Definitely cleaning plugs off helps, once it floods once it tends to foul them up pretty bad.

Flooring it works 2 different ways. -
1) Series 5's cut fuel to the injectors when you've got the throttle at 100% on startup.

2) it allows more air into the engine to push the gas OUT, it also makes the oil meter pump on S4's (mechanical, connected to the throttle via a metal link bar) dump more oil than at idle - providing better sealing (Like the oil in the spark plug holes trick) - unflooding a S4 like this takes a long time, can kill your battery or your starter, and usually makes tons of smoke once it starts.
Just pull the fuse on S4's.