I’m positive EV after 5 years. It shouldn’t be possible?

Discuss proper hold strategies and "advantage play" and ask questions about how to improve your play.
Carcounter
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Re: I’m positive EV after 5 years. It shouldn’t be possible?

Post by Carcounter »

I only play 99.5% or better games. 9/6 JOB multi strikes and 99.69% SDB. I try to play during 3x, 5x or 10x cashback promotions but there aren't enough of them, so I play anyway. The last five years, I ran positive for 2 and negative for 3, but am dead even overall now. Exactly where I should be.

billryan
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Post by billryan »

A serious question- If you knew five years ago that thousands of hours of playing VP would result in ou not seeing a cent of profit, would you do it anyway?

FAA
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Post by FAA »

If we want to open it up, nope. Especially with the ongoing ancillary sniping to be endured on this forum.

billryan
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Post by billryan »

I under-estimated the math. Having played BJ for years, I understood it, but adjusting from thirty to forty hands an hour to five or six hundred showed me just how deadly attrition is.
Luckily, living in Vegas there were more than enough promotions to exploit. Right now, I'm two hours from the closest casino so my gambling is non-existant.

FAA
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Post by FAA »

Right now, I'm two hours from the closest casino so my gambling is non-existent.
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Piece of cake! Seriously, you are lucky to have gotten it out of your system. Even if simply due to geographic inconvenience.

billryan
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Post by billryan »

The other thing is in Vegas, I had a route, so to speak, or maybe a circuit describes it better. Double jackpots for two hours here, 5X points, there, play $20, get $10 here. Cycle $1,000 thru a machine and get a $5 cash rebate there. Play $5,000 in a quarter and get $60 a month in food credits for next few months. Things like that. I have no idea if anything like that exists in Tucson and I'm in no rush to find out.

OTABILL
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Post by OTABILL »

billryan wrote:
Tue Oct 06, 2020 9:27 am
A serious question- If you knew five years ago that thousands of hours of playing VP would result in ou not seeing a cent of profit, would you do it anyway?
Yes with a caveat. I haven't played, and don't intend to play thousands of hours of VP. Before my wife developed her terminal illness, we played together often. It was a way to unwind and enjoy doing something together. (We usually played on the same bank, adjoining or semi-adjoining machines.). After she became ill in 2017, we virtually stopped playing VP. Now, I play a few hours a few times a week as a way to keep my mind going and getting out of the house. As long as the financial cost is reasonable, we played and I continue to play VP. Love to win and come out ahead, but profit has never been the reason to go to the casino.

BobDancer
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Post by BobDancer »

billryan wrote:
Tue Oct 06, 2020 11:13 am
The other thing is in Vegas, I had a route, so to speak, or maybe a circuit describes it better. Double jackpots for two hours here, 5X points, there, play $20, get $10 here. Cycle $1,000 thru a machine and get a $5 cash rebate there. Play $5,000 in a quarter and get $60 a month in food credits for next few months. Things like that.
Essentially, that's how I've been doing it for 25 years --- although playing for higher stakes and higher bonuses. If it comes down to only "play $20 and get $10", I'll likely quit. But starting out I cashed a lot of $7-for-$5 match play coupons. Without these plentiful coupons, I would likely not have been able to hang around long enough to finally be successful at this game.

It requires a lot of competition between casinos for this environment to exist. You find that in Vegas and a few other places. The locales where casinos are few and far apart tend not to have these kinds of opportunities.

Without knowing the details of billryan's circuit, I'm quite certain that it's changed since February. A considerable number of casinos have tightened things in a variety of ways since the pandemic started.

billryan
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Post by billryan »

I essentially lived for free as my route paid my rent and gave me the freedom to hit estate sales and auctions.
From speaking to friends that remain in Vegas, things have gotten very tight.

Carcounter
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Post by Carcounter »

billryan wrote:
Tue Oct 06, 2020 9:27 am
A serious question- If you knew five years ago that thousands of hours of playing VP would result in ou not seeing a cent of profit, would you do it anyway?
Yes, I enjoy the atmosphere at the Borgata, and the comps, which I didn't even include . I was Black label and had access to the Amphora Lounge, which I shared with a friend every Friday afternoon. Also took my business partners to dinner at Old Homestaed several times a year. It is relaxing for me.

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