Casino Hopping Vacations

[FloridaPhil]

If you've been reading my posts you probably guessed that we don't value comps too highly.  Our strategy is to play cheap, pay our own way and take whatever freebees we get as a bonus.   I totally get that comps have value that should be considered as part of your winnings, but we have never been able to justify the losses it takes to earn them.  If we could play near 100% machines, earn cash back, and get free stuff,  we would consider changing our strategy.  As things are right now, we believe we are better off playing cheap.

[alpax]

I follow your posts as well as respecting your insights of recreational player; but I forgot about the stance with comps. Most gambling advisers mention not to play (or over play a person's means) directly for the reason to earn comps.

-- Unrelated but what I heard about average daily theoretical loss comps ---

One thing about the comps is that it is rated higher than the theoretical house edge. Meaning, leeway is given to those who play in recreation without playing proper strategy.

Most common blackjack games has a 0.46% edge and is played at a rate of 60 hands an hour, but the actual comp value will be 30 percent of the projected of 0.75% edge at 70 hands an hour.

I heard MGM rates video poker at 97.00% ER in Vegas since the most people play 9/5 Double Double Bonus (97.87% with optimal play) at quarter denomination, so a figure of 3% house edge of the 30% coin in amount is the estimated bounce back comp. Of course finding a better paying game and playing properly will be towards your benefit.

I think Beau Rivage should rate it even lower at 95.5% if they know if all their games are below 97%.

[Vman96]

I heard MGM rates video poker at 97.00% ER in Vegas since the most people play 9/5 Double Double Bonus (97.87% with optimal play) at quarter denomination, so a figure of 3% house edge of the 30% coin in amount is the estimated bounce back comp. Of course finding a better paying game and playing properly will be towards your benefit.

I think Beau Rivage should rate it even lower at 95.5% if they know if all their games are below 97%.

I would expect MGM ratings would be more machine dependent. Otherwise people could just hammer out 9/6 JoB for comp profit if they could weather the swings. I could believe the average house edge the casino realizes is 3% though.

As for the Beau, I would hope they don't consider the average house edge to be 3% because it's obviously more. But with the way they treated billyjoe, I'm guessing they may have the machines set to comp more generously than the typical MGM Vegas machine.

[alpax]

You might have a good point about the machine dependency. I only stuck around the high limit room at the Luxor where the games had the best paytables. The lowest paying game was Airport Deuces at 98.91% ER. Also had 9/6 DDB, 9/7 DB, 9/7 TDB along with 9/6 Jacks. I am guessing the ADT comp system for high limit machines will have it at 1.5% edge instead of 3%?

I've played about 3000 JoB hands (15000 tier points), and got an offer for 3 night stay (lowest end rooms), with $50 resort credit, and $125 freeplay. It will expire at the end of June, got it extended from end of February without doing anything.

billyjoe had very generous offers at Biloxi for sure, but I also think the NOIR tier status had a lot to do with it as well. It is 5 times more difficult in terms of coin in required to get tier points at Biloxi (2 tier points per $10 VP coin in compared to 10 in Vegas). Probably billy was wise to rack up points from full pay TDB or those multiline games to get into NOIR at Vegas prior going into Biloxi. But then if Phil was treated like a King with the single coin quarter system, Beau might have the most generous comp I've ever heard of.

[FloridaPhil]

We started receiving free flight and room offers from the Beau Rivage back in 2008 right after I had a crazy lucky $14,000 day.  Back then I was a dollar player and would play any game they put in front of me.   Since then we changed our strategy to play as cheap as possible, but the offers still come every month like clockwork.  I suspect the Beau is very generous with their comp policy if you fit their criteria as a player.  I think seniors from adjacent States like Florida are prime customers, especially since Florida put in Vegas slots.  The average video poker game at the Beau Rivage  is a 96% game at best.   I was shocked to see 7/5 DDB in the high limit room, but I guess some people will play it anyway.  We would stay at the Beau Rivage and pay for the rooms ourselves if we had to.  It's such a wonderful hotel and the staff is unbelievably great.   You just need to control your losses and you will have a great stay. We also get free room offers from Cherokee and we have never played anything there higher other than quarters.

[alpax]

I read that Beau Rivage once offered great games back in 2008 at high denominations. Since then the budget has cut down big, MGM is still in debt from that resort construction and Hurricane Katrina damages. The paytables were slashed big time (an understatement). If Beau Rivage is the equivalent of the Bellagio of Vegas, both are great resort-wise but not so great gambling wise, in the past the slots will eat your bills and show no mercy. It is good to casino hop just as long as you "start and finish" at Beau Rivage.

I know I've already mentioned billyjoe a few times, but he is right that even full pay games with good comps/cashback at near 100%, you will still need a large bankroll and long term play "in hopes to break even". I can see the misery you get put through play the traditional way now.

[FloridaPhil]

About 5-6 years ago a few 9/6 Jacks machines showed up on the floor at the Beau Rivage. I didn't know about them until a cocktail waitress showed them to me.   We played the heck out of them, but they removed them a few months later.  Right now, the best Jacks or Better game is 8/5 at the bar.  The rest are 7/5.  I once made the statement on this forum that I played Jacks or Better because I couldn't lose a lot of money.   Bob Dancer corrected me with a loss that straightened out my thinking on that idea.  Playing max coins on any video poker game can be pretty costly if you don't win once in a while. 

[alpax]

I have used the forum search feature to read what Dancer has said two years ago, 7/5 and 8/5 Jacks or Better is not too bankroll friendly. $20 bills just gobbled up by the machine on max quarter bets when I thought playing quarters would suffice. The 8/5 is about 6 folds worse and 7/5 is 8 folds worse than 9/6. A dollar is 4 times more than a quarter so I pony up and avoid the quarter 8/5.

Based on the earlier post, to me it seems MGM does reward with somewhat decent comps for 9/6 Jacks Or Better, Bob pointed out in the past that CET does not to a point where 9/5 is a better play.

If free offers get harder to come by, I would personally play blackjack along with the single coin poker. $300 bankroll on a $10 minimum can last for hours on average.