5 Best Places to Play Video Poker Outside Vegas

Who has your favorite video poker games? Who should have more?
TripleTriple
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Re: 5 Best Places to Play Video Poker Outside Vegas

Post by TripleTriple »

From my research last year, I believe there are only ten or so Five Star Poker machines left in AC. And they don't all offer all of the game variants. And very few less than dollar denomination. Pretty much substituted with All-Star Ii, which are not at all comparable.

tech58
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Post by tech58 »

Otabill's posted list, to open this thread, is in need of an up-date
Soaring Eagle deserves to be delisted.

They no longer, as of 4/17/23, allow VP players to play their earned comp $'s or points on a VP machine.
The casino is perfectly fine with us risking/losing money on VP but the few crumbs we earn cannot be played!

dinghy
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Post by dinghy »

tech58 wrote:
Thu Apr 27, 2023 10:05 am
Otabill's posted list, to open this thread, is in need of an up-date
Soaring Eagle deserves to be delisted.
The linked article only evaluated pay tables and not slot club.

To be perfectly honest, this latest change would not likely bother me very much at all. It's not eliminating the value of the free play; it's just trimming it slightly. In my view, the really painful change was when they increased to $2 per point for vp.

tech58
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Post by tech58 »

The change is trimming FP more than slightly. Instead of being able to play it on my usual 99.54 JOB.
I get the fantastic opportunity to play $650 a week on, god only knows how bad, sucker slots!
Yes the 100% downgrade in our point accrual was a kick in the package. But now the crumbs that we earn are next to worthless as far as I am concerned.

The recommendation should take into account the total player experience.
Sure we have a great selection of paytables but earned premium play should not be excluded!

dinghy
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Post by dinghy »

tech58 wrote:
Thu Apr 27, 2023 7:05 pm
But now the crumbs that we earn are next to worthless as far as I am concerned.
I'm trying to appreciate your viewpoint, but you're using words very differently than I learned them. First of all, $650 per week in FP is not (imo) analogous to "crumbs." That's a substantial reward unless you're racking up extraordinary coin-in.

If you could run the FP on JOB as usual, you would collect nearly the full $650 (on average).

They've taken that away, so now you have to find the best alternative. As I mentioned in another thread, I would scout around. If I can find an eligible 97% game, I'll retain $630.

But let's assume they only allow reels, no exceptions. A typical reel machine will return around 90%, equating to $585. I think that could arguably be described as a trim. Far from worthless. And if you apply some logic to your slot selection, I would guess you could rather easily find 95%+ situations.
The recommendation should take into account the total player experience.
The article was a compilation of data from vpfree2 covering ~500 casinos. Sadly, there's no comprehensive data available on "total player experience."

tech58
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Post by tech58 »

Very well said dinghy. I appreciate your viewpoint. I did not do as well on mine, venting got in the way.

My earned FP is about 1.5% of the average coin-in required to hold top card, and is easily lost more weeks than not. VP usually averages out to a loss two out of three sessions.

The casino has limited our FP to strictly slot machines. No VP of any flavor, no electronic table games, nothing but slots. The problem for me is that playing slots violates my number one rule for gambling. Never bet on any proposition where you do not know what the odds are.

Best guesses I have seen, down thru the years, is about 88% payback at Indian casinos.
This forced option is new to me. I know Zero, Zilch, Nada, about them. For the first week my experience was a disaster. I need to develop a plan to at least harvest that 88% of FP or my AP goes away.

dinghy
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Post by dinghy »

tech58 wrote:
Fri Apr 28, 2023 5:11 am
The problem for me is that playing slots violates my number one rule for gambling. Never bet on any proposition where you do not know what the odds are.
You're gonna hate this analogy, but for me unknown odds are a regular and routine fact of life at the casinos. As a vp player, I don't know the formulas for the mail rewards they send. I don't know my equity at the drawings. Where you play, do you know how many tickets are in the drum? I probably couldn't guess within 25%.

I can probably guess a slot machine programmed payback within 5%, and there are many temporary situations where I can estimate my return to be >100% although I won't know the precise value. When I enter a casino, the first thing I do is walk through to check various accumulations.

Slots are volatile. I'm not telling you to be delighted with your circumstance.

The topic of specific game selection will probably come up in more detail later, but if you simply want to grind out your 88%, keep in mind that on many machines you can double tap to stop the reels. This allows you to quickly play many spins at a conservatively low amount. Avoid the machines with big jackpots because they'll drain you more between jackpots. Avoid the machines with elaborate, expensive-looking cabinets or elements that require licensing. The Miley Cyrus machine probably has a lower payback than an ordinary slot with a generic theme.

tech58
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Joined: Tue Mar 11, 2014 1:21 pm

Post by tech58 »

Thanks dinghy for some good tips on slots. Am angry at the moment but still a realist. It is what it is.
I will adapt or find another hobby>

My thinking on odds is more focused on the game itself. The house advantage. The .0461% on JOB,
the 1.414% on the pass line, the 5.26% on roulette, that sort of thing.

Of course the variable factors you mention all come together, in a vague an ever changing manor, to reduce or eliminate the house edge. I pretty much have started to ignore drawings because slot players get 4 times as many entries/$ coin-in as VP. I try to run a calc. of the cash value comps monthly. It is imprecise, to be sure, but it is around 2%. I happen to be up more than 2% on 480K coin-in, so far this year, due to 8K,4K,2K Royals. But to the extent that my 2% gets "trimmed" (using your term instead of WHACKED) I will be pissed.

One last point. I will NOT, in any identifiable way, pitch a beitch at the casino. That is a sure way to get banned. They are after anyone who has been hurting them and the squeaky wheel will get greased right out the door.

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