{"id":84528,"date":"2018-10-30T11:35:11","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T18:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/?p=84528"},"modified":"2018-10-30T11:35:11","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T18:35:11","slug":"how-do-you-approach-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/how-do-you-approach-it\/","title":{"rendered":"How Do You Approach It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m always on the lookout for non-video poker situations that I can turn into video poker teaching moments. It\u2019s the only way I can continue to produce a weekly column after all these years.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I mentioned in a recent column, Bonnie and I were cruising for three weeks and this happened while our ship was docked in Halifax, which is in Nova Scotia, Canada. Although on this evening, we could stay on shore until 6:30, we had enough fun much earlier than that and were sitting down to a dinner at Moderno, a restaurant on the ship. This is a Brazilian all-you-can eat steakhouse, where they keep bringing you about ten different kinds of meats until you\u2019ve had enough. <\/span><\/p>\n

First-time diners need some instruction about where the salad bar is, which meats are coming, and how you signal whether you want more food or are finished. Or perhaps not exactly finished but need to digest for a while before beginning again. It\u2019s not particularly difficult, but there are some \u201chouse rules\u201d so that everybody is on the same page.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our server was Rita from Indonesia. When she gave us the information, she spoke rapidly with a strong accent and some mispronunciations. Listening intently, I caught about one-third of what she was saying. Bonnie and I were among the earliest diners, and I saw and heard her repeat this performance at two nearby tables over the next half hour. What was interesting to me is that each of the three tables handled it differently. I found it easy to compare the approaches with video poker players I have observed.<\/span><\/p>\n

At one table, the woman berated her for not speaking better English and said that non-English-speaking immigrants created one of the biggest problems within the US these days and it made her very angry. Never mind that this happened in Canada on a ship with less than 10% of its employees from the United States. In addition, the Norwegian Dawn spent most of its time in International waters.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the next table, the people just nodded and then rose to go get their salads. It\u2019s unlikely these people understood everything Rita was saying because I saw the husband and wife looking at each other during Rita\u2019s dissertation with expressions that indicated utter confusion. But they weren\u2019t going to let that stop them. Time to eat!<\/span><\/p>\n

At our table, I asked Rita to slow down and repeat what she just said. After two additional iterations of this, I was pretty sure I understood what she was saying. Bonnie still appeared to be in the dark, but I indicated to her that we should go get salads and I\u2019d explain the rest while we were grazing on the lettuce and other vegetables. Which I did.<\/span><\/p>\n

Okay. So how does this relate to video poker? <\/span><\/p>\n

The table where the lady (rudely, in my opinion) berated Rita for not knowing better English reminded me of players who only know one game and when that game is not available any more get very angry about it. These people believe they deserve certain conditions and if the casinos remove those conditions, it\u2019s because the casinos are greedy bastards.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is definitely true that video poker conditions are less advantageous than they were several years ago. It is also true that opportunities still exist for the ones who can find and exploit them. If you are too busy complaining that things aren\u2019t just how you want them, you\u2019ll miss seeing the good deals that still exist.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the table where the couple was ready to figure it out as they went, this reminded of players who don\u2019t take the time to learn the ins and outs of the strategy and slot club before they begin. It\u2019s expensive to play that way. <\/span><\/p>\n

If video poker is a very minor part of your life and the sums you play for are minor to you, this methodology makes sense. It takes time and energy to become competent at this game and for many, it\u2019s just not worth it.<\/span><\/p>\n

It probably should also be noted that dining optimally at Moderno is much simpler than gambling optimally in a casino. So in this case, the \u201cfigure it out as we go\u201d approach might indeed have been perfectly acceptable, although it\u2019s not the approach I personally use. Perhaps this is because I think linearly and I\u2019m not as intuitive as some others are.<\/span><\/p>\n

It shouldn\u2019t surprise you that I prefer the way of gaining information Bonnie and I used. After all, if I didn\u2019t think it was best, I wouldn\u2019t have done it that way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our way was to gently ask questions until at least one of us understood and then help each other if one of us learned faster than the other. As it turned out, Bonnie caught something I missed and so we both learned some things over salad.<\/span><\/p>\n

The edges available in casinos are very small these days even for the most knowledgeable of players. If playing with an advantage is important to you, you must exploit every opportunity to figure out how to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

It can be argued that using the same approach at dinner that I use in a casino is a case of \u201cif your only tool is a hammer then everything looks like a nail,\u201d but we enjoyed the dinner, nonetheless.<\/span><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"youtube\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m always on the lookout for non-video poker situations that I can turn into video poker teaching moments. It\u2019s the only way I can continue to produce a weekly column after all these years. As I mentioned in a recent column, Bonnie and I were cruising for three weeks and this happened while our ship […]<\/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":[2,3],"tags":[428,196],"yoast_head":"\nHow Do You Approach It? - Gambling With An Edge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/how-do-you-approach-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How Do You Approach It? - Gambling With An Edge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I\u2019m always on the lookout for non-video poker situations that I can turn into video poker teaching moments. 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