Category: Video Poker

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A Variety of Games

Bob Dancer

Today I play different video poker games at different casinos — usually the highest-returning games offered in denominations that interest me. It wasn’t always this way.

In the “good old days,” which for me were the mid-1990s, the best $5 and higher games almost everywhere were 9/6 Jacks or Better. With slot clubs and promotions, this game could be played with an advantage at a dozen or so different casinos in Las Vegas. I learned the game 100% accurately and it was just a matter of putting in the hours, assuming you had the bankroll to survive the swings. Borrowing the title of a Josh Axelrad book that was based on playing blackjack, this was a matter of “Repeat Until Rich.” And I did. And many others did. 

There was some strategy choosing at which casino to play, and when. Casinos offered point multipliers sometimes, or had a promotion where they invited a lot of players in and gave away lots of money over a weekend — usually by a slot tournament or by a drawing — and if you played then, sometimes you got a piece of that money. Not every time, of course, but when you’re already playing a game where you have the edge, these extra “pieces of money” add up. In a typical year, I’d play in maybe 75 events (meaning some weekends I played at two different events), and collected the extra money at 10 or 15 of them. 

Back then, mailer money in Las Vegas was rare, whereas today it’s common. Today, it’s rare when I play 9/6 Jacks or Better. At the five casinos I play the most (limiting the discussion to video poker and not including playing slots, which I also play), I play five different games. Actually, more than five, because at two of the casinos, there is more than one acceptable game. I “rotate” which game I play depending on the monthly promotion.

And the games I play vary in denomination. At one casino, I play dollar single line, meaning $5 per hand. I’d prefer to play larger, but the higher-stakes games at that casino aren’t good enough. And the dollar game, plus slot club, mailers, and promotions, provides me with enough benefits that I keep playing there. 

I’m no longer playing just in Las Vegas. No longer just in Nevada. Although I’ve mentioned some other places I play periodically, and there are some I haven’t mentioned, it’s still a surprise to me that a resident of Las Vegas can find better video poker out of town. Don’t expect me to announce exactly which game I play at which casino. At some of the places I play, the good situation would not last if lots of players were playing it.

Playing a number of games keeps me sharper than playing just one game. Plus, 9/6 Jacks or Better is arguably the simplest game to play well. Every additional game I learn has special one-of-a-kind sorts of situations that I have to master. And when I do master them, sometimes they provide inspiration.

There is also the issue of keeping the games straight in my mind. The combinations that are the toughest to keep straight are the 3-card straight flushes versus two high cards, suited or not. Every game has its own rules and going back and forth between games, it’s easy to get mixed up. It’s also easier for a senior citizen to get mixed up than it was when I was still “in my prime.” 

So I find myself practicing more today than I did before. Just before I go and play a game I haven’t played in a month or more, I’ll spend a few hours mastering it again. I can get so I can play a game 100% perfectly, but it takes regular review to stay at that level for a number of different games simultaneously.

And it is no longer, “Repeat Until Rich.” The available edges are smaller today. Casinos continually become savvier and savvier in what games and promotions they can profitably offer. Casino mistakes are still out there, and I still try to exploit them when I find them, but they aren’t as numerous, as large, and don’t last as long as they did before.

There are still some players who do well, of course, and I am one of those some of the time.  But I believe the number of players who regularly exceeded $100,000 annual profit was higher twenty or twenty-five years ago than it is today. 

Still, I’m out there trying. It’s what I do. It’s what I enjoy. It’s part of what keeps me as intellectually sharp as I can be at my age. Yes, I’ve shifted to also playing slots as well as video poker, but video poker remains my mainstay. And probably will so long as I can find good games — even if those games aren’t the same ones I’m playing today.

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Hockey Knights in Vegas Episode 67 — Speaking of Paul Cotter, Dirty Martinis, and Warm-Up Pucks

Hockey Knights in Vegas: Episode 56

It’s just another episode of Hockey Knights in Vegas. Not really!

Chris and Eddie recap the MLK matinee win over Nashville and Captain Mark
Stone hoisting the VGK on his back to the tune of his first regular-season
Hat Trick.

The injury bug is hitting the VGK hard at the moment, with seven regulars out of
the lineup. Panic time? The guys spend some discussion on how well the call-
up kids from Henderson are filling in and then the conversation turns to
second-year forward Paul Cotter.

Eddie has been a fan for a long time and Chris is on board too. At about
the 33-minute mark … THANKS FOR JOINING US, PAUL!

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How Should You Cash the Extra Free Play?

Bob Dancer


Let’s assume your regular casino gave you $250 in extra free play for the holidays. You normally get $50 a week, and now you have all this extra money. What should you do?

There is not a one-size-fits-all answer. It depends on your situation and your priorities. Let me go through a few examples.

Professional player. Gambles as a source of income.
In this case, the $250 in extra free play is merely an increase in bankroll. Yes, you have to play it, but it’s nowhere near enough to move you into being able to play for a higher denomination. Presumably you’re already playing on the best game for you in the casino — taking into consideration things like: return on the game, slot club, how much you need to play to keep the mailers coming, how much you need to play to reach the tier level you’ve decided is best for you, and how much to play to take advantage of the current promotion should you deem it worth playing.
At the end of your normal play, if you would have been ahead $700 without the bonus free play, now you’re ahead $950. If you would have been behind $400, now you’re behind $150 because of the extra free play. You record your score, and move on. It’s nice to receive $250, but it’s hardly a big deal.
This is the way I would handle such a windfall — even a much larger windfall.

Wealthy recreational player. Has plenty of money to survive his normal losses.
This is a position I’ve never been in. More times than I can count, I’ve lost more than $20,000 in a day and been relatively unphased about it because I knew I was playing with an advantage. But playing a bad nickel game for fun? Never! So, my advice here is “theoretical,” rather than from experience.

I suspect this sort of person will see the $250 as “found money,” and hence able to be spent without the normal boundaries. Maybe take a 10-hand flyer on a $5, high variance, game like Triple Double Bonus. Probably it will be all lost, but there’s a chance for a $20,000 windfall. Now we’re talking!

Low-stakes player, trying to make intelligent decisions.
The problem was set up so that the player normally received $50 a week in free play. This limits how “low stakes” the player can actually be, because you have to play quite a bit, or quite badly, to be eligible for $50 a week in free play.
Still, with an extra $250 in free play, this player will typically take an intermediate approach between the first two. Maybe take a mini-flyer on a game one denomination higher.

There are an infinite number of ways to handle this “problem,” but we all agree that it’s a nice problem to have and wish we could have it more often.

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INSIDE TRIPLE DOUBLE BONUS POKER

This post is syndicated by the Las Vegas Advisor for the 888 casino group. Anthony Curtis comments on the 888 article introduced and linked to on this page.

AC Says:

This is a timely article, given that it’s germane to the last two YouTube videos we’ve done in which the “Jackpot of the Week” in both was hit on Triple Double Bonus video poker. Triple Double Bonus is a game that attracts players for its big jackpot potential, but the tradeoff is sky-high variance that results in lots of losing sessions and rapid depletion of funds between the big hits. I like that this article points that out. It also provides the playing strategy, including the important point that this is one of the few games where it’s proper to hold kickers.

This article was written by Jerry Stich in association with 888Casino.

Inside Triple Double Bonus Poker

Long gone are the days of only one type of video poker game on casino floors. Gaming manufacturing companies are answering the call of players demanding more exciting video poker games.

This article explores one of the more exciting video poker games – Triple Double Bonus Poker.

Continue reading …

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Hip Hip Hooray!

Bob Dancer

Any of you who have seen me over the past three months or so have seen me with some sort of apparatus to help me walk. Sometimes a walker, sometimes a cane, and sometimes an electric scooter. And in an airport, I’m pushed in a wheelchair.

Finally, on December 28, I had a total right hip replacement. I’m going to write about that today because my mind is totally on my recovery and not at all on gambling topics. I hope to return to my regular sort of columns shortly.

I’m sure many of you have gone through this procedure, or been close to somebody who has, or both. I’m also sure some of you will have it in your future. Consider this column a head’s up! 

The operation is almost always done as an outpatient these days. I showed up at a surgery center at seven in the morning and was back home by two in the afternoon. The time one spends there varies, and at least occasionally they decide to keep the patient overnight. The main determining factor seems to be whether or not the patient, using a walker, can walk up and down the hall. If the answer is yes, that patient goes home — unless there’s an unusual infection of some kind.

There were a lot of instructions about not eating or drinking anything for 12 hours prior to surgery, not taking certain medications for a week beforehand, no alcohol, and there were some other restrictions as well. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning I needed to clean with an antibacterial soap they provided. I needed clean bedding and clean clothes the day of the procedure. There were six different medications I needed to have on hand beforehand so I could take them afterwards.

They gave me pre-operation exercises, post-operation exercises, and a prescription for Physical Therapy which I’ll go to three times a week for six weeks. None of this struck me as unusual, but learning I’d be restricted from driving or flying for six weeks was a big surprise. Had it been my left hip, I would have been allowed to drive earlier. 

After seeing my orthopedic doctor a number of times, I had two pre-op appointments. Once with a physician’s assistant at the doctor’s office and one with a senior nurse at the surgery center. There was a lot of overlap in what they covered, but they were not identical. It was here I learned that I would receive a spinal block as an anesthetic.

This made me uncomfortable. Something about a needle in the spine. I was told this wasn’t mandatory, but most physicians doing hips and knees believe this is the best way to do it. Among other things it reduces the chances for blood clots compared to other methods for anesthesia. 

I went home and looked up spinal blocks on the Internet. I came away concluding that it was the best way to go, even though it still made me uneasy.

Per instructions, I arrived at the surgery center two hours before the surgery was scheduled. I was asked the same questions over and over again about how recently I had taken such and such, had my leg shaved and sterilized, and had a port placed into a vein on my right hand, which would be used to later administer various drugs. The surgery center was basically set up like an ER room, except all of the patients were in there for scheduled procedures.

I met the anesthetist, and as had happened in the pre-op meeting, he again gave me the option of what kind of medicine to use, reminding me that my surgeon prefers the spinal block, and I went with my surgeon’s advice.

I was wheeled into the operating room. I was placed into position, which was sitting up, hunchbacked, and holding onto a pillow across my chest, and my lower back was pre-numbed before the spinal block injection. I was told I would feel a small prick — which I did — and then the doctor said, “Shit! Missed it!”

I’m not sure what exactly had happened. I had visions of me being permanently paralyzed, but in the meantime all I could do was to sit still and hope for the best. Shortly thereafter, the doctor exclaimed, “Perfect!” and I don’t remember anything else until I woke up in the recovery room. 

Apparently, every patient wakes up from a spinal block at a different pace. Every ten minutes a nurse would come in and scratch my leg in various places and ask if I could feel it. Her hand would go to the bottom of my right foot, and she’d ask me to press against her hand. I couldn’t do any of this when she first started asking, but after about 90 minutes, I could do it all. Now it was time to see if I could walk. My ride home was there for about the last hour of this leg scratching.

It took three people to accompany me on the walk. Me in the middle with my walker, a nurse on either side of me ready to catch me if I fell, and a nurse’s aide walking behind me with a wheelchair which was ready for me if I fell back or needed to sit down. I walked to the end of the hall and back, stopped and tried unsuccessfully to urinate, and then was led back to my bed for checkout. 

The home recovery is another situation altogether. Before this operation came along, we already had safety bars in our bathrooms and my shower has a bench in it. These were items suggested in pre-op, but we had already had them installed because we were senior citizens. We don’t know what medical situations might be in our future, but there’s a good chance there will be some and these things will be useful.

The recovery is going to take some time. I could not have done it without assistance. Fortunately, my wife, Bonnie, was a nurse for 40 years and she understands basic nursing. Using Depends and having a few “accidents” along the way didn’t freak her out. Still, she is now 80 years old and not as strong as she used to be. So, we had five friends “on call” if needed. Which so far, they haven’t been, but I am writing this on Monday, four days after the procedure. I start physical therapy tomorrow and I haven’t left the house yet other than for two relatively short walks to the corner and back.

They sent me home with a number of apparatuses. The walker itself was aluminum and had only two wheels. This is an old-fashioned model, but apparently, they are more stable than the four-wheel varieties. I received compression hose, which I was to wear during daylight hours. I received electric stimulators which I strap onto my legs to keep the muscles active. I received a large, foam, hip abductor pillow to keep my legs in position while I slept. Other than the walker, none of these things would have been manageable by myself without a caregiver.

I’m four days in. I’m able to walk slowly with the walker. I can walk, bathroom functions are normal, I’m not needing pain pills, and there is no unusual bleeding or seepage. It’s getting better every day. Tomorrow a buddy is going to take me to casinos for the first time. Probably not the best idea, but he suggested it and I said yes.

I’m planning on writing a more-typical column next week. Hopefully at least some of you found this interesting. Maybe later I’ll do an “after one month of recovery” column. I’m sure stuff will occur that I can’t foresee now.

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Learning it All

Bob Dancer

I was paid to help somebody learn the strategy for 9/5 Triple Bonus Poker Plus. “Mary” was a person who wanted to learn the minimum and take the strategy with her. Whenever Mary wasn’t sure of how to play a hand, she’d look it up on the strategy sheet.

I suggested this wasn’t such a good way to go about learning this game. There were enough unique hands in this game that you’d never know if it was an unusual play unless you knew the whole strategy. But Mary reminded me that she was paying me by the hour and the customer was always right, so we were going to do it her way.

Today’s lesson dealt with hands starting with an A of one suit and a suited JT of another. Mary wanted to concentrate on just those hands where the final answer was A or JT, but I informed her there were a lot of other possibilities. She allowed me to go over them.

“You hold all trips, which can only be aces, jacks, or tens, given that each hand we’re talking about starts with AJT and there are always exactly five cards in each hand.

“We hold 4-card straight flushes, namely KJT9, QJT9, and QJT8. Whether we hold 3-card straight flushes, KJT and QJT, depends on whether there is another king, queen, or jack in the hand.”

At this point, Mary stopped me and said she thought the lesson was just about A and a suited JT, not all this stuff about royal flush draws and straight flush draws, not to mention 3-of-a-kinds and I seem to be getting into high pairs.

“I am and it is,” I assured her, “but every one of these hands includes AJT. If you don’t want to look at every line of the strategy and use a top-down approach, these are all hands that can arise starting from AJT. Each of the high pairs, AA, KK, QQ, and JJ have different things to be concerned about, and low pairs are not treated all the same either. We haven’t even gotten into most 4-card consecutive straights and 4-card inside straights, nor have we discussed most 3-card straight flushes, which come in four different flavors, each of which is treated differently strategically. You probably should be taking notes. We’re less than halfway through and there are still some tricky hands ahead.”

Mary looked uncertain, not sure she was ready for this. If she pulled the plug on this lesson, so be it. I needed to know all of this because I played the game myself.

“Let’s look at pairs, remembering that we’ve discussed trips, so they are off the table. A pair of aces is better than any other possibility, as are a pair of kings. For a pair of queens, it matters if one is suited with the JT. If so, we’ve already discussed the 3-card straight flushes. If both queens are unsuited with the JT, the pair is better than anything else not discussed so far.

“For a pair of jacks, we now have the possibility of two pair — jacks and tens. This is the only two pair combination we hold with hands included with AJT. Pairs of nines and tens are lower in value than JT9. 

“Now let’s look at the 3-card straight flushes. Six of these include an A and two low cards. These are simple to play. Hold the three cards.

“JT9 is more valuable than any two suited high cards and any 4-card straight in the hand except QJT9.

“JT8 is more valuable than any two suited high cards and any 4-card straight in the hand except JT98. It is lower in value than every pair.

“JT7 is less valuable than two suited high cards and 4-card inside straights with three high cards (i.e., AKJT and AQJT).

“If you have a K in the hand suited with the A, hold AK unless there is a flush penalty to the AK, in which case you hold AKJT. If you have an unsuited K in the hand, hold AKJT.

“A Q in the hand is played identically to a K, with the exception that QJT9 is greater than either AQ or AQJT.

“There are three other hands starting from AJT where you hold neither A nor only JT. From AJT98, the correct play is JT98 and those hands with a 4-card flush (including JT), hold the 4-card flush. From AJT and any low pair, hold the low pair.

“Okay. We’re now ready to discuss the hands you wanted to look at first: AJT with none of the above items in the hand. But as you can see, there are a LOT of other possibilities before we get to this point.

“With AJT without any of the cases already described, first look at penalties to JT. If there is a 9, 8, or flush penalty to JT in the remaining cards, you hold the A by itself, no matter what penalties the ace has.

“If there is a 7 in the hand, hold the A unless there are two flush penalties to the A. In this case, a straight flush penalty to the case counts as a flush penalty.

“If the JT is totally unpenalized, hold the JT if the A has one or more flush or straight flush penalty.

“That’s it. That’s the entire strategy for these hands.”

“So, I’m ready to play now?” Mary asked me.

“Not really. AJT is probably the trickiest combination in this game, but an unsuited AQJ is played differently in this game than any others. Plus, the 100-for-1 return for straight flushes, rather than the more typical 50-for-1 return causes quite a few unusual plays. We can go over those later if you like. I think you’ve had enough for today.” “Finally, something we agree on.”

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Not a Smart Promotion

Bob Dancer

In Nevada, there are a large number of bars/pubs with restricted gaming licenses that permit them to have up to 15 machines. I haven’t counted these pubs, but I believe there are more than 100 of these in Clark County alone, a large chunk of land in the southern part of the state, which includes the two most populous cities — Las Vegas and Henderson.

In 2022 and 2023, a number of these pubs had a promotion where if you bring in a W-2G from any casino, the pub would give you up to 10% of that, usually up to $500. Although each pub had slightly different rules, if you hit a $4,000 jackpot at South Point, for example, you could take that W-2G to places that would give you $100 in free play today, and tomorrow would give you an additional $300.

You had to bring in the W-2G within 24 or 48 hours, sometimes loosely defined. Some of these pubs limited this to once a week. Some once a day. When they found out how slammed they were getting, some limited the promotion to only jackpots earned in to pubs, which for me was no problem because I played at Dotty’s. Sometimes you could cash the same jackpot at two or more pubs.

I’m not sure what the bar managers were thinking. Perhaps it was some version of, “These players will have $4,000 in their hands, and if we can just get them in the door, perhaps they’ll leave a good part of this here.” That must have happened some of the time, of course, but most of the time this was a losing promotion for the house.

Since I play at Dotty’s where you get rewarded for W-2Gs, I can generate as many jackpots as I like. It’s already a positive play at Dotty’s to play $10 9/6 Jacks or Better where I get a W-2G every 400 hands or so. Extra money for a promotion that was already positive is a good thing. My problem was: How do I milk these promotions? I know they’ll eventually stop the promotion or kick me out, because I’m definitely not the kind of customer they are trying to attract. 

When a bar would let you cash a W-2G once a week, I’d limit myself to once every other week. When a bar would let you cash the W-2Gs once a day, I’d never cash more than two in a week, and then I’d take at least a week off. I’d rotate the times I’d show up to all three shifts, so bartenders didn’t know how often I was cashing these. If the bar had several outlets around town, I’d vary where I’d go to pick up the money. 

Usually, the best game was 6-5 Bonus Poker, a horrendous game worth less than 97%. Whenever I came in, I’d play about an hour at quarters. That meant maybe $1,000 through the machines, which cost me $30 in EV. There were slot clubs and bonuses such as wheel spins for certain 4-of-a-kinds, reducing my expected loss to perhaps $10 — which meant a profit of at least $90 because the casino started me with at least $100.

Sometimes I’d come into each place and play for an hour or so without cashing any W-2G. I wanted my record to show that I was a “regular player,” not one who would just show up to cash a W-2G. 

In the earlier example, when I brought in a $4,000 W-2G and received $100 today and $300 put on my card tomorrow, I downloaded the free play as soon as I could. There was no doubt that eventually I was going to be removed from the promotions, and when that did happen, any unclaimed free play might well be forfeited.

I tipped the bartenders at least $5 or $10 each time. I knew the managers would kick me out eventually, but I didn’t want the bartenders suggesting that I be eliminated.

Eventually all of these promotions ended – at least for me. I’m actually surprised they lasted as long as they did, at as many different places as there were. I guess it was a copycat effect where, “That casino is doing it and seems to be getting more business. Maybe we should too!”

I ended up more than $10,000 ahead over all of these properties. Not a lot, and it required driving around some, but there was basically no downside. Yes, I could lose more than $100 in a specific day collecting the money, but over time it was guaranteed I would come out ahead. 

And when establishments are giving away non-trivial amounts of free money, I’m the kind of guy who takes it. And if I learn about another bar with this promotion, count me in!

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Taking What the Casinos Give You

Bob Dancer

Casinos are in the business of making money. In theory, casinos offer games of chance where the odds are in their favor and invite players in to play games that are rigged against them.

Under this theory, there would be no such thing as an advantage gambler. But the theory is greatly simplified — primarily in two areas.

First, some of the games offered are games of skill. You’ve heard of poker, blackjack, and sports betting. There are many more. And skillful players will do better than players without the requisite skill.

Second, casinos make mistakes — of many different types. Many times these mistakes lead to opportunities for players. Today I want to look at types of exploitable mistakes that I’ve discovered over the past 30 years. Many times, I’ve taken advantage of them. Sometimes I passed intentionally. Sometimes I heard about it afterwards. Sometimes I heard about it in plenty of time but didn’t recognize it as the profit-making opportunity it was.

This list is nowhere near exhaustive. Most of these happened in Las Vegas, but I’m sure they happened elsewhere as well.

  1. Game manufacturer providing incorrect information. The example that comes to mind here is Pick’Em Poker. This was a game that was worth 99.95%, but Bally Systems, the creator of the game, published that it was worth 98.8%. The game was popular (99.95% games tend to be that) and casinos kept putting it in for years — thinking they still had a cushion. Eventually, Bally sold the game to IGT, who rebranded it as Pick A Pair. IGT did include the original pay schedule in their offerings, but few casinos wanted a 99.95% game on their floor.
  1. Individual machine mismarked. Texas Casino (before it was Texas Station) had one 10/7 Double Bonus (100.17%) machine what was marked 9/7 (99.11%). While the front of the machine said it would pay 45 credits for a full house, you actually got 50 credits.
  1. Machine “too loose” for the casino floor. In 1995 at the Colorado Belle in Laughlin, the loosest games were dollar 9/6 Jacks or Better (99.54%), with most of the games quite a bit tighter than that. Two Bally Gamemaker machines were added. These machines included a number of games — including the Bally version of 10/7 Double Bonus which paid 400 coins for a straight flush rather than 250 and was worth 100.55%. The game lasted for a few months before the casino downgraded it.
  1. There are a number of examples where employees were bribed for small benefits. Slot floor people are minimum wage employees. If they’re in charge of handing out something worth $5 to players, which I’ll call scratchers because that’s a common way to do this, players will offer to tip $1 to get another scratcher or two. The casinos keep track of cash, but the scratchers are unmonitored, and employees are instructed when to hand them out. Under these circumstances, fraud and collusion will occur. Far better to design a promotion where this can’t happen.

It’s been more than 25 years since I bribed a casino employee to give me extra scratchers or such. But at the time, I was very tight on money and “needed” the extra. Today I’m not tight on money, but millions of players are. When casinos make it easy for players and employees to cheat, they will.

  1. There are examples where prizes, which are supposed to be chosen randomly, have codes on them which the savvy players can figure out. 

One casino mailed out some “to be scratched off in front of a casino employee” cards, with daily prizes ranging from being worthless to 5x points (which could be worth thousands of dollars to the right player.) If you had a strong light, you could see the prize through the card. It could be a hassle to go back to the same casino every day — but if you know beforehand when it’s really worth it, you make trips at the correct time. In the case of midnight-to-midnight 5x points, you arrange your whole schedule around being there at midnight when it starts.

Another casino let you pull scratchers out of a bowl. You then scratched off at the booth to reveal your prize. On the back of the cards, however, was a number which told the savvy player what was on the card. A code ending in 55 might signify $5 in free play and a code of 82 might signify $100 in free play. Some booth employees realized what was going on, and held the bowl at the player’s eye level, telling the player to draw one without looking at it. Some players, of course, drew more than one, scanned them all, and apologized as they kept the best one.

  1. Point multipliers are the bread and butter of many video poker professionals. To know how good this is, you must know how much single points are worth and what the game itself is worth. 

Sometimes you see mistakes with multipliers. Like when the marketing director at Eastside Cannery decided 10x points was a good idea because that’s what a competitor offered. The competitor offered base points of 0.05% and Eastside Cannery offered base points of 0.1675% and looser games. There were people holding machines for more than twelve hours before the promotion started.

Just knowing that one casino offers 4x points on Tuesday while another one offers 2x points on the same day doesn’t tell you which is the better play. It depends both on the value of the game you’ll be playing and how much single points are worth.

  1. Theoretical on machines. Years ago, several Harrah’s properties in Las Vegas offered high denomination 9/5 Jacks or Better (98.45%) with a theoretical of more than 4%. Some players came in twice a month, playing $150,000 coin-in at an expected loss of $2,300 each time) and they received $3,500 in free play each time they did this. Plus, slot club benefits. 

I didn’t hear about this one until near its end, but I did play it for a while. Long enough to be “discovered” by one of my students who was aghast that I was playing 9/5 JoB rather than the nearby 9/6 JoB machines (which required 2½ as much coin-in for one Tier Credit and had a theoretical of 0.46%). This lady asked me several questions and I just smiled and said nothing. I’m sure she suspected I was a fraud whose actions were not the same as his words.

Video poker is a lot more complicated than just learning which games to play and how to play them.

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Switching Players

Bob Dancer

During a juicy promotion, let’s say I have a deal with “Peter” that I will leave a machine at 5 a.m. and he will take it over. Later on, perhaps noon, he will give it back. But when he arrives at 5 a.m., all of the relevant machines are full, and somebody is hovering — waiting for a machine to open up. How do we handle this situation?

If I know the person hovering and he is reasonable to work with, he already knows Peter is taking over. How? I’ll tell him beforehand. Most professionals have made similar deals in the past and we don’t want some sort of fight where casino employees get involved. That situation rarely ends well.

If players are fighting over a machine, many casinos “solve” the problem by kicking out one or both players or removing the machine. If the players want it that badly, it doesn’t take a genius slot director to conclude that he’s better off without it. 

If the hovering player is a stranger, we try to switch players without incident. I might ask Peter to watch my machine while I use the restroom. When he sits down, I’ll tell him I might be several minutes, and he can play with his own card and money until I return. He cashes out my money and gives it to me along with my card, and he begins to play.

It seems innocent enough. An hour later, when the hovering player realizes that I’m not coming back, the problem has usually gone away. Sometimes that player has found another machine. Sometimes that player has given up on playing on these particular machines during that promotion. (Most of us have “backup” plans in case our first choice of machines isn’t available.) 

Sometimes when a full bank of desirable machines is occupied, another player will ask if anybody is planning on leaving soon. (I do this myself.) The reason to do this is to “get in line.” Usually this is a good time to say words to the effect that, “My machine has somebody already in line.”

Despite your best efforts, sometimes somebody comes looking for a machine and announces that the only way to allocate machines is “first come first served” and he’s first in line for the next available machine. If Peter shows up for his shift while this person is waiting, I’ll whisper to him to let him know the situation. Sooner or later this person will either get a machine or leave the area for a bit. When he does, that’s the time to make the shift.  

One thing to keep in mind is that regardless of whatever is done today, most of us plan on playing for years and “what goes around, comes around.” Sometimes you have the machine and somebody else wants it. Sometimes somebody else has the machine and you want it. 

Treating people fairly is almost always the best policy. It doesn’t always work well, but it gives you the best chance of having good results for years to come.

There is one lady in greater Las Vegas who is known for being a real jerk about these things. She’s made a scene at several casinos where she feels people have not let her have her turn, and casinos have removed machines because of what she’s done. Insofar as I’m concerned, she doesn’t play fair, and I won’t work with her. But with most others, I do,

One last thing to mention is that there are fewer of these great video poker promotions than there used to be. Just a fact of life. Sharing great machines is far less of an issue than it used to be.

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Getting Time on a Machine

Bob Dancer

Assume there is a juicy 24-hour video poker promotion that works best on four machines. There are more than four players looking for a seat — including you. How should you go about getting a seat?

For me, I try to establish a partnership that will last as long as the promotion. Somebody I can trust. Somebody I can work with again and again, because in a few months there will be another promotion where there are more players than seats.

Let’s say the promotion starts at midnight. One of us needs to be at the machine by 10 p.m., playing very slowly, killing time. When midnight arrives, the game changes and this player begins to play very fast. After some agreed-upon period of time, the players switch places. And, sometimes, after another period of time the players switch back again. And possibly even one more time. 

The two hours of “dead time” before the promotion starts is likely a money-loser. We share this. If I take this shift this time, my partner takes it next time.

Let’s look at what I would want in a partner.

  1. Someone I can trust. Trust is a many-faceted quality, but if “John” tells me he will be there at 10 p.m. and turn over the machine to me at 5 a.m., I want that to happen. I don’t want to hear “some other promotion came up,” or “I made a deal with somebody else and didn’t tell you about it.” 

If John calls me at 10:05 p.m. and tells me all the machines are full, and I believe him, that’s not a mark against John’s character. We made a judgment that 10 p.m. would be sufficient. Next time, maybe 8 p.m.

  1. I want somebody who can negotiate. Let’s say all the machines are full at 10 p.m. I’d want John to ask the players how long they are planning to play, and can he have the machine then? The best deal is that he gets the machine at 4 a.m. and doesn’t have to give it back. Then he can give it to me at 11 a.m. and if he wants another shift, he can have one.

The person negotiating is negotiating for the partnership, but if the best he can get is some time on the machine for himself and nothing for me, he should take that. Sometimes a machine will open up later. 

Let’s say he can get a deal where he can have the machine from 4 a.m. to noon, and then has to give it back to the guy who gave him the machine. After he has the machine at 4 a.m. he asks the others how long they are going to play. Sometimes he can work something out where somebody is going to want to leave at 10 a.m. and is willing to give that machine to me at that time.

  1. I want somebody who doesn’t have a lot of baggage. There are players in every jurisdiction who aren’t well-liked or well-trusted. Other players won’t be so willing to negotiate with somebody they dislike.
  2. I want somebody who can play for at least six or eight hours. I need my sleep between shifts. If the best somebody can do is hold a machine for two hours, that usually isn’t useful to me. Although it could be in a particular situation.
  3. I want somebody who will be playing with his own money and won’t likely run out mid-shift. A dollar Five Play game can go through a lot of money during an eight-hour shift, when things go badly. How badly depends upon what game you’re playing. So how much money is that player planning on bringing? If I’m told, $3,000, then I know this isn’t the right partner. While it could possibly be enough, very likely that person will be behind more than $3,000 during the shift. And if that happens, the machine won’t be available to me later.
  4. If the machine allows for it, I don’t care if the player I’m switching machines with is playing for the same stakes I am or not. On the Quick Quads machines I mentioned last week, you could play for quarters, halves, or dollars — Triple Play, Five Play, or Ten Play. Since it was a six-coins-per-line game, this meant you could play for the same odds for several different total bets between $4.50 and $60. Someone playing for $4.50 a play is just as suitable to me as a player playing $60. Each of us is at a different place bankroll-wise.

I keep note of who has agreed to share machines with me. This means I need to repay the favor down the road. The deal may be between John and me this week, but if there’s a way to give Harry a few hours, that takes precedence over giving the machine away to a complete stranger.

It’s a fairly small world of players wanting to play the same sized games as you during a promotion. You have to treat others appropriately. The maxim, “What goes around comes around,” applies here.

So, let’s say I have my partner. I start first and he gets to take over at 6 a.m. Next week, I want to discuss how the changeover happens if there are other players waiting for the first empty machine.