I recently wrote how I played during the $600,000 July Money Madness promotion at the South Point. To summarize, there were two progressives running at all times during the month. One between $10,000 and $25,000 — where, in addition to the one lucky winner, all players playing with a card inserted when it hit received $25 in free play. The second between $1,000 and $2,500 — where no additional money was given away to players playing when someone else hit the jackpot.
In August, there was a gas card promotion at that casino where you received a $50 Chevron gas card (up to ten cards per player for the month) for redeeming the points earned from playing through $8,334, an amount that would normally entitle you to $25 free play. This is essentially double points all month long for playing through up to $83,340 — if you value Chevron gas cards at face value.
So far, assuming you kept up with South Point promotions, I haven’t told you anything new. These were both decent promotions for a casino that offers so many games returning more than 99%.
When I saw my August mailer, my first thought was, “Maybe I can combine the promotions.” That is, when midnight July 31 came around, there were still going to be two progressives in play. They weren’t going to start any new ones after midnight, but however long it took for the existing progressives to hit, players would receive the EV from the progressives themselves plus the $25 free play consolation prize on the larger progressive.
If I could start earning Chevron gas cards while the progressives were still alive, it could be a way to double dip two independently decent promotions.
My next thought was to read the rules. Did the Chevron gas card promotion begin at midnight August 1 or 3 a.m. August 1? The first time is when the “calendar day” begins. The second is when the “casino day” begins. The rules could be written either way.
On Friday evening, July 31, I stopped by the club before Bonnie and I went dancing to Wes Winters in the Grandview Lounge. Unfortunately, the rules didn’t give a time. They just read “August 1.” The South Point usually has better-than-average rules and forgetting to include a start time was an oversight. Oh well, it happens. A couple of booth workers said they didn’t know what time the promotion started. A couple of others gave a “best guess” of 3 a.m. I wasn’t interested in a best guess, so I asked if the slot shift manager was around.
He was. He said that to his knowledge that hadn’t been specifically addressed and that the final decision would be up to Cliff Paige, who is the slot director at the property. It was 7 p.m. at the time and I wanted to know if Cliff was still on property so I could ask him. The shift boss said that Cliff would answer an email from him. If I wanted to go and dance for an hour, the shift boss said he would have an answer by then and he would make sure all of the booth workers knew as well. I said fine.
At 8:15 I returned to the booth and was told that the slot director said the promo started at midnight. The current level of the big progressive at that point was $23,200 or so. Now you never know for sure when any progressive is going to be hit, but it was certainly possible that the big progressive would be hit between midnight and 3 a.m. I was glad I checked.
I went home, took a brief nap, and was back at the South Point and on the machines at midnight. If the progressive was still above $23,000, I was planning to be there for the duration. If it had hit and was barely more than $10,000 when midnight came around, I would play the $83,340 on each card and be done with it.
My game of choice during “double point” promotions at the South Point is 9/6 Double Double Bonus Poker Quick Quads. It’s a 99.65% game (less for me because I tip $5 or more on every W2G). It’s “essentially” an even game during normal times when the slot club pays 0.30% plus mailers and players have the edge when the slot club pays double. To be sure I’d prefer an extra 0.30% in free play than an extra 0.30% in gas cards, but these gas cards have real value.
By 3:00 a.m., the progressive still hadn’t hit, and it was up to $24,400. So as it turned out, I didn’t really need to be there at midnight. I could have slept an extra three hours and still have been there for the progressive being hit. But there was no way to know this at midnight. I was glad I was there “in case.”
The progressive wasn’t moving very fast at this time of day. The meters are fed by coin-in, and there were only a few hundred people in the casino — whereas during “normal hours” there are often more than 1,000 players in action. Still, I was playing two machines (using my card in one and Bonnie’s in the other — which is allowed at this casino) and playing $60 per hand. I felt this gave me a significantly better chance than one in a few hundred.
At around 4 a.m., I reached the 83,340-point threshold on both cards. Now I was no longer receiving anything extra in terms of Chevron gas cards, but since the progressive was at $24,500 and had to be hit before $25,000, there was no way I was going to leave.
At around 5:30 a.m., the larger progressive finally hit at just shy of $24,700. Unfortunately for me, it hit on somebody else’s machine. I received $25 free play on each card. Oh well. Can’t win ‘em all. I cashed out and went home.
Saturday evening Bonnie and I went back to pick up our ten gas cards apiece. There were enough booth workers who had also been there Friday night so that at least a few were aware the promotion started at midnight. Although I was willing to do so, I didn’t want to have to explain it anew and then have them go check with their supervisor to make sure what I was saying was true. Fortunately, we got the gas cards easily enough.
Even though I didn’t score on the progressives (other than the $50 in free play over coin-in of about $200,000), I believe it was a smart play to do what I did. Intelligent gambling consists of making a series of smart moves. Some of them pay off. Most don’t. But I like the chances of those players who are always seeking and finding ways of gaining an extra edge. You just never know in advance which edge will pay off this time.
If I had hit the $24,500 progressive, many people would have concluded that I was a lucky SOB. They would have complained about how they didn’t get so lucky very often. Well, yes. Actually connecting on a progressive does require some good fortune. But being there at the time wasn’t luck at all. That was identifying an opportunity that most players missed. If you were at home sleeping because you didn’t see the potential, you had no chance at all for Dame Fortune to smile in your direction.