Category: Video Poker

Posted on by — 3 Comments

Gifts that Aren’t Gifts

Bob Dancer

Casinos reward players for playing. These rewards typically include cash back, free play, rooms, food, show/event tickets, and as many other goodies as a marketing director can imagine. I’ve received gift cards, spa treatments, cruises, shopping sprees, trips, and discounts on a variety of things.

Once you’ve received these rewards, for the most part you can use them as you see fit, including redeem them, ignore them, give them to family and friends, and, sometimes, sell them. If you’ve received a logo jacket, for example, and choose to sell it on eBay, no casino executive will object to this.

If the casino has offered you a hotel room, and you give this room away, again there’s no problem. But if you sell the room, and the casino discovers this, you may well be punished. Each casino has its own way of bringing players into line, but you usually will receive a warning before the casino takes any action.

If you continue selling rooms after the casino tells you that it’s not allowed, the casino will “solve” the problem by not giving you free rooms anymore — and maybe kicking you out altogether.

I can see the casino’s point of view on this. After all, selling rooms is one of their income streams, and if they can sell the room instead of giving it away for free, it helps their bottom line.

I can also see the player’s point of view on this. If a casino “gives” you something, you should be able to do whatever you want with it. It’s hard enough to beat the casino. Adding a few extra bucks from selling something the casino gives you makes it easier to win. Or at least lose less.

While I haven’t sold any comped rooms for several years, if I were to do it again, I’d try to do it in a way that would maximize my chances of being successful at it.

First of all, I wouldn’t go through a host. My host knows my preferences — perhaps one bed, no smoking, high floor, near elevator — whatever. If I all of a sudden I want two beds in a smoking room, the host is going to be asking questions. I could say it’s for my brother-in-law, and that would fly once. But if I tried it several more times, each time with a different set of room requests, the host may get suspicious. While the host is your “friend,” of sorts, the casino signs her paycheck. 

So, after the reservation is made, go though the front desk to make the changes in the “smoking or not” kind of requests. To the front desk, you’re just a name. To your host, you’re quite a bit more than that. Casinos identify you by what kind of games you play, what stakes, what frequency of play, what your win-loss numbers are, and a variety of other things. All this data is part of how your host knows you.

Second, if I get a comped room and sell it to somebody, I’d play some that weekend. It doesn’t have to be a lot. But no play at all waives a red flag. 

Third, I’d be discreet about it. I wouldn’t post an ad that offers discounted rooms to the such-and-such casino. Those ads might well be seen by somebody who works at the casino, and it could lead to it being investigated. Once somebody who works at the casino tries to “buy” such a discounted room, they’d find out that I was behind it — and the cat would be out of the bag. No thanks.

Fourth, I’d spread it around to several casinos if I had potential comped rooms at more than one place. Each time one does this is a risk. Doing it at several casinos rather than just one dilutes that risk a bit.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

THE FACTS ON HITTING A ROYAL FLUSH AT VIDEO POKER

This post is syndicated by the Las Vegas Advisor for the 888 casino group. Anthony Curtis comments on the 888 article introduced and linked to on this page.

AC says:

Video poker players will like this article. Many players know the commonly cited statistic that a royal flush occurs about once in 40,000 hands on average. But beyond that, the related numbers are less known. This article by Henry Tamburin puts these numbers all in one place, both the frequency of being dealt X number of cards to the royal flush and the odds of hitting it. One interesting fact within is that it’s almost twice as likely to get a royal on a 5-card redraw than on the initial deal (the redraw comes from a pack of 47 cards that are minus five that won’t complete a royal). There’s also some bonus info at the top of the article regarding how video poker games select and deal the cards that appear on the screen.

This article was written by Henry Tamburin in association with 888Casino.

THE FACTS ON HITTING A ROYAL FLUSH AT VIDEO POKER

Let’s face it. What all video poker players hope (and pray) for is that the next hand will give them a royal flush because that results in an immediate 4,000 coin payoff. But did you ever wonder what the chance that this will happen when you hold, say, four cards to a royal flush? How about holding three cards to a royal? And what is the chance of being dealt a royal flush on the initial deal? I’ve summarized the answers to these questions below and they may surprise you.

Continue reading …

Posted on by — 3 Comments

A Look at Casino Drawings — Part II of II

Bob Dancer

Today we continue our look at casino drawings. If you want to catch up and read last week’s blog, I’ll wait until you come back.

You usually have to plan for a drawing. While it is possible that you’re automatically entered into a drawing and your prizes are sent to you in the mail, the far more typical way is that you need to show up at the casino and activate your tickets at a kiosk. You then need to stick around until the drawing is held and, if you’re lucky enough to be drawn, claim your prize within some relatively short period of time.

This means that if you’re going to compete in one drawing at 7 p.m. on a given night, you can’t be at another drawing as well. So you need to pick and choose where you have the best chance.

It’s not trivial to get to a casino, park, and deal with the crowds in order to win at a drawing. Today, if I don’t have an expected win of at least $250 at a drawing, I won’t be showing up. Your number might be different from mine, but financially it rarely makes sense to show up at a drawing when you only have one ticket in the drum. Yes, it only takes one ticket to win, but that’s looking at “possibilities,” not “probabilities.” I actually look one more layer deep. I look at the probability of being called and the average size win.

In general, the more tickets you have in the drum, the better your chances of winning. If you’re a $5 player, you have a significantly better chance of winning than if you’re a 25¢ or $1 player. If you’re a 5¢ player, five coins at a time, you basically have no chance at all.

It’s usually not a good idea to play a negative game in order to get drawing tickets. Having an expected loss of $1,000 in order to have a 10% chance of winning $500 in a drawing doesn’t make financial sense.

It can make sense to play a negative game if it’s “close.” Playing 99.73% NSU Deuces Wild with a 0.20% slot club is a negative game. A drawing can make up the shortfall. If mailers and comps are given to you in addition to the 0.20% slot club, then this situation was probably slightly positive to start with. 

If you’re going to be at a drawing, and Thursday is a 10x drawing ticket day, make sure you play on Thursday. Ticket multiplier days are a way for a casino to present something worthwhile to players looking for an edge and it doesn’t cost the casino a dime. It actually makes money for the casino because of the extra play generated on that day. The casino has already budgeted the drawing, say $20,000, and it largely doesn’t care which of the players win the money. Drawing ticket multipliers shift the odds from the players who don’t play on that day to those who do.

Don’t win drawings at the same casino too often. This is the “voice of experience” talking and it applies to players who play for relatively large stakes compared to most of the other people in the drawings. At small casinos, where the same people show up for drawings every week, it gets noticed if that one guy seems to win all the time. Players will complain, and when that happens, the casino will come up with a solution that the winning player doesn’t like. So if you win, take a month off or so. 

Read the rules carefully. If it’s the same rules for every drawing, probably most of the kinks have been worked out of them. But if they modify the rules every time, mistakes can be made. Sometimes point multipliers are in effect from 3 a.m. to 2:59 a.m., but ticket multipliers are in effect midnight to midnight. Double dipping might be possible! And they might have a senior’s drawing on Tuesday and a “for everybody” drawing on Friday, and, if you’re old enough, your play can count for both drawings. There might be limits to consider.

It’s possible that for the amount you play, winning a drawing is essentially a zillion to one longshot. If that’s the case, don’t even try. Concentrate on other ways to win in the casino — or in life.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

BE CAREFUL THAT 9/6 VIDEO POKER IS WHAT YOU THINK IT IS

This post is syndicated by the Las Vegas Advisor for the 888 casino group. Anthony Curtis comments on the 888 article introduced and linked to on this page.

AC says:

The information in this article is something all beginners need to know. Many start with the knowledge that 9/6 Jacks or Better is the gold standard (it is to some degree, but there are higher-returning schedules) and understand that the 9 for a full house and 6 for a flush are the key numbers. But then they assume that all 9/6 games are good. As pointed out in the article, the 9/6 on a Double Bonus game drops the return to 97.8%, about 1.75% below the JoB return, and other 9/6 variations drop similarly. You have to be sure you’re playing 9/6 JoB (or 9/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe returning 99.64%, which can be found), or the expected return is likely lower than you think it is. More good advice comes in the warning to look at the entire schedule, even on games labeled “Jacks or Better.” Some, especially on denoms below 25¢, have short-pay royal flushes, e.g., 2,500 coins instead of 4,000. No bueno!

This article was written by Jerry Stich in association with 888Casino.

BE CAREFUL THAT 9/6 VIDEO POKER IS WHAT YOU THINK IT IS

Many video poker players are aware that pay tables vary based on the type of game. Many video poker players know that the pay table for a specific game can also vary. They also know that most pay tables can be identified based on two lines in the pay table. These two lines are the pays for a full house and a flush. They represent the x-for-1 pay amount. For example, if a full house pays 8-for-1 and a flush pays 5-for-1, the pay table is commonly referred to as 8/5.

At one time – years ago – there were very few different video poker games. Jacks or Better was among the earliest video poker games available. Pay tables in the early video poker era tended to be quite generous. Almost all Jacks or Better games paid nine coins (yes, coins. Early games only took coins or tokens) for each coin bet for a full house and six coins for each coin bet for a flush.

Continue reading …

Posted on by — 4 Comments

A Look at Casino Drawings — Part I of II

Bob Dancer

It’s been a while since I’ve written about casino drawings. In Part I, I’m going to address a selective history of drawings. And Part II deals with how to improve your chances in drawings.

My personal history deals primarily, but not exclusively, with drawings in Las Vegas starting in 1994. The ways they did it in Atlantic City and other places are mostly a mystery to me. 

While most casinos held drawings similarly to the way other casinos did it, any marketing director could say, “I’ve got a good idea. Why don’t we . . .?,” and you had a different twist on how to do it.

“In the beginning,” drawings used paper tickets on which you filled out your name and player’s card number. Sometimes you needed additional information like your address. If you had a lot of tickets, you had to allow considerable time to prepare them. Using rubber stamps or address labels made it faster than doing everything longhand, but it still required an effort.

Some players believed that folding the tickets was useful, and many players had their own techniques. Some casino executives drawing the tickets felt that folded tickets provided an unfair advantage, so they would intentionally feel around for unfolded tickets. I was never sure, so I folded half of mine and left the others au naturel.

The tickets had to go into some sort of drum. If the drum was large, say able to hold 20,000 tickets, and there were only 500 tickets in the drum, spinning the drum mixed the tickets pretty well. If that same drum was filled with 22,000 tickets, the tickets were so jammed that no matter how many times they spun the drum, the tickets stayed right where they were. In this kind of drawing, it was vital to place your tickets in the drum within the last half hour or so before the drawing. If your tickets were placed before that and are now at the bottom of the drum, you had zero chance of it being picked. Someone might dig down one foot or so into a batch of tickets to get one, but nobody could dig down six feet.

You usually received tickets based on your play — maybe every 1,000 slot club points earned you one ticket. Sometimes different tier levels received different numbers of tickets per slot club points. Sometimes video poker machines earned tickets at a different rate than slot machines. Sometimes there were “ticket multiplier” days. Sometimes everybody received free tickets.

Often, but not always, you had to be present to win. Often, but not always, if somebody called wasn’t present, they drew again. Sometimes you could win two or more prizes if your name were drawn more than once. Sometimes anybody could enter and win a drawing, but sometimes it was only for invited guests.

Sometimes the first name drawn gets the biggest prize. Sometimes they keep drawing until they get the right number of names, and then each of the contestants picks an envelope, spins a wheel, or does something else to decide how much they have won.

In Nevada, usually the drawings were fair — but more than once a casino was caught cheating. I have to assume that sometimes casinos cheated and were not caught. It isn’t that difficult for a casino employee to have a ticket palmed when he/she reaches in to pick out a ticket. If done well, it’s extremely difficult to catch. 

I’ve entered many hundreds of Vegas drawings over the past 30 years — possibly more than one thousand. I don’t know the total amount of prizes I’ve won, but it easily exceeds $1 million, including cash, free play, and sometimes physical prizes like cars, jewelry, and even cruises. That’s not all profit, of course. Sometimes I had to play a negative game to earn drawing tickets.

Sometimes there were cash or free play options. For example, if your name were drawn for a $25,000 car, the casino would arrange for you to buy any car you wanted at, for example, Finley Toyota, or would offer you $20,000 if you didn’t take the car.

Sometimes casinos issued 1099s when you won at least $600. Sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes, if you won more than one drawing over the calendar year, the casino would sum up your prizes and present you with the tax form if your total winnings were at least $600. Sometimes casinos would treat each drawing as a separate event tax-wise.

Next week I’ll discuss how drawings are different today than they used to be and give you some pointers on doing well in these drawings.

Posted on by — 8 Comments

You Have to Choose Your Battles

Bob Dancer

I’ve played at Caesars properties for a few decades and generally play up to Seven Stars status. If Bonnie and I didn’t enjoy cruising, we might not play here. But we do, and we do.

They used to have Seven Stars lounges at each property. While each property did these lounges differently than the other properties, generally you could get free food and beverages for the price of a tip. The company was sold several times, went through a bankruptcy or two, and now Seven Stars lounges are called Laurel Lounges — and basically don’t exist.

Still, each property modestly rewards their Seven Stars customers with respect to food and beverages. Whenever we go to a different Caesars/Harrah’s/Eldorado property, we check out how the system works there. In Las Vegas, Seven Stars players get four drink coupons and one $10 food voucher daily. (Diamond players get the drink coupons but not the $10 food voucher.) The drink tickets can be used for any beverages which cost $25 or less — and at a significant number of restaurants and bars across town. Each property also has bars and restaurants that don’t accept these food and beverage vouchers.

There are some glasses of wine that cost $25.99 available at these bars and restaurants. It seems obvious that your $25 voucher would cover most of that, leaving you with a small overage to pay for using a different means. But obvious answers aren’t always correct. Here if you order that glass of wine, you can’t apply a voucher at all. It’s over $25 and that’s that. The restaurant servers don’t like this rule, but they have to abide by it.

In late February, Bonnie and I had some Seven Stars visitors and so we all went to Gordon Ramsay Pub & Grill inside Caesars Palace. Bonnie and I each get 10 annual $100 “Seven Stars Celebration” Dinners, from February 1 to January 31. We’re not big eaters and, including our $10 food vouchers, can easily order enough food for $120 to satisfy both of us. Our friends had their own vouchers.

I was not playing anymore on this day, so I ordered a glass of wine. My first choice of wine would have been a $25.99 glass, but I knew the rules and ordered a glass for $21.99. While I was ordering, Bonnie took her ID and Player’s Card to one outlet where she can get 750 ml bottles of Diet Pepsi for her tickets. While I’m sure diet soda isn’t healthy for her to drink, and have told her as much, she enjoys them, and she uses two of her drink tickets each time we go there to get soda to take home. She knows how I feel about diet soda, figures that I’m probably right healthwise, but it’s not a battle either one of us want to fight repeatedly. She’s 80 years old. That’s one of her pleasures in life. Let her be!

Until recently, one of the fast-food outlets, DiFara Pizza, sold liter bottles of Fiji water at a hotel price of $9.99 apiece. Any extra drink tickets that are not spent elsewhere go towards this water. They seem to have done away with this water, and now 700 ml bottles of Aquafina are the biggest you can get. Still, we always need portable water in a desert.

On this particular night, Bonnie got two bottles of Diet Pepsi, I had one glass of wine charged to her drink tickets, and so we stopped to pick up five bottles of water on our way to the car. Somehow, though, the system showed that I indeed had four drink vouchers to spend, but Bonnie didn’t have any. Either the outlet where she got the soda or the restaurant over-charged her. 

I suppose we could have spent 15-20 minutes and figured out exactly what happened and gotten it rectified, but we’re talking about a bottle of water here. Probably costs $4 at Walmart – although certainly more than that here. 

I did mention to the server that it’s not fair that we don’t get that fifth bottle of water. The server was polite enough, but unbudging. If her computer doesn’t tell her that Bonnie has another bottle of water coming, we weren’t going to get one. So, we let it go. Another battle not worth fighting. 

Both Bonnie and I were slightly irritated — but that feeling passed quickly. We’re fortunate that we’re able to shrug off these things and not sweat the small stuff.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

How Do I Figure?

Bob Dancer

Bonnie and I regularly played at an out-of-town Caesars property where part of the monthly mailer was $200 in resort credit apiece. If we played our usual amount, our host would pick up food charges. So that left the resort credit to be spent at gift shops. They had a women’s store, a men’s store, and a jewelry store, in addition to a typical small gift shop where you could get various sundries. 

Generally speaking, you don’t expect casino gift shops to compete on price. At the men’s store, I was told that if I paid with cash or credit card, I’d get a 35% discount. If I used Reward Credits, I’d get a 20% discount. And if I charged to my room, I’d get no discount. Part of the deal with the $200 resort credit was that you had to charge it to your room. 

The resort credits weren’t worth anywhere near face value to us — but they were obviously worth something and made the play worth more to me than if I didn’t get to spend them. So how much are they worth?

No gift shop is worth the same amount to every player. I would wear a few of the shirts sold by this particular men’s store — but not all that many. A younger man — or a man whose taste is different from mine — might find he liked a much larger percentage of the inventory than I do. Bonnie is usually with me on these trips — and she can usually find something in one of the gift shops. If I tell her she has $400 to spend at such and such a selection of stores, she’ll find at least that much for one of us — or for one of our relatives or friends.

If I were thinking a $200 gift shop award might be worth $100, I asked myself, “Would I pay $100 in cash to get that $200 gift shop award?” For me, the answer was, ‘No.’ But I might pay $50 in cash. So, I figured that’s what the award was worth. 

I find it useful to turn this into a percentage — so I can add it into the mix along with the return on the game, the slot club, and other such awards. If I regularly played $10,000 and they gave me this award worth $50 to me, the award would be worth 0.5%. If I played $100,000 (which is closer to what I actually play), the award is worth 0.05%.

Frankly, something worth 0.05% would rarely be enough to tip the play-or-not-play scales into positive territory. Maybe if a play were already worth 100.3%, which is about the minimum I’ll play, I’ll make a play I might otherwise pass on. But that exact circumstance rarely happens.

It turns out that I find such awards most valuable for “keeping Bonnie happy” reasons. 

Bonnie and I keep our finances separate. If I win or lose $40,000 on a trip, it basically doesn’t affect her finances at all. But if I have the advantage on the play, and I can play on her card as well as mine, it’s good for her to make the trip with me, even if there is not much for her to do once she’s there.

So, gift shop awards, at least one nice dinner per trip, free movies in the room, and excursions to sight-seeing places are all part of what we do while we’re there. Sometimes I give her half of my win in a drawing. She’s 80 years old, I’m 77, and staying happy together is a significant part of our game plan. If there is suitable music, we dance for a few hours. If we earn cruises, she gets a big say in where we go. Bonnie’s generally a good sport about coming with me when I take these “business trips,” I want her to look forward to our time together. If getting to go shopping brings a smile to her face, I’m all for it.

Posted on by — Leave a comment

What Do You Do?

Bob Dancer

A gambling friend shared an incident that happened to him at a casino recently. It’s never happened to me, but it could. I’m writing this as a hypothetical, because there are a lot of different ways it could turn out. So, there are lots of choices to be made — and it’s probably wise that you’ve at least thought about it beforehand.

I’m waiting for a casino drawing. They call my name and I have three minutes to make my way up to wherever the drawing is being held. Usually that’s no problem. But what if I’m doing something else?

If I’m playing video poker, it’s usually easy to cash out and leave the machine. If there are players around, let them know that you’ll be back after the drawing. That usually works.

But let’s say I’m playing a slot machine, and the machine is positive. That is, assume it’s well known that it’s a play if the mini jackpot is at least 20, and it’s now at 25. If you leave this machine unguarded, often somebody else will recognize the situation for what it is and play until the jackpot hits.

Now you need to get some casino employee to watch your machine. So, I’ll start hollering and making quite a commotion. Usually, some employee will come investigate. When that happens, I explain that I’ve been called for the drawing — and usually the employee will assist you. Not always, but usually.

Another situation is that you’ve hit the bonus round on the machine, and the bonus round takes several minutes to play out. This is actually better for you because nobody can claim the machine while this is happening. You can actually leave the machine while hollering and searching for an employee. 

If you know for a fact that the bonus round will result in a W-2G, then it’s okay to leave — assuming your card was in the machine and the casino can identify who hit the jackpot. But usually, you don’t know for sure. It might end up for more than $1,200, and it might not. If it only goes up to $1,100 and you’re not around when it finishes, someone can cash out with your win plus however much in credits you had before the bonus round started. They can collect the ticket, cash it out, and leave the casino before you return. Casinos have different policies on how much, if any, of your money you’ll retrieve.

If hollering doesn’t work, you’ll need to make a quick analysis of how much the slot machine jackpot is worth versus how much the drawing is worth. If it’s a drawing where you get at least $500, and can earn quite a bit more than that, and the slot jackpot will only be $200, then it’s an easy choice. If the hollering doesn’t work, cash out and go to collect your drawing winnings. If you’re playing on the two-cent machine, 40 coins at a time, you probably should leave another screen (perhaps one cent, 50 coins at a time) that is not in positive mode so maybe the good game will still be there when you return.

On the other hand, if the drawing is for $100 and you believe your equity in the machine is worth quite a bit more than that, then you simply keep playing the slot machine if the hollering doesn’t work. Yes, you’d like to collect both, but sometimes you have to make a choice.

One way to guard against this is to not do anything else while waiting for a drawing. That’s fine, but not doing anything is worth $0 per hour. And these drawings can go on for quite some time — especially if there are one or more rounds of redraws because people didn’t show up when their names were called. And unless it’s a fairly unusual situation, you are probably not a favorite to be called in the drawing. The combination of being called and being on a game that can’t be left without losing equity and you can’t find an employee to watch the machine is pretty remote. It could happen, of course, but usually it’s better for me to be scouting while I’m waiting for the names to be called. I don’t have to be present for three minutes and if necessary, I can run from quite a distance in three minutes. (Well, maybe not today. As I write this, I’m still recovering from hip surgery — so running is not an option — but that is hopefully a short-lived restriction.)

It’s a nice problem to have — because you’re going to be getting some money — but getting all of your money is better than getting part of your money.

Posted on by — 4 Comments

A New Hip — After Six Weeks

Bob Dancer

I had my right hip replaced with a titanium one on December 28. I’m writing this after almost six weeks of recovery. It hasn’t been as smooth or as fast as I hoped. And it disrupted my life far more than I expected!

Two-and-a-half weeks after the surgery, there was a juicy out-of-town promotion I really wanted to go to. Bonnie and my doctor were strongly opposed to me going. Finally, I acceded and stayed home — probably the right move. But giving up on a good promotion really goes against the grain.

I’ve shared before that I belong to the Las Vegas Improvisational Players (www.lvimprov.com) and perform in a showcase once a month. The leader of the group wanted me to sit out the January performance — figuring I was still a bit wobbly. Improv does include some physicality, and you never know what’s coming because the suggestions come from the audience. He figured it would be easy to accidentally exceed my physical limitations in the heat of the moment. While I figured that I could still perform, I yielded reasonably gracefully. But I’ll be in the February 17 showcase, and all the future ones when I’m in town. For the next few months, though, I’ll be cast in skits with little potential for physicality. 

Three-times-a-week physical therapy (PT) works well if you apply yourself. They tell you to do 30 repetitions and then let you decide how many to really do — and whether you lift your leg all the way or halfway. Basically, their business plan is to collect $100 a session (or whatever the amount is) from the insurance companies. If you take six months instead of three months to recover, so much the better as far as the PT company is concerned.

PT also works better if you do the exercises at home between sessions. I knew this but was not as diligent as I could have been. I probably averaged two sessions a week at home (rather than the recommended four) on the days I didn’t go to PT.

The exercises, though, were only geared for my right leg — because that’s the side where my new hip is. I decided early on, though, to do the exercises on both sides. Even though the exercises were way too easy for my left leg, I felt it made no sense to only exercise one side of my body. My hour-long PT session got extended by twenty minutes or so. The PT staff had to notice this, but so far haven’t said a word about this.

I was cautioned not to bend over too far too soon after the surgery, and not to cross my legs. If the hip pops out of socket, needless to say, it’s not a good thing. So, for the first four weeks or so after the operation, I needed Bonnie to help me with the compression hose they recommended and tying my shoelaces. I couldn’t bend over enough to put on pants of any sort without help. One month out, I could dress myself unassisted.

I have a player-friend who drove me to casinos periodically after about three weeks. I’d take my walker and take frequent rests. He’d drop me off at the front door of casinos and then go park the car. I wouldn’t do my full slot-scouting run at first, but each time was a little bit further.

I was told not to drive for six weeks after surgery. This is a longer period of time for the right hip than the left simply because driving in this country uses the right leg more than the left. After four weeks of using Lyft, though, there came a day when Bonnie and I had six places we needed to go to back-to-back — none of them more than three miles from the last. After one around-the-block test drive, I decided I could do it.  

For the next two days, though, my right leg and knee really ached. Whatever muscles are used in driving had deteriorated. I drove every other day for short periods of time, and about a week later could drive for an hour straight without discomfort. 

My first out-of-town casino trip came at about the four-week mark. It was tougher than I expected. The nicer rooms they assigned us were far away from the hotel elevators. Had I thought about it, I would have requested a regular room close to the elevators — but I didn’t think of it until afterwards.

I only played four hours a day, but I had to split that into two sessions. I knew about how much walking would be required at this casino — we’ve been there before — but taking that many steps turned out to be more difficult than knowing how many steps it was going to be. I was pretty wiped out when I returned home four days later. Although it was a losing trip this time, I’m pretty sure that was just normal variance and not due to my infirmity. But I can’t be sure.

As I write the first draft of this blog, I haven’t had my six-week post-operation medical visit yet. I expect I’ll be told I can now submerge into a bath (if there are handicap bars to help me get out — which there are in our home) if I want. I’m now taking an aspirin tablet twice a day to avoid blood clots. Whether that routine is changed — or whether I’ll still be told to wear compression stockings — I’ll find out. Other than not doing my exercises as much as requested, I’ve been a pretty good patient. And I’ll continue to do so.

My next casino trip is in another three weeks. I’ll take my walker with me — in case. The walking distances there will be considerably longer than the ones on my last trip. They have motorized scooters available if necessary — but I’m assuming/hoping I won’t need one. We’ll see.

When I last saw my surgeon, two weeks afterwards, he said it was normal to be thinking “Oh God! What have I done?” And to be sure, there was a little of that. He also said that after six weeks I’ll be saying, “This is the best thing that ever happened to me! I should have done it years ago!” 

Well, it’s almost six weeks, and I’m still recovering. But I’m a lot closer to being really happy I did this than I was a month ago.

Posted on by — 1 Comment

Playing With House Money

Bob Dancer

The expression that titles this blog has at least two different meanings. First, it could mean you have some sort of a cash windfall, so losing it would be less painful than if you earned the money doing hard labor. Second, it could mean that you have already exceeded expectations, so even if you don’t win in the current situation, it’s not so bad. An example of the second meaning was heard in the first round of the football playoffs between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Philadelphia Eagles. It was said that nobody expected the Bucs to even make the playoffs, so they were playing with house money.

In both meanings, the word “house” refers to a casino — at least originally. 

Although the phrase is fairly common and is understood by most adults, I think it is based on an entirely false understanding of what “house money” really is. The fact that this expression is used so frequently means that most people think of “house money” incorrectly.

Let’s say there’s a casino drawing and the winner receives $50,000 in cash. Lo and behold, this time you are the lucky winner! Congratulations! 

Now, after you’ve won the drawing, does the fifty grand belong to you or the casino? I think it belongs to you. Whatever your wealth/bankroll was before the drawing, it’s now $50,000 greater. 

If you’re a multimillionaire, the extra money is nice, but doesn’t change your fiscal priorities very much. If you are struggling financially, that much money can literally be life-changing.

Of those for whom the money is life-changing, it’s prudent to think twice on what you wish to do with these funds. Seeking advice from an advisor might be a good idea. 

There are tax considerations to this win. If you want to think of this as $35,000 after taxes, it’s probably smarter than thinking of it as $50,000. It’s easy to spend however much you have in front of you, but next April 15, Uncle Sam will still be waiting with his hand out. Not preparing for that is an expensive mistake.

It may well be that a new car is highest on your list of current needs, but just because you have $50,000 in your pocket doesn’t mean you need to get a vehicle with all the bells and whistles. This $50,000 windfall is usually a one-time event. Helping yourself solve two or three financial problems is usually better than just solving one.

Calling the windfall “house money” takes away from recognizing the importance of making the correct decision. It’s your money and you only have one life. Make the most of it!

I heard a funny story recently — supposedly true. It’s not exactly in line with what this column is about — but I have some extra space so here goes:

A famous poker player won a $1,000,000 prize at a tournament. He was asked what he was going to do with the money.

“Well, I have some people I owe money to. I’ll pay them off.”

“But what about the rest?”

“They’ll just have to wait.”