Recreational Player Perspective

[FloridaPhil]

I do not consider playing Video Poker as a job. If I did, I would have quit or fired myself years ago.  When I'm on a winning streak I occasionally find myself feeling like the Video Poker machine is my own personal ATM.  About that time my streak takes a down turn and I'm snapped back to reality.  If you can make money or even break even long term playing video poker, I think that's great.  It has not been my experience.

[shadowman]

Not all people who have consistently positive results are "pros".

I don't think of myself as a pro, though I do approach VP as a part-time job.

 
As do many of us who just try and think of ourselves as advantage players (APers).
 

In Vegas there are 3 distinct groups.
 
1) non APers (the vast majority).
2) recreational APers
3) pros
 
The difference between 2) and 3) is the recreational APers generally have a separate source of income. However, they still apply many of the same techniques used by pros.
 
The reason I bring this up is the classification of a "recreational player" is not necessarily going to lead to the division that I think was envisioned by those who asked for this category. It seems to be more of a AP vs. non-AP division that is desired. And, even then the non-AP crowd can be separated into further subdivisions like those who apply AP techniques to negative machines, those who make up their own strategies, those who just want to socialize, etc.
 
Just sayin' ...
 
 

[ko king]

[QUOTE=Quad Deuces]Not all people who have consistently positive results are "pros".

I don't think of myself as a pro, though I do approach VP as a part-time job.

 
As do many of us who just try and think of ourselves as advantage players (APers).
 

In Vegas there are 3 distinct groups.
 
1) non APers (the vast majority).
2) recreational APers
3) pros
 
The difference between 2) and 3) is the recreational APers generally have a separate source of income. However, they still apply many of the same techniques used by pros.
 
The reason I bring this up is the classification of a "recreational player" is not necessarily going to lead to the division that I think was envisioned by those who asked for this category. It seems to be more of a AP vs. non-AP division that is desired. And, even then the non-AP crowd can be separated into further subdivisions like those who apply AP techniques to negative machines, those who make up their own strategies, those who just want to socialize, etc.
 
Just sayin' ...
 
 
 
 [/QUOTE]
Vegas must really have far better vp than we have in the Tunica area because I don't see how anybody that plays a lot of vp could possibly make money playing here. Positive expectation gaming is against gaming laws here from what I understand, why that's the case I have no idea. We stopped at Fitz last week after work and the best DDB I could find was 96.79%, I think it was Horseshoe after that and they had 97.87%. You have to be carefull while playing over here, you may be playing 98.98% then get on the machine right next to that one and be playing 96.79%. We stopped in a little casino in Mo. a while back and the best DDB they had was 95.71%, didn't play a single dollar in that casino. I try to play the best paytables I can find but I still got it stuck to me, even when I played almost 70K hands of 98.98% vp I ended up with an actual payback percentage of 95.34% with freeplay included.

[FloridaPhil]

I think of professional players as people who make all VP playing decisions strictly based on how it effects their long term profit.   My understanding is they maintain the largest bankroll possible, play only positive expectation games, play perfectly for as long as possible and wait for the numbers to do their thing.  A recreational player's motives are different.  We all want to be winners, but we also want to extend play for as long as possible, have limited bankrolls and in most cases don't have access to positive expectation games.   Professionals are not concerned with busting because they have confidence that the 100% plus odds are on their side.  Extending time of play is not an issue for the same reason. 
 
The reason I asked for a recreational players forum is that I believe some players would like to discuss strategies outside of the Dancer formula.  If someone thinks it's a good idea to increase their bet every time a certain song plays in the casino, I want them to be able to post freely about it instead of being treated as stupid (even if their strategy may be...) 
 

[BillyJoe]

Very well stated, Phil.

[vpwillis]

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