Video Poker Been Missing Everyone...Finally Been Hitting Some Hands

Its been what? Almost two weeks? My miserable year started to turn around this week-I had two taxable wins at Fiesta within 10 minutes this week! FINALLY! That's why I've been gone. I noticed, tho that I was the last person to post in the forum. Where is everybody? Video poker people? Post something.........

 

You have discovered that "random" does not mean to expect even distribution of payoffs. Randomness is naturally streaky with ups and downs. Of course the wide range of probabilities and payoffs of video poker contributes to sometimes extreme winning and losing streaks.

 

Something

 

Frank-I'm guessing you had at least one younger sister. I am the youngest of four kids and the only girl. the 'something' sounds like one of my brothers' comments. You're not so far away that I can't smack you ya know? j/k

 

Nope, you asked for someone to "Post something....." so Frank literally posted "something."

 

Yes, I know. I have brothers. In the words of Charlie Brown's dog, "Sigh." SMH

 

I think that was Charlie himself, not the dog. But who cares? But back to the original subject, my wife and I just ended a two-week losing streak. I got a royal on Friday, and Mary got one this morning. If you plotted a curve of expected bankroll fluctuations on video poker, we would be in the ballpark, and you probably are as well.

 

So VegasGal, are you a practitioner of "scientific" advantage-videopoker, like Frank or Dan Paymar or Bob Dancer?
Or are you just a -EV civilian-type player? I didn't find any indication in your intro post.

M&Ms = the crack cocaine of chocolate candy
VP = the crack cocaine of gambling​

 

VP = The cream of casino games. It's the only casino game where it's possible for the player to have an advantage on every play.

 

Well, ZG, it's like this: I know how to play the game I like pretty well. I chase progressives so right there, I can't be an advantage player as I don't wait for them to hit a certain price. In my mind, if I like how much the progressive than the base pay of 4,000 credits, then I'll play it.
I play of point multiplier days so that at least with my -EV, I'm getting 7x pts for VP (Boyd) or I'm playing with free play, etc.

I don't need my VP money to live on, so if the paytable isn't 9/6/4 DDB, its ok for me. I also have a personal crack cocaine of video poker. In fact there are two for me. Ultimate X and Multistrike. And these addictions are why I'm broke a lot. Dan, Yes, I think it is Charlie Brown. Insert "Sigh," here. My poor Ultimate X decimated bankroll (Sometimes. Today I hit 4444Kx12 for $1,220.50 and during the weekend I had a 12x x55559 for $750). As we say in our house, "video poker giveth and video poker taken away.
so I know how to play the JoB, Bonus, Double Bonus, Double Double and Triple Double as well as I am willing to learn them; somewhere between 95-97% accuracy. The rest of the games I avoid as I am not good at them.

I have the good sense to play single line poker when I'm really broke to build up my roll. when I've got enough money to make a nice run at a few Ultimate X machines, then I'll play them. Because I know this is a compulsion, make no mistake about it. I know what it is. I also know I have to be good in order not to go broke. One of the first books I read about compulsive gambling was Double Down , by Fedrick Bartholeme. He and his brother inherited maybe a million or so from their parents and blew through it in Biloxi in a few years. They were not prepared for the windfall and did little, if any strategy prep. At least I never make a bet without knowing the best play. I have no intention of making those mistakes these brother made. One day, if we ever meet, I'll show my records. You'd be amazed.

 

How do you know?
1. Do you practice certain derivative versions on software aiming for speed and precision?
2. Do you seek out the optimal payout versions of your game selection focus?
3. Do you understand the underlying BR requirements, and related RoR vs Reward.
3. Do you read every valid book on the subject (ie, Paymar, Dancer, Fromme, Scott, Wong, etc.?)

(for starters)

 

Well if you did smack me, I'd probably deserve it for something...

 

Sorry I meant, "deserve it for posting 'Something'".

 

BTW: It's not generally a good idea to chase progressives if they are below 100% return. You are almost always (with some exceptions) better off playing a high return non-progressive... The exception would be something like a progressive at 99% return with 2% meter-rise.

 

ZG wrote: How do you know?
> 1. Do you practice certain derivative versions on software aiming for speed and precision?
Optimum Video Poker is the only such software that actually trains the player to follow a strategy chart (and it gives your choice of chart and format).

> 2. Do you seek out the optimal payout versions of your game selection focus?
VegasGal just said that she does not. I think this qualifies her as a gambler, not an advantage player.

> 3. Do you understand the underlying BR requirements, and related RoR vs Reward.
Good question. Again, apparently her answer would be "no." OpVP includes the Sorokin Risk of Ruin calculation.

> 3. (sic) Do you read every valid book on the subject (ie, Paymar, Dancer, Fromme, Scott, Wong, etc.?)
I would note that Fromme and Wong were great when they were published, but now they are way out of date. My book is the only one that includes coverage of tactics as well as strategies, and Scott's Frugal Gambling books are the only ones that give a lot of coverage on promotions, etc. Dancer's books (yes, even including the one titled for beginners) are more for advanced and pro players. My book includes the easy to use Precision Play (tm) rules for several games.

 

Thanks, Dan. I DO NOT follow Fromme-the son. He is NOT my idea of a good strategist. I haven't read his dad's stuff. I read Dancer and use his software. I use Mike Shackleford's software on my iPhone too, if I'm unsure of a play. I was a Gold member of Video poker.com and practiced religiously on their training software. The end. I'm not now nor have I said I seek out fantastic 10/7/5 paytables. I do play 8/5/4 paytables in a progressive. But I play it well.

Also, I will not now nor ever have a pissing contest with anyone. I enjoy playing and I make enough throughout the year with all meals for two for free everyday (we only eat one meal out a day, tho we could eat out once a day. I only eat a real meal once a day, anyway. Make enough from my wins to play at the levels I want to without worrying about what I lose. No life changing wins, no interest charges on my credit cards, because I pay them in full. I support two other families monthly (not this year, till my wins pick up), but for many years, I have). And our little 2 human 2 dog pack, its enough for me. Not a full pay table? Its ok. I'm not that anal about it. All out of town hotel rooms are free. Am I losing more than I need to? I'm sure I am. I'm willing to lose more than I need to to be free from the anxiety of looking for the perfect paytable. I'm willing to give up a lot to avoid unnecessary anxiety. Life is too short to bring that upon myself needlessly.

Now, if you, Zen, want to question my Texas hold 'em, I can say I play ABC poker ALL THE TIME and still lose. That's why I don't play it very often. That game really angers me to no end. In VP when I lose, I have no one to blame but myself. When I get mad enough, I just go home...stop at Smith's and get a piece of cake on the way. Not a drinker, not a smoker, not a drug taker. Tex Mex 56 and I play with our pups and I de-stress.

 

Thank you for your candor.

 

Zen, There's a lot I'll refrain from doing, just to be free from unnecessary angst-life's just too short. I did NOT say, however. That I lost last year. I DID say I lost more than I should have. I had a great year last year. This year? ugh. 2013? Great. WTF? 2015, what are you doing to me, variance?

 

Yes, your challenges in your questions to me seem to be such that you are trying to get me to admit something. I'm absolutely fine with showing anyone my records. Especially the IRS, as they are the ones I keep the records for. I'm a meticulous records keeper particularly as the IRS' agents are meticulous forensic accountants. Win/loss statements merely corroborate your books. Its not the other way around.

 

Lenny Frome (not Fromme) was a good mathematician, and his first little booklet "Video Poker for Las Vegas" or something like that gave an excellent analysis and a good strategy for 9/6 JoB. He figured 99.6% payback, which was about 0.05% high, but very good considering that no one had yet done a complete accurate analysis of any VP game. Strangely, he put full pay Deuces Wild under 99%, although his strategy was quite good. In later years he kept raising his claim of FPDW payback, but never got anywhere near the actual 100.76%. Unfortunately all of his writings are now outdated.

Lenny's son was not nearly as good an analyst. We had a long argument about the Double Up feature on some IGT machines. He (and several others) claimed that, although doubling up increased the variance, it would move the average payback closer to 100%. He could not grasp the difference between an event and a decision. A simple calculation, which I sent to him and also published in a forum, proves that Doubling Up does indeed increase the variance, but it has absolutely no affect on the long term expected return (commonly called payback).