Another Happy Ending

[FloridaPhil]

Today was bonus free play day at the Tampa Hard Rock. $80 in free play was temping, so I decided to take a chance. I've been on a lucky streak lately without a losing day in over a month. No Royals, just a number of quad deuce jackpots at the right time. I played single coin dollars to gain the better game. Took my normal $300 daily bankroll. I played solid from 10:30 until 3:00 PM only taking a few bathroom breaks. Nothing much to show for it and I thought I was going home busted. It was getting late in the day and I didn't want to get hung up in traffic, so with $80 left I hit the max coin button. The VP Gods smiled on me once more with this $1,000 quad deuce. I cashed out and went home up $800.

[Eduardo]

That's the way to do it. Save the best for last and come out ahead. Nice work.

Can you explain how was it a better game at single coin dollars vs playing max quarters? I could never live with myself if I hit a royal for 250 there instead of a thousand bucks at max bet quarters. Not sure what your options were though.

Obviously it paid off going max when you did. Oh, what a feeling!

[stevel96a1]

a beautiful hand way to go Phil, im so tempted to play deuces wild over triple double bonus every time i run a short sim over many times DW hardly ever breaks the 4 or 8k barriers, tdb on the other hand it either heaven or hell breaking through 7k+ credit win in short amount of hands can happen but it does not its hell on your bankroll

is it wrong to play both with even amount of coin? 97 vs 97 no one knows the future

i also played TDB on 2 different phones and results were -250$ and +36, i was better off with 1 phone then complicating things so all and all best way to play like the pros max bet every time all the time and 1 machine

[case]

I like "happy endings"

[wildman49]

Nice one Phil! Love to see the 4 ducks!

Heading out for a 10 hour marathon with JOB today. Looking for a Royal!

[FloridaPhil]

Can you explain how was it a better game at single coin dollars vs playing max quarters?

This is a very common situation on today's casinos. The most common quarter deuces wild game where we play is 97.58% at max coins. If you play at the dollar level, most casinos let you play the 98.9% game. Both of these games are negative, so you should expect long term losses playing either game.

Airport Deuces at single coin is a 97.69% game making single coin dollars a slightly better game, but this doesn't tell the whole story. If you play single coin dollars, every time you hit a wild royal you are paid $25 dollars instead of $20. If you hit a quad deuce playing single coin dollars you are only shorted $50 less than at max coin quarters. You will hit a lot more wild royals in a day than quad deuces. You also earn more on 5-of-a-kind hands as well. I see no difference in my comps between playing single coin dollar VP and max coin quarters.

A significant advantage comes because playing single coin dollars reduces your coin in by 20% ($1 vs. $1.25). This allows you to play 20% more hands with your money. Recreational players like me measure our results on a daily basis. We know these games cost money to play. I want three things from a day of VP play. Play as long as possible with my money. Go home with money left. Have a chance at a decent jackpot.

A quad deuce comes one about every 5,000 hands. In deuces wild, how you do on a particular day is going to hinge on hitting those hands. Hit at least one and you are going to be OK. Don't hit one and you are in for a long day. The more hands you can play with your money, the better your chance of hitting a quad deuce. When you are playing single coin dollars a natural royal pays $250, the same as a max coin quarter quad deuce. If I hit one, I don't think "My God I just missed $4,000!". I am happy because I just got paid for an extra quad deuce at a discounted price. Personally, I believe the lure of hitting a max coin royal flush on a negative VP game is not worth the investment.

The final advantage is mostly psychological not financial. At any time during my day, I can hit the max coin button. Most of the time, I lose $5. On occasion, something wonderful happens like it did yesterday. The excitement of this possibility keeps me in the game. Whatever happens, it's strictly luck and I know it.

There is no math, strategy, magic or anything else that can make a negative video poker game profitable. There are ways to reduce the cost to play them and/or make them more entertaining to play.

[Tedlark]

Phil you wrote: "Personally, I don't believe the lure of hitting a max coin royal flush on a negative VP game is not worth the investment."

This is a fine statement if you are talking stricting as an "entertainment" player but with everything else you wrote regarding payback percentages and ways to reduce the cost to play negative games aren't you blurring the lines between "entertainment" play and advantage play?

[FAA]

Clumsy sentence structure: a double negative.

[FloridaPhil]

Advantage Play strategy tactics have value to a Recreational player. The major difference between a net positive and a net negative VP game is the math is reversed. When playing a net positive VP game the more hands or the bigger you play, the larger the expected return. If you play a net negative VP game more or bigger, the more you lose.

If all things are equal, the greatest influence on your return when playing a net negative VP game is coin-in. If you play these games like Bob Dancer says to, your coin-in will be zero. If you are going to play them regardless, anything that reduces coin-in reduces losses. I want players to know they are most likely paying a lot more to see a royal flush than it pays them in return. This is true because most VP games are net negative. I do not play VP so I can hit royals that cost me 3-4 times what I win. It doesn't matter to me what hand pays me as long as some hand does.

Yesterday I played VP from 10:30 AM until 3:00 PM. Over that time, I did not hit a royal or a quad deuce. If I had played max coins during that time, I would have been on my way home when that $1,000 quad deuce happened. Playing single coin dollar VP, if I had hit a quad deuce I would have won $200. A royal would have paid $250. Neither white ticket would have been a bad thing.

[Come Back Kid]

Nice hit Phil...Nice way to end the day.