As casinos get tighter and tighter with their good video poker
offerings I was trying to think of games they could offer which would
appeal to the general public, the casino's bottom line and to
advantage players. The game would be a video poker game with base
pay table of 97% and a standalone royal flush progressive with 2%
increment rate. This would yield a 99% payout game with perfect
play. Even if 25% of the player population played this game perfectly
the casino hold would still be 2.5%. Let's look at an example of a
machine: 8/5 JOB which pays 97.3% and add a 1.7% Royal flush
progressive. The royal flush cycle for this game is about 40170. In
order for this game to be breakeven it will have to go through about
1.59 royal cycles or about 63799 games without hitting the
progressive jackpot. The probability of this happening using the
Poison distribution is about 20.4%. This means that on average this
machine is a breakeven or positive play 20.4% of the time and a
negative play 79.6% of the time, but for the casino it's simply a
machine with a theoretical payout of 99%. Now if 100 machines of
this type are installed about 20 of them on average will be positive
and 80 negative. In this way casinos can offer positive expectation
machines on their floor with no risk and at any denomination and
still make money. The juicy increment rate of 1.7% should appeal to
the average player because the meter on the royal will grow quickly.
Each machine should have a sign showing the current value of the
progressive.
Casinos should offer more 8/5 JOB with Royal Progressive
An 8/5 JOB machine would interest me, if (1) the RF put the return in
positive territory OR (2) there was a good promotion going on AND (3)
the bar had drinkable wine vs. the swill that's often served 
Many purely recreational gamblers that make one or two trips a year
would probably prefer something with more of a "bonus" to get their
hopes up.
Something like a 9/6/4 DB Prog or 8/5 DDB Prog would probably get more
play, especially if the Aces and SF were progressive too.
The majority seem to look at the top of the payscale and ignore the
bottom.
As casinos get tighter and tighter with their good video poker
offerings I was trying to think of games they could offer which
would
appeal to the general public, the casino's bottom line and to
advantage players. The game would be a video poker game with base
pay table of 97% and a standalone royal flush progressive with 2%
increment rate. This would yield a 99% payout game with perfect
play. Even if 25% of the player population played this game
perfectly
the casino hold would still be 2.5%. Let's look at an example of a
machine: 8/5 JOB which pays 97.3% and add a 1.7% Royal flush
progressive. The royal flush cycle for this game is about 40170.
In
order for this game to be breakeven it will have to go through
about
1.59 royal cycles or about 63799 games without hitting the
progressive jackpot. The probability of this happening using the
Poison distribution is about 20.4%. This means that on average
this
machine is a breakeven or positive play 20.4% of the time and a
negative play 79.6% of the time, but for the casino it's simply a
machine with a theoretical payout of 99%. Now if 100 machines of
this type are installed about 20 of them on average will be
positive
and 80 negative. In this way casinos can offer positive
expectation
machines on their floor with no risk and at any denomination and
still make money. The juicy increment rate of 1.7% should appeal
to
the average player because the meter on the royal will grow
quickly.
Each machine should have a sign showing the current value of the
progressive.
I wish they would do this too ... the idea of machines with
individual progressive amounts. The Rampart has some slots setup
this way, but I don't recall seeing any VP.
It would be great to find a positive game and, once you get to play,
can play it indefinitely until you either get the RF or must leave.
I've never understood why casinos only offer VP progressives in
banks. To me, its discouraging to see a positive bank and realize
the odds are still stacked against you being the one player in the
group lucky enough to win the progressive. Perhaps stand alone
progressives lead to disputes over who gets a machine when someone
leaves, although that can happen at a bank too. Or perhaps it
encourages "team" play.
We all see people playing inferior pay tables, just feet from a
positive game. People seem to play games at machines where they've
had luck before, so I think many pople would play the machines with
a negative return or, at a minimum, search around for a vacant
machine with the highest progressive.
···
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "sdel1001" <sdel1001@...> wrote:
Harrah's in N.O. has a group of 3 Double Double Bonus machines with
stand alone progressive meters. All 3 machines sit within a few feet
of each other, they are all dollar machines, they have identical pay
tables (except of course for the Royal), and they each have a big sign
indicating the progressive amount. And yet I can't begin to tell you
how often I have seen someone playing one of these machines while
another of the 3 machines in the same group with a larger progressive
sits empty.
EE
···
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "brumar_lv" <brumar_lv@...> wrote:
I wish they would do this too ... the idea of machines with
individual progressive amounts. The Rampart has some slots setup
this way, but I don't recall seeing any VP.It would be great to find a positive game and, once you get to play,
can play it indefinitely until you either get the RF or must leave.
As casinos get tighter and tighter with their good video poker
offerings I was trying to think of games they could offer which
would
appeal to the general public, the casino's bottom line and to
advantage players. The game would be a video poker game with base
pay table of 97% and a standalone royal flush progressive with 2%
increment rate. This would yield a 99% payout game with perfect
play. Even if 25% of the player population played this game
perfectly
the casino hold would still be 2.5%. Let's look at an example of a
machine: 8/5 JOB which pays 97.3% and add a 1.7% Royal flush
progressive. The royal flush cycle for this game is about 40170.
In
order for this game to be breakeven it will have to go through
about
1.59 royal cycles or about 63799 games without hitting the
progressive jackpot. The probability of this happening using the
Poison distribution is about 20.4%. This means that on average
this
machine is a breakeven or positive play 20.4% of the time and a
negative play 79.6% of the time, but for the casino it's simply a
machine with a theoretical payout of 99%. Now if 100 machines of
this type are installed about 20 of them on average will be
positive
and 80 negative. In this way casinos can offer positive
expectation
machines on their floor with no risk and at any denomination and
still make money. The juicy increment rate of 1.7% should appeal
to
the average player because the meter on the royal will grow
quickly.
Each machine should have a sign showing the current value of the
progressive.
You could do the same with other, more interesting games by adjusting
the meter movement. Meter strength for me is predicated on the
strength of the base game. There is a huge difference between a 9/6
Jacks with a 1% meter and an 8/5 Jacks with a 1% meter. Assuming
that you would play at breakeven or higher you're gonna get lots of
positive plays on the former, and a once in a blue moon play on the
latter.
When analyzing a progressive the two things I look at are the strengh
of the base game and the strengh of meter movement. It tells a
story. For 8/5 Jacks with a 1.7% meter, as you described above, I
would monitor the machines for positive plays, but if the meters were
only 1% I wouldn't waste my time as I know plays are not going to
develop. The royal would have to miss about 2.6 cycles just to get
to breakeven. I personally don't play at breakeven. I have to have
a "win facor."
But you're scenario could be done on better games with slower meter
movement. Like a 9/6 Jacks with a .2% meter. Or an 8/5 Bonus Poker
with a .3% meter. Or a 9/7 Double Bonus with a .4% meter. Good
luck.
···
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "sdel1001" <sdel1001@...> wrote: