As most of you know, most Las Vegas Poker Rooms rake 10% up to $4 in their games. When is $5 better than $4? When it is taken to fund a weekly/monthly free roll!
Most clever Las Vegas Poker Rooms know the great value of the free roll. The tourists don't really notice the extra dollar raked, and the savvy locals knows that extra dollar is HUGE value to those qualifying since at times 8/10 of the table are NOT regulars and won't qualify for the free roll. The bottom line is that basically all thos who qualify for the free roll are pretty much playing rake free since the extra money raked for the free roll are being taken from everyone, but given back ONLY to those qualifying.
How to keep the tourists from noticing/complaining? Add jackpot payouts! Some places have quad bonuses/Aces Cracked/etc, and these can add up to 50 cents or more per hand, the rest go to the free roll. Obviously, if you are a local, you want the chintziest payouts on the jackpots (which are paid to all players) and the biggest amounts on the freerolls (paid just to the regulars).
Right now, the Rio has a solid value free roll. They rake $1 extra per hand, but the jacpot is only for 1 thing, lose with quad 10s or better, using both cards in your hand (60k). I believe this jackpot isn't costing them much, so the vast majority of each extra dollar is going into the freeroll.
The bottom line is that if you play 15 hours of live poker Sun-Thurs, you qualify for a $11,000 free roll tourney the following Wedneday. Assuming 100 players qualify, that is worth $110 on average per player, more likely $150 for an above average team.
$150/15 hours is a $10/hour wage. If you figure 3 hands won per hour for a tight player, figure around that amount in total rake (normal plus extra $1) obviously a GREAT deal for the player putting in the 15 hours.
I played 6 hours today at the Rio 1/3 game (no 2/5 game there). The table was full of conservative players, and I pretty much smoothly moved up from $300 to $502, for a $202 profit.
The great advantage of the free roll is that you truly are "making" money every minute. If you need an orbit break for phone calls/food/whatever, you can stay 'on the clock' and keep accumulating time (worth $10/hour) while multi-tasking.
The negative of course is the tourist really go get crushed on the rake. However, none of them even seem to notice, and those who do seem happy when told about how the $1 paid for the free roll AND the bad beat.
In fact, don't even try to suggest to a short handed table to forego the $1 jackpot rake. It will often cause a near riot from the guys who worry they will lose 60k on the next hand.
Most clever Las Vegas Poker Rooms know the great value of the free roll. The tourists don't really notice the extra dollar raked, and the savvy locals knows that extra dollar is HUGE value to those qualifying since at times 8/10 of the table are NOT regulars and won't qualify for the free roll. The bottom line is that basically all thos who qualify for the free roll are pretty much playing rake free since the extra money raked for the free roll are being taken from everyone, but given back ONLY to those qualifying.
How to keep the tourists from noticing/complaining? Add jackpot payouts! Some places have quad bonuses/Aces Cracked/etc, and these can add up to 50 cents or more per hand, the rest go to the free roll. Obviously, if you are a local, you want the chintziest payouts on the jackpots (which are paid to all players) and the biggest amounts on the freerolls (paid just to the regulars).
Right now, the Rio has a solid value free roll. They rake $1 extra per hand, but the jacpot is only for 1 thing, lose with quad 10s or better, using both cards in your hand (60k). I believe this jackpot isn't costing them much, so the vast majority of each extra dollar is going into the freeroll.
The bottom line is that if you play 15 hours of live poker Sun-Thurs, you qualify for a $11,000 free roll tourney the following Wedneday. Assuming 100 players qualify, that is worth $110 on average per player, more likely $150 for an above average team.
$150/15 hours is a $10/hour wage. If you figure 3 hands won per hour for a tight player, figure around that amount in total rake (normal plus extra $1) obviously a GREAT deal for the player putting in the 15 hours.
I played 6 hours today at the Rio 1/3 game (no 2/5 game there). The table was full of conservative players, and I pretty much smoothly moved up from $300 to $502, for a $202 profit.
The great advantage of the free roll is that you truly are "making" money every minute. If you need an orbit break for phone calls/food/whatever, you can stay 'on the clock' and keep accumulating time (worth $10/hour) while multi-tasking.
The negative of course is the tourist really go get crushed on the rake. However, none of them even seem to notice, and those who do seem happy when told about how the $1 paid for the free roll AND the bad beat.
In fact, don't even try to suggest to a short handed table to forego the $1 jackpot rake. It will often cause a near riot from the guys who worry they will lose 60k on the next hand.
