VP in MT: not the (last) best . . .

[Minn. Fatz]

Just returned from a week in western Montana with good and bad news about video poker. The good news is:
 

there's a casino about every other block in most towns of any size
there's no penalty for playing less than full coin-in ($2 in Montana)
you can play any denomination from five cents to $2
most places offer free drinks for players
skill is not a factor since the typical Touch King machine gives you the correct hold for every hand
The bad news is:

the minimum legal return is 90 percent. The gaming commission claims most machines return "substantially more" because of competition etc. but as near as I could figure "substantially more" means around 96 percent; that's for 6/5 Bonus Poker on the typical Touch King keno/poker machine
the maximum payout is $800. As noted above that means 400 for 1 on a RF with $2 in and the 400 for 1 extends all the way down to the nickel bets.
in the couple places I played there was no sign of a slot club or other comps besides free beers
while some (but by no means all) casinos also have live poker, in many small towns that means one table. I didn't indulge, but my best guess would be someone's home game moved to a bar with all the advantages and disadvantages of sitting in as an "outsider."
My advice would be to play, say, $10 sessions of the 400/6/5 BP game with a modification of a Frugal Play approach to slots: play $2 the first hand and whenever your roll is over $8; otherwise play one quarter (for a $100 RF payout) at a time to extend your short roll. I'd also break from my Advantage Play faith and recommend holding four to a RF instead of a high pair and three Aces, 2s, 3s or 4s from a full house to go for the higher payouts.
Now if I could only learn to take my own advice!

[shadowman]

The last time I was in Montana (Billings) I came across a game where you select the wild card (I think it's called Anything Wild). If you selected the deuce (best choice) then it had a paytable just like FPDW. I don't remember what the value was for the RF.
 
This was many years ago.