Big Casino Losses and Wallet Torture

[Dan Druff]

I hit three royals so far this year. Two of them were on 7/5 bonus. The royals still paid 4,000 coins.

I know, and you were fortunate enough to hit one on a $100k machine. So that's great.

But you do realize that the casino was taking money right out of your pocket every time you hit that full house, right?

I know that you look for the best paytables wherever you are, but you also can't dismiss the importance of 8/5 versus 7/5.

[james40]

I know, and you were fortunate enough to hit one on a $100k machine. So that's great.

But you do realize that the casino was taking money right out of your pocket every time you hit that full house, right?

I know that you look for the best paytables wherever you are, but you also can't dismiss the importance of 8/5 versus 7/5.

The entire design of Vegas is to take more and more money out of your pocket, from the taxi drivers, to the valet, to the check in with the made up "$20 dollar trick", to poor pay tables, overpriced food, drink and shows, to every employee of every shop or store with their hand out. If they are giving you something in the right pocket they are taking it back and more from your left pocket. Vegas used to have some value, no more.

We still enjoy Las Vegas for it's proximity to some beautiful areas in the Southwest and will probably continue to make a yearly visit, but these days we much prefer Lake Tahoe as a destination. Not only for the better pay tables, but also the mountain views and the skiing or hiking that is right out the door. Additionally, you don't have that sense of desperation that permeates Las Vegas.

[Rob.Singer]

Rob, you say you play the best paytables you see, but don't mind a lousy one if that's all you find available. That's a huge problem. You also say that you deviate from the mathematically best strategy in order to shoot for big hands, which is correct for tournaments but incorrect for cash play.

If this is the way you really play, then yes, hosts should be repeatedly calling you and begging you to come on property.

It's confusing how you believe in playing the best pay table available on a strategy that has little to do with the small differences in pay tables, is a huge problem. You acknowledge how it's entirely possible to win on 7/5 BP (as Alan & I have proven time and again) during a session. So what makes you also believe that this winning cannot happen most of the time in individual goal-setting sessions simply because of five credits and a miniscule theoretical % difference? That type of true-believing makes no sense. "It can happen once or twice, but most of the time that 5-credit difference will make you a loser!" See why yet?

Playing for big potential session-ending winning hands, when properly incorporated into a structured play strategy, are a big advantage for a player who quits when a pre-determined profit is attained. For most players--and I assume you are like most--this is not an option, as getting up and leaving with a wad of former casino cash, is not in their DNA. Doing so has always been an integral part of my approach. But you will never allow yourself to get that.

When you think of giving up $5 in cash every time you hit a FH on 7/5 BP instead of being happy you actually HIT a fh, you're thinking like any amateur would think. That's like a ball player being unhappy with himself by hitting a double and not stretching it out to a triple, instead of being satisfied with the success of hitting a double. In such a case, you'd be trying to figure out how much salary that inability to go for a triple might cost you "in the long run" because of theoretical perception by ownership, when the only important factor all along was how did that double affect your team's ability to win the game TODAY.

You have to be able to think beyond the obvious in gambling, because the casinos are way ahead of you on all of that.

I know of no hosts by name, and of those who've called me begging for me to return, I have rarely accommodated them. A smart player stays away from hosts. It's obvious, but most players like the "comforting talk" and that "home away from home" feeling these casino tools provide.