Dear Mark,
Well, now that you've
got me "Hooked on Winning" (I bought your tapes, good stuff), I have a
follow-up observation and a question. I took a well-deserved day off
from work yesterday and hit the two Indian casinos here in Connecticut
(Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun). My goal was to restrict myself exclusively
to video poker. First, you are right on the money in your observation
that you have to LOOK for a 9/6 machine, at least in the 25¢ and 50¢
denominations. I found a 25¢ 9/6 machine "buried" in a bank of machines
at the Mohegan Sun and had real good luck with it. I encountered my
first 8/5 progressive machine at Foxwoods, but I was surprised to see it
was NOT a jacks-or-better machine. Rather, it was a two pair or better
machine. So instead of having a payoff with just a high pair, a player
needed two pairs to get a return. Is this typical of an 8/5 progressive
machine or would you say this is player adverse? Mike K.
Take copious notes here, Mike. Two words
describe the above-mentioned machine at Foxwoods-RIP OFF.
It is
called an 8/5-video poker machine because of the 8-for-1 payoff for a
full house and 5-for-1 payoff for a flush. Getting paid for a high pair
(jacks-or-better) is an absolute necessity when playing video poker.
On a traditional jacks-or-better machine
you will hit a high pair, two pair and three of a kind at a rate of 41%.
Expect no return 55% of the time. As for just the high pair, its
relative frequency occurs every 4.75 hands, or 21.053% of the time. Why,
Mike, give the casino an additional 21%?
You need the jacks-or-better to keep you
in the game. Needing two pair for a return is giving the casino a
license to steal from the non-informed player.
Dear Mark,
I am making my annual
pilgrimage to Las Vegas next month. On my last two trips I believe I
have paid exorbitant room rates-$89 a night. Both times the casino hotel
wouldn't bargain on these high prices. I prefer not to get stung for a
room, figuring they are going to get my money at the tables anyway. Any
suggestions? Stephanie G.
I have booked at least a dozen trips to Lost Wages with Las Vegas Reservation
Systems. Their toll free number is 1-800-222-0892. Las Vegas Reservation
Systems guarantees the lowest prices at all the hotels, plus they offer
air packages and car rentals. You can even book on-line at their
internet web site (www.lvrs.com). As for Las Vegas Reservation Systems
being the absolute cheapest, I can't say for sure, as I haven't verified
their guarantee. I can state that over the past two years I've never
paid more that $39 for a room, which is well below the rack rate.
Dear Mark,
In years past, Atlantic
City casinos used to invited my play with not only a free bus ride to
the Shore but a bucket worth of coins to get me started. Seems lately
the casinos are getting tighter and tighter with their customers. Are
they? Marty S.
Yes, Marty, what you perceive is correct
my friend. Those rolls of nickels to induce initial play are evaporating
as the amount of money the casinos give bus customers spirals downward.
Today, AC casinos pay an average of $16.54 to customers bussed in from
outer markets, down from the low $20s last year.
It could be worse, Marty. When you have
the only game in town like Casino Windsor in Canada, duping $40 out of
patrons for valet parking seems appropriate to casino management. Or how
about a sole riverboat casino that monopolizes a market? You not only
get squat but charged to grace their gambling joint.
So granted, Marty, though you're $4
lighter in the bucket, you still have to love a casino that pays you to
play.