Any casino goers here? Share you stories.

You always here stories that you can't beat the house at the casino. I can tell you first hand some of us do. I've spent thousands of hours watching my grandmother spend her retirement playing video poker. In doing so I've studied and watched those machine for any advantage I can get. Video poker is not your typical slot machine. It actually takes skill to play and if played correctly it is possible to win more then lose. Because the game takes skill and there is a high margin for error the game has higher pay rates then regular slots. It's actually one of the best games you can play for odds. There is a strategy chart called perfect play and I've memorized it and mastered it. It's very difficult to memorize and took me years to do so. Another thing is learning the intricacies of how the machines are programmed. I know for a fact when I see certain card combo's there's a high chance the machine is going to pay out.

I don't go into the casino and spend thousands. I take $60 a trip and I only take what I can afford to lose. Tonight I took $40 and the first thing I did when I got there is observe. I walked around to all the poker areas to see which were paying out. My grandmother ran up to the first machines she saw. I went for a lucky machine that I've hit on frequently in the past. I put $20 in the machine and within the first 5 minutes I won $80. I saw another favorite machine was open so I moved to that one. I lost $20 out my total but I was playing for a long time. I kept playing and I hit for $500. So I was up $560 and I put $500 in my pocket. I moved to another machine and hit for $200 and I put that in my pocket. My grandmother was broke and asking to borrow money from me. I said if I hit on this machine I'll give you half of what I get. I hit for another $200 and I gave her half. I figured I had cleaned the area out so I moved to another area and hit 3 more times of $80 each time. I left with $800 tonight. I played some back because you never know what's going to happen but I know when to quit. I might give some back but for the most part I quit when I'm ahead. I have a system small hands I play back anything under $100 anything over I put in my pocket.

Last January in one week I won $5000 in 3 trips. Not once did I take over $60 with me. Last July my grandmother went out of town for a month. She gets $20 in free play as a comp every week. She told me I could use it. I went early one morning with only $20 in freeplay and walked out with $500. So far this year I've won over $11,000. I'm not getting rich by any means but I do fairly well. I have to be doing something right.

My grandmother don't believe in perfect play or anything like that. She's pretty stubborn and hard headed. She don't listen to anything I say. She can flush $500 down the toilet at the casino within an hour. She plays like a loose cannon and won't adapt to anything I tell her. I've seen her miss so many winning hands it almost makes me sick to watch.

Anyways anyone else have some casino stories?

Oh yeah I've got one more. My buddy and I went to casino and he plays 3 card poker at the tables. He put his money on the table and kept doubling it. Finally he put all of his money on one hand. He had to go to the bathroom so he told me to play his hand. The dealer dealt the cards and I just watched. I didn't want to touch the cards I let the dealer flip them. When the dealer flipped my cards the guy next to me starts hugging me and yelling you did it man you did it. I wasn't even paying attention to the cards and the dealer slid me over a big pile of chips. My buddy had $300 on the table and got a flush which pays 10:1. I won him $3000. He came back from the bathroom and was in shock.

Casino's work more over the long term to make their money, the odds are slightly in the houses favour but like a lot of things if you're clever and spend some time you can start to see how the system works, free beers to reduce you inhibitions etc so you pump a bit more into the system.

Always remember chatting to a former pro gambler, this guy had a master degree in maths so knew his onions when it came to probability and when playing cards he always walked in with a small amount of money and if his luck wasn't with him he'd bow out quickly and wouldn't chase the luck.

But if you are using an electronic machine the random number generator may be crap and thus you start to see the pattern and at which point exploit it till they realise and swap it for something better

a reply to: Maxatoria

My cousin has a masters in computer science and he works for a university running their entire network. I've discussed it with him about the RNG's. They do swap the programming but not often and usually it's only a matter of time before I pick up on things. My grandmother worked at a casino in Vegas. I learned a few thing from her also. I'm not say what I do is perfect because I do lose but when things go my way I've won big.

a reply to: wantsome

I read your OP with great interest as you lead a very different life to me and think a different way. I would not judge you because it is your space to live as you wish, but I see the whole gambling thing as a loser's game ultimately. The only ones who gain big time from it are traditionally the Mob and these days the corporate style enterprises they have become. If they are making so much money how can the punters be also doing ok out of it? It is by and large an illusion and that is how the player pays the piper constantly and the piper is a multi millionaire.

May be there are a rare few like you. Yet you must say for all the risk you are taking even by what you tell us here (which possibly may be a little exaggerated) you are not making very much money out of it are you.

I gamble in a different way. I gamble in life on certain business projects. There are risks attached to what I do. I take CALCULATED risks, though I have made a fool out of myself before because there is a risk that sometimes the mess up that does not happen very often is going to come and bite us on the ass. Investments in risky enterprises are always a gamble, so I can sympathise with you on that score.

You must enjoy your life and your Grandma, too, as I guess you would not do it if you didn't enjoy it. Picturing you there with your Grandma is kind of cute I must say. Good luck to you both.

I have a romantic fondness for the gambler really. So many of the old folk songs I listen to use the gambler allusions, metaphors, similes, stories, etc. There is definitely, traditionally, a romantic side to the gambler's life.

Worked in the gambling environment for over 5 years now. You are playing electronic machines that have a percentage payout. If you are winning someone else using the "perfect play" is losing later. Perfect play only relates to an "fair" table without algorithms designed to increase the advantage of the house.

You are either deceiving us with your consistent win stories, willfully forgetting the times when the system fails or are so incredibly lucky to avoid losses that your time will come eventually, especially when your "lucky machine" is recalibrated. They will measure the payout of that machine and take it out of service if the combinations become predictable.
I would be far more inclined to believe you if you talked about the losses or times you got it wrong.

Video poker is one of the worst forms of gambling and the closest to fair you can get is blackjack.

Nice story but been doing far too long to believe this to be a consistent truth. Soz.

I moved to Vegas to work some years ago. We used to carpool with some friends to a couple different projects and would meet up every night at a tavern. I would always put $20 in a video poker machine,play max bet quarters ($1.25 a hand) and have a beer while we waited for the others. Never really won much and if I did left it as a tip for the bartender.

The last work night before Christmas, had a nice fat paycheck the bar cashed and put $100 in and played max bet $1, hit a Royal Flush and won $4000. Had some fun that night.

I did a job at Trump's Castle years ago.
It took over a year for the bill to be paid after invoicing.

I remember busloads of retired people coming to the casino in the morning with a spring in their step and smiles on their faces. Later in the day, they would be heading back to the bus with a frown on their face and no more spring in their step. I suppose it may have had something to do with their wallets and purses being so much emptier at the end of the day.

Ah, the voice of innocence!!! Let me tell you something that you will not like which no-one yet has mentioned.
Every casino you've ever been in has cameras everywhere. They'd even have a camera that films you wiping your ass if they could get away with it.
These cameras are there for people like YOU. They are NOT dummy cameras. They are monitored constantly.
Monitored constantly looking for people just like you. Casinos make their money with losers not winners, that's their forte, their pay check.
I would seriously say to you that you have been very, very lucky not to have been pulled by the casino. They do not like consistant winners because constant winning smacks of cheating. If you keep winning sooner or later you WILL be banned as they will take it you have been cheating and no matter what reason you give you will still be banned.

I never play machines or table games, just Texas holdem and usually on a table with mostly geezers. Most of them are medicated, drinking, semisenile, or just not paying attention. I do OK!

I never play at a table where an Oriental woman is playing. I know my limitations.

Tournaments are fun, but unpredictable and to much like gambling.

Actually I find the Indian Casinos in my area kind of creepy.

a reply to: wantsome

While I have the ability to walk through the MGM Grand in Vegas without gambling, I have played blackjack a couple times (in AC, actually), and I have quadrupled my original stake. I found that I have kind of an innate ability to count cards. I don't do it consciously, but I get hunches based on how many face cards have shown since the shuffle, if I were to guess. I'm not a gambler and I generally stay away from casinos, though.

a reply to: butcherguy
I worked at a Casino for a couple of years in a state I will not name.

One morning an older lady pulled into the valet lot in a car with an inspection sticker that was 5 years old and was so beat up I wouldn't let the valet park it.

After all of the rigamamorole parking her car and transporting her via wheelchair to the Casino, she asked me in a hurried voice if we cashed wellfair checks.

After a brief moment of wondering what the hell I was doing in this business I told her if we did "I would quit".

And of course after a brief call I was told that we "indeed" do cash wellfair checks at 2 1/2 %.

I left about a month after.

a reply to: Spader
It is sad.... and government sanctioned.

I have two quick tidbits.

We have a newish Mohegan Sun here in Pennsylvania, boring Wyoming Valley NEPA, population 500k.

I hear that it's not uncommon for someone to blow their rains out in the parking lot. It doesn't make the local news. People here are saps, and have minimal internal guidance, so lots of people are lured to the casino, and meet their demise.

The place was pitched as "bringing jobs" etc. Well, that's just redistribution of the wealth, with a huge skim of, ohh...40%, leaving the area. Pretty obvious to ATS-level intellects, but it's a huge burden to the valley...imo.

Henceforth, petty embezzlement has become all the rage. Entrusted people steal from tiny organizations, like little league, and from big business....like my cousin.

She worked a union business office, where her dad was manager for like 40 years. In all, she took about $60k in member dues and petty funds. Because it was a union, she was charged on federal violations. Because she paid back the money, and the sympathetic management, as her father had just passed....she got off easy w/2yr probation. (there are no federal misdemeanors) No word was ever said about where the money went. My cuz has nothing and does not do drugs, like a catholic school choir girl, no other legal issues ever....except the casino and gambling was "evil" enough to turn her.

en.wikipedia.org...

My wife tells me people go to casino *before* work, and then strait there afterwards. Pretty sad. We've had a few good meals at the restaurants there, but never gambled. Many others are unfortunate and have weird anxiety issues with money and magic or whatever.

a reply to: wantsome

The saying "the house always wins" is not some myth....pokies here in AUS are or at least were programmed at 13% so for every dollar in it payed back 13 cents,obviously not rigidly so if you are lucky enough to hit the machine after it has sucked in enough it will pay....the only reasons pubs and clubs renovate around here is because of gambling revenue...

In saying that you are right,you can be patient smart and get lucky but believe you me you will lose in the long run...

As far as poker goes it is a different format and you are right it requires skill but it also requires investment..you do not become pro overnight