Harrahs Lake Tahoe

[chattycattty]

Why is it that playing VP skews the formula whatever it is to calculate ADT? Evidently it does b/c we have some friends that play only VP that are both 7 star. I forgot about them asking us last year to help them get a room and concert tickets to the celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe. I remember calling our host and him looking them up on the computer and him saying their ADT was only 485 or something like that. All I know is that at the end of the year they get more TC's than we do so evidently playing slots makes it easier to have a higher ADT than in does playing VP. Tim if you know the basics behind calculating ADT please let us know or perhaps I will pick your brain when I see you this weekend.

[MPD001]

Why is it that playing VP skews the formula whatever it is to calculate ADT? Evidently it does b/c we have some friends that play only VP that are both 7 star. I forgot about them asking us last year to help them get a room and concert tickets to the celebrity golf tournament at Lake Tahoe. I remember calling our host and him looking them up on the computer and him saying their ADT was only 485 or something like that. All I know is that at the end of the year they get more TC's than we do so evidently playing slots makes it easier to have a higher ADT than in does playing VP. Tim if you know the basics behind calculating ADT please let us know or perhaps I will pick your brain when I see you this weekend.

Caesars/Harrahs still ranks players by ADT (Average Daily Theoretical). It is easy to calculate your ADT for video poker at Caesar's. Just multiply the points earned for the day times ten to get your coin in. Multiply that by the hold of the poker game you are playing. If you earned 2500 tier points on a 8/5 bonus poker game your ADT would be $25,000 * (1-.9917) = $207.60. Take the average of these daily numbers and that is what they believe you are worth per visit.

What 'corrupts' this statistic is if you play just a little in a day. A day to the casino, with regard to ADT, looks the same whether you played for 5 minutes at $100 a hand or 10 hours at $1.25 a hand.

If you plan on only playing a little while on any given day, you have to decide what is of greater value to you - earning the Tier and Reward Credits, or maintaining your ADT. Playing without your card inserted may help preserve your ADT.

[chattycattty]

Interesting MPD001. Makes sense now that you lay it out that way and explains a lot of things. I have tried to pin down a variety of different hosts over the years to get an explanation and they have acted like it was some fancy complex formula that included all sorts of different variables that even they were not aware of. What you are laying out makes perfect sense. I am going to try to corner our host this weekend at Tahoe and run this by him and see what he says. Thanks for sharing this.

The other thing we try to do is on the day we are checking out is not use our card for anything. Thereby not generating an additional gaming day. Some hosts say that's a good idea and others say it counts against you anyway. What are your thoughts on this?

[joechgo]

The "hold" you are referring to is the expected value (99.17% in the case of 8/5 BP) but the casino uses a much more generous hold since players don't always play the optimal game and play it well)

[MPD001]

The "hold" you are referring to is the expected value (99.17% in the case of 8/5 BP) but the casino uses a much more generous hold since players don't always play the optimal game and play it well)
What I described, Joe, would apply to a machine with only that one game. Since most machines today have a variety of games to choose from, each with their own paytables, the EV is different depending on the game selected.
The casino will typically assign a hold value for a category of machines, and use this to calculate ADT when you play one of those machines.

The same is also true of slots. Even though individual machines may have different EVs, they are usually put into a category, with a value assigned for ADT calculation.

[TIMSPEED]

The "hold" you are referring to is the expected value (99.17% in the case of 8/5 BP) but the casino uses a much more generous hold since players don't always play the optimal game and play it well)
yup, exactly...I think in Tahoe, there are some decent Theo earners, while the "8/5 BP quickquad" machines (in harrahs HL), that are TERRIBLE for Theo.I'll talk to you all about it on Saturday ChattyCatty.

[MPD001]

The other thing we try to do is on the day we are checking out is not use our card for anything. Thereby not generating an additional gaming day. Some hosts say that's a good idea and others say it counts against you anyway. What are your thoughts on this?
It depends on what the host is measuring. For ADT, it would probably reduce your average, since you would not play as much. But your host may be compensated for how many days you stayed and played, so he would like to see you play as many days as possible.

[joechgo]

I would agree with that. In addition don't apply any reward credits against your bill on check out day. Go to the front desk and do it the night before.

[chattycattty]

This is an interesting discussion we are having concerning ADT. I am just wondering if I played a 99% VP machine for 2500 tc's given MPD's calculation my ADT would basically be 250 which basically sucks. Now if Joe is correct in assuming that the casino uses a more generous "hold" due to players making mistakes that would make for a much higher ADT depending on of course how generous they are with this. If for instance they assign a hold value that lowers the percentage down to 97% to allow for mistakes that would raise the ADT in this example for the day to 750.

[chattycattty]

I would agree with that. In addition don't apply any reward credits against your bill on check out day. Go to the front desk and do it the night before.
That is exactly what we do. Based on trial and error over the years despite what I have been told by a few others if you do this, the day you check out will not be charged against you as a gaming day in calculating your ADT. We also pay off any markers that are outstanding the night before as well.