I'll shoot you (and anyone else) a DM if you want to know the how/strategy of any of those games. Just let me know.
The logistics of how I load up cards:
D&B
You have to go on non-Wednesdays to use "buy $20 get $20" game play coupons. You can get these three ways - via email by registering your card on their website, in the mail (like val-pak coupons), or if you download the app to your phone, they usually upload a coupon every week and you can purchase it right there on your phone. Typically, the store policy is one coupon per card per day. So, I have 5 cards all attached to various emails, and on a week where I decide I'm going I'll go on a Monday or Tuesday and load 5 coupons onto my 5 cards. Then Wednesdays, all games are half off.
Main Event
You can only get the deal on Mondays, but there is no need to hunt for coupons, and there is no limit to how many times you can use this deal, which is a $20 game card for $10.95. Sun through Thurs after 10pm all games are half off.
Calculating Value
At D&B multiply total tickets by .004 to find your value. So 1,000 tickets is valued at about $4.
At ME multiply tickets by .0076 to find value. So 1,000 tickets is valued at about $7.60.