For years the Fiesta had dollar 10/7 Double Bonus with five progressives they were attached to the royal, straight flush, aces, quads paying $400, and quads paying $250. This was an excellent game and, had it been closer to my home, I would have played it a lot. But since it was 25 miles away, I played it sparingly on days I was teaching.
One day the straight flush was at $480 when it was hit. It immediately reset to $250, which had the effect of lowering the value of the Poker Hands Rank game by about a half-percent. The other progressives were high enough, though, that it was still a good deal. Pedro, a low-level pro sitting immediately on my left, was dealt a straight flush before the meter had even risen to $251, so he sat there and thought about what he should do.
If he held the straight flush immediately and pressed the draw button, Pedro would win $251, which was the amount everyone got if the progressive was anywhere between $250 and $251. But if he waited a half-hour or so, the progressive would likely rise to $260 or more. So Pedro covered the hand, stacked cups on the chair to prevent anyone else from sitting down, moved over one seat, and continued playing.
I left about 15 minutes later to teach my class and he still hadn’t cashed his omaha poker rules and straight flush. When I saw him afterward, he told me he’d played the other machine for about two hours and cashed out his straight flush for $275.
There was minimal risk to Pedro’s tactic early on. If someone else hit a straight flush before he cashed out, the progressive would merely reset to $250 and he’d be in the same situation as if he’d cashed it immediately. But at $275, there was risk. By waiting now, he risked someone else hitting the hand and the progressive starting over at $250. It would take at least another few hours to climb that high again.
Interesting Questions
What’s the best price at which to cash out? That’s an interesting question and depends on a lot of factors including how much time you have to spend in the casino.
Normally, these types of “clever” plays rip off the casino and have no direct effect on other players. This one was just the opposite. It had no effect at all on the Fiesta. The Fiesta already owed $250 for the straight flush and would continue adding .1% of all money bet into the straight flush progressive. (It was a .5% progressive at the time. This means that .5% of all the money played was directed to the progressives, with the half-percent split evenly among the five jackpots.) The other players, though, weren’t receiving full value as they played. The extra $24 that Pedro collected came directly out of the pocket of the player who got the next straight flush. Since no one knew who would get that straight flush and omaha, each of the other players an the progressive, unbeknownst to them, was theoretically receiving a little less than the amount that the progressive numbers actually indicated.
Was Pedro acting immorally here? Not to my way of thinking. Progressives are a multi-player tug-of-war and players are always looking for a way to get the edge. This time Pedro was successful. Rather than condemn Pedro for his actions, I acknowledge that his actions taught me another useful strategy. Muchas gracias, Pedro.
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