On my last trip to Vegas, I was looking for a good video poker machine and thought I found one. But the woman playing the machine next to it claimed to be playing that one too, even though I didn't see her hitting any buttons. When I asked her about it, she said that she was waiting for a progressive to go up and said that if I didn't tell anyone, I could have the machine when it hit what she called "my number." It was a Bonus Poker machine and I saw that she'd been dealt four aces, but hadn't held them yet. What was happening there?
We posted this exact scenario in a question from about five years ago that was answered by Bob Dancer. We wouldn't be surprised if the woman with the dealt quad aces had read it and was in the middle of instituting the practice.
The original question was about being dealt a royal on a progressive machine, holding all the cards, but not hitting Draw to close out the hand in order to let the progressive to continue to rise. Dancer responded that most quarter-and-up VP progressives have a royal worth more than $1,200, at which point VP machines lock up, ending the rise of the progressive.
He dealt with your question as an aside and here's what he wrote, which will explain the mystery.
A related point is that there are games with multiple progressives. Take a dollar Bonus Poker game with a progressive on the royal that starts at $4,000; aces $400; 2s, 3s, 4s $200; and other quads $125. Let’s say you’re dealt aces almost immediately after someone else hit aces – and the progressive was "only" at $401. You don’t have to collect it immediately. You can quietly sit on it (perhaps playing an adjacent machine) while the progressive builds up a bit. Say you wait a half-hour and the progressive has increased to $420. Now you may want to play the hand and collect $420 instead of $401.
Is there risk? Assuming you’re right there and no one can steal the jackpot, not really. If someone else hits aces again before you cash out, the jackpot will reset to $400, which is basically right where you started. You’ve wasted a little time, but not any money.
Is it unfair to "sit on" dealt aces like this? Not in my opinion. Progressives are a competition between players. If you have a way to shift the odds a bit in your favor, go for it! In our example, you’re taking $19 away from whoever hits aces after you collect your $420. But you’re doing so legally.
On the same machine, if you were dealt kings and the progressive is only $126, it probably doesn’t make much sense to wait to collect. The progressive resets whenever anyone gets 5s, 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s, 10s, jacks, queens, or kings. It usually doesn’t take too long for one of those quads to be hit, so it doesn’t pay to wait.
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O2bnVegas
Feb-10-2020
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rokgpsman
Feb-10-2020
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Scurvy
Feb-10-2020
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