Been almost five years since I had four to a royal on 5-play nickel STP with a 3x, hitting 2 royals for $1,200. Tonight was like most other STP nights, going bust or getting crumbs on 8x and 10x multipliers. All the while I'd get full houses and 4 of a kinds on no multiplier. I did manage a 2x quad deuces on deuces wild for $100 on nickels, but I finally got the big hit playing bonus poker on dimes. Had 3 to a royal with a 5x multiplier, so I figured yeah I'll get absolutely nothing. Glad I was so, so wrong.
Tonight was like most other STP nights, going bust or getting crumbs on 8x and 10x multipliers.
I find this line/comment/observation to be the cold hard irrefutable truth....STP, DSTP, Ult-X et al. , all are quintessential gimmick game bank roll devourers. Unless you are the 1 person lucky enough to hit one of these extremely rare monster hands (i.e. the confluence of the random multiplier with an actual real "hand") in one of the opening sequences of hands / deals, it is near impossible to finish the "session" on the positive side!
I find this line/comment/observation to be the cold hard irrefutable truth....STP, DSTP, Ult-X et al. , all are quintessential gimmick game bank roll devourers.
A lot of the newer VP games coming out these days definitely feel that way, having to bet twice what you normally would to get the bonus features. IMHO STP isn't too bad though with just one extra credit needed. Having said that I do feel I should be getting at least one handpay a year, even playing nickels. With the amount of hands I play the multipliers and premium hands should be aligning much more often.
I understand your thoughts about STP "only" requiring one more credit to activate the "gimmick" feature, as opposed to many other games which require doubling your initial bet, etc. I think I would ask both you, and any other person out there who is a frequent player and FAN of games like STP, Ult-X, DSTP etc. the following question:
How does the average starting hand quality/strength of playing STP/DSTP/Ult-X compare with the typical average starting hand quality of any normal single line game (JOB, BP, DDB, DW etc etc) at your favorite casino???
What I used to notice EVERY time I used to play STP or Ult-X (or almost every other game found on the infamous All Star II machines) was that the typical starting hand on the multiplier games was far far far lower in strength/quality than what the single line games were dispensing. I'm sure it's still the same, and anyone out there who currently plays STP, if they pay attention to the starting hands/deals, they will notice over the course of several thousand hands and up that the initial dealt hands really stink!
How can this be, or happen?? I obviously dpn't know exactly but here is my theory/guess.....There's something in the games' PROGRAMMING (not the RNG/chips, the actual specific GAME Coding) that somehow brings this about, whereby the player receives far less quality dealt hands. Similarly, for server based casinos, there is something present on the server control(s) that allows the casino, as they see the need, to decrease (or even INCREASE on certain instances or situations) the typical starting hand quality....you could just tell the program to filter the authentic, inviolate RNG results (i.e. that "CHIP" that NO ONE CAN POSSIBLY mess around with) that continuously generates random numbers that dictate starting deals to only accept (within certain percentages or parameters) a specific range of starting hand strengths, or something like that......again, just MY own personal theory on HOW this might be happening