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VIDEO POKER
 Bob Dancer writes a video poker column for beginners to experts. He also writes a column each week with Jeffrey Compton titled Player's Edge, which features information on promotions at various Las Vegas Hotel. Player's Edge is published each Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Click here to send Bob Dancer an e-mail.
May 13, 2002
Gaining a Bankroll
One of my students, "John," told me he had found the 5¢ 10/7 Double Bonus poker games at the Four Queens. Since that game returns over 100%, he planned to play that game until he built up a big enough bankroll to play for quarters. He was then going to shift to quarters and play until he got a big enough bankroll for dollars. And eventually he was going to parlay that into playing for $5 and higher. He wanted to know what I thought of his plan.
I told him he was whistling in the wind. And that his plan had virtually no chance for success whatsoever.
Even with the Four Queen's slot club, perfect play on nickel 10/7 generates about 50¢ an hour --- with big swings. A bankroll for quarters will require maybe $3,000 to $5,000. How on earth do you expect to save $3,000 if you are earning 50¢ an hour?
The math majors will tell you that 6,000 hours at saving 50¢ an hour will give you $3,000. That is THREE YEARS of 40-hour weeks. In the meantime, you have to live --- which requires you to obtain food, housing, transportation, clothes, etc., etc. Fifty cents an hour won't come close to cutting it.
John responded that since he didn't have the $3,000 now so he couldn't play for quarters, so he had to play for nickels. I told him he didn't have to play at all. Getting any kind of a job paid a lot more than 50¢ an hour. Getting two jobs would allow him to save $3,000 in less than a year. No problem at all if he put his mind to it.
In actuality, very few people are able to accumulate a substantial gambling bankroll primarily through gambling sources. Most people get a large part of their bankroll all at once --- it could be a large gambling jackpot, or perhaps a legal settlement, or through the sale of an asset, inheritance, or something else. It is possible to save $200 a month from your pay until you have a substantial bankroll, but few people can do this. Somewhere along the line, they spend the money on something. They NEED a vacation, or a new car, or something.
John isn't married and has no children, so he has considerable options on how to raise money. People with family responsibilities have it much tougher. Very few married-with-children people can hope to have a gambling bankroll until the children are grown. Whatever excess cash there is in the family always goes toward braces, college tuition, or whatever.
Even if it was just John and a wife, "bankroll" is a concept that you need to reach some sort of agreement on. If John thinks he is saving so he can play dollar machines, and Susie thinks she is saving for a down payment for a house, there's a big fight brewing down the road. Unless Susie is also a gambler, dealing with the swings inherent in playing video poker will be quite tough. She's saving $150 a month, and one evening John loses $500. And swears that it was a good game and he played every hand correctly. Susie might not be amused at all by this.
There are other pitfalls associated with accumulating a bankroll and I'll discuss them at another time. But for now the message is simple --- trying to earn a gambling bankroll by gambling is not a goal with a high probability for success.
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