Best strategy to turn $150 freeplay into ~$150 cash?

i got a mystery freeplay prize, minimum $50.

my plan was to put it all Banker in electronic Baccarat.
1 hand ending with either $0 or ~$100 then walk away.

well, to my surprise i got $150 freeplay. nice!
stuck w/the plan.. 1 hand of banker... LOST :(

but thinking back, i would have settled on just keeping the $150 instead of double or nothing, seeing as how my win expectation was only $100.
you cant bet both pass and dont pass in e-craps so no $75 pass/$75 dont.

what would be the best strategy to turn that $150 freeplay into ~$150 cash?
2 hands of e-bacarrat @$75 per hand?

The best way to cash out as close to $150 as possible is to play many hands of the smallest denomination possible. So 600 hands of nickel video poker was probably the way to go.

If you're trying to maximize your expected return, then you want to play the game with the highest expectation. Possibly VBJ if it pays 3:2. Video baccarat may have been the choice if the VP paytables sucked.

If you want to maximize your earn per hour, then putting it all on one hand is the way to go.

I prefer eCraps, eRoulette (but almost no machines will accept FP on them) or VP.

As I recall, eCraps, you're looking at insurance of about 1.5%, eRoulette, 5.5% and VP is just VP. Irritatingly enough, I get so many natural 4 of a Kinds when playing nickel DW when trying to grind out my FP.

Get a friend...load up two machines, with $75 each (of the freeplay), then play do on one, and don't on the other...problem solved.

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I would stick with a low denom high returning VP machine. That's what I end up doing with freeplay.

Quote: sabre

The best way to cash out as close to $150 as possible is to play many hands of the smallest denomination possible. So 600 hands of nickel video poker was probably the way to go.

I would say no. If the goal is to get as close to $150 as possible, playing video poker at 25¢ (assuming the royal pays fully at five credits, which on those machines it often doesn't) will have a variance of 1-2 "square dollars" per hand, about what VBJ would be at a dollar a hand, and considering VP by the variance is deceptive, since the distribution approaches the normal so slowly. I'd say VBJ is the way to go, for the smallest denomination allowable (you're not losing that much by giving up surrender). It'll probably pay 1:1, but even so, the edge will be better than most nickel VP. eCraps might be a good option, too - that usually has a pretty low minimum.

Then again, it sounds like the OP doesn't have the patience for that. I'd say it's what I'd do, but honestly, for $150, I wouldn't do it either. Probably what I'd do would be to bet it $5 or $10 at a time, and in that case e-baccarat would have a better edge than VBJ, certainly. Two bets of $75 is too few, though - a 1 in 4 chance of losing everything is pretty substantial.

(I have come full circle.)

For the Cosmo promo, I did 5-line penny poker (25c per round) on their 100-play machine. Surprisingly, they offer 7/5 Bonus (98.01%) for pennies with no min bet requirement. Took me about an hour to play through, and I did reasonably poorly, I got $89 out of $100 back. Video BJ would definitely have been faster with similar payback and probably lower variance, but I like video poker...lol

If you can find Video BJ at 25c a hand with ~okay rules (1:1 BJ, S17, DOA, split once, no DAS) (2.88% house edge), then you would win $145.68 back on average with a standard deviation of $6.675 per 600 hands. So roughly 95% of the time you would expect to be within 2SDs, so roughly 95% of the time you would fall between $132.33 and $159.02. Of course if time is valuable to you by any means, this method is bad since it would take at least an hour for many people.

Quote: Venthus

I prefer eCraps, eRoulette (but almost no machines will accept FP on them) or VP.

As I recall, eCraps, you're looking at insurance of about 1.5%, eRoulette, 5.5% and VP is just VP. Irritatingly enough, I get so many natural 4 of a Kinds when playing nickel DW when trying to grind out my FP.

Last time I checked, most of the ECraps machines do not accept freeplay.

Quote: wanca

Last time I checked, most of the ECraps machines do not accept freeplay.

the casino in md does.

and because it's in md, all the VP machines are basically slot machines. (results are predetermeined, no matter what cards you muck.)
thus not going to play vp for freeplay.

also, no video bj there.

so if the best strategy to pocket most of the $150 freeplay is to play many hands of the smallest denomination possible, then i guess either $5 banker @ bacarrat (30hands) or $5 dont pass/$30odds?

If the goal is to pocket it, don't bother with the odds, or take single or double odds.

Quote: 24Bingo

If the goal is to pocket it, don't bother with the odds, or take single or double odds.

why?
to minimize variance?

then $5 banker @bacarat should be better?
-lower house edge than passline/no odds
-faster to get the bet resolved

Yeah - sit down to the Wizard's craps game, go through $150 that way a dozen times or so, and see where you end up. You won't lose everything the way you might betting $75 a at a time, but there's a fair chance of ending up down, even well down. I mean, think of it - say two bets are resolved on the come-out roll, one in your favor, one against (and remember those are 2:1 against you), and four more go to points, two won, two lost (you're only a 3:2 favorite), coming to exactly $150. You're $10-30 down. Say all five come to points, and you lose three, win two - you're well down, probably under $100. You could also end up well up, sure, but the point is that if your goal really is to turn your free play into cash, you should probably forget about expected value a little bit for the time being.

Keep in mind that $5 banker would be "worse" than taking even single odds, though...

(Or, of course, if it's allowed, put $73 on pass, $74 on don't pass, $3 on midnight, and you'll be either $2-4 down or $17 up.)

Quote: 100xOdds

and because it's in md, all the VP machines are basically slot machines. (results are predetermeined, no matter what cards you muck.)
thus not going to play vp for freeplay.

Unfortunately, almost everyone has been brainwashed to think this, but a VLT doesn't always mean "scratch-off ticket" from a "virtual stack of tickets" as it does in New York and Washington state.

Although Maryland's rules are poorly written (a la New Jersey), their VLTs should play video poker just like Nevada. Considering the mediocre paytables posted here (all below 98%): https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/gambling/video-poker/10186-maryland-vp-machines/ , casinos would bother writing out better looking paytables if they weren't affected by skill.

http://cdn.mdlottery.com.s3.amazonaws.com/Rules%20and%20Regulations/COMAR%2014.01.15%20-%20Video%20Lottery%20Technical%20Standards.pdf

Rule 11 Average Payout Percentage

H. A payout percentage that may be affected by reason of skill shall meet the payout percentage
requirements of this regulation factoring in a method of play that provides the greatest return to a player.

Rule 14 Random Number Generator

B. A video lottery terminal shall determine the occurrence of a specific card, number, symbol or stop by
utilizing:
(1) One random number generator; or
(2) Two or more random number generators working collectively.

E. Once a random selection process has occurred, a video lottery terminal:
(1) Shall display an accurate representation of the randomly selected outcome;

Rule 15 Rules of Play
E. A video lottery terminal that includes a strategy choice shall include in its rules of play mathematically
sufficient information for a player to use optimal skill unless the player:
(1) Is not required to make an additional wager; and
(2) Can not lose any credits earned prior to the strategy choice.

So if you want to take a crack at 6/5 Bonus Poker, or other "meh" video poker, etc. for nickels/quarters, don't let the acronym VLT stop you.

I always play JOB video poker, the ER is 98-99+ depending on the pay table. I personally have never returned less than $95 from $100 FP