South Point February Promo

Got the mailer today. The promo is the "old" casino wide super progressive bonus. The amount starts at $10,000 and must hit by $25,000. Its random and you must have your player's card inserted in the machine to be eligible. When it hits all active carded players will get $25 in free play. Then it starts over at $10,000.

And also there is a minor progressive bonus that starts at $1,000 and must hit by $2,500. When hit, the payment is in free play. Then it starts over at $1,000.

Personally I give this promo little to no value. Too random and difficult if not impossible to quantify.

The only value is in when the major gets close, there's a little bit of positive EV. The place gets swarmed when that happens.

My wife and I like that promo. We played that the last time we were there. We got the free play like three or four times. I was hoping they weren't going to do that promo till we go in April. 

100% agree - hate this promo.  I was just there last week and saw the boards for this and was glad it was happening in Feb when I wasn't going to be there.  Of course, Jan had nothing for out of towners.  

Southpoint is tightening up as well - or at least catering more to locals.  

Kinda both, actually. But historically, they've always been oddly hostile to visitors. They do almost nothing to bring you in, even if you have a decent play history. And whether or not they send you mailers seems to be determined by a monkey throwing darts, or something.

The only conclusion I've be able to draw is that they divide their customer base into two disparate groups: the people who come in for "events," like the horsey stuff and the bowling tournaments, and the locals who are expected/encouraged to visit several times in a month. And they treat the two very, very differently. They assume the out-of-towners are coming no matter what (because of a given event) and don't need to be incentivized. The locals, on the other hand...it's the same old tug of war with Stations, Boyd, etc.

(BTW, those locals casino operators have handed SP a massive gift--SP became the best locals casino in Vegas by far just by not screwing with everything.)

Despite all of that, I still prefer SP as compared to anything else.  It is just a much better atmosphere and hopefully I time my trips out with one of the monthly promotions I like.  

BTW Kevin, there poker room pre-6pm and post say 7pm are vastly different.  Have you ever run into one of these WILD WILD 4/8 games at night where 70% of pots are capped preflop with $20 each and 5-7 players in?  I ran into two on this last trip.  I mean, these guys openly talk about being "gamblers" and raise with 8/5 off suit.  Almost 75% of hands are won on river and you really never know where anybody is.  I don't prefer that game but I do love that action.  But it is easy to get stuck $200 and then the game breaks.  On the other side, it is easy to get it all back and some.  All and all, pretty fun but you get a lot of smack talk at the table as well.  

I generally avoid limit games, because they tend to be very very very very nitty. But if this atmosphere exists as you describe it, it might be worth a look.

I've had a pretty bad month at no-limit, mostly due to suckouts. The trouble is, when Nimrod McNuts hits his gutshot on the river, it might cost you $50 or $100 in addition to losing you the pot. You get on the wrong side of that a few times in a row, suddenly you're down five buyins and your morale is shot. The nature of no-limit rewards stupid gambling. In contrast, when Nimrod hits his two-outer at limit, he only gets one or two more big bets out of you.

I had a streak of FOUR AA cracked by KK. I lost a combined $600 on those hands. At limit, I would have lost, too, but not nearly as much. And yes, I realize that I should be happy when all the money goes in preflop and I have AA. I just don't want to fade the fucking variance. That's what makes limit attractive.

So as long as a limit table isn't an infestation of local nits trying to accumulate hours, I would actually prefer that to NL. I'll check out SP for that...thanks for the tip.

I know I should be playing no-limit but for the same reasons you state, I mostly don't. I just have brutal luck there.  And like I said, I win about 80% of my sessions in limit.  

In our old local casino.....still waiting for it to reopen somehow (it will at end of the year) I was winning about $8k-$10K in 3/6 limit a year with full kill for a nice little hobby I actually really enjoy.  But let me back that up a second here.  70% of that "win" was on promotions.  Basically if you can play even and hit promotions, you are a pretty good player in that room with rake of course.  

I enjoy most of the relaxed atmosphere in limit games.  Check out those games at SP.  They aren't always around but lately they have been.  Just look at 4/8 tables and watch for huge chip stacks all over the table as people are buying in many times.  You'll see it within 4-5 hands if you found the right table.  There can be vast differences in two 4/8 games even going on in a single night.  

The 3/6 games are totally local nits trying to get their hours in for quarterly free roll.  My God is it boring.