Trip Report

[DaBurglar]

Car, that is pitiful futility. I hit a Borgata Royal Flush in October, and I play very short sessions compared to the majority of forum regulars. Unfortunately, it was the $62 disaster! Primed for the full grand this year when I finally return. Hopefully the machines will have thawed out by then!FAA.....i sympathize with your frustration.     Have you considered adhering to the recognized principle of always playing max coin, and that if you cannot afford to play max coin at a certain denomination (in this case 25 cents), then you really should play MAX coin at 5 cents  instead of playing less than max at 25 cents.......your royal would have paid 200 bucks at 5 cents max  instead of 62.50 playing 1  quarter.    Your risk is the same but reward is over three times greater!

[Carcounter]

I have been going to AC basically once a week for a 3-4 hr. Afternoon session for the last 20 years, but have detailed records for only the last 10 years. The last 5 yrs have been the worst, with 3 losing years and one winning and one flat yr. good news is that I am still positive overall for the last 10 yrs, but was once + 25k overall, now + 7k and dropping fast. You can draw your own conclusions from that. I will say that up until the Great Recession, there were better games/ pay tables. Numerous + 100% theos back then. Bob D will say I'm doing worse because of downgraded pay tables and I think there is some truth to that, but not getting returns I should be getting on 99.69 and 99.5 % games. Lack of royals is of course the big reason, but lack of quads on 99.69% SDB is disturbing. I practice and make only small, inconsequential mistakes in my opinion. I am wondering what is up to be honest.

[olds442jetaway]

     My results as I have posted before are similar to yours at Mohegan Sun. The horrible Royalless streaks including one I am in now have cost me nearly 2 % in addition to the 1% the casino gets from tha paytable. My mistakes I am sure account for less than .25% and like you said, the lack of quads is quite disturbing. For this year, I am surviving and holding my own only by playing a mild Martingale version. Had I been flat betting, I would already be way behind. I think I am about even now and that is only because some decent wins have come in at bet levels higher than 5 and close to 25 quarters. I know that soon the casino will bust my bank for the session, but flat betting is just not my thing. My results for at least the last 2 years are a return of only 95% and much too costly to continue at that pace.

[DaBurglar]

I have been going to AC basically once a week for a 3-4 hr. Afternoon session for the last 20 years, but have detailed records for only the last 10 years. The last 5 yrs have been the worst, with 3 losing years and one winning and one flat yr. good news is that I am still positive overall for the last 10 yrs, but was once + 25k overall, now + 7k and dropping fast. You can draw your own conclusions from that. I will say that up until the Great Recession, there were better games/ pay tables. Numerous + 100% theos back then. Bob D will say I'm doing worse because of downgraded pay tables and I think there is some truth to that, but not getting returns I should be getting on 99.69 and 99.5 % games. Lack of royals is of course the big reason, but lack of quads on 99.69% SDB is disturbing. I practice and make only small, inconsequential mistakes in my opinion. I am wondering what is up to be honest.Carcounter, thank you very much for this honest and detailed reply.....seriously.....AS I am sure you must be aware by now, my own personal results in AC since 2009, and especially the last 5 years since 2011, mirror yours except I would hazard a guess my results are a tad WORSE.   Unlike you I have only been going to AC since 2009, and prior to that I was exclusively a Vegas/Reno player with Video Poker, and had done reasonably well playing every year in Nevada from 1993 thru 2007/2008.    Upon returning home to New eNGLAND IN 2007,  i SHIFTED MY GAMBLING TO AC, just in time to see the rapid deterioration of AC begin.    The first two years in AC, 2009-2011 were lousy, but nothing I could not explain via math and variance, plus I immediately noticed that AC was in itself just "different" from Nevada so I downgraded my expectations accordingly.But from 2011 onward, things just went from bad to worse to horrible to outrageous in terms of video poker results.    As I groped and searched and sought out answers for the statistically unreasonable and putrid result pattern, I have come across a wide variety of theories and hints and dead ends and other things......I would be very interested in hearing some of your theories, ALL of them no matter how bizarre, as to why you have seen this sustained string of bad results out of all proportion of reasonable expectations and past history.

[Carcounter]

I honestly don't know how to explain it. Maybe it is all within the statistical laws of the universe, but something seems off. Maybe because I had such good years in the early and mid 2000's, I thought that was normal. I mean I hit 3 top line 8k royals on .25 Job multi strike at Borgata in a year and a half. Before I ever hit a royal on the first three lines. What are the odds of that? Hit royals with uncanny frequency on the $1.00 all Americans at Caesars,now realizing just how "lucky" I was. Funny, I never thought the games were rigged when I was doing well. I'm a civil engineer by trade and a pretty linear thinker. My best guess is that statistics are catching up to me and I'm on downside of the curve.

[notes1]

cc, using that same logic, i guess the statistics have suddenly decided to catch up on a whole lot of people, all at the same time, within the last few years. or, it could be a different form of logic, that is frowned upon on this forum, the machines are different.

[Carcounter]

I think anything is possible. It is odd that my "luck" went downhill exactly when the casinos started to tank. I have always thought that when the AC casinos were in their heyday, they were doing so well that a small percentage of advantage VP players were tolerable. Not anymore.

[notes1]

be careful what you say, there is a dedicated group that forms anytime the casinos and regulators need defending. they will demand proof and ask why you continue to play.

[FAA]

I play so little that just a humble max coin RF on the year will render me even. That occurred at Caesars last year, so I can shrug off the Borgata short coin fiasco. Seriously, semper max coin is a losing proposition at any denom IMO. I can't even find nickel JOB at Borgata or Caesars. Keep in mind I prefer single line. If I did, tables will probably be awful.

[FAA]

I grinded for almost four hours today, a marathon for me. Bally's was a nightmare. I got my $25 FP to $55, then lost it all on two machines. No quads in eighty minutes. Lost a $25 FP craps bet to boot. Outside, I made a one hand grab of a beer cozy thrown from a float in the St. Patrick's Day parade on the boardwalk. An omen, per chance? Slainte!
Caesars was much more welcoming. I hit an unprecedented five quads in 2.75 hours. Lucky I photographed them all. I would be denying my own results otherwise. I expected my Progressive session, but the entire bank was full. Like a sullen child, I marched off to the High Roller room. This was a disastrous strategy last time. JOB is only 8/5 dollars. Before I could escape, I had lost $52. The ATM decision seemed incredibly foolhardy. Down to my last $8, I bet $3. I was generously dealt four sixes for $75. Martindale paid off. Eat your heart out, Olds! I got up and yelled Cash Out! I beat it back to my safe haven low roller milieu with $80. Of course the first quad I got there was one coin. I switched machines and won $5 on another. Then I remembered the woman who went quad/RF last time on the machine I abandoned. Superstition drew me back. Wrong move! I lost $30 pursuing my next quad, a three coin hit. Meanwhile, a Seven Star guy who left his ice cold machine had a ball on the one I left, even hitting a Straight Flush! His equally morbidly obese wife took over next to me on the ice box and started hitting like crazy as well. What a frustrating month. Last visit, I witness RF while on an ice box. This time, I'm on the RF machine and witness a SF! Need either payout. But, my last quad was max coin. Happy to escape town up $10 after trip cost when the dust cleared. Day feels like a blur. Reporting live from Caesars Pleaser, this is FAA.