Perhaps twenty years ago, I attended a series of motivational lectures by Dr. William Kerley. Near the end of the last lecture, he spoke of the time when he was hired by Continental Airlines to give classes to their non-pilots on how to deal with pilots. To properly understand what pilots went through, he spent many hours in flight simulators for a variety of airplanes. (This happened before 9/11).
Kerley said he developed a great appreciation of how good airline pilots really had to be, but as in everything else, there were some of these pilots who barely got their license, some who were average, and some cream-of-the-crop pilots. Kerley said the pilots themselves categorized these groups as “drivers,” “pilots,” and “artists.”
The difference, said Kerley, was that an artist is committed to making a smooth landing every time; pilots try for them, but it’s not that big of a deal; drivers take them if they can get them.
It occurred to me that even video poker players who are actually looking for an edge (excluding ones who play purely for recreation) can be classified into these driver, pilot, and artist categories as well.
The top 10% or so of winning players will be the artists. My list of things that are required to be at the artist level won’t surprise you if you’ve read very much of my writing. It starts with selecting a game where you have the advantage and knowing the strategy for that game at a high level. If you are unsure of a small number of plays (certainly less than 1% of them if you’re an artist), you have the appropriate strategy with you and you consult it when necessary. You’re aware of slot clubs and promotions at all of the casinos in the area; you are physically fit enough to play as many hours as appropriate; and you are sober and alert enough to play at your best. It includes having sufficient bankroll (both financial and psychological) for the game you’re playing so that it’s not an issue.
If you’re a winning player and don’t meet the artist level, you’ll either be at the pilot level or the driver level. (If you’re not a winning player, you’re at the “flying without a license” level and not in today’s discussion. It’s not a trivial accomplishment to be a winning player — but today I’m ignoring less accomplished players.)
It doesn’t take much relaxation of any of the criteria in the preceding paragraph to fall to the pilot category; nor much more relaxing to fall lower still. Playing winning video poker is tough enough that most of us need to be giving it our best in order to succeed.
There’s a difference between being committed to playing at the artist level and being a perfectionist about it. Perfectionism (more of a disease than a quality to be admired) is the philosophy of “artist or bust”.
For example, although not found in as many places or for the same stakes as they used to be, I still play NSU Deuces Wild at the artist level. Using a W to indicate a wild card, it’s easy for me to distinguish between W 3♥ 4â™ 5â™ J♦ and W 3♥ 4â™ 5â™ Q♦ even though most players play either W’45’ both times or W by itself both times.
At the same time, distinguishing between K♦ Q♦ J♣ 8â™ 3♦ and K♦ Q♦ J♣ 8♣ 3♦ is not one I remember perfectly. When I was regularly playing it for relatively high stakes, I had this down pat. Now I play it less frequently and for lesser stakes, and I don’t spend as much time going over this minutia. I regularly toss both hands away. While this is a better play than holding ‘KQ’ in both cases (which is probably the play of most NSU players who are either drivers or pilots, or less, but it’s not perfectly accurate.)
By Kerley’s terminology, I aim to be an artist, but not a perfectionist. There’s a cost to becoming a perfectionist — both in terms of time/money and likely in relationships. People regularly advise “always do your best,” but that’s actually not very sound advice in most cases where you have many things competing for your time and energy.
It strikes me that this last paragraph is worthy of a column by itself, so I’ll try to put one together for next week.