Video Poker doesn't earn points at Downtown Grand

Tring, does Ultimate X and STP software even allow a house to set paytables at true full-pay?

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Depends on how much coin in he's putting through and how error prone he is, and the raw paytable difference. If he's putting north of $10k through a day, maybe he saves that much in losses a day.

When I wrote "full pay" there, I meant the highest Ultimate X allows. On many games that's one or two notches below what is considered "full pay" for a standard VP game. But 9/6 DDB UX is 99.7%+, depending on the number of lines played.

On STP or Double STP, I think the highest base paytable allowed is "Not So Ugly Ducks" (99.73% base), but i've never seen it set that way in the casino. Best I've ever seen is 9/6 JoB with STP (99.82%) and 8/5 Bonus with Double STP (99.67%).

"Hot Roll" has 40/10/6 DDB (99.96%) as the best return option. Many other "gimmick games" have worse max payback settings. Helps a casino not screw up.

 

DTG could use a lot of help in this department.

 

Someone call the suicide hotline! DTG is threatening to jump! Buh-bye. I've never seen a hotel/casino so mismanaged in my lifetime.

 

What a great deal for the 100 people who were able to just murder them on FPDW

 

What does your friend play? If he plays dollars for a couple of hours a day, yeah, the difference between a 100% ish game and a 98%-99% game is almost certainly over $200 over 3 days. If he plays quarters, that's tougher unless he's playing multiline or for a ton of hours.

There has been a lot of understating of the value of better pay tables for a recreational player in this thread overall. Worrying about comps when you're potentially getting an extra 1%-2.5% of value in base table EV is going to be a mistake for a lot of people.

Now, what this should show the casino is you gotta offer games with points to get many lower tier players in, and you need to think about how to balance pay table quality vs. max bets vs. points to create the right mix of attraction for your money makers vs. giveaways for good players. DTG clearly still has no clue how to do this, they went from offering bad VP to offering VP that would only attract sharks. I mean, it should be obvious that it is probably better to offer .1% worth of points on a 99.5-100.2% game (with sub 100% offered at high denoms) vs. offering no points on FPDW at $2 per coin.

 

Does this mean you can't play video poker anymore to get the prime rib special? That was really the only reason I had for going there.

 

That's what it sounds like to me.

 

THIS is the formula. Find the balance, the happy medium.

Maybe the biggest blunder DTG has made and is making in doing this is that they have ZERO marketing announcing the positive: their vp paytable changes. No telling the public that they have full-pay vp, or improved vp, or anything about better vp. But they announce the negative right there on their DTG Rewards page: Video poker earns no points.

Nothing about this change was well thought out at all.

 

Perhaps someone from Boyd jumped ship and went to DTG. This is on par with Boyd's Ruby players not earning any spendable comp points.

 

The problem I now have with the Downtown Grand is they no longer give points on your players card for video poker. Another terrible move and why they continue to struggle. Here is what it says on their players club:

GRAND REWARDS
Sign up for our Downtown Grand Rewards Program!

Join our three-tiered rewards program today to earn Free Play, dining, hotel offers, promotions and events based on your play. Plus, enjoy additional perks and rewards based on your tier level, including birthday offers, complimentary valet parking, a personal host, and much more!*

• $1 coin-in on Reel and Video Reel Machines = 1 point.
• Video Poker Machines do not earn points.
• See Grand Rewards Booth for table game point earning requirements.

250 points = $1 in Free Slot Play, dining and merchandise.

Click here to see all the benefits of our Grand Rewards Club.

*Perks are available based on play and may not apply on tier status alone. Please see Grand Rewards Booth for complete rules. Must be age 21+ to join. Management reserves all rights.

 

I realize the above post is way late to post but it was moved here from another conversation

 

So following Boyd's lead, DTG also has Tier levels offering different escalating perks, but nowhere that I can find do they disclose what amount of play it takes to get to a level. Excuse me, Honey what were you saying? In the supermarket ad they have Baby-Back ribs for sale---great, Corona also----super, what's the sale price?---- did you say there is no price? Honey, you must be mistaken what supermarket would put out an ad without prices?

 

You're not going to just play a bunch and see what happens?

 

DTG is the only downtown casino I don't have a players card at. Just sayin......another reason not to go in there.

 

Have been out of the country for two weeks and have a stay coming up at the DTG next month. Did anyone get a definitive answer about comps earned? I'm currently getting mailers for 3 free nights, free play, free food, etc. and am wondering how that's going to be affected as I play 90% vp, 10% bj

 

I don’t have a “definite answer” for you but I was at DTG yesterday and saw this sign prominently posted. Doesn’t look like your 90% VP play will be attractive to the DTG going forward

It reminds me of Shoot To Win craps which often earns no points

 

Well, I can tell you this. Not only will you not get any slot club points, you can undertake an infinite amount of video poker and not get any Tier points either so that much is clear.

 

Going to close this thread and direct everyone to the new one
https://www.vegasmessageboard.com/forums/index.php?posts/1896952/