So Terrence and I decided that we wanted to get Diamond status in Harrah’s Total Rewards program, and thus my next task was to figure out the best way to go about obtaining it. I got a lot of help from the Las Vegas Advisor comps forum, the Casino Comps Yahoo Group, and the Harrahs Casinos Yahoo Group. I recommend all three groups to anyone interested in earning comps and benefits in the Harrahs Total Rewards system. Many of the members of those groups are very experienced comps earners who have put a lot of time and effort into figuring out how the Total Rewards system works and they are very generous about sharing their expertise.
The different levels in the Total Rewards program (Platinum, Diamond, Seven Star) are achieved by earning “tier points” through gambling. Tier points are earned at a rate of one point per $5 wagered on slots or $10 wagered on video poker. Since the expected return of a skilled video poker player is much higher than that of a slot player, the expected loss of playing video poker is lower than the expected loss of playing slots even though you have to wager twice as much.
Normally you can get Diamond status in the Total Rewards program by earning 10,000 “tier points” in a year, which would be $100,000 worth of wagering on video poker. That’s a lot of video poker! Also, none of the Harrah’s properties in Las Vegas offer video poker games with an expected return of 100% or more, so all this wagering would have to be done on a game with an expected loss. Your expected loss after wagering $100,000 on a game like 9/6 Jacks or Better video poker, if you play perfectly, is $460. For two people the combined expected loss would be $960, and since Terrence and I probably wouldn’t be playing completely perfectly our expected loss would be higher. A $1000+ expected loss for a priority parking pass, skipping lines, and free lounge/club entries and show tickets for two months is a bit steep!
Fortunately Harrah’s has a promotion called “Diamond in a Day” that rewards Diamond status for a much lower wagering requirement – 1800 points ($18,000 wagered on video poker) – as long as you do all that wagering in one day. We were willing to put in enough time to learn to play video poker well enough to follow the Wizard of Odds’ Jacks or Better simple strategy so our expected loss from doing this promotion would only be $194.40 ($18,000 wagering requirement * 2 people * 0.54% house advantage). Since we expect to get more than $200 of value out of using the Diamond benefits all summer, this seemed like a reasonable expected loss to take on.
Harrah’s has many different casinos with many different video poker gamers offered in a bunch of different denominations, so we had a lot of options of how we wanted to go about getting our $18,000 wagering accomplished. I focused on researching three of these options, which I call the “slow but ‘safe’” way, the “medium-speed and –risk” way, and the “fast and scary” way. We ultimately chose the fast and scary way for ourselves, but I’ll describe all three strategies for the benefit of those of you who also want to do this but have lower risk tolerances than ours.
Strategy 1: The slow but “safe” way
This way requires leaving town and probably takes up a whole day, but is the best way to do it if minimizing variance (and thus your risk of losing money) is your priority.
Drive or take a bus to the Harrah’s in Laughlin (about 100 miles / 2 hour drive from Las Vegas).
Play the 5 cent 50-play Jacks or Better game for maximum coins. You will be betting $12.50 per hand, so the $18,000 wagering requirement will take 1440 sets of hands to complete. Most people should be able to do this in about 3 hours. Your expected loss if you play perfectly is $82.80.
Although you are betting $12.50 per set of hands, your risk is spread across 50 hands and you are playing for a very low denomination coin. From what I have read and heard this is the least risky way to achieve Diamond in a Day status.
Strategy 2: The medium-speed and –risk way
You don’t have to leave town for this one. Caesar’s Palace has “No So Ugly Ducks” video poker machines (NSUD has a 99.7% return) from denominations of 5 cents to $5, and 9/6 Jacks or Better (99.5% return) machines from denominations of 5 cents to $100. See the VPFree page for Caesars Palace for the details and locations of these machines.
If you play the 25 cent 10-play “Not So Ugly Ducks” game for maximum coin you’re betting $12.50 per set of hands. You can probably play 500 hands an hour (experienced video poker players can play a lot faster) which means you’ll complete the $18,000 wagering requirement in about 3 hours. Your expected loss from this, if you play perfectly, is $54.
If the “Not So Ugly Ducks” machine is occupied there are a couple others that have 10-play 25 cent Jacks or Better. This will take the same amount of time but your expected loss with perfect play is $82.80.
If the 25 cent 10-play machines are all occupied you could either take twice as long and play 25 cent 5-play 9/6 Jacks or Better or take the same amount of time but increase your variance by stepping up to the 50 cent denomination 5-play machines.
Strategy 3: The fast and scary way
If you want to get your Diamond card in less than an hour of play and have more choices about where to play you’ll be playing 9/6 Jacks or Better. Your expected loss is still only $82.80 but you’ll be playing at much higher denomination and thus your variance (and possible actual losses) will be much higher.
Bally’s has $25 3- and 5-play machines. Caesar’s Palace has 5-play $2, 3- and 5-play $5, $25, and $100 3-play machines. Flamingo has $10 and $25 machines. Harrah’s has $10, $25, and $100 machines. The Rio has $10, $25, and $100 3- and 5-play machines. Unfortunately, Paris doesn’t have any good high denomination 9/6 Jacks or Better machines.
Be careful. As Terrence’s and my experience getting our Diamond cards on Sunday (which will be detailed tomorrow in “Part 3: The $6400 parking pass”) illustrates, it is very possible to lose thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars getting your Diamond card the “fast and scary” way. So I only recommend this approach if you have a big bankroll and are in a big hurry (in other words, if you’re like Terrence :)).
Some other things to consider:
You can get 2 cards for each account, so you can have a friend play with you and finish in half the time.
It’s rumored that the denomination you play in affects the type of offers you receive, so if you can afford the variance of playing in a higher denomination it may be worth it if you could use a lot of free room offers.
Rumor has it that the points requirements for Diamond in a Day are going up on July 1st from 1800 to 3000. If that happens multiple all the expected losses and expected playing times in this post by 1.67.
Good luck! If you have any questions (or if those of you with more expertise in the Total Rewards system see any errors in this post) please leave a comment.
Tomorrow: Part 3: The $6400 parking pass
Update: Please see Addendum to Harrah’s Total Rewards Part 2: Diamond in a Day strategy for important additional information regarding the expected losses and variance of the strategies described above.
Cross-posted from my gambling blog, go there for comments.
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