Vegas free play coupon in the mail

[Alan Mendelson]

Awhile back I wrote about how I received a $500 free play coupon in the mail good at any of the Caesars/Total Rewards casinos in Vegas.

Well, I received another one. Jason received one for $275.

By coincidence we have to drive to Vegas for the day (not overnight) so these will come in handy.

Again, these come as "flimsy mailers" that you might think are "casino junk mail" and only when you open them up do you see an actual free slot play ticket.

Last time I played it at the Rio since it had better video poker than Caesars and I found a $1 8/5 Bonus game. But since then I was told by another forum member that he could not find 8/5 Bonus at Rio anymore.

We will not have time to "shop around" for video poker so we will have to pick the casino depending on our time schedule.

[Nash]

I got the same coupon in the mail last week and mine was for $275.00 too. We are going to Vegas this weekend for the video poker tournament at Planet Hollywood. I will use it then and get my monthly reel rewards.

[Alan Mendelson]

I got the same coupon in the mail last week and mine was for $275.00 too. We are going to Vegas this weekend for the video poker tournament at Planet Hollywood. I will use it then and get my monthly reel rewards.

Check the dates on your coupon: it might not be good this weekend. The dates on my coupon are for Monday through Thursday. And I am not sure when "Monday" starts if it's at 12:01am or at 6am.

[Alan Mendelson]

12 hours, $1,123.

I just got back from Vegas. At about 2pm Monday I realized my work for the day was done and I was bored. So I hopped in the car with my $500 free play certificate and drove to the Rio. I was surprised by the number of new video poker machines and I did only a quick hunt and all I could find was 7/5 Bonus at the $1 level.

In went my $500 free play certificate and I tried to push the deal button. Emphasis is on "tried" because the keys on the new machine were stuck. I called over a floor person and he called a tech. A drink had spilled on this particular device and ALL the keys were stuck. The tech and the floorman suggested I cash out and move to another machine... but I couldn't since it was a free play certificate that was loaded. I had to wait.

I waited about fifteen minutes for the tech to open the machine and give everything a thorough cleaning... and then I was back in business.

Hit quad 8s twice, several flushes, a couple of full houses, and my $500 of free play at one point had reached $1050, but I resolved to cash out at $1,000 which I did.

Next stop was to try craps for $200. Fortunately Rio has $5 craps... and more than fortunately the second shooter at the table hit four numbers on the fire bet and my $10 fire bet paid $250.

At one point my original $200 buy-in was worth more than $500 but I kept playing... and cashed out $323 after tips.

That gave me a total of $1,123 which started with a $500 free play voucher. I was out the door to my car at the valet.

Traffic in both directions was easy. I estimate my total gas expense at $80... about double what a trip to Rincon costs. Plus my usual stop at Jack In The Box for a grilled cheese, diet coke and mini churros. Yes, I love mini churros.

I think it was a nice evening. 12 hours and $1,123 less about $90 for gas and food and tipping the valet.

By the way I played at two of the craps tables at the Rio and found both of them with great bounce conditions -- not too bouncy at all. And the tables seemed smaller than what they have at Caesars. And ya gotta just love a $5 minimum table that allows a $10 fire bet.

[Count Room]

12 hours, $1,123.

In went my $500 free play certificate and I tried to push the deal button. Emphasis is on "tried" because the keys on the new machine were stuck. I called over a floor person and he called a tech. A drink had spilled on this particular device and ALL the keys were stuck. The tech and the floorman suggested I cash out and move to another machine... but I couldn't since it was a free play certificate that was loaded. I had to wait.

I waited about fifteen minutes for the tech to open the machine and give everything a thorough cleaning... and then I was back in business.

I was going to suggest exclusively using the touchscreen for all playing functions if the keys were stuck, but your patience paid off. For some reason this reminded me of an old friend who played VP using mostly the touchscreen. Every time he was dealt a FH, flush, or straight he would do a grand sweeping gesture with his index finger across the screen. It always gave me a chuckle.

Re: Freeplay at CET properties. (Made phone call. Corrected mistake. It was at the Palms that freeplay wasn't allowed on BP machines)

[Dan Druff]

There is still that 3/5/10 play 10-6 DDB machine (99.96%) between the All American Grill and the buffet.

There are 2 of them, I believe.

It's a $1 machine, but each hand is a $15 minimum due to the 3 play.

You only get 1 tier per $50 coin in.

[Rob.Singer]

A mindset that you are GOING to come home with a profit instead of a loss, free play coupon or not, is absolutely necessary if you would rather be in the black instead of the red at the end of every year. But your inability to walk by the craps tables has taken you down many-a-time if I'm not mistaken. Why can't you control that too?

And what's this about being "bored"? You have family, you have friends, you have work....and you're in S. Calif. for goodness sakes! I'm not working, most of my family is far away, and most people who've been our "friends" come and go rapidly in this RV lifestyle....and there's rarely a moment I have nothing to do or get bored. Has gambling action--and the anticipation of such--REALLY overtaken you so completely that it's made you believe normal everyday life is "boring"? I just can't relate to that.

[Nash]

Alan

The results from the video poker tournament won't be posted until late on Sunday afternoon so we won't be checking out until Monday. I'll use my coupon on Monday before we leave.

[Dan Druff]

Alan

The results from the video poker tournament won't be posted until late on Sunday afternoon so we won't be checking out until Monday. I'll use my coupon on Monday before we leave.

You probably already know this, but I just wanted to mention it if you don't.

The point of VP tournaments is to hit the big payoffs, meaning you should modify your strategy to shoot for Royals, even if it would otherwise normally be -EV to make such plays in regular cash play.

Not trying to talk down to you here or anything. I assume you probably already know this, but I just wanted to mention it if you don't.

By the way, the strategy in blackjack tournaments is the opposite. You actually are trying to just survive by min-betting, and only betting more if someone gets ahead of the pack.

[Nash]

Thanks Dan!

[FABismonte]

I received a flimsy free play coupon in the mail for $125 to be used only at the Quad. Last Sunday I went to use it at the Quad at video poker and saw some really awful pay tables like 6/5 Jacks or Better. I opted to use it for blackjack in a video poker machine but saw that the options were severely limited. The blackjack game only allowed hit or stand. By way of example, I could not split two dealt 8s and you only get even payouts on your blackjack. At any rate, with some luck I ran the coupon through and got back $125 so I was OK with it.

I then started walking toward the Flamingo and saw a large video screen (with a showroom dancer image) and about 10 betting cubicles (in three rows) of "multiple blackjack" where you can sit at in a cubicle with no walls, and bet on any or all of three dealt hand of blackjack against a dealer. I put in $20 dollars to see how it works. It winds up you can do all the normal things like split, double down, ect. But you only get 6-5 for a blackjack. I never found out if I a free play coupon would work for this but it was a lot better than blackjack in the video poker machine. I did not see any restrictions on free play coupons marked on the machines.

[Alan Mendelson]

I had one of those "Quad only" coupons and like you, FABismonte, the pay tables there absolutely were the worst. But I got lucky and hit some full houses. Photo of the paytable I played on is here: http://vegascasinotalk.com/forum/showth...d-and-The-Linq