This seems to be an ongoing annual offer from a nearby casino. We give them $250 cash, they give us our choice of either $500 in table chips or $500 free play on slots/VP. After learning that your table chips play one time only, unless push, BJ seems to be the second best choice. I decided that if they had a BJ machine, that would be my best choice, since I haven't studied VP enough to have a decent chance. My reasoning is that, depending on the machine rules, if I could achieve even a 90% return on the BJ machine, I should have $450 cash after playing my $500 free play. If that free play cost me $250, I make $200 in a very brief time. What do others think about this? Also, should I bet as much as possible on each hand, or use a certain percentage of the total (i.e.: $500 x 4% = $20 per hand would be 25 hands)? Forgive me if this has been covered somewhere else.
Freeplay is always a better option than one-time-only promo chips for table games. Even a slot machine will pay a long run higher % than the roughly 49% you can get at table games (this is assuming that the chips can only be played on even money bets). If the promo chips can be played on things other than even money then I would play roulette for 1 number. I would learn at least enough about VP to play some game on them. You can go to the Wizard of Odds site and get enough of the basics and even practice. http://wizardofodds.com/games/video-poker/
Yep -- take the free play, learn which video poker is the best at the casino in question and then print the strategy for it from the wizard's site. Pay attention to the particular pay table for the game you choose. With the strategy in hand as you play, it won't take long before you're not referencing it very much. Play the lowest denomination available in order to generate the highest number of decisions. For a play-once chip, according to Grosjean, the return is 94.59%/ for single zero and 92.11% for double zero roulette. He calls these Funny-Chips. http://www.blackjackforumonline.com/content/beyondcouponsbjfo.pdf
Even if you don't bother learning how to play video poker, you'll still do fine just winging it. I would imagine that anyone could play at a 90% return, even with no experience.
Is it common for players to look at these strategies while playing? Do casinos allow this? Does anyone have first hand experience doing this?
While I have never seen anyone else doing it, I have experience playing at a VP machine with a printed strategy in hand. No one challenged me. I can't think of a reason why they should be able to. It's no different that using a basic strategy card at the blackjack table.
By the way, above when I say play roulette for 1 number (assuming you can play things other than even money). If your chips are broken down into small enough denominations, say $10 chips, you can bet all 38 spots for $380 and you will win a number which I am assuming will be $350 and you can bet the other 120 between red/black and guarantee a $410 total return on one turn of the wheel. If your chips are too big, say all $100 chips, it becomes questionable that you should take the offer at all. You did not actually say that the chips are one-time-only, so that is something that should be checked. However, VP freeplay is still the way to go.
Oops. If 0 or 00 comes on the spin then you would lose the red/black bet so only 350 (or 360 I don't know if roulette is 35 for 1 or 35 to 1) so it would be either 350(360) or 410(420). Shows you how often I play roulette (never in 40 years and too lazy to look it up). edited: now that I think about it, it has to be "to one" so the numbers should be 360 or 420. Maybe I need to study the pdf and see how you generate 90+% Edited again: now that I think about it more and since the number of trials will increase with a smaller bet per spin. Actually playing just one number each time will increase your long run % so you would be better off playing just "one number per spin". This would take a long time.
I've never seen this tried - if you had a stack of one-use promo chips from, say, a tournament prize would a casino let you cover every number on a roulette table with them?
No idea. Most promo chips I have seen have been for even money bets only, but who knows what his casino might have. I usually don't have very many and just use the promo chips (even money only) on player and 1/2 the cash on Banker to get rid of them in one play. If I had a lot so that I could have a lot of decisions I would play 3 card poker. I hope I come in high enough in a tournament someday to do that.
It will depend on the casino. Many prohibit use of offset betting. For example, you cannot use banker and player in Baccarat or both red and black in roulette, pass or no pass on craps. Covering all the spots in roulette might be allowed but they will hate you for it. The casino want you to "gamble" with the chips. Any thing else will annoy them. The one time play chips are most often even money only and therefore you cannot play them on roulette numbers but you can bet red or black,.
Alright, guys. Thanks for the advise! Since we were heading to the casino early the morning after I posted my question, I didn't allow enough time to research the VP games and print out strategy cards. Special thanks to hopinglarry, gronbog, and Ken for your specific guidance. The first year this casino ran this promotion, they weren't "one-time" chips. My wife and I each received an offer in the mail, each with a "bring a guest" offer. We learned we couldn't both redeem with each other as guests during the same visit, so we had to go on two different occasions. We each paid $500 cash and received $1000 in $5 chips! (That's 2 full trays of chips each!) Since this was a ridiculous situation, we went to a BJ table to color the chips into something that might fit inside a pocket or two, but we're told that their promo chips were all $5. As you might imagine, we sat at the table long enough to reduce our stash to a manageable level of black and green chips. Then it occurred to me that we could cover red and black on Roulette, with smaller bets on 0/00, and get the promotion chips converted to cash much more quickly. Since that first year, they've lowered the maximum offer to $250 for $500, eliminated the bring-a-guest, eliminated offsetting bets, and changed chip-play to one-time bets only. Anyway, this time, we both bought the maximum free play. They have 10 VP games with BJ or Keno as options. Maximum is $2.50 a hand, even money on BJ, no DD, splits, insurance or surrender. I loaded $50 at a time on each of the machines, played exactly 20 hands and cashed out each time. I finished with $510 (which cost $250). My wife played slots with hers and cashed out a total of $526. So we took our winnings and proceeded to our favorite casino, where I started studying the VP paytables, etc. After spending some time at the Wizard of Odds site, I now understand why Ken was suggesting that I would do just fine at VP, even without knowing the best way to play. Next year, I'll be ready. I hope they have the same offer. I have a new question about some things I learned with certain progressive VP games, but I'll start a new thread. Thanks again for the help.
