Back from AC again--success...

[aslan]

Yep, agree with Leon. You can look at the paytable for a video poker machine, and, given the type of game and paytable, you can figure the house advantage. Realistically, you'd plug it all into some software to figure the advantage, or if you're lazy like me, just look up the payout % for the paytable you're interested in.

Good free resources:
(Dead link: http://members.cox.net/vpfree/)
http://wizardofodds.com/videopoker

So, if you had two machines, one dollar-coin, and one fiver-coin, and they had the same rules and same paytable, then you'd be a fool not to max out five coins on the $1 machine, because you'd have the potential upside on the RF, and everything else would be identical.

In my very unexpert opinion, higher-dollar VP machines are more likely to have fairly small house advantages. However, they're never going to have paytables over 100%, unless there's been a horrible mistake.

I recommend trying to look up the specific machine you were playing at VPfree.

Well, that's cool. That means I got a RSF without the assistance of the house in any way. Anyhow, one of the reasons for playing a higher dollar machine was because if you hit something, you hit bigger than a quarter machine. I picked VP because it naturally pays better than most slots, or so I thought. Also,, I'm no longer a slot player, so $5 would not take long to play off and I could get back to the blackjack tables.

Years ago I had VP software that trained you how to play different machines. Some of them they had listed as greater than 100% payback, and several at near even money. Could that be right?

 

[EasyRhino]

First, my big point Aslan, is look at the paytables between the two denominations, one may be demonstrably better or worse than the other. You won't know until you look at the paytable with your own eyes for the desired denomination, and then compare it to the strategy card that you have preprinted for that particular game. And doing $5 a spin with five coins is the same as doing $5 a spin with one coin, except for the RF, where five coins is several times better.

There are some positive payout machines out there. I haven't played any. the VPfree lists seem to indicate it's more locals-oriented casinos in Nevada, and usually never in denominations higher than quarters.

Locally, one casino has a 99.9% payback game. If the cash back was more generous, of if they did an awesome promotion, it would be a great play.

 

[aslan]

First, my big point Aslan, is look at the paytables between the two denominations, one may be demonstrably better or worse than the other. You won't know until you look at the paytable with your own eyes for the desired denomination, and then compare it to the strategy card that you have preprinted for that particular game. And doing $5 a spin with five coins is the same as doing $5 a spin with one coin, except for the RF, where five coins is several times better.

There are some positive payout machines out there. I haven't played any. the VPfree lists seem to indicate it's more locals-oriented casinos in Nevada, and usually never in denominations higher than quarters.

Locally, one casino has a 99.9% payback game. If the cash back was more generous, of if they did an awesome promotion, it would be a great play.

The real difference between one coin and five was the jackpot. One coin gave me $1,250 whereas 5 coins would have given me $20,000. As for comparisons with what other poker machines pay, I don't have a clue. My education on this thread tells me I should have found a dollar machine so that I would have the same number of pulls for my $70, or I should have played an ordinary slot with ostensibly a higher payout being that it is a higher denomination. In any case, I doubt that I would have hit the jackpot, and there was no chance that I would have played enough times on the machine I won on if I had been betting $25 a pull. It was luck and there's no accounting for luck.