{"id":890749,"date":"2025-07-22T10:08:58","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T17:08:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/?p=890749"},"modified":"2025-07-22T10:09:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T17:09:02","slug":"playing-for-second-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blog\/playing-for-second-best\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing for Second Best"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One of my students was given a nice offer at Caesars Atlantic City, based on his play at another Caesars property. He got some nice show-up money, some free hotel nights, some food, and an offer that for every so many Tier Credits (TCs) he earned, he got so much money in free play. I don\u2019t know what the limit was, but it would take well over $1 million in coin-in to max the offer. He asked me to help him figure out the best way to tackle this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We ruled out 9\/6 Jacks or Better in the high limit room because it takes $25 coin-in to earn one TC and regular video poker only takes $10 to earn the same point. I called some players and discovered they have 9\/6 Double Double Bonus (98.98%) in $5, $10, and $25 single-line games. That would be a much cheaper way to earn TCs even without the promo, and even more so with. This was his first trip there and if he played more than a million dollars on his first three-day visit, win or lose, there\u2019s a good chance he\u2019ll get nice offers down the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The property now offers 0.25% next day bounce back cash (NDB) on regular video poker (0.10% on 9\/6 Jacks) and on Thursdays, for two hours, 10x NDB. He asked if he should make any strategy adjustments for that two-hour period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d I replied, \u201cI don\u2019t know for sure, but I suspect the casino will be very crowded during that two-hour period — especially in the high limit room. Unless there are nearby vacant machines with the same pay schedule. W-2Gs during those two hours are very expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I\u2019ve not played in that casino for more than a decade, I\u2019ve heard getting W-2Gs paid there can take 15 minutes on regular days, and during some promotions, the slot people get so slammed it can take more than an hour. A two-hour juicy promotion is useless if you can\u2019t get on a machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I suggested looking for hands where two plays are close in value, but the correct one can get a W-2G and the other one can\u2019t — or at least it\u2019s a lot more difficult to get one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We used the advanced section of WinPoker to deal us hands where the difference between the best and the second-best play was 50 cents or less for a dollar player. That means $12.50 or less for a $25 player.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hands such as A\u2660 J\u2665<\/text> T\u2660 7\u2666<\/text> 4\u2660 popped up. Holding the bare ace is the best play by 3.3 cents for the five-coin dollar player. (The numbers I quote here will be for the dollar player. If you\u2019re playing a $5, $10, or $25 machine, multiply the number by 5, 10, or 25 accordingly.) Holding AJ instead of the bare ace reduces your chance of getting a W-2G on this hand by about 50%. Is 3.3\u00a2 a cheap price to pay for such a reduction? To my mind, yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another qualifying hand was A\u2666 K\u2666<\/text> J\u2663 T\u2665<\/text> 8\u2660. Holding the AK <\/em><\/strong>gives you three chances out of 16,215 getting a W-2G. (On a $25 machine, the royal, four aces, and four kings each get you a handpay).  Holding AKJT eliminates that chance altogether. It costs you 4.3\u00a2 to make such a play. It takes some courage to pull the trigger on this because while one of the possible jackpots was \u201conly\u201d four kings, with the other two W-2Gs you\u2019re giving up the possibilities of receiving a royal flush and four aces — hands DDB players dream about. Still, getting those hands was taken into consideration when we computed it was a 4.3\u00a2 difference in EV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are other hands to be considered. Once I give you the concept and tell you where to look, you can find them out for yourself if you\u2019re interested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Harrah\u2019s Cherokee, the loosest game is $5 NSU Deuces Wild. The \u201cmystery\u201d multiple NDB day goes for 24 hours, not just two. While they don\u2019t make it clear what your multiplier is until you\u2019ve already played, if you assume it\u2019s 2x, you\u2019ll be correct a very high percentage of the time. A 2x multiplier seems to pale in comparison with 10x elsewhere, but the base video poker games are better in Cherokee (if you\u2019re willing and able to play $25 per hand), the base NDB rate is higher, and the promo goes for 24 hours rather than two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same \u201cW-2Gs are expensive\u201d philosophy holds during the multiple NDB days. When I get dealt a hand where a second-best play might reduce or eliminate the chances for a W-2G, the first thing I would do is check to see if there is a suitable nearby machine available. If one is, I\u2019ll make the standard play and scoot over if the W-2G (four deuces or a royal flush in this game and denomination) comes home. But if no such machine is available, these are some of the hands I\u2019d consider making the \u201csecond-best\u201d play:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. W45 <\/em><\/strong>— With a suited deuce four five, it\u2019s a close play whether you play the deuce by itself or deuce four five — and the exact correct play is a bit complicated to figure out. For me during the promo if no backup machine is available, I\u2019m holding all three cards every time.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. A one-deuce perfect 4-card straight from W<\/em><\/strong>567-W<\/em><\/strong>QJT. It\u2019s a close play whether you hold one card or four — and the exact rules are again a bit complicated — but during this promo with no backup machines available, I\u2019m holding four cards every time.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    A now-deceased good friend of mine made up \u201cAnnie\u2019s Rule\u201d on these hands.  Because she liked getting four deuces so much, she was willing to give up a few pennies in expected value to increase her chances of getting \u201cthe ducks.\u201d I guess if she were playing this promotion and thought about it sufficiently, she would use \u201cBob\u2019s Rule\u201d which values not getting four deuces at times such as these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. KQ<\/em><\/strong>, KJ<\/em><\/strong>, or KT<\/em><\/strong> with at least two penalties. A straight penalty would be an unpaired card in the range of 9-A, while a flush penalty is a card of the same suit as the K in the range of 3-8. In these hands, without an available spare machine, I\u2019m throwing everything away. It\u2019s only 16,214 to 1 to hit a royal when drawing three cards, while it\u2019s much longer when drawing five cards.\u00a0 Your odds of drawing four deuces after when drawing five new cards are on in 35,673. Not zero, but not likely.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      As before, there are other hands I\u2019d play \u201csecond best but no jackpot\u201d under these conditions, but now you understand the concept and know where to look, you can find them yourself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      These plays are not limited to NDB conditions. They are worth considering whenever W-2Gs are going to be paid slowly and there are no replacement machines nearby. At some casinos this can be 100% of the time on some machines!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      Be sure the right conditions are there before you pull the trigger on one these plays. If jackpots are paid faster (at some casinos you can self pay) or there are ample additional suitable machines, it\u2019s not smart to make any of these second-best plays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      One of my students was given a nice offer at Caesars Atlantic City, based on his play at another Caesars property. He got some nice show-up money, some free hotel nights, some food, and an offer that for every so many Tier Credits (TCs) he earned, he got so much money in free play. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15763,"featured_media":843442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[558,557],"tags":[561,585],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/spinach-2.png?fit=500%2C300&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890749"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=890749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":890750,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/890749\/revisions\/890750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=890749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=890749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=890749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}