Re: Where to start
Posted: Sun May 05, 2024 9:00 pm
My "secret" through the years has always been play a game where the base game + slot club + promotions + mailers exceeds 100%. If I can't find those conditions, I won't play. Period. For the past 29 years of gambling at video poker, 25 have been positive (some spectacularly so) --- and the negative years have been relatively small losses compared to the wins.
I do not subscribe to the "quit when you're ahead" philosophy which has been espoused by some in this thread. It simply doesn't work if you're playing negative games. The idea that you know when you're at the high point for the day and then you quit before you give it all back is tempting to believe in --- except you NEVER know what the next hour or two is going to bring.
If you're seriously tempted to get good at the nuts and bolts of video poker, I strongly suggest you spend hundreds of hours reading what I've written. I know bobdancer.com is behind a pay wall now, and I very much wish it wasn't true but it wasn't my decision. (My site is managed by the Las Vegas Advisor, and when they turned into a pay site, so did mine.) The fee to read my last 20 years of blogs is rather small, compared to the cost of playing video poker "in the dark."
The OP said he consulted with a writer. It might have been me. I don't know. If we take the original poster at his word when he says he can't stick to a fixed bet-size and can't possibly stick to that strategy, then I predict he is doomed to be a net loser at video poker. This isn't a game where a few tricks of the trade will turn a loser into a winner. It's a long-run type of endeavor --- with big swings both ways along the way. If you play the way I recommend in my first paragraph here, you will likely win. If you don't, you likely won't.
I do not subscribe to the "quit when you're ahead" philosophy which has been espoused by some in this thread. It simply doesn't work if you're playing negative games. The idea that you know when you're at the high point for the day and then you quit before you give it all back is tempting to believe in --- except you NEVER know what the next hour or two is going to bring.
If you're seriously tempted to get good at the nuts and bolts of video poker, I strongly suggest you spend hundreds of hours reading what I've written. I know bobdancer.com is behind a pay wall now, and I very much wish it wasn't true but it wasn't my decision. (My site is managed by the Las Vegas Advisor, and when they turned into a pay site, so did mine.) The fee to read my last 20 years of blogs is rather small, compared to the cost of playing video poker "in the dark."
The OP said he consulted with a writer. It might have been me. I don't know. If we take the original poster at his word when he says he can't stick to a fixed bet-size and can't possibly stick to that strategy, then I predict he is doomed to be a net loser at video poker. This isn't a game where a few tricks of the trade will turn a loser into a winner. It's a long-run type of endeavor --- with big swings both ways along the way. If you play the way I recommend in my first paragraph here, you will likely win. If you don't, you likely won't.