Las Vegas Trip Account
Posted: Thu Jan 28, 2016 2:06 pm
My wife and I recently returned from a two week Las Vegas trip, with a two night stay at Seneca Niagara tacked on at the end. The following account contains comments, statistics, etc., that many folks may find somewhat interesting, and which others may find completely boring. Read on at your own risk.
First, the really great news for us - we finished considerably in the black! That does not always happen, but thanks to my being somewhat "over royalled" this trip, it did this time. I was ahead just under $1900 at the machines themselves, and cashback and scratch cards (more on those later) added about $700 to that total. My wife finished slightly up, as well, at plus $700.
The Seneca component of the trip was not as good to us. I managed an $800 profit, but my wife dropped $1400 there, thanks to one of those particularly brutal sessions that multiline play can produce - playing 5 line 50c 8/5 bonus poker, she was down, in an hour, about 15% of just over $8000 of her coin in.
The trip started with a drive to Buffalo and flight from there to Las Vegas, on January 9. Thanks to the balmy winter in this area to that point, the temperature in Buffalo was about the same as that in Las Vegas.
We stayed four nights at Main Street Station, four at the Rio, three at South Point, and three at the M, before flying back to Buffalo on January 23. We had never stayed at the Rio before, but part of our deal with Caesars Entertainment, who covered most of our air fare, was a four night stay at one of their properties. We picked the Rio, since we knew they had better video poker than other Caesars Las Vegas properties. We had stayed at all three of the other properties previously.
On now to some of the highlights and lowlights. Seven royal flushes in about 180,000 hands (one per 25700) was undoubtedly the biggest highlight. Four were in roughly 85,000 hands of 25c play, while the other three were in 94400 hands of 50 line 5c play. The royals came twice on one card draws, three times on two card draws, once on a three card draw, and the most surprising one on a four card draw. A definite lowlight was the fact that, before finally hitting a royal on a one card draw, I had failed about 175 consecutive times. That includes two consecutive complete whiffs on 50 line, where I was playing 9/6 JOB for nickels
The mindset playing multiline vp, particularly something like 50 line, when dealt a promising hand, is not "will I hit?", it's "how many will I get?". Missing twice on four to the royal draws was bad enough, but even worse was a session starting with three consecutive draws to trips without making one quad! After that, I started keeping track. For that entire session of about 600 deals I received trips 18 times (therefore 900 draws), and made quads 25 times, for a measly 1 per 36 success rate.
On this trip, NSU deuces became just U deuces - about 19,000 hands played, with zero royals and zero sets of deuces. My return for the game was about 94%. The triple line deuces wild progressive at the M (98.91% deuces) was a bit better, with one royal and one set of deuces in 14200 hands. The two deuces games combined for 33,200 hands, with one royal (fine), and a mere one set of deuces (not so fine).
However, all those royals more than made up for the negatives.
Earlier, I referred to scratch cards. This is a promotion at Main Street Station where, if you are playing full coin, with a players card in the machine, and end up with a natural four of a kind or better, you can request a scratch card from an attendant. They are almost always for $2, but occasionally you get a $3 or $5 one. About once or twice a year, someone receives a $5000 one.
Why go to the bother for a $2 scratch card? Well, these things do add up. I cashed 108 of them for a total of $222, which represents just under 0.4% of my total coin in at Main Street Station. Add that to the 0.5% cashback I was receiving there (another promotion - the norm for the Sapphire card level is 0.2%), and I was effectively playing NSU deuces at 100.63%, and 8/5 bonus poker at 100.07%.
I have some more, but this is probably long enough. If you've made it this far, congratulations - you are at the end.
First, the really great news for us - we finished considerably in the black! That does not always happen, but thanks to my being somewhat "over royalled" this trip, it did this time. I was ahead just under $1900 at the machines themselves, and cashback and scratch cards (more on those later) added about $700 to that total. My wife finished slightly up, as well, at plus $700.
The Seneca component of the trip was not as good to us. I managed an $800 profit, but my wife dropped $1400 there, thanks to one of those particularly brutal sessions that multiline play can produce - playing 5 line 50c 8/5 bonus poker, she was down, in an hour, about 15% of just over $8000 of her coin in.
The trip started with a drive to Buffalo and flight from there to Las Vegas, on January 9. Thanks to the balmy winter in this area to that point, the temperature in Buffalo was about the same as that in Las Vegas.
We stayed four nights at Main Street Station, four at the Rio, three at South Point, and three at the M, before flying back to Buffalo on January 23. We had never stayed at the Rio before, but part of our deal with Caesars Entertainment, who covered most of our air fare, was a four night stay at one of their properties. We picked the Rio, since we knew they had better video poker than other Caesars Las Vegas properties. We had stayed at all three of the other properties previously.
On now to some of the highlights and lowlights. Seven royal flushes in about 180,000 hands (one per 25700) was undoubtedly the biggest highlight. Four were in roughly 85,000 hands of 25c play, while the other three were in 94400 hands of 50 line 5c play. The royals came twice on one card draws, three times on two card draws, once on a three card draw, and the most surprising one on a four card draw. A definite lowlight was the fact that, before finally hitting a royal on a one card draw, I had failed about 175 consecutive times. That includes two consecutive complete whiffs on 50 line, where I was playing 9/6 JOB for nickels
The mindset playing multiline vp, particularly something like 50 line, when dealt a promising hand, is not "will I hit?", it's "how many will I get?". Missing twice on four to the royal draws was bad enough, but even worse was a session starting with three consecutive draws to trips without making one quad! After that, I started keeping track. For that entire session of about 600 deals I received trips 18 times (therefore 900 draws), and made quads 25 times, for a measly 1 per 36 success rate.
On this trip, NSU deuces became just U deuces - about 19,000 hands played, with zero royals and zero sets of deuces. My return for the game was about 94%. The triple line deuces wild progressive at the M (98.91% deuces) was a bit better, with one royal and one set of deuces in 14200 hands. The two deuces games combined for 33,200 hands, with one royal (fine), and a mere one set of deuces (not so fine).
However, all those royals more than made up for the negatives.
Earlier, I referred to scratch cards. This is a promotion at Main Street Station where, if you are playing full coin, with a players card in the machine, and end up with a natural four of a kind or better, you can request a scratch card from an attendant. They are almost always for $2, but occasionally you get a $3 or $5 one. About once or twice a year, someone receives a $5000 one.
Why go to the bother for a $2 scratch card? Well, these things do add up. I cashed 108 of them for a total of $222, which represents just under 0.4% of my total coin in at Main Street Station. Add that to the 0.5% cashback I was receiving there (another promotion - the norm for the Sapphire card level is 0.2%), and I was effectively playing NSU deuces at 100.63%, and 8/5 bonus poker at 100.07%.
I have some more, but this is probably long enough. If you've made it this far, congratulations - you are at the end.