Easy Room Comps in AC?

[pit15]

It's the winter, with a crappy economy.

Even if you do some red chip blackjack play you'll probably score free rooms.

I do NOT recommend borgata if your goal is only a free room, they are by far the nicest place in the city, and there's no chance in hell of you getting saturday rooms even in the winter with a $25 average bet.

Myself, I would never even consider playing VP if the return is < 100%, or PGP, which isn't beatable. My rule is I don't play a game unless it's +EV, or I'm attempting to see if it's +EV or if there's any way I can make it +EV. So of course my advice to you is to earn your comps doing something positive value. Don't fall into the trap of paying for comps, that's spending a dollar to save a quarter.

 

[Monkey!Boy]

Yeah, I'd prefer to get comps for a +EV game, but I just can't handle the swings that would require right now. And considering that getting regular free rooms for losing a few dollars in equity at VP is more like spending a quarter to get a dollar, that is positive EV (not to mention that it makes my +EV poker play possible).

 

[pit15]

i think VP has more variance then blackjack. Not to mention the fact that with VP, the casino knows exactly what their theo is on you. I'd be careful with assuming how much play you need to get comps, it may very well be a lot more then you thought.

 

[flyingwind]

(not to mention that it makes my +EV poker play possible).

I've heard multiple people talk about how much money they've made in poker. In part, this may be because those that don't make money don't say how much they lose. I'm still losing at no limit texas hold'em poker. I can blame it on not having put all the time into learning the correct strategies and plays. My experience with it so far is that it takes a long time of waiting and waiting for the right hand and the right moment. The amount of waiting time feels much longer than waiting for a good TC. It's very tedious for me right now to play no limit. It's not easy to compare poker to BJ, but can someone provide a rough comparison of the EV and rate of EV per hour between poker and BJ? That way, I can figure out whether I really want to put the time into studying all the poker books I've bought but have only read very little of. Until then, all of you sharks will keep taking my money.

 

[pit15]

I've heard multiple people talk about how much money they've made in poker. In part, this may be because those that don't make money don't say how much they lose. I'm still losing at no limit texas hold'em poker. I can blame it on not having put all the time into learning the correct strategies and plays. My experience with it so far is that it takes a long time of waiting and waiting for the right hand and the right moment. The amount of waiting time feels much longer than waiting for a good TC. It's very tedious for me right now to play no limit. It's not easy to compare poker to BJ, but can someone provide a rough comparison of the EV and rate of EV per hour between poker and BJ? That way, I can figure out whether I really want to put the time into studying all the poker books I've bought but have only read very little of. Until then, all of you sharks will keep taking my money.

This is why I don't play poker. I don't know that I have any kind of edge at poker. It's very likely that I'm a losing player (I know I'm better then the typical player, but that's not saying anything).

I know, with 100% certainty that I have the edge at certain casino games, and I can calculate that edge, calculate things like RoR, expected return per hour, and such with a good amount of precision.

None of that is possible for poker. Even people with a "proven track record" could just be riding on high variance for all you know. If you got a million people playing poker, some of them could be the dumbest people in the world and by probability will be ahead after years of playing despite having no skill.

If you're sure that you can beat poker, then by all means you should go for it. That'll probably never be MY game though.

 

[tensplitter]

Playing against an average crowd, you can get a long term edge by playing only AK-AT, KQ, KJ, pocket pairs higher than TT, and folding everything else. Most of the variance would come from the blinds, in which you would see the flop and then raise or fold depending what comes on the flop. It will take many hours of losing $2 per blind before you see a monster hand and win a $100+ pot. You will lose your big bets, but in the long run you will win more big bets than lose. Many average poker players play too many hands and don't read other people's hands by their betting.

 

[pit15]

Playing against an average crowd, you can get a long term edge by playing only AK-AT, KQ, KJ, pocket pairs higher than TT, and folding everything else. Most of the variance would come from the blinds, in which you would see the flop and then raise or fold depending what comes on the flop. It will take many hours of losing $2 per blind before you see a monster hand and win a $100+ pot. You will lose your big bets, but in the long run you will win more big bets than lose. Many average poker players play too many hands and don't read other people's hands by their betting.

If there was no rake, sure.

But you gotta beat the rake.

Not to mention it needs to be worth your time. I can make more then 100 bucks an hour sitting at a table game. Even after considering things like time spent scouting and what not, it's nowhere near a good usage of my time to be sitting at a 1/2 NL poker table. Even if it was rake free I don't think it's worth it.

I'm sure there's plenty of people who play only the count here who can make more $ sitting at a blackjack table then trying to grind out 10 bucks an hour at 1/2 NL.

Even for players who primarily AP on poker, it's worth APing in casino games too.. the OP's problem is a perfect example of this. If you can mix casino game AP with poker, you can play enough to get the house to pay for your food and room, and not play too much to get busted.

I have a feeling even a red chipper would make more $ at blackjack then 1/2 NL poker after considering the cost of the rake. A typical place might take around 5 bucks outta each pot. If you win 3 pots an hour that's 15 bucks / hour paid to rake. What's your EV in this game to begin with?

 

[southAP]

my cousin and i were both playing at Borgata for the same amount of hours both rated, well according to them i logged in 10 more hours playing because he kept forgetting to show his players card at the craps tables. (he was playing craps i was playing BJ) and even with getting more rated hours in both playing green chips (and he never went over 2 units) he still was comped weekend rooms and the best they gave me was a cheap meal. So in my experience playing BJ doesnt get you the kind of comps you should be getting in AC.

 

[bj21abc]

Why does the house know its theo ?

Do you know for a fact that they track your play and rate your skill on VP ? If not, then do you know what sort of edge they factor in for VP - as obviously 99% of players do not use optimal or near-optimal play ?

D.

i think VP has more variance then blackjack. Not to mention the fact that with VP, the casino knows exactly what their theo is on you. I'd be careful with assuming how much play you need to get comps, it may very well be a lot more then you thought.

 

[Monkey!Boy]

Yeah, figuring the EV of poker is much more complicated than it is for blackjack. Based on some pretty basic back-of-the-envelope calculations, I'm earning a little more per hour from mostly low-stakes tournaments than I was red-chipping in Atlantic City, and my actual results over the past few years have been in line with that. From what I've heard, a good deep-stack 1-2 player can make a good bit more than what I make (I don't play many cash games and am probably just marginally +EV in them). Still, my EV is quite a bit less per hour than I'd be earning at the better blackjack games in Las Vegas, or if I had the $$$ to be playing at higher stakes in AC (although things even up substantially when you remember there's no pressure to keep my poker sessions short!) I switched games because tournament poker requires a much smaller bankroll and it's just a much more interesting game-- a minute to learn and a lifetime to master, as they say.

 

[Automatic Monkey]

Yeah, figuring the EV of poker is much more complicated than it is for blackjack. Based on some pretty basic back-of-the-envelope calculations, I'm earning a little more per hour from mostly low-stakes tournaments than I was red-chipping in Atlantic City, and my actual results over the past few years have been in line with that. From what I've heard, a good deep-stack 1-2 player can make a good bit more than what I make (I don't play many cash games and am probably just marginally +EV in them). Still, my EV is quite a bit less per hour than I'd be earning at the better blackjack games in Las Vegas, or if I had the $$$ to be playing at higher stakes in AC (although things even up substantially when you remember there's no pressure to keep my poker sessions short!) I switched games because tournament poker requires a much smaller bankroll and it's just a much more interesting game-- a minute to learn and a lifetime to master, as they say.

Poker is too interesting for me! I much prefer to know what the EV is before heading out to the casino. In poker you never can tell if the game is going to be good enough to beat the rake.

 

[WABJ11]

I mostly depend on poker for income both online and brick and mortar, and play in AC weekly at Harrahs properties. The 1/2 NL games are very beatable despite the rake (assuming enough money on the table) because the skill level of the players is so horrific. These players do not understand position, C-bets, or any other basic concept you can learn by just picking up a poker book. Obviously your skill level will factor into whether or not you can beat the game too. But if your sitting there waiting for the nuts don't bother wasting your time.

As far as rooms go I would have to strongly disagree with the majority of posters here. I always got free rooms during the week at all HET properties just when I stuck to poker. If you put in the time they are very generous with free rooms and I have found them to be the most generous in AC out of all the properties for COMPS.

After I started adding BJ into my mix I now can get a room everyday of the week, including Saturday nights. But this of course came because of black action and a few trips into the high limit rooms. Red and green chippers can forget free rooms on weekends, but all properties pretty much stick to this rule so nothing new.

I personally know of players who only play poker at HET properties and have achieved Diamond status and get rooms on weekends too. So to say that you are not rewarded from poker at HET is a gross understatement.

 

[moo321]

By the way, I think the Bad Beat jackpot in AC is over $350k again for quad sixes beaten, which I think is +ev.

 

[Thunder]

That's it??? Given that they start off with quad queens having to be beaten and are collecting money from all of the HET properties, you would think the pot would be much higher given it's down to quad 6's. That's like what 6 weeks since the bad beat was last hit?

 

[moo321]

Wait, it's up to $480k now. It's gotta be way +EV.

 

[Thunder]

Hmmm looks like I might have to slaughter some lambs :grin: