How to get the most from your Players Club
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I’m not a whale, yet I can live high on the hog in Vegas with my smart play. A little background, I used to go to Las Vegas and only play poker. This was 10 years ago. I’d bring a grand with me and I’d usually win. Not much mind you, maybe a few hundred dollars. Sometimes I would lose a bit but over all I was always profitable. But it turns out casinos hates poker players. Sure they want you to play there, but the comps at my level were zero to none. I was lucky if I built up enough points at the end of a 4 day trip to cover dinner.
So I switched gears and started playing table games. Much like poker, this turned out to start feeling like a job. Grind it out playing Black Jack or Caribbean Stud for hours on end. The comps were better but I would lose just as often as I would win. I never came home with enough money to actually make a difference in my life but I started to get free or discount rooms on top of some free grub. I was still a no body and I never moved up in a players club.
Then I started taking my wife with me and she hated farting around while I sat at a table. So I did the unimaginable. I started playing slots. I always poo-pooed the idea of grinding at a slot like all the blue haired old people around me. I felt like the real gamblers were secretly laughing at me with every quarter I dropped. But it turned out I started getting everything comped, and I actually started coming home with a double up of my bankroll here or there. Long gone were the days of steady profit days. Now it was either sink or swim. Win a chunk, or lose it all.
So I did the math. Throwing out my flight, I’d never play enough to get that comped, I’d spend about $300.00 a trip on a decent room. Sure Vegas rooms look cheap on the internet, but once you factor in the resort fees (where they apply) and taxes it is not uncommon for a $50.00 room to end up costing you $90.00. Add in whatever silly shows or attractions we went to see and the cost of food I was dropping $600 a trip on the two of us BEFORE I even gambled a dime. I never thought about it before, since I always used my credit card for these expenses. I looked at the success of a trip based purely on the cash I brought with me. Hell, I’d blow a hobo for a buck and buy a McDouble before I’d actually spend my gambling cash on food.
Once I joined the legions of slot players that all changed. The rooms were now free. Completely free. No taxes or resort fees. That food? Covered with the comps I built up on the card. Even if I blew $500.00 on the slots that trip, I was ahead of the game! Now my offers started getting juicy. Free room AND Free Play? How do these places stay in business? Oh yeah, they always hope you eat their food and stay in their room and lose your money at their casino. But still, people can and do win every now and then.
So read on and learn how to get the most from your gambling. Not every losing trip should cost you money. I know when we go to Disneyworld the mouse wont front my room and I’d be damned if he threw me a free churro either. That ends up costing me at least $2,000 for me and the wife to visit Disney. And all I am assured of is that I’m coming home $2K lighter. In Vegas we might drop $1K on the machines, but sometimes, not always I’d win. Meaning I got all the food we wanted, slept in some of the finest resorts in the country AND they paid me to do it! So keep your vacation in perspective and read up on the helpful hints to your right.
The way I have my cake and eat it too? If I want to play everywhere I book with 2 clubs and move ½ way through my trip. Its not as hard as you would think. And it saves on some major walking time to cover the entire strip. We’ll stay at MGM for the 1st 2 days and move down the street to Paris for the next 2.
Casinos are like Noah’s Ark. They prefer to send offers in 2’s. Sometimes I get 3 nights free, but most nicer places send me 2. Sure you can book back to back, but if any offers come with free play you don’t get to double dip. Splitting our vacation saves us money and time. And we like to explore each place we stay. Its like 2 trips in one! Plus we get to see most casinos and not sacrifice our ADT (check how you rate)
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