As I prepare for a first video poker visit to Las Vegas, there are
many new thoughts that flow thru my head. I'm sure experienced video
poker players have had these same thoughts, and have dealt with them,
only to go on with their video poker education! If that's the case
with you, then you get to chime in with your observations, and then
this beginner will learn all the more quickly!
I come from a tight-belt-budget, retired-person's perspective, and
that's probably very different than that for most video poker
players. There's our valuable free-and-clear home being prepared for
sale (and that might be a situation with many retirees), there's the
ample free time available to retirees, and there's the short-money
situation. So my optimum solution concerning video poker is likely to
be very different than the optimum solution you've come up with. As I
read the vpFREE chatroom content it's obvious that what I'm going to
come up with will be different than what most would. It's diversity
that makes life interesting, I should think! So I represent a point
of view of those of us who live quiet lives of desperation, having
little extra money at hand, and often settling into a drab, quasi-
existence. But I don't intend for that to happen to me, or at least
I'll fight it!
What are comps, and what are their true value? Let's say I'm in Las
Vegas, starting a typical day. I'm going to handle food different
than most. I'll be satisfied with minimum food to provide an
interesting and enjoyable vacation experience for me. Bye, bye drab!
So I time my visit to the Main Street buffet so that I'm charged the
breakfast rate, and I eat and read poker books, and I merge into the
lunch period. This will be my only meal that day. It will consist
mostly of the delightful breakfast Main Street puts on, but if I like
I can sample a thing or two from their lunch menu, without added
cost. So it takes me 1 1/2 hours to eat, who's counting? The idea is
I'm paying $5.95 (or whatever it is today), and it will cover my
needs for the day. Towards evening, since I have low blood sugar,
I'll get a chocolate malt from McDonalds at Union Plaza ($2), so my
net expense for food is $9, including a $1 tip at Main Street buffet.
Food comps, for me, are worth about $9. Oh sure, I'd like to eat at
the Ballagio (sp?), and I might view food comps as being as much as
$12 for that privilege, but being comped to a Ballagio lunch ($26,
last time I went there) will be viewed as WORTH not more than $12,
including all 3 meals that day. Gee, if the casinos want to feed me 3
squares in a certain day, and want to view those meals as being worth
$78 for the day, that's their problem! My needs are accomodated with
$9, and maybe $12. After that, I'm simply being gluttonous. The
distinction relates to utility value. If a casino presses me to stand
on my head at their casino, so as to get their wonderful dinner into
my already stuffed stomach, I'm just not going to do that!
Bottom-line, with my set of perspectives I can work to earn comps for
$9 worth of food, not $78. I just don't have to jump thru as many
hoops as the next guy, and no one is going to conn me into believing
they have my best interest at heart, just because their dinner costs
$40. And as to $25 per shot aged Scotch, I'd prefer my rotgut so as
to retain my dignity. Now really, try as you would, you'd have a hard
time being comped rotgut anywhere in the Las Vegas casinos. The worst
liquor is still pretty wonderful, compared to a drab life, that is.
It's the same with rooms, as it is for food and liquor. Last time I
was in Las Vegas I stayed on the 17th floor of the Four Queens, and
it cost $23/night. I believe they were inbetween managements or
ownerships (whatever), and they were giving away rooms. So I do my
research and find casino X has a decent room for $40/night. Well,
that's the utility level for rooms, in my utilitarian view! The
$100/night room might be 6 square ft. bigger, and the car just a year
old rather than 3, but still it's utility to me is just $40/night.
I'll jump thru hoops to get my $40 room, but I won't jump thru a few
more hoops to be comped the $100 room. And I sure as heck won't
believe in my heart-of-hearts that I'm being comped a spec more than
the $40/night I could get, when I work at it.
I was a landlord, and had 1,000 apartments. When I left the apartment
business in 1976, rents were still $150/month, utilities paid. Thru
the magic of finance, $billion structures are now built in Las Vegas,
and rents are often $3,100/month for a single large room (not a 800
sq ft 2 bedroom, living room, kitchen, closets and parking place
apartment). This is progress, of course!
So in this funny house, replete with curved mirrors to provide
optical distortion and smoke too, everything is upside-down! That's
why, for my own special strategy regarding video poker, the Drab-Life-
Escape Strategy (DLES), I value packages of free nights obtained thru
the mails quite highly. After all, if I'm driving to Las Vegas
starting at 3 AM on Sunday morning, and leaving to drive to Kingman,
AZ on Friday at 9 PM, then 3 free nights from a mailer are 60% of my
$40 x 5 = $200 room expense. Two such packages and I'm actually
staying free. That's the kind of comp for rooms I prefer. It's all
very disciplined, but nevertheless my DLES is fun, fun, fun! Life is
supposed to be fun, but it's also supposed to be disciplined...
I was reading a trip report, and the fellow was documenting comps
that were often 2, 3, and even 5 $hundreds in an individual day! I'm
saying mine is $49/day, and if I get rooms thru the mail, then my
comps are $9 to $12/day. I'm not going to trick myself into believing
some of this overpriced stuff is real.
Now with this tight, cheap and stingy DLES described, you can see,
even though I'm nearly 68 years old, I should have enough stamina to
play the level of VP needed to have wonderful trips to Las Vegas!
Shows, fancy buffets (when obtained without jumping thru extra
hoops), interesting and exotic drinks, and lots of neat people to
talk to; isn't that what successful Las Vegas trips are intended to
be?
Dave