This Hands Per Hour talk reminds me of a hustler friend of mine we called Hawaiian Derek, the fastest flush attacker alive. At least we thought so at the time. I never seen Frank play. I'll have to set this story up a little bit. This goes back to 1997.
The most competitive LINKED-BANK flush attack I ever saw was the 18 machine bank at the Riverside in Laughlin. It was at the base of the elevator up to the bingo hall.
On a linked bank it takes 15 points worth of flushes to put the entire bank into FLUSH ATTACK mode. If player in seat one made a one-coin flush, then he put one point in. If player in seat 6 made a two-coin flush she put 2 points in. If player in seat 8 made a 5-coin flush he put 5 points in. Once 15 points of flush were accumulated the top of the screens of all the machines lit up and said "FLUSH ATTACK." Even the vacant machines. The next player to make a flush got paid 125 coins. Then it would take 15 points worth of flush to turn the light on again.
A player who only played in flush attack mode with correct strategy held a 35% edge. But there was big time heat on the Riverside bank. One had to disguise their play. You couldn't just sit there between lights. There was all kinds of techniques....one-coining between lights being the most prevalent.
I also would judge up the bank, the hustler to ploppie ratio. So you had to know your hustlers. And you had to judge your ploppies up for how much action they were making as they were the ones creating the lights. In some scenarios it was a dream game, all 18 machines being played, with lights coming about every three minutes. In other scenarios their were not that many players and the ploppie to hustler ratio wasn't good, lights only coming about every half hour. It's the latter situation I avoided. The hourly rate wasn't good and I was just exposing myself to heat.
So anyways Hawaiian Derek was a classic. He wore disguises and all. One day he's bald headed wearing a business suit. Another day he's a hayseed cowboy, jeans, boots, hat and all. I don't think the disguises did him any good because you could always tell it was Hawaiian Derek when the flush attack light came on.
Derek always locked up two machines if he could. He knew every trick in the book to make it look like he was making action between the lights. But he wasn't moving very fast at all. He knew every stall trick. But when the light came on LOOK OUT! He was faster than greased lighting. Slapping butttons on two machines. A human tornado. The Tasmanian Devil. Ploppies on the bank would stop watch him play. ROFLMAO!
When the light went out, whether he got it or not, he went back to his slower than molasses routine. Waiting for the next light.
