Big Casino Wins and Jackpots

[Alan Mendelson]

No, they don't. You're assuming you will continue to lose. But that is not true as my "what if" above demonstrated.

Arc, your what if demonstrated that you got lucky.

The point is all hands have the same odds. Going home does not change the odds on your next hand. You seem to have some belief in magical fairies that will change your fortune the next time you play.

Here's where we might have a different approach to going to the casino. I don't go to lose money and when I do lose I only want it to be an amount I don't mind losing. Therefore my loss limits keep me from being angry with myself. My win goals allow me to be happy with myself.

Now, I'm not saying leaving will hurt you, it simply will have no effect over time. Your results will approach the ER of your play no matter what you do. So, if you aren't having fun then that is a good reason to leave. However, doing poorly over a recent stretch of hands is meaningless.

Well, Arc, leaving with a win goal or a loss limit might not have any effect over time but it does have an effect on that day and that moment. I can't think about over time. I don't know if I'll ever return to a casino again over time, or if a meteor will hit earth or the planet will be swallowed up by a black hole. I do know I want to go home and say I had a good time.

Perhaps doing poorly over a stretch of hands is not meaningless to you, but it is to me. Even when I had my royal flush drought I was still doing OK because of an unusual number of straight flushes and quad-aces. But each and every time I played I was well aware of my loss limit.

[arcimede$]

Arc, your what if demonstrated that you got lucky.

Which will occur at a statistically predictable rate. What that means is playing a positive game will lead to winning more than I lose.

Here's where we might have a different approach to going to the casino. I don't go to lose money and when I do lose I only want it to be an amount I don't mind losing. Therefore my loss limits keep me from being angry with myself. My win goals allow me to be happy with myself.

Fine, I have no problem that. However, when you try to imply that quitting at various points in time will always avoid losing more money then you are going too far. If you go back and reread your what-ifs you will see you almost always claim you would lose after reaching a win limit or loss limit. You've indoctrinated yourself into believing that rubbish. The truth is your results going into the future will be no different than when you return and play again.

Well, Arc, leaving with a win goal or a loss limit might not have any effect over time but it does have an effect on that day and that moment. I can't think about over time. I don't know if I'll ever return to a casino again over time, or if a meteor will hit earth or the planet will be swallowed up by a black hole. I do know I want to go home and say I had a good time.

We'd all like to do that but it's not always possible with random games. Sorry.

Perhaps doing poorly over a stretch of hands is not meaningless to you, but it is to me. Even when I had my royal flush drought I was still doing OK because of an unusual number of straight flushes and quad-aces. But each and every time I played I was well aware of my loss limit.

I'm also aware of how I am doing. So what? It won't change our results over time.

[Alan Mendelson]

This came from Pechanga Casino in Temecula. Pechange is getting a pretty good reputation for having a great poker room and for having some of the biggest, if not the biggest, jackpots in poker rooms. The bad beat jackpot hit again today and what makes it attractive is that everyone in the poker room shares:

Pechanga Poker Jackpot Strikes at $219,420

Bad Beat Jackpot is California’s largest poker jackpot

January 10, 2013 – California’s largest poker jackpot, the Pechanga Bad Beat Megashare Jackpot, struck at approximately 1:30pm today and paid out $219,420 on a bad beat bet, netting Chris, the loser of the hand, $65,824. Chris’ quad 5’s were beaten by Armando’s quad kings, trigging the massive payout. Every player in the room in a live hold-em game got their cut as well, leaving 106 guests walking away with $414 each.

[regnis]

I was going to post a picture of a pretty 4 aces for $4,000 on a super triple play. I had my friend take a picture on his cell phone and e-mail it to me but I can't figure out how to upload it to here. Any help?? It came in as a picture or a JPG.

Still no royal for many years--but at least this is same as a royal in value.

[Alan Mendelson]

To upload a photo, click on "go advanced" underneath your response box. Then click on "manage attachments" and then upload your file from your computer to the server of the Forum.

[JamieV]

Went to Rincon this afternoon. Hit a 5 point FireBet with $5. Total pay out was 1250.00. Also won about 1,000 more from the roll. Good times!

Had the 6th point established but player 7-Out. Shoulda Woulda Coulda!

[Alan Mendelson]

Wow, five point fire bet made at card craps!! I think that is harder than at traditional craps because card craps is purely luck. There is no skill element in card craps -- you cannot influence the dice to give yourself even the tiniest of theoretical edges.

Did Rincon have any 6 point fire bet winners before? How many 5 point winners? This is really amazing and congratulations!!

[JamieV]

Wow, five point fire bet made at card craps!! I think that is harder than at traditional craps because card craps is purely luck. There is no skill element in card craps -- you cannot influence the dice to give yourself even the tiniest of theoretical edges.

Did Rincon have any 6 point fire bet winners before? How many 5 point winners? This is really amazing and congratulations!!

Hi Alan,

From what I heard through various pit bosses; the first month that the FireBet was installed they had THREE 6-Point winners.

They have had quite a bit of 4 and 5-Pointers as well. For example, this afternoon they had a 5-Pointer and two 4-Pointers, and tonight around 8pm they had two 5-Pointers. Two weeks ago when I was there, they had a 5-Pointer hit and the following morning I set the 5th Point but couldn't hit it. The FireBet has been hitting at least 5-Points once a week. I think that is about right for how many hands they are getting in weekly; but I'm not sure.

[Alan Mendelson]

That is an unusually high number of fire bet payoffs. I've been at Caesars with 7 tables operating on a busy weekend, and not even one 5-pointer the entire weekend.

[Alan Mendelson]

Rob Singer sent me a photo of another jackpot on one the games he likes... Triple Bonus Poker Plus. Rob used one of his "special plays" on this particular hand and held only an ace and didn't make the "proper play" of holding a J and Q. But it paid off for him, drawing three more aces and scoring a $6,000 payday.

He sent me a text to tell me he was playing an 8/5 game. But that was a mistake as you'll see below.

When I congratulated Rob and asked him to send me a photo so I could post it, I said that holding single aces was his thing and he responded:

Yes you know Aces has always been my game. If I had held the higher EV QJ, I MAY have gotten my $25 back! I made one mistake in my text: it was 7/5 not 8/5. So I lost more on that hand than I thought . Thanks. Rob


click on the thumbnail to expand the photo:

[Alan Mendelson]

The Megabucks game played at Native American Casinos has been hit at Pala Casino in San Diego County. Here is the release from IGT:

LAS VEGAS, Feb. 4, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- A Southern California slot player had more than a million reasons to celebrate as the winner took home an International Game Technology (IGT) California Megabucks® jackpot for $3,229,365 at Pala Casino Spa and Resort in Pala, Calif.

The Megabucks® player, who wished to remain anonymous, won while visiting the casino on Friday night. The new multimillionaire was shocked and said, "I almost fainted!"

"This $3-million Megabucks jackpot is the largest jackpot ever to hit at Pala Casino Spa and Resort," said Bill Bembenek, Pala Casino Spa and Resort's chief executive officer. "It is exciting to offer our Pala players so many ways to win from our fantastic casino games to our $2 Million Cash and Cars Giveaway promotion every Friday during February."

[regnis]

Funny-was just saying that I haven't seen any big Megabucks winners announced lately, although that's pretty small for a Mega isn't it?

Still no Royals for me--can't even guess the number of hands anymore. But Aces poppin like crazy lately. Had $10,000 Aces on a $5 Super Aces yesterday. Still can't seem to figure out how to post picture. Got yelled at (Horseshoe Hammond, Indiana) when I started to take the picture--they said no pictures allowed in the casino. But my buddy's cell takes picture without a flash so he snuck a picture while waiting for them to return with the IRS stuff.

[Rob.Singer]

That's a great hit regnis--the reason to play Super Aces. I've hit a couple of those at $5 and one at $10 over the years. Too bad it's not a "positive game" though. You DO know that each hand you played on it costs you money and you really haven't won anything, right?

I didn't fare so well in the gambling dept. the past couple of days. I lost my Super Bowl bet, then I tried to win some of it back on the vp machines overnight. But to add insult to injury I lost a mix of dollars, quarters, & 50c credits (3000 credits total, equalling $1100) going without hitting a quad thru the entire amount. Never have I had such a bad run without them--not even close. But I soothe myself by thinking of all the slot club points I accumulated....

Anyway, Alan, did you read John G's column on TBP that was put up on vpFree? I have to straighten that guy out on how & when to use a special play or else he'll lose all his money fast when he plays it!

Also, I saw a new game I wasn't familiar with in the casino last night, or at least it was new to me. I don't think it was an IGT machine either, but it had to be an over 100% game. It's called Triple TRIPLE Bonus Poker. Yes that's right. It had the same paytable as those rare 10/6 DDBP games, but four A's with a kicker pays 4000, four 2's thru 4's with an ACE kicker only pays 4000, and there was a 2000 credit payout of some kind having to do with quad 2's thru 4's also. I saw it on two machines but it was only available in pennies thru 20c. Where have all the "AP's" gone??

[arcimede$]

Triple triple bonus poker:

http://wizardofodds.com/games/video-...-triple-bonus/

[Alan Mendelson]

That megabucks jackpot is only for California Indian casinos. About nine casinos, I think, are part of the pool. IGT runs "regional" megabucks in addition to what we see in Vegas.

[regnis]

The 3-of-a-kind penalty in the various triple bonus games just seems too stiff, even for someone like me who likes the games like DDB and Super aces, etc that have big wins other than a Royal.

Thanks-Rob--I almost never play $5.00 VP--I am more a $1.00 guy or a .25--.50--1.00 progression on a 3-way. But we were hitting quads all day and decided to step it up and take a shot. Oddly, there were 5 players in the hi limit room--it's small and usually only a couple players there--and everyone was popping signers every few minutes. They had 3 people handling payouts as they were non-stop for about an hour period of time.At one point they were paying all 5 of us at the same time. Dare I say the games were "hot"??. One guy was on a $25 slot and got double star, double star, white 7 for a big hit.

[Alan Mendelson]

regnis congratulations on the big hit. email the photo to me and I will post for you. alan(at)alanbestbuys.com

[Rob.Singer]

Triple triple bonus poker:

http://wizardofodds.com/games/video-...-triple-bonus/

That's a 7/5 version but I still never heard of it or saw one until last night. Usually the Wizard puts up the full pay version, so these may be the first ones available at 10/6.

[regnis]

regnis congratulations on the big hit. email the photo to me and I will post for you. alan(at)alanbestbuys.com

I wish I could follow that up with a good craps story, but it wasn't to be. You can't play craps at the Horseshoe anymore. terribly bouncy tables and no room between pass line odds and wall so you have to hit the chips. Also, no real players--lots of penny props and wrong amounts for place bets. So we couldn't just sit on the win--had to go play craps so went to a different casino that has a better "class" of players but also pretty bouncy.

As you know, I do, or more accurately did, claim to have some dice control ability, and my specialty was 8's and hard 10's. But again, I no longer make that claim as I don't play very often since I was barred from shooting. This casino that we went to is a new casino where i have never played so i assumed (corectly) that there would be no problem.

First shooter held them for 20 so I was up about $1,000. Then my roll. First come out is 10--a good sign tho I have no sense of comfort in my stroke. Put $250 odds and 50 hard 10--next roll--hard ten. I hold another 20 and up pretty good. Next 5 shooters all tank and I take a $135 profit to VP and pick up a couple hundred. But after that hard 10 I got a little hopeful but really had no grooved stroke--just lucky.

[Alan Mendelson]

Damn, regnis, you were dealt the quad aces. I inserted your photo above.