What's your second game?

cc218

Well-Known Member
#1
I'm curious as to what everybody does as their second game at the casino, either A, just for fun, or B, to help throw down cover that you are just a regular joe. I like roulette and poker, but some of my friends get into caribbean stud which i think is the biggest ripoff odds wise(just my own thought without doing much actual research). Your thoughts.
 

Cardcounter

Well-Known Member
#2
My second game is craps or poker especially if I have matchplays and I get banned from playing blackjack. I also play jacks or better especially when I get free slot play like today at the biltmore. At the biltmore I pick an envelop and can win $3-$1,000 in free slot play. My best draw was $25 I think the lower the denomination is the more likely you are to draw it with $3-$5 being the most common draw.
 

FLASH1296

Well-Known Member
#4
Craps when the free odds are 10:1 or better, preferably 100:1

Video Poker when I can find full pay 9/6 JOB.

Poker [$1-$2 NL HE], especially on a Fri. night or a Sat. and drunks abound.
 

kewljason

Well-Known Member
#5
Until 8 months ago, I never spent a dime on anything other than blackjack. Then I decided to play some video poker with the following objectives. 1.) cover. 2.) earn more comps as non table games earn comps at higher rate. 3.) quickly accumulate 10,000 points and chairman staus (higher tier) at my local casino. Since full pay JorB returns 99.54% with perfect strategy making it nearly even with cashback earned, I figured these objectives wouldn't cost me much.

I soon realized that in order to come out close to even you must hit royal flush, which should happen every 40,000 hands. 6 months later and an estimated 1000 hours or close to it, I was down $1600 in VP results having never hit a royal flush. (it could be coming on my next spin...lol) Anyway I'm now back to playing exclusively BJ.

The results: on the plus side, I'm sure I acheived a certain level of cover. I did earn more comps, and the benifits of chairman status. On the negative side, of course minus $1600. In addition when I was exclusively playing tables I received $200 per month in match play coupon (4-$50 coupons). I now receive less desirable slot cash each month, which must be played thru a slot or video poker machine once before cashout.
 
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#6
True, VP can have some really high variance and suck for a long time. Still, $1600 down is nothing to a green chip BJ player, and +EV is +EV, so you got your money's worth and shouldn't shy away from playing a good VP promotion when you see one in the future.

Worst I ever had was down $3K in one night playing dollar VP during a promotion that yielded about 1%. Could not hit quads.
 

Thunder

Well-Known Member
#7
the quads will make or break you. I know I've played at a $1 VP screen before (betting $5 for the full pay) 9/6 J o B and have been down substantially. The fact that I've never gotten a straight flush or royal flush makes me hesitant to ever play VP unless it's with slot $. I'm not sure if being down $1600 is worth the rewards of being a Diamond/chairman/whatever.
 

hawkeye

Well-Known Member
#8
Craps because it's so much fun. I love BJ and it's first for sure, but the tactile feature of craps makes it fun, it's fun to throw the dice. Craps is more fun socially too, you talk to the players more and the casino people more.

What should I look for in VP to play as cover? I have no experience with VP, but I know poker. Sounds like there are certain types to look out for to play, what's the lowdown on those?
 
#9
Thunder said:
the quads will make or break you. I know I've played at a $1 VP screen before (betting $5 for the full pay) 9/6 J o B and have been down substantially. The fact that I've never gotten a straight flush or royal flush makes me hesitant to ever play VP unless it's with slot $. I'm not sure if being down $1600 is worth the rewards of being a Diamond/chairman/whatever.
I agree, that's why I wouldn't advise to play it unless you are getting some other EV too, multi-cashback or free play or whatever. Still no guarantee you won't be down, but that's AP for you.
 

RJT

Well-Known Member
#10
kewljason said:
Until 8 months ago, I never spent a dime on anything other than blackjack. Then I decided to play some video poker with the following objectives. 1.) cover. 2.) earn more comps as non table games earn comps at higher rate. 3.) quickly accumulate 10,000 points and chairman staus (higher tier) at my local casino. Since full pay JorB returns 99.54% with perfect strategy making it nearly even with cashback earned, I figured these objectives wouldn't cost me much.

I soon realized that in order to come out close to even you must hit royal flush, which should happen every 40,000 hands. 6 months later and an estimated 1000 hours or close to it, I was down $1600 in VP results having never hit a royal flush. (it could be coming on my next spin...lol) Anyway I'm now back to playing exclusively BJ.

The results: on the plus side, I'm sure I acheived a certain level of cover. I did earn more comps, and the benifits of chairman status. On the negative side, of course minus $1600. In addition when I was exclusively playing tables I received $200 per month in match play coupon (4-$50 coupons). I now receive less desirable slot cash each month, which must be played thru a slot or video poker machine once before cashout.
The variance that VP provides can work both way. Recently i've played a huge amount of very high variance VP (think twice the variance of JoB). One day i hit 2 Royals and went up £16k but in the next two months i lost £25k.
Things have leveled out and i've reduced my bet size a little, but they were some scary swings.
If you are going to play you have to be prepared to lose for long periods of time. So far the longest down streak i've had would have been the equivalent of playing 200,000 hands of JoB without hitting a royal. At the opposite end of the spectrum would be hitting 3 royals in 10,000 hands. It levels out eventually, but that can take a very long time.

RJT.
 

mjbballar23

Well-Known Member
#11
poker. Im actually playing more poker (mostly online) than blackjack these days. Ill play one until i have a bad run of cards and then focus on the other for a while. Helps keep me fresh and mentally strong. Currently working on my VP skillz too...
 

Homeschool

Well-Known Member
#12
Craps is not only pretty good odds but is great for waking yourself up after a couple hours of grinding at the BJ tables. Plus you don't have to be the one throwing to have a good time, so much more action.

VP sometimes too, but 9/6 JoB is getting pretty scarse alot of places....
 

ccl

Well-Known Member
#13
to give myself a mental break i will play almost every game in the casino esp. if im getting slaughtered at Bj, ive even been known to play a little slots or roulette to take a break (low stakes of course) but mainly im a poker/craps/bj player
 
#14
The big Wheel of fortune. It's a good place to start up a conversation with the chicks if you know what I mean. Play for a dollar or so and your returns will be great.
 

mdlbj

Well-Known Member
#17
Have not been at a table for 1 year and 5 months. Been traveling and surfing. Honestly I do not like to be in casinos unless I'm there to play blackjack, they are so depressing.
 
#18
Well, I only play BJ. I would consider playing poker, but I am not particularly good at deception/bluffing/feelings type stuff, so I tend to avoid it.

I like low house edges, combined with a nice "vs. the casino" adversarialness, as well as fun banter at the tables. Taking all these into account, I think Blackjack is pretty much the only game for me.
 

callipygian

Well-Known Member
#19
StudiodeKadent said:
I would consider playing poker, but I am not particularly good at deception/bluffing/feelings type stuff, so I tend to avoid it.
Low limit Hold'Em requires no deception, no bluffing, and rarely do you need a read to make the right play. It won't help the "vs. the casino" feeling, but it's a nice math-based exercise that you can probably pick up with 2 books and 10 hours of practice.
 
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