vpFREE2 Forums

Timing Meters for Fun and Profit

#1

In an email I got asked about what I meant about timing meters. Specically they wanted to know what I meant when I said "If the royal has to miss only 60,000 hands you get more plays." I think that was what I said. So I'll go over it a little more thoroughly in a real life situation.

Once upon a time at the Club Cal Neva in downtown Reno there were three different progressive banks that we picked on. The Skywalk bartops had a quarter multi-game progressive with about a dozen different video poker games to choose from. They were all on the same royal meter. The best game was 9/6 Jacks, the second best was 9/7 Double Bonus. The progressive meter ran at 2%.

The Keno bartops on the second floor had the same setup but the progressive meter ran at only 1.5%. The Virginian bartops also had the same setup with the meter running at 1.5%

This is the way I time meters. I catch the bank empty then bet one quarter at a time until the meter flips one penny. Then I count the number of one-quarter bets it takes to flip another penny in the meter. If it takes two bets to flip it a penny it's a 2% meter. One cent divided by 50 cents = 2%. If it takes four bets it's a 1% meter, if it takes 8 bets it's a .5% meter. I always do a recheck to make sure. It can bet a little more complicated if you are dealing with meters like .333% or 1.5% but you'll figure it out.

I'm gonna send this post then start another one. I hate writing a long post then losing my internet signal. By the way, I watched the lunar eclipse last night. It lasted about three hours. It was cold as hell out but we enjoyed it.

#2

Now, at the Cal Neva all the pros waited on the progressives to hit $2300. And we all played 9/6 Jacks. So let's reverse engineer it. We know the Skywalk bartops have a 2% meter. So how much action do the ploppies have to give to put the number on $2300. First, we subtract $1000 from $2300. That leaves $1300.

$1300 is 2% of what? 100 divided by 2 = 50. 50 X 1300 = 65,000.
65,000 divided by the $1.25 bet = 52,000. So the ploppies gotta play about 52,000 max bet games without hitting a royal to put it on our number. In reality the number is actually a little lower because of short coiners who contribute to the meter but don't qualify for the royal progressive.

By using the same formula ploppies at the Keno Bar and Virginian Bar have to miss the royal for about 69,333 max bet games to put it on our number. By now you should be able to figure out that we got a lot more plays at the Skywalk Bar than the Keno or Virginian Bars.

But what if those progressive only had 1% meters? How many games would the ploppies have to play, without hitting a royal, to put the meter on $2300. They would have to play about 104,000 games. And if it were a .5% meter they would have to play about 208,000 games.

All of the above tells me a big story. No matter what kind of video poker game it is I know what my playable number is. By timing the meter I can determine how many games the royal has to miss to put it on my number. If the royal has to miss 200,000 games to put it on my number it's a bank I just don't have to monitor....because it is a very rare occurance that the royal won't appear in 200,000 games.

If the royal has to miss about 100,000 games I'll keep an eye on that bank but won't expect to get a whole lot of plays. But if a royal only has to miss 50,000, 60,000 or 70,000 games you can bet I'll be keeping a close eye on those type of video poker banks.

#3

This is the way I time meters. I catch the bank empty then bet one quarter at a time until the meter flips one penny. Then I count the number of one-quarter bets it takes to flip another penny in the meter. If it takes two bets to flip it a penny it's a 2% meter. One >cent divided by 50 cents = 2%.

Thanks Mickey. I've always wondered how to figure that stuff out!

Kurt

#4

And why is $2300 the magic number?

Kurt

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

Now, at the Cal Neva all the pros waited on the progressives to hit >$2300.

#5

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

And why is $2300 the magic number?

Kurt

Well, it's not really a magic number. It was the number that the team came in on. The team was run by a guy named Winston. He was a good guy. He worked Reno/Carson/Tahoe. All three Cal Neva progressives had 10 to 12 machines on them. He might put 4 or 5 of his guys into action in that spot. He left the rest of the machines to ploppies and free lance pros. But he also knew he would draw heat if he tried to lock entire banks up. Not just from the house. If you wanna hear some loud talkin' try locking some free lancers out.

I would have played lower if they did. But I wasn't willing to let my action run the meter up to $2300 and then have all them guys pile onto the bank behind me.

The team and the other free lancers were really not a bane to me. I liked playing for royals with a full bank of good players Good conversation while playing. But there were other reasons.

Here's what would happen. Winston had scouts. So when the number got above $2200 players would start filtering in. My main concern was to make sure I got a machine. If you were late you might not get one. Basically, what we did was lock a machine up, play a few hands here and there, stop and jawjack for awhile, just kind of goofball playing along.

At around $2300 everybody got serious. Everyone was experienced, except for maybe a ploppie or two. Players that didn't get a machine might hang around waiting for the ploppies to leave....which they did quite often.

If the bank of 10 machines were taken by all pros then everyone is cranking about 1000 hands per hour, minus bathrooms breaks or whatever. Everyone is using a strategy based on a $2300 royal....royal odds of about 33,000. The bank is cranking 9,000 to 10,000 hands an hour. The aveage time for a royal to hit somewhere on the bank was about 4 hours or so.

That is what I liked about the situation. I'm not a marathon player. I don't like gerting tied up for 10, 12, 16 hours. Those progressives were just one play of many I had around town. In that spot 9 times out of ten I didn't get the royal and moseyed on to other plays.

The guiding principle is "The recurring sum of net edge times volume equals the earn." I came in right about where I was supposed to nailing the royal about 1 play in 10. On a monthly basis I got a lot of plays there.

At $2300 the game has a 2.6% edge plus 2% meter movement. So my investment in money and time had a theoretical earn of about $58 and hour.

#6

Was/Is Winston an asian guy?

#7

Yes

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--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "TIMSPEED" <corvetteracing87@...> wrote:

Was/Is Winston an asian guy?

#8

Winston was a good guy. I've been in some spots where I had to threaten to kick there asses clean back to China.

···

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

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "TIMSPEED" <corvetteracing87@> wrote:
>
> Was/Is Winston an asian guy?
>
Yes

#9

LoL, yeah, I know who Winston is then...

#10

I received an email telling me that that I made perfect sense on timing meters. I thank him for that. But I warn you all, don't try the technique of making perfect sense to a woman (Jean Scott excluded, Shirley too). If you try to make perfect sense to a woman she will make a loser out of you.

#11

Great tip on computing meters-of course you have to find an empty bank so you may have to go "off hours" when the jackpot is low.
Your post makes me pine for the days of 2% meters on 9-6 machines. To quote Springsteen-"these jobs are going boys and they ain't coming back".

···

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

In an email I got asked about what I meant about timing meters. Specically they wanted to know what I meant when I said "If the royal has to miss only 60,000 hands you get more plays." I think that was what I said. So I'll go over it a little more thoroughly in a real life situation.

Once upon a time at the Club Cal Neva in downtown Reno there were three different progressive banks that we picked on. The Skywalk bartops had a quarter multi-game progressive with about a dozen different video poker games to choose from. They were all on the same royal meter. The best game was 9/6 Jacks, the second best was 9/7 Double Bonus. The progressive meter ran at 2%.

The Keno bartops on the second floor had the same setup but the progressive meter ran at only 1.5%. The Virginian bartops also had the same setup with the meter running at 1.5%

This is the way I time meters. I catch the bank empty then bet one quarter at a time until the meter flips one penny. Then I count the number of one-quarter bets it takes to flip another penny in the meter. If it takes two bets to flip it a penny it's a 2% meter. One cent divided by 50 cents = 2%. If it takes four bets it's a 1% meter, if it takes 8 bets it's a .5% meter. I always do a recheck to make sure. It can bet a little more complicated if you are dealing with meters like .333% or 1.5% but you'll figure it out.

I'm gonna send this post then start another one. I hate writing a long post then losing my internet signal. By the way, I watched the lunar eclipse last night. It lasted about three hours. It was cold as hell out but we enjoyed it.

#12

We called it, "clocking the meter" and usually did it by dropping in $10, twice. If the meter went up 10c each time, it was a 1%. If it went up different amounts on each trial, then the fractional amounts were easy to spot. 12c / 13c = 1.25%...etc...

Mickey's way was more conservative. No surprise there.

I played that bank at the Cal-Neva several times. By the time I moved to Tahoe the bank had been converted to 5/8 JoB. But two of them were still 6/9, even though their face plates said otherwise.

Even though it got up regularly, I passed on most of the plays, because I was too busy playing the 3.5% meter across the street at the Sands.

~Frank Kneeland, Author of The Secret World of Video Poker Progressives--A History and How-To of Video Poker Slot Teams in Las Vegas. www.progressivevp.com

···

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

In an email I got asked about what I meant about timing meters. Specically they wanted to know what I meant when I said "If the royal has to miss only 60,000 hands you get more plays." I think that was what I said. So I'll go over it a little more thoroughly in a real life situation.

Once upon a time at the Club Cal Neva in downtown Reno there were three different progressive banks that we picked on. The Skywalk bartops had a quarter multi-game progressive with about a dozen different video poker games to choose from. They were all on the same royal meter. The best game was 9/6 Jacks, the second best was 9/7 Double Bonus. The progressive meter ran at 2%.

The Keno bartops on the second floor had the same setup but the progressive meter ran at only 1.5%. The Virginian bartops also had the same setup with the meter running at 1.5%

This is the way I time meters. I catch the bank empty then bet one quarter at a time until the meter flips one penny. Then I count the number of one-quarter bets it takes to flip another penny in the meter. If it takes two bets to flip it a penny it's a 2% meter. One cent divided by 50 cents = 2%. If it takes four bets it's a 1% meter, if it takes 8 bets it's a .5% meter. I always do a recheck to make sure. It can bet a little more complicated if you are dealing with meters like .333% or 1.5% but you'll figure it out.

I'm gonna send this post then start another one. I hate writing a long post then losing my internet signal. By the way, I watched the lunar eclipse last night. It lasted about three hours. It was cold as hell out but we enjoyed it.