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Episode 12 - Pinburgh Part 1

Do or Die Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·45m 11s·analyzed·Aug 14, 2019
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Pinburgh tournament coverage with detailed game-by-game strategy analysis.

Summary

Raymond Davidson recounts his performance at Pinburgh, a major pinball tournament, covering multiple rounds and games. He provides detailed strategy breakdowns for classic and modern pinball machines, discussing gameplay decisions, rules learning, and tournament results. The episode demonstrates both his competitive achievements (perfect 12 on one round) and learning moments from unfamiliar games.

Key Claims

  • El Toro is a classic EM with a huge flipper gap, outlanes, and most points come from the plunge or a 3,000-point one-shot

    high confidence · Raymond Davidson describing El Toro gameplay mechanics and strategy

  • Hook's primary strategy is to shoot the left ramp repeatedly, with escalating point values (500k, 1M, 1.5M, 2M, etc.) until multiball is ready

    high confidence · Raymond Davidson explaining Hook strategy and his first-place finish

  • Catacomb is 'probably Stern Electronics' worst game' and is extremely difficult, especially when set up steep with no outlane protection

    medium confidence · Raymond Davidson's opinion on Catacomb difficulty and setup

  • Willy Wonka dangers do not carry over between balls, and Wonka Bar progress does not persist across balls

    high confidence · Raymond Davidson discovering these rule mechanics during gameplay at Pinburgh

  • Spirit of '76 can light double bonus on every third bonus advance, with max possible bonus on ball 5 being quad bonus (60,000 points)

    high confidence · Raymond Davidson detailing Spirit of '76 strategy after playing it in round 2

  • CSI multiball bonus value is significantly higher on ball 3 than ball 1 (approximately 3x difference), making single-ball multiball stacking risky

    high confidence · Raymond Davidson explaining CSI bonus structure and strategy

  • The new Aerosmith code allows stacking multiple 3-ball Toy Box multiballs in one game (unlike Mustang which requires escalating multiball sizes)

    high confidence · Raymond Davidson discovering this mechanic during tournament play and noting it as different from old code

  • On Aerosmith, the extra ball is worth 15 million points, making it the highest priority shot when lit

    high confidence · Raymond Davidson's strategy guidance during Aerosmith discussion

  • Congo's optimal strategy involves shooting the map ramp three times to light Diamond Hunt Multiball via the mystery hole, which is guaranteed to be Diamond Hunt in tournament mode

Notable Quotes

  • “why must I start on El Toro it's basically this old EM with a huge flipper gap huge outlanes and most of the points are sort of you get on the plunge”

    Raymond Davidson @ early — Sets expectations for round one difficulty and demonstrates his approach to analyzing unfamiliar games

  • “I think it's better for location pinball. I think people like seeing the millions... if you get 80 points on a ball, you know that's bad. Like, there's no ifs, ands, or buts.”

    Raymond Davidson @ Wonka discussion — Commentary on game design philosophy regarding point inflation and new player experience

  • “It was like, it's a very controllable game. You just got to find that center ramp because that's all you have to hit is the center ramp.”

    Raymond Davidson @ CSI section — Distills complex multiball stacking strategy to its essence

  • “Amazing how fast things can turn at Pinberg.”

    Raymond Davidson @ after round 3 — Reflects on the tournament's volatility after going from strong position to multiple low placements

  • “I was like, oh, okay. All right. Well, here we go. So, ball two, I went for it, and I could not hit that stupid hole.”

    Raymond Davidson @ Congo discussion — Describes frustration with executing mystery hole shot under tournament pressure

  • “I guess I shouldn't have trusted the dead pass in that situation or something, but it was sad because I was actually starting to get in my groove.”

    Raymond Davidson @ Terminator 2 section — Reflects on equipment malfunction and loss of momentum during match

  • “I was like, is the game in multi-ball? Did I start my multi-ball? Like, what's going on? Like, no, I should have just known that I was in multi-ball”

    Raymond Davidson @ Hook discussion — Shows decision-making under uncertainty and recognizing when panic affects tournament performance

  • “don't be impatient. Try to get that lane that's lit, because it might be worth everything, and it usually is.”

Entities

Raymond DavidsonpersonPinburgheventDo or Die Pinball PodcastorganizationDonna WaypersonCarmen BaronepersonWayne SeegerpersonAaron GrabowskipersonRandy HortonpersonHolly DanoskypersonDominique KachishpersonMagnus BowmanpersonJohn Paul Figlerperson

Signals

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Raymond experienced significant swings in tournament results, including a perfect 12-point round followed by multiple rounds with single-digit scores. Demonstrates the high variance nature of Pinburgh competition.

    high · 10, 12, 9 point round sequence followed by 4-point rounds, with commentary 'Amazing how fast things can turn at Pinburg'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Raymond advocates for higher point values on location games (like Attack from Mars) over low point totals (like Willy Wonka's 80 points) for better new player experience and perception of performance.

    high · Commentary contrasting Willy Wonka's low point totals with Attack from Mars point inflation, arguing for location appeal

  • ?

    code_update: New Aerosmith code allows multiple 3-ball Toy Box multiballs in a single game, differs significantly from previous code and Mustang's escalating multiball format.

    high · Raymond noting he previously owned Aerosmith on old code, finding new code mechanics 'completely wrong', discovering ability to stack 3-ball toy boxes multiple times

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Raymond discovered multiple rule mechanics during tournament play, including Willy Wonka ball persistence, Catacomb bonus advance carries, and Congo mystery hole strategy

    high · Multiple instances of learning rules mid-tournament (Wonka Bar progress not carrying, Catacomb plunge bonus, Congo map ramp strategy)

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Raymond's strategy often involves risk management (e.g., attempting risky shots on earlier balls to keep ball 3 safer, stacking multiballs strategically based on bonus scaling)

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.136

0:00
Welcome to Do or Die, a podcast about competitive pinball. I'm your host, Raymond Davidson, here to help you stay up to date on the latest strategies, tournaments, and happenings in the competitive pinball world, but also sharing direct stories with me as I go forth on my pinball tournament adventures.
0:30
Hello, welcome, welcome, welcome back to Do or Die. We are finally doing the Pinberg episode, and I guess I've got a lot of rounds to cover, so I'm just going to jump right in. Round one, I got to play the stage bank with my opponents Donna Way, Carmen Barone, and Wayne Seeger. so that was very cool Wayne, fan of the podcast said hi and was very nice the whole time, was able to give me some tips on things he knew and that sort of thing, so appreciated that starting on the game El Toro well if you know El Toro, you'll know it's kind of got a reputation for being one of those games like, oh god, not El Toro you're going to let El Toro decide your fate oh no and so that's kind of what I was feeling I was like why must I start on El Toro it's basically this old EM with a huge flipper gap huge outlanes and most of the points are sort of you get on the plunge or if you keep it alive enough you can actually light the one shot in the game for up to 3000 points but it's hard to keep it alive and everything resets every ball. So basically, you go into that game and you just have to figure out how to plunge correctly and do little nudges as it goes down the sort of waterfall of lanes at the top. You want to get the ones that are 1,000 versus 100, obviously, which I think are the inside ones. So my strategy was just, you know, nudge it when it's up there, because you might not get a flip when it comes down. And then I noticed from watching other players, and then also on my first couple of flips, I noticed that it was very steep. So you had to flip basically really early to make the ball sort of do anything. And the point of that game is to keep throwing it up top to try to get those thousand-point lanes. And so, you know, you shoot that left orbit, but if you wanted to actually make it, you got to flip really early. You got to do some slap saves. You basically have to play very defensively. And then if you ever see the... There's three little circles on the play field. They're like mushroom bumpers that don't really bump. But each one of those lights the right lane for a thousand each. So eventually, you shoot up the left a bunch, and then after enough flailing, the right side will sort of light itself for some collects. Basically, I was able to take first just by following my strategy of plunging and flipping early. Don't get too cute with the flippers. Just raw survival. Try to aim your shots as you can, but mostly focus on just keeping the ball alive. So, got a first on Altora, I was feeling pretty good about that. Next, I got to play Hook. Hook is a game with basically just one shot. It's just the left ramp. You shoot that as many times as you can. I didn't really remember that, and so I started playing, and I was like, what do I do? And I saw there was something that was like, flashing 20 million, so I shot it, and then it didn't actually give me 20 million. It said, like, shoot this goal for 20 million. I was like, well, I'm already pot committed now. I started this modem. I'm going to get that 20 million. So I got the 20 million, and then that made me feel pretty good. But then I was like, okay, now what? And I was like, well, I guess I'll shoot this ramp. And then I saw that it gave me, you know, 500,000 points, and I shot it again. It was like a million points, and then 1.5 million, 2 million. So just kept doing that basically forever until I missed the ramp. And then I noticed my locks were almost ready. So on hook, you hit all these little clock targets everywhere, but you can spot the targets by hitting the eject to the right of the left ramp, sort of in the back. So my strategy was basically ramp until I miss, and then once I notice I'm a couple shots away from lock, I took that. I ended up playing two multi balls, but neither of them did anything, really. And why should they, honestly? You should just shoot the ramp, because it's just easy, and you just keep doing it and just keep getting points.

high confidence · Raymond Davidson discovering this after seeing another player execute it

  • Elvira and the Party Monsters gives free multiballs when a third lock lights and is collected, creating a strategic trap for aggressive lock strategies

    high confidence · Raymond Davidson describing his experience locking balls and the resulting free multiball to his opponent

    • Raymond Davidson @ Doozy discussion — General tournament wisdom about disciplined shot selection on older games

    Derek Thompson
    person
    Jeff Teolisperson
    Escher Lefkoffperson
    Jim Belsitoperson
    Tim Streetperson
    Johan Looveperson
    El Torogame
    Hookgame
    Catacombgame
    Willy Wonkagame
    Spirit of '76game
    CSIgame
    Congogame

    high · Dr. Dude strategy of hitting risky heart target on ball 2; CSI strategy of stacking multiballs to maximize bonus scaling across balls

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Game setup and condition significantly affected Raymond's performance (Catacomb set brutally hard with steep angle and no outlane protection; dead pass malfunction on Terminator 2)

    high · Catacomb description of brutal setup; Terminator 2 dead pass failure causing unexpected drain

  • ?

    content_signal: Wayne Seeger recognized Raymond from podcast and was supportive, demonstrating Do or Die's reach and positive community reception among competitors

    high · Wayne Seeger 'fan of the podcast said hi and was very nice the whole time, was able to give me some tips'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Raymond struggled with unfamiliar games (Doozy, Willy Wonka, Aerosmith new code) but improved as he adjusted mid-tournament, demonstrating adaptability under pressure

    high · Doozy confusion, Wonka first ball 80 points followed by first place, Aerosmith wrong choices followed by second place finish

  • ?

    competitive_signal: High-pressure shots (Congo mystery hole, Terminator 2 multiball) proved critical and difficult to execute consistently in tournament setting

    medium · Congo mystery hole: missed on ball 2, made on ball 3 with adjusted technique; Congo sling drain on what would have been multiball

  • ?

    historical_signal: Spirit of '76 held personal significance (grandparent's game, childhood memories with father), illustrating how pinball ties to personal history and emotional resonance in the community

    high · Detailed personal background on Spirit of '76, explaining emotional investment in the game

  • ?

    community_signal: Jeff Teolis's comeback victory with apparent eye contact to Raymond suggests competitive camaraderie and psychological warfare element common in pinball tournaments

    medium · Raymond's narrative of Jeff beating him late-game and 'stared me in the eye', with self-aware commentary that it 'didn't actually happen that way'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Raymond adopts low-risk strategies on unfamiliar games (Terminator 2: shoot ramps for safe points rather than lock targets) to avoid worst-case scenarios

    high · Terminator 2 strategy: 'Because I know there's always somebody who doesn't get anything on Terminator 2. And you don't want to be that somebody.'

    • 5:35
    I did notice something weird happened when I started a multi-ball where it didn't auto-plunge. It just sort of kicked out the other ball while my ball was in the shooter lane, so I kind of freaked out, and that kind of caused me to lose the ball. I should have been more calm. I should have just, you know, plunged it because you're not supposed to leave, you're not supposed to play a one-ball multi-ball with a ball in the plunger. So I should have just plunged it and then played on. But I was kind of worried. I was like, is the game in multi-ball? Did I start my multi-ball? Like, what's going on? Like, no, I should have just known that I was in multi-ball and started working towards my jackpots. But I more, I just kind of freaked out. But anyway, I ended up getting first on that game because I shot the most left ramps than anyone else. so now I've got six points after two games looking pretty good we have to play Catacomb which is this game, Stern Electronics probably their worst game maybe I don't know, it's pretty bad basically at least this one was set up brutally hard, like it was super steep no outlane rubbers or posts or anything and it was just so fast that I got one spinner shot and that was it. And everyone else passed me on the Bagatelle game, which has a fair amount of strategy on the Bagatelle, but I couldn't exactly execute it. Even if you know the strategy, it's hard because it's timed, so you got to make sure you use one flipper to change the color and then the other flipper to launch the flipper, launch the back glass ball. But even if you do it perfectly, you can still get unlucky. So I don't know. I'm not a fan of that game. I got third on it. just because I made that one spinner shot, basically.
    7:22
    And yeah, I don't know. I kind of just wrote that one off, honestly. I was like, eh, whatever. I mean, I would say if you ever see Catacomb in a tournament, do learn the Bagatelle.
    7:36
    Learn how the numbers work. Because that's really where your bonus points come from, is getting the numbers in a row. and also if you get numbers like in a row your next ball will start multi-ball on the plunge so watch out for that, that happened to someone in our group he like plunged into multi-ball and was like what's going on, I'm like no that's normal so yeah, weird game not one of my favorites so then we got to play Wonka this is like my first time ever playing Wonka and I over plunged the skill shot by just a little bit and I basically drained right away. I got 80 points. 80 points on my first ball. Now, I don't know about you, but if I was a new player, and the first thing I saw when I played a new game that looked cool, like Willy Wonka, and I got 80 points, even I, as a new player, would know that that's a bad score, right? Like, I don't know. I mean, people make fun of, like, the point inflation of, like, Attack from Mars, but I think it's better for location pinball. I think people like seeing the millions. I mean, if you get 80 points on a ball, you know that's bad. Like, there's no ifs, ands, or buts. Whereas if you get a million on a ball, you're like, hey, I got a couple million. Or as newbies like to say, I got 200,000. Or I got, no, what do they say? They say, like, when they get 30 million, they say, I got 30,000 on Medieval Madness. Yeah. But anyway, so 80 points on ball one, not the best.
    9:12
    I then found out that the dangers don't carry over, so that's good. Sometimes if you get a warning, it'll carry out throughout your game. Ball two, I shot the right ramp halfway up, and then it went down the middle, so that kind of sucked. I also found out that it didn't hold your Wonka Bar progress. So if you were going for Wonka bars on ball one, not the best strategy.
    9:40
    So I was kind of taking note of that. So on ball three, I was going into it with nothing. And I needed, you know, I was going to get last. I was going to get a seven for the round. But basically on ball three, I just saw that the Twilight Zone sort of lock shot with the exclamation mark. It just kept blinking. Like, every time I shot it, it gave me some good stuff, like 10,000 points or a ball saver or double scoring or something. And then it would still be lit. And I just kept, like, cashing in good stuff at that exclamation mark. It started modes. It, like, did everything. So I just kept doing that. And eventually I shot the captive ball to get my kid, which I knew was something you wanted to do from what people were telling me, to start kid multiball. But I couldn't figure out how to start kid multiball. And then after I drained, you know, someone quickly told me, you had kid multiple lid on the left. I'm like, oh, that's where it is. Okay.
    10:36
    Probably should have learned that. But I ended up getting first just by shooting that exclamation mark and getting, you know, it wasn't a huge score. It was like probably 150,000, right? So anyway, I did enough just kind of shooting shots and keeping the ball alive and got to a 10 on round one. Next up, I got to play Bank 54 with Aaron Grabowski, Randy Horton, and Holly Danosky, which had my favorite EM Spirit of 76 It my favorite because it was the game my grandparents had at their house when I was just a little kid you know just tall enough to reach the flipper buttons It was the game my dad and I played whenever we went over to Grandma house So I have a lot of history with that one, and we got to play it right away. The main strategy I have on this game is you shoot for the drop targets, but it's kind of like fast draw, where you aim for the upper drop targets first, because if you miss the upper drop targets, you'll go back up top, and there's some goodies up top. Basically, every lane you roll down, A, B, C, or D, will light a rollover star in that vicinity. And the rollovers give you 500 points plus a bonus advance, which is like 1,000 points. And so the drop targets also give you 500 points and a bonus advance. And if you get all the drop targets, it lights double bonus. Occasionally, as the rule card says. Basically, you hit all the drop targets down, and then every third bonus advance will light the hole for a double bonus collect. And so I ended up doing okay. I had 28,000 after two balls, but then I got the dreaded zero ball on ball three. And, you know, my dad and I always would joke how it's basically impossible to get five full balls on that game. And there it is, ball three, zero points, not even a bonus advance. Just missed all the lanes and went straight down the middle. And so now I'm like, oh boy, I've got to really level it up here. So on ball four, I max out the bonus by hitting mostly rollovers. Because I noticed, you know, depending on what rollover you go in, that can really change your game plan. So if you notice that you get the A rollover or the E rollover, you want to go up top because there's a rollover. Sorry, I'm using the word rollover in two different ways. So there's the lane, the inlanes, and the top lanes, which are the letters, which light the star rollovers like a Jersey Jack game. It lights those for your big bonus. So if you notice that you have the bonus rollovers lit, the lower ones, shooting it back up top is great because basically you're guaranteed a bonus advance or two just for going back up there. So on ball four, I kind of used that strategy. I just kind of kept going back up top, getting those bonus advances. And then once I maxed out my bonus, then I started switching over, or once I got close to maxing out my bonus, I switched over to hitting the drop targets. Because the drop targets can be a little dangerous. So they're good points, and they're kind of guaranteed points, but it's not a guaranteed return to your flipper. So I kind of wanted to get some bonus first, and then started going for drop targets, trying to light double bonus. And I didn't quite, I don't think I ever collected a double bonus but I had a good enough ball four and then a good enough ball five, which is double bonus by default. However, you can get quad bonus on ball five. If you get double bonus on ball five, you actually get double double. So you can get a 60,000-point super jackpot on that game. I did not do that, but I eked out first place by less than 1,000 points. It was pretty exciting. So I've got three points going into Bounty Hunter. is the next game we get to play. It's a... Is it a Gottlieb? I don't know. It's some weird game that I'd never seen before, and I really had no idea what to do. I basically just played forever, though. I was super comfortable on it. It wouldn't really drain, and I just kept shooting the whatever's. Like, eventually, I looked at pin tips, and it said, oh, if you light the extra ball, you should get it, because it's 500k. And I ended up lighting it, but I couldn't collect it because the shot to collect it is super tight, and even if you shoot the right orbit, there's no guarantee that it'll fall down into that extra ball lane. There's like a one and third chance. So I mostly just kept shooting things, really. Like, I wish I had more to tell you on this game, but I just kept it alive and kept, you know, does an upper flipper use it? Try to hit that loop-to-loop thing, hit the targets when they're, you know, try to spell bounty or whatever. Yeah, just kind of got in the flow and got first on it. So that was sweet. Now I got to play Paragon.
    15:33
    The thing I noticed was the spinner was pretty juiced. And it was playing exactly like a Paragon should. You know, I shot the drop target, caught it, tap pass, shot the drop target, caught it, tap pass. I got the max bonus with 5x on ball 2. and Aaron was able to, I think, do it on ball three, but it wasn't enough because I had already done it on ball two. And so I ended up getting first on that as well.
    15:59
    The fourth game with nine points going into game four was CSI. And this game is just all about multiball. Just try to crisscross your multiball. You can stack your multiball, which is good too. But you want to try not to leave yourself too in jail. So my usual strategy is I'll try to stack Skull with Centerfuge just because the second Skull is pretty easy to get to.
    16:27
    So, you know, I shot the Center Ramp a lot to get Skull, and then I started Centerfuge and got some points.
    16:37
    And then I realized it was Ball 1, and I had basically done everything. I did the Skull and the Centerfuge. But now I'm starting to think, huh, maybe I should have left a multi-ball available, because the way the bonus works on that game, you get a bigger base bonus on ball two and three, and your long ball, if you have your long ball on ball one, it's basically worth about a third of the points as it would be on ball three, which is kind of a bummer. So you don't want to leave yourself two in jail, but like I said, the second skull is still easy to get to, So on ball three, it was basically do or die. I needed to shoot the center ramp like three times. I was able to do it, started another skull, and ended up winning. So, yeah, my plan basically worked perfectly. It was like, it's a very controllable game. You just got to find that center ramp because that's all you have to hit is the center ramp. Just to get skull multiball, safest multiball to get. And then you can bring in center fuge. I will say the more advanced strategies on this game would be make sure to hit the microscope once during single ball play because that will let you start collecting evidence, which can work towards your microscope multiball.
    17:55
    And then bonus X. All about bonus X. Don't tilt. Huge bonuses available in this game. And so I ended up with the perfect 12. I got my medal. I was super happy. Started off Pinberg with a 10 and a 12. so it's looking pretty good. Now on to round three. Round three I got to play against Dominique Kachish, Magnus Bowman, and John Paul Figler.
    18:23
    It was started off on let's see, what was the first game on that one? Doozy. Oh yeah, it was a doozy.
    18:32
    I have no idea what to do in this game. It didn't make any sense to me. somebody was lighting the center pops for hundreds of pop and i swear i spelt one two three four five i hit all the nubs and my pops never lit so i don't know if it's like casanova where things just don't uh don't light up except sometimes or it's possible i needed a short plunge for the the four um i was missing one of the lanes up top so maybe that maybe if i was more patient um but yeah I mean, I thought I was playing well, but I just wasn't getting any points, so I must have been missing something. So that's just an extra tip, is if you ever have a chance to short plunge something, you should try to get, especially those old games, you know, don't be impatient. Try to get that lane that's lit, because it might be worth everything, and it usually is. So I took third on it, at least, so I didn't, like, totally bomb out. Going into the next game was Dr. Dude. And oh my goodness, this Dr. Dude was so fast. I just could not keep control. I was just flipping away.
    19:40
    But on ball two, I managed to get multi-ball lit. And then ball... Well, part of my strategy on ball two was to hit that heart target. Because the heart target is the dangerous one, right? You have to hit that, and there's no way around it, at least on these settings. So I wanted to do that on ball two. because if you're on ball three, you know, you don't have any more strikes left, right? So you might as well get the risky stuff on the earlier balls, so that on ball three, it's kind of in your hands. It's like, okay, I just need to hit the gab target, or gab shot, and then the left orbit, or gab shot, left ramp, left orbit. That's all I had to do. And I was able to do it on ball three, and I think I was like one target away from the jackpot, but I got like a 2x scoring afterward and got a 2x molecular million. And I don't know, I got some points from something and got an 8 million and won the game. I don't think anyone else got like more than two. So just starting multiball in that game is usually enough, just from all the points you get and the fact that it starts double scoring. So that should really always be your strategy on Dr. Dude, unless you can't hit the ramp. But this one was dialed. You could hit the ramp, no problem. So that was Dr. Dude. I got first on that. So I've got four points going into Counterforce. This game is kind of cool.
    21:06
    As you play the game, there's little space invaders on the playfield that kind of come towards you. And every green gun rollover that are scattered throughout the playfield is your bonus X. However, if the space invaders make their way all the way up to the bonus advance, they'll actually eat your bonus advance and so you'll lose bonus X if you let them get to you so you really have to just focus on the targets you know get good target shooting accuracy and that's all this game is just hit those targets over and over again there is some special way to play it where depending on how far advanced the space invaders are when you defeat them I think if they're on the third row it lights bonus collect which can be pretty good. It's essentially a double bonus basically, right? Doubles everything, you know, collects your whole bonus and lets you start building it up again.
    22:01
    But, you know, when you're playing it, just hit the targets. Good things will happen. And really watch out, you know, when it starts beeping at you because they might take away your bonus advance. And don't tilt on this game, especially if you're heading towards an outlane because the outlanes are oftentimes the bonus x you need in order to win and so i ended up uh getting first um i didn't have a great game but i it was 250k it was enough to get first uh which made me happy and so now i get to play aerosmith as the fourth game And let see I oh this one was this was another doozy So I used to own an Aerosmith and I was used to all the old code, and this is on the new code. And so pretty much every decision I made in the game was completely wrong, and I had to sort of adjust on the fly. I first chose Walk this way, which was my first mistake, because I forgot that you have to alternate ramps. You can't just shoot the left ramp and then wait and then shoot the left ramp. I also found out that super ramps doesn't start unless you beat it. So I intentionally timed it out and there was no super ramps, which was my whole plan of picking walk this way, was to just get to super ramps. So that didn't work out. And then I started a multiball and got less than a million in it.
    23:28
    Apparently there was no ball saver or something. That was exciting. And so then I made sure I got the extra ball. I don't even know how I lit the extra ball. I think it was the random Jackie extra ball, because I definitely didn't finish three modes. I bombed out of Walk This Way and I started Toy Box. But I saw an extra ball. And on Aerosmith, if you see an extra ball, that should be your number one priority, because it is worth 15 million points, which is often enough to get you not last just by collecting that. So always shoot the extra ball if it's lit. And so that's what I did. And I ended up starting another three ball toy box multi-ball, which I didn't think you could do. But apparently you can. So that's a new thing with the code as well. I was able to play two three ball toy boxes in the same game.
    24:18
    In Mustang you have to do different numbers. So you have to do a three ball, then a four ball, then a five ball. But I was able to start another one. And this time I had Sweet Emotion going with it, so I was able to rack up about $70 million or so. But I think I ended up getting third on that as someone basically came back. So I ended up with a... Oh no, I got second on it. So I ended up with a nine. I got a one, three, three, two. So, nice little nine.
    24:49
    So I'm still feeling pretty good. Got my ten, twelve, nine. You can see on my graph, you know, I'm holding up there, staying up there good. And so now I get to play with this crazy group of Derek Thompson, Jeff Teolis, and Escher Lefkoff. So two Canadians and a kid.
    25:09
    And, oh boy, this group was tough. The first game we played was High Low, which is sort of like Hang Glider-esque, where the double bonus kind of lights randomly, but if it lights, you should get it, obviously. Otherwise, you kind of just go up top, try to get bonus advance, and just keep throwing it up top, get your bonus advance. Unless you're at max bonus or you're trying to chase somebody, then you can try to light your spinner, because the spinner can light for 1,000 points of spin, which is, that's how much a bonus advance is, is 1,000 points. But to light it, you have to hit these five deadly targets on the right. So it's kind of a cool game where you play it kind of conservatively, up top, up top, get a double bonus, or you can switch to the spinner strategy and try to blow it out of the water.
    26:01
    I ended up taking second on it. I had a chance to get first, but I flubbed it. I think I had the double bonus lit, and I was trying to get control, and I think I did some flipper move that ended the ball going in the out lane or something. It felt like it was my fault, so I took second. and got two points on that. And now we got to play Elvira and the Party Monsters.
    26:27
    And, you know, exactly as I feared, I locked two balls. I set it up so that when I plunged my third ball, it would go into the bat lane and complete bat to light my third lock. And it lit my lock, and it drained. And Escher got a free multi-ball. So that was exactly what I did not want to happen.
    26:51
    So you got to watch out for free multi-balls on that. But then, you know, my next ball, I was like, okay, I'm going to get some party punch before I start going for locks again. So I just shot the right ramp a bunch, got a few million on the board just from getting party punch. And I recommend everybody go for that because it's points. and the right ramp is easily hittable again and again and the value on that ramp is very good at the beginning of the game. I ended up starting two multiballs, still got no jackpots, but still got lots of party punch. And then I also saw that my left in lane was lit for 25k, which made the party punch even better because it kept going to the left in lane. So I just kind of kept doing that for a while. And then eventually I started a third multiball and got a jackpot and I ended with 11.5 million. I was feeling pretty good. And I got fourth place.
    27:45
    Fourth place with 11.4 million. As Jeff Teolis, coming back on ball three with less than a million points, multi-ball after multi-ball, grinded his way to 11.6 million. And then he said, you know what? I'm good. I passed Raymond. I'm good. And he let the ball drain and stared me in the eye. Now, that's not what happened, but he did beat me. And that was a crushing loss. So I got two points after two games. It's amazing how fast things can turn at Pinberg.
    28:17
    And so then, oh, by the way, Escher got 50 million and Derek got 26 million, just if you were wondering.
    28:23
    We then got to play Aerialian Poker, which I actually was doing pretty good on. I was able to hit the drop targets and not drain, which is the secret to that game. It's kind of like Laser Q. You're at the mercy of the drop targets. And don't scissor yourself. The right flippers are in line with each other, so make sure you're really careful in that area. And then ball on left flipper, you kind of go up top to get your kings to multiply your drop targets. And ball on right flipper, you kind of shoot the drop targets to eventually cash in that royal flush value. I ended up getting like 500k, but it was only enough for a second because Escher had like a million or something. So I'm going into game four with four points, you know, thinking, okay, Congo. I love Congo. I'll probably get a second at least. get my six, and I'm good. And oh my good god. I tried to shoot gray, and I shot early and nailed the satellite target down the middle.
    29:19
    And then, let's see. I saw someone get diamond hunt multiball, and I was like, oh yeah, that's what you're supposed to do on this game. It had been so long. So my strategy was shoot the left ramp, shoot the gray lane, shoot the loop. And if you do that combo, it gives you 20 million, which is fun to do and is good points, But I forgot the better strategy is to shoot the map ramp three times because that lights your map and also gives you 20 million if you do it three times in a row. And most importantly, it lights your Zinj lanes on the flippers if you're lane changing. And the Zinj lanes lights your mystery hole. And the mystery hole is always Diamond Hunt Multiball in tournament mode. So that's what I remembered after seeing someone else do it. And I was like, oh, okay. All right. Well, here we go. So, ball two, I went for it, and I could not hit that stupid hole. I tried backhanding it, tried forehanding it, it was way off. Ball three, I had the only option was to hit that mystery hole, and I made it. I self-adjusted from the last time, which on ball two I tried to backhand it, and I was late. So on ball three I tried to backhand it, and I just flipped basically as early as I could and hit it.
    30:33
    Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. You know, I started it, I got two locks, and I was ready to start my multi-ball, almost there, and just an untimely sling drain just ate my ball in front of my eyes, and I got fourth place. It was pretty sad. So I ended up getting four points for that round. Like I said, amazing how Pinberg can turn. uh anyway round round five i got to play against jim belsito tim street and uh johan loove a lot of o's in his last name with little dots on them not sure how to pronounce that one but we got to play blue chip first of all and this is an em where you're basically uh it's kind of like prospectory you shoot the spinners and hope you hit the numbers and kind of get your bonus going and just sort of go to town. And the first thing I noticed was a full plunge went right into the hole, which is good to know. So I just kept doing that, because I also noticed the hole gave you two bonus advances, which is nice, instead of just one. And so I ended up getting 400,000 just by plunging fully and throwing it up top and just kind of flipping around. The really important thing with those kind of games is learning where those spinner shots are.
    31:57
    They're often, you have to flip a lot earlier than you think, just because it's kind of an older, sluggish game.
    32:03
    So I was able to dial those in. Got a 400,000. And so then I got second on that, and now we had to play Terminator 2. And my strategy was, well, first I shot the lock target and then drained. And so I was kind of snake bit by that on ball two, So my strategy was just shoot some ramps, get some points, get something on the board. Because I know there's always somebody who doesn't get anything on Terminator 2. And you don't want to be that somebody. So I shot ramp, ramp, ramp, ramp, got like 15 million points just from ramps, and then did a drain on this dead pass that malfunctioned. Basically hit my right flipper and died. I guess I shouldn't have trusted the dead pass in that situation or something. or something, but it was sad because I was actually starting to get in my groove. I finally was relaxed and was actually like playing. Um, but I guess I was too relaxed if I let the ball drain. Um, so I ended up getting third as, as predicted by my strategy, right? Um, Jim actually had a worse two balls than I did, but on ball three, he just went lock target, multi-ball, double jackpot, like 20 million instantly, like never missed a shot on ball three. And so that's how he passed me. So, you know, I went for the low risk, low reward strategy, but it worked enough to get third, which my plan was once I shot a few ramps, like then I would go for multi-ball. But unfortunately, you know, I drained before that happened. But it's just kind of an example of in Pinberg especially, you don't need to always get the super jackpot. Just pick up points where you can. so you know third place it's a point we then got to play big game which is this weird stern game I think it got like four flippers and a bunch of weird shots Basically if you ever hit a lit spinner you going to nuke your opponents but it's hard because the spinners alternate, and the flippers don't really have great direct shots to the flippers, and the ball seems to always be on the wrong flipper.
    34:11
    The way I played it was just hit drop targets and keep the ball alive because on ball three you get bonus for all the cards that you filled out. And if you filled out, I think it's like enough lines and enough cards, then you get double or triple bonus. So just hitting drop targets is enough points to get you second, third place. And I ended up getting second on that game. So that was my strategy on that one, and it worked out pretty well.
    34:42
    Like I said, don't tilt ball three because that's where all your bonus is. Well, not all of it, but that's where a lot of your bonus is on ball three.
    34:50
    Then we finally, for fourth game, we got to play ACDC, and I was watching everyone get destroyed on this game, and I decided to choose a whole lot of Rosie. Again, my goal was to not get last, and I figured Rosie, every plunge I'm getting points, every plunge I'm lighting all the shots for points, because the way ACDC works is you pick a mode, and that mode has a shot where when you hit that shot, it lights all the other shots. Well, Rosie is the lanes and the bumpers, so you're guaranteed to hit those and it lights all your shots. So I chose Rosie, shot some ramps, shot some orbits.
    35:30
    I think I never quite got multi-ball it, and I ended with 10 million. Ball three went straight to the right out lane, like did not touch anything, just went pop bumper out lane without me seeing it. So, that sucked, but because I had prepared with my rosy strategy, I had 10 million, which was somehow enough for second place. Now, you may argue, Jim Belsito should have passed me, but he unfortunately had a really bad tilt, where he basically was just kind of nudging it a little bit, like, as it was coming out of the bumpers, and, like, he had it trapped on his flipper, and the game just went danger, danger, tilt. And if he would have just hit the button a couple times, he probably would have passed at least one person. He might have passed me, too. But that was a really sad way to go. So, you know, if you're getting those dangers and you have the button, you can't take them with you. So you might as well hit that button and get those points. So I ended up getting second on that, and I escaped that round with a seven. And you'll notice, you know, because I had those pretty good rounds earlier, seven was fine. You know, as long as I'm getting seconds and thirds, I'm kind of keeping me where I'm at, right, because I had those good rounds early. And so I was more than happy with a seven, especially the way those games were playing. So the next round, round six, which is, I think, the first round of day two, I had to play super straight. And I basically, it was super straight down the middle is what happened. And I think, oh yeah, my group was Escher Lefkoff again, Marco Vendetti, and David Smith.
    37:13
    And yeah, Escher can attest, basically, I don't think I really did anything wrong because the game didn't really give me any decisions. It just basically drained for me, like auto-drain mode. So, you know, it kind of sucks getting last on the first game of day two, but you know sometimes you just that's what happens on those EMs that's why there's so many of them that's why there's so many rounds so I just have like alright brush it off it's fine last place that's okay the next game we played was Escape from the Lost World and my strategy on that was always short plunge because if you short plunge three times you're guaranteed to get a multiball so that's strategy number one Second strategy was, I was just shooting the drop targets, because just hitting targets will get you some points, and it also lights your escape up on the top for treasure collect. But more importantly, on that game, it was playing so fast and mean, just hitting anything, getting any points, was enough to get you higher than last place. you don't want to like aim for like an impossible ramp shot miss it, go down the middle, not get anything like it's funny because we're always trained to shoot ramps because they're safe but sometimes like on this game just bashing targets and hitting stuff on the lower play field just to pick up some points you know until you get comfortable just making sure you get something and I ended up getting, I basically got multi-ball ball three and flailed my way to second just by, yeah, literally basically flailing. And sometimes that's what it takes is knowing when to flail is half the battle. I probably could have got first if I played a little better on ball three, but I was just happy to get second after that first game where I got nothing. Unfortunately, speaking of getting nothing. We got to play Algar. Algar is probably one of the worst pinball machines in existence. I would love to hear an argument against that, if you have one. But it is awful in pretty much every way. And basically, on ball one and ball two, the ball came down, hit the right slingshot, and ricocheted perfectly to the bottom of the left in lane, and went backwards through the one-way gate into the out lane. Twice. Twice in a row. Same drain.
    39:59
    Where it drained in a way that it shouldn't have. Like, the gate should stop you from going backwards, and it did it twice.
    40:06
    And so I'm just like, I'm so over it. I'm like, whatever. ball three you know i shot like a captive ball and then drained as as one does on algar so last place on that uh so now i've got a whopping two points going into game four and game four is world poker tour i love this game i used to own one um so i'm pretty excited to play a game i like uh unfortunately um after ball one i'm going into ball two and i'm of course fourth player um going into ball two and i'm down by 50 million or up to 100 million i'm down 50 100 million to all three players like all three players have 50 to 100 million more points than me like everyone blew it up and i'm just like oh my god this is not you're not going to make this easy. Like, I have two points and I've got to get like a hundred million to get three points this game. But luckily, I was able, I had a plan. And I knew I had to execute this plan because it was the only way I was ever going to get that fifty or a hundred million. And the plan was, lock two balls, sorry, the first part of the plan is you start ace in the hole, and you just play it. You don't like bring a mode into it. You just play ace in the hole, and during ace in the hole, you shoot the light lock target, and you get your locks lit. The light lock target's on the lower left. It's like a little stand-up. And so when you come out of ace in the hole, you have your locks lit, you lock two balls in the left cut-the-cards shot, and then you lock the third ball in the poker corner at the same time as picking your mode, which you always want to pick change gears as your mode. So I locked two balls. I did exactly that. Locked two balls and cut the cards. Had the ball trapped on my left flipper with change gears lit. Missed it. Got control. Had the ball trapped on my right flipper. I had to do this little trick where only the right flipper will advance what mode selection you have. So I had to kind of flutter the right flipper while the ball was trapped. It was kind of challenging. But I was able to put the mode start the mode light one light ahead of change gears and was able to execute a perfect backhand to start the multiball start change gears and i boomed 120 million right there just by that one mode it was like 75 million change gears mode it was insane and uh yeah that's that was that's how you play world poker tour if you need to blow it up um you have to play change gears with a multiball because that's what Escher did. He ended up with like 100 million. The other players who had 50 or 60, they played multi-balls and they played change gears, but they didn't necessarily play them together. So they still got a lot of points, but they didn't get that 100 million barrier.
    43:10
    So that was like the best earned five. I felt so happy about that. Getting that five after starting with a two,
    43:19
    you know, starting 0-2-0, you're like, oh my God. And then being faced with this World Poker Tour obstacle of $100 million and being able to execute on it. It was, oh man, that was probably the highlight of my Pinberg right there was that game on World Poker Tour.
    43:38
    And I think I'm actually going to stop the podcast there for this section. I'm going to come up with a part two. Well, it will be out soon. And I thought I'd get something out because it's been a week and I haven't. And I felt really bad about that. But my voice is sore tonight and it's already been 45 minutes of talking just the first six rounds. So in order to make the next four rounds as detailed and, of course, finals, I'm going to go ahead and stop on the high note of World Poker Tour because things get a little rough. Spoiler alert. and it's a pretty crazy Pinberg ride and so I will be back with another episode of Do or Die very soon, hopefully within a couple of days but no longer than a week from now and I will continue and wrap up my Pinberg story. So remember, when you're on that Ball of World Poker Tour and you've got one job to do don't die alright