How worth it is it?

So Harrah's Rincon is having a Gas Card Giveaway May 26-27 (Thursday & Friday).

Here is the text from their site:

So I mainly play Video Poker. So this is how I see it.

Each Base Reward Credit = $10 in the machine.

2 Base Reward Credits = 1 Gift Buck.

300 Gift Bucks = 600 Base Points playing VP = $25 gas card.

600 Bass Points = $6,000 in the machine.

$25 is 0.416% of $6,000

So this is going to translate to 0.416% cash back.

Where if you go by the TR Catalog (not counting a 7 Stars Discount) the gas cards go for 5000 points for a $25 card which is a 0.005% return per $1 through the machine.

So if someone was to play for this promotion, it is a pretty good deal then huh?

I am planing on playing $1 / $2 8/5 Bonus single line. So every 600 hands at the $2 level I get a card... Every 1,200 hands at the $1 level I get a card.

If I can find a multi line machine that has an 8/5 return or at worst 7/5... I may play multi line for less variance... Multi Line I would play up to $25 a push (5 line @ $1), But I feel I play fast enough I can get a lot of hands in per hour playing single line.

Plus, an additional card just for showing up (which I don't recall the amount of the card I am to get).

Wish me luck :D

You could also try breathing water and drinking air. Good luck!!!!

whats that supposed to mean?

*written as I smoke bear and drink marijuana*

If you continue to do the math you would be on the right track. You came up with a .416% return for the gas card promotion. An 8/5 BP game returns 99.17% (with perfect play). That gets you up to 99.59%. Do you see the problem here?

The game is still not 100% even with perfect play. So, you are still going to lose .41% of the money you put into the machine with average luck. Add to that the fact we already know you don't follow expert strategies 100%.

Now, maybe there are other factors involved. What is the standard cashback, are there any other promotions going on? etc.

Finally, going to 7/5 to decrease variance would not be too smart. You'd give up about 3x the amount of the promotion. Not a wise trade-off.

OTOH, it's good to see you are starting to understand how to use math to understand how it can help you win (or lose less).

Sounds to me like video poker is burning a hole in your pocket as you continue to find another excuse to gamble.

well, that is what I figured... I am considering playing 9/6 JoB to whore this promo out a little bit...

The thought of playing the multi line machines would be towards the end of the day depending on my bankroll to get more $ through the machine at a higher level.

But if I was playing a 5 line machine for example at $1 ($25 a push) or a $2 x 5 line machine ($50 a push), I figure I would have a better chance at breaking even than playing a single line $5 or $10 machine, even if it is a slightly lower pay table...

I think I play over 1K hands an hour, so on a single line machine I feel I will do just fine.

Maybe knowing that this promo is going to add .41% to the return table I should look more srsly into playing 9/5 JoB at $5 level... If I played 1K hands an hour at $5 level thats $25,000 through the machine and a guarantee of at least $100 in gas cards...

I would have an expected return of 99.95% playing JoB along with this promo... (not to mention the cash back bonus that this play will go for to pick up in the middle of next month... that would give me an additional return of 0.1%... 100.05% weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee)

That is a lot of risk for half a tank of gasoline.

Its a lot of risk to play for any kind of promotion...

But if I do go play, id rather play and get a little extra kick back than nothing...

I am not going to play above or differently than I would anyway...

The main difference is, if it is going to be worth it for me to go during the day Thursday or Friday rather than my usual midnight run...

You playing a Dancer and chasing a comp??

The title of this thread scares me. No wonder the United States is so far behind the rest of the developed world, our own people can't speak/write the language properly.