Video Poker Forum

I alluded to this earlier but if anyone has been playing VP in AC the past couple of weeks, especially on the Boardwlak, you may have noticed something really messed up with most of the games you chose to play.....namely, they were not paying diddly squat.   All machines, everywhere....Resorts, Taj, Ac Club, Trop, Bally's, etc.
 
The situation for the casinos is reaching EXTREMELY desperate this quarter, with their summer revenues OFF by a large amount (which now they are seeking to blame on the "funky weather" they have experienced, with June being the wettest in 8 years and now July being one continuous two week SAUNA).....this is critical because THIS summer was supposed to be the HUGE comeback, the "DO AC" success story.....a lot is riding on it and it lookes like it is heading for another huge disappointment.  
 
Sooooo, in response to this, most of the underperforming, desperate, barely hanging in there casinos (like the ones I mentioned above) have pulled out the emergency plan and basically tightened up any machine they can to squeeze the last drops of blood from these turnips in order to NOT have the summer be a Fatal disaster, at least from a numbers perspective.   This means that MOST of the VP machines on the floors of the casinos have been tightened by means OTHER than the paytable to reflect the lowest allowable by law return for machines in AC, specifically 83%.    And if you have played or tried to play in AC over the last two weeks you know exactly what I am talking about.
 
If anyone on this forum has ACTUALLY played Video Poker in AC since July 4th at casinos OTHER than Harrahs or Borgata, and got their asses totally wiped out in a more extreme than usual manner, post here and chime in......if you were wondering how or why it happened as badly as it did, know you know.

Still playing those rigged games, eh?

Cue "Forrest Gump" quote here.

I've always wondered about the buy-a-pay features being tightened somehow, but don't know if it can be done. Other than that, your imagination is most likely working overtime and you're expecting your luckiest days to be normal.

Momma alway's say's stupid is as stupid does.

Thats why I only play at Harrahs.

Last weekend I saw at the Taj in about 15 minutes time, in the Sultans palace, a royal on draw poker, a $6000 4 aces on triple trouble, and I got 4 deuces on $2 dwb for $2000. I dont agree.

  There is a television show titled "Bar Rescue", maybe some of you have watched it, it is hosted by a guy named Jon Tafler. Anyway, Jon goes around the country and helps bar owners get their places back in order to try and regain profitability.
 
  Recently he helped a bar in Las Vegas, this bar had about 14 bartop video poker machines and they were barely being played. Tafler called in his friend Anthony Curtis to try and get the video poker turned around and Anthony Curtis contacted the owner of the video poker machines and they bettered the payouts on the machines. It turned out that even though the bar was now paying out more in winnings to the players the revenue and hold to the bar actually INCREASED.
 
  My point here is, that, if an establishment wanted to attract and keep players why would they chase players away by making the paytables worse?

Tafler called in his friend Anthony Curtis to try and get the video poker turned around and Anthony Curtis contacted the owner of the video poker machines and they bettered the payouts on the machines. It turned out that even though the bar was now paying out more in winnings to the players the revenue and hold to the bar actually INCREASED.
 
  My point here is, that, if an establishment wanted to attract and keep players why would they chase players away by making the paytables worse?

Well, I think it's a fine balance really. It depends on how much more better paytables will increase coin-in. And also, it depends on the play level skill. If players suck, then increasing a paytable from 97% to 99% may not require even double the coin-in to make up the difference if they have something like a 2% loss on return due to errors. But if your bar regs are Bob Dancer clones, then you would need almost triple the coin-in to make up for the new paytable.

I am also assuming some of the increase in the video poker has to do with general improvement of the bar as well. If they "just changed the paytables" and left everything else the same, I'm not sure their hold would have increased. This is just a conjecture though as I haven't watched the show. If the hold is still higher a year plus down the road, then that will say more.

Also DaBurglar isn't even claiming the paytables are being lowered. He is claiming they are setting the video poker games to as low as 83% and totally disregarding the paytable. But why stop at 83% when they are already breaking the law anyway? DaBurglar will disagree that last point though because he believes he is interpreting the state law correctly, and I completely disagree.

Actually, I absolutely CRUSHED the Taj this week at VP, and had 9 handpay jackpots, 6 of which were top prize awards, plus innumerable tickets out, and came home up well over 5 figures, all off of $200 bonus slot dollars.   So, frankly... I think maybe it's you.