--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Frank" <frank@...> wrote:
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> OK I'll just tell everybody. Please understand how big a deal this is. Not too many people know this. I'm giving you a big fish here.
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> #3 = The accounting department has to key the machine while you are sitting there playing it. ALL the info is readily displayed.
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> Usually, casinos key their machines once a month, or once a week for accounting purposes. It is almost always late at night and early in the month. You'll see then walking around with a clipboard and security guard escort. They'll walk up and say, "Could you stand back from your machine for just 1 second", it is a more like 5.
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> On an important bank we camped out on the 1st day of the month, just after midnight. It took around the clock, 1 penny action for three days, before a very pretty accountant came by, keyed it, and revealed all the mysteries of the universe to us.
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> Obviously, this method requires shifts and a team to accomplish, and is very time consuming. BUT IT IS 100% ACCURATE AND LEGAL. It also helps if you can take a mental picture of the entire screen in under 4 seconds. I assume I'm not the only one that can do that. I've done it 3 times without issue. There is roughly a full page of text to read almost instantly. You are looking for the stat: RATED RETURN =
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> Speed reading lessons help.
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> Actual Return, coin-in, and coin-out can be ignored if you know the rated return. It will be in different spots on different brands.
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> Oh, if I hadn't said so already, you would only do this for a progressive bank with at least 1% meter-rise, that you suspected of being playable. There would be no point on a non-progressive.
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> Also, it probably isn't possible in casinos with real-time links from accounting to slots. Some do have it, but it's pricey software, probably only in the high-rent joints.
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> Now remember to keep this a secret:) Boy I am an optimist huh?
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> ~FK
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I always wondered where Tuna got his information on slot progressives. That's some painstaking work to get the rated return.
Question: But wouldn't you still have to know the frequency on the top line hit to figure out a playable number?
I took many a fill on advantage slots. Those machines took lots of fills simply because the hustler cashes out once he gets the bonus. I took many a "3 fills in 24 hours check" where they send a mechanic around to see if the machine is malfunctioning or overpaying. They would sometimes run the display screen through many screens and I got to see the return of the machine.
I got to see the "actual returns" on many a flush attack video poker. We're talking unlinked machines here. I'll give you the difference between flush attacks in two different spots with two different payscales....and why the big difference in what the actual returns were showing.
At the Red Lion in Elko I had no competition. All the action on the machines were from out of state junketeers. They were very bad players. They basically undervalued flush cards. Correct strategy is all 3-card-flushes play over all 2-card-royals. A ploppie type strategy makes a flush about every 90 games where flush 50 creates a flush every 55 games.
The machines at Red Lion were 7/5 flush attacks, 100.78% with correct strategy. When mechanics came around working on the machines I kept an eye out when they were going through the screens and many times they punched up the "actual return" screen. Al the machines were showing between 97% and 98% return.
I would spend about 6 weeks at a time in Elko and averaged an earn of about $1200 a week off those flush attacks. I was there 4 or five times a year. My earn was covered up by the bad play of the ploppies. But I don't know exactly how much percentage wise I was cutting into the house win.
The Pioneer in Laughlin was a different story. They unlinked the flush attacks about 1999. They were 8/5 flush attacks coming in at 101.83% with correct strategy. Slot card was worth .16666% CB, and .33333% comp. Plus there were other promotions like 4K bonus's, etc.
I had lot's of competition from other pros on that bank. It was a straight through play with addons. But the ploppies also played the game. It was a mixture of ploppies and pros. When the ploppies would get up, the pro on the machine just over would cup his/her machine and jump over to the ploppie machine to play it through collecting the bonus flush...then cash out and move back to the play through machine. You added to your bottom line by picking up the 5 for 1 flushes the ploppie made before they left the machine.
We all got a look at the "actual return" on those machines too when mechanics worked on them. The machines ranged from one machine that showed 99.9% to the rest that showed up to 101.2%. What was the big difference between the Red Lion returns and the Pioneer returns? First, the 8/5's are a little over 1% better payback to start with. But why were the Pioneer machines showing returns lower than the rated return if they were getting so much pro action? Because it was a mixture of pro action and ploppie action.
The Pioneer flush attack play lasted about 3 years.
