I became a full time video poker player in late 1996. I had parleyed up a small bankroll playing full pay deuces and jackpot cards. I played the deuces at Gold ??? (later River Palms) in Laughlin with .333%, .667%, or 1% cashback depending on the day of the week–and I played the deuce progressives (.5% meter) at the Oasis in Mesquite. Even though I had a small bankroll there was no way I wasn't going to get through the window and parlay up a decent bankroll. I had a cash cow in the advantage slots which were everywhere back then. It was at the Oasis that I got through the window by hitting over $5,000 worth of royals in three weeks. I became an itinerant video poker player working Laughlin, Las Vegas, Reno and Tahoe. Other towns were worked in later. I was like a kid in a candy store. There were strong plays everywhere.
I heard stories of the old progressive teams but they were mostly gone by the time I came around. There was one team still operating in Reno/Carson/Tahoe, but it wasn't Tuna Lund's team. By the late nineties Tuna was working the Florida keno progressives. A couple of years ago my best friend "Al" met Tuna's partner on that play. Information relayed to me was:
It was a dollar denom 8 spot progressive. Him and Tuna split 8 million dollars for the five years they were on the play. Towards the end they were paying people $30 an hour to play the game. They got ripped off twice by people who hit the solid 8 but refused to turn over the money. The strong meter eventually got cut back.
My guess is this was probably the biggest progressive play of all time. With odds on the solid 8 up around 230,000 and knowing of the big drop that keno players take between top line hits, my guess is the ballpark cost (drop and employee cost) to produce a solid hit was somewhere between $120,000 and $140,000.
The old timers in Reno talk about a guy named Kenny the Klone, a college educated (electrical engineering) math genius but compulsive gambler who showed up in Reno in the eighties. The Klone, evidently, saw all those big progressive numbers around town and taught the game to Tuna. Tuna put together a slot team. And, no doubt, Tuna's team competed against Frank Kneeland's team in the eighties and the early nineties.
One of the things I can deduce from information given by Frank Kneeland and others is how abundant the progressive plays were back in the day. A poker dealer at Binion's once told me that at one time you could find a big fat number every day of the week in downtown Las Vegas. Frank stating that his team had as many as 88 members at one time and was competing against 5 other teams tells me those strong progressives were everywhere--probably even in the neighborhood bars, super markets, etc.
Tuna died last year of brain cancer. A few years ago I read somewhere that Kenny the Klone was the proof reader for David Sklansky's 2 + 2 Publishing.
More later. I have to eat breakfast.
