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An Invisible Promotion

I recently wrote how I played during the $600,000 July Money Madness promotion at the South Point. To summarize, there were two progressives running at all times during the month. One between $10,000 and $25,000 — where, in addition to the one lucky winner, all players playing with a card inserted when it hit received $25 in free play. The second between $1,000 and $2,500 — where no additional money was given away to players playing when someone else hit the jackpot. Continue reading An Invisible Promotion

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Legal Musings: Communist Candyland

If you whack a game by hole-carding, the casino will stiff you and then get the DA to intimidate you. The DAs are happy to be the minions of the casino, and the casino no doubt refers to the entire DA’s office as “staff.” So the DA, who’s never heard of a hole card in his life, will come in and say, “Aha!” Then there will be a pause because he’s not sure what he’s aha-ing. Then, he will accuse you of cheating because you “used information not available to others at the table.” Continue reading Legal Musings: Communist Candyland

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How We Do It: Handling a ‘Random’ ID Request

Here’s the scenario: You’re walking around a casino floor (probably scouting games) when suddenly a security guard walks up to you and asks for ID. When faced with this situation recently, one rookie did the following: He produced his ID, left the casino shortly thereafter, went to the adjacent sister property the next day, then got backed off nearly immediately while scouting target games. Before getting into how horrendously bad this rookie’s situational response was, let me share with you a quick story (a more detailed version of which I can share someday if people want to hear it). Continue reading How We Do It: Handling a ‘Random’ ID Request

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Working a Promotion That’s Hard to Figure

This past July, the South Point ran a “$600,000 Money Madness” promotion for the second time in 2015. A very similar promotion was run once in 2014. It’s reasonable to predict that we will see this promotion again sometime down the road. They have the software to run this promotion, so they just might run it once or twice a year for the foreseeable future. Continue reading Working a Promotion That’s Hard to Figure

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A Change in Strategy

In July of this year, Gold Coast Casino in Las Vegas ran a “second royal in five days gets paid double” promotion. While that particular promotion inspired this article, that promotion had a particular set of rules that I’m not going to address.

The promotion I’m going to propose today doesn’t exist — it never has existed and may never exist. Still, when a good promotion is active, few pros want to discuss how to attack it. Consequently, it is sometimes best to discuss the attack strategy for a promotion “before” it gets announced. Continue reading A Change in Strategy

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Not as Close as you Think

I recently read that Colin Cowherd was leaving ESPN radio after being a personality there for 12 years. His morning show aired from 7 a.m. – 10 a.m. in Las Vegas. I’m not always up at that time, and I don’t always listen to the radio when I am, but I probably caught 5% or so of his broadcasts over the past few years. I enjoyed them.

Cowherd is not your typical sports radio host. He would often go off on tangents that were thought-provoking. Sometimes related to sports, but often not. Continue reading Not as Close as you Think

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Keeping the Story Straight

If your personal philosophy requires you to tell the truth 100% of the time, and anyone who doesn’t is going to hell, you’re not going to enjoy this article very much.

I married Bonnie, the widow of a career United States Air Force officer, in May of last year. Our planned European honeymoon needed to be scrapped because of a health issue for Bonnie which arose unexpectedly. This year we planned a make-up honeymoon consisting of four days in Paris, France followed by two weeks aboard the Norwegian Cruise Line Jade out of Venice, Italy. Continue reading Keeping the Story Straight

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An Instantaneous Professional

A version of this article was originally published in 2008. As I’ve progressed in my video poker knowledge and experience, I answer some questions differently. Therefore, I’ve changed several things in the article.

Not long ago I received the following email from someone I didn’t know:

Mr. Dancer:

I recently inherited some money. I’ve decided to set $50,000 aside as a bankroll so I can play video poker professionally. What games should I play? Please be specific. (signed) Lucky Heir
Continue reading An Instantaneous Professional