Not All Blackjack Games Are Created Equal...

Disclaimer: All statistics come from this great article in the Las Vegas Sun

The proliferation of 6:5 blackjack in Las Vegas is among the chief arguments that people turn to when pointing to the downfall of player’s rights in Las Vegas. More and more, gambling conditions are worsening, with methods such as lower pay tables in Video Poker machines and automatic shuffle machines…not that we should be the least bit surprised.

For those not in the know, at a traditional Blackjack table, when a player receives a blackjack (An Ace and a face card or ten) and the dealer has anything but 21 also, the player receives one and a half times his bet as payments. This is called 3:2 Blackjack, as the bet pays out at a ratio of 3:2. However, more and more in Las Vegas, especially at the Strip Casinos, this payout is lowered to 6:5.

The edge might not seem significant, but when you break down the math, it means that a basic strategy player will lose his money 5 times faster at a shoe-dealt game, and 8 times more quickly at a single-deck game.

So why are Casinos doing this? Simple, because people play it. More and more, the lower-limit games at casinos employ this bottom-line-friendly game, as the lower-level player probably wouldn’t notice anyway.

The lesson here is to carefully check out the rules on the table felt before sitting down to play. However it is becoming increasingly hard to find a game with decent rules, as seemingly all the full payout tables can only be found at Downtown Casinos, or Off-Strip, locals places.

Anthony Curtis of the Las Vegas Advisor, perhaps recognizable from those awful quasi-infomercials about Vegas on the Travel Channel, states in this article:

"Over time, bit by bit, person by person, the entire market is going to react as a single organism and people will move away from that game," Curtis said. "It will hurt the casinos in the long run."

I don’t buy this one bit; vacationers (like us) come to Las Vegas to have a good time, not to scour each table up and down the strip till you find what you are looking for. And by the look of the completely full tables on our last trip, 6:5 isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. I predict that soon, we will be looking around for a 6:5 table to play at, as all the casinos will offer is even-money.

Taking a hit: New blackjack odds further tilt advantage toward the house

6:5 Blackjack? Just say No!

Vegas Link: CheapoVegas.com

CheapoVegas is an irreverent site dedicated to providing info about the many properties in Las Vegas from a decidedly low-roller point of view. It supplies info in a very interesting and unique way.

The data is set up by hotel and casino, and offers the usual info like room size and price, but does it in a more conversational and opinionated way. Along with vital info on the property, CheapoVegas also includes thoughts on the overall feel of the casino, and even lets you know what you get bottles of in the bathroom.

This is a great site to refer to if you want a more experience-oriented view on a hotel, vs. the usual nuts and bolts descriptions found elsewhere. It is a fun site to read through, especially if you’ve been to some of the places reviewed. However, higher-end properties such as Bellagio and Venetian are treated with disdain, hence the name Cheapo.

One last note, the folks at CheapoVegas seem to hate Steve Wynn and his properties, rating a definitive 1 on the Wynn-o-Meter.

CheapoVegas.com

VegasRy Casino Review: Barbary Coast/Bill's Gamblin' Hall and Saloon

(Note: Bill’s/Barbary Coast will be interchangeable, they are the same place. Although when I stayed there it was the Barbary)

Full disclosure: I stayed at Barbary Coast because the rest of my party was staying there. It definitely would not have been my first choice. That said, I was pleasantly surprised with my experience.

Check-in is interesting at the BC, it’s tucked into a back corner and the bell desk is more of a closet, this is definitely a casino first and hotel second. There is no porte cochiere, it’s more of a curb where you get left off and try and flag down cabs. The guest room elevators are out in the open, with a security guard posted there during busy hours.

However, the rooms have been recently redone, and are actually quite nice. They have plasma screen TV’s and are a pretty good size. I had a room with 2 queens, which faced Flamingo Ave. I believe that all the queen rooms face this way, with the kings on the other side of the building. The craziest thing about the room was that there was a small window IN the shower that opened all the way! Not sure what the purpose is, but it’s pretty wacky to be in the shower looking at people only a few stories down on the strip below.

The casino at Barbary is pretty small, and akin to a downtown casino. The limits are pretty low by strip standards, and drinks are inexpensive. The location is the main draws to the Barbary, as it is surrounded by much swankier places with higher limits. It’s right on the corner of Flamingo and Las Vegas Blvd, next to Flamingo, and across the street from Bellagio, Caesars, and Bally. It also has Drai’s, which is a pretty happening after-hours club. I happened to be up and around at 6 am one Saturday morning, and the group of party-goers milling around outside Drais after it closed trying for that one last hook-up was a sight to behold.

Harrah’s recently bought the Barbary Coast, and has since changed the name to the godawful ‘Bill's Gamblin' Hall & Saloon’, and has downgraded the gambling conditions, such as the table rules, and video poker pay tables. Most likely, Bill’s is not long for this world as it is smack in the middle of Harrah’s side of the Strip, and is waaaay too valuable a piece of property to leave as-is.

For a (temporarily) cheap alternative to the bigger properties on the strip, I would give Bill’s a try…I’m just not sure what you’d say when someone asks where you are staying.

Score:

2.5 Cheques (Out of 5)

Bill's Website

What will they do with the Mechanical Bull?

Looks like the Frontier is about to be sold:

Elad Properties, the Israeli-owned real estate investment group that is deep into an extensive renovation of the landmark hotel in New York City, is about to announce that it is purchasing the New Frontier Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Sources say the purchase price could be as sky-high as $40 million per acre -- or $1.5 billion for the 38.5-acre site.

$40 Million an acre? Yikes. Elad owns the Plaza Hotel in New York, and the early rumor is that they will tear down the Frontier and replace it with a Plaza-branded resort. We are all for this, as the Frontier is a dump, and it would be nice to have more upscale destinations in Wynn's neck of the woods.

A New Plan for Vegas' New Frontier (TheStreet.com)

NBA All-Star Game Wrapup

Last month, the NBA All-Star Game took place in Las Vegas. Even though Vegas doesn't have a team, (Although Mayor Goodman wants one) it seems natural to host the game in a city like Vegas, which is used to hosting major events and sporting events like last weekend's NASCAR race.

The game aside, it turned out to be a giant debacle, with it being Chinese New Year (big gambling weekend) and other large conventions in town. But it wasn't the conventioneers that caused the problems, it was people in town for the All-Star game that turned the city into a near war zone.

There were major incidents:

-Tennessee Titan (NFL player yes, but in town for the game nonetheless) player Pac Man Jones and his entourage were involved in a shooting at a strip club that left one bouncer paralyzed forever.

-A shooting at the MGM Grand that left one dead, and evacuated the casino.

-Shootings on the strip that closed sections of Las Vegas blvd multiple times.

Beyond those we have all heard about, there was just a general pandemonium that made it awful for the casual visitor to be there. Someone I work with (a Vegas vet) says it was the worst weekend he's ever experienced. He heard the gunshots, and was one of those evacuated from the MGM.

Now that the word is out, search any media outlet, and you will get hundreds of stories about the weekend. For example, a Google news search on NBA All Star Las Vegas yields 607 results. By contrast, a search for NASCAR as Vegas gets you 10...most of the referencing the NBA weekend.

Cab drivers are usually a great source of (possibly apocryphal) information, and we tried to ask every one this past trip on their thoughts on the weekend, and their responses were overwhelmingly negative. I managed to record a couple on my iPod, but the audio isn't tremendously clear, so here are a few of the points brought up.

(Again, take these with a grain of salt, but the sentiment still prevails)

Driver from Bellagio to Downtown

Listen Here

This guy said he will never work another NBA weekend again, he was personally stiffed twice, but didn't do anything about it because there were no police anywhere, and those that were on duty had better things to be doing

Driver from Downtown to Bellagio

Listen here

This guy went off! He was a deputy sheriff for 27 years, and never saw anything like that weekend. He knew (through connections...again, grain of salt) of 10-12 more shootings and 29 rapes. He went on to talk about Waitresses getting slapped around, a fight at the Wynn that spilled over to the Venetian and closed the strip for 4 hours. The interesting point here was that most of these incidents happened on hotel properties, thus they are being kept VERY quiet, as no hotel wants to be known as the scene of a crime.

Driver from Bellagio to Luxor.

Listen Here

On a lighter note, this guy tried (repeat: tried) to compare the NBA crowd to German Shepards that can't check for drugs. Still not sure what he was talking about.

What is really disturbing is the initial lack of media coverage. Stories eventually began to trickle out due to the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the weekend. Due to the major media outlet's (such as ESPN) affiliation with the NBA, much of this was kept hush-hush until it simply couldn't anymore. For example, ESPN, which is quick to jump on any story related to an athlete in trouble with the law, took until THURSDAY of the next week to even report on the Pac-Man Jones incident.

Needless to say, we won't be booking our tickets for the All-Star Game in New Orleans next year...

Changes at Luxor

There are a ton of changes going on at the Luxor nowadays. Walking through there last weekend it's impossible to not notice the walled off areas and construction. Ordering a few drinks at what is/was(?) Nefrititi's lounge, I decided to ask the bartender a couple questions about what is going on. I happened to record the whole discussion on my iPod:

Download Here

Here is a synopsis:

-The Egyption theme is going away, and they are moving towards a more adult-oriented property.


-The PURE group is opening and operating a version of DJ AM's Los Angeles club, LAX. It will be twice the size of RA, and have it's own sushi bar.


-Nefrititi's lounge will have no more live music.


-The high-roller area in the center of the casino has been removed and there will be a center bar in it's place.


-Upstairs is changing, with the ride and arcade taken out, and possibly the tomb.


-The Nile Bar will be expanded.-An Ultra Lounge, and a tattoo shop upstairs. (I think this is what he said, a little muffled)


-A couple 'mystery things' upstairs.

Also, not mentioned is a new steakhouse called Aspen 702.

Now you never know the accuracy of comments made by casino employees, as more than a few don't seem to even know what hotel they work for, but this guy seemed pretty legit.

Want to know how to build a Multi-Billion Dollar Casino?

Geez Steve, I know you ruined the Picasso, but come on...

VegasRy Link: VegasHotelSpecial.com

Anyone who's stayed at a hotel in las vegas, or signed up for a player's card, knows that you almost immediately begin receiving offers for discounted rooms and other deals. The problem is that these offers don't necessarily coincide when you are going, or where you want to stay.

Luckily there are a couple websites such as VegasHotelSpecial.com out there that compile these offers and codes, and let you pick and choose when and where you stay. These are great for finding deals and staying places that you otherwise not be able to afford.

For example, on our latest trip we used this site and an offer code for Bellagio when booking, and saved a lot of money...highly recommended.

Try

http://www.vegashotelspecial.com/

or this one:

http://www.fatwallet.com/t/63/704925/

Open Letter to the Mustachioed Bartender at the Aladdin/Planet Hollywood

Click to Enlarge

Seriously, how hard is this concept?

We have been known to have a drink or two when we are in Las Vegas, and after that one or two sometimes you need to use the restroom. Now we don't mean to be crude here at VegasRy, but there are times you want to hold on to that 11 dollar Gin and Tonic, or that 'free' beer that you ordered while dropping $150 at the BlackJack table.

This presents an age-old problem...what to do with your drink? Because the last thing one needs at that point is a dexterity test.

1. Place it on the porcelain part of the urinal, where there is a decent chance (Even Money) that it will slide off.

2. Place it on that black sensor thing on top, where the odds increase to 10:1 that it's falling off.

3. That someone actually put an ounce of thought into it, and there is a shelf.

Here is a photo from the Mirage, demonstrating the three options. Unfortunately, the ratio of shelfs to balancing acts is about 50-50 from what we encountered on our last trip.

So, note to Casino restroom architects: For the love of god, please think of us males. The broken glass on the bathroom floor should be a sign.

Trip Itinerary: Downtown

So Iowa is playing Texas in the Alamo Bowl, and my buddy Scott is going to Vegas. Naturally I give him $60 to lay on Iowa, the money line. Well, there was no money line on this game, and he layed it all on Iowa +11. $60 to win 54.55 (Of course not in multiples of 11...did I mention that Scott is a finance major?)

On top of that, he placed the bet at the fabulous Golden Nugget downtown. Now I am NOT a downtown kind of guy, so I get to roll down to the Nugget to pick up my $114.55. (I know, I shouldn't bitch, I did win...or rather, Iowa lost by the requisite # of points.)

So all of us here at VegasRy will be taking a field trip downtown, and reporting back to you on the Strip's bastard older cousin. Hopefully we will grab some great pics and audio of the Fremont Street 'Experience'.

Stay Tuned...

VegasRy Casino Review: The Mirage

The Mirage opened in 1989 and ushered in the modern era of Super Casinos, destinations unto themselves with thousands of rooms, and every amenity imaginable. The brainchild of Steve Wynn (we will definitely be discussing him a lot more later), the Mirage set the standard for modern Las vegas properties, but now that it is approaching 20 years old, how does it hold up?

The Mirage boasts one of the best locations on the Strip. Located next to Caesars Palace, and it's sister property TI (Treasure Island), and across the road from the Venetian and Harrahs, it's very accessible. The casino floor has seen a massive ovrhaul in the last few years, with much of the tropical theme being lost in favor of the more modern look that seems to be taking over the Strip. Along with the remodel, many new restaurants and nightclubs have been added. The large sportsbook remains one of the biggest and best on the Strip.

I have stayed at the Mirage twice now, and the standard rooms have recently been upgraded. They are quite nice, however the bathrooms are very small. They're not ultra-luxurious, but are about average to above-average for what you'll find on the Strip.

I have eaten at a few of the restaurants in the Mirage. Stack is one of the newer, more poular places in Las Vegas. I made reservations when I was in town last November, and was a little disappointed, not quite worth the hype. Samba Brazialian Steakhouse is a great place for those that like meat, and lots of it. The California Pizza Kitchen is just like any other, but it's location in the Sports Book makes it a great place to sit and watch games. Their 24-hour cafe is one of the better ones, and Cravings, the Buffet is pretty good, I am not a buffet person, but it seemed to be worth the money. There is also the Carnegi Deli which serves HUGE sandwiches that are great for a late-night snack.

The Mirage is home to two popular production shows. Danny Gans is a well-known impersonator whom I've had tickets to twice, and has canceled both times. I recently saw Love, the Circue-du-Soliel Beatles themed show, and it was great! I'm going back to see it a second time this weekend.

The Mirage has definitely stood the test of time, and remains one of the most fun places on the strip. I am anxious to check out Revolution, the new lounge the opened recently in conjunction with Love. If you are a first-time visitor, or if rooms are not your top priority, I would recommend staying at the Mirage.

Score:
3.5 Cheques (Out of 5)



Mirage Website