Hard Rock Hollywood Report

[FloridaPhil]

We just returned from a three day Birthday trip to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in South Florida.  We haven't been back since they removed the good video poker machines last year.   They must have had a lot of complaints as they now have six new machines with 99% odds.  Sometimes complaining works.  Here is a photo of the six new machines all lined up and ready to go.These games range from quarters to $5 a hand.  All these machines have 98.9% deuces wild.  Three of them have 8/5 Bonus poker and 9/5 DDB. These odds may not seem that good to a Vegas player, but in the South East US they are among the best.  We played the heck out of these machines.  My wife hit a slew of quad deuces and came home up $200.  I hit one royal and at least 6 sets of quad aces.  I came home $1,200 richer.The Hollywood Hard Rock is being completely renovated from top to bottom.  When they are finished, I believe it will become one of the best known casinos in the US.   Under construction is a gigantic 35 story guitar shaped building of suites.  You will be able to see it from all over South Florida.  Here is a photo of the rendering.  To give you an idea of the scale, the flat building on the left of this photo is the 8 story parking garage.  The current hotel in the rear is about 12 stories.Also under construction is a huge new casino wing, including a new non smoking casino.  The huge grotto pool should be amazing.  Here's what the guitar building looks like now.SMOKING NEWS!!One thing that was really interesting is Hollywood's new smoking policy.  In the past the entire casino was smoking with a tiny non smoking section in the back.  Now the whole casino is Non smoking with designated smoking areas.  This cuts way back of the amount of smoke.  I saw something I never thought I would see.   A manager was talking to a customer with an unlit cigar explaining the new smoking policy.  I heard the manager say "If you don't light up, your cigar will last a lot longer."  I thought I would faint.  Finally someone is listening to non smokers!!POSITIVE VP REPORTWe are still waiting for news of those phantom positive Florida VP games.  I walked into the Hollywood High Limit Room and checked the odds.  Yep, just as I suspected... 8/6 Jacks or Better all the way up to $25 a hand.  Deuces wild was 98.9% and DDB was 8/5.

[Come Back Kid]

Wow, the guitar building is going to be awesome! Thanks for those pictures, very cool!

[Tedlark]

Congrats on you and your wife's wins Phil. But geez, how big will the guitar pick be?

[FAA]

I will likely get 8/6 or 9/5 JOB at Hard Rock AC HL room. Just preserve 9/6 on the floor. Bleak VP year.

[Come Back Kid]

LOL Ted!!!

[FAA]

BB King once gave me his guitar pick.

[olds442jetaway]

     Congrats Phil and nice report and pics. Hope Mohegan Sun takes note of the new smoking policies. This seems to be catching on a bit here and there Nationwide. Nice to see 99 percent making a bit of a comeback.

[olds442jetaway]

BB King once gave me his guitar pick.

   Now that's cool. The closest I came was a Willie Nelson concert at Mohegan Sun and he threw some picks to the audience. The guy next to me caught one. Jimi Hendrix got his unique and captivating sound partly by bending the neck from time to time on his Fender guitar. Still missing Tom Petty and in particular my all time favorite video from the You Got Lucky track. In that video there is a brief scene with a slot machine that hits. Anyone that is interested can check it out on Youtube.

[FloridaPhil]

The Hard Rock comp policy is generous.   All the machines in the casino earn comp points and free play.   There is no point penalty for playing the better VP odds.  I'm sure the VP games and slots are on different comp schedules.  We play some slots in between VP and it helps our comps greatly.  I got really luck on this trip.  I hit the Bonus Zone at max coins on one of those cool Sword of Destiny slots.  It gave me 21 free games and I walked away with a $600 bonus.One thing that makes it nice is Tampa and Hollywood comp points accumulate as one casino.  We build points on our weekly Tampa trips that can be used on mini vacations in Hollywood and vise versa.   Their points build fast, but they expire.  This is great for loyal locals.There has been a lot of talk in Florida about opening up the State to new casinos.  I hope they don't.  I think less casinos is good as long as the ones you have take care of their customers.   We could use another casino in North Florida.  Daytona would be perfect.  Right now the only casino in Central Florida is Tampa.  As far as we are concerned the Hard Rock's do everything right.  The VP odds situation is perfect.  Most of the VP is 96-97%.  They put the six new 99% machines in for those players who care about odds.  If Biloxi did this, we would play there a lot more.   Playing lousy games is depressing on long trips.  Not because you can't win.  Because your money doesn't last as long.  Hey Biloxi!   If you scattered a few decent VP games around your casinos, you would make more money!!   Most of your customers don't care anyway.  Some do.Between our weekly trips and mini vacations, we have no problem reaching the Elite level.   This is not high roller status, but it gets us more free play and comps.  Factoring in all the free rooms, food and drinks and our annual cost to play VP is well worth what it costs.In retirement some people play golf, some go fishing, some sit on the couch and watch Fox News all day.  We play VP.

[onemoretry]

Between our weekly trips and mini vacations, we have no problem reaching the Elite level.   This is not high roller status, but it gets us more free play and comps.  Factoring in all the free rooms, food and drinks and our annual cost to play VP is well worth what it costs.
Is there any way you can quantify these benefits, particularly the amount of slot play?