TR snippet Video Poker

VIDEO POKER

My new game this trip was Deuces Wild. I spent a good part of my winter working on the Dancer's tutor and improving my game. I am playing there at about 99% so I don't have the edge yet, but I am close.

I did like playing the Deuces at Sam's Town, and find it a delightful game. It seems easier and more comfortable than 10/7 DB. I thought I would get confused and all these many years I have only played one game with some JOB tossed in in some places. However, this game has a higher EV and does not seem to be so volatile, which is better for accumulating points for comps.

I like it.

There are full pay machines marked and easy to find right in front of Dunkin' Doughnuts. When the rock hard poker game broke Sunday morning I went to play there and in my session hit four Deuces twice.

It was incredible!

Ironically, I only hit a wild card royal once when it was dealt to me. I think I counted missing it by one card about twenty one times. But the Deuces paid and I left with $430 and some profit for the day. I was overjoyed.

I also think that it generates lots of points. I seem to get stuck in a place for a long while and so I run a good bit of money through the game.

There are these annoying dry runs of nothing at all. I hate throwing hands away. But the Deuces add some excitement as well. It is nice to have the Dancer software on my computer so I can check types of hands that get me wondering if I am playing correctly or not. I have not broken out the win-loss mathematics for Sam's, but I guess I must be close to even, even with a few losing sessions.

What I find amazing is that a hundred will last a long, long, long while with little variation. Eventually if no big hands are hit, it will drain away but I get an amazing amount of play on the losses.

EL CORTEZ

I played one Deuces game at the El Cortez and some 10/7 DB as well. Compared to past years they have more full pay quarters now than they used to have. The are coin droppers which are fun but sometimes a bit of a hassle. Hand pays also expect a tip, so that subtracts from the EV. Since I hit no royals there this was not a problem for me.

It was nice to see more full pay available there as I like playing the live poker and some VP play might generate some rooms. It should for my next trip because I lost a good bit of my bankroll at the El Cortez VP.

I made a mistake and played dollars for a while before I realized it. I was down to about $40, so I put in another hundred and managed to quit even at least on the dollar machine.

FOUR QUEENS

The Four Queens has the best 10-7 DB in all of Vegas. Once the progressive royal EV exceeds the EV on Main Street Station scratch cards, this is the absolute best.

Go to the back end of the casino and find Magnolia's Cafe. Facing it look to the right and along the back wall are the full pay 10/7 Double Bonus Progressive which is the best of its kind in Vegas. On top of the full pay and the progressive you still earn points and get cash back and generate room offers.
One tip on starting is that you discipline yourself to use the menu carefully and see that you are on the right game. The other games offered are not part of the progressive.
Another way to find the machines is simply look for the money that was in my wallet a week ago.
I had the most bizarre session. I actually pumped in a fourth hundred before I started to get positive. Then, in the course of a long session, I managed three times to get Aces. Twice they were dealt to me. But nothing else developed of any value. Full houses seemed out of the question. No royal either, although it was hit twice while I was playing. I left down $179 which I think should generate a few mailers.

They also had a well marked 9/6 JOB, that is clearly marked at machines in front of the cashier cage. There is a little paper sign on top of the machines.

I played off my freeplay on this and again hit four Aces for a nice profit of $40 after the freeplay was run through once.
I came home to two offers from the Four Queens. One is a keen looking three free day and free VP tournament in June. Wish I could go to that. Extra nights are only $24 a night.
My cashback at the end was $38. So that reduced my losses.
I talked to a very informative woman (perhaps a manager) at the Player's Club, and she took time with me and told me that when they award comped rooms they take a look at all the play rather than just do a mathematical average. I was wondering if I should play a small amount on my last morning or skip it. Most of the time I try to concentrate my play in one day. Her take was that it did not matter. Of course, that might not be the way it works.

I played quite a bit, but not one royal came my way. Maybe next time.

REFLECTIONS:

I set stop levels generally on the winning and losing side of my play. These are long to meet in Deuces where I found myself stuck at the same dollar amount for a long period of time. This is great for getting comp points as every play generates points.

I don't like inside straight draws. K-Q-J-A rainbow in games that pay the jacks or better seem logical because there are so many consolation hits. In Deuces it feels illogical. I still do it.

In DB the hand I least like is drawing to the wheel straight. That seems illogical and rarely hit. I still do that as well.

Deuces play meant I had to wean my own emotions from the prejudice for high cards. It is hard to think of a poker game in which one can get the same odds by throwing away two aces and playing small pairs.

At first I got a somewhat warped pleasure from choosing the smaller pair. Then I began to play a gut game where I was trying to psyche out the machine. That is when I realized one other advantage of Deuces. The thing we give up when we play the mathematics of most games is the fun of guessing. There is always a right play. We might decided to eliminate small penalty card decisions, but one play in JOB or DB is never exactly the same mathematically as another. Here is Deuces, when dealt two pair, only one is to be chosen and the odds are the same. So we can make the decision by using our psychic inner connections. What a great subjective game is then added to the usual mathematics. As mathematical as we might like to be, we are mentally programed to make leaps of instinct. Gamblers especially have this part of their beings well developed. In live poker we know that instinct is important, but there the randomness is not total. There is this human element which may well be read subconsciously. In the book Blink http://www.gladwell.com/blink/index.html

Malcolm Gladwell suggests that in many expert calls, the experts may in a second arrive at a correct analysis, but not be able to "show the proof" as they say in the math class.

In Deuces there is no valid subjective element, but we can enjoy imagining that it is here as well when deciding on what to do with two pairs, since it costs us nothing in EV.

I lost pretty big at the El Cortez this trip. They had more coin droppers that were full pay in nickles. 10/7 DB was there and one Deuces that looked playable, although it was not the same pay table as I found in Sam's. Both ate me up.

The only one I made a profit on was a short pay Deuces that allowed my freeplay. I hit on that, just running the money through once, and ended up with $32 extra on $70 freeplay. the $70 was not profit but tied into the room charge of $120.

I had a good time playing more video poker than I have in recent trips.

Where I lost, I seeded for free room offers. I pretty much restrict my play to where I am staying now, so the the consolation of losing is perhaps staying for free next trip.