Originally posted by: Patricia (aka pokerpat36)
Thanks for sharing this article. Very interesting. Felt sorry for the guy that missed out on 1 million bucks!
Ultimately, I enjoyed it because it took me back in time to memories of a similar, but laughable, experience I had with a casual friend about 15 years ago. I was able to get the last laugh on a guy who was a "Mr. Know it all" when it comes to playing slots. For simplistics I will call him Billy Bob. At the time, I lived in Houston. My favorite casino was in Lake Charles, Louisiana. About a 2 hour drive. Billy Bob talked me into making the drive to Lake Charles with him for a day to have some fun at the casino. The entire trip we talked about gambling, of course. He is an avid slot player. I am a live poker player or blackjack player mostly. Most of the trip he preached and preached to me about playing the slots, and when I play the slots, I need to make sure to always bet the max. Don't even bother to play a machine if I don't bet the max, fill it up, max coin only, etc., etc., yada, yada. Yeah, yeah, right, OK....
At Casino. I go to blackjack. He goes to slots. At some point, I decide to play a Progressive Jackpot Wheel of Fortune slot. Quarter machine. Jackpot up to 500,000 or so. Don't remember the exact amount. I know most of you will cringe at this, but please keep in mind that I only wanted to play this machine because it was fun to play but I did not play Max coin in because I did not want to lose my winnings from blackjack. Just passing time until my friend finished playing for us to go home. I only played 2 coins.
Billy Bob sees me. Sits down at machine next to me, and decided to play. His very first spin, he hits the Jackpot! Or so I thought, when the machine started ringing and flashing. Come to find out, he only played two coins! So instead of $500,000+ , he only won less than $1000. I could hardly believe he preached at me all the way to the casino, and then he did not practice what he preached! So much for Mr. know it all slot player! I never let him live that one down! 🥴
His advice was actually sound as far as it went, as on those types of machines, the payout if you factor out the big jackpot (which would be the case if you played short-coin) is truly awful. But "slot advice" is sorta like, "If you plan to drive off a cliff, make sure you fasten your seat belt." Objectively correct, but...
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And as I said earlier in this thread, if he had taken the extra half-second to put in the third coin, the random number generator would have cycled several more times, and he very likely wouldn't have won anything at all. So you should have patted him on the back for his exquisite timing :)
