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Bob Dancer writes a video poker column for beginners to experts. He also writes a column with Jeffrey Compton, "Player's Edge", featuring information on promotions at various Las Vegas casinos. Player's Edge is published each Friday in the Neon section of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Click here to send Bob Dancer an e-mail.

For more details and a schedule of Bob's free classes, visit www.bobdancer.com.

July 15, 2008

Buying a Multiplier

It almost happened.

Station Casinos is running an interesting promotion throughout the summer. Although there are a couple of versions of it, the "Resort Retreat" was the one that very much interested me. You could do it at Red Rock or Green Valley Ranch (GVR), the two premier Station properties, but GVR was the one that was close to my home and for a while had a VERY good game.

Here's how it goes. For $199 you get two nights at the property, including $25 match play (worth $12), 5x points, a $20 gas card (worth face value), and a $25 gift certificate at "The District," a relatively-expensive shopping/dining area surrounding GVR. Since Shirley sometimes shops at health food store there, this is also worth face-value. You could pay for this with Station points at a rate of 600 for $1. You could use "old points" (meaning those accumulated before mid-February of this year and not "salable") or "new points" (meaning points that could otherwise be "sold" (for free play) at a rate of $1 for 1000 of them.) Even if you had to spend your new points, the 600-for-$1 rate is better than the 1000-for $1 rate you'd get by selling them back, so it would make sense to spend $119.40 worth of points rather than 199 actual dollars.

GVR is a full mile-and-a-half from our house and a major play for us. Since Shirley and I are both Chairman (meaning we each average more than $250,000 monthly coin-in), our host would be happy to comp several free room nights a month apiece.

Still, I was considering signing up for the promotion. Actually PAYING for a standard room when I could get a deluxe room for free.

The reason to sign up was the 5x multiplier coupon. For about four months, GVR had NSU Multi Strike for $1, $2, and $5. This game was worth 99.92%. Since points at Station are essentially worth 0.1% in cash back (actually free play --- but close enough), a 5x multiplier made the game worth 100.42%.

I found I could play about $40,000 an hour through the $5 machine. This made playing with the multiplier worth $160+ per hour, while playing without a multiplier was essentially an even game. If you hadn't played your $250,000 "monthly nut" yet to maintain Chairman status (worth between $350 and $600 in monthly free play --- this is currently in flux), then the multiplier is worth even more. During promotions involving drawings, the promotion makes earning drawing tickets a profitable affair instead of a breakeven game. Even for $1 and $2 denominations (still VERY large games requiring $20 or $50 per hand --- these games have tons of variance and large losing sessions are common), the 5x coupon could pay for itself.

Therefore, signing up for this promotion was, in effect, "buying a multiplier." In terms of dollars and sense, it added up nicely. During the first week of June there were two different days with 6x multipliers and another two with 4x multipliers. I played a lot, as did several other players.

There was no incentive to buy a multiplier when almost every day they were giving you a multiplier anyway. But there were several calendar days in June where no multipliers were in effect, and likely the same would be true in July and August. Many of those days it would be likely that a $160-per-hour game would be the best in town. And if I was planning to play six hours that day, paying about $20 per hour for the multiplier was cheap enough.

Before I could utilize this buy-a-multiplier strategy after the first week of June, the game was downgraded to 15-9-4-4-3 "pseudo NSU" Multi Strike. Although the multiplier still is worth $160 per hour on this machine, it reduces the average hourly loss from $360 an hour to $200. No thanks.

Although it was disappointing to lose the game, most of us who played it were amazed it lasted as long as it did. Having a game in High Limit Slots that returned this much is very un-Station-like. I checked the pay schedule EVERY TIME I sat down to play because I figured it was only a matter of time before it was removed.

Outside of these particular machines, the best games I know about at GVR are the Optimum Play ones. Multipliers are nice, but since it takes $4 to earn a point, an 800-hands-per-hour dollar player only gains $4 an hour with a 5x coupon. This won't justify "buying it," but if you need to purchase a room there anyway this promotion helps to offset the cost. (There are also some progressives which can be good games. Last week at GVR, for example, there was $5 8/5 Bonus progressive with a $28,000 royal that may or may not have been hit by now. Assuming you can play $20,000 per hour, using the coupon adds $80 per hour over the normal 1x rate.)

It is possible that there are games at other Station Casinos where buying this multiplier makes sense. At the other Station Properties, the "Great Escape" is for $49.99 a night with a different set of freebies --- but definitely including the 5x coupon. If this is interesting to you, check it out here.

I play enough in Las Vegas that getting rooms for free is relatively easy for me. And paying for something that I can get for free is not something I generally do. But it almost happened.

It was not so long ago I wrote in a column about something else that didn't happen. For those of you "bottom line only" readers out there, these may well appear to be "wasted" columns. They are, after all, not about advice you can apply today.

They are, however, about a "way of thinking." Many players would never consider paying for a room when they could get one for free. After today's column, perhaps you can see that "under the right circumstances" it could be a smart play. Who knows where down the road this could come in