The Lucky Donut

The pictures in the spam got all screwed up, but the offer is still a good one...

Been a while since I had one of these.  Thanks, Al.  Keep your head on...

Play it right and it's a completely risk free £50 bet.  You just have to pick a bet based on a fairly even matchup, with a limited downside and as few different possible outcomes as possible.  That way you don't need a freak result to win big on a no-risk spread bet.

The Win Index on a football game is usually a good candidate, and I've picked the glamour fixture Drogheda United vs Shamrock Rovers for this bet.  I don't know anything about football these days, so an Irish game is as good as any.  With three apparently strong favourites (Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea) playing in the English televised games this weekend, the market on this game is a better fit for this bet than any other.

The Win Index awards 25 points fora a win, 10 for a draw and nothing for a loss.  By selling Drogheda at 15 for £5 per point, I lose exactly £50 (maximum value from this promotion) if they win the game.  A draw wins me £25 (£5 x 5 points) and if Shamrock come out on top I win £75 (£5 x 15 points).

It's all settled after one game, even with a draw, as both winning outcomes are good returns on a £50 free bet.

I had to check to be sure, but yes - Shamrock Rovers do play in green.

EDIT: Seventy five quid, tyvm.  Shamrock Rovers won 1-0, thanks to an early goal from a dude named Murphy.

I was marvelling in the summer at how a junk shop pretending to be a Las Vegas casino memorabilia store had managed to put a standard Hooters carrier bag up for sale as "vintage" gear and price it at $7.50.  But perhaps they saw something coming.

The Review Journal has reported that breast-themed Hooters Hotel and Casino is to be sold and redeveloped.  The property celebrated its 2nd birthday just last month.

There's not a great deal I'll miss about the place, although I had discovered that Hooters was a good place to park when the major hotels on the South end of the strip were busy and limited to guests only.

However the casino had no games that I'd bother going out of my way for and the couple of times I walked past the poker room there wasn't even a single game going on.

I tried to get some value out of the slot club signup offer.  The cuddly owl mascot in a Hooters T-shirt was almost as tempting as a free buffet or even cash, but only after I'd signed up did I realise you had to earn slot points on three consecutive days to get him. 

Free stuffed toy, or never having to come back here again...  Turned out it really wasn't a tough decision.

The downfall of Hooters is, presumably, because if you're looking for the thing guys want to see more than anything in the whole wide world (see one minute video below, if you really need it explaining..) you have quite a few options in Las Vegas.

With so many strip clubs, topless shows, hot girls direct to your room and legal whorehouses just an hour away, do guys actually come to Sin City to eat chicken wings served by a girl in a tight t-shirt and orange hotpants - just like they can get back at home?

Now, where can I get a beer sandwich?

I've finally heard the sad news that broke over the weekend about the death of game designer and writer Barron Vangor Toth.

I was a devotee of Barron's weekly poker column on Gutshot.com.  He wrote mostly about fixed-limit Hold'em and somehow managed to turn his accounts of probably the least dramatic poker game there is into a compelling read. 

He died from cancer aged 34.

That's so sick.

It's T-21 and the traditional jumbo-playing-cards-above-the-fireplace countdown to my next Las Vegas trip has begun:

Everything is finally booked now and it's going to be a bit of a jaunt - four hotels in 9 days!

We start off at the charred remains of Monte Carlo for a pretty good $69.95/night.  With tax the total is $152.50, but the package includes $25 in food credit, $10 in slot play and $5 to spend at Starbucks.  I'm sure it will all get used!

Effectively that makes this stay just $112.50 - a bargain for that resort, but it's still three times as much as we're paying for the rest of the trip.  Six of the next seven nights don't cost a penny!

On Day 3 we drive out to the Colorado River for a complimentary night at Harrah's Laughlin.  We could spend as much time as possible here racking up Total Rewards credits on the video poker at Harrah's to try to extend that elusive Diamond status for another year.  Or we could play a better game at almost any other casino in town.

For days 4 and 5, we're back in Las Vegas at Terrible's.  It's a better-than-free deal: they're giving me $50 in free slot play just for showing up.  In fact, I have a feeling that Mr Terrible has a complex about guests actually showing up.  He charged a $50 deposit to my card (for my complimentary room) when I booked, and apparently I'll get this back at check-out.

So, if I actually turn up they give me $50 to play through their machines.  And if I'm still there two days later I get my $50 deposit back.  Really, the place isn't that bad.

From day 6 we finally stay put for a few days.  It's four nights at the Four Queens, three of them comped and one more for just $35.  Claire arranged this all over email, no credit card required even for the paid night.  Apparently a little bit of video poker play goes a long way here still.

She did get a second offer for three more nights in April, which is just too late for this trip.  However the same mailer also has an offer another $40 slot play for free though, which it looks like she will be able to claim on the morning of April 1st, just before we fly home.  Lovely.

So all in all, we have all 9 nights booked for a total cost of about $190.  But there's $130 coming back in food credit and slot play!  Not quite the totally free trip we were aiming for, but it's getting closer!