Is it worth the trouble?

[a2a3dseddie]

Here's a question for the forum members. How much trouble are you willing to go through for freeplay?

For me, it all depends on the total dollar amount and "how much trouble."

Here's my dilemma:

I live aproximately 2 hours and 45 minutes away from the Seneca Niagara Casino in Niagara Falls, New York. They have sent me an offer for $250 (weekly!) in freeplay as well as $250 (monthly) in resort credit that can be used in their restaurants as well as their retail stores on site. The weekly $250 in freeplay runs Monday through Sunday. That basically means if you arrive on a Sunday and stay overnight you could in effect play a total of $500 in freeplay!

There is a sister property which is about 1 hour and 30 minutes from the Seneca Niagara Casino called the Seneca Allegany Casino. What's interesting about the offer I just received is this: The $250 freeplay and the $250 resort credit may be redeemed at each property each week! This is a cross promotion that I have confirmed.

So, if I were to make the 9 hour roundtrip beginning on a Sunday and returning on a Monday, I could play off a total of $1000 in freeplay and receive $500 to spend in their retail shops.

Is it worth the long drive? What do you guys think?

[Alan Mendelson]

For me it's about a 9 hour round trip driving to Vegas and I have done that for $1000 of free play plus to enjoy a weekend. I wouldn't do it just for a Sunday night because of work on Monday... but I have.

If you have the time and nothing else to do go for it.

I drive to Rincon about a five hour round trip for $500 free play. No overnight.

[redietz]

If you plan on doing this regularly, I wouldn't want you to pound miles onto your vehicle if it's a newer model, so might I suggest checking Enterprise to see if they are doing weekend promotions for car rentals in your area? Sometimes you can snag a small car for $20 a day or less renting weekends in-state. That would save the wear-and-tear on your car and probably, in the long run, add to the value of the promotion by negating depreciation effects on your car. Plus you can choose the best mileage-getting vehicle to save on gas.

[a2a3dseddie]

If you plan on doing this regularly, I wouldn't want you to pound miles onto your vehicle if it's a newer model, so might I suggest checking Enterprise to see if they are doing weekend promotions for car rentals in your area? Sometimes you can snag a small car for $20 a day or less renting weekends in-state. That would save the wear-and-tear on your car and probably, in the long run, add to the value of the promotion by negating depreciation effects on your car. Plus you can choose the best mileage-getting vehicle to save on gas.

Hi Red,

Good suggestion. Did you make any money betting on the World Cup? I was in a pool and had a perfect bracket picked up until the semi-finals . Still won the "early bird" prize though for guessing the most correct during the Group stage. The eventual winner picked a perfect bracket! Sheesh...

[Alan Mendelson]

redietz good tip about renting a car. In my case my car is fully depreciated... it's an 11 year old Mercedes, though well maintained and looking sharp. My son and I often thought about renting a car for Vegas trips but it is difficult and sometimes expensive to rent a car to go to Vegas (out of state).

It's about $70 gas for the roundtrip to Vegas... and we save because Vegas gas prices are much cheaper than California prices. And lately we've been using our gas comps from the Gold Strike in Jean. I still have $50 in gas comps and Jason has about $60 remaining.

[Dan Druff]

Funny someone mentioned the car thing. I was racking up miles quickly on my new vehicle driving between LA and Vegas. Finally I realized how stupid I was being, and just kept the new vehicle home for either local trips or family vacations, and used my 10-year-old car with 130k miles for those trips.

[Rob.Singer]

I hate to rain on my friend eddie's parade and all the well-meaning suggestions, but he failed to talk about the most important part of these twin offers--and every responder spoke only to the anxiety-driven aspect.

$500 in "retail" shouldn't ever be enuf to reel in anyone. But $1000 in free play for a 900 mile trip could make sense, only if a pre-set, overall profit-making win goal was in stone prior to setting out. For instance, how much net win makes this worth it, after all expenses are covered (including total cost/mile with one's own vehicle or rental car cost). Gas sounds like about a $110 cost, but if you use your own car then the overall cost could be as high as $500. So assuming he's nearby & has the resources to rent a car, that's the best way to go. As for a reasonable net profit? I wouldn't bother unless I felt assured about coming home with at least $400 after everything's accounted for.

[Alan Mendelson]

Funny things can happen with free play. For example, on a recent trip I had $900 of free play plus two tickets for the High Roller in Vegas. I loaded the $900 of free play into a $1 7/5 Bonus machine and played just a few hands... and lightning hit (I held three cards). Look... I know this doesn't make rational sense, but it seems the big winners always come when I first start to play. My gas expense for the trip was one tank, discounted because of the Caesars Fuel Reward discount. I am not going to tell you that I can home with all of it because I didn't. But it did finance a four day trip.

[Rob.Singer]

Looks great! But I'll play devil's advocate. Whenever I used to post about my big conquests in GT over the years, if I were playing 7/5 then the "geniuses" ALWAYS claimed I never won a thing. In fact, these people always said I LOST every hand I played on such a machine even on royals, because after all, you're "giving up X amount" on every hand played on those awful -EV games. The most hilarious of them all was when the late, SERIOUSLY misled Elliott Shapiro (who played with Frank Kneeland on some teams) called my publisher to say the royal I posted from a $25 machine from Bellagio actually COST me $457, and that I didn't win a thing!

So Alan....so sorry for your loss.

[Alan Mendelson]

Thanks for the condolences, Rob. And not to disturb the math guys too much, I hesitated about also posting the photo of the quad aces playing 7/5 Bonus at the $5 level. Perhaps Dan would like to check the codes or time stamps or whatever he checks to see that these photos were snapped at the same session. W2Gs available on request.

[Rob.Singer]

As Dan has just said, those five credits for the full house will make all the difference in the world!

Here's yet even more rationale why the long term guys can't figure out the superior benefits of short term play (which as I've written & said many times throughout the years, is the ONLY way everyone plays--agree with it or not). These guys play thru many winners that either send the rest of us home with a profit or to a lower denomination to start again. So because these zombie-like players pound away as fast as possible for 6-8 hours and more every time they can afford to play, OF COURSE five credits here and five credits there are going to cost them. But look at your four Aces: maybe you got 4 or 5 FH's along the way? So is a profit FOR THE DAY of $1200 for instance gonna feel any less significant than a profit of $1300? Simply put, if this hand were not hit, would those 4 or 5 extra hands make any difference? Answer: OVERWHELMINGLY, THEY WILL NOT! Once in a very, very great while, yes, but the many times you've quit with a daily profit far, far much more than make up for that.

It is all just simple common sense, something that inexplicably escapes the self-annointed "math geniuses" of video poker.

[Alan Mendelson]

Rob, in all honesty... I think I got three (3) full houses during my entire trip. I discussed this with my son because we came to the conclusion that it made no sense to play the $5 8/5 Bonus machine which requires $25 coin in for one tier point in his quest for 7 Stars. His strategy will be to play $2 7/5 Bonus when in Vegas. (At Rincon he will be playing $2 8/5 Aces and Faces which is still available.)

[Rob.Singer]

Then the wins were all the more sweet.