{"id":119623,"date":"2019-04-30T09:57:12","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T16:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/?p=119623"},"modified":"2019-04-30T09:57:12","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T16:57:12","slug":"chasing-a-progressive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/chasing-a-progressive\/","title":{"rendered":"Chasing a Progressive"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are hundreds of video poker progressives in greater Las Vegas. As a general rule, I avoid these games. Progressives are not my bread and butter. Still, I occasionally do sit down at a progressive that catches my eye, and recently there was such a case.<\/span><\/p>\n

A $2 9\/5 DDB progressive at the South Point was at more than $16,000 for the royal, with additional progressives for aces with a kicker and 2s, 3s, and 4s with a kicker. Putting all the numbers into computer software showed the game was currently worth about 100.80%, plus a 0.30% slot club. Additionally, in general the more coin-in you have, the better your mailers are. So, I sat down.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had enough cash on hand, I thought, including the availability of markers. I was used to DDB itself, which has a variance of a bit more than 40. Doubling the royal jacks up the variance to around 100. Although I have the tools to figure out bankroll for this, I wasn\u2019t near my computer and I had to wing it. I figured I was up to playing for four or five hours. If the royal hadn\u2019t been hit by then, I\u2019d reevaluate whether or not I wanted to continue. <\/span><\/p>\n

There are 20 machines connected to this progressive and perhaps a third of the seats were taken when I got there at 10 p.m. on a Saturday evening. At midnight, half of the machines were taken, and the progressive was more than $18,000. The 2s, 3s, and 4s, with a kicker progressive had been hit a few times. It started out at $1,600 and was usually hit by $1,700. The difference between this jackpot at $1,600 and the same jackpot at $1,700 is 0.14%. Not chopped liver, but it\u2019s not the primary prize.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aces with a kicker were worth more than $5,000. That added more than 0.6%, but even without that, the royal progressive was high enough that the game was worth playing. When the aces were knocked off, the royal progressive was more than $19,000, which is worth about 101% even without the lesser jackpots.<\/span><\/p>\n

At about 2 a.m., the royal reached $20,000. About 2\/3 of the seats were full and at that point, somebody hit the royal. Time to go home.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had run $40,000 coin-in through the machine. I failed to hit any W2G (regular aces are worth $1,600, in addition to the other jackpots already discussed.) My score was $7,100 in the soup. No fun. But not really a big deal. DDB is a heaven-or-hell game, and special quads and the royals add a lot to the EV. Blanking on those is expensive in the short run. <\/span><\/p>\n

Generally speaking, when playing a progressive, the person hitting the royal comes out way ahead and the others lose. In this case, the guy who knocked off the aces with a kicker was also probably ahead, but most of the rest of us lost. Such is the nature of playing DDB progressives. Play the game enough and you\u2019ll get your share.<\/span><\/p>\n

I recognized more than half of the players when the royal was finally hit. Some I hadn\u2019t seen for several years. I assume most of them knew who I was, as I\u2019m well-known in the Las Vegas video poker community, although not in the video poker progressive-playing community. I don\u2019t know this for a fact, but it wouldn\u2019t surprise me if a few phone calls had been made in the nature of, \u201cYou better come down here. It is so juicy even Bob Dancer is playing it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Am I going to do this again soon? Doubtful. But maybe. It\u2019s a positive play, albeit one with large swings. Between casinos restricting players and the general tightening of machines, it\u2019s hard to find good video poker opportunities in Las Vegas these days. This is one avenue to stay in the game, although it\u2019s not my first choice.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see.<\/span><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"youtube\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are hundreds of video poker progressives in greater Las Vegas. As a general rule, I avoid these games. Progressives are not my bread and butter. Still, I occasionally do sit down at a progressive that catches my eye, and recently there was such a case. A $2 9\/5 DDB progressive at the South Point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[29,2,3],"tags":[428,1769,196],"yoast_head":"\nChasing a Progressive<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There're hundreds of video poker progressives in Vegas. 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