A memorable play and comps

3 July 2016

By John Grochowski

QUESTION: I play a lot of Triple Play and Five Play Poker. I love them, but when the game turns cold and drains credits, there’s that moment when you can’t bet the max. I’ve always joked about the time coming that sometime, I was going to get a royal flush with less than the max and I was going to get mad at myself.

It finally happened. I was down to my last $2.50 on quarter Triple Play, and I bet it. It gave me a four-coin bet on the first hand and three-coin bets on the second and third to make up the $2.50 total.

It was on the second hand that I drew the royal. I kept king and queen of hearts, and I drew the other three. With the three-coin bet, the payoff was 750 quarters, or $187.50. That’s OK, but I’m still kicking myself. For another $1.25 bet, I could have had $1,000.

Can you say anything that will make me feel better about this?

ANSWER: Give both your foot and whatever you’re kicking a rest. You didn’t make the best percentage play in the world, but you did win $187.50 that you wouldn’t have won had you just cashed out the $2.50 ticket. Celebrate that, but then think about what you want to do the next time you’re in this situation.

If you had paused to add enough credits to bet the max, then you probably wouldn’t have drawn the royal. The random number generator would have moved on to a new result.

The best percentage play, if you’ve reached a limit and don’t want to risk more money, is to cash out the ticket. Payback percentages on video poker games are highest if you bet the max. When I have too few credits for a max bet on a multihand game, I cash out.

However, if you don’t want to cash out the small amounts and are determined to play off all the credits, then you have to be mentally prepared to accept a royal flush at less than the max payoff. There’s no point in letting a winning hand put you in a foul mood. Either you come to terms with that and accept the wins as they come, or you cash out the change.


QUESTION: Everybody tells me about the great comps they get from casinos. My parents go on trips and get their rooms for free. My sister tells me about meals and rooms and downloading free credits.

I went for the first time, and nobody offered me anything. I went the second time, and nothing. I asked the guy playing next to me and he said he got comps, but you need a card.

So I went to get a card, and they wanted all this personal information. I don’t want to give them all that information. I was playing as much as anybody. Why am I not worth a comp?

ANSWER: The purpose of comps is to provide an incentive for valuable players to come back. In order to offer you incentives to come back – often via direct mail, e-mail or even social media – the casino needs to know who you are and how to contact you.

It also needs to know how much you’re betting in order to calculate your value to the casino and how much to offer you in comps. It tracks your play through the card. If you don’t use the card, the casino doesn’t know how much you’re betting and whether to offer you incentives to return.