MGM's New Drive For Five Promo is a Winner

Don't change that channel, don't close this page in your browser.  Despite what the title might make it seem, this post is not one of my Ante Up columns presented for your pleasure.  This is an actual Robvegaspoker blog post.  Of course, I will discuss this topic in my next Ante Up column (which I have to write as soon as I get home this week) but it will be a much briefer mention and will necessarily be more unbiased.

You see, as I wind down this Vegas trip, I need to get something quick posted for your enjoyment, and I've got way too many juicy stories floating around in my brain to pick one for you today.  I already mentioned a few here.  I now have three long tournament runs to report on, two of which I cashed in, including yesterday's.  And of course there's the session I had at the Linq the other night where I will have to quote myself for the title (because calling a friend a bad player and nailing her hand is so much fun).  But all those tales and more will require more time to compose than I have right now.

Since in the recent past I have been a tad critical of my favorite poker room's promotions, I thought it would be appropriate to sing their praises here.

I don't like freerolls in general so it's no wonder I wasn't thrilled with MGM's version.  They are designed to appeal to local grinders who can spend all their days and/or nights playing poker.  I'm not in Vegas quite long enough to play them.  I loved the cash drawings they had when they introduced them, but I somehow became mesmerized my them to the point that they started affecting my play when I could least afford to let that happen.  It was entirely my own fault, my own weakness, not the fault of the promo.

Now I do love the football promo they have.  I've seen them all, and I believe the MGM football promo is the best in Vegas.  The only issue I have there is something beyond their control—the time of the games makes it tough on my schedule, timing meals around it.  I dunno if East Coast poker rooms run football promos, but any room in the eastern time zone would do well to steal the MGM football promo next year, it would be absolutely perfect if the games were on from 8:30PM to midnite.

But the MGM decided that these promos had run their course, and they wanted to come up with something new for the new year.  All the old promos mentioned above are now gone, replaced by just a single promo.

It's called "Drive for Five" and as soon as I heard about it, I thought it sounded good.  Now that I've seen it in action, albeit very briefly, I'm calling it a winner.

Players are given a card (almost like a Bingo card) that has five hands on it.  Each time a player makes one of those hands, that hand is stamped (i.e, checked off).  When the player completes the card with all five hands, the player gets $100.

And the hands are relatively easy to make.  It's two pair, three-of-a-kind, a straight, a flush and a full house.  To be clear, it is any two pair, any straight, etc.  You don't have to make a specific hand of that rank, any one will do.  The card is good for the entire month….bring it back the next day and keep getting stamps until you fill out the card and collect your $100.  Then get a new card and start over again. 

There's a few caveats.  There must be $20 in the pot to get a stamp.  You can only earn a stamp for the highest ranking hand you have.  So if you have a straight and a flush, you can only get your flush box stamped (and a straight flush doesn't count as either). And you must win the pot to get the stamp, unlike the old cash drawings promo where you just had to call at showdown to get a ticket.  But I think that's actually a good thing.  If you know you are beat, you won't be tempted to call a big bet with a baby flush when you know someone has the bigger flush or a boat.  So it should save you money.

And it still shouldn't be very tough to complete the card, since you only need one card in your hand to win.  Last night I had Ace-rag on a board with Ace-8-8 and got my two pair box stamped.

To supplement the promo, they have random cash drawings ever hour on the half hour. One player is randomly selected as the winner. Nothing needed to qualify but be playing in a cash game. If you have no card or a card with just one stamp, you get $25 if picked.  If you have two or three stamps on your card, you'd get $50.  If you have four stamps on it, you'd get $100. Note: You can't have five stamps, as soon as you hit that, you'd turn the card in, get your $100 for that, and then get a new, blank card to start over.

Vegas rooms are always looking for promos that appeal to both locals and tourists.  Every Vegas room on the strip has their share of locals who play there.  Locals start games and keep them going.  That's why so many rooms do have freerolls.  Then they must have other promos that the tourists have a shot at (high hand bonuses, bad beat jackpot, random drawings, etc). What's nice about this promo is that it serves both kinds of customers.  Those grinders who were in the room day or night to earn freeroll hours should have no trouble putting their hours in and filling out card after card, each worth $100. 

And one great thing about this promo—unlike the freeroll, you actually have to play hands to win.  You can't sit there and just play Aces and Kings and expect to fill out the card.  You have to put some chips in play to win.  So the promo is actually good for the game.  I don't see any way it has a negative affect on game play. And even tourists have a chance to complete a card in a 3-4 hour session.  Plus they could hit the hourly cash drawing.  And the drawings being every hour means you'll never feel obligated to play more than 59 minutes (at most) more than you want to!

I think the only issue is that they may end up giving away more money than they expected to.  Good for the players, maybe not so good for the room.  I suspect they will keep this promo for awhile, tho they very well might have to tweak a bit as it goes on.

At first blush, it seems like a real winner to me.  Lemme know what you think.

And damn, this is about the perfect length for an Ante Up column.  Too bad I can't just submit this!

(Edited to add, this promo has been discontinued for more, see my follow up post here).