Playing Speed

[FloridaPhil]

Recently, I decided to read "Million Dollar Video Poker" again. I must have read this book at least 20 times by now. Each time I read it, I learn something I didn't know before.

On page 59, there is a riddle about two imaginary players, Stan and Pearl. It's an interesting riddle and I encourage you to read it. It's about playing with house money and how comps affect your results. There is one sentence that stands out for me.

"Wining players know that the key to this puzzle is that 9/6 Jacks or Better returns only 99.5% without a slot club, which means this game is a loser for the player, so the one who plays the least loses the least."

The riddle goes on to tell how comps can turn a negative game positive. Suppose they don't?

What does this have to do with playing speed? We have all seen VP players that play fast. I once saw a video of a guy playing two machines at once playing faster than I knew possible. There was no way this man could be 100% computer accurate. Here's the kicker. If the game he was playing including comps was less than positive, the faster he played the more he lost. If he decided to switch to $5 games and the comps still didn't make the net game positive he increased his losses exponentially.

Why do we tend to increase our playing speed? It's easy to get into a rhythm that steadily increases as we go along. Scientists tell us winning releases chemicals in our brain that we like. Winning is a drug and we want more and we want it faster. The problem is twofold. Playing faster causes errors. You may miss a straight flush draw or two to a royal hidden in a bunch of nothing. Most of us play negative games where our comps don't offset the casino's edge. Playing these games faster increases losses. Playing these games bigger without any additional benefit for doing so does as well.

About five years ago I timed myself playing VP. I was playing at about 1,000 hands an hour. I also made a lot of mistakes. No wonder I thought the games were rigged! I only had negative games to play, so the faster I played the bigger my losses. I would move up in denomination and lose even more. Once in a while I would hit a jackpot at a high denomination and play with what I believed was house money. It was actually my money, the house just loaned it to me for a while. They knew I would give it back.

Since I switched to Bonus Poker last fall, I have intentionally slowed my play. I now look at every hand twice. I keep my finger off the deal button while I'm looking. I find cards I didn't see before. So far this year I have hit five royals. Playing slow did not make them happen. Playing fast, I might have missed one or more. Since the games I have to play are negative even with comps, I would have lost more as well.

My wife has always played VP slow and she has always had better results. I have known her since she was 15 years old. She was an A+ honor student in school and a National Honor Society Member. She also reads slow, but she comprehends 100% of what she reads. I on other hand, have a different personality and talents. I am a creative person and she's not. I tend to read and play fast and I miss things and make errors. I am making an effort to slow down my VP and play like her. If you are like me, you should too.

[OTABILL]

My wife and I always played relatively slow. Often we would talk with one another and take breaks to see each others hands. Probably made mistakes because of it. We were having a good time which was the reason we were at the casino in the first place. The purists and serious players on the form I am sure are aghast at what we were doing. Not playing with an edge, etc. However, we were/are recreational players and have a completely different perspective. We may have spent more money than we would have if we concentrated better. But that would have defeated the reason we were there, To me that is one of the differences between a casual recreational player and more serious ones. We all want to win but not at a cost to our primary objective.

[Eduardo]

About 75% of my play is with my wife at my side. When she is with me, we take turns playing one at a time and watch the other play (switching every $20 or so, either up or down). This makes our bankroll last a lot longer and also gives the opportunity to correct the other if a mistake is about to be made.

As far as playing speed, I think this is something each player needs to determine on their own. The best way is with training software... find your pace and if you are making a lot of mistakes, slow down. You won't know that as well in the casino.

[FloridaPhil]

We all want to win but not at a cost to our primary objective.

Some members of this forum have a hard time understanding how we can enjoy going to a casino without making a long term profit. It's not that we don't want to profit, it's that we don't want to make the sacrifices that may be required to meet that objective.

We go to the casino to spend the day together doing something we both enjoy. Too many marriages fail because the partners live separate lives. They may eat and sleep together, but they work in different places and have separate hobbies. The small time they do spend together may be out of obligation to the kids, not each other. My wife and I have always done everything together. VP is just another hobby that we both can share.

Where else can you go to be entertained for an afternoon or a few days and they give you a chance of winning your money back? Try that at Disney World. All the casino asks of us is that we play their VP games at $1.25 a hand. They smile at the hotel desk when they hand us the keys to our room and they smile again when they tell us we owe them nothing as we leave. They don't care if we play 90% slots, 96% or 99% video poker. We play the best quarter games they have so we can play longer for less. As long as we believe the trade off is worth the price, we go back. If we don't, we play somewhere else.

You don't need a pile of money, stacks of strategy books and hours of classes to enjoy playing video poker for entertainment. You don't have to be a math expert either. All you need is the realization that the casino is a two way street. They want you to have a good time and spend some money. How much you spend is up to you.

Learning to play the best games the best way holds down the cost of playing VP. Learning to take advantage of comps and incentives adds to the experience and costs nothing. You don't have to be an expert to know this. This forum doesn't have to be just about profiting from VP. It can be about getting the most entertainment for your money.

[Eduardo]

Some members of this forum have a hard time understanding how........

Maybe if you didn't set up so many posts talking about what other people don't understand or how "AP's think differently," you wouldn't find yourself in so many pissing matches.

If I say "Recreational players don't understand math, but it's important to..."

Well, you're probably going to get pissed about that.

If I instead just say "The math is an important factor in the game...." then you would actually agree!

See how that works? Just food for thought. You bring a lot of this on yourself by the way you frame others.

Just say you go to the casino for entertainment. Or don't, since you've already said that 137 times. But if you must point out again that you go for entertainment, try doing it without pitting yourself against "some members of this forum."

[FloridaPhil]

Some members of this forum have a hard time understanding how........

Maybe if you didn't set up so many posts talking about what other people don't understand or how "AP's think differently," you wouldn't find yourself in so many pissing matches.

I'm through talking about what APs do or don't do. If our experts would talk more about playing negative VP games, I wouldn't feel the need to.

What good is talking only about games that few people can play? Casino X has a special that pays extra for quad hearts today! Big deal, casino X is 2,000 miles away. This is a nation wide if not world wide VP forum, not just for Vegas players or high rollers only.

[Eduardo]

If our experts would talk more about playing negative VP games, I wouldn't feel the need to.

You're asking AP's to post MORE in the Recreational forum?

[olds442jetaway]

This may not work out long term, but I am playing more negative games than ever and doing much better. I don't think that is because negative games work better. It is because if I play triple play or play 3 lines on spin poker, I have more chances at a good hand. I haven't done the math, but the variance seems better on triple play. Sometimes, the center deal line hits almost nothing all night yet the other line or lines bail you out. I have seen it over and over again. There is always the possibility of course that none of the 3 lines will hit anything. On those sessions, you will get smoked. So far so good after 5 sessions.

[olds442jetaway]

Forgot to mention....one can never get a 99 percent game on triple play at either casino I play at. They only offer those on single line games. I think its just for the reasons I mentioned above

[FloridaPhil]

If our experts would talk more about playing negative VP games, I wouldn't feel the need to.

You're asking AP's to post MORE in the Recreational forum?

What I am asking is they post more about the games and situations the majority of us see. What good is talking about a quad heart bonus or a great opportunity in a gas station casino when few of us ever see those games? I learned a lot from the exerts on this forum. They taught me how to enjoy an activity some people pay tens of thousands of dollars to do at a bargain price. Thanks to them, I get to play VP with my pocket change. Once in a while the casino gives me some of my money back. To me, that's a great trade off for the entertainment I receive.

I think my video poker experience is closer to the majority experience of more players than an AP's in Vegas. I post in this forum to open up those experiences to discussion, not to teach anyone or rebut what an expert says. Forums are about conversations, not just one person's point of view. Let's have a few new conversations once in a while instead of rattling off the same stuff from the year 2000.