In the past few years, I’ve played single-line NSU Deuces at several different casinos — for a variety of stakes. Since four deuces come about every 5,355 hands on average, and I’ve played hundreds of thousands of hands, I’ve hit four deuces multiple thousands of times.
Recently I hit them for $2 stakes at the South Point, $5 stakes at Harrah’s Cherokee, and for $10 and $25 stakes at the Eldorado in Reno — before they discouraged me from playing there anymore. Earlier in my career I hit thousands of sets of them for quarters and dollars as well.
The recent jackpots, for 1,000 coins per set of deuces, were for $2,000, $5,000, $10,000, and $25,000, respectively.
It seems obvious that a $25,000 set of deuces would feel five times as good as a $5,000 set of deuces and 12½ as good as a $2,000 set.
Obvious or not, that’s not how it is for me. Basically, a set of deuces feels about the same to me for any of these stakes. It’s a good feeling, to be sure, but also one I’ve experienced many thousands of times. I’m not blasé about each of these jackpots — but they’re not that big of a deal.
I’m not saying that anybody else should or should not feel the way I do about this, but it strikes me as odd that a $25,000 jackpot feels the same as a $2,000 jackpot, and I thought I’d share this with my readers.
I’m sure there’s some sort of a stakes factor to these feelings. The South Point used to have nickel Hundred Play machines, $25 fully loaded, and playing those machines, I used to hit several sets of deuces (at $50 apiece) per hour. When I was dealt three deuces (which happened more than once per hour), the average sets of deuces I’d receive was about four. Getting seven or eight sets (pretty unusual) would feel pretty good. Getting zero (also pretty unusual) would feel like a swing and a miss. Most of the time it was somewhere in between.
There have been times in my career when I overplayed my bankroll, and hitting a big jackpot when doing so felt pretty special. When Shirley and I together hit that $400,000 royal flush some 25 years ago, that was a life-changing event and felt like it. That was definitely not business as usual.
I think part of the reason behind these feelings is that I’ve been a winning player for more than three decades and have built up a sizeable bankroll. The day-to-day scores — plus and minus — do not affect my standard of living. I’m confident my “system” works. When I was just starting out and didn’t have that confidence, or the financial resources to fall back on, each jackpot was celebrated. Not so much anymore.
I’m close to 80 years old now and my video poker skills are definitely deteriorating. And the edges found in these games are gradually decreasing over time. Whether I will still be a winning player the last year I’m alive is an open question. It’s easy for me to imagine it either way.
I suspect I’ll be able to recognize the point where I’m not a winning player anymore — but I’m not sure. There will always be winning days and losing days and how they all add up for any given year is unknowable until I actually go through that year.
Just keep winning!!