In praise of the buffet

Let's get this out of the way: Some people are not fond of buffets. I've never had a discussion with any of these people, but I guess their objections are these:

1. When I go out to eat, I want to be waited on.

2. There's too much food; it's an incitement to gluttony.

3. The quality of the food is not that good.

I can't argue with No. 1. That's a matter of personal preference, and if you just don't like the concept of a buffet, I can respect that.

For some people, No. 2 is a legitimate concern. Some people will sometimes eat more than they should, given the opportunity. I have been known to do this myself.

No. 3 is sometimes true. It is also sometimes true for sit-down restaurants. In both cases, the problem is with the individual establishment, not the concept.

Now, here's what's great about at least some buffets, particularly those in casinos:

1. Value. Often the buffet is expected to be a loss leader whose purpose is to get people in the door. In Las Vegas, Station Casinos appears to have adopted this approach. Add to this the fact that appetizers, accompaniments, desserts and soft drinks (sometimes even beer and wine) are included for one price, and the value is hard to beat. Some very good dinner buffets can be had in Vegas in the $15 range, which won't cover a sandwich, soft drink and dessert in most cafes.

2. Discounts. At most casinos, anyone with a player's card gets a dollar or two off the price of a buffet. At many, those with higher-tier cards get bigger discounts. Coupons with substantial savings are available from various sources, including the Las Vegas Advisor and American Casino Guide. And a buffet comp is the easiest food comp to get.

3. Speed. Since you don't have to wait for your food to be prepared, you can get out quickly. Getting in can be more of a problem. If you have a VIP-level player's card, you can get right in at many casinos. Many have shorter lines for those with comps than for customers who pay directly, rather than through their casino play.

4. Variety. If you're with a group of people who are in the mood for different cuisines, a good buffet can satisfy them all. If you want to mix Italian, Chinese and Mexican food in one meal, the buffet is the place. Also, the buffet offers a no-risk opportunity to try dishes you might not want to pay for individually at a sit-down restaurant.

5. No limits. If you want the soup and the salad, go for it. If the first portion wasn't enough, take a little more.

6. Healthy choices. As my brother recently said, "The buffet can be the worst place to eat, or the best place to eat." Most have salad bars, lots of fruits and vegetables, and other healthy options. I recently decided to make a serious effort to lose weight and improve my diet. I have found that my favorite buffets allow me to do this. I have found that the Asian stations often offer tasty and healthy choices. Some buffets have Mongolian grills. My move there is to load up a bowl with vegetables and have it cooked without any meat. With a cup of brown rice, this can serve as a main course.

Buffet rules:e  Take a new plate every time you go to the line. No eating while serving yourself food. No taking food out of the buffet. Certain violations to this last one are sometimes tolerated, such as eating a piece of fruit or ice cream cone on the way out. But concealing and removing food could lead to great embarrassment if you're caught, and the presence of surveillance cameras in casino buffets means you could be caught. I would not risk it.

Buffet strategy: Survey the entire buffet before taking anything, even if you've been there before, even if you've been there recently. Take only a little bit -- some things aren't as good as they look, and if it is good, you can always go back for more. Look for opportunities to combine items from different stations. Also, some types of items may be scattered, such as soups at the salad bar and ethnic stations, such as Chinese.

Odd fact: At many buffets, the station with Mexican food is labeled "International," not "Mexican." I have no idea why.

Tipping: I generally tip 10 to 15 percent, minimum of a dollar, If I take an unusually long time or use a large number of plates or otherwise make more work for the server, I'll leave a little extra. If the buffet is exceptionally cheap, I'll tip a little more. If I have something custom-made, such as a plate at the Mongolian grill or an omelet, I'll leave a dollar.

Favorite and least favorite buffets: The best -- and priciest buffets -- in Vegas are on the Strip. I haven't tried them all, but of those I have, my four favorites are the Wynn, Bellagio, Caesars Palace (Bacchanal Buffet) Aria and Mirage. 

Off the Strip, one of the best -- and again, priciest -- is Studio B at the M Resort. Friday, Saturday and Sunday dinners and Saturday and Sunday brunches are $40. The good news is that you can get a free buffet by earning same-day slot or video poker points. That $40 weekend buffet requires 2,000 video poker points, which is $2,000 coin-in. On that casino's best video poker games with skillful play that's an average loss of less than $20 -- a very good deal. Weekday dinners and lunches require fewer points, and the requirements for points earned on slots are considerably less than for video poker.

For the money, I don't think you can beat the buffet at Green Valley Ranch, which also has one of the most attractive dining rooms. Dinner there is $15, more on Friday and Saturday specialty nights. Another good buffet in an attractive room is at the Silverton. Unless you are a diamond or platinum player, expect to wait on line on Mondays, when seniors get two buffets for the price of one, and on other days when similar promotions are in effect.

My favorite low-end buffet is Fiesta Henderson, where dinner every night and brunch on Saturdays and Sundays is $9. This buffets features a Mongolian grill and the best fried chicken I've had anywhere in town. My spouse says the turkey breast is exceptionally good. There's a good salad bar and usually several vegetable selections, but not much in the way of fruit.

At the higher end of the price spectrum, the Rio offers a seafood buffet that is quite good but pricey. The Rio also has a comprehensive buffet, the Carnival World. The last time I ate at the Palms buffet, not recently, it was quite good and extensive, much improved since the George Maloof days (about the only thing there improved since new management took over).

At the places I play regularly, my least favorite buffets are at South Point and the Gold Coast. (The Orleans, under the same ownership as the Gold Coast and only about a mile away, has a better buffet.) The difference between a mediocre buffet like these and a good buffet is the difference between being able to find something to eat and being overwhelmed by all the attractive choices.

Final note: A comprehensive listing of Vegas area buffets, including hours and prices, can be found at LasVegasAdvisor.com.

When it's good to be old (or at least middle-aged)

Seniors days have long been a staple of locals' casinos marketing, but now is a particularly good time to be 50 or older if you're a gambler who lives in the Las Vegas area. Casinos are competing as heavily as I've seen in my nearly 5 years here for the weekday business of older customers.

These programs differ in details but their staples have been slot tournaments, dining discounts, point multipliers and drawings. Different casinos' programs may be better for some players than others. Here's a brief summary of what's offered. Essential information is often available on signs in the casinos and details can be obtained at the players' clubs.

Sam's Town offers a complete program on Thursdays comprising a $3,500 slot tournament, a $3,000 drawing, 5 times points on video poker and 7 times points on reels, half-price buffet and a free variety show. Low rollers with time on their hands might find value in the slot tournament. The formula for determing the long-term value of (or your average win in) such promotions is the total of prizes divided by the number of entries. In this case it's likely to be less than $5. Another consideration for some is the time it takes to play in the tournament plus the amount of time spent waiting to play. For higher rollers, the point multipliers and drawings can offer more value. Sam's Town recently has added a scaled-down Monday seniors day to compete with the new offering of its neighbor, the Eastside Cannery.

The Eastside Cannery's program, which runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays, is unusual in that the qualifying age is 55, not 50. Enrollment at the players' club is required. Benefits are a 3 times point multiplier, half-price dining at selected restaurants and, after 300 base points are earned, a card swipe with prizes from $10 in free play to $1,000 in cash. Play on machines in the Classic Slots room does not qualify for the point multiplier.

The Palms also recently added a seniors program, on Thursdays, which includes dining and movie discounts and promotions. At least for now there are slot tournaments and drawings.

Station Casinos, including the Fiestas, have a $3,000 slot tournament at each property and half-price dining with payment in points until 6 p.m. Signs indicated that, as a special for this month, the program also includes a bonus point day, bringing points earned from the usual 3 per $1 coin-in to 10 for reels and 6 for video poker. Let's hope this "special" becomes a regular part of the program, as a point multiplier used to be. And, Stations, how about bringing back the drawings you used to have?

The M Resort has a drawing for seniors at 6 p.m. Tuesdays. The unusual thing about it is that you do not need to play, or activate your tickets, on Tuesday, and you need not be present to win. Tickets can be earned any day of the week and must be activated at a kiosk on the day earned. The winners' names are posted shortly after 6 and all prizes must be claimed at the satellite rewards center by 7 p.m.

The Silverton has two seniors drawings on Monday. Tickets must be earned that day but prizes can be picked up until 6 p.m. Tuesday. There are 50 winners in each drawing, and each winner gets a minimum of $50 and maximum of $500. A player may win twice each week, once in each drawing. Although the prizes are modest (expect $50 most of the time), it appears that this promotion offers an unusually good chance of winning something.

The Gold Coast recently cut the point multiplier on video poker for its Monday seniors day from 5 times to 4 times, but that's still a good deal given that casinos' inventory of strong games. Reel players get 10 times points. A maximum of 10,000 points on video poker and 100,000 points on reels are eligible for promotional multipliers at the Gold Coast. Seniors day there also includes a bingo special and a small video poker tournament.

The Orleans offers 7 times points and a card swipe after earning 50 base points, both from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays. My prizes from the card swipe have included two dinner buffets, two ticket to Big Al's Comedy Club, 5,000 points and 10,000 points. The great things about this swipe are that, opposed to the slot tournaments and drawings at other casinos, almost no time is involved in participating and everyone wins something.

South Point this month added a $5,200 slot tournament for seniors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays. This is a relative large prize pool and the tournament could be attractive to more players than those at Stations and Sam's Town, depending on how many people participate.

In addition to gambling- and dining-related promotions, some seniors days include movie ticket specials. Often the qualifying age for these is 60.

A few tips regarding casino seniors programs: As with any casino promotion, these may be altered or discontinued at any time. Most if not all require that you be enrolled in the program, not just that you have a players card and meet the age requirement. Many will put a small sticker on your players card showing that you qualify for discounts and other offers. Beware of time time limits and other restrictions on promotions. This information should be available at the players club.

A stunning surprise

I'm not much of a football fan, or a sports fan in general, but I have been participating in the Coast Casinos' and M Resort's free football contests this year. Both are easy to enter and the Coasts make it particularly easy to check for winning entries. In both cases, entries are handled at kiosks, and it's possible to pick your winners using a quick pick feature, as in lottery games. In the Coast contest, you also have a pick a "tie breaker" for each entry, a prediction of the total score of the Monday night game. I always use the quick pick feature for both contests, and for the tie breaker, I just type in a number more or less randomly.

Each week I press the "winning entries" button on the screen on a Coasts kiosk, and each week I've been told "no winning entries" -- until this week. On Tuesday when I hit the button at the Gold Coast, the message said something like "Winner $10000." There was no comma in the number so I had to look twice to make sure it was what I thought it was -- $10,000, and not $1,000. The kiosk spit out a ticket. I couldn't concentrate well enough to read the fine print, so I stepped over the the players' club counter and asked the woman there, "What do I do with this?" She read the small print, gave me a high five and told me to take it to the sports book.

There a supervisor handled the paper work and explained to me that I was one of nine people who "picked" the winner of all 12 games that week. Further, I was the big winner because my tie breaker came closest to the actual point total for the Monday night game. The other contestants who picked all the winners got only $2,500 each.

In my entire gambling "career," including the 3-1/2 years I've been living in Las Vegas, this $10,000 win was my biggest single hit. 

Learning a new video poker game

My wife and I both started gambling more or less seriously as blackjack players, but about four years ago, when we started coming to Las Vegas for vacations, she decided to start playing video poker. As a music teacher, she was going to approach this like learning a new instrument, which meant practicing until she could play well. But first she had to decide which video poker game to learn.

Many experts suggest learning jacks or better first. Full pay or 9/6 jacks is easy to learn. It is widely available in all popular denominations. Most important, it is the basis for many other popular games, including bonus poker, double bonus poker and double double bonus poker. The big drawback of jack is its payback -- 99.54 percent with optimum play.

She became interested in full pay deuces wild, mostly because of its strongly positive payback -- 100.76 percent. Full pay deuces is harder to learn than full pay jacks, but not extremely difficult. It’s also more volatile -- wider swings of wins and losses -- but not dangerously so. The game was available almost exclusively in quarters, but that is what she wanted to play. And it was more widely available then than it is now and the casinos were giving more points and other comps for those playing it.

She decided to learn full-pay deuces, and it served her well. When we moved to Vegas three years ago, I followed in her footsteps. We both later learned other deuces games, including loose deuce deuces wild and “not so ugly” (16/10) deuces, which allowed us to play at the dollar level.

Recently we decided to take another look at 9/6 jacks, mostly because it is now the best game available at some of the casinos we want to play at, including the M Resort. And we have discovered some good full pay jacks progressives.

I have started playing using the simple strategy found on Wizard of Odds Web site (I learned to play the full pay deuces using the Wizard’s simple strategy for that game). This strategy uses words, which I am more comfortable with than the symbols used in the more advanced strategies. There’s a trade-off in payback -- the simple strategy gets you 99.4 percent instead of the game’s full potential, 99.54 percent. But it’s a good stopgap until I can learn the advanced strategy.

As casinos change their video poker inventories and the rewards they offer for playing different games, it is necessary to learn new games to take advantage of new opportunities. Fortunately, learning jacks or better has been -- so far -- a lot easier than I had expected.