Big Casino Wins and Jackpots

[Alan Mendelson]

How lucky can a guy get? This is the third time in my life I was dealt a royal flush. This latest came yesterday at Bellagio on their $5 progressive. Before getting the royal I was already well ahead on the session because I played craps there and on my first turn with the dice I hit the ALL with $5 bets on the SMALL and TALL and $5 on the ALL. I also had a nice run and my $300 buy-in led to a cash-out of $1550 after tips. After that I put $1,000 in the $5 progressive and I felt like the Empire State Building getting hit by lightning multiple times. See the photo below. By the way, Jason hit this progressive about a month ago for $26,000+. I also found out that this progressive is linked to other Vegas casinos owned by MGM. The managers weren't sure which other properties also were part of this $5 progressive but they think Mirage definitely is.

I have to tell you why I asked about this progressive being linked to other casinos. When I first sat down at the machine, no one else was playing -- yet the meter was rising. I didn't think Bellagio was adding money to the progressive jackpot without players -- and they weren't. The progressive was rising because of play at other casinos.

This is royal #6 of the year.

[FABismonte]

Congratulations Alan! Awesome hit, particularly dealt. Is it a
7/5 Bonus Poker game?

FAB

[Alan Mendelson]

Yes, 7/5 Bonus. It shows in the photo. Most progressives do have a reduced paytable. Rincon's $5 Double Double Bonus progressive, for example, is 8/5.
At Bellagio there are six different games that are linked to the same $5 progressive jackpot and all have reduced paytables.

[FABismonte]

Unless you accept reduced comp credits, Ceasars Palace has only 7/5 Bonus (no progressive), so that Bellagio game is a better alternative.

FAB

[dannyj]

Beautiful Alan!

2015 has been very very good to you.

[redietz]

Congratulations, Alan! That is wonderful

So, now that you've put in some play at MGM/Mirage, any early commentary on the benefits and differences with CET?

[Alan Mendelson]

Unless you accept reduced comp credits, Ceasars Palace has only 7/5 Bonus (no progressive), so that Bellagio game is a better alternative.

FAB

I don't know that you can make that comparison since Bellagio and Caesars are different companies with different comp policies. To be honest -- I am getting better comps and more free play from Bellagio.

My latest offers from Caesars are for $250 of free play -- and on this visit I had $1,000 of free play plus our meals were comped. I didn't expect them to be comped, but they were.

I checked my "comp dollars" before my trip to Bellagio started and when I departed and I only put on $55 worth of "comp dollars" during my trip. This is because I didn't play much at all. The first day I played first the $1,000 of free play, cashing out $970 and then used only $100 to play 50-cents double double bonus and I cashed out a $300 profit. The second day I had a quick winning session at craps and then a short session playing the progressive.

[Alan Mendelson]

Congratulations, Alan! That is wonderful

So, now that you've put in some play at MGM/Mirage, any early commentary on the benefits and differences with CET?

There is no question that the offers from Bellagio are far superior to Caesars, but when it comes to "events" Caesars still wins which is why I will be at Caesars for New Year's Eve.
But Bellagio wins hands-down on comps and free play offers.

Also, Caesars still has the nicer rooms for my rating of player. I think you saw the video I did comparing the bathrooms at Bellagio vs Caesars: http://alanbestbuys.com/id240.html

On this trip, my girlfriend and I had a fantastic steak dinner at Fix at Bellagio and the filet mignon steaks were perfect and the sides were amazingly different in their preparations. We had one lunch in Bellagio's 24 hour cafe which was very good -- I had a penne pasta with shrimp which was excellent but too big of a portion for me, and Linda had a tuna salad which was delicious and too big. And we had room service for a couple of meals which was fast, good and priced a bit lower than what Caesars charges for its room service items.

I'm still not getting free movies at Bellagio but this trip the one movie we watched was comped by the desk agent in the VIP lobby.

[jbjb]

Awesome hits!!

[FABismonte]

There is no question that the offers from Bellagio are far superior to Caesars, but when it comes to "events" Caesars still wins which is why I will be at Caesars for New Year's Eve.

Hi Alan:

It really depends on your taste in events. On NYE the best CET offer I got was either Celine at Ceasars or Brittany at PhO. But my host at Bellagio set me up for Maroon 5 at Mandalay Bay for NYE which my kids are crazy for. The "formal dinners" available at CET or MLIfe were a wash with me.

FAB

[Alan Mendelson]

I'm not doing the formal dinner party at Caesars. We're going to see Celine then dinner at Old Homestead. I've never had a memorable meal at any of the official New Year's parties and this year I didn't want to see the act Caesars booked.

[Rob.Singer]

Is "Fix" the replacement for "Prime" at Bellagio?

Fabulous deal Alan. It was all luck, but if you were one of those now extremely jealous AP's, if it happened to them they'd be proclaiming how it was their "skill" that did it by constantly playing in "+EV" situations, of course, IF this was really a positive play. But in their terms, this game was not "playable" because you were "losing money on every single hand, including the royal".

Don't you just LOVE proving them wrong! If only this could've happened to the AP's AP, the wizard.....

[jbjb]

Who's jealous? I'm happy for him. Even better that he got it off the free play money!! I've got just as much chance at hitting one as the next guy. And getting dealt a royal in hearts is no luckier than getting dealt 9s, 7d, 4c, 3d, 2h.

[Chimp]

Wow Alan. Congratulations...again!
By the way...the best lobster I ever had was at Fix.

[Dan Druff]

I have a good and bad memory of FIX.

The good memory came from July 2, 2005. I went out to dinner with a friend (Dustin Woolf) and we discussed how we would be playing the $3000 buyin Limit Holdem event at the WSOP the next day. I had played my first and only WSOP event a month earlier, and finished 3rd out of 1049 people for about $116,000.

I then showed up to play the event the next day and immediately starting hitting lucky hands. While I lost back some of those early chips, by about 10pm on the next day, I had won my first (and still only) WSOP gold bracelet, plus $347,385.

That was my good FIX memory.

My bad memory involves a party of about 20 poker players, where we all went to FIX. Service was slooooooooooooow and very inattentive. Tons of mistakes were made. We were even charged for drinks that no one ordered. When I brought up these issues, I was treated with disdain by the servers and management. In fact, the manager tried to lie about the time we were sat down (attempting to make the service look not as slow), and then I proved him wrong by the time on the receipt which fortunately listed when we sat. I asked for something off our MASSIVE bill (20 people!) for what happened, and the manager basically gave me the middle finger.

Even worse, we were forced to tip 18% here. The wait staff deserved 0%. They were incompetent, rude, and slow.

I complained to the general manager the next day, who pretended to take it seriously, but then came back and told me that it was "inconclusive" what happened. I told him that I had 20 different people who could corroborate my story. I told him that the receipt showed the time we sat, and he told me that the computer showed when the food was served, so where exactly was the "inconclusive" info?

I realized he was just covering for his staff. I was pissed enough to where I complained to the group which owns FIX, and again they just stonewalled.

So I said screw it, and never went to FIX again unless I had a comp.

[Rob.Singer]

That's why it's much better to just let these types of things go Dan than to let them bother you. Things go wrong, but most things go right. When you're dealing with people more interested in protecting themself and their brand than admitting flaws, better just to count your blessings for other successes & enjoyments than to let it eat away at you.

[Alan Mendelson]

One check for 20 poker players? Did you get stuck with the check? Remember poker players are professional liars. :-)

[arcimede$]

Congratulations, Alan. Have you made up for the drought in royals you had a couple of years ago?

PS. I hit a dealt RF in hearts last Saturday.

[Alan Mendelson]

Congratulations, Alan. Have you made up for the drought in royals you had a couple of years ago?

PS. I hit a dealt RF in hearts last Saturday.

For something that happens only once in 629,740 hands (or thereabouts) I've seen a lot of dealt royals. I've had three. I saw two players get dealt royals at Rincon. I've seen others discussed on various web forums.

Since I've played a lot of video poker over the last 10 years or so, I'm not sure what my "average" should be for hitting royals. Yes, I am very happy with this year. What really makes me happy is that only one of the royals was hit playing 25-cent single line video poker.

[jbjb]

1 in 649,740 :-)

I see at least a few every week, but I log a lot of hours in scouting the casinos.