risk of ruin comments

[BillyJoe]

billyjoe I thought the INDIANS have casino operations in Fla?
There is a Seminole Hard Rock pretty close to me. I choose to not play there, since their comp program stinks, and they do not have the games that I enjoy.

[FloridaPhil]

I play at the Tampa Hard Rock once a week.  I like the place, but the odds and comps do stink.  From what I've seen, the pay schedules outside of Vegas are all pretty bad.  If you need a 100% video poker opportunity to play, these days you need to move to Vegas and be prepared to do a lot of scouting.  Frankly, I have never personally seen a +100% plus pay schdule outside of Vegas unless there was a progressive involved. 

[Minn. Fatz]

The Atlantis, Silver Dollar and CalNeva in Reno all had full-pay VP last time we were there; that was several years ago. And there are still a few full-pay One-Eyed Jacks machines in Minnesota, tho these are growing scarcer; they just removed some from Treasure Island I understand. But a native casino that's running under a compact with a state that doesn't have non-native gaming is probably not going to offer full-pay.

While we're on the subject of VP statistics it would be fun to know, I've always thought some measure of how common playing errors affect expected return would be interesting. My proposal would be to calculate the difference between the best and second-best returns for each hand and express the second as a percentage of the first. I further propose to call this "elasticity;" a "more elastic" game would have a higher percentage and a "less elastic" one would have a lower percentage. Just a thought.

[Vman96]

I play at the Tampa Hard Rock once a week.  I like the place, but the odds and comps do stink.  From what I've seen, the pay schedules outside of Vegas are all pretty bad.  If you need a 100% video poker opportunity to play, these days you need to move to Vegas and be prepared to do a lot of scouting.  Frankly, I have never personally seen a +100% plus pay schdule outside of Vegas unless there was a progressive involved. 

I played 40/10/6 DDB (99.96%) Spin Poker for quarters in Joliet, IL today chasing after a promo. Lost $200 in 40 minutes...bleh

For non-progressive units, 99.96% is the best I have seen outside of Vegas. I have seen this game in Joliet, Hammond IN, and Tunica (formerly). I have also seen 99.96% Deuces in the latter two locations, Tunica ditched that game too though. :( All three of these states forbid > 100% video poker (before progressives). But last trip to Tunica, I did see two 100%+ progressives. I hit neither, bleh. The best game in my home area, St. Louis, is 9/5 Triple Bonus Plus (99.8%). I have also seen 99.95% Pick 'em in Kansas City in the last year.

[BillyJoe]

 
I played 40/10/6 DDB (99.96%) Spin Poker for quarters in Joliet, IL today chasing after a promo. Lost $200 in 40 minutes...bleh
So much for only playing full pay (or close to it) paytables. I will take a machine with a crappy paytable, but I get a bunch of quads, anytime.

[Vman96]

So much for only playing full pay (or close to it) paytables. I will take a machine with a crappy paytable, but I get a bunch of quads, anytime.

Oh me too...but I still have faith every unit is equally likely to give said quads. If that's true (and somehow I'm still holding faith on that...probably because I struggle to believe ~20 different states would all lie to me), it's better to play the best paytable for the amount you are wanting to wager. The small doubt comes from, of course, that my quads (and royals) are usually more plentiful on the crappier paying units that I play on for less money. But the royal issue is even worse as I still don't even have a nickel royal yet...    My lifetime hands of quarters and nickels combined is probably pushing 100k now maybe more...meh I don't keep super detailed records like DaBurglar, obv.

[olds442jetaway]

Now I feel better. I just got my average for Royals down to about 1 every 100k hands from a high of nearly 200k. Had a little luck here and there since July. Now if I could only improve my Double Down Stud dealt natural Royals average from 1.6 million to under 700k I would feel better. I only have 2 of those in a lifetime of play. 4 Deuces dealt and drawn seem to be right about where they should be.

[FloridaPhil]

The best quarter game we've seen on the East Coast is 9/6 Jacks.  Margaritaville in Biloxi had it the last time we were there.  The Island View In Gulfport  has 9/6 Jacks quarters at the bar.  The Tampa Hard Rock has 9/6 Jacks starting at $2 a point (too rich for me).  Jacks is like watching paint dry, but the low variance makes it playable. I am aware that the long term "Risk of Ruin" when playing negative expectation games is 100%, which is the same odds that you are going to die someday... 

[EdofBJS]

Well, yes ALL games except those where the player can gain the advantage. Advantage from card counting or other types of advantage plays are possible for various table games.Video poker advantages are derived form the game return 99.5 plus comps, free play other goodies from the casino. It is only these additions that cause the game to be player advantaged.Any game played with a negative expectation will always consume a bankroll providing a risk of ruin of 100%.Here wishing you positive variance.