On my last visit to the casino, I noticed that the AA machines had auto hold, and a couple of players that I consider very knowledgeable had this feature turned on. I know that auto hold will not produce the best play all of the time, but I am interested in the observations of players who are familiar with this feature. Would you consider turning on auto hold if it were available, and then overriding the incorrect holds?
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Newer MG machines have this feature, but I believe it's a menu option
the casino can turn off because I saw a machine somewhere (Harrah's
St Louis? Sorry, I forget) where Auto Hold wasn't on the menu.
Here in KC, the Argosy and Ameristar have MGs with this feature.
Unfortunately, these two casinos only offer AA with a short pay
schedule. This makes checking the accuracy of the holds a bit more
difficult for someone used to the full pay strategy table. I checked
the holds on an AA machine at Argosy KC early last year and they
APPEARED to be correct. However, I only played with the machine for
a few minutes and couldn't have checked more than a hundred hands--a
very small sample.
To answer the question that was originally posed: I think it's
pretty obvious that IF the auto-holds are correct, it would
absolutely be the correct decision to use them. If the AA were full
pay, you'd be playing a 100.72% game perfectly. Furthermore, this
feature allows you to play as fast as you can push the buttons. I
belive 1000hph would easily be possible. Talk about advantage
players living at the casino! On a short pay game, you'd be
minimizing the casino's advantage as much as possible. For Argosy
AA, that would be a 98.5% game. Maybe on multi-points days it would
be worth it if you factor in the free food and other casino gifts.
The only real downside is that it isn't very fun. The knock against
games like Pick'em and Jacks or Better is that many people find
them "boring" after they've mastered the strategy. How boring is it
to simply push buttons without making any desisions at all? You
might as well get a job on an assembly line.
carlos
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Warren Trotter" <wtrotter@e...> wrote:
On my last visit to the casino, I noticed that the AA machines
had auto hold, and a couple of players that I consider very
knowledgeable had this feature turned on. I know that auto hold will
not produce the best play all of the time, but I am interested in the
observations of players who are familiar with this feature. Would
you consider turning on auto hold if it were available, and then
overriding the incorrect holds?