Category: Advice for Players

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Chasing a Progressive

There are hundreds of video poker progressives in greater Las Vegas. As a general rule, I avoid these games. Progressives are not my bread and butter. Still, I occasionally do sit down at a progressive that catches my eye, and recently there was such a case.

A $2 9/5 DDB progressive at the South Point was at more than $16,000 for the royal, with additional progressives for aces with a kicker and 2s, 3s, and 4s with a kicker. Putting all the numbers into computer software showed the game was currently worth about 100.80%, plus a 0.30% slot club. Additionally, in general the more coin-in you have, the better your mailers are. So, I sat down.

I had enough cash on hand, I thought, including the availability of markers. I was used to DDB itself, which has a variance of a bit more than 40. Doubling the royal jacks up the variance to around 100. Although I have the tools to figure out bankroll for this, I wasn’t near my computer and I had to wing it. I figured I was up to playing for four or five hours. If the royal hadn’t been hit by then, I’d reevaluate whether or not I wanted to continue.

There are 20 machines connected to this progressive and perhaps a third of the seats were taken when I got there at 10 p.m. on a Saturday evening. At midnight, half of the machines were taken, and the progressive was more than $18,000. The 2s, 3s, and 4s, with a kicker progressive had been hit a few times. It started out at $1,600 and was usually hit by $1,700. The difference between this jackpot at $1,600 and the same jackpot at $1,700 is 0.14%. Not chopped liver, but it’s not the primary prize.

Aces with a kicker were worth more than $5,000. That added more than 0.6%, but even without that, the royal progressive was high enough that the game was worth playing. When the aces were knocked off, the royal progressive was more than $19,000, which is worth about 101% even without the lesser jackpots.

At about 2 a.m., the royal reached $20,000. About 2/3 of the seats were full and at that point, somebody hit the royal. Time to go home.

I had run $40,000 coin-in through the machine. I failed to hit any W2G (regular aces are worth $1,600, in addition to the other jackpots already discussed.) My score was $7,100 in the soup. No fun. But not really a big deal. DDB is a heaven-or-hell game, and special quads and the royals add a lot to the EV. Blanking on those is expensive in the short run.

Generally speaking, when playing a progressive, the person hitting the royal comes out way ahead and the others lose. In this case, the guy who knocked off the aces with a kicker was also probably ahead, but most of the rest of us lost. Such is the nature of playing DDB progressives. Play the game enough and you’ll get your share.

I recognized more than half of the players when the royal was finally hit. Some I hadn’t seen for several years. I assume most of them knew who I was, as I’m well-known in the Las Vegas video poker community, although not in the video poker progressive-playing community. I don’t know this for a fact, but it wouldn’t surprise me if a few phone calls had been made in the nature of, “You better come down here. It is so juicy even Bob Dancer is playing it.”

Am I going to do this again soon? Doubtful. But maybe. It’s a positive play, albeit one with large swings. Between casinos restricting players and the general tightening of machines, it’s hard to find good video poker opportunities in Las Vegas these days. This is one avenue to stay in the game, although it’s not my first choice.

We’ll see.

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Safety Precautions

I usually play by myself and sometimes will eat a meal at the casino. When I do, I always bring along a book to read while dining. Sometimes the book is a novel. Sometimes it is non-fiction – perhaps a book by a future guest on the podcast. But eating by myself without a book seems like a waste of time to me.

On one recent day, as I finished playing, the credits on my machine amounted to $1,240. Not a particularly large amount, but large enough that I had to visit the cage to get it cashed. The ATM/Change machines at this casino would not redeem tickets of $1,000 and higher.

I needed to use the restroom before I went to the cage. So, I placed my players card, driver’s license, and ticket for $1,240 in my book, and carried the book as I went on my way. So long as I’m careful, the book acts like a safe of sorts. And I am careful. At least most of the time.

Somehow, however, I wasn’t careful enough this time. I still don’t know how it happened, but when I showed up at the cage, the book was “empty.” No ticket. No ID. No card. I checked my wallet “in case” I had put the things there instead of where I thought I put them, but no luck.

Shit.

Losing $1,240 is a nuisance rather than a disaster. Losing my driver’s license was much more of a problem. I immediately traced my steps back to the restroom, checking the floor along the way on the slim chance the items had fallen out and had not been picked up by anyone else.

Nothing.

As I was leaving the restroom, I noticed the attendant was holding a driver’s license in his hand. I identified myself and asked if it was mine. It was. I asked about the players card. He said he had thrown it away. It was still on top of the trash can, so I retrieved that as well. I asked about the ticket, and he said he didn’t know anything about that. Was he telling the truth? Who knows?

I went back to the cage and asked if they had cashed a ticket for exactly $1,240 in the past few minutes. No, they hadn’t. I then said I’d like to report a missing ticket. Soon a slot supervisor came and took my statement. We went to the machine I had been playing, where the display said that the last ticket redeemed was $1,240. I told the supervisor that I had been playing there for about three hours, always with my card, and surely their slot club records and cameras could verify that.

I had to fill out a written statement, which I did. A few minutes later a “Metro” (police officer from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department) came by and asked me for my story again. So, I told it. He wanted a written report. I told him I was willing, but if he could get a photocopy of the casino report that would be much easier.

I was asked to wait.

About 20 minutes later, another Metro came by and asked me if I wanted to press charges. I told him that my primary concern was retrieving the $1,240. He told me I was going to get the $1,240 back and the person who tried to cash it was in detention downstairs.

That was lucky!

Still, if someone had actually ripped me off, they deserved to be punished. If someone found abandoned property, maybe not. The restroom attendant was the only person who spoke to me and was definitely aware of whom the ticket belonged to. Anybody else? It’s possible it was dropped on the floor and I wasn’t sure of how the “finder-keeper loser-weeper” rule worked in this particular instance.

I was asked if I was willing to testify in court. I said yes, but I repeated that the only person I could identify was the restroom attendant who I described by age (50ish), race (Hispanic), build (medium), and other features (spoke English with very little trace of an accent). If anybody else tried to turn in the ticket, there was nothing I could say in court proving that person’s guilt.

In another 20 minutes I got my ticket back. I was never asked to identify anybody. I assume it wasn’t the restroom attendant who tried to cash the ticket.

Obviously, I’m luckier than I deserve to be. I didn’t have to discover the loss so quickly. The ticket didn’t have to be larger than could be cashed anonymously at the machines. Even discovering the loss, the one “skillful” element here was reporting it immediately.

Being able to stop the ticket before it was cashed made recovery easier. Had the ticket already been cashed, the casino might not have been so quick to pay me. There are cameras at the cage, and it could depend on who turned in the ticket. And whether they help me might partially depend on whether I’m a winning or losing player.

If it was cashed by a valued customer (i.e. one who loses a lot), the casino might not want to embarrass him by confronting him. If it was cashed by someone the casino didn’t recognize, the casino may very well have decided not to pay out the $1,240 twice.

Was there a lesson to be learned about better securing valuable things? Of course.

Two items flashed through my mind that I will leave for the reader to ponder. First, assuming I didn’t get the ticket back, how should I record that in my records? In case of audit, I want my records to match what the casino has. I didn’t come to a firm conclusion about this as I got my money back before I needed to record it.

Second, when I got the money back, how much should I have tipped? And to whom?

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So What?

The Las Vegas Advisor publishes a “Question of the Day” every day. People send in questions and the LVA gets someone knowledgeable to answer each question. Often video poker questions are shuttled my way.

In a recent QOD, someone noted that they were quarter NSU Deuces players at Green Valley Ranch Casino, which is run by Station Casinos. The players saw on the screen “advantage player tracking system.”  These players usually only played on multiplier days.

If they are getting a half-percent in players’ club rewards, this is a game that yields the player less than $3 per hour if they play perfectly. Basically, nobody plays NSU Deuces perfectly. I certainly can’t and estimate that fewer than one-in-a-thousand players can. My comment at the end of the QOD was, “It’s a real shame that casinos are doing this to quarter players. You might have a $3/hour advantage over them on the big multiplier days if you play competently. You’d think a casino could fade that.”

I received an email from someone who works in casino management and wrote, “Casinos no longer look at a $3/hour-winner player as just that – as their analysis adds $6 an hour (from all players) for free drinks and general maintenance items (bathroom, garage if parking is free) etc.”

This is probably true, although the $6 figure may vary from place to place. Casinos and other businesses have “overhead” expenses, and if that is going to be allocated on a per-player-per-hour basis, it’s going to be some such number.

Personally, I’m surprised that free drinks are included in this calculation. I believe that giving away free drinks is a money-making proposition for casinos. The more people drink, on average, the more they lose. Yes, the drinks cost the casino money, but the increased revenue from players more than offsets this cost.

Going with the $6 figure for now, it doesn’t change my feelings on this. If the player costs the casino $9 per hour, is that really a significant threat to the casino’s bottom line? Few players play completely accurately. Players bring friends along and their friends play even worse. Players have leaks, where even if they play video poker reasonably competently, they also bet on their favorite football team, and in that game, they are definitely a square. Even solid players go on tilt periodically and do some crazy stuff that usually costs them a lot of money.

I’ve found $200/hour opportunities in casinos. Sometimes I get restricted after the casino figures out that they are giving away the farm. I understand that. (I don’t like it, but I understand it.)

But there needs to be a threshold where casinos tolerate a certain level of “winner.” I personally think that threshold should be higher than $10 per hour.

Possibly I would feel differently were I a casino manager. But worrying about $10 per hour players often leads to kicking out losing players who have just gotten lucky recently.

If any winners at all bothers a casino, they can certainly remove games that give players a chance. But if those games are there, players should be allowed to play them.

Enough of my rant. I’ll go back to a regular blog next week.

 

Author’s Note:  After this article was prepared, I received information that the IGT brand for player tracking systems is called “Advantage.” Thus, “Advantage Player Track System Activated” simply means that the casino is using the IGT software. It does not mean necessarily that the system believes the particular players are playing with an advantage.

Does this mean my rant was misplaced? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I still believe that casinos should allow players with small advantages to play, and that Station Casinos are among the worst culprits at not allowing this to happen. I will never be allowed to see the actual data to prove this one way or another, but looking at the data from the outside, this is the way it appears to this observer.

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The Way You Walk

Assume the following:  You are a very strong player. In a particular, large casino, they only have two machines of the type you consider best. There are other players who play these same machines.

When you arrive on the property, how fast and purposefully do you walk to get to one of the good machines? Do you go straight towards the good machine or take some detours?

FAST:   There are good reasons to walk fast. After all, if one of your competitors for the machine is coming through another door to reach the machines, the early bird gets the worm. If the machines are full, you want to be the first one there to see if you can maybe make a deal to have a machine when one of them is finished.

NOT FAST:  There are good reasons to meander through the casino, taking your time and going in a roundabout way to your machines of choice. Most people do not rush through casinos (other than maybe to get to a bathroom). Rushing catches the eyes of observant employees and others. A slot director could well figure that if players are rushing to get to particular machines, perhaps those machines or the promotions should be looked at more closely.

When Math Boy visited GWAE not so long ago, he commented in passing that he can often tell whether a player is an AP or not simply by watching him move through a casino. We’ve had a number of guests on the show talking about tells at the poker table. This is a tell of a different sort, but just as easy for the knowledgeable person to read.

There is no such thing as knowing that nobody is watching when you’re in a casino. To be sure, much of the time you’re invisible. But not all the time. At most places, the cameras are always on, but often the output from a particular camera is ignored.

I make the assumption that everything I do in a casino can be seen. If I find abandoned credits on a machine, I turn on the change light and wait for an attendant to come and claim it. Although I’m in a differently category than many of my readers, I assume some people in every casino are looking for a good excuse to restrict me. So, I go out of my way not to give it to them.

At many casinos today, camera output is saved and they can go back several days later (or longer) and look at the tape should they so desire. Usually they don’t. But . . .

At the places with surveillance that’s the biggest threat to competent players, surveillance operators are trained to look for things that are “off.” Often such things are saved in the archives to see if it happens again — or has happened before.

Just walking purposefully is not a crime. In and of itself, it’s not particularly suspicious. But it’s unusual in a casino. If you show your act enough times, eventually counter measures will be taken against you.

Recreational players don’t particularly need to be concerned about this. You can do what you want. You will be giving off enough signs that you’re not a threat to a casino to be bullet-proof. Stronger players at least need to think about this. Are you giving the casino “extra” information about your play that they could use to restrict you?

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An Early Christmas Present

In my email inbox, I regularly receive pictures of royal flushes and other video poker jackpots. Frequently, I get thanks in the email saying that if my writing and classes hadn’t taught the emailer how to play, they’d never have a chance. And then the picture of the royal is from an 8/5 Double Double Bonus game. I don’t recall ever saying anything about such a game other than to not even think about playing it if you want a chance at winning.

Recently, I received an email with a picture of a royal on a quarter 8/5 Jacks or Better game. While this game returns almost a half percent more than 8/5 Double Double Bonus, it’s still in the “no play zone” from my point of view. The subject line of the email said: “You’re Going To Want to Read This.” I would have read the email anyway, and the subject line made me think this was going to be junk mail, but it turns out it was from a reader of mine.

This player was playing quarter 8/5 Bonus Poker at a casino in a southern state. This 99.17% game is the highest paying game at that casino and, along with the slot club and other benefits, he felt it “wasn’t too bad” for a recreational player. Okay. I certainly don’t insist that others use my “if it doesn’t return more than 100% it should never be played” philosophy. It sounds like this guy, “Mark,” made a considered, intelligent, choice.

While Mark was playing, a cleaning lady named Sophia came running up to him. Sophia was regularly stationed in the area that included the machines he played, and he recognized her. About half of his visits he slipped her $2. Cleaning machines and picking up after sloppy players wasn’t a fun job or one that paid well. Plus, Sophia had come from somewhere in Central America and her grasp of English was rudimentary at best.

When Sophia reached Mark, she frantically signaled him to follow her. He asked her what was going on and she just kept saying, “Please come. Hurry! Hurry!”

Thinking there might be some type of emergency, Mark cashed out and followed Sophia upstairs. She took him to a bank of quarter 8/5 Jacks or Better progressives. Mark occasionally played these machines if the progressive was more than $2,000 which rarely happened because the meter was quite slow. Still, he didn’t expect Sophia to be cognizant of video poker pay schedules, although it didn’t surprise him greatly that she knew when it was relatively high.

When he looked at the meter, he saw it was at $9,400! Later he figured out that this was a 119% game, but all he knew now was that the game was much better than any other gambling opportunity he’d ever seen. He surmised that the casino shut down a progressive and they had to put the accumulated progressive somewhere — and this is where they dumped it! There was a bank of four machines and so far, all of them were vacant. Clearly that wouldn’t last long.

He thanked Sophia profusely, sat down, and started banging away. It didn’t have to happen this way, but he hit the royal before any other players even noticed how high it was. After the employees came and took his ID, he hunted Sophia down and gave her a $300 tip. Tears came to her eyes. Nobody had ever given her that much money before.

Karma doesn’t always work this way. It could easily have happened that he got a seat and somebody else ended up hitting the royal. But just getting a seat on a 119% game is pretty sweet. And if Sophia hadn’t come and found him, he would have never known.

If you treat people well, often they’ll be only too happy to help you back. That jackpot more than reimbursed Mark for all the tips he’d ever given to casino employees. And if he didn’t hit it? Well, that’s okay. If Mark can afford to gamble recreationally, his life is likely better off financially than Sophia’s. And helping others, whether it’s the holidays or not, is one of the things that makes the world go ‘round.

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My Experience with Gaming — Part II of II

In last week’s blog, I laid out the nature of my beef with the Rainbow Casino. I was basically fighting over whether I could have someone play off $2,400 in free play — or get a check for $1,200. Whether my case had any merits or not, this was too small to involve a lawyer.

I called up the Gaming Control Board and told them I had a complaint. An agent listened and said that if I wished to go forward with the matter I could come down to the office and fill out the paperwork. I told him I’d be down the next day.

The Nevada GCB here in Las Vegas is located off of Las Vegas Boulevard at Washington, which is in the downtown area, immediately north of Cashman Field. It’s in a building housing a number of other governmental agencies.

The night before I went to the office, I spent considerable time writing out exactly what I wanted and why I felt I was entitled to it. I had been led to believe that whatever I wrote down the next day was basically all I got to say before the decision was rendered. So, I wanted to give it my best shot. I suspect they would have written the report for me if I was not capable of doing so, but I believe I can better present my own argument for myself — given it’s too small to justify hiring an attorney.

I saw the same agent I had spoken to on the phone the day before and he brought me a form to fill out. I told him I thought I would need five or six sheets of paper and he provided them.

After I finished writing up my report, the agent read it. He surprisingly advised me to take the $1,200 and not ask to gamble with the $2,400. He told me it was possible I would end up with less than $1,200 and then I’d feel so bad. I didn’t tell him the game was available for quarters and if you play $2,400 coin-in for quarters on NSU, it’s basically impossible to end up with less than $2,000 — let alone $1,200.

I didn’t think it was in my interest to make it obvious that I was an experienced player. I thanked him for his suggestion and told him I’d prefer to take my chances.

The agent asked if I were an advantage player and then added that it really didn’t matter if I was or wasn’t. I didn’t know if I was on the record or not, so I said I wasn’t a beginner and let the matter drop.

I was then told the GCB would investigate the complaint and issue a ruling within 45 days. If both parties accepted the ruling, that would be it. If either side wished to appeal the ruling, the appeal would be held in a hearing room that was within the same complex of offices.

The ruling came back in about 30 days, basically denying all parts of my claim. The casino was ordered to pay me $1,200 by check within two weeks. While I’m writing this before the two-week period has expired and I haven’t received the check yet, I’m not expecting that to be an issue.

The decision listed several findings it had made, including mentioning that I was no longer allowed on the property. Many of those findings were clearly made after talking to casino employees. Several were different than what I remembered happening. I also recognized that I didn’t record the conversations, and it would be a form of “he said-she said” to figure out what actually happened.

I considered appealing — if only to make this into a three-part blog rather than just a two-parter. After all, whatever happens at the GCB is generally interesting to my readers and the listeners to my podcast.

The bottom line in my decision to not appeal was that I didn’t think I had a case. If you focus on the right part of the slot club rules, it’s clear that I only get 50% if I redeem the points in cash and the casino was within its rights to refuse to let me play the points off. Those rules were “hidden in plain sight,” but they were there, nonetheless.

While I could force the system to chug along and rule absolutely that I wasn’t going to get my way, I believed that eventual ruling was essentially a certainty. The idea of going through the appeal just to have more to talk about in this blog or on the podcast strikes me as more selfish than I like to view myself. I basically am doing nothing, which means I accept the ruling.

Still, I find it useful to have gone through this process. Someday I may well need to go through it again and there are advantages to having gone through it previously.

After I wrote this, I did get the check and deposited it. An agent from the GCB, Kevin Smith, called and asked me to call him back on a personal matter. I did, and he just wanted to verify that I had received the check.

I asked him why he had referred to this as a personal matter. After all, this sounds like ordinary GCB work. He told me that he couldn’t know who would listen to that message, and didn’t wish to be broadcasting that I had just received a check that would be considered large by many people. So he called it a personal matter.

Makes sense. I’m the only one who listens to that voicemail — but he couldn’t know that. I appreciate his extra care.

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My Experience with Gaming — Part I of II

The Nevada Gaming Control Board is charged with, among other things, arbitrating disputes between patrons and casinos. I have known about them for years but have never had any direct dealings with them until recently. This blog is about my recent incident.

In many ways, it’s surprising that I’ve had no previous disputes. I know of video poker pros who have dealt with them dozens of times because they believe that the casinos are always trying to cheat them. Others I know regularly take an “it’s the principle of the thing” approach and seek redress for the smallest slights.

To me, there’s a cost associated with going to the GCB. Winning a decision can lead the casino to decide you’re a trouble maker and no longer welcome your action. And any employee involved in that decision may soon work for another casino causing your “unwelcome” to spread without further incident. So, to me, the GCB is going to be a last resort when I’m essentially “out the door” anyway and am concerned with how much I get to take out the door with me.

If it’s a big enough dispute, I’m probably going to talk with attorney Bob Nersesian for advice on how to proceed — or possibly even representing me. He’s knowledgeable enough and good enough that even after paying his fee I’ll be money ahead by letting him take care of it. While there are other attorneys I could call, he’s been on my podcast about two dozen times and we have a personal relationship.

But the case that led me to contact the GCB fell into the sweet spot in that it was large enough to fight over, I was not going to be able to play in the casino again whether I went to GCB or not, and it was too small to call in Nersesian. So, I did it myself.

Here’s what happened:

Someone told me the Rainbow casino in downtown Henderson had $5 NSU and some players were getting several hundred dollars a week in mailers. Since the game starts out at 99.73%, this was worth checking out. With any kind of a slot club at all, this was likely to be a positive play.

I never found the $5 machines. But I did find dollar five play machines where you could bet up to 20 coins per line. That is, I could bet $100 per play on a game where I probably had the edge.

The slot club remains a mystery to me. They have tier levels. You can redeem points for free play or cash, at different rates depending on your tier level. Therefore, I decided that I’d let my points stay unredeemed for a while because I would rather redeem them at the top rate instead of for only half that much. (It turned out I misunderstood the slot club — more about that later.) For August and September (the two months I played) there were 10x comp dollars on Sundays and Fridays.

The comp rate appeared to be a rather miniscule 0.033%, but 10x comps turns that into 0.33% and you add that to 99.73% and you’re very slightly positive. If you get mailers, this is a play.

Each royal was $16,000 (I never hit one of those), and each time I hit four deuces I earned $4,000. (I received several sets.) You also would get W2Gs for dealt quints ($1,600 — every 4,165 dealt hands) and dealt wild royals ($2,500 — every 5,415 hands).

Some of the $4,000 sets of deuces came with a lot more money. If I were dealt three deuces, for example, and connected on one of them, on each of the other four lines I’d get a quad ($80), straight flush ($200), quint ($320), or wild royal ($500). This happened several times.

The deal breaker was when I was dealt four deuces, a 54,144-to-1 hand that paid $20,000. I hit it shortly before Bonnie and I went on a month-long vacation. I hoped that staying away for a month would save my welcome.

Not to be. When I returned, my card wouldn’t work. No big surprise, really. But I had accumulated a number of points and if they were going to kick me out, I wanted my accumulated money before I left. In round numbers we were talking about $2,400.

I was told to call up Billy Paganetti, who owned the Peppermill in Reno as well as the Rainbow, and I could discuss this with him.

Being trespassed from a casino has been mentioned on at least 30 of our podcasts. I am very familiar with this concept. I was NOT trespassed. I was told I wasn’t welcome to play the machines, but I was not told that I was not welcome on the premises.

After a brief bit of phone tag, Mr. Paganetti cut to the chase and said that the slot club would have let me redeem $2,400 in free play had I actually collected it at the casino.  If I now wanted cash, it was only going to be $1,200 because I was at the Chairman level. Had I been at a lower level, it would only have been $800 in cash. He agreed to cut me a check for $1,200 and said I’d have it in the mail within a week.

I believed that I should get more. The boothlings (who were also cage workers) had not been informative about the slot club and I had just earned Chairman level. I believed (incorrectly, it turned out) that leaving my points in the club until I reached Chairman would allow me to redeem them at a higher rate. That would be true if I wanted cash. For free play, the redemption rate did not vary by tier level.

For a variety of reasons, I decided to take my beef to Gaming. I believed that I should have been able to transfer my points to somebody and let him play them off rather than be forced to accept the 50% rate. Mr. Paganetti said, “That’s your right and we’ll wait until we hear from Gaming before we cut the check.”

Next week I’ll explain more of what happened.

Before you head out to the Rainbow, it is my understanding that they have removed the NSU games. They have also removed two games returning more than NSU that I didn’t find. And I was not the only player booted. If you want to check it out anyway, knock yourself out.

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What Now?

Las Vegas casinos have become more aggressive at booting video poker players than they used to be. A number of pros and semi-pros, including myself, are down to a small number of places where they can play unrestricted. Or sometimes, play at all. Some players have no places left in town that welcome their action and have taken to regular trips out of town — or even out of state — so that they can still play.

So, what now?

A friend of mine suggested that I form a group and teach others to do what I do in return for a percentage of their action. That way I could capitalize on my knowledge even though I cannot physically play in many places.

I don’t think that would work for several reasons.

First, I have already written about a high percentage of my “tricks of the trade.” People who can learn from me, for the most part, already have. Or even if they haven’t learned yet, hundreds of my articles and podcasts are readily available. In general, you can’t sell what you’ve already given away for free. I still have occasional students come in and buy a few hours of private tutoring, but that isn’t nearly enough to support me.

Another problem with that idea is that most of my discoveries of profitable situations have been found while in the casino searching for the holes. No two casinos are identical. No two slot clubs are the same. And often the techniques that worked in a particular place six months ago are no longer available today. You must be in the casino working the promotions to find out that at this moment, four separate promotions are in affect at one time — and two of them are particularly lucrative. And to notice while in that casino, they don’t enforce this particular thing. And to hear scuttlebutt about what’s coming down the line at a third casino. And to find out that the theoretical on a certain bank of machines has been mis-set in the players’ favor. Or notice that a typo in the rules allows a one-off situation that will expire as soon as the casino realizes someone is exploiting it. If I’m not actively in a casino trying to beat it, I simply will not know enough about the current possibilities.

Another option is to talk the casino into allowing me to play under certain conditions. I’ve had some success with this, but more failures than successes. Every situation is different. Sometimes I can convince the General Manger that there are some extenuating circumstances that warrant reconsideration. Often the GM is simply not at all interested in changing his mind, whatever I say.

Sometimes it might make sense to continue to play, subject to whatever restrictions the casino has instituted. If you’ve been trespassed or told “Don’t play video poker no matter what!” then continuing to play is not an intelligent option. But a lesser restriction, such as “no mailers” and/or “no multipliers,” might still be beatable. It’s hard enough to eke out even a small edge when you get all the benefits, but sometimes it’s still possible with one hand tied behind your back.

Note that in the previous circumstance, the casino will likely be watching you. The first restriction was intended to get you to stop playing there, or maybe only to be able to play and lose. If you demonstrate that you can still play and win, further restrictions may just be around the corner. Getting lucky immediately after a partial restriction may end up being costly. If you take a month or two off and then come back and get lucky, sometimes you are allowed to continue to play.

A totally different option is to go down in stakes. There are very possibly several places where you could play for quarters or dollar single line where you would be welcome to play. The win-per-hour isn’t as good as where you are no longer welcome to play (otherwise it would have been on your list of places to play in the first place), but maybe it’s still enough.

For some folks, playing with an edge is not as important as playing. (This will never be me.) In general, folks like this generally won’t be excluded in the first place. Although these folks can hit some big jackpots and get thrown out by casinos who don’t understand the winning process, generally these players are recognized as profitable assets by the casino and allowed to play and lose.

A more drastic option is to retire from playing video poker. This can entail shifting to a different gambling game or perhaps giving up gambling altogether.  Although I’m personally nowhere near doing this, everyone has to make this choice for him or herself.

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How Do You Approach It?

I’m always on the lookout for non-video poker situations that I can turn into video poker teaching moments. It’s the only way I can continue to produce a weekly column after all these years.

As I mentioned in a recent column, Bonnie and I were cruising for three weeks and this happened while our ship was docked in Halifax, which is in Nova Scotia, Canada. Although on this evening, we could stay on shore until 6:30, we had enough fun much earlier than that and were sitting down to a dinner at Moderno, a restaurant on the ship. This is a Brazilian all-you-can eat steakhouse, where they keep bringing you about ten different kinds of meats until you’ve had enough.

First-time diners need some instruction about where the salad bar is, which meats are coming, and how you signal whether you want more food or are finished. Or perhaps not exactly finished but need to digest for a while before beginning again. It’s not particularly difficult, but there are some “house rules” so that everybody is on the same page.

Our server was Rita from Indonesia. When she gave us the information, she spoke rapidly with a strong accent and some mispronunciations. Listening intently, I caught about one-third of what she was saying. Bonnie and I were among the earliest diners, and I saw and heard her repeat this performance at two nearby tables over the next half hour. What was interesting to me is that each of the three tables handled it differently. I found it easy to compare the approaches with video poker players I have observed.

At one table, the woman berated her for not speaking better English and said that non-English-speaking immigrants created one of the biggest problems within the US these days and it made her very angry. Never mind that this happened in Canada on a ship with less than 10% of its employees from the United States. In addition, the Norwegian Dawn spent most of its time in International waters.

At the next table, the people just nodded and then rose to go get their salads. It’s unlikely these people understood everything Rita was saying because I saw the husband and wife looking at each other during Rita’s dissertation with expressions that indicated utter confusion. But they weren’t going to let that stop them. Time to eat!

At our table, I asked Rita to slow down and repeat what she just said. After two additional iterations of this, I was pretty sure I understood what she was saying. Bonnie still appeared to be in the dark, but I indicated to her that we should go get salads and I’d explain the rest while we were grazing on the lettuce and other vegetables. Which I did.

Okay. So how does this relate to video poker?

The table where the lady (rudely, in my opinion) berated Rita for not knowing better English reminded me of players who only know one game and when that game is not available any more get very angry about it. These people believe they deserve certain conditions and if the casinos remove those conditions, it’s because the casinos are greedy bastards.

It is definitely true that video poker conditions are less advantageous than they were several years ago. It is also true that opportunities still exist for the ones who can find and exploit them. If you are too busy complaining that things aren’t just how you want them, you’ll miss seeing the good deals that still exist.

At the table where the couple was ready to figure it out as they went, this reminded of players who don’t take the time to learn the ins and outs of the strategy and slot club before they begin. It’s expensive to play that way.

If video poker is a very minor part of your life and the sums you play for are minor to you, this methodology makes sense. It takes time and energy to become competent at this game and for many, it’s just not worth it.

It probably should also be noted that dining optimally at Moderno is much simpler than gambling optimally in a casino. So in this case, the “figure it out as we go” approach might indeed have been perfectly acceptable, although it’s not the approach I personally use. Perhaps this is because I think linearly and I’m not as intuitive as some others are.

It shouldn’t surprise you that I prefer the way of gaining information Bonnie and I used. After all, if I didn’t think it was best, I wouldn’t have done it that way.

Our way was to gently ask questions until at least one of us understood and then help each other if one of us learned faster than the other. As it turned out, Bonnie caught something I missed and so we both learned some things over salad.

The edges available in casinos are very small these days even for the most knowledgeable of players. If playing with an advantage is important to you, you must exploit every opportunity to figure out how to do it.

It can be argued that using the same approach at dinner that I use in a casino is a case of “if your only tool is a hammer then everything looks like a nail,” but we enjoyed the dinner, nonetheless.

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Learning a Second Game — Part II of II  

Last week I began a discussion of learning NSU Deuces Wild once you already knew 9/6 Jacks or Better. If you missed that article, it’s not hard to find.

If you’re going to or from a game covered by the Dancer/Daily Winners’ Guide series, that’s by far the most efficient place to start. You can learn the games systematically and completely by using those guides. It shortens the learning process considerably as much of the heavy lifting is done for you.

So, however you did it, we’ve reached the stage where you have a decent strategy and you know how to read it. It’s now time to practice, practice, practice on the computer.

How long do you need to practice on the computer? It depends on how good you want to get and how good of a student you are. If you wish to play at the professional level (which will be true for a small percentage of you), you need to practice until your accuracy level is in the 99%+ range — at least. If your goal is to play the game reasonably well, then a lower accuracy level will suffice.

If this is truly the second game you’ve tried to learn (which is what the article presumes, but lots of people reading the article will not be in that exact place), you will need to study considerably more than if this is the 15th game you’ve learned. The more games you know, the more you’ll find cases where “this game now is just like that game.” But if you don’t have that depth, and none of us did when we started, it’s going to take more study.

Different computer products have different learning tools built in. In Video Poker for Winners, you can ask the computer to show you hands at the Beginner level, the Intermediate level, and the Advanced level. It allows you to get better without becoming overwhelmed by being confronted with the most difficult hands at the start.

In WinPoker, there is a “Hard Hands” section. You can set it for whatever difference you wish between the correct play and the second-best play. If you set it for 3¢ while playing NSU, for example, you’ll never see the hand 3♦ 4♦ 7♦ K♣ Q♣ because the diamonds are more valuable than the clubs by considerably more than 3¢, but you will see 3♦ 4♦ A♦ K♣ Q♣ because that’s a much closer play. If you would have played the first hand incorrectly, then you’re not quite ready for this tool yet. But when you get the basics down, it allows you to concentrate on the hands that are likely to give you trouble.

WinPoker has another tool I use where I can plug in two or three cards and the machine will start with those and deal others. For example, in DDB, J♥ T♥ A♠ can go either way depending on the other two cards — and there are LOTS of possibilities with straight, flush, straight flush, and kicker penalties to either the hearts or spades or occasionally both.

If you start with those three cards and just let the computer deal, you can focus on a relatively tough combination and get it down. To be sure, sometimes you’ll be dealt pairs or trips or even a 4-card royal which isn’t a hand that should give you a problem at all. But you’ll get the relevant hands enough of the time that it becomes an efficient way to learn it.

On a personal note, I use both products. They each teach me in different ways and both support my goal of efficiently learning to play accurately.

Now we’re at the stage where you’ve learned to play “well enough” on the computer. It’s time to go to the casino. There is something about playing for real money that focuses your concentration.  You’re going to run into hands while playing that you don’t remember from practice. So, keep note paper handy and write such hands down. Do the best you can in the casino, consulting a strategy card if you have one, but be sure to look up the hands on the computer when you get back home. There will be times where you either mis-read the strategy card or mis-remembered the correct play. Checking when you get home will help correct either or both of those errors.

At this point, you’ve reached the stage where you can play the second game in the casino competently. You now must go back and relearn the first game! Because you’ve learned that J♥ T♥ is more valuable in NSU than Q♠ J♠, you must re-learn that the opposite is true in JoB. There will usually be concepts that got “overlapped” in your brain. It’s going to take some retraining to be able to keep them straight.

By the time you’ve gotten your knowledge of JoB back up to speed, you may find you’ve forgotten your NSU. Like they instruct with shampoo, rinse and repeat.

Finally, once you’ve got both games “mastered,” you still need to periodically review. In my case, I know a variety of games well, but I’m not equally up to speed in all of them. I usually know beforehand what game I’ll be playing on a given day. I’ve been doing this for 24 years and have written about all of these games and have taught classes in all of these games — and I still need to review if it’s a game I haven’t been playing recently. (Part of my experience is offset by the fact that at 71 years of age my memory isn’t what it used to be.)

Probably you will also need to review.

At a university, many professors study harder than the students do. The same in video poker. I will never reach the stage that I no longer need to study — and I already know a lot more than most of my readers ever will. Continual study is part of the price of playing the game well.