Video Poker Ultimate X Video Poker for Out of Town Players

On Monday I few from the North West to Las Vegas for a week stay to play video Poker and craps.

While waiting for the jet in Portland, I meet two 30'ish aged guys who lived off of Ultimate X video poker. How is that, I asked.

Well... They said that you have to appear like a high roller to the casinos, such as running $10,000 @ $1 play (or $100,000 play though), and if you are out of town... well you will get lots mailers with huge freeplay offers. In this case, these guys where flying down to just collect a 3K free play from a large mega casino on the Strip. They only intended to run the free play though once, perhaps 50 hands ( .50 or $1 level of play) , and fly home.

They said that they travel to LV about two to four times a month to run though just enough money to keep the lucrative offers coming, and use the Airline miles from the credit card offers for cheap/free flights. Otherwise they live here in the Northwest cheaply and away from the LV heat and dust and have flex work they pick up for extra cash. They live the gamblers life of jet setting, clubbing and the Las Vegas party life.

The said that TR properties is their only casinos they play in. They eat and drink in the diamond lounges for free, get club passes and other perks from their host for free.

Other players I meet playing VP echoed the same to me as the guys above, that the Mega casinos cater well to the out of town player who is willing to expose tens thousand or more. The local Las Vegas people that I meet with said that they where not seeing much of anything in offers from the mega casinos even with that level of play, and tended to play at Palms, Boulder Station or the Downtown casinos.

This page has the game description and a strategy guide on how to play the game for the highest return. You can play Ultimate X Here for practice

Some AP strategies for ultimate X:

A huge advantage can be had if you find a game abandoned with multipliers! If you see this, play one hand at five coins per line, and then cut and run. Likewise, never leave a game with multipliers on it.

Some Stats:
$10 coin-in on Video Poker = one Tier Credit
7/5 bonus poker @ 10 hands = 99.4034% return
10 ultimate X hands at $1 play = $100 per play ($10 per hand)
You earn 10 tier points per round

100 rounds will earn you 1,000 points
Your theoretical loss for 100 rounds is $60

If you know how the TR point system works you then know that perks come at the higher tiers for out of towners.

** WARNING ***
Ultimate X is a high volatility game and your bankroll will take large swings. See this article
Must play with Max Coin in and using optimal play strategy for your desired game. Using casino Free Play offers is a must with this game. Playing Double Double Bonus Ultimate X could lead to a life-altering moment and perhaps should only be played with Free Play.

 

It's fine to state "***warning*** High Volatility Game...but I'd like to follow that with a real world example. One of my best friends in PRO VP went through $150,000 playing quarter Ultimate X. According to him you'd need around a quarter of a million to play it safely. He was playing the 99.8% return version of the game. His friend had swings in the other direction, getting things like Aces with a Kicker dealt after a pat straight and had several hand-pays worth a hair under $100,000... BIG SWINGS...!!!

 

The local Indian Casinos here in Oregon has this game at DDB @ 8/5 for 5 cents and 25 cents, and I have seen this even this at 7/5 DDB at other Indian Casinos. Due to the extreme volatility I would skip this game at the degraded pay-tables.

You can play the game at 5-coin if you find a machine with the multipliers, that would be advantage play and that all that I look for now with this gme at the Indian Casinos.

I have tested this game playing BP at 8/5 at the quarter level, and found that you need a $3000 coin-in to weather the ups and downs, and a $10,000 bankroll overall. Playing for dollars You need 30K coin-in and 100K bankroll. I don't remember seeing this game higher than dollars in Las Vegas.

However, playing at the high levels will bring points and the points can bring comps or be cashed out. So there may be some advantage play at hand here if you can swing some good deals with the casino host.

 

Are you talking about the multi-play 10-hand version of the game...???

I was!

 

Where do you find a 99.8% return of this game at quarters? The best I found is BP at 99.28%
I am also talking 10 hand as well. It is the best return rate, but more volatile.

Your needed bankroll is determined by where you live. Out of Town players will get lucrative free play offers where locals will not get much in offers. That is why my title is as it is.

 

Sorry, I can't say, as it was told to me by someone else in confidence. Pretty sad that in today’s VP culture even under 100% return games are considered "secret"... I remember the days when 101% return games were ignored because they weren't good enough to even consider playing...

 

Well, there are many "100%" games out there, but there is typically a sign on the game that will say something to the effect "No points will be awarded" or "excluded from any point multipliers and promotions".

That is why you have to pick your casino players club very carefully and when you play this game. You might get a BP 7/5 variation of this game with from what I can see a +- 3000 units per 100 hands on average. Of course being dealt a Flush then the next hand dealt a RF would be the dream come true @ 480,000!!!

The real reason to play this game is to rack up the tier credits so you can get the player club level and the casino sees you as a high roller. Playing when there is a promotion is all the better. That is when the large free play offers will be made, rooms, meals, entertainment tickets and more is given out. Locals often don't need free rooms and the casinos are not offering it to local either. But, then there are some perks the locals like, such as the Diamond Lounges.

The reasons for playing any casino game greatly differ from person to person and what they are trying to achieve/gain/need.

 

And this is partly how I busted my BR in 2015. I just play it at the .10c level now and only 3 handed. Sometimes .25c (3 handed only, ever) when I'm not broke. I know 9/7/5 .25c double bonus paytable and 8/5 deluxe machines (same machines). Sometimes they pay great, other times, well. Let's just say I have to stay home till the 7th. Damn.

 

Frank, Mark, Dan and any other actual Video poker Ultimate X players; I get really annoyed when I see people run up to the UX machines and run through every version of every denom to see if someone left a multiplier. These scavengers just play the multiplier and dash. I feel like they're just that scavengers-like the people who look for quarters/pennies that used to be in the trays when the machines paid in coin. But, they are slightly better than those scammers who try to con tourists into playing the UX game by telling them there is a flaw in the programming and convincing them to leave when the 12x comes up. I've seen that. When it happens I let the tourist know that is the time to stay and not go. Ohhh the con artist gets mad at me. Too bad. Then, of course I call security. LOL.

 

They are simply extracting the latent +EV, no?

 

I agree, Zen, but the practice is so sleezy in my opinion. Fishing for left over quarters is extracting +EV is too but is also sleezy, in my opinion.

 

I fish for multipliers all the time....However I never use my player's card because its one or two plays and gone as well as you have a fair chance of winning some quick money. Usually, I fish with more money than I normally would play but it is such a great play. Of course when I grind VP I use my card. Is there any advantage to using your player's card when multiplier fishing?

 

Seriously, is this for real?

 

Why would "fish" or anyone else fish for point multipliers then not use his player's card. Makes no sense at all.

 

Because speed is of utmost importance. With the eye in the sky and how some people look down upon vultures (see previous posts), I want to get in and get out (i.e., slam bam thank you mam) and don't want to risk leaving my card in the machine.

 

Oh, now I get it. It's not multiple points. You're looking for machines where some previous player stupidly left in the middle of a play, leaving a multiplier on the payoffs. I don't know why the casino would care about that. It's not as if you were cashing out abandoned credits. I guess all advantage plays are taking advantage of the ignorant players in one way or another.

Reminds me of the vultures that used to sit at a linked bank of Flush Attack machines pretending to play until the unsuspecting players got it into Attack mode. I consider that kind of play to be unethical.

 

Dan... That kind of play is identical in every way to playing high progressives in all but time. The concept is no different. One is coming in after someone else has "pumped up the 'meter'" and playing when they have an edge, and then leaving after the edge is gone...

I think "multiplier fishing" is cheesy to the max as well, and don't do it myself. But it's not any more or less unethical than playing a high progressive...which obviously isn't unethical at all. If people want to drop and walk away from their money, you can't fault the people picking it up off the ground...

 

I did not say that multiplier fishing was unethical. After posting yesterday, I thought more about it and tried to edit it to compare it to playing high progressives, but it was too late to edit it. I agree with you, and I see no reason not to use one's player's card.

What I said I considered unethical was sitting at a linked bank of Flush Attack machines pretending to play until the unsuspecting players got it into Attack mode. But that's a moot point since such FA banks no longer exist.

 

New upgrades in the ultimate X software has ended this practice of multiplier fishing. I noticed this last week at the machines I usually play at, and others noticed as well be cause the vultures that hang around these machines are gone.

 

I have heard people talk about a software change for the last two years but have yet to see it in Vegas and the Mid West. I don't see the dollar value to the casino to make the changes. Personally, I would hate to be playing with a 12x up for the next game but be interupted by a phone call for two minutes and come back to the game and have the earned multiplier gone. As an aside, I learned camouflaged button pushing fishing (or vulturing) about 4 years ago from a nice local Vegas lady (thanks). I find left over 12X multipliers on a routine basis (i.e., usually left by elderly people but I usually brick anways).