Can You Keep From Losing?

[FloridaPhil]

I do not believe video poker to be pure gambling, as Phil does. Nor do I believe that a video poker player is to assume the worst and being surprised if they were wrong.

I do not believe VP results are predictable enough to take big risks with my money. I also believe in limiting my risk to things that I can not control. Others may have different risk tolerance and I can respect that. In my case, the worst thing that can happen is I win less than I might. If I played VP like I was expecting to win long term and didn't, the result could be costly.

[Tedlark]

Phil it's not a matter of risk tolerance discussing video poker as being "pure gambling." Player interaction with video poker completely negates your statement that video poker is pure gambling.

You state that you believe in limiting your risk to things that you cannot control. Does this mean you can control the financial markets too?

[stevel96a1]

i can see anything can happen in 6hours or 4500hands, but no one retires from VP in 6hours of winning,

he may have won that night but there will come a tomorrow where he plugs in 60hours/600hrs/6000+hours and the house teeth and edge will sink into his bankroll

and thats where i want to get around, but there is no system yet that can survive 600k+hours and continue to win unless its already a positive game by then it won't matter what system you use because its already a winning game

[case]

I agree with Ted. VP does not have to be pure gambling. If you learn to play the game correctly and play positive games you will win. Of course there are highs and lows. It is not all winning. You can't focus on the short term because many days you will leave the casino down money. But if you believe in the math and play correctly you will see the odds play out.

If you play negative games like Phil and most people you will lose. You will have good days and bad but over time you will lose. That is how the math works. There is no discussion needed on this point. It is how it works....period.

Phil you can (and will) argue this point all you want but you will be wrong. The math is not guess work but rather it is proven. The problem is most look at each day instead of all their visits combined. Every visit to a casino is one long continued session. It does not end the cycle just because you go home for the day. Hard to understand for some but just how it really works.

Again you must learn proper strategy. If you don't then and only then you can avoid the math.

[stevel96a1]

yep so your options are move to vegas like BoB did and right off the bat your playing with a woopin 0.76 edge or higher! basically everyones a bob if you live in vegas and step right up to FPDW or everyones a ken uston step right up to double deck or single deck blackjack!

but if your on the east coast like me and Phil your stuck with crapjack and 96% DW in Tampa or AC
and the stories always ends the same with a lousy 6-5 8 decker or a 96% poker machine

im calling it with ac and gonna plug in as many hands 1 can in vegas come wednesday

[Player422738]

There is volitility in any types of gambling. However the common pattern of any VP games is the great winning hand is always a rare event. Either RF or 4AWK happens in a fat chance in random fashion. If 3 Aces pays 800 credits, we could easily bankrupt the casino.

[FloridaPhil]

yep so your options are move to vegas like BoB did and right off the bat your playing with a woopin 0.76 edge or higher! basically everyones a bob if you live in vegas and step right up to FPDW or everyones a ken uston step right up to double deck or single deck blackjack!

but if your on the east coast like me and Phil your stuck with crapjack and 96% DW in Tampa or AC
and the stories always ends the same with a lousy 6-5 8 decker or a 96% poker machine

This pretty much sums it up. People's opinions are based on their experiences. For me video poker has always been a long term loser. I believe I can match intelligence with Bob Dancer any day. He may score higher in math. I am sure I can do things he can't. That's how we are made. If he played the games I play, he would lose too. The difference is he wouldn't play them. I choose to play them as entertainment. According to his books, he dances for entertainment. Does he make money at everything he does for fun?

I'm not moving the Vegas just so I can play positive games. I'm not going to risk big money trying to prove VP is not gambling when everyone with a brain knows it is. Here is the definition in case you missed it.

1. play games of chance for money
2. take risky action in the hope of a desired result.

The key words here are "chance" and "risky". If you believe playing positive games perfectly is a guarantee of winning in your lifetime, you are gambling that it's true. If you are gambling quarters it isn't going to cost you much to prove it one way or the other. If you are gambling bigger, you are take on more risk. No matter how you state it, you can't get away from the "chance" part of the definition. Video poker machines are not ATMs.

If your experience with VP is always positive, I have no argument with happened when you play. You should know you are the exception not the rule. You may kid yourself into think it happened because you are more intelligent than others. You will feel superior to all those stupid players paying your bills. You will call single coin players names and make jokes about retirees playing on a budget. Here's the funny part, no one cares. They only care about what happens when they play. When I play VP I win sometime and I lose sometime. If I thought for a minute that the object of the game was to win money, I would never go into a casino. I'm only there to be entertained. I want my money's worth and I get it.

[Jstark]

We have 99.96% games, (and that's BEFORE the players card) here, and I'm not anywhere near Vegas.

[markinca]

yep so your options are move to vegas like BoB did and right off the bat your playing with a woopin 0.76 edge or higher!

Thing is, I doubt Bob plays any FPDW games in Vegas at all. In fact, I would guess that virtually all of his play is on <100% machines.

[Tedlark]

Phil you backtracked again. First you called video poker pure gambling and now you've degraded it to just gambling. Goes along with you recent backtracking when you asked for people to show you positive plays available in Florida and when they did: you backtracked from that statement.

You state that single coin players and retirees on a budget only care about what happens when they play. That may or may not be true but if a retiree IS on a budget, is GAMBLING in a casino a smart thing for them to do? You've preached here recently about the ills and bad effects of gambling but yet you continue to preach about ways to save money when gambling. Isn't that just a bit odd?

With the exception of telling players to always play max coin in at a denomination they can play comfortably at: I have never offered playing advice to a video poker player in a casino. I have, probably less than 10 times in 35 years, pointed out to a player a critical error such as keeping a card or not to keep it but I haven't done this in a few years. For better or worse, you regularly offer advice to players here in these forums and a novice player may succumb to it. I personally would leave the advice giving to those who know what they are talking about.

You say that you want your money"s worth when going to a casino and you get it. What happens when you go to a professional baseball game and your team loses, did you not get your money's worth?

You keep digging yourself into a deeper hole here in these forums because you keep singing the same tune over and over and over.

You have a VERY limited audience here and those people are the ones that people like Bob Dancer and others try to educate and make them better players. This totally rubs you the wrong way; I've seen it for several years as have others.