In my post, I was not suggesting other activities besides VP; all of
us certainly have to engage in those inevitably, according to our
interests or inclinations. I was curious about heavy VP players
often playing daily for hours. Is it an activity one chooses and
endures, sort of like a factory worker on an assembly line? Is it
much more fun than that?
I see some people have replied they do play eight or ten hours, and
seem to be happy at it. My curiosity is on finding what keeps people
interested.
I can see time flying if the credits go up, no matter how slowly. The
fact one is winning at the moment creates a certain excitement that
shrinks time, as it were. At the same time, I can see that if the
credits go down and as one feeds the machine one twenty dollar bill
after another, one is bound to look at the watch and start getting
restless. It has been published even by the most famous VP players
that the greater number of VP playing sessions are losing ones, thus
the second case is the more common one. It would seem, then, that the
issue of boredom should come up. How is that dealt with?
I can picture many distracting things such as the casino ambience,
the free drinks, the background music, and the changing machine
neighbors. On the other hand, we are not just talking about an
isolated visit, but playing hours a day for days, weeks, months,
years. What is it that delights? Is it the challenge to come out
eventually a winner? Is it like a long distance marathon? Or is the
fascination in playing more like admiring an unfolding pattern? The
311,875,200 poker hands in a game with no wild cards 2,598,960 if
their arrangement is not important- and the even greater number of
different sequences of those hands certainly give the monitor a
kaleidoscopic quality that one might find mesmerizing. I imagine the
more intellectual players are constantly looking for unusual
penalties that would call for a modification in those cases of the
basic strategy table; or spending their playing times studying the
way the different averages and variances of the many hands manifest
themselves as the play unfolds. Others might go play with friends,
and they might know the strategy second nature, that they play
automatically, and can converse with the neighbor, even gossip,
without making more mistakes than sitting silently at a machine. Yes,
I can see VP playing as entertainment, sport, art, science and social
event. How can it be boring? Yet, that is what critics of Video Poker
say. I wonder if those really dedicated, frequent VP players would
comment on why they are never bored, or if they do indeed get bored,
but overcome it one way or another. I know a Royal is not boring, and
its excitement can last a while. One tells the story of hitting it,
one thinks back about it, etc. Unfortunately, Royals are infrequent
events.
My reply to someone that insists a repetitious activity like VP
should be boring, would be that most things in life are boring. Stuff
like brushing one's teeth is not really a lot of fun, yet one does it
several times a day, every day. Is this the right answer about the VP
playing activity? A habit that becomes second nature and one does
automatically? Maybe, but I sort of think there is more to it.