Room Comps

[FloridaPhil]

I agree with your math.  What I don't agree with is the assumption that the your actual results will match the math.  There are 2,598,960 possible 5 card hand combinations in a 52 card deck.  If you play 500 hands an hour, it would take 5,198 hours to see all of them assuming no repeats.   Repeats will occur, so it would take many lifetimes for math to make a difference in your long term results. Royal flushes occur approximately one every 40,000 hands or so depending upon the game.  Math says some will see more than their share and some will never see one.   Likewise some players will win long term, most will not.  This also assumes a human being is capable of playing for tens of thousands of hours without error or downtime.I have no problem accepting the fact that a handful of people have made good money playing video poker.  I also know the right combination of skill, opportunity and luck it takes is very rare indeed.  The real question is how much do you trust the math to work in your favor.?  If you would like to bet your life savings on video poker, go for it.  As for me, I'll keep video poker as recreation and keep my money in the market.Comparing the stock market to video poker is ridiculous.  Like video poker there is math involved as well as strategy.  The stock market has a long history of average people building great wealth through saving and investing in American business.  I have yet to see any verifiable proof that anyone has made sustainable profits playing video poker.  All those retired baby boomers you see in the casino didn't retire on royal flushes.  Will you?

[alpax]

I agree with your math.  What I don't agree with is the assumption that the your actual results will match the math.  There are <span ="_tgc"="">2,598,960 possible 5 card hand combinations in a 52 card deck.  If you play 500 hands an hour, it would take 5,198 hours to see all of them assuming no repeats.   </span><span ="_tgc"=""><span> Repeats will occur, so it would take many lifetimes for math to make a difference in your long term results. </span>Royal flushes occur approximately one every 40,000 hands or so depending upon the game.  Math says some will see more than their share and some will never see one.   Likewise some players will win long term, most will not.  This also assumes a human being is capable of playing for tens of thousands of hours without error or downtime.I have no problem accepting the fact that a handful of people have made good money playing video poker.  I also know the right combination of skill, opportunity and luck it takes is very rare indeed.  The real question is how much do you trust the math to work in your favor.?  If you would like to bet your life savings on video poker, go for it.  As for me, I'll keep video poker as recreation and keep my money in the market.Comparing the stock market to video poker is ridiculous.  Like video poker there is math involved as well as strategy.  The stock market has a long history of average people building great wealth through saving and investing in American business.  I have yet to see any verifiable proof that anyone has made sustainable profits playing video poker.  All those retired baby boomers you see in the casino didn't retire on royal flushes.  Will you?</span>



There is indeed 2,598,960 different ways to draw 5 cards out of a 52 card deck. On a scientific calculator, compute "52 nCr 5".

However, there are just 134,459 unique combinations of ranks (13 of them) and suits (4 of them) within the 2,598,960 card possibilities.

As one example:

7 clubs 7 diamonds 5 spades 3 spades 2 spades

will be played the same way as

7 hearts 7 spades 5 diamonds 3 diamonds 2 diamonds

will be played the same way as

7 hearts 7 clubs 5 diamonds 3 diamonds 2 diamonds

Some combinations appear more than others, the hand I mentioned one pair vs 3 flush cards there are 12 different ways to arrange that, the strategy will be the same to hold the pair in most if not all the games. A dealt royal in spades is the same as the one in hearts, diamonds, or clubs. It counts as one unique combination out of the 134,459, each combination is weighted out differently.

Each of the 134459 hands are evaluated by the highest EV from the possible 32 ways to hold the 5 cards. How many Royals in can produce, how many Straight Flushes, how many Quads, how many Full Houses, how many Flushes, how many Straights, how many Trips, how many Two Pairs, how many High Pairs. When you total it all up, that is where you get 1 in 40390 chance for Royal Flush in Jacks or Better played optimally. A mathematical odds is discovered, hence a bell curve predicting the range of results can be discovered too.

If you flip a coin 1000 times, it will be 99% likely you will land on heads between 459 to 541 of the time, not 500. Try it.

[FloridaPhil]

Flipping coins is not what stock market investing is about nor are odds calculations.   Market swings will always occur followed by recoveries.   Many people sold out of the stock market in 2008.  If they had just done nothing they would have done very well.  Using video poker terms, we were "grinding it out".  Panic never made anyone money in the stock market.As far as investing in video poker is concerned, I'll leave that up to the true believers. 

[case]

Alpax

You asked how we get so many rooms at Caesars properties. I am diamond but low at 18,000 pts (15,000 for diamond) and my wife is platinum at 6,000.

We do not get mail offers for free rooms from all casinos however all you need to do is log in on total rewards and go to the calendar for each casino. There are free rooms at places we have not even visited. Weekends are harder to get.

If we log in and can't get a free room there is a spot to add a companion card. There I put my wives card in as well. This will produce more free rooms as they are guaranteed two carded gamblers. They are just trying to bring gamblers in if demand is low for rooms.

[alpax]

Flipping coins is not what stock market investing is about nor are odds calculations.   Market swings will always occur followed by recoveries.   Many people sold out of the stock market in 2008.  If they had just done nothing they would have done very well.  Using video poker terms, we were "grinding it out".  Panic never made anyone money in the stock market.As far as investing in video poker is concerned, I'll leave that up to the true believers. 

The only point I wanted to get at was video poker has more predictable results because the odds of each hand outcome can be determined with optimal play of all the 134,459 unique combination of hands, the strategy charts you see published online or on Video Poker for Winners cover well more than 95% of those situations.

With that information, you can find the variance of the game and then the all important standard deviation by taking the square root of the variance value. You take confidence intervals, 95% of the results will be within 1.96 standard deviations of the mean (.98 to the left and right), 99% of the results will be within 2.576 standard deviations and such. In your situation, the mean of Airport Deuces is 98.913% return if you played perfectly, but I would say 98.85% will be a good point for the short cuts you try to take.

There are no distinct odds to what can affect the share prices of a company, so that is where I stated that it is not predictable. People mostly tend to focus on what a company sells or service they provide.

It will be predictable if there are indisputable odds to the following:

Odds of a product or service flopping?
Odds of a CEO resigning or being forced out?
Odds of a natural disaster somewhere?
Odds of a lawsuit of any kind?
Odds of a recession?

Alpax

You asked how we get so many rooms at Caesars properties. I am diamond but low at 18,000 pts (15,000 for diamond) and my wife is platinum at 6,000.

We do not get mail offers for free rooms from all casinos however all you need to do is log in on total rewards and go to the calendar for each casino. There are free rooms at places we have not even visited. Weekends are harder to get.

If we log in and can't get a free room there is a spot to add a companion card. There I put my wives card in as well. This will produce more free rooms as they are guaranteed two carded gamblers. They are just trying to bring gamblers in if demand is low for rooms.

I appreciate the response. I had thought that it would require 7 Stars tier on Total Rewards to get stays in multiple areas but it is good to know the weekdays are available and in high demand to fill them; it works in your favor. Hopefully you can play 500 tier credits ($5000 coin in) within a gaming day to keep getting the 125 tier credit bonus. Having Diamond is valuable as it waives off the Resort Fee if the resort does charge any to avoid giving away commission to the online travel booking sites.

It would take much play to earn free stays during weekends and holidays, as it is when more people are free on their schedule. I personally try to do my casino visits during the middle of the week in hopes to catch a promotion.

[notes1]

If we log in and can't get a free room there is a spot to add a companion card. There I put my wives card in as well. This will produce more free rooms as they are guaranteed two carded gamblers. They are just trying to bring gamblers in if demand is low for rooms.

I am also a low level diamond, who must travel to play, so I always need a room. my wife is not a gambler.

question, regarding companion card, I know this can sometimes help in getting a room. what if you put down a card number, but the companion really was not showing up? would they deny me the comp room, do they actually track the companion play? when I check in, I could tell them the companion had not arrived yet.

[case]

Your companion must be present at check in. They will not give you a room until both people are present. That has been my experience anyway. They will ask for the companions card and the name must match the reservation.

[billryan]

While not the same thing, I've booked a room with a non card holder in the past. When they got there before me, they were allowed to enter the rooms after leaving a credit card,with the understanding that if I didn't show up they would be charged for the room.

[Sea Lion]

Your companion must be present at check in. They will not give you a room until both people are present. That has been my experience anyway. They will ask for the companions card and the name must match the reservation. Yep. I've this happen to me. Room was comped and booked on my wife's card and she couldn't make it. I was turned away at the desk. This was at Pechanga in Temecula, CA., but I'm sure this would apply to any hotel. I did manage to play her $75 in freeplay and my $30 in freeplay before I left, and didn't hit a damn thing. This was last January when I traveled there for a weekend. Needless to say that all mailers for both of us from that point stopped.

[alpax]

Not sure if you will see this thread again Sea Lion.

There has been some changes there since you've last visited, which reminds me I have to update a personal thread. Now there are many nickel and dime 9/6 DDB and 9/7 DB. They've made it harder to earn club points as a drawback.

For single line video poker, I think they have the best balance of games players of all budget types that I've seen. Not so much for the specialty or multiliner games on All Star Poker II. The place is under massive renovation and should be completed by late 2017.

I know that for Vegas casinos, if you typically want the freeplay or food credit, you also have to book a room stay to get them. They do not want non-locals to just quickly go in and pick it up. There is not enough hotel rooms for everyone that visits an Indian casino in California, so they do allow players to pick up freeplay on a weekly basis without needing to book a room. Most people live just 1 to 1 1/2 hours away and do not have the need to stay.

I do know the feeling about player's club and mailers expiring after 12 months. For that reason I am hesitant to play in multiple casinos in Vegas, I just play in few in which I think is worth making a return visit.