Great VP week on the Miss. Coast

[EDC1977]

Thanks rascal! Your ex was in a better position to see the whole picture. We, as individuals aren't as fortunate to have access to those kinds of numbers. Hey Cd, you were right, would be envious as heck and would probably post some derogatory comment or how he had a better overall year vs. one winning session etc. etc. etc.

[TEXACO]

WAY TO GO RASCAL, WAS IN VEGAS AND LAUGHLIN LAST MONTH AND COULDN'T SEEM TO GET ANYTHING GOING LIKE YOU DID DOWN IN OLD MISSISSIP! YEP THE WINNING STREAKS ARE WONDERFUL.

[shadowman]

 The thing about the law of averages eventually catching up with every VP player is that law does not take into consideration the player who hits a huge jackpot on a highly volatile game. After hitting the big one, I could have lost something every year for many years and still be above the average. And the same thing is true on a lesser scale. And it is also true in the reverse equation: If I had lost $73K that night instead of winning it, I could have played winning VP for many, many years and yet still have a losing average.
 
So..... to my way of thinking, the average only applies if we take the entire body of video poker players worldwide and from this body the expected average is close to perfect. But you are not the entire body of VP players -- you are one individual and anything can happen. Whether you are a winner or a loser depends largely on luck, and on your ability to take advantage of that luck.
 
(And by the way, my ex-girlfriend is a top manager for a large chain casino in LV and she agrees with me 100%. She never ever looks at what an individual player does --- she looks at the average margin generated by thousands of patrons.)
 
Your comment about large jackpots and high volatility is right on. The lottery is a perfect example of this. There will be a few huge winners that will be ahead forever and a vast number of losers who will never catch up even if they only play when the return is statistically a positive value.
 
However, this does not apply completely to VP. Although VP is volatile, there are games where the probabilty of being very close to the expected return is high in just a few hundred thousand hands. Games like FPDW, JOB, BP, etc fall into this category. Even games likes 10/6 DDB with high CB/BB/Freeplay can be have reasonable expectations of winning.
 
The most important factor in winning long term is playing with a large edge. Once a person has better than a 1% advantage the liklihood of success is pretty good. Make it 2% and chances are much better. I've played a very volatile game (variance=85) with a >2% edge for several years and won every year playing only 300K hands/year.
 
So, it isn't quite right to catagorize all VP play as dependent on luck. Skill and knowledge are often much more important.
 

[PETE26]

About 2 years ago I had a memorable night at TRUMP MARINA in A/C. After catching quad 2's on $1 DDB, I moved up to the $2 level and received two reg quads after 20 min. of play.  Just before taking a break for something to eat I put $200 in a $10 J/B machine, the second hand was dealt 3 to the royal and popped the royal on the draw. Never hit for this amt. before or since. Took a check for $35,000 and $5000 cash.

[faygo]

About 2 years ago I had a memorable night at TRUMP MARINA in A/C. After catching quad 2's on $1 DDB, I moved up to the $2 level and received two reg quads after 20 min. of play.  Just before taking a break for something to eat I put $200 in a $10 J/B machine, the second hand was dealt 3 to the royal and popped the royal on the draw. Never hit for this amt. before or since. Took a check for $35,000 and $5000 cash.
 
PETE26 I've had some good hits at the Marina, never 40Gs though. Keep it up.

[cddenver]

Pete, that's a great one also!  Rascal wouldn't turn his nose up at that one -

[rascal]

It's a good hit, Pete. I am surprised you didn't withhold anything. I have hit some $5 Royals (but never a $10) and Uncle always gets a tad.
 
Asking for most of a jackpot in a check is smart. There is a winner's high that always exists when you hit big, and it's easy to find yourself stuffing those hundreds into the machines to keep that high alive. I have asked for a check on jackpots as small as $1600. Once I am given the check, I endorse it with "for deposit only to XXX Bank" in ink on the back, to make sure I can't do anything with it except deposit it.
 
Some casinos will try to give you the runaround, especially on jackpots smaller than 5K. But by gaming commission regs in Nevada (and many other states) they are required to pay by check if the customer demands. If they tell you, ok, it'll be quite a while, just cheerfully say, "I'm not going anywhere!" Obviously, they would rather give you a big wad of cash and keep patting you on the back and tell you how lucky you are. I always try to envision the bank deposit I'm going to make in the morning --- envision it hard! --- when getting the check and making it non-negotiable for anything except deposit with my limited endorsement.
 

[marie meijer]

Thanks Pete for sharing your BIG WIN AC story! Thanks to you and faygo, I will soon include a visit to Trump Marina on my up coming AC trip. I needed a hot tip to compensate for my last visit at AC! Thanks to rascal for sound financial advice re making it to the bank with the check! We should all read your post a few times for our own good, in case some of us did not get it first time around! 

[faygo]

Marie, the game you need to have down pat is AC Joker Two Pair. Nickel Spin Poker with big progressives linked to all the Casinos in AC. The nickel progressive is usually $25,000 plus. They have a progressive on .25 three line that usually goes at around $80K+, but the variance will kill you on that one.  Unless they have changed things at the Marina, there are 9/6 JOB and 9/6 DDB in the high limit area for both $1 and $5.
 
Where are you staying. I'm sure there are others on here that can help with other places.

[marie meijer]

Thanks faygo! Staying at Caesars and plan to play at Ballys where I won before and Borgata where I won before I fed it back