Book reviewThis is my "book report" on the new Bob Dancer book, "Million Dollar Video Poker." First, I must say that I am not a close friend of Dancer (I've only met him a few times), and I am not associated at all with Huntington Press. I'm only writing this because I believe I'm one of the first who's not into VP as a "personality" to have read the book.
The 260-page book was fascinating, and impossible to put down once I started reading it. It is NOT a how-to book. It's more a biography (that almost reads like fiction!) -- how Bob Dancer came to Las Vegas in 1993 as a blackjack player with a $6000 bankroll, and ended up winning $1,000,000 on video poker in a six-month period eight years later.
The book is arranged more or less chronologically. He often details what happened years ago, and then gives an opinion about whether he would do today what he did then. Some of the things he did are obviously in the "grey area" ethically.
I don't want to give away a lot of the contents of the book, because it's a very fun read, and I don't want to spoil it by giving lots of detail. Most of us know the basic story already, anyway.
Besides his own story, he includes tales of other professional VP players he has known. Some of their antics (especially about using coupons, bribing casino employees and abusing comps) will surely put Jean Scott to the test as the most frugal gambler alive!
Dancer goes into great detail what the VP scene was like in the mid-1990's. Since I didn't move to Las Vegas until 1998, I didn't realize what I had missed. $1 FPDW everywhere! $5 15/10 Loose Deuces! Promotions that beat anything going on today! Opportunities in the hundreds of dollars per hour! It seems Dancer progressed from being a quarter player to $25+ almost exclusively on promotions rather than winning the games, even though he is most likely the most knowledgeable person on the planet in terms of VP strategy. It appears that in the early days, more money was to be made by promotions than the games themselves, even though the games were more generous than today's.
He is very candid about some very personal things. He talks about his background as a backgammon and blackjack player, his ex-girlfriend (pre-Shirley), how he met and wooed Shirley (he's not called "Dancer" for nothing!), and lots of references to other folks we're familiar with: Stanford Wong, Jeffrey Compton, Anthony Curtis, Dean Zamzow, Liam W. Daily, Jean Scott, Dan Paymar, TomSki, and others. (Even VP-mail and VPFree get a plug!) He also discusses the history of VP books and software programs.
Dancer writes about his forays into publishing (the "Bob Dancer Reports," strategy cards, etc.), a very explicit story about his involvement with Winpoker, the classes he teaches at various casinos, and his involvement as a consultant to casino management. He also talks about the criticism he's received by being on "both sides of the fence."
The highlight of the book, of course, is the six-month "odyssey" when Bob and Shirley won $1,000,000 in a six-month period at the MGM Grand and the Venetian. Dancer discusses the "fall-out" consequences, where he was tossed out of the latter and had most of his comps taken away at the MGM. He doesn't pull many punches! (A lot of this has already been published in magazines like "Casino Player," but I still can't imagine that Mr. Adelson will be pleased with this book!)
As I said, this is not a "how-to" book on how to do what he did. Many of the opportunities Dancer had in the mid-1990's are long gone. However, his general advice, such as being constantly alert for casino mistakes, taking advantage of stupid casino personnel, evaluating promotions, playing within your bankroll (and sometimes not), exchanging information and bargaining with other players, dealing with hosts, etc., has as much relevance now as ever.
I've been a fan of Bob Dancer since I started playing VP, but there is a lot in this book I didn't know before. He discusses his business relationships with Compton, Curtis, and Zamzow quite frankly. I learned a lot about Compton in particular.
If I had any problem with this book, is that Anthony Curtis did a sloppy job of editing. I caught at least a half-dozen plain-old factual errors ($50,000 / 250 = $250 -- c'mon!) and several instances of sloppy proofreading. But it's not serious enough to not recommend the book.
I would consider this book closer to Jean Scott's "The Frugal Gambler" than Dan Paymar's "Optimum Play." It's more entertaining than informative (again, this is not a "how-to play VP" book), but there is a lot of information and advice in it. It's an easy read and there's a lot of humor (mostly self-deprecating) in it. I highly recommend it.
-- Steve DelNero ("Steve in LV")
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