Doug put the RF/SF chances in DTUW at 9780/1070. I had it at
9700/1050, but whenever there is a difference in Doug's math and mine
I go with his and try to figure out how mine missed the mark.
In any event, when playing the game, you are racing against a 5% drop
between royals, since the royal equates to over 8% of the payback.
As far as horror stories of the downside go, I don't have any. I
took a $3000 downswing at the Silverado in Fernly, but quickly
recuperated. One player told me of going $12,000 stuck at O'Sheas on
the strip. I think he said there were six bartops all getting action
and he ran twentysomething cycles between royals. He was on pins and
needles the whole time as the others were hitting royals right along
and he was afraid the game was going to get pulled. But he
eventually recuperated.
Here are some oddities of the game, things you just don't see in
Jacks or Better Games other than DTUW:
1. Penalty cards are not penalty cards in most situations. When I
did the ER of the RF3 AKT in the prior post I did it considering that
the two sidecards had no effect on the draw. But what if they did?
Suppose the hand was As-Ks-Ts-7s-Qd. This hand has a much higher ER
than the AKT I did in the prior post. Why? Because in this hand
there are 4 more combinations that make the RF4, and when you make
that RF4 there would be only 19 paycards, jumping the RF4 ER to 45
instead of 41. The ER of the above hand would be somewhere around
3.46. But you don't have to do much work on the RF'3. The sit all
by themselves on the strategy chart. They are between the Pair of
Aces and a Pat Straight.
2. SF4H1 has a much lower ER than SF4H0. That Jack in the hand adds
three paycards which lengthens the cycle, meanwhile a Pair of Jacks
pays only 1 bet.
3. SF3H1 has a much lower ER than SF3H0 for the same reasons as
listed above.
4. SF3H0 plays over a high pair, Kings, Queens, Jacks. It also
plays over Two Pair. But not a pair of Aces.
5. SF2H0 and SF2iH0 make the strategy chart. You just don't see
that in many Jacks or Better games.
6. Pairs have straight flush ER. After playing the game for a few
days I was dealt a Pair of Sevens and on the draw I came up with a
SF4! "Uh, oh", I said. This just didn't occur to me when I was
writing the strategy. I had to go back and do a little more work.
7. A pair of Tens can make a Royal Flush. I never did it, but you
could hold the pair of tens,catch a non-paying RF4, then catch the
fifth royal card in the DTUW feature.
I haven't found the game in about 3 years now. At least on the
quarter level or higher. But, a couple of years ago, I was up in
Virgina City and a little casino (the name of the place escapes me)
that sits right in the middle of the tourist shops on the main street
had some old Gamemaker nickel slant-top clunkers with DTUW. Maybe
the game is still there.