How to view one's dealt hand

[Alliewallie]

I am learning VP and training hard on VPtrainer.org and doing very well with the rankings making very few errors. BUT BUT, I am incredibly slow plus I am all too frequently missing pairs on the 1 and 5 cards.

So my question: How do most people 'view' or 'take in' the initial dealt hand? Do you go left to right, right to left, take in all 5 cards at once? How does one built up speed and prevent really stupid easy errors?

[FloridaPhil]

Great question.  I'm surprised it has never been asked before.  Playing accurately is much more important than building speed.  If you play negative games like I do, playing slower is an asset as it reduces your cost to play.  Here's what I do.   When I first look at a hand, I make it a point to look at all five cards.  The tendency is to only see the most obvious cards, hit the deal button and go on to the next hand.   You will make mistakes this way.  After I have looked at all the cards, I select my cards by pushing the buttons.  Before I hit the deal button, I look at the cards again.  This showed itself a few weeks ago in Biloxi.  I was deal a pair of Queens.  I looked harder and I had 4 to a royal as well.  I had to look a few more times to make sure I saw what I thought I saw.  I threw away one of the queens and hit a royal for $1,000.  If I had been playing fast, I'm sure I would have missed it.I didn't always play this way.  I played as fast as I could and I made a lot of mistakes.  My wife would watch me and when I made a mistake she would point them out.  It surprised me how many I made.    I slowed down and things are much better.  It's nearly impossible to play 100% perfect all the time.  Avoid making major errors.   If you are going to play big, you need to be much more accurate as each mistake will cost a lot of money.  Mistakes add up.  If you reduce them you will be able to play more hands with your money which means more chances at a jackpot.

[Alliewallie]

Thanks. Do you take in all 5 cards at once? Do you scan L to R, R to L, back and forth, just try to recognize hand patterns by seeing all 5 cards at one time? I know these questions seems kinda stupid. My goal is to build up speed without sacrificing too much accuracy. My ultimate goal is to play at my local Seminole Casino, take advantage of all the 'comps', and try to break even on a 9/6 JOB which is actually available at this casino. I will start at $1.25 and work up to $5/spin eventually.

I appreciate exactly what you said with the wife thing. I have one of those too.

[FloridaPhil]

I don't think it matters what order you view them.  It's better to be consistent.  The important thing is you see and analyze all five cards.   If you use training software, you will eventually be able to recognize correct hands quickly.   Playing Jacks, you don't have to worry about inside straights.  Most of the tricky hands in Jacks have to do with straight flush plays.  Practice, Practice, Practice.  It pays off.  I use Dancer's Video Poker for Winners Software.  I own four copies, one each for my PCs and my laptops.  If you post your questions on the Strategy Forum, he may answer them.Keep in mind that 9/6 Jacks is still a negative game.  You may want to rethink playing $5 a coin.  Unless your comps can overcome the house edge, you will most likely lose money long term and the bigger and longer you play the more you lose.  I play quarters for many reasons.  VP is my entertainment.  I have about $25,000 in my VP bankroll, which is enough to play at the dollar level.  I don't want W2Gs cluttering up my tax returns.  My personal and business returns were audited in 2004 for another issue.  I owed the IRS nothing, but it cost me thousands in CPA fees.  Playing quarters satisfies my entertainment needs without the hassles.What Seminole Casino do you play at?  I play in Tampa and Hollywood.

[billryan]

Thanks. Do you take in all 5 cards at once? Do you scan L to R, R to L, back and forth, just try to recognize hand patterns by seeing all 5 cards at one time? I know these questions seems kinda stupid. My goal is to build up speed without sacrificing too much accuracy. My ultimate goal is to play at my local Seminole Casino, take advantage of all the 'comps', and try to break even on a 9/6 JOB which is actually available at this casino. I will start at $1.25 and work up to $5/spin eventually.

I appreciate exactly what you said with the wife thing. I have one of those too.

You are using the wrong approach. Sacrifice speed for accuracy. It's a negative game so the slower you play, the better you are.
I personally go Left to right, then right to left, make my preliminary decision, and once more go left to right
to make sure I didn't miss anything.
Playing 200 hands an hour accurately is better than playing 400 half assed. Aim for accuracy and speed will follow.

[FloridaPhil]

[quote=billryan]Sacrifice speed for accuracy. It's a negative game so the slower you play, the better you are.[/quote]It's easy for a newcomer to VP to miss this point.   VP experts are quick to offer advice on playing positive games.  The majority of us play negative games.  If you read a lot of VP books like I do, you are given examples of VP games that are worth X number of dollars per hour when played perfectly.   When playing negative games, in time your profit turns into a loss.   Unless the casino is giving you something worth more than the loss, it's still a negative game.  Like Bill stated, playing slower reduces your losses.  I doubt you will find a positive VP opportunity in a Florida casino.  It's possible, but I haven't seen one and I have looked.   

[Alliewallie]

Great advice. Thanks. I play in Immokalee.

[Alliewallie]

Makes perfect sense. Thanks.

[FAA]

Where's the fire? Yeah, I pretty much do LR RL LR Draw. It's your entertainment and your schedule.

[DAAnMAAn]

Can’t add much to what has already been said. Accuracy then speed, not speed then accuracy. Be accurate, speed will follow. You will develop pattern recognition over time playing and will develop a natural style of scanning and recognizing the flops. Don’t worry about having to look left then right, right then left, up and down, Vice versa. Do what is natural as you should be more concerned about correct holds, easy to use buttons, good lighting, good paytables.
Best analogy i can come up with is getting on a bicycle for the very first time and thinking about how fast you can go, yet falling constantly because your not thinking about balancing and putting your feet on the pedals and hands on the wheels. Priorities, priorities.
Cheers