I have passed the Gold Strike in Jean more than a few times.  It is a lonely casino in the middle of the desert. Jean, Nevada has a population of zero, unless you consider the women residing in the prison located across Las Vegas Blvd from Gold Strike to be residents.

Jean used to have two casinos.  The other was called Nevada Landing.  The casino closed in 2007 and was demolished in 2008 to make room for a planned community on 166 acres owned by MGM Resorts, who also owns Gold Strike.  A new casino resort would have also been built on the property to replace Gold Strike.  The crashing economy put those plans on hold indefinitely.

Gold Strike was built in either 1987 or 1990, depending on who you ask.  It seems even older than that.  As soon as I walked in I felt like I had gone back decades.  The casino shows a lot of wear and tear.  Even more noticeable, ticket in-ticket out technology has not found its way to Gold Strike.  All machines either operate on coins or hand pays.  This place is the graveyard for unwanted MGM Resorts video poker and slot machines.

The casino had a lot of good video poker machines.  These include Full Pay Deuces Wild and Full Pay Jacks or Better.  These are on old machines that are also slow.  There were also a number of very dated slot machines, ones that had sound effects that more resembled carnival games than slots.

While Gold Strike is owned by MGM Resorts it has its own player’s club.  Players earn .1% cash back while playing all video poker and slot machines.  Players also earn comps at an undisclosed rate.

Gold Strike offers five blackjack tables, one roulette table and a craps table.  Blackjack minimums were $3, but most games paid 6-5 on blackjack.  Roulette is double zero and craps is double odds.  Roulette and craps are only available during peak hours.  There is also a Dealer’s Angels video blackjack machine that has surrender, double anything, double after split and the dealer stays on all 17′s with a $1 minimum bet.

Gold Strike offers three restaurants.  Only one option was open when I was there.  The buffet is open 24/7.  It is $6.99 except between 4-10pm when it is $10.99.  I did not eat there and neither did anyone else when I was there.  The buffet was virtually empty every time I walked by it.  The steakhouse and snack bar were both closed during my visit as was an Asian restaurant not mentioned on their website.

The aura of Gold Strike was somewhat depressing, but there were some people in there having fun.  One very noticeable difference between Gold Strike and other casinos was the service.  The slot attendants were quick to come by when it was time to get paid.  They would also check on me while I played.  Drink service was exceptional and the waitresses were friendly.  I guess some of the old school service mentality is still present there.

Why Would Anyone Stop at Gold Strike?

Gold Strike is about 25 miles south of Mandalay Bay and about 20 miles south of the southern edge of the Las Vegas Valley.  It is also 13 miles north of Primm at the California/Nevada state line.  Gold Strike is the only place to eat, sleep or gamble in the 35 miles between the M Resort and Primm.  I would guess if you could not wait to do any of these then Gold Strike might right for you.

Maybe you want to go somewhere and hide or maybe gamble in secret.  Gold Strike might also be a good place to do that.  It is also a good casino for those that are into the nostalgia of playing old coin operated slot and video poker machines.

Gold Strike Hotel

Those looking for a cheap hotel room may also find Gold Strike to be a great value.  Rooms during the week are $40.  They go up to $50 on Fridays and $60 on Saturdays.  If you had a designated driver then it may not be a bad way to save a few dollars on expensive weekends in Las Vegas.  For example, the Electric Daisy Carnival runs between June 21st and 23rd.  The room rates in Jean are the same that weekend as any other, granted you will be about 40 miles away from the venue.

Gold Strike serves its purpose as an inexpensive rest area in the lonely desert south of Las Vegas.  It is popular for truck drivers and there is ample truck parking.  CDL holders receive a $10 discount each night at the hotel and other perks.  This alone has helped keep the doors open at Gold Strike, even though two-thirds of their hotel rooms were shuttered in 2011.

Gold Strike website

For whatever reason, Caesars Entertainment sends me two $50 food vouchers each month.  I never play there as there are no good games at Caesars Entertainment properties.  Maybe they are trying to lure me to play their lousy games. It does not work.

I try to use the vouchers, but I often do not have time to head down to the strip and Rio is not much closer.  My son loves buffets so I decided to try the new Bacchanal Buffet with him at Caesars Palace which is $45 per person.  At least I got a great discount off of it.

We arrived at 6pm tonight.  The wait was about 20 minutes.  I would have thought that wait time was perfect.  Not too long, but long enough for there to be fresh food.

We got seated and waited about 10 minutes to even get our drink order taken.  I have never understood why buffets do not ask you what drink you would like when you are seated.  They could write that on your receipt and you could go get your food.  Harrah’s Cherokee of all places is the only buffet I have ever been to that did this.

My son and I went to get our food.  I hit the crab legs first.  You can get them cold or steamed.  I asked for steamed and picked up a few hot seafood items.  When I got back to the table they were all some degree of refrigerator cold, even the allegedly steamed crab legs.

After that disappointment, I went to the carving station.  I tried several items including the prime rib, lamb chops and brisket.  All were room temperature to lukewarm.  None had any flavor.  The man doing the carving does deserve an A+ for his effort though.  He was the only highlight in the dismal experience.

Next I hit the Italian station with my son.  I grabbed some exotic pizza and pasta.  He grabbed pizza and wings.  The pizza was cold, but burnt on the bottom.  The hot plate was still cooking the bottom of the pizza, but nothing was keeping the top of the pizza warm.  The pasta was lukewarm and that was how my son described his wings.

My son’s next trip was to get some fruit.  At least they could not screw that up, right?  He was able to find his first warm item of the night.  It was watermelon!

We gave up and went to the dessert.  I had a fresh made crepe that was acceptable, but great considering how bad everything else was.  My son even complained about how bad the desserts were and he is 13 years old.

While all of this bad food was going on, our server was changed.  She could not understand that my son had ordered Sprite.  We tried to order lemonade, but they were out.  They kept bringing him just water as a refill.  We had three glasses of water for him and no Sprite after three corrections.  They just kept bringing the wrong drink.  They also picked up plates before we were done, although with the crap quality of the food it was not a big deal.

One other issue with the Bacchanal Buffet is its design.  It has a dead end on it and there is no place for the lines at the cooking stations. It is a terrible layout that was not well thought out.

If you are thinking of shelling out $45 for this then I strongly suggest saving your money.  Go to Bellagio or Wynn if you are stuck on the Strip or go to the M Resort if you have a car.  There is no reason to waste your money on this place.

I got stuck writing last week.  I had two orders I could not fulfill.  By Wednesday, I knew I was not going to break out of it without a major change.  On Thursday, my wife was pushing me to go back to South Dakota for the weekend.

I needed to see some winter and old friends and she knew it.  After the disaster in November with my flight I needed a chance to go back.  Airfare was about $100 each way with the junk fees so I went with it.  This was a great deal with just one day of notice.

I stayed in Deadwood where they had received 6-12 inches of snow during the week and got a little more after I got there.  It was nice to see the snow in the forest and see my old Deadwood friends.  I was even happy to pay friendship dues in the amount of several hundred dollars at the poker table as I consumed more than a few drinks.  It was a total blowout but I needed it.

I grinded a little back playing the only table game I will play.  That game is Ultimate Texas Hold’em.  I played some at the tables and some on a machine.  I even found one video version that pays player points.  That is a nice plus.  The Ultimate Texas Hold’em machines are completely gone from Las Vegas so it was odd to see two in Deadwood.  The reason they are gone from Las Vegas is because they are beatable with player points, but that is a completely different discussion.

While I stayed in Deadwood, I visited my old area of Johnson Siding every day.  I got to see most of my old neighbors and spent a lot of time around the Happy Tavern. I even got to buy the person that purchased our old house a few drinks and talk about the old neighborhood.

I went to Rapid City to watch the Super Bowl with my old coworkers that were a part of the company that I moved to the Black Hills to work for.  It was great to see them.  Luckily my Ravens bet took care of everything I lost in Deadwood and then some.

I seem to be back in the swing of things.  I have written four articles since I returned home.  I am hoping that I can get back to writing full time again tomorrow.

The stagnant weather in Las Vegas causes me to burnout.  I need the inspiration that going back to the Black Hills gives me.  The scenery and the great people are always the perfect combination for a recharge of my creativity.

Once every three months I help the Two Plus Two Magazine scout Las Vegas poker room action.  The rooms that I cover are Red Rock, Orleans, Palms, South Point, M Resort, Binion’s and Golden Nugget.  The other person involved in the scouting handles the Las Vegas Strip.  Scouting Las Vegas games is my favorite type of work.  The only negative about this route is that the shortest way to go from my house to all of these casinos requires driving 63 miles round trip.

The survey is done on Saturday nights, the busiest time in Las Vegas.  After trying it a couple of times solo I finally got my wife to do the driving.  This way we do not have to worry about parking.  She can drop me off at the door and pick me up a few minutes later once I have done my game counts.

I always end the survey downtown at Binion’s and Golden Nugget.  This time we decided to park and get a few drinks.  I also had a $20 free play to use at Las Vegas Club so it was worth stopping on Fremont Street.

I won $25 off of my free play at the Las Vegas Club.  We then went across the street to their sister casino Plaza.  We played Deuces Wild at the bar and had some great drink service.  I eventually nailed four deuces.  We decided it was time for some dinner.

I had heard great things about Dupar’s at Golden Gate.  We decided to eat there.  What I heard was right.  It was better than expected.  It is an old school diner that fits the 100 year old property well.  We did not try the $2.99 shrimp cocktail that is Golden Gate’s claim to fame but saw dozens of them get ordered.  I will have to try it next time.

It got to be late and we went home.

Even though we live out in Summerlin, my wife and I always try to go downtown to play.  I always try to encourage friends that come to town to head down there to meet up as opposed to visiting the Strip.  If you always stay on the Strip and never make it to Fremont Street then you should consider doing it on your next trip.  The gambling is far better and the food prices will not break you like the $15 sandwiches at Venetian will.

Twice a week I go to a local Las Vegas tavern to write.  I witnessed three more degenerate situations tonight.  Nobody puked on themselves this time but it was still pretty depressing.

As far as I know most bars and casinos will allow their employees to play video poker and slots.  This includes everyone from table game dealers to bartenders.  They do not allow their employees to play table games because there is the chance for collusion.  Slots and video poker are OK.

Our first degenerate works at this bar.  They declared what a good night that they had.  Their favorite game was keno, which anyone that understands gambling would never play.  Their good night was lost into the bar top video poker machine.  That was not bad enough I guess.  They went on to take out a cash advance and I am pretty sure that they lost most or all of that too.

Next came a random customer.  Let’s just call her delusional.  OK, maybe her name was Meg.

This woman has $4,200 in W2Gs from local bars from playing who knows what.  It is not because she knows what she is doing.  She seems like she enjoys keno.  She was proud of the bad tax advice she got.  She seems to think that she can write off her entire 2012 losses from her taxes. When I told her that she could not she got pretty defensive so I came back to write this post.  She seems to think that she can write $16,000 worth of losses against her wins of about $4,200.  I am sure the IRS would think otherwise.  She seemed quite proud of losing $16,000 without setting foot into a casino.

I got stuck on her gambling losses and she told me that she lost them when she knew she would win.  It was hard to take that too seriously as I watched her play Caveman Keno.  Apparently this degen lost $12k or more playing keno or other games on bar slots in 2012 beyond her taxable gambling wins.

This brings me to my next point.  I am not ever going to be against gambling, but maybe some people should not be around it.  Unfortunately, many people that work in the service industry in Las Vegas are hooked on playing bad video poker, slots and keno.

As all this was going on a video poker player got excited that he almost hit a royal flush.  This player seemed to have thought I was his friend after he lost his money.  He proudly proclaimed how happy he was that Obama got reelected because Romney would have never voted for him to get extended unemployment benefits,  He has not worked in 80 weeks according to his ramblings.  I guess he does not know that Obama would still be president today even if he lost and the same Congress would have voted for his extended unemployment benefits that found their way into the local video poker machines,  Luckily, or maybe unluckily for him, Las Vegas unemployment is only 10% now.  If it gets much lower then he will have to find work.

If you are thinking about moving to Las Vegas then you should think about whether you would ever find yourself in this position.  If you think that you may find yourself there, then I suggest that you find help through somebody like my friend that treats Atlanta gambling addictions.  If you think that you can handle the sin in Sin City then you will probably find a great life.  I know that my wife and I have, but that is because we do not play Caveman Keno or any other similar game.

Last week my wife kicked me out of the house.  Most men that encountered their wife pushing them out the door on a Wednesday afternoon would be looking for a hotel room and two dozen roses to apologize for whatever they did.  I had the opposite problem.  My wife wanted me out of the house because she knew that I needed it.

I work every day of the week.  Each day I look at my to do list and it seems that for every hour that I work, there are two more hours of work on the radar.  I worked all through the holidays and have booked many hours every day for months.  Somehow Wednesday, January 9^th started looking like a day that there would not be anything for me to do.

I was not that lucky though.  I had a consulting meeting at noon with one of my biggest clients.  It lasted about an hour.  As soon as I disconnected from Skype my wife insisted that I go out all night.  She knew that if I came home at 2am then that would be considered early.

I drove up to Indian Springs Casino.  It is a hole in the wall at the front gate of Creech AFB.  The reason I went there is because it is the only place that I know of that still offers video Ultimate Texas Hold’em.  Luckily for them I ran terrible and I created a job or two on a game I otherwise crush, which is probably why they have been uninstalled in the entire Las Vegas Valley.  I then went to Red Rock and somehow finished up the night a winner.

Tavern Office Space

That is not the only reason that I have the perfect poker wife.  While I barely get a chance to play poker anymore, Kristina accepts the lifestyle that working in the Las Vegas gambling industry brings.  I am writing this in a bar at 6am with her blessing.  I have been here since 10pm.  She knows that my office rent was a waste.  I do not belong in an office park with business professionals.  I would go to the office at night and on weekends and avoid those stuffy business types during business hours.  I got to know the custodians that showed up at odd hours well.

What I really needed was a tavern with an internet connection.  I found one and I now go there twice a week to write on graveyard shift.  I do some of my best work in that interesting atmosphere.

This all started with us meeting from two different worlds.  I was grinding the suburban Atlanta poker circuit for years when I met her.  I was the pizza man playing mid to high limit poker with a Delta pilot, doctors, entrepreneurs, and retirees.  For the most part, these players could not spell poker, much less play it.

Before we got married I expressed how important the income from this close nit group of poker players was.  She grudgingly accepted this life, even though her upbringing made the whole concept foreign.  She never wanted to know how these games went night to night but she knew that overall they went well.

Home Poker Experience Meets Online Poker

The online poker boom was great to us.  I was lucky enough to come up with a business plan during it that made the poker side less important than the business side.  While I am in a different side of the business now, the reputation built from that helps to this day.

Kristina may not understand my need to analyze every NFL game and point spread down to the kicker and offensive line matchup, but she knows that when we go to the sports book that it is all a part of same math that makes me a winning poker player.  Even more importantly, she suffers through those awful late Cardinals and Raiders games that make up the AFC and NFC West games that I follow so closely.  If you ask her, “suffer” is the key word.

She also understands when I find an advantage I have to play it.  They do not come up often.  When this Deadwood video blackjack promotion was rolled out she let me spend the night at the casino taking advantage of this incredible promotion on several occasions.  She also knows when I am at a good poker game I have to stick with it.

Seahawks Won According to Las Vegas

She is not completely cured of her risk aversion though.  When the Seahawks were losing 20-0 at halftime on Sunday to the Falcons I felt burnt by the fire from her eyes.  It was almost an “I forgive you because your insanity got us to this point” type of glare.  Luckily the Seahawks woke up and almost won, but more importantly they covered the 2.5 point spread by the little hook on the end.

It takes a lucky man to marry a woman that understands all of this, willing to learn more, and more importantly put up with my lifestyle.  She even wants to play crazy games like Triple Flop Omaha High/Low where the low card kills the board (image from that game above from the Two Plus Two Publishing Party).  I am even luckier to be blessed with the son and daughter that she gave me.

Speaking of the Kids

Kristina dedicates her life to our children.  She volunteers at our daughter’s school often.  When our son was in elementary school she did the same thing.  She works with both of our children at home to make sure they are prepared for each and every day of their learning like any dedicated mom would.  This is on top of the great education both of them are receiving in a school district most people seem all too quick to dismiss.  Kristina is in school to teach in the same school district so she may be teaching your children middle school math down the road.

I have been really busy lately so I have not been able to get out and enjoy the city for months.  My wife and I decided to have a night on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas.  I had almost $200 in comps at Binion’s from playing poker.  There is not much to spend on comps there.  They can only be spent at the two snack bars, the brew pub, the hotel at 4Queens or the Top of Binion’s Steakhouse.  We decided to try the Binion’s Steakhouse.

Binion’s Steakhouse Experience

We got there at 6pm on a Friday night and just one table was seated and the bar was even empty.  This was a bad sign.  We got the best seat in the house though at the southwest corner of the restaurant with windows facing west and south from the 24th floor.  That was probably the highlight of the meal.

We ordered crab cakes and lobster bisque for starters.  The bisque was OK but the crab cakes were almost all cake.  We also had their most expensive bottle of pinot noir, which was a screw top.  We both ordered filet mignon and I added the lobster tail.

They do not grill steaks, they broil them.  This seemed to ruin the meat by drying it out as it was as if it was cooked in a George Foreman Grill.  The lobster tail was also ruined in this way.  My wife and I wondered if there is a fire code that does not allow a flame grill at the top of a hotel, even though the hotel has been closed for years.

We then went to the bar for an after dinner drink.  The bartender saved the day.  He did a great job with our drinks and had some great stories about working at Binion’s over the past two decades.  He was easily the highlight in an otherwise disappointing meal at Binion’s Steakhouse.

My wife and I then decided to play some cards.  I had some free play at Binion’s and Las Vegas Club so the advantage player in me had to go burn that out before doing anything else.  Las Vegas Club got rid of the only machine that I play without free play.  That game was video Ultimate Texas Hold’em.  As far as I know it was the last one in Las Vegas.  If you know of another one please leave a comment, it would be greatly appreciated.

We decided to go play Ultimate Texas Hold’em live.  We decided on Golden Gate.

Ultimate Texas Hold’em at Golden Gate

Golden Gate is one of the most festive atmospheres downtown.  The table games are all party pit games at night with the same rules during the day.  Blackjack players especially like this as the party pit pays 3-2 on blackjack.  We played for hours and enjoyed all of the dealers and great drink service.  We even $10 up after some huge swings.  This was the first time I have ever played there.  The only times I had been in there before was for work and to take advantage of their new player promotion.

It was a great night out with Kristina that we needed.  It also gave me something to write about on my blog that I have been neglecting due to being too busy.  Hopefully I can get back into the habit of posting here more.

I like to make jokes about some of the sick things I see in Las Vegas but what I saw last night was sick in the literal sense.  I go to a local video poker bar on graveyard a couple of days a week.  I write some of my best articles in that bar.  It is the perfect balance of music, background noise, beer and degenerates.  The bar is typically close to empty, especially between 2am and 6am.  Those that go there that time of night are usually alone and playing the bar top video poker machines.  It is a nice place overall.  The only distraction is the occasional drunk that wants to be my friend and will not leave me alone.

I finished writing a long opinion article and handled some end of month content work for a client last night.  It was a long night and I got to the bar about 10:30pm.  I noticed a woman sitting by herself playing video poker who seemed annoyed when I went to the bar to get a beer.  She was drinking wine.  The bartender seemed to be familiar with her.

Fast forward about six hours and she is still there on the same video poker machine.  There was a certain odor that came from that area and not long after the bartender noticed that this woman had thrown up all over herself.

The bartender and cook cleaned up the area around her.  Apparently they were out of what they called “Puke Dust” (I guess this is a bigger problem than I thought for this seemingly quiet tavern) so the job was made harder than it would normally be.

The apparent drunk woman getting sick is not the worst part of the story.

The woman had it all over her.  Instead of going home to clean up, she continued to play video poker covered in puke.  Apparently she was stuck a bunch and had to try and win it back.  It was not just a little, she was wearing it.  She finally left about an hour later.  The bar did not kick her out sooner because she is a “big player”.  In other words, she loses a lot of money to them.

And my previous visit to this bar..

The last time I was at this bar someone was playing video blackjack.   I usually ignore the video poker players.  They keep to themselves and typically do not cause any problems.  I would not have noticed this man except for he was screaming about his wins and losses so it was hard to ignore him.

This bar offers the typical garbage Las Vegas tavern video poker that should be avoided by all.  Their video blackjack game pays even money on blackjack, does not allow doubling after a split and only allows doubling on 10 or 11.  The game has about a 3.5% hold and goes as fast as any other game so it tears people up quick.

The player was going on wild swings.  From all his yelling I figured out that he was playing $50-$400 a hand.  This meant he was wagering somewhere in the $60,000 an hour range if he was playing 10 hands a minute, something easy to do.  That meant that he was losing about $2100 an hour at a $100 a hand average.

He would cash out thousands and put it back into the machine.  It got to the point that this player had taken every $10, $20, $50 and $100 bill out of the bar through his cashouts but had stuck it all back in the machines.  The bartenders do not have access to the cash drops from the machines for a variety of security reasons.  He probably cashed out about $50,000.  One of the bill collectors was full from him stuffing it so he had to change machines.  It got to the point that this player had $1000-$2000 in $5 bills all around him because he had put every bigger bill the bar had into the machines.  He could not shove them in the machine fast enough to cover his large bets.  Eventually he lost everything.  He even left and came back with a reload in the middle of this session.

There are a lot of fun things about Las Vegas but there are some things that are just sick to watch.  Some people dismiss the idea that gambling can be an illness but I have witnessed too many times how some people get on a gambling binge.  It is sad to watch, but I guess it is unavoidable considering the business Las Vegas is in.

Today is our 10th anniversary.  We decided to do something crazy by doing the SkyJump off the 108th floor of the Stratosphere.  When you live in Las Vegas you can see the tower almost anywhere in the city and to me it is always a temptation to go up there and do the crazy rides.  I have always loved those rides on the top and when any of my friends or family come to visit I always suggest that we go there.  My wife and I had joked about doing SkyJump.  We got serious and decided that we would finally do it.  At 2pm today we did.

It was easy to do.  There is a local’s discount so it is only $90 to do it instead of $110.  The DVD package made it $120 total for each of us.  They put us in the jumpsuits and then the harness.  We got weighed and off to the 108th floor we went.

There were three of us in the group.  My wife and I plus a girl from New Zealand.  The girl decided to go after us.  We got double, triple, and quadruple checked to make sure we were harnessed correctly and our shoes were tight.  They took a picture of my wife and I and then I went to walk the plank.  The rest is shown in the two videos.

The first video is my jump and the second is Mrs Pokeraddict.  It was all great but the steps to the ledge are scary.  I needed some prodding to the edge but once I was there I was ready.

I was a bit nervous in the beginning and was ready to go when we hit about a 20 minute delay.  I was less enthused in the lobby due to the delay as the start of the videos will show.

Just a warning, both videos have some PG audio.