Hollywood Update

[FloridaPhil]

I took my wife to the Hollywood Hard Rock for her birthday. It's been a year since we drove down and we wanted to see the progress on the giant Guitar building. This unique shaped building is 34 stories high with over 600 rooms. You can see it for miles around and from the air when you fly into Ft. Lauderdale. It's topped out now and they are working on the interior. This building will soon be a landmark. The Super Bowl is in South Florida next February and they are working to complete it all by then. Dolphins Stadium is now the the Hard Rock Stadium. The entire casino is under construction. They are moving everything around and we had a hard time finding the video poker machines. To our shock we discovered they only had three single line quarter video poker machines in the entire casino. The good news is the Deuces Wild odds were 98.9%, not bad for the Southeast.

This is getting to be the norm wherever we go. Video poker is being replaced by slots. If you find video poker at all, it's multi-line or in dollar bet minimum. During the day we had no problem getting a seat at those three machines. No such luck after 6 PM.

Tuesday was career day at the casino. They had over 2,000 people standing in line to apply for jobs. Men in suits, cocktail waitresses, maids and janitors. It was quite a mix of people. I asked one of the slot girls how many people are they going to hire? She said they only hire 15-20 out of every thousand who apply. They need to hire 1,500 new employees.

We had a great time. Our room was fully comped and we ate dinner in the steak house for free. When they comp your room at Hollywood, you don't pay resort fees or tax. We have never seen another casino do this.

I hit a royal flush and two quad deuces and came home up $800. My wife lost $400 so I covered her losses. Watch for the giant guitar on TV. You might see us waving out one of the windows.

[FAA]

Congratulations. Nice to only need the one card. Even without the RF, it would only have been a token loss trip and worth it for the room and meals.

[olds442jetaway]

Nice report and cool hands hit FP. Sounds like a great birthday trip. Mohegan covers all fees and taxes on comped rooms at least for now. So does Foxwoods. I’m shifting my play to Foxwoods since Mohegan is hosting huge conventions and taking away the comped rooms away from their higher level players. Yep I’m not the only one. Foxwoods is getting on the bandwagon and offering me 4 times as much free play and rooms. But getting back to you guys, its nice to hear a really nice trip story that was so enjoyable.

[FloridaPhil]

I always believed casinos would block the coin button to force more coin-in. It looks like they are removing single line video poker entirely. Those that remain will be $1 and up. In Tampa, you must bet a minimum of $5 a hand to play 98.9%. All quarter, 50 cent and dollar DW games are 97%.

I don't mind playing 97% single line quarter VP. Over a year's time it costs me a little to play, but it's tolerable. A 97% dollar game is another story. I played a little Ultimate X this week for the first time. Huge swings and not my cup of tea. As video poker declines, we find ourselves playing more slots. They're entertaining as long as you don't camp on one for a long time. The future of casino gambling is playing high res slots like Buffalo or Pompeii. My favorite are the tower games with five levels. I hit one for $1,100 last year. It helps to be in the right seat at the right time.

Funny side story. Last week when I went to Tampa I was walking around scouting the machines. I walked up to a Game King machine and checked the Deuces Wild odds like I always do. The slot girl walked up to me while I was at the machine. I checked the odds and they were 98.9%. I told her I was pleased to see better odds for a change. She pointed to the denomination and smiled. I was looking at a $25 machine not 25 cents. I smiled back and told her thanks but no thanks. The potential losses on this machine would be immense. The best way to become a millionaire playing this machine is to start with a Billion dollars and work your way down.

[olds442jetaway]

I will keep you and the gang informed on the vp going ons in Ct. The governor in Ct just nixed plans for Foxwoods and Mohegan to build a medium size casino in Bridgeport. That would have given both tribes a sure thing on bringing in gamblers from Ny and Nj. His reasoning was granting the tribes permission would open the state to too many lawsuits. I think the state had previously had talks and maybe made promises to MGM regarding a Bridgeport casino. For now we have 99 percent single line games at the quarter level at Mohegan and at the dollar level at Foxwoods.

[olds442jetaway]

Personally, I think that was a good move. I think it was BR who posted recently remove competition and remove customer service. Both Ct casinos seem to be intent on making their casinos entertainment centers instead of just focusing on gambling. Thats bad for us vp players long term

[FloridaPhil]

The Florida casino landscape is a lot different than most parts of the country. The Tribes have a monopoly at the moment. There is no real competition, so they do what they want. I will have to say they are reinvesting their money well. Both Tampa and Hollywood are first class. I like to play quarter single line video poker. If they remove the machines, that will be the end of it. I have no issue with the odds, they are what they are. We can fly to Vegas or AC if we want. Personally, I don't see much difference in our results but I'm not betting $5 a coin either.

I saw something yesterday I have never seen before. A lady next to me was playing DDB at the dollar level. I heard the hand pay music and turned to see she hit a $4,000 royal flush. She looked at it for a while and she played on. Someone asked her why she didn't get a W-2G. She said she had an account or something similar. Do they track her W-2Gs and results through the computer system?

[Jstark]

Probably the same set up that The Cosmopolitan in Vegas has. You key in a PIN number and keep playing.

[Come Back Kid]

Sounds like a fun trip! Happy belated Birthday to Mrs. Phil. Congrats on your hits!

[Lucky Larry]

Phil
Congratulations to you and the wife. Long live Deuces Wild and its derivatives!