Top Dollar Slots - When to accept the offer?

For me, the usually offer is average $35.00- so my findings agree w/ your..

however, at Bellagio I was playing the dollar 3 coin and the offer was "$300.00...doubled!" so i took the $600.00- paid for all my weeks spa treatments which is what I was doing at Bellagio anyway.
I play the $5.00 2 cpoins machines once in a while-- never got a W2G but have done alright- got took for $200.00 at NYNY w/o one spin- that one bit me in the behind..
Mirage in the High Limits is good to me too

I call them Final Offers -- have a metal block about Top Dollar name.

Don't you love it after you toss some reasonable offers (in hindsight) and then get a crap final offer that's less than the previous three? Particularly annoying is when the recorded voice says "Boy, you're a winner!". Wonder if the RNG sees me giving it the finger! LOL

I'm working with the basis of taking 35 or more and passing on anything less. In some cases, the last offer is pitiful but that's the rub I guess.

I started playing this promo on Gold Fish but this was a lot of time to get the coin in (LOL, spoken just like a vp player). The graphics and bonus was interesting but it was a lot of "work" for some cheesy bonuses. I like Top Dollar better....lost the two times I played but not enough where it wasn't worthwhile to play it for the free play.

Thanks again everyone for your advice and suggestions.

Dan

Dan (or someone else who's learned in Top Dollar): can you give me a brief explanation on how this game works? Like some others, I'm not a slot player but once in awhile I like to get away from the vp "concentration" and play something that doesn't require thinking. I've seen this slot but don't know if there's any type of strategy, no matter how simple.

Fredo

We've played Top Dollar for years. Talking with other players and attendants (when they used to have those) we all arrived at 35 credits as the magic number. Feeling lucky? Then take another chance. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Of course, if you've run through $80 on a $100 buy-in, 35 doesn't look like a lot, but it really is the best strategy.

Fredo, Top Dollar machines are either 2 or 3 coiners (look for 2 coiners). If you land the Top Dollar symbol on the payline on the third reel you get the top box bonus. You must play max coin or you don't get the bonus. You get up to four offers. If you don't think the first offer is big enough, hit the button for another offer. Or a third or fourth.

There is also a doubler version. You can recognize it by a 2X symbol on each side of the money pile in the top box. One or both of the 2 symbols may light up on a bonus spin and double or quadruple the offer. I had both of them light up on a 1,000 credit offer on a $1 machine at NY-NY a few years ago. Nice!

I didn't know they had this in a 2 coin version. In thinking about it, I'd have to assume that in order to ensure that their hold was sufficient, you'd likely get fewer Top Dollar bonuses and/or the offers would be smaller. Does that make sense? I guess I'm saying that the likelihood that the machine is programmed to pay out at the same rate and/or frequency when gambling only $2 as opposed to $3 doesn't make sense. Anyone have an opinion on this?

Dan

I've found the number of bonuses to be about the same. The 3-coin version has higher payouts from the base game. But - the 3-coiner came out around 2006 (guessing) and the ones I've played seem to have a chip with a higher hold built in. Of course, that could just be my perception. But I can remember $5 Top Dollar machines in certain casinos ten years ago that would just about puke coins out at you. The good old days! (sigh)

Rick, thanks for the insight. I'll have to check if the 2 coin version is an option....if so, I think I'll give it a whirl.

Dan

Yes, do not trust things that gaming machines tell you! I have seen some video poker where it had an option called "Smarthold" or would just hold cards for you (although you did have the option to change them).

Well I found that the machines told players to hold bad things (most especially 4-Card Inside Straights with No High Cards -- when Straights were paying 4 For 1 which is not the time to hold that kind of hand) and when there was a low pair in the hand and other garbage, it would not hold any cards at all!

RecVPPlayer

LVH, Mirage, Bellagio and Caesars have 2 coiners in their High Limits area. ($5.00)
I hate the 3 coiners
In AC,
they have then @ $25.00 3 coiners- saw a woman take it for $6K but would never play at $75.00 a pop myself..

So given that so many people have experience with this game, and I'm a newbie, I figured, if it's good enough for Dan it's good enough for me. This particular Top Dollar machine is at an Indian casino, fwiw, and I put in a $50 TITO. Then I notice three buttons: $1, $2, and $5. I think I noticed there were 5 lines, so I figure, oh, $1 per line so I'll play $5 - I hit the $5 button. One spin, and I got a cherry in the middle surrounded by a bunch of other symbols which didn't seem to line up - I won 6 credits. I figure, ok, that's one more than I put in, so I'll try again. On this spin, I could see some symbols lined up at the top and I was awarded 4 picks. The first pick said 65 credits - I recalled the earlier advice in this very post but shoot - I get three more picks so maybe they'll up the ante. (I think at this point some of you are chuckling at my naivete, but I was in uncharted waters.) Next pick said 40 credits. I could see it was going in the wrong directions, but hey, let's see one more pick. This one said 60 credits and I didn't want to see any more - I accepted it. At that point I figured life wasn't going to get any better so I cashed out - to my surprise, the TITO had $330 on it. I'm still not sure just what I did. (And this is why I don't play slots!) Thoughts?

fredo