Single coin vs. max coin play

[olds442jetaway]

My point is not to emphasize the total number of quads hit, but rather total return playing just single coin. I just mention the quads in passing. Hitting streaks of full houses is just as good or really anything that makes the end of the day an up day. This is going to be a long term study. I will only end it if it falls flat on its face for a few consecutive sessions.
     Here are the results of session 2 playing just single coin dollars from last night and early AM today. Playing those hours lets me pretty much play any machine I want. Also that is the only time I can go due to obligations with my dear folks as I have mentioned before. They still come first of course.
     This was a roughly 7 hour session. I play between 600 and 700 hands an hour. I kept the same pattern as session 1 and played over 40 machines again. I was up 92 bucks at the end playing single coin dollars all night strictly on a 9/6 machine. This was a tougher session than the first one. The dud hand streaks were longer. However, at least 10 quads were hit and the full houses came in bunches. The 2 pair just seemed to vanish for awhile, but that is vp and anything can happen. All I care about is being up at the end of the day. I don't care how I get there. Just having 2 positive sessions in a row is hard enough to do. The next session won't be for a little while due to family obligations, but I will keep things updated here. If it fails, I will post that too of course.

[FloridaPhil]

Olds, I think I enjoy single coin $1 play more than any other denomination.  It's like you're playing dollars on a budget.  Unfortunately, unless you switch to max coins at some interval and get lucky, you are giving up almost 2%.  This doesn't mean squat if you hit a max coin jackpot, but you are depending upon luck alone and that doesn't fit into any expert strategy.  I played single coin for a long time and was happy with it.  The math didn't matter to me, so I forged on and stayed ahead for a very long time.  Based on the last month's posts, I have reevaluated my strategy and am going with the math for now.  Only time will tell if I remain a winner or drop back to loser status where I was before.  

[olds442jetaway]

No question if the machines are on the up and up, you cannot argue with the math unless one is extremely lucky over time. Video poker is like a giant sine curve with a slight tilt downward below the zero line. If the machines I am playing are in fact on the up and up, I may just be catching that curve at or near the peaks. Of course not playing max coins makes my curve tilt a little more downward so for me, I am probably better off bailing out with small wins that playing marathons. I have only 2 sessions to report on so far so there is a long way to go on this test. I may even at some point run a side by side test with 1 playing single coin dollars one session and 5 quarters on the next. I love the deuces wild game, but lately the lack of quad deuces or even wild royals, have forced me back to playing 9/6 jacks or better. Anyway, I am still having fun and this is a heck of a lot cheaper than my prior trials and disasters with the end of day results.

[FAA]

My point is not to emphasize the total number of quads hit, but
rather total return playing just single coin. I just mention the quads
in passing.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I play for the joy of hitting quads and above, so that was the highlight of your post for me! Also the fact that you came out ahead by a comfortable margin is good to know. Face it Olds, you killed it!

[FAA]

I love the deuces wild game, but lately the lack of quad deuces or even
wild royals, have forced me back to playing 9/6 jacks or better. Anyway,
I am still having fun and this is a heck of a lot cheaper than my prior
trials and disasters with the end of day results.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Interesting experiment! I do think if I played one coin 9/6 JOB for the duration I would be a small net winner as well. I'm 1000% of that belief. The difficulty is adopting that mind set. But it's well worth trying. My last two trips the quads have only come after an hour of play, making me a net loser. Which considerably dampened my euphoria. It would have been much more profitable to grind the quarter for an hour and bet up thereafter! Of course at Caesars it would just take me four times longer to bust. What a ripoff establishment.

[olds442jetaway]

I like hitting full houses too FAA especially like the other night when I hit 3 at 9 bucks each in 5 hands. That was just like hitting a quad for me.

[FloridaPhil]

[quote=olds442jetaway]Of course not playing max coins makes my curve tilt a little more
downward so for me, I am probably better off bailing out with small wins
that playing marathons.[/quote]Setting and keeping a low cash out limit will improve your short term results. There is some math to this.  With $20 in the machine, I cash out at $50.  I tried changing all my money into $5s for a while.  It's kind of fun walking around with a huge pocket of bills and hunting for quads.  The only downside is it ticks people off when you monopolize the bill changer for 10 minutes at a time.    

[olds442jetaway]

Back from an overnight session with the Mrs. This would be session 3 and turned out very well. 143 to the upside. This session was only 4 hours, but had 7 quads, a straight flush, and lots of full houses. So far, my instincts have been correct about single coin dollars, but there is still a long way to go in the test. As an aside, the Mrs. hit a Royal on nickels. She was very happy. Edited to add the following.....I only had a few seconds to type the above post and here are a few more details....One of the quads on 9/6 job dollars was dealt aces with a 4. Another one was dealt deuces quads with an Ace. . This seems to be so common when playing job. It is almost like the casino is saying...get off this game ( you are winning ) and get back to DDB or Double Down Stud where we can smoke you. For now I am very happy. I can't remember the last time I had 3 good sessions in a row. I also saw a couple of really nice hits by other patrons. They were all on dollar games. One a Royal with ten bucks in and another guy hit 5 of a kind on Joker Kings with max bet. Overall though, it looked like attendance was down throughout the casino especially in the vp areas. That is good for me, however if the casinos panic, I'm afraid they will just start pulling more vp machines or lowering paytables. I am already almost down to zero points since my 99% games only give you status points and not the ones you can spend. Far cry from 8,000 points just 5 years ago. Anyway, at 500 dollars cash cycled through for just one point, I am not too concerned. I will just have to pay as I go soon. At least the rooms are still mostly comped for now.

[FloridaPhil]

[quote=olds442jetaway]For now I am very happy. I can't remember the last time I had 3 good sessions in a row.[/quote]You are experiencing what I have been saying for years.  Single coin play seems to pay better than max coins, at least over the short term. I have no  explanation for this phenomenon.  I have been laughed off this forum so many times for posting this observation that I finally gave up.   Maybe some day someone will figure this out?  I sure haven't a clue.   Anyway, we are in the airport on our way to Reno.  No single coin play on this trip. 

[olds442jetaway]

Have a great trip Mr. and Mrs Phil. They can laugh all they want at me too. I will be laughing all the way to the bank... well not really...just laughing all the way till the next session. Remember, I am the one who lost 50k last year and a big similar chunk this year so far. My play has completely changed permanently now. I was too stubborn to accept what I was seeing happen right in front of me. I have a lot of sessions to go before I can claim success with my instincts on single coin play. For now, it is fun stress relief. Besides that, I am not counting on my 316k mile Saturn to get me up and back there forever. Keeping my options open car wise. I wish they still made that Saturn. I would buy it all over again. I certainly hope max coin play works out well in Reno. If not there is always single coin dollar or even 5 dollar play. The last session I didn't do as much machine hopping. I split the play in a cube of 6 machines and played them all. Everyone of them let me out to the upside. One was very stubborn with quads and full houses, but that is the one that gave me the straight flush. Actually almost a Royal. Had 10,J,Q,K, in hearts and I drew the 9 instead of the Ace.