Here are some questions I have received in the last few months:
Q: How do you know when a royal progressive on a VP machine is high enough to make it a good play?
A: Most people can’t judge progressives accurately on the fly unless they are very experienced in this area. The average player will have a tendency to guess it is a good play when the progressive is not nearly high enough. The best way to get accurate information is to take down the paytable and the royal jackpot amount and put it into a software program that will give you the exact EV (expected value, in percentage form) and you can decide if it is high enough to fit your personal standard of a “good play.”
However, if you are in the casino without access to a computer, this is the situation where it is handy to have my Frugal Video Poker Scouting Guide. This handy little booklet has charts for most of the base games you might find in a casino with a royal progressive, and it gives the “break-even” point for each of them. That is, it tells you what the royal jackpot has to be, on both quarter and dollar machines, to be a 100% EV game. Then you can use this very general shortcut for a round-number estimation: Figure that for every extra 1000 coins there is about .5% increase in EV. So, for example, if the jackpot on a dollar machine is $1500 above the break-even point, the EV is 101.5%.
There is so much more to playing progressives – strategy changes, meter-rise, volatility, bankroll drain – so if you wish to be more informed I suggest you do some study of the subject. A good place to start is the book Frugal Video Poker, where I devote a whole chapter to VP progressive games.
Q: Are all casinos cutting benefits like free play and comps these days?
A: Some are, but I find you can’t make blanket statements of doom and gloom. It seems like as soon as my favorite casino cuts benefits and/or downgrades paytables another casino where I haven’t ever played or where I haven’t played recently will send me a generous we-miss-you offer and we find we can play there instead of at the old haunt.
Remember what I said long ago – never marry a casino, just have affairs. I find I am very “promiscuous” these days, in and out of the arms of suitors right and left! Yes, I am a gold-digger – you can “buy” my affection!
Q: Do you agree that food prices in Las Vegas are getting unreasonable high and it’s hard to find a budget meal?
A: Yes, I do. And if Brad and I ever run out of comps, I might have to start cooking again, after an almost thirty-year vacation from a stove!
Minor correction, Texaco has 78 stations in Michigan. They are probably not near your one viewer but others should still consider the offer.
i wonder if one reason food prices are so high in casinos, is that 25% of the people in the restaurant are eating for free on a comp.
I live in Saratoga CA, just down the street from Apple HQ and my favorite restaurant is way less than Carnevino for example.
Jean, Caesars is running a promo with free nite stay in lv and a 300 $ gas card but I called marketing and we dont have Texaco in Michigan so they said take the free play. this sucks