Bob Dancer on being a VP Pro

[billryan]

From the Dancers Answers section of this site. I want to turn pro, but I have a job that currently pays $50,000 a year. Can I make that playing video poker?

A2:      The most successful players make quite a bit more than
that, but the vast majority of players do not. In fact, the majority of
players do not win at all! Before you decide to do it full time, I
assume you have taken dozens of trips to Vegas (or other gambling
venues), including several for a week at a time, and your results are
encouraging. Because the "minimum acceptable requirement" for this
profession is to be able to do it year after year! Most people can't.
            But even if you can "beat the game", are you sure
this is what you want to do? Playing video poker is VERY repetitious.
What is fun and exciting for three weeks a year can be a real grind for
fifty weeks a year. Summers in Vegas are uncomfortably hot. The games
are getting tighter as the players are getting smarter. There are no
guarantees that games returning over $10 an hour will exist in a few
years, or that even if they do, that you will be good enough to beat
them.
            Another problem is that if you do move to Vegas and
then change your mind after a few years, it might well be a problem
getting a good job again. Prospective employers may well figure that
you are just going to be working long enough to get a gambling bankroll
again and then you will leave. And those employers may well decide to
give the good job to somebody "more stable."

            And how about the problem of "what will you tell your
friends and family?" Many people think gambling is a sin---equivalent I
suppose to being a thief, murderer or lawyer. Are you sure you want to
be classified as such?
            And even if you can average $50,000 a year gambling
(and there are probably less than 20 pros who do that year in and year
out), it is not going to happen right away and there will be some huge
swings along the way. And huge swings mean that if you have
miscalculated, or even calculated well but happen to be on the wrong
slope of the Bell curve, you may well end up bankrupt! $50,000 a year
gambling is not at all the same as having a $1000-per-week paycheck.
There will be months where you lose $25,000 or more! If you cannot
stand this heat, stay out of the kitchen!
            Many of the people current working in casinos came to
town expecting to be able to make a living gambling. And now they are
dealing cards to make ends meet. Do not be so naïve to believe that
this could not happen to you.

[billryan]

  I think that should put an end to the nonsense being spread how he tells everyone that they can get rich playing video poker.

[alpax]

Yeah, it is either you have to lose a lot playing on bad DDB/TDB pay schedules or you make a living playing video poker.

Nothing in between like being a small winner at the end is acceptable to these folks.

Do not waste your energy with those haters, just keep doing your own thing Bill and you should be fine.

[FloridaPhil]

[quote=alpax]Do not waste your energy with those haters, just keep doing your own thing Bill and you should be fine.[/quote] I love Bob Dancer.  He is entertaining and good for the game.  As long as he continues selling the vision that he wins big, players have hope and hope is the driving force behind gambling.On paper Bob Dancer's math is sound and so is his methodology.  On the other hand, I find it amusing that he states all the negatives of becoming a video poker professional and in the same breath says he is one of the few people on earth that can make it work.  I also find it interesting that players buy into his story when he tells them up front that they will fail the majority time.  If he was selling a drug the label would read "This medicine will cure you .2% of the time.  Your results may not be the same."Who cares anyway.  If I don't believe everything Bob Dancer says is true, does that make me a bad guy?  Will it affect my game results if I don't mirror his actions exactly?  He has already told me I will most likely fail, so why should I or anyone else be concerned?  Personally, I don't want to know the truth anyway.  If Bob Dancer loses, we all lose because the dream is dead.

[FAA]

If Bob Dancer loses, we all lose because the dream is dead.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Absolutely. Just aggregate users/players/victims/marks/suckers. He helps business, which helps us, because the casinos must remain profitable to continue operations. I have quite enough experience with this concept in AC.

[notes1]

in one statement he says, 'most' successful VP players make more than $50k, in another he says there are less than 20 that do so year in and year out. he also says most of the folks working in casinos, are those who came to town believing they could make a living at playing.

I also enjoyed where he equates lawyers with murders and thieves, what are the odds he has had some bad experience with lawyers.

in general, I would call his comments fair. I would simply urge him and his followers to make these same comments everytime they argue the machines are beatable. maybe they are, but it is veryyyy rare.

[billryan]

You really have a problem with reading comprehension, don't you?
He says many people working in casinos, which you somehow translate into most people.

[notes1]

my mistake, you got me. happy now?

[billryan]

When I was in school, the teacher asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up.
I said I wanted to be happy.
She said I didnt understand the question.
I said she didn't understand life.
            John Lennon.


Wiser words have rarely be spoken.

[KingofAmerica]

in one statement he says, 'most' successful VP players make more than $50k, in another he says there are less than 20 that do so year in and year out. he also says most of the folks working in casinos, are those who came to town believing they could make a living at playing.

I also enjoyed where he equates lawyers with murders and thieves, what are the odds he has had some bad experience with lawyers.

in general, I would call his comments fair. I would simply urge him and his followers to make these same comments everytime they argue the machines are beatable. maybe they are, but it is veryyyy rare.

He said "The most successful" players make $50k+, not "most"