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Maryann Guberman has been a writer and editor with many gaming publications, including Sports Form, Card Player, Poker World, Player's Panorama and Systems and Methods. She also has written and edited numerous books on gambling.

Jan. 30, 2010

Kudos to the Mohegan Sun

I'm not totally sure how this would work in other locations but here's an interesting twist to casino promotion that connects player's club points and poker tournaments.

Connecticut's Mohegan Sun will let player's club members cash in their slot and table game points for poker tournament entries. Two club points is equal to a dollar's worth of tournament fees. Now, you can't use mix and match, in that you can't pay for half in cash and half in points but, still, this has to be one of the more interesting and innovative methods of getting slot and table game players into the poker room.

The tournament schedule at the Uncasville-based casino includes daily and weekly guarantees and numerous sit-n-go competitions.

After getting the press release by email on this promotion, I surfed over to the Sun's Web site to see if more information might be available. There I found a complete list of poker tournaments with times and prices as well as information about other events in the 40-table room. What I wasn't able to find was the cost of a point. That might be because the points received will vary according to the game played but it would be nice to now how much other play you have to engage in to earn enough points to buy into a poker tournament.

Hearing about the promotion captured my curiosity so I did a quick search to see what other unique poker promotion might be available around the country. I wasn't looking for the typical free tournament or high-hand jackpot type of event, just something different like this player's club promo.

The biggest surprise (well, not really a surprise; I expected this) was that the majority of the promotions listed on the Web are for online poker! Does this mean land-based rooms have plenty of participation and so they don't need to promote? Does it mean there isn't enough money in the budget to create and market a promotion? Does it mean casinos don't respect poker players enough to give them perks? Does it mean poker doesn't provide enough income to merit additional spending?

I think it means poker is what it always has been -- at least in places that offer more than poker. It's the stepchild that is getting attention right now because of the World Poker Tour, the World Series of Poker and a couple of other televised poker tournaments. I think it's just a way to get people in to the casino, grab whatever meager income the rake will allow and hope the play spreads out over the more lucrative areas of the casino like slots.
That said, the California rooms still do some promotion. At the Bike, you can get $5 per hour back for about every 30 hours of play, and right now you can take part in some kind of drawing for a key that might start a car (which you will win). Overall, though, the promotions all seem to focus on tournaments, small cash drawings and the like. And while it's not easy to canvas every poker room in the state, you can check out http://pokerfornia.com/ where most of the state's poker action is listed, albeit in press-release fashion. But that's okay because if something good does come up, you'll probably be able to find it there.