Page 24 - May 2011 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Bob Dancer: Video Poker
WChurchill Was Right
inston Churchill was the British Prime Minister during much of World War II. Unlike modern politicians and their political correctness, he smoked a big cigar and enjoyed drinking alcohol in public—sometimes too much so.
ere is a story, perhaps apocryphal, that Winston was in his cups one night about 70 years ago. Some disapproving woman reproached him for being drunk.
“You’re correct, Madam,” replied Churchill. “I am drunk and you are ugly. e di erence is that tomorrow I will no longer be drunk, but you will still be ugly.”
I was reminded of this story after one of my video poker classes at a Las Vegas casino. I was approached after class by a woman who
I’ve known for several years.
She holds a responsible position at another casino I frequent and I’ve been inviting her to my classes for a long time. She’s always been too busy, didn’t have the day o , not interested, or something. But this time she came, perhaps mostly because one of my assistants also invited her.
of dedication, but the path to improving her results isn’t a particularly di cult one.
Idiocy (using the term loosely) isn’t very curable. If you lack basic intelligence, video poker study probably isn’t going to help you very much. You might learn enough to lose less over time, but you’ll never be very good. Anyone who claims that everybody can be successful at video poker is mistaken.
One thing Churchill neglected to mention in this particular anecdote is the will to succeed. How unattractive this particular woman actually was, we’ll never know (Ugly is in the eye of the beholder, after all.) It’s possible that most people would judge this particular woman’s appearance “acceptable,” whether
Winston agreed or not. A high percentage of people have the ability to become acceptably attractive if they put their mind to it.
e same is true of video poker. Your buying my books is great for me (please buy two sets!). But buying the books and studying them are two di erent things. Curing your ignorance is something that takes time and diligence.
Perhaps surprisingly, a certain lack of intelligence can be cured as well. Playing video poker doesn’t take genius. It takes learning a technique and applying it diligently. Once players get the hang of it, not-so-smart players can at least become competent—if not great. For those people who love the game, “competence” is not a bad end result.
Listen to Bob’s radio show Gambling With An Edge, on Thursday evenings 7 to 8 p.m. Pacific Time on radio station 1230 AM in Las Vegas online at klav1230am.com. Dancer’s products may be ordered at bobdancer.com or at 1-800-244-2224 Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time.
“Georgia” told me she
couldn’t believe what an
idiot she was.“I thought I knew video poker but it turns out I have a lot of misconceptions. I always hold ace-ten suited, generally mis-evaluate 3-card straight ushes, and some hands are always a guess. I didn’t think it mattered very much. I see now that I’ve thrown away tens of thousands of dollars over the years needlessly.”
I told her there was a di erence between being ignorant about a subject and being an idiot. Ignorance is a curable “disease.” If you’re bright enough (she is) and motivated enough (we’ll see), the tools are available to improve video poker skills. It takes a certain amount
good at one thing bodes well for your chances to become good at something unrelated, but there’s no guarantee.
If your results aren’t what you’d like them to be at video poker, you’re the one who is going to have to determine whether you are ignorant (very curable) or not very smart (not very curable). e tools to eliminate your ignorance are readily available at a nominal cost. Players sometimes object to paying $49.95 for software, but regularly lose thousands of extra dollars in the machines because they make easily- xable mistakes over and over again. Go gure.
“If your results aren’t what you’d like them to be at video poker, you’re the one who is going to have to determine whether you are ignorant (very curable) or not very smart (not very curable). The tools to eliminate your ignorance are readily available at a nominal cost.”
Even saying “intelligent ornot”ismisleading.You need to have the right kind of intelligence to do well at video poker. It takes a high degree of a certain kind of intelligence and high degree of knowledge to be a master mechanic, chef, interior decorator, etc. Such people may or may not have the ability to become good video poker players. Being
PAGE 24
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
May 2011