Video Poker Progressive video poker?

I apologize if this has been posted before. I was wondering what Casinos have the best progressive pay outs. A few years back I was at Ballys and the bartender told me "it will hit tonight!" He knew because it never exceeded a certain dollar amount. Is that true? Are Casinos still networked with progressive or is there a different payout for every casino?
Any feedback is appreciated

 

On VP they are networked in many different ways, but not through multi casinos.
I had a long time bartender tell me that the group of machines behind me on the floor was going to hit. The jackpot never goes that high. iirc, it was up near $5,000 on quarter DDB. A terrific jackpot, but when we left 4 days later, nobody had hit it yet.

 

I can recall seeing signs on machines that would say, "Must hit by 'x' dollars!" Other than that, I've seen some giant progressives. I think your bartender tells everyone the machines are about to hit. That way, he has a shot at a decent tip.

 

It's seems harder to find progressive machines anymore for some reason too.........and I go casino hopping up and down the strip and always sit down at the VP.

 

Yes, this. Just like a CW telling you a slot machine is hot.

 

There are quite a few progressive VP machine downtown. When I was at the D in April, someone hit it at 1400 plus dollars the day I got there. The night before I left, I hit it on the same row of machines for 1264.00. I have had a few royals before, but it was my first w2g. I wish I could have hit it before it hit 1200, but a win is a win.

 

A "must hit by" jackpot set up is illegal for video poker though. Video poker games in most states must follow the expected probabilities of a standard poker deck.

As for the Ricardo's question, the bartender in your story is wrong as many casino employees often seen to be. Many VP progressives are networked within a bank of games, but generally not between casinos.

The highest progressives tend to be more often where the royal flush meter moves the fastest. It may have changed since they downgraded the base paytable but Luxor had a quarter royal progressive that moved a penny (0.8% coin-in) for each max bet. That progressive would often be over $1500, and on one trip, it was the highest I ever expect a quarter progressive machine to ever get.

The guy with the blurred face was the winner. Lucky bastard.



And another good progressive is the Aces and Eights at Circus Circus because it also has a sequential royal jackpot.



I also have found random $1800 royals for quarters at Stratosphere and Circus Circus bars.

Cosmo seems to have okay moving progressives. The ones at CET properties usually suck, their meter rates are always low.

Off strip, I have seen some decent ones at Orleans. Pretty close on this one.



Sams town has a decent game near the back of the casino. Meter doesn't move a bunch, but it's a quarter 9/7/5 Double Bonus game where the royal resets at $1500 and earns full points unlike most positive games.

Saw a quarter bonus deuces wild game get up to almost $2k at Suncoast.

The D has a very nice 8/5 Bonus multiway progressive at Vue Bar.

I don't play progressives too often, but I try to keep my eyes open. Be careful with these games though. Often the rest of the paytables suck. And when you don't hit the royal, money can be eaten quick.

 

The Boar's Head Bar at MSS has progressive VP. a month ago I hit it for $1048

 

[QUOTE="I don't play progressives too often, but I try to keep my eyes open. Be careful with these games though. Often the rest of the paytables suck. And when you don't hit the royal, money can be eaten quick.[/QUOTE]

If you have a car, the Skyline Casino has great $.25 and $1 progressives. Games include 9/6 JoB and other full pay games. On one trip the $1 progressive was up at $6,500. I spent 1/2 of my vacation there; didn't hit it. They also have the LVA "Top 10" of a $1.49 shrimp cocktail. (It's the sauce that makes it.) On weekends they have country-western bands and dancing on their small stage and dance floor.

 

I often see the VP (experts) talk about how a machine is now well over 100% positive due to the progressive jackpot being high.

Hogwash. It is the same old machine except for single hand that is the Royal. ( one in 40,000 hands)

Since it is so rare to hit a Royal, it really does not matter how high the progressive is - right?

 

Well yes it is just one hand and yes it is the hardest hand to hit, but no it is not hogwash. While I am not a math guy like tring I believe every $500 on a .25 moves the payback 1% higher. When you play 9/6 jacks it is 99.5% with the 4000 royal bonus added in for that payback.

On progressive the same things happen the royal is added into the payback percentage so it does change it. Remember the payback percent is the paytable.

If you had a chance to play 9/6 jacks no progressive or 9/6 jacks with a 2k royal it'd be silly to play the first one. Sadly progressives usually use substandard paytables so if it was 6/5 jacks you'd still be better off playing the 9/6 percent wise.

Also there are strategy chances [which I am not sharp on] as the progressive goes up to get max ev.

 

If a bartender says that a machine is about ready to hit all the time, he will eventually be right. And the one who hits it, will believe that the bartender knows something.

 

The payback of the royal is so high that doubling its payback via a progressive is adding over 2% return. I agree it's a rare event and the machine will be a likely loser if you don't hit it. I know this from experience because I have never hit a progressive of any type. I haven't played progressives enough to say I'm in a "drought" though.

But as wanker said, the base paytable is important too. A double royal on a 6/5 JoB has a similar optimal return to 8/5 JoB with a regular royal (97.30%).

 

This line of thinking is very bizarre and wrong. It's kind of like someone saying that a car's estimated mpg doesn't affect operating costs since there are 5,280 feet in a mile.

 

I've heard stories of when a progressive gets high enough to push a positive EV a team of people will set up shop on a bank of machines and just play until someone hits it.
Statistically is makes sense.

 

First, as others said, not true.

Now, as to what was going on, it depends on how charitably you want to think of the bartender.

It is very possible that he had never seen the jackpot that high. That has no impact on when it will hit, but just like gamblers, the bartender could believe in the fallacy that it is 'due' and use his prior experience to back it up. So charitably, it is possible he believed what he was saying.

But perhaps more likely, he knew players would believe in the fallacy, his bosses certainly won't mind him encouraging play, and as others said, if he encourages someone to play and they hit ... he may just get a big tip. Thus he is playing with your money.

 

Last I was there,almost a year ago though,The Gold Coast bartops are progressive and different $$ for the RSF by suit..I remember Diamonds at @1600 + one day.I was playing DDB .25..
Few years before my first royal ever paid $1061 but suits did not matter then and that was playing Dueces..I don't think the deuces game is connected to the progressive RSF now but not sure I forget..
Last I played that day the machines would all lock up intermitting while they were doing some maintenance.Got to be a real PIA and just fooled around with bartop Keno.
Will update current conditions if anyone cares next month,lmk

 

It does matter. If someone played only 100% machines with correct strategy then they would be a winner long term. But many things play into it. Does the play hit a losing streak and not making premium hands on schedule? But if the player only play the positive machines correctly they would be a winner in the long run. Also who is to say what is the long run. 100,000 hands? 1 million hands? More?

 

I was at Luxor last month and saw triple bonus VP...........something I haven't seen yet in other casinos. BTW, very cool bartenders there as the one guy (who I forgot his name) has been a fixture in Vegas since the 50's and told me stories about hanging out with Sammy Davis at his Sands hotel suite.

 

Since a royal is rare and pays so much, it takes awhile.

It all depends on the game payback and variance. Too lazy to do the full simulation, but a rough estimate for lower variance games is to estimate return by considering just the actual number of royals hit. For example, a perfect full pay deuces (expected return: 100.762%) player would roughly be 98.55% likely ahead after 1M hands with this estimate. If a player is 10 or more royals behind the expected number of 22.08 royals after 1M hands (1.45% likely) then that costs the player >0.762% of return and puts him/her in the red.

Triple Bonus is a rare game. This wasn't at a Luxor bartop was it? Paytables often aren't the greatest when the game exists.

"Triple Bonus Plus" is a much more common game and is my "go to" game at TAG Lounge. The game swings and strategy is similar to DDB.