How good is good enough?

[Lucky Larry]

I play lots of Ugly Deuces as its offered at Coushatta on the 2¢ and up denominations. I love the stability and low variance of the game. It is my fall back game whenever my timing is off.

Whenever I learning a new game I'll practice in training mode for hours over multiple days usually trying to get in 200-500 hands/session with 98% or higher accuracy.   The second thing I do is play the game at the casino the first few times at a lower denomination (but same pay table) so I get a feel for the game and the mistake are less costly. This is harder to do when you are so far from the casino so I set a pre-determined bank roll and play through that counting the number of hands I'm playing to simulate a real session versus a practice round of 500 hands.

[alpax]

Alpax probably saw a pic I posted from my last trip to Vegas where I played 10/6 DDB at the Palms. Unfortunately I live in Florida and rarely make it to Vegas. In Biloxi (my nearest option) Airport Deuces with a progressive Royal is actually the best available paytable. I have been stuck playing 9/5 DDB. Thanks for your input.

I would still recommend Airport Deuces over 9/5 DDB (seems like it is 8/5 DDB is Florida from what I see here) if the option was available. Even if 9/5 DDB offers better comp returns, I'd still play Airport Deuces all the time.

I do not think Bob Dancer owns the software, it is by Action Gaming, but he endorses it and was the lead designer of this software specifically knowing what it takes and what is best for video poker players to get better at the game.

I wish the Video Poker for Winners software was continued to be maintained so that there are better resolutions for modern day high definition screens, more gimmick games seen on 5 Star Poker machines, and a strategy maker that covers penalty situations more clearly (like wizard of odds maker). Wanted to see the "Game King" on VPW be the latest one where it has the white caption if you are dealt a paying hand. But for the most part, the integral features on VPW is great and outweighs potential short comings. If all these features are available in VPW 2.0 for additional cost, I'd buy it, but I am not alone in this.

I know Phil repeatedly say that VPW will pay for itself, it will prevent you from making mistakes over the long run, so it will save you well over the $50 in the long run by making better plays.

[FloridaPhil]

We will be in Biloxi next week from Sunday to Wednesday.   Save us a couple of Jackpots! WPW is a good learning program and has a lot of other features that are very useful.  The feature I like the most is the ability to change the denomination on
the fly.  I play $20 at a time and switch to .50 or $1 play if I reach
$50, then switch back.  This is very helpful as you can see how this affects your daily bankroll. What I would like to see is a version that runs on a smart phone.  My mind is spinning with that possibility...   I guess Dancer is making so much money these days playing video poker that he doesn't have time to update his software (just kidding). 

[alpax]

Good luck to you guys at Biloxi, avenge the losses from the previous trip.

I have tried switching denominations to simulate/practice the deuces wild progressive system to create excitement (knowing it will not beat a negative expectation game), but the total accounting stats is still credits in and credits out by hands. I wish there was a tally of actual coin in and actual coin out when you play different denominations, e.g. you get a straight on $1 max credit hand, but lose on the next $5 max credit hand, it will report that you are positive 10 credits rather than actual negative 5 credits.

Dancer has mentioned a few times here and on the Gambling with an Edge radio show that he'd like to see VPW 2.0 with Quick Quads on it, but it is ultimately a business decision from Action Gaming on whether it comes into fruition. I have my own speculations, but thus far VPW is good to learn regular games, and the Gold Membership is good to play the gimmick games.

The smartphone edition is VP Pocket, I bought the Game King and 3/5 Play addons for $4.99 each. It does not let you change denomination and it only has the best paying paytables. Its training mode is the most valuable feature I covet that makes the purchasse well worth it, but there is no degree of error reporting (I try to play perfect anyways). Still a great value and a must have. I play it at least 15-20 minutes a day everyday.

[OTABILL]

[QUOTE=Mr.Dawes]
Alpax probably saw a pic I posted from my last trip to Vegas where I played 10/6 DDB at the Palms. Unfortunately I live in Florida and rarely make it to Vegas. In Biloxi (my nearest option) Airport Deuces with a progressive Royal is actually the best available paytable. I have been stuck playing 9/5 DDB. Thanks for your input.

I would still recommend Airport Deuces over 9/5 DDB (seems like it is 8/5 DDB is Florida from what I see here) if the option was available. Even if 9/5 DDB offers better comp returns, I'd still play Airport Deuces all the time.

I do not think Bob Dancer owns the software, it is by Action Gaming, but he endorses it and was the lead designer of this software specifically knowing what it takes and what is best for video poker players to get better at the game.

I wish the Video Poker for Winners software was continued to be maintained so that there are better resolutions for modern day high definition screens, more gimmick games seen on 5 Star Poker machines, and a strategy maker that covers penalty situations more clearly (like wizard of odds maker). Wanted to see the "Game King" on VPW be the latest one where it has the white caption if you are dealt a paying hand. But for the most part, the integral features on VPW is great and outweighs potential short comings. If all these features are available in VPW 2.0 for additional cost, I'd buy it, but I am not alone in this.

I know Phil repeatedly say that VPW will pay for itself, it will prevent you from making mistakes over the long run, so it will save you well over the $50 in the long run by making better plays.[/QUOTE]

We have VPW software that my wife purchased in 2002. Forget up-to-date- graphics. It doesn't load on my desktop. Too old. However, we were able to load it on our old laptop.

[BobDancer]

Not sure if it is okay to mention other websites, but I have found the Wizard of Odds hand analyzer to be a wonderful tool for understanding those penalty card situations that alpax referred to. It allows you see the difference in EV caused by changing the rank and or suit of a penalty card.

Yes the WoO site has a lot of good tools on it --- including the strategy calculator and the hand analyzer. The hand analyzer there, while free to use if you're online, is much clunkier to use than the one found on Video Poker for Winners --- or on WinPoker for that matter.On all of these products, however, it takes an intermediate-at-least player to understand what they are saying. Figuring out flush penalties, straight penalties of various stripes, high card penalties, straight flush penalties --- among others --- is not something that any of these products spell out for you in complete sentences. They tell you that the EV of one particular hand changes by 0.98743 coins if you change this particular 8 to a 7. But there are 2.6 million different hands. And lots of different changes you could make to each hand --- some of which change the EV and some of which don't. You need some savvy to put this information into some sort of a usable system.The goal of the Winner's Guides is to put this information into such a format. Once you study the guides for a few games, you may be able to do it yourself for future games. And I sure wish the WoO Strategy Calculator was available when we wrote the Winner's Guides. We would have had an easier time creating a more accurate product!Bob

[BobDancer]

[QUOTE=OTABILL] 
I do not think Bob Dancer owns the software, it is by Action Gaming, but he endorses it and was the lead designer of this software specifically knowing what it takes and what is best for video poker players to get better at the game.

I wish the Video Poker for Winners software was continued to be maintained so that there are better resolutions for modern day high definition screens, more gimmick games seen on 5 Star Poker machines, and a strategy maker that covers penalty situations more clearly (like wizard of odds maker). Wanted to see the "Game King" on VPW be the latest one where it has the white caption if you are dealt a paying hand. But for the most part, the integral features on VPW is great and outweighs potential short comings. If all these features are available in VPW 2.0 for additional cost, I'd buy it, but I am not alone in this.

 Correct. I was paid a fee to help develop VPW and I get a very small piece of each sale. If somebody writes in about how to interpret certain things on VPW, often the email gets forwarded to me.  I do not own it.I too wish I could talk them into making upgrades. Trust me. I've had this conversation with them MANY times. It's now to the point that I cannot have such a conversation with Mike and Ernie without straining our relationship --- which I value very much.Bob

[alpax]

Much appreciated with all your efforts Bob. It is not worth having your royalties along with the primary sponsorship of the GWAE radio show cut off from Action Gaming. If you cannot get them to develop the next VPW, I do not think anyone else can.

I will not request any details of those conversations, but my best guess is that Action Gaming probably also need to consider their relationships with their bigger consumer target, the casinos themselves.

I am satisfied with single line Game King for the foreseeable future, and I've spent some money already on various Action Gaming stuff.