Royalty Seen At Hollywood!
Posted: Sat Jan 24, 2015 8:43 pm
On Friday my g/f and I felt semi-obligated to go to Hollywood St. Louis and her player's card had not been played on in nearly six months and comps do expire after that time frame just like CET's do. Hollywood matched the comps we had from CET left from the former "Race to Rewards" and she had about $90 left at Hollywood. Huge for fleas like us.
On our way to get a reprint of her player's card. I noticed some lucky person hit the 20X dealt royal (1 in 9.74M odds) on Double STP on 10-play quarters for $200,000 in November on an advertisement...lucky SOB.
We typically don't go on Friday night, and we saw why. The place was really packed. They were having a promo giving away $100-1000 in FSP (avg ~$300) to ten people per hour. That probably helped fill those slot and VP seats. Tables were quite busy as well.
We typically ate our usual general tso's chicken at phat tai, using those comps of course. While waiting for our food, I saw two new "hot roll" VP machines. I wanted to try the game and check the paytables.
The gist of the game is you pay an extra 5 credits per line for a 1 in 6 opportunity to get a "dice roll" which yields a multiplier of 2 to 12X based on your dice roll. Unlike the slot version of "hot roll" though, the dice are rolled for you to speed the game up I guess. :( And unlike some games like STP, the dice roll doesn't add anything to the return unfortunately; it just jacks the variance up a lot.
Hot Roll Poker Media Sheet
Paytables are decent for nickels as igt decided to make the payback range to be 96.38%-99.96%. Bucking the recent trend of not allowing 99% VP on new games. Did hollywood offer 99%? Hell no! But they did offer 98.8% bonus deuces for 25c-50c, better than I expected. Since I'm poor I played the best nickel option 8/5 Bonus Deluxe (97.4%) for 30 nickels per round.
My first dice roll... a 2.
Then a got a more respectable 6. And finally an 8 with a dealt high pair to run away one dollar up. I thought it was a nice alternative to ultimate x, and strategy doesn't get altered.
When I get back, food is ready and was great as it usually is. Then we run around the casino to play a bit but we struggled to get on games we like. They were all taken. So the g/f apparently started trying new slots to her because they were open. While I wonder thru the VP area, which they actually expanded slightly! I also grab an O'Fallon 5 Day IPA, my go-to beer there. Find one good play on ultimate x so I'm slightly up.
Meet back up with the g/f and the new slots (including Batman) don't let her win. She's willing to play $5 more in nickel video poker and that's it for the night.
So we go find a bank with nickels that wasn't packed to the gills. We play 6/5 Super DDB (97.69%), the best option there for nickels. Before sitting down, she wants to change seats with me because some person before hit four aces on their last hand from just holding one. I shrug and comply, and I'm glad I did.
We play for maybe 10 minutes and she gets AQT of diamonds with a pair of tens. I'm pretty she sure she knows the right hold but asks me anyway. I think she asked because she really didn't want to go for it as 3 to a royal often bricks. I confirm the correct play and she complies.
BAM!
I'm watching, clap my hands together, and say "You Got It!" way before she even realizes what happened! She wasn't even sure how much she won (4000 nickels = $200) as this was her first-ever Royal! With her confusion on how much she won, I think I was more excited than she was.
We play for a little bit longer, but nothing doing. And that hot roll game opened up, so I play it so maybe she could see a bonus. But it was running cold and sucking money up quick. Decide to run away a decent winner on the night. And I'm hoping I'm saving my Royal for Vegas, it's been awhile!
On our way to get a reprint of her player's card. I noticed some lucky person hit the 20X dealt royal (1 in 9.74M odds) on Double STP on 10-play quarters for $200,000 in November on an advertisement...lucky SOB.
We typically don't go on Friday night, and we saw why. The place was really packed. They were having a promo giving away $100-1000 in FSP (avg ~$300) to ten people per hour. That probably helped fill those slot and VP seats. Tables were quite busy as well.
We typically ate our usual general tso's chicken at phat tai, using those comps of course. While waiting for our food, I saw two new "hot roll" VP machines. I wanted to try the game and check the paytables.
The gist of the game is you pay an extra 5 credits per line for a 1 in 6 opportunity to get a "dice roll" which yields a multiplier of 2 to 12X based on your dice roll. Unlike the slot version of "hot roll" though, the dice are rolled for you to speed the game up I guess. :( And unlike some games like STP, the dice roll doesn't add anything to the return unfortunately; it just jacks the variance up a lot.
Hot Roll Poker Media Sheet
Paytables are decent for nickels as igt decided to make the payback range to be 96.38%-99.96%. Bucking the recent trend of not allowing 99% VP on new games. Did hollywood offer 99%? Hell no! But they did offer 98.8% bonus deuces for 25c-50c, better than I expected. Since I'm poor I played the best nickel option 8/5 Bonus Deluxe (97.4%) for 30 nickels per round.
My first dice roll... a 2.
Then a got a more respectable 6. And finally an 8 with a dealt high pair to run away one dollar up. I thought it was a nice alternative to ultimate x, and strategy doesn't get altered.
When I get back, food is ready and was great as it usually is. Then we run around the casino to play a bit but we struggled to get on games we like. They were all taken. So the g/f apparently started trying new slots to her because they were open. While I wonder thru the VP area, which they actually expanded slightly! I also grab an O'Fallon 5 Day IPA, my go-to beer there. Find one good play on ultimate x so I'm slightly up.
Meet back up with the g/f and the new slots (including Batman) don't let her win. She's willing to play $5 more in nickel video poker and that's it for the night.
So we go find a bank with nickels that wasn't packed to the gills. We play 6/5 Super DDB (97.69%), the best option there for nickels. Before sitting down, she wants to change seats with me because some person before hit four aces on their last hand from just holding one. I shrug and comply, and I'm glad I did.
We play for maybe 10 minutes and she gets AQT of diamonds with a pair of tens. I'm pretty she sure she knows the right hold but asks me anyway. I think she asked because she really didn't want to go for it as 3 to a royal often bricks. I confirm the correct play and she complies.
BAM!
I'm watching, clap my hands together, and say "You Got It!" way before she even realizes what happened! She wasn't even sure how much she won (4000 nickels = $200) as this was her first-ever Royal! With her confusion on how much she won, I think I was more excited than she was.
We play for a little bit longer, but nothing doing. And that hot roll game opened up, so I play it so maybe she could see a bonus. But it was running cold and sucking money up quick. Decide to run away a decent winner on the night. And I'm hoping I'm saving my Royal for Vegas, it's been awhile!