Bob Dancer responds.
There's no question as to whether or not video poker teams can be profitable. They can. If a game can be played with positive expectation by individuals, it can also be played for profit by a team. However, there are very few video poker teams these days-partly because of tax reasons. W2Gs (tax forms you get for $1,200+ jackpots) get awkward when the person hitting the jackpot isn't the one who will be paying the taxes. The IRS changed the way they treat this in the late '90s, and after that, video poker teams essentially dried up.
There are a relatively small number of pros who make a decent living playing the game-and by decent I mean regularly earning $50,000 or more annually-with the best ones earning several times that. But almost all of us are acting as individuals, not part of a team. There are thousands more players trying to earn this much and failing to do so. Many fall well short of breaking even.
Assuming you could find and associate with players skilled enough to be among the top players is a rather heroic assumption. It's possible, of course, but the best players are the best for a reason and have a combination of skills that are not easily duplicated. It would be difficult to assemble even a few of these players who were also willing to work as a team.
Editor's Note: For interesting insight into team play, check out the book The Secret World of Video Poker Progressives, written by Frank Kneeland, a former video poker team player and manager. Frank is also co-host, along with Bob Dancer, of "Gambling with an Edge", which airs Thursdays at 7 p.m. on KLAV 1230AM radio in Las Vegas or KLAV1230am.com anywhere.
