Really, really good deal at the El Cortez

This is a room offer. It's good only Sun-Thurs. It goes at least through August and possibly later. You can book up to five nights. The deal is that you get a $15 dining voucher for each night of your stay. The base rate is $24.50 a night plus $13.30 resort fee and tax. HOWEVER, that was the rate that the online booking engine gave me. When I called, the live human quoted me the rate without resort fee. The upshot was that I paid $110 for four nights instead of $151. It would have been a terrific deal even at the latter price; as it is, I'm staying four nights for $110 with $60 food credit. That is perilously close to free.

The offer code is BRKE0814. As mentioned above, I highly recommend you try to book this one live first (1-800-634-6703). You could even express surprise if they include the resort fee ("I thought that was waived with this offer").

For those of you who might have the wrong impression of the EC, the rooms are actually pretty nice. Book the Tower, not the Pavilion or Vintage rooms. The coffee shop still has those $5 burger and $7.95 prime rib specials, and the Flame steakhouse is better than you might think (and with the ACG or LVA 1/2 off coupons, one of those $15 vouchers can buy you a steak dinner).

thanks for the info, but I think you can just about the same thing at any smaller porpoerty with very limited play

It's not bad for a 'starter', and you basically get (cheap) food for one taken care of into the bargain.

If I were starting out in Vegas again, I might take something like that (if I couldn't sponge off somebody else) and try to hit a variety of smaller places to get free nights for future trips, and then settle in at whatever level I intend to play at, at my main places.

I thought you were gonna mention the other good deal at EC. I heard about this recently on the You Can Bet On That podcast.

Withdraw up to $1,000 on an EC ATM once per month. Take the receipt to the cage and they'll give you 5% in free slot play - which CAN be used for video poker.

Well, that is five hundred dollars in free play. Now no one actually used quarters anymore but in the days of walking around with a bucket of quarters ... walking around with five hundred bucks worth of quarters to put into the machines could use up the whole day.

Quote: FleaStiff

Well, that is five hundred dollars in free play. Now no one actually used quarters anymore but in the days of walking around with a bucket of quarters ... walking around with five hundred bucks worth of quarters to put into the machines could use up the whole day.

I think it's $50 in free play: $1000 X 5%= $50.

As for coin slots, it seems there are still a few in town.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

I thought you were gonna mention the other good deal at EC. I heard about this recently on the You Can Bet On That podcast.

Withdraw up to $1,000 on an EC ATM once per month. Take the receipt to the cage and they'll give you 5% in free slot play - which CAN be used for video poker.

$50 free money a month is a great deal. Any other casinos have any deals like that on ATM withdrawals?

Quote: Eaglesnest

So you want to be an AP? I realize this is a trivial thing you are mentioning and meaningless at best. Moving forward please watch this NOW.... before its to late.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2lmFCqbJcI


At some point when you are more knowledgeable you can then make a good judgement and see if its something you don't think will be a big deal.

I have NO idea what you are talking about. I posted what I consider to be a good room deal for the benefit of anyone here who might be able to use it. This has about as much to do with AP play as it does with sex with ostriches in outer space. I'm not going to watch that video, as it will consume an irreplaceable few minutes of my life.

Quote: bw

$50 free money a month is a great deal. Any other casinos have any deals like that on ATM withdrawals?

The deal has a few strings attached: 1) You need to have played a certain amount the previous month, OR be a new player. 2) You get one withdrawal per month (unless you have quite a bit of play the previous month, then I believe they will waive that), so if your bank imposes a, say, $300 limit, then you'll be restricted to a single $15 free play bonus. 3) The ATM charges $3.50 per withdrawal.

This used to be a straight, withdraw-as-many-times-as-you-can $50 max free play deal, but predictably, local bottom-feeders burned it out. I'm surprised they've preserved it to any extent at all.

BTW, the two coffee shop specials, $9.95 prime rib dinner and $5 burger and beer, are both excellent.

$50 free money a month is a great deal. Any other casinos have any deals like that on ATM withdrawals?

Eagles:This is AP to Axel and others. So they want to keep it quiet and low. Remember every dollar helps. To you only $10-15 dont really matter. But to somebody, as I said, every dollar counts.

"The live human".

LOLOL. Gets me every time I read it!

Quote: speedycrap

$50 free money a month is a great deal. Any other casinos have any deals like that on ATM withdrawals?

Eagles:This is AP to Axel and others. So they want to keep it quiet and low. Remember every dollar helps. To you only $10-15 dont really matter. But to somebody, as I said, every dollar counts.

Your concern would apply in other, more stealthy situations, but at the EC, they pretty much shout this promo from the rooftops. As I said, it used to be better before APs partially burned it out. If you had a $1000 ATM limit, you could hit and run for the $50 (minus the $3.50 ATM charge), but you would still have to meet minimum monthly play requirements (which have been changing, so I won't quote them here) to repeat it. There are a few 100%+ games there, so you could accumulate the needed points (albeit at 1/3 the regular rate) fairly painlessly over the course of a month.

Quote: speedycrap

$50 free money a month is a great deal. Any other casinos have any deals like that on ATM withdrawals?

Eagles:This is AP to Axel and others. So they want to keep it quiet and low. Remember every dollar helps. To you only $10-15 dont really matter. But to somebody, as I said, every dollar counts.

Yes this was the point.

I personally don't do the EC play. Dj does occasionally. As i pointed out EC is not a big deal, I think there is an entire tread devoted to it. I was not trying to bash Eaglesnest or upset him, It's not like I started ranting (I thought the fight club thing was funny)

It seems the OP is interested in serious AP I was only trying to caution him a bit, when posting about Advantage Plays. I don't know what someone may post next. Someone might post something they think as no real value and it turns out there are hidden benefits or better then they knew. I assumed he is new. Perhaps not and he knows everything, in that case just ignore me and carry on. If he is really interested in AP he should not take offence and think of it as something to think about.

Example: I hope DJ don't mind:But in the beginning he was posting about something that didn't seem valuable on the surface(no one payed attention). I was slightly annoyed at the time when I read it. He was new and meant noting by it, no big deal. I just mentioned to i'm it may not be a good idea to post about everything. he was not offended at all.(smart kid) He realized quickly one should use caution.

As it turned out the pay turned into something easy worth about 5% or more on dollars, for a significant amount of time. he is still reaping the benefits. Had just one person payed attention, we would have lost half the value.

Quote: AxelWolf

It seems the OP is interested in serious AP I was only trying to caution him a bit, when posting about Advantage Plays. I don't know what someone may post next. Someone might post something they think as no real value and it turns out there are hidden benefits or better then they knew. I assumed he is new. Perhaps not and he knows everything, in that case just ignore me and carry on. If he is really interested in AP he should not take offence and think of it as something to think about.

I'm of the mind to post anything and everything that seems potentially interesting that I don't plan on taking advantage of-- would you actively discourage this practice?

Quote: Venthus

I'm of the mind to post anything and everything that seems potentially interesting that I don't plan on taking advantage of-- would you actively discourage this practice?

I don't know if you are an AP, I guess I would need an example. Let me ask you this: why not post of you are going to play it yourself?

Howgood is te play is it just interesting or something good?

Quote: Venthus

I'm of the mind to post anything and everything that seems potentially interesting that I don't plan on taking advantage of-- would you actively discourage this practice?

Yes.

I'd put myself into the category of 'informed casual'. I'll keep an eye out for must-hit progressives but won't specifically seek them out. Also, no interest in VP whatsoever for personal use, but I like checking out progressives when I walk by, etc.

As for why I'd post-- I don't directly lose out (tighter comps, I guess?), followup discussion can be educational, and might as well let SOMEBODY benefit.

Edit: Also, I'm of limited experience. 'Interesting' might be big, or a misunderstanding. If I don't have confidence in it, could just release what info I can and let stronger minds take a go.

Why don't you pm me first about a play and then we'll see if it's worth discussing :) but seriously sometimes it might be worth "shopping" the information. If you can't play it or don't have the bankroll for it, bring it to the attention of someone who can, such as myself or Axel.

BTW El Cortez holds a special place in my heart as the first place I stayed at in Las Vegas. $32/night with no resort fees, and I had a winning session on $1 deuces. It was my first time playing a machine in Las Vegas, and the first time playing a coin dropper. I was surprised when the hopper ran out and some slot person came by with more coins. I used my $10 match play at a single deck table and ducked out, because nobody but card counters make money on table games (before I heard about DI's) and I didn't want to clean out the rack kewlj was going to raid lol. I played FPDW at the Palms for at least 12 hours and came back to EC to crash when I found out it was the day I was supposed to leave :(

Quote: Venthus

I'm of the mind to post anything and everything that seems potentially interesting that I don't plan on taking advantage of-- would you actively discourage this practice?

You have to understand the current ingrained, dyed-in-the-wool AP mentality. In Vegas in particular, people tend to swarm on and as a result, burn out any good plays in short order. Many bottom-feeders spend ten hours a day lurking on message boards and are constantly poised to leap upon any decent play at all, to the extent that when the Stinky Goat offers 25 cents' free play for an ounce of your fingernail clippings, their dumpster will be full of them in six hours and the penny machines will be swamped.

Many, I daresay most, APs in Vegas tend to abuse promos, with the mindset that if they don't, someone else will. The tragedy of the commons is operative here. If there were some kind of tacit, gentlemen's agreement not to beat promos to death, then said promos would last longer. Such a community understanding did, in fact, exist some 10-15 years ago. Information on existing promos and how to take advantage of them didn't exist then in the profusion it does now. Nowadays, even a whisper of a good promo on some message board brings an avalanche of bottom-feeding, chain-smoking APs out of the Siegel Suites and into the casinos.

This situation had caused most APs nowadays to treat information on good plays with paranoia. My mindset is just the opposite. I figure that there really isn't any such thing as a good play that can be kept secret for any appreciable length of time. I also feel--and this is crucial--that casinos do, in fact, create and publicize promos with the goal of attracting customers. So publicizing a promo helps the casinos out. The contrary, Vegas AP strategy of sitting on information about a promo, trying to hold it back like diarrhea after a hearty Mexican meal until it inevitably bursts forth, is counterproductive as what the casino inevitably sees is a sudden, temporary, and inexplicable invasion from the crystal meth crowd, until they've all gotten their $10 free play and then vanish back into the night. This would make even the most generous casino marketing department jaundiced.

Quote: Eaglesnest

This is a room offer. It's good only Sun-Thurs. It goes at least through August and possibly later. You can book up to five nights. The deal is that you get a $15 dining voucher for each night of your stay. The base rate is $24.50 a night plus $13.30 resort fee and tax. HOWEVER, that was the rate that the online booking engine gave me. When I called, the live human quoted me the rate without resort fee. The upshot was that I paid $110 for four nights instead of $151. It would have been a terrific deal even at the latter price; as it is, I'm staying four nights for $110 with $60 food credit. That is perilously close to free.

The offer code is BRKE0814. As mentioned above, I highly recommend you try to book this one live first (1-800-634-6703). You could even express surprise if they include the resort fee ("I thought that was waived with this offer").

For those of you who might have the wrong impression of the EC, the rooms are actually pretty nice. Book the Tower, not the Pavilion or Vintage rooms. The coffee shop still has those $5 burger and $7.95 prime rib specials, and the Flame steakhouse is better than you might think (and with the ACG or LVA 1/2 off coupons, one of those $15 vouchers can buy you a steak dinner).

Did they specifically tell you "there is no resort fee" or did they just not mention it in which case I think you'll be paying it.

Quote: Eaglesnest

You have to understand the current ingrained, dyed-in-the-wool AP mentality. In Vegas in particular, people tend to swarm on and as a result, burn out any good plays in short order. Many bottom-feeders spend ten hours a day lurking on message boards and are constantly poised to leap upon any decent play at all, to the extent that when the Stinky Goat offers 25 cents' free play for an ounce of your fingernail clippings, their dumpster will be full of them in six hours and the penny machines will be swamped.

Many, I daresay most, APs in Vegas tend to abuse promos, with the mindset that if they don't, someone else will. The tragedy of the commons is operative here. If there were some kind of tacit, gentlemen's agreement not to beat promos to death, then said promos would last longer. Such a community understanding did, in fact, exist some 10-15 years ago. Information on existing promos and how to take advantage of them didn't exist then in the profusion it does now. Nowadays, even a whisper of a good promo on some message board brings an avalanche of bottom-feeding, chain-smoking APs out of the Siegel Suites and into the casinos.

This situation had caused most APs nowadays to treat information on good plays with paranoia. My mindset is just the opposite. I figure that there really isn't any such thing as a good play that can be kept secret for any appreciable length of time. I also feel--and this is crucial--that casinos do, in fact, create and publicize promos with the goal of attracting customers. So publicizing a promo helps the casinos out. The contrary, Vegas AP strategy of sitting on information about a promo, trying to hold it back like diarrhea after a hearty Mexican meal until it inevitably bursts forth, is counterproductive as what the casino inevitably sees is a sudden, temporary, and inexplicable invasion from the crystal meth crowd, until they've all gotten their $10 free play and then vanish back into the night. This would make even the most generous casino marketing department jaundiced.

Interesting you started out with this on your first post

Quote: Eaglesnest

Best strategy for grinding out 10K+ in six months} Hello all, I have a rather complicated question. After several months in the hospital and losing my job to boot, my bankroll is down to about 8K. I would like to boost it up to 20K or more by coming to Vegas and grinding out some AP play. I am very experienced in VP and live poker and am willing to put in long hours. I am fairly risk-averse in this context, but it would not be a disaster if I busted out. I am considering four basic strategies:

I think there are a lot of misnomers in here. It almost seems like small bits of other things and views I have read on the internet all put together in a colorful fashion. Especially the crystal meth crowd part.

I'm not going to pick through and correct the misnomers.

It seem you know everything and how Vegas APs work. You should do very well. Good luck.

Of course this is nothing remotely resembling some kind of potentially semi-secret "AP" thing; it is a routine sort of room offer of the sort that most any hotel in Las Vegas regularly uses to market itself in times of slack occupancy. And I'd certainly hope you'd continue to feel free to share them when you find them particularly interesting or attractive.

But:

Quote: bobsims

Did they specifically tell you "there is no resort fee" or did they just not mention it in which case I think you'll be paying it.

Good question, because in case you didn't already know this, any "resort fee" or similarly named mandatory added junk fee is usually NOT mentioned or quoted by Las Vegas area hotels as part of their rate until you show up to check-in. Sneaky & sleazy, but routinely true now in the Las Vegas market. That's what it exists for: to deceive some people as to the rate they will actually pay for the room. Even if someone did actually say there wouldn't be one, unless I saw it specifically stated in a written communication that I could take to the registration desk at check-in, I'd plan on a greater than 50% chance you'll end up getting charged for it anyway.

The publicly available going rate from many online hotel discounter sites with significant participation in the Las Vegas market (such as i4vegas.com to give just one example among many) for tower rooms at ElCo for most weeknights in August generally runs about $21, and their usual "amenity fee" at E.C. has been $8.95/night since they first began having one about a year ago.

Quote: El Cortez

Each room is charged an Amenity Fee. The Amenities Fee is $8.95 per day plus tax, paid directly to the El Cortez.

I suspect that the $13.95 you saw most likely was a 'taxes & fees' item which also includes the room tax, and you'll certainly be paying that local government mandated tax (of 13% in the City limits) if you want to get into your room, whatever they do or don't mention or quote.

If booking directly with their website instead, August weekday tower rooms are quoted a little higher than that but are then discounted to a little less than that for stays of 3 nights or more, to about $20, and the "fee" continues to be listed at $8.95 if you search hard enough to find it buried separately under "policies." I think the food credit looks like a pretty reasonable deal in this offer, but not so much for the room rate unless the junk fee really is waived, in my opinion. But then again, in my opinion the tower rooms (and ONLY the "tower" rooms - not the "pavillion" or "vintage") are a pretty decent value for a good quality well furnished & spacious room just for their normal twenty-something rates this time of year without any extras from an offer code, if you know you like being downtown, or are coming with your own transportation to get around.