WENT TO INDIAN CASINO

[vidopoker]

went to the San Manuel Casino at 1 am Sunday morn.
they removed 2 of the 5 10-play machines and 1 of the 3 was broken. played almost exclusively on the machine i won the $10k on in september when dealt the royal.
Amazingly enough, hit two 4aces w/ kickers ($1,000 each) AND four 2,3,4w/ kicker ($500 each) plus 4 aces w/out kicker ($200). of course, i lost big between hits and lost my shirt playing blackjack, but had a good time nonetheless. Incidently, on one of the 4aces w/kicker, it was on the redraw and I only held one ace.
Two players on either side of me hit royal flushes within 5 minutes of each other but both were only playing 1 credit per line and the payout was 250 credits. what a bummer!!
 
if anyone lives and the area and is interested in the pay schedules, did some research. Overall, I find these to be pretty good pay schedules for an indian casino, of course your either play 10-play at 12.50 a hand or 3-play at .50 a hand. you can't have your cake and eat it too if you want 3 or 5 play at .25!
 
-the 3 ten play machines (all quarters) have tdb at 9/5 and double double bonus at 8/5.
-there are various 3 and 5 play machines through the casino but none of them had ddb on them. they have tdb on them for 3-play only but the machines are all .50 or $1.
-they brought in some "all star" poker machines and the pay schedules are horrendous but there were people on them at all times. the tdb pays 7/5 for quarter, 8/5 for .50 and 9/5 for $1. you can play all the games on 3,5 or 10 play.
 
Ps, what is with these players who play like 5 credits and then are obsessed with double up once, twice, or more??

[shadowman]

 Incidently, on one of the 4aces w/kicker, it was on the redraw and I only held one ace.

 
I had one of those yesterday also, holding a lone ace and drawing 3 more aces and a four. Always a pleasant surprise.
 
  Ps, what is with these players who play like 5 credits and then are obsessed with double up once, twice, or more??


 
If you think about it doubling is a reasonable strategy on poor return machines. If you were playing $5 a hand at 800 hands/hour you would expect to lose an average of $4000*.02 = $80/ hour playing a 98% return game (about the best in your examples).
 
The same person might play 400 HPH and double each one. Since doubling is an even bet (100% return), the result would be limiting the losses to $40/hour.
 
Naturally, there is a loss of cashback and comps since doubling is usually not considered a new bet. But, usually that will not amount to nearly as much money as the above difference. 
 

[vidopoker]

i saw one guy who was doubling up multiple times. if he did it once or twice, he would do it again and then lose. he was also grumbling at the machine when he was losing.
 
incidently, the players club at this casino sucks. i finally signed up for it and after being at the casino for 10 hours (at least 1/2 of the time spent was for vp) and betting 12.50 a hand, i didn't get anything back. they make you get 2,500 credits before getting the $25 back. apparently, when i left, i had 2,380 credits or so.

[shadowman]

I've also seen players double over and over again. As a result they sometimes get lucky enough for large wins but normally lose. No matter how many times they double the bet is still even money. However, what it does do is send the variance through the roof.

 
Personally, I don't like real high variance but it does result in some huge wins. If you like to brag about these kind of wins then that might be a motivation in playing this way. Keep in mind from a purely statistical viewpoint, the more you double on a negative game the less you will be EXPECTED to lose in the same amount of time (with big swings both ways).

[vidopoker]

well, short of being in las vegas, all we have here in CA is negative games. Although I don't go to the indian casinos that often, being there in 1.25 hours makes it much more realistic for me to go then the 4.5 hour drive to las vegas.
 
 

[shadowman]

Supposedly there are some better games at Barona reported on vpfree. I have no idea how close you are to that casino. It recently brought in Bob Dancer to "certify" it had the best VP in CA.

[vidopoker]

actually, i was at barona once. it's far from where i am. i live in the san fernando valley (if you know where that is). Barona is near san diego in lakeside, ca and it's way out in the middle of nowhere, too boot. many hours from me. it would make more sense for me to go to vegas than barona.  as it is, i go to vegas 3 or 4 times a year (used to go 6 times) and maybe will fill in an indian casino visit once or twice a year between LV jaunts.
 
bob dancer? eh, not a huge fan of his.... but apparently the casinos think they will bring in biz b/c of him so if it works, more power to them.