Not a fan of Spin at all. Takes way too much money from you on non-monster hands.

According to WizardOfOdds, standard deviation per deal for 9-line JoB spin poker is SQRT(7.28) / SQRT(5.94) bigger than for 9-line regular multi-line poker, or approximately 12% bigger. IIUC, due to lower distributional skew, the same number would be lower for DDB and TDB (I may be wrong here).

While the non-standard outcome distribution of VP trials may skew the meaning of this parameter, it is hard for me to imagine that you in practice would be able to notice a difference.

If I couldn't notice the difference I wouldn't have mentioned it.

Or maybe what you see is really random variance caused by non-significant sample sizes.

The last couple of years, on each visit to Vegas I've played around 100,000 lines/deals of VP, mainly as 3 lines (based on points earned). That sounds like a good deal, but the experience has varied like night and day from trip to trip.

You can easily run colds (or hot) for days on end, not only in terms of missing (big) draws, but also just in terms of just being dealt any draws, low pairs etc.

Whatever else is said, this is undoubtedly true. We all are familiar with this concept of the long run, but most of us don't appreciate just how truly long that is, nor will most of us ever reach "it" from a statistical POV.

Interestingly, it is knowing this that gives me HOPE when I play video poker lol. Example- it will take me several lifetimes or more to have a realistic shot at getting a dealt full followed by dealt royal in UX. But, I'm not dependent on the long run for it- rather, the proverbial bolt of lightning. And if I'm lucky enough to hit, I won't live/play long enough to give it all back LOL.

I wonder if anyone has been struck by that $480,000 bolt.

I certainly have never seen a pic, VP free play or otherwise.

Big, Leon:

Ok I’ll do it next weekend. What do I have to get for $480,000?

Good, glad to hear it's a done deal then! On a related note, I'd like to buy 100% of your action

Most typical way would be- 1$ machine, 10 lines. Dealt full = 12x multipliers everywhere on the next hand. Next hand = dealt royal. 10 x 4000 x 12 = 480k. EZ game. Triple double bonus 4 aces w/kicker will suffice in place of the royal. DDB you'd get a measly 240k.

Or, you could "go big" and do it at 5$ credits. That'd be a mere 2.4 million.

El Triple Double Diablo will do it I say

If I had the money, I'd take the other side of that.

I think that you would not only make more frequent visits, but that your bet size would climb. Your only chance would be if you gave it up completely.

I'd be angrier at you if you didn't speak the truth...

Leon,

What’s the best place to learn proper VP strategy? Wizard of odds?

I’m not gonna press my luck and increase my bet higher than makes sense for my strategy. I’ll stick with the $1/line and large chance at $480k rather than the smaller chance at $2.4M.

If anyone can do it, it would be El D.


Videopoker.com app will show you the correct holds for single line games.

Or if youre an Apple guy the WinPoker app. Not available on Android, which sucks because its a great resource.

I used WOO for the basic run down of holds. Most are intuitive depending on the game. It also has a good hand analyzer where you can input various cards and it will tell you the expectation of all holds. I use it to memorize certain situations which aren't necessarily intuitive to me (eg, do I hold 789 suited vs 99?). Obviously make sure you're memorizing the strategy for the game you want to play- they're all different and sometimes the differences are larger than you think. I'll freely admit I don't have any game other than TDB down basically cold.

I've messed around on videopoker.com- never paid for a subscription but it seems like the features could be good (eg, you can play almost any game variation imaginable and it will tell you correct/incorrect holds). Can't comment on the app itself.

I also like the lesson of experience- a little more expensive potentially but so powerful. Make sure you at least know MOST of the the proper strategy. Then, play for real. Record decisions you thought were close/tough, go back to WOO later and input them and see what the right move was. At least for me, every time I've been wrong I thought to myself, "F, I'll never do THAT again". Especially when it turns out it wasn't as close as I thought.

Good luck- I'll take a cut of that 480k when it comes for services rendered

I just print out the WOO pages for my game(s) and take them with. There are some weird situations that I'll miss and not look up, but those generally have a tiny effect on overall EV.

Or I can hang out and tell him what to do!!

But Diablo will never play, he just likes trolling us.

Well it's $100 a pull at 10-play $1 UX, but you might want to bring, like, $200 or $300 just in case you don't get dealt the full house on your first hand.

Why would changing the denomination affect the chances of it happening at all? You should still have the same large chance regardless. Noob.

Exactly. Plus he should probably have a few hundred on him to play two machines at once and make it happen simultaneously on side by side machines. Duh. If you're gonna lock up one machine that they have to bring out the engineers, do a full inspection, the whole nine yards, you might as well get several of them out of the way at the same time.

You sitting next to him and distracting him will change the timing slightly and cooler him, you know this. Just let El D collect, it's a given it happens if left to his own devices.

gobbo:
False, I'm gonna crush VP next weekend!

p4b:
Strategy seems pretty intuitive at first glance, but good idea. I'll have these pages ready on my phone.

Sooga:
I'm going to bring $2k for VP because that's what leon told me I need to bring to win big:
Hmmm I guess that means I'd only hit for $240k though? My VP session bankroll will be $1k-4k depending on how blackjack and craps go, so maybe I can have enough to play 10-line. And if things aren't going great, I can always go play some Let It Ride to make some quick money.

will a trip report be included?

Donk,

Yeah, here you go:

Got drunk watching rugby all day. Went to dinner, had steak and a bunch of wine. Drank a bunch of whiskey and lost some money playing blackjack. Dropped $2000 in an hour at VP without hitting a single big hand. Went to room to cry.

5 stars!

Yeah in all seriousness remember that 2k quote was for 5 lines, 1$ credit, REGULAR and NOT ultimate X. X is a double bet so I'd say 4k would give you a decent sized bullet at 5 line UX. If you're going to play 10 lines then double it again, 8k would make a decent sized bullet.

And yeah, 5 lines 1$ credit the white whale hit is 240k.