I met Sean at the Pinky Ring when he asked if I wanted a drink from the $300 bottle of wine he wasn\u2019t going to finish and wasn\u2019t even close to hitting his minimum tab. I politely declined the wine, sat down, and ordered two Perriers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sean works in tech, lives in San Jose, and is a Vegas regular. At 45, he\u2019s ready to retire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hopping on SW flights, he frequents Strip casinos, is often comped, likes slots and roulette, cigars, good food, and high-end fashion. He always brings a low-four-figure bankroll. High-limit $25-$50 slots and roulette or other high edge games are just fine with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sean is, of course, the casino\u2019s sweet spot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being an Advantage Evangelist, I fervently believed I could change that. \u201cHave you ever played video poker?:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo. I never bothered to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I liked Sean. And I knew advantage player revelations would turn him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We started out with roulette. \u201cI like playing my numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Okay. I wasn\u2019t going to discuss the 18-month study and 45-page paper I\u2019d written on non-linear recurrence theory in roulette or the work I\u2019d done with the wheel-bias king Laurence Scott.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I started by steering him away from triple zero\u2019s almost 8% house edge. \u201cOn that $50 game you were playing at Wynn, Sean? That\u2019s almost $4 per spin you\u2019re handing the house.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cReally? Wow. But I got this really cute girl\u2019s number while playing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sigh. Cost of dating, I guess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Later, we started searching out single zero. Yes, it\u2019s still roulette, but at least the edge is 2.6% not 5+% or 8%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I also discussed the concept of advantage play slots, but it was clear he didn\u2019t want to work that hard to learn. So we went back to near positive-expectation video poker and strategy cards. Sean wasn\u2019t intimidated and was willing to learn, even if his first reviews of strategy cards left him feeling like a fish out of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I kept it simple, 9\/6 Jacks or Better hold-the-pairs simple. I also steered him away from Deuces Wild as I figured the high volatility would scare him off. And I felt like the lone monk in the jungles of Vegas, bringing just one soul out of the slot darkness \u2014 and into the fold of the Church of the Lower Edge of Advantage Play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Revelations: \u201cProsperity is yours, my son! Read your strategy card! Learn what VPFree2 and the LVA gods have given you!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And he started winning. Hitting his first $450 full house changed everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSo Sean, what about slots?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSlots?! Are you kidding? I\u2019m never going back to slots!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Praise Jean Scott and cash those TITO tickets, baby. I\u2019ve found my mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I met Sean at the Pinky Ring when he asked if I wanted a drink from the $300 bottle of wine he wasn\u2019t going to finish and wasn\u2019t even close to hitting his minimum tab. I politely declined the wine, sat down, and ordered two Perriers. Sean works in tech, lives in San Jose, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86405,"featured_media":843497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[558,557],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/bobby-vegas-friends-dont-let-friends-play-triple-zero-roulette.jpg?fit=980%2C588&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877945"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877945"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":878099,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877945\/revisions\/878099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}