Picking up freeplay

So I gave this video poker thing a try. I went to the place where I felt would have the most generous slot club. I played big, calculated my theoretical losses, and waited. Finally got my mail. The freeplay definitely covers my losses alright.....so long as I return every weekend in July!

Well problem is, I don't gamble every weekend. Also, when I do gamble, who says I want to go back to this same casino every time I want to gamble? I like to go to different places.

So what's the best way to pick up this freeplay? If I just go twice this month, will I probably get this same offer next month. If I put in 0 coin in (only use freeplay), how likely will I get this offer next month? If I play half of what I did a few months ago, how likely will I get this same offer next month? Going by how long it took me to get my initial mail, seems like there is a delay....

If you give them absolutely nothing instead of a minimal amount of play, you can get cut off before second months offer. Most likely the second months offer will be the same, and third months offers will drop depending on the delay in processing info. However, the delay and how pickups affect the future offer are highly variable by slot club and what they're calculating your offers based on (average daily theoretical, theo/coin in over a time period, actual loss. Most places base it on a combination of the factors, but you'll have an educated guess what they're basing primarily on when you see what happens to future offers, often the third month of offers gives you the most info about your future approach, then you need to figure out time period they calculate offers over.)

Problem with vp for me is it kinda ties you to an area if you want to capitalize on future offers, and I like to travel to the best current opportunity for me. Sometimes you can get people to pick up your offers for you, but that comes with a $ cost or future favor cost that also cuts the value.

Quote: Avincow

I like to go to different places.

The place you want to go to should be the place where you're getting an advantage and making money.


It really depends on the additional coin in thing. A lot of it is going to be experimentation, unless you already have the information for that specific casino. It also depends on the size of your offers compared to the amount of coin in and how much you expect to give up. Does a single weekend offer's value exceed the one big-play's -EV?

ie: 99.7% game. You originally played $100K coin in. Expected loss is $300. You were given $600 a week for 4 weeks. You could do $100K coin in every week (-$300 value) and pick up your $600 in FP (~ $600 value)...coming out ahead $300 a weekend. That would keep the offers rolling in [almost certainly]...and could even increase your offers.

On the other hand, if you got $200 a weekend for 4 weeks...doing the $100K coin in every time you pick up wouldn't make sense, since you'd have a net EV of -$100. On the other hand, by playing $100K a weekend, that could bump the offers up above $300/week, putting you into the +EV territory.

Personally, I wouldn't do either, since I don't want to squeak out a 0.3% advantage. Generally, if it's less than 2% I'm not going to play it. I'm looking for something in the 5%+ range.


Now, if you're getting $1500/weekend, then I would play $100K every weekend, profiting $1200/weekend in EV. Well....maybe, idk if that's what I'd play or not. But, it wouldn't be too bad of a play, at a 1.2% edge ($1200/$100K).

Or you could say f*** them, I'm going to pick up $6K in FP ($1500 x 4) and not put through any additional coin in when picking up.



Like with card-counting and other AP stuff....there's a "milk 'em with a smaller advantage" versus "slaughter 'em with a big advantage". It's up to you which you want to do.



But since you already did the coin in to get the FP, then I think it's kinda stupid NOT to pick up the freeplay [assuming you're able to].

I cannot more highly recommend this course of action: Get thee to the slot host and ask them how the free play is calculated. I have done this at every casino before I even get the player's card.

Different casino's do different things. At The Imperial Palace, they look at things with a 6 month memory. They look at your coin in on slot, combined with your average bet and duration of play at the tables and divide by how many days you play.

So, the local guy - he comes in with $50 bucks every night, plays for 30 minutes. $350 total for the week, divided by 7 trips. (all slots) He might get $5 free play. The slot host would not tell me what the magic ratio is that determines what a player gets, given that scenario. BUT - someone who comes in one day a week and spends $350 (all slots) - he gets more because his total per trip is higher.


If the 6 month average remains about the same, the free play will remain the same. If you play more on one given trip - it will probably not increase by much because it's averaged out over all the trips in the past 6 months. Likewise, if you play less on a given trip, same deal.

So, it can pay to stay away.

Check with the slot host. They have no reason to not disclose how things work.

Quote: ukaserex

Check with the slot host. They have no reason to not disclose how things work.

Yet at some places, they won't tell you. Still, no harm in asking.

Some places might not want you to know what the tiers are, lest you marginally increase your play to significantly improve your mailers.

I could not disagree with this statement more. Most host do not have a clue what they are talking about when it comes to slot play and calculations. The main reason for this is it is not their department. It is a complicated matrix that is disclosed to very few people and actually is considered intellectual property and thus highly guarded. Sorry to burst the so called proverbial bubble but this does not work, in fact often times you well get completely erroneous information.

the reason it's so complicated is because the marketing department is trying to protect their jobs. if they just did (amount of play / number of trips) * .15, there would be no reason for 90% of them. by keeping it complicated, it's hard to get rid of them, because nobody really understands it. and in fact, i disagree, the most likely reason you'd get erroneous information from a host is that there's such high turnover there's a good chance today's host is yesterday's dealer/waitress. most senior hosts will at least be able to tell you these things:

is loss the driving factor, or amount of play?
do more visits hurt you?
do they operate off last 3/6/12 months?

if you're asking questions like "what will i get if i'm a black male who is 63 years old and wager $63,000 coin in on machine GXO47 every other thursday and lose 1600 dollars each time?", well, you're probably going to get some really wrong answers, but that's a horrible question in the first place on nearly every level.

Quote: Avincow

The freeplay definitely covers my losses alright.....so long as I return every weekend in July!

Awesome. You've won. You beat the casino.

If you want to keep beating them, you may have to change your strategy. Either gamble more often or spread your play around less or something else. For myself, I like to play something that is as much over 100% before any of those kick backs, so it doesn't matter much what they send me in the mail.

Quote: Avincow

If I put in 0 coin in (only use freeplay), how likely will I get this offer next month?

Really depends what the offer is. About three years ago took advantage of a promotion by running about $100,000 through a machine in one day. Following month they gave me $400 in free play, which I cashed out as soon as I ran it through. Then it dropped to $200, then $100, then $5 per week, then nothing and I doubt they will ever sent me anything again no matter what I do. And I doubt I could have done any better from them had I tried to maintain recurring offers with some minimal amount of play