VIDEO POKER

It's a Jungle Out There

The nature of competition is that two or more people (or groups of people) are trying to obtain the same prize. It could be two men after the same woman, or maybe every team in the league going after the championship. It could be a group of lions trying to get food to eat competing with a group of antelopes trying not to be eaten.

Whatever the form of competition, people who care whether they win or not do what they can to stack the odds in their favor. One guy pursuing the girl will use his wallet while the other will take dance lessons. There's all kinds of differences in the way sports teams go after the win. And I don't know whether the lions and antelopes think about strategy or just do what comes natural. But in every case, you do what you have to do.

Let's talk about video poker. Good video poker players try to get better. Some do it by taking classes and reading everything they can find on the subject by authors they respect. Others do it by practicing on a computer until they know the games cold. Others concentrate on taking advantage of double points and other promotions. Valuable information and knowledge is exchanged on several Internet bulletin boards (along with a whole lot of meaningless drivel). The net effect of all of this is that the video poker player community as a whole is becoming more knowledgeable --- especially the most knowledgeable players.

On the other side of this competition we find the casinos, which are, after all, in business to make money. If a "game-mix plus promotions" earned $100 per machine per day two years ago, it earned only $80 per machine day last year and $60 per machine day now. I'm making these numbers up, to be sure (and there are machines available today that weren't available two years ago), but this indicates how the player base has improved.

This progression is just fine with the players, of course, because this means that the better players are making money. Slot players and bad video poker players are still big losers, and this is perfectly acceptable to the knowledgeable players.

Casino managers do not like the lowered profit progression at all, and they are paid to reverse the trend if they can. So they make adjustments to the machines, the slot club, the type of promotions offered, or the players they allow to play. Players can complain about the "greedy casinos" all they want, but anyone with an understanding of the two sides of competition canąt be too surprised. My personal opinion is that several casinos are going about the adjustments the wrong way, but the fact that SOME adjustments will be made is easily predictable. Next week I'll speak to the subject of how I think casinos are doing this incorrectly.

I have had emails from players telling me that they will, horrors, have to go out and get a job because making a living playing video poker is becoming too difficult for them. I can sympathize with their goal of making it in the casinos and the frustration of having to bite the bullet and change goals.

Making it as a gambler has always been a "survival of the fittest" profession. A few players will make it and most won't. It's a jungle out there.