Ultimate X - Winstar

[pweber]

I went to Winstar the other day to play $1.00 Ten Hand Ultimate X DDB. In the past I have hit some nice 1k+ hands. Low and behold all the machines are now .25 only, with the .50 and $1.00 options removed, regardless of the number of hands played. A while back this sites monthly newsletter Hand of the Month featured some big hands paid on those machines. Does anyone know what happened?

[BillyJoe]

I cannot say for sure about this casino, but I travel quite a bit, and have noticed a trend in casinos lately to limit their exposure to big payouts in VP. I have seen machines like DoublePay being removed, and like you mentioned, other machines eliminating high volatility games for larger denominations.

[pweber]

That was my speculation. With this game, if you were dealt a full house, followed by a dealt royal flush, the 12x payout would be $480,000. I can see where they would want to minimize that risk.

[Vman96]

That was my speculation. With this game, if you were dealt a full house, followed by a dealt royal flush, the 12x payout would be $480,000. I can see where they would want to minimize that risk.

Yeah it's quite a big hit for a casino. But a dealt full house followed by a dealt royal is only a 1 in 451M shot. You have a better chance to win Powerball than to get a dealt full house followed by a dealt royal in your very next two hands. And my two nearest casinos in St. Louis make $20M a month in revenue. They should be able to handle a hit like that, and so should WinStar. If the paytable was 8/5 DDB, they are losing a solid money maker. If it was 9/6 DDB (unlikely), then I understand getting rid of it at dollars. It's one of the swingiest 99.8%+ games on the market and more risky to a casino than say "Not So Ugly Ducks".

[pweber]

I believe these were 8/5. The potential was there and I had some lucky hits, like holding a Jack and hitting a royal at a 4x for 16K or keeping 2 Aces and hitting 4 Aces at 10x fro $8k. But like all of us that play I've also been dealt 4 to the royal and hit none. Actually had that happen several times on a hundred play machine dealt 3aces or 4 to the royal and not picking up the last card.

[rascal]

I don't think it is exposure to a big hand as much as it is putting in what is most popular and what has the best return to the casino. Casinos that I have in-depth knowledge of look at their games on a long-term return. Unlike what you may see in the movies, there is no sudden panic if a bunch of large jackpots are hit in the same general timeframe. Over time, the numbers do not lie, assuming the player is playing legally. The casino may look like it's losing on a given night, but over time it is winning and winning in a stunningly successful way.

[TexDon]

Couple of weeks ago @ Winstar (Rome bar) saw a royal hit w/12X multiplier on $1 UltX  for $48K.  Was there again 4-5 days later & the $1 & .50 denoms had been removed.