Let us take a look at the machine games in a somewhat different light. If I use my fate vs. free will analogy, we can place the machine games on a continuum—from left to right according to the amount of choice offered the player. The fact that a machine is under "free will" does not necessarily mean that all machines of this type will offer the same games. Some video-poker and video-blackjack games are decidedly inferior in terms of their paybacks (even for expert play) than are some slot machines. But all things being equal, the best video-poker and video-blackjack games are better than the best slot machines because they offer a better than 100 percent return and this return is fundamentally a product of the player's skill in choosing which hands to play and how to play them.

FATE LIMITED
Slot machines

LIMITED FREE WILL
Video keno
Video craps

FREE WILL
Video blackjack
Video poker

The slot machine offers only a limited number of choices, as previously discussed. You get to pick your machine and decide for how long and for how much you'll play. But once the coin is deposited, the god-in-the-machine takes over and merely informs you of your fate. Range of paybacks vary— from very good (99 percent) to poor (80 percent or lower), depending on where you play.

In video keno, you get to pick the machine and decide for how much and for how long you'll play. But you also get to choose which numbers are yours. Then the god-in-the-machine picks its numbers. You learn your fate. On every turn you can bet more or less, fewer or greater total numbers. Payback is poor (75 percent).

In video craps, you get to pick the machine and decide for how much and for how long to play. You also get to select which bets to try and which to avoid. When the shooter-in-the-machine rolls, you await the decision. Range of paybacks are from very good (98.6) to poor (83 percent).

In video blackjack you get to select the machine and know whether it's a good machine or a poor machine based on the payout scale and rules. You decide how to play the cards dealt you. Card counting can give you an edge on some machines. Skill is the determining factor in the long run for good players. Payout range for expert play is excellent (100+ percent) to fair (98 percent).

Video poker has the same skill factor as video blackjack but the player has a multitude of machines and types of games to choose from. Blackjack is essentially blackjack. But video poker comes in an amazing assortment of games—each with its own distinct strategies. You can determine which games are worth playing and which should be avoided. You can determine how much to play for. Expert play is the deciding factor in the long run. Payout range is excellent (100+ percent) to poor (80 percent).

So pick the right machines, play them properly and you can wrest victory at video poker and video blackjack! Now, let's get it on.

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So we can use simple addition to figure out why video poker is the growth game in casinoland. Video generation + choice + good gamble + reasonable betting limits + no one bothering you = growth of video poker.

In the words of one former casino executive who now spends his leisure playing video Tacks-or-Better Draw Poker: "I envision the casinos of 30 or 40 years from now as fundamentally different places than the casinos of today. The table-game area will be pushed into some small corner of the casino and will be dominated by blackjack. There will be one or two craps tables and several roulette wheels off to the side and that's about it. But the table-game area will be an afterthought just like the slot-machine areas were afterthoughts in the 1950s. The rest of the casino will consist of acres and acres of machines— most of them video poker. Some of them will be games that we haven't yet invented but will appeal to the generations brought up on combat video games like Mortal Kombat and such.The only noise will be machine sounds and the occasional shout of the jackpot winners. The casino gambler of 30 years ago, like the human being of a thousand years ago, would not recognize except in a vague way the casino of the future—it will be that different."

And why did he play video poker? As a casino executive, hadn't he seen nothing but losers over the years? "That's where video poker differs from most games. In Nevada you can play machines that have only a slight casino edge or are break-even propositions or, in some cases, there are machines that a player can actually beat in the long run. If you enjoy gambling, these machines are good bets. You aren't really risking all that much and you are getting hours and hours of entertainment value for your hard-earned dollar."
Walk down any video-poker aisle and you will see a number of video-generation players, those twenty-or-thirty-somethings, challenging the gods of chance as they once challenged Pac-Man. For them video poker is just another form of interactive games-playing.

Unfortunately, most of them get eaten alive, or rather their bankrolls do, since they are playing inferior machines with poor paybacks, or they are playing strategies that even on the best machines will incur long-term losses. Sadly, some may even be playing machines that only appear to be video-poker machines but are in actuality "slot machines in video-poker machines' clothing" as I reveal in Chapter 12. On these machines even expert play will result in long-term losses because the machines are legally rigged—to put it bluntly.

With all that said—here's a marvelous fact: video poker can be beaten. It can be beaten in the short run by luck, of course— and anyone, be he a fool or a philosopher, can be visited by Dame Fortune on occasion. But, more importantly, video poker can be beaten in the long run by using the proper strategies. If—isn't there always an "if" in life?—if you play these good strategies on good machines. What are good machines? Machines that return close to, at, or over 100 percent of the money put in them.

Unlike real life, which is a negative expectation game since it always ends in the death of the player (you and me, unfortunately), some video-poker machines are positive expectation devices. In the long run our bankrolls can grow and prosper. But not all casino video games can offer us the hope of long-run gains. While video craps has a marvelous payout percentage compared to most regular slots (proper play = a 98.6 percent payback), it still is a negative expectation game. Video keno is a loser with house edges in the double digits—just like its table-game kinsman.

Video poker and its cousin video blackjack have as their underpinnings a delightful mixture of chance and design. The game is dealt randomly from a deck of cards (usually 52, sometimes 53 or more in some wild-card video-poker games) and those cards will fall as they may. However, once the initial hand is dealt, fate must take a back seat to free will because the player is now in control. His choices, his strategy and money management methods, his knowledge of play will ultimately determine his future earnings.
There is only one caveat, as I've mentioned, and that is this: you have to select the right machines to play. This book will steer you to those machines and give you the proper strategies to attain victory. But the choice of playing them is up to you.

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Video poker is not just a game of choices but the game of choice for most new casino players. Although no scientific survey has been done to confirm my assertion, the number of video-poker machines being manufactured and distributed to various casinos around the country (and the world) indicates that it is the game of choice for a substantial minority of all casino players and a growing majority of machine players. More than 50 percent of the floor space reserved for machines in most casinos is taken up by video-poker machines. While most casinos do not distinguish between video poker (or other video games) and slots in their published win and hold figures (all of them falling under the generic "slot" label), most of the casino executives I spoke to agreed that video-poker players are the fastest-growing segment of the playing public.

One Las Vegas slot manager had this to say: "Video poker of all varieties is the most popular form of machine play. As we draw up our plans for future placement of new machines in our expanded floor space, we are running 70/30 video poker to traditional slots. The traditional slots have a huge following but the video-poker generation is coming of age. Right now it's close but in the next 20 years I expect that video poker will outperform the traditional slots and dominate the casino landscape."

Some casino personnel made a point of alerting me to consider who plays what kind of machine as one explanation for the growing popularity of video poker. Stated one casino executive in Atlantic City: "Look at who plays video poker and who plays slots and you'll see that the majority of your slot players are older. These are people who have been coming to casinos for years and are in the habit of slot playing. These same people, the majority of whom are women, rejected playing table games in the past, for whatever reason. The video-poker players on average are younger. Many of the older video-poker players are former table-game players who can't afford the higher stakes at today's table games or don't want to play the table games anymore. Video-poker players, especially the younger ones, tend to be better educated; a substantial minority of them have college degrees or at least some college education. There is no doubt in my mind that if the current video-poker trends continue, video poker will be the dominant casino game in the near future."

Another Las Vegas executive said: "Video poker offers what table games offer but at a lower price. You get to make choices, you get to fully participate in the game. But unlike table games, no one is overlooking your play. No one is second-guessing the choices that you make. It's just you and the machine and only your bankbook knows for sure just how you're doing. Here in Vegas, video poker is a good bet as well. The player knows he is getting a good run for his money. In fact, some video-poker machines pay out more than the table games do if you know the right strategies."

It would not be a stretch of the imagination to postulate that the growth in video-poker play is a direct result of the aging of the video-games generation of the 1970s. The donkey-kongsters of the 1970s have become the video-poker aficionados of today's expanding casino empire. These are people who cut their teeth on the video screen and now have gone on to bigger and better video experiences. As kids their egos and neighborhood reputations were on the line in their video games—now it's their money. What a rush! And their numbers will continue to balloon as each succeeding generation of video-gamesters comes into its maturity. In the future we might see on-line video machines directly linked to casinos where a player can build up credits and debits on some type of credit card—in the privacy and convenience of his own home.

Dr. Marvin Karlins, psychologist, gaming expert, and author of many works both in and out of the gaming field, including the seminal Psyching Out Las Vegas!, addressed this very issue when I spoke to him regarding the phenomenal growth of machine play in today's casinos. "Today's video-poker machines offer the players a good gamble for their money. With the proper strategies on some machines the players can even have a slight edge over the casino. For a gambler it doesn't get any better than that. It also affords the player two very important psychological inducements for playing— anonymity and autonomy—in addition to the possibility of winning some money. There are choices to make but no one to criticize you if you seemingly make the wrong choice. This would especially appeal to people who are somewhat anxious with the thought of approaching table games where you would have to interact with many others—some of whom might be critical of your play."

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Action: Any betting, calling, raising, or other act made by a player can be referred to as action. If a player calls your bet, you are getting action.

Active Player: A player who has money in the pot and has not folded his hand.

All In: Placing all of your remaining chips into the pot.

Back Door Flush or Straight: A flush or straight made by catching the last two cards to make the hand.

Bet: To voluntarily put money into the pot.

Bad Beat: When you have a good hand that is a favorite to win beaten by another hand.

Blinds: The large and small blinds are forced bets made before the first cards are dealt.

Board: The community cards turned face up in the middle of the table.

Call: To place money in the pot equal to the previous bet.

Calling Station: A player who will not fold his hand and will call all the pots to the river. This is a weak-passive player who rarely raises the pot. You will make your most money from this type of player.

Case Card: The fourth card of a certain rank. If you held two Kings and a third was showing on the board, the fourth King would be the case King.

Chop: When no players have called the blind bets and the two players in the blinds choose to take their bets back rather than to play out the hand.

Cold Call: To call a raise without having already called a bet.

Drawing Dead: Drawing to a hand that has no chance of winning.

Drowning on the River: Getting beat by a player who makes his hand with the river card.
Flop: The first three community cards turned over at the same time. Fold: To cease play by throwing in your hand.

Hole Cards: Two cards dealt face down to be used as the players starting hand.

Muck: The pile of discarded and folded hands along with the burn cards. To muck your hand means to fold.

Nuts: The nuts is the best hand that can be made from the cards on the board and the cards in a player's hand. If you had an Ace high flush, you would have the nut flush.

Overcard: One or both of your pocket cards that are higher than any of the cards on the board.

Overpair: A pocket pair that is higher than any of the cards on the board.

Paint Card: Kings, Queens, and Jacks, also called face cards. You can easily spot a face card by the amount of colors and distinguish it from the other cards.

Pocket Cards: Your two cards that are dealt to you face down. Also
known as hole cards. Pot Odds: The relationship between the money in the pot versus the
amount of money it will cost you to continue in the hand.

Rainbow: A flop that contains three cards of different suits.

Raise: To make a bet that is double the size of the bet made by the previous bettor.

River: The fifth and last community card turned over on the board. Runner: When the turn and river card make a winning hand for a player that would have been a loser otherwise.

See Back Door.
Set: Three of a kind when you have a pair in the pocket.

Showdown: At the end of the final round when all players remaining in the hand turn over their cards to determine the winner.

Side Pot: A pot that is formed after a player goes all in. This pot cannot be won by the all-in player.

Slowplay: To weakly play a strong hand by calling or checking instead of raising. This is done to conceal the strength of your hand.

Smooth Call: To call a bet rather than raise the pot.

Suited: Two cards in a starting hand that are the same suit. A flop consisting of three cards of the same suit would be a suited flop.

Trips: Three of a kind where a pair is on the board and the third card is one of your pocket cards.

Turn: The fourth community card turned over on the board.

Undercard: A card in your hand smaller than the highest card on the board.

Underpair: A pocket pair smaller than the lowest card on the board.

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1. Be more selective
Stop playing with the any two-card can win attitude. Once you tighten the standards for your starting hands your game should improve. This also means playing the hands you choose to play in correct position.

2. Don't automatically call the small blind.
Players lose more money by automatically calling from the small blind with a hand that has very little chance of winning. You will be in the small blind about three times per hour. In a $3/$6 game, it will cost you $2 to complete the bet from the small blind. The average win rate for this limit game is $6 per hour or the same amount it is costing you to complete your bet from the small blind.

3. Stop playing any Ace.
Stop playing a single Ace. Most of the other players will be doing the same and it will cost you money when you pair your Ace with a weak kicker.
4. Don't cold-call with weak hands.

Stop cold calling raises before the flop unless your have a very powerful hand such as A-A, K-K, or A-K. Raises from early position usually mean a strong hand.
5. Don't draw to the idiot end.

Don't draw to the low end of a straight. The majority of the time you will be beaten by a higher straight.

6. Overcards on the Turn.
In a multiway pot, you should not be calling on the Turn with just overcards if that is your only out. If there is a bet, it usually means someone has at least a pair. If there is a raise, you know you should fold without hesitation.

7. Pair on board
When a pair flops you should abandon your straight and flush draws. The odds of your opponent making a full house are about the same as your straight or flush draw.
If you follow these seven little tips, you should notice a big improvement in your results at the table.

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I have often heard the expression, "A little knowledge can be dangerous."
There can be some truth to that statement if the person who gains the knowledge stops learning after attaining only a small amount of information about a subject. Anyone who thinks he knows it all is only kidding himself and setting himself up for possible disaster.
I once had a manager who berated employees for trying anything new. He would yell and holler as he told all of us that he had been doing the job the same way for 30 years and would continue to do so. We should either do things his way or seek employment elsewhere.

It didn't matter that technology was changing the industry around him, making his methods quite antiquated. Fortunately upper management finally stepped in and removed him and his stagnant philosophy.

Some poker players have a similar outlook about the game as my former manager had about his job. They learn to play the game using a certain style and then proceed to play the same way, day in and day out, never advancing beyond the basics and refusing to learn anything new. I have no intention of letting that happen to me.

I will forever be a student of the game. I am constantly looking for ways to improve my game. The day I think I know it all will be the day that I will quit playing. Since I started playing the game, I have not played a single session where I have not learned something new. Some of my new knowledge comes from mistakes that I make while playing and some of it comes from observing other players at the table. At the end of each session, I critique my play to see what I did wrong or could have done better.

I am constantly on the lookout for new books, articles, or other material to read about the game. The methods I described in the training section are methods that I still use in my ongoing education.
I have had the opportunity to meet and talk to many winning players including some who play professionally. All of them agree that the secret to becoming a better player is really no secret at all. It's a matter of continually studying the game, learning from mistakes, practicing strategies, and keeping an open mind to new ideas.

Rather than the statement above about knowledge being dangerous, I prefer the statement, "A little knowledge is an excellent start!"

Here is a little knowledge that you can use to start improving your game immediately as you move forward with your poker education. Here are seven tips that you can incorporate into your game with very little effort.

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After some free practice you may want to try playing for very small stakes online before heading to the cardroom for the first time. There are a number of reputable online sites that are now catering to millions of players every day. In the first printing of this book I suggested that you limit online play to practice in the free games. I still suggest that all new players get some free practice before putting their money at risk in a live game; however, my views about online poker have changed. I am now convinced that it is safe, secure, and a great alternative for many players who are not able to make a trip to a cardroom without traveling long miles to play poker for a few hours. There are actually several other advantages to playing online.

Lower Stakes
Online you can play for very low stakes. Since there are no dealers, rental fees, or utilities to pay, the online sites can offer games at very low limits that would not be practical or profitable in a brick-and-mortar cardroom. If you are a new player, you can find some sites with stakes as low as a nickel or a dime. It is a great way to make the transition from free play to money play.

No Intimidation
Sitting down in a live game and facing nine other players can be very intimidating for a new player. Playing online poker is akin to playing a video game, as you are sitting in front of your computer facing a monitor instead of a live person. You can interact with the other players via the chat box or choose to just play your own game without having to talk or socialize. Nobody can see you, and if your hands are shaking because of nerves nobody can see that, either.

Fits Your Schedule
Online play fits your schedule, because you can play anytime you want 24 / 7. No traveling time is involved and there is little or no waiting to get into a game once you are logged on.

Everybody Acts in Turn
Because of the software used in online games, nobody can act out of turn. Some sites have buttons or boxes you can check so you can choose to fold, call, or raise as soon as you see your cards, but these actions will not take place until it is your turn to act.

Keep Notes
In a live game you may not know another player's name, but online each player's screen name is in plain view. It is easy to keep accurate notes about the other players you meet online—the types of hands they play, or whether they're passive, aggressive, tight, or loose. Nobody can see you writing, so you can be as detailed as you want to be.

Safety Concerns
One of my biggest concerns about online poker was the idea of collusion among players. Online players have numerous ways to communicate with each other—for instance, via ICQ instant messenger, or even over the telephone. But collusion happens in brick-and-mortar cardrooms as well, and in a cardroom it is not often easy to spot. Once the dealer mucks the cards the hand is over and it is hard to prove anything improper went on. This is not the case, however, when you are playing online.

The operators of online sites have a recorded history of all hands that have been played by each and every player. Many of the sites use special software programs to track the betting patterns of players suspected of collusion. They can review every hand played by the parties involved and look for anything out of the ordinary.

With new technology and vast improvements in encryption and security, the chance of someone hacking your game is not really an issue. Nobody can see your cards as you play except you. Online poker sites use the same technology that is used by online banks and other financial sites. If you are not worried about banking or trading stocks online, you shouldn't be concerned playing low-limit poker either.

If you want to try online poker I would suggest you pick a site that offers free games as well as money games. Download their software and play free games for a while to make sure you like the way the software plays and the graphics look.

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