A friend of mine, “Henry,” is a reasonably strong video poker player. His game selection is decent, his “play-of-the-hands” skills are better than average, and he only plays when he has an advantage. He likes multi-hand games with a total bet in the $10-15 range — so quarter Ten Play, 50¢ Triple Play or Five Play, or $1 Triple Play are all comfortable for him. He will occasionally break out of that comfort zone for the right promotion. Continue reading It’s the Sum that Matters
Category: Video Poker
Card Pulling at the Revel
The Revel in Atlantic City is offering an outrageous 100% loss rebate. Whatever you lose in slots, video poker, or electronic table games during July is rebated in 20 equal weekly free play installments from early August through mid-December.
Continue reading Card Pulling at the Revel
Comparing Total Rewards with Total Rewards
On a recent broadcast of Gambling with an Edge, our guest (Mark Anduss, www.markslasvegas.markanduss.com) compared Total Rewards, the player’s club of Caesars Entertainment (formerly known as Harrah’s) with MLife, the player’s club of the MGM Mirage family of casinos.
Recently Bonnie and I traveled to Harrah’s Cherokee for three days and then immediately on to Harrah’s New Orleans for three more days. Both casinos belong to the Total Rewards system, but there were LOTS of differences in the way they did things. I want to point out some of these differences.
Continue reading Comparing Total Rewards with Total Rewards
A Trip to Cherokee
I received an offer from Harrah’s Cherokee Casino for $1,000 in free play, $500 in travel reimbursement, $250 in casino food credit, two rounds of golf, and two concert tickets — valid anytime between early April and the end of June. I also received an even bigger offer from Harrah’s New Orleans which was available for approximately the same time period. Since Bonnie had never been on a casino trip with me, it seemed a no-brainer for her to join me on back-to-back visits to both casinos where we would pick up the goodies. Continue reading A Trip to Cherokee
Playing for an Entry
I received an email from someone named Al asking about slot and video poker tournaments in which you have to play to earn an entry. He wanted to know, basically, whether or not it’s worth it to participate.
An example of this type of contest is the Thursday senior slot tournament at the South Point which has a prize pool of $5,200. If you are at least 50 years of age, you receive one free entry. Earning 250 or 500 points entitles you to one or two additional entries. Continue reading Playing for an Entry
Checking Up
In business, there is a motto regarding employee supervision: EXPECT. INSPECT. That is, assume that they are going to do a good job — but check on them anyway. You should do the same thing as a video poker player.
Continue reading Checking Up
Using Markers in Casinos
I’ve used casino credit on a semi-regular basis for more than two decades. While I’ve learned many things over the years, I don’t consider myself an expert on using casino credit. Still, I’ll share what I know (or at least think I know) and perhaps it’ll be useful to some of my readers. Continue reading Using Markers in Casinos
Holding All Five Cards
A friend of mine, I’ll call him “Dan,” was playing Ten Play Jacks or Better and was dealt AAAA7. Dan held only the four aces and hit the deal button. Since Jacks or Better is not a kicker game, he received 125 coins for each of the 10 lines. While this is a nice score, it pales in comparison to being dealt the same hand in Double Double Bonus, which Dan also sometimes plays. He noted that he received two kickers and, therefore, would have received (8 x 800) + (2 x 2,000) = 10,400 coins playing DDB rather than the “mere” 1,250 credits he received playing Jacks or Better. Dan didn’t hold the fifth card so that he could see how many “kickers” he would have received had he been playing Double Double Bonus. Apparently Dan has a small streak of masochism and wanted to know just how badly he should feel for NOT playing Double Double Bonus. Continue reading Holding All Five Cards
A Quizzical Evening at the Casino
I mentioned a few weeks ago that a man named Dan Sechkar edits my columns for me. Dan is a puzzling sort of guy and he created a column full of puzzles. I enjoyed working these out. Perhaps you will too. Continue reading A Quizzical Evening at the Casino
It’s the Casino’s Choice
A friend of mine, I’ll call her Sarah, recently told me of two almost identical incidents that she was involved in at two different casinos — and each casino handled the incident very differently. I think it’s instructive to examine what happened.
Continue reading It’s the Casino’s Choice