Teaching Video Poker

If I listed the favorite parts of my life right now, teaching classes a few hours a week would be right up near the top. I enjoy seeing a bunch of strangers grapple with such things as full tilt poker why, in Jacks or Better, you hold an unsuited KQJ, but throw the A away from AQJ. When I give them the explanation and it makes sense to them, I get a charge out of seeing their eyes light up. People who’ve seen me in my normal mode in the casino, then watch me poker strategy up in front of a class, frequently remark how I come alive with a microphone in my hand.

I started teaching video poker in late 1996 at the Fiesta in North Las Vegas, the self-proclaimed “Royal Flush Capital of the World.” At the time, this casino had what were arguably the loosest video poker machines on the planet. And argue they did! The Santa Fe, the Reserve, and others all competed to be known as the casino that was truly the loosest. And each casino defined “looseness” in a way that would make it the winner. The players, for the most part, didn’t care one way or the other. They were just glad for the competition, which assured loose machines all over town. It was a good time to be a video poker player.

Fiesta management believed that classes were better at bringing players into the casino than they were at actually teaching them how to play. They felt that even if the players picked up a few new ideas, they would still play, the casino would still have an edge, and everyone would be happy.

Full Tilt Poker Games

‘When I began, I taught Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, and Double tilt poker Bonus. Roughly 200 people attended each session during the first series of classes. But after awhile, attendance settled down to about 40 per class. After all, how often can you expect someone to learn the same thing?

When Shirley quit her job and moved to Las Vegas in October 1997 (we got married two months later), she started helping me teach the classes. She was wonderful at it. She has a sparkling personality, could remember people’s names from week to week, and helped me better relate to and interact with the students.

Initially, Shirley wasn’t proficient at video poker. So she’d take the classes along with the students. At the end of a Double Bonus class, for example, when I asked the class to vote whether they should go for the 5s or the straight from 5H, 5S, 6D, 7C, 8H, she would often raise her hand on the wrong choice. (In this game you should hold 5678, but in Jacks or Better, which Shirley knew fairly well, the 55 is better.)

Many students who took their cue from Shirley also voted wrongly. They figured that Shirley must know, so if she raised her hand, so did many of the others! On the drive to class every week, Shirley would promise herself that this time she wouldn’t raise her hand at all. She would just run the projector and not participate. But when the time came, she’d get caught up in the class and forget her promise. ‘When the class had to decide between the kings and the spades in Deuces Wild on King H, King S, Queen S, TS, 5D, up came her hand for the kings. Wrong again. She’d laugh and curse herself simultaneously and it was so cute. It warmed my heart, and the students smiled in empathy. By now, she’s assisted in each of the classes 50 or more times and knows the material well enough that she no longer makes these types of mistakes.

I have a series of jokes I use regularly in the classes, such as “What’s the difference between praying in church and praying in a casino?” Answer: “When you pray in a casino you really really mean it!” Corny though it is, it still gets a chuckle. Shirley, bless her heart, has heard that one more than 200 times and still manages to smile.

My classes improved immensely when the Dancer-Daily strategy cards were published. The cards have four different strategy levels on them, from beginner to advanced, so I began teaching Level 2 (“Recreational”) in the beginner classes and Level 3 (“Basic”) in the advanced classes. The terminology became consistent from week to week and players learned more effectively.

Through the years I’ve also taught at the now-demolished Continental (which was rebuilt and became Terrible’s), the Reserve (now the Fiesta Henderson), Arizona Charlie’s (both East and West), the Flamingo Laughlin, Caesars Atlantic City, the Regent Las Vegas (which has had more than six names—no telling what it will be called when you read this), the Palms, the Castaways, and occasionally at conventions of various sorts. We published my teaching schedule in publications such as the Las Vegas Advisor, Casino Player, Strictly Slots, and at several Web locations, and the classes have generally been well-attended. If I’m teaching now, my current class schedule will be found on www.bobdancer.com.

I taught for 11 weeks in early 2001 at Arizona Charlie’s West. This casino has always had loose video poker, but the building itself is a dark smoky barn that appeals to a less affluent crowd.