Gambling Challenges & Grin and Bear It

[Direkin]

These gambling challenges are just awful, but they're the last ones I need to get to 100%. Right now I'm stuck on busting 3 players at poker, but for some reason I am continuously getting the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hands possible. I think I must be on something like a 30 loss streak at the moment. Consistently getting very disparate singles, so at best I'll be 4 cards out of a 5 card trick, or low doubles. It's really starting to piss me off. And I see the last challenge requires winning 3 in a row? I can't even win 2 in a row. Assuming I ever get to that stage, since just busting 3 players is taking forever, what do you do for that? Save scum it?

Also, it seems my counter for Bear and Grin It isn't working. I was at 38/100 when I started my session, I survived 3 bear attacks and killed the bear afterwards (with a single shot while on the ground), and it's still at 38/100.

[5Puff]

so you're bad at poker

[Direkin]

Originally posted by 5Puff:

so you're bad at poker

Useful response. Well done. Slow clap for you.

[jswarpaint]

When one first encounters RD2 it easily at the very beginning comes across as the ultimate - Everything about it - even the voice of Arthur, his comments, his mannerisms, how one can replay a mission, cancel a mission, redo a starting point, the sounds in the game the scenery anyway... but as one continues to play it they begin to encounter surprisingly stupid pathetic things that do not make sense with or coincide with what they experience first hand at the beginning of it. Silly pathetic things such as what you are encountering - many things the player finds out are impossible to do and many things in order to do them one must get out of the game and research it on the internet - their are a lot of things that are vague and impossible to know and figure out unless one happens to find it on the internet.

so often instead of enjoying RD2 one must take a time out and look on the internet which does not always turn out to be of benefit.

so as one continues to experience RD2 they have to face the reality that its just another endeavor with pathetic stupid idiotic senseless pointless encounters that are quite aggravating and make RD2 just another game that could have been something epic but only approached it and in the end it may even be a regret that surprisingly with a few tweaks well actually with a whole bunch of tweaks at this point could have been epic.

[jswarpaint]

For example, Story mode at trapper just sold some pelts go to leave get attacked by 4 wolves .... earlier could not use the trapper it was locked out because of the dudes at the railway line shooting guns at cops ... anyway .. I go to deadeye shoot the 4 wolves but the trapper has ran off ... I'm disturbing the peace so I hide and wait for the big red blog to go away along with the wanted thing .. then I go back and start cleaning the wolves ...

then two cops show up out of nowhere scream they recognize me and I surrender - I was using two horses I end up in Strawberry so I take a coach to Rhodes and Train to the station near the trapper and my other horse now has morphed to horseshoe overlook and the 4 wolf carcasses are all rotten so its just a big waste of money ...

stuff like this makes RD2 just another mediocre game with pathetic aggravation and let downs.

[in]

Busting players out is easy af (as long as you're not playing vs Lenny or Strauss, going all in most times will make players fold, you can cheese most poker challenges like that, or if you have actually good hand, you should bait them to bet more by not betting too much), wait until you reach the one where you need to "Win 3 hands of Blackjack with 3 hits or more".

For grin and bear, steam tracker is just not really accurate, keep killing them and you will just get achievement when you get it.

[Direkin]

Originally posted by jswarpaint:

For example, Story mode at trapper just sold some pelts go to leave get attacked by 4 wolves .... earlier could not use the trapper it was locked out because of the dudes at the railway line shooting guns at cops ... anyway .. I go to deadeye shoot the 4 wolves but the trapper has ran off ... I'm disturbing the peace so I hide and wait for the big red blog to go away along with the wanted thing .. then I go back and start cleaning the wolves ...

then two cops show up out of nowhere scream they recognize me and I surrender - I was using two horses I end up in Strawberry so I take a coach to Rhodes and Train to the station near the trapper and my other horse now has morphed to horseshoe overlook and the 4 wolf carcasses are all rotten so its just a big waste of money ...

stuff like this makes RD2 just another mediocre game with pathetic aggravation and let downs.

Oh yeah, I've had a few instances of that sort of thing happening as well. There's also the really janky controls which has gotten me killed on occasion as well. By that I mean like how I would be attacked by a predator in the wild, I try to aim, but end up spinning 90 degrees to face my horse instead.

Originally posted by in:

Busting players out is easy af (as long as you're not playing vs Lenny or Strauss, going all in most times will make players fold, you can cheese most poker challenges like that, or if you have actually good hand, you should bait them to bet more by not betting too much), wait until you reach the one where you need to "Win 3 hands of Blackjack with 3 hits or more".

For grin and bear, steam tracker is just not really accurate, keep killing them and you will just get achievement when you get it.

I found gambling to be a bit easier at camp, but unfortunately I left all of these gambling challenges last, mostly because I find it very boring; it makes fishing seem fun. Also I've completed Epilogue 2, so camp is long gone. I finally got Gambling 4 done, so now I have to win rounds in dominoes without drawing. Again, that was easier when I still had a camp, but It took 8 rounds to get the first win without drawing at Emerald, and I've just had 7 in a row where the opponent starts and I had to draw on the first move. It's really tedious. I see there are some tricks to help Gambling 8, 9, and 10 to go a bit faster.

[Mr_Purple]

Poker challenge... it's Gambler 10, right? Go to the uhh... forgot the name of the station, but it's the one Swanson has a mission for you in the beginning of Chapter 2. Feels like dudes there have extra chance to pass on player's All In. Bet small at first, after it's your turn to raise or check, go All In. Got it in less than 10 minutes. Imo three wins with 3 hits or more in Blackjack was much more painful. That's the "point" of Gambler challenges, most of them are up for a chance.
Edit: Oh, I thought you meant win three hands in a row. See that you already got it, but my advise would come in handy when you'll get around Gambler 10.

[Direkin]

At the time of posting it was Gambler 4, but now I'm on 8 - win 3 hands of blackjack with three hits or more. Wow... I'm playing at Van Horn, and I've noticed 5 day/night cycles from the windows, at least from what I've noticed since I nodded off at one point from all the excitement of sitting at a table for hours. During that time I've had one such win. That's 1 win with three hits or more, in 5 day/night cycles. There were of course other opportunities to have won, four more, but the dealer had 21 on each of those other times, so with luck I could have finished already. Tedious. I just remembered I still have the last season of Fargo to watch, so at least that's to watch when I resume the challenge on autopilot.

Still, your advice sounds good for 10. That's Flatneck Station, or something like that? The one near the camp during chapter 2.

[E-Commerce Meatualization Inc]

the gambler stuff is pretty annoying, especially when you try to be careful even in the off chance you do get a good hand and everyone folds even when you don't raise. I wasn't too bad at it when I did it years ago but controlling the table is everything, until you control the table it's just a slow game of rng hell.

[Mr_Purple]

Originally posted by Direkin:

At the time of posting it was Gambler 4, but now I'm on 8 - win 3 hands of blackjack with three hits or more. Wow... I'm playing at Van Horn, and I've noticed 5 day/night cycles from the windows, at least from what I've noticed since I nodded off at one point from all the excitement of sitting at a table for hours. During that time I've had one such win. That's 1 win with three hits or more, in 5 day/night cycles. There were of course other opportunities to have won, four more, but the dealer had 21 on each of those other times, so with luck I could have finished already. Tedious. I just remembered I still have the last season of Fargo to watch, so at least that's to watch when I resume the challenge on autopilot.

Still, your advice sounds good for 10. That's Flatneck Station, or something like that? The one near the camp during chapter 2.

Yeah yeah, Flatneck, that's the one.

How I did Blackjack one: Van Horn, yeah you got a good idea. Pick a right most seat so that you'll get your cards asap. If it's a good hand, play. If you get a ten or something - immediately quit and enter Blackjack again. If you're quick enough, you'll be able to enter without having to wait for an ongoing match to reset and try again. Surprisingly took me about 15 minutes this way, but I could have been simply lucky. Three dominoes in a row took me much longer (by the way, the easiest dominoes to play is the one on Emerald Ranch station, it would take a bit longer, but your only goal is to put all tiles first, no need to calculate stuff).

[Man o' War]

Check on your horse after playing cards.

You play cards in real time but outside the game time rolls on as normal.

Spend an hour or two playing cards and chances are your horse will be malnourished as it hasn't been fed for a day or more.

[Direkin]

So, apparently for Gambler 9 you can't load a save (manual save) if you lose a game. It really has to be all done in one sitting. Good god! Dominoes is infuriating as ♥♥♥♥. There has been a few times I would be on the last tile, and then be forced to pick up 10. Actually, my first game on G9 was against 3 opponents, and one guy won on the first game with 64, right off the bat. Kept reloading so I'd get just one opponent. Played a bit, won a game. That's fine. Had to quit out of a few more games (I know about not having progress reset if you leave on your turn), but that last one I was in? It took winning 5 rounds just to get to 28. That last game the opponent had 4 tiles, I had 1. Seems safe enough, right? Wrong! I literally had to pick every single ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tile in the boneyard/grave or whatever it's called. Every single one. I play the only tile I can play, which is almost amazing considering all the tiles I have. Opponent has 4, so should be able to play something, right? Nope. He passes, I pass, so he wins 74 points in one go. That's just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mind blowing.

[Mr_Purple]

Originally posted by Direkin:

So, apparently for Gambler 9 you can't load a save (manual save) if you lose a game. It really has to be all done in one sitting. Good god! Dominoes is infuriating as ♥♥♥♥. There has been a few times I would be on the last tile, and then be forced to pick up 10. Actually, my first game on G9 was against 3 opponents, and one guy won on the first game with 64, right off the bat. Kept reloading so I'd get just one opponent. Played a bit, won a game. That's fine. Had to quit out of a few more games (I know about not having progress reset if you leave on your turn), but that last one I was in? It took winning 5 rounds just to get to 28. That last game the opponent had 4 tiles, I had 1. Seems safe enough, right? Wrong! I literally had to pick every single ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tile in the boneyard/grave or whatever it's called. Every single one. I play the only tile I can play, which is almost amazing considering all the tiles I have. Opponent has 4, so should be able to play something, right? Nope. He passes, I pass, so he wins 74 points in one go. That's just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ mind blowing.

Gambler 9 can be cheesed. If you are about to lose - quit the minigame. It will remember your progress and won't count loss (unless this was patched, I personally didn't have to restart since I know how to play dominoes thanks to my grandpa).

As for game itself, dominoes can't be brute forced like card games. Your problem is that you keep high value tiles. Get rid of highest value tiles as fast as you can. Keep zeroes, ones, twos and threes for as long as you can. This way even if you lose, opponent will get ~10 points at most. Trust me, this type of dominoes is the easiest one, albeit the most tedious one. The one in Saint Denis is pain.

Oh, and pay attention on what your opponent pulls from the boneyard. This way you can force them to pick even more tiles.

By the way I forgot to address your Grin and Bear it problem - you have to "unload" on the bear while on the ground. I used M1899 with High Vel. ammunition for this, game defaults to a sidearm on your belt, not the one on your hip for the struggle. Also try not to aim, unload on it without pressing M2.

[cygnusx1]

Originally posted by Direkin:

I found gambling to be a bit easier at camp, but unfortunately I left all of these gambling challenges last, mostly because I find it very boring; it makes fishing seem fun. Also I've completed Epilogue 2, so camp is long gone. I finally got Gambling 4 done, so now I have to win rounds in dominoes without drawing. Again, that was easier when I still had a camp, but It took 8 rounds to get the first win without drawing at Emerald, and I've just had 7 in a row where the opponent starts and I had to draw on the first move. It's really tedious. I see there are some tricks to help Gambling 8, 9, and 10 to go a bit faster.

Really? I found playing dominos in camp felt rigged...

I am on Chapter 2 with 3 Story Missions left. I am trying to get the Item requests for Chapter 2 completed before I go on to Chapter 3. One of the Requests is the Necklace for Tilly, and the way to get the request is to play Dominos with her between 8am and 8pm. That in itself is nearly impossible, as every time I call for a Domino game, it's always Hosea that accepts. I played 4 games with him hoping Tilly would join in, but here's what I found...

About 8 times in a row, Hosea had the highest double and started first. Then I may get highest once or twice in a row.

He would tile out first and Domino, leaving me with anywhere from 12 to 25 points. If I win, he gives me 2, 4 or 6 points and mostly just ties me so I get nothing.

I think it's rigged.

Also playing poker, I am always dealt a low card and a high card like a 4 and a jack or a 7 and an ace. Or if I get dealt a pair, it's like 2's or 4's... It feels programmed in favor of the NPC's.