vpFREE2 Forums

The "Wrong" Game at the "Wrong" Time

#1

Some events just stay in your mind awhile.

Last December I was in Vegas at a Ten Play machine. The game was Jacks or Better.

Suddenly, Out of the blue, I was dealt Four Aces.

Now I know it's true that no matter what VP game I was playing I was immediately a winner. Mathematically (and financially) I was better off after that hand was dealt than before.

But in a strange way I felt "unlucky". After all, the only way I could have won less being dealt that rare special hand was if I had been playing Deuces or Joker Wild. In terms of relative potential payout I was feeling as low as that 125 per hand compared to 400, 800, hey, who knows?

So in that sense I was a winner but sure felt like a loser.

Many of you Deuces players can relate. I was playing single-line $5 NSUD one day and from 3 Aces I drew the other Ace and a 3.

A whopping $100 payout. Gee, thanks.

If you play thousands of hands you will inevitably see these occurrences. It just takes awhile to develop the mindset where they don't get an emotional reaction.

I'm working on it.

#2

I had a similar thing happen...
I was playing 2c BP SpinPoker...I had actually just sat down and wanted to kind of "warm up" to see if the machine was hot or not...literally second hand, DEALT AAAA3. HUMPH! USUALLY I'll play 5c DDB on those machines...which would have given me $900 rather than $72.
The best way to think about it is...Aces have the exact same chance as any other card, making four of a kind.

#3

This is exactly why I've all but given up playing deuces wild. I was tired of pulling or even getting dealt bonus quads and winning 20 credits vs 400-2000 credits. The only thing you give up when playing double double bonus (my fave game now) is 1000 credits for quad deuces. But you still will get at least 400, possibly 800 credits with deuces. Not as much as a differnce of the 20 vs 400-2000 credits as it is the other way around.

#4

well, you probably don't notice all the hands like 2d Ah Jh 2c Qh
where you'd get 125 credits playing deuces wild, and squadoosh playing
DDB...

if you're susceptible to "why wasn't i playing the other game!"
lamentations, i suggest that you never ever play quick quads. you will
curse under your breath every time you're dealt 77743 or 4443A for the
rest of your life.

cheers,

five

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On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 8:37 PM, Jim <deucesdamule@yahoo.com> wrote:

This is exactly why I've all but given up playing deuces wild. I was tired of pulling or even getting dealt bonus quads and winning 20 credits vs 400-2000 credits. The only thing you give up when playing double double bonus (my fave game now) is 1000 credits for quad deuces. But you still will get at least 400, possibly 800 credits with deuces. Not as much as a differnce of the 20 vs 400-2000 credits as it is the other way around.

#5

That's probably true for most of us. We also don't notice all the 2 Pair payouts playing Jacks or Better that are double what they would be playing DDB and certainly add up over time.

But the point of my post was the emotion and disappointment at seeing a great hand that pays relatively little because you are on the "wrong" game.

Psychologically, I think a good explanation might be that we are conditioned to respond to rare hands (like 4 A's with a kicker) with the joy that's associated with a big payout. Thus, seeing that card combination when we don't collect much "throws" us a bit. And because VP players tend to feel more responsible for their play's outcome than slot players (who merely push a button and pray) their reaction might be to react like they've done something "wrong". Hence, the disappointment.

You might have experienced a similar feeling drawing a natural royal flush on some of the old Joker's Wild games where it was the 5K that paid the 4000-4700 coin jackpot while the royal was considered the same as any other straight flush.

I think it's a question of how extreme the difference is between what you collect and what you could have gotten if you had been playing the "right" game. If the difference is smaller, I think the regret is smaller as well.

Consider a day when I was playing $5 Five Play 9/6 Jacks and was dealt Four 6's. It's true that if I had been playing DDB I would have collected much more ($6250 instaed of $3125). But, I wasn't very disappointed since I figured by playing Jacks I had survived longer to get to that point. I guarantee you there's no way I would have had the strength and calm to rationalize it that way if I had been dealt Four Aces and a kicker.

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, fivespot <fivespot55@...> wrote:

well, you probably don't notice all the hands like 2d Ah Jh 2c Qh
where you'd get 125 credits playing deuces wild, and squadoosh playing
DDB...

#6

So true about Quick Quads, and especially if you tend to notice such things. I have a hard enough time remembering which game I'm playing and concentrating on that strategy, but Chris is sharp at such things and sees those Quick Quads every time.

Mac
www.CasinoCamper.com

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, fivespot <fivespot55@...> wrote:

if you're susceptible to "why wasn't i playing the other game!"
lamentations, i suggest that you never ever play quick quads. you will
curse under your breath every time you're dealt 77743 or 4443A for the
rest of your life.

#7

well, you probably don't notice all the hands like 2d Ah Jh 2c Qh
where you'd get 125 credits playing deuces wild, and squadoosh playing
DDB...

Agreed. It's human nature to notice low-paying natural quads when playing ducks but not notice "losing" hands like the above.

It might be annoying to hold AA and end up with AAAA in ducks. I admit to being annoyed when I'm dealt a Wild Royal with one deuce. But we have to hold the cards that give us the best chance of winning for the paytable we're playing. And that means holding AA (and sometimes seeing AAAA), and accepting the dealt wild royal (a no-brainer, mathematically)

Consider the two pair hand in FPDW. If one of the pairs is AA, we can avoid getting AAAA by always holding the other pair. But when we hold the other pair, then draw the other two Aces, we all wish we'd held AA and gotten at least a 25-coin payout (drawing AA2 would be even better). Suddenly, that AAAA hand looks pretty good in ducks, doesn't it?