Good morning at Encore Boston Harbor. Spooky link hit for $1015 and then 10 mins later Mo Mummy paid out $4,092

Spent a few nights at encore Boston last week and hit the slots hard. I’ll be posting the highlights here to inaugurate my membership. Let’s start off with my second favorite machine: Smokin’ Hot Stuff. If you don’t feel like reading the whole thing, here’s the gist: All told, I came out way ahead on this game, finishing up >$5000 over three plus days of off and on play on these machines alone. I got 2 handpays on consecutive nights (~$1600 each, nothing insane) playing the $1 Smokin’ Hot Stuff Machines, and I hit the lower tier non-hand pay jackpots for $200-500 another 4 times on the $1 machines as well as once on a 25c machine, with a handful of other sub jackpot combos mixed in. While I won’t go so far as to say my results are typical, I truly feel that this is a game that allows savvy players to significantly improve the their odds of success with strategic play and discipline. Encore has the machines set up in a bank of 8, lined up back to back in rows of four machines each, alternating between 25c and $1. I quickly decided on a basic strategy and it held up with consistency that surprised me. All of the lower tier jackpots came within 10-15 spins after sitting down at the machine once I had observed one simple factor. It’s a trick that will be known already by those who pay close attention to game mechanics….in this case, the level of the “Mystery Pick” gold coins in the pot next to the cartoon baby satan guy (I defy anyone to think of a better name for him) gradually rises with each non-winning spin, and when it overflows (surprisingly quickly)it triggers a “match three” bonus opportunity on the upper touch screen. Unlike the bigger bonuses, which rely on lining up “jackpot” symbols of the same color/type across the three reels and therefore are very difficult to predict with confidence, a quick glance showing a coin bowl 2/3 or more full tells you with a remarkable degree of confidence (for a casino, that is) that either a proper jackpot or the smaller coin activated (match three) type is imminent, and if the machine is open you should sit down. To some degree there are progessive mechanisms designed to keep you from walking away from the machine like this one in most slot/reel games in modern casinos, but this particular one (at least as currently set at encore) is extremely easy to time up. If looks full, its going to activate the match three bonus game within 10-15 spins. I didn’t just rely on my experience-I had friends play the same machines and I watched out the corner of my eye as random strangers played them, and the rate at which the coins filled up and overflowed was shockingly consistent. After hitting either type of jackpot the coin pot will be empty, and that should be your cue to go find another machine and circle back around when others have done the grunt work of replenishing the coins. The machines almost never pay out significantly until the coin bowl hit that 2/3 full mark again. TOTAL COIN IN: exactly $1050 (ROUNDED) TOTAL COIN OUT: MEGA JACKPOT 1: $1,666