of Uncle Fester, from the Adam's Family TV show.
As I was freshening up, prior to returning to the casino, I noticed that, while remodeling the rooms, management had removed the make-up table and mirror as well as the full length mirror that was previously in every room. The make-up table had been replaced by a huge rolltop desk, of no use whatever to a woman applying make-up. The only mirror now available for this daily necessity, was in the bathroom. Not really good planning, I thought. While all the furniture, carpeting, drapes and bedspreads had been replaced with nicer new things, some of the practical features of the room had been removed.
Down in the casino, I decided to use my $50.00 freeplay offer. Since this is a new benefit at the EC, It was necessary to go to the Jackie's Club Booth to establish a pin number. There I was given the simple instructions to activate the FP. I was disappointed to learn that the FP is ONLY good on slot machines. No VP play is permitted. All the eligible slots display free play stickers.
While I was at the booth, I also verified that for every $1.00 of coin-in, one Jackie's Club point was awarded. The only exception to this was that certain FPJW machines awarded one point for each $3.00 of coin-in. Additionally, I checked as to how many points were required for each cash back dollar awarded. I was told that 500 points equalled $1.00. As far as I could tell, nothing had changed in this area.
I headed for the only slot machine that has ever held my interest; The Wheel of Fortune. Since I have a very short attention span on any slot, I selected the $1.00 WOF. I reasoned that, at $2.00 per pull, this would be minimal playing time, and my boredom limit would not be exceeded. I must have been giving off negative vibes to the machine because I don't think that I received more than a couple of refunded bets, before exhausting the $50.00 freeplay. Since you cannot cash out the ticket until the full amount of freeplay has been played through once (after requesting that the entire amount be loaded into the machine) I had left myself no chance to play a different machine in the bank. If I were doing this again, I wouldn't load the entire amount into one machine.
After the freeplay debacle, I went into the alcove across from Roberta's and played JW for about 3 hours. I cashed out a nice ticket for $165, from an initial investment of $20.00.
After that, I decided that hunger pangs were attacking me. One of the things that I tend to neglect in Nevada are meals. I'm just too excited with other activities to be bothered with eating. This is VERY unusual for me, as I love to eat in any other state of the union, not to mention overseas. However, a headache was threatening to develop, as I realized one half of a Subway sandwich (and some pretzels on the plane) was not quite enough sustenance for what had already become, at 5:00PM PT, a 14 hour day.
I went into Roberta's which was almost empty at that hour. I enjoyed a nice glass of California Pinot Blanc with an excellent Shrimp coctktail. Four absolutely enormous and pristinely fresh shrimp, topped with good zippy cocktail sauce. I was then served a nice mixed salad comprised of good greens and other veggies, and topped with a lovely, chunky bleu cheese dressing. I had ordered a NY steak very rare, and it arrived exactly as requested. The steak was accompanied by sauteed mushrooms, a baked potato and creamed spinach. I had a nice glass of California Cab with the entree. Lots of calories, a ton of cholestrol, but a very, VERY satisfying meal. All comped of course.
The EC has added a nice touch to further inhance the dining pleasure at Roberta's. They hired a talented piano player, who plays show tunes and Golden Oldies, during the evening hours. The piano is located in the lounge, directly across from Roberta's, and the lovely melodies can be enjoyed while dining or drinking.
BTW, the bill was about $50.00, before the tip. Not all that much considering the quality and type of food ordered. But, much more expensive than a similiar meal in Roberta's in past years, when both locals and tourists waited in long lines to get into the dining room.
The following evening, while dining at Roberta's, I feel into a conversation with a server that had worked at Roberta's for many years. The server told me that the restaurant was empty during the week, due to the high prices, and only came to life on weekends when 90% or more of the patrons were on full comps.
After dinner, I played various machines, with my play mostly solidly on the right side of the curve. Finally, when I felt that my skills and judgement were becoming impaired, I quit for the night, and went up to bed. My bankroll had increased nicely, for the day, by about $700.00.
End of Part I. Part II to follow shortly.
-Babe-
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