Hey gang, DDB1 here. I have been lurking for months and just joined today. As you can tell from my user name, I am a VP player and DDB is my game. I play once or twice a month and head to Vegas every spring.
I consider myself a recreational player, but am always looking for a good opportunity. I hope to learn from some of the pros here and I enjoy talking about Vegas.
Welcome DDB1, video poker was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the handle. Hopefully you can deal with the nature of the game which has big swings.
Where do you play and for what kind of denomination? Most places require $1 minimum for the 9/6 paytable.
Hopefully at least I can take a break from reading the advantage play discussions whether it may be fact or fiction.
Welcome and thanks for joining and for posting. I used to play DDB but to be honest -- I lost too much money at it.Originally Posted by ddb1
Thanks for the welcome.
I am from Chicagoland, so I mainly play at Ameristar and tje Majestic Star. Both have good games, Ameristar for dollars and up, Majestic Star even has 9/6 DDB+ for quarters - but you are essentially no-mailed for playing it. That's fine, I don't need $10 FP or some junky gadget suckering me in.
My favorite though is the 9/5 DDB progressive at Ameristar. It has progressives for the royal, AWAK, aces, quad 2-4 w/kicker and quad 2-4. The meter seems to zing along, the cash and comps are good, and sometimes you can happen across some really high meters. The other day the AWAK was $2600+ and I have seen royals in the 10-12k range. It sure is a boom or bust game though. I thought about learning another game, but I know DDB too well and don't want to get confused trying another
A DDB progressive game at 9/5? That's great. Rincon has the same at 8/5. Another reason NOT to play Rincon in San Diego.
If you primarily play progressives, be sure you know when to make strategy adjustments at certain points.
I believe when the Royal Flush Jackpot reaches at least $6400, a 9/5 DDB game becomes as good as a 9/6 DDB game. It seems as if the meter builds fast to reach $10-12k.
I've heard Majestic Star has a good selection of games from the videopoker dot com forums, but you are correct that in return you get no-mailed offers there for playing them. I'd personally rather have better paytables.
I also experienced what Alan did, I stopped playing DDB when I lost $800-$1200 a few times in just 2 hours of play. Without hitting quads, it can get ugly.
One year I had $1.29-million in W2Gs from $5 DDB and l lost money on the year.
1.29 million!
I try to limit sessions to 800 credits. $200, $400 or $800 - depending on the denomination I plan on playing that day. That way if I hit aces or kicker quads at any time I will be ahead and try to leave. But we know how that goes.
I have never clocked the meter, but the other day I hit the royal and when the attendant asked me to spin it off I noticed it went up by 3 cents. I didn't notice what the other progressive values did. As the only player on the bank, the royal went up $37 in about 90 minutes of play. En route to the royal I hit the quad 2-4 for $468 - which is real high. That and 3 250 quads were quickly sucked back in.
At the Majestic, the best paytables are on the new style machines. I am not a conspiracy person or superstitious, but I much prefer the older machines. Oddly, the good games are mostly vacant, while people are banging away at the older ones.
Originally Posted by Alan Mendelson
Alan: I'd love to know...Did the IRS raise any eyebrows when you wrote off the entirety of those nearly $1.3 million in W2G's that year?
I personally believe you when you say you took a loss for the year, but the bureaucrats might have seen that as something highly unusual, wouldn't they?
I wouldn't expect that to be a problem on a schedule A filing (other than the big hit from AGI of course) or especially on a schedule C filing which is probably what Alan files. From several audit experiences, the IRS doesn't believe anyone wins playing slot machines/video poker because those of them who play knows what it's like, so when you claim to have won that's what raises the bigger eyebrow--which also eases the audit at the same time.
the only tax problem I had was my AGI as Rob said. In fact I was audited that year -- not for my gambling losses, but for my Internet business. As part of the Internet business audit which was reported as a Schedule C the auditors also had my full tax return. Nothing was mentioned about my gambling losses. And in fact, my audit was 100% "clear" because we had an accountant handling the Internet business. (By the way this was my old moredeals.com which was later sold when CBS -- my employer at the time -- told me to shut it down.)
My accountant told me it was unlikely the IRS would question "losses" because the IRS believes everyone loses. It's only when you're a big winner that you have to worry, said my accountant, such as when you hit megabucks or some million dollar jackpot.
Realize that most of the $1.29-million in W2Gs came as $1,250 quads. I had two progressive royals that year -- both in the range of $36,000. So the IRS could realistically see that it takes a lot of losing to hit those small winners.
Now, when you sit down at a Megabucks machine and win $12-million on a $3 bet -- THEN you have to think about taxes. And when you win $8-million at a WSOP poker tournament -- THEN you have to think about taxes.
I know Alan is smart enough to use a casino player card. Imagine how a $5 DDB player will write off $1 million in W2Gs without a win loss record coming from the casino.
DDB1, you really need to clock those meters to see where the overall game is at. 9/5 DDB is a 97.87% game. If the royal meter went up 3 cents for a $5 bet then it is a .6% meter. Thats pretty strong for a five meter game. It appears the meters travel in pennies. When you are playing alone, then write the meter down. Play 20 hands then stop to see how much the meter has risen. That's a $100 wager.
If the meter has risen $1 then it's a 1% meter.
If the meter has risen 60 cents then its a .6% meter
If the meter has risen 50 cents then its a .5% meter
If the meter has risen 25 cents then its a .25% meter.
From the numbers you say you have seen I would say you have a pretty good gig working on that bank as long as numbers are good. If all the meters travel at the same speed then the small quads without the kicker meter and the Aces without the kicker meter would have the most dramatic effect on the payback of the game as they are the easiest meter hands to hit.
Casino win/loss statements mean nothing to the IRS and state auditors. In my 1st IRS audit, I produced a slew of those casino year-end statements and the IRS handed them right back to me saying they are nothing more than ancillary info from casinos where you may or may not have used a player's card and/or the casino's tracking system may or may not have been accurate. They firmly told me the ONLY info that matters to them is the taxpayer's own log, bank statements if applicable, and any other supporting documentation that supports where you obtained the cash from to gamble with.Originally Posted by alpax
In my 2nd audit I didn't have win/loss statements because I stopped asking for them several years earlier. This audit also went smoothly and these auditors never asked for them.
Lots of people mistake those stupid casino statements as something special for the taxman but they mean nothing to them. And it makes sense--they're auditing you and not the casinos. Nothing is more important and meaningful to the IRS other than your own signed documentation.
Last edited by Rob.Singer; 09-14-2015 at 10:38 PM.
Anyone looking to play progressives, mickeycrimm is very knowledgeable about it from this post as well as the posts on the VPFree ForumOriginally Posted by singahkillah
Link requires a Yahoo! account
Much appreciated for the heads up on this. I did hear about from your rival Bob Dancer that the Win/Loss records from the casino may not be reliable in the eyes of the IRS. For some reason personal logs do matter more. It is baffling that a person's record keeping is more credible but I will start doing it without complaning. I rarely ever get a W2G with my meager betting/play.Originally Posted by Rob.Singer
In my case, when I had the audit, there were TWO IRS auditors going over our books and returns and no one blinked an eye that I offset the losses. I wasn't asked for any documentation. And frankly, casino win/loss statements are not the ideal documentation according to the IRS. They want to see cancelled checks, ATM receipts and a log.Originally Posted by alpax
Thanks, I need to do just that. I do know that the 2-4 quads don't move after every hand. It takes a couple of hands to move them a penny. I like the idea of a 20 hand meter check.Originally Posted by singahkillah
I never received even one accurate win/loss statement from the casinos. The only reason I asked for win/loss statements was to see if I was showing a win from a casino that I knew I was beating. The statements actually showed me as a big loser.Originally Posted by alpax
After my recent hot run, I thought I was a VP badass. I received my comeupance last night. A couple of the progressives were pretty sporty:
$4200
$2239
$866
$998 !
$412
Lost my limit of $800 in 90 minutes, two cheap quads towards the end to prolong the inevitable. Volatile game, and I suppose I had it coming after going well 8 of my last 9 sessions - from $51 to $3000+ ahead, with the loser being $300.
Never got to check the meter as there were other players banging away.
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