Best Trifecta Strategy
You are doing research on the Enagic Trifecta strategy. This is the most asked question I get almost on a daily basis. I want to break down and walk you through the Trifecta strategy and how to maximize it the right way. There are videos on YouTube, of people start their Enagic business in different ways. Occasionally, an exacta box is useful. If you like two longshots in the race, box them up and pray for the best! If you hit it, your payoff will be massive. More on How To Bet The Exacta her. Trifecta betting. Trifecta betting is precisely the same as exacta betting but to win the trifecta bet you must select the first three finishers in the race.
For those familiar with credit card rewards, it can make a ton of sense to pair cards together to maximize your earning. For a while, the “Chase Trifecta” was considered the best trio of cards for earning. However, with this year’s changes to the Amex Gold Card and Citi Double Cash, is there a new top trio?
The strategy for earning credit card bonuses and points (and therefore, free travel) that I most frequently recommend to beginners is the Chase Trifecta. Not only is the strategy easy to understand and execute, it’s also realistic for the everyday spender. Looking back, some of my family’s top trips have been thanks to the Chase Trifecta. The Amex Trifecta is more of a points earning strategy for the long term with your everyday spending compared to a bunch of sign of bonuses that you’re going to get over and over. Amex Trifecta The three cards that make up the American Express Trifecta are the American Express Platinum card, American Express Gold card, and the American Express Blue Business Pro Plus card.
Over the next week, we’ll be breaking down the best card trifecta from each of the three major banks: American Express, Chase, and Citi
In the final installment of the series, we’ll be crowning the winner of the Battle of the Credit Card Trifectas.
Battle of the Credit Card Trifectas: Overview
Category Bonuses
Best Trifecta
Best category bonuses go to the American Express Trifecta. The combination of The Platinum Card, Gold Card, and Blue Business Plus provide an incredibly well-rounded earning trio. The cards in the Amex Trifecta seem to complement each other, while some of the other trifectas have more overlap. The trifecta also includes the unique category of 4x on groceries (Gold Card), which could be a huge annual expense for families.
Best Card
The Citi Prestige came away as the card with the best category bonuses. With 5x on both restaurants and air travel the Prestige is the only card to lead in two major categories. 5x on air travel is tied with the Amex Platinum Card, while the restaurant category is unmatched by both Amex and Chase. Depending on how much you dine out, this could be a huge bonus category for you.
Return on Spend
Best Trifecta
Best Trifecta Strategy In Marketing
With nearly 78,000 points annually, the American Express Trifecta is the winner of return on spend. That’s nearly enough points for first class on Lufthansa!
Where the Amex Trifecta really stands out over its competitors is in the grocery and hotel categories. Thanks to the American Express Gold Card, the Amex Trifecta earned an additional 8,000 points over their competitors on groceries alone.
Return on spend doesn’t take into account how much the trifecta costs to hold. That said, it’s clear that holding the Platinum, Gold, and Blue Business Plus cards is a great way to rack up the points.
What’s surprising is how far behind the competition Chase is. While there’s room for upside with gift cards on the Chase Ink Business Cash, it’s disappointing that Chase is lagging over 10,000 points behind the competition. Perhaps adding the Chase Freedom to the mix would help bump up this trifecta’s earning.
Best Card
The award for most rewarding individual card goes to the Citi Prestige. Thanks to 5x on flights and dining, the Prestige racks up 58,000 points annually. The Prestige Card just edges out the American Express Gold Card at 55,000.
However, I’d go so far as to call the American Express Gold Card a better return on spend than the Citi Prestige. The Gold Card carries a $250 annual fee, compared to $495 for the Prestige. In addition, the card is uniquely strong at both restaurants and grocery stores. While it may not carry all the same perks as the Citi Prestige, the Gold Card is incredibly rewarding for the average consumer.
Annual Fees
- Amex: $800
- Chase: $450
- Citi: $590
With only one card carrying an annual fee and the lowest annual fee of the premium cards, Chase is the clear winner here. The Sapphire Reserve Card also comes with $300 in travel credits, effectively reducing the annual fee to $150. Citi and Amex don’t even come close to that.
If you’re deciding solely on cost, the Chase Trifecta is probably best for you. Depending on your spending and travel habits, both the Citi and Amex Trifecta come with benefits that could easily offset the annual fees.
Fee Credits
Mark Chase down as the winner here. The Chase Sapphire Reserve comes with a $300 annual travel credit – the largest of any card in our competition. Because of its ease of use, the annual fee is effectively reduced to $150. The credit is automatically applied to any travel-related purchases on your account and is incredibly easy to use.
Citi comes in second with it $250 travel credit on the Prestige Card. Again, it’s a very straightforward credit, similar to Chase. However, it’s not quite as large and carries a higher annual fee.
The American Express Trifecta comes in a close third place in the fee credit department. While the Platinum Card and Gold Card come with a bunch of fee credits, the complexity to use them reduces their value. If your spending habits allow you to easily use Amex’s credits, they could jump up first place. Since we’re doing this exercise for the average consumer and not travel hackers, the complexity drops them down to third.
Other Perks
When it comes to perks, it’s hard to match the American Express Trifecta. While all three trifectas have premium cards with lounge access, the American Express Platinum Card comes with access to three different groups of lounges – Centurion lounges, Priority Pass lounges, and Delta Sky Clubs. In addition to lounge access, the Platinum Card also comes with elite status in several programs, Global Entry, the Fine Hotels & Resorts program, and Amex Offers among others. In addition, the Platinum Card will be gaining travel protection in 2020.
Chase comes in a close second with many similar benefits to the Amex Trifecta. In addition to the card’s premium benefits, the Chase Sapphire Reserve comes with fantastic travel protection, giving it an edge over its competitors…for now. However, superior lounge access and additional status perks gave Amex the leg up.
Citi is a distant third in this category and it’s not really close, in my opinion. The Citi Prestige comes with the same basic benefits of Priority Pass lounge access and Global entry. However, there isn’t much that makes it truly stand out. The card does come with Citi’s 4th Night Free Benefit. This benefit has the potential to save you hundreds on hotel stays, so it’s not a complete wash. In addition, Citi recently gutted trip protection from all of their cards, making it less compelling to use their cards. While this was once where Citi shined, it’s now an area where they desperately need to improve.
And the winner is…
The American Express Trifecta!
With the strongest earning profile and perks, the Amex Trifecta edged out the Chase Trifecta. While the Amex Trifecta carries the highest fee, the cost can easily be justified through earning and benefits. Perks like Centurion Lounge access and elite status can greatly improve your flying experience. Once you’ve reached your destination, the Fine Hotels & Resorts program or elite status with chains like Marriott can greatly enhance your stay. Add in the fact that you still stand to earn a boatload of points and you’ve got a winner.
I came into this competition expecting the Chase Trifecta to come out on top. While the trifecta still remains strong, due to its low cost, perks, and simplicity, Chase has been passed when it comes to earning. I still consider the Chase Trifecta compelling thanks to the minimum redemption value of 1.5 cents per point. However, I’d really like to see Chase step up their category bonuses.
Unfortunately, someone has to come in last and that honor belongs to Citi. While the change to the Citi Double Cash makes the trifecta more compelling from an earning perspective, it just wasn’t enough. The Citi Trifecta wasn’t the best in any category and more often than not, came in last.
Final Thoughts
I was really surprised by the final outcome. I guess that’s why it’s always best to check your preconceived notions at the door. From a personal perspective, I found this exercise to be really useful. It’s opened my eyes and made me reconsider my credit card strategy in the future.
In the end, I hope you got as much out of this as I did. Feel free to let me know if you’d like to see more series or comparisons like this in the future 🙂
Do you agree with the winner? Sound off in the comments below!
Sandwich Play – A Trifecta Wagering Strategy
Most major racetracks in North America now offer a minimum Trifecta wager of only 50-cents. This lower minimum wager enables bettors to construct tickets that cover more horses and keep the cost of the tickets affordable. With this in mind, we’re going to introduce a Trifecta wagering strategy we call the “Sandwich Play.”
With the 50-cent Trifecta option, the Sandwich Play offers an affordable back-up to an Exacta wager. Exacta wagers require that you select the first and second place finishers in a race. Click here to review an article on making Exacta wagers. Well, after finishing first and third for the umpteenth time … and lamenting over some unexpected horse breaking up my Exacta … I decided to implement a strategy that would payout for a close-but-formally-no-cigar 1st and 3rd finish.
The main idea is to sandwichone or more horses between two (or more) “key” Exacta horses in a Trifecta play. For example, let’s say that #8 and #10 are your “key” horses. Furthermore, let’s assume you feel there are four horses with a chance of spoiling your 8-10 exacta; they are horses #1,#2,#3, and #4.
So let’s say you make a $5 Exacta box 8-10 … costing $10. Then you could make a 50-cent Trifecta sandwich play as follows:
8,10 with 1,2,3,4 with 8,10 for a total of $4.
The mathematics for a 2-key horse sandwich play are simple. TWO times the number of horses you’re sandwiching in the middle (4 in this example) times the amount of the bet (50-cents in this example).
Next, let’s say in the prior example you want to sandwich “all” of the horses in the middle and we’ll assume it’s a 10-horse field. You would call out your 50-cent wager as follows:
8,10 with ALL with 8,10 = 16 combinations x 50-cents = $8
Why 16 combinations (not 20) with it being a 10-horse field? Because the #8 and #10 are being singled in the 1st and 3rd position … so they cannot finish there AND finish in the 2nd position as well. That leaves 8 horses in the middle.
Now for a real world example using the “sandwich play” strategy that unfortunately (for the author) didn’t result in a big payout, but demonstrates the possibility just the same.
On October 25, 2013 the 8th race at Keeneland had a 12-horse field with one scratch (#6) for a total of 11 horses going into the gate. I thought the race was fairly wide open, but ended up deciding to make an exacta play with #8 (the 9-5 Favorite) and #10 (a 20-1 horse with lots of speed and upset potential). In addition to the exacta play, I made the following sandwich play.
I decided to make this an “ALL” play for the 2nd position because I really did think it was possible for any of the horses to spoil my 8-10 exacta box.
Well, as expected, #10 took the early lead and led for much of the race. Unfortunately, he tired late and did not hit the board. #8 took a brief lead in the stretch, but also tired late and finished third.
The final results were 5-11-8. So, here’s where it gets painful. #5 was on my short list of horses considered for the sandwich play and was only 7-1, where the #10 I used was 20-1. Right idea, wrong horse! Especially when I tell you that #11 (the sandwich horse in the middle) went off at odds of 99-1.
If the ticket displayed on the left had “5,8” instead of “8,10” in the first and third slots … well, this story would have had a happier ending!
So, below is the payout chart for the race. As you can see, the Trifecta paid $7,317.60 for a $2 ticket. Which pays $1,829 for a 50-cent ticket. Not bad for a $9 investment. Oh, well … right idea, wrong horse!
That gives you an idea of what’s possible with the sandwich play. Over the years I’ve cashed my share of these saver tickets, and sometimes they pay more than the main exacta ticket would have paid.
Now for an example that did payoff …
Best Trifecta Strategy Vs
On August 25, 2014 in the 7th race at Saratoga, I had narrowed my selections down to three horses in the following order: #4 (5-1), #8 (7-2), and #1 (5-1). I did not like the favorite #6 (Benny’s Bullet) who was 5-2 on the board. After making my normal weighted wagers using my top three choices, I decided to make a 50-cent Trifecta Sandwich play using 4-8-1 in the 1st and 3rd positions. The wager looked like this:
4,8,1 with ALL with 4,8,1 = 36 combinations x 50-cents for total cost of $18.
Essentially this was a back-up bet that would cover me in the event I was correct about the 5-2 favorite (#6) running poorly, but missed a higher priced horse that might break up my exacta wagers. The payout chart below shows this turned out to be a good idea.
You can see that #7 (17-1) managed to get into the 2nd position. While I was disappointed that my exacta wagers were broken up, I was pleased that I was correct about taking a stand against the favorite, who ran next to last … and even more pleased that I cashed a Sandwich Play trifecta wager to compensate for my blown exactas.
Modeled after European style turf courses, come visit the only one of its kind in North America. The author had a truly enjoyable visit to this unique race course last year. Click here to read more about that adventure.
Saturday, September 13, 2014 will have four Stakes Races, including the Grade 3 Kentucky Turf Cup worth $600,000.
Best Trifecta Strategy
By Neal Benoit