August 1st, 2023 at 4:58:14 AM
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Quote: ChumpChange
But then gas prices could soar for the rest of the year and I need to win enough to pay for the gas if I'm travelling long distance for the cheaper tables. This may not work.
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(snip)
$25 tables are the norm most everywhere now.
If there are $10 tables, expect them to be slowed with sidebets and crowds.
I wouldn't be surprised if a number of tribal properties will comp you a tank of gas, if your style of play allows for a club card.
May the cards fall in your favor.
August 5th, 2023 at 2:39:44 AM
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I was playing Pai Gow Poker for the first time at the Wizard's site. I got interested in the game after watching Victor win a session on YouTube recently.
I noticed I kept getting little nag screens that I can't raise my bet because I just became banker. What?
I had to dig more for information about Pai Gow Player Banker and ran across these items.
So while I was playing on the Wizard's site I got a push I didn't expect as I was a Banker. I clearly lost the high hand with high card vs. one pair, but the dealer pushed on my low hand.

I haven't seen any live casino videos of people going around the table being Banker, and a few references I ran across said you can't be Banker unless you have $30K on the table. Being Banker is supposed to lower the house edge to near 0% for those few hands that you play as Banker. From what I can gather it's about 3 wins to 3 losses to 4 ties per 10 hands.
I was getting stuck on player's paying a 5% commission on winning hands then I ran across this commission-free table Victor was playing at.
I had one session on the Wizard's site where I won about 10 hands ahead, lost 15 hands back, then won 15 hands again. So I'm thinking I could just play Pai Gow Poker without making the Fortune bet (Victor's luck on that is so bad sometimes, ouch!), and if I find a $20 table I could either bet the $5 minimum on the Fortune Bet, bet $0 on the Fortune Bet, or integrate it to 20%-25% of my regular bet until I hit the table max for the Fortune bet. But will I get to $30K with or without betting on & winning the Fortune bets? If I run across table maximums that are too low, I could just play 2 spots with double the session money. But I think I'll start expecting to win 10 bets ahead then calling it quits per gaming day.
I noticed I kept getting little nag screens that I can't raise my bet because I just became banker. What?
I had to dig more for information about Pai Gow Player Banker and ran across these items.
So while I was playing on the Wizard's site I got a push I didn't expect as I was a Banker. I clearly lost the high hand with high card vs. one pair, but the dealer pushed on my low hand.

I haven't seen any live casino videos of people going around the table being Banker, and a few references I ran across said you can't be Banker unless you have $30K on the table. Being Banker is supposed to lower the house edge to near 0% for those few hands that you play as Banker. From what I can gather it's about 3 wins to 3 losses to 4 ties per 10 hands.
I was getting stuck on player's paying a 5% commission on winning hands then I ran across this commission-free table Victor was playing at.
I had one session on the Wizard's site where I won about 10 hands ahead, lost 15 hands back, then won 15 hands again. So I'm thinking I could just play Pai Gow Poker without making the Fortune bet (Victor's luck on that is so bad sometimes, ouch!), and if I find a $20 table I could either bet the $5 minimum on the Fortune Bet, bet $0 on the Fortune Bet, or integrate it to 20%-25% of my regular bet until I hit the table max for the Fortune bet. But will I get to $30K with or without betting on & winning the Fortune bets? If I run across table maximums that are too low, I could just play 2 spots with double the session money. But I think I'll start expecting to win 10 bets ahead then calling it quits per gaming day.
Last edited by: ChumpChange on Aug 5, 2023
August 5th, 2023 at 7:49:20 PM
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Playing on the Wiz's games site again and had 3 hands in a row that would have paid off had I been betting the Fortune Bet if there was one. I was betting $45 on the regular bet and if I was betting 20% of that extra on the Fortune Bet, or $9, that would have paid
25 to 1 or $225 twice for two 4 of a kind winners in a row and spread an Envy Bonus of $5 twice around the table. The third hand was a 4 flusher straight and would have paid $18 instead of $450 for a straight flush.
I didn't split the Kings in the first hand and pushed with an Ace-7. I did split the Aces in the 2nd hand. My rubbish beat their rubbish for low hand in the 3rd hand.
Winning the Fortune Bet would have brought me back to near even with the starting $1K bankroll, but I've lost track of how many hands wouldn't have paid anything to get this far, so maybe I'm ahead anyway by not betting the Fortune Bet.
I turned off the rotating Banker option early in the session because it was interfering with my betting style.



Continuing play - I raised my bet to $60 and ran across this head scratcher. I went against the prompt and played it anyway. Flush beats a straight they say. I guess my low hand was supposed to be 10-7 with a 9 high straight behind it. That would have been a push.

I'm on a roll of hot hands that would have made the Fortune bet a winner by now. It comes down to whether the hands are awful all the time or great much of the time. I'm losing most hands but the Fortune wins would have put me ahead. Fortune wins are the way to win when the dealer has an Ace-High Pai Gow to push the hand but the Fortune bet pays off.
I'm down to $30 bets now and with a 20% side bet of $6, a straight flush would pay off 50 to 1 or $300. I'm almost tapped out. I've read the wheel is the 2nd highest straight in this game, so just one notch lower than a Royal Straight Flush. Don't forget the $20 Envy payout around the table.

This session ended down about 25 bets. The bad beats never stopped.
I could play with or without the Fortune Bonus, but I'm thinking of all the good hands that would have paid and kept me afloat, I should bet the Fortune Bonus.
If 5 Aces is the proverbial "impossible hand" I've got to figure the ones higher than that are even more impossible, and they all are taxable.
I am really losing at this game badly. I've lost $1,000 four times tonight, so I'm down 100 bets. I thought maybe my beginner's luck on this would make a great alternative to BJ with that game's obvious slant towards losing hands at 60%. Seems I'm losing worse than that on this game. I've even tried progressions looking for 6 in a rows and 9 in a row wins, but as helpful as they are when they arrive, they aren't enough against this game. I'm beginning to doubt how good the Fortune side bet would be, but I'd have to use a progression on that that matched my regular bet, and same bet on a push. I'm sure a well timed win on the Fortune bet could make up for like 5 to 25 $1,000 session losses in one hand flat.
25 to 1 or $225 twice for two 4 of a kind winners in a row and spread an Envy Bonus of $5 twice around the table. The third hand was a 4 flusher straight and would have paid $18 instead of $450 for a straight flush.
I didn't split the Kings in the first hand and pushed with an Ace-7. I did split the Aces in the 2nd hand. My rubbish beat their rubbish for low hand in the 3rd hand.
Winning the Fortune Bet would have brought me back to near even with the starting $1K bankroll, but I've lost track of how many hands wouldn't have paid anything to get this far, so maybe I'm ahead anyway by not betting the Fortune Bet.
I turned off the rotating Banker option early in the session because it was interfering with my betting style.



Continuing play - I raised my bet to $60 and ran across this head scratcher. I went against the prompt and played it anyway. Flush beats a straight they say. I guess my low hand was supposed to be 10-7 with a 9 high straight behind it. That would have been a push.

I'm on a roll of hot hands that would have made the Fortune bet a winner by now. It comes down to whether the hands are awful all the time or great much of the time. I'm losing most hands but the Fortune wins would have put me ahead. Fortune wins are the way to win when the dealer has an Ace-High Pai Gow to push the hand but the Fortune bet pays off.
I'm down to $30 bets now and with a 20% side bet of $6, a straight flush would pay off 50 to 1 or $300. I'm almost tapped out. I've read the wheel is the 2nd highest straight in this game, so just one notch lower than a Royal Straight Flush. Don't forget the $20 Envy payout around the table.

This session ended down about 25 bets. The bad beats never stopped.
I could play with or without the Fortune Bonus, but I'm thinking of all the good hands that would have paid and kept me afloat, I should bet the Fortune Bonus.
If 5 Aces is the proverbial "impossible hand" I've got to figure the ones higher than that are even more impossible, and they all are taxable.
I am really losing at this game badly. I've lost $1,000 four times tonight, so I'm down 100 bets. I thought maybe my beginner's luck on this would make a great alternative to BJ with that game's obvious slant towards losing hands at 60%. Seems I'm losing worse than that on this game. I've even tried progressions looking for 6 in a rows and 9 in a row wins, but as helpful as they are when they arrive, they aren't enough against this game. I'm beginning to doubt how good the Fortune side bet would be, but I'd have to use a progression on that that matched my regular bet, and same bet on a push. I'm sure a well timed win on the Fortune bet could make up for like 5 to 25 $1,000 session losses in one hand flat.
Last edited by: ChumpChange on Aug 6, 2023
August 17th, 2023 at 2:25:55 PM
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I'm trying out a new Paroli 4 hit system suggested by a new poster, monodactyl.
https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/gambling/blackjack/38467-is-there-something-to-huge-paroli-bets-in-blackjack-or-am-i-just-getting-really-lucky/#post896410
My base bet is $300. On a win I double to $600, on the next win I double to $1.2K, then finally I double to $2.4K and maintain that bet until a loss. This works great when winning a lot at max bet! But there could be a 100-200 unit loss-wait between runs that put me well ahead. I played my typical session of at least 400 hands, well I cut it short a few hands because I ended up on a winning streak. I went from $80K to $115K early on then slowly lost down to $90K, so a 50 unit loss back. I bounced around between $90K & $100K until a final streak of double downs and such at max bet put me up nearly $15K at the end.
I did bet $225 one time because I misclicked on a drop down menu.
So the stats will be vastly different from what I'm used to.






Now I'm getting antsy to do full parlays of the double-ups I win; say $300 double to $600 wins $600 then there's $1200 in the spot for the next bet because getting to 4 in a row wins is hard. But scraping off the excess chips to a strictly double-up adds a unit or two or four here and there so I'm not sure which way to go. But it seems getting to $2400 quickest would be the priority, so maybe I'll try that on the next session.
I didn't use surrenders this time because I was trying to get these double-ups. Well, I did surrender a couple times early on then changed my mind.
It looks like I was down 9 units at the $300 level, up 3 units at the $600 level, up 30 units at the $1.2K level and up 84 units at the $2.4K level.
https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/gambling/blackjack/38467-is-there-something-to-huge-paroli-bets-in-blackjack-or-am-i-just-getting-really-lucky/#post896410
My base bet is $300. On a win I double to $600, on the next win I double to $1.2K, then finally I double to $2.4K and maintain that bet until a loss. This works great when winning a lot at max bet! But there could be a 100-200 unit loss-wait between runs that put me well ahead. I played my typical session of at least 400 hands, well I cut it short a few hands because I ended up on a winning streak. I went from $80K to $115K early on then slowly lost down to $90K, so a 50 unit loss back. I bounced around between $90K & $100K until a final streak of double downs and such at max bet put me up nearly $15K at the end.
I did bet $225 one time because I misclicked on a drop down menu.
So the stats will be vastly different from what I'm used to.






Now I'm getting antsy to do full parlays of the double-ups I win; say $300 double to $600 wins $600 then there's $1200 in the spot for the next bet because getting to 4 in a row wins is hard. But scraping off the excess chips to a strictly double-up adds a unit or two or four here and there so I'm not sure which way to go. But it seems getting to $2400 quickest would be the priority, so maybe I'll try that on the next session.
I didn't use surrenders this time because I was trying to get these double-ups. Well, I did surrender a couple times early on then changed my mind.
It looks like I was down 9 units at the $300 level, up 3 units at the $600 level, up 30 units at the $1.2K level and up 84 units at the $2.4K level.
August 17th, 2023 at 4:17:18 PM
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I tried another session where I just doubled the double down wins, but that only affected 2 or 3 hands and was inconsequential to the totally bad losing streak this game perpetrated on me! ONLY ONE WINNING 4 in a row to be had out of 172 hands and ONLY ONE MAX BET WON OUT OF 7! I keep saying these computer games build me up with a winning streak only to tear me down the next time and this was the very next session! I'm hardly winning 28.5% of my hands, that has to be a near record low on this game for me for a session! I only had THREE $300 Blackjacks, compare that to the previous session of 15 BJ's!.












Last edited by: ChumpChange on Aug 17, 2023
August 20th, 2023 at 11:29:40 PM
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Because the forum has been modified to include 50 posts per page instead of 10, I find myself posting on page 2 instead of supposedly page 10 or so.
I just played the Wiz's Pai Gow Poker game without any Fortune Bonus adventures. I played during a couple of hour long TV episodes of something on a streaming service and had some good luck. It was up & down and I can try to push my luck, and I did get higher, but I'm gonna post a win goal that I reached. I'm stopping at $3K up from a $1K buy-in for a $2K profit. I think that's at least 15 wins ahead even without counting the 5% discounts on each win which would make it higher. I could try to get to $4K or $8K or higher, but since I've been playing so long tonight I've got to lock in some profits. I'm not sure what to expect for upward swings on this game, but the cards can turn awful on a dime and result in too many dealer wins in a row.

I got up to $5K before dropping back an hour or so later.

I just played the Wiz's Pai Gow Poker game without any Fortune Bonus adventures. I played during a couple of hour long TV episodes of something on a streaming service and had some good luck. It was up & down and I can try to push my luck, and I did get higher, but I'm gonna post a win goal that I reached. I'm stopping at $3K up from a $1K buy-in for a $2K profit. I think that's at least 15 wins ahead even without counting the 5% discounts on each win which would make it higher. I could try to get to $4K or $8K or higher, but since I've been playing so long tonight I've got to lock in some profits. I'm not sure what to expect for upward swings on this game, but the cards can turn awful on a dime and result in too many dealer wins in a row.

I got up to $5K before dropping back an hour or so later.

Last edited by: ChumpChange on Aug 21, 2023
August 30th, 2023 at 1:12:36 AM
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Playing Buffalo 1024 Ways slots on demo mode at a website with play money. I get $5,000 to start with. There's all kinds of betting levels.
https://www.casino.org/games/free/

I started betting $4/spin and I was down a bit but got the 3 coins and in the 1st free spin round, got to 23 free spins and won $189.60 (or just under 50X my bet), and that brought me back above even. It was labelled as a BIG WIN!

I raised my bet to $6 for 50 spins and didn't get the 3 coins so I doubled my bet to $12/spin for another 50 spins round. I hit the 3 coins for 91 free spins. There were a lot of 2 coin wins adding 5 free spins to the total, and a very few 3 coin wins adding 8 free spins. I won almost 525X my bet! It was labelled as an ULTRA WIN!

Then I raised my bet to $40/spin and hit 4 gold coins across for 15 free spins to start off. I was already down over $2.6K from the last JP. I ran it up to 111 free spins! I was awarded a MEGA WIN that was about 290X my bet.


I didn't know what to do at this point, so I set my bet for $120/spin and set the auto spin for 100 spins again. I lost $6,675 or 55X my bet in the 1st 100 spins and ended up at $14,410. I lost another $4,476 or 37X my bet in the next 100 spins and ended up at $9,664. I lowered my bet to $80 then lost another $1,478 or 18X my bet in the next 100 spins and ended up at $8,186. Then it was another 68 spins before I hit the 3 gold coins and all I got was 8 free spins that won me $1,414 and I wound up at $8,240, or up $56 from the previous 68 spins. I tried another 100 spins at $80/spin and lost $2,864 or 35X my bet and ended up at $5,376.35.
I've never played this game before and there were only 3 handpays to worry about but they totaled $19,327.70 and I lost just about all of it back with reckless betting hoping the 3 coin free spin rounds would come around in 50 to 150 spins, but one took 368 spins to come around and it was a flat nothing burger. If I won 500X my $120 bet, I would have won another $60K.
https://www.casino.org/games/free/

I started betting $4/spin and I was down a bit but got the 3 coins and in the 1st free spin round, got to 23 free spins and won $189.60 (or just under 50X my bet), and that brought me back above even. It was labelled as a BIG WIN!

I raised my bet to $6 for 50 spins and didn't get the 3 coins so I doubled my bet to $12/spin for another 50 spins round. I hit the 3 coins for 91 free spins. There were a lot of 2 coin wins adding 5 free spins to the total, and a very few 3 coin wins adding 8 free spins. I won almost 525X my bet! It was labelled as an ULTRA WIN!

Then I raised my bet to $40/spin and hit 4 gold coins across for 15 free spins to start off. I was already down over $2.6K from the last JP. I ran it up to 111 free spins! I was awarded a MEGA WIN that was about 290X my bet.


I didn't know what to do at this point, so I set my bet for $120/spin and set the auto spin for 100 spins again. I lost $6,675 or 55X my bet in the 1st 100 spins and ended up at $14,410. I lost another $4,476 or 37X my bet in the next 100 spins and ended up at $9,664. I lowered my bet to $80 then lost another $1,478 or 18X my bet in the next 100 spins and ended up at $8,186. Then it was another 68 spins before I hit the 3 gold coins and all I got was 8 free spins that won me $1,414 and I wound up at $8,240, or up $56 from the previous 68 spins. I tried another 100 spins at $80/spin and lost $2,864 or 35X my bet and ended up at $5,376.35.
I've never played this game before and there were only 3 handpays to worry about but they totaled $19,327.70 and I lost just about all of it back with reckless betting hoping the 3 coin free spin rounds would come around in 50 to 150 spins, but one took 368 spins to come around and it was a flat nothing burger. If I won 500X my $120 bet, I would have won another $60K.
August 30th, 2023 at 3:00:56 AM
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I played a Grease slot machine for the first time at the same site as above, I was clear out on page 8 of slots. I started betting 10 Euros per spin or 0.50 on 20 lines with a starting buy-in of €1,000. I was down 26 units then I got to the pick a picture bonus and won €1,600 (alt+0128 for €). There's not much to win on this game unless you get to the bonus rounds, and waiting for that bonus round can be traumatic. So I put it on 50 spin autospin and after 14 spins and being down €7.50 from the last bonus balance of €2,340 I hit yellow Grease balls on reels 1,3 & 5 for the next bonus round. I chose the 12 free games in Better Shape Up Bonus and won €1,090 and that put me up to €3,422.50.
And while it was counting up it went from BIG WIN to MEGA WIN somewhere around €750-€900 as shown below.

My autoplay ended at €3,245 so I doubled my bet to €20 and played for 99 spins. I ended up at €1,770 for a loss of €1,475 or 73.75X my bet. Come again? I just bet €1,980 and lost €1,475 of it? That's a RTP of 25.5%! That's traumatic!
I lowered my bet back to €10 and I lost another €400 then got to the bonus round. I chose 4 Summer Nights Free Games and won €1,030! I was now at €2,260 and I raised my bet to €20/spin on 20 lines which is the maximum. I lost down to €2,205 and wound up with another bonus round in quick succession and chose pick a picture. I won €3,840 on that and was up to €6,045.
So I played another 99 spins at €20/spin and lost down to €4,955, or a €1,090 loss or a 45% RTP! Damn!
I played another 99 spins and lost down to €4,000, or a €955 loss or a 51.7% RTP! Damn!
So I quit the game at €4,000 left, but I could have quit after the last JP at €6K.
The soundtrack is catchy if you like Grease at all but I think it's mainly for tourists who will only play the machine to get a taste of it.
A couple of the JP's were not available which is odd, so I didn't hit those.
And while it was counting up it went from BIG WIN to MEGA WIN somewhere around €750-€900 as shown below.

My autoplay ended at €3,245 so I doubled my bet to €20 and played for 99 spins. I ended up at €1,770 for a loss of €1,475 or 73.75X my bet. Come again? I just bet €1,980 and lost €1,475 of it? That's a RTP of 25.5%! That's traumatic!
I lowered my bet back to €10 and I lost another €400 then got to the bonus round. I chose 4 Summer Nights Free Games and won €1,030! I was now at €2,260 and I raised my bet to €20/spin on 20 lines which is the maximum. I lost down to €2,205 and wound up with another bonus round in quick succession and chose pick a picture. I won €3,840 on that and was up to €6,045.

So I played another 99 spins at €20/spin and lost down to €4,955, or a €1,090 loss or a 45% RTP! Damn!
I played another 99 spins and lost down to €4,000, or a €955 loss or a 51.7% RTP! Damn!
So I quit the game at €4,000 left, but I could have quit after the last JP at €6K.
The soundtrack is catchy if you like Grease at all but I think it's mainly for tourists who will only play the machine to get a taste of it.
A couple of the JP's were not available which is odd, so I didn't hit those.
September 7th, 2023 at 1:45:04 AM
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I finally found a Fortune Pai Gow Poker place to play with play money.
I did OK for an hour, then the bottom fell out with like a dozen losses in a row not counting ties. I came upon a quirk in the game where it would pay me like a tie when I actually won. It happened a few times so I'll post them here. There's no Ace high Pai Gow that the dealer has that would cause a push.
The first one is an actual tie where my low hand was the same as the dealer's low hand so the dealer wins because he's the banker, but my high hand beat his high hand so I win that one. It's an L + W = P. Count up my $40 bet and return it to me as a +$40.

The next one I have 3 of a kind Queens beating 3 of a kind 8's, and Ace-King beating a 9-5. I should get a +$80 back in my betting spot but the site called it a tie. I was betting $8 on the Fortune Bonus and won 4 for 1 or +$32. In the lower right you can see my total bet was $48. The win amount on the bottom is added to my balance after the hand is discarded when I click on my winning amount in the center large rectangle.

What should have happened in the previous screenshot was I needed a +$80 in the betting spot when I win both hands.

I did hit 4 of a kind and won a 26 for 1 Fortune Bonus on my $8 bet. I'm not sure if I should decouple my Fortune Bet amount from my regular bet amount and have 2 stacks of chips at the table and play them separately. When I'm stuck with just a score on the internet I can't really decouple them into 2 stacks without excess handwriting.

Here's another deal where I won both hands but got paid like it was a tie.

I lowered my bet for this one and still got ripped off with a tie instead of a win.

I'll have to find another place to play that doesn't have quirks like that. But this was the place that wanted real money, so I didn't click that button and played with play money.
https://www.vegasslotsonline.com/table-games/fortune-pai-gow-poker/
I did OK for an hour, then the bottom fell out with like a dozen losses in a row not counting ties. I came upon a quirk in the game where it would pay me like a tie when I actually won. It happened a few times so I'll post them here. There's no Ace high Pai Gow that the dealer has that would cause a push.
The first one is an actual tie where my low hand was the same as the dealer's low hand so the dealer wins because he's the banker, but my high hand beat his high hand so I win that one. It's an L + W = P. Count up my $40 bet and return it to me as a +$40.

The next one I have 3 of a kind Queens beating 3 of a kind 8's, and Ace-King beating a 9-5. I should get a +$80 back in my betting spot but the site called it a tie. I was betting $8 on the Fortune Bonus and won 4 for 1 or +$32. In the lower right you can see my total bet was $48. The win amount on the bottom is added to my balance after the hand is discarded when I click on my winning amount in the center large rectangle.

What should have happened in the previous screenshot was I needed a +$80 in the betting spot when I win both hands.

I did hit 4 of a kind and won a 26 for 1 Fortune Bonus on my $8 bet. I'm not sure if I should decouple my Fortune Bet amount from my regular bet amount and have 2 stacks of chips at the table and play them separately. When I'm stuck with just a score on the internet I can't really decouple them into 2 stacks without excess handwriting.

Here's another deal where I won both hands but got paid like it was a tie.

I lowered my bet for this one and still got ripped off with a tie instead of a win.

I'll have to find another place to play that doesn't have quirks like that. But this was the place that wanted real money, so I didn't click that button and played with play money.
https://www.vegasslotsonline.com/table-games/fortune-pai-gow-poker/
Last edited by: ChumpChange on Sep 7, 2023
September 28th, 2023 at 4:50:03 PM
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Calling a session double-up after 16 hands with an 11 in a row win streak. (+$10K)

Logs of getting from the $30K bankroll to the $200K bankroll.





Trip 1 win/loss graph: $30K starting bankroll after starting at $1K by mistake.


Trip 2 win/loss graph.


Trip 3 win/loss graph.


Trip 5 win/loss graph. Trip 4 utterly skipped and doesn't exist.


The dealer is usually beating the player on winning streaks of 3 in a row or higher.

Whatever I'm doing, I'm up 1.31% so far on $12 million bet during 34.2K hands. The >$2K bets are anything not listed and are likely below $2K, but a very few are above $2K.

Logs of getting from the $30K bankroll to the $200K bankroll.





Trip 1 win/loss graph: $30K starting bankroll after starting at $1K by mistake.


Trip 2 win/loss graph.


Trip 3 win/loss graph.


Trip 5 win/loss graph. Trip 4 utterly skipped and doesn't exist.


The dealer is usually beating the player on winning streaks of 3 in a row or higher.

Whatever I'm doing, I'm up 1.31% so far on $12 million bet during 34.2K hands. The >$2K bets are anything not listed and are likely below $2K, but a very few are above $2K.
Last edited by: ChumpChange on Sep 28, 2023