This Steemit ulog is a series of posts based on my day-to-day gambling activities. Basically, I summarize my results and possibly add notes or observations based on what happened on a given day at casinos. You the reader, should feel free to ask any questions or provide any feedback in the comments.
Next-day delays in posting are common due to having no stable schedules in my line of work.
Category Definitions
I split my results into categories based on the type of game and opportunity to make a profit. These categories are:
Core video poker: These are video poker games/machines that either has a player edge built-in, or which flips the edge from the house's favor into the player's favor when a promotion is applied. If the game has a progressive on the royal flush and/or other hands, the edge is based on the jackpot(s) being at its reset value. In the absence of any other extraordinary opportunities to capitalize on, I expect to spend most of my gambling time on core video poker games.
Other video poker: All other video poker games that are not part of my normal repertoire (e.g. progressive video poker games with excessively high jackpots).
Slot opportunities: Slot machines where I know of or perceive an edge in the player's favor. This edge will always be a temporary one except under the most extraordinary of circumstances. Depending on the opportunity, a slot session could be over in just seconds or take several hours to complete.
Other gambles: Everything else. It could be results from trying out a new slot machine, or playing other games such as video keno.
Summary Of The Day's Results
Core video poker: Played single-line machines at $5/hand for a total of about 2 hours, 15 minutes and finished at +$100.
Other video poker: 1 opportunity, went 1 for 1. Spent 3 minutes and finished at +$28.50.
Slot opportunities: 2 opportunities, went 2 for 2. Spent about 15 minutes total and finished at +$23.44.
Other gambles: none
Total: +$151.94 for the day
Notes/Observations For The Day
An ugly day on the video poker machines due to software and hardware malfunctions. The first machine I played had its screen suddenly flicker in and out as the [player's club] card tracking system on the machine rebooted for seemingly no reason, so I had to stop playing and change machines. The second machine I played on had problems with the hold buttons throughout the entire session. Overall, this was one of my worst days accuracy-wise thanks to the combination of not being able to play at a smooth, steady pace, along with those broken buttons.
Casinos need to be stepping up their maintenance game when it comes to video poker machines -- nowadays they're easier to maintain and deal with than most other gambling devices due to their lack of complexity, especially when compared against those so-called "next-gen, cutting edge" slots.
I've never heard of someone talking about casino machine maintenance. To me, it seems like it'd be easy on most things, but idk.
Depends on the kind of machine and how old it is. With video poker machines (both older and newer), hold buttons have tactile feedback so if there's a problem with an unresponsive button, it usually can be fixed by changing out one small plastic part -- something which would take just a few minutes. In contrast, many newer slot machines use a touch panel or "virtual button deck" for a player to set the amount they want to bet and if that's not working properly, a slot tech would first need to see whether or not the sensor needs replacement, and then perform a recalibration. Either way, that usually takes a lot longer than replacing a plastic part on a video poker machine.
Perhaps most importantly, if a machine is not working properly, people will catch on sooner or later and eventually stop playing until it gets fixed. The longer a machine stays unplayed, the less action it gets and the less revenue the casino makes. So it's in the casino's best interest to have enough staff on hand to keep all their games well-maintained.