Gold Exclusive
My Favorites
Each of us is perhaps in eternal quest for THE method to end all methods in VP.
I have adapted/adopted the method of my loving bro-in-law. Rest his soul, he was excellent at the game -- he preferred JOB as the best game odds-wise -- and he played
a recurring combination of bets. Perhaps not new, but worth repeating:
Sit at a $1 9/6 machine, bet $5 for starters. If you lose, go to $3. If you lost again, go to $1 and stay there 'til you win. Then back up the scale as you win.
My own variation is what I will call -- not all that creatively -- 1-2-3 poker at a 9/6 $1 machine.
I play DDB. I start the play at $2, dropping to $1 if I lose and going to $3 if I win. Avoiding $5 in the early going (and a tax bill if I should score a royal.) I stay at the higher (or lower) bet in the 1-2-3 sequence 'til I win, then back up or down the scale.
I deploy this method, with hopefully great discipline, until I pass $500 in winnings. I then revert to bro-in-law's higher stakes $1-$3-$5 approach.
Last time out at Potowatomi Casino in Milwaukee with this "method" I cleared $3000 in winnings. The time before that, $750 (tax free on a $3 royal.)
Most times, I'll stop at $100 and live to play another day -- typically a week or so later. I get to enjoy the game, knowing the days of $1000 losses are behind me.
FWIW, offered up in the pool of commmon VP wisdom.
GLTA.
I call it 1-2-3 DDB
-
FAA
- Video Poker Master
- Posts: 9166
- Joined: Wed May 28, 2014 11:58 am
Nothing wrong with a $750 tax free RF. My simple goal is to put $250 loss days behind me. You should avoid any $5 bets early. It just decimates funds. I should not be anywhere near those machines in the first place.
-
Zid
- Forum Rookie
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2015 5:38 pm
I have the advantage -- if you can call it that -- of the casino being a 10 minute drive from me. So I can visit as often as I like with no real inconvenience.
Last Friday night, their annual cocktail party for mini-high rollers. The highlight of the evening was their drawing for free play. I scored an unprecedented, for me, $500 in free credits -- by picking an envelope on a table filled with them. i.e. Totally random. It was "money" that I saved for later in the week. Gambled cash, instead, of $100 and walked when no life was evident in the 123 method.
So we agree. The lower bet, while frustrating when a royal hits, does open you to tax-free earnings and a more sustainable bank roll. Falling for the Got-you-by-the-throat-$5 bet-every-hand trap is a guaranteed loser over time. Or so it seems.
Last Friday night, their annual cocktail party for mini-high rollers. The highlight of the evening was their drawing for free play. I scored an unprecedented, for me, $500 in free credits -- by picking an envelope on a table filled with them. i.e. Totally random. It was "money" that I saved for later in the week. Gambled cash, instead, of $100 and walked when no life was evident in the 123 method.
So we agree. The lower bet, while frustrating when a royal hits, does open you to tax-free earnings and a more sustainable bank roll. Falling for the Got-you-by-the-throat-$5 bet-every-hand trap is a guaranteed loser over time. Or so it seems.
-
Zid
- Forum Rookie
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2015 5:38 pm
And btw, I will gamble the entire $500 in credits and walk with whatever I have won -- unless I'm over $500. In the event of the latter, reverting to the 5-3-1 approach in the quest for higher scores. But + $500 will be both the win goal and the loss limit on that trip come Thursday this week. I'll try to update it here.
-
FAA
- Video Poker Master
- Posts: 9166
- Joined: Wed May 28, 2014 11:58 am
Congratulations on the FP drawing. Do not stay on a Cold RNG either. Move is not a four letter word. I walked with my FP winnings all right. To higher denomination areas. Dumb move. Stick to the familiar low risk bank and I would have fared well. Champagne taste on a beer budget.
-
Zid
- Forum Rookie
- Posts: 31
- Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2015 5:38 pm
Thanks. I forgot to mention that beloved bro-in-law, an engineer by profession, was a master at jumping from machine to machine. He called them inert mechanisms that were in either pay cycle or a lose cycle. The player's task was to find the one in a pay cycle. In his final days, though, he was convinced that the casinos had cracked down -- and made the machines not so "inert" any more.
-
onemoretry
- Video Poker Master
- Posts: 3028
- Joined: Tue Mar 03, 2009 8:00 pm
, he was convinced that the casinos had cracked down -- and made the machines not so "inert" any more.
If the machines were made "less inert", wouldn't that make them livelier, i.e., paying more often, which seems to be the opposite of "cracking down"?
If the machines were made "less inert", wouldn't that make them livelier, i.e., paying more often, which seems to be the opposite of "cracking down"?
-
ko king
- VP Veteran
- Posts: 670
- Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:13 pm
Thanks. I forgot to mention that beloved bro-in-law, an engineer by profession, was a master at jumping from machine to machine. He called them inert mechanisms that were in either pay cycle or a lose cycle. The player's task was to find the one in a pay cycle. In his final days, though, he was convinced that the casinos had cracked down -- and made the machines not so "inert" any more.
Your brother-in-law and I would have gotten along well, I believe the same exact thing. When I first started playing vp I would find a machine and just sit there playing the same machine, didn't have much luck most of the time. After a while I started machine jumping which was tough to do at night or during the weekends so I started playing weekdays during working hours which allowed me to bounce all over the place. For many years I played the same way and did pretty darn good. I played $2 denomination DDB and TDB always at max play. I would have days when I would walk out of the casino with as many as 7 W2-G's, it was very common for me to get 3-5 and only on rare occasions would I not get at least 1. Thought I had the game figured out for years, then something changed, almost overnight it seemed. The play got tough and the W2-G's got tougher to find, the bigger hits just seemed to dry up. At first I just figured I had hit a run of bad luck and things would turn around, they never did. Players just like myself were saying the same thing, something is different. It took me a few years to become convinced the machines had gotten smarter and just finding a machine willing to dump 1 W2-G was a challenge. I still jump around when I do play but I never play $2 denomination, I stick to $1 denom and if I'm lucky enough to find a good hit I quit playing because there won't be another at the same casino, so I casino hop now. The good news is that finding a machine to play is no problem at all as they have ran off so many players.
Your brother-in-law and I would have gotten along well, I believe the same exact thing. When I first started playing vp I would find a machine and just sit there playing the same machine, didn't have much luck most of the time. After a while I started machine jumping which was tough to do at night or during the weekends so I started playing weekdays during working hours which allowed me to bounce all over the place. For many years I played the same way and did pretty darn good. I played $2 denomination DDB and TDB always at max play. I would have days when I would walk out of the casino with as many as 7 W2-G's, it was very common for me to get 3-5 and only on rare occasions would I not get at least 1. Thought I had the game figured out for years, then something changed, almost overnight it seemed. The play got tough and the W2-G's got tougher to find, the bigger hits just seemed to dry up. At first I just figured I had hit a run of bad luck and things would turn around, they never did. Players just like myself were saying the same thing, something is different. It took me a few years to become convinced the machines had gotten smarter and just finding a machine willing to dump 1 W2-G was a challenge. I still jump around when I do play but I never play $2 denomination, I stick to $1 denom and if I'm lucky enough to find a good hit I quit playing because there won't be another at the same casino, so I casino hop now. The good news is that finding a machine to play is no problem at all as they have ran off so many players.
-
billryan
- Video Poker Master
- Posts: 4422
- Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2009 1:20 pm
I'm confused.
Now that the machines have gotten smarter, do they prefer not to played? By not paying out like they used to, they don't get the same interactions with humans.
Do you think they simply like sitting there unplayed?
Do they treat smokers differently than non smokers?
Is there any one bill they like over others?
I often pound the same machine for hours on end. After awhile I break it's will. When it realizes I'm not going anywhere, most machines will straighten up and fly right.
Now that the machines have gotten smarter, do they prefer not to played? By not paying out like they used to, they don't get the same interactions with humans.
Do you think they simply like sitting there unplayed?
Do they treat smokers differently than non smokers?
Is there any one bill they like over others?
I often pound the same machine for hours on end. After awhile I break it's will. When it realizes I'm not going anywhere, most machines will straighten up and fly right.
-
ko king
- VP Veteran
- Posts: 670
- Joined: Fri Feb 17, 2012 10:13 pm
I'm confused.
Now that the machines have gotten smarter, do they prefer not to played? By not paying out like they used to, they don't get the same interactions with humans.
Do you think they simply like sitting there unplayed?
Do they treat smokers differently than non smokers?
Is there any one bill they like over others?
I often pound the same machine for hours on end. After awhile I break it's will. When it realizes I'm not going anywhere, most machines will straighten up and fly right.
Fully expected you to be the one to attack first and that's fine. I should have been a little more specific when I said the machines don't see anywhere near the amount of play they used to have. Most casinos in this area have added .05 denomination to the menu of all the machines so the machines do get play, what you see is very few people brave enough to tackle $1 and above denominations, and for good reason in my opinion. I'm pretty thick skinned so feel free to attack any and all of my comments. We have 13 casinos in this area, 3 of them are still doing pretty good, all the rest of them are very small market casinos. I've played each and every one of these casinos for extended periods of time and I'm convinced there is a difference, all I have to do is review my results, proof is on paper. The pay tables are the same for the games I play at any of these casinos but my results are far different when it come to the small market casinos versus the casinos that still draw players willing to play the larger denominations. I've spent years trying to accept the belief you have, which is that the machines don't have a clue as to whether I'm playing $5, $2, $1 or .05 denomination vp and I don't buy into that anymore. I would love to see someone like yourself come to this area and prove me wrong but in my opinion you would end up just like me and so many other players in this area and walk away confused. To me it's pretty simple, picture the vp machine as just a simple box, if 95% of the people walk up and stick $5 worth of nickels in the box and are allowed to reach in and grab a handful of what's in the box it seems to me that if I walk up to the box and throw $500 worth in the box and going to get burnt pretty bad when I grab my handful. That's the way it was explained to me by more than one casino employee, there's just not that much money in the boxes anymore.
Now that the machines have gotten smarter, do they prefer not to played? By not paying out like they used to, they don't get the same interactions with humans.
Do you think they simply like sitting there unplayed?
Do they treat smokers differently than non smokers?
Is there any one bill they like over others?
I often pound the same machine for hours on end. After awhile I break it's will. When it realizes I'm not going anywhere, most machines will straighten up and fly right.
Fully expected you to be the one to attack first and that's fine. I should have been a little more specific when I said the machines don't see anywhere near the amount of play they used to have. Most casinos in this area have added .05 denomination to the menu of all the machines so the machines do get play, what you see is very few people brave enough to tackle $1 and above denominations, and for good reason in my opinion. I'm pretty thick skinned so feel free to attack any and all of my comments. We have 13 casinos in this area, 3 of them are still doing pretty good, all the rest of them are very small market casinos. I've played each and every one of these casinos for extended periods of time and I'm convinced there is a difference, all I have to do is review my results, proof is on paper. The pay tables are the same for the games I play at any of these casinos but my results are far different when it come to the small market casinos versus the casinos that still draw players willing to play the larger denominations. I've spent years trying to accept the belief you have, which is that the machines don't have a clue as to whether I'm playing $5, $2, $1 or .05 denomination vp and I don't buy into that anymore. I would love to see someone like yourself come to this area and prove me wrong but in my opinion you would end up just like me and so many other players in this area and walk away confused. To me it's pretty simple, picture the vp machine as just a simple box, if 95% of the people walk up and stick $5 worth of nickels in the box and are allowed to reach in and grab a handful of what's in the box it seems to me that if I walk up to the box and throw $500 worth in the box and going to get burnt pretty bad when I grab my handful. That's the way it was explained to me by more than one casino employee, there's just not that much money in the boxes anymore.
