I was glad to see the Shockwave hit on the 12/8/5 version of the
game. There
can't be too many $1 full-pay Shockwaves out there. My particular
cringe
occurs when someone is proud to post a top line pay-off on a short
paytable.<BR><BR><BR>
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Sorry it took me so long to post the details behind the picture, and
I apologize as the post got to be very lenghty:
The weekend got off to a rough start, down $5200 on SW after about
10,000 hands on Saturday. I am still fairly new to the $1 level when
its not for a big progressive, so that was a little tough to swallow;
in fact, I almost didn't go back Sunday morning. Sure glad I did
though! It was very exciting to finally hit a SW4K! Including my
previous trips it took about 25,000 hands to finally get one which
was a little higher than expected, because the SW4K "cycle" is about
16,648 (this is based on getting to play out all 10 hands of
shockwave mode for every four of a kind, but since you don't get to
play your remaining shockwave mode hands after a SW4K the cycle would
be slightly higher than this I think). I also think I have figured
out an approximation for the overall variance of FPSW, and maybe
someone else can back me on this if it sounds right. Since a 4 of a
kind in regular mode occurs about 1 in 436 hands with proper strategy
and gets 10 hands of SW mode, about 436/446 (or 97.76%) of hands will
be played in regular mode and the balance in shockwave mode. The
variances in regular and shockwave modes are 19.8353 and 1683.0960,
respectively. Multiplying each percentage of gameplay by its
variance comes to (0.9776*19.8353)+(0.0224*1683.0960) = 57.12813.
However, since variance is not just a linear function, does an
average accurately represent the overall variance?
Anyway, the SW4K was only the beginning though; a little over an hour
later I hit a RF for another $4000! Needless to say I was the talk of
the boat, which was fun, but then people started asking for tips on
playing so I decided I had better get on the road before I made too
many new "friends"
Shifting gears here a bit...
Grey, I agree with you for the most part about the short-pay games,
unless of course it is some ridiculously large progressive. I was
going to save this story to put in a book about catching and
exploiting casino mistakes, but I'll share this one now since it
seems like the appropriate time. About a year ago I came across a
gigantic progressive RF on a short-pay Two Jacks Wild machine
(1/1/2/3/5/15/30/75/150/2000(at reset) - about a 98.4% base return
but with a large variance. I'll choose not to share the denomination
of the machines as I feel it makes the scenrio more exciting no
matter what denomination player you are). Somehow the casino must
have made an error when they first installed the machines and no one
had ever hit it, as the progressive was almost 7000 coins with only a
0.0025 meter. This brought the game up to a juicy 113%!
This is where the story gets REALLY ridiculous (as if it could get
any more ridiculous than 113% return you're probably thinking!).
Luckily I had just discovered ViPoker a couple months earlier, but I
didn't have a laptop at the time, and I was quite a ways from home
stuck in a blizzard at this particular casino so driving home
would've taken hours (if I even would've made it!). So what did I do?
I got a room at the hotel, used their office center, downloaded a
copy of ViPoker, and stayed up til 4am running through the different
hand combinations to generate the strategy (ViPoker only tells you
the correct play for each hand you input or while you play - it won't
generate a strategy sheet like VPSM, and since it's the only software
out there with One Eyed Jacks [Two Jacks Wild], it was the only
option). Unfortunately the office center didn't have a printer, so
rather than memorize a brand new strategy on the spot, I saved the
file on my flash drive, went to the casino's marketing office, and
convinced them to let me print out a "resume" because since I was
snowed in I didn't have any other way to print it and send it out.
They actually bought it! I made small talk with the gals while slyly
printing out both a copy of my resume and a copy of my new strategy!
It was quite a pot shot considering the large variance (over 1500)
and my bankroll at the time, but the expected return was there and it
was one time where I was willing to "gamble" - and it paid off!
Anyone else have any stories of capitalizing on similar situations
that they care to share? Obviously don't feel obligated to share if
it is an ongoing opportunity for you - everyone has to have their
little secrets... 
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--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, GRAYTLEEGRAY@... wrote: