"How long will $200 last?" is the question every player asks, and the honest answer has two parts: the average, and the swings.
The average
Quarter 9/6 Jacks or Better at five coins and 600 hands an hour puts $750 an hour through the machine. With perfect play, the average cost is about $3.45 an hour.
By that number alone, $200 would last nearly 60 hours. It almost never does.
The swings
Results spread out a long way around that average. For that same hour, a rough guide is that about 2 hours in 3 finish within roughly $135 of break-even, up or down.
That means losing $100 or more in a single hour is ordinary, even on the best machine, played perfectly.
A practical session budget
- Decide the session amount before you sit down, and only put that in
- Expect a $100 to $200 session at quarters to last somewhere between one and several hours, depending on the cards
- When it's gone, the session is over. Don't reach for the next one early
Ways to stretch it
- Pick the best pay table. On 8/5 instead of 9/6, the average cost is about six times higher
- Slow down. Fewer hands an hour means less money through the machine
- Drop the denomination, not the coins. Five nickels keep the royal bonus; four quarters lose it
- Play accurately. Every 1% of mistakes adds $7.50 to the hour
For a whole trip, see our weekend bankroll example.
