<<Any game, including video poker, never really favors us. You can
study day and night, play at near perfection on a close-to 100% game
and still lose plenty. I've done it, you do it, we all do it.>>
<<<<So to all experts and more importantly, winning players out there - MY
PLEA FOR INFORMATION - how to play it 'correctly' / 'efficiently'
so that one wins consistently ?>>
I am not responding to just these particular posts, but to many posts of late. I hear a lot of pain in many posts - the pain of losing. And I feel your pain.
Brad and I are in the midst of a very long losing spell ourselves. There are several things that holds us steady: It is not our first long losing stretch and we know that for 16 years they always have ended sooner or later - and that we will sometimes have winning stretches to counterbalance them. We believe in the math - and for 16 years we have proven that the math way works, with profits at the end of each year except one - and that loss was very small. Our 16-year average profit is quite substantial - smaller when we were playing quarters, larger when we went up to higher denominations.
We have done thousands of little things over these 16 years that have contributed to our success - and I have shared most of these with anyone who reads my 3 books. It is surprising how many people ask me questions about how to win but have never read or studied much about gambling. THERE IS NO SILVER BULLET. Gambling for profit (as opposed to gambling just for recreation) is hard work and requires continual study.
However, there is one concept that I consider essential - and I don't think many players really understand. If you want to be a long-term winner, you must ALWAYS play when you have the advantage. That means that the game you are playing (accurately), plus slot club benefits, bounce-back, promotions, etc., etc. must be over 100%. Not almost 100% - OVER. If you are not always playing with an edge, you should expect to lose - and count your lucky stars whenever you get lucky and pull out a winning session. If you are not playing with an edge, you are not an advantage player - you are a recreational gambler. And there is nothing wrong with that - and you can do lots of things to keep your losses from being so big.
Perhaps more important for the advantage player to understand - you must have an adequate bankroll to ride out the ups-and-downs. And if you don't have a large bankroll, you must pick plays with a much higher EV. People ask how long the long-term is. I'll tell you one thing. If you play at 100.1% most people don't have enough money or years left to play to have any good chance of being a winner. You play at 101% and your chances are very good!!!!
Here are the problems I see for most people in playing winning VP:
1. Lack of an adequate bankroll
2. Playing with too thin an edge
3. Not playing accurately (doesn't need to be "perfect," but not making major errors)
4. Not understanding that because so much of your return is contained in rarely-occurring hands, like a royal or smaller jackpot payoffs, you will never win in every session or even in 50% of your sessions. Some experts say you might win on average one session our of three. I'm not sure of the math here - depends on what game you are playing and how much of the return is in jackpots - but even if it is one out of three, there is no regularity here. You can go 10-12 or more sessions without winning . This is why you need a big bankroll.
5. When people don't understand why they are losing, they look for "systems" that promise quick results. The problem with most systems is that they are not math based and they give false hope - then ultimate bankrupcy. For centuries gamblers have been trying to "beat the math" - but the math always wins.
···
________________________________________
Jean $�ott - http://www.FrugalGambler.biz
Tax time is coming up - groan! "Tax Help
for the Frugal Gambler" can answer many
of your questions!
