{"id":119883,"date":"2019-08-13T14:09:35","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T21:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/?p=119883"},"modified":"2019-08-13T14:29:29","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T21:29:29","slug":"how-often-do-you-test-yourself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/how-often-do-you-test-yourself\/","title":{"rendered":"How Often Do You Test Yourself?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I was recently reading Colin Jones\u2019 new book, <\/span>The 21<\/span><\/i>st<\/span><\/i> Century Card Counter<\/span><\/i><\/a>, preparing to interview him for the <\/span>GWAE<\/span><\/i> podcast. Colin has been on the show a number of times and runs the Blackjack Apprentice Group which teaches players how to win at blackjack.<\/span><\/p>\n

When referring to while he was running a blackjack team, he wrote: \u201cWe settled on having our players test out one another every month and requiring that management test them out every three months. What we discovered is that it\u2019s easy to let your game slide over time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bingo! If I ran a video poker team (probably never going to happen!), that sounds like a policy I\u2019d implement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I suspect very few video poker players test themselves very often. Maybe at the beginning when they first are starting out, but how about later? If you\u2019ve been playing NSU (for example) for two years, and you haven\u2019t tested yourself recently, you\u2019re probably making quite a few errors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Video poker is arguably more difficult than blackjack. Learning <\/span>one<\/span><\/i> video poker variation (say, Jacks or Better) is certainly easier than counting cards proficiently, but learning Jacks or Better, Double Bonus, Double Double Bonus, Super Double Bonus, Deuces Wild, Super Bonus Deuces Wild, etc., etc. is more difficult.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are players who only play one game, of course. If that works for them, fine. But if you play at several casinos, and you want to play the best game at each, you\u2019re going to have to learn several games. Sometimes that includes the same game with different pay schedules.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Blackjack, there are adjustments when you switch from a game where the dealer hits soft 17 to a game where he doesn\u2019t, but those adjustments are few. In video poker, when you switch from Double Bonus to Double Bonus Deuces Wild, there\u2019s a <\/span>huge<\/span><\/i> difference in the way the games are played.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, assume you\u2019ve been playing Double Bonus almost exclusively for several months, and for whatever reason, that game dries up and now you\u2019re looking at Double Bonus Deuces Wild. Assume you played the latter game reasonably correctly a year ago, but not since. How do you get yourself ready?<\/span><\/p>\n

This might not work for everybody, but this is the way I would handle such a situation (and variations of this situation have occurred more than a thousand times over my career).<\/span><\/p>\n

First, I consult my strategy sheet. Every advanced strategy I\u2019ve ever created is in a computer folder. I find the right one and go over it line by line.<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, I put the game into <\/span>WinPoker<\/span><\/i> and use the \u201cHard Hands\u201d feature, where I have it deal all hands when the first and second plays are closer than 2\u00a2. And then 1\u00a2. And then smaller than that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I set <\/span>WinPoker<\/span><\/i> to \u201cshow\u201d rather than \u201cwarn.\u201d Where the <\/span>W<\/i><\/b> indicates a deuce, on a hand like <\/span>W<\/i><\/b> A\u2660 3\u2660 <\/span>K\u2665 8\u2665<\/span>, I don\u2019t need practice pressing the buttons. I just need to know whether the correct answer is the deuce by itself, the deuce and the ace, or perhaps something else. So, I call out (sometimes out loud, sometimes silently) what I believe is the correct answer (the deuce by itself in this case) and hit the button to see if I\u2019m correct. If not, I look up why not. If my strategy doesn\u2019t differentiate this case from <\/span>W<\/i><\/b> A\u2660 4\u2660 <\/span>K\u2665 8\u2665<\/span>, where the correct play is <\/span>W<\/i><\/b> A\u2660, I either adjust my strategy or make a determination that this is too petty to worry about.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After I do this, I switch to <\/span>Video Poker for Winners<\/span><\/i> and test myself on both the Advanced level and the Intermediate level, as they deal according to different criteria. Sometimes this will identify hands I was misplaying where the difference between the best and second-best play was too large to be found by using the <\/span>WinPoker<\/span><\/i> Hard Hands technique.<\/span><\/p>\n

If it\u2019s a game where there is a Dancer\/Daily <\/span>Winner\u2019s Guide<\/span><\/i>, I take the tests found there. I helped write those about 20 years ago, but my memory is imperfect.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes I go to the Wizard of Odds video poker strategy calculator and look at the exceptions to the basic strategy. That program uses a very different notation than what I am used to but forcing my brain to look at this from both his notation and mine gets my head \u201cinto the game.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At this stage in my career, this takes me maybe an hour or two to accomplish. When I was less experienced, it took me much longer — because sometimes it was the first time I played a game and I needed to create an advanced strategy using various tools.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After I\u2019ve done these things, it is now time to go into the casino. And if I must change games again in the near future, I do this all again. There are a few games,\u00a0 like 9\/6 Jacks or Better, that I have down pat because 1) I\u2019ve been playing it professionally for 25 years, 2) it\u2019s the easiest game to play perfectly, and 3) I\u2019ve taught a class in it more than 100 times.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are other games, like NSU Deuces Wild, for which I go through this procedure about once a year. Simply put, even though I\u2019ve been playing it for 20 years and have gone through this exercise dozens of times, it\u2019s a much more difficult game than Jacks or Better. Since it\u2019s easier to make mistakes, I review it more often. It\u2019s not like I\u2019ll ever forget it below the 99.9% accuracy level, but I prefer to know the game better than that.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How long it takes you to go through this process depends on you. How much experience do you have? How willing are you to ignore minor errors? How important is winning to you? How good is your memory? And a whole bunch of other things.<\/span><\/p>\n

I strongly believe, however, that if you don\u2019t do some version of this regimen on a regular basis, you\u2019re playing at a lesser level than you think you are.<\/span><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"youtube\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was recently reading Colin Jones\u2019 new book, The 21st Century Card Counter, preparing to interview him for the GWAE podcast. Colin has been on the show a number of times and runs the Blackjack Apprentice Group which teaches players how to win at blackjack. When referring to while he was running a blackjack team, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[29,2],"tags":[54,428,917,1948,196],"yoast_head":"\nHow Often Do You Test Yourself?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I suspect very few video poker players test themselves very often. 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