Thanks to all who sent their congratulations on Brad’s jackpot. It takes a sweet spirit to rejoice in someone else’s good fortune even though it was during circumstances that you might never be in yourself. And to answer one specific question: Some casinos do not allow photography, but Hammond Horseshoe does. I am noticing these days that more casinos are relaxing the “No Pictures” rule, probably because with all the cellphones around it is hard to enforce.
Now for the nitty-gritty, discussing your comments. I know that for quarter players – seeing someone playing $200 a hand – it seems like an action that is unbelievable, something they cannot even imagine. Twenty-nine years ago when we started gambling in casinos, we would have felt the same way. We started with a small bankroll and stuck with quarter machines for several years. It was only by continuous study and religiously sticking to plays where we had the advantage that we began to go up…very slowly… in denomination. This was possible because we never depended on gambling for our living expenses – we had other income – so could take all our profits and roll them back into our bankroll, which has now grown to a very large sum.
A few comments – a couple which I did not approve because of vulgar language so they don’t appear – are an example of something I have written about in the past. That is, you cannot analyze another person’s play and judge whether it is a “good” one because there are factors that may not be obvious, especially if you weren’t actually physically watching the person playing. In the photo of the jackpot, the paytable is not seen. Obviously you can deduce that it is a Deuces Wild game, but you don’t know which deuce schedule. I had mentioned NSUDs early in the report in a general sense that this was the game we often played when classic FPDW disappeared in higher denominations. I never said we were playing plain NSUD’s in Hammond. Actually we weren’t.
So if you wrongly assumed that we didn’t have an adequate bankroll and didn’t know what game we were playing, you already would have been 2 strikes down. Then if you assumed you know what extra benefits we had and what they are worth, maybe you aren’t familiar with the Caesars slot club program. You don’t know that reward credits have been available for free play – not just comps – for a year or so – and that starting April 1 Seven Star’s will have a big bump in their free-pay value. You don’t know what mailed offers we get or are able to redeem.
Furthermore it would be impossible for anyone to know what extra benefits some players get because they have established long-term relationships with high-level executive hosts who have extra discretion to give more benefits, including higher bounce-back free play and higher-level comps. A long-term relationship with a casino or a host is valuable on all levels of play, whether you are a low roller or high roller. This has been part of the secret of our success since we were quarter players.
Hummmm…..why am I thinking of the phrase “You don’t know jack.”
Sorry, perhaps that is too snarky! But I do want to make a point that we should all be careful not to judge other players. It is impossible to know all the personal facts of each case!
I do want to give you some background here because I hope that some of our experiences in the roller coaster ride of winning and losing might be helpful to the readers here, whatever their level of play. In case you are envious of this jackpot, you might change your feelings when I tell you that we were down for the year more than 40k when we went to Hammond. We had suffered a brutal 2013 so far, perhaps our worse losing streak ever – maybe not in length but in intensity. Part of the reason might have been because we are playing with a smaller advantage than we did a few years ago, as one person commented. But that condition has been in place for several years and has not severely impacted our bottom line. However, there are other factors: we are playing more volatile games and that impacts short-term results. But the biggest factor is that we had not hit one royal in 4 months – starting back in December – the longest royal drought in our 25 years of playing video poker. This is in spite of a lot of multi-line play, which can produce more royals in the short-term.
So when you see a 40k jackpot, remember it is just as easy to have a 40k losing streak. If you don’t have the financial bankroll or mental stamina to weather the latter, my advice is not to play a game that could produce the former.
Congrats on a nice win. I have been in a down streak for a while. You renew my spirits. I am a student of Bob Dancer. I so much respect all that Bob, Brad & you share with us.
Congratulations! As for those who write nasty comments about your success, I’m always curious what their “score” is. Although it’s a generalization, those comments are almost always from losers. No, not losers as people–I’m sure they’re nicer in better circumstances–but losers as far as competition vs. the casino goes.
I can’t wait to see a bunch of comments about this, with players who are critical of successful pros like yourself. My experience is they will swear up and down they are winning, but ALWAYS fall short of providing verification. I call it the loser’s “prize”–a right to complain and seek commiseration. It seems to substitute for better skills and vocabulary.
Congratulations again, and hit a royal or two. I wish the Horseshoe in Iowa had some of the games they have in Hammond!
For those that play at Stations and are weekly players and have accumulated points and were given occasional restaurant Comps. Stations has changed their policy and now will not give u a Comp until u have used up your points. Their machines are also much tighter. Just a point I wanted to share.
I forgot to mention in my previous post concerning which casinos allow photos , that I was in the High Limit area at Hammond Horseshoe when I was told that photos were not allowed.I’m sure that is where you were playing. Next time I will ask to see the rule book!
Really enjoy your blog even though I seldom play VP.
There is a wealth of useable information available on this blog, not only from Jean’s comments but also from the comments posted by others. This is also true of many other gambling websites which are free as well. So to those of you who are making unpublishable comments, I suggest you spend more time learning what it takes to be successful and less time complaining.
George
I don’t doubt that the game you were playing was at least nominally +EV. However, CET constantly fiddles with how Reward Credits work, and a player’s relationship with his/her host can be wonderful and then dramatically head south (such as, when management discovers that you’re winning; winning, as opposed to playing well). So any perks over and above the inherent EV of the game (which includes hard-cash-value slot points) are ephemeral–they could disappear any time.
Certainly, you’ve been attentive over the years to bankroll considerations and built up your playing stake slowly but surely. I should emphasize that this alone is NOT ENOUGH. You also have to be lucky, or if you prefer, not unlucky. I was busted out twice in the late 90s, each time with a bankroll of 20 royals, sufficient to give me a risk of ruin well below 0.5%. And I was playing 101% games or better consistently, with perfect strategy (I tested myself constantly). In the most recent three years, my results are 2 1/2 standard deviations low. Variance can kill you, and those who have survived to amass a huge bankroll and write video poker books are those who did NOT have “royal droughts” like the one you’ve recently experienced until their bankrolls were inflated enough to absorb them.
Perhaps you’re assuming I don’t understand how all this +EV stuff works. Nothing could be further from the truth. What I DO understand is the “law of large numbers,” which means the EXACT OPPOSITE of what most people think it does. Over time, your results will DIVERGE, in greater and greater magnitude, from expectation–in other words, things do NOT “average out.” You’ve played well over your career, and been assiduous in chasing promos, etc., but understand–none of that would have mattered had you been unlucky. I know a dozen (at least) aspiring VP “pros” who studied the game and played in expertly but ultimately, couldn’t survive extended “royal droughts.” Kudos to you for having survived yours.
I congratulate you and Brad on that hit! It is marvelous! I do take pictures of all of my jackpots to send/show to my husband, and have never had any problem doing that. Most casino employees that see me doing it just laugh!
The bad streaks certainly are tough…my husband and I went for all of 2012 with no royals. 2013 has been a vast improvement! Keep hitting!
Love your comments Jean, hooray for you!!!!
Way to go Jean! I agree that no one should judge another person’s play. Impossible to know what the total circumstances are for any gambler.
Congratulations for the big win and I hope you have many more, including Royals!
Enjoy your blogs very much….thank you for taking the time to write them!