LV Trip Notes from April trip
HIGHLIGHTS:
Best gambling: Montelago. 1 royal and (2) dollar Pickem quads. My
first, yes FIRST LV Royal in 17 trips after a guesstimate of about
500K hands played in LV.
Best meal: Capri at Sunset Station
Best VP find: Technically not a find, but the (2) .25 9/6 JB bartops
at the Flamingo remain. Earlier reports stating they were removed are
false. I played these puppies 3 of my 4 nights in town.
Best comp play: The meal card play at Barbary is still the way to go.
No points deducted. Play after 1AM and hit up a floor super for a
meal card. I have yet to be denied.
FLIGHTS
Uneventful flight on Southwest. Flight attendant cheerfully accepted
several of my drink coupons
.which expired on June 30th, 2001.
GAMBLING
I can verify the following VP plays:
Flamingo: As mentioned earlier, the (2) .25 9/6 JB bartops near the
hotel check in remain. These machines are off at the end of the bar
and easily overlooked. They sit between 2 support columns.
Barbary Coast: The bank of 9/6JB and NSUD remain. Note that the bank
closest to Ballys is still nickel based. I cashed out around $20 and
it spit nickels. Met Lisa Vios for the first time. Very nice lady. I
scored meal cards each of the 3 late nights I played here. Note : Be
nice, smile, and play for an hour or so then ask a super for a meal
card. I have yet to be turned down using this method. I know many
list members wrote off the Barbary when they yanked the FPDW, but
it's still a great place to play for me to play a couple hours each
night of my trips. For those who like to drink, Barbary has the best
drink service on the Strip.
Ballys/Paris : Played the Pickem. 50 at Ballys and $1 at Paris.
Machines are still coin based (I have yet to see a functional TITO
Gamemaker anywhere).
Caesars: Will they EVER finish construction in this place? Good
heavens, it's been a mess for about a decade. You can find 9/6 in
about every section of the casino. I played a $1 9/6 machine in the
high-limit area. Nice atmosphere. Attendants were on hand to care for
your every whim, which was to flag down a cocktail waitress in my
case 
Harrahs: The single line $1/$2 JB are gone as reported
Palms: All FPVP remains as stated. The FPDW progressive was busier
than I've EVER seen it on past trips (RF was only about $1100). In
fact, in my 3 hour session, I was never able to get on it. The FPDW
by the cage remains and had plenty of seats. Played the 10/7/80 DB
and Pickem on the Gamemakers. Saw at least (2) .25 10/7 DB machines
at the center bar. I recall there only being 1 (the one on the far
left as you sit with your back to the front doors) in the past, so
this is an improvement. Played the 3play .25 9/6JB for a while to
gander at the odd creatures standing in line at the Palapa Bar.
The .01 9/6 50plays by Ben & Jerrys are still chugging along.
Unfortunately, they were getting lots of play and I was never able to
get on them.
Fiesta
The 10/7 DB bartops that used to be on the backside of the lounge are
all shortpay now. Nothing playable at these bartops. The bartender
said they had changed them a couple months ago. All other VP appeared
as stated in VPFree/Lodes databases.
Montelago
Scored 2 very nice free stuffed bunnies for earning 200 pts. I also
scored a free Montelago Tshirt for my Royal. I only saw FPDW in 2
different banks. All other .25 Deuces were NSUD. Looks like they may
have cut down.
COUPON PLAY OF THE TRIP
Barleys
This place now gets the gold medal for coupon sweatshop of the trip.
Pitboss gives us a 2 minute lecture about tearing out the matchplay
coupons in front of him. They used to allow 2 coupons per person per
trip, as long as they were different. IE) One LVA and one Casino
Player coupon. No more. One coupon per person, regardless of the
coupon origin. Casino Player still offers the free pizza coupon, so
this is still a great place to hit-n-run.
MISC GAMBLING NOTES
The blackjack games in town are absolutely abysmal. It is insulting
how bad they are. They were bad during my December trip, but in 4
months they've grown even worse. This 6:5 crap is almost everywhere.
Only 2 stores on the Strip I didn't see it were at the Barbary Coast,
which at one time was the antichrist to BJ players due to their
sweaty pit and at Caesars (which pulled the tables due to player
objections).
The Legends tables at the IP are now CSM games that pay 6:5. Circus
Circus deals 6:5 single deck, only double 9-11 and no mid deck entry.
Like any counter would possibly want to enter such a miserable game.
Insulting. What a ripoff.
FINAL THOUGHTS
*Montelago is a great place to play. FPVP everywhere, include FP at
the bar and top shelf liquor to choose from.
*The piss poor BJ conditions really stick out.
hockeystl
