As part of a Republican political grass-roots precinct operation to try to elect Lynne Boggs-McDonald to Congress (unsuccessful, unfortunately, since she lost to the evil Shelley Berkeley), I had the opportunity to have an all-expense-paid trip to Vegas last weekend, starting from shortly after midnight on Saturday until Sunday afternoon.
I had to walk precincts most of the daytime Saturday and Sunday morning. That limited my blackjack time to a half an hour Saturday morning at the hotel in which I was staying (the Stratosphere), all Saturday night wherever I wanted, plus about 90 minutes Sunday afternoon at the Strat. Here's what happened, plus a look at current conditions at some of the Downtown places.
First, the Stratosphere. I have never played there since the very old days, when it was Vegas World. I had always stayed away because I assumed it would be a bad game, full of wierdball gimmicks like double exposure.
And yes, double exposure was offered. So was a "Super Fun" 21 that offered a number of liberal rules, but denied the player the 3-2 payoff on most blackjacks. Another fake ripoff. But fortunately, there were a few $5 and even $3 tables that offered standard rules, 6 decks, good pen (5 of 6 decks), plus S17, double after splits and late surrender.
My one and only really hot streak happened Saturday morning there, when I won $120 in half an hour playing red on a 1-4 range. I know I was statistically lucky, but I was happy to take it. From then on, I broke even overall. At my meager betting level, I got no heat, despite making no cover plays.
Saturday night, I went Downtown, first checking out the Golden Gate. There were 1 or 2 single-deck games which were too crowded. Everything else wasn't playable, due to poor pen.
I played a little at the Golden Nugget, making a little money on their 6-deck shoe. As always, penetration was dealer-dependent. But overall, not all that great.
I was very disappointed in the Shoe. It used to be my favorite spot, but I hadn't been there since August 2001, and the games had changed. Hard to find a single-deck table for less than $10 per hand, which was too rich for my blood. The $5 tables were all shoes or double-deckers with poor pen.
The El Cortez offered better pen and playing conditions, with most tables between $3 and $5. After playing for a while and breaking even there late Saturday night, I ventured out to what for me is a rare risk: the Western.
I hadn't been to the Western in years, but since I was with my brother, and both of us were drunk, it seemed like a smart move. After walking briskly past the lineup of parolees and panhandlers on Fremont Street, we saw the sign that advertised: "Same Western, New Management" or something like that. I wasn't sure if this was a good thing or not, but once inside, I discovered some darned good $2 single-ceck games. The break-in dealers, even the Asian ones, gave all the cards they could. I had a one-on-one game where I got 6 or 7 rounds per deck. I went up $50. But in the last few hands, I bet big (for me) due to an astronomically high count, but sadly, I lost most of the hands and finished my Western round breaking even.
Sunday afternoon, my play was limited again to the Strat, where I won about $10 or so.
Overall, I am sorry to say that the best playing conditions that I found, at least for a nickel better searching for good pen Downtown, was limited to the Western and the El Cortez. I never got a chance to check out the Gold Spike, but there's always next year
