In my last two blogs, I mentioned the Gambler’s Bonus system that was attached to games I played long ago. I received a lengthy post (which you may find in the comments to the July 21 post on www.gambingwithanedge.com ) asking me lots of specifics about that particular slot club system.
I’ll respond where I can. I don’t have inside information on how it worked, and it’s been a long time since I played it, but I’ll tell you what I remember. It’s possible that the system has changed some since I actively played it.
If you obtained all 13 quads (playing at least 5 coins) in few enough hands, you received $50,000 — no matter what denomination you were playing. (On Deuces Wild variations, five-of-a-kind with exactly one deuce counted as a qualifying quad.) After some pre-determined number of hands (maybe 2,000? I’m not sure), the $50,000 amount would rapidly decrease. The lower the stakes you were playing, the faster the amount would decrement.
After enough hands, the number ended up on $39 and stayed there until you finally hit it. A high percentage of the ones I collected were for this lowest-possible amount.
You could cancel your primary card and/or your secondary card (explained soon) and start over at any point. Some people routinely did this when the amount got less than $100 or some other fixed number. I never did. I didn’t have enough information to know what the optimal strategy was. I just treated it as an occasional “something extra.” Always welcome, no matter how small.
I generally didn’t change my strategy to get the last quad — although I did once. I had 12 quads earned and my meter was at $47,000. I shifted to five-coin quarters and started to play bonus poker — where quads came around more quickly than in the Deuces Wild variation I usually played. I needed four sixes, and I played very aggressively for it. On a hand like AA446, I would hold the single 6.
About four hours later, the progressive was down to less than $100 and I still hadn’t hit it. My aggression had cost me a few hundred dollars or so — but I felt it had been worth it. I transferred back to my normal game and eventually cashed out $39.
The game had a backup scorecard that at first blush seemed to help you, but I think it hurt you. Let’s say you were just starting out and you hit four jacks. Okay. Jacks were crossed off your primary card. If you hit jacks again before you completed your first card, jacks were crossed off your secondary card. Any more times you hit four jacks were ignored until you had a card where it wasn’t crossed off.
Why this hurt you was is that the meter for the number of hands you played was working for both cards. So, hypothetically, if you hit two sets of four jacks immediately after starting, you could not possibly collect on your secondary card until you had closed out both your first card and your secondary card as well. Many times, I had both cards sitting at $39 waiting for me to get (say) sevens on the first card and sevens and eights on the second.
I never attempted to calculate how much this promotion was worth. I’m sure it varied by game and denomination and for the stakes I played was worth maybe 0.01%??? I do not have the records to give you a more precise number than that. It was never a reason to play the game. It was just an occasional extra.
The Gambler’s Bonus system is still found in numerous bars around Las Vegas and maybe elsewhere. To my mind, the The games inside aren’t playable. I do stop in such bars occasionally to see what promotions they have. It’s happened more than once that a monthly promotion at one of those was good enough to warrant playing. And some day I’ll probably collect another $39 once or twice.