Page 8 - September 2004 • Southern California Gaming Guide

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
Video Poker is Puzzling by Bob Dancer
Irecently read an interesting book by Marcel Danesi called e Puzzle Instinct. In the book, Danesi reviews dozens of types of puzzles and notes that“puzzle solving” is a uniquely human activity. ose who solve crossword puzzles do so, in general, for no reward whatsoever save
the joy of completing the puzzle and the enjoyment of the puzzle-solving process.
Playing video poker correctly is in many ways a puzzle-solving activity. e rst puzzle is to select an appropriate machine, and thereafter you have 600 puzzles an hour of the “How do you play this hand accurately?” variety. Even “When do you quit?” or “When do you change
machines?” are puzzles.
To be sure, there’s an important gambling element to video poker that is missing from solving crossword puzzles, but that’s an element I want to talk about some other time. In this column I am more interested in addressing how a love for puzzles is a major reason why some people prefer video poker and other people prefer slots.
Over the years I’ve subscribed to various crossword puzzle, logic puzzle, and
Similarly, in childhood I heard variations on, “A plane crashes at the intersection of Arizona, Utah and Nevada. Where do they bury the survivors?” and I still know the answer is, “Nowhere, silly. You don’t bury survivors.”
I suggest that those who like puzzles tend to prefer video poker to slots. Is a suited Q-J more or less valuable than a suited A-K? at’s a puzzle.
Not a tough one, to be sure, and once you learn that Q-J is more valuable because it has a lot more straight and straight ush possibilities, it’s not hard to apply that understanding to a di erent video poker game. Or even to learn the exceptions, such as in Kings or Better Joker Wild,whereA-Kcontains two high cards and Q-J contains none and that is more important than straight and straight ush potential.
A slot player, generally, does not enjoy puzzles or has found he or she is
not particularly good at them. ey haven’t thought about the relative merits of Q-J vs. A-K, and when confronted with that choice on their occasional forays
into video poker, they usually pick the wrong one because A-K is better at live poker and they assume the games are similar.
So far I’ve discussed the puzzle-solving attribute with respect to word and/or mathematical games. Perhaps that’s because those happen to be my strengths. But I am quite convinced that any decent cook, seamstress, auto mechanic, or gardener—among many other professions—must also be quite adept at solving puzzles. Anyone who doesn’t think that putting on a successful dinner party for eight involves a lot of tricky logistics simply hasn’t attempted such an activity.
Is enjoying puzzles better than not enjoying puzzles? I’m not willing to make that judgment any more than I’d say that people who preferred strawberry were inherently superior to those that liked vanilla or chocolate. But I do say that people who enjoy puzzles can get a lot more lasting-power for their gambling dollar by playing video poker than can those who only play slots.
Bob Dancer is America’s best-known video poker writer and teacher. He has a variety of “how to play better video poker” products, including Winner’s Guides, strategy cards, videos, and the award-winning computer software, Bob Dancer Presents WinPoker, his autobiography Million Dollar Video Poker, and his recent novel, Sex, Lies, and Video Poker. Dancer’s products may be ordered at www.bobdancer.com
other puzzle-related
magazines. For whatever
reason, I like to solve
puzzles, and I have
found that I’m better
than average at it. Part
of this love for puzzles
in inborn, I suppose, but
part of it must be learned.
ere are dozens of
puzzles starting o with
something like, “On
the island of VidPoke
there are two tribes. e
members of the Video
tribe always tell the
truth and the members
of the Poker tribe always
lie. You are approached
by two individuals who
say...” Once you’ve studied three or four of these puzzles, the rest are quite a bit easier than they were at the start.
“I suggest that those who like puzzles tend to prefer video poker to slots. Is a suited Q-J more or less valuable than a suited A-K? That’s a puzzle. Not a tough one, to be sure, and once you learn that Q-J is more valuable because it has a lot more straight and straight flush possibilities, it’s not hard to apply that understanding to a
different video poker game. ”
Page 8 September 2004
Column: Video Poker With Bob Dancer