Chasing the Extras

[Mike]

Back in my second article, I gave my first recommendation for video poker players: make a careful choice of video poker games. In most cases, choosing a game with the highest EV (expected long-term theoretical return) is usually the best way to lose less/win more.

Now I want to help you increase the EV of that “best” game: look for extra benefits beyond the game itself. I’m talking about carefully checking out basic players club benefits, like cashback, comps, and bounce-back. I’m talking about chasing promotions like a person possessed. Bonus slot-club-point days, tournaments, drawings, card-of-the-day specials, scratch card giveaways, holiday shopping events – the kind of promotion you might come across is only limited by the imagination of a casino marketing department.

Back when we started playing video poker in 1990, we immediately started taking advantage of slot club benefits and casino promotions. However, we considered them “gravy” because we were playing full-pay classic Deuces Wild, which with an EV of 100.7% was allowing us to play with a good advantage that was giving us a good profit potential. However, even with this game advantage, we found we were going through losing periods – sometimes long ones – and we found that the extras “gravy” was mitigating the game losses, keeping our bankroll more stable.

Flash forward to 2009. There are few casinos today that have any video poker games with an EV of over 100% and often their “best” games are much lower. So chasing the extras is a necessity for anyone who wants to lose less. And for the strictly advantage player (someone who does not play video poker unless the play has an EV over 100%), it becomes his “job” to seek out the juiciest promotions and benefits he can find.

You notice I used the words “game” and “play” in the last paragraph. I spend a lot of time in my recent book Frugal Video Poker discussing these terms and the importance of learning how to turn a “game” into a “play” by adding to the EV of the game the EV of all the extras.

An example is in order here, comparing two “plays.”:

Casino A

Game - 9/6 JoB 99.5%
Slot Club cashback 0.25%
Bounce-back cash 0.25%
Useable comps 0.5%
Holiday shopping 0.2%

Total EV 100.7%

Casino B

Game - Dbl Bonus 100.17%
Slot Club Cashback 0.2%
Bounce-back Mailed Cash 0.1%

Total EV 100.47%

If you notice, although Casino B game has an EV over 100% (we call that a positive game), it ends up being not as good a choice as the lower EV JoB game (which we call a negative game). This is why I qualify the statement that the highest EV game is usually the best choice. You must evaluate total “plays,” not just individual games.

Finding the EV of a total play is not always easy. There are many resources to find the EV of an individual game. The Frugal Video Poker Scouting Guide has the EV of over 300 games, including Multi-Strike and Super Times Pay. A good Internet source with extensive EV lists is at Video Poker Help

However, finding the EV of slot club benefits and promotions is not easy, particularly if math is not your strong suit. (It isn’t mine – I was an English teacher!) I don’t think I have ever seen a slot club advertise their cashback rate as a percentage, which is what you need. So here is where the companion package of the Frugal Video Poker book and FVP software program is very helpful. The software includes a Slot Club Calculator (which can also be used to figure value of comp points) and also has the capability to let you figure out promotions when one particular quad has a bonus payoff. For added help, the computer lessons in the back of the FVP book guide you through the steps to find these percentages as well as teaching you how to utilize other helpful functions. Plus this book and More Frugal Gambling also have several chapters discussing how to maximize your use of slot club benefits and promotions.

- Jean Scott