Video Poker Bartop VP questions

I'm not a bartop VP player, but I'm seeking answers to questions a buddy asked.

How do you know if drinks are comped? Is there a sign at the bar? On the machine? Do you ask the bartender?

Also, it seems tipping $1 to the cocktail waitress is the norm for table games. What about bartop VP? Do you also give the bartender a $1 per drink? More than $1?

Thanks gang!

 

I have never played at a bar top that drinks were not free. With that being said I have heard others on this board say they have encountered a few places where drinks are not free. There are no signs and asking the bar tender before you play would be fine. I have always tipped $1 unless bar is very busy then I may tip more in order to continue to get good service.

 

They are comped most places, but I always ask to be sure.

We always tip at least $2-3 per drink because it is better alcohol, a larger drink size, and you have constant service.

 

The ONLY place I have ever encountered being charged for a drink while playing at the bartops is Wynn. Needless to say I have never been back.
We tip a buck a drink. If I hit a hand pay, then around $60 extra goes in.

 

I'm a frequent bartop video poker player. In fact, I *PREFER* to play at the bar, because very often the bartender will notice if your drink is empty (or close to empty) and offer you a new one.

At all casinos I've been to (and this is many), YES-- your drinks are comped when playing bartop VP. The only place I am aware of that does NOT do this in Las Vegas is The Wynn and The Encore. Don't play bartop VP there.

But at other places, to answer your questions...

1) You should sit down and put money (or a ticket) into the machine and start playing. At many places, you need to play max credits to get a cocktail, i.e. no one or two credits. (Some places are more lax than others.) In general, you should be playing max credits anyway for a shot at a full pay royal.

2) No need to even ask if drinks are comped. Generally they are if the bartender sees you playing.

3) He/she will take your order and you'll keep playing. He/she will come back with your drink and still see you playing. At this point, you should definitely tip at least $1.

4) You can always tip more if you are generous.

5) Most places will put a receipt in a cocktail glass in front of your machine. The receipt will say something like "bar comp." Your tips go in this glass.

If you have any specific questions about which properties you plan on playing at, or what you plan on drinking, you can ask them in this thread. Me, I generally drink beer, but sometimes go to whiskey or occasionally gin and tonics. No problems getting these comped, even at quarter VP.

Of course, one bad thing to point out is that frequently the pay tables for bartop VP are worse than those out at the floor. If this bothers you, than either don't play bartop VP, or find a place that has full-pay bartop VP poker. I can suggest Main Street Station for 9/6 JoB, for example (right at the bar), or The Suncoast for 9/6 BDlx (again, bartops). You didn't mention what you like to play.

Hope this helps.

 

My friend and I were playing bartop VP at Aria, I was playing max coins and my friend was playing single coin. My drinks were comped (including good quality stuff) but my friend's were not. The bartender told him, "why don't you play 5 coins like your friend and you won't have to pay for your drinks."

And I usually tip a couple bucks per drink.

 

I've never played VP (I play table poker and craps), so this might be a stupid question. But how do the bartenders know how much you put in the machine and how much you are betting? Do they just ask?

Also, I'll be at the Luxor in a few weeks. Does anyone know if they have any full pay VP there? I saw in another thread that someone said they have some fullpay machines in the high limit bar. I'd ideally like to find a full pay JOB 25 cent machine. I wouldn't mind a 50 cent machine either.

Thanks!

 

We always ask if playing bartops. Played at the Cosmo bond bar and PH, both served topshelf and comped drinks.

 

They can see the denomination and number of credits from the other side of the bar. And they can tell how many coins you're playing because the corresponding column in the pay table will be highlighted in red.

 

They're pretty good at keeping an eye on what you're playing. That being said, once they know you're not low-playing them such that they might get in trouble with the bosses (outside of company policy, they have no vested interest in it, as long as you're tipping), they're often fairly generous, which is one reason I like playing at the bartops. I was drinking generic drinks at one of Aria bars (since it was 9am) and in making conversation with the bartender, I mentioned a somewhat obscure, high-end cocktail I'm a fan of; he immediately offered to make me one and suggested a couple other things I might like.

 

Have never had an issue anywhere...

Although I typically toss in $20 & play max bet...
They do NOT know what you are playing and honestly don't care, though they may have to say to you that you must do max bet to get comped drinks (have heard it 2x in 20 years) Until the last couple years I often changed my bet based on how I felt the machine was hitting & no one ever said a word...

 

Funny I see this thread, I was just about to post a question about this. I've read for others' TRs here that they've had some luck on the bartops at TI. Since we are staying next door, I thought I would give it a try.

2 questions about the TI bartops....are they multi-denom? Can I play quarters? And if I'm playing max bet, order my drink and while I'm waiting lose my money.... Which I could totally see happening to me....do I still get the drink comped if I'm about to walk away?

 

Last time I was at TI (May), all bartop VP machines at the Breeze Bar were multi-denom, multi-game. Also, one side of the bar featured a royal progressive jackpot at the $0.25 level, and the other side at the $1 level. Good luck!

 

It never hurts to ask. You are a tourist and questions are expected of you, as long as you don't become a PIA.

AFAIK, Wynn and the Atrium bar at Mirage are the only two I have encountered that don't comp and they usually tell you that right away.

They compensate for the comped drinks with sh!tty pay tables, anyway.

 

They are getting a little tighter about this, but I have been only asked to bet more than one credit once (that was at Aria in Dec. 2011). To avoid this, I throw in a $20, I usually start betting max while ordering my drink, play slowly, and then move down to one credit and speed up a bit after I get my drink and tip the bartender $2 to start. After that, they don't really care much because you're willing to tip them, but to be safe, you can bump it back up to max when you're about due for a refill.

I generally don't bet max at the bar because the paytables are generally so bad that you actually lose more per hand by betting max on average (the only exceptions to this are often "full pay" machines). And getting beer for cheaper/playing longer is more important to me than hitting a $1000 Royal... This method described above helped me this past trip to get 6 Dogfish Head 90-minute IPAs (9% ABV) comped at Quad by mainly playing 25c per hand of 7/5 Triple Bonus Plus (96.42% 1 coin; 97.67% max; their best game at the bar). They normally charge $7/each (which is about an appropriate bar price for this, unlike weaker beers) for ~10 oz. I would need about 4700 hands of 1-coin play (or ~1800 hands of max coin) to match the expected loss of paying for those 6 beers. In reality, I played less than 1000 hands of mostly 1-coin while drinking them and lost about $9.50 in play for $42 of retail beer. And outside of that bar, I gave Quad no other action. They got rid of 7/5 Bonus w/Super Times Pay. Bastards.

Full pay at the bar begins at the $2 level

Cheapest full pay on the floor is at the $1 level.

http://www.vpfree2.com/casino/luxor

 

The Lobby Bar at the Mirage does not comp for VP. The bartender was great and told me as soon as I sat down and put money in the machine. But they have another bar with a lot of VP that does comp!!

 

Bar Video Poker

We play video poker at the bar and the only thing we have been told is at least have $20 in machine and should be playing max although that usually doesn't matter as long as you are tipping well. I asked at Mandalay and they want $50 in machine. Drink quality is much better and they will get you whatever you request. If I am losing on slots I will go to bar top VP slow things down.

Mandalay and PH my favs because the live music is close by.

 

I have to agree with hitting royals at the bartops. I have hit 7 royals at bartops and 1 on the floor machines. After going almost three years without hitting a royal, I hit two with 30 minutes playing at the bar at The Orleans in July.

 

Yeah the Sportbook bar does comp, but the paytables are harsher than CET bars, and is the worst paying bar I have ever noticed in Vegas. Best game I saw was 30/6/5 Bonus (96.18% max) and it takes 10 quarters for their progressive, DDB was 7/5 (95.71% max; 94.48% 1-coin). To be fair, when I was there last week, the progressive was over $3900 ($2000 seed).

But regardless of the bad paytables above, ugh, I did hit my first AWAK while actually playing DDB there in May. It was late and it was my hotel at the time... I have hit the hand about 5 times overall, but only this one time while playing DDB. And the way I was playing...this basically was a Royal to me.