Wendover

TOURNAMENTS--Between the Rainbow and Montego Bay there were several poker tournaments per month. The buyins were generally $50 to $100. But I payed to play in them with comp dollars. I got my share of cashes but in hindsight I think I could have done a lot better. A couple of years ago I bought Arnold Snyder's "Poker Tournament Formula, a book about exploiting the low-buyin, fast structured, daily tournaments in Las Vegas. I should have bought that book in 2005 when it came out. I really like Arnold's strategy.

I could have played the blackjack, craps and slot tournaments for free too but I didn't fool with it.

SPORTS BETTING--During football season I hung out at the Montego Bay sports book on Sundays. I had two friends there, Frank and Fast Freddie. I knew Frank from Laughlin, Las Vegas and Reno. And I knew Freddie from Reno.

Freddie was a hard core couponer. When the show let out at Harrah's he would be in the showroom picking up the $10 and $20 matchplays. The funbooks for the Cal Neva day trippers from Califiornia had $10 vouchers. They had no serial numbers or anything. Freddie had them counterfeited. He sold them in blocks of ten for $25. The Peppermill regularly carpet mailed offers to whole sections of town. These offers had no name on them. They were addressed to "addressee" or "boxholder." a hundred unit apartment complex would have all the mailboxes in one spot....with a garbage can for the residents to throw away their junk mail. Freddie would fish the offers out of the garbage cans, $10 match plays, $20 match plays, 4 of a Kind bonuses, free Aces. He would crack what he could and sell the rest. If the Reno-Gazette Journal put the wrong kind of casino coupon in the newpaper, Freddie would cover the whole town putting 50 cents in the newpaper machines and stealing all the papers.

Freddie's couponing gig played out in Reno so he showed up in Wendover. Frank showed up for whatever reason. They were middlers in Wendover. Freddie hung out at the Leroy's book in the Wendover Nugget and Frank hung out at the sports book in Montego Bay. They were in cell phone contact. Leroy's was the sharp line, Montego was the soft line. They taught me the two point middle in football and the three point middle in basketball. So I added another little profit center. I taught them the video blackjack.

The Leroy's lines never budged. But the Montego/Rainbow lines moved all the time. So Frank and Freddie got a lot of middle opportunities. But they were handicapped with a $550 max bet on sides and totals at Montego.

There was an old retired Salt Lake City bookie that hung out in Wendover betting sports. The feds retired him. He did an 18 month stretch in a federal pen. For some reason he didn't mind telling me what he was doing. Some of the things he told me:

"When they put up the NFL lines on Sunday nights in Las Vegas you got a lot of wiseguys sitting there waiting to pounce. The book has a $5000 cap on the betting. By Monday the line is hammered into place. Then the book will start taking higher bets. Usually the line just sits there all week not moving, maybe an injury report on Thursday might change a line."

"About 9:00 AM on Sunday mornings the Salt Lake City woodchoppers start showing up in the Montego book."
"What's a woodchopper?" I asked
"Favorites bettors. They never seen a favorite or over they didn't like. The guy that runs the book don't give them an even break. He starts moving the line towards the favorite and the over. It's nothing for some lines to move two points in the hour just before gametime. That's when I bet the dog."

Your coupon guy sounds like a real low life stealing and counterfeitting. Why not forge checks and break into houses rather than hanging out at casinos if he is up to this?

Quote: onenickelmiracle

Your coupon guy sounds like a real low life stealing and counterfeitting. Why not forge checks and break into houses rather than hanging out at casinos if he is up to this?

There are a lot of lowlifes in the gambling world.

I think it was sometime in 2006, maybe 2007 that I decided to take a trip to Deadwood, South Dakota, survey things out, and see if the town was worth doing. I was on a couple of hour layover in Billings, Montana when it dawned on me. The Crystal Lounge in Billings was the first place I played a new fangled game called Texas Holdem in 1984. I had no clue what I was doing and got fleeced. At the time I was rubber tramping though Montana and working day labor. A rubber tramp is a tramp living out of his car.

I went to the phone book and looked up the place. It was still there....and only a couple of blocks from the bus station. So I walked down to the place. They still had the poker game. The Crystal is where Annie Duke first started playing poker. I went and got a hotel room.

So I'm back down at the Crystal playing poker. I look over and see the video poker and keno machines on the other side of the room. They were multi-game machines. Theres no way I'm gonna find anything with an advantage in this jurisdiction, I told myself. But I did the obligatory, got up and went to see. I came across a joker game called Jackpot Aces. It was the original version of the game. It was five coin quarters with meters on five aces, four natural aces, and natural aces full. It was an oddball payscale, top heavy, and 3 of a Kind payed even money. I had never encountered a joker game where 3 of a Kind payed even money. I thought the game looked close. But I had a problem. My laptop with the video poker software was in a storage locker in Las Vegas.

I cashed out of the poker game and went walking through the bars in downtown Billings. The game was everywhere with a lot of built up money in the meters. So I wrote the payscale down in my notebook and thought I would analyze the game the next time I was in Las Vegas. I eventually wound up back in Wendover. And in November 2007 I took a trip to Las Vegas and fished my laptop out of storage. I was going through my notebooks and found the Jackpot Aces game. Oh yes, I said to myself I need to analyze this game. I crunched the numbers and saw where, with built up money in the meters I could get 4% and 5% edges. Looks like I have to take another trip to Montana I thought.

So I get back to Montana and find some new exploitable things. I had planned on just making a lap around the state picking off the easy money, then head back to Nevada. That was 6 years ago and I still haven't headed back to Nevada.

Quote: beachbumbabs

Totally. This is not the Jackpot Party itself. It's a bank of WMS machines with different screens, pretty sure it's a penny or 2c play, and they have had a symbol added to the 5th reel only. If that 5th reel shows "Jackpot party" symbol, you go to a bonus screen that's different from whatever the bonus screen is for the particular regular game, but common to the bank of machines, where you pick presents like on a regular Jackpot Party bonus, except that 1 present on each screen has a gold star behind it that advances you through mini, minor, major, and jackpot progressives if you get the star. Each successive screen has better values under the presents as well. I thought the stars were just advancing me to a better value room each time; I didn't realize there were tie-in progressive amounts.

It is called "Jackpot Party Progessive" and they are still around including 2 banks at Caesars Palace LV. Usually 8 machines with 4 different JP levels with the highest starting at $2500. I have never seen one above $3100. The max bet is usally $2.00 on these machines.

Quote: mickeycrimm

And I love living in Montana. Big Sky country.

I have fond memories of a backpacking trip I took in the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area in the summer of '93. That place is desolate, roadless, wild, lonely, and full of grizzlies.

In other words, paradise.

How to win in Montana.....two words

keno progressives

There might be other ways but keno progressives are the most overlooked game in a casino.