[vpFREE] Re: Bob Dancer's LVA - 27 MAY 2014

 

Do you mean the hand-paying royals or are you referring to 25c royals that pay out 1000 and don't require a W2G as well?

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Posted by: pede1976@badbeatscrew.com
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Re: [vpFREE] Re: Bob Dancer's LVA - 27 MAY 2014

 

wha724@comcast.net wrote:

>Adjusting strategy to catch fewer royals? Now there's an approach that's never occurred to me. The mailer money vs. machine return ratio must be astronomical.

The mailer can be worth more than the overall value. There are
occasions with progressives with little competition and a lot of meter
movement when optimal strategy (the strategy that maximizes the value
of the play, not the value per hand) is more conservative than if it
weren't progressive. A 9/6 Jacks or Better machine with a 1% meter
which isn't linked to any other machine is an example.

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Posted by: 007 <007@embarqmail.com>
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[vpFREE] Re: Bob Dancer's LVA - 27 MAY 2014

 

Could you elaborate in what you mean by "The sharp players also change their strategy so they get less royals (on average) and more mailers."?

Thanks.

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Posted by: luckylucyano9@yahoo.com
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[vpFREE] Re: Bob Dancer's LVA - 27 MAY 2014

 

Adjusting strategy to catch fewer royals? Now there's an approach that's never occurred to me. The mailer money vs. machine return ratio must be astronomical.


As for the "quit with a profit" plan Dancer discusses, I'm guessing the rec players who do it are driven by psychology, not math. Rejecting Dancer's completely rational advice to ignore the results of daily sessions, many recreational players find it annoying and/or depressing to end up down at the end of the day after being significantly ahead earlier.

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[vpFREE] Cruise ships - info for newbies

 

Be aware that generally you can board about noon when u arrive at the pier and get lunch, though you may not have access to your room and luggage for a couple of hours. Don't arrive too late, because you will need time to register to get on, so if the ship is scheduled to leave at 4 pm, plan to arrive at the dock no later than 3. Handicapped people should go to the front of any line and you'll be directed towards handicapped desk or elevator etc. Harrahs guests (via certificates) should look for Harrah's lines when checking in at port to save time.

In departure the ship arrival time may be listed as 8 am, but that doesn't mean you should book a flight at 9 am. You have to get off the ship, which sometimes means a 9 or 10 exit if you are not carrying your own luggage, and sometimes ships are slightly delayed getting into port. Plus you need time to get to the airport, go through security etc. The cruise line will tell you what time is safe to book for your flight. Usually after 12:30 pm is safe, but if you are traveling on a holiday through a major airport always think about security lines and delays.

In the various ports you should make note of what time to arrive back at the ship as you leave the ship -- there will be a sign posted. Don't arrive 5 minutes after that time, some ships are sticklers on closing the doors and won't let late returning passengers back on board. If you take a tour run by the ship they will hold the ship for you. If the tour is run by someone else and it arrives late they won't (but that doesn't mean you should only buy the ship's tours....you can save a substantial amount by buying over the internet or in port....it just means use common sense when choosing what to book based on tour locations and times).

If you ride a tender or take a tram in port, remember to include the transit time when computing when you must return to a ship. Also, just because you see other tourists still around you in port doesn't mean you are safe -- they may be off a different ship with a different return time. Make sure you know what the time is onboard your ship (ship's time) versus possible different local time. Read the daily newsletter carefully for any notes about adjusting ship's time knee hour forward or backward (the room steward should also put a note in your room on those nights).

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Posted by: Misscraps <misscraps@aol.com>
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[vpFREE] Re: Bob Dancer's LVA - 27 MAY 2014

 

Bob wrote: "For video poker the dynamics are different. Generally speaking we lose, lose, lose until we hit a royal flush (or perhaps four aces or deuces). The "all at once a big score" feature doesn't lend itself to incremental stopping points. Whether we are up or down $500 (or any other figure) tells us nothing about whether we will hit a royal flush later in the day."

At a typical casino, hitting more than one royal flush in a trip will get you reduced-mailed or no-mailed or worse, so for video poker, if you hit a royal, you should probably leave. It doesn't really matter what game you are playing, casinos these days are results oriented and the royal is the result they don't like to see. Also the card readers are unreliable so you may show a loss even with the royal but the casino has no idea if it's a real loss or a synthetic loss. The sharp players also change their strategy so they get less royals (on average) and more mailers. In these days of tighter and tighter machines, most of the money is in the mailers anyway.

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Re: [vpFREE] Re: cruise tipping

 

>>When we go on RCL or Princess through MGM or other properties via Players Travel the service is significantly better because they get the tip they deserve instead of it being built-in to their salary.


You must not have been on RCL in a while.  I was on an RCL ship (the Oasis) for the first time last year, and they had the same autograt policy.


While the service on the Oasis was not lacking, they didn't seem as friendly as they do on NCL.  Of course, like I mentioned in another post, I'm always on the newest NCL ship so I often see the same crew so I might be getting better and friendlier service just because they recognize me, so it probably isn't a fair comparison.


That being said, though, I found NCL to be much more organized.  Also, you are much more pampered being a Haven guest than being a guest in a Crown Loft suite.  I was particularly surprised that they don't even offer Crown Loft guests an escort to bypass the lines when you disembark.  It makes a difference when you are carrying all your luggage off yourself instead of picking it up outside of customs.

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Re: [vpFREE] Re: cruise tipping

 


>>Charge more for the initial cruise so you can pay more, and then leave the tipping to the guest.
 

First off, I certainly agree with this.  It would be much better if the cruise lines just had the charges already folded into cruise fare and paid the employees higher wages.  That way people could not opt out, and could tip on their own for outstanding service.  Instead the cruise lines pay their employees a pittance with the expectation that the wages will be subsidized by the customers' generosity.  Of course, the cruise lines like being able to advertise lower fares and don't mind that the employees get shafted with the autograt policy.

Secondly, we have had very different experiences on NCL.  I always cruise on the newest ship in the fleet, though.  Especially if you are cruising within the first five or six months of the inaugural season, your crew will be "the openers," who tend to be the best of the fleet recruited for the new ship.  Perhaps this is why our NCL cruises have been so different.  I also cruise in the Haven, but have never had a steward ignore a request.  I've rarely even had to make them.  Because my suites always have two bathrooms, I've never been short on towels, and sometimes, regarding body wash and shampoo, as soon as I move the little bottles from the tray in between the sinks to the shower they put replacements back on the tray so I often have one in back up at all times.  I know I have read online that some people have found on various cruise lines that there are lists of customers who remove the automatic gratuity.  I never really thought about it, but it might be true and could explain why our experiences are so different.

I don't generally eat in the complimentary dining rooms, so I can't really comment on the service there, and if I'm eating in the buffet, I'm just going to grab something quick so I wouldn't be there long enough to notice any bad service, but I've never had any issues.

In fact, what always amazes me is that on every cruise there is usually a dozen or so employees that remember me from previous cruises.  They might not remember my name, but they will remember something about me or my girlfriend.  Like one waiter in the Haven restaurant always comes by even if he is not serving us to say "hello" and comment that we always eat lunch there on the first day and never come back until the next cruise.  Or like on our Getaway cruise a couple months ago, a bartender remembered that my girlfriend liked the Coco Cabanatini a lot when we were on the Breakaway and told her that they removed the drink from the menu, but he still remembers how to make it is she wanted it.  Considering how many faces they see, stuff like that amazes me.  Of course, as I mentioned before, since I am always on the newest ship, a lot of times it is the same opening crew, so they could have seen me on a dozen cruises, but it's still impressive nonetheless.


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Posted by: seedub49@yahoo.com
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Re: [vpFREE] Re: cruise tipping

 

Ditto on what Becky said, well put. The service is the worst on NCL because of the standard tip fee they charge. There is NO incentive for a steward or waiter to be nice to you or give you "above and beyond" service. It's like going into a government office and expecting good service.  A very few will give good service just because of their nature, but the majority don't care since they make the same giving bad service as good.


I have complained to NCL many times about this. As she said we rarely ever see our steward and service in the free dinning rooms is bad so we now always (6 out of the 7 days) eat in the specialty restaurants. Between being NCL's top tier level and Casino at Seas VIP level we get 4 specialty dinners free right off the bat and then the casino host always gives us a couple more.  If it weren't for this we would stop going on NCL with the main dinning rooms and buffet having so poor service. NCL does it because of the "freestyle" resulting in people not ever seeing the same waiter twice, but they could still do direct tipping for the room stewards.


When we go on RCL or Princess through MGM or other properties via Players Travel the service is significantly better because they get the tip they deserve instead of it being built-in to their salary.


Dave


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