Bonnie and I recently cruised the Mexican Riviera on NCL, courtesy of Penn National — in particular M Resort. We\u2019ve vacationed several times on the same cruise line courtesy of Harrah\u2019s\/Caesars, but this time it was from somewhere else.<\/p>\n
I packed a lot of M logo shirts — of which I have dozens. Perhaps two or three times per week, M offers free gifts — such as shirts or alcohol, sometimes higher-end stuff. I rarely go down to pick up these gifts. It\u2019s ten\u00a0miles away; it causes another trip which can lower my mailer; and how much do I need another T-shirt anyway? A few times a year, however, they have a \u201cWarehouse Blowout\u201d event on a Sunday, where they \u201cgive away\u201d unclaimed items. Depending on your tier level, you get one, two, or three tickets for free and you can earn another four tickets for play that day. If you do \u201cplay up\u201d for extra tickets, you also qualify for a free Sunday lunch buffet — which is a quality meal at this casino.<\/p>\n
Once inside, you spend your tickets on whatever you like — keeping in mind that the pickings are pretty slim (leftover alcohol rarely finds its way to these events). Often neither Bonnie nor I can find stuff we can\u2019t live without, so T-shirts and polo shirts (for which you get two shirts for one ticket) are our default. More than once I\u2019ve brought home eight or ten shirts.<\/p>\n
On the ship, a senior couple, \u201cMarge\u201d and \u201cEd,\u201d recognized the shirt I was wearing and told me they lived in Henderson, which is in the greater Vegas area. They played Double Double Bonus and told me the casino they played at, Emerald Island, had the 9\/6 version on a 100-coin penny machine — a level at which they were comfortable. \u201cWe\u2019re retired, you know, the casino is close to home, and they give us free food.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s fine,\u201d I told them. \u201cThe game is costing you a penny a hand on average, assuming you play well, offset by whatever food they give you. It sounds like low-cost entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you mean \u2018play well?’\u201d Marge asked. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty much common sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery hand has a mathematically correct play. Let me ask you some basic ones,\u201d I said. \u201cHow would you play A\u2660 Q\u2665 J\u2663 7\u2666 4\u2663?\u201d I knew the correct choice was QJ, but many DDB players hold just the ace. Occasionally some players without a clue hold AQJ.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d throw them all away,\u201d Marge announced.<\/p>\n
Whoa! This shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how the game is played. I wasn\u2019t sure how to tell her that without insulting her.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d I told her. \u201cThat\u2019s not close. Sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you know?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cComputer programs tell you how to play every hand. Over time I\u2019ve learned correct plays,\u201d I told her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never heard of that,\u201d Ed said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you guys own a PC?\u201d I asked. They did. My computer, with Video Poker for Winners<\/em> installed, was in my cabin. I was willing to spend a few minutes showing them — but if they hadn\u2019t owned a computer there was no hope that they\u2019d remember enough hints to make a difference.<\/p>\n When we got to my cabin, I let the computer deal hands just to see where they were. I had it set on \u201cAdvanced\u201d so the hands were tougher than average. I didn\u2019t do this to be mean — it\u2019s just that they are more interesting. Having the computer ask them if they know how to play Q\u2665 Q\u2663 7\u2666 7\u2660 7\u2665 is a waste of their time and mine.<\/p>\n One hand was K\u2660 Q\u2665 J\u2663 9\u2663 7\u2663. This is not a beginner level hand. Not all players would correctly play KQJ9. Some would hold KQJ and other hold J97. But not Ed and Marge.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d hold king jack,\u201d Ed told me. \u201cHolding queens is always unlucky.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I\u2019d throw them all away,\u201d Marge chimed in.<\/p>\n These were both awful decisions<\/p>\n Next was K\u2666T\u26667\u2666 6\u2660 3\u2665. Ed held the KT and Marge held the K. Both wrong, but at least reasonable. They didn\u2019t come close on three of the next five hands we tried.<\/p>\n There are some people who just aren\u2019t smart enough to play intelligent video poker. I concluded I was talking to two of them. I didn\u2019t suggest they buy the Winner\u2019s Guide<\/em> for the game because I think it would have been incomprehensibly difficult for them.<\/p>\n I did suggest they get the software. I told them that if they practiced a couple of hours a week before they played, and attempted to play like the computer recommended, they would save more than a thousand dollars a year.<\/p>\n Marge was doubtful. \u201cI\u2019ve seen people use strategy cards, including some with your name on them,\u201d she told me. \u201cThey don\u2019t do any better than anybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n I asked Marge if she knew for sure how well she and Ed were doing gambling-wise this year. She didn\u2019t. \u201cKeeping records is too much like work. We\u2019re retired, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n I wanted to ask her how she could possibly know that somebody else was doing better or worse than she was if she didn\u2019t even know how well she was doing? Surely, she had no strong knowledge of how the other person was doing either.<\/p>\n But I didn\u2019t. I did tell them that strategy cards worked well if you practiced with them and used them regularly.<\/p>\n I also told her that I\u2019d be teaching beginner DDB at the South Point, probably in January. I invited them and promised it would help them a lot. Although the DDB class is for beginners, they would probably still find it too difficult.<\/p>\n They left with a \u201cwe\u2019ll think about it.\u201d (I know what that means! It means I should assume 10-1 odds against<\/em> them showing up for class.)<\/p>\n Playing video poker intelligently isn\u2019t for everybody. It takes a certain level of the right kind of intelligence. Not everybody has a chance to succeed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bonnie and I recently cruised the Mexican Riviera on NCL, courtesy of Penn National — in particular M Resort. We\u2019ve vacationed several times on the same cruise line courtesy of Harrah\u2019s\/Caesars, but this time it was from somewhere else. I packed a lot of M logo shirts — of which I have dozens. Perhaps two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15763,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[558,557],"tags":[880,746,881,860,585,717],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839489"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}