Yeah, they don't think you're a sucker, but unfortunately, it's probably not enough to make the total amount add up to 100% return. If you play more on the free money then your total return would go above 100%, but then it's likely they bother to stop giving you offers.

As for one of my local casinos, I get a guaranteed $10 (or a free buffet) if I play $200 through a video poker machine on a Fri/Sat/Sun. They have offered this consistently to all players for over 6 months. They have 9/6 Jacks or Better (99.54%) and full-pay Bonus Deuces Wild (99.45%). If I play the bare minimum, then that's roughly $9 profit for each visit. But of course, it costs me $6 in gas to get there and back, so it's nothing special...lol

Ameristar is pretty bad - the games are horrible or low limit (50c single line 9/6 JOB?). Mail is pretty weak too, and bad promotions. The Casino Queen is probably the best in that area for just walking in. There's really no shortage of good video poker plays anywhere in the US, except states that have the video lottery terminals, and to a smaller extent Vegas. If you can't come up with a better play than playing full-pay machines, I think VP is probably not for you. Anyone who spends a lot of time in different casinos and doesn't play VP is doing themselves a huge disservice. There are still things out there that are truly absurd. I'd say 80% of your work is figuring out which game to play, at which casino, on which day, and why. The other 20% is knowing how to play the game at a reasonable pace.

I never said I was intending to make a living off of this game; I'm not sure where you got that from. If there are things in St. Louis that are "truly absurd", I wouldn't mind a PM. And it would have to be "truly absurd" for me to play at Casino Queen, it's almost an hour from my house! It also doesn't help that I only have about $10,000 to my name, so any advantage plays are probably ******ed for me to do. If I was trying to gamble for a profit in St. Louis, I'd bite the bullet and force myself to play $1/$2 NL on Friday/Saturday nights. And by your response, you should also tell everyone else that posts in this thread to just stop playing this game because they definitely aren't playing well-enough.

that would be perfectly reasonable advice...

Sorry if this has been asked before ITT, but I was wondering if the denominations on vp free are the smallest denoms for the listed pay tables or if those are 1 credit but 5 credits must be bet to obtain given pay table. For example, if they list a $5 NSUD game, does that mean you have to bet 5 credits ($25) to have the natural royal pay 800-1 (e.g. 4000 credits) or will it pay 800-1 for a bet of $5?

The denoms listed are the smallest for the listed pay tables, and there may also be a "coins" listed as well, which would be the minimum coins (or credits) needed to be played to get that pay table.

For example:

$1, $2, $5
That means you get the full-pay table for playing 1 credit at $1, $2, or $5 denom.

$1, $2, $5 5 coins
That means you get the full-pay table for playing 5 credits at $1, $2, or $5 denom (i.e. $5, $10, or $25 per hand).

Unless VPFree states otherwise, you need to bet 5 credits per hand to have the quoted return. In the example you gave, the royal would pay 250 for 1 on a single credit.

I too would be interested in learning where these "truly absurd" paydays are in STL, since I'm closer to the casino queen than tring. Unless you are talking about getting hammered at fast eddie's and losing all your money at the OTB, because I know all about that.

Here's something which is reasonable although not great - you can play 10/7 DB at the CQ, returns 99.79% with a .25% players club. On multiplier days you get 2x points (used to be 3x), so 100.29%, $2 single line, I can play about $10k/hr, ~30/hr. Sometimes they have extremely good drawings (NYE they had a 100k drawing, earn points only during that month). That, plus the mailers you get, can boost it up to ~$100/hr. It's actually more complicated than that, because they turn the machines off on those days, unless certain people show up and ask for them to be turned on, but it's not bad. This is not something I actually play, however. There is at least one thing better in the STL area, but for the most part you probably need to do a lot of scouting and travelling to various non-Vegas places. Games with the wrong theo are very significant, as are generous player rewards programs, promotions, and multiplier days.

If Fast Eddie's has their way, you'll soon be able to get hammered at video slots/bad paying video poker too!

Yeah, while visiting Tunica last year, I played next to a guy that basically does this for almost 30 years. Try to play the appropriate volume and profit off the comp game at various casinos across the Midwest/Mid-South. He also talked about doing video poker math by hand before the era of widely available calculators. It was a pretty interesting conversation to me at least. And thanks for the CQ tip, but I'm def too poor for that one right now.

Hey Tring just wondering what you do for a living

Long-term unemployed...fml I basically was an online grinder until Black Friday, but that wasn't very profitable for me either. My academic background is research in computational material science. Anyone need someone to do some modeling of colloidal or polymermic systems? lol

We are actually looking for a contractor to study the fluid-phase behavior of an athermal system of colloids and non-adsorbing polymers on a fine lattice in the "protein limit" using canonical Monte Carlo and histogram reweighting techniques.

I guess I have the money at the moment where I could do it, but I had too many trips in a row going broke at JOB to be interested in getting back in the game anytime soon.

Now, pump me full of cheap shrimp and beer while I'm playing, then maybe. What is FE somehow had actual full pay video poker machines and ended up being the best place to go Just bring your sleeping bag and live there.

If you can explain to me what the **** those words mean I will take the job.

Be careful on the cheap shrimp, there is a lot of salt in those.

LOL..wow. PM coming.

I think I might be a little bit more qualified than you though.

Yeah, but is your company "full pay"?

You'll get so much scrimp you'll get iodine poisoning

Dude, sorry. I was not serious.

I have no clue either.

Regarding JoB progressive royals:

Assuming a 4000 credit for 5 coins, how do you calculate the % of progressives? With a quarter machine 4000 would be $1250, so $1325.50 would be 4400 credits. If this is the case, how much do we add to our return? The machine I play went up to $1500 before someone hit, and I'm pretty sure it'd be FP (99.54% return) with the prog. Also, are there any different ways to play when this happens? Play more 2 to royals over 2 unsuited?

Rule of thumb for JOB is ~0.5% increase in return for each additional 1000 coins on the RF.

Yes. The optimal changes depend upon how high the progressive is. Any decent vp software can calculate all the proper breakpoints for you.

4000 quarters = $1000. The 100% return point for 9/6 JoB is 4880 quarters = $1220. For every extra 1000 credits, the return will go up roughly 0.5%-0.6%. Exact returns/strategies can be computed here:

http://wizardofodds.com/games/video-...gy/calculator/

And yes, there are different plays that need to be made. Most commonly, throwing away high pairs for 3 to a royal. When a 9/6 JoB progressive gets to be $1220, AKQ, AKJ, AQJ, KQT, and QJT suited are better than holding JJ-KK. You also hold AT suited over an Ace.

http://wizardofodds.com/games/video-...25-d-50-d-976/

Can this strategy also apply to playing a non full pay machine: for example say you wanted to take a $500 shot at a $5 ddb machine that is a 9/6 or 8/5 payout machine and you were just trying to hit a $20K royal. tks

Strategies can change for any adjustments to a paytable.

But a $20k Royal on a $5 machine isn't a progressive, so playing 8/5 DDB optimally would be a harsh 96.79% return. $20000/$5 = 4000 credits.