Once again, we turned to Jean Scott, author of Frugal Video Poker, for this answer.
This is a question Bob Dancer, many other gambling writers, and I face all the time. Bob has said that everyone wants all the help they can get while they're learning to play video poker skillfully, but when they become skilled, they want all the experts to stop giving out good information, so casino executives won't get any more educated about the VP scene and there won't be so many new skillful players fighting to get the dwindling number of good machines.
Regular gamblers, however, often stand on the other side of this question. They feel that if more players become educated about good video poker schedules, they'll abandon the casinos that take out the good machines and frequent other places that have better selections. This competition among casinos, therefore, often puts pressure on casinos to offer better VP paytables.
We've seen this happen here in Las Vegas for the last few years. Several casinos have taken out most or all of their best games. Then, after a few months or a couple of years, they put them back, sometimes with even better schedules than they had before. Though they don't come right out and say it, it's obvious that they lost enough of their core video poker players that they felt they had to rectify what they now see as a failed effort to increase business, raise profits, get rid of the knowledgeable players, or whatever the reason that they originally removed the good machines.
Your question has been debated for a long long time and will continue to be so for many years to come. I doubt that there will ever be an answer that satisfies every video poker player.
