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Dancer's Answers We publish a brand-new video poker article from Bob Dancer every Thursday in this section. These columns are called "Dancer's Answers". Click on any of the links below for more Dancer's Answers: Bob Dancer Articles - Main Page Vicksburg Video Poker - May 8, 2008 Vicksburg, MS Video Poker - Part 2 - May 15, 2008 Vicksburg Casino Video Poker - Part 3 - May 22, 2008 Common Deuces Wild Mistakes – Juan or the Other – May 29, 2008 Figuring Out Quick Quads - June 5, 2008 Breaking Full Houses in Quick Quads - June 12, 2008 A Quick Quads Puzzler - June 19, 2008 Let’s Go Scouting - June 26, 2008 When You're Not Sure of the Game - July 3, 2008 Can it be Right to Play Hunches - July 10, 2008 Good Hearted Woman in Love With a Good Timin’ Man - July 17, 2008 One-Way Versus Two-Way Straight Penalties - July 24, 2008 Effectual versus Ineffectual Straight Penalties - July 31, 2008 Unusual Dealt Royals - August 7, 2008 Learning from a Horse Handicapper - August 14, 2008 When Bad Is Good - August 21, 2008 I Live For These Moments - August 28, 2008 Las Vegas Do It Different - September 4, 2008 Figuring the worth when there are Multiple Progressives - September 11, 2008 Which is the Better Play? - September 18, 2008 How Much is Too Much? - September 25, 2008 Evaluating a Promotion - October 2, 2008 Sometimes the Jack, Sometimes Ace-Jack, Never the Ace by Itself - October 9, 2008 Why I Don't Play Poker - October 16, 2008 What is a Royal Flush Cycle? - October 23, 2008 A Logical Puzzler - October 30, 2008 Another Look at Changing Machines - November 6, 2008 Testing Matters - November 13, 2008 An Easy Yet Important Quick Quad Puzzler - November 20, 2008 Some Quick Quad Mathematics - November 27, 2008 Barona Improves its Video Poker - December 4, 2008 An Interesting Quick Quads Puzzle - December 11, 2008 Shirley Plays Suduku - December 18, 2008 How Often Does One Time in 360 Occur? - December 25, 2008 Earning a Free Cruise - January 1, 2008 Next Dancer's Answers column coming on January 8, 2009! |
How Much is too Much?I didn’t want to do it, but I’d promised. In writing. And now someone wanted it. In “Strictly Slots” magazine I write a monthly “Dancer Answers His Mail” column. Every month I choose about four or five “quickie” questions that I’ve received either via email or otherwise. The entire Q&A column runs about 800 words.
Recently I ran a “question” (actually a request) that I get at least ten times a year. Somebody wrote in and wanted to know everywhere I played. They didn’t want to do the scouting, and so they wanted to piggy-back off of my scouting. My standard answer is that the information where I played wouldn’t be useful to most players. After all, I play $25 machines sometimes. There are bankroll considerations that preclude most players from following in my footsteps. I also explain that some of my plays are secret, in that I see very few or no other strong players playing the same game. If these games get advertised, the casinos will pull the games and I’ll lose an opportunity. Therefore, I have no incentive to keep the rest of you up-to-date on my plays. In this particular column I told the reader that for $2,000 I’d tell you all my plays, and for another $2,000 I’d tell you WHY I played these particular places. (After all, if you don’t know about the promotions or how much it takes to get the mailers, even knowing the games I play won’t help you that much.) These numbers weren’t well thought out. I just picked amounts that I thought were too high. I figured nobody would be willing to pay that much so it didn’t matter how much I asked for. I was wrong. I got an email from a couple who told me they were in Vegas, had $4,000 to invest, and wanted me to spill my guts. I was tempted to say the price had gone up, but the article had just come out and I figured I was stuck. They agreed to keep the information I was about to give them for their own use only, and we made a “working” lunch date. So I looked over my daily log and wrote down every casino I’d played at in the past three months and set out to meet these people. I would tell them about the convenience store I played at. I would tell them about the Multi Strike game I play. I would tell them about the Wheel Poker game I play, and I would tell them about the pub I frequent that has 15 machines total. And, of course, I would tell them about the mainstream games in mainstream casinos I also play at. So I meet the couple, take their money up front, and tell them not to feel bad if they don’t know all of the games. “It’s likely that nobody else in the world plays all of these games proficiently,” I told them. “I didn’t either a month ago. But when situations change, you need to find the best game and go forward. With modern software, strong players can learn any of these games. By the way, what games do you already play?” “We only play $5 and $10 Double Double Bonus,” I was told. “We know to look for the 9 and the 6 in the pay schedule. This weekend we hit a royal, aces-with-a-kicker, and several other quads and are up more than fifty grand. This proves that we are finally able to play with the big boys, and we want to know what the big boys play.” I’m stunned. Clearly these people have no idea of the basic premise of winning video poker, namely: ONLY PLAY WHEN YOU”RE THE FAVORITE. They had no idea of the return for 9/6 DDB (i.e. 98.98%) or what the slot club was (Sam’s Town --- 0.3% on the day they played), or if there were any noteworthy promotions going on that day (there weren’t). They had a lucky day and believed that it meant they were skillful. So, first of all, I fulfilled the requirements of the deal. I told them where I played, what I played, and why. I knew, though, that the information I was giving them was worthless to them. On my list was Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, Double Bonus, Bonus Poker, Deuces Bonus, Joker Wild --- and that’s not even counting the Multi Strike or the Wheel Poker variations. They don’t know ANY game at the professional level, or even if they have the ability to learn games at the 99.9% accuracy level (most people don’t). Even if they were dedicated and immersed themselves in the literature, it would take them a couple of years at least to get up to the professional level at several games --- and I suspect that many of the games I play today will not be here in two years. They indicated they don’t like math, so taking the time to figure out how much the (game + promotion + slot club) is worth sounds like a task they will avoid if they can. But who knows? Dedicated people can do many things and I don’t know these people. Still, they are 60 years old, likely without college (judging strictly by their vocabulary and current professions --- I could be wrong), and about to undertake a task that will require serious study. It will not be simple. I gave a few minutes of basic how-to-win philosophy, strongly suggested they master the Winner’s Guides, told them about a too-good-to-last promotion at the Four Queens, and wished them luck. For me personally it turned into a good deal. I got paid well for revealing something that probably won’t turn out to cost me anything. Probably the only players who COULD profitably use the information I have already know about several good plays and won’t want to pay me for what they already know. Which is fine with me. Some information I’d rather not share. 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 the software "Video Poker for Winners," Winner's Guides, strategy cards, his autobiography Million Dollar Video Poker, and his two novels, including Sex, Lies, and Video Poker. Dancer's products may be ordered at www.bobdancer.com or by telephone at 1-800-244-2224 M-F 9-5 Pacific Time.
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Classic Dancer We republish a classic Bob Dancer article every Sunday - often these articles are updated with new insights from Bob Dancer, the master of video poker writing. Video Poker Questions and Answers - May 4, 2008 More Answers to Questions About Video Poker Machines - May 11, 2008 Losing is a Major Part of Winning at Video Poker - May 18, 2008 Video Poker VS Blackjack - May 25, 2008 The Art of Tipping Slot Personnel - Part 1 - June 1, 2008 The Art of Tipping Slot Personnel - Part 2 - June 8, 2008 Putting Your Ducks In a Row - June 15, 2008 Luck and Skill in Video Poker - June 22, 2008 Strategy Adjustments in Video Poker - June 29, 2008 One Coin vs Five Coin - July 6, 2008 Video Poker Progressives - July 13, 2008 High Pairs versus Three Cards to a Rolal in Kings or Better Joker Wild - July 20, 2008 The Double Up Feature - Does It Ever Make Sense? - Part 1 - July 27, 2008 Doubling Up - Does it Ever Make Sense? - Part 2 - August 3, 2008 Did I Quit at the Right Time? - August 10, 2008 Money Management: What Does and Doesn't Work - August 17, 2008 "I'm Playing The Wrong Game" and Other Video Poker Fallacies - August 24, 2008 You Use To Be Such a Cheapskate - August 31, 2008 Is This a Good Promotion? Part 1 - September 7, 2008 Is This a Good Video Poker Promotion? Part 2 - September 14, 2008 More Video Poker Fallacies - September 21, 2008 Not All Proposals Should be Accepted - September 28, 2008 An Opportunity Too Good to Pass Up Part 1 of 2 - October 5, 2008 An Opportunity Too Good to Pass Up Part 2 - October 12, 2008 Predicting Your Future Results at Video Poker - Part 1 of 2 - October 19, 2008 Predicting Future Video Poker Reulsts - Part 2 of 2 - October 26, 2008 Moving Up in Denomination - Part 1 of 2 - November 2, 2008 Moving Up in Video Poker Denomination - Part 2 of 2 - November 9, 2008 A Letter from a Non-Believer - Part 1 of 2 - November 16, 2008 A Letter Froma VP Non-Believer - Part 2 of 2 - November 23, 2008 If You're Going to Steal From Me... - November 30, 2008 A General Look at Progressives - Part 1 of 2 - December 7, 2008 A General Look at Progressives - Part 2 of 2 - December 14, 2008 Would You Rather Be Lucky or Good? - Part 1 of 2 - December 21, 2008 Would You Rather Be Lucky or Good? - Part 2 of 2 - December 28, 2008 Shirley Wins a Cruise - January 4, 2009 More Classic Dancer coming Sunday January 11, 2009. |
