Let It Ride

I was playing Let It Ride the other night, by the way one of my favorite games, it can be slow, but I like that you can get a fairly good payoff for a $5 bet, but I began to wonder how they rate play at Let It Ride. If I am only betting $5 on the three initial bets and not playing the $1 bonus bet or the 3-card bonus how am I rated and what expectation of comps should I have? Does that rating change if I play the bonus or 3-card bonus?

Thanks for the insight.

Quote: SONBP2

I was playing Let It Ride the other night, by the way one of my favorite games, it can be slow, but I like that you can get a fairly good payoff for a $5 bet, but I began to wonder how they rate play at Let It Ride. If I am only betting $5 on the three initial bets and not playing the $1 bonus bet or the 3-card bonus how am I rated and what expectation of comps should I have? Does that rating change if I play the bonus or 3-card bonus?

Thanks for the insight.

I think that kind of play would be rated very, very low; the slowest table game, the smallest bet, house edge of 3.5%, very low for a carnival game.

How many hands an hour of Let it Ride; 45? On your initial bets, ($15)(3.51%) = about $25 expected loss over those 45 hands, so you'd be rated at losing about $25/hour. On the 3 Card Bonus, the house edge goes up to about 7.5% on that nickel; that's about another $17/hour for the house. Bonus bet is about a 25% edge; $11.25/hr. So you're giving back about $30/hr by playing those 2 bets. My guess is that your rating would double, based on the extra bets.

I wouldn't advise you to make those bets based on increased comps or rating; make them if it pleases you to take a high cost/low probability/high return bet. If it does, make them, if it doesn't, don't.

I don't know, but I've heard that LIR is viewed as a carnival game that, particularly with five dollar chips in play, is invisible to anyone higher than the cocktail waitress. I'd think the action is so low that you would have nothing to lose by asking the floor person whether you even get rated at that game. Play for four hours and earn six dollars in comps?

You might have to go to a place where just about all the action is in five dollar chips and the dealers faint when they see a black chip being wagered.

Quote: Mosca

How many hands an hour of Let it Ride; 45?

I believe that irrespective of actual rates, the LIR assumed rate is 50 an hour. This may be a rule of thumb that is a carryover from the really old days when floor people calculated comps without benefit of player club cards and computers.

I've sat at LiR with guys playing blacks; not recently, but I've done it. Last night I was at a table where a guy was betting greens, two at a time. (First time I've played LiR in years; I was with friends, betting nickels, passing the time. Hey, it was better than playing the slots. We'd started at BJ, where the dealer won the first 6 hands in a row from all 3 of us, busted twice, then cleared the table on the next 5... so we figured, Let it Ride!)

Quote: FleaStiff

I don't know, but I've heard that LIR is viewed as a carnival game that, particularly with five dollar chips in play, is invisible to anyone higher than the cocktail waitress. I'd think the action is so low that you would have nothing to lose by asking the floor person whether you even get rated at that game. Play for four hours and earn six dollars in comps?

You might have to go to a place where just about all the action is in five dollar chips and the dealers faint when they see a black chip being wagered.

That may be true at some casinos, but "sharp" houses like Harrah's (yeah, I know that's an oxymoron) really value the carny game player, because they know it's a big money maker for them. A $15/hand player on 3CP (Ante + Pairs Plus) will get as good a rating as the $.25-$1.00 slot player. Same thing with Let it Ride. So, I would recommend playing at Harrah's which has the most advanced rating system, even though it isn't great for the players of low house edge games.

Quote: teddys

That may be true at some casinos, but "sharp" houses like Harrah's (yeah, I know that's an oxymoron) really value the carny game player, because they know it's a big money maker for them. A $15/hand player on 3CP (Ante + Pairs Plus) will get as good a rating as the $.25-$1.00 slot player. Same thing with Let it Ride. So, I would recommend playing at Harrah's which has the most advanced rating system, even though it isn't great for the players of low house edge games.

Are there rating differences between LIR and 3CP? I would think that since your $$ is stranded in 3CP and not in LIR, the 3CP player would be rated higher.

The 2nd and 3rd bets in LIR are kind of like the odds bets in craps: there's an argument for rating them, and an argument for not rating them. If it were my call, I'd be generous with time estimations and hands/hour calcs, but I'd only rate the 1st bet in LIR (the one that can't be pulled back).

rdw- the total expected loss per initial bet is what the casino would look at. If for every initial play of 3 $5 chips, the casino expects to win 50 cents, then you will be rated at 50 cents times the number of hands per hour. I would assume all table games are rated as such. Expected loss per hand times number of hands per hour.
Any other way makes no sense.

I just found out that Station casinos will rate you as $10 a hand player for LIR if you are betting $5 per hand, but you really need to log some HOURS to receive any significant comps. And if the PIT Boss is generous he may add a little if you are playing either of the bonus bets.

Thanks for all the comments.