Originally Posted by
UntilTheNDofTimE
There's no such thing as slot machines being "rigged". every slot machine is set by the casino to pay out on a certain percentage. In other terms every slot machine has a theoretical hold over time. Penny slot machines that people like to play can have as high as a 12-20% hold. If you can find full pay deuces wild video poker (which you won't find on the strip) the machine can have as little as a 0.5% hold. What i'm referencing in my previous post is the game king video poker (Jacks or Better and Deuces Wild).
When playing VP you need to be aware of the pay tables. You can be playing on a machine that has a 5% hold and next to it is a machine that has a 3% hold. You determine this by the pay tables. I'm not going to layout what pay tables you should be looking for, it would take too long. You can visit Wizard of Odds if you want to research pay tables and theoretical return on certain types of VP machines. Unlike certain slot machines you will win or push on around 40% of all video poker hands you play at Deuces Wild so you don't have the typical type of droughts or variance that you experience on a typical slot machine.
I'm not going to sit here and say I've made thousands of dollars playing VP. it's not a game you'll ever get rich off. But between the low variance, the drink comps, the free rooms i get, and travel offers I receive from Total Rewards (Caesars Entertainment), I'm way way ahead. I only started to actually keep track of my play (I've been doing this around 4 years) the last two years and I'm down a few hundred dollars. And it's not like I sit there and play 10 hour sessions every time I visit a resort. I play VP to get free drinks just about every day I'm in Vegas but it's in 15-20 minute spurts. At the beginning of every year I'll go to Tahoe or Reno (I'm in NorCal) and put in a 3-4 hour sessions where i'll put about $5,000 in action and be up or down a couple hundred. This gives me a high enough tier score in the total rewards program to be able to book my comped Vegas trips. I always thought you had to be a high roller to get things comped until my poker buddies schooled me to how to stay in Vegas the entire WSOP virtually free of charge (besides resort fee's but most of my buddies that do stay all summer have higher tier cards that waive the resort fee as well). They do this by playing $25 and $100 VP machines and putting in 100k in action in a couple of hours.