Prowling the Ultimate X machines

A friend told me a story about how in LV there are "walkers" -- folks who walk around the casino floor -- looking for unplayed credits and games with bonuses waiting for a play.

Years ago at NYNY there was a slot called break the bank (or something like that) where three wins of some sort will turn the combination to open the vault and some bonus. And we would try to find a machine with one or more of the wins were left making the bonus easier to get.

Now my friend tells em that that are players scouting the Ultimate X machines (a variety of video poker) looking for games where a bonus will be played on the next hand.

obviously you don't want to abandon a machine when a bonus is about to be available but I guess some people do run out of money or run out of time. (Running out of money is more likely.)

Well, my friend told me that at one casino on the The Strip there were at least four of these counters who kept coming by the Ultimate X machine near him to check... and they came one after another.

Sound familiar?

I know of three people who do that--2 in LV and one up in Reno/Tahoe. There's also a character on some of the forums who calls himself MickeyCrimm who, if you can believe even 10% of the BS he writes, claims that he USED TO scour certain machines like that. (Notice the recurring theme with these self-proclaimed, has-been AP's, like AC, Wong, etc. and now MC--they all USED TO rule the gambling world....but those darn casinos tightened the screws on them!) My own take on him is that he writes all his stories only after downing a 24-pack.

I can see the fascination with doing all that scouring, but to me it just isn't worth the time. Maybe if I were younger and my financial future were still up in the air, I'd give it a go. A few bucks never hurt anybody.

Ultimate x sucks your dough faster than obama can spew lies. I threw away a twenty in A.C. trump Plaza for the heck of it and noticed that when you cash out or more likely run out of money the last bonus was wiped out. I'm wondering if thats legal in Jersey. Nevada may require the bonus to stay on. The right way to play would be to de-activate the bonus feature on your last play. The game at Trump wouldn't allow that so they are actualy stealing half of your first bet!