Great $5 vp play in Nice, France

[jclind82]

I just got back from a 2-week vacation in Europe and have been
getting up to speed on what you've all been discussing while I was
gone. Much to my surprise, there was quite a bit of talk sparked
from Bob Dancer's article about his trip to Monte Carlo. Ironically,
Bob, I was faced with the same dilemma of whether to pay the 10 euros
to get in, which I opted not to since I knew that even on the outside
chance I would find something good to play inside, I didn't have
enough time or funds available to make it worth while.

My original plans did not include gambling on this trip, partly since
I am a blackjack player as well, and having just read "Busting
Vegas", I wasn't too crazy about getting beat up, kicked out of a
country, or maybe even worse over being too "skilled" of a player.
Plus I felt that being a tourist makes you an easier target for
theft, especially with some of the larger cities I visited, so I
decided that carrying a large amount of cash wasn't such a good
idea. Anyway, this proved to be quite unfortunate as I did not have
the funds with me to take advantage of the phenominal play I did
find. One of the two casinos in Nice had one Bally All-American
Machine 20-coin 1 euro (equivalent of a $5.33 5-coin machine at the
current exchange rate). The sign on it simply says Draw Poker, but
it says All-American in the upper left corner of the screen. The
only drawback is that it doesn't have a bill changer, so you have to
drop the coins in 20 at a time which is quite tedious. The paytable
is a little deceiving since the STFL only pays the full 200 coins
when you play max bet, just like a RF on a typical machine. I
quickly donated the 300 euros I had a available at the time - got
dealt 4 to the open ended STFL one time but couldn't even draw to
make a winning hand unfortunately.

I typically would keep a play like this quiet, but I know its not
realistic for me to return to Nice anytime soon, if ever again.
Hopefully someone else can use this info to take advantage of the
play though!

-jclind82

[WP_SF]

(discusses blackjack and 20-coin AA for E1 denom in Nice)

Nice find, but last time I was in France (2004), the government takes
15% of the difference between the jackpot and E1500, which would
effectively take all the EV out of your game. If you could get a 4000
coin royal on an E5 bet, you probably have something marginally
playable up to 8 coins.

So, for all you AA specialists out there, I wouldn't be booking any
trips to France anytime soon just for that, although Nice and Cannes
are quite nice.

Worldwide, there are actually a few decent plays...most on Game
Makers. For example, here's a decent progressive on a GM E .50 Jacks
or Better JW machine in Wiesbaden DE. I don't remember the meter, but
it was over 2%.

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "jclind82" <jclind82@...> wrote:

__________________________________________________________________________

paladingaming.net

[jclind82]

<paladingamingllc@...> wrote:

Nice find, but last time I was in France (2004), the government

takes

15% of the difference between the jackpot and E1500, which would
effectively take all the EV out of your game.

I wasn't aware of the 15% tax on the E1500+ wins in France. I was in
Amsterdam and read that all casino wins there were tax free and
assumed that would be consitent throughout Europe. Good that you
pointed that out though paladin.

Out of curiosity, I calculated the EV with the 15% taken out on the
RF and STFL amounts minus E1500, and although it did hurt the return
significantly, it still came out to be about 100.21%. Not nearly as
good, but still playable nonetheless. On the plus side, it brought
the variance down to only 21.3 making it more appealing to a smaller
bankroll. And if European casinos ever started giving even a marginal
amount of cashback someday, it would look even better.

Lets face it, with opportunities getting as limited as they are
nowdays, ones like this still need to be considered as options.