Video Poker vacation

[KingMota]

My wife and I spent the week at Harrah's in Joliet.  What I am about to tell you will make most of you sick.  I hit three RF in 6 days (all on same machine).  Had one single $.25 bet for a $62.50 pay on first one.  Hit second one with single $.25 on TDB for $100 payout.  Finally hit another one single $.50 bet for $125 payout.   Two schools of thought after first and second RF's:
1) Don't ever let yourself get RF without max bet again
2) What are odds of hitting another RF on the same trip?
 
Over the six days I played probably 60 hours of VP and only took $1,000 for my play.  For some of the trip I played 5 X .$25 whenever I had XX dollars and $.25 balance.  (effectively every fourth hand).  Today I hit quad Ace with kicker on single $.50 bet first thing in morning  (for $200) and then Quad A with Kicker with single $.25 twice on one machine within 10 minutes of each other.  On the trip I hit Quad Aces with Kicker 5 times and Quad 2's with Kicker on TDB once plus the 3 RF.  All this and I still lost ~ $300 on the trip!  It probably wasn't as bad as I remember it, but it seemed like I got all my big hits on small bits and only hit one Quad on max bets.  I haven't mastered perfect play, but I think I am getting there.  One problem is the $.25 & $.50 machines were only 8/5 on DDB.

[shadowman]

1) This is not necessarily a valid school of thought.
2) The same as they were for hitting any previous RFs.
 
Bob Dancer wrote an article a few years ago that discussed playing short coin (one coin only). If you are playing a machine that pays back less than 100% then over time you will lose LESS money with this approach. This should not be a surprise to anyone that betting more on a negative machine will end up losing more money.
 
I will also add that a $1000 bankroll playing quarter 8/5 DDB could be gone rather quickly playing max coin (not to mention .50).
 
Did the casino have any nickel DDB with a slightly lower paytable paytable. An 8/5 version of DDB pays around 96.8% at max coin and under 95.6% at short coin. A 7/5 version of DDB playing nickel max coin would pay better (95.7%) than 8/5 short coin. All of these numbers assume perfect play.
 
Finally, it all gets back to what you want to get out of VP. Clearly, if your goal is to win money then playing 8/5 DDB is a risky venture. If your goal is to enjoy yourself and losing some money is acceptable then there is nothing wrong with your approach.
 
Last weekend I played 100% max coin on a positive payback game and lost considerably more than you did. There's no guarantee you will win on any VP machine in a single session/trip. OTOH, I do win a little money every year and that is my primary goal playing VP.
 

[Eduardo]

Yeah, but ouch. Ouch.
 


I could never play one coin bets for this very reason.

[KingMota]

I realize in my mind that each deal is a random event.  They didn't have anything less than $.25 DDB and only two JOB games that were 7/5!  To get 9/6 DDB you had to wager $1.00 coins. 
 
I have just been playing regularly for about 5 months now.  I have seen how fast people can go through money even playing 5 x $.25.  In between first and second RF I hit a really bad streak.  I had allocated only $200 per day to lose and at day 4 I was down $600 (had not hit any 4 A w/ Kicker).  My wife was doing even worse.  Got hotter last two days and brought that up to losing only $300.
 
We stopped at Horseshoe in Hammond, IN on way home at they have machines as low as $.05 coins although I think they were 6/5 DDB.  But they had some new GameMaker HD machines that have about 24"" LCD widescreen monitors with great ergonomics.  After 58 hours of VP I was ready for something comfortable.  That is the machine I hit two 4 A w/ K in a 10 minute span. 
 
My normal routine is to play 1 X $.50 on JOB to build up some tier points and if I get ahead I switch to DDB which is much more fun to me.  I'm sure it is somewhat fools gold, but we are trying to make Diamond status.  I carefully look at paytables and I'm starting to understand the variance of different games.  This site is awesome!
 
Thanks for reading my post and responding.
 

[faygo]

Yeah, but ouch. Ouch.
 


I could never play one coin bets for this very reason.
 
I couldn't either. I have a friend though that calls this "Plinking" and can amuse himself for hours on a $20.

[ansoda]

ON my very first casino outing playing VP exclusively, I went through the bulk of my bankroll rather quickly. I decided to reduce my bet to single coin in order to extend my playing time, and you guessed it, I hit quads with a kicker followed by a  delt straight flush on triple play. I immediately went back to max bet and the VP gods laughed, and cleaned my clock in very short order. I was very upset with myself for using that betting strategy, and vowed I would never do it again, and I haven't!
Now if I blow through my bankroll  early, I will park my butt in the lobby and watch the short skirts and spiked heels pass by, or retire to the room for a long winters' nap. Fortunately, I have learned to adjust my session times to match my win/loss ratio, and my "busted" time outs are rare. On more than one occasion I have played penny VP , but always at max.

[scorpio2]

yeah,been there,done that.down to my last few quarters on a .25 progressive jokers wild 2 pair, i played 2 quarters,hit 5of a kind,200 dollars instead of the 1,030 i would have hit with 5 bet.machine must be set up ha ha!

[Tedlark]

KingMota - You should not base your play on trying to achieve diamond status, this would be akin to playing more to increase your cash back. You were right to limit yourself to a certain amount of losses over the course of a day but as shadowman pointed out you would be better off finding a lower denomination machine and playing max coin. I don't like to repeat stories to the board but I hit 4 royals in one night, 3 on the same machine. Good luck, Ted.

[EDC1977]

4 RF's? Some guys have all the luck Ted. Was this in LV or Ill?

[Tedlark]

It was at Hollywood Casino in Aurora, IL Ed. After I hit the 3 royals on the same machine I jumped over to the machine next to me after a guy just got up from playing it. The previous player hit a royal but alas he only had one coin in. It was only about 20 minutes and I hit the 4th royal, the guy was still standing behind me watching me play. He mumbled and moaned after I hit the royal on "his" machine but such is life. So in a period of about 3 hours I saw 5 royals hit on machines next to each other and 4 of the 5 royals belonged to me. This was the same night I met my now current girlfriend. After I hit the first royal she told me that if I hit another she was going home. I hit the 2nd royal and she said it again. She stuck around and saw the other 2 royals and by then we were talking and I gave her my telephone number. The next day my buddy and I went up to Milwaukee and I hit quad 2's with a kicker on TDB twice in 30 minutes.