Bob Dancer

[BobDancer]

Bob Dancer, I used to believe that if enough VP players would boycott bad paytables it would pressure the casinos into reforming themselves. However, as FloridaPhil wrote, people are lining up to give their money away. I posted a comment sometime back about the terrible paytables at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi -- horrible -- and yet that place is always packed. As long as there are people determined to write blank checks to the casinos, there will never be any pressure for decent paytables. Like Bob, I see VP opportunities virtually disappearing in front of my eyes. Each week yet another casino has lowered its paytables. I no longer recommend casinos to people, because you never know if the paytables will be dropped before they can visit.
  Boycotting can be effective. At a minimum you should never play a game where the house has the edge. Sometimes casinos bring games back --- although not frequently. I am not nearly as pessimistic about the future of video poker as Rascal appears to be. There will be still be some good games in the future. The thing is, they will very possibly not be the same games as today. Players who only know one game will have the toughest time adapting. In the past 6 months I've played 9/6 Jacks, 9/6 Jacks progressive, 9/5 Jacks, 8/5 Bonus, 8/5 Bonus Multi Strike, 15-9-4-4-3 Deuces Wild Ultimate X Ten Play, 9/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe, 8/5 Bonus Progressive, 9/6 Double Double Bonus, NSU Deuces Wild, and Double Bonus Deuces Wild. I've played these games a variety of formats.  If you include the last two years, the list of games is quite a bit longer.  You can still get away with playing 25c FPDW full time in Las Vegas --- if you can live on $15,000 a year  (over and above what you get from Medicare, pensions, etc.) These games won't last forever. A different level of skills is required to make money playing less-than-100% games by taking advantage of slot clubs, mailers, promotions, drawings, etc. I'm currently 65 years old and can still learn new games and strategies. I'm not as mentally sharp as I was at age 50, but experience counts for a lot. Will I be able to do that when I'm 75? Who knows? We all know certain skills deteriorate with age and different people deteriorate at different rates. I suspect I'll still be able to do it because I regularly exercise my mind in a variety of ways, but I can't know for sure if and when Alzheimer's is going to hit me. It affects some people at ages less than 75. Bob

[FloridaPhil]

I think video poker is great brain exercise.  I'm 65 myself and have been a computer programmer most of my life.   I'm retired now, but try to keep myself as busy as possible. I play Video Poker for Winners for hours at a time.   I like the way you can change denominations in mid play.  It lets me simulate some of the schemes I think up.  Most of them don't work, but it's fun trying. 

[royal flush]

you have done much better selling you books and flash cards. much better then playing vp i have seen tourists from kansas at fpdw looking at your cards to make a play, the down side to this is the average player has improved and the casinos fight back by removing good games. i used to play 21 as i could count 8 decks even though i make more money in tax lax i enjoyed doing something that most folks think cant be done beat the casinos. then when vp came in they had 2 dollar fpdw, dollar games with miss a royal by 1 card worth 125 credits as a promotion on 9/6 job a 103% game some "banked slots" where you sit and wait for the tourists to "fill the bank" then play like hell until bonus gets hit. now i play more live poker like ohama 8 or better as it is beatable at lower limits. the world of vp is limited to 25c fpdw some 9/6 job on bonus point days both are under 1%. the best plays are the progressives where the pot gets big enough to get 2% or higher. but you need a deep bankroll as base game is 8/5 bp or less which will drain your bankroll unless you get enough royals