Page 24 - September 2009 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Bob Dancer: Video Poker
GAood Hearted Woman in Love with a Good Timin’ Man
classic country western Texas Two Step by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson is called “Good Hearted Woman.” e chorus, repeated three or four times, goes like this:
She’s a good hearted woman in love with a good timin’ man, She loves him in spite of his ways she don’t understand.
With teardrops and laughter they pass through this world hand in hand, A good hearted woman, lovin’ a good timin’ man.
With certain modifications, I’ve found this song to describe Shirley and me. The “good timin’ man” in the song refers to a drinker and partier, and that’s not me. I could fairly be called a “good gamblin’” man, I suppose, and this has led to many differences between us.
Take Valentine’s Day, for example. To me this is a day to take advantage of double points at numerous casinos around town. Waste time on a romantic dinner when better-than-usual gambling opportunities are there? You must be kidding.
I play a few progressives that get juicy relatively rarely. When I get a seat on one, I often call Shirley and rearrange whatever we were planning on doing together.
Shirley is hardly flattered by being “second fiddle” to a video poker machine, but she accepts it. She knows that this is the way I put money into the bank and it allows her to go on cruises and other vacations every year. It’s a trade off she puts up with—although periodically she tries to “train” me to have different priorities.
to economize on the household expenses. And she does that very well.
Gambling generates its own emotions. Winning and losing streaks are regular occurrences. ese things a ect her more than me, but I’m not totally immune from these emotions. In our case, these things don’t put the marriage at risk, but for some they do.
No two marriages are alike. Shirley and I have each been married before although we’re far short of the sixteen spouses we’re entitled to. You know,
“Four better, four worse, four richer, and four poorer.” We’re at the point we try to “not sweat the small stu ” with each other, although that’s not always easy to
put into practice.
I’ve painted myself here as always “nose to the
grindstone,” and to be sure that’s an exaggeration. I do take time to smell the roses. Not as much time as she’d prefer, but I do take some time. For any other guy out there, I wish you success at nding your own good hearted woman. And I make the equivalent wish for you women. ere just doesn’t happen to be a country western song about it that I can quote for you.
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 his new book, Video Poker for the Intelligent Beginner, Winner’s Guides, strategy cards, his autobiography Million Dollar Video Poker, and his two novels, including Sex, Lies, and Video Poker. Dancer’s products,
For Christmas it’s even worse, from her point of view. She takes off to California for a week or so to be with family and friends who wamt to celebrate Christmas. I’m quite content staying in Vegas and taking advantage of good promotions.
“Gambling generates its own emotions. Winning and losing streaks are regular occurrences. These things
affect her more than me, but I’m not totally immune from these emotions. In our case, these things don’t put the marriage at risk, but for
some they do.”
She never knows when I’ll come home and tell her I’ve just lost $20,000 or more. She’s actually quite frugal and takes pride in shopping at sales and getting good deals. Getting a nice $200 outfit for $20 gives her great pleasure, but when she finds out I’ve won or lost many times that she often thinks, “ What’s the point?” Why should she struggle to economize when whatever she spends is dwarfed by my daily scores?
Sometimes we’ll go to
New Orleans or some other
casino destination. She has
health issues and has to stay
out of the casino, but I’ll
need to spend many hours
there to play for both of
us. She’ll want to make a
vacation out of it and for the
most part I tell her to bring a book because I’ll be busy. Sometimes she’ll decide to stay home instead of making the trip. She really likes to travel, but doing everything by herself isn’t her idea of fun.
She’s come to realize that it does matter. I’m struggling to make sure my annual score is positive, even with the ups and downs. And so far it always has been. It’s her job
Page 24
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
September 2009
Video Poker with Bob Dancer