Bob Dancer – Page 28 – Las Vegas Advisor

Posted on July 14, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 4 Comments

Two Simple Applications of the Binomial Distribution

A month or so ago I answered the Question of the Day for the Las Vegas Advisor and I answered it in terms of the Binomial Distribution. There were some comments posted after that QOD indicating that people wanted to know more about it. This is a lightly edited version of a 2012 article that I published should be sufficient to respond to those questions.

I receive a lot of mail asking such questions as, “If I am dealt four cards to the royal flush (such as A♥ K♥ Q♥ T♥) and I am playing Fifty Play, how many royals will I usually end up getting?” or, “I played more than 200,000 hands of Jacks or Better and only received three royal flushes. How unlucky was this?”

Posted on July 7, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 1 Comment

Two Sucker Bets

“S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E!” sixty people shouted as my wife Bonnie entered her sister’s house. Her 75^th birthday party was off to a noisy beginning.

I sighed in relief. We had pulled it off. All the invitations and such had been sent out and responses received with Bonnie having no clue. I had ordered a cake from BabyCakes, the bakery within the M Resort, where I had a large number of comps.

Posted on June 30, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 7 Comments

Are You Still Up to Snuff?

In Las Vegas, there was a 70-day break for the pandemic, assuming you played in the casinos on March 17 and returned on June 4. If you socially distanced before March 17, or didn’t rush back as soon as the casinos reopened, the break was longer.

Certain casino venues elsewhere in the country opened earlier or later than June 4, but for now, let’s assume we all had a 2¼ -month break, minimum. It’s close enough for today’s purposes.

Posted on June 23, 2020 by Bob Dancer — 8 Comments

Finding my Spot

When I was nine years old, I was an All-Star baseball player. It wasn’t part of the official Little League system. Our city parks in Gardena, a suburb of Los Angeles, had a minor league, from 8-10 years of age, a major league, from 10-12, and a pony league, from 12-14.

At the start of the summer, I was 10 years old. I could have played in the minor leagues or the major leagues. Most of my friends were a bit older and didn’t have that choice. So, I went along with them and signed up to play in the majors.

Posted on June 9, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 7 Comments

Kipling Said It Best

In the middle of his famous poem “If,” Rudyard Kipling poses the condition, “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same.” At the end of the poem filled with twenty or so other conditions, comes the conclusion, “you’ll be a Man, my son.”

Although addressed to his son, this applies equally to daughters. The phrase is etched over the players’ entrance at Wimbledon’s Centre Court. I read it recently in a book by Maria Konnikova which I will review next week. This phrase was a very small part of the book, but it speaks to me as a video poker player as surely as it does to tennis players.

Posted on June 2, 2020September 18, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 11 Comments

Applying What I Know

I’ve been publishing and giving gambling advice for decades. Sometimes thinking like a gambler helps in areas far removed from gambling itself. Today I want to share such a case. (If you only want discussion of video poker, perhaps you should skip this week.)

Among other interests, I participate in Toastmasters, a group dedicated to helping you speak better. My reasons for this include being a better teacher, being a better interviewer on my podcast, practicing stories that I present in various locations, and even performing better in my Improv troupe. Insofar as following the “Pathways” programs and being awarded various designations by Toastmasters, I have no interest at all in that.

Posted on May 26, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 6 Comments

A Lesson from Daniel Negreanu

Masterclass.com is a marvelous collection of world authorities talking about what they know best. I am very impressed with their teachers. I had heard about a 2-for-1 sale they were offering in early April, so I signed up. Usually it’s $180 per year for full access to thousands of hours of instruction, but the recent sale allowed two people to sign up for the same $180. The combination of the sale and lots of extra time due to the stay-at-home rules was enough to seal the deal for me. I sent an email out to a number of people I thought might be interested in partnering with me on this, and several responded with interest. The ones I couldn’t use, I hooked up with each other.

My primary interests are writing, comedy, and games of skill — and they have several courses in each of those categories. I’ll eventually get to classes further down my list of interests, but the courses on cooking and interior decorating will probably never make the cut for me.

Posted on May 19, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — Leave a comment

A Look at 9-5 Triple Bonus Poker Plus — Part 3 of 3

Today I want to look at the advanced strategy features of 9/5 TBPP. Unlike the previous two weeks, I’m not comparing this game to another. I’m just listing exceptions to the intermediate rules.

I assume you’re generally familiar with penalty cards and the difference between ‘when’ and ‘with’ inside parenthesized exceptions. These are common for all the Dancer/Daily Winner’s Guides and strategy cards. If you’re not familiar with our notation, this might be tough going. It would take several thousand words to explain all the features of the notation, and that’s kind of tough for 800-word columns.

Posted on May 12, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 4 Comments

A Look at 9-5 Triple Bonus Poker Plus — Part 2 of 3

Today I want to look at some of the interesting features of 9/5 TBPP at the intermediate level. If you’re not comfortable at this level, you probably should review last week’s column before you dig into this one.

I’m not going to print a strategy here. If you have Video Poker for Winners software, you can get a strategy there. If not, www.wizardofodds.com/games/video-poker/strategy/calculator/ provides an accurate strategy free of charge. I’m not crazy about the format of the WOO strategy, but when you start with free and accurate, it’s probably unfair to be too nitpicky.

Posted on May 5, 2020August 24, 2023 by Bob Dancer — 14 Comments

A Look at 9-5 Triple Bonus Poker Plus — Part 1 of 3

This game returns a robust 99.80% with perfect play, is found in a number of Las Vegas casinos, and for some reason I have neither taught nor written much about the game. That is about to change.

Today I’ll discuss the basics of the game. Next week I’ll talk about some Intermediate-Level peculiarities to the game. And in two weeks I’ll discuss some of the advanced penalty card situations.

	1 coin	5 coins

Royal Flush	250	4,000
Straight Flush	100	500
Four Aces	240	1,200
Four 2s thru 4s	120	600
Four 5s thru Ks	50	250
Full House	9	45
Flush	5	25
Straight	4	20
Three of a Kind	3	15
Two Pair	1	5
Jacks or Better	1	5

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