Video Poker Vue Bar Questions

Had some nice hits at the Vue Bar including 2k on Triple double on my second hand of the day. 300 dollar dealt SF progressive and aces with kicker on DDB a couple times. Wife hit two royals in the same day(not pictured) at the Longbar and i hit one at Paris after discarding the 8 of hearts on a dealt flush.

 

It's true. I was there as a witness.

 

They had Stone Delicious IPA bottles there on Friday. On tap was Coors Light and Peroni.

 

My wife has two royals there in the last 3 years. The second one was just last month. Held one high card, and drew the other 4. We have had probably 15 to 20 total Royals, but this was the first one holding one card.

 

Regarding Video blackjack on IGT machines...........

Part 1.
I used to play table blackjack exclusively. But realized machine play was where the offers come from, so my wife and I learned video poker, with the help of Jean Scott and Bob Dancer (books), and we have been playing video poker for the last 20 or so years. We would play JOB for a few hours a day. Maybe average 3 to 4K a day. Not very much, but even with that we would get free rooms downtown and a little food.
I had a friend who went to Reno and told me about a place called the Peppermill. A beautiful large casino filled with lots of full pay VP. Also, another nice casino was the Atlantis. We played about the same coin in and were given nice rooms and comps there.
Well, one day after getting hammered pretty bad at VP, I switched over to Video Blackjack, knowing that I was probably playing for even money blackjack, but I could milk it for a while playing 50 cents a hand. Well, after playing for about 10 minutes, I was dealt two aces. So I split them and each ace drew a face card for two hands of 21. “Nice” I said. Then, I looked down at the payout that was given, and couldn’t make sense of it. I had bet a total of four credits, and should have got back a total of eight credits for the two wins. Instead, I had been paid a total of 10 credits! It had paid out each hand as a blackjack! I have never seen a table that paid out split aces as blackjacks. I was a couple of seats away from another person at the bar playing VB. I mentioned to him what had happened, and he said “yeah, all the machines here do that”. What the hell! Well, I pulled up the rules of the game and sure enough, blackjacks paid 5:2, double on 9,10, and 11. Double after split allowed. Any players hand that consisted of 6 cards was an automatic winner. Early surrender allowed. I knew from my blackjack days that a game with those rules was close to a 100% payout.

So, I went home learned the strategy cold, and found the strategy for playing a hand where 6 cards was an automatic winner (thanks you Wizard of Odds). Practiced a lot and went back to Reno.

All of the bar machines at the Peppermill and Atlantis had this version of Video Blackjack on them. It was everywhere. So I started playing......and playing.......and playing. At the Peppermill first. First thing I noticed. The Variance on this game was about a 3! I had the most even playing experiences with this game. About 80 to 90% of the time I played a session, I would end up winning one or two hundred or losing one or two hundred. There was no rare Royal or straight flush to factor in, no hot or cold streaks of 4ok to factor in. Just fairly even playing. So, we went from 3 or 4K a day players to around 10K a day players. We got nice rooms at the Pep, and all the comps we wanted, and staying in a place as nice or nicer than a lot of the places on the strip. Well, my wife and I had four winning trips in a row, and Peppermill no-mailed us. No more offers.we didn’t Win enough to hurt them, but non losing I guess was a trend they didn’t like. So we had to stop going there and moved our play over to the Atlantis. And that was a ride we had for about 3 years. More about that tomorrow in part 2. It’s getting late, and my finger is cramping up!

Mike

 

The taps are a little disappointing. But I will be partaking in a some of those Stone bottles in a couple weeks.

 

Yeah the taps aren't worth much. They also had Firestone Walker 805 bottles when I was there in April.

 

Video Blackjack Part 2

So with the Peppermill suspending all offers to us, we concentrated on the Atlantis. They had the same machines there, good restaurants, nice suites with butler service if you wanted. I increased my play til I was doing about 20k a day. Every month included 200 to 300 in free play and some of their nicer rooms.we ate at all the restaurants and still had plenty of comps left over. Every few months you could cash in your comps for free play on a 2 to 1 basis. This is where I made most of my money. I was staying close to even on the blackjack. We lived the high life there for around 2 years when one month our usual mailer didn’t arrive. So I called and talked to some manager. He said wait while he pulled us up on the computer. Then he said “uh huh..........uh huh...........uh huh........you guys are pretty good players”. I said “well we have been pretty lucky”. Now, I don’t know what they had for the Theo for that game, or if the Theo was a combination of all the games on that machine (there were NO 100% games on those machines, but there were many around the casino). In any event they couldn't figure out why I was doing so well. In the end he said we could still play there, but they felt they had no more reason to send me free play and room offers any more. So I called my host a and explained what had happened. Now, here is where the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing. My host said that so long as I kept my play up, she would still comp my rooms! So, the only thing I was missing was the few hundred in free play we used to get. So everything continued fine for several more months, until on our last trip. I went to play and noticed that a blackjack only paid even money..........Game Over. I didn’t check every machine, but I checked a couple in every bank......and every one of them were changed. So, I sat down at a bar, ordered a drink, and reflected on the ride I had been on for the last couple of years. I’m sure they finally figured out they were losing money at that game. My limit per hand was $2. But I think you could max out your bet at 10 or 20 dollars. I’m sure other players were hitting them for more. So the rest of that trip I played plain old quarter JOB. And oddly enough, I hit a Royal on my last day to boot.

I loved the game, and I could play it pretty fast. About a hand every 3 seconds. I haven’t found the game in Vegas anywhere, but one other player told me that those were prize finds. And most who find it don't want it killed, so they keep it to themselves.

So, the wife and I are back to 6K a day players of BP or JOB, staying downtown on Fremont, but still staying in comfortable rooms and eating for free.......I do like this lifestyle!

Mike

P.S. Playing as fast as I was playing, I did make an error or two but not many. The only one I can always recall was when I got dealt two face cards and hit the HIT button instead of the STAY button. I drew an Ace for a 21! Then watched as the dealer drew a 6 card 21 for a push!

 

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