rockofjello333 wrote:
rockofjello333 wrote:
Even so, you may find the new stuff on Risk of Ruin worth themodest
price of the book by itself.
I wouldn't have thought that a subject such as this (valuable as it
may be) wouldn't have been virtually beaten to death by now. If you
can offer a new perspective on some old mathematics, I think it'd be
worth seeing, although personally, I underplay my bankroll so much
that my ROR is probably 0.0000000001%.
If you have that big a bankroll, and you are as good as you seem to think, then you don't need my publications. So why are you bothering to respond to my posts? You could be out there winning big bucks. But I know a skilled player who lost a $20,000 bankroll playing $1 FPDW (when they were available). He ignored RoR instead of switching to quarters when his bankroll got low. Also, if you read all the posts on this forum then you know how often a newcomer asks how big a bankroll he/she needs for a certain game, so obviously there are many people who sorely need good information on Risk of Ruin.
> My publications are written for beginning to intermediate
recreational players, and I have never claimed differently. If you
have bought the second edition, you might want to give it to a
beginning player friend for Christmas.Certainly a good idea.
I'm glad you agree that it's a good book for beginners. That's still (and always will be) the vast majority of players. I have never claimed to be writing for pros.
> You seem to think that I am not in the "real world." Even though I
recently moved away, I still go to Las Vegas several times a year
and
play a lot. I find that conditions for myself and the players that
I
write for are as good or better than they were when I began
writing
on video poker. Just because you can't find a $40.00/hr
opportunity
does not negate that fact.
I play nothing but full pay Deuces Wild and 10/7 Double Bonus. I'm
wide open, using my real name for both my writing and slot clubs,and
I've never been stamped "undesirable" by any casino. But then, I
never play two machines at once, I never sell or buy credits onthe
machine to/from another player, I rarely ask to have a machine
locked
up, and I do tip for good service.
I remain sort of puzzled at your assertion that conditions have
IMPROVED. The number of .25 FPDW at Gold Coast has declined from 133
to zero. Stations now comps quarter FPDW players at .0083%. Et
cetera. I can see how things might be considerable still TENABLE,
but BETTER....?
You misplaced this comment (see below). I said that slot clubs are better now than they were ten years ago. Did Stations even have a slot club ten years ago? For quite some time Stations had no FPDW, now they do.
> Every day I get comments from NEW customers about how helpful my
book is. There is nothing in the book that is not useful for a
beginning to intermediate player in today's market.I would have liked to see some mention about how players who only
play positive machines are being routinely excluded from mailed
offers, and how casinos are slashing comp rates for those players.
I'm in that group, and I've never been excluded from mailed offers. The ones who become excluded are the ones who play two machines, tie up the good games, pull their card before a potentially good draw, etc. I don't blame the casinos for cutting comps for such players. This has been discussed in my newsletter.
Also, I hope you updtaed the "where to find good machines" chapter
(by shortening it!).
Yes, I updated that section. There have been some changes, but surprise!, it's about the same size as in the first edition.
> I repeat, the playing conditions for the players I write for are as
good or better now than ten years ago. It's obvious that you and I
are different kinds of players.Not really; I may play more dollars than quarters, but my objectives
are still recreational: I don't NEED to make money playing VP. I
play 10/7 DB (a breakeven game at best since one or two errors an
hour, which I feel are unavoidable, slice off that 0.015% REAL
fast), or NSUD. I've even been known to play 9/6 DDB on occasion,
just as I'll now and then sidle up to a pai gow poker table.
You say "Not really" then you state a major difference.
> The game rules have not changed for video poker (in Nevada and
most places they still are completely random, with each unseen card
having equal probability of appearing at any time, and payoffs
listed clearly on the front of the machine),Well, I'm sure you know that I have lingering doubts about THAT, but
that's another subject altogether....playing conditions have changed very little for quarter players who
don't act like vultures, and no one has developed a better strategy.
Indeed, no one can develop a better strategy because video poker is
a game of complete information with unchanging rules. For each
possible payoff table, the strategy is unchanging.I think the biggest change that you are not acknowledging is the
metamorphosis of the skilled FPDW player from someone who puts $5K a
day into the machines and is therefore a valued customer, to someone
who is trying to beat the casino out of its hard-earned bucks and is
therefore barely tolerated.
There has been very little change there. The player who is trying to beat the casino, and appears to have a good chance to do it, has ALWAYS been barely tolerated (or evicted).
> >I am also puzzled by your statement that you continue to make a
>living playing VP. How do you you make a hourly wage that would do
>more than feed a hamster? I know how you can pull in $8/hr, butthat >doesn't beat McDonald's.
Where on Earth did you pick that up? In the twelve years that I
have been writing about video poker, I have NEVER said that I make a
living playing video poker. I have always stated that I am a
skilled recreational player. You're right that I might make as much
money at McDonald's as I do playing video poker, and without the
variance, but it wouldn't be nearly as much fun.I was fairly sure that you has said somewhere (in your book or
elsewhere) that for some period in your life, VP was your primary
source of income. Perhaps you meant VP OVERALL, as in book sales,
etc. and not actually PLAYING VP. My apologies if I'm simply
misremembering.
You're misremembering, or confusing me with some other writer.
> Which brings us back to the meat of the matter. You don't seem to
understand that I write for people who play video poker for fun.
Perhaps you are no longer in that category. You should be getting
your information in the online forums. If I wrote about thatrapidly changing world of "professional" players, it would be
obsolete before it could be published.Actually, I AM a recreational player; in fact, my relationship with
the world of "professional" players is a somewhat adversarial one.In a later post, someone had said that you may be confusing me
with Bob Dancer, and you wrote: >No, I wasn't, although you're right
in that Dancer is probably more >matching of my description than
Paymar is. I consider them birds of>a feather, however.You sure know how to insult a guy. I don't think it would be
possible for Dancer and me to be any more different, and there are
few people whom I dislike more. I would never do the things he seems
so proud of in his book.Sorry about that. It occured to me after the fact that no one would
like to be lumped into the same category with the Dracula of video
poker. My comparison--ill-advised, probably--was with all gambling
writers who write "beat the house" books AFTER their particular
method of beating the house is no longer possible (which really bugs
me, as you might surmise).
Thank you.
It's possible that no single source of information gives an accurate
picture of what is a very fluid situation. Your book is an excellent
guideline to interpreting "fresh" information such as that found on
the VP message groups, and would be most valuable used in that
context.
Thanks. That's about all a book can do because of the lead time between gathering information and actual publication. I can't even do much in the way of fresh information any more in my newsletter. The online forums have taken over that.
I think I'll go out and hit a royal now. Good luck to you, and to
everybody else, except that chain-smoking guy who drools a lot who
somehow manages to follow me from casino to casino.
Sounds good. Good luck in avoiding that chain smoker.
Dan
ยทยทยท
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Dan Paymar <Dan@O...> wrote:
--
Dan Paymar
Author of best selling book, "Video Poker - Optimum Play"
Editor/Publisher of VP newsletter "Video Poker Times"
Developer of VP analysis/trainer software "Optimum Video Poker"
Visit my web site at www.OptimumPlay.com
"Chance favors the prepared mind." -- Louis Pasteur