Today I want to blog about a subject that presented itself to me in the “Comment” section a few weeks ago. I did not “approve” this comment – and thus it didn’t go public – because it was much too long, and much of the ranting and raving would not help others. (Keep your comments pretty short, don’t insult personalities, and try to give information that might help other players.) However I do want to address some of the points in this except from his longer post, highly edited with some details redacted:
Your success rate has been much, much higher than that of the vast majority of players (myself included) over the past couple of decades, and as a result, you can afford to dump in the massive amounts of coin-in needed to get anything more than a complimentary doughnut. I assume that since XXX casinos have absolutely no good video poker anywhere across the breadth and length of this great land, that you have figured out a way to make it profitable to play there nonetheless. One of these days, you’ll have to detail for us just how you’ve managed to make that work. The absolute best game you’ll ever find at a XXX property is 9/6 JOB (at very high stakes), and I’m truly curious as to how you squeeze a full 1/2 percent in extras out to make the play worthwhile.
Other people have raised some of the same issues as the poster above so I think they deserve a discussion.
First, Brad and I have had a higher success rate down through the years than many other knowledgeable players because we have always looked for a bigger advantage than many require. A play with a .1-.2% advantage is a positive play but one might not live long enough to get to the long term and achieve that positive result. That is the reason we don’t play as much as we used to. We can’t find many plays with a bigger advantage. We do some small lower-denomination plays with a lower edge than we would have done in the past – and that shows up in our records: more losing streaks and lower profits. 🙁
Another reason for our success is that we never used gambling profits for “living expenses” – we either had a job or, in later years, retirement savings. We have always lived quite frugally so when we hit a jackpot we didn’t think about how we could “spend” the money for some luxury item. We kept plowing our profits back into our bankroll and this allowed us to go up in denomination where the profits would be even bigger.
Second, people are always talking about “no good games in that casino.” We don’t waste our time looking for 100% EV games; there are few anywhere. We are looking for good plays. That means looking for not-quite-so-good games and then piling on the extras – players club benefits, promotions, bounce-back, and anything that will add value to the EV of the game. And how do we find some of those almost-good games so it isn’t so hard to bump up the value with the extras? We scour the information in vpFREE2. Have you ever studied it casino by casino? You might find some of the hidden gems we play.
Third, I have written three books and more articles than I can number – thousands? – “detail(ing) for us just how you’ve managed to make that work.” I can’t reveal every specific detail at every casino where I have played because some extras depend on long-term relationships with casino employees, play levels higher than for the average player, extra knowledge learned by many years of experience, and the personality, circumstances, and goals that differ for each player. However, I really don’t have that many video poker “secrets.” It’s mostly spelled out pretty clearly in my writings – and in much detail – for anyone to study and use. It’s up to you how far you want to run with this information.
Response to your Comments
Today I want to blog about a subject that presented itself to me in the “Comment” section a few weeks ago. I did not “approve” this comment – and thus it didn’t go public – because it was much too long, and much of the ranting and raving would not help others. (Keep your comments pretty short, don’t insult personalities, and try to give information that might help other players.) However I do want to address some of the points in this except from his longer post, highly edited with some details redacted:
Your success rate has been much, much higher than that of the vast majority of players (myself included) over the past couple of decades, and as a result, you can afford to dump in the massive amounts of coin-in needed to get anything more than a complimentary doughnut. I assume that since XXX casinos have absolutely no good video poker anywhere across the breadth and length of this great land, that you have figured out a way to make it profitable to play there nonetheless. One of these days, you’ll have to detail for us just how you’ve managed to make that work. The absolute best game you’ll ever find at a XXX property is 9/6 JOB (at very high stakes), and I’m truly curious as to how you squeeze a full 1/2 percent in extras out to make the play worthwhile.
Other people have raised some of the same issues as the poster above so I think they deserve a discussion.
First, Brad and I have had a higher success rate down through the years than many other knowledgeable players because we have always looked for a bigger advantage than many require. A play with a .1-.2% advantage is a positive play but one might not live long enough to get to the long term and achieve that positive result. That is the reason we don’t play as much as we used to. We can’t find many plays with a bigger advantage. We do some small lower-denomination plays with a lower edge than we would have done in the past – and that shows up in our records: more losing streaks and lower profits. 🙁
Another reason for our success is that we never used gambling profits for “living expenses” – we either had a job or, in later years, retirement savings. We have always lived quite frugally so when we hit a jackpot we didn’t think about how we could “spend” the money for some luxury item. We kept plowing our profits back into our bankroll and this allowed us to go up in denomination where the profits would be even bigger.
Second, people are always talking about “no good games in that casino.” We don’t waste our time looking for 100% EV games; there are few anywhere. We are looking for good plays. That means looking for not-quite-so-good games and then piling on the extras – players club benefits, promotions, bounce-back, and anything that will add value to the EV of the game. And how do we find some of those almost-good games so it isn’t so hard to bump up the value with the extras? We scour the information in vpFREE2. Have you ever studied it casino by casino? You might find some of the hidden gems we play.
Third, I have written three books and more articles than I can number – thousands? – “detail(ing) for us just how you’ve managed to make that work.” I can’t reveal every specific detail at every casino where I have played because some extras depend on long-term relationships with casino employees, play levels higher than for the average player, extra knowledge learned by many years of experience, and the personality, circumstances, and goals that differ for each player. However, I really don’t have that many video poker “secrets.” It’s mostly spelled out pretty clearly in my writings – and in much detail – for anyone to study and use. It’s up to you how far you want to run with this information.