Page 8 - August 2005 • Southern California Gaming Guide

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
Winning is Not a Destination—It’s a Process by Bob Dancer
I weigh more than I want to. Ten pounds less than I did a month ago, but twenty pounds more than I hope to be in six months. We’ll see. My major “secret technique” for losing weight is a lot of exercise combined with a reduction in calories. It works. Not real quickly.
fries won’t kill you or your diet. But ten thousand might. Similarly, playing 9-liner nickel slots one hour a year because you nd the games fun won’t have much e ect on your bankroll. But playing them several hours every gambling trip will. ese things add up. Calories are cumulative and so are dollars. Each individual decision doesn’t matter a lot, but the totality of your decisions do. For me, it’s better to have a rule of never eating French fries and never playing 9-liner slots. For my personality, at least, sometimes excluding something entirely is much easier than doing something in moderation.
In dieting, if you have a “weigh in” on ursday at noon, there are arti cial ways for you to improve your result for that particular day. You might, perhaps, take a laxative on Tuesday and fast on Wednesday. is is not bene cial if you consider how much you will weigh a week later, but it will help the number at the weigh-in.
In an analogous way, some people try to a ect their video poker scores by a “stopping strategy.” ey might, for example, quit immediately after hitting a royal ush or four aces. ey gure that since the score goes up or down, if they quit at a high point, it has to be a good thing.
e fallacy here is that your score at the end of today and your score tomorrow are additive. It doesn’t matter at all whether you play an extra thousand hands today ortomorrow.Yourlong-termresultswillbeverycloseto what the machine is supposed to play — discounted by your errors. Stopping strategy is totally irrelevant.
To do well at either dieting or gambling, you have to learn about a correct path and stay on it. You have to avoid doing anything that makes you stray from thatpath.Yourresultswillhaveupsanddowns,but if you stay on the correct path, you’ll very likely end up okay.
And don’t assume there is exactly one path for either venture. Weight Watchers, for instance, has a contradictory program to what Dr. Atkins recommends, but either can work—at least in the short run—and I certainly am not expert enough to accurately compare the bene ts and hazards of each program. Similarly, Jean Scott recommends somewhat di erent winning strategies than I do, albeit it with considerable overlap. But both of us have been successful at the gambling game for a number of years, and using either of us as a “guru” could well prove bene cial. On the other hand, many video poker writers aren’t successful players. eir source of income is writing, not playing. I would be very hesitant following somebody’s gambling advice if that person didn’t have a highly successful track record as a player.
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
But it works.
I know from experience that if in a few weeks or a month I get bored with my exercise and rabbit- food eating routine, my weight will start increasing again and I’ll be back at my all-time high in a few months. And this cycle is not unique to me. Millions of Americans have experienced their own versions of this.
Most health-care experts will tell you that to make a permanent change in your weight, you have to make a permanent change in your lifestyle. Quickie diets of one
Some people reward themselves for hitting a royal ush by going out and spending quite a bit of it. is is analogous to celebrating the loss of ve pounds by going out and eating a banana split. It doesn’t have a big e ect on that particular weekend, but do it enough and it sabotages the entire process.
Winning at gambling is a lifestyle. It involves learning which games have positive expectations, learning to play those games perfectly, avoiding all other games, and playing within your bankroll. at’s Winning
avor or another are generally ine ective.
“Winning at gambling is a lifestyle. It involves learning which games have positive expectations, learning to
play those games perfectly, avoiding all other games, and playing within your bankroll. That’s Winning 101. For most successful people, it includes
101. For most successful people, it includes obtaining some strategy cards and practicing on a computer. But there are also some advanced courses. Learning about promotions and playing more during those times adds to the pro t. Although it is better to learn one game very well rather than a lot of games so-so, it is good to have a basic understanding of several games because
I think the same
is true for gambling.
Compare hitting a
royal ush with losing
ve pounds. Both make
you feel good for the
moment. Both satisfy
a short-term goal. But
neither makes a lasting
impression unless you
follow it up with more
of the same. It is very
possible to hit ten or
more royals in a year
and still be a signi cant
loser if you are playing
on a machine with
a high house edge
or perhaps playing
without knowing the
exact strategy. Just like
it is possible to lose weight for six months in a row and then gain it all back quickly.
obtaining some strategy cards you never know which
and practicing on a computer. But there are also some advanced courses.”
game will be rewarded by the next promotion that comes along.
For example, Deuces Wild may well be the best game for quarter players in Las Vegas without considering promotions, but often promotions such as an extra 100 coins for 7-7-7-7 exclude wild cards, so now 10/7 Double Bonus might be a better choice. But unless you knew both games, you wouldn’t have that choice. If we go back to our losing-weight analogy, this would be similar to learning to eat and exercise while at home and also learning to eat and exercise while traveling. ey are not the same thing at all, and the people who manage their weight
well learn how to do both. Another similarity between dieting and gambling is the
“short-term vs. long-term” paradigm. One bag of French
Page 8 AUGUST 2005
Column: Video Poker with Bob Dancer