In the last column, I told about a too-good-to-last video poker situation at the Horizon Casino in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Horizon had recently purchased the casino from Harrah’s and was offering lucrative promotions to try to stimulate business. Unfortunately for the Horizon, they seemed to be better at coming up with good ideas than in figuring out what it’d cost the casino. On Tuesdays top jackpots were paid double on selected machines, and that included a 25¢ Fifty Play 9/6 Jacks or Better game, plus .67% cash back. My estimate was that the game was worth $1,250 per hour. On Wednesdays, double points for eight hours were worth “only” $435 per hour.
Shirley and I were too busy to go back to Vicksburg the following week to take advantage of this manna from heaven, but we told two friends of ours, Pedro and Maria, about this and strongly encouraged them to go to Vicksburg. We didn’t have time to go, but this was too good to pass up. We encouraged them to be on the machine by 6 p.m. Monday, February 9th, which would be a full six hours before the juicy promotion started. But still, they could play NSU Deuces Wild (99.73%) with a .67% slot club at $62.50 per hand until the double royal promotion started. This game in and of itself was very juicy, by Las Vegas standards, anyway. Plus, if they didn't want to play the full fifty hands, they could play any number of hands from one to 50 at $1.25 apiece.
They got there at 6 p.m., and the plan was for them to both play for a while and then for Maria to play while Pedro slept. If they were going to hold the machine for 30 hours, they had to do it in shifts. Although they usually like to play side-by-side, or even together on the same machine, this was a time that they agreed that it was a good idea to play separately so they could keep the machine. By 6:15 the other Fifty Play was taken. By 6:30 there were two other couples hovering. By 8:00, another four people seemed to be loitering around, waiting for a machine to open up. If Maria and Pedro had arrived a half hour later, they’d have been totally shut out. Talk about a close call! And my 6:00 p.m. suggestion was just a SWAG (scientific wild ass guess). It could have been way off.
Maria hit her first royal at 11:00 p.m. Approaching midnight, none of the players knew if the casino staff would put the “Double Jackpot” sign on top of the machine. It was still a good deal for them if the casino didn’t do this, but Pedro and Maria hadn’t traveled across the country for a good deal. They wanted a GREAT deal.
At 11:45, Pedro came back to the machine and ten minutes later the casino staff put the desired sign on top of the machine. Pedro whispered, “Wonderful. Now let’s hit some royals.” They played side by side for a little while, and then Maria went to the room to sleep.
At 12:30 a.m. (10:30 p.m. back in Las Vegas) I called Pedro for a status report. “Everything is on schedule,” Pedro reported, “but don’t quit your day job. We’re ahead, but we haven’t been dealt a royal yet.” We had a side deal that if they were dealt a $100,000 or $50,000 royal that they’d give Shirley and me 10% as a “finders fee.” We weren’t expecting to receive it, but still it was fun to talk about.
For the next several hours, Pedro and Maria traded back and forth. They held their own pretty well as Fifty Play is a rather stable game, but didn’t hit another royal until 11 a.m. (while the guy on the other Fifty Play hit FIVE of them.)
At 8 a.m. disaster struck! The casino manager arrived for work and was told they’d paid out ten thousand dollars or so for double royals on video poker machines. He screamed that the promotion wasn’t supposed to be on video poker and went around and angrily removed all of the signs from the video poker machines. The game was still lucrative for Pedro and Maria (about $200 per hour expected value), but it was far less than the $1,250 they were expecting. They hit a few more royals during the day (which come fairly quickly on a Fifty Play machine, but unfortunately not during the eight hours they would have been doubled), but none of them during the “double jackpot” period. Too bad.
I called them late Tuesday for a status report. I told them that I hoped they were dealt TWO royals, because we’d just lost $10,000 on a play at Sam’s Town. They laughed and apologized, but no such luck. Since double points on Wednesday would start at 8 a.m., and there were clearly several players interested in the machine, I suggested being there three hours early.
Five a.m. was early enough. Barely. One of the two machine was already taken, and by 5:30 there were several other disappointed players who were kicking themselves for not getting there just a little earlier.
One of the problems of double points was that only $500 per day of free play could be redeemed and they were playing a machine that generated almost this much every two hours. Since they each had a card, they were entitled to $1,000. But they had a lot of extra points left over. Which was not a problem at this casino. At least some of the employees were interpreting this as not more than $500 redeemed AT A TIME, rather than not more than $500 in a day. The staff either didn’t know better or didn’t care, so Pedro and Maria were each able to get their entire points doubled.
Maria and Pedro have family in Dallas (about 360 miles from Vicksburg), so their plan was to spend a few days there and be back next week for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Even without double royals, this was a far better promotion than they were used to in Las Vegas.
Before they left Vicksburg, however, the Fifty Play games were shut down, along with the other machines in the row, while the casino did some painting. Would they be back up for next week? Who knew? If they were back, would they still have the good pay schedules on them? Again, who knew? But even if that machine was turned off, the casino had $5 9/6 Jacks or Better and playing that for a few days with a .67% cash club and another eight hours (when they’d each try to get a machine and play) with a 1.33% cash club sounded like a good deal.
How did they do? Come back next time for the Battle of Vicksburg, Part III.
Bob Dancer is America's best-known video poker writer and teacher. He has a variety of "how to play better video poker" products, including the software "Video Poker for Winners," Winner's Guides, strategy cards, his autobiography Million Dollar Video Poker, and his two novels, including Sex, Lies, and Video Poker. Dancer's products may be ordered at www.bobdancer.com or by telephone at 1-800-244-2224 M-F 9-5 Pacific Time.
