Progressive VP as competition: should you "go for

[Eduardo]

At 5 million, if I see it, I'm going to play it!

[New2vp]

I think the RF would need to get around 5 million on a quarter machine. I don't think we will be faced with this decision in the near future.
 
It is a bit higher than $5 million, more than seven times that amount in the "more likely" examples below, although I agree with you that it is practically not important to know when one would toss 4 deuces to try for a royal since none of us will ever live to see such a jackpot.  If we were playing NSUD and were maximizing expected value when playing a single hand, we would toss 4 deuces and a 5th card to draw 5 to a royal only when the royal jackpot exceeded a cutoff in the range 383,390,268.75 to 383,392,853.75 credits if the 5th card were a 3 thru 9.  If we were keeping a royal card (Ten thru Ace) and only drawing 4 cards, the royal jackpot cutoff would "only" have to be in the range of from 178,317,475 to 178,327,815 credits.

[EDC1977]

 Hey Shadow, I did see a quarter progressive bank of DB machines last year at Sunset Station at $8,300. The only thing that stopped me was 10 coin max on a 6/5 paytable.

[shadowman]

New2vp, I suspected my $5 million was too low. Winpoker only goes up to 9999999 credits and it still wasn't close. I figured 5 million was enough to make the point.  
 
Youbonash, I agree you. I'm not big into progressives on poor games because they increase variance substantially. In addition, if I decide to play it and make the necessary strategy changes then I'm actually going to lower my results if I don't hit the royal. Since these kind of opportunities occur so seldom and I would be unlikely to be the lucky winner, I prefer to find more consistent games.
 

[Eduardo]

What does a 10 coin max mean?

[MikeA]

What does a 10 coin max mean?Most VP has a 5-coin or credit maximum bet.  Some though, have more and one of the most common exceptions is the machine that lets (or requires) you to bet 10 credits or coins in order to get the bonus for a Royal.

[oej719]

Instead of 5 coins played per deal it is 10 coins per deal. On a 25 cent machine that is $2.50 per hand vs. $1.25 per hand.

[shadowman]

One of the casinos I play at has 5, 10 and 20 coin machines. All of them require max bet to get the bonus for a royal and in some cases to quailfy for a progressive.

[Eduardo]

So is that any different than playing at twice the amount? Meaning, if you play at max bet does a quarter machine pretty much become a 50 cent machine on a 10 credit max? Or is the payout negatively affected as well?
 
I think I ran into some machines that let you bet more than 5 or 6 per hand when I was in vegas and stayed away because I wasn't sure what I was dealing with.

[MikeA]

The way I look at it, it's just another way to tempt you into playing for more than you intended to play for.  No difference really between a 10-coin max quarter machine and a 5-coin max $.50 machine IF both machines require max bet to get the bonus for a Royal.I wonder how many would be playing Quarter machines for 1-credit instead of 5 if you got the Royal bonus at the lowest credit wager as for the max?With that said, I have seen 100-line machines that gave you the Royal Bonus with 5 credits bet while playing only one line instead of 100.  I do not remember the maximum credits per hand you could bet.