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Overview
Video Poker - Optimum Play has been the best-selling book on video poker strategy for many years, yet it never becomes outdated because the basics do not change, and things that do change are updated with each printing.
Video Poker - Optimum Play contains Dan's Precision Play rules which distill the game strategy for the most popular games down to a few text-based rules, completely obviating the need to memorize a list of strategy elements in a specific order.
Now this expanded 235-page third edition includes much more discussion of a subject that's largely ignored in other video poker books; that is the tactics of advantage play. Starting with a chapter on the difference between tactics and strategy, it delves deeply into types of errors and how to avoid them, where to play, when and why to play, evaluating promotions, utilizing coupons, optimizing your play, and much more. There is necessarily more mathematics than in previous editions, but you can still get most of the value out of the book even if you skip the math.
This is the ideal starting point for everyone interested in becoming a winning player, or to just improve your chances or winning while having fun at for favorite games. It works hand-in-hand with Dan's Optimum Video Poker software (available separately) to guide you to become a highly skilled advantage player.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781886070325 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | ConJelCo |
| Publication date: | 09/08/2010 |
| Pages: | 235 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.50(d) |
About the Author
Michigan Tech, where he first started programming a computer in 1957, he then spent a muggy summer in Cleveland, Ohio, maintaining several Bendix
G-15 computers before transferring to Los Angeles to begin a career in logic design.
If you wonder why you've never heard of a Bendix computer, it's because the computer division was bought out by Control Data in 1963. This gave Dan the opportunity to become one of the first ever to own a "personal" computer
- he bought a G-15 from the old stock that Control Data didn't want.
This was a refrigerator-size monster that consumed about four kilowatts, yet today's $50 programmable pocket calculators could run circles around it; at the time, however, it represented a giant step up from the mechanical desk calculators.
Dan stayed with Control Data four more years then joined Encyclopædia
Britannica in 1967 to develop a text editing system. Unfortunately, technology hadn't caught up with fantasy so the project never got off the ground. (Note that this was many years before laser printers and the desktop publishing revolution.)
Next, he joined two other engineers to start Educational Data Systems and shifted back to programming to write a BASIC language interpreter and disk operating system for the Data General Nova computer to handle up to sixteen users. As far as we know, this was the first time-sharing system to run on a minicomputer.
Educational Data Systems became Point 4 Data Corporation when the company began manufacturing its own computers. Meanwhile, Dan developed an accessory for the Apple-II computer, which he sold by mail and through retail stores. Realizing that the mail order business didn't have to tie him down, he and his family moved to Durango, Colorado, in 1980.
In 1988 he returned to California to manage a computer repair store, but that business was mortally wounded by the government's "protective" import surtax on memory chips, so he chose to indulge in semi-retirement, became a poker dealer, and moved to Las Vegas.
Video Poker - Optimum Play 217
That's where his interest in video poker began. His first endeavor was to survey the casinos and publish a directory of favorable video poker opportunities.
Not satisfied with the strategies then available, he put his computer experience to use, analyzed the games, and published his results in the predecessor to this book, Video Poker - Precision Play. The book evolved and expanded, going through many revisions as new games began to appear and questions about how to play them arose. Now out of print, the tenth edition was the last version before this book.
Dan retired to Farmington, New Mexico, in 2004, but he and his wife still go to Las Vegas about three times a year to visit with old friends and play video poker. His primary interest is continuing development of his analysis and training software while sharing his knowledge and information with others through his various publications. See Appendix E for Dan's products,
or contact him at Dan@OptimumPlay.com.
Table of Contents
Introduction 2
Chapter 1 Video Poker and Its Players 5
Chapter 2 Playing Strategy Form and Format 23
Chapter 3 Strategies For Popular Games 31
Chapter 4 Variations 58
Chapter 5 Slot Clubs, Comps and Promotions 72
Chapter 6 Bankroll Considerations 83
Chapter 7 The Tactics of Advantage Play 91
Chapter 8 Be Prepared 100
Chapter 9 Optimizing Your Play 111
Chapter 10 Miscellaneous 132
Chapter 11 The Mathematics of Video Poker 150
Chapter 12 Strange Things Are Happening 174
Appendix A Video Poker Hand Ranks 179
Appendix B Tables and Charts 185
Appendix C Gaming Regulations & Enforcement 199
Appendix D Other Video Poker Products 203
Appendix E Recommended Reading 207
Epilogue 209
Glossary 211
About the Author 216
About The Publisher 218
Index 219