Move or Stay?

[FloridaPhil]

As I've stated many times on this forum, I only play single line deuces wild.  I play quarters the majority of the time.  I play 98.9% games or above.  To add some excitement to the game, I play $20 at a time and move to 50 cents or dollars when the counter reaches $40 and play back to $20 switching back to quarters. The odds don't change on the move.  Most of these moves yield nothing, but I have hit a number of higher jackpots doing this. I'm wondering if I may be hurting myself by switching around.  In other words, am I playing at the higher level without all the benefits?  My bankroll is currently big enough to play at the 50 cent level all the time.    Would I be better off to play 50 cents all the time and stop switching up?  I can't think of any math that can figure this out as you don't know when a $40 run will occur.Yesterday I was down $700 playing 50 cents,  switched to dollars and hit a $1,000 quad deuce and walked out up $300.  Getting lucky is a good thing...  

[FAA]

Thou dost protest too much. You're getting the "bounce back benefit" at a faster rate with the switching. Deep pockets make for lucky gamblers. If I stuck to quarter play with your level of luck yesterday on a session, I could hypothesize a $350 loss before the beloved $250 quad deuce kicked in to get me at -$100. Not ideal, but good value for one's play. This is one of Dan's typical LV sessions. But, he's got the $400 BR and you've got at least $700. I'm going home a big time loser on suicide hotline speed dial. Hard to identify with these TRs! I just continue to read them for research. 

[FloridaPhil]

I'm conflicted on this.  Holding most of my play to quarters does limit my loses on bad days as a 98.9% game is still negative.  However, there are days when I think I would be better off staying at the higher level.  By switching I may be able to turn a negative game positive "IF" I get lucky and that's a big IF.  Luck is difficult to calculate.  I understand math says it doesn't affect the long term, but it is a big part of gambling.  This is a serious question on my part.  I suspect I switch because it's fun, not because I gain any real advantage.

[wildman49]

Glad you brought this topic up Phil. I also like to play around moving up and down the scale and have had some very nice hits at the upper level of play. I also like changing betting amounts to add some fun to the game of VP that at times is boring. There is no real way to track it other then long turn play and record keeping to see if one is gaining on the % pay back. There is some luck then to hit at the higher bet when playing many more hands at the lower bet.For the 2017 year wondering if I should pick a betting amount and stick to it.

[FAA]

I love moving up and down the scale. It's a wacky technique, but I enjoy it. It brings energy and danger to a game like JOB, even more to the higher variance games. So far my only big hit is a fifty cent max quad or two. The vision of that $2,000 RF hand pay is a great carrot. If you hit big on a switch, by all means celebrate your genius.  

[FloridaPhil]

My VP play is divided into two parts, daily trips and longer term casino mini vacations.   At the Tampa Hard Rock the decision is easy because the good DW games start at 50 cents.  I started playing 50 cents all the time there about 6 months ago when I gave up playing bad quarter pay schedules.  Cherokee is the same.  Some days I go home early and some days I play all day depending upon my mood and the luck I'm having.  I normally don't take more than $500 with me on a day trip.   Yesterday was an experiment and thankfully I got away with it.The long term trips are more challenging.  I have had week long trips where I lost $1,500 playing quarters, although they have been rare.  One of these at 50 cents could possibly cost me $3,000 and I don't want to back there.  Years ago when I played dollars, I could easily rack up a $3K loss in three days.  This is unacceptable as far as I am concerned.  My current thinking is to play quarters and move up on these marathon trips.  On day trips I may be better at 50 cents all the time.  Who knows?

[Onenickelmiracl]

Do what feels right. Seems switching your bets adds an extra dimension to playing, you'll lose if you stay high. The excitement isn't coming from the game as much from changing your bets and this excitement isn't taxed by any edge. If you upped your bets all the time, you'll play faster, lose faster.

[FloridaPhil]

[quote=Onenickelmiracl] If you upped your bets all the time, you'll play faster, lose faster.[/quote]You are right.  I think the excitement of moving up in denomination is part of why I like doing it.  Moving up to 50 cent play to gain 2% better odds is a no brainer.  If the odds are the same and the comps don't make up the difference, it doesn't make sense to take the extra loses.  Thanks for the input...

[olds442jetaway]

This is what I would do Phil and it just me so it may mean nothing to others. Playing a bad vp session even on quarter deuces can get expensive in a long session. Obviously, playing fifty cents on a bad day will cost double what a bad quarter day would cost given the exact same hands dealt. To add a bit of excitement to a bad day, I up my quarter game to fifty cents when hitting a quad deuce will no longer get me even for the session. Its crazy, but it gets more exciting when you are just a few coins from switching to a fifty cent game and you actually hope the quad deuces don't appear on those last few hands. You may never hit that quad deuce that session, but you have cut your losses in half for all of that quarter play. If your roll for the day is large enough, you could even switch to dollar play if hitting at the fifty cent level still won't get you even. I also add a bit of built is protection in that for example if I switch to fifty cents and hit something like a wild royal right away, I will drop back to quarters until the losses tell my I need to switch back to a fifty cent game to be even if the deuces hit. Of course a Royal hit at the higher level is pure gravy, but that hasn't happened to me yet and I am now well over 400k hands again without a
Royal. However, I am holding my own playing this way. I follow the same rule for various games like bonus deuces or even playing 3 line games. Quite often, the quad deuces will appear on one of the other lines. To play that way on multiline though, I have found I need a bankroll of between one k and two k expecially on the bonus deuces game. I think a roll of 700 or so would be fine for a single line game playing this way. Worse scenario would be this......lose 250 playing quarters....switch to fifty cents and lose 500...quit for the day if no quad deuces.

[FloridaPhil]

It's very interesting the slight differences in our playing style.  I like to move up when the game is ahead and you like to move up when the game is behind.  My personal feeling is to bet bigger when the game is on a roll.  You bet bigger because it hasn't hit in a while and you feel it's due.  Of course our feelings have nothing to do with what the RNG will actually do, but as long as you bet bigger sometime you will eventually hit a bigger jackpot.Calculators will add up all our play and say we will lose long term because the overall odds are negative.  I'm fine with this math, but hitting one of those big jackpots has such a large effect on your bankroll that it can turn a bad game good in a NY minute.  For example, I hit two hand pays this year for a total of $6,000 plus three $1,000 quad deuces.  If I had flat betted quarters all year, that $9,000 would have been $2,750.  I'm ahead this year and will probably ride my profit well into 2017.  I think luck is a much bigger part of this game than some folks want to admit.  There is no way to calculate if or when one of these big jackpots will occur.  I just want to be there when they do.