There was a post a few weeks ago on vpFREE that said: “To all of you cretins that shut down machines – that’s not the right thing to do and I NEVER shut down any machine. I even tell others not to shut down machines and let others play. If you need to put in a certain amount of action – get the torture over with and do it all in one play and keep the assembly line moving.”
I don’t agree. There are times when you have to look out for Number 1.
At least in the high limit rooms, the best machines are few in number and most of the top players know which machines are the best. There was a promotion a few years ago at a Caesars Entertainment property where you could start earning drawing tickets at 6 a.m. There was ONE All Star Poker machine which had the best pay schedule (also taking into consideration the theoretical that was earned) and was well known to all the pros. The casino had a policy that if you were Seven Stars you could lock up a machine for four hours. It made a lot of sense to me to be there before 2 a.m. so I could be the one to lock it up in advance of the earning period for the drawing tickets. It is usually not sensible to play at 2 a.m., because every casino day (6 a.m. – 6 a.m. at this casino) that you play affects your Average Daily Theoretical (ADT). So I got there at 1 a.m. or so, sat quietly, and at 2 a.m. locked up the machine. I would then see others come at 1:15 a.m., 1:30 a.m., 1:45 a.m., or even 1:55 a.m., all hoping to do exactly what I was doing! It was easily observed that if I didn’t lock up the machine this way, somebody else would. Sometimes 1 a.m. wouldn’t be early enough, because somebody else got there at 12:45. It was definitely a case of do one to your neighbors before they did one to you!
At the Palms (until mid-January of this year), they had two Ultimate X machines with good pay schedules where I could play $100 at a time. There were 10 or so of us who would take turns. They don’t have multiple point days at the Palms, but Friday nights they have 5x drawing tickets between 8 p.m. and midnight. If I could get one of the two machines and played $1 Ten Play (ten coins per line), I could easily play $400K coin-in Friday evening. That would give me a decent chance in the following week’s drawing.
(Actually the Palms does have double points of sorts. On Mondays-Fridays you earn gift cards, usually at a rate of 0.20% for video poker players. There are limits, but unless you’re playing in the High Limit room, you won’t come close to the limits. But this is a reason why playing Saturday and Sunday generates less EV than playing during the week.)
So when should I get there? Getting there at 7:45 p.m. gave me absolutely no chance to get a machine. Sometimes if I got there at 3 p.m., the machines would already be full, but whoever was playing them wasn’t planning to play all night. So maybe I could make a deal (I’ll discuss this later). But if my deal allowed me to get a machine at, say, 6:30, I would play until 7, have it locked up for an hour (the limit at that casino), and then go eat dinner. I would then be ready for the four hour push when I would get the most drawing tickets.
These are two examples. I have many others, mostly from high limit rooms. If you don’t sometimes lock up machines, you’re taking the worst of it one way or the other.
A related subject is sharing machines. Sometimes shutting down machines is not allowed. Occasionally there’s someone who comes up and politely says, “Do you know when you’re going to be done? I’d like this machine next.” If I’ve promised the machine to somebody else, I’ll say so. If I haven’t already promised someone else and the person requesting has not shown himself/herself to be anti-social in the video poker world, I ALWAYS provide a reasonable estimate of how long I’m planning to play. (Such as, I’m playing until midnight, or probably about three more hours, or whatever.) Sometimes I’ll say, “I’m planning on locking up the machine for an hour at 7 p.m. If you want it then and promise to give it back to me, you can have it for an hour at that time. If the person wants the machine subject to whatever parameters I’ve set out, we’ll exchange phone numbers and I’ll call if there’s a change in plans or if another “identical” machine opens up. If I’m on the machine first, I have “squatters rights” and can dictate the terms for when they get it, if at all.
I operate this way and most others — not all — in the high limit rooms do as well. If you’ve benefited from a deal like this, you’re honor bound to give it to others when asked. We all understand that there are “more dogs than bones” and we’re trying to make it so as many people as possible get to play — subject, of course, to taking care of ourselves first.
I understand that there are people who say they NEVER lock up machines. They have an almost religious fervor about this and nothing will change their mind. Good for them! I won’t attempt to convince them that they’re wrong. What I will say is that these people are clearly not professional high stakes players — because in the world in which I compete, such religious fervor will often cause you to be shut out from the good machines during the best promotions! Maybe the world of recreational players and/or small denomination players looks different. I don’t know. That’s outside my current experience. And I’m very hesitant to say something like, “If I were in that position I’d do xxxxx.” What people think they would do in another life and what they would actually do are often quite different.
People say all the time, “If I were A-Rod (or any other well-known person) and had all his money, I would NEVER xxxx.” I think these kinds of statements are nonsense. You AREN’T A-Rod. You don’t have his abilities/pressures/responsibilities, etc. It just doesn’t follow that what you do in your current life translates to what he should do in his life. But people always assume they are qualified to criticize someone with very different experiences.
If such people wish to call me a cretin or other derogatory term, so be it. I’ve been called worse. (Actually, many times I’ve been called much worse.) I feel a responsibility to the video poker community — but I feel a stronger responsibility to take care of Bonnie and me.
For the most part, it isn’t the one-or-two hour shut downs that tick other players off. It’s the six-hour or 72-hour shut downs. Sometimes it’s a casino mistake that allows this to happen. Sometimes it’s because it’s a “special player.” Fred and Wilma Flintstone lose $2 million a year at the casino. Whenever they are in their penthouse suite, their favorite machines are reserved for them, whether or not they ever go down and play. (At some casinos they might get special pay schedules that other players aren’t allowed to play. I know how to win big on those machines. Fred and Wilma are neither skilled nor sober. So they get to play and I don’t.) Dozens of other players see the “out of service” sign and are really irritated. No matter. Fred and Wilma indirectly pay for the privilege and the lower-valued players can lump it. Period. (Although these lower-valued players do have the right to complain and be irritated if that will make them feel better!)
There are those who say they would never allow a casino to do such things on their behalf. I’m not so sure. Personally, until dementia sets in for either me or the casino management, I can’t foresee a casino doing this kind of thing for me. But I can say that if there’s a two-minute line at the Paris Buffet for Seven Stars members and an hour-and-a-half wait for “regular” folks, I go to the shorter line. And so does everyone else who qualifies. I like the privileges I get and sometimes I use them, whether anybody else likes it or not.
When the other guy gets privileges that I don’t, it’s easy for me to argue that I’m as good as he is and shouldn’t have to wait. But when I’m on the inside looking out, it’s easier for me to understand. I’ve been huskily bawled out for using a short VIP line by a man who’d been waiting an hour. He thought it should be “first come-first served.” I thought playing a million dollars a year should give me some privileges. There was no use discussing the matter with him. He probably thought I was a cretin.
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