+1

if Merge allowed new signups id switch to RPM today.

There's a very good chance if a bunch of grinders flocked to RPM, Merge would probably ninja cancel all their promotions too. Mess.

Also, just to clarify. This frustration is mostly directed at the Merge network and not Rizen. I know he's doing the best he can to get us the best possible value. I'm just amazed at how little Merge seems to care about keeping its high volume grinders and even more amazed they don't even seem to bother communicating with the card room manager of one of their largest skins.

Everyone should have their casino bonuses now. They will be paid the first of the month from now on. Please get in touch with me if you feel there is anything incorrect.

-Rizen

My bonus isnt showing up, not sure if im looking in the right place. I'm looking in the casino cashier, and it says i have no real money. Am i doing something wrong?

I don't have any evidence of having received the casino bonus either. I looked in all three places it could be.

Should be in your casino accounts, if it isn't send me your username and I'll send to our technical team to fix ASAP.

-Rizen

Where are we suppose to look? My casino balance is at $0. Does this mean I did not receive my bonus?

Sounds like it, let me know your screen name and I'll have the technical team get it in your account ASAP.

-Rizen

My casino balance still reads 0 as well. Has anybody gotten them yet?

Mine is zero also.

+1

zero

Did anybody receive their casino bonus?

Im thinking no.

So, by a 40x playthrough requirement, that means that if my bonus is $300, I have to place $12,000 worth of bets on the casino side to unlock it? Not only does that not sound like it's worth anybodys time, but I don't even know if you are breaking even long term with having to play that much!

agree, its super ****ty. im just gonna bet my whole roll over and over, and hope i run good one month.

have to win 5 flips in a row to cover 40x requirement. 32:1 shot at leaving with a nice payday.

Especially considering the climate of online poker, this is the dumbest idea ever. They should just get rid of the casino completely. I would rather have an extra 5% RB than anything to do with gambling.

I already explained that you are still profitable in the long-term playing a game like blackjack with a -2% EV or something.

I know this is complicated for those who are new to it. And I also know I'm not going to explain this terribly well. Couple of example here to hopefully get people up to speed on the EV and variance involved, etc on how 40x can kind of become 5x if you have a lot of crazy gamble in you (if the rules are as I think they should be...still unconfirmed).

I know a little bit about this stuff. If someone with more knowledge than me thinks they have a better way of explaining it so that it makes sense to everyone...or thinks I am making some gross errors...then feel free to jump in (please!!).

FWIW, I'm not sure I'm going to do as I suggest below. I don't think I'm in the mood for the crazy variance of busting out in 10 straight months or something. But the EV does improve if you bet higher so I might. I'm not advocating that everyone should do it this way though. It's just an option especially if you just want to get it over with and get on with your day, etc.

------------------------------------------

If the play-through doesn't carry-over to future bonuses if you bust it out then it is definitely better than 40x in the long-term. If this is the case then you will easily be breaking even long-term with it....way beyond that actually. And if it is "true" 40x where you have to bet every penny they give you EVEN IF you bust it out...then it is still slightly +EV. -2% game like blackjack would need a 50x play-through for it to be breakeven.

But again, the nature of busting out some of the time is going to trim this down for you I believe.

Example: Current bonus = $300. You bet $30 at a time and end up busting after only 30 bets or something (so you only made it 3x play-through...and not 40x).

Your next bonus is also $300. You start over with just needing to play 40x (and not 77x to account for the previous money you already busted on). You last a bit longer on this one but still bust it again after 17x play-through.

Your next month is $300 again. You run hot this time (because you're DUE!!) and end up with $600 after your full 40x play-through on this amount only.

So for your total of $900 in bonuses you salvage $600 of it. You played a total $18,000 in bets which is 60x play-through on a start of $600. But you didn't finish your play-through on the first two of those. So it was really a $900 total bonus...with 20x play-through.....and you ended up with $600 at the end.

20x play-through of $900 bonus is $18k in total bets. -2% of that is -$360. So that's your EV at that point. Out of $900 in bonus you should have finished with $540. So you ended up doing a little better on this so far.

In fact, if you want to deal with the variance and the possibility that you frequently end up with nothing in most of your months BUT you get rid of this silliness quickly you can have a slightly better EV. As suggested above, you can just bet it all (or whatever the max is) and go crazy and try to "run it up or bust." You will end up with a lot of times where you bust it out after a 1x or 2x play-through and you got it over with.


Another Example:

Lets say you get the same amount bonus of $300 for 10 months in a row.

On 9 of those you bust it out on the very first bet. On the 10th you end up betting it 40x over and making a bigger score. That's one run of 40x plus 9 runs of 1x meaning a total of 49x on the initial $300 of each month....but divided by 10 months that becomes 4.9x on the TOTAL bonus money you received of $3,000.

4.9x isn't so terrible. But it does come with a lot of variance of course.

So if you are actually allowed to bet larger and want to go crazy with this AND if Lock doesn't carry-over the play-through requirement to future bonuses (unconfirmed) then you can kind of trim that total play-through on all your bonus stuff pretty decently and cut the impact of the EV...while also enjoying the rush of crazy variance!! (albeit usually losing of course)


Hope my examples help clarify the math on some of this casino-bonus play-through silly stuff.

Id honestly delete that post before Merge sees it lol.

I kind of thought of that actually. I know Lock wants us to get the best amount we can though. I'll leave it up to Rizen and Lock. If he wants to nuke that information because he thinks it could compromise things then he should absolutely go for it.

Seriously Rizen and ebes and you other Lock guys. If you think for any reason that this would be new information to Merge and that they wouldn't care for this analysis of the bonus at all then go ahead and destroy my post (and this one) and I will gladly THANK YOU for doing so.

If you don't do that then I'll assume it is your judgment that it's all okay and that Merge is cool with 40x and with Lock resetting the play-through each and every month.

Anyway, a lot here are kind of freaking out about "40x OMG." granted, it's really high. But it's not as high as they might think if it's approached more aggressively and I think they deserve to know how to get better value.

One's initial instincts on these if you don't know the math would be to bet small and try to crawl to the finish-line and get whatever piddly amount you can at the end. Counter-intuitively, it's actually better to just go crazy with it PLUS it has the advantage of not nearly as long.

I would hope and assume that the reason Merge made Lock put such a high play-through on the bonus is precisely for the stuff I'm referencing. If it was a 4x play-through then you could still do the "run it up or bust" strategy and effectively cut it down to almost a 1.5x play-through or something. Meaning that for every $300 you would get back $290 or something really close to your original amount....which apparently Merge isn't really in favor of.

Just got my bonus now btw fwiw. I guess it doesn't include August based on the amount(which makes sense if its going to awarded 1st of the following month from here out). I also see no evidence of "the controversial part" of this thread.

I just checked my casino cashier and I have my bonus. It says that the total is withdrawable...Does this mean no play through requirement?

If so, I take back everything negative I've said in this thread .

Now that's the part that I think should definitely be deleted. LDO (p,s, - I'm not joking...please delete).

My total isn't even close to correct fwiw. I think I might have been credited for July only....and not for June. I'm not positive on that part but I do know that it's only a fraction of what I was expecting.