Thoughts For Beginners

[FloridaPhil]

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[billryan]

You need to know what the games payable is, then find out what benefits the players club offers and what promos are available.Only then can you make an informed decision.
Time your casino trips so you take full advantage of what they offer. Even if you never play slots normally, don't pass up any opportunity to enter a free tournament. Find out when the house is offering anything, and take advantage of it.
If you play a game that is paying less than 98%, you have zero chance of being a long term winner.Find a better, cheaper hobby. Instead of throwing your money away on weekly excursions to casinos with bad returns, save it and make occasional trips to places that offer good games.

[FloridaPhil]

[quote=billryan]Find a better, cheaper hobby. Instead of throwing your money away on
weekly excursions to casinos with bad returns, save it and make
occasional trips to places that offer good games.[/quote]Good advice if you have the ability.  Unfortunately, not everyone who likes to play video poker wants to fly to Vegas every time they play.  Even in Vegas there is still no guarantee you will win long term.  Video poker is one of the only recreational activities that gives you the chance to win back your entry fee.   The next time you visit Disney World or your favorite restaurant ask them  for this option and see what they have to say.  

[paco13]

Video poker is one of the only recreational activities that gives you the chance to win back your entry fee.   The next time you visit Disney World or your favorite restaurant ask them  for this option and see what they have to say.  





This is pretty much my argument to those who give me crap about playing vp shortly after they were complaining about the price of the sports events they frequent, the movies and dinner, trip to a theme park, etc. To each his own.

[billryan]

This seems to be the difference between blackjack players and the people who frequent this forum. Good BJ players simply don't play 6-5 blackjack and preach against it.
No one on the Blackjack Forum would ever encourage newcomers to play poor games. We try to educate
and enlist them to boycott them.

My advice to any newcomer is if the best game you can find is JOB in 7-5 is to run away. It's a losing game.

[FloridaPhil]

[quote=billryan]My advice to any newcomer is if the best game you can find is JOB in 7-5 is to run away. It's a losing game.[/quote]I play at home as well as in Vegas.  Wherever I play, I choose the game that I enjoy most.  My choice may or may not be the game with the best odds in the casino.  I always find the best odds and comps for that particular game, play as computer perfect as I can and accept my results whatever they are.  Telling players to never play any negative VP game is not helpful.  Everyone knows playing a 100% game is better than playing a 96% game.  Video poker has changed.  Odds and comps across the country have been reduced and
100% games are leaving fast.   When they are all gone, I will still be
playing and enjoying the game for what it is... a game.   

[billryan]

I wish you would stop misrepresenting what I say.
I've never said not to play a negative game. What I say and what you ignore is playing 7-5 Jacks is akin to paying the casino an extra $24 an hour in stupidity taxes.
I'd like to think no one would sit at a game if the casino charged an upfront $25 from you so why let them take it out hand by hand.
Friends don't let friends play bad games. Friends educate their friends and peers.

[FloridaPhil]

[quote=billryan]What I say and what you ignore is playing 7-5 Jacks is akin to paying the casino an extra $24 an hour in stupidity taxes.[/quote]I am sure you didn't mean to infer all people who play negative VP games are stupid.   In most of the country negative games are all that are available.   What the world of video poker needs is not more discussion of 100% games.  It needs a discussion of real problems faced by real players across the country who by in large can only play negative games.  Bob Dancer should write a book entitled "Video Poker in 2017".   He should emphasize the fact that betting big money on negative games means losing more.   He should tell people how to limit their loses, discuss single coin play and the real affect of varying your bet.  Unfortunately, this book won't sell nearly as well as his get rich story. Grinding it out waiting for a profit is a cave man tactic that's day is long gone.  There very well may be a few outlying high denomination positive VP opportunities available, but finding one is very rare indeed and most of today's players will never see one.All I have ever tried to do on this forum is discuss tactics for playing negative video poker games.  Each time I run into someone who is living in the past and is hanging on to the hope that the Bob Dancer glory days of the past will return.   That's sad because many players could enjoy video poker as entertainment without the encumbrance of comparing themselves to a non existent standard.

[billryan]

Again you misrepresent what I said. I'm seriously wondering if you are capable of an honest discussion.
I stand by what I said, not what you misrepresent it to be.
At what point do you advise someone to avoid a game? Is 6-5 okay if it's all you can find?
How about 6-5 with a 2500 Royal? I've seen that game here in Vegas, so I'm sure it is elsewhere.
Or should someone simply pay horrible games because they are fun?

[FloridaPhil]

[quote=billryan]Or should someone simply pay horrible games because they are fun?[/quote]If that's the best you have available, why not?   The last time I was at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi the high limit room Jacks or Better odds were 7/5.  I chose not to play and drove over to the IP where I could play 98.9% deuces wild.   I'm sure someone has hit a royal flush at the Beau and they enjoyed it.    If you approach video poker as entertainment, your only question will be if the experience was worth the cost.  If you are always tallying up your profit and loss, you turn video poker into a depressing task that you are very likely to be disappointed by.   I am in total agreement with Bob Dancer's strategy as it applies to positive video poker games.   It has been talked to death and there is nothing else left to say.   What I have been trying to promote is a discussion of the games most of us outside of Vegas play on a regular basis.  You always want to seek out games with the best odds, but negative games require different strategies and tactics if you want the best value for your entertainment dollar.