Hi Mark!
I saw your email earlier today, and then I saw it posted to the vpFREE chatroom too, though I recognize you were attempting to reach me privately. I thank you for your fine remarks, and I shall review them again, to assure I don't miss something.
It happens that it's after my bedtime now, so I'll actually get to a detailed response tomorrow. When I went to the chatroom your note was gone, and I don't know how to pull this message from the chatroom, as I'm new to the chatroom.
Dave
···
----- Original Message -----
From: Mark
To: vpFREE@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2006 1:43 PM
Subject: [vpFREE] Hi - Dave - follow up
I enjoyed your comment to my reply. You're welcome!
Your very first post showed such general confusion that I hesitated
to chime in with advice. Sometimes here on vpFree, when you join a
thread, you subject yourself to criticism from the other wanna-be
experts. So, I am careful with my words.
But, I thought I would send this private e-mail instead of posting
on vpFree so I don't have to be as careful.
When I wrote my reply, I felt like the old guy passing wisdom to the
new guy. Turns out you are 68, I am 47, and you have quite a bit of
casino experience already - craps - and all that is new to you is
the game of video poker and the game of getting freebies (comps)
from the casino/hotel.
About me: I live in Seattle, work at Boeing as an engineer for
nearly 27 years now. I moved here from my hometown of Buffalo after
getting a Civil Engrg degree from Univ of Buffalo (SUNY/Buffalo). I
have two sons, aged 16 & 17. I've been divorced for 10 yrs after a
10-yr marriage. My other passions are poker and Scrabble.
I only began serious video poker using strategy in year 2000 or so.
I caught on to the comp game in 2002, and it's been free Suites,
food, limos and very good cash bonuses for about 3 yrs now. I play
exclusively in Reno for a couple reasons: airfare and flight time is
low from Seattle. I dislike crowds and I've found full pay VP at my
two Reno casinos: Silver Legacy and Peppermill. These are classy
joints, and even if it's not like the LV Strip, I feel quite
spoiled. I play 25c, 50c and $1 denom about equally. Single line
mostly, 3-play and 5-play maybe 25% of the time. I have a trip
budget of about $3000, so I think I SHOULD stick to quarters, but I
risk it and play up. I average about $20,000 of coin-in per day and
play about 11 hrs per day on the average.
Because I'm working, I have to pre-schedule my travel plans, so I
do not respond to special "Offers". With a host, I get free
everything on MY schedule. I have no interest in seeing shows,
fights, boobs or any sort of party when I go to Reno. I'm there to
play VP only, I usually play til I drop, sleep, get up and do it
again the next day. I guess I'm obsessed, but I really enjoy
myself.
I plan to retire in 7 yrs and 2 months, the month after I turn 55.
If I'm still enjoying VP then, I imagine it will become a more
frequent hobby.
==============
So, the reason I wrote - I think your theory that the casino/hotel
might make special short-notice offers, to fill up the hotel during
slow periods, is not a reality. Not that I know of. I've never
gotten such an e-mail or snail mailing. maybe there is an internet
site that can get you these deals, but that's not thru the slot club
or marketing directly.
There might be two levels of mailings: one for anyone who is in
their database and some extra invite/offers for medium-to-high
rollers (upper level(s) of their slot card hierarchy.). But the
Reno places I know of send those out almost daily with some new
tournament or show or hokey event that lures you in. Room is free
for one, two, three nights. Tournament entry fees are reduced or
waived. These are marketing offers and you might be in a flexible
position to make use of and benefit from these offers.
For this first VP trip for you, if you are truly "shopping" for a HQ
casino, and you are willing to travel around and split your time up
between, say, 7 casinos to give them each an even chunk of your time
(and maybe bankroll), then that's a valid plan. It might take a
month for the offers to come rolling in, so, hopefully you won't be
sitting there watching the mailbox.
I think if you stick to quarters (a smart move until you get
comfortable or until your bankroll grows and you get antsy for more
risk) that it'll be hard to even get a Host in Las Vegas. So, the
marketing offers is the way to go when you're starting off.
And, another comment about playing Jacks or Better. It is THE
perfect starter game, and is almost a requirement in the VP world
to "get" JoB before you try other games. No reason to rush to play
other games. To give you a near equivalent "taste" for other games,
you could also try BONUS poker. Not Double Bonus and Not Double
Double Bonus. Just plain old BONUS.
It has 8-1 for FH, 5-1 payoff for Flush (as opposed to 9/6 in JoB).
BONUS has 40-1 payoff for quad 2s,3s & 4s and 80-1 for quad As.
That's the bonus part. It has the exact same strategy for what
cards to hold as JoB. It's long-term EV is 99.17% (JoB is 99.54%).
I prefer it over JoB myself even with the fractionally lower EV.
I'll save my feelings on long term EV's for a future discussion.
EV doesn't matter when you are winning.
Anyhow, I gotta go. Gotta catch a plane to Reno! I'm playing in a
Scrabble tournament at the Hilton, but take a guess how I'll fill my
evenings...! I'm in a Suite at the Peppermill. Cheers!
~MARK
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