My History in Video Poker (cont'd)

[New2vp]

  Other notable games are: a couple dozen 5-cent Williams machines and another bank of games on the endangered species  list……CDS Super-Aces.What is/was CDS Super-Aces?  Better pay schedule than regular Super Aces?

[Lazyace]

 
  

[mickey crimm]

Wilcox PM'd me and told me he wasn't joking with me.  So I apologized to him for taking his post wrong.  And I apologize to everyone else for being an idiot. 

[Lazyace]

 
 

[wilcoxfun]

Let it be known I have forgiven Mickey and look forward to more stories from Mickey and Lazyace as I love them!

[Lazyace]

 
   

[mickey crimm]

 
  Hey Mickey, mentioning those other small northern Nevada towns reminded of some great trips I took through that area when it was new to me.
 
Wendover was a total free ride for me.  I was comped rooms, meals, cigarettes (I know, I shouldn't smoke), clothes, jewelry, haircuts, massages, concert tickets, etc.  And there was no heat on homesteading. 
 
I was a diamond card holder.  The IGT full pay video blackjack was plentiful.  It was in all the bartops in the Rainbow and Peppermill and also in a lot of machines out on the casino floors.  Max bet on the machines was $20 so I could run a huge wager per hour and my comp meter ran at .8%. So I could run about 150 comp dollars per hour.  The best video poker on the Peppermill properties was NSUD so I stuck to the video blackjack.  
 
I took my earn mainly from the Montego Bay and Rainbow poker rooms playing 1-2 and 2-5 no-limit.  But I did get occasional video poker plays at the Wendover Nugget.  They had quarter and dollar 9/6 Jacks progressives.  The dollar progressive had a .75% meter on it.  I got my share of royals there. 
 
In August of 2007 I was playing $5 denom NSUD at the Nugget on a drawing ticket promotion when I hit 2 royals just a few hours apart.  In both cases I held 2 royal cards and caught the other three on the draw. 
 
I would have to imagine that with the financial mess the country is in Wendover is probably a players market these days.  The airline that used to fly to Elko now goes to Wendover.  The packages go for pretty cheap.  They fly out of 17 states in the West, Southwest, Northwest, Midwest and Texas.  For anyone who may be interested just go to Wendoverfun.com. 
 
The slot card is self comp for the most part.  Just hand them your card in the coffee shops, buffets, gift shops.  For the hotels, I prefer Montego Bay first, then the Rainbow, then the Peppermill.  The Peppermill rooms are small.  There is a concert hall in Wendover too that brings in name acts.   
 
The Bonneville Salt Flats are not far away.  Wendover sits on the edge of the salt flats, and right on the Nevada/Utah border on Interstate 80, about 120 miles west of Salt Lake City.     

[Lazyace]

 
 

[MRB]

It
was just another typical day of good will at the office by yours truly.
I had spent a grueling 15 ½-hour day at my work station and donated
$80.00 of my wages back to the community………and helped a woman in need.Classic LazyAce...I don't know why, but I really enjoy reading these hustling tales. I think you've got a great "gaming" book on your hands. Not sure how it would appeal, on a broad basis, but as a video poke junkie and casino person, I like 'em. Thx for sharing!So let me ask you a question: how badly has the bill receptor/coinless-ticket system thing eaten up your "lifestyle"?You've touched on it a bit, by breaking down how many machines are coin-in, but even that was awhile ago. Seems to me that they are dinosaurs now, yes? (Being a  non-hustler vp player, I LOVE the new ticket system. I used to HATE effing around with all those coins. Dirty and slow. But I realize how critical they were/are to your "work.")I'm a downtown Vegas kind of guy myself, and every now and then I see ones at the Vegas Club or somewhere like that, but are there any more coin-in machines at all? It is worth it, are there still "overpayers" out there?  And if not, what's the hustle now?Just curious.

[mickey crimm]

 I remember a trip Sal and I took in early November 2004 to Wendover. We stopped in Ely along the way and found a nickel Williams Leprachaun Gold doing 50% in the Hotel Nevada.We took turns playing it and stayed there for 2 nights
 
Ah, yes,  Ely, Nevada.  One of the more fun plays I've had in my career was at the Hotel Nevada & Gambling Hall.  I spent well over a year in Ely--but not in one long stretch.  It was three stretches. 
 
The name is pronounced e - lee, not e - ly.  The locals get miffed if you pronounce the name wrong.  Ely is a copper mining and prison town located on the eastern end of the stretch of U.S. Highway 50 known as the "loneliest road in America."  I'm guessing it's about 200 miles north of Las Vegas.  I know it's 120 miles southwest of Wendover.  Population about 4,000. 
 
The dates escape me but I was in and out of Ely from about 2004 to 2006.  Someone had told me there was Full Pay Kings or Better Joker Poker in the Hotel Nevada's spin pokers.  Sure enough the game was there.  But that wasn't all.  There were promotions galore.  
 
When I got there there were about 10 spin pokers at the 5 cent and 10 cent denom. with FPKBJW.  The slot club was unusual to say the least.  You got a card with your name and number on it but there were no card readers on the machines.  You had to have the card to be eligible for most of the promotions.  Since there were no card readers I spread my play out over all the machines to sandwich my win between the bad players.  I would lock up two machines and bounce back and forth between them. 
 
Promotion #1
I got $1 cash for every natural quad I made.  I would have to stop and turn my light on and an attendent would show up and pay me.  This was the reason I locked up two machines.  I got paid for multi-line quads up to $5.  This was worth about $10 an hour to me.  I played about 40 hours a week so it was worth about $400 a week. 
 
Promotion #2
I got 4 of a kind cards.  I filled them in by making the natural quads.  I could work 2 cards at the same time.  Once a card was filled in they gave me another one.  I got a free Megabucks pull and a spin on a house wheel that had money on it for every card I filled in.  I put the equity at about $8 per card.  I did about 10 cards a week.  This was worth about $80 a week to me. 
 
Promotion #3
I also got a drawing ticket for every natural quad.  There was a small counter drum I put the tickets in.  Every Wednesday and Sunday nights for an hour they pulled names.  10 winners total for $75 each.  I was the biggest action maker in the house.  I had way more tickets in the drum than anyone else.  I played well over 100 drawings and missed the $75 only twice.   I put the equity at about $147 a week. 
 
The last two drawings of the night were for $150 and $200.  I batted about 25% and put my equity at about $90 a week. 
 
Promotion #4
The Shirt Bonus.  During the one hour drawings if you had on a piece of clothing that said Hotel Nevada you  got a $50 bonus for hitting a pay of $50 or more.  I paid $8 for a Hotel Nevada tee-shirt to qualify.  On a 10 cent Joker Wild Spin Poker you will make a $50 or higher pay about every 200 deals.  I played on turbo speed.  Many times I hit 5 shirt bonus's during the hour.  And one time I hit 6.  But my average was 3.  I had to stop and they had to do paperwork to pay me so that slowed things down pretty good.  This promotion was worth $300 a week to me. 
 
Promotion #5
For 2 hours after the drawing royals paid double.  If  I hit a multi-line royal I only got paid for one extra royal but it was still a significant add-on. 
 
Promotion #6
The quarterly drawing.  Every 3 months was the quarterly drawing.  There were 10 winners of $500 each and one lucky person won a car.    I batted about 50% on the $500.  I never won the car. 
 
Did I get any comps?  I got 2 or 3 $6 meal comps a week.  That's it.  I paid my own freight in Ely.  I stayed at the White Pine Motel about 4 blocks from the casino.   The Hotel Nevada was paying me well over $1000 a week to play a game in which I had well over $1000 a week in expectation.  Comps aren't everything.