Redietz:

I also would like to take a stab at your question to Rob concerning "at what point your (Rob's) strategies fail".

Maybe it follows this paradigm?

If playing an exactly 100% return game your DEAL/DRAW button timing doesn't have to be any better or worse than the average VP player to break even.

At a 99% return game your DEAL/DRAW button pressing timings must be 1.0101% better than the average VP player to break even.
At a 98% return game your DEAL/DRAW button pressing timings must be 2.0408% better than the average VP player to break even.
At a 96% return game your DEAL/DRAW button pressing timings must be 4.166% better than the average VP player to break even.

It's simply a matter of where, the lower the paytable, the more accurately you must time the button presses to break even or be a consistent winner.

You can be a consistent winner at a 90% return slot machine as long as you are always timing the button presses at least 11.11111% better than the average player all the time.

There's really no point where Rob's strategies fail; you simply need to be better and better at timing the DEAL/DRAW button presses as the paytables become progressively inferior.