Downtown Grand: Best $1 VP?

I recently won $1000 worth of freeplay at the Downtown Grand. I intend to use it all on $1 video poker. What should I play?

VPFree2 isn't much help. It reports that the best game is $1Triple Double Bonus, but doesn't give any other details about inventory.

Anyone know what other $1 games are currently offered there? TIA.

I don't know but congrats on the win!!!

I can't answer your question either (mostly because I haven't been over there yet), but to extract as much of that Freeplay money out (by the way, congratulations on your win) as possible, how about using it on Video Blackjack (if it's available) instead, due to not only its much lower volatility (Variance) but also its likely higher return than you could get out of a Video Poker machine (especially for a relatively short period of play -- 200 hands on a $1 VP Machine at Full Coin-In)?

RecVPPlayer

Thanks for the congrats. I apparently won the Grand's monthly freeplay giveaway. Found out at home via email, I easily might have missed the email, I filter my casino email and don't read most of it.

As for video blackjack, it's been my experience that the VBJ machines that allow freeplay rarely pay well, often 1:1 on blackjacks and limited double and split opportunities. Moreover, your variance argument applies equally when we play with cash or freeplay. The variance is what makes VP more appealing, so that's what I'm after.

Chilcoot,

I'm actually very well aware of Video Blackjack paying 1 To 1 as well as the other restrictions that are often involved with Video Blackjack play, but I learned from Charles Lund that even with these restrictions that are involved with it, playing Video Blackjack for this very short amount of time may very well still offer a higher return rate for the short run that you will be playing it as opposed to playing VP (most especially if the VP is returning less than at least 99.1% in the Long Run) for this very short run (amount) of hands played to extract the Freeplay amount.

And so playing this way may enable you to get more out of the money that is involved (although that would not allow you to get the money from some real big hit -- like a Straight Flush or Royal Flush) as opposed to running it through a poor returning (if that's what's offered) VP machine.

Video Blackjack as far as I know has a lower Variance than many other Video Poker games (depending on what these games are), and so playing Video Blackjack for the purpose of extracting as much of the Freeplay money out as possible may very well be a better way to get this specific amount of money out as opposed to what money you can get out of Video Poker if it doesn't have a good pay schedule.

RecVPPlayer

I believe that the 9/6 TDB listed in vpFREE2.com is the one and only game there with a paytable over 98%. Of course there are plenty of other games. vpFREE2 only lists the best games. The others didn't make the cut.

I quite agree with RecVPPlayer's recommendation. If your goal is to play once through and run, you are better off with a low variance game--even if you are giving up return. My wife and I use all of the freeplay coupons in the LVA and ACG every year as well as the SlotPlay offer at the Palms every trip and learned quite a while ago that if we want to maximize our chances of walking away with something close to the value of the offer after playing once through, video BJ is the way to go. We try to find a game with the best rules. They often vary across machines, just like VP schedules. And you can match your bet to the denomination of the coupon to give you enough iterations as well as making it easier to keep track of your playthough.

If your goal is long term play at the casino in question, then I would try to maximize the return instead.

My goal when I go to Las Vegas is to have fun. I'd like to win something, and there are no jackpots with video blackjack. If all I cared about in life was finding a zero variance machine to play, I'd stick with the change machine at the bus station.



That I'll be using freeplay rather than cash is completely irrelevant to my question.

Thanks for your information, LVRoyale. Do you know what other $1 VP they deal at Downtown Grand? I'm fine with it being 97% or 96% payback, we're only talking about $1,000 here: I'm not too worried if my expected return when I sit down is $990 or $972 or $959. I just want to know what games I'll have to choose from so I can spend a little time preparing.

Some people have more "fun" trying to get as much potential money out as possible with Freeplay (especially if these people view the Freeplay as their "potential new money"). So since I didn't know for sure what your interests (motivations) were, this is why I mentioned Video Blackjack since I didn't know whether you wanted to get as much of that $1k out as possible or if you wanted to take a chance at the possibility of hitting something big (not that there is anything wrong with that).

With Video Blackjack, you should end up with a Long Term and Short Term return of (depending on the rules offered) 96% to about 98% whereas with Video Poker, the stated return is over the Long Term and so in the Short term, anything can happen (unless maybe you are normally playing that game). This is why I mentioned Video Blackjack as an option for the use of your Freeplay.

RecVPPlayer

In addition to TDB, I remember seeing Deuces Wild, DDB and Bonus Poker.