Poker Poker Poker!: [vpFREE] My Three days in a Indian casino

I just spent 3 days, the holiday weekend living at an Indian Casino. Mostly I just wanted to test myself to see if I got what it takes to be a serious gambler as well as get away from the heat that this weekend saw. It got in to the upper 90's in Portland Oregon.

I went to Spirit Mountain Hotel and Casino, an Indian Casino in Oregon, on Thursday afternoon the 2rd of July. The first thing I did was check in with the casino host who looked over my previous play and gave me Thursday and Friday for free. As for July 4th, she said that I need to check in to see if my play rates enough for a Saturday free stay.

My main goal was to see if I had the stamina and discipline to make 10K in points a day. I intended to do this by playing Craps and Video poker, the two games with the lowest house edge in the casino.

Now my craps play is only to the lowest house edge bets, and only on players who can win. What is this? I only bet on myself when I shoot the dice, and those who prove to me that they can make a pass line win.

Bets and play is this:

– Place 6 and 8 and passline with 1x odds. (only play on self or winners)
– Progress bets by half on a win.
– Parlay Passline Come-out wins.
With this low ball method of play the house only gets a .6% house edge.

Now my own craps shooting I think is nothing special, though I did have some great rolls and many who profited from my rolls later found me elsewhere in the casino to comment on my 'dice skills' as to how I roll the diced. However, I did have quite some short rolls as well that they did not see, and I wonder if they did if they think I had dice skills or just got lucky.

Anyway, my overall profit from my craps play over the 3 days was around $400.

Now with Video Poker I only focused on two game types: Deuces Wild and Jacks or Better. The other games like Double Double Bonus Poker simply had two low of a return rate for the high variance. Other high variance games like Ultimate X, Super Times Pay, 50/100 hand and so on all had low pay tables that just made it not worth playing.

So, Deuces Wild DW44 9/15 (98.91%) was my first choice. This is a mid-range variance game (25.8) compared to Double Double Bonus Poker (41.9) and Jacks or Better (19.5). I have trained at home for this pay table with the Video Poker for Winners software and mastered the strategy.

When I was tired of Deuces Wild I play craps or switch to Jacks or Better 9/5 (98.4).

My results with Deuces Wild where far better than my results with JOB 9/5 @ 98.4%. I ended up $500 ahead due to a four times getting 4-deuces, but loosing $500 playing JOB, No royal flush this trip. I surmised that 9/5 JOB is just enough of a house edge to pull you under in the long run, and that playing this without a good point multiplier to offset loses is probably not worth it in the long run.

However I did find out after talking to the casino host that I racked up over 10,000 points on Saturday and logged 10 hours of play. Wow, I can do it! Many of the long hours where playing JOB and Deuces and that is where the majority of the points came from.
Now you think I was a winner for the weekend, well here is the second part of the story.

On Friday I decided to take a half day trip to Chinook Winds, a casino a half hour away on the Oregon Coast. I played Craps there and lost $100. They have a bouncy 14' table where the dice would bounce off the table about every 3rd roll. Seemed we could not get a hand going, and when switching to the Don'ts for a cold table play seemed that the seven would roll on the coming out roll far too often. I suspected that the dice may be unbalanced, but again I don't know. Could just be a run of bad luck.

As for video poker there, they have a 9/6 video poker but the Royal Flush is 2500 so that is 98.8% return rate. Not bad for an Indian Casino, but that was not the problem. The machines in general ran cold. I played for an hour and lost $600! First I played 3 line Ultimate X JOB @ the 25 cents level with the 8/5 tables and lost $300 in about 20 minutes. I mean I it was so cold that there were few jacks or better, but the majority of hands where nothings and losers. Well I told myself that Ultimate X is a high volatility game and one where you can lose or win big.

I then went to play Spin Poker at the 10 cents level with the 9/6/2500 pay tables. I have had good success with spin poker in the past so I figured that I play it here. I lost another $300 in 40 minutes and seeing much of the same nothing hands as I saw with Ultimate X, a lot of nothing losing hands.

Now, I sat there for a bit stunned, shocked and thinking that the universe took a steaming dump on me and I simply had amazingly bad luck… but then I heard another guy cry out, "what the hell" and sure enough he was at a same type of machine on my row. "Damn thing just stole my money" he muttered and walked off. Then the guy next me to me who was playing 5 cents Ultimate X asked me "Do you think that the Indians rigged the machines?" I answered, "I don't know. I mean they are IGT machines so it is likely they are buying the software loads from IGT. It's it possible that they machines are dealing bad hands? Perhaps, but then I really don't know. It is an Indian Casino, so who knows." The machines where the slant top style, rather beaten up and used looking. Some of the buttons looked like they were salvaged from other styles of machines and some of the screens where clearly not the original screens. I guess if the casino out right owns the machines they then could do as they please to them. There is no gaming commission in Oregon and there are no Laws about how the casinos are to operate. Each Casino has its own in house gaming commission that from what I can discern is only in name only, but does no actual enforcement, compliance checking or investigation. So, could the casino rigged the game? I simply will never know.

The guy who asked me the question seemed to think the Indians have done something, and he was way down by what he told me. But he continued to play never the less and I asked why play then? "Oh, I am waiting for my wife. She is playing slots".

I did not want to leave the casino as a total dejected loser, so I went to the pit boss and asked for a food comp and he was like, "Well…how much are you looking for?" I don't know I said, perhaps enough for a burger? So he gives a $10 coupon that I take to the deli and order a burger. The counter gal was nice enough to help me spend the remaining money on cookies and candy.

I ate the burger thinking this is an expensive burger, and they still put onions on it even after I asked for no onions.

Actually, I was never so happy to see Spirit Mountain after that disastrous casino run. Not that Spirit Mountain is a good casino, they are as tight as any Indian Casino, however I just never had an ass kicking like what I got at Chinook Winds at Spirit Mountain.

On my last day I went back to chat with the host on duty about my play and stats. About a minute in to our conversation he simply leans back in his chair and abruptly cuts off the idle conversation we were having and says, "So, then what then do you want?" I stated I was only interested in my play level and what I achieved over the weekend. He then looks at me, clearly sizing me up by my play level and win/loss record. He refused to let me look at the screen too that he was looking at

"Look, we don't offer much here. We are not like Las Vegas where there is a lot of competition for players". He went on to say that I should take my play there because I would find better comps and be happier.

I thanked him for his time and was wondering why exactly did he say that. Then I ran in to Whitten, an elderly player who I consider savvy and told him what happened.

"Oh, yeah this place has lost a lot of good players to Las Vegas. Brian and Vince for example. They played here for years and now they play only in Las Vegas. And, Jimmy your pal now lives in Las Vegas that is why we don't see him anymore." Whitten when on about how these Indian casinos really don't want good gamblers, they are only interested in the slot players. I also figured the host simply was trying to do me a favor, to help me maximize my play an comps and not feel cheated by playing at a casino where very little will be given to me for my play.

So, next casino trip – Las Vegas!

Photos of my Video Poker wins here: http://www.vetanen.com/2015/07/06/three-days-in-a-casino/