Long Term vs. Short Term
Posted: Sun Apr 14, 2019 4:14 am
I first started playing video poker in the late nineties. I had never been to many casinos before that. My wife and I had a friend who traveled a lot for business. He always stopped in Biloxi to gamble. He told us about the Beau Rivage and it sounded like a nice place to visit. We asked him what game we should play? He told us to play video poker. He said Jacks or Better was a good game for beginners. We didn't know anything about the game. He thought all you did was hold the Jacks. We went to Biloxi and stayed at the old Casino Magic. At that time the Beau Rivage seemed like a crystal palace. We played the game and we enjoyed the experience. After that, we made a trip to Vegas and stayed at the MGM. On the night before we flew back, I hit my first royal flush.
Upon our return, I bought all the video poker books I could find. I read about game odds and computer play. I read how professionals played the game and the huge swings they had to endure. I read about building a bankroll and managing money. As usual, whenever I got into a hobby I jumped in with both feet. At the time I was playing dollar Jacks. The odds were 7/5 but I didn't know you weren't suppose to play that game.
Back then, I would take $3,000 with me to Biloxi. This would normally last me through a three day trip. One trip, I started paying around three in the afternoon. I hit a royal flush for $4,000. Thirty minutes later, I hit another one for $4,000. Just for fun, I gave my wife $100 and told her to go into the high limit room and take a pot shot on a $5 video poker game. She returned about 15 minutes later with $700 in her hand. The following morning, we went over to the Golden Nugget. I decided to switch to quarters so I could go home with the money I had won. Sure enough, 20 minutes later I hit a third royal for $1,000. I switched back to dollars and hit my forth royal for $4,000. On the drive home, we thought we had found a gold mine. All we had to do was go to Biloxi and clean up.
Our many return trips didn't go that well. It actually took about a year for the casino to take back all our winnings from that trip. They showered us with gifts. We stayed in suites and ate in the best restaurants for free. Other casinos sent us offers too. Eventually, our losses started to build up. A game that started out as fun turned into a burden. Once we got behind, we felt the need to recover our losses. This made things even worse. The cycle of winning and losing was like being on a tread mill that costs a thousand dollars a hour to run on. Eventually, we got the message. Anyone can get lucky playing video poker. The danger comes when you believe you can control your luck.
We made some decisions that got things back under control. First, we concluded that whatever we lost was gone forever. Recovering losses was out of the question. Every trip was a new opportunity to win or lose. Second, we realized the casino was going to win long term. The odds were on their side and they never run out of money. If someone was going to consistently beat the casino, it wasn't going to be us. To limit our cost, we switched to quarter play. We changed our goal from long term to short term results. My wife has a great strategy along these lines. If she is losing, she goes shopping. She says this works for her because in the end she gets something for her money other than memories.
My strategy is to use low cash out limits. This doesn't help my eventual results, but it helps me manage my money. It slows me down on bad days and makes me think before I do something I will regret later. Video poker still costs us money to play, but it's manageable. Our combined Biloxi three day bankroll is $1,000 and we rarely use it all. Our cost to play without comps is well under $5,000 a year. Throw in all the free rooms, drinks and coffee shop food and it's a fairly cheap family activity. Our biggest cost is travel. We would have travel expenses if we were visiting National Parks instead of casinos.
We like to combine travel with video poker. These trips have taken us all over the country. This summer we are flying to Seattle and driving down to Albuquerque. We will visit Glacier National Park, Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. We are spending two days playing video poker in Black Hawk Colorado, one of our favorites. We will drive along side 14,000 foot mountains on our way to Cripple Creek. We are looking forward to this trip. We are not expecting to win money, but you never know.
Upon our return, I bought all the video poker books I could find. I read about game odds and computer play. I read how professionals played the game and the huge swings they had to endure. I read about building a bankroll and managing money. As usual, whenever I got into a hobby I jumped in with both feet. At the time I was playing dollar Jacks. The odds were 7/5 but I didn't know you weren't suppose to play that game.
Back then, I would take $3,000 with me to Biloxi. This would normally last me through a three day trip. One trip, I started paying around three in the afternoon. I hit a royal flush for $4,000. Thirty minutes later, I hit another one for $4,000. Just for fun, I gave my wife $100 and told her to go into the high limit room and take a pot shot on a $5 video poker game. She returned about 15 minutes later with $700 in her hand. The following morning, we went over to the Golden Nugget. I decided to switch to quarters so I could go home with the money I had won. Sure enough, 20 minutes later I hit a third royal for $1,000. I switched back to dollars and hit my forth royal for $4,000. On the drive home, we thought we had found a gold mine. All we had to do was go to Biloxi and clean up.
Our many return trips didn't go that well. It actually took about a year for the casino to take back all our winnings from that trip. They showered us with gifts. We stayed in suites and ate in the best restaurants for free. Other casinos sent us offers too. Eventually, our losses started to build up. A game that started out as fun turned into a burden. Once we got behind, we felt the need to recover our losses. This made things even worse. The cycle of winning and losing was like being on a tread mill that costs a thousand dollars a hour to run on. Eventually, we got the message. Anyone can get lucky playing video poker. The danger comes when you believe you can control your luck.
We made some decisions that got things back under control. First, we concluded that whatever we lost was gone forever. Recovering losses was out of the question. Every trip was a new opportunity to win or lose. Second, we realized the casino was going to win long term. The odds were on their side and they never run out of money. If someone was going to consistently beat the casino, it wasn't going to be us. To limit our cost, we switched to quarter play. We changed our goal from long term to short term results. My wife has a great strategy along these lines. If she is losing, she goes shopping. She says this works for her because in the end she gets something for her money other than memories.
My strategy is to use low cash out limits. This doesn't help my eventual results, but it helps me manage my money. It slows me down on bad days and makes me think before I do something I will regret later. Video poker still costs us money to play, but it's manageable. Our combined Biloxi three day bankroll is $1,000 and we rarely use it all. Our cost to play without comps is well under $5,000 a year. Throw in all the free rooms, drinks and coffee shop food and it's a fairly cheap family activity. Our biggest cost is travel. We would have travel expenses if we were visiting National Parks instead of casinos.
We like to combine travel with video poker. These trips have taken us all over the country. This summer we are flying to Seattle and driving down to Albuquerque. We will visit Glacier National Park, Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. We are spending two days playing video poker in Black Hawk Colorado, one of our favorites. We will drive along side 14,000 foot mountains on our way to Cripple Creek. We are looking forward to this trip. We are not expecting to win money, but you never know.