Suggestions: Las Vegas on the cheap(ish)

[Llava]

I don't plan to use any machines.  We've got plenty of indian casinos around here with tons of machines and like 4 live dealers.  I'm going to play with real people, because that's more fun.

[WayAbvPar]

Make sure to get all the player's club cards and get rated if you are playing...every liitle bit helps, and you can get some decent offers in the mail.

[Kitsune]

You're correct, a bad streak on a machine can strip away most of your money, it's the long haul that has things average out to the listed percentage.  What I didn't mention was that I was playing the nickel machine, which takes 1-5 credits, so I played that thousand dollars in 5-25 cent increments.  I played a LOT of hands, which smoothed out the runs of good and bad luck.  Going and tossing that thousand bucks into one of the $1-5 machines has the potential to eat your money before you hit a high-paying hand to get your cash back, so don't do that.

[Edit: And I looked around for a full-pay poker machine while I was there, never found one in any of the casinos.  Best I found was 97-ish percent return.]

That seems like a ton of money, I know, but the machines have something like a 97% return rate, so you're only going to be losing 30-50 bucks on it, statistically-speaking.

This is a misapplication of the return rate.  If you find a full pay machine and play it correctly you can actually get this closer to 99.5 percent, but I digress.

The return rate isn't on your buy-in. It is on your total amount wagered.  So say you play 100 hands an hour at 5 bucks a throw, your "total amount wagered" for that hour is 500 bucks. So the return rate would suggest that you will lose 3% of that or 15 bucks. So it all depends on how long you play, not how much you put in.  However, video poker is a HIGH VARIANCE game so that 3% is over a very long series of plays (as in hundreds of thousands of throws, royals are how you make up much of the house advantage and they have a probablity of 0.000025, so you can go months without hitting one). Your hour could have a much higher loss rate.  Playing that hour at 5 bucks a throw could easily put you down 100 bucks or even 200 and if you have a bad run 300.   I've had runs like that.  Now, I'm not saying don't play it as video poker is one of the better house advantage games if you can find a full pay machine.  FINDING A FULL PAY MACHINE IS CRITICAL AND NOT ALWAYS EASY.  Otherwise you are giving up a much larger house edge than you need to.  So, if you can find a full pay machine, don't mind dealing with the large swings of variance that can happen and can play it correctly, the comps can make up for the relatively small house advantage. Just don't think you can pop it in there and roll for an hour or 45 minutes and be guaranteed any sort of direct return or calculated loss that will offset the benefits you will be getting.

For info on what is full pay for various games and good strategy, I recommend here:

http://wizardofodds.com/videopoker

Not saying that it couldn't work out the way it was described, but there are no guarantees.

[XboxGod]

$1500 is KLM going Copenhagen - Amsterdam

I'd call it good there.

[Abagadro]

And I looked around for a full-pay poker machine while I was there, never found one in any of the casinos.

I wouldn't be suprised if full pay machiens are basically nonexistent in the big places in Vegas. It's why I only play VP in the podunct border town of Wendover.  They have a great full pay progressive quarter jacks or better machine where the royal routinely gets up between 1150 and 1250. I've actually hit the royal twice this year on it.

I'm surprised you got that good of comp attention playing a nickel machine. If that is the case I would indeed jump all over that.

[Kitsune]

Yeah, the Royale only has two measurements for comps, money in and money out.  Normal comp points come from money out, every dollar of winnings from a slot machine (every two dollars from a poker machine) gets 1 point, IIRC, which is then subject to double and triple point hours.  Once you have a thousand or more points, you can turn them in for cash at a 1 point=1 cent ratio.  On top of the points for cash is the points for comps, a separate tally that you can redeem for gift certificates to the restaurants attached to the hotel.  The free hotel rooms for club members are granted on money in, and requires a thousand dollars into the machines in any increment just so long as you reach a thousand bucks within a certain amount of time (a month? not sure).

It's a sweet deal compared to the shitty comp cards everyone else offers, which had crap like, 'At 2000 points, you get $5 off the buffet!'

My shoddy Vegas memoirs are here.

[Abagadro]

Had something fun happen in a live game tonight.  Was in the small blind with TJ of hearts. Usual 7 people to see the flop with no raising. I should have raised, but meh. Anyways, flop comes down AKQ of hearts. Never flopped a royal before. No action unforunately but I did get the hundred dollar bonus.  I wish someone would have caught aces full so I would have picked up 5 grand. On top that that I absolutely ran over the game with monster cards. Played for all of 3 hours and had rockets three times, KK, QQ, and JJ on top of my royal with only one of those (the QQ) getting run down and even in that hand I had a set. Broke an eight month streek of rags and suckouts in that game. 

[Llava]

Very nice.  I've never even seen anyone flop a royal.

[XboxGod]

I've flopped one, and turned one in my poker career. Both happened in the last four months!

[WayAbvPar]

Had something fun happen in a live game tonight.  Was in the small blind with TJ of hearts. Usual 7 people to see the flop with no raising. I should have raised, but meh. Anyways, flop comes down AKQ of hearts. Never flopped a royal before. No action unforunately but I did get the hundred dollar bonus.  I wish someone would have caught aces full so I would have picked up 5 grand. On top that that I absolutely ran over the game with monster cards. Played for all of 3 hours and had rockets three times, KK, QQ, and JJ on top of my royal with only one of those (the QQ) getting run down and even in that hand I had a set. Broke an eight month streek of rags and suckouts in that game. 

Nice! FWIW, I doubt I would raise from the SB after that many limpers with that hand...being out of position with what is probably going to be a drawing hand sucks. Of course, if I knew I would flop a royal I might be tempted to toss in a raise  I think I have had 2 royals in my life, both online. One was at the end of a hideous session, and I refused to add more money to my stack. I ran out of money to raise with on the turn, which cost me a shitload of money. Never again will I sit at a table with less than 12 big bets in my stack. Lesson learned 

I broke a long losing streak (haven't had a winning session since I left Vegas over Memorial Day!) on Saturday. Only won a few pots, but they were monsters. Had a guy next to call a bet on the river with Ax suited with a board of KK5xx (not important) when the guy who bet turned over his K on the turn to try to scare out the draws. He called with A high when he KNEW the other guy had 3 of a kind! I couldn't wait to get into pots with him, but unfortunately he folded to most of my preflop raises. Nice loose passive table with one kid who liked to raise with junk. He got reraised and isolated by a certain someone a lot  :-D

[Signe]

God, I so don't understand what anyone is talking about.  I feel as if I've fallen into a huge vat of foreign people.

[Abagadro]

I doubt I would raise from the SB after that many limpers with that hand...being out of position with what is probably going to be a drawing hand sucks.

The only reason to raise there is pure pot equity as that hand plays absolutely great against multiple opponents. You will also flop either a monster draw or squat so it is easy to play too, regardless of position. This game was weird though.  One minute everyone was cold-calling raises with bupkis and the next they would fold around. You would get called down when your hand was obvious and they were going to lose, people would call to the river and then fold (what appeared to be) decent hands but call with crap hands to "keep you honest" or everyone would all of a sudden fold to any flop bet.  Was really tough to get a read.  Knowing how fluky it was (and how strong I was playing as people were starting to get the idea that I was betting so much because I had a monster every time, BECAUSE I DID!) I might have taken the pot with a preflop raise and missed out on the hand altogether. 

I'm glad your bad run ended. I was on a similar run and they suck.

[WayAbvPar]

Yeah, it really depends on your read on the table. In most games I play, a raise there from the SB would just double the size of the pot and provide everyone with pot odds to run me down when I flop top two. Not that I am bitter.

[XboxGod]

Yeah, it really depends on your read on the table. In most games I play, a raise there from the SB would just double the size of the pot and provide everyone with pot odds to run me down when I flop top two. Not that I am bitter.

No you are correct. Maybe, and only maybe, would a raise in LP be alright. In EP, no.