How long will they last?

As reported in this month's newsletter, both Arizona Charlie's have added a bank of machines with .25 FPDW and FPJW in addition to other good games, including .05 and .10 99% games. Six of them at one property and eight at the other.

This is one thing that actually might make me return to Vegas--if it continues. I in particular miss FPJW, which is a really fun game with an oddball but fairly easy strategy. The last FPDW and FPJW in town got snuffed out by Stations, just before the pandemic hit. And one could stay at either hotel for cheap and indulge in the good dining options.

However, I'm not about to jump on a plane, because it's almost a certainty that those games won't last long. That's happened dozens of times in the past--a casino puts in some good VP games and almost immediately yanks them back out. It's been so swift at times, I've wondered if these were just "bait" machines to identify players they want to no-mail or even bar.

My prediction is that these games will be gone by Feb. 15th. In the meantime, if anyone's in that part of town, I'd be curious to know if these games are being hit hard.

The $.25 FPDW has been at ACD since at least March, 2020. Doubt if they'll be gone by February 15th.

Are you sure about that? The VpFree2 update is only about a month old, and LVA is only reporting the existence of those machines in the current issue. It's possible, I suppose, that it went unnoticed and unreported for ten months.

If we actually knew when those machines had been installed (or the paytables changed), that would be interesting, as Stations destroyed all of its fullpay machines just before the pandemic hit. LVA opines that it was a response to Stations' tightening.

Full-Pay Deuces games being hit hard? Ha! Have you been to Vegas in the last few years?

In my experience, over the last couple of years the full-pay games at Stations, Sam's Town, and Skyline - when they had them - were almost always available. 

Do you know why? Points. It turns out that most players care more about points - which is a sure thing - than expected value, which is a bit more amorphous. They'd rather have the free meal than the prospect of a more profitable game. And that's the story of Las Vegas, isn't it?

Yes and no. It depended on the overall availability of such games. If there were only a few (the case in the last couple of years), then you often couldn't get a seat. I remember last year, going to Fiesta Henderson and several times, all ten (?) fullpay machines, in three different banks, were occupied. The few FPDW machines at Sam's Town were also often all taken (which was really annoying because of the hassle of going there, parking, walking half a mile, etc.). Then there were the permanent (or so it seemed) denizens of Boulder Station--a seedy collection of lowlifes who played .05 games because sleeping behind a dumpster got boring after a while.

The Skyline in Henderson had oodles of FPDW and other good games--then they moved them all into a small, claustrophic room. Unlike almost everywhere else, they had 10-coin FPDW. So one guy moved in there, took up residence, and played three machines at once. This persisted for quite a while until they pulled the plug and stripped out ALL their FPDW, not just those machines. I never managed to get on one of them myself--that guy was always there. I think he wore a diaper rather than having to leave the machines to go to the bathroom.

My experience has been that when rare FPDW pops up, the local degenerates descend on the games and play frenetically until the play is burned out--and the casino's retaliation is often to destroy ALL the good games. That happened at the Orleans a few years ago; they put in a bank of eight fullpay Loose Deuces (15/10, about a 101% game). Every local "pro" came crawling out of the woodwork for that one. Never an open seat, even at 3 am. They would play in shifts, one handing a machine off to another.

So I would be surprised if those few lonely FPDW are being left alone, especially since they're pretty much the only game in town. I agree with you that getting no (or very few) points discourages the ploppies. But when the most you could ever hope to get is something like 0.1%, it shouldn't make any difference. You might point out that on multiple point days, there might be a reason to play a relatively good non-fullpay game. But Stations and Boyd are one step ahead of us on that. They pay almost nothing point-wise on the 99%+ games as well.

Kevin, yes I AM SURE.

My records show that I played them on 3/4/20, 3/5/20 and 3/13/20. I was determining to see if it was worth my while to play them to keep my True Rewrads EPIC status after they removed the $1 10/7 DB with the progressive for the royal. I stopped as it was just too time consuming.

Then I'm really surprised that they weren't listed on VpFree2 (or reported by LVA) until recently.

Someone told me about these FPDW at both Charlie's but asked me to not blab about them because they thought they might have been a mistake. I didn't think they were a mistake but didn't tell anyone or report them to vpFREE2 out of respect for the person who told me. This isn't something that I would play anyway. 

Stopped into Arizona Charlies Decatur yesterday to check on the $.25 FPDW. They are still there, by the north entrance next to the securuty guard podium.

Good to know, thanks. Do you know about AZC Boulder?