To jumpstart its new buffet, the Palms is running a fantastic instacomp good on Tuesdays and Thursdays in January and February. Earn 200 points ($200 coin-in) to get a comped breakfast buffet, 400 for lunch, and 600 for dinner. It’s the just-debuted A.Y.C.E. buffet and with the good games at the Palms, this is an excellent deal.
You should go to a kiosk before you play and activate a 3X points promo (available to everyone by accessing “Today’s Offers”), but it’s not necessary that you do so to earn the buffet comp, since the requirement is for same-day base points.
Playing expertly on easy-to-find 9/6 Jacks or Better games, the expected loss to earn the points is just $1 for breakfast, $2 for lunch, and $3 for dinner. Assuming average skill levels or lesser schedules, the expected loss will still be about $3, $6, and $9, respectively—more than 50% below retail.
You can track your points at the machine, but note how many you have if you want to move to another game, because the displayed point count will start at zero when you reinsert your card. All of the points you earned are tallied and count toward the comp, but you won’t know where you stand if you don’t keep track while moving (you can also check at the kiosk if you forget).
Again, the instacomp is offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays only, but this buffet is one of the best deals in town even if you’re paying. The retail price is $21.99 for dinner and Sunday brunch, $15.99 for lunch, and $12.99 for breakfast – well below the prices of similar buffets in town. Show the lowest level Boarding Pass card (Preferred), and the prices drop to $19.99/$13.99/$10.99, even if there are no points on the card. Show the next level card (Gold) or higher and it’s $17.99/$11.99/$8.99.
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I try to stress this to any of my friends (and even some of my enemies) who visit Vegas–the promotions you usually see are NOT worth it if you play slots, but are almost always worth it if you play video poker–even lousy machines, and even poorly.
The cost to earn those points on your average slot will be $20/$40/$60, assuming a 90% return (some of the Palms’ slots are a wee bit better than that, but some are a wee bit worse). That’s much more than the respective breakfast/lunch/dinner buffets would cost you if you just ponied up the cash. Breakfast wouldn’t be too bad, but dinner would be almost triple the cost.
Of course, every time I say something like this, I feel like I’m cutting my own throat. If everybody weaned themselves away from slots and learned to play video poker, promos like this one would dry up.
Back when South Point still had 9/6/90 JOB (a 100% return game), I played to earn one of these insta-comps, and got killed doing it. I think I lost 4x what it cost for the buffet!
I know that’s just one single instance and all, and that the math was on my side, but it was still disappointing.
Used to love the palms buffet but now they make you wait for ever even though plenty of empty tables and waiters ganged up and standing. Poor choice of meat and no pie
Breakfast is $9 with a Gold card, so you can fade a game with up to a 4.5% casino edge and be breakeven at worst when not considering club points — $9/200 (points required) = .045. You might be able to get under 4.5% on $1 and up slots, but you don’t know for sure, so Kevin’s advice to avoid slots if playing specifically to earn the comp is on the mark. However, if you love the slots and play them for entertainment, this is a terrific add-on comp.
To Mike’s comment, it’s a Bell Curve thing and finishing behind on a short play happens a lot. Play with the best of it and don’t chase just because you wind up behind on a positive-expectation play like this and you’ll come out ahead over time. LVA members should check out Dunbar’s article on risk for a $500-coin-in play in the January newsletter. It’s eye-opening.
I know it’s kind of hard to do sometimes, but you have to ignore actual results and only consider expected value in determining the value of a play. Let’s say I’m at a Boyd casino on senior day and I want to earn 100 points in order to get a dinner buffet comp. The best game you can find at the Gold Coast or Orleans is NSUD at a 99.73% return. Therefore, the cost to me of this comp is 27 cents. That is true even if I lose $100 or hit a royal flush. It’s expectation, or EV, that matters. Over time, the cost to me of that buffet will average 27 cents. (The lowest cost promo would be a breakfast buffet twofer for earning 10 points, a cost of a little less than three cents. Talk about a cheap date! (“Let me buy you breakfast.”))
Parenthetically, lifetime, I’ve hit four royals while playing small amounts to get instacomps, but I shouldn’t factor that into my decision to play for them or not. Nor should it affect your or my decision if we got clobbered last time while earning an instacomp, as long as our -EV was less (smaller expected loss) than the retail value of the comp.
The instacomp strategy is valuable in that ya gotta eat, and quite often, the cost of a meal is less than a dollar! (I should mention for those who don’t know, that the definition of “senior” at most locals’ casinos is “50 or older,” so a lot of folks are eligible for those promos.)
Is there a similar promotion for table game players?
Not at this time. We always mention all routes if they exist and will update if a new opportunity shows up.