First, thanks to the nice folks who were kind enough to post that they enjoyed my
nostalgic reminiscence of Binion's Horseshoe during the glory days of Bennie and Jack Binion.
There have been some messages on the board the last few days, regarding free rooms at the El Cortez. The most recent mailer from the EC includes TWO free rooms, for 3 nights, plus a $50.00 dining certificate, two buffet breakfasts, etc. If
you believe that you qualified for this offer, but did not receive the mailer, I suggest
calling the EC (800-634-6703). Ask for the slot office. I'm sure that, if someone checks your play, and you were eligible to receive the mailer, they'll make sure that you get one. I do know that with the current management, receiving mailers does require a higher minimum play than was necessary in previous times. I'm not sure what that minimum is, but perhaps the Slot Dept. can advise you.
All the speculation about room offers at the El Cortez got me to remembering the fun
I have had playing there over the past many years.
The first time that I set foot in the EC was in 1976. EH and I were staying at the Riviera, our then favored casino. We had been to Las Vegas several times, starting
in the MId-60's, but had never wandered off the strip to see the downtown area.
EH suggested this daring downtown adventure one morning, mentioning that someone had given him a "funbook" which contained two free breakfast coupons from the El Cortez. Looking at the coupons, I noted that they entitled us to two $1.00 bacon/egg/toast/coffee breakfasts and that each also included a .10c tip for the waitress! ( - :
I asked EH if we were embarking on a sudden austerity kick, but he insisted that this would be just a fun change from the Strip. And he was right. After the initial culture shock wore off, the down and dirty downtown area, as compared to the neon glitz of the strip, I enjoyed every minute of that visit.
The EC breakfast was just fine. Everything was hot and tasty. The harried waitress almost fainted when EH gave her a $2.00 (PLUS a .20c!) tip. We had more coffee refills than we could drink.
I do remember clutching my purse tightly in front of me, during that visit. Both on the street and in the restaurant, some of the downtown denizens appeared likely to try separating us from any cash money we might have. However, fortunately, we remained unrobbed and untouched, our bankroll intact.
In 1976 Video Poker was but a gleam in Si Redd's eye. Our game of choice, at that time, was Dollar Slots. Preferably, the three coin variety, that paid $100 for 3 Triple
Bars. We found a few of those old mechanical beauties in the EC, and immediately began paying for breakfast. That morning our "free breakfast" only cost us $50.00.
I loved downtown from my very first visit. I didn't get back there again, however, until
1982, when we decided to stay downtown, for the first time, at Steve Wynn's beautifully renovated Golden Nugget.
By that time the casinos and I had discovered Video Poker. I learned to play on the original 9/6JOB mechanical coin-droppers at the Riv. I would sit in the little casino, attached to the left front side of the Riv, for hours, playing away as I inhaled the aromatic aroma of frying burgers from the Burger King, located there. I always had a laminated copy of Lenny Frome's original computer strategy firmly clutched in my hand, as I pounded away, dreamin' and schemin' of scoring my first ROYAL FLUSH!
I finally achieved that ultimate pinnacle of the rec player's VP success, on a $1700 JOB prog. in the main casino of the Riv. Had the kind stranger sitting next to me, not grabbed me, noticing that I was starting to slide off my seat, quivering with excitement, as the two missing pieces of the royal family joined the three that I had started with, I would have surely hit the floor. For me, no royal popped since then has ever come close to equaling the excitement that I felt that morning.
By the time we moved to the GN (which became our LV home casino for the next 7 years) I no longer needed my Frome cheat sheet. I had mastered the first elemental Basic Strategy, all that was available in those years.
Though the GN was replete with QUARTER 9/6JOB, I loved walking to, and playing in every casino downtown. There were no card clubs, tracking systems or any form of comps available to slot/vp players, back then, so it made little difference whom you favored with your non-table action.
What passed for "slot player recognition" in those days was a little different at each casino.
At the GN, after you run through a certain amount of coin-in, a little yellow ticket would be "spit out" out of the side of the machine. Soon another, ticket, attached to the first one would follow. Eventually, if you played long enough, you'd have a string of tickets that reached to the floor. These tickets could be traded for some CB and comps, after a sufficient number had been collected. Many players were so intent on their slots that they were unaware that these tickets were being generated. I frequently saw disreputable looking people, hanging around, trying not to be noticed, so that they could pounce on the tickets as a player left the machine. Whenever I saw someone leaving tickets in the machine, I explained that they had had some value, so that they detached and took them. For my trouble, I received many venomous looks from the Vultures-In-Waiting!
The Four Queens had a slightly different reward system. They had pink and copper colored tokens, which periodically dribbled out of the machine, into the coin tray, after a certain amount of play. Since there were no "credit meters" in those days, and slot and VP machines were all coin-droppers, these tokens were rarely left by the player, but instead, scooped up with the rest of coins. The Four Queens had a similar system, to the GN, for cashing in these tokens.
In 1989, the GN did establish a "Club", which they named "Private Arrangement". Membership in the club bestowed free rooms to members who stayed, on a paid basis, for a certain minimum number of nights. EH and I stayed there so many times, that we were upgraded to the highest club level, "Chairman's Card". In addition to free rooms, this entitled us to a suite at the regular (or free) room rate, and also a valuable pass to the perpetually very long buffet line.
I am still a Private Arrangement member, and have a few unused free nights remaining in my account. I used a couple last year, for a relative, and was told that the freebies have no expiration dates. At least they DIDN'T prior to Landry. I guess, with all the changes taking place there now, It would be wise to check again!
We had a regular daily route that we followed in our downtown meanderings. Every morning, after breakfast, we'd leave the GN and play some BJ & VP at the Las Vegas Club, followed by the same routine at Binions. Then we'd move down to the Fremont,
followed by the Lady Luck. Occasionally, we also played at the Union Plaza and the Cal. There was no MSS.
One morning, I suggested to EH that we walk West on Fremont Street as far as the El Cortez, a casino we had not visited in more than 10 years. He agreed to brave this potentially "dangerous trek", but only in the daylight hours.
The first morning that we entered the EC, I was struck by the sheer number of VP machines, in every flavor and variety known to casinos in early 1990's. Both EH and I were immediately attracted to the newly minted Deuces Wild machines, in all their original full pay glory.
We didn't have a clue about proper strategy (this was before Dan Paymar and other VP math geniuses published the correct strategy) but playing by the seat of our pants with a modified, and totally incorrect, JOB strategy, both EH and I managed, through sheer luck, to hit 4 Deuces. We've both been enthralled by this game ever since.
After our machines locked up for the $250 hand pay, a slot person came by, paid us and took our pictures "for their book". We had no idea why they did this
We were surprised, when, a few weeks after returning to the Mid-West, we each received a letter from the EC offering us a free room for three nights. Enclosed in each envelope was a copy of the photo taken in the casino, a Dinner coupon good for TWO complete meals at Roberta's or the Coffee Shop, and two breakfast coupons (with a max value of $1.49 plus a .15c tip......INFLATION!)
When the EC, the last of the downtown casinos to do so, established a Slot Club, they sent out letters announcing that the meal coupons would expire on a certain date. If they were not used by that date, they would be void. They also offered the option of turning the dinner coupons into the "Jackie's Club" booth, by that date, for $5.00 cash, per coupon. I had enough coupons left over to garner a $50.00 windfall.
After that, all EC comps were awarded by utilizing a player's card. For the more "valued players", a discretionary comp system, supervised by the Slot Director, was also established.
The morning of the Deuces, I wanted to immediately move over to the El Cortez so that I could play these wonderful wild things constantly. EH wisely demurred. If you think that the EC is a "grind joint" now, you should have seen it back then! However, I am a stubborn cuss, and made up my mind to stay there, sometime in the future.
The future began in the mid-90's, when I started to make an annual trip to LV with my Rootin' Tootin' Crap Shootin' daughter-in-law. This good sport didn't much care about what kind of room she slept in, as she didn't do much sleeping in LV. And, so it came to pass, that my DIL and I stayed many, many times at the EC. The EC quickly became my "lucky place", and I was constantly receiving photos, room offers and food coupons in the mail. Since a player's picture was taken for any quarter Jackpot payout of $200 or more, I soon had an abundance of room/food coupons, and never again paid for a room or a meal at the EC.
Eventually, my DIL very justifiably got angry at the EC. She had decided to play BJ while resting her tired feet and jangled nerves, after a long 4 hour session standing at the Craps table. During the Craps play, she had, at one time, been up over $600. When she finally cashed out, footsore and aggravated, she was losing her original Bennie.
Her luck changed at BJ, and she immediately began winning. She finally upped her bets from $3 to nickles, then dimes, eventually betting a few Green Chips. She just kept winning. When she finally started a reverse trend, losing several hands in a row, she colored up with a $200 profit. When she walked over to the cashier to cash in her chips, two suits approached her, and told her that she was no longer welcome to play BJ at the EC because her play was too "strong" for them. They also said that her picture was already on file in their office, and that she had been 86'd from BJ play previously. They said that she was welcome to play Craps, slots or VP, but that if she tried to play BJ again, she'd be trespassed and escorted out of the casino by the Metro Police. My DIL argued that it was a case of mistaken identity (which it definitely was) but they paid no heed to her protestations. The most ridiculous thing about the incident was that my DIL is a BJ "hunch
player", who uses her own version of Basic Strategy, and never counts cards.
From that time to the present, whenever I've stayed at the EC, it's been on a solo adventure. Hotel room and casino ambiance have importance to EH. My DIL is still thoroughly miffed that she can't play BJ there, and doesn't care for their beds. My family has higher standards about hotel rooms and lower standards about VP inventory than I do.
Except for one horribly negative trip, a few years ago, I almost always come out at least slightly in the black column, after an EC visit. I usually have a very pleasant time while I'm there as well. I've stayed there so many times that I know almost all the employees, and they are very nice and extremely courteous and helpful to me.
The EC has remodeled, refurnished and refurbished the bedrooms and public rooms
in the hotel. Frankly, though lots nicer and cleaner than it was previously, it is a far cry from the GN. But, ah, the delicious VP, that's a different story.
Despite the fact that the EC management has, in recent years, removed at least 50%
of the great VP machines that they used to offer, there are still plenty remaining. If you are a quarter player, the EC is VP Nirvana. Even a .50/$1.00 player, who is not irritated by super-SLLOOOWW coin-droppers, can still find full pay DDW, KBJW,
10/7DB and 9/6DDB in those denoms. And that's why I stay and play at the old EC.
Of course, I miss the great, old, never to return days, when the EC was loaded with loads of FPDW, Downtown DW, and FPJW in .25/.50/1.00 denoms. When row after row of $1.00 10/7DB beckoned for my bucks. But at least SOME of the good stuff is still there. There's no use mooning over the past.
For the most part, when all that great stuff was available, prior to Dancer, Scott et al, most of us didn't know how to play it properly. Now that the books and software have mostly solved that problem, the casinos have taken counter measures to protect their bottom line. They are, after all, for profit businesses. I do understand this intellectually, and, were I in the casino business, I would probably do things no differently. Yet, sometimes, when I reminiscence about Trippin' at the El Cortez in the past, I do miss the early, glory days of VP.
~Babe~
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