I was so happy for you!

Then I was like, you ****ing troll, Dr. Leon! Then I LOL'd.

WOW What an amazing thing to see even in a picture for a complete stranger. The feeling of someone beating the casino for $1.2 million in one push of a button is amazing but also just how pretty that 3 drawn royals is

Haha thanks everyone, when I saw the pic I as well was like "OMGWTFWTF". Even imagining being the guy who hit that... of course, there's part of me that would be like "wish I was playing TEN lines".

I've got a busy day ahead of me but will try and have at least part of the Nov recap up tonight.

I've gotten 3 dealt royals in my life, and I feel I wasted all of them:

one on 25c single line

another one 25c single line

last one was 5 play 25c 5 play, UX(!) but no multipliers

If I'm not mistaken a dealt royal comes up every 650k hands or something like that. With that said a royal is a 40k hand cycle, so you're supposed to have one dealt for every 16.25 royals.

It's probably easier but I've gotten a redraw royal as well throwing away all 5 cards, that was pretty fun.

Nov recap, part 1

This month was essentially all about the Ultimate X, for reasons that I'll soon get into. I played a bit of 15 line/25c TDB, but was never able to come close to the "almost getting dealt a royal, several times" like in Oct. Nov started off with a bang. I actually hit this hand later that day, but to keep things simple I'll post it now (all other hands are going to be from UX).



Always key to turn a singleton high card into a royal!

Earlier that day, I had been switching between TDB and UX. Nothing happening, stuck a few thousand. I was getting pretty frustrated and hitting the draw button twice each hand, to speed through the non-results I was getting. You know the kind- one high card, one high card, NO high cards, one pair, etc- almost no hope that I'll make anything so let's just cycle through as fast as I can to get to the next hand. Then, I do that and I see a hand pay amount pop up. WTH?



HO! Three to a royal, that comes in on a 12x multiplier!

That's 12K. At quarters. AWESOME.

Flush with my victory, I play more UX and TDB, hence the first pic I posted. I finish that day up 9K.

Lots of other random results this month; here are a few of the more interesting hits.



This didn't come in, unfortunately.

A few hands later...



With this as the result-





WTF machine- I hold a random high card and get quads on the redraw, on a huge multiplier too, and yet you can't bring that 4th ace in over and over??



AGGHHH! Hit the multiplier already!



Nice, off of just one ace, but STILL NO KICKER!

OK, I'll go ahead and post a spoiler right now- I did NOT make 4 aces w/kicker on a big multiplier, playing quarters once this month. However, I guess you could say Nov was the "month of royals" based on a few things like this-



Totally random and unlikely; machine had the courtesy to put it on a (small) multiplier as well.



Now THAT would have been badass (10K), from one card. SO CLOSE.



Here we go baby. Put it on the multiplier one time...



AGH. So good yet not. Switch that 8 and the ace please.



When you hit royals from "3 to a royal" with this frequency, you start to think you're invincible.

More to come, including the swingy/"huge hit" game of all huge hit games- TRIPLE double bonus Ultimate X...

Fantastic set up on the first post, Leon. I thought you caught the white whale


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nov recap Part 2- Thanksgiving

We spent all of Thanksgiving week with some good friends who live in rural Indiana. Their place is literally 1.5 hrs away from a major airport, you need to drive 10 min to see another building, etc. Of course, they have a ton of land and it's a good place to just relax and unplug. I essentially had zero internet access for the week and found myself getting bored there towards the end, so a week was the perfect amount of time.

The couple we stayed with also love Vegas and they try and make it out there at least twice a year. The wife is not a big gambler, but the husband has more degen in him (esp if you let him sit at a BJ table and they keep the drinks coming). We have met up with them in Vegas multiple times before and it's always a blast- the women can do the spa/pool/non-degen thing, and me and the husband have hours to degen each day. Both of them are MDs so they can afford it- they like to stay at WynnCore. The wife's loss limit seems to be somewhere in the several hundred/day range, while husband is more like 1k/day, 5k/trip at the most.

Here's a story of how the husband can degen- the last time we met them in Vegas, we were supposed to stay for a few days then drive to Sedona for a couple of days prior to a mutual friend's wedding. Well, that's too short of a Vegas stay for me, so I convince everyone to stay in Vegas one more day, cut Sedona trip a day short. OK, they're down with that, esp after I get that add-on day comped. So now we're on our last night, supposed to leave after breakfast the next day.

My wife, his wife and I play craps for a few hrs- it's a decent table and I book a few K win, wife wins several hundo and his wife (bc she bets so conservatively) won I think 200$. She's stoked, it's pretty late so we all elect to call it a night. My friend is playing BJ and tells his wife he'll come up to the room "soon"...

The next AM, my wife and I wake up, finalize packing then text his wife about breakfast. No answer, x many texts. Finally she answers and explains-
- she's not done packing
- she has no idea where her husband is and is worried

We tell her we'll search the floor for him. I know I'll snap-find him. I simply head back to the same BJ table he was at when we went to bed last night.

AND... there he is. Still playing.

Apparently he went on an alcohol-fueled heater and is up several K, which is a lot for him. He has literally been playing and drinking all night. We let him know that his wife is worried and that we're supposed to be leaving soon, so he colors up. He REEKS of alcohol. He apologizes, says he'll go upstairs to help his wife pack, but that he's going to need a couple hrs sleep before we can leave. I get to play more, so hey that's cool.

They end up skipping breakfast, we leave more like after lunch and that car ride for him is... shall we say, miserable. LOL

In any case, that sets the stage for this Thanksgiving. Text from his wife prior to trip-

"Do you guys want to go to French Lick Resort while you're out here? It's a decent place, spa, kids can bowl/play video games, they have a casino..."

OK, you had me at casino.

So we went to the French Lick resort for 24 hrs. It is, I can report, a decent place for being basically in the middle of F'ing nowhere Indiana. Think mid-level Vegas casino. We bring all FIVE kids (two ours, three theirs) and pretty much spend all pre-bedtime hours entertaining them. Our friends had the good sense to bring a babysitter with them so at least we've got childcare for after the kids go to bed. We eat a decent (not great) steak dinner, then it's time to GAMBOOL!

So, the casino- it was ok. Both wives want to play craps. My friend wants to play BJ. I, of course, now have zero interest in anything other than VP. The one craps table they have is PACKED. No way we're getting on that. I roam to see what VP is on offer- I'm ok with less than optimal paytables given the situation, but I still don't want to put my money in THAT bad. I find-

1. high limit room- they have 9/6 TDB, and 9/6 DDB.
2. Also high limit room- 9/5 TDB Extra Draw Frenzy (bet an extra credit per hand, and when dealt trips you get more draws). It's very swingy and 9/5 is not great.
3. On the floor- UX TDB, 9/7 but highest denom credits is 10c.

Since it looks like craps is not on the table my wife and I play a bit of Walking Dead. The machine takes our 200$ in 5 min. We go to Game of Thrones and she gets a bit more play for 100$, but ultimately that goes too.

My wife decides she wants to sleep and let me do my thing. We can't find either of our friends so we guess they may have gone to bed as well. It turns out his wife played BJ and got up 100$ pretty fast, and that was ENOUGH TO MAKE HER CALL IT FOR THE NIGHT. LOL non-degen. Husband is actually playing BJ in the high limit room, so I head there.

Finally, some VP- just me against the machine.

TDB, 1$ credits. No good.
Extra draw Frenzy, 50c credits. No good.
DDB, 1$ credits. No good.

I literally can't hit anything. Get a bunch of good draws but of course blank everything. I think I was stuck about 4K at my low point (I only brought 5K with me). Finally, I decide I'll just go play UX TDB since I won't have a chance to do that anywhere else.

Pretty much as soon as I sit down I realize I should have sat here from the get go. So what if it's 10c credits- 9/7 TDB UX is actually a good game. And if I get dealt a monster or make a nice hand I can STILL get a hand pay out of it. How stupid of me to donk off most of my session roll playing suboptimal tables in the high limit room. I'll decide I'll play 10 lines, since 10 lines/10c is close to 5 lines/25c. The machine elects to point out how stupid I was to not play UX from the get go with-



MAN. Dealt premium quads at TDB. Kicker comes in a few times, including on the biggest multiplier available. Such a pretty looking hand. Too bad only 10c credits.

Despite the low denom, this is a handpay! 1,560$ or something if I remember correctly.

It takes FOREVER to get paid. I literally get up from the machine after 10 min and roam the floor looking for a slot attendant. After that, they take another 15 min to pay me. And, they MANDATORY have to withhold state tax here- WTF? They ask me if I also want federal withheld as well- obv I'm all F that ****. Why would I let the government hold my money for me, esp given I'm going to post a loss for the year? Likelihood of getting that money back = zero.

Anyways, I play far too long, too late, but hit a couple of other nice hands-



LOVE the handpay at dimes. LOL



Wasn't a handpay, but I thought it was interesting. If you look in the upper left corner, that's the machine forcing a ticket on me- you can only have so many credits in the machine at once. I've encountered this before, in another sort of ghetto casino. Very weird and annoying.

Those evening hits get me back only stuck 2K. Unfortunately, I jam in an ill-advised AM session and lose another 2K, so stuck 4k in 24hrs. GG French Lick, I'd still come back if I'm ever in BFE Indiana again.

French Lick/Thanksgiving week result = -4K

Rest of Nov recap to come...

Rest of Nov recap

Here are a few "coulda been so much bigger" hits- the kind that you're SORT of happy about, but always leave you with a tinge of regret too. Apologies if any of these are repeats (I don't think they are but as I'm posting this month out of order of the actual events it's hard to keep track)...



Argh, where's the kicker?



OK, cool, and from a pair no less. Sessions with hits like these are almost guaranteed winners bc you typically get your "expected" number of big hands- when a lightning bolt like this comes out of nowhere it's hard not to end positive.



Same ****, different day...

Month of royals, continued...

So here's a nice hit. I was up a decent amount this day, hence the step up to 10 play. I got "rewarded" almost immediately. If the machine gives me the 10s on the deal, I slay the dealt-royal white whale and this is a 20K+ hand. At least it had the courtesy to come in, and on the highest multiplier available.



And, last but not least...



FINALLY- the Holy Grail, the white whale, the dealt royal. Coulda been better from a multiplier standpoint, but then again it could have been one of those "wastes" that other posters have had with ZERO multipliers. Whatever, I'll take it. This is a 10k hand. I was so shocked when it first happened, mostly bc of the autohold- can confirm, for All Star poker II machines, UX, when dealt a royal it autoholds and starts ringing up the credits. It only took over 1.5 years of dedicated, hardcore play, with godknowshowmany hands. May the next one not take nearly as long.

One thing I find ironic is the single royal I made on a 12K multiplier earlier in the month (see earlier post) is worth more than this whole hand. And yet, somehow this is more satisfying...

So that was Nov. Good month. Actual order of major events-
- 12k royal
- dealt royal
- French Lick trip
- other royals and hits sprinkled throughout the month

Results:
Net for month: +5K (after all the hits... tells you how much goes back into the machines)
Lifetime dealt royals: ONE!
Crappy month as far as aces/w kicker goes

Hopefully I run decently in Dec. To be continued...

Congrats on the dealt royal. Has to be good to get the monkey off your back.

Thanks man. Yeah, it feels great. Plus I have renewed optimism the next one won't take as long now that the clock has been "reset". I have no idea how many separate hands I've played since becoming a VP junkie but my sense is- more than 650k.

Yeah, so many royals and yet... only up 5K for the month. LOLZ

Good luck out there! I personally way prefer UX- the multipliers seem to be as rare as hen's teeth at DSTP. I'd be so pissed if I made a good hand but no multiplier (seems very likely at DSTP). I know the math/juice is there at UX and you're paying for the "right" to have more multipliers, but I'm playing for fun and UX is way more likely to provide that. In point of fact I've made precisely one big hand my whole life at DSTP w/ multiplier (of course, sample size is much smaller too).

Congrats on a big November Leon!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice hit! Good thing you didn't waste it on a single line

I saw a progressive quarter bank of machines that paid 19k for a dealt royal. Not 19k credits, 19 thousand dollars!

Amazing update Leon. It's sick how much goes in before it hits big. I get super happy for people that can hit huge and take some money back out of the casino. What a run! At scale, would you say dumping $500 in 0.05 Ultimate X could yield the same variance as $2500 @ 0.25 Ultimate X? I'm so tempted to degen off on this every time I see your update.

Yes, I'd say that's exactly the same scale-wise. Only issue is that sometimes it's tough to find 5c paytables as good as at 25c, etc.

My session buy-ins tend to be 2k- I've found through a ton of play that one will usually hit something decent/have a few decent draws with that amount of money. Of course, that in no way guarantees a winner, it just tends to be the amount by which "something typically happens". If you haven't at least got a good amount of play and some decent shots for your money at that point it's time to pack it in and call it a day. Plus anything more than 2K is pretty tough to overcome with your "typical" hit at 25c. So I'd say 500$/5c should be comparable. You could even do 400$/5c to make it exact.

I believe Gobbo posted a pic of another posters' hit at a WSOP- progressive dealt royal that got up to 60K or something at quarters. 10 lines. So not only did he hit the progressive, he also got the added bonus of dealt royal x 10. Maybe Gobbo can repost it.

Actually you only get the progressive, so instead of getting 10k you get the progressive. Pretty big, though.

God, what a sick picture. Thanks for the clarification- the first time I saw it I assumed that it was 60k-ish + the 10 royals since the total value was 72K, but credit-wise the screen below reflects $60K or so in credits.

I was dealt a Royal last year online after hitting quad deuces on Bonus Deuces Wild






I have not been the same sense

I've played a ton of VP over the past 20 years and never had a dealt royal. Congrats on that juicy hit.

Years ago, I threw everything away on a single-line machine and got one on the redraw. When I was down to my final five credits of my bankroll for the day.

That counts as dealt in my book (it wouldn't on multiline, obv). And the fact that it came in as a last minute save basically says, yeah- the whole thing is rigged. Hard to believe it's not with results like that- "here, you can keep playing. It's not all bad. Keep going"

It was still counting up when he took the picture. Note no handpay message yet.

A friend of mine grinded VP to get seven stars at caesars properties last year, is probably going to attempt something similar this year. He has to play 5 days at 5k tier credits each day. Last year he definitely used hotel enough to make it worth it.

That would be only if they ran the double TC promotion again, right?

What was he playing to hit 5k in a day? I grinded $1 credits for 2500 TC and was dead tired at the end of the day..

Last year they had a 99.73% return NSUD in New Orleans at $10/TC. Playing ten play $1 credits. They made the paytable worse this year though. He's gonna be playing elsewhere this year. They still have the diamond in a day promotion going where if you get 5k tier credits in a day they give you an additional 10k so he's just gonna do that 5 days.

Hanging out at a gaming bar for their $20 free dollar mondays, a friend of mine binks this.



He had another club and he's supposed to hold it but I told him it's really close and, enh, **** it, gamble. Bink.