If a comprehensive work on the history of video poker were ever written
video poker teams would have to be a major part of the book. Because
they have had a major impact on the state of video poker today. I
didn't become a serious video poker player until 1996 but I have met
people who were doing it for profit as far back as the eighties. I
listened to many stories and will pass them on here.
Sometime in the eighties a person showed up in Reno. He was a
mathematical genius, had a degree in electrical engineering, and was a
compulsive gambler. They called him "Kenny the Klone." Here is a
typical Klone story:
The Klone was up at South Shore Lake Tahoe. He was broke. He asked a
friend he ran into in Harrah's to loan him some money so he could eat.
The friend flipped him a twenty. Klone headed off to eat but couldn't
make it past the blackjack table. He started out small stakes but
eventually got into a good run and upped the stakes. A few hours later
he had $900.
He walked across to Harvey's and into the poker room where there was a
pot limit holdem game going. The buy-in was $1000 but Klone talked his
way into the game with just $900. The game went all night and Klone
wound up busting all the players to the tune of $250,000.
Since there was no one left to play poker with Klone headed over to
Caesars where he proceeded to dust off half the money playing high
limit slots. Then he meandered over to Harrah's where he dumped the
rest of the money playing blackjack. Not one cent left in his pocket.
He was headed out the door when he ran into the friend who loaned him
the twenty.
"Hey, Klone, you got that twenty you me?"
"No, I'll have to pay you later," Klone said. "I caught a bad shoe."
There were progressive video pokers all around Reno that developed big
numbers. It was Klone, the mathematical genius, who recognized it for
the profit making potential it was. But Klone couldn't keep a
bankroll. Tuna Lund had a bankroll and Klone taught Tuna the whole
shebang. Tuna limped on off with it.
I met a few people who worked on Tuna's teams in the eighties in Reno
and Las Vegas. One of my questions was "how much work they had?" Here
is one response: "At one time in downtown Las Vegas you could find a
profitable number virtually every day. But it wasn't just downtown.
It was all the neighborhood bars too. There was always someone out
scouting numbers and when we hit the royal in one place we just moved
to the next. I could have worked 7 days a week if I wanted to."
Another question I had was "why did it go away?" The response: "The
houses got tired of paying the teams. When we got the royal the money
went out the door never to come back. When the Gentiles hit the royals
the casinos have a shot at getting the money back. They cut the meters
back so the numbers wouldn't develop anymore."
And that is the impact teams have had on the state of video poker
today.
I was also told that Chip Reese and Doyle Brunson bankrolled video
poker teams. And David Sklansky has stated that he used the Klone to
proofread his work for mathematical accuracy.