Are there any good video poker Pay Tables left at Rincon? below $5 high limit

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08-20-2016, 01:43 AM
Dan Druff

Was in the area today and stopped by the Rincon, as I stated I would.

Here are my findings:

- There is one remaining 8/5 Bonus machine under $5/credit. That's machine #3402, located in that bank to the side of the high limit area. It's not along the wall of outside the high limit area, but rather located in the middle of one of the rows of VP machines to the side of it. It's next to one of the Double Super Times Pay machines. You'll find it if you spend a few minutes looking for it. It's an old school Game King. However, it should be noted that this is an 8/5/30 Bonus Poker machine, meaning that they pay a flat 30x your bet for quads, rather than the sliding scale from 25 to 80 that you're used to seeing. Unfortunately, this takes the game's payout down to 98.48%, but it's still better than traditional 7/5 Bonus Poker, which pays 98.01%. The denominations of this machine are 25c/50c/$1/$2, and it's the same paytable for all of them.

- All other VP machines with denominations under $5 are pretty bad. They are also inconsistent with paytables. For example, Bonus Poker on Super Times Pay is 6/5, but Bonus Poker on Double Super Times Pay is 7/5. Some machines are 6/5 for Aces and Faces and Bonus Poker, while others are 7/5. There are also some awful machines paying 1 for the two pair on Bonus Poker. Basically, if you see a new-looking machine with a nice, high-def display, you don't want it. The best paytables are still on some of the older school machines, but they're still not very good.

- High Limit room still has $5 Aces and Faces (99.26%), but it's $5 minimum. It also has ACE$ which has a 99.40% return, but since you'll almost never hit the special ACE$ payout, it plays just like a 99.17% 8-5 Bonus Poker machine. And speaking of good ol' 8-5 Bonus Poker, even in the high limit room they are doing that 98.48% 8/5/30 nonsense. Fortunately you can get around that by simply playing ACE$ or Aces and Faces.

What is alarming to me is how many horrible paytables exist on machines there, and how the payouts vary so much from machine to machine. And everything basically sucks if you're not playing $5/credit.
08-20-2016, 01:55 AM
Dan Druff

Quote:

Originally Posted by nerakil

I doubt one player's good luck was the tipping point. Maybe if Todd hit the top $200K award so that particular bank of machines took a beating for the month or quarter.

The location of the 99.67% DSTP machines at Rincon weren't a big secret and had been listed on VPFree2 for almost 4 years. There is also frequent discussion of San Diego County video poker on the [harrahscasinos] Yahoo group.

Interestingly, I ran into a group of WSOP Circuit poker players at Harvey's Lake Tahoe in 2013. They were all Seven Stars members from SoCal, and the casino where they grinded tier credits exclusively? Harrah's Rincon (and their 50c DSTP Bonus Poker machines).

Ah.. that 200k which I was the wrong queen away from hitting. Still stings.

Anyway, I till think it's possible they audited something after I hit 6 royals, and then discovered the machines were paying back very poor returns (per $ wagered) than others on property.

Or it could have just been a massive coincidence. I guess I'll never know.

I do know that I was the catalyst to the hotel removing the obnoxious $80 charge if you don't check in by 8pm (which they claimed they would credit back if you did show up after that time). When I didn't get my $80 back as promised, I was put through a hellish experience trying to even reach the front desk to discuss it, as the operator thought my reason "wasn't good enough" to be connected to the front desk, and they kept trying to push me onto a voicemail that literally no one checks. We got into a big standoff, and the operator said that the entire department has been informed to refuse to connect me to the front desk (or any manager) no matter what, and that I was essentially barred from speaking to anyone besides operators (lol). Well, of course I got a hold of the hotel manager a few days later, who was horrified. She was relatively new on the job, and immediately instituted a number of rules and changes as a result of my bad experience there, including doing away with the $80 fee, as well as creating new rules regarding what the operators can and can't decide on their own.
08-22-2016, 09:47 PM
ke6cdh

It's not like Harrah's rincon has any COMPETITION !!!!!

Oh wait a minute there is Pechanga so very close to the freeway you don't have to travel dangerous mountainous roads to get there. They have 9/6 jacks or better at the $0.05 and $0.25 level. I guess Harrah's does not care if the chase their video pokers players away.
08-22-2016, 10:06 PM
Alan Mendelson

Rincon has a devoted player base because it is tied to Total Rewards. That is the only reason to play there. The games are not good at Rincon nor are the restaurants, hotel rooms, entertainment... and down the list. The only reason to play at Rincon is to get points for Vegas.

Pechanga is a far superior casino resort but it is independent.
08-22-2016, 10:13 PM
Alan Mendelson

Dan your six royals were insignificant. I was at Rincon the night one player hit a $5 progressive royal for about $50k then an hour later she hit it again for about $21k. Rincon didn't blink.

While you Dan hit six royals there are many players who never hit one. You just are part of the expected return. You did not break the casino.

With that said what did destroy Rincon was their overly optimistic building program. They built a new hotel and convention center that is mostly idle. Players are paying for that.
08-23-2016, 04:14 PM
Dan Druff

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alan Mendelson

Dan your six royals were insignificant. I was at Rincon the night one player hit a $5 progressive royal for about $50k then an hour later she hit it again for about $21k. Rincon didn't blink.

While you Dan hit six royals there are many players who never hit one. You just are part of the expected return. You did not break the casino.

With that said what did destroy Rincon was their overly optimistic building program. They built a new hotel and convention center that is mostly idle. Players are paying for that.

The new hotel isn't mostly idle.

Every weekend it sells out. Well, at least the non-smoking rooms do.

I don't think I broke the casino with 6 royals. I do think maybe it made them take a look at their least -EV game there by a wide margin, and they decided to downgrade it.
08-23-2016, 04:17 PM
Dan Druff

The new tower is fairly nice. Not luxurious or special by any means, but it's new-looking, the rooms are fairly large, and you feel like you're staying at a decent place.

They are still plagued with operational problems, though. I stayed over the weekend, and they laughably didn't have enough towels. I literally had to negotiate with them to bring more clean towels up to me, and they pressured me to return the ones I already had (which I didn't mind doing, but LOL @ any large hotel trying to refuse towels.)

My favorite part of the conversation:

"'I'd like you to send up 6 towels here, please" (I always get a lot so I don't have to keep asking for them on a multi-day stay)

"We can't do that. The most I can give you is 2"

"We have 4 people in this room. How are we supposed to use 2 towels?"

"Okay, fine, I'll give you 4. But you need to return all of the towels you have now!"

Embarrassing.

Even Motel 6 doesn't do this.
08-23-2016, 04:37 PM
ke6cdh

Wait until you get a new tower room where the hot water does not adjust right in the shower

I like the USB outlets in the new tower. I did get a new tower room where it took 30 minutes trying to adjust the shower so that the water coming out was not freezing cold or scolding hot. It seemed like no matter how much I tried to adjust the temperature of the water either the hot or cold valve was disconnecting from the single handle they had to adjust hot and cold.
08-23-2016, 10:50 PM
Alan Mendelson

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan Druff

The new hotel isn't mostly idle.

Every weekend it sells out. Well, at least the non-smoking rooms do.

They built a convention center and doubled the size of the hotel to serve it. Have you ever heard of a convention there?

Even if the hotel does sell out on weekends, what about the other five nights?

They started to downgrade their games as soon as they started construction.
08-24-2016, 02:32 AM
Dan Druff

Quote:

Originally Posted by ke6cdh

I like the USB outlets in the new tower. I did get a new tower room where it took 30 minutes trying to adjust the shower so that the water coming out was not freezing cold or scolding hot. It seemed like no matter how much I tried to adjust the temperature of the water either the hot or cold valve was disconnecting from the single handle they had to adjust hot and cold.

I also had a problem with getting the water to the right temperature.

The sliding door separating the sink area from the rest of the room was also heavy and got stuck often.

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