Last week my ladyfriend Lynda and I drove from San Diego to stay for 5
nights at the South Point hotel in Las Vegas, paying just $35 for
weeknights, $50 for the weekend. The rooms were large, comfortable,
modern, quiet, and very nice excellent value for the money.
There are eight full-pay machines at the South Point, just past the
Players Club booth. These are older 5c/10c/25c machines that have FP
Deuces Wild, Double Bonus, etc (see the casino database, which I
believe is correct). It was difficult to get a seat at these machines
during peak times of the day, as they are quite popular. It was easier
to play them in the morning, or after about 11 PM. When we arrived, I
tried to get a seat there without success, so I started to play one of
the many 25c/50c/$1 Game King machines which are scattered around the
casino. These machines are surprisingly good compared to most casinos,
they all have NSUD (99.7%), 9/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe (99.6%), and
several other games paying 99% or more (again, see the database).
Interestingly, I did better playing the 99%+ machines than I did
playing the 100%+ ! Playing 25c NSUD I hit 4 deuces relatively soon,
which pays $250. I switched to 25c Bonus Poker Deluxe, and got a nice
sprinkling of quads, each of which pays $100 for any 4-of-a-kind card.
Several times I was able to start with $100, and get some quads to
boost me up to over $300. Of course, sometimes I lost $100 or more
without hitting a quad (or just one). I also played FPDW and FPDB on
the Optimum Play machines at the Santa Fe Station, but lost about
$200. At the end of the trip, I had about $10k in coin-in at the South
Point, and was still up about $600, mostly from the Bonus Poker
Deluxe. Lynda played in several poker tournaments and cash games in
the poker rooms of various casinos. She came in second in a tournament
at the Santa Fe Station, and also won some money in cash games. She
too was up several hundred $ at the end of the trip.
When I visited the Fremont in downtown LV I played Pick-em-Poker. It
was a strange game, on old machines that still pay off in quarters.
You are dealt two cards, then are shown two more cards, of which you
pick one. You are then dealt two more cards. It's usually pretty
obvious which of the two cards you want (to make a possible nines or
better, a pair or triple, a possible flush, a possible straight. If no
such possibility exists, then it doesn't matter which one you pick,
you'll still be getting two more cards.). Supposedly the game pays
99.9% and has a low variance, but I was surprised to see that it ate
up my $50 fairly steadily. The game is slow and klunky, which will
probably annoy some people. Pick-em-Poker was also reported seen at
Harrah's on the strip, but no word on the payout table. Someone should
check it out.
I would highly recommend South Point as a destination for VP players.
The casino has among the best offerings of full-pay and high-pay VP
games anywhere. Also, the Player's Club gives you one point for every
$1 coin in for every machine, even the full-pay ones. That is a big
advantage for serious VP players. The rooms are comfortable and very
reasonably-priced, although the food is not the very best. (Lynda
didn't like it, I thought it was OK. Actually, I thought several
dishes in the buffet were quite good. Most are just average.) When we
checked out, they offered us 2 free comp nights for January. When
Lynda got back home, she had a waiting email offering 3 free nights at
the new Encore resort (see my posting #94871). So we're going back
right after the New Year's for 2 nights at the South Point, followed
by 3 more at the Encore.
Robert