Some observations about VLT VP in New York's racinos:
Some months ago, I went to Monticello, just out of curiosity, to see
what the place was like. I knew that the VP was not random deal, and
I knew that the payback was set at 92% across the floor, so I wasn't
about to play any serious money.....just fool around a little.
I sat down to play an IGT machine, and it wasn't long before I first
encountered the genie. She first appeared when I had been dealt an
open ended straight draw with a low pair. I was playing DB, and out
of habit I held the straight draw. I didn't fill the straight, and
the genie came out and gave me three of a kind. For as long as I
played that day, the only times the genie appeared were when my
decisions made it impossible for the machine to give me the "correct"
result on the draw.
Fast forward to this week. I went to Yonkers, and found some IGTs
that looked exactly the same as the ones I had seen in Monticello. I
decided to sit down and play on $20 for a while. On one hand, I was
dealt three threes. I held them, and drew two unrelated cards.
Then, to my surprise, out came the genie, and she gave me the fourth
three! The machine could have given me that three on the draw, but
it didn't. Then, later, I held 10-J-K-A unsuited, and drew a four.
Out came the genie, and she changed three cards to jacks, giving me
quad jacks. I would think that if I'm supposed to get quads, the
machine would deal me something that would lead me toward that hand,
making the game feel as much like "real" video poker as possible.
So, while I had previously thought that the genie was only there to
make corrections when the player's actions forced an "incorrect"
result, it now seems that sometimes it's planned for her to be
involved in the hand.