{"id":881885,"date":"2025-04-01T09:54:20","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T16:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/?p=881885"},"modified":"2025-04-01T09:54:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T16:54:25","slug":"how-can-this-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blog\/how-can-this-be\/","title":{"rendered":"How Can This Be?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In late February, I posted a blog about leaving a machine after hitting a jackpot. My opinion was that, unless the jackpot you hit was a progressive that changed the nature of whether the game was playable or not, I keep playing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most responders to the blog agreed with me, but David Miller posted the following: It has been my personal observation that when I hit a large jackpot and continued to play the same machine, I have never increased my winnings by this continuation of play. After 35+ years of playing video poker I can only think of two occasions of observing (and my own play) where another jackpot of any large amount occurred when one continued to play the same machine. My advice: Thank the Lord and take the money and run.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I thank David for his response, I\u2019m trying to figure out how such an experienced player came up with a conclusion so opposite my own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David\u2019s term \u201clarge jackpot\u201d is somewhat vague. I\u2019m going to arbitrarily define it as 800 coins or larger on a five-coin bet. This would include royals, four aces on many games, four 2s, 3s, and 4s with a kicker on many games, and four deuces on deuces wild games. With that definition, I\u2019ve increased my score after hitting such a jackpot more than 500 times. And many times, I\u2019ve witnessed players sitting near me hit multiple jackpots on the same machine. How can David have so few?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While \u201cDavid\u201d is a common name and I\u2019ve met many Davids without always knowing a last name, I\u2019m assuming I\u2019ve never met him and I\u2019m also assuming his post is on the level and he believes what he said. So, what I\u2019m saying about him here is speculation. Here are the explanations I\u2019ve come up with:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. He may have been thinking of royal flushes only when he said \u201clarge jackpot.\u201d There are many fewer data points if you\u2019re only thinking of those jackpots rather than the 800 coins or higher definition I chose. Hitting two royals in the same day is a pretty rare event. While I\u2019ve done it, (more likely of course on multi-line games than single line games), I\u2019ve played a lot more video poker than most others have.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    1. While 35+ years is longer than I\u2019ve been playing, perhaps he doesn\u2019t play very much each year. He could have played one weekend every three years, with three or four hours of video poker play per weekend visit. I\u2019ve probably averaged more than 1,500 hours of play a year for the last 31 years. Even though his 35+ years is greater than my 31, if this supposition is true, I\u2019ve played a lot more than he has.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
        \n
      1. Possibly David doesn\u2019t remember clearly. I don\u2019t know his age or how good his memory is. Having played 35 years, he must be at least eligible for senior discounts.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
          \n
        1. When David says something \u201cnever\u201d happens, perhaps he isn\u2019t speaking precisely. To me, \u201cnever\u201d means never. Maybe to him, he means \u201crarely\u201d rather than never.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
            \n
          1. There\u2019s a difference in how professional and recreational players play. When a professional player finds a good play, he can play on the same machine for hours — frequently accompanied by other strong players playing for hours. As a group, there will be jackpots numerous times over the course of a 35+ year career. Even if hitting a jackpot represents the \u201chigh water mark of the day\u201d 80% of the time, the other 20% of the time scores will get bigger. Over the course of a long career, 20% of a large number of occurrences is a sizeable number.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
              \n
            1. The explanation for David\u2019s comments that I believe the most likely, stems from his behavior. Perhaps he changes machines immediately after he hits a jackpot. Since he believes he\u2019s not going to increase his score if he continues to play on the same machine, changing machines for him seems like a smart strategy. If this is the strategy he uses, it\u2019s no wonder he has never increased his score on the same machine after a jackpot simply because he never plays on the same machine after hitting a jackpot.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

              While I don\u2019t believe in the value of changing machines, it\u2019s not always possible for me anyway. Often the machine I want to play is either a one-of-a-kind or one-of-very-few. If I insist on leaving every time I get a jackpot, there may well not be one of similar EV available. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

              If my final guess is the correct one, while David\u2019s statement is true, it isn\u2019t at all relevant to those players who stay on the same machine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

              If David wants to respond to my comments here, he\u2019s welcome to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

              In late February, I posted a blog about leaving a machine after hitting a jackpot. My opinion was that, unless the jackpot you hit was a progressive that changed the nature of whether the game was playable or not, I keep playing. Most responders to the blog agreed with me, but David Miller posted the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15763,"featured_media":843442,"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":[601,558,557],"tags":[561,585],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/spinach-2.png?fit=500%2C300&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881885"}],"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\/15763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":881887,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881885\/revisions\/881887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}