If your only goal is a hand pay...

[Eduardo]

It keeps me from repeating my folly.

This is so interesting, since all the advice you give is specifically designed to repeat said folly.

[Eduardo]

Back on to my original post, it appears I was mistaken. FAA was actually talking about a 10 quarter bet, not 10 lines. 10 quarters would indeed be a suitable plan.

Thanks to everyone else for the feedback so far as well.

[FloridaPhil]

This is so interesting, since all the advice you give is specifically designed to repeat said folly.

My advice is this. Stay out of casinos. If you are going in one, keep your money at home. If you must play these games, take as much as you can afford to flush down the toilet because that's what you will be doing. Anyone who believes they can live a nice lifestyle by playing VP in a casino deserves what they get.

Don't believe me. Try it and call us back in ten years and tell us how it worked out.

Seriously. Once you learn this you may find you enjoy VP as cheap entertainment. That is what I do. It is not necessary for me to win big to be happy playing VP. The fact is I enjoy the game more because I don't have to be concerned with anything other than having a good time.

[olds442jetaway]

Personally, I like hitting a royal on the lone 800 for 1 dollar machine at a 98.8 paytable at mohegan. Although I rarely do hit one, it avoids the dreaded w-2g where in ct they steal 6 or 7 percent off the top with no ability to write off your losses. In addition the new tax law that took place in 2018 screws gamblers further because most of us lose out on the double standard deduction. We have to itemize to write off the losses on the federal side. Most people also dont know the personal exemption has been eliminated as well. They think the double standard deduction is a freebie. This tax change has cost mohegan plenty because my coin in for 2018 was a third of 2017 and for 2019 im hopiing it will be between ten and twenty percent of 2017. With martingale or its clone there will almost always be a few w2gs no matter what, so to avoid that i plan to start my play at the nickel level and cut off the clone if the bet level would grnerate a w2g. I can either quit at that point or continue to flat bet till i hit something or bust for the day or some combination thereof

[New2vp]

Eduardo, if we were limiting our play to 50-cent single line machines, the Double Super Times pay machines on site would have a cycle of around 6886 hands between hitting handpays if we consider the number $1200 as the limit. This is using the Triple Double Bonus 9-6 machine without adjusting the normal strategy.

The expected loss would be 694.6 coins or around $347. This cost INCLUDES the expected gain from a handpay without consideration of taxes. (For simplicity, I ignored the special add-in for this game to get 20x royal flushes on dealt royals with a deal multiplier.)

You could actually reduce the expected cost by using a more aggressive strategy towards handpays. Your average loss per hand would increase, but the number of hands in the cycle would decrease faster if we strike the proper balance. My prior experience suggests that the additional improvements after the first adjustment are extremely tiny. The idea is to realize that since getting to the handpay is going to cost you x, starting with x = 694.6 coins, you can essentially add x to the pay schedule at each point that there is a handpay.

This is not completely straightforward with the DSTP feature because you never know what your draw multiplier is going to be until after you make your hold decision. And sometimes some values of the draw multiplier will get you a handpay while others will not. For example, when deciding what your hold will be after you have received a 2x deal multiplier, if you get a final hand of 4 aces with no kicker and no draw multiplier, your payoff will be 800 x 2 = 1600 halves or $800 (no handpay). But if you get any draw multiplier, your payoff will be anywhere from $1600 to $4800, depending on the additional multiplier of 2x thru 10x.

And with a little thought you can arrive at the conclusion that your basic strategy should be different for each of the possible deal multipliers (since different multipliers bring different final hand outcomes under the handpay umbrella).

Regardless of the game, the technique of adjusting the strategy to get to the handpay would be an essential part of getting the handpay with the lowest expenditure.

[Eduardo]

Maybe casinos should just have a "hand pay" machine next to the cash machine.

You insert $2200 cash, a picture of a royal flush appears. You then wait for an attendant, and they hand you a check for $2000 and the associated paperwork.

[billryan]

Or one could scour the internet for pix.

[Tedlark]

My dog could hit a hand pay. It doesn't take much skill.

So what denomination does your dog predominantly play? Has he/she ever given your CS a go?

Sorry, it was low hanging fruit.....

[Tedlark]

Or one could scour the internet for pix.

I remember being accused of that once, how did THAT work out?

[Casino Knight]

Seriously, If your goal is a "Hand Pay" visit either of the two casinos run by the Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community in/near Scottsdale. Any win over Two Hundred Dollars, generates a hand paid "jackpot". Machine locks up, and you wait and wait for an attendant to pay you from their kangaroo pouch of money, down to the last penny. Frustrating to say the least, and no playable VP in the joint.