Reassessment

[billryan]

Have you ever seen such a sight in your life as three
Blind Mice?

[FAA]

Yes, 150. The average VP victim toll playing at any given weekend time at an AC casino. Adjust accordingly in your neck of the woods, barring LV. I've seen the light and hereafter abandon all hand pay hope. I'm waving the white flag of surrender. The jig is up. I may go for one splurge a month max if the itch ever returns. Blind no longer applies. My next losing year will be triple digits again.

[FloridaPhil]

[quote=billryan]Have you ever seen such a sight in your life as three
Blind Mice?[/quote]This is the Recreational Strategy Forum where individual thought is not censored or controlled.  As long as we are reassessing, I think it's a good time to review our thoughts. Some of this has been said before, some is new.Positive game VP strategy was created to market products to VP players.  It uses math, smoke and mirrors and fantasy stories to add credibility to the assumption that a physical action can affect the results of a total random event.  If the games are random, no strategy can predict or influence a RNG chip to cycle according to any math formula.  Like most unregulated marketing schemes, there are some truths contained in their logic.  One of them is using computers to calculate the most mathematically positive plays.  Using the best hand strategy will allow you to play more hands with a given amount of money.  Playing games with better odds does the same thing.  These parts of the strategy have value. Playing positive VP games by mathematics can never guarantee jackpots will happen on time because the RNG does not operate within the scope of traditional mathematics. Randomness is defined as "the lack of pattern or predictability in events".  Does this sound comforting as you feed $100 bills into the machines?The most potentially harmful tenant of traditional VP strategy is the principle that moving up in denomination to gain an edge on odds is worthwhile.  In order for this to work, the RNG must produce hands in sync with the math.  VP math formulas are calculated over a time span that a human being can not come close to reaching.  It would take billions of machines and billions of players to duplicate the computer calculated results with accuracy.   What happens to the RNG when you play is random.  Some skilled and intelligent players will win and some will lose.Comps have value.   They are a payback from a casino for being a loyal customer.  They are earned by playing a game with a built in cost to play.  Paying more to play a game just to earn a bigger comp is a personal decision.   One person may want to be able to stay in a free hotel room.  Another wants to be Seven Stars.  Someone else may not want anything at all.  As long as you are going to play anyway, why not take the payback?  Paying more to earn more or better comps only works if you don't overpay for the comp.Casinos are not in the business of funding player's lifestyles.  If they do it's because they are receiving some benefit in return.  If someone successfully promotes a strategy that produces more revenue for the casino, that's a benefit.  If that same person writes stories or goes public about winning millions of dollars in a casino, that's a benefit.  Before you buy into a plan that could potentially cost you thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, you should consider these things.Tax laws have changed.  You have partners in this enterprise that you may not have had before.  What good is a few percent edge when the Federal taxes could take 10-37% of your winnings plus individual State taxes?   All that time you spent practicing .03% plays seems pretty silly now doesn't it?Playing VP is great entertainment.  As long as you keep that in perspective, you will be a happy player.  If you are counting on VP as a career or to supplement your income, you will most likely be disappointed.  If you thrive on disappointment, a gambler's lifestyle may be for you.  For me, VP is entertainment and that's all I ever want it to be.

[FAA]

I got zero odds edge, unless I was at Harrah's. Allure was the hand pay. But all I got was the back of the hand across my face. Time to bury costly bad habits, if not the vice itself. I may still bust, but it will be trivial and inconsequential.

[billryan]

Tough to explain chess strategy to people who insist they are playing checkers.

[FAA]

I must be missing your esoteric point, reminiscent of M.C. Escher. JOB is indeed the checkers of VP. Rather than continue losing big with it, due to FML RNGs, I'll revert to losing small.

[FloridaPhil]

It takes skill to win at both chess and checkers.  To win at VP you must be sitting at the right seat at the right time.  Being good at "Musical Chairs" helps.  

[onemoretry]

.Positive game VP strategy was created to market products to VP players.  It uses math, smoke and mirrors and fantasy stories to add credibility to the assumption that a physical action can affect the results of a total random event.  If the games are random, no strategy can predict or influence a RNG chip to cycle according to any math formula. 

Sometimes, you post sensible comments. Other times, what you post is off the wall nonsensical garbage that suggests you have very little understanding of probabilities, randomness, etc. This paragraph is one of the latter.

[billryan]

I've yet to meet a successful vp player who was concerned about moving around. Unless they had been killing time because the machine they wanted was occupied when they arrived.
They know the pay table and the EV of their play before sitting down.

[Waiting4RF]

I agree with onemoretry.