The first time I ever seen the term "vulturing" was in a Dan Paymar book and it applied to vulturing Flush Attacks. That game has run it course and is now extinct. It first appeared in Laughlin in 1994. It was 8/5 Double Bonus Poker with every 4th flush, if you were betting five coins, paying 25 for 1. The theoretical was 101.83%.
There were banks of this game in the Riverside, Flamingo, Ramada Express, Golden Nugget and Gold River. The machines were linked together. So when someone hit the third flush on the bank it would trigger all the machines in the bank to Flush Attack mode. The next person who hit a flush was payed 125 coins. This developed the vulture activity on these banks. A person could play until he/she caught a 4-flush then sit and wait for Flush Attack mode to trigger and that person would get the first shot at hitting a flush. If they missed they just played like a bat out of hell until they hit a flush or someone else did. And whenever they were dealt a pat flush, which occurs about every 500 games or so, they had the 125 coins locked in whenever the light was triggered.
Small teams developed, usually 2 or three people. They would play until they all had 4 flushes then sit and wait. Or if one of them was dealt a pat flush they would sit and wait until the light triggered. The consequence of this was that the ploppies were getting crushed. Lots of complaints.
To end the controversy Sigma retrofit the machines to where you had to complete your hand before you were eligible for the bonus flush. This really didn't do anything to end the vulture activity. At that point the absolute best strategy was not to play at all when the game wasn't in bonus flush mode. Then play like a bat out of hell in mode using an aggresive flush strategy. But slot operations and security got hip to it and started running people off the banks who weren't playing in non mode.
It became a cloak and dagger thing. You bet one coin between the lights then went into five coin mode when the light triggered. You did this to camouflage your play. Betting one coin between the lights was about a 94% game. Betting five coins in mode was a theoretical 135%. It was an easy money making gig. There was so much cashing out on the 18 machine bank at the Riverside that, while every other video poker in the house got a $250 fill (quarters), the machines in the Flush Attack bank got $500 fills.
And while this game had a theoretical of 101.83% the machines were not returning anything close to that. I got a look at many a payout screen when mechanics were working on the machines. It was more like 98.5%. The skilled players made money but the ploppies got crushed. To get the 101.83% return you had to properly value the flush cards in the game.
The skilled players used a straight up short coin 8/5 Double Bonus Poker strategy on their one coin bets between the lights. A player bettting one coin and making a flush contributed 1 point to turning the light on. A person betting five coins and making a flush contributed 5 points to turning the light on. When 15 points were accumulated it triggered the Flush Attack light. We wanted to maximize our return on the one coin bets and not contribute to the light. That was the ploppies job, not ours.
The skilled players made money because they were running a far bigger wager on their five coin bets in mode, 135%, than they were on their one coin bets at 94%. The other factor was the skilled players could crank out 20 games a minute in mode with proper stategy and no mistakes while the ploppies couldn't come anywhere close to that.
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Posted by: mickeycrimm@yahoo.com
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