Golden Nugget Restaurant Bargains - 2019 Edition

The Nugget has some decent fooderies and you can use a few tricks to sample them while paying less then full freight.

Lunch Special at Grotto Italian Ristorante

Grotto serves up classic southern Italian fare. It's beautifully decorated and features poolside tables, if you want to gaze upon slow-roasted thighs while enjoying your 'zuppa'. Maybe it would be better to focus on the shark tank.

Slow-roasted thighs, calves and backs. And wings. Try to find the bikini instead.

Typical entrees and pizzas are in the $15 to $20 range, you can enjoy a two course lunch at Grotto for just $15. The first course gives you a choice of salads or their amazing tomato basil soup, which I highly recommend. For the second course, you can choose from chicken scaloppine, spaghetti, lasagne, or a half marinated rotisserie chicken. That's half a chicken, not a half-marinated chicken. Caesars salad and half a chicken for $15? Not too shabby, and the location of Grotto for people watching can't be beat.

Ten Dollar Happy Hour Pizza at Grotto

If you are willing to jump through a few happy hoops, you can get a great deal on a pizza at Grotto.

Golden Nugget Las Vegas Bargains - 2019 Edition

There are bargains to be had at the Golden Nugget? Yes!

If downtown Las Vegas is the mother's milk of traditional casino gambling, then the Golden Nugget is the cream of that milk. And getting things for cheaperer at the Golden Nugget is the creme de la creme of that cream of that downtown mother's milk.

And this updated article that will tell you how to get those Nuggety bargains is the pat of fat-ass silky smooth creamery butter of the creme de la creme de la downtown milk etc. etc. etc.

It's pretty much undisputed that the Smug Nugget is by far the swankiest, classiest, highest quality casino hotel downtown (for now... I'm lookin' at you Circa).

In terms of digs, there are probably a few downtown suites here and there that come close, such as the top offerings in the new section of the tiny Golden Gate. But when you compare the whole package, the Nugget is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the gold-encrusted almost retired middle-aged Mom and Dad set.

Landry's has done an admirable job of improving the place since they purchased it, with endless rounds of redecorating, new restaurants, shows, and a top-quality pool scene.

When you are the sexiest dame at the ball, though, you can take some liberties. Patrons pay for those endless rounds of redecorating with scaled down gutted video poker paytables compared to other downtown properties, and slots that seem tighter than Kenny Blankenship's Hide-out Pool Speedo.


And, along with the solid food offerings the Nugget flaunts, you'll find higher prices than is typical downtown.

But don't despair! When you are a degenerate gambler like me, you search until you find the cheap savvy loopholes that will save you a few bucks. And those few bucks can be used for desperation Keno tickets that have a miniscule chance of bringing you the riches you so definitely deserve.

Here are some ways you can turn the high flying Golden Nugget Las Vegas into a casino bargain basement!

Get a Landry's Select Club Card

The fine folks at Landry's own a bunch of restaurants. They also own the Golden Nugget and they also own a bunch of restaurants within the Golden Nugget.

The Landry's Select Club card does a bunch of things for you that make it a no-brainer must have.

First of all, be aware that the Landry's Select Club card costs $25. Boooo.

Also be aware that, upon joining, you get a $25 welcome reward. Yay!

You've already broken even! The house edge on this thing is 0%!!!

There's no annual fee, and you get a $25 reward every year in your birthday month. Now you're up $25 on the card! What's not to like?

Join the club by signing up online and paying $25. When your card arrives in the mail, it'll have a $25 Welcome Reward loaded on it.

You can also join right at a Landry's restaurant. Pony up the $25 and have it put on your restaurant bill, then register your card online. Again, you'll get the Welcome Reward.

Like all wonderful rewards card systems, when you use the card when buying food, you earn wonder-points. And you can use those wonderful points for wonderful rewards. Like more wonderful food.

You earn a point for every dollar spent, and 250 points can be cashed for a $25 reward.

Spend $250, get $25 back? That's a juicy 10% rebate, people. 

Like all such things, there is an app you can use instead of a physical card. Sometimes there are bonuses for making and completing reservations through the app. As of this writing, that means extra points for you.

We've also seen promos like free dessert and the like at various times, so it pays to pay attention.

Make sure you get set up with a card well before your next Nugget stay. If you forget your card, don't sweat it. The fine people at fine Landry's restaurants can look up your Club number using the phone number you registered with.

The only downside of the system is that the points you earn expire after one year. I hate it when points programs pilfer previously procured privileges. Profoundly.

Landry's Select Club Golden Nugget Benefits

Seein' as the Landry's people also own the Golden Nugget, it makes sense that there are some crossover benefits to be had.

How to Easily Get a New or Renewed ITIN in Las Vegas

Need to renew your ITIN? Don't want to mail your passport? You can get your renewal processed at the IRS office in downtown Las Vegas - in one visit.

First of all, what's an ITIN and why do I need one?

An ITIN is an International Tax Identifier Number, issued by the United States IRS.

As an international visitor to Las Vegas (or any American casino), if you hit a jackpot over $1200, you might be subject to 30% of the dough being withheld for taxes.

If you are a citizen of the UK, congratulations, you have a tax treaty with the US and you won't have any tax held back - but you'll need an ITIN to prevent it.

If you are a citizen of Canada, you are actually subject to paying the tax. With an ITIN, though, there's a way around that.

When you win your huge jackpot, and they take their 30% skim, you must be certain that your ITIN appears on the 1040-S form that the casino will fill out and give you along with your (reduced) winnings.

When your year is done, if your gambling losses exceed your winnings, you can claim back the amount withheld by filing a tax return - a 1040NR, to be exact. But you have to have an ITIN to file.

That whole subject can get quite complex - I'm just going to deal with the ITIN renewal here.

How to get an ITIN

There are three ways to get an ITIN:

• apply by mail, sending your precious passport to the Austin service center
• visit a Certifying Accepting Agent and get it done in person
• visit an IRS office that supports ITIN services

I'm not keen on sending my precious ID anywhere.

About the second option - the Certifying Accepting Agent. These are third-party agents that are certified to issue and renew ITINs. In fact, the larger casinos in Vegas used to provide this service right on site. I don't know if this is still the case.

There are Agents other countries (including Canada) that can do it - for a big-ass fee.

My understanding is that the Agent verifies your ID, and provides certified copies of same to the IRS along with the W7 form.

By far and away, the quickest and simplest way to get your ITIN in Vegas is to do it in person at the IRS office.

The Quad Queen's and my ITIN expired Jan 1, 2019. There just happens to be an IRS office within walking distance of Main Street Station (just the other side of the railroad tracks).

Main Street Station provides a convenient waiting room aka casino for you to pass the time in until your appointment is nigh. Then you simply exit MSS, hang a right at Main and Ogden, and walk under the underpass.

Walking from Main Street Station to the IRS office

But you have to make an appointment to do your renewal in advance. Here's how.

Double Up on Video Poker

Here's kind of an interesting scenario.

Say you hit a nice quad on Double Double bonus, maybe Four Aces. And then you are faced with this screen:

Would you have the balls to go for it?

There's lots of reasons to do it, and lots of reasons not to. For one thing, you are risking 800 credits, but you aren't getting any points toward what could someday be a free buffet. And, basically you are looking at a 50/50 draw.

So maybe you decide to go for it.

Dealer card is a 5, you are looking pretty good... You pick your one card out of four that has to beat the dealer 5.

Which one is it gonna be?

Golden Nugget Las Vegas Gold Tower Club Suite Review

The Golden Nugget Las Vegas offered 50% off a suite upgrade, so I took it. I'm not sure that the suite I got was really a club suite, but it was an interesting and comfortable place to stay, nonetheless.

Club-level accomodations at the Nugget include additional goodies such as no resort fee, wifi included, water and coffee included, spa access, and a few other things. And they are typically in the top couple of floors of the Gold, Spa, and Rush towers.

This two-room suite was on the third floor of the Gold tower. So I think it was a quick substitution - I checked in very late on a Saturday night, and I think I got a bit more suite for my money than I booked - but not on one of the club floors.

The suite is at the end of the hall, and consists of two normal sized hotel rooms joined together. In fact, it sports the both of the original doors, side by side, perfect for Benny Hill style hallway antics.

The left room contains the bedroom, a powder room and closet, and a full bathroom with jetted tub. The right room contains the living room with sectional sofa, dining set, storage, wetbar with fridge, and a second bathroom with shower.

Let's take a look around, shall we?

The furnishings, carpets, drapes, and other adornments are primarily gold. And brown. Gold and brown. Brown and gold. You'd better like brown and gold if you are staying in this suite.

Left side bedroom

Passage between rooms

Right room living room. In brown. And gold.

 More shots of the bedroom and ensuite.

Robert Irvine's Public House - Royal Flusher Restaurant Review

Is the food at Robert Irvine's Public House as good as his arms are big?

For more than a year before it opened, the arrival of Robert Irvine's new restaurant was proudly advertised (featuring massive reproductions of his proudly massive forearms) on the sides of the hotel towers of the Tropicana Las Vegas as a coming attraction. In summer 2017, Robert Irvine's Public House opened.

The renovation was extensive, and came at the expense of the Trop's old sports book. Additional space was added in what turned out to be quite a serious undertaking - Public House is huge at 9,000 square feet and 275 seats. They feature

I stopped in for an impromptu dinner to try what is billed as "comfort food with a celebrity twist'.

It's a shame that I do try to protect my anonymity - staff don't know that I'm an annoyingly thorough and savvy foodietective, using my finely-honed foodie skills to test, probe, and evaluate every aspect of the restaurant.

They just know that I'm annoying. And that I take a lot of pictures of my food.

I stepped up to the podium and was assured that I could be seated in just a couple of minutes. I took the time to ask a few questions.

"Is Robert Irvine a celebrity chef?"

She smiled a little nervously and said, "Umm, yes. Yes he is."

"Why is he famous? What makes him a celebrity?"

She smiled even more nervously, the kind of smile you smile when you are being asked annoying questions by an annoying man.

The Rarest Vintage Vinyl LP Records You've Never Seen

Vinyl long playing records have long been serving up something very, very, special.

This Big Salami Johnson release, Ham in the Can, features classic neo-modern-post-classic gumshoe-novel style graphics by the renowned supermarket flyer artist Sylvester 'Sketch' McDoodle.

And the resurgence of interest in vinyl in today's always-on right now digital age testifies to this. People relate to the imperfection of them, I suppose, as an antidote to the auto-tuned sterility of modern recordings.

Whether it's the welcoming low pitched rumble when the needle hits the groove, the occasional pop of dust or click of a scratch, listening to the warm sounds of music coming from vinyl is akin to staring into the flickering random flames of the tribal fire.

With James Brown dancing around it, I suppose, if you are extremely lucky.

Hiking Red Rock Canyon's Keystone Thrust Trail - Part 2

Part 2 of Royal Flusher's Keystone Thrust hike pictorial, continued from Part 1.

The Keystone Thrust. You are seeing how the colored sandstone layer has been sublimated under the gray granite in a tectonic clash of epic proportions. Like, millions of years epic.

Close up of the thrust. The trail turns east here and drops down. Bear in mind that you'll have to come up again.

Hiking Red Rock Canyon's Keystone Thrust Trail - Part 1

The Keystone Thrust trail in Nevada's Red Rock Canyon conservation area, just outside Las Vegas, is shown on maps as short hike (around 2 hours) of moderate difficulty. The elevation change is shown as 500 feet, but add some feet if you hike from the first parking lot to the second one at the trail head, about a mile up a gravel road. The elevation change is surprisingly challenging, but the trip is well worth it for the views, and for the geology lesson.

The Keystone Thrust is a fault formed by tectonic plate movement - the older gray granite plate has gotten shoved overtop the younger yellow and red sandstone rock layers. Weather has done the rest of the work to make these fascinating formations.

Pinball Hall of Fame Las Vegas

There is something magical about pinball. The flashing lights. The seductive themes and gaudy alluring carnival-style artwork. The ever present challenge - can you beat the machine? You feed a quarter in and the machine springs to life with the clatter of resetting counters and ringing chimes. The first silver ball is slammed into the chute with a loud 'whock'. You pull back on the spring-loaded plunger, and it's just you, the game, and gravity, suspended in a fast-paced world of sound, motion and lights for as long as you can keep that ball out of the gutter.

This wonderful device has been around for decades, and hearing those chimes and banging those flippers instantly brings you back to younger more carefree days.

The Pinball Hall of Fame is a living museum devoted to pinball and all kinds of other coin-op arcade games. The best part? You can play all of them. But even if you don't want to partake, coin-op arcade games are a feast for the eyes.

Flusher Reviews The Dice Doctor by Sam Grafstein

There are a million books out there on casino gambling. (Exactly a million - I counted.) And that includes half a million books on craps.

Your typical craps book runs down some history, lays out every bet on the craps table and its house edge, and goes into some strategies around picking the better bets. These are great for the beginner who is just learning the game, or as a reference.

The information you really want is on how to make money at craps. Enter The Dice Doctor by Sam Grafstein, a book unlike any other craps book you are likely to read.

“I don’t advocate gambling! But if you do gamble, play for keeps.”

Restaurant Reboot at the Cal - The Latest

The California Hotel and Casino, lovingly known as the Cal, is a wonderful low-key old school Las Vegas property that has hardly changed in thirty years.

So, let's change it completely, they thought.

Boyd Gaming, who owns many gaming establishments including the Cal, Main Street Station, and the Fremont, has given the casino proper, the lobby, the sports book, and the bars a top-to-bottom eyebrow arching tight-cheeked Wayne Newton facelift. Not that a casino actually has a face to lift, but you get the metaphoric idea.

The wonderful low-key old school IFOR, lovingly known as the Cal.

They aren't stopping there, though - the past couple of years have seen a retooling, revamping and rebooting of most of the drinkin' and eatin' places in the Cal.

And some of the changes are surprising.

Las Vegas License Plates We Need To Get

I have lived in Las Vegas for about a year and a half - one week or ten days at a time spread over the last 20 years or so.

Sometimes I imagine what it would be like to live in Sin City. I'm not sure I'd enjoy being surrounded by casinos, gambling, drinking, incredible amounts of excitement and fun, 24/7 escapism, awesome food, and unrivaled entertainment.

If I did, though, I would surely get a vanity license plate for my 1984 Toyota Tercel.

Now, you might think all the good ones are taken. Like this one that I spied on a recent trip report:

Locate Anything in Downtown Las Vegas in Three Words

That saxophone guy's spot is spicy.snow.pads. You knew saxophones had pads, right?

As we saw in the first part of this series, Find Anything in Las Vegas with Three Words, the Very Smart People at What3words have figured out a scheme where every 10 foot by 10 foot square on the planet can be addressed using just three common everyday ordinary words.

Yep, they are handing out co-ordinates faster than Scotty.

Some clicky-clicky mouse-hunting turned up all kinds of hilarious and ironic three word codes for various places in Downtown Las Vegas.

Well, I think they are hilarious - you may have to give me some latitude on that.

(See what I did there?)

Lets have a look around downtown and see what we can find.

Find Anything in Las Vegas with Three Words

Welcome to Fabulous Suffer Finds Awards Nevada doesn't seem to have much of a ring to it. In fact, it reads like something off of my last game of Bad Platitudes With Friends.

Some Very Smart People at What3words who no doubt employ a garage full of other Very Smart People have come up with a totally new way of addressing any spot on the planet using just three everyday words.

Basically, they drew a grid everywhere around the whole wide world with some extremely large Sharpies, splitting everything as far as the eye can see and then some up into 3 meter by 3 meter boxes. That's about 10' by 10' in case you are metric-ally challenged.

And each and every one of these squares has its very own absolutely unique three word address - including the 10 foot square grid box you are sitting in at this very mo'.

Why does this matter? Well, if you've ever tried to meet up with anyone anywhere anytime in your life - it matters big time. (Plus, as we'll see, it can be a pantload of fun!)

Learn and Play Craps with Royal Flusher: Taking Odds

As the flasher said, let's just get this out in the open. Craps terminology is risqué and rude, starting with its very name. Naturally, I like it.

There are a myriad of bets you can place at the craps table, and most of them have some element of rudeness in how they are called by the - ahem - stick man.

Like a bunch of yokels likkered up on 'shine at a country shivaree you can bet on the Come, or the Don't Come. You can place the numbers, like the 6 and 9. Or, you can play the field.

Learn and Play Craps with Royal Flusher: Simple Pass Line Play

This is the second article on the simplest way to get into the wonderful game of craps. I'm going to tell you exactly how to walk up to a table and get playing without making an ass out of yourself. And I'm not talking about that Pop-o-matic Trouble Craps electronic game with the giant size vaudeville dice, either. I'm talking about the real thing, seven come eleven, dollar yo, eight the hard way, toss the bones CRAPS.

You'll be able to play craps with complete confidence, as long as you follow my simple directives and don't screw up, or say the wrong thing, or spill a drink, or look at someone the wrong way, or break some unwritten rule.

See how easy and fun learning craps can be? Oh boy!

Believe me, you are in good, crappy hands with Royal Flusher. I've taught as many as half a dozen people how to play craps, some successfully.

My best rack of chips ever - so far.

Learn and Play Craps with Royal Flusher: The Basics

A loud bunch of people in the casino are having what sounds like a full-on fireworks and jello shots party, grouped around a long wooden table, drinking, laughing, placing chips on the table, and picking up winnings, the racks in front of them filling up with red, green and black chips.

About every 30 seconds, they scream at the top of their lungs, high-five each other, and generally carry on, practically giving everyone within a 50 yard radius a heart attack. They are, without a doubt, the most obnoxious, out of control group in the casino.

And by God, you want to be one of them someday. Because it looks like they are having the time of their lives. And they are.

Welcome to craps. In this series of articles, I'm going explain in crystal clear terms the absolute bare minimum that you need to know to start playing craps without making an ass of yourself or getting into any trouble. I'll explain the fundamental rules, and show you how to walk up to a craps table and get in the game without feeling intimidated. Because, let's face it, to some, craps is the most intimidating-looking game in the casino. But once you know the basics, it's easy.

The best part? With this simple information, you'll be making some of the best bets with the lowest house edge in the casino.

Learn Blackjack Basic Strategy the Royal Flusher Way

Are you ready to become a solid Basic Strategy Blackjack player? Let's get down to some useful tips.

I promised you'd get them, and now, here they are.

Right there. Right down below this rambling paragraph. Look down... down there. That's where they are.

1: Decide on a Basic Strategy and Stick to it

Published strategies vary from card to card, site to site, program to program because the rules of playand number of decks change from table to table, casino to casino. Those blackjack poindexters that want to get every last hundredth of a percent advantage care about these things because at the levels at which they play, it means real money to them.

You (probably) and I (definitely) do not fall into this category because we are only just blackjack babykins, barely able to reach up high enough above our bobbling babykins heads in order to suckle at blackjack's luscious monetary teat.

For the sake of your sanity, get a good, solid, basic set of rules and learn them cold. (We will get to the But HOW???? part shortly.) Never mind the little tweaks. You are going to be going from a 90% return by guess and by God player to a 99 plus % return Blackjack Basic Strategy Maven (with optional luscious monetary teat-suckling).

You will be better at this than probably 90% of the players out there.

Blackjack Basic Strategy Card Mysteries Revealed

Official Royal Flusher Black-EZ-Jack Strategy Card

So you want to learn how to play Blackjack?

I do too.

A quick recap - a guy named Edward O. Thorp used an early IBM computer to figure out an optimal way to play blackjack and published a book called "Beat the Dealer". His method evolved into what is known as Basic Strategy. Basic Strategy is a mathematician/computer guy's way of saying "put your pants on before your boots". It's a set of rules.

So, let's agree that the first stop in shaving the house edge at blackjack (to within a meagre half a percent) is to learn and play Basic Strategy.

You are now well on your way to killing it at the blackjack table - you know the words 'Basic Strategy'!