Just a heads-up on these machines: at Station Casinos, at the very least, there is what I would consider a bug at the minimum, and deliberate misuse of tactical advantage at a maximum.
I was near Red Rock today, and decided to stop for their buffet, but first play a little HU limit. I put my card in the machine, and it told me I had $15 free play credit, and I pressed the buttons necessary for the credit to be applied, which I guess gets applied as I bet, depending on how much I bet per hand, etc. I start playing in the BB, misplay my first hand horribly, get $4 of my bonus credited automatically, and next hand get dealt K8o. I raise, and and confused to see I have just 3 bet? I play out the hand and lose, but am pretty sure I just played 2 straight big blinds. Get credited another $4, and next hand, I am BB again. At this point I hit the service button. About 5 minutes later, a slot host comes by, I explain what happened, and then had to explain why it shouldn't, and he has to get someone else involved, because this is completely new to him. The next 4 people that come up to help me all are not versed in the vagaries of HU limit hold'em, but I get my point across pretty well by stating that having the button is a huge edge, and I could crush Phil Ivey at HU limit if I had the button every time, which seemed to get the point across. The last person figured out that it was probably because I was getting credited additional $ from my bonus every hand, that it was utilizing it's rule that anytime you get down to $0 or add on, button reverts to the machine, which if true seems really shady for numerous reasons. They were cordial about the situation, gave me most of what I lost on 2nd hand back and gave me a buffet comp for my trouble, and I just moved to another machine to pay a bit more before I ate. Of course, I got my ass handed to me in several ludicrous ways, with the dealer doing his standard slate of getting huge hands vs my hands I have to call with, sucking out, and never once ever folding when ahead, no matter how slightly. 3 times I put more $$$ in the machine, all three times after I had played a hand from the BB, the button reverted to the machine once I added on. I can see if it did this thinking it might be a new player, but with my card still in and not even having $0 in the machine, this seems pretty shady.
It seems to me that I have heard gaming isn't fully sold on this machine yet, and maybe is just giving it provisional licensing to be on casino floors for the time being, but this definitely seems like it could be the type of thing that could be considered undue advantage and therefore not legal for use in Vegas, but not sure. Can unequivicolly state now however that I have no confidence in the game being fully on the up-and-up. Mind you, I'm not a HU limit expert, and maybe I even suck, but there are just too many weird things the machine does and gets away with that just don't seem like they can be good poker plays a smart algorithm would make. FAR too often it gets monsters when I have hands I have to call down with at a minimum, and rarely when I make a fold do I see the machine having a big hand. Also, I have played probably 12 hours against it, and have been down $ well over 90% of the time. Some of the hands I have seen posted in other threads are more compelling to that thought also, but here are a few of my own that I kept that seem to defy any sort of good logic;
By
daliman13 at 2011-04-10
I 3bet pre, bet flop, turn and river, get raised on river. 3bet flops seem to get called by him by anything with even 15% inferred equity like 1 overcard, etc, and often even worse, so not a big deal, but calling the turn for a gut and over only seems pretty awful, and of course he not only hits, he hits a card that makes me bet for value again and have to call the raise. Happens far too often for my taste.
By
daliman13 at 2011-04-10
This hand I raised, got 3 bet and called, floated the flop, checked the turn behind, and bet the river when he checked. Calling ace high on a 4 flush board with only 5BB's in the pot?
So, make sure if any of you get freeplay $ or anything similar, you don't try to use it on one these machines, as they take pretty large advantage of players by keeping the button. I am mulling over whether I should or even want to report this to gaming. Is there anything that says they can't do this?
Two Plus Two
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