2 hours at the El Cortez

Something on another thread triggered this memory. It's not often we know exactly what we spent but when I realized I knew the amounts and the results of it, I thought it made a story worth sharing.

(Hubs and I were both playing DDB video poker, him on dollars, me on quarters.)

During our trip in July we took a couple hours one day for a visit to the El Cortez. We usually wander through every 4 trips or so just to check it out. We hardly ever stay and play because it's just never felt welcoming to us. I can't put my finger on why but that's just the way it is. With The Flame closing down, I really wanted to see the casino again before too many changes happened.

The hardest part of the visit was getting there. It was scorching hot outside and there wasn't much shade along the way so we walked fast. I'm not sure if it was the air conditioning or what but when we walked in, we immediately felt like staying for awhile. We wandered a bit and decided to stay and play VP at the bar. Along the way we passed the player's club and although hubs wasn't interested, I said I was going to sign up for a player's card. Since there was no line up, hubs finally decided he could take time out of his busy day to do the same. The friendly fellow at the desk explained we would be entered into a draw for $1000 for signing up and we didn't need to be present to win (I'm waiting for the call as I type). He also explained that after earning 500 points, we could scan our cards at their special machine and receive $5 free play and maybe some other awards. Hubs was starting to hop from foot to foot, getting anxious to go play. But first I had to have a nice chat about our home town area as it turns out the guys sister lives a half hour from us in Canada.

We were eventually done chatting so hubs scours around and finally finds just the right machine at the bar and begins. I sit beside him. I'm playing quarters and using my cheat sheet so I'm quite a bit slower than him but every hand I play has a nice little ring to it. Full house, 3 of a kind, flush, oh look dear, another full house... I'm doing good. Hubs is not doing as well and moves to the next machine down. A couple more minutes and I hit 4OAK. Hubs grumbles, pulls out another $100 and switches seats again. I soon cash out and wanting to switch machines, go and sit beside him. My machine starts singing again and Hubs yanks out his TITO and announces he's going to the other side of the bar because it's just too discouraging sitting beside me. And I'm loving it! It's a very rare day that I'm winning and he's not.

I have to digress a minute here so you understand where I'm coming from. My husband in real life is Mr. Lucky. You've heard that song "no matter what you can do, I can do better"? That's him. But only when we're gambling. It happens so regularly in fact that when I get a decent win, we wait patiently knowing he'll get a bigger one. Always. So......many years ago, (after enough years together to know I'll never beat him gambling), while sitting on a bench during a visit to Winnipeg, my husband gave me one of 2 $1 lottery tickets he bought. He scratched and won nothing but I won $100! Finally, I BEAT HIM!!! I REALLY DID!!! I did a little dance for all the world to see and cashed my ticket in. Feeling just a wee bit sorry for Hubs, I asked for $98 and 2 more tickets. I got nothing but, of course, Mr. Lucky won $500! Suddenly, my $100 win feels like a loss.

To celebrate the huge Winnipeg win, we used the money and went to the horse races. It was great! Sprang for seating in the clubhouse and ordered seafood and filet mignon and fancy drinks, price no object (well in all honestly, that meant nothing over $500) but we'd never done that experience before at the race track (or since for that matter.) His $500 win was found money so we lived it up and had a great time watching the races with a glass of good wine and all the comforts of the clubhouse. And then - his final ticket won!!! And he left with a couple hundred more! Mr. Lucky - that's my guy.

So, although mine were really many small little victories at the El Cortez, it gave me the greatest of pleasure to see Hubs squirm. :Þ

But back to the bar at El Cortez, what I'm doing now is playing what I call "The Game". I don't normally play this way but it's fun to do sometimes and slows down my play when I'm not in a serious gambling mood. I go to a machine with $20 and promise to leave when I'm down $20 from my highest win. So if I start with $20 and my highest credit on the meter is $22.50, I promise myself I'll cash out at $2.50. Really. Cause if you spend the last $2.50, then what's the point of playing The Game? So we spent a couple hours there and I went through exactly $100. By the end of my session, I had five TITO's to cash out.



But I don't want the cashier to think I'm desperate enough to cash out $2.50 or $3.75 so I put them all in the machine in front of me and then do one cash out ticket for all.



Hubs has a few wins too by now so since I've only accumulated 450 points and he's still playing, he uses my card in his dollar machine and soon has me up to 500 points.

I swipe my card at the Club booth and find out I've got my free $5 in my account. Hubs swipes his card and has the $5 free play, a free Klondike ice cream bar and his choice of a free burger at their restaurant or $5 off Subway or a pack of smokes. He mentions he has spent between 4-500 although I know he has put some of his wins back in his wallet. We're happy.

So now we need to use our $5 FP. Hubs finds the machine that's speaking just to him and quickly loses his free $5 (he was playing quarters for this). I take the seat next to him and the machine starts singing with constant small wins. I do have to admit, at this point - I cheated at my own game. The highest I ever got was $30 so technically I should have cashed out at $25. I missed the cut off cause life got in the way but that's okay, I left with $20 for my $5 free play.



It was a great way to spend a couple hours and we both had a really good time. It had a really good vibe, friendly staff and a nice variety of music. There was a slot tournament going on while we were there. The people playing were having a great time - lots of high fives and back slapping. They made me laugh more than a few times and that was nice.

We came home and wondered why we didn't play on 1 card. As savvy gamblers, we know better. Oh well. We were only there for a couple hours.

UPDATE: Fast forward to last week when Hubs got a letter from a host offering him 3 free nights and $50 in food credits. So that's what 2 hours and $500 gets you at the El Cortez. We're going to take them up on their offer someday soon. We've put it on our bucket list just so we can cross it off. Why not....

 

Great story! Thanks for sharin'... BTW... I love your husband's restaurant at the Hard Rock!

 

LOL smartone! I had to dig deep for that one!!

 

Good story! However, I tend to root for my g/f's dad to do well when we go to the casino together because he usually plays bigger than my g/f, her mom, and I, and his result mostly shapes the group's result in an outing. I definitely will be rooting for him when we take them on their first trip back to Vegas in a couple of decades. :confused2:

 

Nice stop-loss game! I might have to incorporate that with the Strict Rules of Parlay (Queensbury variation).

 

Cool story, thanks for sharing.

 

Nice story. Finally, inquiring minds get to find out what someone, anyone would do for a Klondike bar.

 

Nice trip report. Thanks for all that.

 

Did you eatvthe klondike bar?

 

OK......now I get it.

Mr. Lucky's restaurant at the Hard Rock. Haha!

 

^^It took me a bit of googling to figure it out too!

Unfortunately no. We had a late breakfast so neither of us were hungry. But while looking at prices for a planned October trip, we found a really cheap flight for Sept. so we grabbed it. We haven't seen prices that low since Oct. 2012 on Alaska Air. It must be a good sign! Hopefully we can win a couple more Klondike bars. I've never had one.

 

Another update:

I checked the El Cortez web site and see that after playing 2 hours and only spending $100, I now have an offer too. They are offering me $15 in food/beverage credit, 5x points on any day of my choice (they already offer 2x points on Tuesday and 3x VP points on Thursday so it will work nicely for Wednesday). They offered me casino rate on booking rooms so I checked for November and can get a Junior suite for $39. Not too shabby for such limited play.

Although my husband got a letter in the mail from a host offering 3 free nights and $50 food (which we'll use next month), after plugging in his card number, I see that his offer from "marketing" is just the same as mine.

Good info for anyone needing an extra room downtown for friends or family or just a cheap place to crash. It doesn't take much play to get started. This is a pic of their Junior suite. I'm really looking forward to giving them a try.