I bought Rob Singer's book

So, I bought a copy of Rob Singer’s book, “The Undeniable Truth About Video Poker,” it was only a dollar on abebooks.com and I figured I’d have a look.

I do some teaching, and it’s nice to have archetypes for various concepts. This book may be one. It’s a beautiful example of anti-intellectualism. We’re all equal, and I don’t understand math, so someone who does can’t be any better than me, so math is useless. It’s a popular sentiment; one hundred years ago, William Jennings Bryan was making a name for himself by “giving the people what they want,” including the notion of deciding scientific questions (like the validity of evolution) by popular opinion. The technical name for this is IPO (Ignorant and Proud Of it). Singer’s assertions must be music to many people’s ears. Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

1. The math may be correct for a computer, but not in the real world of the casino.
2. The experts who espouse correct play are actually losers in the casino and are making their money by selling snake oil to the public.
3. Singer has made lots of money by playing incorrectly, for example throwing away high cards because he felt like it and getting royals on the redraw, so the mathematically correct strategies must be wrong.
4. If you lose on one machine, you should either move to a higher denomination to recoup your losses, or maybe to a machine with higher quad pays (BP to DB, for example).
5. You can consistently make money by playing a machine, cashing out as soon as you have a small profit, then moving to another machine and starting over.
6. Above all, you should do what you feel like doing, nothing more and nothing less.

I think you made a good decision to not post this on the free side.

People may want to hang you if you say anything good about him.

I also own Singer's book but I did not buy it. I ended up getting sent it by the Gambler's Book Shop when I answered the questions that they posed during a podcast for the American Casino Guide website a while ago. They said that I would be sent a book of their choice and Singer's book ended up being it (although I do wonder if that was because they ended up publishing his book).

Anyway, I can not say that I am happy with the book because what Singer is doing is a form of Martingale which can fail and people can be out a lot of money if they don't end up hitting something big in time as well as dealing with changing variances of the games that would be needed to switch around with depending on where a player is standing financially.

RecVPPlayer

I didn't think I was.

Anyway, you're right, Rec, his basic notion is that you can make money by quitting with small wins and moving to a different machine, which makes no sense since that's mathematically the same as playing the same machine after a few minutes' hiatus (or a few seconds; the whole notion of a "session" is arbitrary anyway). Then there's the scary Martingale stuff, just keep moving up to higher denominations until you win it all back. What if you get to the $100 machines (as he says he has) and get four losers in a row, which happens all the time? That's down $2000.

Personally, it's the whole anti-intellectual stuff that gets under my skin, the notion that the people who have done all the work and all the studying are fools because he has a better, more fun way.

So how many times does he bash Dancer and Anthony in it?

He doesn't mention anybody by name, but does talk about taking a class with one of the "so-called experts," so you know who that is.

I think he is pretty universally acknowledged by anyone who knows anything as a DB.