Hit 3,000,000 points

[Tedlark]

I was thinking about that Vegas offer, it could be something to splurge on. After all; why pay for a room in Las Vegas if you can get one for free?

[Lucky Larry]

Congratulations on reaching 3M points.       

My understanding is the next 3M should be easier to earn.

[alpax]

Thanks for the detailed reply Ted, you love your volatile games and nice to hear you had great times over the last 10 years.

For the discussion on how to redeem your points, I'd say go with the MGM trip.

Comparing the top 2 prizes.

1,000,000     100 days of GOLD + merchandise
3,000,000     3 Free Nights at the
MGM Signature in Las Vegas*

I think the 100 days of GOLD should round out to be $30 if regular price is $8.95 a month. The merchandise goes for $15-$40, with the bowling shirt being the most expensive.

I do not know about the catch or the terms and conditions of the 3 nights at the MGM. I hope you do not have to pay the resort fee every night, but the benefit is much larger in my opinion. You can cross the bridge to the Tropicana and take that shuttle to the M Resort if you decide to go there.

[Tedlark]

But maybe deep down I have my heart set on the 3 pack of golf balls?

Yes,I do love my volatile games. I think early on when I first started playing video poker, around 1989 or so, I may have played JOB or DW because it was pretty much the only game in town. Since the development of DDB, TDB, DBDW, I've stuck with them. I used to play quite a bit of AC Joker at Harrah's in Joliet,IL but not so much anymore. I was playing it here last night and I got the cursed natural royal (twice) for 500 credits. At Harrah's Joliet once there was an elderly woman playing AC Joker next to me and she was dealt the natural royal on 10 play; I would have started crying right there if that happened to me and I wasn't playing a standard full pay royal game. Oh well, live and learn.

[alpax]

Now that I think about it, it might not be worth it to go to the MGM as it is only beneficial to Mlife players who go continuously. It requires high rolling to play on the strip as well.

Nice backstory. It was during the time $1 FPDW was available, I also heard about All American Bonus Poker which pays 8 for 1 on full house/flush/straight, but 1 for 1 on two pairs, higher payout on quads. Both games favored the player 24/7 until it is gone.

As for the AC Joker Poker, it is a really tough game to master the strategy, most people I see play just wing it. You go for the 5 of a kind which happens about 4 times more often than the natural royal.

It is more infrequent to get the good dealt hands because of the 53rd card, the Joker. So dealt royals are 1 in 717421; if it was not AC Joker Poker, that woman would have won 47,000 credits. 1 in 220745 to get dealt the jackpot 5 of a kind.

To cope with playing the wrong game, all you can do is keep playing, it requires a grind to even meet the theoretical return. I did get low quads with kicker on DW few times and all it paid me was 20 credits.

[Tedlark]

I will usually keep my DW or BDW play low, just for that reason. Getting dealt aces when playing 10 handed DW is a real kick in the --- teeth. I will dabble in deuces wild every once in a while just to change things up and thenget back to TDB.

[onemoretry]

I also heard about All American Bonus Poker which pays 8 for 1 on full house/flush/straight, but 1 for 1 on two pairs, higher payout on quads. Both games favored the player 24/7 until it is gone.
It was actually called just All American Poker. As you stated, full houses, flushes, and straights all paid 8 for 1. Quads paid 200, and, the really unique thing about the game - straight flushes paid 1000. Game return was 100.72%. We played it to death at the old Las Vegas Hilton.

A truly wonderful aspect of that play was the fact that, through casino error, the machines were considered to be slot machines, so in addition to playing a 100.72% game, we were receiving comps and other considerations as if we were playing slots! We also played that game at one of the Trump properies in Atlantic City, but that play didn't last long.

There is still a version of the game kicking around, called USA Poker. Unfortunately, either the quad payout is shorted to 150 or less, or the quads are kept at 200, but flushes, full houses and straights are reduced to 7 for 1.

The strategy for the game was unique and complicated.

[alpax]

I certainly enjoyed the nostalgia OMT, much appreciated for sharing those good memories. At least you've experienced it first hand, so that when I mentioned this All American Poker, it would not sound like an urban legend to everyone. I heard about All American Poker during the radio episode where Mr. Dancer and a friend of his reminisce the good old days.

With the good comps back then and it was available in $1 denomination. It is definitely worth considering moving to Vegas and/or Kansas City where it was available. But the dollar was much more valuable back then it is now, obvious reason being inflation.

Taking advantage of a casino mistake of identifying you and the spouse as a slot player was similarly partial to Mr. Dancer's run of success.

[onemoretry]

When I mentioned USA Poker is still around on some machines (IGT ones), I forgot that there are still some Bally Gamemakers around that have All American Poker on them, always, unfortunately, with less than the full pay schedule.

Back when we were playing All American at the Hilton, we did not have near the playing budget that we have now, so we were strictly single line 25c players.

[alpax]

Back when we were playing All American at the Hilton, we did not have near the playing budget that we have now, so we were strictly single line 25c players.

It is easy to forget how valuable $1.25 was, the cost of a single round, you can buy more things with it than today. With the kind of edge you were getting, it was worth risking. The refined video poker strategies and discovering the exact science of the game happened later on when more powerful computers were accessible, so not too many people knew how good of an opportunity existed.