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Karma or Math

Discussion in 'Casino Gaming' started by Chump, May 23, 2016.

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  1. Chump

    Chump Low-Roller

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    I walk into a casino and I see some slot players frantically rubbing the screens of their machines as they go into a bonus round. Then I’ll walk past some VP machines and I see players with one hand on the buttons and their other on a slide rule. For the true believers, I guess it comes down to karma or math. I fall into a middle category after playing mostly VP for the past twenty years. I now play weekly at our local Hard Rock and my experience has been fairly consistent for the past five years.


    So, my YTD experience was lose, lose, lose from January to mid-April on all VP machines, their games and denominations. Then on 4/15, I got two handpays for 2K each, followed by another on 4/22 and two more on 4/29 for another 6K to wrap up the month. May started well for me with three handpays for 10K on 5/6, one on 5/13 for 2K and then two more for 6K on 5/20. I’ve played the same machines and games the past month as I did the first quarter of 2016 but with dramatically different results. I suppose I could say that’s random for you. What I will say is that I was in the right seat at the right moment. I just hope I’ll enjoy one more good weekend before the machines take the summer off.
     
  2. nostresshere

    nostresshere Mr. Anti Debit Card

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    Yes, a mix of luck and math. Math works over the long term. Luck works on the short term.

    Just think where you be if those 12 spins that resulted in handpays had not happened. Nah, don't think about it.
     
  3. TDB Aces

    TDB Aces Tourist

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    Wow! What an incredible streak you are on. I hope your good luck continues.

    I'm hoping to get some VP play at Beau Rivage this fall. I'm sure you have guessed that I am Gregg from another board.
     
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  4. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    When we moved to Vegas my wife got 9 Royals in the first 8 months we lived there. She never got another one in the next 15 months playing about the same frequency. I hit eight, but spread over two years. We both thought, sh*t this is easy.

    Now since we are back to vacationing in Vegas, she has hit 11 more since Oct of 2011. I've had just 5 more, but I've had quad aces with a kicker on $ddb five times.

    I keep very accurate gambling records and for our time living there, we did come out ahead.
     
  5. Geogran

    Geogran VIP Whale

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    As primarily a slot player, I fall into the Karma category.:peace:

    But I must ask, if rubbing (caressing) the machine brings good Karma, does punching, slapping, and beating the screen til it cracks bring bad Karma?
    I'm amazed by the punching, slapping, and abuse those slot machines withstand.

    When the Math isn't working on VP machines, what do VP players do?
    I have heard some pretty serious cussing but have not seen any actual physical beatings on the VP machines.

    So does Karma BEAT Math in that instance?
     
  6. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Hopefully you can find more Aces w/kicker soon! Those should come about 2.5 times more often as royals. And I know you aren't overroyaled since 2011.

    But that's the nature of DDB, a lot of value is placed in a few rare hands. I finally got my first Aces this year this weekend in almost 40 total quads. Fortunately it was with a kicker and I was playing quarter DDB at the time.

    Yeah, I can't recall the last time I saw someone really beat on a VP machine, or even a slot for that matter. When ppl start acting like that, I try to stay away. I do remember one lady at my local knocking on the screen hoping for a Super Times Pay multiplier. Did it help? Not really. It probably made her feel better though.
     
  7. Jejas

    Jejas VIP Whale

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    Is all karna, no math whatsoever.
    And the harder you beat a machine, the better karma you have.
     
  8. TIMSPEED

    TIMSPEED Money’s on the way, with CashNetUSA

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    no truer words have been spoken.
     
  9. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Does this mean I should wear "wife beater" shirts to the casino then? LOL
     
  10. Chump

    Chump Low-Roller

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    While I have seen many ancient mystical hand rituals performed by slot players, I haven’t ever seen one abuse a machine. I did hear one story from a witness last year who said that a woman was approached by two HR suites demanding payment of over $1700 for a touch screen she had just cracked. I have seen many VP slapper’s though. I can’t understand why they do what they do but I have been told by the techs that those delicate touch buttons and the labor involved in replacing them after a slapper’s tirade gets very expensive. And we wonder why the paytables keep dropping.

    nostresshere,
    Back when we played the first two generations of VP RNG’s, I saw many more seemingly hot cycles than I have since the latest circuit boards have been introduced. I have been playing weekly on mostly the same machines and what I have been seeing for the past five years is that a machine may go dead for months at a time and then come back to life and play well for a month or two. I don’t play dollar all the time. When the machines are dead, I may only play a single credit at quarter. When they seemingly come out of a hibernation, I will play dollar. I guess I have a pretty good feel for it as I haven’t been caught short coined yet nor have I bleed to death on dollar.


    TDB Aces,
    It’s great to see you here. I miss comparing notes with you weekly. Yea, I’m on one of those streaks for now wondering when it will end. We have the long weekend coming up and I hope it stays hot through then but who knows. I know you must be getting excited about the Beau.

    Joe,
    We have visited the Vegas Strip many times and mostly stayed at the Mirage, TI and the Bellagio. At each, we would often see a local or two seated at the same machine over our stays. I thought then of how good it must be to have a favorite machine to play. Did you have your favorites too when you lived there? I think your royal experience seems to be the norm. You can have luck for a period of time and then hit nothing or a long time. My wife and I went 500,000 games once without a single royal. On the other side of the coin, I once hit five progressive royals at the old Treasure Island in the first 24 hours of our arrival. Over the years, we’ve gotten them every which way possible. On the one I hit here last week, I drew a junk hand, threw all five away and was given a royal on my draw.
     
  11. Joe

    Joe VIP Whale

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    Yes when we lived there our favorite place was Lucky's. A restaurant and video poker bar that was in walking distance of our house, but we never did walk. Anyway they had 14 bartops. Anymore than that and you need a casino license.

    The place was always busy so whatever machine was open. It is the site of my first dealt Royal. My wife got one there also. So, at Lucky's she got 5 Royals and I hit 3. Even if there wasn't an open machine the drinks we're still free. When we're in town we still meet one of the Lucky's bartenders for lunch or dinner. She works at Palms now.

    When we lived there, some golfer on the Pro Tour, who lived in Vegas, would be in there at night a lot. He played $5 ($25) VP and would hit so many hand pays. I guess just like the Strip HL rooms, the bartenders would just keep track and issue one W2G at the end. But, if he didn't give it all back, the company the bar leased the machines from had to be called to bring the money. The bar only had a certain amount of money for payoffs. The process usually took half hour to 45 minutes for them to arrive.

    I was told this company leased out machines at 12 different VP bars and I always wondered how much cash the driver carried to cover jackpots at all those different places.

    Back to the original question, we still were regulars at MSS and our two favorite machines there. Plus, catching up on all the gossip with the bartenders and waitresses.

    Several of the bartenders and waitresses started when the place opened almost 20 years ago. We've been staying there almost 19 years now. It's our Cheers. Everybody knows your name.
     
  12. Chump

    Chump Low-Roller

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    Joe,

    Had we ever lived in Vegas, I’m sure that we would have been big fans of Lucy’s too. We have heard of these lounges over the years from locals and they sound as nice and as much fun as any casino bartops. I think the golfer appreciated Lucy’s as a place where he could hang out but maintain a low profile. Apparently there were any number of celebrities who loved their off the beaten path Vegas hangouts. We never stayed downtown but visited it a number of times. MSS was our favorite casino there and we always played for a while at their bar.


    We got hooked on bartop play at the old Treasure Island which had three bars. Many of the bartenders were excellent servers as well as very interesting, fun people. Some became our Concierges. We also became friends with several of them and dined together. I recall a couple of fellows who would tell us to save their tips and after most of the amateurs left (LOL) they would have us play their tips late at night. Sometimes they came out ahead, sometimes not. Other than wine while fine dining, we never paid for a drink in Vegas and we drank nothing but top shelf.
     
  13. Nevyn

    Nevyn VIP Whale

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    Math looks forward and luck looks backward. Math describes what could happen and how likely it is to happen. Luck is how you feel about what did happen..
     
  14. Jejas

    Jejas VIP Whale

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    Man you are so philosophical!
    But you are right.
     
  15. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Well said.
     
  16. Chump

    Chump Low-Roller

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    As I had mentioned earlier in this thread, my wife and I have focused our VP play on our local Hard Rock for the past five or six years because of the doubling plus in airfares and all the changes to the environment of the Strip. This has prompted us to visit this casino once a week on average allowing us to become far more familiar with these machines than anything we ever played in Vegas even though visiting there an average of twenty days a year. We have progressed through several lucky machines during these more recent years here but our fondness for our fav’s has been interrupted by the casino replacing each of them for one reason or another. Through all of it, we have noted that our machines can play very well for a month, maybe two and then pay little for the following three or four months. I have been enjoying a very good streak on my machine from mid-April up to Memorial Day weekend. Well, on Friday I hit an ace quad W/K on $ TDB and on Saturday I hit quad 4’s W/K, again on $ TDB for a total of $6K. On both hits, I only held a pair so I have to attribute these to luck as well. I’m waiting for my machine to crash and burn any time now. I might be doing the casino bunny hop thing playing quarters from now until Halloween just as in years past but I'll still be having fun.
     
  17. tringlomane

    tringlomane STP Addicted Beer Snob

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    Congrats on the hits! Enjoy the hot streak while it lasts! Much more fun than the opposite!
     
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