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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.

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Feb. 15, 2010

It's Harder Than It Looks

A few months ago I was having dinner with "Susie," one of Shirley's nieces. Also present were Susie's fiance, Alex, and three kids between them --- ages 5, 9, and 15. They live in Arizona and Susie was in town to take a real estate exam.

There were two parts to the exam. Susie barely passed one part and scored 64 on the other --- 6 points lower than the necessary passing score. At one point she smiled and said that perhaps real estate wasn't her thing and maybe she should just take up video poker instead.

I suggested to her that this wasn't such a good idea. "You need to score pretty close to 100% every day if you're going to be playing video poker successfully," I told her. "There's a good chance that someone who scores 64 on a real estate test doesn't have what it takes to score 100% on a video poker test."

"I think I'm as smart as Shirley is," Susie countered, "and she was able to learn how to do it. Why can't I?"

"Intelligence aside, Shirley had a lot of advantages you don't. She didn't have kids around that needed her attention. She had access to as many free meals and hotel rooms as she wanted so cooking and house cleaning didn't represent a large part of her day. She and I possessed a bankroll so she didn't have to work 40 hours in addition to studying and she had a live-in private tutor who was willing to help her as much as she needed to learn the games. In addition to learning the games, she had someone to tell her to play this week at the Palms and next week at the Gold Coast --- or wherever. These are all very significant advantages over what you are experiencing right now."

"But what about Uncle George," Susie continued. "He and Aunt Sandy are making money gambling. I'm probably as smart as either one of them."

"Maybe, but smart's aren't everything. George and Sandy had some money from other sources and George had a fascination with the game and practiced, practiced, practiced. He must have played with Video Poker Tutor (the best computer trainer before WinPoker) for more than 1,000 hours when he was learning. I gave you a copy of WinPoker for Christmas several years ago. How much did you practice with it?"

"I remember you giving me WinPoker but I almost never used it. I was always too busy and since I didn't have any money, what was the point? I could always start to practice now, couldn't I?"

"Sure you can. But there's a reason why you only scored 64 on your real estate test. It might be your intelligence. It might be you have too many other responsibilities to take the time to study. It could be you hate to study or just plain aren't good at it. Most likely it's some combination of these and other reasons. These same reasons will prevent you from learning video poker at close to the 100% level.

"And even if you did get to that level, you'd still need to obtain a bankroll. You can play Full Play Deuces Wild for about $10 an hour at the Palms (with wide swings, and you have to be good to earn this much) but there are lots of jobs out there that pay more than ten bucks an hour. And you don't get medical benefits or paid vacations with gambling. Plus the Palms is here and you live more than 100 miles away. Commuting to a job that pays so little doesn't make sense, and moving here entails a LOT of other things to think about, including Alex's career and the kids' school and friends."

Susie was down heartened. "So you're saying I can't do it?"

"No. I'm saying I don't recommend it. You're going to have to decide for yourself what you're going to do. Shirley and I will continue to love you and assist you whatever you choose. Whether you end up agreeing with me or not, at least go home and think about what I told you. I've seen a lot of wanna-be players lose everything and we don't want to see that happen to you."

Afterwards I asked Shirley if I'd been too hard on her niece. "I don't think so. Sometimes you need a dose of reality. And she admires what you've done so she respects your opinion more than that of some of the rest of us. It's probably just what she needed."