Unimpressed with Must-Hit-By Slots

[Mottorpop]

I try to look for advantage play situations. Recently I tried pursuing slot machines that actually give some indication of how close you are to getting a bonus round or jackpot - generically referred to as must hit by slots. I have managed to find and play a number of these and I am unimpressed with their performance.

The true must hit by slots have a counter that consistently moves up as you wager ... but it is very slow ... so thousands might be spent getting a few hundred dollar jackpot ... it is only truly advantageous when it is close to the top ... which one is unlikely to find.

The pseudo- must hit by slots have a count, but they are inconsistent and one could be left waiting a very long time to collect each item that is part of the count ... in essence, you know you are closer to a bonus or jackpot than if you started at the beginning, but you cannot tell just how close you are. These have the further disadvantage that they seem to be low denomination slots with smaller prizes. Even worse, rather than finding these in an advantage state, sometimes you find they are partway through a series and a person recognized they were losing and stopped playing so it is in a disadvantaged state and no one wants to finish it.

It might be worth mentioning there are many false imitations of must hit by slots called persistence machines where something builds up and looks like you are closer to a jackpot when the graphics have nothing to do with it ... they are just there to keep you playing longer.

Does finding a slot left in an advantageous state happen? yes ... and I have won a little money this way ... but at least so far it has been nothing to get excited about. Advantage play at the tables is much more reliable.

 

[jasonuk]

As with any stored value equation - how easy is it to identify, and how easy is it to extract?

In the case of must-drop progressives, the contributions tend to be linear, and you know when it has to must-drop by... so that means you can quickly establish when it becomes EV+, and when it becomes a guaranteed win (stakes required < jackpot award).

So if it's easy to identify, then that means more people are going to go for it... and much like the UK had professional players of compensated machines, the US has AP hunters looking for those jackpots.

As for collection-based games, if it's genuine then it can be difficult to work out all the interim steps, and if it's fake then there's no stored value in the first place.