I started to get some stuff up from my trip to Vegas 2 weeks ago. Of course, now that I’m caught up on sleep I’m off to another destination. Postings will be slow, but keep an eye on twitter as I’ll always pass on anything good I see.
Funny enough I was working on ECG 4.0, when I decided to work on an idea I had last year and was never able to get to. If I did things right, that will launch shortly after my next trip. Here’s the fun from this past week.
I haven’t stayed at Bally’s in about a year and my last few visits have had me at the Garden and Dennis Towers since they’ve been renovated more recently than the main tower of Bally’s. In fact, with the Claridge currently being renovated the main tower should be up for renovations next.
I heard that the rooms are still top notch even though the main tower at Bally’s hasn’t been renovated recently. I didn’t expect to be blown away because, between Las Vegas and Atlantic City, I’ve been staying in newer rooms for the past couple of years.
I asked for, and received, a corner room in the main tower and got the kind of room I expected – a nice and big room that was build for the 80′s. The room was oddly shaped, but very large. Complete thoughts on the room at the end of the photo tour.
The room was kind of triangular as you can see from the image above. You can also see the old tube TV. I haven’t had a room with a tube TV in a couple of years. I think that might have been the last time this TV was cleaned.
The seating area was nice and spacious and while the chairs were ugly and uncomfortable they were near an outlet (as you can see by my phone charging).
There was also a pretty sweet view of uptown Atlantic City and the Atlantic Ocean.
I was away in Las Vegas all week and was only able to get a few post up. If you were following on twitter you saw what I was doing a good amount of my trip and if you follow my posterous you saw many (not all) of the pictures I was able to grab. I’ll share more stories in the coming weeks, but here’s what I was able to get to last week.
I spent a few days at Bally’s in Atlantic City and my room had an awesome view of the Atlantic ocean and the Claridge hotel.
Bally’s began renovations to the Claridge hotel at the beginning of the summer, they really started renovating the casino last year closing off part of the building and opening The Ridge.
There were workers cleaning up the outside of the hotel every day trying to resuscitate the old building. While taking a walk through and around the Claridge I wondered to myself if these renovations would bring life back to the old hotel. Albeit a weekday, there were few people in the casino. There’s no compelling reason go to the Claridge other than $10 table games that you can find anywhere midweek. There are low limit slots, but that’s not a reason to walk over there. The video poker machines have typical poor pay tables.
There’s no desirable place to eat and there’s nothing connected to the Claridge, since Sands was imploded years ago. It’s almost as if it’s the end of the middle of the boardwalk. So why go to the Claridge?
Plans are to make the Claridge more of a boutique hotel, so there is hope that they will add a few really good restaurants similar to the Chelsea, which houses the best steakhouse in Atlantic City. Seeing the makeover at Wild Wild West, I can see that Harrah’s will move forward with their plans for the Claridge.
However, the missing link from all of the discussion of the makeover is the gambling. The current casino is tiny, with low limit machines and poor video poker. I think a way to really generate buzz when the renovations are complete would be to improve gambling payouts to draw gamblers to this section of Bally’s.
Here are a few simple things that can be done to attract gamblers to this dead end of Bally’s.
Full pay video poker of a few different games in different denominations.
Optimal blackjack payouts.
New slot machines.
“Loose” slot machines.
Higher odds craps.
I’m sure there are more, obvious gaming additions that can be made that I’m not thinking of but this is opposite of the way all gambling has been going in the past few years. This would draw the “gambling nerds” to the hotel to gamble and along with new rooms and restaurants would bring the Claridge full circle as a desired location for anyone in Atlantic City.
I’m curious to see if Harrah’s has the balls to do the opposite with this property, but I think it’s the only way for Claridge to survive as the dead end at the center of the boardwalk
I had an epiphany in Atlantic City last week. Well, more of a thought than an epiphany. I read so many complaints about the lack of 9/6 Jacks or Better video poker available in Atlantic City, but at least the games are available.
In fact, unlike Las Vegas, there are a few 9/6 Jacks or Better machines at every casino in Atlantic City. In fact, vpFREE shows that not even the Pennsylvania casinos all have 9/6 video poker.
I played 9/6 video poker at both Bally’s and Caesars in different denominations. The Full House above is from Caesars in quarter denomination. The 4 aces below is from Bally’s in the $1 denomination.
Of course the odds at 9/6 Jacks or Better are 99.56% to the player and that’s a major reason why people play. The full house above is when the “9″ comes in handy. I play because it’s the most simple to learn perfect strategy with the least volatility.
Bottom line: Atlantic City visitors should be happy that they have at least a few good video poker machines to go along with 3:2 blackjack. It’s some of the best gambling around.
