Originally Posted by Don Perignom View Post
What were some of the first VP advantage plays?

I looked around online. In the early 1980s, some blackjack APs switched over to VP whenever a progressive went high enough. In 1984, Stanford Wong published strategies in his newsletter, then followed up in 1988 with a full book titled "Professional Video Poker." The BJ21 site has a free PDF of an updated edition.

Wong focused heavily on 8/5 JoB progressives, including guidelines for adjusting strategy to jackpot level. Highest he found was $18,500 on $1 denom at Harvey's. 8/5 JoB is 97.3% base, and jackpot increase rates were typically either 1 or 2%.

Other plays must have been available, but may not have been known or understood. In a 1991 update, Wong added EVs for more pay schedules including 100.65% Joker and 100.76% FPDW. But no strategies. Strategies would soon be provided by other authors including Lenny Frome and Dan Paymar.

Today, slot club value is a critical component. I doubt slot clubs had much presence in the 1980s, but casinos probably ran some good promos. Card of the day, double royals, etc.

That I can help with -- although my video poker probably lifetime averages just 50-60 hours a year, I was there for the beginning of slot clubs and how comps were figured. I have a good story regarding the opening of slot clubs at the Gold Coast and my trench coat with deep pockets.

Video poker and slot comps actually tie into how race and sports comps changed and evolved over time, also. It's too much to post in one or two go's. Maybe I'll do a blog this week regarding it. Remember, initially, slots and video poker had identical comp rates. One of my classic stories is how I got three royals in about 700 hands one day, with two of them with just a single coin-in. LOL. It's a terrible story, but funny. Anyway, one of them was on the old bank of FPDW, which was a 25-cent progressive, in the Palms. FPDW was available many places in Las Vegas back then, sometimes for dollars. Initially, to put things in perspective, race betting and sports betting also had the same comp rates. There was a four/five year period where the majority of comps transitioned from discretionary to club-oriented comps.