It's been my observation, based on nearly 10 years of VP play, that
people who play a lot of VP are in a few different groups. See if
you might belong to any of these....
1. THE PROFITEERS
This would include Bob Dancer, et al. They who play for pay, and
they eke every last micro-percentage out of every hand. Not that
there's anything wrong with this, I'm all for somebody who can
regularly beat the casinos at their own game. I'm thinking that
there's quite a few Profiteers on vpFREE, many of whom are lurkers
who are hoping to catch wind of a previously unknown advantage
situation, such as the recent brouhaha over Arizona Charlie's FPDW.
2. THE WANNABEES
These folks are the ones who will buy Winpoker/FrugalPoker, etc., and
only do a bare minimum of training before they gleefully pump their
bucks into a live game. They hope that Lady Luck will shine on them,
and their ignorance of strategy (and I don't mean just penalty cards)
makes them the "deer in the headlights" for the casino. All of us
know Wannabees. They see the success of a Profiteer and think it was
easy. But they do make it possible for the casinos to offer VP that
will attract the Profiteer.
3. THE GOODTIMERS
These folks are much like Wannabees, but they really don't care.
They're in it for the fun, trying to at least adhere to some
intelligent strategy but they really don't give a rat's fat
(backside) whether they win or lose. Give 'em a free room and a few
comped meals and they're happy. Nothing wrong with this, either.
And here's one that I've seen, and you might not have thought about:
4. THE DESPERATE
These folks don't care about life at all, because they're convinced
that it basically sucks. Wake up every morning and wonder which
trusted friend, business associate, or whomever, is gonna screw 'em
today. What's gonna break, what awful thing is gonna go wrong....
They totally believe that life sucks. For them, a day of video poker
provides confirmation on one end of the spectrum or the other.
Perhaps they'll lose their a$$ and affirm that they are total
losers. Or, maybe they'll hit something good - 4 aces in DB, aces-&-
kicker in DDB, or a royal. For that one, brief, shining moment,
something in their lives happened that was actually good for a
change, and that's why they play the game.
I'm sure that there's other groups I didn't think of, and probably
sub-groups of the above. Just my observations........
- Brian in MI