Video Poker 22 years and no Royal!

Been going to Vegas since 1997.
Video Poker is my primary game.
Love Double Bonus and Jacks or Better!

No Royal.

Around 35 or so trips.

I know it only comes around every
40 or 45 thousand hands.

Not sure how many I have played.

Very rough estimate, a guess really,
Maybe about 15 hours a trip?

It kills me when I read a trip report
And someone has hit like their 26th
Royal Flush, or 38th!

Of course I have no idea how much
They have played! Do they
Play 15 hours a day?

I usually play perhaps a couple
Hours at a time, several sessions
Per trip.

I am feeling very Under Royaled,
Especially from a 2 decade plus
Perspective, but not really sure
If I am!

Still chasing the Royal,

Bob in Cleveland

 

I assume you only play single line and try to hit a royal of at least $1k, right? Have you tried 10-play or 100-play? You should get a royal but the win is small. Just my 2c

 

Single line almost always
Multiple lines rare for me
Mainly 25 cents level
Sometimes higher

Thanks for the advice and reply!

 

I feel your pain and frustration.
Been a VP player for 25+ years at the quarter/single line level.
The past 6 years this is my go-to game. Play only 4-7 hours a day @ 400-500 hands per hour. I play slow because I'm not in any hurry and enjoy chatting or looking at the scenery while doing so.

I have not yet hit a RF.

Yes, I do get a little perturbed seeing all these RF trip reports. The law of averages has always been against me.
Hence the reason for my current user name.

Hopefully someday very soon, we will get a chance to experience this RF greatness!!

 

You and I are both due! I think!
I believe I play about 400-500
Hands per hour as well

Well, For a long time I also
Could not see my Cleveland
Browns in the Super Bowl,
But like a Royal Flush, ever
Elusive, but now it’s coming!

[emoji458]

 

Yea, we are some of those people you refer to. Royals: me 28, Mrs Joe 38 and yes we do play 15 hours per day. For us, all our Royals have been single line quarters. For me, I've had quarters early on, now mostly dollars. Between chating with the bartenders & CWs and watching sports, plus waiting for scratch cards at MSS, we are probably in the 350 hands per hour range. We set the machines to the slowest speed if there is an option.

Hang in there Bob, once you get that first one, they get easier.

 

Every hand you play gets you closer to your first Royal. After a 6 year hiatus from casinos several years ago I started going again. It’s been 5 Vegas trips and 2 AC trips and no Royal. I am hoping that my upcoming trip in August I’ll hit one. Keep hanging in their and remember your Royal is getting closer all the time !

 

I've seen a number of people here discuss their long royal-less playing career. It's always hard to know how unlucky the person is because there never seems to be solid data on the person's number of hands played. You can get really accurate data in most casinos by checking how many points you earn in a day, and then figure it out using the coin in to point ratio. If that can't be done, I've never been refused when going to the slot club desk at the end of the day, giving them my card, and asking them to tell me my coin in for the day. Coin in can then give to info to calc the number of hands. (Of course if your play is a mixture of slots and VP, this method won't work). Next time you play, play like you normally would (same time, same speed) and get that figure to see where you stand in term of hands played.

I would think that strategy wise, even those who play far from perfect strategy hold 2 to 4 to a royal, and so strategy can't account for the drought. Although, I do suspect some out there hold a small pair over 3 to a royal, in Jacks or Better, which is wrong.

So, throwing out strategy issues, it's just a matter of playing enough. I've been through some long droughts myself.

Looking at some real drought probability numbers for Jacks or Better, if you played 200k hands, you'd have a 0.7% chance of not having a single royal, so rare, but possible. For 300k hands, there is a 0.06% chance of not having a royal, so at that point we are really getting remote for lack of royals.

The last thing to note is that if you play Double Bonus with the correct strategy, there are 20% less royals than the same amount of play on Jacks or Better. So, if you want to increase your chance of getting a royal, Jacks is a better game. For sure if DB has a better payscale than JB, it would be harder to justify moving your play to JB.

 

Well, what do you expect when you throw away all the face cards because you don't believe in a monarchist system

 

I am not trying to be condescending--but have you learned optimum play via an app or computer program?
I use WinPoker & I have learned A LOT!
Now, JOB & DB strategy is virtually identical so that helps.

 

I typically play less than 6hrs a day, but I do play 40-50 days a year. I average a royal or two a year. Most have been when I swayed from optimum strategy though. Example, my RF last August I was playing JOB 3 play and was dealt 3 to a royal but also had 2 pair. The correct play was to hold the 2 pair, and sometimes I do, but I decided to go for the Royal instead and it worked. Not really sure where I was going with this, other than the saying “rather be lucky than good” is sooo true!

 

Thanks for all the replies and
Good wishes!

Just to clarify, I do play the
Correct strategy, having
Practiced on Winpoker and
Read books on VP.

I do play mostly Double Bonus.

Thanks [emoji120]

 

On the contrary, the difference between JOB and DB strategy, is very significant. On the other hand Bonus Poker and Jacks or Better has much the same strategy.

 

I started playing video poker nearly when it first came out, both single, 3, and five lines, 25¢ to $1.00. What was that, the late 1970s? Anyway, I hit my FIRST and only royal in 2015. I couldn't believe it.

 

Wow that seems almost mathematically impossible?

The only time i rarely play is to get free drinks, i guess ive ran way above expectation as ive hit 4 royals all with nice progressives.

Always .25 double double

 

I, too, and from CLE and on one trip on the SAME machine my father in law hit three royals playing JoB 25¢ single line. All three times they were hearts, after he hit one then cashed out put in a new $100 the very next hand he hit the royal again. My wife and I were already back in Cleveland and we thought when he sent us pictures that he sent them twice. Upon further review we realized that wasn’t the case and then my mother in law called and goes “you’re not gonna believe this” and told us about the last one he just hit. He then cashed out and walked away as he thought for sure they eye in the sky was going to be watching him hard. I’ve still never hit one. My wife had hit one on 1¢ and 5¢ 100 and 50 play each. It just comes when it comes, I guess.

 

Wow!

Great hits!! Incredible!

 

If you're playing mostly Double Bonus, I hope you're always playing 10/7 or 9/7, otherwise I wouldn't bother playing the game. And if you're playing it accurately, a Royal is more like 1 in 48,000.

Nevertheless, if you have averaged about 15 hours a trip and your trip count is correct at 26, you're definitely in a good drought unless you really play like a snail.

When playing 400 hours of 9/7 or 10/7 Double Bonus these are your chances of not having a Royal based on how fast you play.

100 hands/hr: 43.50%
200 hands/hr: 18.92%
300 hands/hr: 8.23%
400 hands/hr: 3.58%
500 hands/hr: 1.56%
600 hands/hr: 0.68%
700 hands/hr: 0.29%
800 hands/hr: 0.13%

Unfortunately the only way to end this is to just play more hands and get lucky doing it.

Glad someone else is above average on Royals. I am as well. In threads like these, the ones that are in a drought tend to significantly outweigh the fortunate. It gets me slightly worried about the machines to be honest.

 

JOB reminds me of work. Never play it.

 

I try to always play 10/7 DB
Once in awhile if not available
9/7

I actually know how to play and
What I am doing, the damn Royal
Just never comes up for me, and I
Can play fairly fast!

Practiced, got the strategy cards,
Read books, and at this Point have
Everything pretty much down cold!

But....22 years and counting...

The chase continues at Main Street
Station on August 4th...[emoji869]