Crazy Luck Continues

[Carcounter]

If you have $85 in free play, you may actually be playing with a slight advantage if you are playing 98.9% deuces for quarters for a few hours. Don't know what the loss rate is on 500-600 hands per hour.

[Tedlark]

Phil, you wrote: "It's no fun to walk around with an empty wallet all the time just because you want to play VP on a regular basis."

People who act that way need to take a very serious look at themselves and their gambling habits if that is the case. Recreational player or not.

[FloridaPhil]

[quote=Tedlark]Phil, you wrote: "It's no fun to walk around with an empty wallet all
the time just because you want to play VP on a regular basis." 
People who act that way need to take a very serious look at
themselves and their gambling habits if that is the case. Recreational
player or not.[/quote]I agree.  Unfortunately I have met a lot of so called Recreational Players that find themselves in that boat.  It's not to a point where they are losing their house or anything close to that.  They walk around depressed and that's not a good thing.   No one wants to admit how addictive VP can actually be.This isn't something we need to talk about excessively, but it is part of the game.

[FloridaPhil]

[quote=Carcounter]If you have $85 in free play, you may actually be playing with a
slight advantage if you are playing 98.9% deuces for quarters for a few
hours.[/quote]My current strategy is to use Bonus Poker as my base game.  The best BP game we have is 7/5.   I estimate I play that game about 80% of the time.   Stashing all my tickets over $50 keeps me close.  My preference is to stay with Bonus Poker all day.  Depending upon what happens, I  may switch to DDB or Deuces Wild.  I always play quarters unless I'm using free play or I go way ahead.   My venture into dollar play is normally limited to a couple of $20s max.  The best quarter deuces game we have is 97.579%.  The best quarter DDB game we have is 8/5.Instead of switching denominations like I used to, I change games. This has been working well for me,  There is always a chance that I may hit quad aces playing deuces wild or quad deuces playing bonus poker.  It happens, but it works more than it hurts. I don't recommend this for beginners.  I have been playing VP so long, it's not a problem for me to switch between games.  I find switching from Bonus Poker to Deuces Wild easy as the strategy is so different.  I do sometimes make errors when I switch from Bonus to DDB and back.In the past when I fell behind and needed to catch back up, I would play bigger.  This was almost always a disaster and caused me to lose more money than I should.    I stay with quarters 99% of the time.  I play all my free play in dollars.  I do this not because I am hoping for a big hit.  I do it because it's easier to turn my free play into money and stash the ticket.I play this way to make the game fun and interesting.  Math has nothing to do with it.  Since making this change, not counting royals, I have cut my losses in half.   Three royals since last December has put me ahead about $2K and I'm still there.  I have been on a royal lucky streak and I know it.The best thing I ever did was enact the $50 cash out limit.  If I don't have some way of determining when to leave the casino, I will play until my money is gone.   It's not easy to have the discipline to walk out with money, but it's worth the effort.  The author of the book I mentioned earlier believes leaving when you are ahead can turn a negative game positive.  I do not agree.  However, it definitely has improved my results.

[Gronbog]

The author of the book I mentioned earlier believes leaving when you are ahead can turn a negative game positive.  I do not agree.Yeah. Definitely voodoo. Which book, by the way?  However, it definitely has improved my results.























Stashing tickets and leaving when ahead have not, in themselves, lowered your losses. They are a structured way of forcing you to play less. This is a good thing when playing recreationally. However you do it, it is playing less which is reducing your losses.

[FloridaPhil]

[quote=Gronbog]Yeah. Definitely voodoo. Which book, by the way?[/quote]The "Undeniable Truth About Video Poker".  The author was banned from this website before I came here.   It's an interesting book.   About 1/3rd of it is usable information for a Recreational Player.  The rest of it is the author ranting against Advantage Play Strategy and the people promoting it.  He recommends moving to bigger and bigger bets to recover losses, which I think is financial suicide.   I read everything I can find about video poker both in print and on the Internet.   I test it myself on the games I have to play.  I use what works for me and discard what doesn't.   I'm not playing for profit, so much of the traditional VP strategy doesn't do what I want it to do or how I want to play.What I end up with is a custom strategy that provides me with the exact VP experience I am paying for.   I think the biggest problem most Recreational players have with VP is they don't know what they want.   If you want profit above all else, no need to reinvent it, it's already been done.  If you want something else, you first have to figure out what that is.  What I want is an exciting entertaining game that I can play long term at a reasonable cost with the regular possibility of a nice jackpot.   I don't want to suffer through huge painful financial downturns.  I don't want to fly to Vegas just so I can play positive games.  Long term profit would be nice, but it's far from the top of my list.Please don't confuse what I want from VP with what works for you.  We are all different and view the game through different eyes.

[Gronbog]

I have no problem with the way you play given the reasons you play. I just didn't want anyone to believe that the specific mechanisms that you use to decide when to stash tickets and when to stop have any direct mathematical effect on reducing losses.For the recreational player, playing less, including stopping sooner, is one very good way to reduce losses. I believe that your mechanisms simply have the effect of making you play less than you would without them.

[FloridaPhil]

[quote=Gronbog]I just didn't want anyone to believe that the specific mechanisms that
you use to decide when to stash tickets and when to stop have any direct
mathematical effect on reducing losses.[/quote]I am sure you are correct.  Each time I cash out the ticket includes the win plus any money left in the machine at the time.   When I am out of cash, I add up my tickets to see where I am for the day.   I then decide what to do from there.  Over the years, I have a good idea how much money I need to take to play for a specific amount of time.  Right now, $400 usually lasts me at least 3-4 hours without playing any of my white tickets.  I have no problem taking more cash if I want to play longer.   This strategy prevents me from coming home busted as I consider that the worst possible result.  This money management strategy strengthens my discipline, restricts my dollar play and keeps me out of the high limit room.  I have learned that playing more hands is more valuable than taking limited pot shots at higher denominations.   When to cash out, when to change games, when to go home?  All these things are parts of the game I enjoy.  So far, it's working out.

[DaBurglar]

I have no problem with the way you play given the reasons you play. I just didn't want anyone to believe that the specific mechanisms that you use to decide when to stash tickets and when to stop have any direct mathematical effect on reducing losses.For the recreational player, playing less, including stopping sooner, is one very good way to reduce losses. I believe that your mechanisms simply have the effect of making you play less than you would without them.



"Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat...." - Classy Freddie Blassie


...or was it the Grand Wizard of Wrestling? It might have even been Captain Lou Albano....damn.....



Edited to add:. Well I was in the ballpark but in foul territory.... I googled and discovered that in actuality, the current attributed modern source for my cited quotation is none other than GOVERNOR ( and Navy seal) Jesse "the body" Ventura.....

Anyway gronbog, I hope this adds flavor to your thoughts as you help phil

[stevel96a1]

Phil if you ever publish a book and its available on amazon i will purchase it, your money management method is a powerful one, i personally found out the hard way you should never play nothing higher than .25 cent machine due to uncle sam takes a nasty bite of your winnings when generating a tax form. 1/5 of 4k ouch its almost like hes hit a royal on quarter level, i may employ your system this weekend taking 250$ down. also learned the hard way to play games with low variance such as JoB i know its still possible to lose 500-400$ on full pay but just not likely oppose to triple double bonus. i ran sims its possible to win money on negative games just not likely and these sims played over a mil hands. it sucks that LV has all the full pay machines and everyone else gets jipped im hoping that changes soon with new casino in ac opening up the hard rock cafe