TheBigPaybak
Posted by TheBigPaybak
Feb 04, 2015

A Good January!

January has been essentially a lot of work combined with some gaming at a few local casinos- although best of all a new dog has joined us!

So as I've previously blogged I do play slots for entertainment, and luck has been on my side for the month with many of my wins detailed on my YouTube channel that I created primarily to learn more about YouTube, although now I've found I'm having some fun with it at this point with over 400 subscribers. It's been crazy with some of the high-limit slot wins and knowing the math, I know it can't last like it has been, but what a ride it's been! Anyway, for those who would like some vicarious slot gambling, here you go:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheBigPayback777

Both Zeus and Kronos have had some crazy wins!

Comments

Perdition
Perdition Feb 04, 2015

I like watching your videos. I can max bet by proxy. I mean I got sick losing 40 dollars on Wonder Woman because I went against the AP Handbook but it is a guilty pleasure. Also I like the Zeus type games.

RogerKint
RogerKint Feb 04, 2015

Inconceivable!!! Congrats on the big wins.

beachbumbabs
beachbumbabs Feb 04, 2015

So I went and watched this, and thought, wow. Then I went and looked for the Zeus win you mention and found 7450 video and went, double wow. Then I looked again and found the huge win (go enjoy it, I won't tell how much it was) and was just floored. I wish I had the nerve (and the bankroll) to play at that level. One more Wow.

TheBigPaybak
TheBigPaybak Feb 05, 2015

Thanks everyone, I hope to have more but of course it's like walking on thin ice!



The recent Kronos win from the FreePlay was nuts: it was the first time I've ever had literal spin-to-spin jackpots!



I've certainly learned playing high-limit gives the chance for the BIG WIN at the expense of time of play so the choice is "pushing the button" for a few hours or a few minutes, but the latter can give you some great short-term results, or a big zero of course. I've settled on mixing it up at this point!

1BB
1BB Feb 06, 2015

What's the most you've lost and in what time frame?

Zcore13
Zcore13 Feb 06, 2015

With that kind of play I'm guessing he loses $100,000 per year in slots. High limit slots are definitely not for the feint of heart or financially unstable.





ZCore13

teddys
teddys Feb 08, 2015

I highly doubt he loses $100k a year in slots. He might even be up for the year. $50k is a more reasonable figure.

Zcore13
Zcore13 Feb 08, 2015

$50,000 is VERY easy to lose. He's hitting a very large jackpots and it's not phasing him all that much. To hit that many large jackpots you have to play through A LOT of money.



To each their own. If he has the money, more power to him. Some machines are really fun to play.

TheBigPaybak
TheBigPaybak Feb 08, 2015

Recently I struggle with what to post and not to post as on the one hand, I enjoy participating in this forum and on my YouTube channel, and on the other hand I'm somewhat of a private person: I've never posted on Facebook, for example. I respect the fact that others have posted their wins and losses in all of their good and agonizing detail, and at the same time most retain a certain amount of anonymity which is something I currently don't have as it wouldn't take a lot of effort to figuring out who I am.



I guess I'll say this: 2014 was a great year and 2015 has started out with a big bang. It's been so good in fact, that I'm having the opposite reaction of what I imagine most gamblers may have: instead of wanting to play more I've been cutting back as I understand you can't beat the odds long-term for what I tend to play. The fact is I know I've been extremely lucky and know it can't last, although at the same time, I give myself the opportunity to win big amounts in the short-term playing certain games high limit from FreePlay, for example. I don't just go and bang-away at $45/pull machine for hours, but I will use a $35 coupon, add $10, and do a single spin, like I did yesterday and win $150. The $33175 was also on FreePlay plus $20 or $25 of cash. Other times this year consisted of a $500 session of my own money win or lose. Over the years I've gambled a fair amount and have had pretty big swings although my recent behavior when playing slots is to take $500 and give it a shot: sometimes more, but that's generally where I'm at. This has been working great when combined with promotional offers, although once those offers start to dry up, then I'll need to make some decisions and that point and hopefully not get whacked...

TheBigPaybak
TheBigPaybak Feb 08, 2015

Zcore13, when you wrote this:

>>>

He's hitting a very large jackpots and it's not phasing him all that much.

<<<



Well, it's true I was mute on the Zeus big win, although some of my other videos do catch me reacting. The big Zeus win was one of my first, and maybe at the time I wasn't comfortable doing the video or it was so above and beyond I just got dumbfounded although I can say afterwards it was all quite exciting with the crowd. The latest Kronos video shows some excitement and commentary which hopefully makes it a little more interesting to watch... :)

TheBigPaybak
TheBigPaybak Feb 11, 2015

Sadly it looks like the party may be over with Zeus now out of service for "integrity checks"...



...anyone know specifically what that means? Sounds like hold percentage adjustment to me...

tringlomane
tringlomane Feb 15, 2015

Integrity checks can mean a lot of things. I'm glad my favorite local VP machine had some sort of fix lately. It runs normally now, instead of an over second delay between deal and deaw.

TheBigPaybak
TheBigPaybak Feb 15, 2015

Yeah, I've since played the machine and it seems to be behaving in the way it always has, so still a good game to play, if you're going to play slots!

Beardgoat
Beardgoat Feb 15, 2015

Do you play in Vegas ? Awesome hits. I watched quite a few of your videos.

Perdition
Perdition Feb 15, 2015

Don't you play at a racino with VLTs? Probably a little bit different set up since you are winning money out of pool as opposed to straight up.

TheBigPaybak
TheBigPaybak Feb 16, 2015

Thanks- glad you enjoy them! I hope to have more but obviously you can't rush these things.



I tend to play in the mid-west and haven't been to Vegas since 8-8-8 but will likely make a trip there sometime this year.



Most of the videos are from VLTs, but as previously discussed in another blog post, I believe the conclusion was they're essentially Vegas-style slots and only "VLT" in name.

TheBigPaybak
Posted by TheBigPaybak
Oct 31, 2014

Jackpot: Zeus has been conquered!

It's funny, whenever I start to discuss slot machines on this forum I almost feel the need to apologize for playing them in the first place as most of us here know the deal. That said, from an entertainment perspective I do enjoy them, and while some here may take issue with me, there are definitely "better" machines to play depending on your goals. Sometimes I play to monetize Free Play, other times I go for it. A few days ago, I went for it with an unbelievable 1 minute and 37 second result which can be viewed on my recently created YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheBigPayback777

After going to the channel, you'll see which video to watch!

I created the channel a few weeks ago in order to learn more about YouTube, not being familiar with how it works, as I'm interested in the subject from both a personal and professional standpoint. I noticed people like to upload some of their gaming victories so thought I'd try the same: glad I had my camera going the other day!

Comments

1BB
1BB Oct 31, 2014

No need to apologize for playing slots. Zeus is one of my wife's favorites and she has already watched your video about a dozen times.



May I ask how any tipping was handled as well as the behavior of those who undoubtedly expected a tip?

TheBigPaybak
TheBigPaybak Oct 31, 2014

As you can see from the other videos, I really enjoy the game, and on the particular 9-line version the virtual reels aren't long like they are on many of the new games, so you can get a feel for the frequency of the wilds and the bonuses which is one of the reasons why I like the game.



Regarding tipping, I tend to give $10 per hand pay: not sure if that's cheap or not, but lately that's what I do as there are generally two attendants and $5 for each seems reasonable. As I'm in a bad gambling state, I lose on state and local taxes which really isn't fair as you're fighting a losing battle to begin with.



For this payout, one attendant presented me a check and I have to admit, I was so excited from the win and talking with other personnel that it was mostly a blur when he came and I don't recall any expectation, actually. As a matter of fact my recollection was he presented me the check and started to walk away and it then occurred to me I did not tip and I told him to wait and gave him a $20. Honestly, the lack of the real-money payout ritual probably skewed my tip lower than what I would have likely given if this was a lesser win, but I was a little outside myself at the time.

teddys
teddys Nov 01, 2014

That's awesome! You got a screen full of Zeuses. High-limit slots is probably my favorite game to play -- assuming odds aren't considered. You can't beat the rush.

rxwine
rxwine Nov 01, 2014

I am usually completely quiet on any kind of jackpot, but I might of squeaked a little at that one. I didn't hear you make a sound.



I never hit a full screen of anything on those kind of multi reel machines. I'm always missing at least one square. Nice to see a full one.

TheBigPaybak
TheBigPaybak Nov 02, 2014

Yeah, not sure if I was in shock or just mindful that I was recording! That particular game doesn't do the "drama spins" once you get a few columns of the top symbol, so everything happened rather quickly. Prior to this, I have had a few games with 4 out of the 5 with the top symbol, but never the first four, usually missing the second or third column for the big let-down. Crazy though how after even getting that, that it almost happened again on the last spin!

Gazreal
Gazreal Nov 02, 2014

Amazing win! I posted a link to this win onto another site that just focuses on slots, should see views go up by quite a bit. You said you were hoping to learn more about youtube and gaming wins, and there are people making pretty significant money by running ads on slot machine win videos. A guy joined 2 years ago and has over 7,500 subscribers and 6.4 million views and just posts slot videos.

TheBigPaybak
TheBigPaybak Nov 03, 2014

Gazreal, thanks so much!



Wow! That guy has really done well for himself! Still learning over here, and honestly need some more good content- but don't want to fall into that trap if you know what I mean...

TheBigPaybak
TheBigPaybak Nov 04, 2014

I've created a "Play List" for those interested, showing the lows and the highs of playing Zeus!

Boz
Boz Nov 11, 2014

Just noticed this, but great job and hard to believe you had to fight with someone on YT saying it was fishy.

TheBigPaybak
TheBigPaybak Nov 11, 2014

Yeah, I didn't realize some people posted bogus wins on YouTube, but at the same time never thought I'd get something so crazy to ever be challenged... :)

Wizard
Wizard Nov 19, 2014

Congratulations!!!!

TheBigPaybak
Posted by TheBigPaybak
Sep 16, 2014

Fire Bet Victory

Some business associates came into town last night and after some drinks and dinner, we played Craps which is a game I hardly ever play, other than to occasionally play a match play coupon. Anyway, after passing the dice the first time I decided to give it a roll and made 5 points on the fire bet: honestly I didn't even know the payout was 250:1 but knew we were in for something nice! I never had a shot at making all 6 points, but during my final roll a player was saying something along the lines of betting $2 or $3k related to the final point I needed to make: some sort of "can't lose" proposition or something like that, which I assumed would work in conjunction with the fire bet in some way. Needless to say I didn't do it as I didn't understand it and sevened-out a few rolls later anyway. Anyone know what he meant with that bet?

Comments

RaleighCraps
RaleighCraps Sep 16, 2014

My guess is he was suggesting you LAY against the last number that you needed for the 6 point Fire Bet. But he jumped the gun, as you need to set that number as the point, BEFORE you make the LAY bet.

If you had set the last number as your point, by LAYING the number, you are guaranteeing yourself a win, although it will be a smaller win than you could make.

There have been a couple of threads about hedging the Fire Bet, and what the perfect break even bets are.

Congrats on the 5 point Fire!

TheBigPaybak
TheBigPaybak Sep 16, 2014

Thanks so much, I'll do some searches and check them out!

ontariodealer
ontariodealer Sep 16, 2014

example, you just made five points and set the 4 as your 6th point........you could lay 2500 against the 4 to win 1250.



if you make the 4 you get 5000 minus the 2500 you laid .......net 2500

if you seven out you get 1250 plus the 1250 from your lay......net 2500 - 72 comm.



all kinds of options available.

TheBigPaybak
Posted by TheBigPaybak
Jun 10, 2014

Blackjack Tournament Reflections

Over the past weekend I made the trek to Niagara Falls to meet up with other WoV members for lunch although before doing so, I had the opportunity to play in a VIP Blackjack Tournament. While I've played in a few other tournaments before, I wouldn't consider myself an extremely skilled tournament player although I feel I know at least a few basic strategy points.

The tournament consisted of 4 preliminary sessions of 6 tables with 6 players at each table. Winners at each table would move onto the semi-finals where 12 lucky people would also be drawn at random to join the standard session winners. Winners of each of the 6 semi-final tables would go to the final table where another lucky drawing winner would join for a total of 7 at the final table. Each session consisted of 18 hands of play.

My first session went well: I bet minimums probably until the 13th hand or so and then afterwards not much more. Others at the table were getting slaughtered by the dealer betting wildly so I was essentially last-man standing: by the 17th hand there was only one player left and he wasn't close to my chip stack. So far, so good.

During the semi-finals thing got a bit more interesting as three of us were close in chip stacks around hand 16 and at the end of the 17th hand I was behind although before the start of the final hand something strange happened: player 1 and player 6 started talking across the table: "Hey- do you want to go partners? What's your chip count? Should I bet low and then we can win for sure?" And on it went for probably a minute. I sat silent and bet the max and won my hand although came in second place on chip count. When it was all over, or appeared to be, one of the supervisors got wind of the situation and realized what occurred shouldn't have happened and then, instead of taking the easy way out, did the right thing and worked to correct the situation as the rules clearly stated that player collusion was prohibited! After some discussion, they were disqualified and on to the final table I went! (For those wondering, if instead of colluding they played the hand out properly, I'm not 100% sure if I would have won or not although I think I would have).

At the final table we were given twice the amount of chips as the prior sessions with the limits raised. The final bet was also a "mystery bet" where you wrote a value on a slip of paper up to the amount of your chip stack: think "Final Jeopardy".

Once again, I bet conservative although not completely so as one player was starting to take a sizable lead. Other players started to try and bet big but lost. By the time the final hand was upon us, I was leading although it wasn't close to being a lock. With the top three prizes of 30k, 10k, and 5k, part of my thinking was to not bet such a high amount where if I were to lose, I'd be out of the top three. As it played out, each of the top three players including myself bet about the same amount although I won my hand and they lost theirs. I need to get the chip counts to confirm if I almost made a costly mistake: I think I may have and just ended up getting lucky by me winning and my neighbor losing. But things went my way, so VICTORY!

One easy take-away from the day: be sure to take 5 minutes and read the rules of the tournament. It would have helped me realize there was an issue in the first place and it certainly would have helped my opponents as they did have the advantage over me. Whether or not if you see an issue to bring it up immediately or to wait after the hand may be a point for discussion. Looking back, I suppose maybe the best thing to do would have been to allow them to break the rules, then call a foul to the supervisor once the hand had commenced. Regardless, it certainly was a lucky day especially as it did not start out that way, taking losses on some of my usual favorites...

Comments

odiousgambit
odiousgambit Jun 11, 2014

>things went my way, so VICTORY!



Nice! Something to brag about when you met up with everybody.

RaleighCraps
RaleighCraps Jun 11, 2014

So did you get 30k cash, or 30k in gambling promotion that had to be played through at least once?



Great win by the way.

TheBigPaybak
TheBigPaybak Jun 11, 2014

Thanks, and yes- nice to have a good story to bring with me for the meetup!



The prize was in cash: I took a check for most of it and played a bit more later in the evening and the next day.

Deucekies
Deucekies Jun 13, 2014

Very nice! Congratulations on the win.



One question I have. I've heard of blackjack tournaments with this secret-bet "Final Jeopardy" final hand. Are you allowed to wager anything, or do you have to bet round numbers that can be matched with your chips? For example, can you wager $3601 to try to win by $1 like they do on Jeopardy, or would you have to go $3625 or $3700?

TheBigPaybak
TheBigPaybak Jun 16, 2014

Thanks! I checked the rules and it looks like you could wager an amount that would be a partial amount of a chip, as long as it was a multiple of 5 points. So the way I read things, you could bet 1005 for example. It's a good question, though, and something I would clarify in the future before starting a tournament!

TheBigPaybak
Posted by TheBigPaybak
May 05, 2014

Kentucky Derby and VLTs

I met up with some friends at the local Racino for this past weekend's Kentucky Derby: they are handicappers and I am not. We pooled our money together and were actually up a few bucks throughout the day until the Derby itself, and then got whacked as "Commanding Curve" bested "Wicked Strong" otherwise it would have been a great race for us.

On the positive side, during a total of approximately 2 hours of play, I was able to hit 3 jackpots on the VLT games they offered. On the one hand, as I understand things, outcomes for each play are determined at the time you press the button, although I'm not sure if that also includes the bonus rounds, which is where each jackpot was won. I had never played these type of machines before, and always thought they were "worse" than standard slots, although I guess other factors come into play. These were the only jackpots won all year for me.

Comments

tringlomane
tringlomane May 05, 2014

It actually depends on your state. Some VLTs in racinos behave exactly like Vegas slot machines and some use pull tabs or electronic bingo to determine results. Great job on the jackpots! My first ever "jackpot" came from an Alabama racino that used electronic bingo to mimic the results of a "Texas Tea" slot.

TheBigPaybak
TheBigPaybak May 05, 2014

The Racino I went to was in Ohio: I know there wasn't the bingo game animation going on at the machine, which I have seen before in New York. The place wasn't too big and at the same time, I did see a fair amount of jackpots being paid out. But 3 in two hours? Talk about luck- although I'm still curious about the details: as you say, if the VLT behaves just like a slot, why not just call it a slot? There still must be some technical differences, I would think. Also when I think of "pull tab", I think of a finite number of results that have to occur before things are "reset" which would seem to imply a greater regularity of jackpots occurring...?

tringlomane
tringlomane May 05, 2014

As for pulltabs, what I have always read makes it sounds like there are finite picks, but the pool (and I believe it's usually quite large...something on the order of a million outcomes in the pool) does get replenished well before it becomes near exhausted (e.g. pool resets when it is only half exhausted), and it's difficult/impossible for the player to determine what exact state the machine is in. But if you could determine what state the game is in, then it would pay poorer when an abundance of higher prizes were already taken and vice versa. But on average, it would average out to the initially selected prize probabilities, and those probabilities could be chosen to behave very similar to a random slot, especially if they use a large pool of outcomes.



However, Ohio doesn't do that. Their VLTs mostly must follow GLI-11 v. 2.1, which is the most recent update to gaming machine standards in the casino industry. In that document all slot games must RNG driven, and that video poker must be from a random, equally probable deck. Their only major alteration from the GLI standard is to require a minimum 85% payout (like Ohio casinos) instead of the 75% minimum payout that GLI suggests.



Ohio VLT Technical Standards (PDF):

http://www.ohiolottery.com/assets/vlt/Racetracks/Video_Lottery_Terminal_standards-4-1-14



GLI-11 v. 2.1 (PDF) most relevant details in Chapter 3:

http://www.gaminglabs.com/downloads/GLI%20Standards/Bill%20E%202011/GLI-11%20v2.1.pdf



So to sum up, VLTs in Ohio behave exactly like Vegas slot machines. Their overall paybacks are similar, but a little lower, to Vegas, looks to be about 91% for 2014 so far. Really standard returns for places that are mostly penny slots, which I suspect racinos are.



https://www.ohiolottery.com/About/Financial/VLT-Revenue

https://www.ohiolottery.com/assets/pdf/VLT-Revenues/2014/VLT-Statewide-Monthly-Revenue-Report-FY-2014-9



The biggest reason why they are called VLTs is because they are "managed" by the Ohio Lottery as seen with the links above. Maryland is the exact same way, VLTs in name only, and they behave exactly like Vegas slot/video poker machines.



And yes, 3 top wins in two hours of play does happen sometimes. I'm still waiting for two royal flushes in one day, but I have read that it does happen to luckier people than me...lol Congrats again on the hits!

TheBigPaybak
TheBigPaybak May 06, 2014

Thanks so much for the reply- that pretty much sums everything up! It's interesting that when the term "VLT" is thrown around, that it could really essentially mean a "standard slot" or a "pull-tab" although I suppose I'd prefer a standard slot, as a player.



Sounds like I just got really lucky, although as has been discussed, if you play slots, where you play can make a tremendous amount of difference. You can play two of the same games at different places and have completely different experiences. One thing I'd like to see is for operators to make known when they've last adjusted the odds on any particular machine. While I know that this isn't common practice in that operators aren't tweaking machines daily, it would be helpful for players, at least I think it would and I would patronize any place that did so.



Thanks again!

onenickelmiracle
onenickelmiracle May 06, 2014

They use the lottery because it legally justifies the machine's existence. I think they can call them slots, they can call them slot machines, but they can't call them Vegas style slot machines because they aren't. I do think streaks on VLTs do kind of leave you guessing if the odds were for or against and whether it was luck or the system making the difference.