The Low-end Gambling Life -- Mar. 31, 2018
This Steemit blog is a series of posts based on my day-to-day gambling activities. Basically, I summarize my results and possibly add notes or observations based on what happened on a given day at casinos. I have no idea how well this will or won't be received, but you the reader, should feel free to ask any questions or provide any feedback in the comments.
Next-day delays in posting are common due to having no stable schedules in my line of work.
Category Definitions
I split my results into categories based on the type of game and opportunity to make a profit. These categories are:
Core video poker: These are video poker games/machines that either has a player edge built-in, or which flips the edge from the house's favor into the player's favor when a promotion is applied. If the game has a progressive on the royal flush and/or other hands, the edge is based on the jackpot(s) being at its reset value. In the absence of any other extraordinary opportunities to capitalize on, I expect to spend most of my gambling time on core video poker games.
Other video poker: All other video poker games that are not part of my normal repertoire (e.g. progressive video poker games with excessively high jackpots).
Slot opportunities: Slot machines where I know of or perceive an edge in the player's favor. This edge will always be a temporary one except under the most extraordinary of circumstances. Depending on the opportunity, a slot session could be over in just seconds or take several hours to complete.
Other gambles: Everything else. It could be results from trying out a new slot machine, or playing other games such as video keno.
Summary Of The Day's Results
Core video poker: none
Other video poker: 2 opportunities, went 0 for 2. Spent about 15 minutes total and finished at -$16.50.
Slot opportunities: 2 opportunities, went 1 for 2. Spent about 40 minutes total and finished at +$32.61.
Other gambles: none
Total: +$16.11 for the day
Notes/Observations For The Day
That was just pure, raw bad luck on my video poker opportunities. On the machines I played I had many one-shot chances on multi-hand games with temporarily multiplied awards. Not much was converting; in my first opportunity, I had one good outcome on a 5-play quarter hand ($6.25 wager to play that deal), only to have that wiped out by nearly whiffing completely on the 10-play 50-cent hand that immediately followed ($25 wager to play that, at 170% of normal expected value -- a big player edge). On the second opportunity, I completely whiffed on most of the one-shot chances.
The Month's Results And Commentary
It is the worst of times and the best of times. (Yes, I intentionally butchered a famous Charles Dickens line.)
I ended with a total machine loss of $1238.47 for the month. I lost $2090 on core video poker games, going -$2100 on Deuces Wild and +$10 on everything else. Other video poker opportunities turned a +$129 profit, even after today's debacle. Slots were worth +$722.53 this month.
The continued losses on Deuces Wild has gotten onto my nerves. After a good 7-week run to start the year in which this game netted me almost $6000, over the last 6 weeks, I have come out ahead in just 2 sessions out of 19. Those 2 winning sessions were for $50 and $10, and the $50 was a forcibly shortened session that got negated by the next session I played after that (which was also shortened so that the two sessions combined would be the equivalent of one of my normal sessions of typical length). The other 16 losing sessions: 11 were for between $200 and $400 each, 4 were for around $100 each, and one was a $20 loss. The total swing so far in this losing trend: -$3330.
Now here comes the crazy part: I actually made more money from casinos this month than I have ever done before. How can this happen? In my case, a promotion in the form of an invitation to a slot tournament (which I mentioned briefly in my blog a couple of weeks ago). Slot tournaments are basically crapshoots (there is one known exception but that's beyond the scope of this blog). Mash a button for a designated amount of time, and hope that you get lucky enough to get the highest score. That's all there is to it.
So I played and I got lucky. I didn't win the tournament, but I did place amongst the top finishers and won $10,000. It's hard to believe that a few minutes of button mashing would net me more money than I had ever made in a single month in my life. So take that -$1238.47 result from the machines, add $10k, and I have a final profit of $8761.53 for March. Despite that, right now I'm not feeling like a winner at all. That damn Deuces Wild problem looms over my head...
March ends, April begins. It's time for the Deuces Wild machines to clean up their act so I can actually feel like a winner.
reports will help in equity? what thoughts?