My History in Video Poker

[New2vp]

I never...well almost never...use the word "never," but oej's right.  It's better to give up work. 

[mickey crimm]

I never work when I am drinking.


 
That's me in a nutshell.  The one area where I totally let the casinos off the hook was booze when I'm working (playing video poker or whatever).  I always passed on it.  If one sip of alcohol touches my lips I'm headed for an Alky bar and join in with the other ten "fools on the stools" drinking mash and talking trash. 

[mickey crimm]

I don't remember exactly when Bob Dancer's Video Poker Reports came out but I snatched them up when they did.  I went over his work looking for mistakes.  I couldn't find any.  Darn, that guy was good. 
 
I starting using  Bob's strategies for 9/6 Jacks, KBJW, and FPDW.  I was still a dinosaur then.  I didn't even own a computer.  I just didn't want to go through the learning curve.  But I could put EV's on all the hands with a calculator and scratch pad, allowing for penalty cards and all.  But it was a very cumbersome method and easy to make mistakes.  I usually had to go over my work again and again to clear out mistakes.   
 
I remembrer advising many of my friends to buy Bob Dancer Presents Winpoker when it came out.  I had been reading about it and what it could do.  A friend bought it and I got a look at it on his computer.  I went:  WOW!!!!!  I broke down and bought a laptop in 2002.  It's the same one I'm typing on now. 
 
And now I can't live without this laptop, and the video poker analyzers.  There are programs out there today that have more advanced features and, of course, I have them.  But I still have and use Winpoker for easy reference. 

[royal flush]

because many tourists have flash cards issued by dancer they played better thus the casinos killed the dollar fpdw and other advantage games it is an arms race. dancer is close with a few minor adjustments for perfect stratigy

[mickey crimm]

because many tourists have flash cards issued by dancer they played better thus the casinos killed the dollar fpdw and other advantage games it is an arms race. dancer is close with a few minor adjustments for perfect stratigy
Which strategy of his would you say needs adjusting?

[royal flush]

some of his flash cards simplify some holds ignoring penalty cards about .10% difference. the key is the best is 101% joker 25c or about 9.00 per hour with alot of varience working at burger king is more sure unlike the days with 1 and 2 dollar fpdw and promotions with 125 credits for 4 to the royal 103%+ at some casinos ran on promotions and the waiting for flush attack and slot bonus games to go into bonus mode

[mickey crimm]

some of his flash cards simplify some holds ignoring penalty cards about .10% difference. the key is the best is 101% joker 25c or about 9.00 per hour with alot of varience working at burger king is more sure unlike the days with 1 and 2 dollar fpdw and promotions with 125 credits for 4 to the royal 103%+ at some casinos ran on promotions and the waiting for flush attack and slot bonus games to go into bonus mode
 

His cards came in three levels, beginner, intermediate, and advanced.  I don't know of any of his advanced level cards that ignored penalty cards. 
 
One of the functions I like about WVP is I can punch in a payscale and get 3 payback percentages for the same game:  Basic, Intermediate, and Penalty.  I'll use KBJW for example. 
 
Basic................................100.6359%
Intermediate....................100.6363%
Penalty.............................100.6463%
 
At 800 hands per hour on DOLLAR DENOM the Penalty (or expert) strategy would have a theoretical hourly rate of $25.85 per hour. 
 
Using the Basic (or penalty free) strategy would have an hourly rate of $25.44 per hour.  So the difference in yield between the two strategies is 41 cents per hour.   
 
But what if the Basic strategy (not having to slow down to recognize penalty situations) allowed you to get out 50 more hands per hour?  Now the hourly rate for the Basic strategy is up to $27.00 per hour. 
 
As for Bob Dancer selling information it's a free country.  It's a capitalist country.  Bob is excercising his right to make money.  Sure I wish he weren't doing it anymore.    But I myself learned to make money at the game by information I bought from Dancer and Paymar.  So who am I to say that he should no longer be selling information.   

[mickey crimm]

One of my advantages, as opposed to others, is I have always been willing to travel and look for strong plays.  Laughlin, Las Vegas, Reno, Tahoe, Elko, Ely, Wendover, Mesquite.  When I found the big edge I would just set up shop in whatever town I was in.   I kept a storage unit and traveled with just one piece of rollaway luggage.  And for the last few years I bring my laptop. 
 
I recently lost my big edge plays here.    Normally, I would just move on.  But there has been a wrench thrown in the works.  There is a woman in this town with ways like I have never seen.  I promised her I would make this town my home.  I'll follow through on that.  But I still need another money stream.  I still reserve my right to travel and make money.  My trips will just be short in duration. 
 
I'll be checking out another state shortly.  And no, Eric, it's not Michigan. 

[mickey crimm]

MANDALAY BAY & ACRES GAMING'S LUCK COIN BONUS SYSTEM
 
When Mandalay Bay opened up it was another hustler's convention.  The video poker sucked but the place was chock full of Williams, Silicon, and IGT advantage slots--and--Acres Gaming's Lucky Coin Bonus System.  Acres Gaming is a software compnay providing player tracking systems, and bonusing systems to casinos. 
 
There were about a dozen banks of progressive bonusing slots in Mandalay when it opened.    But you didn't have to hit a line pay to get the progressive--and there was a cap as to how high the progressive would go.  We called these banks of slots the "Will Go's."  All of them had 3 meters on them.  None of us had ever seen this kind of setup before. 
 
I'll use one bank for example.  One meter would start at $50 and above it were the words "Will go by $100."  Another meter would start at $200 and above it were the words "Will go by $500."  The third meter started at $500 and above it were the words "Will go by $1000." 
 
We were able to figure out some things about this system.   I'll use the $50 to $100 meter for example.  It was a 2% meter.  What was going on in this system was an RNG was selecting a coin number---and whoever was lucky enough to bet that coin number got the progressive--hence, the name Lucky Coin Bonus System.    Then it would reset at $50. 
 
It wasn't hard to figure out how many coins it took to drive the meter all the way to $100.  It took $2500 worth of bets--or 10,000 coins.  So if the RNG were truly random then the lucky coin could be anywhere from 1 to 10,000th. 
 
But what we noticed about this system was the lucky coin was rarely below 6000.  In other words it was weighted to the high side.  They can do this by elimiinating coin numbers that the RNG can select.  So the progressive rarely went below $80.  But $80 wan't a good enough number for us to play.  We waited until it got to $90. 
 
This is what was happening.  Imagine a bank of 18 to 24 machines with maybe a third of them taken up by tourists playing and driving up the number.  Once it hit $90  the hustlers would swarm in, load two machines if they could, then bang max bet at 90 miles an hour until the progressive hit.   The more bets you got in the more shots at the lucky coin you had.  Then the hustlers would cash out and leave the tourists to themselves until another number developed. 
 
The math worked about like this to the hustler:  He would make per average a $250 wager for every time he caught the lucky coin.  That's a 38% addon.  Good enough to put the game well into positive territory. 
 
The one thing we noticed was the numbers on all the meters on all the banks were running to the extreme high side.    So it was boomtimes for the hustlers--but the tourists were all complaining.  Mandalay Bay stripped the Lucky Coin Bonus System out about 2 months after opening. 
 
You still see morphed editions of Lucky Coin, like Coyote Cash and Dino Dollars.  These games ARE exploitable but the meters are slowed down and there is no weighting the coin number, but every once in a while one can catch a play. 
 
Stations Casinos Jumbo Jackpots is another morphed edition of Lucky Coin.   
 
 
 
 

[royal flush]

dancer is a sharp business person i respect him even though he liked the mit team that killed 21 for me. i was asked to join their team which i declined as i knew they would kill the game as dancer has hurt vp i do think that casinos will put better games in to try to get business considering the average play results is 2% below optimium (example fpdw 100.76 average 98.76% actual results. i saw a player hold single ace catch 4 perfect cards making the royal, you or i wouldnt get that royal. Jean Scott trys to get players to use coupons in which helps tourists get more vacation for there money while helping casinos and us by keeping the hold percentage higher so maybe more good games