I’ve been asked variations of this question more than one hundred times over the years. Sometimes phrased as, “If I lose $100 (or some other number), should I give up for the day?” My answer usually was some form of the following: Only play when you have the advantage. If the house has the edge, […]
Posts in category Advanced Strategy
Putting Bills Into a Machine
Before playing a video poker machine, I typically load it with $500 or $1,000 in bills or tickets. I do this for a number of reasons: I keep records of how much I win or lose each day. It’s easier for me to remember round numbers. If I’m playing a $2 game, ($10 a play), […]
Help Me Make Sense of This
I received the following email. It was originally intended for the Gambling with an Edge mailbag, but I felt it was too technical to be discussed over a podcast: I know video poker has a ton of variance, but I recently endured a hellish series of events on $5 NSU Deuces Wild at a tribal […]
When is a Wild Royal Flush not a Wild Royal Flu...
Using a W for wild card to indicate a deuce, assume you are dealt W W Q♦ J♦ T♦ on a Triple Play version of Deuces Wild. This is not a tough play. You hold all five cards for a wild royal flush. (Other terms for the same hand are royal flush with deuce and […]
How Would You Play This One?
I received an email from a player, “Sam,” discussing a promotion that has come and gone, in an unnamed casino in an unnamed state. He wanted to know how I would have analyzed whether or not to play it. The gist of the promotion was that for two consecutive days, four hours per day, each […]
An Interesting Hand in 8/5 ACE$ Bonus Poker
The cards in ACE$ Bonus Poker (ABP) are just like the ones in regular Bonus Poker (BP) except there are superimposed yellow letters on four cards: “A” on the ace of clubs, “C” on the ace of diamonds, “E” on the ace of hearts, and “$” on the ace of spades. The order of the […]
Why Aren’t You Still There?
I wrote recently in a two-parter about a trip I took where I ended up quite a bit ahead. Sometime after I got back, Bonnie and I were having dinner with her sister, Robin, and Robin’s husband. Robin asked about the trip. “Bonnie tells me you did pretty well there.” “Yes. A $200,000 trip is […]
“Doing it Bob Dancer’s Way Can Lead to Bankrupt...
My son-in-law, or perhaps a more correct term is step-son-in-law, Michael, passed away recently after a long illness. Michael was married to Bonnie’s daughter Joyce. He was more than 20 years older than Joyce, and in fact was a few months older than me. After a somewhat rocky start, where Joyce and Michael were initially […]
Promotion at Molly’s — Part I of II
I received the following email for the Gambling with an Edge mailbag show: Hi Bob, how do you calculate the edge on this video poker promotion? Molly’s in Vegas offers “lose $20, get $20” but I’m not sure how to calculate the advantage (if any). Also, if you have played this promotion before, do you […]
Which is the Better Game?
A gambler friend, Al, and I were on the phone talking about something related to vitamin supplements, and then he said he had a video poker question that he was embarrassed to ask me. “Go ahead,” I prompted. “If it’s too awkward, I just won’t answer.” He told me it wasn’t particularly awkward; it was […]