On my most recent visit to Peppermill- Reno last week, I came across three new video poker machines, the likes of which I'd never seen.
Turns out they are made by WMS and I learned from a machine mechanic tech guy the first day I was playing them that they are WMS's first foray into video poker casino machines. They are somewhat similar but not identical to machines and glass shown on the WMS website: http://now.wms.com/products/Poker http://now.wms.com/products/Poker
Two of the three were identical – Multihand, Multigame. I posted one photo on vpFree of the entire machine & the glass of the two that were identical. I didn't do a very thorough scouting of all the multihand configurations, I guess I was busy playing. The third machine was different, only 3-line play was available (3-Hand). I've posted three photos of jackpot hands I got on these machines on vpFree: quad wild deuces for $1000, a dealt bonus quad playing bonus poker for 3 times $200, and a bonus quad with a kicker on one line of 50c five-line DDB. I posted my full trip report on vpFree_Reno, without much mention of the new machines, mostly because I played them for only 2-3 hours during my week-long stay.
I'm wondering if these machines have found their way into other casinos. Write a reply if you've seen them & played them- maybe we can get some feedback going to WMS.
Here's some of my impressions and opinions:
The ThreeHand game had denoms up to $1 and max bet was 15 creds. It offered Deuces wild, set to full NSUD paytables, like most of the machines at Peppermill Reno. Also it offered 8/5 BP and 9/6 DDB with the added lure of 55-1 pays for Straight Flushes instead of the more usual 50-1. I think there were other games offered, SuperAcesBonus and JoB, but I failed to scout those paytables.
The other two identical WMS machines had a different Five-Hand configuration, you can see it in the photos: One main larger hand and four smaller card/font other hands. https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/vpFREE/photos/albums/166961128/lightbox/923753512 https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/vpFREE/photos/albums/166961128/lightbox/923753512
The settings had three sound levels and three speed levels, very nice. The look of the cards and the font of the numerals and letters was more "squared" than the IGT machines I'm used to. I gotta say it took some getting used to, and I didn't like that some of the numerals were too similar to each other, so it took me an extra look for a couple seconds to make sure I was holding a pair and not a 5 and a 3 for example. I didn't critique it that carefully, but if you play it, you'll likely see what I'm talking about.
Another "glitch" that happened in my first long session, was it wouldn't let me hold the dealt cards. This wasn't a mechanical sticky DEAL/DRAW button glitch, but it was an electronic malfunction: I hit the deal button, just tapped it per usual, and then before I could hold the cards, it tossed out the five dealt cards and gave me a complete redraw. The first time I figured maybe I had double-struck the button, I play fast and it happens, tho rarely. But the 4th time in a row it happened, I'd had enough. I stopped playing and hit the SERVICE button. Soon enough, an attendant came by. She listened patiently to my story and called a tech on her squawk box to come work the problem. She decided to "make me whole" for three lost hands and gave me $38 cash. I still had about $45 in the machine. The tech guy showed, and he checked all the electronics and determined there was no sticky button issue. I always enjoy looking into the guts of a machine, and the techs don't usually mind us players snooping in my experiences. So, he decides to reboot the machine, and figures it's best for me to cash out rather than wait for ten minutes. He says "play one more hand so I can see if anything seems odd…" so I hit the max bet, $12.50 and hit the DEAL button. Zoom zoom, I can't hold any cards and I get a full redraw on five lines. (No, no jackpots, just one paying pair).
I'm very happy that he got to see the problem first hand, I don't care that I got taken for maybe $10….(yes, I should have switched to nickels) So, the tech makes a note of something and commences the reboot and I take off. SO that's the last of it. I decide to NOT play that particular machine even tho the tech didn't close it, in my remaining couple days.
But, I played the adjacent two machines many times.
One more glitch was the bill/ticket acceptor slot on all the machines. When I fed in crisp hundred dollar bills, many times it "chewed" or wrinkled the bill halfway through and turned the half sticking out it sideways. It would either jam and spit the bill back out or, if I was deft enough to straighten the bill out while it was grinding and chewing, (mental images of blood splatter after people got yanked into industrial machines when their hair or clothing gets caught in a lathe or a high speed roller) sometimes the bill would straighten out & slip in and accept it. Sometimes not. It was quite the bother, and ultimately that bother exceeded my enjoyment of the new machine screens and their 55-1 SF payoff.
So, that's most of what I wanted to say about the new WMS video poker machines.
Only the slot manager at Peppermill knows how well these machines have been received.
I do notice that Peppermill is very good about trying out new machines from the manufacturers. I like that.
I know the mechanic grumbled to me that he wishes they just get rid of them – having to often service a completely different layout was too much of a bother to him. He said they'd been there for a month & a half or so.
I'll cross-post this on vpFree_Reno AND vpFree. Looking forward to your comments and experiences with WMS machines.
~Mark Time
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Posted by: mark_my_words_again@yahoo.com
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