VegasGambler

Which MGM casinos have this specialty slot rule? I play at various MGM casinos in Vegas (though not all of them) and I've never seen any point multipliers or anything like that.

I am going to have to check out Cosmo and see what I can get from them. I wonder if the change in ownership is going to make them more generous (to try to get more players in there) or less generous (to try to make more money per player)

Jimgotkp

I believe all mLife properties follow the specialty slot rule. It's usually only applied on the progressive and themed slot machines. mLife doesn't do point multipliers on comp points, they do the tier bonus (Pearl@10%, Gold@20%, Plat@30%, NOIR@40%).

I know Cosmo stopped status matching mid-last year. If you have a good play history, visit the Host Desk @ the HL room and see if they can offer you something. I doubt they will give you a good offer unless they verify you as a strong player at another property.

VegasGambler

What is a "specialty slot"?

Jimgotkp

Usually, progressive slots (ex. Megabucks) and themed slots (ex. Wheel of Fortune, Hangover, etc.). There sometimes is a sign next to the card reader (where you insert your mLife card) that indicates if the machine is a "specialty slot".

This is why I like Cosmo since you don't get dinged for playing machines like Wheel of Fortune and Wizard of Oz.

VegasGambler

Oh, I see. You mean the slots that give the same pts as VP

At 3x pts, the Cosmo program is 2% back on slots, which is quite good. If the multiplier applies to VP as well, it would be 0.4% back, which would also be quite good for VP (anything over 0.25% is rare)

Jimgotkp

Haha I guess so. I don't play VP, so don't much about earning rates with those machines. You should give Cosmo some play. It's a nice property overall.

VegasGambler

One thing that really stuck out for me in the Identity benefits was the complimentary companion room nights, even with a relatively low level of play.

Jimgotkp

I agree and it doesn't affect your ADT if they don't play.

gengar

Just to note, past point multiplier promotions (before they became "everyday" parts of Identity) explicitly excluded certain games in the small print. I don't know which ones specifically, but I'd have to imagine any higher-paying VP would be excluded. I think the best Cosmo offers nowadays is 8/6 JoB, but nevertheless it seems unlikely they would give .4% back on that.

VegasGambler

Cosmo offers several 9/6 JoB games, according to vpfree. This is why I doubt that the multiplier counts, but you never know -- there some places in Vegas where you can even exceed 100% after freeplay (even on mid-high limit games)

gengar

Good to know - 9/6 JoB only appears to be in the high limit. I forget where I read about Cosmo only having 8/6 JoB, but they must not have looked in the high limit room.

VegasGambler

Even though it's in the high limit room, they do have $1 spin poker (which you can play for just 1 line if you don't feel like playing for high stakes). The strategy is the same (just try to ignore the cards that aren't on the middle line or you will go nuts with the "near misses")

azmojo

Would you mind explaining what this means? What is JoB and what do the numbers mean?

VegasGambler

JoB is short for Jacks or Better, which is a video poker variant.

Unlike slot machines, video poker machines must act exactly as if the cards were randomly shuffled and dealt from a real deck of cards (this is Nevada law). So, in order to change the odds of a game, the casino can't make it less likely that you will get a good hand -- they can only change the payouts for those hands.

With Jacks or Better, most paytables are the same, except for the payouts for a full house and a flush. "9/6" refers to a game where the full house pays 9x your bet and the flush pays 6x your bet. 9/6 JoB is a pretty good game -- it returns 99.54% of your coin-in with optimal play (and it is a very easy game to play optimally). This is the best widely available paytable for JoB.

8/5 is much worse. Because you make a flush and a full house each a little over 1% of the time (ballpark) the pay back of 8/5 is a little worse than 97.5%. In other words, you will lose about 5x as much in the long term on an 8/5 game as on a 9/6 game, with optimal play.

gengar

Just to add on to a very good explanation by VegasGambler, JoB is also good as far as VP options because even an extremely simple strategy (the most common simple strategy for JoB is only 16 ranks) returns 99.46% vs 99.54%, so even with very basic strategy there is little difference compared to optimal play. Good for us lazy people!