Best NFL Promotions 2015

Question by EazyE00 about MGM Grand Posted
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13 Comments

Hey everyone, I'll be going to Vegas later this month. Any suggestions on rooms with new or existing NFL promos that you've enjoyed playing at? I usually grind 2/4 or 3/6 but would also be open to 1/2 or 1/3 NL. My plans were to go to MGM or Mirage as I assume they provide the most bang for your buck when it comes to drawings, but was wondering if there were others I should check out?

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  1. I go once a year in the fall and haven't played this season. That being said, my favorite has always been MGM drawing after every score. Here's a recent column dealing with nothing but NFL promos.

    Good luck to you!

    http://robvegaspoker.blogspot.com/2015/10/las-vegas-poker-room-football-promos.html

  2. I've been playing the MGM during the football promos as well, they only run during the Sunday night, Monday night and Thursday night games though. But, I think between those and the drawings that they do every 4 hours (you get a ticket for any hand flush or bigger, if there is at least $10 in the pot), it makes the most sense to play the MGM during the night games.

    Dave

  3. @Dap Poker Thanks for the insight Dave!

  4. @jbuck217 Thanks JBuck, really appreciate the link!

  5. there really are no such things as poker "promotions" other than the comp benefits each room provides for the hours you play. the nfl "promotions" are all player funded with an increased rake taken out of each pot played. the amount of money that these drops take
    off the table is absurd and the full amount of money taken from players NEVER fully
    returns to the game. it is bad for poker.

    the best places to play are those that let you keep the most money from each pot you win.
    last i heard, MGM was taking up to $2 from each pot to fund these lotteries in addition to
    the standard $4 max rake.

    when you want to play real poker, sit down at aria, bellagio, caesars, venetian or
    wynn where they play the game straight up, no shenanigans.

  6. @zzyzx thanks for the insight here. I'm definitely not a shark by any means. Any rooms where people are overly aggressive that will allow me to play a pretty straight up TAG style and be profitable? Based on your experience which rooms would you suggest.

  7. @EazyE00

    for 1/2 NL my top room would be Caesars. they moved the room to a new, more
    open location, the tables are not cramped (like aria or bellagio), they cut the rake to $4 + $0, and just recently put in new chairs (very comfortable). you can buy in for $300 max here so it plays just as big as the 1/3 at bellagio or aria. they also have well placed tvs so you can watch the games easily.

    Venetian would be my next and only other choice for $1/2.

    for 1/3, my top room would be Wynn, by far the nicest and best-run room currently in town.
    you can buy in for $500 max in this game so it actually plays close to a 2/5 game. the stacks in this game can get deep, very fast. this game will play a lot bigger than the 1/3 at aria or bellagio. rake is same as caesars, $4-max with $0 "promotional" drop.

  8. @zzyzx and @EazyE00
    I agree that Ceasar's is a good room to play. It is one of my go to spots, although I had a couple tough sessions there recently and have been fishing in other ponds for the time being.

    I also play some at the Venetian. There are some poker players that won't step foot in there because of Sheldon Adelson's lobbying efforts against online poker, but I think the games are pretty good there and I therefore play in the room.

    I'm too new to playing no limit cash games and I'm not yet comfortable enough to deal with the deeper stacks at Wynn. So, I haven't played there yet.

    I understand zzyzx's opinion that the jackpot rake is going off the table and I agree that in general it is bad for the game. However, a huge part of winning at low stakes is game selection. For that reason, I want to keep my options open to more than 3 casinos, especially since I don't feel comfortable playing in the Wynn game which leaves me with 2 viable options. Since I am going to play at some rooms that take jackpot drops, I try to select times when those rooms are likely to be giving more of that jackpot money back and the football promotions at MGM are one of those times. By selecting times like that, I lower the -EV of that jackpot rake. Since I live in town, if I happen to get 15 hours in a week at MGM, I also qualify for their "invitational" tournament which further improves my EV from the jackpot drop.

    Obviously, it is good if I win a jackpot drawing, because I can pocket that drawing money right then. But, it also can be good if one of the bad players at the table wins it because they are almost certainly going to leave it on the table for me to try to win. One player did on Monday night -- he won a $100 jackpot drawing added it to his stack and promptly lost it 2 hands later (on a cooler, AA vs KK when a K hit the turn, but he still lost it).

    So, my takeaway would be, that no jackpot rake is best. But, selectively playing rooms with jackpot drops is a reasonable alternative and opens up more games to choose from.

    Dave

  9. @Dap Poker wrote:

    "I agree that Ceasar's is a good room to play. It is one of my go to spots, although I had a couple tough sessions there recently and have been fishing in other ponds for the time being."

    -> variance has no memory, the fact you lost yesterday at a particular casino has no influence
    on your next session, similar to the roulette ball that last landed on red had no influence
    on where that ball will drop next spin.

    to all tourists who play in vegas cash games, here's the deal:

    if you play in a room with "promotions" such as freerolls, which require a specific number of hours to play to qualify, you are likely NOT to benefit from this "promotion". first off, you won't play long enough to qualify and even if you did, you may not be around for the day of the "freeroll". also, the structure in these tournaments is so bad, it turns into a shove fest rather quickly. also they usually offer and incentive to get more starting chips, but you have to pony up cash for those, so the freerolls are hardly free.

    same goes for the nfl football promos, if you are only in town on tues and weds, what good
    does it do to play in a room that has a thursday football promo? they are dropping money for this promo but you aren't going to see any returned to your table.

    freerolls and specific day promotions benefit the locals, so as a tourist you are subsidizing
    these promotions. you aren't going to get much money from these players, because they
    are there for one reason: the promotions. these promotions are designed for them
    to sit, not play so the action in these games suffers and most buy in for the table minimum
    so the amount of money on the table pales in comparison to the rooms which have $0 promo
    drop. there isn't a local alive that plays in these games who is going to put ANY jackpot money they win from a drawing back on the table, they will hit and run.

    i've been playing poker a long time and the one constant has always been:
    the casinos with the best games don't need these silly "pomos".

  10. @zzyzx wrote
    -> variance has no memory, the fact you lost yesterday at a particular casino has no influence on your next session, similar to the roulette ball that last landed on red had no influence on where that ball will drop next spin.

    It is not variance that concerns me, it is putting myself in the best mental state I can before playing. The fact that I lost a couple times at a place in a row does affect how I feel about that room And I have come to realize that when I feel down about a place, it can affect my outlook on playing, which can make me more tentative when I play and that will negatively affect my results. It does not happen all the time and I understand it is a weakness that I need to overcome. But, in the interim, I have to recognize that I have that weakness. One trick I use is that when I start to feel down about a place, I avoid it for a short time.

    What you said about tourists and the promos, particularly freerolls is completely true. I understand it and don't dispute it. What I was trying to advocate was that if and only if a player wants to play in a room with a promotional drop, then they would be best served by playing at a time when the room is likely to be giving away more promotional money.

    Dave

  11. @Dap Poker

    at least you recognize you have a weakness, and that is something most players won't admit.
    one way to overcome this would be to think of poker as one big game which you play over
    many sessions, focus less on the outcome of each session but on how you played, did you make the right decisions, not how much you won or lost. winning at poker is a process, not an event.

  12. As a part time player who does not live in Vegas, (350 hrs played in 2015), I will give my 2 cents. I agree that most promos are basically transferring money from tourists to locals. Freerolls in particular are the worst for tourists, best for locals in that most tourists will contribute to the promo fund but will never play it.

    There are some other promos that are better for tourists, like high hands or splash pots that can happen at anytime.

    I would say this coming from a "grinder" point of view. Rake and promotional activities generally correlate with how "nitty" and how "wild" the game gets. For example, on a general scale, Planet Hollywood, with the highest rake and lamest promo for splash pots generally get the best or non nitty games. If you want variance and super loose games Planet Hollywood generally has the effect. On the flip side, Caesars Palace or Venetian 1/2 games can be super nitty with the lowest rake. So even though the rake and promo drop is more expensive at certain casinos, sometimes the average pot is exponentially bigger to compensate for the extra expense.

    I think mathematically its better to play with the lowest rake and no jackpot drop. However, most regs know this and avoid playing at higher rake, jackpot drop places. So pick what best works for you.

  13. @zzyzx - I am working on that. I'm still fairly new to no limit, so just handling the swings is a process for me. Part of that process has been brutal honesty with myself about strengths and weaknesses.

    That said, I found a post on 2+2 about using the voice memo feature on my phone to record live hands. Then, taking those memos and organizing them into a spreadsheet to do both post-session and longer term analysis as I build up a database of hands. That seemed like a system that would work for me. It will also help make poker more of a process and enable me to better focus on the long term. Plus, it will likely help me find leaks in my game, which will obviously help. I know that I need to do better homework -- I do some now, and that is probably more than most recreational players -- but, if I want to really improve, I need to do more and better-targeted work away from the tables.

    Dave