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The Match-Play Coupon
Circuit Part VII When
I awoke on the morning of Day Five, the HardRocks legendary pool area was more than
half full, and the topless portion of the Blue Lagoon section had a few life-sized and
oiled-down Barbie Dolls who were languishing on the beach.
For a crowded pool, there are surprising few swimmers among the throngs and
thongs. I
was already on my second glass of room-service orange juice when the Coupon-Rustler called
to check on my availability for the day. He
had already hit several casinos on the way down from his house in Eldorado Highlands to
where he thought Id be (NYNY). By the
time he had made one additional stop and changed course to the HardRock, I was ready to
pony up my food comp for breakfast at Mr. Luckys 24/7 diner. As tempting as the cholesterol-special looked, I
opted for a healthier and lighter choice. I
hadnt worked out in the gym since I started on the coupon-circuit some 100 hours
earlier, but I was putting plenty of walking-miles on in the meantime. On top of all that, the Rustler had big plans for
two, yes two, different semi-gourmet meal stops along our intended route today. They were gourmet in the Rustlers
eyes, but looked more serviceable and workmanlike in my eyes. For
breakfast we were joined by one of the Rustlers friends whom I had met the previous day. I asked him to give me a few more details about
another advantage play that I saw him carry out on Day Four. WinCard
Poachers WinCards
are those three little plastic-wrapped 3.5 by 2.5 cardboard strategy/payout
cards for Blackjack, Craps and Roulette. The
one for roulette shows you what each bet pays whether it be Straight-up, or on a Corner,
Street, Column, or Split-bet basis. The BJ
card has a Basic Strategy chart on it, while the card for Craps shows various Odds and
Payouts for a range of typical bets. These
cards sell for $10, but they come with a $15 match-play coupon. A good number of major casinos sell them, and at
some, this $15-mp-for-a-$10 WinCard purchase is supposed to be a one-time only thing. Needless to say, there are some guys
(WinCard Poachers) who convince a never-ending parade of new tourists to buy
these items on their behalf. The
come-on is that the WinCard Poacher will actually GIVE the buyer the $10 that it
costs to buy the little package, AND the WinCard Poacher lets the tourist keep the cards
(hes only interested in the mps). The
tourist gets a FREE gift, and the Poacher gets what he wants. Such a deal!
In
an average week, the WinCard Poacher estimates that he is able to get about one hundred
people to help him pull off this little bit of gaming legerdemain. On the busiest of holiday weekends, he says
hes able to fulfill his weekly 100 WinCard quota several times over during the
three-day period. The
Poacher said that he prefers approaching small group of people (instead of individuals),
because they feel safer in the group-setting and are therefore more likely to go along
with him on this little $15 of match-plays for $10 adventure. Once he entices one person in the group with his
plan, and the rest of them see that it turns out to be the real thing, the rest of the
group volunteers to do the same thing, so that they too can get the FREE cards as well! Everybody likes a free thing, and the WinCards are
somewhat useful for a neophyte player in their own right. While
hell readily admit that it does take a bit of gall and nerve to approach a group of
people, he says that its in his nature to help them, and then help myself
at the same time. Heres
a partial list of places that he finds most accommodating in letting him
redeem these multiple WinCard $15-for-$10 offers: Boulder
Station
Excalibur The HardRock Session After
breakfast I was able to use most of the match-plays that I had for this place. I used the high-denomination $30 semi-VIP
guest-only one first, in case they werent as tolerant of redemptions as I heard that
they were. I have a feeling that the younger
dealers in here look down condescendingly on players who use match-plays. Of course, these are the same guys who look like
they had no fear of going to a discount haircutting place when they got the tips of their
hair frosted and their eyebrows shaped. At
this time of the morning, the craps tables are almost always less than half-full, and the
older crowd that invades the Video Poker machines here, very rarely cross over
or switch games even if the nearby craps tables get searing hot. That is what happened during our HR session. A local well-known Precision-Shooter who frequents
the Boulder Strip (Sams Town, Castaways, AZ Charlies, Boulder Station, Nevada
Palace, etc.) was in here just shooting the lights out.
I
bought in when he repeated his first PL-Point number.
A fellow player mentioned that this guy had been shooting for about ten
minutes before that first Point was made. He
then proceeded to hit nine more Points along the way.
All six of us at the table were making enough noise to be heard, but we
werent to the point of whooping it up or exchanging bodily fluids because of our
unbridled excitement. The recurring thought
that I had as this roll just went on and on and on, was that no one at the nearby
blackjack or Pai Gow tables had any idea just how much money was being made by the
half-dozen intrepid souls that hovered over this particular game on Day Five. I
can honestly report that it was the hottest and longest hand that I witnessed another
shooter throw for the entire Coupon-Circuit week. By
the time he finally 7ed-Out, I had a loaf and a half (1½ chip-rail sections) filled
with green (~60%), black (<35%) and purple (~3%) chips (the other ~3% balance were $1
and $5 checks). I had started out with a $500
buy-in that had multiplied many times over, and I still hadnt even gotten my hands
on the dice yet. One
fellow-player mentioned that he was down to his last three $5 chips before the mega-hand
had begun. He ended up coloring-out for a
little under $4300. Now that is what I call,
turning a match-stick into a lumber-yard! Id
like to tell you that I threw a mega-hand that equaled or surpassed that one, but I
cant. My shooting at the Rock was
adequate, but nowhere near sensational. The
one thing that I can tell you, is that the money that I would normally have made during my
usual Precision-Shooting efforts, but that I had given up to pursue this
little match-play experiment, was now fully made up for, for the entire week. This Mad Professor was very pleased
about that! More
Check-Ins for More Cash I
still had a room-comp for the Riviera along with a corresponding $75 match-play bonus
(plus a heap of $7-for-$5 mps). On top
of that, I had similar offers from Harrahs, Ballys and The Stratosphere. I told the Coupon-Rustler that I would catch-up
with him around noon so that I could check-out of the HardRock and NYNY, and then check
into the Riv, Harrahs, Ballys and The Strat.
I
hadnt yet decided on which one of these places would be the one that I would
actually sleep in, and which would be my phantom stay targets. My plan was to wait and see how nice of a room or
suite that I got at each, before making that decision.
It took a little longer to complete that whole process and also get in a few
rounds of dice. I called the Rustler to
reschedule our luncheon for a little later in the afternoon. Anatomy
of a Loss In
the meantime, I managed to get a few match-plays redeemed, but didnt fare well on
the profit-equation. I lost a number of
mps and their corresponding base-bets at two of the above-noted places (Ballys
-$25 and Harrahs -$40), so I decided to complete the whole check-in/check-out
process before doing any more shooting. Yes
dear reader, I DO LOSE, but I have enough sense to come in out of the rain and
take a break from playing so that I can regroup and refocus BEFORE I re-bet again. THAT is how you keep losses to an absolute
minimum, and HOW I can keep the win-sessions to losing-sessions quotient so darn high. Of
course, its easy to SAY that, but the discipline it takes to actually DO that, is
very high. DISCIPLINE and proper
betting-methods are generally what separates the consistently-profitable player from his
highly-skilled, but still frustratingly inconsistent brethren. The
skill-level between two players can be exactly the same, but Ill ALWAYS put my money
on the one with higher discipline. One
depends on control and restraint to bring in the profit, while the other one is banking on
hopes and prayers. I
figured that I was trying to stuff too many divergent activities into too tight of a
time-frame. Instead of pushing my mp losses,
I decided to finish the phantom-stay phase, and collect (but not squander) the
room-comp cash-vouchers and match-plays, then meet up with the Rustler for that
early-afternoon luncheon with four of his mp-buddies at the New Frontier Hotel-Casino. My
Frontier Session Despite
the rushing around, it still took longer for me to accomplish the list of things I had to
get done that morning. In
any event, I got to Margaritas Cantina at the appointed time, but it turned out that
I was the first one there. That being the
case, I managed to redeem a small pile of mps at the Frontier Hotels tables. Even more fortunate, my shooting ability appeared
to have returned from the skill-vacation that it took just a few hours earlier. The
usual bunch of tolerant-to-surly dealers and pit-personnel were on hand. Once I started winning on a consistent basis, they
waved off any further attempts to use the match-play coupons. The funny thing is, they were willing to let me
bet the blackjack-only vouchers at the craps table as I was getting focused-in (and NOT
winning), but once I started winning, they put the stop-sign up and the no-more-coupons
light on. Its pretty much what I have
come to expect from them, and obviously I harbor no ill will against them. They have a job to do, and so do I. As they clamp down on Precision-Shooters more and
more at the Frontier, I just take it all in stride. At
this point, I go in there knowing that theyll only permit me to have one great hand
before they start to get upset, and literally start kicking the wastepaper basket at the
Pit Clerks podium, or having the boxman slam his fist on the layout right before I am
about to release the dice, or trying to time the landing of the dice with the same
slamming-fist-to-scare-(upset)-the-dice routine. Its all VERY laughable, and I take it all in
as part of the game if you get on a great roll at The Frontier. I
caught sight of the Coupon-Rustler and his posse as they came in through the doors
opposite Phils Black Angus Steakhouse (named after current Frontier owner, Phil
Ruffin). Although its not open for the
lunchtime crowd, I can highly recommend Phils as a great living-museum of the
earlier Rat Pack era on the Strip. Their warm
Spinach Salad is one of the best on this planet, and their medium-rare slabs of cow
aint bad either. We
all got a table at the back of Margaritas Cantina and everyone got the same
two-for-one steak or chicken Fajita special. With
two-for-one coupons applied over top of the two-for-one special that was already in
effect, the bill came to a paltry couple of bucks which my own comp more than adequately
covered. Geez,
Youll Sell ANYTHING, Wont You? It
was during our lunch conversation that I realized that the Coupon-Rustler and his buddies
will sell pretty much anything. Although I
cant confirm that he himself has sold a few pints of his OWN blood for cash, I have
the feeling that he would gladly sell a few quarts of YOUR blood if he had the chance. I posed that question to him, but his
non-committal response was answer enough for me. I
witnessed ample proof of this a little later on. He
demonstrated how he obtains a stack of $5-off coupons at the kiosk in the open-air
Carnival Court area of Harrahs, then sells
them to people waiting in line at the Fresh Market Buffet
for $2 each. Yes, hell try to sell
anything to anybody
THAT is the kind of guy he is, and hes darn proud of that
fact! For
example, hell look for places where there is a line-up to buy popular show-tickets. He says there is always a line-up at the
Rivieras ticket-window, so he never runs short of paying customers. In the truest ticket-scalper tradition,
hell boldly ask if anyone wants to buy a discount coupon such as a
buy-1-get-1-free voucher to La Cage, Crazy Girls or Comedy Club at the
Riviera. Since people are already in line,
they are ripe for pickin as far as being willing to buy a voucher that will allow
them to purchase a half-price admission to a show that they were already planning to see. Likewise,
in the ever-present line-ups at the popular nightclubs like Curve (Aladdin Hotel-Casino),
Rain (Palms), Ra (Luxor), Studio 54 (MGM), Babys (HardRock), Voodoo (Rio),
V (Venetian), etc., hell ask the waiting crowd if anyone wants to buy a
VIP Line-Pass. There is NEVER a
shortage of people who will willingly shell out on-average $20 to bypass the thronging
hordes of party-goers and gain instant access to the throbbing, pounding sweaty action. Out-Of-State
ID The
Coupon-Rustler keeps his Texas drivers-license up to date so that he qualifies as an
out-of-state resident for some of the offers, yet willingly shows his Nevada
drivers-license where it suits his needs. A
good example of this dual-license situation is at the Orleans
Hotel where they require out-of-state ID to obtain their Funbook, as opposed to Terribles
where a Nevada ID pretty much triples the amount and value of the offers that they grant
to their local customers. I
count myself among the many professional players who do precisely the same thing.
Ø
The
benefit of having an out-of-state license is in the tremendous amount of comped
rooms/suites, major entertainment, sporting event and party invitations, plus
multiple/overlapping match-play/cash-voucher offers.
Ø
The
benefits of having Nevada ID is in the increased amount of comped food, show
premieres/Grand Openings/Club events, intimate party invitations, closed-to-the-public
conventions, improved instant cashback and bounce-back cash incentives, double (or triple)
Players Card points and frequent waived-fee tournament entries. Just
How Far Will He Go? I
asked the Coupon-Rustler just how far he was prepared to go insofar as selling
casino-benefits and comps. He said that he
will sometimes sell one of his room-comps if he knows his customer reasonably
well. What
hell do is check-in at the hotel that is offering guest-only match-plays or
cash-vouchers, but hell turn around and sublet the room to someone who
just got into town. He said that he has a
group of people whom visit Las Vegas fairly frequently, and that theyre always
looking for a bargain. He simply replaces his
always-required incidental room charges cash-deposit with theirs. He
NEVER uses his own credit-card when someone else will be using the room. He then charges
his out of town friends a much lower price than they could find for a
comparable room, and everyone is happy. He
quickly added that hes never been burned by any of his guests simply
because he chooses from an older, more sedate clientele who are less likely to trash a
room or steal the trash-can. Whether
it be selling the free Folies Bergere tickets that he wins off of the Tropicanas
daily free-spin, or saving up those $1.00-off-a-$10.00
Race Wager at Barbary Coast until he has enough to appeal to local punters, the
Coupon-Rustler is ALWAYS on the hustle! A Few
More Day-Five Highlights I
spent the balance of Day-Five driving, parking, playing coupons, cashing out chips and
then going to the next nearest target on my list. Heres
a couple of highlights:
Ø
At
The Cannery Casino I had a great hand, which started off with a $20 net-win from their $10
match-play. I couldnt get to any of my regular shooting spots, so I settled
for the uncomfortable SL-Hook spot. I had to shoot into the far opposite corner.
On these tables, the backwall is a FAR distance away and the layout can give you
some unexpected hops, but the dice reacted without any amount of unexpected rebounding
even though the amount of height, arc, and backspin was often way more than I thought the
table (or the dealers) would allow. Ø At
the Sahara, I was
able to do the $50 in Non-negotiable Chips for $40 routine that we talked
about in Part I, several times without
retribution or admonition from the Table Game Supervisor.
The female Pit Boss did glance over occasionally, seemingly surprised that my rail
of visible play chips didnt seem to be diminishing, even though I had
them in action on almost all of my rolls. Keeping
my rack replenished from the stashed supply in my pocket didnt seem to arouse any
additional suspicion. Ø I
played a few $10 m-ps and a single $20 one out at the Baraka Casino in Hyatt Regency
Lake Las Vegas. The only reason I mention
this is because I am continually amazed that this place is still open. Staff-members and dealers easily outnumber the
players by at least two to one. I suspect
that they will continue to cutback the operating hours of the craps table until it becomes
a dusty piece of rarely used furniture. Hell,
its almost that way already. If you
like solo-shooting opportunities, then you can sometimes have this table completely to
yourself for the entire casino-shift. THAT is
how empty the Hyatt is! Ø We
ended up having dinner at the Aztec Casino (near
The Stratosphere) based
on a short stack of free 16-ounce
Steak Dinners that both of us had acquired along the way.
The food was nowhere near the gourmet category as had been
indicated to me. In fact, it scarcely
squeezed into the barely-fit-for-human-consumption category by virtue of the
unlimited steak-sauce that helped slide the grisly mass past my ever-reluctant tongue. That meal was an excellent reminder of the
shortcomings of relying on cut-rate food to fuel a discount-lifestyle. Ø The
Rustler said that I was certainly getting the hang of this whole coupon-swapping thing,
when
I managed to sell ten $5 blackjack-only
match-plays for Jerry's Nugget. By throwing
in my four
remaining free 16-ounce Steak Dinners from the Aztec Casino, I was able to get full 100%
face-value for the BJ coupons. I thought that
was a real coup for such
a novice trader as myself. More importantly,
it also meant that I wouldnt have to endure another one of those Are you
sure this stuff actually came from a COW? dinners at the Tec.
Ø At
Fitzgeralds, I tried out their newly-installed Swipe Club Kiosk Machine. It allows you to custom-build your own Funbook
based on your preferences and casino-play. At
a minimum, you can print out their $7-for-$5 craps and blackjack match-plays on a daily
basis.
Ø I
completed the circuit of my downtown haunts (MainStreet Station, Plaza, Golden Gate,
Fremont, Four Queens, Fitz, and Lady Luck) in record time.
The combination of the time-of-day and a straight bee-line from one
opportunity to the next made the entire hit n run approach very efficient and
VERY profitable.
Ø While
I did throw a few clunkers, in terms of losing hands along the way, my
batting-percentage was still climbing despite the huge differences between table-lengths,
conditions, layouts and shooting positions, and just the sheer speed at which I was moving
between casinos. I attribute the speed (and success) at which I was able to adapt to
various table layouts so quickly, to the quick-reference Table Notes that I have been
keeping updated on a session-to-session basis. See
my Mad
Professor's Shooting Bible Part I
and Part III articles
for full details.
To
Finish Off My Day
I also booked into
Sunset Station for a comped one-nighter that came with $50 in free-play and a $20
food-credit. I cashed-out my instant $50
profit, but held on to my food comp for use on Day-Six.
In the interim
seventeen hours since I started Day-Five, I had decided to spend the night at
Ballys. What convinced me was the fact
that they had me booked into a Grand Suite on the 22nd floor. Thats the home of their 22nd
Club, where premium players receive complimentary breakfast, evening cocktails, and
individualized concierge service. Once retired to my
suite, I stood there gazing out the panoramic window overlooking the Strip. The Coupon-Circuit was giving me a keen insight
into an entirely new facet of the Las Vegas experience.
The novelty hadnt worn off yet, and I was actually looking forward to what
Day Six would bring. Good Luck & Good
Skill at the Tables
and in Life. Sincerely, The Mad Professor
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