I decided to walk over to Bellagio on Friday morning after breakfast
to play my favorite $10 DDB machine. This is in a bank of four near
the high limit room and is now a 9/5 progressive. These machines
used to be just regular 9/6 machines. I started playing them in
those days and they were very lucky for me. When the progressive
feature was added, I paid little attention to it
until Friday.
There was a woman sitting two machines to my left. After about five
minutes of play, I heard a shriek and looked over to see that she
had hit a royal in diamonds. When I looked again at her screen, I
saw that the progressive jackpot was $72,000! Mamma mia!
She was obviously a well-known player there and about ten casino
staff swarmed around her. I was delighted for her but admittedly a
little envious. While they were fussing over her, I sat back down
and started playing my machine. Of course, you know what happened
next. Within ten minutes, I hit my own royal in clubs! My
progressive bonusa whopping $50!
OK, before anyone jumps on me, this is not a bad beat story.
Obviously, I was delighted with my $40K. But what lousy timing.
Here's a question:what is the EV on this game at 9/5 with a $32K
bonus? That's 80% of another royal!