Advice for Players – Page 14 – Las Vegas Advisor

Posted on April 7, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 8 Comments

Ways Casinos Can Restrict You

I’m writing this as all Nevada casinos are closed for business. It feels weird. It’s the first time this has happened in my lifetime. Nevada was a few days behind several other states that have also closed casinos. More than one dozen Las Vegas casinos voluntarily closed before the governor’s order.

Since, because of the governor’s order, Nevada casinos won’t let you in these days, I began to list other ways a casino can kick out video poker players — although usually one at a time.

Posted on March 31, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 42 Comments

Will Playable Video Poker Return After COVID-19?

The coronavirus has shut down casinos across the world. Even if they are allowed to open up again in a month or two, they will have sustained significant losses. Some estimates are that it will take up to two years for Nevada casinos to recover. If they stay closed for longer than two months, it will take much longer than that.

This means some casinos will not reopen at all. If they were cash-strapped and struggling before the pandemic, they just might be pushed over the edge. Expect many casino bankruptcies in 2020 and 2021.

Posted on March 10, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 7 Comments

How it Should Be Done

I was playing video poker at a Dotty’s — a chain of 15-machine bar/casinos where I can still eke out an edge. I was playing high stakes for there ($50 a hand) at about 4 a.m. one Sunday morning, sitting off in a corner where the rest of the place spread out before me.

Directly across from me, a lady I’ll call Susan, called the bartender over and said her machine had shorted her a hundred dollars. It didn’t involve me and I didn’t have any information about it, so I watched silently. Voices weren’t raised, but I could still hear things clearly.

Posted on January 28, 2020 by Bob Dancer — 14 Comments

No Time to Panic!

I recently entered a local casino shortly after 4 a.m. and swiped my card at the kiosk. On the screen read words to the effect of “Unable to Access Your Card at This Time!” I swiped at an adjacent kiosk and received the same message.

This could mean several things. One possibility was that the casino was doing daily maintenance — such as, for example, calculating multipliers from the previous day. This happens sometime “early” in the morning. Maybe 2 a.m. Maybe 3 a.m. Maybe 4 a.m. Depends on the casino. This was the most benign thing that could happen. I hoped this was the explanation.

Posted on January 7, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — Leave a comment

Ace versus JT in 9-5 Super Double Bonus

To get the most out of the January Promotion of the Month at South Point, you need to play $8,000 in coin-in, four days a week. For every $2,000 coin-in played, you get a virtual spin. In the past, this virtual spin has averaged more than $12, which adds 0.60% to the return. Since this is normally a slot club worth 0.30%, for four days a week you get triple points for the first $8,000 coin-in. (This would be equivalent to 9x points at casinos that offer a 0.10% slot club).

Playing $8,000 coin-in a day is an impossible amount for nickel single-line players, and no-big-deal to $5 and higher players. The question is: What games do they have that combine a decent return and enough coin-in per play that it won’t take you all day to do it?

Posted on December 24, 2019August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 14 Comments

How Would You Do It?

On the videopoker.com forum, a player recently wrote about coming across a quarter Five Play Super Times Play machine that consistently had a 5x multiplier. Every hand. He milked it for 45 minutes or so for almost $4,000 and left — happy to get away undetected.

Let’s say, however, that you want to milk the machine as long as it lasts. How would you go about doing it?

Posted on November 26, 2019August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 3 Comments

Multiple Drawing Entries

There are many casinos with promotions where the player can earn extra drawing tickets during certain periods, such as 5x tickets during 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays, or perhaps 10x tickets all day Tuesday.

To the player, whether 5x drawing tickets is worth more or less than 2x points depends on the value of each. You can usually figure out exactly how much 2x points is worth and it will always be an estimate of how much 5x drawing tickets is worth.

Posted on November 19, 2019August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 19 Comments

Dealing with Money

I recently received an email from a slot director with whom I’m friendly. It read:

I’ve had a number of customers ask me what banks in Las Vegas are gambler friendly, meaning they understand how “professional gambler” is an actual profession and as such, banks would be used to multiple deposits, withdrawals etc. in varying amounts and timing.

Posted on November 5, 2019August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 17 Comments

Winning a Drawing

I get inspiration for columns from all sorts of places. This was a question sent in to [email protected] for Richard and me to answer on the podcast. I will answer it there the next time we have a “Bob and Richard answer their mail” show (which is usually when we haven’t been able to schedule a guest for that week), but I’ll answer it here first.

Posted on October 29, 2019August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 10 Comments

Things are Always Changing

Most of the specific video poker games I played two years ago are gone. The reason for this is that either casinos have downgraded the machines (e.g. changed the full house from paying 45 to paying 40) or downgraded my welcome in playing that game.

Category: Advice for Players