There are a number of aspects to being a successful video poker player. Let’s list
the major ones:
1. Know how to play the game(s) competently.
2. Play the game(s) without making unnecessary errors. What I mean is that you’re
able to concentrate and translate what you know into how you play.
3. Obtain and keep the necessary bankroll to survive the swings.
4. Be able to evaluate slot clubs and promotions.
5. Have the discipline to avoid games where you do not have the edge.
6. Have the emotional fortitude to put up with the swings.
7. Be willing to put in the necessary hours for this to work. Video poker is a grind-it-
out affair.
8. Be able to find additional places to play when one or more of your current plays
disappear. This “disappearance” can be that you lost your welcome, the game
was removed, the slot club or promotion which made it a good game is no longer
in effect, along with several other possibilities. If this hasn’t happened to you,
you’re either not very successful or you’re very new at the game.
Okay. If you follow these guidelines, you’ll succeed long term. Most likely. I can’t
guarantee that. It is possible to do everything right and run bad over an extended period
of time. But for most people, the above guidelines work.
So, which of these seven guidelines is most important? In my opinion, keeping
yourself in the money is most important.
Part of this is knowing about bankroll requirements for given plays and avoiding
those that could bankrupt you. “Getting lucky at the right time” can be a part of getting a
bankroll, I suppose, but if you don’t have money management skills, it’s difficult to hang
on to a bankroll.
Over the years, I’ve received a number of emails saying essentially, “I’d like you to
bankroll me. If you believe in what you preach, this should be an easy decision for you.”
And it is an easy decision for me. The answer is always “No” unless I know the
person really well and have a basis for believing in him/her. A stranger who solicits
money via email? They have no more chance for me to send them money than that
prince in Nigeria.
Even those who assure me, “I’ve succeeded at virtually everything I’ve done.
Surely, I’ll succeed in this too. I just need a bankroll to start with.” If they’ve succeeded
at everything, why don’t they have a bankroll? Obtaining money isn’t that difficult for
successful people. It’s “simply” a matter of spending less than you make. (There can be
extenuating circumstances, but I’d have to know a person pretty well and believe their
money problems are a thing of the past to be willing to make a bet on them.)
Most people who don’t have a bankroll have financial leaks in their life. If you’re
trying to save a bankroll for gambling, then tobacco, alcohol, recreational drugs, and
other expensive hobbies (Perhaps skiing? Vacations? Jewelry? New cars?) should be
off the table — or at least very limited. If you have your bankroll issues handled and
want to spend your money on whatever you like, knock yourself out.
Bob, that’s an excellent list of 8 things one needs to be a successful video poker player. But I don’t see how you can pick one of them as “most important”.
For example, if you fail #8, the ability to find a new play, does it matter that your bankroll is sufficient? If you can’t find a new play, you’re done. What about #4? If you can’t evaluate the slot club/promotion, how do you even know what to play? Or #5? If you can’t resist bad games, does it matter if you have enough bankroll to survive swings on the good games?
I really like the list, but so many of the items are absolutely crucial that IMO there is no single “most important” one.
It blows my mind that anyone would ask to be staked like that, when you don’t know them at all. Why would anyont trust anyone to do anything without some proof of your work, or someone vouching for you, or something like that?
Would you blindly trust someone to fix your car? To do surgery on you? Or even something more minor like doing your gardening work? I’d say no to all those.
Your list applies to other forms of advantage play as well. Further, I would say it is good business practice and common sense applied to positive expectation gambling.
I see it as similar to the nine steps of “Your Money or Your Life”.
I would add the following:
9. Have the wisdom and care to not play, or to stop playing, when you are (or become) not physically, mentally and emotionally fit to play. That includes being/becoming fatigued/sleepy, being angry, being/becoming sick or otherwise preoccupied or distracted or compromised such that you can’t pay 100% attention and play 100% well.
10. Do not play too fast. We need to have a big enough fraction of a second to verify that the machine has held exactly all the cards that we want to hold from the deal, before we hit the Draw button. It is too easy to hit/slap a Hold button but the machine does not register our hit and thus doesn’t hold the card we wanted to hold. This can only cost us money in the long run. And I read of a case in which someone did not get their royal because of a “failed” hold.
11. Quit while you’re ahead. Outside of getting big hits like royals and Aces-with-a-kicker, most sessions are expected to be losing ones. We may show a profit over a short period of time from getting lots of little hits or some quad, but those will not happen continuously; they will eventually be cut up by losing-type stretches in which the credits go down and down. All machines do this. So if we’ve gotten a profit from a machine, stop playing on it and pocket the profit. Either quit for the day or move to another machine.
Number 11 is nonsense. The casino doesn’t “quit while ahead.” As long as we have the edge and nothing is interfering with our plays, the whole notion of quiting while ahead is ridiculous. The only reason I can see this being viable is on table games in certain situations where huge wins might bring major heat.
Most important is playing 100%+ opportunities exclusively.
Speed actually was an important consideration. Back in the day when Key Largo/ AZ Charlies paid minimum of .75(3X) cash back on play thru on 101% machines daily and $25 dollar bonus on $1075 on royals but no 1099. I flew into town one time at 4am to get a machine to take advantage of a 7x cash back bonus. Played the whole 24 hours 🙂 Results were luck and wow. Just ask Dominck if you know him.
I don’t ask people to pay me to play drums in their band. We become friends, play music, and pay each other fairly. Who booked the gig? Who has travel expenses? Who paid the tab?
I know I’ve put in the practice. Mathematically, intuitively, and luckily I’ve hit some great hands. I can deal with my mistakes because I know they were mistakes, therefore I seek the truth. Point out my errors, weaknesses, or complete ignorance and the next studio take will be there. Find the pocket and live there as if you’re holding the band up gently on a sofa.
I anticipated that the key “critical success factor” identified for video poker would be discipline. While specifically identified in one of the enumerated “aspects” above, it’s an overarching principal that’s key to each aspect listed.
As a player, it’s a challenge to heed these aspects day to day. But it takes a particular commitment (discipline) to make them the driving force in every single play decision, no matter what “distractions” present themselves (and the casinos excel in presenting such distractions).
As an aside, I’d make a modest correction to #5 to revise the wording to “where you do not have a sufficient edge”. Every definition of bankroll requirement entails a given edge (factoring in promotion return). A given game/edge combo may be too risky on a bankroll of 4000 bets (5 RF), very comfortable on 8000 bets, and pose little risk on 20000 bets.
Most informed recreational players tend to “Goldilock” plays (“this one’s too hot/this one’s just right”), and that can serve their needs reasonably well. But I’ve seen the occasional player tackle a strong, but riskier play at a higher than usual denom, enjoy an early hot streak, and then commit an ultimately uncomfortable portion of their bankroll to a “very positive play”, unaware of just how strong the downside risk might be. (Of course, once burned by “player’s remorse”, they’re likely to be “twice shy” at next opportunity.)
I like item 3, and it makes an excellent segue to Mike Shackleford’s table for “chance of survival” given three parameters: bankroll, return, and variance.
The table can be found by searching for “video poker risk of ruin.” Notice how high the figures are! For instance, there is a 1-in-100 chance of losing everything on Jacks or Better when played with a 1/2% advantage with a bankroll of nine–nine!–royals. Many professionals (like the pros Bob discusses in his earlier article on plays at the DG) tolerate a chance of failure of no more than 1 in 10,000, or 0.01%…that’s more than seventeen(!) royals for the game discussed there, assuming no “extras.”
Now that I think about it some, I think the most important rule would be:
*Don’t quit your dayjob and move to Vegas
Of course everybody violates that rule as soon as they get lucky and hit something and get a grubstake. So I guess plan B is:
*Don’t try to live off gambling, just try to grow your bankroll or at least maintain it, if you can do that much consider yourself lucky (think Kelly system, which has zero risk of ruin)
Then, if you survive, when your eyesight or sanity finally gives out and you’re forced to retire forever from gambling, maybe what’s left of your bankroll can be used for non-gambling purposes in retirement.
Still a beginner. This is great advice.