All sorts of comments get posted to www.gamblingwithanedge.com concerning the various blogs or podcasts posted there — including mine. The following comment was posted a week and a half after the original came out, and I assume most of the readers had already moved along to later posts. Still, it occurred to me that I have something to say about the post, so I’ll do it here.
Bob…have enjoyed your blogs and books throughout the years. At 75 I’d be thinking you’ve won enough and banked enough to try something less stressful. Like square dancing . . . or if that’s too much maybe fishing!
I’m glad you’ve enjoyed my writing. I’ve always attracted some mix of fans and detractors. It seems to be my lot in life. While I won’t actually be 75 years old until mid-February, I’ve been announcing “almost 75” for a month or two now. And yes, I’m pretty much financially set so I’m not out there gambling for my monthly rent. So why do I do it?
The part of the post that didn’t ring true was the implication that staying away from gambling would be less stressful for me, and that would be a good thing. I’m going to quibble with both halves of that implication.
Paraphrasing an old expression, I believe that stress is the mind of the beholder. A losing streak is stressful, to be sure, but different people experience that stress in different ways, measured by such things as heart rate, brain waves, skin conductance, etc. (I’m no expert on this. Google is a writer’s friend!)
Although I don’t have scientific data to back this up, I believe I am somebody who experiences less stress due to normal wins and losses at gambling than many other people do. I’ve been gambling for more than 50 years. I know I have the long-term advantage. I know there will be ups and downs along the way. And the fact that today has been down so far (or up so far) is just one more data point. It will all work out. And if I have a down year or three, my financial well-being isn’t threatened. So why stress?
A little stress comes through, of course. A royal flush feels good. Losing half a royal flush in two hours doesn’t. But we need certain amounts of stress. Living in a vegetative state is not my idea of bliss. It’s more like hell!
A key part of my decision to play video poker, stress aside, is that I still enjoy the activity. Planning my work and working my plan accurately gives me pleasure and a feeling of accomplishment. If and when that changes, I’ll try something else. But right now, such a change is not on my visible horizon.
During the pandemic when I didn’t get out so much, I read more to keep my mind active. I joined Zoom groups of various types to try to get better at a variety of things. I told stories across the country via Zoom, which was a totally different desirable form of stress for me. I joined some online writing groups to improve my skills in that area. Keeping my mind active is a key part to my enjoyment in life. Netflix and Grub Hub were not key parts of pandemic survival for me.
In the question to me, square dancing was mentioned. Bonnie and I have enjoyed square dancing for years, that’s the venue through which we met, and for the last several have participated in what they call “Advanced” square dancing. We had a tough time getting enough people together regularly for that before the pandemic in Las Vegas, and it’s been impossible since.
They have other levels of square dancing locally, but it’s become political. The most active participants here are loud anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers. Many of the dances devolve into shouting matches where nobody is listening to anybody else. That doesn’t strike Bonnie and me as a pleasant way to spend an evening, so we stay away. Whether I agree or disagree with your political view, dancing should be an escape from that sort of discussion. If I want to argue about that, there are numerous forums available where I can do that as much as I like — from whatever political point of view I like. There are other forms of dancing we enjoy and participate in, but right now, square dancing is not one of them.
Insofar as fishing goes, that’s never appealed to me. A number of people really enjoy this hobby, and more power to them. There are umpteen thousands of possible hobbies that hold no interest for me, and fishing is just another one on that list.
I’m going to “split hairs” as a tool for a minor corrective piece of constructive feedback. “Stress” is not the same thing as “tension”. Tension is the phenomenon that occurs in the kinds of situations that are “testing” or “trying” to us. (Some situations are actually just excitement, not truly tension at all.) When tension begins, we try to deal with it. Much of the time, maybe most of the time, we overcome or get through the difficult situation, and then the tension goes away. But if we can’t defeat the negative force in the situation, and it overwhelms us, then psychological damage is done, and that damage is called “stress”. And it’s that stress that turns around and does other damage, such as high blood pressure and maybe even a heart attack. We should try to avoid tension if we can (though we can’t avoid all tension) in order to reduce the chance of stress occurring. Mere tension, meaning the vibe that puts us in a test or requires our acute involvement, can be good for us. But stress is not good and should be avoided as much as possible.
I want to give a caution about the sentence “It will all work out.” It has all worked out for Bob D. and for many, maybe most, other VP players who use correct strategy in breakeven or advantage play (even if it’s just the accepted basic strategy instead of the more-complicated “perfect” strategy). What I’m concerned about is the predictable reaction on the part of anybody that it’s a fact that if they do similarly, they are guaranteed to break even or win in the long run. While that may occur for most such people, it will not occur for everybody, but rather, the results will map out like a bell curve. At one “tip” or “brim” of the bell are a few players who played good games with correct strategy, but lost their shirt. Famously, many years ago in Casino Player magazine (unless it was Strictly Slots), an article appeared in which the author stated that he had played full-pay Joker Wild (100.65% EV) with correct strategy for a long time but was $5,000 in the hole. At the other tip or brim of the bell are a few players who don’t learn correct strategy but get either Aces-with-kicker or Royals more often than they should and thus are well into the black because of pure luck. The fact of the matter is, even if we play perfect strategy, that will not force any machine to give us the card we need to hit the biggie jackpot as often as the average says. There simply is no guarantee of hitting the statistical norm; we might get a worse result in the long run.
There are always those who refute common sense – they are the ones who built and sustain Vegas.
“The most active participants here are loud anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers. Many of the dances devolve into shouting matches where nobody is listening to anybody else. That doesn’t strike Bonnie and me as a pleasant way to spend an evening, so we stay away.”
I bet those antivaxxers or antimaskers didn’t care whether you were vaxxed or wearing a mask, they just didn’t think you should care or control whether they were vaxxed or whether they wanted to wear a mask. Last time I looked this was still the land of the free. Apparently many people don’t.
Nick,
I am free to fart in an elevator when I am riding with strangers. Fortunately for you, I choose not to.
When you win everyday like the Pope of Las Vegas it’s never stressful.
Many years ago I was going through way too many Tums at work due to the stress of the job. It occurred to me one day that ‘stress’ was nothing more than my reaction to pressure, in that case from both internal and external expectations. I decided that I had a choice in how I was going to react, and allowing myself to stress was actually counter-productive. I learned that if I knew I was putting in the effort I should, I could face the results, and I no longer had a need for those Tums.
As for how that relates, Bob explained well why he doesn’t stress over playing. And by extension, the professional gambler who can’t manage the pressure of the expected ups and downs is probably in the wrong profession. For me it is quite different – I know how big my entertainment bankroll is and don’t exceed that, so never a need to stress over gambling. Disappointment? Sure, but if I’m ever stressed over my losses, a simple analysis would likely tell me I was betting way too much or chasing way too many flushes.
Do not forget video poker is a thinking game. You think and act on hands. You think. It keeps the syntax active. It is similar to puzzle s. Tasks like this have been shown to reduce dementia. Square dancing would be good vascular exercise but no brain exercise. I disagree with the stress issue. BP can be stress relieving. I don’t think many play for profit just fun. I am 79 and still play for fun. Play mainly in tunica Ms. gives me something to do. I also practice the strategy software. I think all this does help preserve brain function.
Let me throw in my comment regarding this subject. No 1: Full Pay Videopoker according the software and according the player’s knowledge are 2 pairs of shoes. It’s easy to sit down on a good game and put yourself in belief as if you control the game and because the game is 100% or higher you’re supposed to win. Not true.
From my eperience, I noticed that my rate of mistakes go up the longer I play. Sometimes a mistake may be to the better outcome of a hand as if you would have played it perfectly. Still, I would not be proud of. On the other hand, if you play deuces wild on auto-pilot and after 2 hours in play or so you miss a deuce while you order up your cocktail at the same time and press the draw button too soon, then this is a major mistake. Not proud of the fact that it happened to me several times over the years….
Minor mistakes also happen and sometimes the mind is wandering so you don’t even realize that you actually made a mistake. You overlook the 2nd little pair because the board looks 3-8-A-A-3 or so and you just hold 1 pair instead of two (except the Aces bonuses games), and this may happen 1-2x per hour, and all over sudden you’re not playing a break even game any longer but rather a 99% game. If you are under royaled for a certain period, then a 5000 Dollar loss or more is a likely scenario, even when playing only for quarters.
From that point of view I think that there are more “very good” players around with a slight disadvantage caused by their hour error rate than 100 per cent players. And if you ask those advantage players if they believe that you can be losing for 10 yers in a row or so, I bet they will come out laughing….
From Switzerland
Boris
Dear bob please help i found a triple play 9/5 jacks or better game with a SF paying 300 coins and a Four of a kind paying 500 coins my problem is figuring out the pay schedule which needs 6 coins per line 18 coins max for the bonuses can u please help THANKS RUNNERBOBB A LONG TIME FOLLOWER