http://www.uspoker.com/blog/limit-ho...t-vegas/12818/
I'm sure Boygenius/Dante will criticize me for this, as he apparently hates me for earning Seven Stars partially through my play on the Texas Holdem Heads Up bot (even though I've earned it through regular VP since 2013.)
Anyway, there's a new bot at CET properties. This time it's a 6-handed limit holdem bot, where you play against 5 terrible computerized opponents, but the machine rakes up to 25% (!!)
The above link is a good write-up of the bot, though it gets some Total Rewards details incorrect.
To be clear, this is NOT a regular poker game, but rather a machine (like video poker) where it's you versus the machine.
I agree with his conclusions that the game is likely unbeatable due to the awwwwwwwwwwful rake.
Even a 10% rake game tends to be unbeatable, though according to Mehaffey (the article's author), the bot play is so bad (and is somewhat exploitable once you get used to it) that you can win far more than you would against human opponents.
Still, I can't imagine overcoming a 25% rake. As he mentioned, this 25% rake basically gives an opponent in a 4-way pot a free chance to suck out on you.
This still might be worth looking into just in case the rake can be overcome (probably not though), or that it might be the cheapest way to Diamond or Seven Stars.
Recall that the Texas Holdem Heads Up machine (which had no rake, but got increasingly tougher to beat as time went on) was initially the fastest/easiest way to Seven Stars. Now that machine is gone from all CET properties, and has been for awhile.
Mehaffey isn't totally clear about the tier credits earned. He wrote that you earn "$1 in comps or 50c in freeplay for $1000 wagered". This is an overly simplified (and a little bit inaccurate) way of saying 1 Reward Credit (RC) per $10 wagered, which each RC being worth 1 cent. You can trade in RCs for freeplay at varying rates, depending upon your tier credit (0.5 cents per RC at Gold, all the way up to 0.8 cents per RC at Seven Stars).
But he doesn't explain the tier credits earned. I am assuming it is 1 tier credit per $10 wagered, which would be the same as video poker. I'm assuming this because the RC accumulation he described is the same as video poker.
This was also the same accumulation initially offered on Texas Holdem Heads Up, which is why it was possible to earn Seven Stars so quickly at the time. This was NOT a bug or glitch, but they simply over-tiered the game because they must not have understood limit holdem action very well. Eventually they degraded it to one tier & one RC per $60 wagered, which was still worth doing. Then they got rid of the machines entirely.
The difference here is that you will be playing $2/$4 at the maximum, whereas you could play $20/$40 on Texas Holdem Heads Up.
However, due to apparently earning 1 tier per $10 wagered, Mehaffey estimates that you can earn 1000 tier credits per hour, which is about equivalent to what most players would earn from playing $5 per credit video poker.
People on another forum are saying that this would take 150 hours for Seven Stars, but this is incorrect -- at least for the remainder of 2015.
This is because you will earn bonus tier credits for a certain amount played per day, which basically tripled your tier credits if done optimally.
If you play 2500 tier credits , you earn 5000 bonus tiers.
If you play 5000 tier credits, you earn 10000 bonus tiers -- and will make diamond in a day.
Both are very doable even at the less variance $1/$2 level (50c credit level).
So to get to Seven Stars optimally, you need to play 10 separate sessions (that is, 10 separate days) of exactly 5000 tier credits (or a tiny bit more if you can't be exact), and you will make Seven Stars.
Keep in mind that you can also play "time games" with the Total Rewards days. Most casinos restart their Total Rewards day at 6am (though some at 4am or 5am, so always check!)
This means you could accomplish THREE days of play in fewer than 48 hours. For example, let's say you live in Los Angeles and want to play one of these machines in Vegas.
Monday: Drive up to Vegas at 6pm, arrive 10pm. Start playing at 11pm for 5 hours at $2/$4, earn 5000 base tier credits + 10000 bonus, finish at around 4am. Go to sleep.
Tuesday: Wake up whenever you feel like it. Play 5 hours at $2/$4 again, earning 5000 base tiers and 10000 bonus tiers again. Go to sleep fairly early so you can wake up in the morning.
Wednesday: Get up at 8am. Play 5 hours at $2/$4 one more time, earning another 5000 base tiers and 10000 bonus tiers. It is now 1pm. Check out and drive home. You will be back by 6pm, 48 hours after you started!
With the above plan, you spent 2 full days in Vegas (including travel time from LA), but earned 45,000 tier credits -- meaning you're already 30% to Seven Stars.
So you could make two trips like these, and one a day longer, and you will make Seven Stars.
However, this may not be the machine to do it. There are still a few CET casinos left with 99.54% or better video poker with full tier credits being awarded, so the expected loss will be likely lower than this new machine, and the time required to play will be the same.
I will be trying this machine sometime soon, provided it stays, and will report back.
Do not attempt to play this unless you know limit holdem very well (which is very different from no limit), and also make sure to read that article I linked carefully for strategy tips.
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