Penny Slots vs. Video Poker

[FloridaPhil]

Went to the Tampa Hard Rock yesterday with intentions of playing slots all day.   I decided on "Quick Hit Platinum".  I played it online for free and it seems to have decent variance with lots of small pays and a frequent bonus game feature.  I also discovered each machine has it's own internal progressive jackpot ($7K on the machine I was playing).  The minimum bet in Tampa is 60 cents a hand.  Playing the minimum, I used some free play and immediately hit a $100 jackpot and cashed out.   Unfortunately, I walked over to the video poker machines and proceeded to go in the hole $200.  Nothing worked for three hours until I hit a quad deuce which bailed me out.  I jumped back and forth between VP and the QHP slots all afternoon and to be honest with you enjoyed the slot play more.   The slot game plays slower, which gives you a little more bang for your buck.  I'm positive the payback is less, but the entertainment value is what I'm interested in.  It also seemed like the comp points accumulated faster, but I'm not sure about that.  Right at the end, I played max credits on the slot ($3.00) and hit a $200 jackpot and went home about even.  Personally, I like moving back and forth between VP and slots.  It allows me to play max coin VP at a higher denomination than normal and use the slot play to tread water in between.   It looks good so far. 

[FAA]

Tread water with slot play? That quad deuce made you escape even, a true break. I finally played DW for real. Unfortunately, it was dollar DW. I was dealt three deuces at one point, which was pretty exciting. I was way underfunded. Go big or go home mental state was my downfall. I went home. A very quick DW hour with DB level loss between two machines. $270 coin in. $60 loss.

[olds442jetaway]

I went the penny slot route for a diversion a couple of years ago. The percentages finally caught up with me. I still play one either nickels or pennys for a diversion and tip money. It is an older game. Being a SCI-FI nut among other things, I play Alien. I love the select lines and amount per line feature. If I put in a hundred, and vary my lines and amounts per line on a mild Martingale Clone, I can almost always count on five or ten bucks to the good and I then cash out. Older graphics, but I still enjoy it especially the bonuses. About 8 years ago, I turned a hundred into 500 on a nickel Alien game. That hasn't happened since, but I still collect the tips for my favorite staff people. Playing those all day though, will nail your a.. but good most of the time.

[FloridaPhil]

Everything in a casino is a loser to some extent.  You can manipulate the comp system and win raffles to show a profit, but the reality is the actual cash will go their way for most of the players most of the time.  These days I play to enjoy myself and if it costs me money to do that, so be it.  I'm through with the whole idea of grinding it out, it's boring and frankly not that much fun.   Playing slots along with video poker mixes it up for me and makes the day interesting.   I'm OK with paying to play as long as my loses don't make me mad at myself.