Harrah's Cherokee

Appearantly this Indian casino in NC is only allowed to offer games that have some element of skill. Therefore, the video slots allow the player to control the stop of the spins somehow (including locking up the first reel before stopping the subsequent wheels).

Has anyone ever attempted to play one of these, and could someone actually become successful with them?

Nope. No ideas about those games. I visited Cherokee once, played the video blackjack (real chips, live "dealer", video playing cards) for a little while, couldn't find anything interesting to do and left. I have never developed any interest in going back, even though it is the closest casino to where I live.

Quote: Doc

I visited Cherokee once, never developed any interest in going back, even though it is the closest casino to where I live.

Good. I've heard persistently bad things about that place. Sure its supposed to a low rollers paradise with 2.00 craps at 2x or something but too many dealers have very negative things to say about that place and that is simply a bad sign.

Quote: FleaStiff

Good. I've heard persistently bad things about that place. Sure its supposed to a low rollers paradise with 2.00 craps at 2x or something but too many dealers have very negative things to say about that place and that is simply a bad sign.

I'm confused...I thought this place offered video games only, no real table games.

Quote: Doc

Nope. No ideas about those games. I visited Cherokee once, played the video blackjack (real chips, live "dealer", video playing cards) for a little while, couldn't find anything interesting to do and left. I have never developed any interest in going back, even though it is the closest casino to where I live.

Wait...real chips? DAMNIT!! I collect chips, was JUST 10 miles from Cherokee, and didn't go because I didn't think there were table games in NC.

I know they offer video craps and video blackjack ... I recall something about a management contract that changed there, I think it was two years ago. I just recall some very serious allegations about money being siphoned off.

Quote: ruascott

Appearantly this Indian casino in NC is only allowed to offer games that have some element of skill. Therefore, the video slots allow the player to control the stop of the spins somehow (including locking up the first reel before stopping the subsequent wheels).
Has anyone ever attempted to play one of these, and could someone actually become successful with them?

The casino now has regular slot machines. I think the change came when N C signed on to powerball, so the law now allows games of chance. The old machines were called Lock and Roll where you could hold reel(s) for a second spin. They still have some of these machines. IIRC, if you hit the help or pays or some such button it will tell you the exact composition of each reel and with this information you can calculate the optimum strategy. I never did this since I go there only once a year and this made calculation not worth it. I do remember that the reels did not all have the same composition and I suspect that each and every machine is unique. An algorithm could be developed in general I believe, but the calculation would have to be made for a particular machine and a particular first pull result. I do not think it would be difficult to come up with a decision rule, but I suspect it might not be worth it.

As for other games, I think "live" BJ is video with a live "dealer" that punches buttons to deal and handles the money. I did not play, but I assume they have chips for this. I do not remember live craps and other table games, but my fuzzy memory tells me there were roulette, craps and BJ machines for multiplayers sitting around the machine.

As for the casino itself, it has just opened a newly constructed expansion. I have not seen it. There have been complaints about the tightness of the machine from the beginning, but if I ran the only casino between Atlantic City (now Penna) and Tunica, I might do the same.
I hope this helps a little.

Quote: rdw4potus

Wait...real chips? DAMNIT!! I collect chips, was JUST 10 miles from Cherokee, and didn't go because I didn't think there were table games in NC.

I collect chips also -- that was why I bothered to go to Cherokee in the first place. The video-playing-card version of blackjack just didn't seem the same to me, and with the lack of regulatory oversight, I just didn't have complete confidence that the cards would behave the same way that a real stack of shuffled cards would.

Quote: ruascott

I'm confused...I thought this place offered video games only, no real table games.

To paraphrase Mr. Clinton, "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'real' really is." There is video blackjack, as I panned above, and I have heard claims that there is video craps, with images of a pair of dice crossing the display, like the on-line games. If that type of craps exists there, it is new since my visit, and I would have the same reservations about the randomness, absent regulatory oversight.

Quote: matilda

The casino now has regular slot machines. I think the change came when N C signed on to powerball, so the law now allows games of chance.

Thanks, I didn't know that. Once of the most frequent questions I get, that I can't answer well, is about the skill-based slots in NC. Hopefully I'll quit getting asked about it.

I was there once about 6 years ago. I got a kick out of the fact that these 'skill' machines are so difficult for the locals to understand, that there are three 'practice' machines near the front door.

For those of you that haven't seen them, unless they've been changed as Matilda suggests, ALL of their machines are/were like video poker machines in that after a spin, you select which reels to hold and which to re-spin.

Quote: matilda

I do remember that the reels did not all have the same composition and I suspect that each and every machine is unique.

Knowing what I have learned about Class II and III from the Wiz, I'd be surprised to learn that each machine is "truly" different. I'd believe that the virtual reel strips have the same composition, but may be scrambled differently making it difficult to make an accurate analysis or comparison.

Quote: DJTeddyBear

Knowing what I have learned about Class II and III from the Wiz, I'd be surprised to learn that each machine is "truly" different. I'd believe that the virtual reel strips have the same composition, but may be scrambled differently making it difficult to make an accurate analysis or comparison.

You may be right. But what I do know for certain is that on an individual machine the strips are not the same and they contain both a different number of symbols and different numbers of each symbol. Example: strip 1, 108 symbols;strip 2, 128; strip 3 92. Each strip then has a different mix.

That's nothing unusual. As I understand it, the reels in regular Class III machines have different virtual reel strips too. It's how the all-important bonus symbol appears on the third reel more than expected, but in the wrong position.