Cleaning Out My Inbox

Time to clean out my Inbox, answering your questions, addressing your concerns, and passing on shared information.

Jean, I received an e-mail promotion from Total Rewards (CZR) that your readers might find interesting. If you’re an Emerald at Boyd, Total Rewards will upgrade you from Platinum to Diamond. I believe they will do it for other card holders from other properties, but I’m only high-tiered at Boyd’s.

Good info, since this frugal trick is sometimes usable at other casinos than those mentioned above. If you have reached a high tier at any one casino, it pays to check at the players club at other casinos to see if they have a matching program. Although you probably won’t immediately get all the benefits of that higher tier at a new casino until you have put in the requisite play requirements, you will usually be able to enjoy some of the perks right away, i.e., VIP lines or discounted food comps.

We generally try to find a bar-top video blackjack machine to play our free play through once. It’s a much lower variance play than any VP game, and you can generally get a free drink in the process.

This won’t work for all players in all casinos, but might be an option you want to remember.

Q: Free play isn’t worth its full value because you usually have to play it through on a game that has an under-100% payback, am I not right?

A: You are right. So to keep the free play value as high as possible you look to play it through on the highest EV machine you can find. Playing it on slots will reduce its value significantly because of the high house edge there. So to keep more of it many will choose a VP game, looking for the highest EV paytable.  However, you will need to consider your bankroll so you might have to choose a lower-EV video poker choice at the lower denomination you can handle. And many consider volatility for short-term play and would choose a lower-EV game that has lower volatility – like 9/6 JoB (99.5%) – instead of, for example, NSUDs (99.7%), that is more volatile. However, players who look at gambling with a long-term view often choose the highest EV, knowing all those short-term plays blend together for the higher long-term results.

Q: Did I understand correctly from one of your previous blogs that if my wife and I each received free room offers from the same downtown casino/hotel it is possible for each of us to individually reserve a room and allow other family members (who did not receive the free room offer) to use the second room? This without risking our status with the casino/hotel?

A: As with almost all casino subjects, this answer must be qualified with a “usually.” You can usually do this with no problem, but you need to register at check-in for each room under the invited player’s name; you can add non-playing family names to the room as needed so they could be given keys. Then who sleeps where is a private matter. You definitely would need to do play under both names to continue getting invitations in both names. We do this all the time where we both play at high levels and have a long-term relationship with a host who can arrange for adjoining rooms. If you play at a lower level and are uncomfortable about this situation, you and your wife might want to check in at different times and thus avoid any questions. But in any case, you are not doing anything illegal or even unethical, and I have never heard of this being against any casino policy if you give enough play to cover the comps for each room.

I don’t believe in luck — I  believe in preparation. 

Bobby Knight, former Indiana basketball coach

A favorite quote of mine.