Mike in Massachusetts good news from Mohegan Sun made me wonder:

For you vp players who have hit a royal, how long were you playing the game before you achieved the crown?

I realize some of us only play several times a year, and others may have more opportunities to play, but let's hear your stories.

I've hit a royal on a multiline nickel slot, not playing full coin. But it was fun to hear the little tune and get $90 out of $10 to start. I guess I've been playing for maybe 2 years at that point.

Gee, I played for a long time. But back then, it was for free drinks. You'd buy a roll of quarters from the bartender and give him your drink order. When the drink came, normally I'd stop playing. I did this for years, and never really knew what I was doing, didn't understand paytables, and didn't even know the difference in games. My one and only goal was a drink! WooHoo!
I started enjoying some of the bartenders and started to stay longer and playing longer (more free drinks) and learned the differences in games and paytables. The Flamingo Garden bartenders where great at that time Lynn, Tom & Allen, what a great bunch of guys! Then there was the folks at Harrahs, Toy and Shawn. And that is where I got my first royal, Harrahs sports bar on a quarter bonus machine with a progressive meter, in the sports book bar. That all was about 10years from the time I started playing. But I only really started playing hard for about 3 years.

Kes - Great question!

I started playing VP sometime in 1996 but like Lee said, didn't really know what I was doing at first. I was playing one coin at a time and then 2 or 3 if I was winning.

Probably in the next year I started getting into it more and more and started buying books about it to get better and eventually bought Win Poker. But after I got to know the game fairly well, I remember getting frustrated that I couldn't hit a royal.

My first royal came in 1999. It was 2:00AM and I was at NYNY playing JOB at a quarter machine. There was no one around and I was very tired and blurry-eyed, telling myself I needed to quit and go to sleep. I got dealt 3 to the royal and suddenly up popped the other 2. The machine froze and said, "Jackpot! Call Attendant!" It was the first time that ever happened. I just sat there stunned, all by myself.

It took another 2 years to get my next royal. I've had at total of 10 royals in my VP "career" and seven of them were at Triple Play games.

It was at least a year, possibly two, before I hit my first Royal ... dealt to me in Spades on a nickel machine at the Sahara. LOL, I recognized what it was at least a nanosecond before the machine started serenading me with "you're in the money." I do miss those singing machines!

That was back in 1998, and it took me two years to hit the next one, but I'm now looking for #24.

Kes,

I hit my first royal on my first trip to Vegas. It was around 1980. We were staying at the Riviera. We had walked to the Circus to eat ( remember, it was my first trip) Patti needed to stop in the bathroom so I sat at a Dollar JOB game.

I started out playing one or two dollars at a time but was doing really well so moved up to max coin. When Patti came out, I asked her to find a couple racks for me (yes, I was doing that good). I ended up with two odd dollars. Yep, that's what happened....Royal flush for $500 instead of $4,000.

The attendant who showed up was some young kid and the first thing out of his mouth was, "Do you know you'd have won $4,000 if you'd have had $3 more in"? I didn't want to go to jail so I just sat there and nodded.

My next was several years later in Biloxi. I was on a one day junket and hit with max coin on a dollar machine within about 20 minutes of arriving. Not only did they give me a W2-G, they WITHHELD Mississippi State tax.

I'm sure not in Daisy territory but I've had a several others since then.

My first time in LV I walked up to a bar at the hotel(luxor)casino and asked for a beer.The bartender serve me the beer and asked me for 2.00,and I replied "I thought the drinks were free in Lv as long as you are gambling...and that I was on my way to the black jack tables" The bartender replied that if I bought a role of quarters,she could comp me the beer.So I give her 10$....I sit down and start feeding the quarters into this game(JOB) I no nothing about.After about 2 more beers and working on the same role...I get delt the Royal!Beginers Luck!

That was a great start! Somehow, it reminds me of the days when I was strictly a slot player but would play one quarter at a time through some video poker machines while waiting for my family to gather outside our favorite Reno buffet. I sat down at a machine which promptly gave me a 4OAK, and the lady seated next to me laughed and said her husband was going to be upset because he had been playing that machine for over an hour. I was used to 1600 coin jackpots and didn't understand the fuss over 25 quarters. LOL, little did I know how I would learn to covet those 4OAKs<g>.

The stories and advice on this forum are great. My wife and I have visited Vegas three times now and her company just relocated to Henderson. That means we will now visit at least once a year for the national meeting of franchisees. In the past we have played table BJ but on our last trip I sat down at a VP game. True beginner like several of you in the early parts of your stories. Where can I find a good resource that will explain the VP world...different games, paytables, what to hold / fold, etc? I found the wizardofodds.com site but need something a little more straight forward...and fast. We will be in LV next week starting on Wednesday. Thanks

I'm not sure about the "fast" part, but I would definitely recommend Bob Dancer's WinPoker. It has over 20 video poker games which can be a bit overwhelming, but most of us started with Jacks or Better to learn the basic strategy and then moved on to other games according to our personal taste. You can practice the games, analyse the games or individual hands and learn which paytables to look for - or to avoid.

E-mail me, and I can give you a bit more info.

I'm still a virgin. Never hit won and probably never will. Wo is me!