Misinformation about the 7Stars Companion Card

Since I am blocked from posting on Wizard of Vegas, I will use this forum to correct an error on that site.

A new 7 Stars member of Caesars Total Rewards asked if he gives his wife a "companion card" will it affect their offers.

What the others have missed on the WOV forum is that the companion card will have the unique account number of the person you give it to. The holder of the companion card will play under their own account number -- and not the account number of the 7 Stars member.

The companion card has the privileges of a 7 Stars card but the play, offers, credits, tier score, etc are separate from the actual 7 Stars member.

So if you give your wife a "companion card" she gets to flash it to cut lines, use the 7Stars window at the cage, get special car valet privileges, go to the head of the taxi line... but it doesn't affect any of the "business" of "casino play" or casino offers.

The Seven Stars Companion Card sounds great at first, but then once you get it, you realize it's mostly useless.

The companion does NOT get any of the "valuable" Seven Star benefits. This means no free hotel rooms, no annual trip, no annual dinner, no annual cruise, no annual gift, no signature event, and no freeplay offers!

What do they get?

Basically they have a Seven Stars card to flash in order to get things like priority valet parking, priority access to certain lines, priority restaurant reservations, etc. It does say COMPANION on the front, so you aren't fooling anyone when you flash it. I imagine you are shown less respect as a COMPANION than you are as the actual Seven Stars member.

I gave mine to my dad. He hasn't used it, except once to get to the front of the line at a Caesar's restaurant.

Alan, with the new tier bonuses, how much coin in do you think you'll need to get to 7 star status?

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Originally Posted by a2a3dseddie

Alan, with the new tier bonuses, how much coin in do you think you'll need to get to 7 star status?

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You need 150,000 tier points but as you know, if you earn 2,500 tier points in one 24-hour period you get 5,000 tier points added on as a free bonus.

Twenty sessions of 2,500 tier points earned with actual play will give you 50,000 tier points.
Those twenty sessions will give you 20 X 5,000 bonus points which is 100,000 points.

So you need to play 20 days with 2,500 tier points earned each day.

If you play video poker, you earn 1 tier point with every $10 of coin in -- EXCEPT now there are restrictions on some full pay VP machines. If you can find VP with $10 coin in for 1 tier point it's $500,000 of coin in to make 7 Stars.

If you play slots, you earn 1 tier point with every $5 coin in. That's $250,000 of coin in.

It's a mystery how much play you need at table games.

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Originally Posted by Alan Mendelson

You need 150,000 tier points but as you know, if you earn 2,500 tier points in one 24-hour period you get 5,000 tier points added on as a free bonus.

Twenty sessions of 2,500 tier points earned with actual play will give you 50,000 tier points.
Those twenty sessions will give you 20 X 5,000 bonus points which is 100,000 points.

So you need to play 20 days with 2,500 tier points earned each day.

If you play video poker, you earn 1 tier point with every $10 of coin in -- EXCEPT now there are restrictions on some full pay VP machines. If you can find VP with $10 coin in for 1 tier point it's $500,000 of coin in to make 7 Stars.

If you play slots, you earn 1 tier point with every $5 coin in. That's $250,000 of coin in.

It's a mystery how much play you need at table games.

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Alan,

If you played $500,000 coin in on a 98.4% "theorectical payback" VP machine would the perks you get (i.e. free play, comps, gifts, tournament entries, etc) be worth the $8000 or so each year it would cost "in theory"?

At a casino like Harrah's Rincon you can still find 8/5 Bonus and 8/5 Aces and Faces returning about 99.2% and there is also free play and bounce back, plus comp dollars that can be used for gas cards or hotel stays or gifts from the Total Rewards catalog and free play. I don't think bounce back or cash back exists anymore in Vegas, but Total Rewards comp points can be used to buy gas cards, gift items in Vegas as well as buying "free play."

Each casino outside of Vegas seems to have its own programs about free play, perks, etc. Rincon is fairly competitive because the market around San Diego is crowded with a bunch of competing casinos. There are also "multiplier days" for comp points -- one each week -- at Rincon, plus bonus drawings, tourneys, and the whole nine yards.

Keep in mind that the "theoretical" video poker loss has a LOT of variance, due to the necessity to hit Royals in order to keep your losses reasonable (or win).

That is, if you hit at least one Royal, you will probably come out ahead or at least close to even, and if you don't hit a Royal, you will likely lose a lot of money.

You will hit a Royal on a Jacks or Better machine once every 40,387 hands.

If you were to play $5-per-credit video poker optimally to reach Seven Star, that would be $25,000 coin-in to reach 2500 tiers (where you get the 5000 bonus tiers). That means you'll be playing 1000 hands (since it's $25 per hand).

You will do this 20 different days. That means you'll be playing 20,000 hands.

This means you have a 49.52% chance of hitting a Royal on your way to Seven Stars using this method.

A Royal would be $20,000.

Of course, hitting Royals is figured into the $46 per $10000 coin-in theoretical loss at a regular 9-6 Jacks or Better machine.

This means an expected loss of $2300 when putting in $500,000 at 9-6 JoB, which sounds great.

HOWEVER, that figures in your nearly 50% chance of hitting a Royal (worth $20,000).

Take away your approximately $9900 in "Royal flush equity", and your expected loss is now $12,200 when not hitting a Royal.

And that's assuming you run even on the rest of the payouts, which you easily can run far, far below expectation.

Sadly, it is not unrealistic for you to lose over $20k trying to get there, and even $30k if you're really unlucky.

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

Keep in mind that the "theoretical" video poker loss has a LOT of variance, due to the necessity to hit Royals in order to keep your losses reasonable (or win).

That is, if you hit at least one Royal, you will probably come out ahead or at least close to even, and if you don't hit a Royal, you will likely lose a lot of money.

You will hit a Royal on a Jacks or Better machine once every 40,387 hands.

If you were to play $5-per-credit video poker optimally to reach Seven Star, that would be $25,000 coin-in to reach 2500 tiers (where you get the 5000 bonus tiers). That means you'll be playing 1000 hands (since it's $25 per hand).

You will do this 20 different days. That means you'll be playing 20,000 hands.

This means you have a 49.52% chance of hitting a Royal on your way to Seven Stars using this method.

A Royal would be $20,000.

Of course, hitting Royals is figured into the $46 per $10000 coin-in theoretical loss at a regular 9-6 Jacks or Better machine.

This means an expected loss of $2300 when putting in $500,000 at 9-6 JoB, which sounds great.

HOWEVER, that figures in your nearly 50% chance of hitting a Royal (worth $20,000).

Take away your approximately $9900 in "Royal flush equity", and your expected loss is now $12,200 when not hitting a Royal.

And that's assuming you run even on the rest of the payouts, which you easily can run far, far below expectation.

Sadly, it is not unrealistic for you to lose over $20k trying to get there, and even $30k if you're really unlucky.

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Dan, if you were to try it playing $1 JOB VP instead would that "smooth out" the variance?

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Originally Posted by a2a3dseddie

Dan, if you were to try it playing $1 JOB VP instead would that "smooth out" the variance?

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Yes, somewhat.

BUT...

Good luck getting to 2500 tier credits with $1 JoB.

It will probably take you about 10 hours.

Also, the $1 JoB machines tend to have worse payouts, and you do NOT want to grind this at a 5-8 machine!

I made 7Stars at the start of the year play $2 Aces and Faces making 2500 points per session and coming away either with nice profits or small losses. My tier score now is above 650,000.

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Originally Posted by Alan Mendelson

I made 7Stars at the start of the year play $2 Aces and Faces making 2500 points per session and coming away either with nice profits or small losses. My tier score now is above 650,000.

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I can't even fathom that Alan. That means you have more than $2 million coin in? Even earning in 2500 tier point intervals for the added 5000 point bonus, that would require almost 90 sessions! (ie. 650,000 / 7500)

I'm only able to visit a CET property once to twice a year, so this is just a pipe dream for me.