How to view one's dealt hand

[Alliewallie]

Thanks all. billryan, what do you think would be an equation that would be more realistic?

[billryan]

What's more realistic?
Here is a plan. Not the plan, but a plan.

1) Decide what casinos you will play at.
2) Use VPFree to determine the best games there.
3) Use computer software to learn those games.
4) Check back in a month to let us know your progress.

[Alliewallie]

Thanks all. Will do.

[Alliewallie]

OK. We took up VP because we enjoy going to the Seminole Casino in Immokalee but were getting our heads handed to us on the slots ( electronic gaming machines as they are now called).

So in Feb. my wife and I trained hard on JOB and DDB. We both were very familiar with poker so we could do about 300-400HPH with about an error rate of about .2-.3%.

So we went often, in March, to take advantage of the 97-98% returns. We both got bored with JOB and switched to DBB at 8/5. We could get a 9/6 but would have to have a minimum bet of $5 so we stayed away until we got a better feel for the $1.25 bet.

Every day we played for about 3 hours until our eyes got tired and every day we lost about $300. So we are asking ourselves why we aren't having some wins or even some break evens. Bad Luck? Playing errors ( we both check each other and we don't think either are making any major errors). Or are we not appreciating that we need to put in way more hours until we eventually "lose a lot before we lose a little"?

Since we live about an hour from the casino and spend about 4 hours total at the place it seems like we either need to spend a lot more time playing to eventually get the big hits or find another hobby.

[Alliewallie]

In addition, the comps. are almost non-existent on VP here at Seminole Immokalee.

Now the math says that the RP in JOB comes around every 40,000 hands or so and a decent hit in DBB around 16,000 hands. And so at 300HPH the math says that we need to spend a lot more time playing until we start to seeing any real returns and thus we need to keep losing our $300/day until we approach enough time for the numbers to work out a bit more in our favor. But this continuous drain is discouraging for a Rookie who lives an hour away ( 2 hour round trip). And the basically non-existent comps kinda sucks.

We like the game but hate the drain.

I suspect the responses might be something like "welcome to the real world of VP" .

[FAA]

I imagine that the regulars are in LMAO heaven at this point. I know I am.

[Alliewallie]

I suspect the responses might be something like "welcome to the real world of VP" . I think you just said that.

TBL, math doesn't lie so we need to play faster to put in less ass time so that the hits will come or find a new hobby fast.

[billryan]

Double Double Bonus is a feast or famine game. Expect to get your ass kicked most sessions. When two pair only returns your money, you lose so much that most of your sessions will be losers. If you want steady play, play JOB or Bonus Poker. 8/5 Bonus Poker is pretty much the same strategy as 9/6 JOB.

[Alliewallie]

Great advice. Thanks. I guess the reality is that since the casino has plenty of VP machines available and even some of those brand new shiny ones that play like 10 or 20 games simultaneously, VP MUST be profitable. I somehow think that the reason it's so hard to find a machine sometimes is that people just plop down and stay the day. I suspect that if they play at a reasonable speed the hits will come eventually if they put in enough time and if they love the game so much the better.

I can see that the variance on DDB may be a bit much for us.

[Waiting4RF]

If you listen to a recent Gambling with an Edge podcast, Bob Dancer answers an email and says something like you make money at Video Poker by exploiting casino mistakes. I say living in Vegas gives you hundreds of places to find mistakes. But, you only have one casino. So the best you can do with no comps and the 96.78% return 8/5 DDB game is get back $1.20 for every push of the deal button with perfect play on average long term. This includes getting the jackpots Aces with kicker and royal flush. That is what the math says. I believe the math.