Join host Justin Vacula and co-host Darren Remsburg on the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast as they delve into strategies for earning Caesars Rewards Diamond Status in 2025.
They discuss leveraging the Caesars Rewards Visa credit card and playing video poker on tier multiplier days to unlock waived resort fees, comp hotel nights, and more.
For aspiring travelers and gambling enthusiasts, the episode offers insights on maximizing rewards and benefits, upcoming events like ZorkFest 2025, and the importance of responsible gambling.
Tune in for tips on earning valuable status and making the most of your travel and gambling adventures.
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction to Low-Cost Travel with Points and Miles
00:47 Today’s Episode: Earning Caesars Rewards Diamond Status
01:13 Upcoming Events and Announcements
03:00 Welcoming Co-Host Darren Remsburg
05:11 The Value of Caesars Diamond Status
10:11 Caesars Rewards Visa Credit Card Benefits
15:43 Earning Tier Credits through Gambling
27:48 Mastering Video Poker Strategies
29:23 The Importance of Practicing Optimal Strategy
31:54 Understanding House Edge and Variance
34:49 Maximizing Casino Promotions and Tier Status
39:35 Credit Cards and Responsible Gambling
45:42 Upcoming Events and Meetups
47:40 Closing Thoughts and Future Plans
Show notes:
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Rough Transcript:
[00:00:00] Travel at low cost with points and miles. Credit card rewards bring the smiles. Many adventures, tales to be told. Make and save money, the world will unfold.
You’re listening to the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast. I’m your host, Justin Vacula, here to help you travel the world at next to no cost with credit card points, miles, benefits, and rewards. Make money, save money, and take advantage of great deals. Thanks for joining me for today’s episode. Earning Caesars Rewards Diamond status in 2025 with returning co host Darren Remsburg.
We discuss earning Caesars Rewards [00:01:00] Diamond status by using the Caesars Rewards Visa credit card and playing video poker on tier multiplier days to unlock waived resort fees, comp hotel nights, lounge access, an Atlantis stay, and much more. Before today’s episode, some quick announcements. Early bird ticket sales for Zork Fest 2025, a miles points and gambling event are now live at zorkfest.
travelzork. com. I hope to see you at Zork Fest 2025 in Las Vegas from December 5th through December 7th. I’m also looking forward to other events in 2025 and how to successful 2024 speaking at events with award travel 101 travel Zork frequent traveler university. And both Chicago seminars events. If you’re an event organizer and would like to have me speak at your 2025 event, please contact me.
Visit meetup. com slash Philly miles [00:02:00] and points to RSVP for monthly greater Philadelphia travel. Credit miles and points meetups. I host in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. The next meetups are January 26th and February 23rd of 2025. Find a link in the show notes for more content between podcast episodes.
Thank you. Follow Herdy Gerdy Travel Podcast on Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter. For bonus videos, clips, and community content, subscribe to Herdy Gerdy Travel Podcast on YouTube for daily content, and follow Justin Vekula on Instagram. Search Herdy Gerdy Travel on subscribestar. com or become a channel member on YouTube to financially support my efforts starting at the 5 a month tip jar level.
Receive special perks at higher subscriber levels Including private one on one conversations and asking podcast guests, your questions, find links and more, including credit card referrals, hurdygurdy, travel. com [00:03:00] on with today’s episode. Welcome to the show, returning co host, Darren Remsburg. Thanks, Justin.
Great to be back. There were maybe over five appearances for you this year. I feel like I should be getting some sort of tier credits for these, Justin. Maybe we can, yeah, a little foreshadowing in today’s episode. And we can apply those to, maybe I’m going to go for Caesar’s Diamond this year. We’ll see.
We’ll see. Atlantic City is inevitable. It calls me, Justin, but as the gymnastics events are not in Atlantic City, they’re in other places. But one of these days we’ll get back and take advantage of them all. Alright, very good. We’re recording on December 21st, 2024. We talked about the War on Happiness in a previous episode.
Wyndham and Caesar’s rewards have changed their direction. We were spoiled for years with matching status. So many non gamblers simply matched their [00:04:00] Wyndham status over to Caesar’s Diamond, and now that appears to be ending. January 31st, January of 2025 is going to be the last month many people are going to have the Diamond status, at least for free, basically.
And I’m going to Atlantis, I’m meeting several people there, so it might be the last shot at Atlantis for many. But we’re here to say there is a future with Caesars Diamond if you’re willing to gamble a little bit and get the Caesars Rewards Visa card. Like we say, Justin, the answer to most problems is what?
More credit cards. Absolutely. The answer to everything is more credit cards. Yes, I certainly had the opportunity to match the diamond a number of years ago and enjoyed that quite a bit. My options became limited after a disagreement with Barclays about some different charges on some of my Barclays cards, and so I lost that matching ability a couple years ago.
So this has been, as some folks say, [00:05:00] this is really just a personal com personal interest of mine to get back into how do I get to Diamond, and so I appreciate you raising this topic and allow me to join you and talk through it. So why bother earning the diamond status? We have waived resort fees, which I think is a really big one.
Personally, when I go to Las Vegas and Atlantic city, I’m getting comp nights. I’m getting rates of about 20 a night, but those pesky resort fees, they want to charge somewhere around 40, 50 a night. So those comp nights or 20 nights with resort fees aren’t so. So Diamond status will waive resort fees for an entire year.
And for me, that’s easily worth hundreds of dollars. We also get free nights on the road to earned Diamond status. You’re going to get one free night per 5, 000 tier credits, and we’ll get into that explaining the tier credits. But with the Diamond status of 15k tier credits, you’re going to get [00:06:00] three free nights with Diamond status.
So these are like free night certificates that miles and points people might be familiar with programs like Hyatt or Hilton. The diamond status is also going to give you complimentary valet and parking. Past podcast guest Mark Kaczynski laments the Harrah’s Atlantic City parking garage and I sometimes do as well.
But you’ll be able to park for free. Whether you get out in a timely manner is another story. You get a complimentary stay at Atlantis, which I mentioned I’m going to this January. Bye bye. It looks like the resort fees you must pay there with their partnering hotel. You’re paying about 60 a day, but you’re getting a really nice stay, at least hopefully.
Stay tuned for a trip report on that. Diamond status is also giving you lounge access. There aren’t as many lounges today with Caesars, but in Atlantic City there are several. Some other destinations might have them. So you can use a thousand reward credits or ten dollars in comps. You’re going to get [00:07:00] access to the lounge using those comps.
You’re going to get a yearly celebration dinner, not to get confused with a celebrity dinner. You’re going to get a 100 dining credit that you can use once per year. You’re also going to get line priority access, including VIP rooms in Las Vegas. So instead of standing in the long lines of people with no status, The civilian line, of course.
You get access to a whole separate room to check in. That’s much faster. Yeah, wide range of benefits there, Justin, and appreciate you lining those out. The diamond status does seem to be the sweet spot in the Caesars Rewards Program. We’ll talk about what the other statuses are and options and different benefits in a moment.
Just a reminder for folks that Atlantis is not actually the sunken island of, of years of old, but is a resort in the Bahamas. I know you and some others are planning to head down there in January. It seems like a fun trip. Yes. So you get a lot of benefits here with the Caesar’s [00:08:00] diamond status, which I think is a compelling case to actually earn the status through other means.
And actually earning the status, as I mentioned, rather than just matching into it. But it seems that the matching is probably going away. So now we’re going to talk about how to earn the status in this episode to retain all of these valuable benefits. Would you like to talk about the differences between the tier levels?
Yeah, I’d be happy to. So everyone has, has the opportunity to become a gold member. And that’s if you earn zero tier credits up to 4, 999 tier credit. Platinum is from 5, 000 to 14, 999, and you do get the valet benefit at Platinum level. But as Justin and I were talking about, it’s really at Diamond that a lot of these benefits kick in that we’re excited to talk about.
And that’s at 15, 000 tier credit up to 25, 000 tier credit where we get to Diamond Plus. But at [00:09:00] Diamond, you get the Celebration Dinner. lounge access, the VIP line, and in addition to valet parking and so forth. So really a big benefit there. Diamond Plus, they may also add some free drinks. Justin has talked about the four free drinks per day.
It’s pretty good, especially in Vegas where drinks are pretty pricey. And then there’s Diamond Elite at 75, 000 tier credit. Essentially, everything that you’ve gotten before, plus a 600 flight rebate, I think for many of us in the miles and points community, a 600 flight rebate is, doesn’t move the needle much.
It’s not difficult probably for us to find. Fairly inexpensive ways to get to a variety of Caesars locations. And then the mythical seven stars, Justin. If you earn 150, 000 to your credits in a year, and receive an invitation, invite only, then you may assume the seven stars status. Good, so for most [00:10:00] listeners, I think Diamond would be the goal, the 15k.
Potentially Diamond Plus, we’ll talk about that a little bit later, but most of the benefits are coming in here at the Diamond status. So I think a good way to start this is through the Caesar’s Rewards Visa credit card, which I think we don’t hear much about, and we probably didn’t because the status was just given to us through a status match.
But looking at their website now, you get 10, 000 reward credits. This is different than the tier credits. 10, 000 reward credits is simply 100 in comps. You get these 10, 000 reward credits as a sign up bonus. You also get 2, 500 tier credits, which is key, after spending 1, 000 in 90 days. So just for signing up for the credit card, spending 1, 000, you’re going to get a rebate of the 100 in comps.
And the 2, 500 tier, which puts [00:11:00] you on the way to the diamond status. You need 15, 000 tier for diamond, so you get 2, 500 as part of the sign up bonus. Another element of the credit card is that you earn 5, 000 tier credits after spending 5, 000 on the card in a calendar year. The terms are still a bit confusing to me.
It says one time only, but I’m unclear about whether this is one time ever or only one time per year. But even if it’s one time ever, with a credit card, signing up for this card in year one, you’re going to have 7, 500 tier credits. So that’s halfway to diamond just from signing up for this credit card.
So whatever valuation you put on the diamond status, I think this is a really impressive card given that we can no longer just simply match into status. The earnings on the card. aren’t too great. You get 5x reward credits for Caesar’s spending, so essentially 5%, unless you’re using [00:12:00] comps in a way that’s giving you more than a cent per point, like the lounge access if you value that.
You get 2x reward credits on dining, travel, and entertainment categories, and 1x everywhere else. So not very interesting on the earned side, but there’s ways to get possible tier credits, the terms and conditions of the card. Say that throughout the year, we may offer you bonus tier credits, bonus reward credits.
So I have seen some emails that people have shared about this in the past where they would say, Oh, well, if you spend 1, 500 at grocery stores for this month on the card, you’re going to get some bonus tier and bonus reward credits as well. So it is possible. So we can’t fully spend our way to diamond status, it seems, if we can only get 7, 500 tier through the card, but it gets us about halfway there.
The earning category is not so great, but for those in the know, perhaps losing to the [00:13:00] finish line or taking us to the finish line, you’re able to pay this credit card using a debit card. by making a phone call and speaking to an agent with the issuing bank Comenity, and you’re going to get somewhere about 1.
5 to 2 percent cash back in addition to the reward credits. So even in non ideal world, if you were to use this card with 1x everywhere else category, and then you’re getting an additional 1. 5 cash back, it’s like a 2. 5 percent cash back everywhere card. And of course, if you were to get 2 percent cash back making payments to this card, it’s like a 3x.
Everywhere card. So an underrated card and I think the value of it is going up tremendously in 2025. Great overview, Justin. I appreciate you lining all that out. It’s interesting too, as I’m looking at this award chart, if you wanted to go for diamond, signed up for the card, then when you went to the casino to play, you’re already at platinum [00:14:00] status and can enjoy some of those limited benefits.
For example, You may get a free night at 5, 000, right? So that would be, would that count? The Caesars reward card 5k to your credit that you would get would count towards a free night. Yes. That’s a good point because it’s considered earned tier. So any tier that you earn through the credit card is just considered earned tier.
So whether it’s through the credit card, whether it’s gambling, whether it’s something else, any tier credits that are added to your Caesars account do qualify for those complimentary hotel nights. Right. So you can, you could start with the, Caesar’s Reward Visa is issued by Comenity. That’s a lot, that’s a lot of C’s in there.
And start on your journey, and that would start to earn some benefits so that your first stay, you’re not starting out as a lowly gold status with no benefits and looked down on by, I’m sure, the casino employees. So, that would get you a good start. You talked about reward credits and tier credits, [00:15:00] and I think many in the points and miles community may be aware of different airlines or other folks that have different points, Delta maybe is a good example, but could you share with us the difference between a reward credit and a tier credit?
Sure. One more time, the reward credits are the comps that you can use for dining, hotel stays, and more, and the tier credits are Are what are needed for status. You talked about the different earnings on the credit card, but are there other ways to earn those two things? Do you earn both, for example, for play?
Yes. So I think the credit card is going to be the major earn, especially for people listening or already in miles and points. The second part of the earn is going to be actual gambling, actual spending. So if you can get halfway there with the Caesars rewards visa in year one, or mostly half the way there after year one, if those 5, 000 tier credits are a [00:16:00] yearly benefit, actual gambling will get you to diamond.
So I don’t think you can exclusively use the credit card to get to diamond. So you’ll have to do a combination of the Caesar’s Rewards Visa and actual gambling, unless you have some friends that will allow you to use your player’s card when you’re going to for dining or hotel stays. But let’s talk about a scenario that’s more realistic, I think, of actual gambling.
So you and I are both playing online blackjack a lot. We are. We’re playing on the Pennsylvania sites. And unfortunately, the online gambling is a poor earn rate. 50 of playthrough is only one tier credit. But multiple sites in Pennsylvania are offering blackjack. And again, we’re playing anyway. So we’re going to get some tier from the online blackjack play, which we’re playing.
Added advantage as we’ve discussed in previous episodes of using prepaid cards to fund sites, using certain [00:17:00] rewards, earning debit cards to fund these sites, lots of ways to have an advantage with online gambling. And we recently saw some deposit bonuses on some of the Caesar sites in Pennsylvania. So we can earn some tier through the online, but I think in person is our best bet for the tier earning.
There are many promotions throughout the year that are known as tier multiplier promotions. So if you were to play in person, you’re going to earn five times the rate of what you normally would earn, or sometimes 7x, potentially, other multipliers. So on a previous trip to Atlantic City, I played video poker, and the machine I played was the 8 5 Jacks or Better machine.
Eight credits for a full house, five credits for a flush. So for every ten dollars that you play through, boom. You get one tier credit and this machine isn’t a great pay table. You’re giving up about a 3 percent house edge, but given tier credit bonuses [00:18:00] on these multiplier days, possible return rewards, the benefits of status and some comps, the edge is lessened past podcast.
Guest Mandy sent me an email. There’s going to be a reward credit multiplier. In addition to the tier credit multiplier in Atlantic city, potentially it might be invite only, but I’ll check the kiosk and see. If I qualify. So you can play on these tier multiplier days, earning 5x, potentially more. And there’s another stack, America really loves math, with this one, that if you were to earn a certain amount of tier credits in a gaming day, you get bonus tier credits a few days after your play.
In my experience, it posted the next day, but the terms and conditions say it might take longer to post. So if you earn 500 base tier credits in a day, you get a bonus 125 tier credits. [00:19:00] So 500 tier credits would mean 5, 000 in coin in. That would be playthrough. So if you were to play 5 a hand, you would have to put 5, 000 coin in to get the 500 tier credits, if my math is right there on the fly.
Okay. So earn 500 tier credits, get a bonus 125 tier credits. The bonus 125 isn’t multiplied, it’s going to be added after the fact. So the base 500 earn would be 5x, so you’d actually get 2, 500 tier credits during that time. But I think the next goal is the big one. If you were to earn 1, 000 base tier credits, you get a bonus 1, 000 tier credits.
So if you were to play on a 5x multiplier day, that 1, 000 tier credits would take you 10, 000 coin in, but you’d get 5, 000 tier credits instead, or a bonus 4, 000, and then the bonus 1, 000. So [00:20:00] if you get 7, 500 tier from the Caesar’s Rewards Visa, and you play on a tier multiplier day, earning those 1, 000 base tier credits, that can push you over to Diamond.
And if you’re not able to get the Caesar’s Rewards Visa, you For whatever reason, there are some other goals here. If you earn 2, 500 tier credits in a day, you get a bonus 5, 000. So that would be a huge boost, but of course require some gambling. And again, the expected value loss on this is about 3%, the 3 percent house edge on this eight, five jacks or better game, but given the tier credit bonuses, the possible return rewards, the comps, the free nights, the benefits of status The edge is lessened.
Great overview, Justin. I appreciate you welcoming me and the listeners through that. It’s a big America loves math moment, right? Trying to figure out where the right spot is for what kind of tier credits. And certainly, we’re in this for the long game, right? So there’s the [00:21:00] opportunity to sign up for the credit card.
Maybe like you and I, folks who are playing blackjack or doing something else, maybe sportsbook. through Caesars Online and earning tier credit and reward credit along the way. And then as they get to the end of the year or even maybe halfway, they’re thinking there’s a tier multiplier coming up in Atlantic City or some other local or destination opportunity, right, that they can go to and benefit from this.
I think you recently did exactly what we just talked about, right? You had a 5x multiplier. You looked at the video poker, did some reconnaissance work for us and played the Play the 10, 000 coin in to get 1, 000 tier credit plus 4, 000 bonus tier credit for 5x plus the 1, 000 matching tier credit. Do I have that correct?
Yes, the 10, 000 coin in is an expected loss of about 300. And of course it’s gambling, so variants exist. You [00:22:00] can be a little bit below or above that. But for a 300 expected loss to get all the benefits from diamond status, I think is well worth it. I think it certainly could be for a lot of folks. If you think you’re going to have to play through 10, 000 coin in, you don’t actually have to put 10, 000 in the machine, right?
You just have to make 10, 000 in bets. Right, it’s playthrough. So if you start by putting something like a thousand or fifteen hundred in the machine, you’re recycling the money. So yes, you don’t have to put ten thousand dollars in the machine. You just have to play through that. And the machine that, at least that I played, had what they called a tier countdown.
And an indicator of how many tier credits I’ve earned for the session. So if my goal was to earn a thousand tier credits as I’m playing, that number is going up and approaching one thousand. So I can tell how much I’ve played and how much more I need to do. I love that Caesars gives you a line, [00:23:00] tells you where is the line, right, when you’re playing in the casino.
If only they would do it. For that, and others would do that for us online. Like, where is the line, Justin? Yes, yes, that’s what we’d like to know. And it’s nice it keeps track for us, because we’re in this, like, primitive mode of being the little league umpire using a click counter to keep track of things.
That’s, at least with the video poker in person, what’s going on, how much you’ve played, what the goal is, and, um, getting some bonuses for reaching that goal. Indeed. So it sounds like, If folks are interested in earning diamond status this year, they could sign up for the credit card. You said their current diamond status ends January 31st.
And I think we touched on this before, but when would you want to sign up for the Caesars Visa Rewards credit card? I would think just to be safe, I would sign up for the card in at least, we’re recording December 21st. So I wouldn’t want to sign up for the card in December. Because it might mess things up and the [00:24:00] tier might be applied to the 2024 year, which would be useless unless you were really close, but even then I wouldn’t count on going.
So I would just wait until the beginning of the year, really, and for future listeners. I really wouldn’t bank on getting it later in the year either, probably getting it early in the year or mid year just to ensure that all of the tier credits post because there might be some delay. And this is Comenity we’re dealing with so it seems really mysterious about how things are calculated.
I even look at my statements with the card and there’s no indication that these certain transactions earned the 2x or the 3x So I think getting the card earlier in the year would be best just to make sure that you’re giving yourself You’re giving community time to post those tier credits to your account earlier in the year, but not before January 31st Oh, no, you can still get it on [00:25:00] January 1 because the tier score resets to zero on January 1 They’re just a little bit quirky that your status if not re earned lasts through January 31st So that gets a little bit confusing.
That is confusing. Thank you for clarifying that But hey, it’s a free month of many will be procrastinating and, oh, I want to use my celebration dinner in January. I didn’t get to use it in December and they’re going to try to erase and, and do that. So at least they have a shot at it rather than just missing the benefit altogether.
You’re famous for your Phone Army, Justin. Is there a, is there any play there? Can we, can we employ or deploy, either way, or both, the Phone Army in pursuit of Caesar’s diamond status? Unfortunately, no. This is, the Phone Army is an MGM exclusive, and I also play a game with Wind Creek Casino, Wind Creek Casinoverse, that helps get some free food, free play, and [00:26:00] potentially free rooms at Wind Creek.
But no, unfortunately Caesars doesn’t have things where you can spin games and earn tier credits. That’d be pretty nice. So you’re actually going to have to get out there in the streets and actually gamble is what it’s looking. And there are other ways as you mentioned sports betting may get some tier table games and slots will get some tier, but of course, I’m not recommending slots on this show unless there’s a really compelling promotion because if I can play video poker and give up a 3 percent edge And then that’s offset by some of the earning and the status benefits.
That’s going to be a lot better. You could also play Blackjack in person. You could play Baccarat or Craps in person and not suffer such a big house edge, but it seems like that would be a very slow process for earning. Yeah, the benefit of, it seems like the benefit of video poker is, I guess, two things.
One, the tier and rewards credit are earning faster, right, than And two, at least in your experience, [00:27:00] there’s a tier countdown right there versus you’re relying on the pit boss to, to figure out swiping in and swiping out and how many, Hands you played and what’s the hourly rate and all that sort of stuff which seems to be a bit more nebulous in casinos Is that you think that’s a fair and accurate assessment?
Yeah, that’s right And the video poker also gives you the opportunity to have the one big gaming day as our friend Michael Traeger of Travels Orc says that you can get those thousand tier credits in a day Whereas if you’re playing a table game and you’re betting something like 25 On Baccarat, it might be unlikely to earn those thousand tier credits, or else your session is going to have to be a grueling ten hour session.
But I don’t do the table games. I think video poker is the way to go here, and I’ve timed myself. I think for earning those thousand tier credits, you can do that in about two and a half to three hours. And as I’ve recommended with Blackjack, and I think we’ve mentioned in a previous episode, [00:28:00] you’re going to be practicing video poker off the table, off the game.
There are a lot of training apps that you can find. There’s also videopoker. com that has trainers. And there are a lot of mobile apps that you can use where you get the five card hand and you pick which cards to hold, which card to discard. And if you make a mistake, it will tell you. And there are also explanation of what the best hold was and rankings of the different decisions that you can make.
So I think maybe a modest goal of practicing five, 10 minutes a day, most And using a strategy chart that you can find at wizardofodds. com, you can get pretty good at video poker. And say, okay, if you’re not playing super optimal strategy, 3 percent house edge, maybe you give up about a half percent, as long as you’re not making egregious mistakes.
So even if you’re giving up a 3. 5 edge, but you’re getting all the benefits from status, I see that as well worth it. And with these tier multipliers, it would be [00:29:00] important not to overplay. So you’re just going to aim for the status, but you’re not going to keep playing because the earn from the 15k diamond to 25k, if you don’t make that 25k goal, then what was really the point?
Then you’re just outright gambling at that point and not getting many benefits, which of course, we’re not going to recommend on this show. We are not gonna recommend on the show. You’re exactly right. I think for most folks in miles and points, they understand that there’s some study involved, right? The, the way you find the best way to travel to, to Europe or Asia or Africa is putting in a little study time and understanding what are the different award charts.
And, and I would just highlight what you said here. This is no different. Don’t stroll into the casino and, and sit down in front of the. 8 6 table or 8 5 table video poker and start playing and not really understand what the optimal strategy is or having practiced that optimal strategy. It will not, likely will not turn out well for you or at least The odds [00:30:00] are not in your favor.
Yeah, at that point, you’d be on slot machine level. If you’re not playing well, you’re probably giving up something like 5 to 10 percent to the house on video poker. And that would be very bad. So take the time to practice. And if you’re flying into AC, you can practice on the phone while you’re flying. It doesn’t require an internet connection on the training apps.
And unfortunately, you’ll have to probably have to play that 8 5 Jacks or Better game, not the best pay tables I mentioned. I looked when I was at Harrah’s Atlantic City, the full pay 9 6 machine. Nine credits for the full house, six for the flush. There were signs on the machine that said this is excluded from promotions.
So my understanding, you would get no tier multiplier and possibly no bonus tier. And even worse, you have to play 25 to get one tier credit, compared to the 8 5 that’s 10 played for one tier credit. So in a way we’re buying back our time. And I think you were even looking at the math and the expected value [00:31:00] of more coin in required looks pretty grim playing the 25 through to get one tier credit.
Yeah, I looked at that and I can’t remember exactly what my calculations were, but it was not favorable, even the better. 9. 6 pay table is comes out worse for the 25 to your credit if that’s your primary goal. And again, I think for most folks listening to this, that would be their primary goal. You just want to go gamble and have fun, go for it, right?
But this is probably not the podcast podcast for you. We are about fun and we’re about intelligent gambling. And personally, I have fun through intelligent gambling. The idea of, Oh, I’m just going to play silly bets and play triple zero roulette. And I even saw a layout that had a four zeros on it, as it seemed to be a bonus round.
It can always get worse, but we’re teaching you how to gamble smarter and gamble better. Quad zero roulette. That sounds like a, just a So I think that gets us to the mental part of [00:32:00] gambling. And I think everyone struggles with that, right? You have a down session. I think there’s a couple things to remember.
One, there is a house edge. You should expect to walk out of the casino, or if you’re playing online, close your session having lost money. That is exactly what we would expect, depending on what game you’re playing. And how well you’re playing it, again, optimal strategy, gives you some idea of what your expectation should be, again, over the long term, not in that individual session, in which there is wide variation, right?
The reason people love to play those games is because the variation also swings in your favor sometimes. And so you can have, I think you said recently, right, you’ve been on a great winning streak. And that’s in part due to you adhering to optimal strategy on Blackjack. And the luck that’s involved sometimes with that and people, I think, need to be prepared for that mentally so that the worst outcome would be, [00:33:00] Hey, I’m, I’m checking my, my strategy.
I have maybe a chart in front of me if I’m in the casino of blackjack or I have the wizard of odds. optimal strategy up while I’m also playing and I’m checking every decision to make sure I’m playing optimal strategy and I’m down 10%, some big number. And that’s happened to me. That’s, I think it’s probably happened to you on a single session.
And to give up then loses the opportunity to have regression to the mean of what we’d expect in that game. There’s also people probably listening to that to say, you can’t keep throwing money in if you’re losing, right? Like you shouldn’t chase the wins. It’s a, I think a famous gambling fallacy. And you all should, should be aware of the math behind how gambling and specifically these games work, what your expected outcome is or should be.
And you and I both track our play to make sure that we’re close to that. And if not, we need to make sure that, [00:34:00] again, we’re following optimal strategy, making sure we’re making the best decisions, and moving along. Yes, you need a big sample size and accurate tracking to have confidence in your play. And that, if you’re just going to look at what happened this day, this week, this month, potentially even several months, even some of the best poker players in the world, Daniel Negreanu, has said, I’ve gone on downswings in poker tournaments, I’ve lost money here or there.
It happens, but you need the big sample size in order to get close to that expectation. And in video poker, in Jacks for Better video poker anyway, the Royal Flush is a big part of the payout. I think about 2 percent of that payout, and the Royal Flush happens only once every 40, 000 hands, and you could be under royaled for certain cycles.
So I would look at video poker as a tool to earn the status, not as just something to go in to plop down on a non tier credit, non reward multiplier day, and just [00:35:00] trying to chase that jackpot of the royal flush that you would just have a strategy. As you said, you have a game plan of I’m going to go in on these certain days when the multipliers run, I’m going to play towards status and that’s it.
And even waiting for these promos to come. So it really wouldn’t make sense to me to ever sit down and play video poker during a non promo period in the month of April, for instance, because I’ll be earning tier throughout that year, and then look to evaluate in October, November, December, when I want to play these tier multiplier promotions.
Now we could try to predict the future, and if we’re going to a bigger goal like diamond plus, diamond elite, or even seven stars. Then maybe we’d want to play those multiplier days more often, but I can’t see just sitting on the square, let’s say, and just playing when there’s no promotion involved, because then you’re just taking mostly the full house edge.
But these [00:36:00] promotions are giving us an opportunity to have better expectation. Absolutely. It’s understanding the game. It’s no different than, again, points and miles analogy, right? When do certain airlines open up their award space? When do certain hotels open up their award space? If you miss that, when do you find close in bookings and on which airlines, right?
So, it’s that kind of approach here, I think, as well. What’s our goal? How am I gonna leverage credit cards and strategic play to meet that goal? And then, if I’m behind, what can I do? If I still really want to meet that goal, have an upcoming trip, have some use for that tier status. I wouldn’t taste chase tier status just for tier status, right?
Don’t go out and fly. Don’t go out and do a bunch of mileage runs on Delta. If you’re never going to fly sky team and you’re a American or Alaska or something like [00:37:00] that hub, it doesn’t make sense. Likewise, don’t be going out and gambling a bunch. At Caesars, if you’re never gonna go to the casino. Yeah, that’s a good point.
Now maybe some will say, Okay, the diamond status is valuable to me, I’m not gonna go to Vegas too many times during the year, I’m not gonna go to Atlantic City too many times, But, oh look, I’m looking forward to an Atlantis visit, I’ll get the 100 dining comp, So, you’ll have to determine how much the status is valuable to you, But yes, don’t blindly chase the status.
But I think that base diamond status is very justifiable. Even for someone that would go to Vegas one or two times a year, or go to Atlantic City maybe a handful of times per year, if we’re going to give up 300 in expected value, we’re going to get a 100 dining comp, we’re going to get three free nights, we’re going to get the valet parking, we’re going to get the lounge access, the priority line access, and some other benefits.
I, I think that’s pretty easy to [00:38:00] justify the diamond. And also the waived resort fees, I’m going to Atlantic City tomorrow, actually, 12 22, checking in on a Sunday, checking out on a Friday. So that’s going to be, I believe, five nights, and that’s saving me 200 in resort fees. So that’s, that waived resort fees comes up a lot.
It’s really valuable to me, but again, for those that aren’t traveling much, it’s not going to be as valuable, but I think the diamond status is going to be good. So then that raises a question of how valuable would the Diamond Plus be? You need 15k tier to get to Diamond. You need 25k tier to get to Diamond Plus.
I plan to go for Diamond Plus. I think it gives a better class of Atlantis stay and the possible free drinks. We mentioned I can definitely use in Vegas at Starbucks locations, at certain bars, and other places that sell coffee and other beverages. But I don’t think the Diamond Elite will make sense for me.
The 600 flight rebate [00:39:00] is okay, but it’s taking 50, 000 more tier, so that’s probably not going to be worth it. But we’ll see what happens. I’ll play a tier multiplier day probably early next year as well, and I’ll continue playing online Blackjack. So if it gets close, I might go for that Diamond Elite.
I’ll probably stop with Diamond Plus next year and this year. I plan on earning that diamond plus on this next Atlantic city trip. That sounds fantastic. I’m sorry. I’m not able to join you, but we’d love to catch up in Atlantic city, especially after I get my Caesar’s rewards, diamond card or Caesar, excuse me, not diamond card, Caesar reward visa card, and, and have a platinum status at least to take advantage of when I get there.
It gets you in the game. You don’t have to bother with the free parking. So that’s a good benefit. And of course you could deploy the phone army. And use your rewards at Borgata in Atlantic City to get a comp night at Borgata [00:40:00] and some free play dining credits and free parking there. And that’ll be another episode.
We’ll talk about the MGM gold status and how to earn that from the MGM Mastercard. The Caesars Rewards Visa, it’s good. That’s going to be in your future. It’s also nice. It’s issued by Comenity. So again, that’s an opportunity to earn additional money when paying the card. So that’s pretty exciting. That’s with Comenity.
I don’t, I don’t think I was excited for Comenity a year or two ago. Was that ever at the top of a priority list? It was not for me. I agree. I think the introduction of pay by phone. Benefits here really change the game on which credit cards have value. And again, that can always change, right? We’ve seen that recently with a couple of cards, even had some folks that apparently got shut down because they use pay by phone.
So we don’t know for sure what’s going on with that, but it seems so far other community cards have [00:41:00] been fine and folks have been using a pay by phone scenario there to earn an extra, like you 2 percent back. So I think this is another opportunity to do that and leverage those credit cards, again, to get, what do you say, travel?
Travel at low cost with 14 miles, credit card rewards, bringing some Exactly, exactly. I didn’t get to hear the intro song, so it didn’t come to mind essentially, but yeah, yeah. Play it for you next time. That’d be perfect. Yes, I think some individuals got a lifetime achievement award in the past because they were paying by phone, but they were using multiple cards to do that.
But in the current iteration of Flues and some other things, we’re not calling it and making multiple payments with multiple 200 Visa cards from Staples or MasterCards, for example, or other like virtual cards that we can source through some places. So this pay by phone is making a larger amount on one card.
Using the same payment method or maybe a maximum of two different payment methods. So I think [00:42:00] the future is looking bright with Comenity and it would be nice if we can get that 5, 000 tier credits every year for spending 5, 000 on the card. So that’s a nice high spend goal there of 5, 000, which isn’t too high, but I know exactly what you mean.
And yes, gamble responsibly. Another thing to have mental fortitude about this, that. There will be some losing sessions, losing days, losing weeks, whatever it might be, but for video poker, I hope that everybody gets a royal flush, but it might take a while for you to actually see that. So you’re going to have to float a little bit until that royal comes, most likely.
Yeah, I think that’s exactly right. I think Gamble responsibly is spot on. I think we talk about this in most episodes, but this really only works if you’re financially responsible as well. If you’re running up credit cards and not able to pay them off at when the statement is due and accrue late fees and interest, this is probably [00:43:00] not the game for you because the 350 cost of putting coin in it at video poker is going to be much higher than that.
And all of a sudden these tiers and these benefits are going to be dramatically outweighed by the interest fees that the credit card companies will charge. So that’s the second reminder, whether it’s gambling, whether it’s credit card signups, um, do them responsibly and it’s not, when I say responsibly, I’m not talking about 524, right?
I’m talking about making sure you’re paying your bills in a timely manner, develop a system as I think, Justin, you and I both have expanded our credit card portfolio. Folks do it in different ways. Some folks will do, they’ll make all their credit cards due on a similar day of the month, first of the month.
Some folks like to stagger them, so summer to the first of the month, summer to the 15th of the month, and that helps with cash flow. Whatever it is, have some sort of organization that allows you to ensure [00:44:00] that those credit card payments are made in a timely manner. And that you are not losing to the bank, but in fact are winning because that’s the business decision that we all want to make.
Yes, and we’re teaching you how to win rather than lamenting the system like Dave Ramsey saying that you’ll never win with credit, everyone’s going to go into debt, nobody can spend responsibly. But we’re here as part of this elite club of, Oh, actually we could not wail out and buy useless things. And I have my freezer of frozen veggies that I got for free.
And I’ve been eating those and using my rice cooker and I’m not going out and, um, just spending all this money, even though I can, because I have the credit cards, I can be responsible. I thought about it deeply. I embraced the frugal life. And I’m also having lots of fun with gambling, with credit, all these trips next year is a trip to Amsterdam, a trip to Poland, the UK, eight cruises I’ve mentioned.
So [00:45:00] miles and points has really changed my life and enhanced it in many ways. Likewise, I think the. Folks get into the hobby for different reasons and the travel is a unifying one for many folks and this is the Caesars Rewards programs is similar, right? It’s, it’s similar to maybe a hotel program where if you’re going to be taking a trip somewhere, you’d like to stay at free or no cost or at least low cost.
through points and miles. So I think this is another great example of this. I think you’ve done an excellent job of expanding sort of traditional points and miles community, casino operations and expanding opportunities for folks to enjoy their time while traveling. So enjoy these times and sessions with you, Justin.
Appreciate you having me back. All right. Thanks for coming on. And we’ll be back in Willow Grove to talk more about this for upcoming meetups. You’ve been at many of these in person meetups. I think we had about 10 people at the previous one. So good showing, even when other travelers were [00:46:00] traveling, we had that, the travel hackers dilemma.
Oh, I couldn’t make the meetup because I’m in San Diego. I’m in San Francisco. I’m here. I’m there. It’s funny when that happens, but we have a good core group and more people coming. We had some people from. Award travel 101 Facebook page. You’ve come to the meetup and the next ones are January 26th and February 23rd of 2025.
I’m hoping to make those. We’ll see, as you say, there’s the travels hackers dilemma, right? Or we’re traveling all the time or often and sometimes can’t make the meetups, but I agree. It’s been a good core group and you have had a number of visiting guests as well that rotate through. So some familiar faces, but also opportunities for new faces, new ideas.
And I think that that’s a great mix of folks that understand more or less what folks are doing, but also some new ideas and new faces in the mix. The wins continue. Absolutely. Gambling and credit in [00:47:00] 2025. What Dave Ramsey was always saying. You should send Dave a hurdy gurdy sticker or something for his set.
Yeah, and even we’re talking about possibly using credit to fund gambling as well in many different ways. A lot of possibilities of indirect funding. Yep. Lots of, lots of interesting ideas. And so those are the kind of things that we discuss more freely, as one of our favorite podcasts, podcast hosts says, at the Willow Grove Meetups.
Yes, the Myelnomics Podcast Network. They’ve been very inspirational for the show. Yeah, absolutely. Great group of folks, great community, and highly recommend them. All right. Any closing thoughts? Again, I appreciate you having me back on. Hope everyone has safe travels during this holiday, busy travel holiday season.
And, uh, look forward to talking about something fun again in the next few weeks. I’m doing the anti holiday in Atlantic City, meeting with some miles and points people. What’s your holiday week [00:48:00] looking like? We’re pretty traditional. We’ll spend some time with family, uh, in Maryland and Virginia and bounce back and forth.
But, yeah, it’s a time to slow down, relax. Oftentimes, it’s funny, it’s the time where I end up booking some of our big trips for the following year, but This year we’ve booked most of those already. My wife and I are still looking to take a 20th anniversary trip, so maybe that’ll be the trip that I book over the holidays when I have a few days to really dig into the award searches and find things that work for us.
Many tofurkis from your multiple giant accounts? No tofurkis. No, yeah, I know, I know. Sometimes some ham, sometimes some turkey, depending on where we’re going to be. But yeah, the multiple giants accounts, sadly, I heard for those that are listening in a timely manner, the gift card promo that is essentially a repeat from last week starts today or started yesterday.
You are not able to accrue additional giant points [00:49:00] for the same purchases. So they essentially just did it. So yeah, the answer to everything is in this case, more giant accounts, I think. Ooh, yes, we got to fight the war on hostiness. A new twist on the old Beirut. All right, very good. Thanks for coming on the show today.
Always a pleasure, Justin, and thanks everybody for listening. And I hope I, just as a side note, I tried to speak more slowly. I’m a 1. 25x podcast listener. Your speed of speaking, Justin, is perfect for that. Mine is too fast, so I tried to slow down. For anybody that’s a 1. 5x. If I need to slow down more, let me know, but appreciate the opportunity to come and speak with you, regardless of how fast I talk.
Alright, thanks for listening and stay tuned for future episodes. Early bird ticket sales for Zorkfest 2025, a miles points and gambling event, are now [00:50:00] live at zorkfest. travelzork. com. I hope to see you at Zorkfest 2025 in Las Vegas from December 5th through December 7th. I’m also looking forward to other events in 2025, and has successful 2024, speaking at events with Award Travel 101, Travel Zork, Frequent Traveler University, and both Chicago Seminars events.
If you’re an event organizer and would like to have me speak at your 2025 event, please contact me. Visit meetup. com slash philly miles and points dot org. To RSVP for monthly greater Philadelphia travel credit miles and points meetups. I host in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. The next meetups are January 26th and February 23rd, 2025.
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