There was a time not long ago when Nancy and I hit Vegas 5 times a
year. We made it once last year. Other places compete for my
gambling efforts. Reality stiff arms me. Stuff happens. Vegas
isn't a given anymore. We made that trek west from Chicago again
last month.
Transportation
Air: We flew American out of O' Hare. Free flights courtesy of
credit card rewards and FC upgrades with AA frequent flyer miles.
Getting into or out of O'hare has become a real crapshoot. Late on
our departure and over 3 hours late on our return flight. Any
approaching weather system and ATC slows things down to a crawl. If
it's a decent sized weather system a lot of flights just get
cancelled. Note: Free WiFi is available in McCarran, at least at D
gates.
Ground: We drove in to short term at O' Hare. No rental in Vegas
this time. We used a total of 3 cabbies. All good natured, honest
and, by all outward appearances, sane. I think it's snowing in
Hell. Pretty nice not to have to spend the extra time picking up
and dropping off a rental, but it does limit your options while in
town.
Hotels
The first 2 nights are spent at Caesars and the second 2 nights are
at Wynn.
Caesars: Caesars ain't showing us the love that she once did. I
haven't gambled a Harrah's LV property in a very long time and the
few times I have been on property to play poker tournaments I have
probably been tripped because they make you show a players card to
buy in. Goodbye ADT. We're usually good for a sharp Augustus Tower
room, but we get a remodeled Forum Tower room this visit. It's a
decent room --new furnishings, electronic drapery, flat panel
monitor, tv in bathroom mirror, but no jetted tub. Apparently we
are on one of only two completed Forum Tower floors. This may well
be our last hurrah at Caesars. There's no video poker left for me
to play and work my comp magic here and I sure as hell won't be
shelling out cash for a room.
Wynn: It's my first visit here and I likey. The rooms have floor
to ceiling windows and we have an extraordinary view of the Strip.
It would have been more extraordinary if Adelson hadn't rudely
inserted the Palazzo across the Street. The room is awash in
pastels with splashes of bright color. Flat panel monitors in room
and bathroom, large unjetted tub, fax machine, electronic drapery,
turn down service, robes, slippers and assorted other goodies.
OTOH, it has become apparent that I don't belong here. During the
first 24 hours of my stay I have several John Travolta/Pulp
Fiction, "that's a $5 shake?" moments.
Nancy and I waiting in line at their Deli…
Me: That's $6 for a bag of potato chips?
Nancy: Yes.
Me: And they're not deep fried in truffle oil or sprinkled with
caviar?
Nancy: You know I don't like caviar.
Me: Right…. And $14 for a corned beef sandwich?
Nancy: Yes, it comes with a pickle.
Me: Ahh, that explains it.
Dining
Not a lot of fine dining this trip. Mostly delis and coffee shops.
Augustus Café: Bleh. Over priced and unimpressive. They served
one of the stranger versions of fish and chips I've had. Wedges of
baked potatoes battered and deep fried with fish sticks?
Victorian Room: This was once one of those classic Vegas casino
coffee shops at Barbary Coast. It fed a lot of gamblers simple food
at inexpensive prices during all hours. The specials ain't so
special anymore. The food and ambience haven't improved either.
The only reason I can think of to come here now is the Chinese
mustard that's so spicy it makes you cry.
Mon Ami Gabi: We've eaten and imbibed here many times over the
years. Lunch consisted of sausage, horseradish mustard and
caramelized onions on a baguette with frites, a Stella Artois and a
pleasant view of the B's fountains…. All for not much more than a
meal at one of the previously mentioned coffee shops.
Wynn Café: Had a good lobster eggs benedict here one morning. Not
quite as good as Blue Heaven in Key West, but very nice.
Zoozacrackers: It's like a deli, but more expensive. The Reuben
was OK and it came with a pickle. They had diet cream soda.
Café Babareeba: It's a tapas place in the Fashion Show. Like Mon
Ami, a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant that has a clone in
Chicago.
Gambling
Poker
I played about 13 hours of $1/$3 NLHE at Caesars, Wynn and TI. I
managed to grind out a net of +$300 with no losing sessions. I
played a tight unimaginative game of ABC poker and concentrated on
not making any major screw ups. I'm sure I'm sometimes leaving EV
on the table, but after a dismal performance during a trip last
summer I just wanted to plug some major holes in my game. My play
was just fine against most of the tourists I was up against.
I also played about 15 hours of tournament poker over 4 events
without a cash. I did the 7PM at Caesars twice, the noon at
Venetian and made a late and very brief entry into the second level
of a fast TI tournament. Pretty annoying to go 4 or 5 hours deep
into several tournaments and not cash anywhere.
I made some errors. UTG with M of maybe 14 makes a 3 BB raise to
me, UTG+1 with an M of about 10. Had I been thinking I would have
folded my AQ as the UTG raise likely indicates a strong hand that my
AQ doesn't do well against and can't be folded, but I push and run
up against QQ. Adios, time to see what the vp gods have in store
for me. Other times I just got unlucky. Shortstack in MP with
maybe 4 BB pushes. Action goes to big stack in LP who raises all in
to isolate. In BB I wake up with JJ and push my 12M stack in to
call. Short stack shows A4, Big stack shows 99 and I see I just
have to dodge 5 outs. I say "looks good" which is the kiss of death
as a 9 comes on the flop. Adios, time for dinner.
I really enjoy tournaments and have been playing some low buy in
S&Gs online well enough to double my modest stake, but I'm really
going to have to work on changing gears in a bigger field and
scratching out more ev with steals and aggression. The SNG
environment forces you to change gears rapidly, generally increasing
aggression during the course of play. The lines are often not so
clear cut (at least to me) in a larger field tournament. I've got
some work to do.
Video Poker
I've been a reasonably competent vp player for several years now
though I've had a lot less practice to keep up my chops over the
last year or so. Still, I can play an accurate JB strategy in my
sleep and these days that is likely to be the best opportunity I run
into on the Strip.
I give Caesars and the other Harrah's properties zero action.
There's nothing to work that's even a decent comp hound play. I'll
keep on taking what works for me in marketing offers until they wise
up, but I've decided to cut Harrah's LV properties loose.
After breakfast on the second day Nancy and I take a walk down to
Planet Hollywood. I look in on the poker room and goof on some
Sopranos slots for a little bit, but after that I'm basically
pushing buttons and looking at paytables for the next 45 minutes or
so while Nancy makes some really bad playing decisions.
I'm basically killing time and hoping I might find something
reasonable to play to see what PH marketing does when I run into a
$1 progressive. The prog doesn't have any kind of display and you
have to touch the screen to see what it is. Best paytables at reset
are in the area of 98%, but the progressive on the royal here is at
$9500 and change.
I have been estimating ER of progressive royal games by adding .5 to
the base ER for every extra 1000 credits on the meter. I decrease
ER by 1% off of base return for each credit the FH or flush has been
shorted. This has been working fine, but it was brought to my
attention on a forum recently that my estimates were unacceptably
short when royals got exceptionally high. The 7/5 BP base game
brought in an estimated 98% and my old method of ball parking ER
would have brought return up to 100.75%. I goosed my estimate
by .25 and was still shy by a couple of tenths when I checked later
on the laptop. Add CB and I was estimating hourly expectation
between $60 and $75.
Most cognizant vp players know that this is just one of many ways
to evaluate a play. These expectations work themselves out over
many, many thousands of hands. I'm more of a grinder really and so
much of return is jammed up in the royal, but I wasn't likely to
find anything better on the Strip and I understand from previous
progressive play most of the strategy changes required to maximize
ev. I took my shot at a pretty good play and prepared to take a
minor drubbing. The level of detail probably clues you in; I pop
the royal after about 1 hour of play. A very standard 3RF over
4Straight hold. Actual return was $9527 per hour of play. And that
is video poker in a nutshell.
All remaining vp sessions are anticlimactic after that. I give
Palazzo some $1 JB action to see if marketing brings anything and
the rest of my action I give to Wynn. I played the 2 7/5 BP quarter
progs as they approached 100% and the rest went into the $1 JB slant
tops. Kind of curious to see how they market to midrollers.
Free Crap
Free crap is a gambling tourist's best friend. Any gambler who
doesn't work promotions and comps is giving money to the casino and
there's something just plain wrong about that.
2 Free nights Caesars
$1200 Macy's GC courtesy of Caesars
$100 Free Play from Wynn Marketing
$120 Earned Free Play at Wynn
4 free Wynn buffets (to be used later)
2 Free nights Wynn (originally in on a $119 per night marketing
offer) based on a bit more than 50K CI.
Observations
Usually this is the point in the trip report where I wrap things up
by waxing philosophical or letting my inner Hemingway out for a lap
around the page, but we're at that point in a Great Lakes winter
when I give serious consideration to gnawing on the business end of
a 12 guage. 10 more inches of snow predicted tonight…. I think I'm
just going to make a few random, and very possibly pissy,
observations.
The state of video poker on and near the Strip is at the lowest
point I have ever seen it. The number of opportunities even for the
tourist, who tends to make more allowances for comped amenities, is
pretty slim. High prices, bad games. Am I beginning to sound like
one of those whiny days-of-yore gamblers droning on about how sweet
the pickings were in the old days? Well, give me a few more years,
dammit. I wasn't even part of the "good" old days. Downtown Las
Vegas, Reno, Tunica, Laughlin, the Gulf Coast and here to fore
unexplored venues will continue to get more attention from me. Is
there pick `em in Pahrump?
There is money to be made playing poker on the Strip. Whether I can
make it is another question entirely. Annie Duke is making money.
At $1700 a pop Annie was hosting some sort of ladies poker seminar
at Caesars while I was there, and I swear I saw Bigler and some guy
who won a PLO bracelet last year. I took the stack of a lady who
had just been "charmed to meet Annie" at the seminar in a tournament
at Caesars. She may have to pay another $1700 to learn not to play
AK like AA.
I'm finding poker and video poker a yin and yang experience.
Totally different kinds of concentration required. VP is an
essentially solitary experience while you have to deal with people
playing poker. The game kind of dries up if there's no one else at
the table. Sometimes this is very pleasant. Other times…. With
VP I don't have to deal with some kid whining that someone actually
called his push with 6, 4 off suit or a relentlessly happy Aussie.
And the vp machine never slow rolls me. When it's in the mood it
kicks my butt with a quick mechanical efficiency. And, strangely,
I'm more proud of my meager poker accomplishments than I am with my
far larger vp wins. A cash in one of those tournaments, regardless
of the amount, would have easily eclipsed that $9500 royal in my
mind. It ain't all about the Benjamins, I guess.
Chandler
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