Having More Fun Playing Negative Games?

[FloridaPhil]

Over the past 10 years or so, my wife and I have traveled all over the country playing video poker and have never seen a 100% quarter video poker game, much less a positive expectation game.  I'm sure there are 100% combinations of pay tables and comps in higher denominations, but our budget and minds keep us in quarter games most of the time.  My point is, we have to choose between playing negative expectation games or not playing at all.  We choose to play, but are always working on strategies designed to keep our long term losses to a minimum.  The most obvious strategy is to stop playing and walk out of the casino when you are ahead, which freezes your win or loss at that point.  This works every time, but the enjoyment of playing video poker stops along with it.  For this reason, our strategies are aimed at extending play while still maintaining the possibility of an exciting jackpot.  If long term winning happens it's wonderful, but it's not our total objective.  Our strategies involve changing games, denominations and coins in mid play   If anyone wants to chat about these strategies, let’s do it...
 

[FloridaPhil]

Playing slower is a strategy that I have used and it definitely reduces losses long term.   I also find that I make a lot less errors.  I use Video Poker for Winners to train and it's always amazing to me how many errors you can make without even noticing it (especially in deuces).   I know a lot of people will dispute this, but I'm currently of the opinion that changing denominations in mid-play can have a positive effect on return.  Assuming the game and pay schedules are the same, the correct play for a particular drawn hand is exactly the same whether you are playing for quarters or for $50 a point.   Moving up in denomination increases your coin-in, but also increases your potential win. The real trick is knowing when to move up or down. On an average day this is impossible, but there are a few times when the machine is trying to tell you something if you will listen.  I am definitely not saying this strategy will make you a long term Video Poker winner, but it works a lot better for me than playing the same game and denomination all day and waiting for the 5% built-in loss to take effect.  Now that should start some discussions... 

[royal flush]

in las vegas you can find fpdw, 10,7 db and 10,6 ddb at the quarter level

[BillyJoe]

in las vegas you can find fpdw, 10,7 db and 10,6 ddb at the quarter level
Probably not on The Strip, though.

[royal flush]

no the best on the strip on 25c level is 7/5 bp, garbage game

[onemoretry]

 The real trick is knowing when to move up or down. On an average day this is impossible, but there are a few times when the machine is trying to tell you something if you will listen. 
Most of your suggestions/ideas make sense.  But, you lose me on this one.What is your criteria for moving up or down, since there is no logical way to predict, based on recent results, what is going to happen?

[Vman96]

no the best on the strip on 25c level is 7/5 bp, garbage game

At Caesars properties, yeah. But NYNY has 9/6 JoB for quarters and Casino Royale has 8/5 Bonus.

[BillyJoe]

[QUOTE=royal flush]

no the best on the strip on 25c level is 7/5 bp, garbage game

At Caesars properties, yeah. But NYNY has 9/6 JoB for quarters and Casino Royale has 8/5 Bonus.[/QUOTE]
And NY/NY is part of the MGM Int'l group, using an MLife Players card.

[Lucky Larry]

Phil,
From my posts you know that I believe in premonitions when they are really strong. My suspicion is that when you/I am alert and our timing is right we are getting the hits and feel like we are as Sweet C says "in the zone" - fully concentrating. Changing denominations may also increase our alertness and change our style of play/timing. Sometimes this leads to hits at higher denomination and sometimes a bigger loss.

[FloridaPhil]

This gets to the heart of the problem with betting on hunches, feeling and premonitions. From my experience this usually doesn't work. However, if you raise your bet a certain percent of the time, you are going to hit at the higher denominations some of the time.  What you are really doing is betting above your bankroll for that small amount of time you move higher.  I choose to do this when I have locked up the amount of my session win (in my case that's $250 in white tickets) and have doubled my $20 bill.  I realize this also causes me to lose more, but the rewards of hitting a large jackpot offset my losses.   For example, it takes a lot of quarter Deuces Wild play to equal one $1,000 Dollar quad deuce jackpot.  To equal this you would need a Royal (happens on 2-3 times a year in my case) or 4 sets of quarter quad deuces.  I don't think it matters much when you move higher as long as you do it.  In my mind, this is the only way you are going to gain an edge on a negative expectation game.  Only time will tell if I lose or win more with this strategy.  I'm playing for fun and it's delivering..