Category: Video Poker

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Traveling Through the Canadian Rockies — Part II of II

This is a non-gambling trip report begun last week. Bonnie and I spent a week traveling in Western Canada. We decided that we’re both getting older, maybe we won’t be able to travel in five years, so let’s go out and have some fun. This is the first trip under that program. We had a Panama Canal trip scheduled, but that was cancelled due to the pandemic. We’ll probably do that one next.

We spent 36 hours in Jasper, which is in the Jasper National Park. The only excursion scheduled by our travel agent was a 2-hour motorcycle sidecar trip. This was definitely NOT on my bucket list of things I wanted to do, but it turned out to be one of the best parts of the trip. Our driver/guide was driving a Harley-Davidson with an attached sidecar. Bonnie and I took turns sitting in the sidecar and sitting behind the driver.

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Traveling Through the Canadian Rockies — Part I of II

In a recent column, I mentioned that Bonnie and I were taking a week-long train trip through the Canadian Rockies. Turns out we didn’t. We only spent two days on the train, and only about three hours of that was in the Rockies. I didn’t intentionally mislead you. I just didn’t understand the nature of the trip for which we had signed up.

We arrived in Vancouver on Monday May 23, checked into our hotel, had a nice dinner, walked a bit through the downtown area, and went to bed early.

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I Get By with a Little Help From My Friends

The last week in May, Bonnie and I will spend aboard a railroad traveling through the Canadian Rockies. We’re scheduled to travel east from Vancouver and fly home from Calgary eight days later. Although we will be back in Vegas before you read this, and I may well write about that trip, I’m writing this blog while still in Vegas.

Why that’s important is because more than one of the casinos I frequent had monthly “playups” in May of various sorts, where for so many points during the month, I get certain prizes. One that takes a lot of time is the South Point half-price Chevron or Walmart gift cards, requiring almost $167,000 in coin-in for Bonnie and me combined. And I only have three weeks to get in that play instead of four.

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How Do I Prepare to Stay Awake?

I received the following question for Richard’s and my mailbag show on Gambling with an Edge. It’s too involved to answer on the air. I thought I’d give it a go here.

Can you describe the steps you take to prepare for a play that may require you play during a time of day (graveyard for example) that is not a normal time for you to be playing? How far in advance do you start to adjust your schedule, and what other steps do you take?

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Card Pulling Revisited

I was asked to answer a Question of the Day sent to The Las Vegas Advisor. My answer was “too long” for a QOD, but appropriate for one of my blogs. Since LVA hosts my blog and they have plenty of QOD questions “in the hopper,” I was allowed to answer this question here.

Is card-pulling at video poker still an effective way of minimizing wins?

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Figuring It Out

I received an email to be answered on the podcast. Here it is:

I have a strategy question about 8/5 ACE$ bonus. I’ve been told that you play it the same as you would 8/5 bonus with the following exception: when dealt a full house with 2 or 3 aces where ACE$ is possible, you only hold the aces. Is that true? When dealt 2 pair and one of the pair are aces in the right position do you go for the full house or just hold the aces?

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What Would I Be Doing?

I’ve been a professional video poker player for 28 years and played backgammon and blackjack semi-professionally before that. Someone asked me what I’d be doing with my life if I weren’t a professional gambler?

My initial answer was, “I have no idea.” I haven’t had a serious backup plan for decades. I’m confident that I can make money doing what I’m doing, and if I have to give it up because of some medical condition (not in the foreseeable future — but that could always change tomorrow), I have enough put away that I won’t need to work.

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Was It Worth It?

I’m now 75 years of age. I have mild COPD, which is a lung disorder partially caused and/or exacerbated by second hand smoke. I’ve been in casinos averaging more than 50 hours a week for the past 30 years. Before that, I played backgammon at a smoky club for more than 15 years.

A case could be made that had I chosen a different career, I might be healthier today. While I have been fairly successful, was what I gained worth what I lost insofar as health goes? 

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How Much Does Complexity Cost

The following question was posed to me for inclusion in one of Richard’s and my mailbag shows on our Gambling with an Edge podcast. While I did give an answer to it on the air, I believe a fuller answer is appropriate and so I’m going to talk about it here as well.

“This version of Double Bonus Poker is called “Full Pay Double Bonus Poker” or “10/7/5 Double Bonus Poker.”

If Jacks or Better and Double Bonus Poker had similar strategies, it would be a no-brainer to select Double Bonus Poker as the preferred game.

Unfortunately, the strategy for Double Bonus Poker is more complex than the strategy for Jacks or Better making it more likely that mistakes will be made – mistakes which will cost you money.”

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Not Everybody Will Understand

Bonnie and I sometimes shop at Sprouts Farmers Market, which is a cross between a regular grocery store and a health food store. In my weekly email, I saw an announcement that between March 18 and March 31, any Sprouts purchase earns you a coupon (on the bottom of your register receipt), entitling you to $10 off of a $75 purchase between April 1 and April 30.

Since we spend a couple of hundred dollars there every month, these coupons are valuable. I might take some jockeying in a single trip to get at least $75, but not too much over, so the next week we can do it again — but I’m up to that task. And I’ll make sure to get three or four of these coupons before the end of March.

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