Short Coin Opportunities...

[FloridaPhil]

The Tampa Hard Rock has pretty common VP pay schedules for the South East excluding the Beau Rivage in Biloxi which I suppose is trying for a new record in bad odds.  I mostly play short coin in
Tampa, so thought I would provide some numbers for those who don't
understand why I do this.  Like many casinos the quarter odds are
significantly less than higher denomination play.  Most will find better odds as you
move up in denomination.   For example, the Tampa quarter single
line deuces wild odds are 96.569%  max coins and 95.368% at one coin. Moving up to
fifty cents or higher, the odds improve to 98.913% and 97.686%
correspondingly. This makes the single coin 50 cent and higher odds a better game
than max coin quarters by a little over 1%.  If you are only going to the casino on rare occasion, I recommend playing max coins in case you hit a rare royal.  However, if
you are going to play 4-6 hours every week like I do 1% is significant. 
You can see this every time you hit a wild royal and only get 20 coins
instead of 25 on the better pay schedule.  The extra 5 coins really adds up making it a
better game to play at single coin over an extended period of time.  Interesting enough, the Hollywood Hard Rock has the 98.913% odds in quarters, so we play max coins there.There is
another reason I like to play single coin, but it's a personal reason
and not based on any math.   A few times during the day, it is common to experience a decent run playing deuces wild.  I'm not talking about a
few coins here or there, I'm talking about a crazy 100 coin bounce.  
These are the times when I briefly switch to max coins.  It's tricky because the run happened in the past and you are in the present.  This move is based on luck alone, however I have hit a number of great jackpots this way which has helped to keep my bankroll healthy.  I also realize doing this may have a short term negative monetary effect, but it's a risk I am prepared to take as a recreational player.  Playing for fun alone does have it's advantages.

[FAA]

New to DW and their confusing pay tables. Can you sort that out please?

[FloridaPhil]

There is a lot of variance when it comes to Deuce Wild pay tables and It's common to find different tables even in the same casino.  I have never played full pay deuces, so everything I say here is for NSU or lower.The royal almost always pays 250/4000 coins and the quad deuce is 200/1,000 coins. The most significant changes come closer to the bottom as they are the most common hands.  The big one to look for is the payout for a full house. 4 coins for a four-of-a-kind is pretty standard, but many machines only pay 3 coins for a full house.  The best pay tables pay 4 coins for both.  Giving up a coin for a full house hurts a bunch.  Most of the machines I play pay 45 coins for a straight flush.  Some really bad pay schedules like at the Beau Rivage only pay 40 coins for a SF. Five of a kind can also vary.  Airport Deuces, which is the most common decent pay schedule we see pays 45 coins for a 5-of-a-kind.  A wild royal happens about once an hour and it pays either 100 coins or 125 as I stated in my previous post. All of this seems a little confusing at first, but it's really not.  What I did at first was write down the pay tables in the casino and then run them into my VPW software on my laptop back in the room to see where they were at.  VPW is great for this.  Because there are so many different schedules, it's important to check anything new that you haven't seen before.   Slight changes can make a big difference in the return on these games.Outside of Nevada, the best deuces pay schedules we have seen are in Black Hawk Colorado.  We vacation there each spring and play max coins the whole time.    The casinos are great, the mountains are beautiful and the entire State is non smoking.  We would move there permanently if it weren't for the weather.

[FAA]

Got it. I prefer to pair tables and percentages. I see my phone version is 98.9%. Sounds great, but I have still lost 1,500 of my 10,000 points. This learning curve is a project.

[FloridaPhil]

Dancer wrote a great paperback book on Deuces Wild a few years back.  I have a copy and I think I bought it on Amazon.  Deuces has more variance than Jacks due to the quad deuce mini jackpot.  It's not as bad as DDB, but you can get behind if the quad deuces don't show up on time.  You can sometimes go a few sessions before you get one and then you'll get more than one.   I once got three of them in twenty minutes.  Love it when that happens!  

[FAA]

Interesting information. Given my venue, I am bullish on the quad deuces making their regularly scheduled rounds. Excellent tip not to hastily leave upon the appearance of the initial quad deuce. I will be sure to keep banging that pinata for at least another ten minutes.  

[FloridaPhil]

I've told this story a few times, but maybe you haven't heard it.  When I first started playing deuces I was clueless about the odds and how cold this game can be if you don't get quad deuces on schedule. I figured I could play at the 50 cent level and so off I went to seek my deuces wild fortune.   I was playing at the Beau Rivage on vacation and was playing a 95% game and didn't know it.   I started real early in the morning with max coins and played all day with out a single quad deuce.  By 5:00 PM, I was down a little over $2,000, which for me was almost suicidal.  My wife came down from the room and sensing my depression suggested we go to the bar and have a drink or two.  I sat down, ordered a straight up gin martini and started to play again at max coin quarters. Within 2 minutes I had my first quad deuce of the day for $250.  Not knowing any better, I switched to 50 cent play and gave it another go.  Within ten minutes, I had a another quad deuce for $500.  Being triple stupid, I switched to dollar play and you guessed it, hit a third quad deuce for $1,000!   Within 20 minutes I had won $1,750 of my money back.  I've had lots of three quad deuce days since then, but never in that short period of time.

[onemoretry]

Five of a kind can also vary.  Airport Deuces, which is the most common decent pay schedule we see pays 45 coins for a 5-of-a-kind. 

I think you meant to say 75 coins for five of a kind.

[FloridaPhil]

Yes.  The five of a kind payout is juggled around a bit. I matters because you seem to get quite a few of them.

[case]

I travel across the country for vacation usually Oct and Nov each year and I have yet to make it to Black Hawk Colorado. Yet Colorado is one of the states we visit. I have also heard the VP, while not Vegas is decent. Most people agree  with you Phil in that the area is a lot of fun for gamblers.  My trip this year will just skirt Colorado and go north to Wyoming so I might miss it again. I will get there one of these times.