Playing Video Poker in the Swamp

[FloridaPhil]

We are heading to Ft. Myers for a wedding this Saturday night. There's nothing happening Saturday morning, so I'm driving over to the Hard Rock Brighton Casino outside of Okeechobee.  This is the smallest of the Florida Hard Rocks.  The casino is located on an Indian reservation and is about as close to the middle of nowhere as you can get in Florida.  I've had some nice hits at this casino, but you have to watch what you are doing as Max coins is 100 credits (ouch!).  If you hit this button and don't realize it you can bet $100 real fast.  This happened to me a few years ago and luckily I got a straight. 

[Lucky Larry]

Good luck tomorrow Phil to you and the happy couple.

[FloridaPhil]

I went on the Internet and found out the Seminole Casino in Immokalee was closer to Ft. Myers.  I had never been to this one before, so I decided to give it a try.  I wasn't expecting much, but found it to be a nice facility.  It's small, but the machines are all new and I liked the layout.   Better yet, they had Airport Deuces in all denominations.  I played for 5 hours and had a great time.  Their max coins was 10, so it was a challenge to play my system as I'm used to a 5 coin max.  Anyway, it worked to my advantage once as I switched to max coins playing dollars and hit a Wild Royal for $250.  I also hit a quad deuce and ran $20 up to $150 another time.  When the smoke cleared I had won $200 for the day.  The kids got married, everyone drank lots of alcohol and the wives all got lucky . 

[KiddoBaer]

Glad you had a great time in FL

[Vman96]

Glad it worked out for you Phil, but unless if things changed recently, VPFree2 says you only had to bet 5 to get the 800 for 1 royal.

[FloridaPhil]

That is true.  A five coin Royal still pays 4000 coins.  The default bet for max coins on these machines is 10 coins.  I normally play machines with 5 coin max bets, so I had to step the coin button up 5 times to keep from betting 10.  This caught me all day and I over  bet on many max coin hands.   It eventually helped me when I hit a dollar wild royal and won $250 instead of my usual $125.   I've been playing around lately with $5 machines and it is very exciting and so far profitable.  I only bet $20 at a time and start out playing one coin $5 bets.  If I lose my $20 I go to something else.  I try this a couple of times a day and have hit some nice hands. With deuces at $5 a hand you can often run your $20 to over $100 before things turn around.  I don't start hitting max coins until I'm over $100 because one bet is $25.  If I need the money to keep playing that day, I'll cash out at $150 and go back to my quarter or dollar play.  If I'm doing well, I keep going.  If you hit any good hand at $25 a hand, you will smile for a while. So far, I've run $20 to over $200 a few times and once to $600.   All you have to lose is $20, so there's not much risk. It takes discipline to do this, but it works if you have the guts to walk away.

[olds442jetaway]

Congrats to the kids and nice hits for you too by the way. I am working up a new and so far good method for DW or JOB. If it works for 10 consecutive trips, I will post something. So far it has worked for 3. I am trying it out on joker kings too, but too early to tell. Works better on low variance games. I did hit 5 of a kind today on joker kings at Mohegan with 10 quarters, but unfortunately, played it down to even before packing it in. PS....Mohegan is slowly allowing their vp machines to pick from quarter, fifty cent, or dollar play. That is great for me with the Martingale Clone that I play because sometimes my bets get up to the max 25 quarters and I either have to quit or go to dollars. This way, I can continue where I left off at 13 halves.

[FloridaPhil]

Some people ask me why I prefer to play one coin at $5 dollars a coin instead of five coin $1s.  This is a great question as you are giving up the royal bonus.   It's because I am not playing for the Royal, I am working to hit a jackpot at a higher denomination than I normally play.  Over the years I have observed that exiting the game, changing the denomination and reloading the game disrupts the rhythm of the game in a negative way.  I think this is a phenomenon that many of us have seen.  I prefer to play one coin and switch to max coins on the fly so the rhythm of the game is not changed.  I totally realize that none of this makes any sense and some people think this is garbage, but they are not playing with my money.  I tried for years using the Dancer strategy on negative expectation games and it was as expected a financial disaster. My strategy works for me and if it keeps working, I'll keep doing it...
 

[olds442jetaway]

I have noticed the same thing. On the other hand, in the middle of an ice cold cycle on the same machine I have found by switching games and denominations both have resulted in some great results. Most recent examples are hitting a Wild Royal on the first hand after switching to Bonus Deuces Wild on a double down stud machine and hitting a Wild Royal on the first hand after switching from Job quarter game to a fifty cent regular Deuces Wild Game on draw poker. Both of these were within the last week. Call me crazy too, but results speak for themselves. I forgot one more and this was yesterday. I had 18 straight dud hands on job at quarters. This is not unusual unfortunately lately for some reason. Anyway, I left it at quarters, but changed the game to Joker Kings. 17/7 which isn't a bad game except for the variance. I started at 5 quarters for 3 hands which were duds. Switched to 6 quarters for the next 3 hands which were duds, and then to 7 quarters intending to play at the next 3 hands at that level. Hit 5 tens on the first hand with 7 quarters in which resulted in a complete bailout for the day. I ran out of there like a little kid chasing an ice cream truck.

[FloridaPhil]

  Been there...    Anything will and does happen in this game.  I have also experienced better results some days doing what I call "Machine Surfing" where I just walk around the casino all day and play $20 in each machine until I find one that is in an up cycle. The trick here is to walk away before you give it back.  That's why I like to play $5 machines.  If you hit one, it's easier for me to walk away because the payday is bigger.  None of this makes any sense.  I guess that's why we like it so much.  Any person who says he/she has video poker figured out is kidding himself and anyone who believes him.  Skill, knowledge and perseverance have their place, but luck is the most important factor in this game.