Michael Currently, due to the financial crisis, it's a slow season in America, and people are being stingy with their money instead of spending it freely as usual. Daily pleasures like a Starbucks coffee are being given up (Starbucks experienced a significant 100% drop in profits last year), and a quick weekend trip to Las Vegas is no longer feasible for the average consumer. However, the casino bosses in Las Vegas are, of course, not naive and are enticing people with special offers.
A few months ago, as an old bargain hunter, I booked a luxury suite at the "Venetian" on the internet for a relatively reasonable price, and in January, we went there for the weekend.
Dramatically, Angelika was struck by the flu that was going around just before departure and could only drag herself to the gambling paradise with great difficulty. Of course, we couldn't let the fantastic offer pass us by. We even had to take a blanket to the airport so she could snuggle up in the waiting area!
Upon arrival, we rented a car for $8 per day (yes, even the car rental companies had to lower their prices), drove to the casino, where Angelika immediately went to sleep in the bed of the luxury suite, and I went down to the casino at 2 a.m.
A work colleague had previously given me a book titled "Video Poker Optimum Play," which describes a relatively easy-to-remember strategy that allows you to get back 99.53% of your bets. Interestingly, the book is even mathematically correct, so it doesn't deal with absurd claims like so many books of this kind, but rather with well-founded probability calculations.
I play extremely frugally and usually choose the video poker machines with a 25-cent bet. Of course, you don't win a lot of money with that, but you can play for hours without spending significant amounts. Every now and then, the casino staff comes by, and you can order free beer or cocktails from them. When the drink is brought a few minutes later, you give a dollar tip. Nothing more, because after all, the people playing the 25-cent machines aren't Rockefellers!
Video poker has almost nothing to do with real poker. After placing the amount of money you want to bet, you receive five cards on the screen and must use the built-in machine buttons to decide which cards to keep and which to exchange. In the second and final round, you receive replacements for the exchanged cards, and that's it--the game is over. Counting cards doesn't help because the computer uses a new pack of virtual cards each time. However, if you choose the cards to hold and exchange wisely and with consistent strategy, you can do well.
A tip from the book, for example, is: If the first hand shows a high pair (for example, two aces or two jacks), you definitely keep it and discard the rest. Unless you have 4 cards to a Royal Flush (for example, 10, Queen, King, Ace of spades), then you exchange the cards that are in the way of a Royal Flush (10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace of the same suit). If the Royal Flush comes, you really hit the jackpot, as a 25-cent machine can easily pay out $1,000. However, the odds are relatively low, 1 in 650,000, so you have to play every day for weeks for the win to occur with a reasonable probability.
In total, one must remember eleven rules for the "Optimum Play" strategy, some of which are quite complicated. Angelika felt much better the next day, and after I explained the most important video poker rules to her, she was suddenly $50 ahead, while I was still hovering around break-even... Beginner's luck, without a doubt!
The country may be in crisis, but we're making the best of it!
Angelika & Michael