Page 16 - June 2003 • Southern California Gaming Guide

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
When it came to write about how to play video poker, we turned to our featured columnist, Bob Dancer. America’s best-
known video poker writer and teacher, Dancer has a variety of video poker products, including excellent software, Bob Dancer Presents WinPoker, strategy cards and guides all available at www.BobDancer.com. The following is an excerpt from his highly entertaining and instructive book, Million Dollar Video Poker. Keep in mind that Dancer is a world-class player who plays at a level most of us cannot achieve (or afford). His instruction and insights, however, are worth knowing.
Page 16
June 2003
The Easy Part of Video Poker
What’s hard and what’s easy is a matter of perspective. For example, if you ask Los Angeles Laker star Shaquille O’Neal whether it’s hard or easy to dunk a basketball, his answer would be different from mine. For me, there was a brief period 40 years ago when I could jump high enough to touch the basketball rim, but I could never get any higher. Shaq can dunk the ball at-footed. Even with such an obvious comparison, some people will take issue with the proposition I am about to advance.
From my perspective, the easy part about playing successful video poker is learning to play the hands essentially perfectly. Knowing enough to distinguish in
9/6 Jacks or Better between K♠−J♥−T♥−7♠−5♣ and K♠−J♥−T♥−6♠−5♥ is the easy part of the game. And I say this knowing full well that probably 95% of all players play these two hands
The Hard Part of Video Poker
Sometimes while playing quarter video poker, you’ll lose $500 a day for three days straight. Or when playing for dollars, you’ll lose $2,000 a day for three days straight. How does that affect your well being? And if you’re married, how do you convince your wife that it’s just a normal swing of the game and that she doesn’t have to worry about it?
Some people are always in debt. These people, for whatever reason, can’t get a bankroll to gamble with. And even if they somehow did, they couldn’t hang onto it.
distractions. Every casino has an advantage on perhaps 99% of all bets available. Do you have the discipline to limit yourself completely to the remaining 1%?
identically, even though J-T is the proper play in the rst case and K-J is the proper play in the second.
“...the information on how
to play video poker without A casino is full of
So how can that be the easy
part if so few people can do
it? Because the information
on how to play video poker
without error is widely
available, and computer
programs will correct you
whenever you’re wrong, so
most people willing to put
in the hours can learn this
take you 10 hours, 100 hours, or 1,000 hours, but it can be done. The reason why most people don’t play that hand correctly is because they simply haven’t put in those hours—or they have put them in, but they studied material from authors who do not believe that the difference between these hands is important. For whatever reason, these players don’t see the value of learning the game perfectly. The players who really want to succeed, however, do the work that has to be done. For them, these hands, and most others as well, are not particularly dif cult.
So if that’s the easy part of the game, what’s the hard part? Let me suggest some of the things that are dif cult.
error is widely available, and computer programs will correct you whenever you’re wrong, so most people willing
to put in the hours can learn The casino will ply you with
this game perfectly.”
free booze served by attractive provocatively dressed young ladies. The casino doesn’t
game perfectly. It may
care whether it’s the liquor or the ladies that ruins your concentration. Either way you fail is ne with them. Can you run that gauntlet and still concentrate on the game?
The casinos hire talented marketing people who dream up incentives for you to come and visit. Some incentives are extremely valuable and some are not. Can you distinguish between them?
On those rare nights when you win win win, can you keep your perspective and not go out and blow it? On those not-so-rare nights when you lose lose lose, can you deal with the actual loss of your bankroll, plus that ugly sickening feeling too? When it takes three years to build a bankroll and you lose half of it in a week, can you still function?
Are you one of these people?