On playing advantage games

My last play was in Atlantis in the Bahamas. I was really there to spend some time with a 14 month old grandson and his parents. But the casino was there. The best VP I found was 9/6 DB, but I played just three short sessions. I ended $54 ahead. What is interesting in VP is we can see just how long the "long" run is.
In my last session I counted the number of times I hit a full house. Each time, compared to the Four Queens experience, I was short payed $2.50 (10 max quarter game) and when I quit it added up to $15 they had taken just because of the way they established house advantage. I did not count the flush underpayment.
I don't mind losing the gamble. However, I just can't gamble very long for fun knowing ultimately I'll be ground down no matter what.
Live poker helps. No house edge. Just luck and a constant reevaluation of strategy to see where the leaks are. There we pay the casino a tip out of our winnings. At a good table, some fish will toss enough in our pot to cover even that expense.
Comps help. If I'm playing a 9/6 JOB with so much cashback, free rooms, free food that it becomes positive, well then the fun comes back.
Playing for small comps works too. John Growchowski discusses that in his recent article.
Say I just want to have a couple pints of Black chip porter and I go to Boars Head and put in a $20 and play slow and concentrate on the beer as well as the poker. After two I quit. Since the beer is figured in the EV, I hope at least to quit even with the beer free.
Matchplay hit and run works well too. There we have the advantage and we don't need a "long" run to realize it because it is so huge.
And this may seem like a rationalization, but I think of my bankroll as the difference between what a normal vacation would cost me and what I actually pay for Vegas. So my 22 nights coming in Oct /Nov at now $26 on average, give me $60-$80 a day for gambling just on saved accomodation charges. Figuring in the food adds more to the bankroll. I've been keeping track and comparing my trips to my wife's trips. She thought it was terrible on my worst trip when I lost about 2 grand. I try to tell her that I could have won 2 grand, but the best argument was simply to figure what her last trip to Greece cost. It was twice what my trip cost, and she shared a room with a friend while I had gambled solo. Why the cost of one night's room at Atlantis even with my son's Edward Jones deal is about what I pay for 10 days in Vegas. And you don't want to know the restaurant bill. Outrageous even with our foodplan deal.

A good way to get a handle on this is to keep track of what the hobby costs over time. I have a lifetime gambling score and every bet I make is figured in it. I want to know if the hobby is costing me money, how much, and then decide whether it is worth it.
In Atlantis the bad pay tables just turned me off.

So I sat and watched my wife play a fish slot at 20 cents a pull. She won a few dollars. But she was playing the "short comp game" as well. At home she drinks a cognac before bed. In Atlantis the bar price was $13 a drink. Her playing and me watching this cheap slot game meant we both were served. Once served it was time to quit. I combined my cognac with hers, and off we went to the room, her $26 nightcap part of her winnings.
She could play that game every night until she was served and then quit and she clearly would be playing a game of positive expectation. And it was fun to watch the fish turn and come up with little bonus cartoons and such. It did not have to be for a lot of money to be fun to watch.
I remember years ago I used to walk from casino to casino and "wong" the firecrackers off that slot that featured the honeymooners and shots to the moon (I forget the name) It was in an advantaged position if it had a lot of firecrackers, and I played just one nickle. I played all week in Vegas and I won $12 on this wonging, got a good bit of walking exercise, saw a lot of Vegas. Seem like nothing. But I kept track of all my other gambling and at the end of the week I was ahead exactly $12 total.
Once there used to be a lot of lobbying to try to get folks to just play the advantaged games. I think 6:5 blackjack killed any expectation that mathematics would make a difference. And as local casinos developed we all got the picture. Folks who would drive 5 miles to save two cents on gas prices would stand in line at Foxwoods to play 6/5 JOB.
I thought increased competition would make gambling better and it made it worse.
VP in New York Racinos is not even VP. It is a lottery game disguised as VP and should be illegal. It is akin to an old carnival game rigged in ways that can't be seen against the player. I'm ashamed to have it in my state. It would be illegal if it were a food offering as it has no honesty in labeling. Instead, the Gov is talking about expanding even more casinos. China has made it so we can't make anything to sell anymore, so I guess redistributing the wealth with the State getting its Soprano taste is the best we know here. Sad.
Okay, sorry. Too much ranting.
As Old Gherig on the Hack Attack board a couple decades ago used to say, "Somebody has to pay the light bill."