My History in Video Poker (cont'd)

[Webman]

I provided a link for mickey to follow if he chooses, so will leave that topic there to not detract from this ongoing thread. Thanks.

[mickey crimm]

DRAW TILL U WIN
 
The Pioneer casino manager got back in the next day.  We all made ourselves scarce, that is, most of us.  Randy kept pounding on the Five-Play Super Ace Bonus doing the one coin/twenty-five coin thing. 
 
I was in an Omaha Hi-Lo game in the Colorado Belle when Tom came by and said:
 
"Guess what?"
 
"What?" I asked.
 
"Randy just got the tap on the shoulder."
 
"They 86 him?"
 
"Yep. But he says he thinks he can get himself back in.  He's got friends."
 
"Well, that cinches it for me.  There gonna have all the systems tweaked down soon anyway.  I think I'm headed for greener pastures."
 
I ran into Terry a very strong video poker pro.
 
"Hey, Terry, you ever heard of Draw Till U Win?"
 
"Oh, yeah, very strong game."
 
"How strong?"
 
"103.2%. And it's super strong  if you find it where theres' a royal flush or straight flush promotion."
 
"Do you know where the game is?"
 
"It was in the Strat, the Frontier, and O'Shea's.  Don't know if it still is."
 
"Thanks."
 
I headed back up to Vegas and was out at Bellagio waiting to get into a 15-30 holdem game when I ran into Rich, another strong video poker pro. 
 
"Rich, you ever heard of Draw Till U Win."
 
"Yep, played it on a Frontier straight flush promotion.  Crushed 'em."
 
"How strong is it?"
 
"103.2%"
 
"You got the strategy?"  Something I had forgot to ask Terry.
 
"I'm sworn to secrecy with the strategy.  Sorry."
 
"Well, thanks for giving me the payback percentage anyway. "
 
I wrote about Draw Till U Win extensively a few years ago on vpFREE.  The only reason I did was because we were all pretty sure the game would never come back.  Those of us who played the game kept it to ourselves as long as it lasted.  There was never anything published on the game until I wrote about it on vpFREE.  For those that are interested go to vpFREE and punch in Message #76939.  Read the post then keep scrolling down and follow the thread.
 
If someone would post a link I would be grateful.  I don't know how to do it. 
 
 
 
 
 

[EDC1977]

  If someone would post a link I would be grateful.  I don't know how to do it. 
  Mickey, keep in mind that those without a yahoo/vpFree account cannot access the message boards. Those with a yahoo account can access vpfree and punch up the specific message # as noted by mickey. rs loves to rant and rave there because they don't have "the Webman!"

[mickey crimm]

[  Mickey, keep in mind that those without a yahoo/vpFree account cannot access the message boards. Those with a yahoo account can access vpfree and punch up the specific message # as noted by mickey. rs loves to rant and rave there because they don't have "the Webman!"
 
Thanks.  I think I'll just go ahead and write about the game here when I get the chance. 

[vdpkr557]

DRAW TILL U WIN
 
The Pioneer casino manager got back in the next day.  We all made ourselves scarce, that is, most of us.  Randy kept pounding on the Five-Play Super Ace Bonus doing the one coin/twenty-five coin thing. 
 
I was in an Omaha Hi-Lo game in the Colorado Belle when Tom came by and said:
 
"Guess what?"
 
"What?" I asked.
 
"Randy just got the tap on the shoulder."
 
"They 86 him?"
 
"Yep. But he says he thinks he can get himself back in.  He's got friends."
 
"Well, that cinches it for me.  There gonna have all the systems tweaked down soon anyway.  I think I'm headed for greener pastures."
 
I ran into Terry a very strong video poker pro.
 
"Hey, Terry, you ever heard of Draw Till U Win?"
 
"Oh, yeah, very strong game."
 
"How strong?"
 
"103.2%. And it's super strong  if you find it where theres' a royal flush or straight flush promotion."
 
"Do you know where the game is?"
 
"It was in the Strat, the Frontier, and O'Shea's.  Don't know if it still is."
 
"Thanks."
 
I headed back up to Vegas and was out at Bellagio waiting to get into a 15-30 holdem game when I ran into Rich, another strong video poker pro. 
 
"Rich, you ever heard of Draw Till U Win."
 
"Yep, played it on a Frontier straight flush promotion.  Crushed 'em."
 
"How strong is it?"
 
"103.2%"
 
"You got the strategy?"  Something I had forgot to ask Terry.
 
"I'm sworn to secrecy with the strategy.  Sorry."
 
"Well, thanks for giving me the payback percentage anyway. "
 
I wrote about Draw Till U Win extensively a few years ago on vpFREE.  The only reason I did was because we were all pretty sure the game would never come back.  Those of us who played the game kept it to ourselves as long as it lasted.  There was never anything published on the game until I wrote about it on vpFREE.  For those that are interested go to vpFREE and punch in Message #76939.  Read the post then keep scrolling down and follow the thread.
 
If someone would post a link I would be grateful.  I don't know how to do it. 
 
     Lets hear some good DTUW stories Mickey.  The most fun Ive ever had playing vp.  What a game.  Tell them about that red headed casino manager at Stockmans going nuts.
 
 
 

[mickey crimm]

[QUOTE=vdpkr557][QUOTE=mickey crimm]DRAW TILL U WIN
 Lets hear some good DTUW stories Mickey.  The most fun Ive ever had playing vp.  What a game.  Tell them about that red headed casino manager at Stockmans going nuts./QUOTE]
 
Yes,, that was in Fallon, Nevada.
 
How about the time you got a tip that there was a dollar denom Draw Till U Win in a bar somewhere on Virginia Street in Reno.  You chartered a cab and hit every bar until you found it. 
 
vdpkr, we'll have to hold off on the stoies until I get the chance to describe the game and how it works, strategy, etc.,  then we'll go into the stories of playing the game. 
 
PS:  Yerington, Nevada was funny too. 

[vdpkr557]

[QUOTE=vdpkr557][QUOTE=mickey crimm]DRAW TILL U WIN
 Lets hear some good DTUW stories Mickey.  The most fun Ive ever had playing vp.  What a game.  Tell them about that red headed casino manager at Stockmans going nuts./QUOTE]
 
Yes,, that was in Fallon, Nevada.
 
How about the time you got a tip that there was a dollar denom Draw Till U Win in a bar somewhere on Virginia Street in Reno.  You chartered a cab and hit every bar until you found it. 
 
vdpkr, we'll have to hold off on the stoies until I get the chance to describe the game and how it works, strategy, etc.,  then we'll go into the stories of playing the game. 
 
PS:  Yerington, Nevada was funny too.  Oh yea the gay bar.  The $1 draw till you win was in the Club 99, a gay bar in Reno.  The game only lasted two days before they took it out.  First time in my life that I was hit on by a crossdresser. 

[mickey crimm]

DRAW TILL U WIN
I've done a lot of reading about video poker and it's origins over the years.  I did a lot of cross referencing and this is a short history of what I have been able to gather:   
 
At the Manhattan Project during the Second World War, nuclear physicists' had to find a way to make sub-atomic particles collide in order to explode a nuclear device.  Those particles are pretty small,  travel at random,  but do not naturally run into each other.  In order to pull off the feat physicists' needed a good idea of what randomness looked like on paper.  So they actually created a giant roulette wheel and paid people to spin the wheel and record the results.  This was a very cumbersome method. 
 
So when the computer age came along programmers' looked for ways to accomplish the feat of creating random numbers using computers.  It took a couple of decades to perfect the Random Number Generator.  But it vastly speeded up  the processes that nuclear physicists' went through. 
 
Cut to the mid-seventies and an enterprising programmer for Bally's, an electronic gaming device manufacturer, came up with the brilliant idea of applying the RNG to a deck of 52 cards, some solid state circuitry, and a television like monitor.  And Voila! The video poker machine was born.  Actually it's not a machine, it's a digital computer. 
 
Now it was a matter of selling the idea to the Nevada Gaming Commission.  Slots were still mechanical in those days and NGC had to be convinced that an electronic gaming device could produce random numbers.  By definition gambling incorporates the elements of chance, consideration, and reward.  If the game could not fit that definition then NGC would never approve the game. NGC came up with their own ways of testing to insure the game was fair and eventually approved these gaming devices. 
 
The first video pokers went into Sam's Town in Las Vegas in 1976.  They were a big hit at first.  People lined up to play them.  But it fizzled out.  The reason?  Though these were 9/6 paycales, it was 9/6 Two-Pair or better, not 9/6 Jacks or better.  This is about a 90% game and peoples' money disappeared too fast.   That's the one thing even the most novice of gamblers' recognizes,  how fast their money is disapearing.  Then someone came up with the brilliant idea of making it Jacks or Better. 
 
In  one of the biggest blunders in the gaming business, Bally's management didn't think much of video pokers.  In those days casinos' were all table games with some slots.  The ones who had faith in the game broke off from Bally's and a new company was formed that went under a few different names over the years but goes by the name of International Game Technology today. 
 
There was a 20 year non-compete clause instituted at the time of the split.  Bally's management was wrong.  Video Poker took off like a rocket and eventually wound up being the single biggest revenue generator in casinos--about 30% of revenue.  
 
And Bally's was left out in the cold.  They wouldn't be able to manufacture video pokers for 20 years.  But when they did get into the act they came out with a pretty good multi-game machine called the Bally Gamemaker.  It was the first touchscreen.  I think the year was 1998. 
 
One of the games on these machines was Draw Till U Win.
 
more later............

[mickey crimm]

DRAW TILL U WIN
 
As vdpkr said, this was the most fun video poker game of all time.    You wouldn't think so by looking at the payscale: 
 
RF..........................800
SF..........................  50
4 Aces...................160
Small Quads..........  80
Generic Quads......  50
FH.........................    6
FL..........................    5
ST..........................    4
3K..........................    3
2P.........................     1
HP..........................    1
 
This is a 6/5 Double Bonus Poker payscale.  Not to impressive, right?  About 92%.  But there is a feature in the game called Draw Till U Win.  Anytime your final hand is a non-paying hand but contains a four-card straight flush, either open-ended or inside, or a four-card royal, you get to draw until you win something.   
 
For instance, say you are dealt 5s-6s-7s-tc-Qd and and your final hand winds up being 5s-6s-7s-8s-9d you don't get to draw until you win something because it is a paying hand.  But if your final hand is 5s-6s-7s-8s-Jh then you get to draw one card at a time until you win something.  And this is a very very strong draw because the worst hand you can make is a straight.  There are only 15 paycards left in the deck: 6 straight cards, 7 flush cards, and 2 straight flush cards. 
 
It's the same with the four card royals.  Say you are dealt Ac-Kc-Tc-4d-3h and your final hand is Ac-Kc-Tc-Ah-Qc you don't get to draw until you win something because it is a paying hand.  But if your final hand is Ac-Kc-Tc-Qc-3s you get to draw one card at a time until you win something.  This is a super super strong draw as there are only 21 paycards in the deck: 9 high pair cards, 3 straight cards, 8 flush cards, and 1 royal flush card. 
 
But anytime on the initial deal you are dealt a pat hand that contains a four-card straight flush you can and should break it.  Say you are dealt 3h-4h-5d-6h-7h.  You should throw the 5d away because the worst hand you can come back with is a straight, but you might make a flush or even a straight flush. 
 
The effect of the draw till u win feature is that royal flush cards and straight flush cards on the deal have huge value and go way up in the strategy chart.  RF1's, RF2's, RF3's, RF4's, SF2's, SF3's, SF4's all go way up in value. 
 
The effect of the Draw Till U Win feature is that Royal Flush odds are reduced to 9780, and straight flush odds are reduced to 1070.

[mickey crimm]

Please, guys, Webman has already given a warning about mentioning RS in this thread.