The Promo is Dead! Long Live the Promo!

Well, this is going to be the last post I have about my most recent Vegas trip, the one that encompassed Christmas and New Year’s.  Fitting, I suppose, as I am just about ready to return to Vegas for the first time since then. 

This post concerns my very last poker session of that trip.  When I played back my voice notes, I realized that to some degree, the session revolved around the new MGM promo that had just started a few days before, a promo I liked very much, and even wrote a blog post about, here.

In that post, I said I didn’t think the promo would affect my play, which is one of the things I really liked about it.  But it turned out it did affect my play a little bit.  However, that all appears to be pretty much irrelevant now, as that promo was discontinued on March 1.  Yeah, the “Drive for Five Promo” at MGM is no more, at least for the time being.

To replace it, they brought back the old cash drawings, slightly modified.  It appears they are still giving away $2K a day, but now no one prize will exceed $100 (they had $200 and $400 prizes available previously).  Also, there is a freeroll attached to it—directly to the cash drawings.  At the beginning of April, they will have a $25K freeroll for eligible players.  Players won’t earn entry into the freeroll for hours played as in the past.  Instead, players must win at least three cash drawings during the month of March to be eligible.  And their starting stacks for the freeroll increase for every ticket drawn.  The top two finishers in the freeroll get $5K each.  Bottom two get $1K each and you can probably guess the rest.

The promo they got rid of was very popular, and I’m assuming as many (including yours truly) thought, they were just giving away too much money.  Soon after I wrote the post, they changed the rules to make it tougher to get paid, but apparently they couldn’t make it tough enough (this is just speculation on my part, I have no first-hand knowledge).  For example, they changed the minimum pot requirement from $20 to $40 to get a stamp.  They changed it so both hole cards must play to get a stamp, instead of just one.  Then they reduced the cash amount of the drawings they held.  It was a max of $25—or winning players had the option of getting a stamp of the hand of their choice instead of taking the $25.

All that happened after I was long gone.  This session was played under the initial rules of the promo.  I only had two sessions during the promo before I headed home.  The first session I played about 1-1/2 hours and earned two stamps (the two easiest, two pair and three-of-a-kind).  This was my final night in town (as I explained here, I cut my trip one day short due to weather) so the question was, could I fill up a card with three more hands (straight, flush and full house)? I wasn’t sure when I’d be back, and thus not sure if the promo would still be running when I did return.  Thus, if I couldn’t fill up the card during this one session, I might never get a chance to complete the promo.

And that was one of the things that affected my play a tiny bit.  I played more straight and flush type hands than I normally might, hoping to fill out that box on my card.  I limped in with some hands I might not otherwise play, and when I had some hands I might ordinarily raise with, if there were limpers in front of me, I just limped so the pot wouldn’t get too big and force me to play a bigger pot than I wanted to try to make a hand.

I know that’s bad, but I told myself that I was only doing it because the time was so limited for me.  If I had a week to play that promo, I told myself I would have played my normal game.

The other thing I soon figured out was that it was better to open pots a little bigger when I opened them.  Now, my default at a Vegas 1/2 game is to open for $8.  That’s four times the big blind.  People have suggested that’s too small, but I find that it’s pretty much the right starting point for most games.  Sometimes I adjust according to the game, of course.  Sometimes that’s not nearly enough.  Occasionally, it’s actually too much, and I can only open for $6 (those are the games I will try to get away from).  But $8 works pretty well.  Of course, if there are limpers in front of me, I add to that—generally $2 per limper.  So if there are two limpers in front of me, I’ll raise to $12.  My raise is never dependent on the strength of my hand.  It’s the same whether it’s pocket Aces or a suited connector.  It amazes me though how many players think otherwise, because they don’t realize I am raising different amounts based on the number of limpers.  They think a raise to $14 after three limpers means a bigger hand than a raise to $8 under-the-gun.  I like players like that.

But with the (then) $20 requirement to qualify for a stamp, I decided to never raise to less than $10.  That way even if I only got called by one player, the pot would be already be big enough to get the stamp no matter what—should I make an appropriate hand.  One time early I raised to $8 and was only called in one spot.  I realized that if I made a hand, I’d have to make sure I had a bet called to qualify (I didn’t make the hand anyway).  So that was a small change I made because of the promo.

As for the actually poker….I had the dreaded pocket Kings and opened to $10, it was three-ways.  I bet $20 on a Queen-high flop and had one caller. The turn was a King, I bet $30, no call.

A bit later I got those Kings again.  This time my $10 raise was called by three other players.  The flop was 8-7-4, two spades. I didn’t have the King of spades. I bet $25 and a guy who had me covered made it $100. Did I mention that the dealer was Mike, the guy who always cracks my Kings?  I let it go.

With Queen-Jack of spades on the button I raised to $10, it was three-ways.  The flop was King-10-5, one spade.  I c-bet $20 and had one caller.  Ace of hearts on the turn gave me Broadway.  I bet $40 and he folded.  I showed my straight to complete that hand on my card.  Spoiler alert: That was the only stamp I received in 6-1/2 hours of poker.  And now I have a 3/5’s completed card that is worth…..nothing.

I had pocket Aces three times.  Once, after a zillion limpers, I made it $20 from the small blind. No call.  Next time I opened to $10, two callers.  Low flop, my $20 c-bet got one call.  Another low card, I bet $30 and took it.

Then I opened to $10 with them again and had three callers.  The flop was 7-2-2.  I bet $25 and one guy made it $50.  Hmm….did he have a deuce?  I called and we were heads up.  The board bricked out and there was no more betting. I was confused to be sure.  He flipped over pocket 9’s, unimproved.  As I dragged in the pot, he saw the look of surprise on my face and explained, “I wanted to slow you down.”  Hmm….well, in that case it worked. Interesting strategy.

The biggest hand of the night was when I called a raise to $12 with Ace-King of hearts.  As you know, I don’t usually three-bet Ace-King and in this case, I was kind of hoping I could hit a flush for my card.  Three of us saw an Ace-high flop.  I called $30 and it was heads up.  There was another Ace on the turn and he bet $30 again.  I raised it to $65.  He called. The river was a blank.  He checked.  I bet $50 and he tanked….and called.  He had Ace-Jack.  Sweet.

I ended the session up $225, which was a good close to a good trip.  I also had to hope that the promo card would still be good whenever I returned to Vegas so I could make two more hands and collect $100.  But as I found out while back in L.A., that ain’t happening.