Where to start? How about those FPDW? Well, the 14 main floor machines
were never completely full. They are fast-fast-fast and the casino mechanics
seemed to hover around a lot, tinkering with settings and making me nervous
that the Full-pay deuces tables were on the verge of changing. But not at all:
the machines have that new car odor, and the mechanics were allowing the
players to changes the volume, the speed and even to engage the AUTO-
HOLD feature (!) I tried out the auto-hold. There were a few improper holds, I
thought: deuce w/3,4,6 suited over deuce, 4,4. Also: Deuce, 4,6 suited;
Deuce, 5,7 suited; Deuce, 3,5 suited. Mostly small potatoes. Even without
auto Hold, I think 1000 hands per minute was easily achieved. Sorry, I never
took time-out to time my play. The machines have LARGE card graphics,
reminded me of the airport machines. You could use the deal/draw button to
continue betting max credits. You can also speed the winning hand credit
addition by depressing the deal/draw button.
The machines were nearly empty after midnite. They were never totally full.
Most folks played the Deuces, .25, .50 or $1. I wrote down the other game
pay-tables, and looked up the ones I could find. The ones I could identify were
all less than 98% return. Sorry in advance for typos, I used a 3X5 index card.
9/6/5/3/1/1 DB
9/6/4/3/1/1 DDB
Triple Bonus Plus: 800/100/240/120/50/7/5/4/3/1/1
Triple Dbl Bonus: 800/800/160/80/50/50/9/6/4/2/1/1
Double Bonus Plus: 800/50/400/160/160/80/40/9/6/4/3/1/1
Super Dbl Dbl Bonus: 800/50/400/320/160/160/160/80/50/7/5/4/3/1/1
Super Bonus Deuces: 800/400/200/160/25/12/9/4/3/2/2/1
Aces & Faces: 800/50/80/40/25/7/5/4/3/2/1
DBL Aces & Faces: 800/50/160/80/50/9/6/5/3/1/1
There are 6 more of these new fast machines on the 2nd floor, in the little
alcove near the sundries/gift shop on your way to the hotel front desk. I
thought about not mentioning these.
I got no sense at all that the feared Pro's were monopolizing these machines.
I saw a couple of Royals and plenty of quad deuces on other people's
machines. Call me a tourist, but the large bright screens hurt my eyes after
about 45 minutes play. The speed was exciting, I can think that fast, but that
also was not relaxing for me. I needed an hourly break on slower, slant-top
machines for ergonomic reasons. But it was exciting to make 125 for a wild
Royal and I returned often.
I spent much of my gaming time on .25 DDB prog, .25 FPJW, .25 prog/ .50/
$1 Bonus Poker, $1 DDB prog, and a dabbling of $5 JoB.
My bankroll went down 900 day 1, down another 1K day 2, Up 4400 day 3 (!)
and down 500 day 4. I travelled day 5, only got in an hour of play, but netted
400. So overall UP 2400 for the trip.
Some highlight Jackpot-type Hands:
Day 1 & 2: 2 x 200 on .25 DDB & .50 BP
Day 3 (Sat): 800 on $1 DDB, 500 on .50 DW, .25 BP Royal for 1035, 625 for
Quad 3's on $5 JoB, and the nightcap: DEALT AAAA w/kicker on $1 DDB for
2000 and a W-2G.
Day 4: same $1 DDB machine, same DEALT AAAA w/kicker for another 2000
& W-2G , only my 2nd hundred in for the day. I didn't get any more Quads all
day, so this 2nd 2K was gambled away.
Day 5: Quad 2's for 200 on $1 BP and Quad A's on an airport .25 Bonus game
for 100 right before boarding the plane home.
The Silver was kind of crowded Thursday as the highways were closed due to
snow. Wait service was slow in the casino. I think those new Multi-game
multi denom, TITO machines with the deuces may last longer than predicted.
All for now...
~MARK P. (Seattle)