Can someone help a newbie out with some comps questions?

Well good, Watty! It's definitely better to just play whatever you are going to play anyway and then just let the chips fall where they may!

I can't recommend Harrah's connected places for Video Poker (unless maybe you played at the $5 machine level -- that's at $25 per hand), but a combination of table play with machine play (I think) will do a player better for comps as opposed to playing just at table games.

Actually, depending on the table game that is played, a player may not necessarily end up with much of any comps (such as with Blackjack table play -- unless maybe you were playing at a high Bet Minimum table).

RecVPPlayer

Another question. I gambled one day at Stratosphere back in January, and out of the blue, they just sent me an offer for two nights in a suite and $175 in slot play. How does that slot play work? Is it true free play, where every time I win, I can cash out for real money, or is it something lame where you have to run the whole $175 through and you basically don't get any real money unless you're real lucky? Thanks

With any Freeplay Watty, you must run it thru Once, and then can cash out.
Thats a Fair amount of FP. Hope that offer works out for you.

So in other words, if it were a $1 machine, you'd need to spin it 175 times, and then whatever your balance is is yours to keep?

Yes, that is correct.

Yes, and do check to see with the Freeplay if any machines are excluded from using it (because sometimes casinos do such things -- such as El Cortez).

And also, if there is not any decent Video Poker whatsoever that you can play it on, you then might be better off in possibly using at least some of the Freeplay on Video Blackjack and play it at the lowest level possible.

RecVPPlayer