CasinoGaming.com


	Sundays: Inside Gaming Tuesdays: Video Poker Wednesdays: Off the Shelf Fridays: Richard Eng, Player's Edge Saturdays: Pocket Aces

VIDEO POKER

Columns

• Back to Bob's index

• Back to columnist index

Bob Dancer writes a video poker column for beginners to experts. He also writes a column with Jeffrey Compton, "Player's Edge", featuring information on promotions at various Las Vegas casinos. Player's Edge is published each Friday in the Neon section of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Click here to send Bob Dancer an e-mail.

For a 3,000-word preview of Bob's juicy new novel, "Sex, Lies, and Video Poker", visit www.bobdancer.com.

For more details and a schedule of Bob's free classes, visit www.bobdancer.com.

May 8, 2007

What Do You Do When There's No Game to Play?

As I write this, Shirley and I are on the Norwegian Star on an eight-day cruise from Los Angeles to the Mexican Riviera. The ship has a casino, of course, but the best game is either 7-5 Jacks or Better or 6-5 Bonus Poker. I haven't bothered to determine which is actually worse because neither is close to being playable, from my point of view.

I was walking through the casino checking out the games when someone recognized me. "George" and "Hilda" had taken some classes from me years ago and were surprised to run into me on a cruise.

They were both hammering away at a 25¢ progressive, with a $1,500 royal on a 96% base game. I considered scolding them for playing such a poor game but I decided to hold my tongue.

"What game are you playing here," Hilda asked politely.

"I'm not," I replied. "There's no game here where I have the advantage so I'm taking the week off."

"We can't do that," George told me. "We don't get to casino very often, so we feel that when we do get to one, we have to play. If the game isn't particularly good, that's too bad, but we like casinos so much we play anyway."

To me that's very short-sighted. George and Hilda might well lose a few thousand dollars on this cruise. For quarter players, that's a LOT. These kinds of unnecessary losses can very well keep their bankroll small. Tomorrow's bankroll is definitely affected by today's decisions.

I guess I just don't understand players who HAVE to play just because they are near a casino. To me this is analogous to people who MUST watch television tonight even though "nothing good is on." There are a zillion other things to do other than throw away your money on bad games in a casino or waste time watching television shows you don't care about.

On this particular trip, I've brought my computer along and am writing a new book (it's a video poker book for beginners and should be published by Huntington Press before the end of the year). I've brought along three books to read --- just in case the book doesn't flow. I hope to create a backlog of eight to ten articles for the various publications I contribute to, but so far this is the first one and this is day six of the cruise. My life works better if Shirley and I spend an hour or so dancing each night. I'm at the gym every day, although not as much as I should be given the amount of food I'm consuming.

There's a good chance that my chosen activities aren't the ones that you would choose. That's okay. There are LOTS of organized things to do on a cruise ship and a variety of not-so-organized activities to do as well. We only have a few days to spend on the ship and in Mexican ports, whereas we'll have hundreds of hours to spend in casinos in the relatively near future. Making the most of the opportunities as they present themselves seems to me a far better way to spend your time than to play bad casino games just because they are there.

That said, if George and Hilda play for recreation only, and losing a few thousand dollars is no big deal for them, then I have no problem if they play to their hearts' content. Making money is MY priority, but not everyone has the same priorities, and that's one of the things that makes the world interesting.