I knew that the I-80 corridor in Northern Nevada had lots of
Gamemakers. Not just in casinos but in bars and truck stops too. A
bar might have 20 bartops with all being Gamemakers. So I hopped the
flight to Elko and jumped right into the middle of it. Besides, the
unlinked flush attacks were still at the Red Lion where I had a free
ride with rooms/meals.
The game was not at the Red Lion so I went downtown and through the
Commercial Casino first. Nothing. Then over to Stockmen's where I
found 6 draw till u wins in the bartops and start playing.
I hit a royal within a few hours then quit playing for the day. I
decided to play 5 hours per day but if I hit a royal quit early. No
royals the second day. I make a royal on the third day and quit
early. No royals on the fourth day.
The fifth day was the barn burner. I sat down and was dealt a royal
within a few minutes. By this time I'm drawing unwanted attention
from the hired help. I'm the guy who hit three royals within the
past few days. No one can recall that ever happening before. But
they were still smiling.
By this time I had learned a new trick. When I hit the royal on the
third day, while I was being payed one of the attendants looked down
at the screen and said "Hmmm, autohold." So the next time I had a
nonpaying 4 card royal I hit the hold buttons off and on again to see
if it would stop it from saying "autohold." It did. But I ould
still see problems coming with this game. You made royals so fast it
attracted major attention.
Two hours in I hit another royal. There was not alot of smiling from
the hired help on this one. Two blackjack tables were just off the
bar and a blackjack dealer says to me "What are you going to do?
Pull a Hat Trick? They payed me in mostly fifties. Stockmen's is
just a little sawdust joint and they were getting their butts
kicked.
Four hours in I make another royal. I look over at the blackjack
dealer and yell "Hat Trick." She gives me a disgusted look. No one
in this place is smiling anymore. As a natter of fact I'm getting
the evil eye from all of them. They payed me in twenties and tens.
I cashed out and left.
So I'm thinking maybe if I can find this game in other spots I can
just run a circuit and not hit one place to heavy. Just make a royal
or two and go to the next spot.
So these are some of the places I found the game: A truck stop in
Wells, the truck stop in Carlin, the Silverado in Fernley,
Stockemns's in Fallon, Casino West in Yerington, Baldini's in Sparks,
Western Village in Sparks, the Boomtown truck stop in Verdi, the
Carson Valley Inn in Minden.
The Carson Valley Inn was an interesting story. When I walked in I
spied a legendary machine pro who was very secretive about his
plays. I acted like I didn't see him and kept walking, then doubled
back to tail him (It's a hustlers trick to tail another hustler to
see what he is up to). But he disappeared.
So then I find draw till u win on 6 machines. So that's what he is
here for. But he won't go around them while I'm here because he
doesn't want to expose the play to me. So I sit down and play and
quickly hit a royal. While I'm waiting to be payed the attendant
says to me "You should play this machine too" pointing to the one of
my left.
"Why", I ask.
"Some guy was playing here yesterday and hit 7 royals between these
two machines."
"Hmm, I wonder who that was" I think to myself.
The games were removed just a few days after I found them. I queried
a friend who worked at CVI as to why the game was removed. He said
slot operations thought there was some kind of malfunction going on
with so many royals being hit and called Bally's for an explanation.
Bally's responded that there was no malfunction and the game would
eventually percentage out. They then asked Bally's what the payback
percentage for the game was and Bally's could not give an answer. So
they called Gaming and were told the game was 100.5%.
I used to take trips out of Reno with my best friend to play the
game. The last time we stopped in Fallon my friend hits 4 royals in
4 hours and that was the end of draw till u win in Fallon.
Slowly but surely they were coming out everywhere. Eventually, we
were down to the last two machines at Yerington. And then, puff,
they were gone. My best friend picked up a rumor that a dollar draw
till u win was in a bar somewhere on Virginia Street in Reno. He
went though about a dozen bars before he found it. He makes a royal
in about ten minutes then has to wait for a slot route operator to
come and pay him. The guy pays him then takes the game off the
machine and checks all the others to make sure the game is not on any
of them. A power surge probably brought the game up.
Will the game ever be back? If I thought there was a chance I would
never have made these posts. At least I got a couple of years in on
them. It was the most fun game of video poker God ever invented.
You would have thought so too.