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Playing for an Entry

I received an email from someone named Al asking about slot and video poker tournaments in which you have to play to earn an entry. He wanted to know, basically, whether or not it’s worth it to participate.

An example of this type of contest is the Thursday senior slot tournament at the South Point which has a prize pool of $5,200. If you are at least 50 years of age, you receive one free entry. Earning 250 or 500 points entitles you to one or two additional entries. Continue reading Playing for an Entry

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Holding All Five Cards

A friend of mine, I’ll call him “Dan,” was playing Ten Play Jacks or Better and was dealt AAAA7. Dan held only the four aces and hit the deal button. Since Jacks or Better is not a kicker game, he received 125 coins for each of the 10 lines. While this is a nice score, it pales in comparison to being dealt the same hand in Double Double Bonus, which Dan also sometimes plays. He noted that he received two kickers and, therefore, would have received (8 x 800) + (2 x 2,000) = 10,400 coins playing DDB rather than the “mere” 1,250 credits he received playing Jacks or Better. Dan didn’t hold the fifth card so that he could see how many “kickers” he would have received had he been playing Double Double Bonus. Apparently Dan has a small streak of masochism and wanted to know just how badly he should feel for NOT playing Double Double Bonus. Continue reading Holding All Five Cards

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There’s Something About Mary

Longtime readers of mine have read several dozen articles that at least mentioned my wife Shirley. Shirley and I are no longer married. We divorced five months ago, due primarily to her health. She has severe COPD (a lung disorder) and couldn’t be around anyone who had contact with first- or second-hand smoke. While I’m not a smoker, I spend a lot of time in casinos and even showering immediately after I came home wasn’t good enough. According to Shirley, my pores reeked of cigarette smoke. To stay with her, I would have needed to give up casinos entirely and move away from Las Vegas. Given my vocation, I found this to be a difficult dilemma. Even though I was extremely reluctant to do this, with all factors considered, it seemed best for both of us that we go our separate ways. Continue reading There’s Something About Mary

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My Best Plays

I’ve mentioned several times that I enjoy reading the posts at www.richardmunchkin.com. Richard is my co-host on our radio show, Gambling with an Edge, and also a friend. His insights come from his successful play on the table game side of the casino whereas mine come primarily from video poker. The similarities and differences in the way we think about things are definitely worthy of column-discussion.
Continue reading My Best Plays

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How Can A Lifetime Be So Short?

One of the things that separates Video Poker for Winners software from its competitors is the bankroll calculation module. (Each of the major video poker trainers has features the others don’t. Serious players often own two or three such trainers and use them for different purposes. Compared to the money you run through the machines, the price of each trainer is very small and the potential benefits very large.) Continue reading How Can A Lifetime Be So Short?

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The Endowment Effect in Video Poker

A few columns ago, I mentioned that I was reading Nobel Prize Winner Daniel Kahneman’s book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Although today’s column was inspired by that book, I’m extrapolating some of Kahneman’s arguments into areas that weren’t discussed in his writing. That is always risky business — especially since this is not my field of expertise. When I was studying Economics forty years ago, Kahneman wasn’t required reading. (Now he is, at least in some schools.) Nevertheless, let’s see what happens.
Continue reading The Endowment Effect in Video Poker